A Candle For Remembering
May this memorial candle lights up the historical past of our beloved Country: Rwanda, We love U so much. If Tears could build a stairway. And memories were a lane. I would walk right up to heaven. To bring you home again. No farewell words were spoken. No time to say goodbye. You were gone before I knew it And. Only Paul Kagame knows why. My heart still aches with sadness. And secret tears still flow. What It meant to lose you. No one will ever know.
Why did Kagame this to me?
Can't forget. He murdered my mother. What should be my reaction? FYI: the number of orphans in Rwanda has skyrocketed since the 1990's Kagame's invasion. Much higher numbers of orphans had and have no other option but joining FDLR fighters who are identified as children that have Lost their Parents in Kagame's Wars inside and outside of Rwanda.If someone killed your child/spouse/parent(s) would you seek justice or revenge? Deep insight: What would you do to the person who snuffed the life of someone I love beyond reason? Forgiving would bring me no solace. If you take what really matters to me, I will show you what really matters. NITUTIRWANAHO TUZASHIRA. IGIHE KIRAGEZE.If democracy is to sell one's motherland(Africa), for some zionits support, then I prefer the person who is ready to give all his live for his motherland. Viva President Putin!!!
RPF committed the unspeakable
The perverted RPF committed the UNSPEAKABLE.Two orphans, both against the Nazi world. Point is the fact that their parents' murder Kagame & his RPF held no shock in the Western world. Up to now, the Rwandan Hitler Kagame and his death squads still enjoy impunity inside and outside of Rwanda. What goes through someone's mind as they know RPF murdered their parents? A delayed punishment is actually an encouragement to crime, In Praise of the ongoing Bloodshed in Rwanda. “I always think I am a pro-peace person but if someone harmed someone near and dear to me, I don't think I could be so peaceful. I would like to believe that to seek justice could save millions of people living the African Great Lakes Region - I would devote myself to bringing the 'perp' along to a non-happy ending but would that be enough? You'd have to be in the situation I suppose before you could actually know how you would feel or what you would do”. Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Libre Penseur
Hutu Children & their Mums
Look at them ! How they are scared to death. Many Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi, Foreign human rights advocates, jounalists and and lawyers are now on Death Row Waiting to be murdered by Kagame and his RPF death squads. Be the last to know.
Almighty God :Justice for US
Hutu children's daily bread: Intimidation, Slavery, Sex abuses led by RPF criminals and Kagame, DMI: Every single day, there are more assassinations, imprisonment, brainwashing & disappearances. Do they have any chance to end this awful life?
Killing Hutus on daily basis
RPF targeted killings, very often in public areas. Killing Hutus on daily basis by Kagame's murderers and the RPF infamous death squads known as the "UNKNOWN WRONGDOERS"
RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya
Rape, torture and assassination and unslaving of hutu women. Genderside: Rape has always been used by kagame's RPF as a Weapon of War, the killings of Hutu women with the help of Local Defense Forces, DMI and the RPF military
The Torture in Rwanda flourishes
How torture flourishes across Rwanda despite extensive global monitoring
Fighting For Our Freedom?
We need Freedom, Liberation of our fatherland, Human rights respect, Mutual respect between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority
Sunday, May 11, 2014
by Andy Piascik
Hidden genocides: Power - Knowledge - Memeory
Genocide denial equation: The irony is palpable.
20 YEARS OF SYSTEMATIC DISINFORMATION
Thereis no longer any doubt that to render itself immune to accusations that Kagame
and his RPF regime committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Hutus
on a scale of hundreds of thousands of victims in Rwanda in 1994 and up to 3
million in the 1996-1996 genocide of the camps. We are not mentioning
tortures, mass rape, assassinations and mass-murder since October 1st, 1990
up to 1994 and mass killings in Kibeho, the Rwandan Auschwitz where 21,000 internal
refugees where mass murdered by the RPF Army, a mass-murder witnessed by the UN
Australian peacekeepers.
The RPA soldiers murdered women and children right up to the UN wire. Bodies were everywhere.
For the Diggers behind the wire, the next few hours were agonizing.
( May 10, 2014, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) A solemn ceremony was held in Rwanda last month to mark the 20thanniversary of the mass killings in that country in 1994. Corporate media from the United States and the rest of the world covered the event in some depth, underscoring the horrible deaths of hundreds of thousands killed by the state and Hutu civilians. Dignitaries and politicians from around the world, including several from the United States, attended a commemorative event that included an emotional reenactment of the bloodletting.
Entirely uncommented on was the sickening spectacle of Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame overseeing the event. Kagame, a long-time servant of US business interests and a mass killer in his own right, set in motion fighting that culminated in the terrible events of 1994 by invading Rwanda from neighboring Uganda in 1990. A Tutsi, Kagame was one of the elite class that went into exile rather than live under a government of the majority Hutus. Information published by a wide spectrum of researchers, most notably from the United Nations, has determined that Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front killed tens of thousands of people from 1990-94 and several hundred thousand more during the period that has become known as the Rwandan Genocide. Because Kagame is supported by the United States, however, those crimes have been buried with the dead and no public ceremony has been held in the last 24 years to honor those killed by the RPF.
Kagame's goal from the outset of his 1990 invasion was the overthrow of the government of Rwanda, and he continually violated ceasefire agreements to that end. In fact, it was the shooting down in April 1994 of a plane on which Rwandan dictator Juvenal Habyarimana was a passenger, with a preponderance of the evidence pointing to the RPF as the responsible party, that set in motion the 100 days of mass killings. Habyarimana was killed, as was fellow passenger Cyprien Ntaryamira, the president of Burundi, and ten others.
Researchers Christian Davenport and Allan Stam are among those who have investigated the events of 1994. Under the auspices of USAID’s International Criminal Tribune for Rwanda, Davenport and Stam, like many investigators from the West, began their project assuming that the Rwandan government and rampaging Hutu civilians were responsible for virtually all of the killing. As their investigation progressed, however, they discovered more and more evidence indicating the RPF was also responsible for a great deal of killing. When, during their investigation, they presented some of that evidence to a meeting that included high-ranking members of Kagame’s government and military, some in the audience became enraged and one military man cut off their presentation and ordered Davenport and Stam removed by force. Kagame subsequently barred them from ever returning to Rwanda. (see
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/what-really-happened-in-rwanda-3432/).
More instructive for how the US was determined to spin the story of exclusive Hutu responsibility and Kagame as the savior of the day was USAID’s termination of Davenport and Stam’s research project and refusal to publish or in any way make known their findings. UN investigations that produced similar results were likewise suppressed by the United States. As with the wars that ravaged Yugoslavia in the 1990’s and their aftermath, to cite just one concurrent example, the West and the US in particular were determined that no findings that reflected the responsibility of anyone but the designated bad guys would see the light of day. In both instances, mass killings and other crimes committed by US clients Kagame, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, Alija Izetbgovic and Atif Dudakovic of Bosnia, the Kosovo Liberation Army and the United States itself were whitewashed. Crucial to the Rwandan story is the lie that April 1994 marks the beginning of the terrible events, as if Kagame’s 1990 invasion and the intervening deaths of many thousands never happened.
For its part, the US was looking to supplant France, its chief imperial rival in Central Africa, and increase corporate investment in the area, especially in the bordering Congo, one of the world's most resource-rich nations. To that end, Kagame twice invaded the Congo not long after taking over Rwanda, launching what Edward Herman has described as his second act of genocide. As with the invasion of Rwanda, the invasions of the Congo came with crucial US military training, armaments and diplomatic support.
Western plunder of the Congo dates to the 19th century and the murderous rule of Belgian King Leopold II, whose insatiable lust for wealth was responsible for the deaths of up to 15 million Congolese. Revolutionary forces finally achieved independence in 1960 but it took Congolese reactionaries and their Belgian and CIA helpers all of three months to overthrow and eventually murder Patrice Lumumba, the nation’s first elected Prime Minister. When US puppet Mobutu Sese Soko was put in power, all semblance of independence vanished as Western investors once again took control, and they made Mobutu a multibillionaire for his efforts on their behalf. By the time Kagame invaded the Congo the first time, Mobutu had fallen out of favor. His dictatorial ways had become an international embarrassment, plus the US didn’t like that he was keeping too much of the swag for himself. In addition, they had Kagame who, in his eagerness to be the US’s new client, was as pliant as Mobutu had ever been.
The ruling class and their media stenographers have brought us through the looking class big-time: war is peace, lies are truth, and genocidists are liberators. They cannot entirely erase the truth, however, and information about what really happened in Rwanda as documented by Davenport, Stam and many others has become available. Kagame, meanwhile, is hard at work sending hit squads around the world to assassinate exiled opponents of his regime, his job of laying the groundwork for increased US corporate plunder done, and done very well. That is why he was allowed to oversee last month’s ceremony and why virtually nothing was said in the mainstream about those who died by his hand to make Central Africa safe for US imperialism. It will be up to those who live in a future world free of Empire to honor them in the manner they deserve.
Andy Piascik is a long-time activist and award-winning author who writes for Z Magazine, The Indypendent, Counterpunch and many other publications and websites. He can be reached at andypiascik@yahoo.com.
Isaiah 42-46: “Hear, you deaf. Look, you blind, and see!
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
We are pretty familiar with Rwanda: It is paradise….or it’s a prison. President Paul Kagame is a savior and a visionary…or Kagame is a tyrant and a war criminal. What you hear varies widely depending on whom you ask. Why is the Rwanda conversation so polarized?
As the year of the 20th Anniversary of the Rwanda genocide approached, many journalists and observers–both in and outside Rwanda–remarked that no outlet existed for unbiased news on the country. Last year I tried to create an online newswire for unbiased reporting on post-genocide Rwanda. Though I had been impressed with Rwanda’s leadership and have long been considered a pro-government, even pro-Kagame journalist, I was aware that more balance was needed. Growing discontent with the status quo required a space for multiple points of view.
Too Close for Comfort
I’ve run into plenty of roadblocks while writing about Rwanda. But perhaps because I was viewed as sympathetic to the government, I found officials to be somewhat cooperative. Government communications staffers often contacted me wanting to be sure I had what they saw as the complete picture on big stories. We had a friendly, if sometimes tense, relationship. When I tried to become more nuanced, there was noticeable pushback, but it was not completely rejected. In fact, my contact at the government communications office told me to contact him directly if anyone in Rwanda ever tried to interfere with my work.
As I began aggregating Rwanda news, I noticed some strange online trends. It seemed that anonymous websites and social media accounts were dominating the Rwanda conversation. I kept watching.
After the murder of Rwanda’s former spy chief in South Africa in January, I accidentally uncovered a program of online harassment of journalists, human rights workers and diplomats. The program was being run from inside the Office of the President of Rwanda. This was quite a story. I doubted I could report on it without having problems in Rwanda. Instead, I wrote directly to the president’s office. I told them what I was seeing and suggested they shut down this program before it became a larger story. They declined that suggestion.
Then in March, one of the harassing accounts tweeted to me directly from the official account of President Paul Kagame. That tweet was quickly deleted, but not before the secret was out and, ironically, many had the misimpression that I was the one who had exposed it. When the Washington Post and BBC picked up the story they contacted me for comments and I obliged. After that, I assumed– even hoped–the story would fade. The 20th Anniversary of the Genocide was approaching. I was to cover the commemorations for multiple outlets (including Al Jazeera Digital Magazine). No story was more deserving of undivided media attention. But that was not to be.
Entry Denied
When I arrived to cover the commemorations, I was blocked from entering Rwanda. Despite a holding a valid passport with a visa waiver, I was told I would have to return to the United States. When I phoned my contact in the Rwanda Government’s Communications Office, he hung-up on me. I then tweeted that I was being denied entry to Rwanda and called the US Embassy in Kigali. The American consular asked me to call him back after five minutes. As I waited to make that call from the gate in the Kigali airport, a strange tweet came from the official account of the Rwanda Immigration Service. It said I was being blocked because of a drug arrest two years earlier in the US. The tweet linked to an outdated news report.
I had in fact been arrested two years earlier in the United States on drug charges. Prosecutors later said they had been mistaken and the original charges were dismissed. However, I did admit to having possessed drugs for personal use at one-point years ago. This was a misdemeanor. Despite misleading news reports, complete details of the case remain sealed. I hope one day soon I have all the facts and will be able to publish them.
Shortly after immigration sent that tweet, I was surrounded by police, handcuffed and placed in a jail cell. My phone was taken. Someone didn’t want me tweeting or calling the embassy until I had left Rwanda. When I told the plain clothed officer who stood outside my cell that I was worried it might not be great PR for Rwanda to lock up a visiting journalist, he smirked and replied, “So what.”
At no time did the Government of Rwanda ask to see a copy of my official arrest record. Instead, they used Google news search, found an old, inaccurate news article from another country and tweeted a link to it. It was a quick way to justify preventing the entry of a journalist they saw as critical. The incident attracted international attention and became sad distraction from the real story: Rwanda’s remarkable renaissance and the complex challenges the country continues to face.
I received hundreds of emails in the hours after I was being blocked from entering Rwanda. Suddenly, opposition people–who had never before trusted me–saw me as their friend, even referring to me as their “ambassador”. Meanwhile, pro-government Rwandan friends and colleagues saw me as a pariah (and they told me as much). I had tried to stand in the middle, to be neutral and objective journalist, but I was pushed to one side.
The tweet by immigration was never explained. Despite repeated requests, Rwanda immigration officials have not explained any of the actions around my deportation. Mine is just one of many cases where it is determined that, even a person who admires the Rwandan government, is not quite friendly enough. Rwanda blocks countless journalists, researchers and even officials if they perceive them to be critical. They rarely take issue with anything specific. Instead, propaganda blogs work to cast doubt on people the government views as hostile. The idea is to create an impression of unreliability and control the way journalists are perceived. These attacks are more effective than challenging what is being said. They have a chilling affect on people working in Rwanda. Controlling the perceived character of critics, and of the government itself, requires enormous resources. Impression management is an obsession in Kigali.
Between Two Extremes
Conflicting narratives tower over Rwanda. No middle path exists through the land of a thousand hills. Moderates searching for a center find little room between political extremes. The country appears peaceful and prosperous; no battles rock the hills; there is no blood in the streets. Yet the subject of Rwanda remains a hotbed of controversy. Vitriol comes from all sides.
When journalists write positive articles about President Paul Kagame, small armies of detractors accuse them of being naïve or corrupt. When researchers publish criticism of the current Rwandan Government, they are denounced by legions of pro-government supporters who accuse them of bias, racism and even genocidal tendencies. It is hard to talk honestly about Rwanda without getting kicked out of the discussion.
Foreigners are pushed into these strict pro-government and opposition categories. For many, the Hutu-power movement of the early 90’s was so evil, choosing a stance which seems to confront bigotry is an obvious choice. For others, hearing accounts of the brutality of the Tutsi led Rwandan Patriotic Front against unarmed Hutu civilians–before and after the genocide—necessitates opposition to the RPF, regardless of its other accomplishments.
It often comes down to first impressions. If one begins by meeting Tutsi survivors of the genocide in Kigali, they tend to support the RPF. If one starts by meeting survivors of RPF carnage in Eastern Congo, they tend to be more sympathetic to Hutu refugees. But nearly all who look long enough see that every group involved has the blood of countless innocent victims on its hands. Stark first impressions are powerful but for honest observers a more complex reality emerges. Pointing this out means being accused of promoting ‘double-genocide’ theories, ‘negation’ or ‘false equivalency’. But recognizing one tragedy does not trivialize another. In fact nothing trivializes genocide more than using the memory of victims as a tool to suppress discussion of other atrocities.
The idea that one group is inherently good while the other is inherently evil doesn’t hold up either. It holds all the groups back. Loyalty to the first set of victims we meet fades when we are presented with another set.
So why can’t we talk about this with the candor it deserves?
Bipolar Disorder
There is no ethical middle ground on the subject of genocide. It is the ultimate crime and can never be justified. But there is a need for open dialogue on questions of development, democracy and how a post-conflict society moves forward. Extremists on all sides of the Rwanda discussion try to force neutral observers into categories. For some, any praise of Paul Kagame is delusional. For others, to accommodate a balanced view is to harbor genocidal ideology. This prevents scholars, journalists and ordinary people from understanding reality. Instead we are locked into repeating habitual, scripted reportage.
We are left with a bipolar conversation. I and other reporters are guilty of perpetuating this. The first thing we do when talking to someone about Rwanda is try to figure out which side they are on. Then we know what we’re dealing with. No one is served by this false dichotomy. We need to be allowed to be neutral or we waste our time and the time of our readers. No criticism or praise can be credible without objectivity.
No leader, no matter how competent or benevolent, is worthy of being followed or supported blindly without being held accountable. No institution can succeed in the long-term without the benefit of listening to those who disagree with it. History has shown it never works.
Steve Terrill is an independent journalist and editor of Rwanda Wire. This article is republished from Al Jazeera Digital magazine.
http://rwandawire.comThe Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
FLASH BACK: LE 28 JANVIER 1961, LE COUP D’ETAT DE GITARAMA!
http://ikazeiwacu.unblog.fr/2014/01/28/flash-back-le-28-janvier-1961-le-coup-detat-de-gitarama/
le Rwanda dans le collimateur de l'ONU
http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20140129-le-rwanda-le-collimateur-onu
Paul Kagame ex-guard Joel Mutabazi rejects Rwanda trial
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25930720uri uyu munsi twibuka demokarasi mu Rwanda, turasubiza amaso inyuma turebe uko byagenze ubwo ishyaka ryatsinze amatora ya mbere mu mateka y’ u Rwanda, ubwo ryari riyobowe na Nyakwigendera Prezida Gregoir Kayibanda
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)
AS International
SurViVors SPEAK OUT - Rights of Victims Seeking Justice and Compensation for the RPF Genocide. This is an Exciting Collaborative Project launched by The AS International Founder Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Economist and Human Rights Activist. Join US and Be the First to know about the Mastermind of the Rwandan Genocide Still At large and enjoing Impunity.