|
RASSEMBLEMENT POUR LE RETOUR
DES | |
|---|---|
|
4, RUE A. CLUYSENAAR 1060 BRUXELLES BELGIQUE Tél: 32-2-5348035 Fax: 32-2-5348053 |
7, RESIDENCE MONTESQUIEU 49000 ANGERS FRANCE Tél/Fax: 33-41489987 |
JULY 1996
The Rwandan people are going through the most difficult and painful times of their recent history.
The nation as a whole is threatened by total destruction if nothing is done to reverse the trend of events taking place in Rwanda.
Although rwandans are partly to blame for the crisis, the international community, by action and /or by omission, has contributed and still contributes to the exacerbation of the crisis.
RDR is of the view that this trend can be reversed, if the international community properly understands the real stakes and forces at play and tries to act impartially. Unfortunately RDR fears that the latter may not be quite aware of the underlying causes of the rwandan conflict.
Indeed, the present UN policy in Rwanda as well as some bilateral cooperation with the RPF repressive regime in Kigali, betrays a serious lack of understanding of the root causes of the rwandan tragedy, and is at variance with the very values cherished by any justice minded person.
It is for this reason that RDR has taken, in good faith, the initiative to prepare the present document in light with the recent resolution nº 1011 of the UN security council, lifting the arms embargo imposed on Rwanda in may 1994, as if the conflict is over, and the subsequent forcefull deportation of rwandese refugees from Zaire. It has also been prompted by the whole intoxication by RPF and its lobby, surrounding the issue of non return of rwandese refugees.
The problem underlying the present rwandan tragedy is the struggle for power between the majority hutu ( 90% ) and the minority tutsi ( 9.7% ).
The struggle has very often turned bloody due to lack of a political system that ensures free competition for and a peaceful transfer of power.
Indeed, the history of Rwanda clearly shows that transfer of power has been through violence; from hutu to tutsi in the 16th century, from tutsi to hutu during the popular uprising in 1959, and from hutu to tutsi once again in 1994.
This historical phenomenon has created mutual fears and hatred between the power contenders i.e hutu and tutsi.
Therefore, when the hutu Head of State, the late Juvénal HABYARIMANA was murdered in April 1994 by what was widely believed to be the tutsi led RPF or its allies, the fear and trauma of the consequences of tutsi regaining power resulted in massacres of people believed to either be RPF or its sympathizers.
One could recall that the killing of Juvénal HABYARIMANA, along with hutu colleague of Burundi, followed many other atrocities committed by the tutsi led RPF in the areas under its control since 1991 but which very unfortunately, didn't arouse any international outcry . One may mention massacres of civilians in the buffer zones of KIRAMBO and KINIHIRA in which RPF moved freely, killing in MUTARA region as well as the assassination of HUTU political heavyweights like Emmanuel Gapyisi, Chairman of the political Commission of MDR party, Fidèle Rwambuka, member of the National Committee of MRND party, Honourable Minister Félicien Gatabazi, Secretary General of PSD party, Martin Bucyana, Chairman of CDR party and Nathanaël Nyilinkwaya, Managing Director of CYOHOHA Tea Estate.
The assassination of President HABYARIMANA together with his Burundi Colleague President NTARYAMIRA, hardly 6 months after the assassination of another elected Hutu, President of Burundi Melchior NDADAYE, was interpreted by the people as a culmination of a systematic policy of the Tutsi to exterminate Hutu leadership and ensure an unchallenged monopoly of power by Tutsi.
Indeed, playing down these atrocities on the part of the International Community caused a lot of frustration among the Hutu population.
This analysis should not however be misunderstood as an attempt to minimise or justify the killings, but simply a scientific analysis of underlying political and psychological causes of the rwandan conflict.
Another issue that compounded the rwandan problem and of which the international community took very little care, has been external intervention. Indeed, it is an open secret that foreign powers heavily supported RPF throughout the 4 years of war. No serious person can imagine RPF footing alone the bill of the war efforts that mobilized a very sophisticated weaponry. This support falsified the real balance of forces by giving undue advantage to RPF.
The recent state visit to Rwanda of President Museveni of Uganda, from 14 th to the 16 th August 1995, during which he renewed his unconditional military support to RPF regime is to be seen in this framework.
RPF was seen therefore by rwandans inside Rwanda as a foreign sponsored organisation imposed on the people by foreign powers. It was a source of frustration and humiliation to many rwandans who uptodate consider RPF regime as a foreign sponsored leadership.
The democratisation process, with its strains and stresses, compounded by a then politically immature leadership of political parties, coming in the midst of war, weakened further the political system, reinforcing more the position of RPF, led by a military dictatorship.This again gave undue advantage to RPF.
Despite all these constraints, a negotiated settlement was reached in August 1993 in what was known as the Arusha Agreement.
The latter was based on the following convictions:
a. A military solution is inappropriate to the rwandan crisis.
b. A durable peace in Rwanda can only be attained through genuine power sharing between the main political and ethnic forces, democratic pluralism, the rule of law and the return of refugees.
After the signing of the Agreement, there was a shift in political alliances. Some of the former allies of RPF discovered that they were being used as mere springboard to power and shifted their allegiance in favour of the presidential camp.
RPF which had heavily invested in them could not stomach the
U-turn and undertook to sabotage the implementation of the agreement by opposing the democratic right of its former allies to shift alliances. This continued alliance was the only sure way to transfer power from the President who had been made a ceremonial head to RPF.
This led to a split in all the three major opposition parties
( PSD, PL, MDR ), former RPF allies into two factions, the pro-RPF and the anti-RPF nicknamed "power" . For the latter camp which represented the majority of the people, President Juvénal HABYARIMANA became the symbol of resistance to an attempt by tutsi to recapture power. The ensuing muscle flexing between anti-RPF and pro-RPF groups resulted in the delay in the implementation of the Agreement and eventually culminated in the killing of Juvénal HABYARIMANA in April 1994.
When the President plane was shot down, RPF was the main suspect and this triggered off killings of RPF's real or potential allies. On the other side, taking advantage of the killing of some opposition politicians in the night of 6th April 1994, RPF unleashed its terror on any Hutu suspected to be a member of the group nicknamed" power" and this sparked off a vicious cycle of massacres.
When the tragedy occurred, the Minister of Defense, as well as his colleague of Interior, was out of the country. The Chief of Staff of the Army was aboard the President's plane that was shot down killing all its occupants.
So, after the killing of the Prime Minister and some of his Ministers, the rest of the cabinet went under cover and this resulted in total power vacuum.
The Army met in an emergency meeting which was also attended by Brigadier Romeo Dallaire, Chief of the UNAMIR. It was agreed that a caretaker government be urgently formed, to handle the crisis. Brigadier Romeo Dallaire was given mandate to organise a meeting between RPF and the Rwandese Government Forces, so as to discuss ways and means of jointly managing the crisis. The Rwandese Government Forces (RGF) made it clear to Brigadier Romeo Dallaire that everything possible should be done to avoid the resumption of war.
During the night of 6th April 1995, a couple of hours after the assassination of President HABYARIMANA Juvénal, RPF had attacked three times the Presidential Guard barracks at KIMIHURURA, allegedly to stop it from carrying out killings in revenge of the murder of the President. In the afternoon of April 7th April 1994, the military High Command had convened a meeting of all commanders of operational sectors and given orders to stop any lawlessness that could plunge the country into a civil war or give pretext to RPF to resume war. Any independent minded observer will confirm that the army shot indeed many law breakers, including soldiers, in the street of Kigali, especially near the central market. This shows that at no time, there was any deliberate attempt by the army as an institution to cover up criminals.
Nevertheless, at 4 o'clock in the morning of April 9, 1994, four hours before the scheduled meeting between the Government Forces and the RPF, the latter launched a full scale assault on all fronts. All government soldiers were then mobilized for the front. Criminals of all sides took advantage of this loophole and carried out acts of lawlessness since all security manpower was mobilized to contain RPF advance on Kigali.
Ironically, despite the intensification of inter-ethnic killings pitching Tutsi RPF supporters against hutu, RPF launched a campaign for the withdrawal of UNAMIR. A senior RPF member is on record, saying at that time that the UN had no more duty in Rwanda, because what was going on was a business between the Presidential guard and RPA. Yet, after the capture of Kigali, RPF attacked UNAMIR, for having withdrawn at a time when Tutsi were being massacred.
In the following days, the more RPF intensified the military offensive, the more the lawlessness. When it was later discovered that the RPF had established its own military squads in all corners of the country, made almost exclusively of Tutsi, the latter became the target of popular outrage, as they were considered as accomplices of RPF. This is what ignited country wide massacres.
During an abortive round of negotiation in KAMPALA brokered by President MUSEVENI and attended by Ambassador of TANZANIA, BRITAIN, FRANCE and USA, the Rwandese Government delegation informed the meeting that the intensification of fighting was fuelling the chaos and insisted on the need to agree on a ceasefire. RPF rejected any ceasefire until the negotiations collapsed. Therefore, doesn't it have a share of the blame for the spread of the massacres?
Instead of pressing for a ceasefire, the international community imposed an arms embargo on Rwanda which in actual fact was meant to punish the government side for being unable to stop the massacres, while , RPF military supplies went on unhampered.
This embargo, coupled with an open foreign involvement, facilitated the military victory of RPF.
Although RPF propaganda states that the Arusha Agreement remains the pillar of its policy, the so called broad based government is just a myth. The recent dismissal of former Prime Minister TWAGIRAMUNGU Faustin, by none other than his minister of defense, Paul Kagame, should be an eye opener.
The RPF leadership has been unbelievably so cynical in its political strategy that it has succeeded in surreptitiously pulling the unsuspecting international community on its side.
Borrowing and skilfully using the marxist techniques of taking power through violent means, the RPF exploited the prevailing world opinion on the issues of human rights and democracy to justify an attack on Rwanda in October 1990. Unconcerned about the consequences of a tutsi led invasion of Rwanda with regard to ethnic relations, the RPF attacked the country on the allegation that the hutu led government had denied the tutsi their inalienable right to return home and that the regime was dictatorial. Yet the invasion took place when discussions on the return of refugees were at very advanced stage and relations between the two main ethnic groups i.e. the hutu and the tutsi were smooth.
Going by MAO TSE TUNG'S principle of "exploiting the contradictions within the majority and crushing each faction one after another, RPF took advantage of the contradictions within the hutu majority brought about by the democratisation process and succeded eventually in taking over state power.
1. After taking over power, the RPF carried out a witch hunt against all those who were known to be against its seizure of power irrespective of their political or religious affiliation, labelling them hutu extremists or militia/interahamwe or again planners of genocide.Those it could not lay hands on were ostracised by the international comminity through a campaign carried out by RPF and its powerful external lobby , that they were killers.
2. RPF leadership , assured of unconditional support of certain external powers ,including the public declaration of President MUSEVENI of Uganda that his army was ever ready to defend the RPF regime against any internal or external threat ,a commitment he made during his state visit to Rwanda in August 1995, has turned on its former allies. This has included the sacking of the former Prime Minister ,Mr TWAGIRAMUGNU Faustin ,the Ministers of Internal Affairs ,of Justice and of Information.
3. Whereas the late President HABYARIMANA had been accused during his reign that he had been presiding over meetings to hatch plans to kill tutsi, after his assassination the RPF put up a contradictory allegation that he was killed by hutus extremists, and that it was his widow who planned genocide.
4. While the african culture is very particular in honouring the dead, the RPF has left many victims of massacres allegedly killed by the militia without proper burial just to use them for propaganda purposes. At the same time it has burnt all the bodies of thousands of people it massacred in order to hide any evidence . The international community which used to play down RPF atrocities, is challenged to explain the whereabout of thousands of hutu unaccounted for either in the camps or in the country since the RPF resumed war in April 1994.
5. For the sake of political expediency, RPF did not have any scruple to assassinate three bishops of the powerful catholic church,for allegedly having been close to the former government, and then go to apologise to the P0PE.
6. After the resumption of war in April 1994, a senior RPF member is on record pleading for the withdrawal of UNAMIR, because,he said, what was going on was an" affair between RPF and the presidential guard where UNAMIR had no business". The RPF representative at the UN echoed that call, at the very time, when fellow Tutsi whom RPF pretended to fight for, were being killed in reprisal for the death of HABYARIMANA.
Yet, the UN presence was an indispensable deterrent factor, and calling for its winding up was a sadism of the highest class.
Of course, RPF was not interested in ending the massacres, because it would have deprived it of a propaganda weapon to explain its seizure of power by force.
It is indeed not easy to understand, but RPF had an interest in the spreading of ethnic massacres and contributing to it. And so long as the international community brushes aside this naked truth as "hutu propaganda", the rwandan tragedy will never be understood, nor solved, for a wrong diagnosis leads inevitably to a wrong prescription.
After taking over power,the first step was to exclude what was perceived by RPF as the most dangerous protagonists to its power i.e MRND Party and the Rwandese Government Forces (RGF). Under this cover, all members of the anti-RPF factions of MDR, PSD, and PL, as well as other small political parties were also excluded, bringing in a government representanting a very tiny fraction of the population.
No wonder that RPF has up to now a narrow political base and relies on intimidation and violence to maintain itself in power.
By accepting this "fait accompli" of RPF, the international community gave a licence to RPF to eliminate physically or exclude from the governance of the country, any potential opponent. Indeed, for anybody to be labelled militia or "Interahamwe", whichever party he belongs to, is enough to be arrested and detained without arousing international indignation.
Those who managed to escape and run to camps inside or outside the country are considered criminals and the international community seems to take it the way RPF wants it. All rwandan refugees are now ostracised and crippled in their camps because hardly any country allows them entry into its territory. This creates a very painful psychological torture and amounts to another form of genocide.
For the moment, even those hutu who have joined RPF government are figure heads. For instance, the current Prime Minister is not only powerless, but has no credibility among the few party supporters remaining in the country.
Power sharing had also meant the merger of the two warring forces. This didn't take place and former RGF are now in exile. Even those who defected to RPF are so much distrusted that they have no right to carry arms or move freely. We are told that half of the officers are already behind bars and, Col. Gatsinzi and Ndibwami excepted, no more hutu has been nominated in the military High Command of the so called national Army.
Besides, all the official members of the High Command are former Ugandan army officers. Real power is exercised by this core group of former Uganda's NRA officers .
Since the RPF took over, the law lies in the will of the military hierarchy. Any soldier can arrest, detain and even kill with impunity. Only those who have no powerful godfather are arrested.
The most elementary rules of international humanitarian law have been brushed aside. In a report released on April 3, 1995, the ICRC states that the international community is partly to blame for it has done nothing to see to it that conditions of detention in Rwanda are in conformity with international practice.
The UN, we are told may rather be busy helping in the program of extending detention places, instead of addressing the issue of illegal arrests and detention as well as the unhuman conditions of detention.
The right to private property so sacro-saint among all civilized nations, is violated with impunity. Private houses, land, and others properties have been allocated or taken over by tutsi returnees. The international community , which vehemently opposed the confiscation by the Ugandan regime of Idi Amin Dada of indian properties, should not be seen to condone the barbaric grabbing of properties by RPF.
The continuing gross violations of human rights in Rwanda has been confirmed among others by Human Rights Watch, usually favourable to RPF, the International Federation for Human Rights (I.F.H.R) in its report dated April 1995, Amnesty International in its reports of April 1995 (AFR 47/05/1995) and June 1995 (AFR 02/12/95), by ARDHO (Rwandese Association of Human Rights), yet very pro-government, in its quarterly report of April 1995, by CLADHO, by the Chief Prosecutor of Kigali,the Chief magistrate of KIGALI Court, NSANZUWERA François Xavier in his press release made in Brussels on the 11th May 1995, the district councils of GISENYI, and GITARAMA in the presence of the Minister of Internal Affairs, as well as former Prime Minister TWAGIRAMUNGU Faustin, in his resignation letter in August 1995. He boldly declared that the army was responsible for the prevailing insecurity.
Like wise, in June 1995, Mr Ntakirutimana Jean Damascene director of the Cabinet in the Prime Minister's office confirmed the prevalence of those gross violations, as did Mr Eugène RUBERANGEYO, former Secretary to the Treasury, who recently fled the country following murder threats by "RPF secrets services".
Although all these reports call for an independent commission of enquiry into these human rights violations, the international community only wants to hear about the trial of Hutu suspected of the crime of genocide . What went wrong after and is still going wrong is of little interest. Some opinions go to the extent of suggesting that so long as the number of people massacred by RPF has not reached the 500,000 or so Tutsi allegedly massacred in 1994, the situation would not be yet desperate. Yet, we are afraid that this figure might have been bypassed.
The various crimes , including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, committed by RPF during the war seems not to bother the International Community.
Whereas RPF had all along claimed that it was fighting for democracy, and whereas Arusha Agreement had acknowledged political pluralism as the best form of governance, once RPF took power through unconstitutional military means, it gave itself five years of dictatorship, before any election can be held and suspended political party activities.
Strangely enough, in Mozambique and Angola where war took a far longer time ( more than 15 years ), elections were held within a shorter period.
Political party activities have been suspended, the freedom of the press does not exist any more and violent repression of any dissenting voice is the order of the day.
Yet, the RPF government is still highly rated in western circles, whereas countries such as Kenya with a far better human rights record, are under continuous pressure for democratization and respect of human rights. Isn't this a clear case of double standards as far as the policy towards the rwandan conflict is concerned?
There are over 2.5 millions rwandese refugees still in exile, and more are still fleeing. Contrary to what a section of the media and RPF lobby want people to believe, the exodus of refugees started right from the very first attack of RPF on 1st
October 1990. Indeed, on the eve of the resumption of hostilities in April 1995, there were already 1 million war displaced people who were escaping RPF atrocities, camping in NYACYONGA, a suburb of Kigali.
The exodus of rwandese people is therefore not only due to fear for reprisal following inter-ethnic massacres of April 1995, but first and formost a clear manifestation of lack of trust into RPF self declared regime, imposed by force of arms. It is a rejection of a monolithic dictatorship.
The regional summit of Head of State of East and Central Africa held in Nairobi on January 7, 1995 had requested among others that:
1. The rwandese government deepens its broadbaseness;
2. Creates safe zone for refugee returnees.
These factors were meant to bring about a conducive atmosphere for the return of refugees.
The Bujumbura Summit held on February 1995 emphasised the same spirit. The OAU Summit held in June 1995 in Addis Abeba reiterated almost the same recommendations.
The Nairobi declaration of January 1995, the Bujumbura declaration of February 1995 and the declaration of the Addis Abeba Summit in June 1995, do not differ much from the Dar-Es Salaam declaration of February 19, 1991 on the return of tutsi refugees, now in power.
In this declaration, although the then rwandese government had solemnly accepted the return of the Tutsi refugees, political dialogue was underlined.
Despite numerous calls for a quick and peacefull repatriation of refugees, RPF is doing everthing possible to hamper this repatriation. Indeed, the return of refugees is seen by RPF as suicidal because they are likely to challenge its illegal hold on power.
RDR therefore considers it double standard for the international community to deny hutus refugees what it considered normal demand by tutsi refugees in 1991, particularly when there is ample evidence of atrocities committed by the tutsi RPF army against hutu. For those who were still incredulous the recent KIBEHO massacres in April 1995 as well as the butchery of Kanama, early September 1995 should be an eye opener.
On April 22, 1995, the tutsi RPF army unleashed its terror on innocent civilians in KIBEHO camp. Using mortars, RPG, SMG, LMG, grenades etc..., RPA pounded defenceless civilians from early morning, up to 5 PM, according to eye witnesses.
Though the UNAMIR puts the number of victims to between 2.000 and 5.000 ( the UN representative puts the figure at 2.000 only! ), aid agencies , journalists and some UN military sources put the figure at more than 5.000. Whatever the number, it is strange for a so called national army to butcher its own people in the presence of UN and under cameras of journalists and still get away with it.
Despite the conclusion of ad hoc International Commission of enquiry, RDR maintains that the KIBEHO massacres were premeditated for the following reasons:
i. The KIBEHO massacres followed similar incidents. One would mention among others: the violent dismantling of camps for displaced people in the prefecture of Kibuye in September/October 1994, shooting in Kibeho camp in November 1994, three raids made in rwandese refugee camps in northern Burundi, deliberate suffocation of over 30 detainees at Muhima police station in Kigali in March 1995, as well as the recent raid in a rwandese refugee camp in BIRAVA-ZAIRE on April 11, 1995 when 37 persons were killed on the spot, over a hundred wounded, and 20 others kidnapped by RPF. One would also mention the recent shelling by RPA of PANZI, a rwandese refugee camp in BUKAVU-Zaïre, at the very moment when the UN Secretary General was visiting Rwanda.
ii. During an interview broadcast on Radio Rwanda on April 1995, the then rwandese Minister in charge of Rehabilitation and the Repatriation of refugees, Mr Jacques BIHOZAGARA declared that the plan for dismantling the camp was agreed upon between his government and UNAMIR as well as NGOs.
Besides, on his arrival from a visit in China, early April 1995, the Vice-President and Minister of Defense, Major General Paul KAGAME,( the strong man of Kigali regime ) declared that he would use strong means to dismantle camps.
iii. Squeezing over 120.000 displaced people on a very tiny area, to the extent that they could not even sleep, under heavy rain, without water and food, the refusal of access to primary health care , all these acts were nothing but the proof of a deliberate plan by the Kigali government to get rid of those displaced people.
iv. The surrounding of camps since the early morning of April 18, 1995, had no other motive but to avoid any escape.
v. Lack of repentance on the part of the RPF Government, marked by :
- Denial of medical care to the wounded or simply finishing them off;
- Continuation of a killing spree on those forced out, including the wounded of Kibeho camp. Cases reported include: 9 were killed in MUGANZA commune, 18 were stoned to death in HUYE commune and unspecified number of people were killed in NYABISINDU commune.
- Playing down the tragedy by trying, against all odds and testimony of eyewitness, to put the number of people killed to 300 instead of 5000 and organising demonstration on 1st May, 1995 to condemn those who tried to speak out the truth .
- Untold harassment of survivors. According to IOC (Integrated Operations Centre), an UN Centre which monitored the movement of survivors, 60000 of them are yet to be accounted for by RPF Government. RDR fears that they may have been summarily executed, or put in secret detention places.
vi. An independent commission of enquiry was only accepted although reluctantly, after the visit of US under-Secretary of State for Africa, Mr George Moose.
Besides, reliable sources including UNAMIR personnel indicate that the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) has started exhuming bodies and taking them to an unknown destination in order to cover up the magnitude of the tragedy to the commission of enquiry. The road KIBEHO-BUTARE used for the transportation of those bodies, was for some time out of bound for civilians and NGOs.
vii. Some aid workers were threatened with death or expelled for having spoken out the truth about the massacres. Indeed according to press reports, an RPA soldier in KIBEHO is reported to have put a pistol in the mouth of an MSF aid worker and ordered him to retract his earlier statement on the number of people killed.
This is not the first time for the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) to massacre innocent populations after regrouping them or summoning for a meeting. Each time RPF massacres people, and hastens to bury them secretly in mass graves,in order to clear any embarrassing evidence. This is what happened in the prefectures of Kibungo, Byumba and in Commune Kidaho, where populations were decimated.
What is true about the massacres is also true about the exhumation of dead bodies. In the prefecture of Byumba, skeletons were dug up and burnt in order to remove any trace of massacres. It has been learnt that part of skeletons were transported to NYARUBUYE in KIBUNGO prefecture where they are exhibited to visitors as evidence of Tutsi massacred by Hutu militia. It is disheartening to see the number of foreign dignitaries who have made the pilgrimage to Nyarubuye , yet, no single one went to KIBEHO were thousands of Hutu were butchered during broadday light.
As stated above, RDR strongly believes that the KIBEHO massacres were premeditated contrary to the conclusion of the international commission report.
Indeed, the Rwandese Community in Exile as a whole was greatly aggrieved by the conclusions of that Commission of enquiry into heinous massacres carried out by the " Rwandese Patriotic Army "in KIBEHO camp on the 22nd April 1995.
When the Kigali Government was given the liberty to appoint countries and organisations to form the commission, RDR immediately expressed its reservation with regard to its credibility and the results of the enquiry have proved the Rwandese Community in Exile right in its assessment.
Indeed, far from appeasing the anxiety of the Rwandan people, victims of the brutal force unleashed on it by the Kigali regime, the conclusions of the commission have strengthened further the immunity of the government against its critics on its methods of governance of the country.
The commission deliberately avoided to go into one of the crucial aims of the enquiry, namely establishing the number of people killed, which had been a serious point of contention between Kigali Government and UNAMIR as well as humanitarian agencies.
Could one conclude that it was a deliberate move by the commission not to shock the international opinion by giving the right number of people killed and to give enough time for the evidence to disappear and eyewitnesses, among others military officials of the Australian and Zambian contingents who were at the scene of the massacres, to go away? Indeed, the latter had pointed out that they had decided to stop counting when they had reached the figure of 4050 dead.
Putting the responsibility of the KIBEHO massacres on the shoulders of a few individuals of RPA is part of a well established policy to avoid against all odds, tarnishing the image of RPF, eroded by its bad record with regard to the respect of human rights.
In fact, on the second day after the Army had carried out the massacres, the Minister of Defence and Vice-President, Major General Paul KAGAME, defended the action of his army and even ordered the operation to continue under the same command structure and he never retracted his statement. At the same time, the minister of internal affairs swworw that survivors would be starved of the camp, no matter the consequences.
Furthermore, no national Army, worthy of the name, can fire at unarmed civilians, using heavy artillery without a prior clearance from higher authority.
It is surprising that the commission did not establish how the orders passed through the chain of command in order to pinpoint the culprit and left it to the accused namely the Kigali Government to identify and punish him. The commission has indeed tried to defend the government more than its officials who up to now justify their action.
In light of the non repentance of the Kigali Government, ( refusal to workers to evacuate the wounded, maintaining of a blockade to deny food and water to the refugees, forcing the starving and wounded people to walk kilometres, refusing ICRC officials to reach the area of disaster... ), to ask the same government to carry out an investigation against members of its own Army is going back to square one.
Indeed, after the results of the commission had come out, the Director of ORINFOR, office of information, Major RUTAYISIRE, while congratulating himself on the report, maintained that the Army acted in self-defence.
Hence, is it not strange to ask a regime that clearly maintains that its army is innocent to punish members of the same army?
Consistent and converging reports from various eyewitnesses point out that firing into the crowd started on 19th April 1995. On the fateful day of April 22, 1995, the firing started in the morning till evening. If it was an isolated military action, the government would have intervened before the victims of the carnage had reached such catastrophic proportions. Furthermore, the government did not stop the carnage of refugees on their forced return home.
RDR is very much concerned about the fate of people who escaped the KIBEHO massacres and are currently facing large scale harassment.
Nowadays, it is a crime in Rwanda to have survived the KIBEHO massacres, no matter the circumstances that led you to the camp.
Despite the assurances given to them by western ambassadors accreditated to KIGALI that they would not be persecuted if they surrenderered and left the camp, survivors of KIBEHO have dearly paid right from the moment they got out.
Some were killed on the way to BUTARE, where everybody had to transit, others were summarily killed on their arrival at home in the communes of HUYE, MUGUSA, RUSATIRA, NYABISINDU etc...Others were thrown in jail, while others simply disappeared.
Regarding imprisonments, the Minister of Internal affairs of KIGALI regime declared on May 26, 1995, in a council meeting of GITARAMA, that after the KIBEHO massacres, there had been so many arrests that all the available space in detention places had been exhausted.
Similarly the division commander of BUTARE, Major KATABARWA, declared in the presence of minister Pie Mugabo in RUSATIRA Commune, that the international community should not bother about the RPA killing Interahamwe. This took place after the discovery of 27 bodies in the communal jail of RUSATIRA!
As for disappearances, they are in thousands and the phenomenon is not yet over. According to Integrated Operation Centre(IOC), a UN body, in a report released on 22nd June 1995,
there may be about 60.000 former KIBEHO camp residents who are yet to be accounted for.
RDR appeals to the international community which had hurriedly whitewashed the KIGALI Government after KIBEHO massacres in the famous report of the so-called international commission of enquiry, to ask the same government to throw light on the whereabout of those people unaccounted for.
Since RPF took power in July 1994, the blame of all cases of violations of human rights is always put on isolated elements of the RPA, which is yet considered as a very disciplined force. However, when last year, misguided elements of the former National Army and militia were implicated in inter ethnic massacres, not only the whole cabinet of KAMBANDA and the army were held responsible for the massacres, but worse still, all hutu were considered killers before even any verdict was passed. Is this not a clear case of double standards?
Another serious omission of the commission is having failed to point out that dismantling camps and forcing people out against their will was in itself a violation of human rights. Condemning aid agencies of not having done enough to make people go out before they were killed by RPA betrays a deep seated justification of methods used by the Kigali Government namely denying refugees of food and medical care.
If " isolated elements " ( ie. a group of more than two thousand men who had surrounded KIBEHO camp ) can have the courage to shoot at people under the nose and beard of UNAMIR, pressmen and humanitarian agencies, were those refugees not justified to fear going to their villages, away from any witness? Was it not legitimate on their part to refuse going back without any guarantee for their safety, a right that should be guaranteed to a refugee anywhere in the world? What would the Commission have said if, during the regime of the late President HABYARIMANA, tutsi who had sturbonly refused to leave their refuge in KIZIGURO Parish, Murambi commune or in the parliamentary buildings in Kigali had been forced out by firearms?
In short, instead of doing justice, the commission has put a serious doubt on the impartiality of the international community in the rwandan crisis. Such an attitude can only exacerbate tensions and render national reconciliation more difficult.
The RPF has so much benefited from its policy of lying that it has institutionalised it. This behaviour is reinforced by the fact that the aggression, assassination, tortures and massacres perpetrated against the Rwandese population since October 01, 1990 has not only led the RPF to a military victory but also to other unforeseen disturbing results.
The international community has come to consider the aggressed as aggressor and the aggressor as the aggressed; the main killers who in fact launched the war in October 1990 are today considered mere victims of genocide.
During the early late HABYARIMANA's regime, all special guests would visit the coffee estate of Kanombe, planted and taken care of by the 'Umuganda (communal work)" of civil servants, or anti-erosion ditches network. Today, no single guest of RPF regime can miss the pilgrim to Nyarubuye, where he must condemn in the strongest terms possible the genocide. Failure to do so will result in the guest being labelled INTERAHAMWE.
The ritual surrounding that hill in Rusumo commune, East of the country, where the remains of the victims of April 1994 massacres, including ironically RPF own victims, is of the highest hypocrisy and cynicism.
For those who are not yet conversant with RPF political gimmick, Nyarubuye is a duplication of SEMUTO in what used to be known as "LUWERO TRIANGLE" during the guerilla war of NRA/NRM in Uganda.
Soon after the capture of Kampala by NRA in February 1986, the new government displayed hundred of thousands of remains of war victims, at a small trading centre called SEMUTO in LUWERO district. How they were gathered in record time remains a mystery!
Every guest of the new regime would make the pilgrimage of SEMUTO, to see for himself the culmination of what would be presented as the turning point of UNLA (the national army under Obote II) brutality.
Whereas the NRA would boast about having crushed lorries full of UNLA soldiers and their UPC Youth winger collaborators, no single remain of the latter could be shown. Where were they ? Most likely among the SEMUTO remains, attributed to UNLA.
For 7 consecutive years, the regime would carefully keep this ritual and every year, organise a national "heroes Day", during which some remains would be buried, making sure that there are still enough for the following year's ceremony.
Far from being a testimony of sympathy with the victims (displaying remains of dear countrymen for years, alone is a humilation) the real hidden agenda behind this ritual is to instill in small but regular closes, hatred against the previous regime, thereby justifying the sacrifices of so many years of stupid bloody war.
By gathering remains of April massacres, including its own victims of Byumba and Ruhengeri at Nyarubuye hill, RPF wants to perpetuate the hatred against the hutu tribe collectively accused of having either masterminded or condoned the massacres. The much publicized burial of remains of the victims, which is in its fourth month, is also to be seen in this framework.
Needless to say therefore that RPF regime does not want any reconciliation and is rather bent on revenge.
For RPF, Nyarubuye is a golden opportunity to justify its 4 year guerilla war, and for the national and international community to forgive and forget that it took over power at the expense of more that 1 million citizen massacred.
If RPF supporters do not want to go down in the history of Rwanda as having blindly sustained the most dictatorial regime ever seen in Rwanda, they should desist from being used in segregating even the dead.
If Nyarubuye remains deserve so much respect, so should be the ones of the 3 bishops killed by RPA in 1994 and whose burial has been strongly opposed by RPF regime, and thousands of hutu massacred by RPA in Kibeho in April 1995, still languishing in mass graves.
The way the country is run does not create an impression that RPF leaders are patriotic at all. They behave like mercenaries on a looting spree. This view is shared by many independent personalities who visited the country under RPF era.
Government assets ( hotels, houses, parastatals etc...), lucrative posts in government, are allocated to individuals, in form of war debt servicing. Parastatals like Tea and Coffee Marketing Boards, are plundered with impunity. Educational and research institutions ( including university campuses ) have been turned into military barracks. The recent revelations made by the Secretary to the Treasury who fled the country for security reasons don't leave any shadow of doubt about the mismanagement of the country under RPF administration.
Violent hold-up, by RPA elements in plain clothes, hijacking of UNAMIR and NGOs' vehicles is another sign of a state inspired banditry.
RPF dominates all the State powers in Rwanda and is carrying out a policy of political and ethnic exclusion.
The following are just a tip of the iceberg :
1. By August 1995, the entire army leadership was dominated by RPF. The high command is exclusively made of former members of Uganda army now parading as RPA members.
2. RPF has got a permanent vote of 13 members (on top of the President), out of a cabinet of 19 members.
3. Out of 18 director generals (permanent secretaries), 16 are RPF tutsi.
4. RPF has got more than 40 votes out of 70 in the so called national assembly.
5. More than 3/4 of the rwandese foreign service officers are RPF members.
6. Out of 10 presidents and vice-presidents of parliamentary commissions, 8 are tutsi.
7. Out of 17 directors of cabinet (3 are yet to be appointed), 14 are tutsi.
8. Out of 5 heads of departments in the PM's office, 3 are tutsi.
9. All presidential advisers are tutsi.
10. Out of 60 interim directors of parastatals and joint-venture companies, 58 are tutsi.
11. Out of 10 prefects (districts administrators), 6 are RPF tutsi members.
12. Strategic institutions like the Central Bank, Rwandatel, etc... have become Tutsi fiefdoms.
13. Reliable sources indicate that this trend goes down to the lowest administrative level of commune, where virtually all bourgmestres are members of RPF. Most of the few Hutu interim bourgmestres who had been democratically elected by the population in August-September 1994, are either in jail or have run away for their dear lives. The prefecture of Cyangugu has suffered most.
14. RPF has seconded military offices and/or "cadres" to all departments of the central government with veto powers to any decision by the Head of department.
15. Hutu students are running out of schools (of all levels) as a result of a terror campaign by Tutsi students and teachers, most of them armed cadres, and soldiers of RPA.
RDR has supported, since its inception, the idea of trying those responsible for large scale massacres in Rwanda. However this tribunal should, for the sake of justice and fairplay, try everybody, irrespective of his political or ethnic background. It is therefore surprising to see that there is a single Tutsi on the 446 list of suspects submitted by RPF regime to the I.T.R.(International Tribunal on Rwanda).
In order to avert the risk of the international community continuing to fall prey RPF propaganda, the Rwandese refugee community would like once again to make it abundantly clear that:
i. The Rwandan Refugee Community supported and still supports a neutral International Tribunal to quickly try all those responsible for massacres committed in Rwanda in 1994.
ii. However, in order for this tribunal to be credible before the rwandese people to whom it wants to do justice, it should be free from any external interference whatsoever. The independence of the judiciary is a universal legal principle that should be enforced, even in the case of Rwanda. Unfortunately, an impression has been created, through a well orchestrated campaign by RPF and its lobby, that only hutus are criminals, while tutsi are mere victims.
This school of thought deliberately forgets hundreds of thousands of Hutu massacred by RPA, the military wing of RPF.
iii. Given the highly political nature of the rwandese conflict, the timing and pertinence of preventive arrests, should be entirely left to the appreciation of the Prosecutor of the International Tribunal. Nevertheless, should any country feel obliged, under its own legislation to carry out any arrest,
the advice of the Prosecutor should still be sought. Disorderly interventions by certain countries, under the pressure of pro-RPF lobby are nothing but politically motivated, and are likely to lead to unjust arrest and detention of many innocent people.
Everybody agrees that massacres were triggered off by the assassination of President HABYARIMANA. Indeed many human rights organisations have asked to no avail, for an enquiry into the death of the Rwanda President.The "R.D. SEGUI" report stresses it, and at one time, even the UN Security Council asked for it, since determining the culprit would give a useful indication about the planner of the massacres in Rwanda.
Similarly, many human rights bodies, asked for an independent commission of enquiry into atrocities committed by RPF since 1990. All these demands have fallen on deaf ears. The frustration of Hutu in Rwanda is reinforced by the fact that Hutu in Burundi were massacred in 1965, 1972-73, 1988 and 1993, and a democratically elected Hutu President, the late Melchior NDADAYE, was savagely killed by the tutsi army in 1993 and yet, no international tribunal was created.
If one of the objectives of the International Tribunal is to bring reconciliation, partiality in the behaviour of the International Tribunal is likely to create a phenomena of Hutu fundamentalism in the region. To avoid this, the following precautionary measures should be taken :
i. Objective and in depth enquiries should be carried out into the death of late President HABYARIMANA.
ii. Objective and in-depth enquiries must be carried out by the Special Prosecutor for the International Tribunal on the accusations presented by the RPF and a number of international organisations.
iii. Objective and in-depth enquiries must be carried out by the Special Prosecutor for the International Tribunal on the accusations against the RPF presented by Representatives of the Rwandese Community in Exile.
iv. Rwandese refugees particularly those living in Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi must necessarily be part of the population that will be interviewed in the course of the enquiries to be carried out.
v. Suspected criminals should only be arrested after convincing proof of guilt has been brought forward.
vi. People who will be arrested should be kept in places where security is guaranteed.
During the recent visit of the US Assistant Secretary of State in East Africa in April 1995, he was quoted in some sections of the press as suggesting a physical separation of Hutu from Tutsi.
The idea of creating separate hutuland and tutsiland betrays a lack of understanding of the real issues at stake in Rwanda.i.e a proper management and competition for power.
- In 1959, the cause of the trouble was the unwavering determination by the tutsi monarchy to cling to power despite growing demand for a democratic change.
- In 1973, the killing of tutsi in Rwanda was a result of a combination of two factors:
* The massacre of hutu in Burundi by tutsi
* The weakening of the then regime in Rwanda that eventually culminated into a military putsch.
- The recent massacre of 1994 were triggered off by the killing of two hutu Presidents, by what was suspected to be the tutsi led RPF or its allies.
However from 1973 up 1990, there was a fairly enough harmony between hutu and tutsi in Rwanda.
It is the war launched by the tutsi led RPF in 1990, that enkindled and exacerbated the hutu-tutsi rivalry.
The threat of tutsi regaining power threw hutu in panic of being subjected to another oppressive tutsi rule. Indeed the present bloody repression by RPF is now reinforcing those fears. So, the creation of hutu and tutsi-land would not solve the problem.
RDR believes that it is still possible to restore harmony between hutu and tutsi, through a proper management of power. A sustainable and viable system of governance must be the democratic system which will result in majority rule, but which will provide maximum guarantees to minorities through constitutional rights for all citizens, and real power sharing.
The present RPF government has failed because it is incompetent and bent on revenge rather than political consensus.
It is even the one behind the idea of hutu land and tutsiland, after realising that it is unable to manage hutu and tutsi together.
RPF government wants furthermore to legitimize tutsiland it has already created in MUTARA-Byumba, in BUGANZA-Kibungo, BUGESERA-Kigali and MAYAGA-Butare.
RDR urgently appeals to and the International Community at large, to make sure that this RPF program of Tutsiland in Rwanda is discontinued, because it is likely to lead to another bloodbath in the long run.
For millions of rwandese refugees and the rwandese diaspora at large, the answer is a clear NO.
Right from the launching of the war in October 1990, RPF lured the internal opposition in supporting it, promising wonders once the war was over.
The honey moon culminated in the signing in Bruxelles-Belgium in 1992 of the famous Brussels declaration on the joint plan of action in dismantling the MRND regime.
No sooner had RPF taken over power that it imposed a ban on the activities of the very political parties it used to seduce, and which risked their credibility by joining its so called coalition government.
In November 1994, the main partner, MDR party (internal wing), unable to stomach any longer the disappointment, realised a scathing attack on RPF regime in a document released to the press.
Instead of taking the advice boldly, RPF reacted by unleashing its terror machine on supporters of MDR party.
It targeted first the home area of the former Prime Minister and contreversial chairman of MDR party, Mr TWAGIRAMUNGU Faustin.
Indeed, out of 11 local administrators who had been appointed in August 1994, 7 were dismissed under dubious circumstances and many of them put in jail.
His director of cabinet was forced to flee the country and two sub-district chiefs(sous-prefets) all of them close to him murdered at short intervals.
During talks for the formation of the first government of July 1994, in an effort to hoodwink the international community RPF had allegedly allocated tree ministries to each of its allies of MDR (Prime Minister's wing), PSD and PL (whose internal wing has been virtually absorbed into RPF as the entire executive of the party is in exile).
Whereas RPF flooded all its 13 ministries (its own ten + three of PL) with its supporters, none of its allies MDR and PSD, had the liberty to appoint senior staff. All director generals, director of cabinet, heads of departments and MD of parastatals had to get prior approval from RPF . In most cases, RPF imposed its own candidates.
For instance, RPF vetoed the election of a PDC candidate on the post of secretary of the interim parliament and went on to impose all the 18 directors general (the minister of finance stood by his gun and refused to surrender his prerogatives but his nominee was forced to flee the country after a few months) of ministries.
Similarly, RPF took a lion's share in the foreign service, yet, the ministry had theorically been allocated to MDR party.
At the end of it, the so called broadbased government is nothing but an RPF disguised government. Indeed, when RPF godfather President Museveni visited Rwanda in August 1995, he kept on refering to the Rwandese government as"RPF government ".
After the takeover by RPF, some people, naively thought that having friends in the new leadership would shield then from RPF brutality and went back home.
No sooner had they settled that they dearly paid. The following are just a tip of the iceberg :
- Major Rutayisire who had deserted R.G.F and joined RPA in July 1994, was found murdered in Kigali a few months later.
- Edouard Semunyana, former MD of STIR, and close friend to Sendashonga Seth, the minister of Internal Affairs.
Left the safe zone late 1994 for Kigali. His body was found beheaded a few days later.
- Mathias HAKIZIMANA a prominent businessman who had fled to Nairobi. Went back to claim his property which had been grabbed by aN army officer, was arrested, released and then kidnapped never to reappear. His body was found a few days later.
- Evariste Munyandamutsa, a prominent businessman, left the safe zone in October 1994 purposely to meet in Kigali the Prime Minister in a goodwill mission. He has disappeared ever since.
- Kamanzi Callixte, head of Finamce and Administration, OCIR-THE. Joined his post from the safe zone and was murdered this summer 1995.
- Brigadier Leonidas Rusatira : deserted R.G.F in July 1994 and joined RPF. He was demoted and there after put under house arrest. Made several escape attempts, but in vain.
- Rwakayigamba Pierre : former deputy governor of the central bank, left the safe zone late 1994 with the promise of being redeployed. He was arrested and is still in detention under a dubious charge of criminal.
- Dominique Munyangoga : former MD of the National Saving-Fund, went back to take up a job. He was arrested and is most likely still languishing in prison.
- Hon. Rucagu Boniface : former member of parliament whose constituency in the home area of RPF chairman. He thought that this was a guaranty for not being victimized and went back from exile. He was arrested under a blank charge of " criminal," which hangs over the head of every hutu. Released after spending a number of days in jail.
- Habyarimana Syridion : Former Program Officer with UNDP Office in Kigali. Had retreated to the safe zone in Kibuye before resuming his work with UNDP. Was murdered while claiming his house.
- Dr Mutwewingabo Bernard : Lecturer at the national University of Rwanda, left the safe zone to resume his duty and was arrested.
- Dr Kageruka : Lecturer at the National University, left the safe zone to resume his work and was arrested under the blank charge of criminal.
- Kamali Sylvestre : former Ambassador to China and Bujumbura and prominent member of MDR, the current prime Minister's party, did not leave the country in April 1994 hoping that his political background in the opposition would save him from the RPF repression. He was arrested at an RPA road block in July 1994 in Kigali and held incommunicado ever since : etc....
Given this sad record, is there any shadow of doubt about RPF integrity ? Can it be trusted any more ?
On the international scene, cases of RPF unfulfilled commitments are many. One would single out the Nairobi regional. Summit of January 1995, the Geneva Round Table of January 1995, as well bilateral talks with an E.U delegation in July 1995, to mention but a few.
During the Nairobi Summit, whose communique was duly signed by leader of the RPF delegation and President of Rwanda, concrete proposals had been put forward geared towards solving the rwandese crisis. Under the pressure of its hardliners, RPF regime kept on backtracking until it almost denounced the communique during the 31st OAU summit held in Addis-Ababa in June 1995.
Indeed, during the experts meeting, the RPF delegation fought hard, in order to avoid any reference to Nairobi summit.
Once other african colleagues rightly refused to budge, an RPF delegate stormed out of the meeting in protest.
Regarding the Geneva Round Table which took place from January 18 th to 19 th 1995, RPF regime had taken a number of far reaching commitments on issues of refugees, the rule of law and national reconciliation among others.
Seven months later, when donors met in Kigali in July from 6 th to 8 th July 1995 to assess the situation, some of them might have been shocked to hear from the horse's mouth that there will be no reconciliation, so long as justice will have not been done. This time, the bombshell was dropped by none other than Paul Kagame, during a cocktail party organized in honour of delegates to the Round Table.
RDR has no quarrel with justice being done, but it should be a universal justice, not RPF justice of hammer and KANDOYA. During his official visit to Rwanda from 14 th August up to 16 th August 1995, the President of Uganda and Godfather of RPF outlined how justice should be understood. He boldly declared before the interim parliament, that genocide suspects should be hanged and very quickly. Since the I.T.R has ruled out any death sentence, isn't it clear enough that its verdict will not change anything to RPF policy of wanton revenge ? This is the message of Kigali government to donors.
As for the bilateral talks with E.U, the latter had suspended its aid to RPF regime, after the horrific massacres of Kibeho in April 1995.
After the famous report of the so called international commission which, very surprisingly whitewashed RPF government, putting all the blame on the army which ironically is an arm of the government, RPF lobby within the Union went in full swing asking for the lifting of the aid freeze.
At the end of it, EU sent in July 1995, a delegation to assets the situation. In a press release issued in Bruxels on June 13 th, 1995 EU agreed to lift the suspension on condition of among others:
- releasing from jail of over 20.000 youngsters languishing in jail in Rwanda
- speeding up the repatriation of refugees
- improving the relationship with international NGOs, operating in the country.
RDR immediately expressed its disappointment and scepticism about the fulfilment of these promises.
On 12 th August 1995, hardly a month later, RPA stormed, during broad day light the offices of ICRC and robbed at gunpoint, 200.000 US dollars. The police which had been alerted, arrived 10 minutes after the departure of the gangsters! This was the second hold-up in ICRC this year.
The people of Rwanda have been disappointed by the double standards applied by part of the international community towards the hutu population of Rwanda and Burundi.
1. The RPF soldiers, who were part of a foreign army invaded an independent sovereign state without arousing any condemnation. They were supported logistically by a foreign power up to the time they took power.
2. Whereas the international community supported the RPF demand for political negotiations in view of a power sharing, the same international community is reluctant to put pressure on the Kigali government to accept negotiations with hutu refugees.
3. 2 Hutu Presidents were killed in a highly and unprecedented terrorist manner, and the catholic church in Rwanda was beheaded by the killing of 3 hutus catholic bishops ie the Archbishop, the chairman of episcopal conference and the secretary of the episcopal conference. Whereas a mere air piracy attempt , or even a bomb alert would spark off concern throughout the whole western nations, the death of two Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi remains a mystery. One year and 4 months later the international community remained unmoved about it.
4. Whereas, the world community rightly believes that an international tribunal should be put up to try people responsible for the massacres of tutsis, it has turned a deaf year to the demand of rwandan refugees and human rights organisations to set up an international commission of enquiry into the massacres committed by the RPF and try the culprits. As if by coincidence the tutsi led army in Burundi has massacred hutus in 1965, 1972,1988,1993 without prompting the world community to set up an International Tribunal to try tutsi soldiers responsible for that genocide.
8. THE REFUGEE CRISIS : PROPOSALS FOR A BREAK-TROUGH.
The solution lies entirely in the hands of RPF regime. Indeed, rwandese refugees on their part have always pledged their readiness to give their contribution through a genuine political dialogue. It is up to RPF regime to reciprocate this gesture of goodwill by putting in place the minimum confidence building measures . The latter should include:
1. Vacate and free immediately and without condition, property held illegally, without waiting for the return of their rightful owners. Indeed, the inviolability of private property is underpinned by a legal principle in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has been endorsed by the Protocol on the rule of law signed in Arusha on 18th Aug 1992, under art 1, chap 1. In this connection, a legal instrument should be put in place by government to deal with defaulters.
2. An end to the climate of insecurity, summary executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and unexplained disappearances of innocent civilians carried out by the Rwandese Patriotic Front, as reported by the report of the Executive Comity of MDR party of 6th Nov. 1994, confirmed by none other than the Prime Minister on his return from his tour in Europe and USA in november 1994, as well as by Human Rights Watch, usually favourable to RPF, the International Federation for Human Rights (I.F.H.R) in its report dated April 1995, Amnesty International in its reports of April 1995 (AFR 47/05/1995) and June 1995 (AFR 02/12/95), by ARDHO (Rwandese Association of Human Rights), yet very pro-government, in its quarterly report of April 1995, by CLADHO, by the Chief Prosecutor of Kigali Chief magistrate court, NSANZUWERA François Xavier in his press release made in Brussels on the 11th May 1995, and by the District Councils of GISENYI and GITARAMA in the presence of the Minister of Internal Affairs.
3. Immediate and unconditional release of people detained illegally
4. Removing soldiers from the countryside where they are a source of terror and insecurity and confining them in barracks
5. The formation of a broadbased government , that includes all political forces and shades of opinion representative of refugees as recommended in item 5 of the joint communiqué of the regional summit on Rwanda held in Nairobi on 7th January 1995, and an end to the policy of ethnic exclusion.
6. Formation of a national Army including elements of the Rwandese Patriotic Front and of the former Rwandese National Army now in exile.
7. Establishing a transitional Parliament that includes all political forces and shades of opinions representative of refugees.
8. Reorganise as soon as possible the judicial system and make it capable of safeguarding the rule of law;
9. Reassure civil servants of their reintegration and enjoyment of their full benefits once they return to the country. In this connection, a legal or statutory instrument should be adopted clearly showing that there will be no area where they would be automatically excluded.
10. Undertaking a firm commitment on allowing political pluralism by lifting the ban on normal political party activities in the country and the freedom of speech.
11. Set a timetable for local, parliamentary and presidential elections within a period not exceeding two years after the formation of a government that includes all political forces and shades of opinion that represent refugees. This plan of action is the only way to avoid the recurrence of any more suffering for the rwandese people. Therefore, the best investment in friendship that the RPF supporters can undertake in Rwanda is to help in restoring a lasting peace, which will never be achieved by RPF alone.
RPF regime has got no political base inside Rwanda, apart from the few tutsi returnees who are at most 500.000 persons, out of an estimated population of over 6 millions people.
Therefore, the only way to offset this lack of popularity is by intimidation and repression.
Unable to bring people into its political constituency, RPF is publicly threatened to unleash its military terror on unsubmitting areas in the manner it acted on KIBEHO camp.
We are very much afraid that it will result in another bloodshed.
If the international community and all people of goodwill in particular are really committed to restoring peace in Rwanda, it should no more try to impose on the people of Rwanda, a minority ( Politically and ethnically ) and dictatorial RPF regime.
RDR reiterates its deep conviction that any solution to the rwandese tragedy passes by a negotiated return of refugees between the Kigali regime, and representatives of refugees, and a truly democratic governance of the country.
Therefore RDR requests the international community to assist it in reaching this noble objective, by making possible a political dialogue between RPF regime and refugees, and to put pressure to Kigali government to respect the internationally accepted human rights.
RDR believes that all efforts should aim at finding durable peace and security within the region of the Great Lakes. In this connection appropriate measures that facilitate peaceful and quick return of refugees in dignity, to their country of origin, should be taken.
For this to happen, RDR calls for a thorough scrutiny of all the causes behind the persistence of a high number of refugees and displaced persons in countries of the sub region. Among the causes, a special attention should be placed on the following:
- Insecurity resulting from power struggle;
- The composition of securities forces;
- The non-functioning of the judicial system;
- Violations of human right and of the right to private property in particular.
The causes of persistent stay of a big number of refugees, are purely of political nature.
With regard to Rwanda, the RPF has rejected certain chapters of the Arusha Agreement such as those related to power sharing, and the integration of the two armies, under the fallacious excuse of the April-July massacres. The Rwandese Refugee community is of the opinion that RPF has no pretext for the non strict application of the Protocol on the rule of law signed at the same time with the Arusha Peace Accord and which includes only universal values. Hence, art 4, chap 1 of the above mentioned protocol points out that the unity of the Rwandan People can not be achieved without a durable solution to the refugee problem.
The same remark was made at the Dar-Es-Salam regional conference on Rwandese refugees held on the 19th February 1991.
At that time the number of refugees was estimated to 500.000, today their number is more than 3 millions.
The Rwandese Refugee Community is of the view that the repatriation of the Rwandese refugees is a prerequisite to durable peace and political stability in Rwanda.
Former refugees now in power in Rwanda, justified their armed struggle by the non settlement of their problem. It is our considered view that it is not wise to wait for the present refugees to take up arms to have their problem solved.
The international community, particularly RPF supporters, should impress upon the Kigali government the necessity to give a clear and definite timetable on concrete actions to be taken in order to create a conducive and favourable atmosphere of national reconciliation.
The Rwandese refugee Community is of the view that half measures so far taken by the Kigali government such as the integration of former member of the Rwandese Army who defected to RPF, setting up of a National Assembly which is not representative of all the political shades etc..., are nothing but a diplomatic ploy meant to hoodwink the international opinion which only postpones the problem.
Indeed, various appeals made by the rwandese authorities in 1964, 1990, and 1991 to refugees to return home were not deemed enough to convince refugees to do so.
The international community may recall, that during Arusha negotiation, it supported the demand by RPF for additional guarantees for refugees to return that included among others power sharing and above all the integration of refugees in all security services (Army, Police, and intelligence Services).
This is in our view, the best investment one can make in Rwanda i.e to assist in the restoration of peace
For the RDR
NZABANDORA CHRIS
Director of Information