14 ^th October, 1995

Reacting to a statement made by the President of KENYA H.E ARAP MOI calling on the international community to make an enquiry into the assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi in April 1994,before any summons are issued to suspects of the genocide in Rwanda , Major General PAUL KAGAME , the power broker in Kigali, stunned the world . Besides using a derogatory language towards the kenyan Head of State he declared that he will use his own way of doing justice to deal with those who will not have been condemned by the International Tribunal on Rwanda. This statement followed an advice given to the RPF government by President MUSEVENI of Uganda during his State visit to Rwanda (before the Kenyan President made his statement on Rwanda) from the 14th to the 16th August 1995 . He advised the RPF " do like jews and hang all those "criminals" (according to the RPF justice) whom the International Tribunal will not have hanged , wherever they may be found."

It worthwhile to recall that Paul Kagame had made a similar statement in Rwamatamu in Kibuye district in March 1995 , that he would pursue former government officials wherever they would be particularly in neighbouring countries to punish them.

To anyone who knows the record of the Kigali strongman and his group in the secret services in Uganda under Amin, in the NRA bush war, under the NRM government and since October 1990 when RPF invaded Rwanda, the threat cannot be taken lightly.

Many ugandans including a Minister in the President's Office, Hon.Ateker EJALU, expressed publicly a sigh of relief when they were told that former rwandan refugees, had decided to invade their former country, as they had all along been totally integrated in the life of the country.

When Paul Kagame threatened to pursue former government officials in neighbouring countries, the threat was followed by armed raids in refugee camps in Zaire and in Burundi .The world community did not condemn those acts of terrorism.His government had earlier on stopped 50 lorries full of relief food destined to rwandan refugees in Zaire, in order to starve them, without being bothered by a reaction from the international community. When he declared that he would use strong means to close camps within the country, the threat was carried out in the slaughter of more than 5000 unarmed civilians in the Kibeho Camp.Once again the international community just whitewashed his government in the famous report of the international commission.

The outbursts and arrogant language used by the Kigali strongman, reacting to President Moi's statement are not new to KIGALI authorities. When the Secretary General BOUTROS BOUTROS GHALI visited Rwanda and advised the authorities to put more emphasis on reconciliation process than on revenge, a demonstration was organised at the airport calling him a "murderer". When His Holiness the Pope stated that pardon and reconciliation were the only sure way out of the ethnic conflict in Rwanda and Burundi, none other than the president of Rwanda, mr Pasteur Bizimungu rejected the call saying that the Pope was not more of an authority on the Bible than he was.

The behaviour of KIGALI political authorities is obviously surprising to any level minded person, but what is startling is how such a behaviour, including an open declaration of a policy of international terrorism goes unchallenged by the international community. Is it a mere coincidence that while the Kigali strongman considers the shooting down of a plane that killed two heads of state, an act of international terrorism, a non issue, he declares that he has a secret plan to hunt down anywhere in the world anybody he feels should be executed for the rwandan tragedy, irrespective of any legal judgement ?

The international community should be prepared to shoulder the consequences of such policy in terms of human losses and of its credibility. Finally can one assume that the RPF is acting alone or that the support of a Godfather, is enough leverage to give the RPF the clout to behave so irresponsibly without fear of the reaction of the international public opinion ?

Is it mere accident that a well respected Head of state of an economically and strategically important country like KENYA is shouted down when he calls for fairness in justice, while a political upstart like Paul Kagame is treated with soft hand gloves when he declares a policy of international terrorism ?

This is a challenge to RPF sponsors and the international community at large.

For RDR

NZABANDORA Chris

Director of Information