Africa and Aboriginal Tuesdays: France Cannot Provide Justice To Rwanda by Charlotte Kyakwera

As France calls for the indictment of some of the Rwandan senior government officials after linking them with the death of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and many in Rwanda, and outside, react by taking to the streets in demonstration, what comes to my mind is the remains of impunity in the international community.

It is quite absurd that the country which was behind the 1994 Rwanda Genocide is still lingering behind impunity and disguising its shame by calling for indictment of liberators. How long will the international community keep silent while impunity is still on going?

Twelve years after the genocide, France has not acknowledged its role in the 1994 massacre yet the international community has done nothing to force France to repent or pay damages to the people they still haunt.

It is on record that most of the weapons used in the 1994 Genocide were made and supplied by France which by then was a close friend to the then government led by the late Juvenal Habyarimana. Why shouldn’t the international community indict France as a genocide master minder before France takes an initiative to indict Rwanda who is its victim? There is a lot to be done by the international community to have justice on the globe.

If I may ask France to evaluate her contribution to Rwanda, does her contribution in masterminding the 1994 Genocide have great value to Rwandans than the current Rwandan government’s efforts to bring to a halt the massacres?

For those of you who believe in the Bible there is a chapter whose two verses talk of self evaluation first. It reads, “first remove a log from your eye so as to be able to remove a speck from some one else’s eye” Mathew 7: 4-5.

I am of the view that France is trying to shy away from its illicit acts by using its powers and wealth to fuel division and hatred into the re-united poor Rwandans. This was also emphasized by President Paul Kagame at Amahoro Stadium when he disclosed that France has not been supportive of the country’s development programmes, instead, only aiding forces bent on destabilising Rwanda.

He was quoted in The New Times of Monday November 27 saying, “I am sure you have been hearing about people like [Paul] Rusesabagina and others who have continued to spread harmful propaganda about the government through foreign media. All these saboteurs are being supported by some countries like France whose motives we don’t know.” Africans have always fallen victim of these developed countries which attach strings to their aid which strings have been of great harm to the continent.

It is high time we stopped being blindfolded by the little and sometimes toxic aid the rich are ready to give us in order to take control over our minds. Even those on the opposition should know that countries like France which do not respect the sovereignty of other countries are not worth leaning on.

It is bewildering why on earth France should be the first country to indict the Rwandan President and other senior officials in the army. Isn’t there some interest France is trying to protect by making the first step so as to blindfold the international community?

If justice is all that France needs to put on the lawn why shouldn’t it first strive to get all the fugitives tried? Is Felicien Kabuga not in a neighbouring country yet he is suspected to have been behind the 1994 Rwanda Genocide? Why can’t they join efforts to hunt him down?

Even if the said government officials were responsible for the shooting down of a plane carrying Rwanda’s former President Juvenal Habyarimana (which is not true) would that be equated to planning and implementing the Genocide?

Given the nature and speed at which the Genocide took place, what should be debated upon is who planned it and who sponsored it. The weapons used were of high profile murderers and not just unleashed by the death of Habyarimana and the Rwandese Patriotic Army invasion (RPA).

Reports say that France trained and sponsored killers but today the same country is shifting the blame to (RPA) a force that managed to halt and re-unite Rwandans. The lesson here is that after the Genocidem, Rwandans have gained the love and unity they lost thanks to foreign influence and now France is worried that the truth will be revealed which may expose her conspiracy in the 1994 Genocide.

What must be taken into consideration is that France is creating confusion so that Rwandans re-divide to give France a chance to penetrate and build more hatred in Rwanda. The whites have always used the divide and rule theory but the unity of Rwandans has threatened their interest.

If you want to prove me wrong, look back before the arrival of colonialists. Rwanda was a strong united country that it took whites long to penetrate and objectify Rwandans. It is then that all were referred to as Rwandans and not Hutu, Tusti or Twa as the whites preferred to differentiate them. They lived together as Rwandans and the activities they did would benefit all as Rwandans. This was fast destroyed by the whites who described the activities as based on the ethnicity. To have the “PLUS JAIMAS” or the “NEVER AGAIN” to Genocide the ideologies of whites should be erased from the Rwandan community.

This article appears in The New Times

Charlotte Kyakwera

Tuesday, December 5, 2006