African Insights Blog – Newsletter

July 4, 2009

Rwanda –July 4^th – 15 years later  - Rwanda's Rise from Genocide

Rwanda - A rise from the Ashes of 1994 Genocide

This July 4^th Americans celebrated Independence Day with food, drinks and fireworks.  Even here, in Kampala, the American Club put on a celebration with fireworks that were even visible from my front porch.  A small representation of the coast-to-coast festivities taking place in the USA.

Far from the celebrations in the USA, in the heart of Africa, Rwanda was commemorating the 4^th of July.  For them it is liberation day, the day the Rwandan Patriotic Front entered Kigali bringing about the end to the genocide that was taking place in Rwanda.

George Washington’s revolutionary war army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front have a lot in common.  Both were armies were not paid and made up of volunteers, both did not have enough ammunition and arms.  The Rwandan Patriotic Front like George Washington’s army did not have enough food for much of their time.  Both dealt with freezing cold.  George Washington’s army dealt with a terrible winter, while the Rwandan Patriotic Front spent much of its time regrouping and training in the Virungas, a group of volcanoes that are dotted across sections of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Places that are nice to visit, but can be cold.  Frostbites became the rule of the day; there was a lack of food, lack of medical care and a lack of weapons and ammunition, but not a lack of will.

Like George Washington of old, Paul Kagame was a man within whose heart there was an unwavering vision of Rwanda where both Tutsis and Hutus could live, where refuges who had fled the country could come back home to.  Paul Kagame had lived in the county he wanted to call home in his childhood until another wave of Tutsi persecution took place.  He and his family fled to Uganda lived as refugees in a nation where most did not want them. 

He grew up in Uganda but not a Ugandan he was a Rwandan at heart.  In the 1980’s when he fought with President Yoweri Museveni in the bush of Luwero he was actually in preparing for another time that would come in the 1990’s when he, the George Washington of Rwanda would put into practice what he had learned in times past.  Paul Kagame, who left the American Military war college before e ever graduated in order to join his cause, is now studied for the tactics he used in the same place that he did not graduate from.

Like George Washington, Paul Kagame faced a superior force.  In the case of Kagame that opposing force was aided, equipped, trained and even directly assisted with air support by the French who did not want to lose another country to the Anglophones.  The Rwandan Army and the French advisors were surprised by initial successes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front gave substantial support, training, advice to Rwandan Government Army.

The difference between the Rwandan Army and Paul Kagame’s Rwanda Patriotic Front was heart, spirit, a drive within, self-discipline that simply focused on the goal ahead since behind them was nothing but refugee status in a foreign land.   

In the past, the Tutsi people had suffered a lot during different periods of time from the 1950’s onward, at times thousands fled, even Paul Kagame’s family fled to Uganda like many others.  Places such as Uganda did not welcome Rwandan refugees with open arms, instead limitations were placed on them making life hard, educational opportunities scarce and employment opportunities were hard to find.

The Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded Rwanda from Uganda in 1990, a small force, not many vehicles, a small amount of weapons, no support system to speak of except other Rwandans who had fled from Rwanda.  Most of them had been soldiers in the Ugandan Army, had fought with the now President Museveni in a guerilla war, and now simply wanted to return home to the land of their birth of their parents.

Many Tutsis who lived inside of Rwanda did not want the Rwanda Patriotic Front to invade the country.  Retributions against them increased immediately, as the Rwandan Patriotic Front advanced those persecutions of the minority Tutsis increased.  Those who advocated Hutu Power included powerful members of the government, of the army, of the church, which was mostly Catholic.  The world community turned their head and remained silent.

After the plane of President Juvenal Habaryimana of Rwanda was shot down over Kigali in mysterious circumstances, the Rwanda Genocide commenced.  Within one hour after the plane came down, the Presidential Guard and the Militia known as the Interhamwe were at work, lists in hand, going from house to house, eliminating voices of moderations, prominent Tutsis, the Presidential Guard with guns, the Interhamwe with machetes which had been previously imported by the thousands.  (The Interhamwe was a paramilitary militia trained at times by the French and the Rwandan army equipped with machetes and grenades.  They left their camps outside of Kigali in the morning and returned at night just like going to work, except their work was killing at least eight to 10,000 people a day)

As the genocide was in its initial phase, countries such as France, Belgium used troops to evacuate their citizens (leaving employees behind only to be killed), Western news agencies reported ethnic fighting and activities between the RPF and Ugandan, and governments such as the United States became specialists in defining the word genocide.  The USA did everything it could to stay non-involved in a meaningless country called Rwanda.  The two Africans who could have made a difference in the UN were also in denial of the genocide.  Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan kept from public knowledge what really was going on inside of Rwanda, though they had daily updates and pleas from people such as Canadian General Romeo Dallaire in charge of the UN force in Rwanda.  The US Ambassador David Rawson, who had grown up in the region, who was on the ground in Kigali when the genocide started took the official US government line, there is no genocide. (He lived in Kigali, he saw heard, one third of his Rwandan staff was killed)  President Clinton later apologized in his brief stopover in Kigali excusing the US’s non-involvement with “I did not know.”

The Tutsis and moderate Hutus were dying at a rate of 8,000 to 10,000 a day and the world kept silent. This genocide was unlike the one against in the Jews, this genocide was done out in the open and even then the world kept silent or gave out dis or misinformation.

Paul Kagame, led his troops into action against the government forces, the Rwanda Patriotic Front shocked by what they found as they liberated towns and villages.  The piles of bodies, the burned and looted houses, the deliberate attempt to eradicate the Tutsis from the face of the earth was everywhere while the UN men in starched shirts kept the information from the world and security council, only reducing the size of the impotent UN presence.

July 4^th, 1994 Paul Kagame entered Kigali, an empty shell faced them, and millions of people had fled in advance or where fleeing to a zone that the French had secured under the cloak of providing security and safety, for whom?  None other than the Rwandan government, the murderous army, and the butchers of the Interhamwe militia who were leading and or conducting the genocide. 

Millions of Rwandans, many that were partakers in the genocide were moving into the Zaire at that time, whole army columns with weapons, vehicle and all, the Interhamwe militia came with their machetes and other weapons, ready to fight another day.

The world saw those pictures in full, saw the newscasts with millions crossing the border into Zaire.  President Clinton went to work sending food, medical supplies, equipment such as tents to the very killers and perpetrators of the genocide, while the country of Rwanda received nothing, though it was in desperate need there.  In Paul Kagame a sense of bitterness came to the forefront as well as amongst the Rwanda Patriotic Front leadership.

Paul Kagame vowed to rebuild the country, unlike other African leaders who come to power with slogan talking about changing things and then once they reach power, life in the country reverts to things as they always been, the only difference is, “who is now eating at the table?” (African expression about reaping the benefits of being in power)

Rwanda for the last 25 under the leadership of Paul Kagame has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of despair.  Today it is a country on the cutting edge in regards to Africa.  Things work here, the roads have no potholes, the streets are clean, the police officers do not take bribes, and the Tutsi Hutu identity cards are gone.  Minister who cheat, take bribes and enrich themselves wind up in jail, unlike other countries where such deeds are simply ignored.

Paul Kagame, the man at times referred to as the Napoleon of Africa because of his military tactics, has also proved to be a great president, a nationalist and patriot who does not serve up simple, cheap slogans about prosperity and a move out of poverty for his people, but is doing something about it at every level of society.

Is President Kagame a man without faults, not at all, like all of us, he is a mere mortals, he has warts and faults and they come out at times and yet he has created a state that is one of the safest countries in Africa.  Even many people, who doubted him, now vote for him, since his promises for a better Rwanda for all have proved to be true. It is not perfect but evolving into a better society and country. 

The test for President Kagame is what he will do when his second term is up.  Will he like attempt to stay beyond the two term limit that are in the constitution?  Will he attempt to amend the constitution like other African leaders have don?  I for one, do not think so... as for the French, well they were right. The Anglophone President Kagame has replaced French as one of the official languages with English. The relationship between highest echelons of French power and Kigali will never be the same.  May there never be another time as there has been in Rwanda. On this 4^th of July there is not only the celebration of Independence day in the USA but quiet thoughts of the almost one million people who died in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994…from Kampala…jon