Idamange Iryamugwiza Yvonne is a Rwandan human right activist who, from Rwanda, published a series of youtube videos, starting from January 31 up to February 15, 2021, the day when the Rwandan Investigative Bureau (RIB) arrested her. This is Part 1 of her last video published on her last day of freedom of expression. In the video, – the concerned section will be translated in the coming days – she announced that, from reliable sources, she had evidence that the Rwandan President Kagame had died last year, and since then the country had no official leadership. In a previous video, she had called on the General Kabarebe to rescue Rwanda. Please read through the transcript of the initial part, up to the min. 10.00 of the video
I greet you.
Fellow Rwandans,
Men and Women,
Friends of Rwanda,
My Friends that I love very much.
I greet you today, on this day, 15/02/2021.
My names are Idamange Iryamugwiza Yvonne.
I live in Kimironko/ Gasabo District/ Kigali city (Rwanda).
I am a mother of four children. I already told you this.
My telephone number is 07 888 30 576. This number is my easy address where anyone can get in touch if they need to contact me.
Recently, I was here chatting and giving you a small message; I wasn’t seriously conversing, but in reality, I was giving out a short communication and inviting you to pray with me, every Rwandan wherever they are, to pray for our country. I was asking you to pray on 14/02/2021 until 15/02/2021 at 4:00 pm. That’s why I am coming back to complete all together that programme of prayers we agreed on. Besides, I thank you for having participated, considered that I didn’t give you any heads ups. But I sincerely thank you for having tried to come along. Also, I am sure God was with us.
However, today I would like to start by apologising because I won’t proceed as previously, when I usually said that we would look to this item on the schedule, then the next one, and so forth. That’s how I got you used to such a presentation, telling you: “we will discuss this topic, this next one, and so forth, and when we finish this one, we would go to this next one.” But today is a special day. That explains the reason why we won’t discuss topics the same way as we usually do. We will exchange that way. I didn’t manage to distinguish…, because I didn’t want to. I saw fit to discuss the topics without separating them to be the best way.
Today is an important day for us Rwandans and friends of Rwandans who love us because it’s an S.O.S Day (Umunsi w’Impuruza). An S.O.S for our originality (Impuruza ya Gakondo/ Umwimerere). That’s the heading of today’s talk. It’s an S.O.S Day for our uniqueness, our identity of the land of Rwanda. Our essence about our citizenship/ nationhood is not enshrined only in documents, citizenship status that every citizen must-have. Today is a day – you must remember that concept – of advocating for our originality. It’s a day for fighting for Rwandans to be real genuine Rwandans – and not being Rwandans jokingly – when they won’t have rights as Rwandans.
(She sighs)
Many people continued to wonder about the meaning of what I said, terms that I used in different videos; my talks brought heated discussions, used terms brought debates, some criticising their selected ones, others coming up with their interpretation, today I came to explain them for you comprehensively, the way I expressed them with their true meaning. The way I presented them to you as they were: meaning their naked truth without elusive scythe. Rwandans say: “Instead of hiding behind guesses, it’s better telling the truth as it is, even if it might hurt.”
The reason I started by being intentionally unclear in my initial messages – without explaining as comprehensively as possible – I wanted the concerned responsible authorities to understand what I was saying. Without making it crystal clear in the eyes of the general public. (I wanted them to) solve raised issues, consider those problems and sort them out – expecting that it would be between me and them – and probably a few more others capable of understanding the points raised – who would’ve been aware of the highlighted issues.
They didn’t show any willingness to correct those issues. That’s the reason I am coming back to tell you more clearly the essence of the problems.
Thus, that’s the final warning. I want to tell you that I don’t have any more patience. I cannot continue to remain anymore silent. In contrast, God’s tribe is experiencing persistent oppression, and God’s tribe is living in slavery. It’s impossible. It’s impossible. I cannot accept that. (she raised her tone) Since I cannot take that, I am going to put out everything in the open for the public to see and understand while I am ready for all the possible consequences within a concise period of time.
(She sighs)
So…
eeee… They accused me of many offences. They accuse me of denying the genocide, but they are trying covering up all the truths I uncovered and exposed. Because they are masters of dividing and ruling Rwandans; and their objective is to stop the message from getting to those it is destined. My fellow friends survivors, my colleagues in the suffering, I would like to tell you truly this: “Me Idamange that you see here, I don’t minimize genocide; I repeat for you, either you agree or not, I am a genocide victim, therefore I cannot minimize it. If I do, I would be an idiot without any common sense; I don’t neither support anyone who would minimize it. What I don’t tolerate is one thing only: to use it for the interests of one particular small group, which wants to make Rwandans their perpetual slaves. That’s what I am fed up with.
In case you check my entire background and go back to all the schools I attended, all my family life as a woman, I won’t have been minimizing genocide and attended regularly the remembrance events (Kwibuka). I won’t be personally minimising genocide, and announce publicly that ARG sponsored my studies; I won’t have had any reason to mention that. I could’ve left out such fact from my message. (I insist) I don’t minimize the genocide. Karasira doesn’t minimise the genocide. But the problem is that we are individuals who can speak the truth we managed to uncover, and for that reason, we became subjects of their harrasment, while they accuse us of minimising the genocide, because they want to separate us from our fellow genocide survivors, so they cannot become aware of the truth; or from our fellow Rwandan compatriots, so they cannot access the truth.
They throw at me everything. They started by calling me Interahamwe. Later on they acknowledged that I was a genocide survivor, and believed that I was; then they found women I don’t know from where to testify that I wasn’t a genocide survivor, afterwards they tried everything possible – they even said that my father or grand father wasn’t a genocide survivor. All those issues don’t constitute my focus. I would like to tell you that the issue I have isn’t about me being a genocide survivor, my focus is about being a Rwandan, but a Rwandan who is seeking peace for his fellow compatriots, either genocide survivors, other Rwandans who aren’t survivors who lived in Rwanda, or other Rwandans who returned back home like us. Are you listening? Me I am not interested in ethnicity. I have overcome such considerations long time ago. Because I have already found out that the problem our country has isn’t ethnicity. The problem we have consists of a small group of thieves and extremely greedy who wants to rule over people using oppression, applying the divide and rule principle, to separate people from each others, so that we never end up meeting and planning anything together. Why can’t you see that? Why don’t you see that?
If the Rwandan government cared for the genocide survivors and put in place CNLG, what kind of support does it give to them? If we don’t lie to ourselves, or be lied to. Students who are genocide survivors attenging university in Butare, please go and ask them, me I did some research on the issue, check carefully, they are the ones who eat in dirty restaurants, because they don’t get their financial support in due course, – they (the authorities) intentionally delay their allowances – so that they get in debts to get their food in those dirty restaurants which belong to members of the mentioned small group. The government gambles with the lives of those students genocide survivors. They are the students most living in dire conditions of learning. I invite you to go and analyze systematically by yourselves to confirm what I said. Why don’t you go and proceed also to some research? If I said that we lived miserably, while the government wasn’t doing the minimum required for us, though it was getting huge amounts of money and other resources destined to our support, – let me reveal it openly – I even have evidence that they also received funds for the sites of remembrance of the genocide victims. I just revealed this because – as I told you – “Instead of hiding behind guesses, it’s better telling the truth as it is, even if it might hurt.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
