Young people without official employment across Rwanda are being round up. On 23/08/12, this group was taken into police custody in the Rusizi area. A similar exercise was performed this week in Kimicanga area of Kigali – the Rwandan capital. Sources in the country confirm that some of these young people end up forcibly given accelerated military training with the ultimate purpose of sending them in DRC to reinforce M23 contingent of fighters. And this appears unfortunate knowing that recent cuts or delays of aid from donor countries were a consequence to Rwandan support to that Congolese rebel movement.
The short following text is an extract from the book written by Jean Marie Ndagijimana – ‘How Paul Kagame deliberately sacrificed the Tutsis,’ [2009, Editions la Pagaie, p.73]. It raises the question of political identity, the issue of nationhood for an ethnic community, and the problems a particular understanding can create for others.
“The invading forces were commanded by high-ranking Ugandan officers who, although certain had roots in Rwanda but were born in Uganda, were all members of the High Command of the regular army of Yoweri Museveni, the National Resistance Army (NRA).
This, far from [being] exhaustive, is a testimony to this fact:
Major General Fred Rwigema: Vice-Commander of the Ugandan Army, Vice-Minister of Defense and Chief of Operations. Thus, ‘Fred’ was No 2 to President Museveni.
Lieutenant Colonel Adam Wassa: Superior Officer.
Major Chris Bunyenyezi: Brigadier Commander.
Major Dr. Peter Bayingana: Head of Health Services for the Ugandan Army.
Major Paul Kagame: Adjunct Director of Ugandan Military Intelligence Services.
Major Kanyemera, aka Kaka: Commander of the Ugandan Military Police.
Major Ndungutse, aka Ndunguteye: Commander of the Ugandan Navy.
Major Bosco Nyirigira: Commander of the 310th Brigade.
Captain Kayitare: Officer attached to Major General Rwigema.
Captain Muhire: Officer in the Udandan Presidential Guard.
Captain Ngoga: Officer in the Ugandan Presidential Guard.
The invading troops wore the uniforms of the Ugandan Army. Their arms came from the Ugandan arsenal. They crossed the Ugandan-Rwandan border in military transport vehicles of the Ugandan Army. Those wounded in the attack were returned to Uganda and treated in Ugandan military hospitals. The diplomats of the Tutsi rebellion who crisscrossed the world flew out of the Ugandan airport at Entebbe and traveled on Ugandan diplomatic passports, and did so until the end of the war.
On October 10th 1990, ten days after the outbreak of the war against Rwanda, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni acknowledged to the press that members of the High Command of his army had taken advantage of his absence from Kampala to carry out an aggression against neighbouring Rwanda [my emphasis – this was of course a complete lie as the Ugandan leader is accustomed to lying]. Museveni promised at this time to bring ‘his boys’ home to face court marshal proceedings for desertion. He never made the slightest effort to keep these promises. Quite the contrary, for more than three years, he sent reinforcements of men and material to the invading army as well as providing open diplomatic support.”
Further to these verifiable facts, people should understand well that the invaders of Rwanda on that particular date were part of the Ugandan army as Ugandans. Of course we also know that they had their origins in Rwanda as far back as the end of the 50s and early 60s when their four century fathers’ rule ended with the majority Hutu’s emancipation in that country.
After July 4th 1994, we see these invaders as Rwandans after having defeated the hutu government of Habyarimana. Since that time they have been the unquestionable rulers of Rwanda under Paul Kagame, having all prerogatives of death and life on every citizen.
In May 1997, we see them again in Kinshasa, this time appearing in public as Congolese, after toppling the then president Mobutu with the help of the whole coalition of Tutsi/Hima of the Central Africa region, meaning Uganda and Burundi inclusively.
Once at the realm of the Democratic Republic of Congo, do they present themselves as Congolese or assume that the local populations should accept them as such because they are carrying guns? This is a question that they could be the only ones able to answer rightly.
Surprisingly, these Tutsi/Hima of the Great Lakes region of Africa are apparently the only ethnic community with highly pronounced political/military ambitions and cunning which go beyond national boundaries to annihilate the notion of nationhood. They appear not to belong to any particular country while they pretend at the same time to be at home in every conquered territory.
The mentioned extract of Jean Marie Ndaijimana’s book points at the ranks that some of them had in Uganda under Yoweri Museveni’s rule. The case of General James Kabarebe who appears later in the course of events and was once the Congolese Army Chief of Staff, and is presently the Rwandan minister of defence is highly telling. They can be anything and everything in the region. That might be the motto of their hidden and criminal agenda.
Like the usual mafia they have developed networks of action and influence sophisticated enough to rule and kill for their own interests and those of similar intentions far beyond their immediate fields of operations. And for more than two decades, that is the unfortunate experience they have managed to create for the millions of their victims in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.