|
continued from
part 1)
The new Hutus, who braved it into the RPF/RPA and survived execution, remained un trusted and marginalized. The long time RPF Chairman Hon Colonel Alex Kanyarengwe was similarly treated. He was through out all his years as the Chairman of RPF to know no secrets, leave alone having any access to operational information, his rich political and military experience in Rwandese affairs not withstanding. While he was in the know of the things, which were going on, he was wise enough to only keep a silent opposition, thanks to which, it was never found necessary to eliminate him. However, in typical RPF/RPA reshuffle style, he was eventually striped off his Ministerial post and RPF Chairmanship. In essence his Chairmanship had been ceremonial and shrewdly intended to give the RPF/RPA a Hutu face. When we freed political detainees from Ruhengeri Prison in the initial years of the struggle you treated Hutus with suspicion and did not assign the appropriate duties. This was particularly true in the case of the Senior Army Officers, who could not trusted with command responsibilities, their superior military training and experience notwithstanding. One of the Hutu Senior Officers, who had in fact become an the RPA Member of High Command ; the dynamic Command Muvunanyambo, who had provided so popular within the RPF/RPA rank and file, was mysteriously murdered by armed people suspected to the High Command Some Officers later quietly confirmed he had been eliminated. Another Hutu Officer who had much earlier defected from the then Rwandese armed forces and whose had played a crucial role in interception of Government military radio communication was similarly executed. There are RPA officers who could testify to these cases if assured of their security. In the RPF/RPA operational areas, the silent but official policy was elimination and / or displacement of Hutus. There was no serious effort to mobilize the population and popularize the struggle. Neither was there any serious effort to recruit and develop combatants and political workers from the local population. This is exactly why the so-called RPF liberated zones literally zones literally had no people. The new people, who appeared in the Camps in #### The political program, constitution and code of conduct are all clear testimonies to our vision of the struggle we wanted to wage and the kind of society we wanted to build. We all know that it was in this spirit that the RPF/RPA continued to work up to 1990, whether in recruitment of cadres, recruitment of soldiers, in mass mobilization, in fundraising or in any other activity. Indeed, I am reliably informed that it was in the very same spirit that the RPF/RPA continued to work up to July 1994 when the RPF/EPA Led Government was sworn in. However, allow me to state very categorically that with the on set of the armed struggle in the Northern Rwanda, the strategy of forging a genuine broad movement, the building of a pro-people army, mass empowerment and popular participation all become things of the past. On the contrary, as the years passed by, militarism, killings, elimination of political opponents systematic looting and economic plunder, finally assumed dominance over what should have been our pro-people political ideology and pro-people military doctrine. After the capture of State Power, these negative tendencies and practices become generalized, institutionalized and regionalized. There is also the personality cult that has been created around you. In typical Rwandese ancient fashion culture, you have by omission or commission allowed your self to be taken as all knowing and infallible. This mystification combined with your terrorist methods, has reduced some of our people to silence and passivity ; rather than standing up to meet their daily challenges; rather than rising up to challenge some of your excess, they simply sit out the days waiting for some one to miraculously come to their rescue. Some even naively believe that without you and your regime, their lives would come to a sudden and tragic end. On your part, you have exploited this weakness of our people by turning your self into a " de facto " dictator in all matters of national life. You have become the executive, the legislature and the judiciary ; you have become the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge. The situation therefore demands that your personality and your regime become publicly demystified as and part and parcel of the process of empowerment of our people. The purpose of this letter is too highlight the fundamental weakness and failures of the RPF/RPA leadership over the last ten years. ----- This is exactly why the so-called RPF literally had no people. The few people, who appeared in the Camps in the RPF/RPA rear, were survivors of such a naïve politicomilitary policy. Prisoners of war were routinely tortured and executed. Even those who were kept alive for jounalist to see, were all finally executed. The only exception being a handful of prisoners of war who were delliberately kept and exchanged with RPA soldiers in the Arusha Peace Agreement framework. This is the very reason why by July 1994, there was no single RPA prisoner of war alive. The RPA continues to kill tortured prisoners of war up to day. The international Committee of the Red cross (ICRC) witnessed cases in June 2000, in the DRC. All along in the armed struggle, Military intelligence which was your personal creation and which directly reported to you, tortured and killed civilian suspects. Military Intelligence bases everywhere were associated with graves for such victims. Some of these graves like the ones at commune Kinyami HQs, had to be exhumed after Government fears that Human Rights groups had been tipped off about them. Late Hon Burakari Evarist; a progressive politician from Commune Rutare and a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party, was murdered in cold blood by one of your soldiers so to destroy evidence concerning many civilians from the Communes of Byumba who were arrested, interrogated, interrogated, tortured, killed and buried in a mass grave at that Commune Hqs. When his killer pretended to escape and a mock arrest and trial were stage managed, the killer was sentenced to a few moths imprisonment. When this appeared so ridiculous you personally ordered for a retrial, which only added a few more months to his sentence. I shall not be surprised if more witnesses of the Kinyami massacres disappeared. From the time Arusha Peace Agreement was being negotiated up to as late as 1996, you carried out a deliberate policy of using all means possible to reduce the Hutu Population in the Umutara, Kibungo and Bugesera regions. These areas were deliberately resettled by old caseload returnees from Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi respectively. Families of many top RPF/RPA leaders are among those who were resettled in this manner. Certainly all Rwandese deserve to be settled but your Government could have carried out these resettlements without violating the spirit of the Arusha Peace Agreement and without having to terrorize, displace or kill fellow Rwandese. Having signed the Arusha Peace Agreement, the RPF/RPA, supposedly to maintain the Hutu-Tutsi power sharing equation, found it convenient to liquidate the only few Hutu fighters who had been previously recruited from the demilitarized zone. You remember, these criminal operations were code-named " fanyiya ". Some of those who survived could give evidence if given certain guarantees. When the RPF/RPA launched the Offensive to stop genocide, every Hutu was assumed to be a killer. For moths and from one boarder to another, Hutus were chased and massacred on sight. The new Hutus, who braved it into the RPF/RPA and survived execution, remained un trusted and marginalized. The long time RPF Chairman Hon Colonel Alex Kanyarengwe was similarly treated. He was through out all his years as the Chairman of RPF to know no secrets, leave alone having any access to operational information, his rich political and military experience in Rwandese affairs not withstanding. While he was in the know of the things, which were going on, he was wise enough to only keep a silent opposition, thanks to which, it was never found necessary to eliminate him. However, in typical RPF/RPA reshuffle style, he was eventually striped off his Ministerial post and RPF Chairmanship. In essence his Chairmanship had been ceremonial and shrewdly intended to give the RPF/RPA a Hutu face. When we freed political detainees from Ruhengeri Prison in the initial years of the struggle you treated Hutus with suspicion and did not assign the appropriate duties. This was particularly true in the case of the Senior Army Officers, who could not trusted with command responsibilities, their superior military training and experience notwithstanding. One of the Hutu Senior Officers, who had in fact become an the RPA Member of High Command ; the dynamic Command Muvunanyambo, who had provided so popular within the RPF/RPA rank and file, was mysteriously murdered by armed people suspected to the High Command Some Officers later quietly confirmed he had been eliminated. Another Hutu Officer who had much earlier defected from the then Rwandese armed forces and whose had played a crucial role in interception of Government military radio communication was similarly executed. There are RPA officers who could testify to these cases if assured of their security. In the RPF/RPA operational areas, the silent but official policy was elimination and / or displacement of Hutus. There was no serious effort to mobilize the population and popularize the struggle. Neither was there any serious effort to recruit and develop combatants and political workers from the local population. This is exactly why the so-called RPF liberated zones literally zones literally had no people. The new people, who appeared in the Camps in #### The political program, constitution and code of conduct are all clear testimonies to our vision of the struggle we wanted to wage and the kind of society we wanted to build. We all know that it was in this spirit that the RPF/RPA continued to work up to 1990, whether in recruitment of cadres, recruitment of soldiers, in mass mobilization, in fundraising or in any other activity. Indeed, I am reliably informed that it was in the very same spirit that the RPF/RPA continued to work up to July 1994 when the RPF/EPA Led Government was sworn in. However, allow me to state very categorically that with the on set of the armed struggle in the Northern Rwanda, the strategy of forging a genuine broad movement, the building of a pro-people army, mass empowerment and popular participation all become things of the past. On the contrary, as the years passed by, militarism, killings, elimination of political opponents systematic looting and economic plunder, finally assumed dominance over what should have been our pro-people political ideology and pro-people military doctrine. After the capture of State Power, these negative tendencies and practices become generalized, institutionalized and regionalized. There is also the personality cult that has been created around you. In typical Rwandese ancient fashion culture, you have by omission or commission allowed your self to be taken as all knowing and infallible. This mystification combined with your terrorist methods, has reduced some of our people to silence and passivity ; rather than standing up to meet their daily challenges; rather than rising up to challenge some of your excess, they simply sit out the days waiting for some one to miraculously come to their rescue. Some even naively believe that without you and your regime, their lives would come to a sudden and tragic end. On your part, you have exploited this weakness of our people by turning your self into a " de facto " dictator in all matters of national life. You have become the executive, the legislature and the judiciary ; you have become the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge. The situation therefore demands that your personality and your regime become publicly demystified as and part and parcel of the process of empowerment of our people. The purpose of this letter is too highlight the fundamental weakness and failures of the RPF/RPA leadership over the last ten years. ----- This is exactly why the so-called RPF literally had no people. The few people, who appeared in the Camps in the RPF/RPA rear, were survivors of such a naïve politicomilitary policy. Prisoners of war were routinely tortured and executed. Even those who were kept alive for jounalist to see, were all finally executed. The only exception being a handful of prisoners of war who were delliberately kept and exchanged with RPA soldiers in the Arusha Peace Agreement framework. This is the very reason why by July 1994, there was no single RPA prisoner of war alive. The RPA continues to kill tortured prisoners of war up to day. The international Committee of the Red cross (ICRC) witnessed cases in June 2000, in the DRC. All along in the armed struggle, Military intelligence which was your personal creation and which directly reported to you, tortured and killed civilian suspects. Military Intelligence bases everywhere were associated with graves for such victims. Some of these graves like the ones at commune Kinyami HQs, had to be exhumed after Government fears that Human Rights groups had been tipped off about them. Late Hon Burakari Evarist; a progressive politician from Commune Rutare and a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party, was murdered in cold blood by one of your soldiers so to destroy evidence concerning many civilians from the Communes of Byumba who were arrested, interrogated, interrogated, tortured, killed and buried in a mass grave at that Commune Hqs. When his killer pretended to escape and a mock arrest and trial were stage managed, the killer was sentenced to a few moths imprisonment. When this appeared so ridiculous you personally ordered for a retrial, which only added a few more months to his sentence. I shall not be surprised if more witnesses of the Kinyami massacres disappeared. (Part 2B
continuing)
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
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