RWANDA vs FRANCE: Who is Trying Whom?
November 13th, 2008France is Seeking Absolution Through Judicial Vendetta
The recent arrest in Frankfurt, Germany, of the Chief of Protocol of the President of Rwanda, Lt Colonel Rose Kabuye, has brought to a head the protracted political battle between France and Rwanda since the end of the genocide in Rwanda and the coming into power of the RPF/RPA in 1994.
Her trial will be both about the uses and abuses of international law; unfortunately it may be more of the latter than the former. Who can try whom?
The previous genocidaire regime of President Habyarimana was a most trusted French ally, even among the abundant French lackeys in Africa of the post/neo-colonial/cold war era. France’s neo-colonial interests in Africa were not just at the economic, political, security and intelligence levels, but at personal and social levels with many of the leaders. Many of these leaders denied pluralism and freedom of expression and punished any indication of dissension from their citizens harshly, but when it came to relations with France, they were cross-party. It did not matter whether it was the Conservatives or the ‘Socialists’; whether the government was the result of cohabitation or alliances of the Right or the Left; the Francophone leaders maintained their alliance and influence in Paris.
The French establishment also had remarkable continuity in its Africa policy. Habyarimana was a close family friend of Former President Mitterrand’s son, who was also the top adviser on Africa to his father! France had such close relationships with its former colonies that its colonial rival, Britain, envied it. France successfully intervened militarily, changed governments, removed and later restored ‘errant’ presidents like disposable towels: David Dacko or Jean Bedel Bokassa in Central Africa; Hissen Habre in Chad to mention just two countries. Britain had the same ambitions but was not as successful as its Parisian cousins.
French citizens held senior positions in many of the former French colonies in very sensitive ministries and departments including security, intelligence, the presidential guards, finance, defence, etc. It used to be said that the Old OAU was in reality a Franco-Africa Forum: at the height of the cold war, the France-Africa Summits used to be held in the shadow of the OAU, so that whatever consensus the Africans reached could be undone by diktat from Paris. France’s claim to being a global power rested on the loyalty of its African neo-colonial allies, who with very few exceptions (Algeria, Guinea-Conakry and later radical leaders like Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, broke ranks with tragic consequences) would vote for it at the UN/UN Security Council or even in the OAU or ECOWAS. For its part, France guaranteed the longevity of dictators, whether citizens liked them or not. Many opposition leaders in these countries were of the same frame of mind and wanted to replace their rivals as the Darling of Paris, not to renegotiate the unequal terms. A classic case is President Abdulaye Wade who used to come at election times to taunt former President Senghor, but soon after the election he would retire home to Versailles until the wind of change of the 1990s broke the unholy alliance and France began a forcible retreat from Africa.
‘Tiny’ Rwanda was one of the first bitter confrontations that was to force France to reconsider its neo-colonial project in Africa. On October 1, 1990, rebel Rwandese Soldiers who had been refugees in Uganda and in many cases, part of the Ugandan Army (NRA), launched an attack on Rwanda. Their aim was to return to the country where their parents had been forced into exile as a result of genocide, aided and abetted by the Belgians and French. It was a David and Goliath battle and no one gave the rebels any odds of winning. Even Uganda, their only backer, initially believed that military pressure was necessary to force the Habyarimana Government to negotiate with the rebels, integrate them into the army, and stop the government from discriminating against its own citizens or killing them. No one thought that the RPA/F could ever capture power.
Hence the negotiations for peace under the auspices of the OAU in Arusha. It was a painstaking process, but by the time the final documents were signed in Arusha, both the political and military situation had overtaken the negotiations. Extremists within the Akazu (family cabal) that Habyarimana was hostage to, accused him of giving away too much. There were divisions within the ruling MRND and the various ruling cliques. It was the blasting furnace of a house divided against itself that Habyarimana was returning to from Arusha (with Burundi’s President) when his Plane was brought down with parts of it falling on his luscious presidential gardens.
Within hours, genocide against the minority Tutsi population and the non genocidaire, so-called ‘moderate Hutus,’ including the Prime Minister Agathe and other Prominent Hutus, began. In 100 days 1,000,000 Rwandese had been slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia with the full backing and orchestration of their own leaders. The State was against its own people.
Against all odds in June 1994 the RPA/F ended genocide and defeated the army that was backed by France, Belgium and some African countries. To forestall total defeat, the French launched OPERATION TORQUOISE which provided the defeated army opportunity to regroup and the Interahamwe was able to march people from Rwanda into the Congo. Fugitives and refugees came together and the former held sway in the camps, but also had the support of the crumbling state of Mobutu.
France could not forgive the RPF/A in Rwanda and two years later, another French ally, Mobutu (supposedly leading the largest Francophone country in the world!) was removed from power by a coalition of regional military alliances led by Rwanda and Uganda. France could neither save Habyarimana nor Mobutu. Meanwhile, a post Cold War wind of democratic change was sweeping across the rest of Africa, including former French Colonies, making France unsure of its role, lost nerves and was no longer able to proclaim its idealism of Egalite, Equalite, and Fraternite, which was drowned in the blood of innocent Africans, consequent to its alliance with some of the most brutal regimes across Africa. Instead of reading the signs of the times, France fell back on the colonial default of rivalry with the British and their American cousins. They could not accept that African armies defeated them in both Rwanda and Zaire, and therefore claimed that it must have been the CIA and the British: a smokescreen that many Africans unfortunately swallowed. This is not to say that the British, the Americans and other vested interests were not involved, but the essential root and initial solution to the conflicts were dictated by Africans. The politics of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ later propelled different kinds of convenient alliances. But both Mobutu and Habyarimana were consumed by the fires of xenophobia and genocide that they ignited.
Since 1994 France has been trying to wash its conscience off the genocide in Rwanda through denial and counter-narrative. Finally in 2006 a judge sitting in some obscure village in France issued an indictment against President Kagame and 9 other top RPA officials for bringing down Habyarimana’s plane. Even if this was true (and only the French and former Genocidaire elements and genocide denials insist on this) how did the plane crash lead to genocide if genocide was not being planned already? Have people forgotten the famous fax to the UN saying “…we will all be killed”, which was never acted upon? The government of Rwanda and its military and political allies, principally the French and Belgians, the OAU, Clinton’s White House, the UK Government, the UN, the Security Council and most of the powerful people and countries and institutions who could have prevented the genocide, failed the people of Rwanda. Some of them are now overcompensating by pouring aid into Rwanda and also being too cautious or ashamed to lecture Kagame’s regime on democracy and human rights.
But the French have not only been reluctant to accept their complicity. They have been shamelessly but tirelessly trying to nail Kagame and reverse the defeat he inflicted on them not once but twice, accelerating their retreat from Africa. Politically they have continued to provide cover for genocidaire elements who still believe that they could return to power in Kigali.
Whatever our opinion of Kagame’s regime, we should not be deceived that the French indictments have anything to do with justice. It is the guilt trip of a former imperial power whose hands are drenched with the blood of innocent Africans. But now that they have got Lt Colonel Rose who went to Germany, knowing full well that she could be arrested, it is a challenge to the French to put their much vaunted evidence in the public domain. She has shown extreme courage by insisting that she should be tried in France.
The same France that has not cooperated with the ICTR in Arusha trying the Genocidaire suspect leaders, is putting all efforts on knowing who killed the Chief Genocidaire. The same France, along with Belgium, Germany and other countries including some African countries, that is still harbouring many of the leaders of the genocide, is now indicting those who ended the genocide.
Rwanda has its own list of wanted people and indicted French soldiers and politicians, which no one is helping it to enforce, but France can indict and arrest whoever it pleases? What kind of international law is this? And for how long must poachers continue to play game park keepers? How can there be respect for international law when powerful countries treat its principles like an a la carte menu?
Instead of confessing its sins and demonstrating genuine remorse before asking for forgiveness, France is demanding absolution through judicial vendetta.
“Forward ever, backward never”…..Kwame Nkrumah (1909 – 1972)
………………DON’T AGONISE!…………………..ORGANISE!!…………….
November 17th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
“How did the plane crash lead to genocide if genocide was not being planned already?” “Have people forgotten the famous fax to the UN saying “…we will all be killed”, which was never acted upon?”
This is pure propaganda from the current Rwandan regime in Kigali.
What do you think about why the RPF, composed of mostly Tutsi elements, did not raise this issue during its negotiations in the Arusha Peace Agreement with the Habyarimana’s regime and the political parties of the opposition inside Rwanda?
Believe not, here is the untold truth:
The investigative journalist Charles Onana looked into the case of faxes that General Romeo Dallaire claims to have sent on January 11th, 1994 to alert the United Nations that genocide was being prepared in Rwanda. He discovered that the reality was far from the commonly accepted version. In his book Mr. Onana concluded that “The problem with this alleged fax from Dallaire is that there is no such a fax at the UN headquarters” (p.264).
Indeed, Mr. Onana discovered that the alleged fax was introduced at the UN on November 27th, 1995 from a British NGO and that the fax did not meet the requirements for UN cables, said Roger Booh Booh who was then the Head of the United Nations Mission in Rwanda.
One should recall that General Dallaire himself has declared on Radio Canada the on September 14th, 1994: “I would say that there has been a national genocide, but a genocide of political philosophy, not purely ethnic…. But never, I think nobody would have been able to plan the size of this spill-over “.
What a scandal to doubt the planning of the Rwandan genocide!
Rather than blaming people who disagree with the theory currently spread over the planning of the Rwandan genocide, you should ask General Dallaire to remove any ambiguity about this alleged fax. Did he really send it? If yes, how could he contradict its contents on Radio Canada?
Gen. Dallaire himself has expressed doubt in a planned genocide. So has former UN secretary general, D.R boutros Ghali and of course a number of serious scholars.
The story in America was mainly created by Philip Gourevitch’s “WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES Stories from Rwanda.” His story written in an American novel style was not only swaying but misleading. He fails to mention Kibeho, he portrays the refugees as blood sucking machines, eager to exterminate Tutsi and escaping from justice. Where on earth has justice ever meant summarily execution without trial. But that was the RPF style.
In Kibeho for example, they are reported to have burnt bodies to conceal evidence or smuggled them away. All in all, the Australian peacekeepers managed to count at least 4,000 bodies. All killed in a few hours. Does anyone have more to explain??
Given that the lack of planning could mean that if President Habyarimana’s plane was not shot down the Rwandan genocide would have not occurred those who do not want to consider this possibility -for reasons that only God knows- prefer to silent anyone who dare to question the commonly accepted theory. With regard to the Rwandan genocide of 1994 courageous people are those who dare to admit that we may have been wrong for a very long time.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
The arrestation of Rose Kabuye is the beginning of procces aimed at ending impunity in trough out the African Great Lakes Region and will ultimately lead to the arrestation of Kagame himself for his many crimes committed against the Rwandan and Congolese people.
Paul Kagame has been playing the anti-French card so that he can continue to enjoy the protection of his British and American sponsors.
With regard to this matter, it was not because the French people did not like Kagame that they started the investigation on the case of the attack against the Rwandan presidential plane that was shot down on April 6, 1994. Instead, this judicial instruction was the result of complaints from the french crew’s family members who died in the attack. Unexpectedly, the investigation has uncovered the responsibility of Paul Kagame in this terrorist act.
The allegation that the extremist Hutus shot down the aircraft does not make any sense. In Habyarimana’s plane there were people that the RPF has always accused of being the mind masters of the Hutu extremism. These include Colonel Elie Sagatwa and General Deogratias Nsabimana. How can we accuse them of having ordered the attack that would finally take away their own lives? The former Rwandan army has never fired a single missile during the civil war that spanned from 1990 to 1994. Never has there been any evidence that the former Rwandan Army Forces had missiles on deposit. How can we assume that, suddenly, former Rwandan army used missiles to shot down the plane?
In contrast, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) had missiles at that time on deposit and had already used such a device to attack an aircraft belonging to the company SCIBE Zaire. The company was owned by a businessman by the name of Bemba Saolona, the father of the former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba. Paradoxically, the RPF is currently exploring the possibility of serving as M. Bemba’s lawyer before the International Criminal Court with regard to this case!
In addition, during the Rwandan civil war, the RPF controlled and defended its headquarters in Mulindi and its radio Muhabura with missiles.
Paul Kagame has always opposed any inquiry into the attack on Habyarimana’s plane. It is only when the French judiciary has indicted him for this terrorist act that he has put into place the so-called “Committee of Experts”, composed of Rwandans only, to which he commissioned a report due in November this year, and whose findings are already well known.
The remains of the aircraft are still on the crime site in Kigali City. They are well kept and continuously monitored by the RPF soldiers. The former Chief of Staff of the current Rwandan army, Sam Kaka, has prompted cynicism beyond any level of human kind imagination, by arranging his marriage at that site, in October 1994.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Who can try who?
Why when a hutu criminal or not is arrested nobody says anything. Who can try who? all hutus were arrested outside of Rwanda. France have arrested hutus. What did you says? Belgium arrested hutus. What did you say?
6,000,000 people have died in Congo. What did you say?
This one sided view and justice is the thing to fight above all.
Justice for all or amnesty for all.
Watch and see. The truth will come out.
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Dear Dr. Tajudeen,
I share your pan African sentiments about the arrest of Lt. Col. Rose Kabuye resulting from indictments by Judge Jean Louis Bruguiere, but I have a different opinion on what should be done about the war criminals within RPF establishment.
Rose Kabuye and fellow indictees could be liberators to some Rwandans yet by the same token, they are villains to others. Without a doubt they stopped genocide but they also committed mass murder in the process, not collaterally but deliberately –there is no shortage of witnesses and survivors of RPA massacres before, during and after genocide.
Responsibility of the shooting down of Habyarimana’s plane remains, a mystery at least officially to today. However as you opine in this post card, circumstances that suggest it might as well have been an inside job of MRND elements, there are even more reason why it might indeed have been RPF/A who needed a diversion from implementing the final peace agreement.
The peace agreement emphasized the creation of a unity government wherein, MRND, RPF, MDR and other smaller parties would participate. After the transitional period, multi-party elections based on one person one vote, would be held. Nobody expected RPF to win these elections, not even RPF itself thought they had a chance, given the sectarian and ethnic atmosphere reigning at the time. Therefore RPA struggle and sacrifice for the past four years would have come to naught. That in mind, it would not have been a terrible idea to eliminate their No.1 enemy and refocus their energies on a front where they had more advantage –armed struggle not democratic politicking.
It is also worth noting that, ever since those tragic events of 1994, no insider or outsider has made a serious accusation with any evidence credible or otherwise, against elements within Habyarimana’s movement. We cannot say the same about RPF/RPA.
Shooting down Habyarimana’s plane aside, there are many war crimes and crimes against humanity RPF/A should be tried for. They rivaled and often out performed the fallen government in killing innocent civilians in areas they captured and held or controlled temporarily. Many escapees of these RPA massacres having been sheltered and organized by President Habyarimana’s wife, later became the hard core genocidaire.
The 1995 massacres in thousands, of Kibeho in the south west of the country, where after the then president Pasteur Bizimungu is infamously remembered to have asked the world to accept the number of 300victim, is just one of those RPF/A signature massacres, only that time they were unsuccessful, with all bulldozers and caterpillars, to bury their victims in mass graves before day-break. Photographs of Kibeho mass graves filled with bodies of victims including women and children, makes one reconsider the ‘liberator’ stature that RPF built itself.
How about the massacres of 1996-97 in Congo during the Kabila campaign!! Again, thousands, babies included lost their lives to RPA guns. How about political assassinations that have been going on ever since RPF captured power.
The presence of Interahamwe genocidaire does not turn RPF/A mass murderers into angels. Justice can be exercised in both instances. The genocidaire can answer for their crimes and so can APF/A elements. In addition to the French list of alleged criminal within RPF, there is even a longer list of wanted RPF elements –that of the Spanish. We cannot accuse the Spanish of similar imperial designs or bruised egos as we do for the French. Stampeding Africa, yes, but if Africa had done its part we would not cross fingers wishing, somebody else intervened to redress our sense of injustice.
If African leadership had the courage and will, to make RPF\A answer for its own responsibility, there would be no pretext for France or any other western power to meddle whatever the motivation. All the protests by African leaders right now, is not necessarily out of principle but fear of the precedence being set by Kabuye’s arrest. They think they might be next.
Deo Lukyamuzi
deo_lukyamuzi@hotmail.com
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
[...] As Europe struggles to keep its influence in the region to secure commodities and keep out China, France and Britain are battling a fight for Rwanda’s soul. As the British have backed Mr. Kagame [...]