I am basically a researcher and writer. In doing so, I provide well researched information as a basis for discussion on the way forward. My focus of research and writing is on the Great Lakes region. As such you cannot avoid writing about inter-ethnic conflicts which have been of a zero-sum game: “I am in power and you are out”. I am trying to create space for dialogue so that we engage in a win-win discussion to permit all people in the Great Lakes region to live in peace, freedom and dignity. And what’s wrong with that?
Apart from 1959 to 1994, the history of Rwanda since the 15th century is one of Tutsi dominating, exploiting, impoverishing and marginalizing Hutu people. When Kayibanda became leader of his Hutu party in the 1950s, he approached Tutsi and suggested power sharing in a win-win arrangement. Tutsis refused because to them power sharing with Hutu is impossible (Kagame dismissed the Hutu president, prime minister and other ministers whom he used when he captured power in 1994 before he was able to control Hutu population).
The 1959 social revolution was started by Tutsi youth who assaulted a Hutu man who had been made a local chief by the Belgian government. After independence in 1962, it was Tutsi refugees from Uganda that attacked the newly independent Rwanda first. After 1986, Museveni and Habyarimana discussed and agreed on repatriation of refugees and through the Arusha negotiating process a ceasefire was agreed to and a coalition government formed involving RPF. But RPF never wanted to share power (just as Museveni refused to share power with Okello after signing the Nairobi agreement) and so broke the ceasefire after the plane crash in which the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi got killed. Then genocide followed in which moderate Hutu and Tutsi were massacred but Tutsi have insisted it was only Tutsi that were targeted for genocide, not moderate Hutu.
In Burundi, Rwanda and Eastern DRC, genocide has occurred on both sides. In Burundi Tutsi massacred Hutu in 1972, 1988 and 1993. In Rwanda Hutu committed genocide against moderate Hutu and Tutsi in 100 days from April to July 1994. After RPF captured power in the latter part of 1994, Tutsi committed genocide against Hutu in Rwanda and in Eastern DRC (that is why the Arusha Tribunal was empowered by the UN Security Council to investigate genocide and other crimes against humanity conducted between January and December 1994). Therefore genocide has occurred on both sides. But Tutsi or their surrogates including Robert Atuhairwe and Tony Owana don’t want to hear about Tutsi committing genocide against Hutu. They attack me for presenting this information and accuse me either of being a genocidaire (a person who has actually committed mass murder of a targeted group) or inciting genocide. They are doing this to silence me and others that would follow.
Meanwhile Tutsi have used international “genocide guilt credit” to embark on creating Tutsi Empire initially covering Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda while the international community looked the other way. Then other countries in Middle Africa from Indian Ocean Coast in the East (including Kenya and Tanzania) to the Atlantic Ocean Coast in the West would follow. The idea to invade Zaire and topple Mobutu was part of this Tutsi Empire plan. Museveni and Kagame used a frustrated Kabila who for 30 years had failed to remove Mobutu from power. They thought in return for making him president, Kabila would endorse the idea of incorporating DRC into the Tutsi Empire. But when he discovered the Tutsi Empire plot and being patriotic, Kabila withdrew cooperation and chased Rwandese and Ugandans out of DRC.
Zimbabwe and Angola joined Museveni and Kagame in the 1996/7 war against Mobutu to remove a dictator who had played a role in the instability of the region. But when they too discovered that Museveni and Kagame had a hidden plan to create Tutsi Empire, they joined Kabila in the 1998/9 war against Uganda and Rwanda. Chad and Namibia also joined Kabila because they opposed the Tutsi Empire project.
I am not the first to write about Tutsi Empire. Museveni indirectly started it when in April 1997 informed the world that his mission was to create a federal state among nations in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region (EIR Special Report 1997). In his article “Museveni’s Adventure in the Congo War: Uganda’s Vietnam”, John F. Clarke (2002) page 147 writes that “Museveni is seeking to build a Tutsi-Hima empire in the Great Lakes region of Africa”. On page 222 of the chapter on “Sub-Saharan Africa”, Ira Reed writes that Robert Mugabe joined Kabila in the war against Uganda and Rwanda because he “saw the danger of a Tutsi empire in the middle of Africa” (E. B. Evans et al., 2003). But these authors from whom I got the information that I have shared with fellow Ugandans and other readers haven’t been attacked. What are they afraid of?
In order to realize the Tutsi empire dream, Tutsi have presented themselves as “victims in a hostile environment” in order to earn international sympathy so they can ‘defend themselves’ by military means and massacre their ‘enemies’ with impunity. The outline above clearly shows that Tutsis are the aggressors and the world has begun to see it and is putting pressure on Museveni and Kagame to change course and live with others in peace and harmony which I have been advocating but Robert, Tony and a few others have refused to acknowledge because the truth being told is making them or their masters uncomfortable. Museveni and Kagame are sending their troops on peace keeping missions to inter alia gain combat experience in order to crush dissent. This militarist approach and the human atrocity it has caused so far may backfire.
Museveni and Kagame are neutralizing their opponents by employing apartheid-like policies of denying their ‘enemies’ quality education and land ownership. In Rwanda when the Hutu refugees returned from DRC they found their land and property occupied by Tutsi returnees and ended up herded in villages. In Uganda you see what is happening. In 1990 the NRC decided that Tutsis should not own land in Uganda like any other foreigner. But Museveni’s liberal immigration policy and statements that Uganda has plenty of unused arable land permitted infiltration of Tutsi some of them from as far as South Kivu province in DRC and are being given land belonging to indigenous Uganda people. In his recent discussions with Baganda delegation, the president seems to have dismissed Baganda claims on 9,000 square miles of land as well as federo. If this is true it is a powerful statement indicating perhaps that the land is already taken by powerful people Museveni can’t dare ask to return it to the rightful owner(s).
Robert Atuhairwe and Tony Owana among others should comment on these facts and avoid emotional rebuttals. Robert claims that few people read my long articles. If that is the case then he should be happy that my message is having no impact on Tutsi pursuit of Tutsi Empire. On genocide, let me repeat that Tutsi have committed genocide against Hutu and Hutu against Tutsi. So both sides have been genocidaires and victims. That is well documented in my articles which quote the sources of information on this topic.
I am working on resurgence of the “Hamitic Myth” and you will be reading it shortly. It appears that Tutsi didn’t expect any challenge to what they are doing and has caused panic and reckless responses we are getting from their quarters. I have nothing against Tutsi people (some of them my friends as I have stated in writing), only their policies. I am trying to help them realize that in the sight of God all Ugandans are equal.
Eric