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Rwanda government can do what it wants with impunity

I have read, listened to debates and conversed with many people in Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Nations in New York to find out why Rwanda authorities – government and armed forces – are not held accountable for the atrocities they are reported to have committed since 1990 when RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) invaded Rwanda and are still committing in Eastern DRC and Rwanda itself.

In January/February 2010, I spent thirty days in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda and conversed with many people from all walks of life. I got a lot of information mostly from informal and anonymous conversations. The following information is what I have collected before, during and after the mission. I am making this contribution in an effort to find a durable solution to the challenges not only in Rwanda but in the Great Lakes region as a whole.

Enabling environment

Some developments have emboldened Rwanda government (and its army) to do what it wants with impunity. Here are some of them.

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Uganda’s development plan is a repeat of structural adjustment program

President Museveni articulated his vision of the five-year development plan in the foreword to the plan. With due respect, he just restated the objectives of the Washington Consensus or structural adjustment program (SAP) which Uganda has been implementing since an agreement was signed between the NRM government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 1987. The program was dropped in September 2009 because it had failed to deliver as expected.

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NRM government must accept responsibility for its actions

On Monday April 19, 2010 President Museveni launched Uganda’s five-year development plan. During the ceremony, he stated that at the beginning of his administration in 1986, NRM had plans to introduce a development plan but it was told that planning was out of date. Instead NRM was told to control inflation, ensure macro stability and leave the rest to the private sector. He did not specify who gave this advice.

When NRM came to power, it soon realized that unless it entered into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) first, external funding would be withheld. For almost a year and a half, the government debated various options of engagement with the IMF under Washington Consensus or stabilization and structural adjustment conditions. The debates chaired or attended by the president were dominated by two schools of thought represented by the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. The Ministry of Finance and possibly Central Bank opted for a gradual and sequenced approach to minimize the costs of adjustment drawing lessons from Obote II government’s experience with structural adjustment began in 1981. The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development supported a ‘shock therapy’ alternative that required implementation of all adjustment conditions at once. Finally, the President endorsed the shock therapy alternative.

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Should genocide and massacre be treated equally?

Genocide

According to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as: (1) killing members of the group; (2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (5) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. Genocide is a crime under international law whether committed in time of peace or in time of war.

Massacre

According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary massacre means: (1) the indiscriminate, merciless killing of a number of human beings or, sometimes, animals; wholesale slaughter; (2) an overwhelming defeat.

This could mean killing people of a particular group – ethnic, religious, racial or opposition, conveying the same meaning as in (1) above under genocide.

Examples from Rwanda

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Denying the existence of ethnic differences in the Gt. Lakes region is absurd

I have used the word ‘absurd’ after careful reflection. According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary the word ‘absurd’ means “clearly untrue or unreasonable; ridiculously inconsistent with reason, or the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory. An absurd man acts contrary to the clear dictates of reason or sound judgement. An absurd proposition contradicts obvious truth”.

Because some African leaders believe that ethnicity, tribalism or divisionism – be it religion or race – is the root cause of political instability and conflict, they have decided to deny that ethnicity exists or to legislate against its use in public discourse. In Uganda there is a law against ‘sectarianism’; in Rwanda the word ‘divisionism’ is the equivalent of sectarianism in Uganda.

At a workshop in New York about Rwanda some participants who had gathered to talk about post-genocide progress singled out the disappearance of ethnicity as the most significant achievement. They stressed that Rwandese had decided to put the past behind them and move on as one nation. They added that ethnicity was a colonial creation which should not be carried into post-genocide Rwanda. They emphasized that in pre-colonial days Rwandese not only spoke the same language, went to the same church, lived on the same hill but also practiced complementary economic systems as one people. These symbiotic relations were shattered following the arrival of Europeans and the imposition of divide-and-rule methods that favored one group over another.

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Structural adjustment and violation of human rights

Because of the tremendous suffering during the two World Wars and the interwar economic and social hardship, world leaders decided – when they adopted the Charter of the United Nations in 1945, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and subsequent instruments including the binding Covenants on economic, social and cultural rights, and political and civil rights in 1966 – to introduce safeguards against violation of human rights like the right to work, earn a remunerative wage in a decent environment, access adequate and balanced food, healthcare, quality education for all and equitable sharing of the benefits of economic growth etc.

From 1945 to 1975, the world enjoyed a period of relative peace and security and the golden economic environment resulted in the overall improvement in peoples’ welfare. In Africa and other developing countries, the benefits of peace and economic growth manifested themselves in falling death rates and rapid population growth.

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Why DRC may disintegrate

During a mission to DRC in January/February 2010, concerns were expressed by people from many walks of life – national and foreign – in formal and informal settings about the possibility of DRC disintegrating. A review of the underlying forces needs to go as far back as the 16th century when hunting for ivory and slaves led to ethnic conflicts and hostile relations. The political, economic and social disruptions that occurred in Central Africa made it easier for Europeans to implement a policy of divide and rule. Weaker communities that had suffered sought European protection while established rivals used European allies against their hostile neighbors.

In Congo, Leopold II and the subsequent colonial government encouraged ethnic isolation or rivalries and hostilities. Some rulers and/or ethnic groups were allowed to exercise hegemony over others. The Luba were favored and enjoyed higher status because they were considered superior to others. These divide and rule tactics created mistrust and antagonism among ethnic groups and weakened national consciousness.

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A new revolution for Africa

Countries that have developed into mature societies characterized by economic and social progress and exercise their human rights including the right to elect their representatives freely and hold them accountable went though difficult times: recall the Glorious, the American and the French Revolutions. The people in these countries made huge sacrifices in human lives and property. They were laying a solid foundation for their future generations. They faced many obstacles but worked hard to overcome them – and they did overcome them.

In Africa, the political struggle for independence was hardest in countries with settler communities. Recall the experiences of Algeria, Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. One of the reasons that Belgium – which never thought Congolese would become independent – granted independence so readily in the wake of the 1959 bloody riots in Leopoldville is because it did not want to get dragged into the Algerian-type situation. Those of us who witnessed the struggle at close range in some of these countries, it was very tough but worth it.

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Colonization, pauperization and neo-colonization of Africa began in DRC

It has been said and written and subsequently confirmed during a recent mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in January and February 2010 that the colonization, impoverishment and neo-colonization of Africa began in DRC initially through instability, disruption of economic systems, trade networks, social, cultural and political institutions, ruthless and massive exploitation of human and natural resources. Ipso facto, Africa will not stabilize and develop peacefully and sustainably while DRC remain mired in neo-colonial conditions of exploitation and destabilization by foreign interests and their neighboring and Congolese surrogates.

Before the arrival of Europeans and Arabs in the 16th and 19th centuries respectively, the Congo basin was occupied by Bantu people who had developed strong kingdoms that were engaged in production of a wide variety of agricultural, pastoral and industrial products the surplus of which were exchanged in local and regional markets. They had also as noted above developed strong and viable cultural and social systems that together with adequate and balanced diets promoted rapid and healthy population growth.

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Colonization, pauperization and neo-colonization of Africa began in DRC

It has been said and written and subsequently confirmed during a recent mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in January and February 2010 that the colonization, impoverishment and neo-colonization of Africa began in DRC initially through instability, disruption of economic systems, trade networks, social, cultural and political institutions, ruthless and massive exploitation of human and natural resources. Ipso facto, Africa will not stabilize and develop peacefully and sustainably while DRC remain mired in neo-colonial conditions of exploitation and destabilization by foreign interests and their neighboring and Congolese surrogates.

Before the arrival of Europeans and Arabs in the 16th and 19th centuries respectively, the Congo basin was occupied by Bantu people who had developed strong kingdoms that were engaged in production of a wide variety of agricultural, pastoral and industrial products the surplus of which were exchanged in local and regional markets. They had also as noted above developed strong and viable cultural and social systems that together with adequate and balanced diets promoted rapid and healthy population growth.

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