EngRegional
Makua Mutua’s defence of Rusesabagina regrettable
What you need to know:
· Three
years ago, I was shot by FLN fighters and witnessed the death and destruction
they caused with my own eyes.
· I
fled for my life into the forest as bullets kept flying from what seemed like
every direction.
I
had never heard of Prof Makua Mutua until I read his article last week’s Sunday
Nation (Another of Kagame’s victims).
I
was deeply shocked by Prof Mutua’s attempt to whitewash the criminal actions of
Paul Rusesabagina and the National Liberation Front (FLN), presenting his
recent trial as pure political power play. It is one thing to dislike or
disapprove of President Paul Kagame, but he cannot erase my personal experience
at the hands of Rusesabagina’s armed rebels. Three years ago, I was shot by FLN
fighters and witnessed the death and destruction they caused with my own eyes.
I will never forget what I saw that day.
I
saw them shoot a child and a mother in front of me. I saw them set cars and
buses on fire at the roadblock they had put up in the road. I fled for my life
into the forest as bullets kept flying from what seemed like every direction. I
had never experienced anything like that before; it was like being in a war
zone.
While
I hid in the forest, fearing that I would not live to see another day, I
thought back to the senseless violence that tore Rwanda apart in the past.
Later, when I heard “Sankara” Callixte Nsabimana taking credit for the FLN
attacks and found out about Rusesabagina’s endorsement of the armed group, I
was depressed.
During
the court proceedings, however, when it became clear that Rusesabagina funded
and provided leadership to the FLN, I became furious. I wondered: “How could
someone who claims to promote human rights become the head of a terror
organisation?” It just didn’t make any sense.
Cruel and inhuman
I
cannot understand why Prof Mutua, who seems to be a distinguished scholar,
would overlook my ordeal as well as the testimonies of other witnesses, many of
whom appeared in court. That attack in Nyungwe Forest on Saturday December 19,
2018 has forever altered our lives.
The
FLN attackers were soulless, frightening, cruel, and inhuman – they did not
care if you were a child or woman. This is why it was the hardest thing in the
world to stand and testify against the FLN. I was sad and angry; I wanted them
to be swiftly punished for what they did that day. But I sat by and let the
trial proceed; I let the lawyers make their arguments, and I waited – with the
rest of the world – for a conclusion.
In
his article, Prof Mutua does nothing but praise Rusesabagina. With his
one-track mind, he failed to mention that Rusesabagina’s role during the
genocide against the Tutsis had already been challenged repeatedly by a number
of survivors who sought protection at the Hôtel des Mille Collines as well as
by Genocide Scholar and investigative journalist Linda Melvern and University
of St Andrews Professor Nicki Hitchcott. It’s also publicly known that a London
judge in 2008 described Rusesabagina as a genocide denier who was allied to
“the extremist Hutu faction”.
As
for the FLN, Rusesabagina not only served as the group’s founder; he also
maintained direct contact with and was personally involved in its operations.
By his own admission, and according to prosecutors and FLN officers,
Rusesabagina donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the FLN. Prof Mutua seems
to have purposefully ignored these facts – plus he omitted the testimony of
American academic Michelle Martin, who discovered that Rusesabagina was
corresponding with armed groups via e-mail.
His
comments on Rusesabagina are representative of the sort of careless people who
irresponsibly cut corners and take the easy route, jumping to conclusions
instead of looking at the hard evidence. It’s easy to build narratives and theorise on
hearsay and stereotypes, but – as I learned from my student years – the nobler
thing is to thoroughly follow the evidence, wherever it leads. The Rwandan
Judiciary did exactly this. Prof Mutua, unfortunately, did not.
Ms Kayitesi survived the FLN attack on December 2018 and was a civil party during the FLN trial
