Regional
Hidden agenda in Ingabire’s campaign for intra Rwandan dialogue
In
recent weeks, self-styled Rwandan politician Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has been
actively waging a campaign in the foreign press for what she called an
intra-Rwandan dialogue.
For
those who don’t know, Ingabire is a diehard Hutu Power ideology zealot
relentlessly trying to re-inject that murderous ideology into today’s Rwandan
politics. To really understand what’s motivating her, one must travel back in
time and understand her connections with the genocidal government behind the
slaughter of more than one million Tutsi, in 1994.
Ingabire
sprang to the scene in the wake of the defeat of the genocidaire government led
by Prime Minister Jean Kambanda. The remnants of the genocidaire forces fled to
eastern Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and immediately formed
what they called the Republican Rally for Democracy (RDR). Defeated genocidaire
leaders created it on April 3,1995. It comprised the fallen regime's senior army
officers who were responsible for the genocide against the Tutsi.
In
their official statements, RDR officials declared that their goal was to
establish liberal democracy in Rwanda. But their true goal was to reorganise,
re-arm, forcefully return to Rwanda and finish off the genocide against the
Tutsi.
Ingabire
joined RDR in 1997, three years after the genocide, and, a year later, became
its president. Since RDR was sullied by its bloody past, in April 2006, Ingabire
participated in the creation of a new entity, FDU-Inkingi (United Democratic
Forces), which she claimed worked for the installation of rule, respect of
democracy and good governance, in Rwanda.
But
as the French saying goes: “Dis-moi qui tu hantes, je te dirais qui tu es,’’
meaning: “tell me who your friends are, I will tell you who you are.”
Ingabire,
the daughter of a genocidaire, Dusabe Thérèse, who was a midwife at the Butamwa
Health Center in Kigali during the genocide, led FDU-Inkingi for several years.
During
the 1994 genocide, Dusabe, was a midwife in Nyarugenge District and she
collaborated with the Bourgmestre (mayor) of Butamwa Commune to prepare and
chair all meetings that planned to start the attacks on the Tutsi. Ingabire’s
mother was nicknamed "the doctor of death" for her cruelty. She first
killed Tutsi pregnant women and then killed their babies by hitting them on the
wall.
Today,
Dusabe and her daughter’s associates include Ndereyehe Ntahontuye, nicknamed “the
butcher of ISAR Rubona” for his murderous campaign in central Rwanda during the
genocide, and Marcel Sebatware, a mastermind of the genocide against the Tutsi
at the CIMERWA factory in Bugarama, south western Rwanda.
Ingabire
has never disassociated herself from these hard-core genocidaires or called for
their arrest so that they face justice. She never condemned the evil deeds by
her mother who is on the run.
FDU-Inkingi
is in close collaboration with terrorist groups such the FDLR, based in eastern
DRC, and is part of P5, a grouping of political associations recognised as
terrorist by the UN group of experts. The latter armed outfit also includes the
terrorist RUD-Urunana which, in October 2019, launched an attack on Kinigi
village in northern Rwanda, killing more than 10 innocent people and wounding
several others. Later, when Ingabire sensed that the true colours of FDU-Inkingi
and this terrorist organisation had been noticed, she pretended to resign from its
leadership and created another phoney political party called Dalfa-Umurinzi.
Ingabire
was funding the FDLR, as proven by files handed over to Rwandan prosecution by
the Dutch judicial authorities. This, together with genocide denial crimes she
committed upon arriving in Rwanda in 2010 landed her in hot waters. She was
arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was released in 2018
following a presidential pardon.
She
can try to rebrand herself as much as she wants. But she cannot completely shed
off her propensity to support the Hutu Power ideology and genocide denial and
revisionism. In her Al-Jazeera pamphlet titled “Intra-Rwandan dialogue is
crucial for peace in the Great Lakes,” she refers to the genocide against the
Tutsi as the Tutsi’s genocide. What does this mean? That the Tutsi own the
genocide, or that they perpetrated it themselves? Only the author knows what’s
behind this twist of the universally agreed terminology - the genocide against
the Tutsi.
In
the same paper, she comes back to the same crime of double genocide theory
which put her in prison in 2010.
She
wrote: “The mechanisms to promote unity and reconciliation among Rwandans
adopted by the national consultation of 1999 were commendable. However, the
lack of public and official remembrance of the victims of war crimes committed
in Rwanda before, during, and after the genocide against the Tutsis are
creating conflicting views among citizens. This creates social grievances and
weakens trust and cooperation among Rwandans.”
Clearly,
she’s relaying the long-held grievance of her allied genocidaires who are eager
to obfuscate the truth about what happened in 1994.
All
the noise Ingabire is making about intra-Rwandan dialogue is for one particular
constituent: proponents of the Hutu Power ideology who tried everything
including armed rebellion against the current Rwandan government, to re-enter
the Rwandan political platform they excluded themselves from when committing
genocide.
In
the meantime, on October 13, Rwandan authorities arrested a dozen members of
Ingabire’s Dalfa group for involvement in subversive activities. These suspects
are on trial in courts of law.
Every
year, Rwanda holds Umushyikirano or National Dialogue in which all Rwandans
participate, from grass-roots level to the President. Because of Covid-19, it
has been impossible to hold it for the last two years. This is the only forum
Rwandans need to iron out any lingering governance issues.
Rwandans
today have come of age and don’t need the intervention of the international
community to solve their problems.
All
of Ingabire's attempts to bring, or insert, through the back door, her mother’s
Hutu Power ideology in Rwanda's political mainstream will fail.