International
Human Rights Watch a propaganda tool for genocide ideologues
For
those following activities of the New-York based Human Rights Watch (HRW), its
recent report, “Rwanda: Crackdown on Opposition, Media Intensifies,” published
on October 19, did not come as surprise. The report is in line with the hostile
posture against the Rwandan government HRW adopted since the defeat of the
genocidaire government in July 1994.
HRW
always sides with those who want to harm the country and its people or those who
perpetrated the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. The HRW report was issued in
the aftermath of the arrest by the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) of six
people, including Theoneste Nsengimana suspected for involvement in subversive activities.
RIB had earlier issued a warning to people using social media to avoid acts
aimed at harming national security. Many of those individuals are based abroad,
but a few are in Rwanda. Those arrested were spreading rumours, and divisive
content aimed at arousing anti-government sentiments in the population.
Perplexing
is the way HRW rushed to issue a pre-emptive report before those arrested were
brought taken to court. The so called rights group alleged that they were
“linked to an opposition party”, and appeared connected to “Ingabire Day,”
organized by the unregistered party Dalfa-Umurinzi, that had been scheduled for
October 14, 2021, to discuss among other things political repression in Rwanda.
From
this statement, it is clear that HRW had been coordinating with the self-styled
opposition politician, Victoire Ingabire, leader of what HRW calls
“unregistered opposition party.” If the party is unregistered, any activities Ingabire
and her supporters do on Rwandan soil are illegal.
HRW
forgets the dark period Rwandans lived in the lead up to the genocide in 1994 with
the proliferation of hate media in Rwanda. The ravages caused by the same
unbridled liberty allowed hate radio RTLM and Hutu extremist publications like
Kangura to spew anti-Tutsi venom with the consequences we all know. Given our
experience, the new government in Rwanda put in place guardrails to help
prevent the country from falling back in the same ethnic troubles of the past. HRW
should know that in today’s Rwanda, no one is above the law. Being a journalist
or a member of a registered or unregistered political party does not give
anyone a carte blanche to commit crimes.
In
the report, HRW calls the provision against the spread of hateful propaganda,
genocide denial and revisionism, an infringement of “the right to freedom of
expression and media freedom under international law.” We now understand why at
the height of the 1994 genocide, the US government refused to jam the hate
radio RTLM though it was inciting the extermination of the Tutsi.
In
Rwanda today, such cavalier and irresponsible attitude has no place. We
experienced its consequences with over million deaths. We learnt our lesson,
and it will not happen again. What is also bewildering is the way HRW
sanctifies the so-called opposition party, DALFA Umurinzi, completely ignoring
its roots and who its leader, Ingabire, truly is. She is a relic of the former
genocidaire regime. After its defeat, its senior army officers and high-ranking
officials who took part in the genocide created the Rally for Democracy in
Rwanda (RDR) of which Ingabire became president from 2003 to 2006, before
morphing into FDU – Inkingi.
The
RDR masqueraded as an organisation fighting for the return of refugees but in
reality, its real raison d’être was to perpetuate the genocide ideology of Hutu
Power which resulted in the extermination of more than one million innocent
lives in 1994.
It
is no surprise that FDU–Inkingi is a group whose leadership comprises well-known
genocidaires including Ndereyehe Ntahontuye, the ringleader of the massacres of
the Tutsi at ISAR Rubona in southern Rwanda, and Marcel Sebatware who
coordinated the killings of the Tutsi at CIMERWA in the former Cyangugu
province.
In
2010, Rwandan courts sentenced Ingabire to 15 years in prison for, among other
crimes, genocide ideology and incitement of divisions. On September 14, 2018,
President Paul Kagame exercised his prerogative of mercy and granted her early
release.
Ingabire’s
connections with the terrorist organisation, RUD-Urunana, which on October 19,
2019, launched a deadly attack on Kinigi Village in Northern Province and
killed a dozen people, is no secret. After
the attack, Ingabire again quickly laundered her FDU “party” – which is part of
the P5 – into what she called “DALFA Umurinzi”.
The
P5 group is an alliance of several political forces, some linked to armed
militias like the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) which operates in eastern DRC.
We
should have no illusions. HRW wants to
sanitise a woman who has never denounced the Hutu Power ideology and is now
trying to spread it again using various social media channels including Umubavu
TV. People should also take the noise about missing FDU/DALFA members, or any
other persons HRW said were disappeared, with a pinch of salt. In the past, they
were later found to have joined anti-Rwanda forces in neighbouring countries.
The
HRW game plan is to work closely with those hell-bent on sabotaging the Rwandan
government, like Ingabire, to damage its reputation and that of its leadership.
But the Rwandan government will not give in to smear and fabrications from a
corrupt organisation like Human Rights Watch.
The
freedom of speech much trumpeted by HRW has limits too, according to Amnesty
International which states that: “You might not expect us to say this, but in
certain circumstances free speech and freedom of expression can be restricted.”
“Governments
have an obligation to prohibit hate speech and incitement. And restrictions can
also be justified if they protect specific public interest or the rights and
reputations of others.”
In
the case of Rwanda, and much to the chagrin of HRW and Rwanda’s detractors, RIB
will not tolerate anyone trying to rekindle ethnic hatred, spread rumours, or
trivialise the genocide against the Tutsi as did Yvonne Idamange, and Aimable
Karasira in the name of freedom of speech. Violators of Rwanda’s peace and
security must know that RIB will act regardless of the noise made by the liked
of HRW.