The Gratian plan. A response to Mathias Cyamukungu

By Joseph (Jeff) Nsengimana <joseph@ichips.intel.com>, 10 January, 1995

Dear Mathias,

I just read your article and would like to respond to it if I could.

Mathias says:

1)The causes of the crisis in Rwanda is EXTREMISM of both sides.
 

Response:

What is going on in Rwanda today is a recovery from the worst mass killing that humanity has ever known! The genocide that took place in Rwanda almost exterminated the tutsi who were in Rwanda and the intellectual hutu who dared to think for themselves and opposed the criminal intentions of the Habyarimana government and its militia.

This genocide was then followed by excessive looting that left among other things the Nation Bank empty!

Now, this is the situation that the RPF found in Rwanda! Our government has been trying to normalize the situation in our country ever since. What puzzles me are your expectations. Frankly what did you expect? Can you in all honesty expect that everything will be full functional in day after what the country has gone through? In brief I would classify the situation in Rwanda as a difficult recovery from a terrible crisis rather than a crisis per say!

 

Mathias says:

2) So many people have been killed by both sides. The Rwanda neigbours know this but western countries don't. Thus, the solutions proposed by the Central Africa countries are not necessarly the same as the western country proposals.

Many western countries supplied weapons to RPF, after its military coups: This is understandable as they thought that the RPF was the peacekeeper for all the Rwandans: For the moment, it is known that the RPF is not a national mouvement but an Ethnic movment. It is known that RPF is some Rwandan killer, not all Rwandan peacekeeper. It is known that all the weapons RPF has can prevent it from letting all the refugees go back in peace, but with some rights.

 

Response:

In your statement above you call the liberation of Kigali as a military coup! I take it you were not too happy about it! But for a second, put yourself in the RPF shoes and tell me what you would have done! After fighting for your rights for 3 years, you rich a political agreement with your opposition, to which they (the habyarimana government) do not adhere to, then they (the government and its forces) after killing their own president start killing people at rate of thousands and thousands people a day. What do you do? Sit there and do nothing or restart the fighting and try to save as many people as possible. I don't know about you, but I would do exactly what RPF did (resume fighting and try to save as many people as possible!). Just think what would have happened if the RPF did not take over when it did. Can you imagine how many more people would have been killed?
 

Matias says:

3) The right situation today:

Thanks to the extremists from Burundi, a Hutu can live in Rwanda if and only if, he spend much time blessing RPF, or if he don't have any goods (car, lands, diploma, house,...).

The people from Uganda are more polite, and loved.

All those people, who came from Burundi, Uganda,... don't like much those Rwandans who were not refugees.

The MINUAR is inefficient in Rwanda, and has perhaps the mission to support RPF, implementing its dictatorship, as it never criticize the RPF killers. It never, have time to investigate about the RPF killings since April 1994.

 

Response:

I don't know if you did this intentionally but in your above statement, you refer to "the people from Uganda..., the people from burundi ...," however you say "the Rwandans who were not refugees..". THE PEOPLE FROM ... are just Rwandans as those "Rwandan who were not refugees"!

Saying that "the only Hutu who can live in Rwanda is the one who spend much time blessing the RPF" indicates that you intentions are not that of a constuctive nature! You very well know that the government is composed of people from different political parties. Take for example the prime minister, he neither belongs to the RPF nor "does he spend much time blessing the RPF". Maybe you ment to say that all the people in Rwanda might disagree on a lot things but agree on the role that the MRND played in the genocide of tutsi and the killings of the hutu opposed to the criminal intentions of the Habyarimana's government and the Interahamwe!

 

Matias says:

4) The solution of the crisis? There are two possible solutions depending of wether RPF want to reform itself and allow Rwandan to live together, or if it remain in the ethnic philosophy which lead it to consider that "As the Hutu are known to be killers, let us keep them out and nobody will complain them"!

• In the first case, RPF will stop killing people, all the killers will be arrested and brought to face justice, and all the Rwandans will be home before the end of this year.
• In the second case, all the innocent refugees will form an army, they will train themself to the highest level they can, they will go back in Rwanda, 2 or 3 millions of them will be killed by RPF, but the remainder will elect among them the leaders who wont have anything else in common with RPF but the country named Rwanda. Do not fear this situation, it can happen, as all the Rwandan in the refugee camps, know what RPF did to their family members and are not ready to let RPF lead them by force. The international community attitude does not matter, the Rwandans fears to live as in Burundi: being killed every three years is not a way to live.

 

Response:

The RPF has never, never, not even once stated, not even remotly indicate, that all hutus are killers! Au contaire, from the day that the government was formed, it has been engaged in intensive political negociations to find a way for the Rwandan refugees to return to their home! It is the old, defeated hutu extremist government that is holding the refugees virtually hostage in the exile.

As for the "army" issue, maybe you are not aware of the fact that some of the members of the defeated army came back to Rwanda and are now members of the national army. Also now one is bared from joining the army. Tutsi, twa or hutu are all eligible to join the army! As for the periodical killings, it seems to me hutus in Rwanda have not been the target of periodic killings but tutsis have. So, what makes you think that this is going to happen, now?

JUST A THOUGHT:

If we, all Rwandans, were to stand up and join our government in reconstructing our country instead of undermine its efforts, we would actually succeed!

Thanks,
Joseph(jeff) Nsengimana