July 4: Liberation and the march toward socio-economic development

Today, July 4, 2015, Rwandans mark the 21st anniversary of the end of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It is the day Rwandans celebrate their liberation. It is a time to reflect on how Rwandans put an end to the killing machine of the genocidal regime and chose to reconcile, build their country, and look to the future with hope and dignity. When the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) and its military wing, the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) stopped the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, it wasn’t only about the end of lethal attacks to human life but also the end of a terrible ideology that had divided Rwandans and made the county’s economic development impossible, experts say. Twenty-one years later today, Rwandans of all walks of life celebrate both respect for human rights, including the right to life which had been denied to a section of the Rwandan population for years, and the right to economic development, which has been picking up since the end of the Genocide. For Dr Jean-Pierre Dusingizemungu, the president of Ibuka, the umbrella organisation of associations advocating for the interests of survivors of the Genocide, July 4 is a special day even if liberation is a matter of daily preoccupation for survivors. “Every day we think about how the country was liberated, we think about how we now have a life and we pay tribute to the RPF soldiers who liberated us and this country. We have a reason to remember Rwanda’s liberation every single day; it is forever etched in our hearts,” Dusingizemungu said. As the country marks Liberation Day, the President of Ibuka urged Genocide survivors and other Rwandans, to always use the holiday to pause and reflect on the country’s past and future. “Liberation Day requires us to think about the country’s liberation but also reflect on its achievements since it was liberated as well as how to protect them and achieve much more in our lives,” he said. For Marie Rose Mureshyankwano, a Member of Parliament who also heads the parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Affairs, July 4 marks the liberation of Rwandans, including herself, from a discriminatory system of governance and thinking. “We remember July 4 as a sign of the country’s liberation by a noble, pro-people army. Personally, I was liberated from discriminatory beliefs that Rwandans were being taught since they were young,” she said. Having witnessed the war and the Genocide in Rwanda, Mureshyankwano had to flee to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where remnants of those who committed the Genocide in Rwanda would teach her and other refugees that a section of Rwandans, the Tutsi, don’t deserve to live. But the MP praised the Rwandan Army for having freed her and many others from the killers who were preaching hatred. The Rwanda Defence Forces crossed into DR Congo in 1996 to fight the génocidaires and repatriated millions who had been taken hostage in the DR Congo jungles. That’s when Mureshyankwano was brought back to Rwanda and today she praises the country’s army for having liberated her. “What makes me proud about the Liberation Day is the bravery of the Rwandan Army. The former soldiers of the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) liberated Rwandans regardless of ethnicity. They were fighting for the dignity of all Rwandans,” said the MP. She also praises the good policies of the RPF, which she described as pro-development and bent on unifying Rwandans. RDF officers and men during an event in Darfur, Sudan, where Rwanda became the first country to deploy peacekeepers in 2004 -the countrys first peacekeeping experience - barely 10 years after the Genocide. (File) The policies of unity and economic development, are part of what many other Rwandans celebrate today. From ending a dictatorial regime to rebuilding the country According to Senator Tito Rutaremara, a senior cadre of the RPF, liberation is an ideal, which means that it is always ongoing and “there are steps we make as we work towards achieving that ideal.” “In the case of Rwanda, we had the step of removing a dictatorship, reconstructing the country, laying the foundation, and now we are building the country slowly by slowly,” Rutaremara said. While Rwandans have a lot to celebrate on the 21st anniversary of the Liberation Day, the senator says that the struggle continues and that there is a lot more that Rwandans have to achieve to be fully liberated. “We will be liberated when every person in Rwanda can have a job, can have money, a hospital and a school nearby, when every citizen can eat three times a day and when we are at the level of developed countries such as America, France, and so on,” he said. For Rutaremara , when Rwandans mark the 21st anniversary of the Liberation, they will be celebrating the fact that the genocidal and dictatorial regime of former President Juvenal Habyarimana was removed as well as the reconstruction process of the country’s economy that followed the removal of the Habyarimana regime. He said that another step that Rwanda has taken 21 years later is that of completely building the country’s economy such as building schools, industries, as well as Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and making the country economically strong. Mureshyankwano agrees that the current stage of development in the country is that of growing the economy now that Rwandans are unified and working collectively for development. She says that the challenge that remains in the way to development is changing people’s mentality to make sure that they are open enough to diversify their sources of income. For greater improvement in people’s living standards, the MP says that Rwandans needed to always remember where they came from, protect what they achieved, and take measures to achieve more sustainable development. The government has set its sights on transforming Rwanda into a middle income economy by 2020. This year’s Liberation Day, will be celebrated under the theme “Prosperity in Dignity/Twiteze Imbere Twihesha Agaciro.

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July 4: Liberation and the march toward socio-economic development