Regardless of ICTR’s betrayal, never again is our motto

Editor, I WISH to respond to the article, “How ICTR has let down Rwanda” (The New Times, February 12). It only takes Rwandan bravery to withstand all these injustices. What a timing of these unprofessional judgments when the people of Rwanda are for the 20th time mourning the innocent lives that perished during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi! If this is the style that the West has chosen to wind-up the ICTR, let it be. The earlier the architects of that ethnic cleansing know that the dark history will never repeat itself in Rwanda, the better. They should remember that Rwanda pledged “never again”. It’s bad that the same people succeeded to narrate questions of past times. You may have already, or will live to appreciate the fact that this is a new Rwanda – a determined and dignified nation whose progress and national building would not be deterred by cheap politics. Abdul Kanoti, Rwanda ***************************** IT CONTINUES to amaze me that, despite Rwandans’ repeated abandonment by the United Nations, not just in 1994 but previously in 1959-1964 and 1973, some of my compatriots still expect that they might get some justice from that same UN. I am reminded of the habitually battered wife who continues to cling to the hope that their violent spouse might turn a new leaf and stop inflicting violence on them, despite clear evidence that this is a forlorn hope. Where Rwanda is concerned, 1994 and the two multi-year and multi-billion dollar per year bureaucratic boondoggles, the ICTR and Monuc/Monusco – one to our east and the other to our west – are perfectly emblematic of what the UN represents: total failure in matters of security, justice and peace, but highly profitable for the professionals, administrators and other bureaucrats who run them or service them and would love nothing more than that they never close. As we contemplate the ICTR and its senile gerontocrat at work – in a manner of speaking – the wisdom of Rwanda’s refusal to subscribe to that other travesty of a court, the ICC, which would have given us a permanent ICTR, becomes even clearer. Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda

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Regardless of ICTR’s betrayal, never again is our motto