EDITORIAL: The Rwandan spirit will prevail

For the second day, Rwandans from across the country and abroad took to the streets, in peaceful protests, demanding the release of one of the key personalities in the liberation struggle that ushered in the peace and tranquility they enjoy today. Lt Gen Emmanuel Karenzi Karake was stopped from boarding a flight back home at the weekend in London by the UK immigration officials on allegation that he had a case to answer over a highly controversial indictment by a junior Spanish judge. The arrest did not just smack of arm-twisting, it had everything to show for an agenda by a country that then goes on to announce that it enjoys a cordial bilateral relations with Rwanda and is always supporting the country’s development ambitions. In diplomatic rhetoric, such chords will chime, but in the eyes of the citizens, everything is wrong with the arrest. From social media campaigns and now to the streets and at UK Mission offices, Rwandans have turned up to show that no one will take their hard-earned freedom for granted. The mass protests ringing across the continents have a simple message: the solidarity and dignity of the people of Rwanda was not given unto them by a judge in a Spanish village, or authorities in the UK, but was earned. It is a currency Rwandans paid for the pride and unity that makes them come out in droves to demand their rights be respected, it is their blood in the liberation struggle. Gen Karenzi was yesterday granted conditional bail because the Court is still examining a fanciful indictment that does not only expose the author’s ignorance and coldness about Rwanda’s tragic history, but also shows how genocidaires and their advocates have infiltrated and abused the corridors of justice in some western countries, while real hard-core criminals and fugitives from justice freely roam their capitals. The joke is on the UK for effecting a warrant that was annulled by a higher court in the issuing jurisdiction. At the end of the travesty, it is the UK that has revealed its hitherto hidden hand in Genocide denial and an attempt to rewrite the history of a country. As for the people of Rwanda, they have showed the world what they are made of when their dignity comes under attack.

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EDITORIAL: The Rwandan spirit will prevail