Munyeshyaka hiding in plain daylight!

Wonders shall never cease to happen! If what I have been hearing about the French judiciary having decided to drop all charges against Fr. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka is true, then surely, the world must be coming to an end. So Father Munyeshyaka (and I call him father rather begrudgingly) is going to be let off the hook? God forbid! For those who don’t know who we are talking about, Munyeshyaka is a Rwandan Roman Catholic priest formerly at St Famille Parish in Kigali, who stands accused of the involvement in the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. He has lived in France for over a decade and he still celebrates mass like any other clergy. In 1995, investigations were launched against Munyeshyaka after complaints were lodged, accusing him of complicity in acts of torture and inhumane or degrading treatment of people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. In precise detail, many witnesses gave accounts of the massive executions which allegedly took place on precise dates in April 1994 in the St Famille parish, where Munyeshyaka was parish priest at the time. When hundreds of his congregation ran to the church for protection after the Interahamwe militia started killing in Kigali suburbs, Munyeshyaka instead chose to work with the killers by, on a daily basis, selecting from the refugees those to be killed for the day. Those that stayed at the church, he left them to die of thirst, while several women were raped, including by him. Since 2001 he has been paradoxically hiding in plain sight, as a priest at the parish of Gisors, in France. And now it was reported that on Thursday, last week, the French prosecution made a request to have Genocide charges against Munyeshyaka dropped, on flimsy excuses that there was no concrete evidence that implicate him. Surely, it’s so mind-boggling how these Western countries, France in particular, continue to hate? No. To resent? No. Maybe to antagonize Rwanda. Hatred and resentment would do Rwanda no harm. But antagonism, this strong feeling of disliking someone, usually a feeling that has existed for a long time, can be very disastrous. And I presume, maybe wrongly, that antagonism is the feeling that these Western countries have towards Rwanda. Always shoving a clog in Rwanda’s otherwise smoothly turning wheel, at every opportune moment, just to make it falter and stumble. Of these countries, let’s leave Britain and the others aside a bit for another time, and look at France for a moment, for it is the country with which I have an axe to grind for now. What could really be the source of the antagonism France has towards Rwanda? What could be the origin of the grudge it holds against Rwanda? Some people say that when the Rwanda Patriotic Front launched the liberation struggle from Uganda in 1990, there was no cause for alarm in the French circles at the Elysee. But when it later became apparent that the RPF would emerge victorious, they sprung to action. French aircraft were abuzz in the air, cap on Rwanda, au secours de la francophonie. That’s what the people say. But is it true? There have been numerous accounts in 1994, and well before that, implicating French officers in the Genocide, especially in areas they controlled and had named ‘Zone Turquoise’. Among the hateful acts the French soldiers are alleged to have committed at that time, included rape and abandoning vulnerable and helpless Tutsis to the mercy of the marauding Interahamwe. What could have caused France to hate Rwanda so much? And now, the question I keep asking myself is this: What does France benefit in remaining one of the main havens for wanted Genocide suspects, in the world? Should France, a staunch Roman Catholic nation, which prides itself of Joan of Arc the Saints of Saints, just for the sake of defending the Francophonie, continue to defy international conventions? The writer is a freelance journalist based in Kigali

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Munyeshyaka hiding in plain daylight!