Germany danced to French tunes

The past week has seen a lot of activity at the offices of Kigali Notes. The change in the pace of action at our premises has been fueled by the residents of this great city. That is their commitment to show support for Rose Kabuye. Her arrest stirred nationwide demonstrations; one, in support of Kabuye; two, anger against the hypocrisy of the Germans as well as the arrogance of the French. In our thousands, with bare chests, placards, and conversations, we have protested and written volumes about the subject. During this eventful period however, we wondered to whom to direct our tirade at. Should it be the French or the Germans? Maybe both but we are still determined to fight this struggle, this contest, and this mind game with the French to ensure that events in Rwandan history are recorded as they are and not as some Europeans want them to be. Kigali Notes wishes here to express our admiration for the courage, sacrifice and commitment of Rose to serving Rwanda’s cause and as Tony Blair alluded to during this past week in Kigali, Rwanda needs more leaders like the protocol chief. That said we feel the humiliation of the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. While it is universally accepted that the Rwanda Patriotic Front solely stopped the Genocide that claimed more than one million Rwandans, Europe is concerned with the death of a handful of their expatriates that died with Juvenal Habyarimana in the plane crash. To them, the Genocide was just a part of a series of ‘bad news’ coming from Africa. But it was made important to them because of their nationals who died along with Habyarimana and not the more than one million Rwandans who perished. The arrest of Kabuye, which many German legal spin doctors were quick to brand as ‘unofficial’, also serves to highlight a double edged practice in international politics. While German can pride itself in the incident as being very active and supportive among the international community’s stated desire to pursue justice, justice is what they say it is and not what it ought to be. History will record that many real suspects of the 1994 Genocide, continue to roam around the same Frankfurt airport, where the Rwanda State protocol officer was detained. These suspects especially Wenceslas Munyeshaka have been indicted for their recorded role in the Genocide. And suffice to say that some of the above suspects are not wanted by humble Rwanda, but a whole UN court sitting in Arusha. Therefore, it is ironic that Germany, along with other countries, will not support the enforcement of UN-ICTR mandated task of trying the actual participants in the genocide and instead be very supportive of France in her desire to clear her name in the mess they caused in this country. In France questioning the credibility of the RPF in whatever way they can, the French are trying to create an impression that they along with the murderous regime they supported prior to 1994 are innocent of the crime of genocide. A recent chat between a journalist from Rwanda and another from Ivory Coast puts into perspective the current scenario of France trying to fight for relevance in Africa: Rwanda: The French are very arrogant people, they never colonised Rwanda, but somehow worked out a way in which they became the influential power in the country. And now they are influential enough to get the loyalty of Germany. We have known how to deal with them however. Currently their influence stands at zero, so they want to shove it up... Ivory Coast: You are lucky they never colonised you. In my country, the French have continually divided us and caused us to have misunderstandings between ourselves. Recently this kind of French patronage almost led the country breaking up into two parts, the north seceding away. Today, however, we know how to deal with them. They are not at all welcome in Ivory Coast and that’s one of the very few decisions that have got unanimous support from the populace of the entire country. Contact: donmuhinda@yahoo.com