An open letter to Mr. Bagosora and co.

Greetings from the Rwandese people, It’s with a sense of unmitigated glee that I heard the catastrophe that has befallen you and your friends. Life imprisonment huh? I’m sure that wasn’t what you expected when you, together with your cronies, you decided to launch an apocalyptic attack on innocent Rwandans, did you? Well, Mister Bagosora (or should I call you Colonel…or just call you “Mass Murderer”) you’ve got your comeuppance; the only thing I regret is that it isn’t a Rwandan judge that’s putting you behind bars for life. You launched a war against the people of Rwanda but guess what? The Rwandan people and the Rwandan nation have a clean bill of health. Sure, we haven’t become a superpower yet. In fact, if everything goes according to plan Rwanda will ‘only’ be a middle income nation by 2020. But a failed state we are certainly not. You thought that by the time you were finished with us we would be broken but you were wrong. We are a nation that is growing in leaps and bounds. Instead of a country full of orphaned children, we are a nation that educates all primary children free of charge. Instead of a country where industry is dead, agriculture is primitive and the service sector non-existent, loads of East African companies are arriving in droves, our Maraba coffee is a world beater, and we’re fast becoming the ICT hub in this region. Oh, and unlike back in your dark days, Kigali is inundated by world class performers coming to entertain us. When I see a person in uniform and totting a firearm, I don’t run away in fear for my life, I smile and say a quick “bite”. I’m sure that no person smiled at you when you were still the ‘all powerful’ Director of Cabinet in the Rwandan Ministry of Defence. They probably ran for the hills in terror. I walk the streets at night without any sense of apprehension because the security services know that their duty is to keep me safe. I wouldn’t have done the same thing in 1993. I’d have been roughed up by the security services (what they were securing is still a mystery), asked for my ID and, probably, promptly thrown in jail because it labelled me something that wasn’t so popular then. Well, all I can say is this; we aren’t doing too badly at all. Some things could be better but no ones perfect, not even the ‘great’ United States of America. I mean, even they, the most powerful country in the world, are now suffering because of the global economic down turn. I’ve always wanted to ask you this question but I’ve, sadly, not had the chance. “Did you REALLY think that you would get away with your nefarious plan”? “Did you really think that you’d plan the deaths of more than a million Rwandans and go scot-free”? “Did you think that running off to Cameroon would be a viable lifetime goal”? “Did you think that Rwanda would sink with you” Because if you really did, then you obviously didn’t realise just how strong the forces against you and other of your ilk were. Militarily, the RPA was certainly not going to lose the battle against the genocidal forces before them. Politically, the government wasn’t going to allow the Rwandan people to continue tearing themselves apart…instead it taught them to reconcile and live together. Diplomatically, you could have gone and hidden in as small a foxhole as you could find, but the international will to see you tried was always going to overwhelm you. So, all I ask again is this….did you really think you’d kill millions and ride off into the sunset? Yours truly, a Rwandan that would have never been able to come home if you had your way. Contact: sunny_ntayombya@hotmail.com

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An open letter to Mr. Bagosora and co.