It is a mistake to think that declarations published in foreign media might somehow put pressure on the Rwandan government to exonerate crimes committed by Rwandan citizens. These articles often define Rwanda as a country with no rule of law, accuse the president of interfering in judicial proceedings, then conclude with a demand to him, to do the exact thing they are accusing him of: Interfere in the judiciary. In doing so, they team up with exiled criminals, genocide fugitives or deniers, known terrorists on UN lists and other criminal entities on Interpol international arrest warrants - further confirming the suspicions retained against their relatives on trial in Rwanda. Veronica Shandari, daughter of Gen. Frank Rusagara, and niece of Col. Tom Byabagamba, both convicted of serious crimes against the state, declares from London, in a big UK publication: ‘President Kagame wins praise abroad and funds from Western donors, who will attend CHOGM in Kigali, therefore he should release my father and uncle’. The week before it was six British MPs, with the same message and equally inconsequential result, to which I responded here. Now a South African publication re-publishes the same opinion. This is unsurprising as this is where fugitives from Rwandan justice who are running violent militias in eastern Democratic of Congo have found safe haven, and cultivated favour with local media. This is becoming a waste of our time in general and mine in particular, spent on telling them all to: Back off! Now, I understand a daughter’s compassion towards her parent. I understand her desperation too. However I find it hypocritical to portray her relatives as humble peasants making a casual comment after a drink or two in a bar; they weren’t! Her father and uncle were very senior officers in the Rwandan army, speaking to equally senior officials among whom one disagreed with their conspiracies on the spot, in a bar. At their rank, her father and uncle aren’t allowed to conduct subversive conversations. We all remember American General Stanley Allen McChrystal who criticized President Obama and other administration officials. He apologized but was immediately fired by his president. Now this man made those remarks from thousands of miles away in Afghanistan, off the record to a journalist, with no direct consequence to the Obama administration. The convicted senior RDF officials made comments in Kigali, and in the presence of serving senior government officials. What country would not look seriously into a conversation between two senior army officers saying: ‘our guy is finished’? Are generals of a country allowed to call the head of State: ‘our guy’? What else did they talk about after ‘our guy is finished’? Did they say: ‘let’s support him’ or ‘let’s strengthen him’? Isn’t that the role of senior army officers? What conclusion did they draw? To take over? To do the things they couldn’t under his watch? I can’t help but wonder who advises these people. At no point in the last twenty-five years has a Rwandan president demanded that foreign courts interrupt their work and free criminals without a trial. Do countries which host CHOGM routinely overturn court decisions and free criminals? I think Shandari, and the UK parliamentarians should know that CHOGM comes to strengthen institutions, not undermine the rule of law. But nothing stops her from writing to her father and uncle, pleading with them to ask for clemency, as provided for by the law. Why try so hard to complicate the case of their jailed relatives? For people once close to power in Rwanda, don’t they already understand that external pressure typically yields the opposite effect? Shandari clearly hopes the Rwandan justice system is nonexistent and the country is so desperate for foreign approval that we are ready to undermine 25 years of rebuilding our judicial system. She is mistaken. This possibly happens in a ‘banana republic’, not in Rwanda. And for the record, ‘our guy isn’t finished’ after all. It seems international conferences still take place in Rwanda, and our court systems still work.
