Harbouring Leon Mugesera beats Rwandans’ logic

Does Canada have a conscience? Abobantu bitwa inyenzi ntimukongere kuvuga ko ari Inkotanyi: Ni Nyenzi pe!,” literary translated as, “Don’t call those people Inkotanyi (warriors), they are true Inyenzi (cockroaches)...” said Mugesera in his controversial hate speech, given on 22nd November 1992- in Gisenyi. He was referring to the Tutsi while addressing about 1000 ruling party members-National Revolution Movement for Development (MRND). He went further to say that: “.... Kuki abo babyeyi baba Tutsi bohereje abana kurwanira Inyenzi, batabafata ngo babatsembe? Kuki badafata abo babajyana nabo bose ngo babatsembe? Simply meaning; Why don’t we arrest those parents who send their children to join RPF/A, and exterminate them?” he said accusing people who had been rumoured to be RPF accomplices. “Dusabye ko abo bantu bose babashyira kuli lisiti .............Igihe rero ubucamanza butagikorera rubanda ...icyo gihe ni ukuvuga ko twebwe abaturage twagombye kwikorera izo ngegera tukazitsemba. (I would like us to take the law into our hands since our courts are no longer functional. Let those cockroaches be listed for proper judgement (killing). If they [the judges] refuse...we should do it ourselves by exterminating this scum).He also added that: “Jye ndakumenyesha ko iwanyu ari muri Ethiopia -ko tuzabanyunza muri Nyabarongo mukagera yo bwangu -Well, let me tell you, your home is in Ethiopia, we will send all of you by Nyabarongo so that you get there fast...” Two years down the road after uttering out such venom, more than a million Tutsi were heartlessly massacred. Just like he had charged in his words, during the genocide, the Tutsi were mercilessly exterminated, hundreds of bodies were dumped in Nyabarongo river, and their bodies helplessly sailed through Akagera river, to East Africa’s biggest fresh water lake - Victoria. 15 years down the road , it is sickening for most of us to know that Leon Mugesera, was left to go scot-free , as victims of his hate speech, rot in mass graves, while survivors continue to struggle to live with deep sorrow. With hands soiled with blood, Mugesera lives a free man with his family in Quebec City, Canada. Mugesera and his family arrived in Canada as refugees, but were quickly granted permanent resident status, which apparently was made possible by political connections between the Quebec establishment and the Habyarimana government. Mugesera even secured a job- teaching at University of Laval located in Quebec. “Mugesera’s 1992 speech gave necessary momentum to the anti-Tutsi hysteria that led to the Genocide. Mugesera was the first to state in a major public speech that, ‘Look, our mistake in the past with the Tutsi minority was allowing them to survive. We must get rid of them,” says Philip Gourevitch in his book, “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families”. In 1995, Canadian government lawyers began deportation hearings against Mugesera. Two immigration tribunals ordered his deportation; however, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal overturned these verdicts. Justice Robert Décary, writing for the Court, held that there was no evidence linking the 1992 speech with the Genocide, which occurred two years later. The decision of the Federal Court of Appeal was later overturned by an 8-0 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on June 28, 2005, which upheld the original deportation order. That Mugesera has been able to tactfully delay his deportation from Canada, for the last 12 years even after he had been blacklisted as one of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide, raises questions , for example about the impartiality of the Canadian government and its role in fighting war criminals. The zeal displayed by Canada just like the so called International Community in the pursuit of justice for Rwanda after abandoning the country in 1994 , appears in sharp contradiction to their absence of zeal in pursuing the architects of the Genocide , leave alone justice to the survivors of the Genocide . One wonders why Mugesera chose to flee his country since has continued to deny his role in the 1994 Genocide! If he is innocent like he insists, why doesn’t he come back home and come clean before the courts of law? The whole world knows that such people like Mugesera were the perpetrators of the genocide. In her 15th commemoration message to Rwanda, Ambassador Susan Rice, the current U.S representative to the United Nations, said, “….there was nothing banal about the evil that stalked Rwanda 15 years ago. That evil came in the form of soldiers with machine guns, of men with machetes, lurid calls to murder hissed out of transistor radios, whispered word that one’s neighbours were not people but cockroaches, lists of innocents marked down for the knife, of deliberate and direct cruelty that still leaves us shocked and shaken”. Like Rice who also served as the director of National Security Council Staff in 1994 under President Clinton rightly put it, “Nothing we can say can ease the grief of those robbed of their parents, their children, their hope in the future, and their trust in humanity. Nothing we say can bring the victims back. Nothing we say can make it right. Nothing anyone can ever say will ever make it right,” Instead, what we can do—both for the victims and for those whose daily lives are still marred by the after-effects of the genocide—is to at least hold the perpetrators of the Genocide accountable for the crimes they committed. There is an urgent need to mete out justice to perpetrators who planned and carried out the Genocide. What people like Mugesera have adamantly refused to admit (even when deep in their hearts they know) is that what happened in 1994 did not happen spontaneously. It requires extensive preparation and planning. There are many examples to ascertain this claim. Look at the “Ten Commandments of the Hutu”. This was paper work that under went a long process. While noticeable progress has been made by the Arusha based UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in arresting some of the perpetrators, 13 of those indicted remain at large. These include; Augustin Bizimana, Idelphonse Nizeyimana, Protais Mpiranya, Gregoire Ndahimana, Ladislas Ntaganzwa and Felicien Kabuga. All of these individuals exercised positions of power and influence during the genocide. The presence and impunity of these men and women including Mugesera, 15 years after the 1994 Genocide, is a big justice obstacle. It delays peace, unity, reconciliation and healing processes in Rwanda. Leon Mugesera, who has fought and delayed his deportation for 12 years, is asking Canadian officials to put him on trial. There is need for more aggressive action from all the governments to bring the likes of Mugesera to justice. By delaying Mugesera’s homecoming, Canada is playing double standards. Why should Canada still have doubts about the impartiality of judicial system in Rwanda, after tremendous judicial reforms including abolishing the death penalty, which had initially been Canada’s legal excuse? The capability of Rwanda’s judicial system is not doubtable. And above all, transferring the fugitives to Rwanda will accelerate the process of giving hope and justice to the survivors. Mugesera and his truism committed acts of immense brutality and terror in their motherland. It is lamentable that they are allowed safe haven all over the world. It is only fair that people like Mugesera are sent back home to face justice as soon as possible. Habouring Leon Mugesera for example, is doing great disservice to the people of Rwanda. He committed crimes against humanity and it beats the logic of many Rwandans, when a country (ies) gives it a deaf ear. ubernie@gmail.com