Rwandans can tell millet from weed!

And so here they come, those knights of evil-defence; hounds that have been lying in waiting, sharpening their appetite! It’s ‘Human Rights Watch’ that I sing in praise of, that ever-alert watchdog without which would have been annihilated this unfortunate nation of God and Gorilla. It would seem, according to this world busy-body, that Rwandans are not capable of determining what is good for them. In fact, left on their own, they might destroy their only messenger of hope, redeemer of their shuttered dreams, that the West has been so painstakingly forging for them in its overworked smithies. So, in timely fulfilment of its sworn mission of defending “opposition party members”, ‘Human Rights Watch’ last Wednesday 10th February 2010 dispatched a statement to the Rwandan government “to ensure that opposition activists are able to go about their legitimate activities without fear”. “The Rwandan government,” fumed Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of the organisation, “already tightly controls political space.” And, in case you may not have guessed, these “opposition activists” are none other than our messianic angel from foreign climes, IVU (Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza). So, what happened that Rwanda should halt all her developmental activities and pay attention? You see, last February 3rd, this IVU went to Kinyinya to pick her identity documents at the local government offices there. Being “opposition activists”, however, she had no time to join the queue like ordinary Rwandans. Those ordinary Rwandans, though, being ignorant souls, did not give our IVU her rightful “political space” and tried to shove her back. In fact, blasphemy of blasphemies, they even dared shout at her and her “collaborator”! Can you imagine? They even “jostled her, grabbed her and stole her handbag”! Well, when she called police, they came immediately and found her handbag intact, all right, but imagine the fact that those ordinary Rwandans should want her to join the queue. Shouting “We don’t want génocidaires here! We don’t want people with genocide ideology!” at IVU when she is a whole “opposition activists”? Yes, those ordinary Rwandans are incorrigible. They beat her “collaborator”, Joseph Ntawangundi, “severely”. They “threw him in the air, scratched him, held him in the air, with his feet apart, and carried him towards a tree.” Did they drop him down? No, sir, but imagine, “his feet apart”! That “collaborator”, it has now turned out, is the same Joseph Ntawangundi who had been sentenced by a gacaca court to a 19-year-prison sentence in absentia, for his part in the 1994 genocide. So, true to predictions, IVU has lived up to her mission of being a ‘suicide bomber’ sent to redeem international sympathy for the genocide-fugitive fraternity. ‘Human Rights Watch’ now has even acquired the services of a local “co-ordinator general”, in the names of Pascal Kalinganire, of something hitherto unknown called “Organisation for Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda” (OPJDR). This hireling, in turn, is ready to vouch for the innocence of Ntawangundi. Kalinganire swears that Ntawangundi left Rwanda in 1986 and only returned in 1992. Ntawangundi then worked for Central Workers’ Union of Rwanda (CESTRAL) but, no, in 1993 he was whisked off to Nairobi. Still, no, Ntawangundi was in Sweden in 1994, even if he worked in Kenya until 2002. And apart from twisting events into favouring Ntawangundi, Kalinganire must distort history for the unnecessary dusting of IVU’s congenital background. The role of IVU’s mother in killing patients, babies and foetuses here in Butamwa, in the suburb of Kigali, is well known, yes, but it cannot be accounted to the daughter. In defence of IVU, Kalinganire need not deny her father’s role in the genocide either. For, even if it is known that the man committed suicide, by taking rat poison, when his local gacaca court was closing in on him, it will be for the old man to account for himself to Satan, or whoever he worshiped. No, Rwandans have had enough distraction from this hullabaloo about “opposition activists”. If there is anyone who can offer them a better way of uplifting their livelihood, let them speak up. If there isn’t, let them shut up. For, in the final analysis, Rwandans want implementable policies. If you can provide a better menu of them, display it and then they will study it and compare it with the one they’ve been served. Rwanda has opposition parties galore and if they are playing along with the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) it’s not because they are incapable of waking up the demons of the past. They are playing along because their interest is general nation-building and respect for the rule of law. Those who are ready to abuse the laws of this land in avowed pursuit of selfish interests, let them run smack into “legal barriers”. Rwandans know that the giver of that promise keeps his word! Even then, they are impatient because the “honeymoon” is growing into ‘honey-years’ and they are not ready to be abused that long. Everyone knows that the Rwanda of divisions was buried with the dead of the 1994 genocide. Who invokes divisive politics twists a knife in the wound of Rwandans. Let such a type be punished. Rwandans want justice. Nay, they demand it! pbutam@yahoo.com

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Rwandans can tell millet from weed!