There is a seditious document titled “RWANDA BRIEFING” that has just been published and circulated, courtesy of Nyamwasa, Karegeya, Rudasingwa and Gahima. Sounds like a law firm, but it is not. Besides inciting the population to rise against the lawfully elected government of Rwanda, which has just been re-elected by overwhelming popular vote, the authors seem to be calling for the overthrow of thegovernment by any means necessary. And that constitutes treason. Out of the blue, and after a long hiatus, the authors seem to think nothing works right in Rwanda, and the country is headed for a violent showdown because of what they call the impunity of the minority against a marginalized majority. Yet the four are former high government andmilitary officials who for many years contributed to the state of affairs they now find reprehensible. One need not be a genius to realize the essence of this sham. It is typical reportage similar to many that are published, a dime a dozen, by so-called human rights organizations with a focused agenda. I wonder ifmost of it is not in fact a regurgitation of what Human Rights reports have concocted against Rwanda. The question is, how much were the authors paid by their handlers to deliver what in the end will beshelved only to collect dust? And how far are they willing to go? While I have never been a refugee or lived in exile, I hear either one breaks a man’s soul. Desperate men are driven to do desperate things and usually succumb to putting their soul on the block looking for thehighest bidder. This document is not only wildly accusatory it gives no evidence. Yet two of the authors, I hear, are lawyers who ought to know better. It maligns the integrity of the Rwandan government and its institutionswithout ample facts and evidence, and stoops to the lowest denominator of using coded words and phrases to incite ethnic feelings which they claim to be against. The sad part is that the authors of this bizarre and repugnant document fail to realize that there is a new Rwanda that has risen from the ashes and blood streams of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. They live in the past and hope, through masquerading as patriotic citizens, that they can recapture their lost claim to power and all that goes with it. The claim that “Rwanda is less free today than it was prior to the Genocide” is simply idiotic and laughable. This is merely a childish attempt to appeal to the very people they fought against during theliberation war who are now on the run from their crimes, and with whom they are seeking to form an un-holy alliance. And if the authors really believe what they say that Rwanda was more stable and democratic under Kayibanda and Habyarimana, how come they never returned to Rwanda to make a contribution to the regimes of these magnanimous leaders they so admire ? I doubt that even Theoneste Bagosora would stretch his wicked mind to this extent. To say that “the Rwanda government is more repressive than the one that it overthrew” is not only moronic but goofy. Who are they kidding? And then they go on to say that “The government is not considered legitimate by the majority of the population in general, and the Hutu community in particular.” Did somebody forget to tell them that recentlythere was an election in which the government was returned by an impressive, overwhelming vote of confidence? “Rwanda Briefing” is a work product of four sour, desperate men whose present stations in life are compromised. They have in their own minds exaggerated their importance and relevance and cannot stomach the thought of being summarily rejected by the very system they helpedcreate. This document must not be taken seriously, but nor should it be dismissed. While much of it is sour grapes, the characters in this sad saga of our journey out of the abyss of sixteen years ago, ought to be watched. A man without a moral campus is bound to end anywhere. Rwanda deserves a chance to heal her wounds and carve its future. This Gang of Four ought to lick their wounds and move on, realizing that they cannot, now or in the future, slow down Rwanda’s momentum to become Africa’s prized example. Ends
