Opulence and envy: ICTR employees and the locals

So far my impression of Arusha has been limited to the International Conference Centre (AICC). This is because the AICC has a special place in the history of Rwanda, it is here that the ICTR sits and deliberates on what to do for the architects of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. It’s a large white painted building and has a rather peculiar design, was built in the 1978, but it until today the building maintains the grandeur and class of many modern designs. The centre, located on the outskirts of town, also hosts the East African Community offices and Parliament. As the major conference facility in Tanzania and the EAC as a whole, the AICC is an interesting place. For Rwanda in particular, it was the venue where the Rwanda Patriotic Front and Juvenal Habyarimana held negotiations during the liberation struggle of 1990-93. Unfortunately as the RPF attended the negotiations, Habyarimana’s MRND was busy planning the Genocide and sending delegates to the peace talks just for political showmanship. It is ironic therefore that the centre is also the same venue where justice to the masterminds of the genocide is being sought. The conference room in which RPF sat to discuss peace with Habyarimana is right below the four chambers where genocide suspects are being tried. The AICC has three wings and while the ICTR only occupies one of the wings, its presence is felt right throughout Arusha. The ICTR’s presence is not limited to the four wheel drive vehicles packed around the building with specialised number plates for staff, there are also various political conundrums that play out between journalists, witnesses, lawyers, freed genocide suspects, suspects still in custody, Tanzanians and foreign residents especially from other African countries. Tanzanians here are a very slippery lot if they suspect you are a foreigner. It is understandable, they are jealous of the many employees of the ICTR who not only swab around in their swanky four wheel drives with huge dollar accounts kept in the safety of Standard Chartered, they have made everything expensive in the area. However, you cannot blame the ICTR staff for causing inflation in the area. Arusha is a huge tourist destination; the town is in the centre of three national parks: Serengeti National Park, which is the biggest game park in the world, Ngorongoro and Kilimanjaro. And the three wings of the AICC are named after those game parks. But on entering the wing that is occupied by the ICTR, it is easy to understand the envy of many local residents in Arusha. The opulent lifestyle of the ICTR staff employees hits you right from the first lift in the building. Inside are adverts calling upon readers to attend the Arusha spouses association, and welcoming you to some exotic dinners that cost a ‘friendly’ Tsh30,000 (Frw14,000). The ICTR detainees are also an interesting lot. There’s a story of one former Rwandan minister who is in detention with her son. The son cannot have his food on a plate, so he cries to the mother who in turn wants to carry the food to the courtroom so the judge can decide how her son should have his food served! There’s a former minister that was acquitted recently, he spends his time in the library or walking the streets waiting for the court to decide which country he will go to. He does not want to come back to Rwanda! Can we blame the people of Arusha for not embracing these people wholeheartedly? Ends