SOS Rwanda-Burundi
Buzet, Belgium
12.05.02
Advised observers have certainly noticed that Rwanda's president, Paul KAGAME and his government have lost all credibility among the international community. International institutions, non government organisations and even governments have turned their back to him and have made him responsible for the rout in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Like a hen in the henhouse, KAGAME is being bitten by everyone, even by his former allies. Being more and more driven into despair, the man might soon lose all of his feathers. After the opposition in exile and a number of rare non-allies, KAGAME has been criticised, cautiously at first, and then more and more severely by Amnesty International followed by the International Rescue Committee. It is only following the first United Nations report on looting in the DRC that criticism fell over him like a destructive avalanche. The apollonian illusion that had been built around the strong man of Rwanda has collapsed. The devastating process has, indeed, been triggered. Human Rights Watch has swept away the Allison Desforges pact, the International Crisis Group has criticised the legal system and demolished the lure of a so-called democracy in such a way that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) administrator, Mark Malloch Brown himself declared to France Press Agency (AFP) on 19 November 2002 that "(...) Rwanda where elections did not take place at all".
In his 4 March 2002 report on human rights in Rwanda, the US State Department did denounce numerous human rights violations. Such abuses have also been reported in the expertise on Rwanda that was developed for the Netherlands government. Reporters Without Borders has described the systematic annihilation of all critical opinion or opposition. The International Monetary Fund has abandoned its preferential policy for Rwanda and is now switching off some of its taps. The Belgian Embassy in Rwanda has formulated a few timid remarks, but the experts who have been called on to testify in front of the senatorial enquiry commission on trade with the DRC have depicted a dramatic situation. The prosecutor of the International Crime Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Mrs Carla Del Ponte, has now felt obliged to take out the old charge damning files against the KAGAME regime and has requested Rwanda's collaboration for finalising the bills of indictment. As a matter of fact, Paul KAGAME is no longer in a position to consider himself as the untouchable one and the leader to be reckoned with in the Great Lakes of Africa region. He was given the hardest blow in November 2002 when the British members of parliament published the document entitled "Who Benefits from Resource Exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo". These members of parliament have favourably accepted the recent report by the United Nations experts. Moreover, they have emphasised the contradiction between the British government "Memorandum of Understanding" to the government of Rwanda and the activities that are performed by this government of Rwanda inside the DRC. They have recommended to the British government to implement a more severe policy towards the government of Rwanda, more particularly with regard to Human Rights respect. A few days after this document was issued, the ICTR prosecutor requested the British parliament to force the government of Rwanda to provide collaboration as regards justice files charging the RPF.
Having suffered humiliation following divisions among his own fraction, KAGAME has been abandoned by his close friends and relatives. Considering the man's revengeful nature, this situation will most probably generate unpleasant consequences among his close entourage as well as on anyone he considers to be hostile to him.
One can also expect merciless repercussions against Rwanda's ambassador to France, Mr Jacques BIHOZAGARA. One should remember that this ambassador has driven Paul KAGAME into an embarrassing adventure by suing the Cameroonian journalist Charles ONANA. This writer of the book entitled "The Secrets of the Rwanda Genocide" supports the thesis according to which KAGAME is responsible for the attack against the aircraft that was carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on 6 April 1994. It is this aircraft attack that triggered the tragedy that Rwanda faced and is still facing today. In the same book, this journalist charges the RPF with murders on civilian populations since October 1990. A first complaint for libel and non-respect of innocence presumption was ruled out by the first level of jurisdiction on grounds of procedure arguments. Paul KAGAME and the government of Rwanda appealed against this decision and renewed their complaints at the first level of jurisdiction against re-issuing the book. The case was due to be discussed at the Paris court of justice on 2 December 2002. However, the complainants made it public, through their solicitors, that they withdrew their complaints. The solicitors, including the Belgian lawyers' office Uyttendaele that had submitted the complaint at the first level of jurisdiction, had been replaced by French lawyers' office. The latter moved back in face of the number of documents that had been gathered as pieces of evidence and the quality of witnesses the journalists had presented for his defence.
The withdrawal of this complaint, which some people consider as actual confession, provides more credibility to the thesis of the journalist Charles ONANA. Therefore, one can now understand the sudden activity that has been deployed by the ICTR's prosecutor over the government of Rwanda. One should recall the fact that the prosecutor has authority to take to court a head of state on power. Moreover, the enquiry on the presidential aircraft attack, which is being made discreetly by the French examining magistrate Bruguière, is still pending. This revealing enquiry might become decisive for the future of peace in the Great Lakes Region.
Being isolated like a leper or a plague-stricken person, Paul KAGAME is now turning, as a last resort, to the ones he did humiliate at a time when he believed he was allowed to do so: the Belgian ministers. He knows that he should not hope to receive much indulgence from the head of the Belgian diplomacy, Minister Louis MICHEL. The Belgian Prime Minister Guy VERHOFSTADT, however, is indebted to him. The latter was able to impose himself politically thanks to the dubious role he played during the senatorial commission enquiry on the death of the ten Blue Helmets in Rwanda.
The new ambassador of Rwanda to Belgium, Mr Emmanuel KAYITANA IMANZI, presented his credentials on 23 October 2002. He is too new in Belgium to understand that the atmosphere prior to the elections completely changes affinity among the politicians. It is possible that VERHOFSTADT may be indebted to KAGAME, but he is certainly not a suicidal person. The wind has changed direction. No politician will dare to jeopardise his position to support a compromised KAGAME who has come as a beggar. KAGAME is now in a position of weakness, as he is forced to beg and to fawn on people.
Christiaan DE BEULE - Martine SYOEN
SOS RWANDA-BURUNDI asbl
6230 BUZET
BELGIUM
sos.rwabuco@skynet.be