How grave was your countrys wickedness?
Dear Filip
Thank you for your rublication Rwanda, Ten Years on: From Genocide to Dictatorship Having analysed the article, one may conclude that you are more of a professor of Conflict Engineering than of Law and Politics. The theme is very destructive and divisive in nature. It does not, in any way, seem to have been written by an Academic but rather by an author with outdated imperialistic influences of the 19th century. Whatever the motive, the publication serves to discredit you than earn you any iota of reputation.
I have known you as a Belgian national aged 53 and a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Until 1993 you were a University Professor at the National University of Rwanda (UNR) on a part-time basis. You came to Rwanda as a consultant in establishing the Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda in 1976. After establishing the faculty of law, you became its Vice Dean until 1978 before becoming the Vice Chancellor at the
University of Mbujimayi in the former Zaire. You have been a consultant on various research projects hired by the former Rwandan government including the constitution-making of 1991.
You earned and repatriated tens of thousands of the US dollars through your consultancy work. This was your main relationship with the former fascist regime which you never condemned or criticised for its gross human rights violations despite having witnessed those inhuman atrocities. With the new government, you envisaged a fall in your income and influence. You, in vain, laid strategies of making the new government unpopular as it was an ulcer in your tummy. You expected the situation in my country to remain like that of Somalia, Liberia or Sierra Leone as this would serve your longstanding desire.
Having failed to manipulate the current Rwandan government, you launched attacks using the media in which you tried to tarnish its image and interpreted all its positive undertakings into negative ones. You tried but failed to influence the international community to divert its positive attention towards our country. You then turned against the western world
particularly United Kingdom and USA who you branded accomplices to what you called a dictatorial government in Rwanda. Youre using your academic prowess in politics, to manufacture Weapons of Mass Diversionary (WMD).
You happily enjoyed living in a divided Rwanda for 18 years. You had to witness the destruction of the legacy of ethnicity left by your predecessors [the Belgians] which you upheld and wished to maintain. As a professor of politics, I expected you to know that nations live by each other on diplomatic ties but not on intimacy or emotions. Diplomacy is all about pursuing an individual states national interests existing in another country through the cheapest means possible.
You have accused the current Rwanda government of what you called Tutsization and RPF-ization which you defined as tightening the hold of RPF at all levels of state. You claimed that by 1996, 80% of the University teachers and students were Tutsi. You
have
deliberately ignored the spirit of the Arusha Peace Accords which abolished ethnicity and the quota system in education. As a former University lecturer in Rwanda, you must know how many lecturers were killed during the Genocide, how many participated in the Genocide and how many went into exile. Those that were present in the country after 1994, continued with their employment at the university.
You have supported the right-wing view advanced by Claudine Vidal that annual commemoration of Genocide in Rwanda has undermined rather than promoted reconciliation. You have also undermined the abolition of ethnic Identity cards in Rwanda and argued that it is against the fundamental human rights. But then, you have often identified yourself as a Belgian national and you do not identify yourself as either a Belgian Flemish or Wallon (the two main tribal groups in Belgium). Why would you wish Rwandans to identify themselves as either Hutus or Tutsis. When you claim that there are violations of human rights in this context, you leave a lot to be thought about you. I suppose you will agree with me that human rights are inherent entitlements and practices which are effectively realised and enjoyed in a stable society. However, if a right is massively abused and becomes a principal cause of social discomfort, then it ceases to have a meaning to its bearers and thus may b
e
suspended.
Do you know that freedom of _expression_ often impacts on the rights and interests of others which must be respected by everyone (including yourself) who wishes to exercise his/her right of free _expression_? Are you aware that it is the main duty of the state to protect those rights of its people from self-centred individuals like you? In this case I think that the content of your article was aimed at inciting ethnic hatred and divisionism so that the legacy left by your predecessors may prevail, contrary to government policy of unity and reconciliation
Because you lived in Rwanda during the reign of ethnicity, it has been hard for you to accept that there has been a fundamental change and therefore you still view Rwanda through the window of ethnicity and old stereotypes. Whether you decide to remain blinded by the legacy left by your predecessors or not, your views serve to pollute your credibility in your circles.
You have also accused the government o
f
plundering DRCs resources. I object to that allegation because there has been no credible evidence to back up the claims. If you had conducted a research into the plunder of DRCs resources by the Rwandan government, you could have provided the extent of the plunder in relation to the Belgian plunder of the same resources during the reign of King Leopold 2. But what I am aware of is that DRCs resources financed enough military expenditure during the Belgian involvement the two World Wars.
You have not hesitated to argue that the current Rwandan government derives its legitimacy from the Genocide. This is the most immature analysis I have come across in the most recent literature. Even the masterminds of Genocide acknowledge the legitimate authority of the current government as emanating from the popular cause of affirmative action which legitimately demanded regime change.
You accuse the Rwandan government of refusing to negotiate with the opposition groups s
uch as
FDLR (Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Rwanda) which is largely composed of militias who executed Genocide crimes in Rwanda. As a professor of politics, you have failed to put to test their political agenda to the popular normative political system accepted in a civilised society.
Given our peculiar history and the determination we have to reverse it, I would suggest that any contemporary Rwandan politician who deriveS his political basis on ethnicity or regional dimensions should [without any recourse] be discarded from politics for a period of time for moral rehabilitation. Rwandans have full confidence and trust that the Forum of Political Parties in Rwanda (not Filip Reyntjens) will design, analyse, test and implement a political agenda that will determine our political destiny which we shall all cherish for generations to come.
The author is a human rights lawyer based in London
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