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written by an Academic but rather by an author with outdated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 be
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 of 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 such 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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