Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch: Bill Clinton, the genocider who just might get away

Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome to Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog. Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom of Expression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace in DRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Friday, November 5, 2010

Bill Clinton, the genocider who just might get away

November 3, 2010

by Aimable Mugara

Attracted by the immense mineral wealth of Congo, the U.S. supported Gen. Paul Kagame’s 1990 invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, expecting Kagame to facilitate access to Congo. Note that the only city marked on President Bill Clinton’s map besides the Rwandan capital Kigali is the border city of Goma, Congo, center of the fighting over and plundering of Congo’s mineral wealth. More than 6 million civilians would later die under Bill Clinton’s eight-year reign – with American money, weapons and political support.

There are some who will claim that Bill Clinton was the first African president of the United States. Those people clearly do not know that Bill Clinton is the one who established the stranglehold that the murderous gang of Gen. Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda have on the people of central Africa. Those people clearly do not know that as American military satellites showed evidence of the millions of civilians being butchered by Gen. Kagame’s and Museveni’s forces, Bill Clinton doubled down on his financial, political and military investment in this gang of murderers. Unless of course these people mean that Bill Clinton has the same cold-heartedness that many African presidents have when they order their troops to kill innocent African civilians. The kind of cold-heartedness where your troops come to report that today they butchered an entire village of unarmed civilians because they do not support your dictatorship and you respond: “Great job! Other villages now got a good lesson that you’re either behind me or you’re dead.”

In 1990, Gen. Kagame, who was the chief of military intelligence in Uganda, led a violent invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, with the approval and support – financial, military and political – of the United States government. This violent war changed the landscape of that region forever.
By landscape, I also mean the number of mass graves that dot every of inch of that region now. The two final years of President Bush, the father, during which his American government supported the murderous gang of Gen. Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, resulted in the deaths of many innocent Rwandan and Ugandan civilians. During those two years, there are thousands who lost their lives at the hands of Gen. Kagame’s soldiers and Yoweri Museveni’s soldiers.

Paul Kagame joins Bill Clinton as he tours Clinton Foundation projects in Rwanda.

But this was nothing compared to the more than 6 millions of civilians who would later die under Bill Clinton’s eight-year reign – with American money, American weapons and American political support. A Sept. 30, 2010, New York Times article titled “Dispute Over U.N. Report Evokes Rwandan Déjà Vu” mentions how in the fall of 1994, a United Nations investigation discovered that Gen. Kagame’s forces had killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians that year. Under pressure from Bill Clinton’s government, the United Nations was forced not to publish that report. The New York Times article reports that the 1994 U.N. report describes Gen. Kagame’s soldiers “rounding up civilians and methodically killing unarmed men, women and children.”
But that was 1994, a year that is famous for extremist Hutus who went on a rampage and butchered hundreds of thousands of innocent Tutsi and Hutu civilians. The fact that extremist Tutsis under Gen. Kagame went on a rampage in 1994 killing innocent Hutu and Tutsi civilians was totally blacked out due to pressure from Bill Clinton’s government. The existence of that 1994 U.N. report was denied by some American officials and was only revealed recently.

1994 is famous for extremist Hutus who went on a rampage and butchered hundreds of thousands of innocent Tutsi and Hutu civilians. The fact that extremist Tutsis under Gen. Kagame went on a rampage in 1994 killing innocent Hutu and Tutsi civilians was totally blacked out due to pressure from Bill Clinton’s government.

One would think that after that, Bill Clinton’s government would have kept a tighter leash on its African stooges, Gen. Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Far from that, the two stooges used American money, American weapons and, with American political support, attacked neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where their forces butchered so many millions of civilians that it is in fact surprising that there is anybody alive left in that country today.
As American military satellites recorded evidence of millions of civilians being butchered by this gang of murderers, Bill Clinton smiled away as his government gave more money and more weapons and more political support to these two stooges so they can use this support to keep doing what they do best: kill a multitude of unarmed civilians. They just kept killing and killing and Bubba kept making sure they had the money and weapons necessary to continue the killings and provided political cover whenever anyone asked questions.

Fast forward to 2010. On Oct. 1, 2010, the United Nations released a report on the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003. Regarding Gen. Kagame’s extremist Tutsi forces’ behavior during the 10 year period, especially 1996 to 1998, the report says:

President Kagame received the 2009 Clinton Global Citizen Award for Leadership in Public Service on Sept. 24, 2009, in New York. Bill Clinton spoke about his relationship with President Kagame, describing him as "one of the greatest leaders of our time.” President Kagame thanked Clinton for his friendship and support for Rwanda's development programs. – Photo: PaulKagame.com

“The extensive use of edged weapons (primarily hammers) and the apparently systematic nature of the massacres of survivors after the camps had been taken suggests that the numerous deaths cannot be attributed to the hazards of war or seen as equating to collateral damage. The majority of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick, who were often undernourished and posed no threat to the attacking forces. Numerous serious attacks on the physical or mental integrity of members of the group were also committed, with a very high number of Hutus shot, raped, burnt or beaten. If proven, the incidents’ revelation of what appears to be the systematic, methodological and premeditated nature of the attacks listed against the Hutus is also marked: These attacks took place in each location where refugees had allegedly been screened by the AFDL/APR over a vast area of the country. The pursuit lasted for months, and on occasion, the humanitarian assistance intended for them was allegedly deliberately blocked, particularly in the Orientale province, thus depriving them of resources essential to their survival. Thus the apparent systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of inculpatory elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be characterized as crimes of genocide.” How did Bubba react to this latest report? The report was published on Oct. 1, 2010; however, its contents had been leaked earlier and published in the media a month before. So, on Sept. 23, 2010, the Daily Beast site asked Bill Clinton about this report.
Bill Clinton said this about his buddy Gen. Kagame: “Right now I’m not going to pre-judge him because there’s this huge debate about what happened in the Congo and why, and I don’t know.” To which human rights researcher Carina Tertsakian responded to the Daily Beast: “It is not a matter of pre-judging. … The facts are well-established. … There is no doubt that Rwandan troops, together with their Congolese allies, committed large-scale massacres and other grave human-rights violations against Rwandan and Congolese civilians. The evidence is there for all to see. What more does Clinton need?”
But then again, when you are Bill Clinton, whose government provided the money, the weapons and the political cover for Gen. Kagame’s forces to commit that genocide, I don’t know what else you can say.
There is a high chance that the long arm of justice will catch up with Gen. Kagame and his commanders in our lifetime. As for Bill Clinton, the enabler, whose government’s financial support, military support and political support were crucial in perpetrating this genocide against Africans and covering it up afterwards, I am afraid he will retire peacefully at some mansion.

But for those of us Africans who lost many of our loved ones to Bill Clinton’s African gang of murderers, Gen. Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, we will always remember. We will always remember that Bill Clinton smiled away and gave more support to those butchers as they murdered more and more of us.

Aimable Mugara

About himself, Aimable Mugara writes: I grew up in Rwanda in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. In my short lifetime, I have seen that country go more and more backwards with time. As other nations around the world progress, Rwanda remains mired in ethnic hatred that has been exacerbated by the violent wars that have been waged by the extremist Hutus and the extremist Tutsis led by Gen. Kagame. The wars between the extremist Hutus and the extremist Tutsis have at times been open wars and at other times silent wars such as today. Extremist Hutus are famous for the massacres that took place between April and July 1994 that resulted in the massacres of hundreds of thousands of civilian Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Extremist Tutsis are not very far behind, having killed 40,000 innocent unarmed Hutu civilians in one day on Feb. 8, 1993, in northern Rwanda and millions of Hutus between Oct. 1, 1990, and December 2003. I used to be silent about the challenges facing Rwanda. I used to think that with time, these issues will resolve themselves. This year, as I saw Kagame’s extremist Tutsi government becoming even more extreme, I could not take it anymore. Kagame’s extremist supporters have offered various excuses as to why Rwanda should not be a democratic nation that abides by fundamental human rights. I have joined the chorus of people speaking out for democracy and human rights in Rwanda. I truly believe that making sure that Rwanda abides by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that every single Rwandan citizen is guaranteed the fundamental human rights enshrined in it, is the only way to move forward as a nation.
I speak out to let the extremist Hutus and the extremist Tutsis led by Gen. Kagame know that we moderate Rwandans have had enough of their extremism and that they need to stop taking us hostage in their struggle for power. We do not want extremist Hutus to terrorize us; we do not want extremist Tutsis to terrorize us. We want to live together in a democratic society where every single article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to every Rwandan citizen.
Visit Aimable Mugara’s website, www.rwandahumanrights.org. He can be reached at amugara@trentu.ca.