WASHINGTON, DC – The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice is proud to announce that Rwandan humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina will be the 2011 recipient of the Lantos Human Rights Prize. The formal presentation of the award will take place in Washington, DC on November 16th, 2011.
Paul Rusesabagina is widely hailed as a hero of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. As a hotel manager during the time of the conflict, Rusesabagina was able to provide shelter to 1,268 people, both Hutus and Tutsis, ultimately saving them from certain death. His efforts were chronicled in the 2004 Academy Award nominated film Hotel Rwanda and his autobiography “An Ordinary Man”. Today, Rusesabagina continues his efforts for truth, reconciliation and sustainable peace in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region of Africa through his work as President of the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (www.hrrfoundation.org).
“We are so proud to award this year’s Lantos Prize to Paul Rusesabagina. I was raised on the idea that we are all our brothers’ keepers, and Paul is the living embodiment of that idea,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation. “My father, Congressman Tom Lantos, survived the Holocaust in one of Raoul Wallenberg’s safehouses and understood all too well that the actions of one man can change the arc of one’s life story. Nearly 50 years later, Paul Rusesabagina’s heroic efforts to shelter those in harm’s way changed the life stories of more than 1,200 Rwandans. We look forward to honoring his historic humanitarian actions.”
The Lantos Foundation established the Lantos Human Rights Prize in 2009 to honor and bring attention to heroes of the human rights movement. It is awarded annually to an individual or organization that best exemplifies the Foundation’s mission, namely to be a vital voice standing up for the values of decency, dignity, freedom, and justice in every corner of the world. The prize also serves to commemorate the late Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress and a prominent advocate for human rights during his nearly three decades as a U.S. Representative. Former recipients of the Lantos Prize include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.
While some of the incidents covered in the mapping report were well known, the compilation of so many atrocities into one report was a shocking wake-up call. All concerned governments, as well as those named, should ensure that the report is not simply shelved, and take action on its findings.
Daniel Bekele, Africa director
(New York) – Governments around the world should intensify efforts to bring to justice those responsible for grave abuses documented in the United Nations’ October 2010 “mapping report,” Human Rights Watch said today.
One year after the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published the report, there has been insufficient follow-up by governments in Africa’s Great Lakes region and by the UN itself, Human Rights Watch said. However, the Congolese government has taken steps to create a specialized mixed court in the country’s justice system, with international and Congolese staff, to try those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
“With the best will in the world, the Congolese government cannot deal with the legacy of the country’s massive abuses alone,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The crimes committed in Congo involved border-crossing perpetrators, placing responsibilities on many governments to ensure that justice is done.”
The mapping report’s findings are important not only to help prosecute past crimes, but to address similar patterns of abuses against civilians in Congo today, Human Rights Watch said.
The UN mapping report addressed the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Congo between March 1993 and June 2003. It detailed 617 incidents across the country and described the role of all the main Congolese and foreign parties responsible. These included military or armed groups from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Angola, among others, who all fought during Congo’s wars at different times between 1996 and 2003.
The report brought angry reactions and blanket denials of involvement from some of the countries cited, notably Rwanda. Its troops, along with those of its allied Congolese rebel group, the Alliance for Democratic Liberation (Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo-Zaïre, AFDL), were allegedly involved in some of the most serious crimes in 1996 and 1997.
“While some of the incidents covered in the mapping report were well known, the compilation of so many atrocities into one report was a shocking wake-up call,” Bekele said. “All concerned governments, as well as those named, should ensure that the report is not simply shelved, and take action on its findings.”
Human Rights Watch said that countries implicated in the report are primarily responsible for prosecuting suspected perpetrators within their borders. But other countries may have suspects living in their territories and should consider prosecutions where legally possible, such as under the principle of universal jurisdiction. UN member countries should provide political and financial support to the Congolese government to set up appropriate mechanisms to try these crimes.
Since the publication of the report, the Offices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Secretary-General have done little to follow-up on the findings. Human Rights Watch called on them to organize a conference with the Congolese government, other governments named in the report, and international legal experts to formulate an action plan to provide accountability for the crimes.
The mapping exercise was conducted with the support of the Congolese government. Its publication revived hopes among Congolese and Rwandan survivors and relatives of victims of massacres and other abuses in the late 1990s – one of the most violent periods documented in the report – that they might one day see justice done.
In August 2011, the Congolese minister of justice and human rights presented a draft law to parliament to establish a specialized mixed court to try those responsible for the most serious crimes committed in Congo, including those detailed in the mapping report. International judges and prosecutors were considered necessary to work alongside Congolese judicial personnel to bolster Congolese capacity to try such complex crimes and to help shield the court from political interference. The Senate rejected the draft legislation and asked the government to harmonize its proposal with other draft laws, including one set to incorporate into domestic legislation the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Some senators called for the establishment of an international criminal tribunal, which they believed would be a more appropriate mechanism to try the crimes documented in the mapping report. The Congolese government is considering the next steps.
Human Rights Watch supports the establishment of a specialized mixed court, with jurisdiction over past and current serious international crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, committed in Congo.
Congolese civil society groups have also expressed strong support for this proposal. Representatives of nongovernmental organizations from each of Congo’s 11 provinces, as well as international organizations, met in April in Goma, eastern Congo, where they adopted a Common Position on the government’s initial draft legislation. Several important amendments that they recommended were later included in the draft legislation.
The UN mapping exercise was not the first time that the UN had tried to investigate crimes committed in the Congo between 1993 and 2003. Attempts by the UN to investigate massacres and other abuses, notably in 1997 and 1998, were repeatedly blocked by the Congolese government, then headed by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, father of the current president, Joseph Kabila. Nevertheless, information about massacres, rapes, and other serious abuses against Rwandan refugees and Congolese citizens was published at the time by the UN and by human rights organizations, but no action was taken to hold those responsible to account.
The UN mapping exercise had its origins in these earlier UN investigations. In September 2005, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, discovered three mass graves in Rutshuru, in North Kivu province of eastern Congo, relating to crimes committed in 1996 and 1997. This discovery acted as a trigger to reopen investigations. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the support of the UN Secretary-General, then initiated the mapping exercise and broadened the mandate to include crimes committed from 1993 to 2003.
“The perpetrators of terrible crimes in Congo have remained free for far too long,” Bekele said. “If the atrocities detailed in the UN mapping report lead to credible prosecutions, potential rights violators may think twice about committing crimes against the population. Only then will the rule of law prevail in this troubled region.”
An alarming security breach within South African defence intelligence has put suspected death squads on the trail of an exiled Rwandan general who is under South African protection.
It was reaveled that private investigators, allegedly hired by Rwandan intelligence agents, penetrated the security ring around Rwanda’s former chief-of-staff General Kayumba Nyamwasa.
Nyamwasa has been in exile in South Africa since February last year and has already survived two assassination attempts – one when he was shot in the stomach four months after arriving in this country. Then his would-be assassins plotted to strangle him in hospital, and the plots continued.
Some media houses have an email and pictures of Nyamwasa’s secret safe house that were sent to an alleged Rwandan agent who was hiring gunmen to assassinate Nyamwasa. In the email, the agent was ordered to use “big machines” and “when you enter the house finish everything you find inside”.
The email also gave details of the safe house in the village of Hartebeeshoek near Hartebeespoortdam in North West.
City Press confirmed the authenticity of the email, the plot to kill Nyamwasa with senior intelligence officials, and that Nyamwasa was kept at the house. After our inquiries, Nyamwasa was hastily moved.
Nyamwasa was recently instrumental in setting up a new political movement, the Rwandan National Congress (RNC), which posed the biggest threat to Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s 11 years of authoritarian rule. Nyamwasa was wanted for various crimes in Rwanda and was sentenced to 24 years in prison in absentia.
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officials were tracking Rwandan death squads sent to assassinate him, although the Rwandan government adamantly denied involvement.
“Our government doesn’t have a policy to assassinate people,” said Didier Rutembesa, a spokesperson for the Rwandan High Commission in Pretoria. “We cannot be intimidated by sensational publications.”
The activities soured diplomatic relations between Pretoria and Kigali. South Africa recalled its high commissioner in Rwanda more than a year ago and had not yet returned him to Kigali.
City Press pieced together how Rwandan intelligence – widely credited with assassinations in several African countries – traced the whereabouts of Nyamwasa.
A small group of Rwandan agents entered South Africa in May under cover of being representatives of a Rwandan bank.
They approached private investigators to trace Nyamwasa. They said he owed the bank millions and that he was also wanted in Rwanda for fraud.
When Nyamwasa arrived under military escort at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court at the end of June to testify in the attempted murder case, the investigators were onto him.
They followed him from the court building to his safe house in Hartebeeshoek. His escort never picked up the tail.
Once the investigators established his address, they persuaded or bribed a member of the house staff to provide them with information of what the house looked like inside.
The investigators provided the information and photographs to their Rwanda clients, who monitored the general’s movements.
By then, the investigators knew who Nyamwasa was and became suspicious of who had hired them. They tipped off the NIA. The NIA intercepted the email when it was sent to a Rwandan agent in Pretoria. He was briefly detained and questioned, and co-operated.
City Press understood that the email was also sent to a diplomat at the Rwandan High Commission.
A senior member of the RNC in South Africa and a close confidant of Nyamwasa, Emile Rutagengwa, said Rwandan intelligence services would “stop at nothing” to kill the general.
Rutagengwa said he was warned by NIA to be careful and, if possible, to change cars and find new accommodation.
Another former Kagame confidant in exile in South Africa is under military protection. He is Colonel Patrick Karegeya, the former director of Rwanda’s external military intelligence. He was also a founder member of the RNC.
The NIA, department of international relations and defence intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.
Paul Kagame Killed President Juvenal Habyarimana, President Cyprien Ntaryamira Of Burundi, Deogratias Nsabimana, Elie Sagatwa, Thaddee Bagaragaza, Juvenal Renzaho, Emmanuel Akingeneye, Bernard Ciza, Cyriaque Simbizi, Jacky Heraud, Jean Pierre Minaberry and Jean-Michel Perrine*.
On August 4, 1993, in Arusha, Tanzania, the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front signed the Arusha Peace Agreement. The provisions of the agreement included a commitment to principles of the rule of law, democracy, national unity, pluralism, the respect of fundamental freedoms and the rights of the individual. The agreement further had provisions on power-sharing, formation of one and single National Army and a new National Gendarmerie from forces of the two warring parties; and a definitive solution to the problem of Rwandan refugees.
On April 6, 1994, at 8:25 p.m., the Falcon 50 jet of the President of the Republic of Rwanda, registration number “9XR-NN”, on its return from a summit meeting in DAR-ESSALAAM,Tanzania, as it was on approach to Kanombe International Airport in KIGALI, Rwanda, was shot down. All on board, including President Juvenal Habyarimana , President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, their entire entourage and flight crew died.
The death of President Juvenal Habyarimana triggered the start of genocide that targeted Tutsi and Hutu moderates, and the resumption of civil war between RPF and the Government of Rwanda. The RPF’s sad and false narrative from that time on has been that Hutu extremists within President Habyarimana’s camp shot down the plane to derail the implementation of the Arusha Peace Agreement, and to find a pretext to start the genocide in which over 800,000 Rwandans died in just 100 days. This narrative has become a predominant one in some international circles, among scholars, and in some human rights organizations.
The truth must now be told. Paul Kagame, then overall commander of the Rwandese Patriotic Army, the armed wing of the Rwandese Patriotic Front, was personally responsible for the shooting down of the plane. In July, 1994, Paul Kagame himself, with characteristic callousness and much glee, told me that he was responsible for shooting down the plane. Despite public denials, the fact of Kagame’s culpability in this crime is also a public “secret” within RPF and RDF circles. Like many others in the RPF leadership, I enthusiastically sold this deceptive story line, especially to foreigners who by and large came to believe it, even when I knew that Kagame was the culprit in this crime.
The political and social atmosphere during the period from the signing of the Arusha Accords in August 1993 was highly explosive, and the nation was on edge. By killing President Habyarimana, Paul Kagame introduced a wild card in an already fragile ceasefire and dangerous situation. This created a powerful trigger, escalating to a tipping point towards resumption of the civil war, genocide, and the region-wide destabilization that has devastated the Great Lakes region since then.
Paul Kagame has to be immediately brought to account for this crime and its consequences. First, there is absolutely nothing honorable or heroic in reaching an agreement for peace with a partner, and then stabbing him in the back. Kagame and Habyarimana did not meet on the battlefield on April 6, 1994. If they had, and one of them or both had died, it would have been tragic, but understandable, as a product of the logic of war. President Habyarimana was returning from a peace summit, and by killing him, Kagame demonstrated the highest form of treachery. Second, Kagame, a Tutsi himself, callously gambled away the lives of innocent Tutsi and moderate Hutu who perished in the genocide. While the killing of President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was not a direct cause of the genocide, it provided a powerful motivation and trigger to those who organized, mobilized and executed the genocide against Tutsi and Hutu moderates. Third, by killing President Habyarimana, Kagame permanently derailed the already fragile Arusha peace process in a dangerous pursuit of absolute power in Rwanda. Kagame feared the letter and spirit of the Arusha Peace Agreement. As the subsequent turn of events has now shown, Kagame does not believe in the unity of Rwandans, democracy, respect of human rights and other fundamental freedoms, the rule of law, power sharing, integrated and accountable security institutions with a national character, and resolving the problem of refugees once and for all. This is what the Arusha Peace Agreement was all about. That is what is lacking in Rwanda today. Last, but not least, Kagame’s and RPF’s false narrative, denials, and deceptions have led to partial justice in Rwanda and at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, thereby undermining prospects for justice for all Rwandan people, reconciliation and healing. The international community has, knowingly or unknowingly, become an accomplice in Kagame’s systematic and shameful game of deception.
I was never party to the conspiracy to commit this heinous crime. In fact, I first heard about it on BBC around 1:00 am on April 7, 1994, while I was in Kampala where I had been attending the Pan African Movement conference. I believe the majority of members of RPF and RPA civilians and combatants, like me, were not party to this murderous conspiracy that was hatched and organized by Paul Kagame and executed on his orders. Nevertheless, I was a Secretary General of the RPF, and a Major in the rebel army, RPA. It is in this regard, within the context of collective responsibility, and a spirit of truth-telling in search of forgiveness and healing, that I would like to say I am deeply sorry about this loss of life, and to ask for forgiveness from the families of Juvenal Habyarimana, Cyprien Ntaryamira, Deogratias Nsabimana, Elie Sagatwa, Thaddee Bagaragaza, Emmanuel Akingeneye, Bernard Ciza, Cyriaque Simbizi, Jacky Heraud, Jean-Pierre Minaberry, and Jean-Michel Perrine. I also ask for forgiveness from all Rwandan people, in the hope that we must unanimously and categorically reject murder, treachery, lies and conspiracy as political weapons, eradicate impunity once and for all, and work together to build a culture of truth-telling, forgiveness, healing, and the rule of law. I ask for forgiveness from the people of Burundi and France whose leaders and citizens were killed in this crime. Above all, I ask for forgiveness from God for having lied and concealed evil for too long.
In freely telling the truth before God and the Rwandan people, I fully understand the risk I have undertaken, given Paul Kagame’s legendary vindictiveness and unquenchable thirst for spilling the blood of Rwandans. It is a shared risk that Rwandans bear daily in their quest for freedom and justice for all. Neither power and fame, nor gold and silver, are the motivation for me in these matters of death that have defined our nation for too long. Truth cannot wait for tomorrow, because the Rwandan nation is very sick and divided, and cannot rebuild and heal on lies. All Rwandans urgently need truth today. Our individual and collective search for truth will set us ree. When we are free, we can freely forgive each other and begin to live fully and heal at last.
Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa
Former: RPF Secretary General, Ambassador of Rwanda to the United States, and Chief of Staff for President Paul Kagame.
E-mail: ngombwa@gmail.com; Washington, DC. October 1, 2011
*Juvénal HABYARIMANA, Head of State of Rwanda; Cyprien NTARYAMIRA, Head of State of Burundi; Déogratias NSABIMANA, Chief of Staff of Rwandan Armed Forces (R.A.F.); Elie SAGATWA, Colonel and Chief of the Military Cabinet of the Rwandan president; Thaddée BAGARAGAZA, Major and executive officer in the ‘maison militaire’ of the Rwandan president; Juvénal RENZAHO, foreign affairs adviser to the Rwandan president; Emmanuel AKINGENEYE, personal physician to the Rwandan president; Bernard CIZA, Minister of Planning in the government of Burundi; Cyriaque SIMBIZI, Communications Minister of Burundi; and members of the French flight crew, Jacky HERAUD, pilot;. Jean-Pierre MINABERRY, co-pilot; and , Jean-Michel PERRINE, flight engineer.
@Shema, well put brother. Kagame is cooked. Suicide appears to be the only option. Short of that, it is the Hague, mob lynching, or 1930 where he has sent innocent people to perish!
Well well well…. done MAJOR doctor rudasingwa!!! truth has to be told indeed if the true healing and reconciliation of rwandan peoples is to take a deep rooted hold…i for one has been wondering why you guys and the likes of ur fellow Rwanda briefing authors have not taken a bold move such as this one all along and expose the already naked emporor of rwanda because as you rightly said this has been an open secret in RPF and RDF circles and i very much know that you guys hold the key to his demise…….iyo mumwamagana kera kose ubu urwanda ntiruba rugeze hano but anyway better late than never!!!!…i really admire you and your fellow compantriot’s methodical, systematic and calculated approach to solving rwandas problems.this really shows that education and knowledge plus wisdom are key in everything.trust me not even a political wizard or great rescuer can pull paul kagame out of this downward spiral to hell….hahahaha….
keep it up commrades…..alluta continua!!!!!
may God protect you.
@Makalo, food for thought. The Rwandan, Ethiopean, Eritrean and Ugandan dictators were supposed to be a “new breed” of African leaders, made prominent by USA President Clinton and British PM Blair. From within Africa, these new types were seen as “second generation” leaders and supposedly better than post-independence failed types. Lo and behold. The new crop is “more sophisticated” at tyranny, thuggery, thieving and brutality. The West is part of the African problem. It is hard to understand why anyone would support someone like Kagame with the misery this man has caused not only in Rwanda but in the entire region – as far as South Africa where he sent assassins to kill his opponents.
Why do Western liberal governments overlook human right abuses despite the towering amount of evidence that human right violations are occurring for the sake of their own interests? An article in The Economist – The compass fails – September 17th 2011 investigates this. Reports of human right breaches come, for example, from Ethiopia and Rwanda where opposition politicians are being arrested for treason or have died mysterious deaths, and citizens are being harassed and denied Internet access. The leaders of these regions – Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame – are simply defiant when challenged about these breaches. Meanwhile the African Union leader Teodoro Obiang and President of Equatorial Guinea is selfishly denying his people the profits of oil and playing host to neighbouring dictators such as Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki. Afwerki is currently in New York to oppose the sanctions on him and his government handed down by the United Nations Security Council for an alleged violation of an arms embargo. He is also known for his inhumane treatment of political prisoners.
So why have Western liberal democratic governments turned a blind eye to countries inflicting violence on their citizens? And why aren’t Western liberal democratic governments promoting human rights, which are enshrined in the UN and are supposed to be universal? Well actually for a number of reasons – which aren’t incredibly altruistic by the way. One being the most obvious reason – trade, for example, with China – and assistance in Afghanistan. Not to mention the West’s ties with corrupt autocracies in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, which certainly did not gain them much respect when it came to preaching the gospel of human rights to other countries.
So while the West is selective when standing up for human rights it seems that the organizers of New York Fashion Week – IMG and Mercedes Benz – are not afraid to boycott countries violating human rights…
New York Fashion Week cancelled a presentation of haute couture designed by Gulnara Karimova, after NGOs alerted the organizers of the connection between her and her father’s – Islam Karimov – tyrannical government.
This sends a very strong message to those governments and yet companies that continue to sell dictators sports cars and other luxury items haven’t seen fit to make similar sacrifices.
@Elisabeth, we must chipping away at Kagame fake image bit by bit. Even the Western world is slowly recognizing the real Kagame. Bit by bit. Don’t give up making a contribution in that regard. Keep it up sister Elisabeth.
Kagame admitted as much in his BBC HardTalk interview. When he was asked if he had shot down the Habyarimana plane, Kagame uttered his famous “I DO NOT CARE. Kagame said he had been a made a refugee for 30 years and had to fight Habyarimana. But as Dr Rudasingwa now writes, how do you kill someone you just signed a peace-deal with, and place a million lives at risk – Tutsi and moderate Hutu?
Kagame faces a very gloomy choice: 1) hang on to power and worsen his criminal standing; 2) resign and be tried for his crimes; 3) commit suicide. The man is caught between a rock and a hard place. But don’t expect many Rwandans to shade tears for this man.
@All, I too I am most thankful for Dr Rudasingwa for publicly stating what he knows and for asking for forgivess from Rwandans. Even if such actions may not necessarily quicken the departure of the Rwandan butcher, these actions unite Rwandans. Rwandans see that our problem is not Hutu-Tutsi but a criminal ruler who happen to be Tutsi. Rudasingwa, we congratulate you for your brave action.
@Kagame, if you have anything thinking person by your side (not prostitutes and drugists like Ines Mpambara, semi-literate like your Kanjogera and Jack Nziza), this is the time to see with them and figure out/think about your exit strategy Nduggu. Start bargaining with whomever you must. Your position is increasingly unattainable . When Kayumba spills the beans, you are a dead man! No wonder you want him killed at any cost. May the good lord be with dear brother Paul Kagame.
Thanks so much Dr. Rudasingwa. I really like the way you and your compatriots are driving things, step by step but correctly. I have already forgiven you. You are really showing that you are educated. Being a real Leader is accepting responsabilities. I really trust your confession and if our readers were like you, our beloved Rwanda could be a paradize like it was before the invasion by devils. I beleave that General Kayumba and Patrick Karegeya will soon confess openely because i think they hold a live story. Dr. Rudasingwa, you are more than a man. I want to tell you that in Lybia, the head of the NTC was the Justice Minister of Gadaffi and when uprise started, he was the first one to defect joining the people of Lybia in chasing away Dictator Gadaffi.
@All, Kagame’s lies are unravelling! Everyday. The question remains: who will pick up the pieces? Otherwise humpty dumpty regime is in pieces. Not even a magician can put it back together.
Well done Mr Rudasingwa. You are a humble and brave man. You are intelligent and honest. I see in you a patriotic and responsible leader. You have told your side of the story. I will lead the crowd to forgive you, but I need to hear from General Nywamsa. What does he know? At least you,by making this public statement, you are safe. Nyamwasa could save his life by exposing the killer, before it is too late.
@Elisabeth, thanks for your thoughts on this. Kagame it is true has successfully branded himself as epitome of development. Nonetheless, the more the truth picture of Kagame is painted by those who know him, the more all thinking people will take a second look. Kagame’s machine is no longer coping with sustaining his fake image as Mr African leader.
@Uh and all, I hope that General Kayumba Nyamwasa, now a partner with Rudasingwa in Rwandan National Congress, can tell the world his side of the story. He was among the military leadership, and surely must know who Butcher Kagame sent to Kigali to shoot down the doomed aircraft.
Be that as it may, Mr “I DO NOT CARE” is slowly getting fingered as a mass killer and thief.
Interesting… but does it really change anything? The western world will never hold Kagame accountable for anything (see how he still has not been charged with any human rights violations or war crimes for his treatment of Hutu civilian refugees during the “liquidation” of the refugee camps back in ’96). Kagame is held up in the western world as a “great African leader” who runs his country firmly, but has brought “amazing progress and advancement” to Rwanda. While I appreciate your confession, I am afraid that to the ICC and the UN and the rest of the international community, Kagame is an “African success” story, and he will unfortunately always be held on a pedestal of greatness. I know that whenever I bring up the crimes that I consider Kagame to have committed, from his time in the RPA to his rampage across Zaire, most people turn a deaf ear, and say “He was doing what had to be done!” It is a sad state of affairs all the way around, with Kagame coming out looking like a savior, even though he is more the devil in disguise.
keep it up commrades…..alluta continua!!!!!
may God protect you.