The Rwandan Genocide of April 1994 & Lessons For Nigeria Parts 2 & 3
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*The Rwandan Genocide of April 1994 & Lessons For Nigeria Parts 2 & 3
By Intersociety
20 Years Of Rwandan Genocide: Lessons For Nigerian Political Leaders &
Armed Opposition Groups (i.e. Boko Haram Insurgents)-Part 2
In Memory Of Late Madam Agathe Uwilingiyimana
(International Issue, Onitsha-Nigeria, 17th day of April, 2014)-In the
part one ( Here is the link:
http://nigeriamasterweb.com/blog/index.php/2014/04/16/the-rwandan-genocide-of-april-1994-lessons-for-nigeria
) of this international public statement by the leadership of
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
(Intersociety), the immediate and remote circumstances that led to the
genocide under reference were graphically captured. It is important to
remind that this statement is dedicated to the heroes and heroines of
the tragic and disheartening butchery, chief among them is late Madam
Agathe Uwilingiyimana; the transitional prime minister of Rwanda, who
was gruesomely murdered alongside her husband in the early hours of
April 7, 1994.
Butchery Following The Presidential Plane Crash Of April 6, 1994:
Months before the plane crash, strong accusations were leveled against
the Hutu controlled central government of President Juvenal
Habyarimana to the effect that plans had been successfully hatched by
the regime to massacre the Tutsis, moderate Hutus and rights activists
in large numbers. To actualize this, mass recruitment of the
unemployed Hutu youths was ordered. The killer exercise was said to
have been supervised by two Hutu extremist political movements called
"the National Republican Movement for Democracy (MRND)" and "the
Coalition for the Defense of the Republic (CDR)". Those recruited were
later named "the Interahamwe militias". They were trained by the
presidential guards, indoctrinated and brainwashed. Their tribal
killing operation code was "operation nettover" or "operation
cleanup". The Tutsis and moderate Hutus were labeled "enemies" and
"traitors", who deserved not to live or be spared alive.
The murderous messages of ethnic hatred and campaigns of calumny
against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus were widely spread across the
country using the State run radio station called "Radio Television
Libre des Mille Collines". The indoctrinated killer nationals were
firmly directed not to spare any "enemy" or "traitor", including newly
born children. Externally, there were massive supports for the
cleansing policies and operations of the then Hutu controlled central
government in Kigali, which included arms supplies and technical
supports. There were strong accusations that such killer supports came
from Egypt and South Africa. France was also accused of providing
expertise for the killer presidential guards and the "Interahamwe"
militias.
The shocking and chilling killing spree exploded hours after the
aviation killing of President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundi
counterpart, President Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6, 1994. One of the
earliest victims of the genocidal killings was the then transitional
Prime Minister, Madam Agathe Uwilingiyimana. She was 41 years old and
became prime minister in July 1993 following a power sharing
arrangement. A moderate Hutu, she was dragged out of her official
home, alongside her husband by the killer presidential guards on April
7, 1994, tortured and killed. Their five children were miraculously
hidden and saved by courageous friends and colleagues.
Other prominent victims of the genocidal massacre were Lando
Ndasingwa, a Tutsi cabinet minister in the transitional government,
who was executed alongside his Canadian wife, their two children and
mother; Joseph Kavaruganda, the then president of the Supreme Court
and ten peace keepers from Belgium. Key members of the human rights
groups were also felled by the genocidal knives and bullets. They
included Charles Shamukiga, Fidele Kanyabugoyi, Ignace Ruhatana,
Patrick Gahizi, Rev. Father Chrysologue Mahame and Abbe Augustin
Ntagara. They were butchered by the rampaging presidential guards.
Others like Mathieu Uwizeye (activist judge) and Charles Mbabaje
(secretary of a human rights outfit: LIPREDHOR) were executed in the
Rwandan cities of Kibundo and Byumba by the advancing rebels of the
Rwandese Patriotic Front.
Some Catholic nuns and priests also paid dearly with their lives in
the hands of "the Interahamwe" militias and the presidential guards.
In turn, scores of defenseless civilians, especially women and
children were massacred through homicidal collaboration of some
priests and nuns when the said defenseless nationals sought refuge in
churches and missionary school compounds. Barriers were mounted on all
roads by the presidential guards and the "Interahamwe" militias so as
to prevent the fleeing civilians from getting through. An estimated
20,000 people were executed in Kigali few hours into the genocidal
operations. It was a killing by anybody against anybody in sight.
Women also killed men as well as fellow women. Amnesty International
account, for instance, quoted one Hutu woman as saying: "I killed
three people, three men. I know them, they were my neighbors, I didn't
have any alternative. When I refused to kill, the government soldiers
banged a gun on my child's head and she died. She was six weeks old".
On the other hand, the Rwandese Patriotic Front rebels fiercely
matched to Kigali from their main base in Uganda. Some of their
colleagues, stationed in Kigali following the failed peace accords,
which included a cease fire, got entrapped and endangered. The
genocidal killings went down following the successful capture of
Kigali by the RPF rebels on July 4, 1994. This forced mass exodus of
the Hutus and their failed central government into the then Zairian
city of Goma as well as Burundi and Tanzania. There were 1.5million
refugees in Zaire, 500,000 in Tanzania and 270,000 in Burundi. The
genocide lasted from 6th April to 21st July, 1994. The then leader of
the RPF rebels, General Paul Kagame told an international news agency
that "the killings have stopped not because of changing of heart, but
because there are few people left to be killed".
A new central government was formed in Kigali on July 21, 1994 with
the appointment of Mr. Pasteur Bizimugu (a moderate Hutu) as president
and Mr. Faustin Twagiramungu (a Tutsi) as prime minister. The leader
of the Rwandese Patriotic Front rebels, General Paul Kagame became the
vice president and commander-in-chief of the new armed forces. He took
over as the president in the year 2000 and remains so till date. There
were also reported cases of post genocide killings and deaths in
Rwanda. Cases of genocidal revenge massacres were rife.
The new RPF government and its sympathizers killed scores of suspected
Hutus. The ousted Hutu central government, which escaped with bank
funds, computers, vehicles and other luxury items to Tanzania, Zaire
(now Democratic Republic of Congo) and Burundi later regrouped and
rearmed. Some of their victims were Tutsi communities living in the
DRC, called "Banyamulenges". They were systematically targeted and
killed in large numbers. The ousted Hutu government forces and their
"Interahamwe" militias also launched a series of cross border attacks
into Rwanda and killed scores of innocent civilians.
In neighboring Burundi, similar massacres were also the order of the
day. The then central government of President Sylvestre Ntibantinganya
was helpless. The rift between the Tutsi dominated Army of Burundi and
the Hutu backed rebel groups turned the country into killing fields
leading to massacre of thousands of innocent nationals. The massacres
reared their ugly heads after the gruesome assassination of President
Cyprien Ntaryamira. The butchery came down after a bloodless coup in
1996 led by the former military head of State, Major Jean Pierre
Buyoya.
In all, the Rwandan genocide cost an estimated death of between
800,000 and 1million people and generated over 2.5million refugees and
millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Up to 200, 000 more
died of post genocide diseases and starvation. In the Amnesty
International account, "in one refugee camp in Zaire (DRC) alone, up
to 80, 000 people died within weeks in a cholera epidemic". Over
100,000 were also believed to have been killed in attacks and counter
attacks between the ousted Hutu government and its allied armed
persons and the incumbent Tutsi controlled government and its allies
since the end of genocide in July 1994. In Burundi, it was estimated
that up to 60,000 people were killed between 1994 and 2002.
Signed: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
+234(0)8180103912, +234(0)8033601078
emekaumeagbalasi@yahoo.co.uk, botchairman@intersociety-ng.org
________________________
20 Years Of Rwandan Genocide: Lessons For Nigerian Political Leaders &
Armed Opposition Groups (i.e. Boko Haram Insurgents)-Part 3
In Memory Of Madam Agathe Uwilingiyimana
(International Issue, Onitsha-Nigeria, 18th day of April, 2014)-The
part one and two of this international public statement presented
graphic details of what happened during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.
The genocide led to the death of between 800,000 and 1million people,
mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. There was also post genocide deaths
of over 200,000 people caused by diseases and starvation as well as
over 100,000 post genocide killings by the parties to the Rwandan
bloody conflict. In the areas of refugees and internally displaced
persons, the genocide generated over 2,5million refugees and millions
of internally displaced persons. This part concludes the important
international public statement on Rwandan Genocide & Its Lessons To
Nigerian Political Leaders & Their Armed Opposition Groups.
It is important to remind that this important international public
statement of the leadership of Intersociety is in honour of Madam
Agathe Uwilingiyamana, the late transitional prime minister of the
troubled country, murdered alongside her husband by the presidential
guards in the early hours of April 7, 1994. Also honoured are leading
human rights activists who were butchered in the genocide. They
include Charles Shamukiga, Fidele Kanyabugoyi, Ignace Ruhatana,
Patrick Gahizi, Rev. Father Chrysologue Mahame, Abbe Augustin Ntagara,
Mathieu Uwizeye (activist judge) and Charles Mbabaje (secretary of a
human rights outfit: LIPREDHOR).
The Rwandan genocide has brought to bear the world's unending wars and
other unsafe conditions caused by human's socially incoherent actions.
The genocide was the height of unending butcheries on the African
Continent and the Great Lakes Region in particular. It was a sad
remembrance of tragedies of the long past. It reopened the healing
wounds inflicted on the world populations in the past 5000 years with
14,500 wars globally and only 300 years of peace. That is to say that,
historically, the world lived 5000 years with 14,500 wars and only 300
years of peace. It was a sad reminder that between 1945 and the 2000s,
a period of about 65 years, 165 wars were fought around the world with
34 wars waging in Africa as at 1994 including wars in the Great Lakes
Region. That between 1945 and 1985, a period of 40 years, 22million
people died in wars around the world (UNDP) and that out of 21million
refugees around the world in the 2000s, 14 million were generated by
African bloody conflicts and located on the Continent.
Lessons To Nigerian Political Leaders & Armed Opposition Groups: The
genocide under reference exposes the dangers inherent in failure to
nip group crimes in the bud. It was the irresponsibility and inability
of the successive governments in Kigali and Bujumbura to manage and
tame group crimes perpetrated against the innocent nationals of the
two countries by their armed ethnic zealots that snowballed into the
genocidal butchery of 1994. In Nigeria, the failure of the Federal
Government of Nigeria to curtail the homicidal excesses of leading
ethno-religious murderous brigades like Boko Haram insurgents has
risen to an apogee. In biology, once a mother gives birth to a child,
she automatically becomes the caterer of the child. But in crime, once
crime gives birth to "government", the reverse becomes the case. In
other words, the "government" becomes the controller of crime. This is
because it was "crime" that gave birth to "government", but
surrendered its supremacy to the latter. But where the latter is found
weak, the former takes charge.
Therefore, when government sneezes, crime catches cold. But where
government fails to control crime, then the foundation of such
government is threatened. It goes with a popular theory that where
there is no government, there is no law and where there is no law,
there is no crime. On the other hand, it is the existence of crime
that brought about government and its policing agencies. Where crime
rules over government, anarchy becomes the societal norms. Life in a
lawless society is nasty, brutish, short, beastly and utterly
homicidal and cannibalistic. This was the sorry situation in Rwanda in
1994, to the extent that "hunters became the hunted" and those in
presidential mansions found themselves in refugees' tents. In such a
situation, the next armed person guarding a public elected or
appointed official becomes his or her potential assassin or a broad
day murderer.
It is a truism that over 60,000 Nigerians have been killed maliciously
since 1999, a period of 15 years. In four months into 2014 alone, up
to 3,000 Nigerians have been killed by group criminals. Those killed
by Boko Haram insurgents are believed to be over 1,500. Another armed
opposition group called "Fulfulde or Fulani Herdsmen" must have been
responsible for over 1,000 deaths.
In the plain language of Criminology & Security Studies and Peace &
Conflict, "war is any violent conflict with fatalities of over 999".
With this concise definition, it is not in contention as whether
Nigeria is in a state of war. As at our last estimates in December
2011, 54,000 Nigerians were killed outside the law since 1999, with
police related unlawful killings accounting for 21,000. Today, a
number of Nigerians have been killed unlawfully and extra-judicially
by the Nigeria Police Force. Others have gone missing in their hands
too. Those that perpetrated these killings are still on the prowl, no
thanks to culture of impunity and lack of presidential political will.
The worse case in respect of policy makers and public office holders
including those manning the country's policing policies is the
entrenched culture of immunity of mental emptiness. From President
Goodluck Jonathan down to a commissioner of police, they are resistant
to innovative ideas and pieces of good advice. At times, they make
Nigerians feel that they derive joy watching innocent Nigerians killed
in droves. Their only apparent response is the steady increase in
defense budgets with little or no concrete actions or impacts. In 2014
budget alone, over N1trillion was budgeted for securitization, capital
and recurrent inclusive, yet nothing has been done concretely security
wise. Many noble ideas and suggestions have been given as ways to
manage or tackle the country's porous security situations, yet none
has been heeded. Till date, 95% of the country's 371,000 police
officers are still computer illiterates. Our question is: how is it
possible for a typewriter police officer or security agent to fight or
confront a computer literate bomb detonator?
We have said it a number of times that Boko Haram insurgency is not
insurmountable. The country as a matter of reality does not have basic
toolkits to curtail its menace. Nigeria suffers from security
intelligence toxemia and lacks electronic security devices
fundamentally needed to match the Boko Haram's asymmetric warfare. In
modern warfare technology, a mobile phone is more sophisticated in
achieving final results than an AK-47 assault rifle. In kidnap crime
operation, a mobile phone is more useful than an AK-47 assault rifle.
When a single bomb detonator goes on rampage and kills scores of
people, it does not require containers load of guns to track him or
her down. It requires intelligence and electronic security devices to
do so. This explains why there are over 4 million hidden security
cameras in the United Kingdom. The world's two most endangered
countries: Israel and USA are secured every hour through electronic
security devices and super security intelligence networks.
As the Rwandan Genocide of April to July 1994, has shown, when group
crimes are not nipped in the bud or are not "de-escalated", barbarism
and cannibalism become the order of the day and in such situation, the
presidential ruling class and members of the National Assembly are far
from being secured because such is "a war by all against all". Like in
Rwanda, the president of the country's Supreme Court, its prime
minister and president, etc all perished in the butchery. Apart from
apparent failure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to tackle the
menaces of group crimes in the country, another genocidal provocation
will be to launch deadly bomb attacks in the cities of Southwest,
Southeast and South-south. This will be seen as a total declaration of
war on the innocent peoples of the areas and self help methods
including revenge killings will be uncontrollably entrenched. If the
Federal Government has failed woefully in taming pockets of group
crimes, it will be a near impossibility for it to control such "war by
all against all".
Finally, it may most likely be correct to say that Nigeria is nearing
"a Rwandan Genocide" episode. With the butchering of over one hundred
innocent Nigerians at the Federal Capital area of Nyanya last Monday
(14/4/2014), which is totally condemned, it is correct to say that
nobody or area is safe in the country. While the failure of the
Government on security of Nigerians and the public and private
properties is disheartening, the task now lies on those at the
National Conference. They must be reminded that their main job at the
Confab is to find solutions to the root causes of social vices in all
its ramifications in the country.
These include: what causes unending group criminality in Nigeria? What
is responsible for the country's chronic economic downturns? Why are
the country's 33 solid mineral deposits not mechanized? What is the
best ethno-religious legal system for Nigeria as a plural society?
What form of federalism or confederacy will best suit Nigeria? Why are
over 70% of Nigeria's annual gross earnings going into the pockets of
only 17,500 top public office holders and public/civil servants? Why
is Nigeria borrowing serially? What is the cause of high cost of
public governance in Nigeria? In what ways will the "public allowance
and overheads squandermania" be tackled in Nigeria? Is there any
equity and fairness in a section or few sections of the Nigeria
permanently laying claims to the country's presidency? What is the
state of civil and criminal legal systems in Nigeria? Is there any
lopsidedness in the number of States and LGAs per geopolitical zone in
Nigeria? Are the present revenue sharing formulas acceptable to most
Nigerians? Have the public office holders in Nigeria done justice to
numerous international rights and humanitarian treaties in line with
Section 12 of the Constitution? Can the Chapter Two of the
Constitution be made justiciable? What are the causes and solutions to
chronic ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria?
Signed: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
+234(0)8180103912, +234(0)8033601078
emekaumeagbalasi@yahoo.co.uk, botchairman@intersociety-ng.org
Photo Above: Map of Rwanda
Photo Above: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chairman, Board of Trustees,
Intersociety, 41, Miss Elems Street, Fegge, Onitsha, Anambra State,
Nigeria.
http://nigeriamasterweb.com/blog/index.php/2014/04/19/the-rwandan-genocide-of-april-1994-lessons-for-nigeria-parts-2-3
--
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