I find Kikwete’s comments a very strong signal that Kagame’s political honeymoon is long gone! It reveals a new regional political trend against Kagame. For the first time, a head of State is telling Kagame that the Hutu fighting him have legitimate political concerns. They are not criminals as Kagame had cheated the world to believe.Open Letter of Protest at President Kikwete’s genocide denial and revisionist declaration
Tuesday, 28 May 2013 22:29 by Association of Genocide Student Survivors and Alumni (AERG/GEARG)
RE: Open Letter of Protest at President Kikwete’s genocide denial and revisionist declaration at 50th Anniversary of African Unity, Addis Ababa.
UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon
United Nations
New York, NY 10017 USA
212-963-5012 fax: 212-963-7055
Email: ecu@un.org
May 28, 2013
RE: Open Letter of Protest at President Kikwete’s genocide denial and revisionist declaration at 50th Anniversary of African Unity, Addis Ababa
On May 26, at the AU summit in Addis Ababa, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete made a statement that will go down in history as one of the most dehumanizing. Speaking at during the meeting for the parties concerned by the regional Peace Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Kikwete wants the FDLR genocidal force treated as victims. From President Kikwete’s understanding, the genocidal forces waiting to exterminate Tutsis have to be given red carpet welcome to thank them and thereby allow them to continue their agenda.
We, the Association of Genocide Student Survivors and Alumni (AERG/GEARG), want to set the record straight that President Kikwete’s statement has exposed the following:
1. He has declared his shameless and insensitive support for the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi;
2. He disregarded the would-be human morals for all the sane people of the world who regard and have condemned the genocide, and the genocide perpetrators as the worse criminals the world has ever experienced;
3. President Kikwete declared himself as Genocide denier and revisionist, and unfortunately implicated the people on whose behalf he made this genocidal statement;
4. He either has a short memory or he deliberately decided to ignore the most recent horrors of genocide victims whose remains trekked unforgettable routes through his river Kagera up to the their current resting place where over ten thousand souls are laid to rest in Kansesero and Lambu on the shores of lake Victoria. May God bless the Ugandan citizens, who unlike Kikwete, offered their humane hearts and resources to give those remains a honorable burial place;
We request President Kikwete to borrow a leaf from such experience other than providing moral backup to the same perpetrators who still have the spirit to return and exterminate us once and for all;
We want to remind President Kikwete that we know our history, let him leave us alone. We know how to manage our post Genocide challenges. If he has chosen to support those who want to accomplish their unfinished mission of genocide against the Tutsi, he should be rest-assured that he will never succeed because we shall never die again;
We want to remind President Kikwete that, as orphans and widows who survived through unbearable suffering, today live and share daily life with those who killed us but have however confessed and apologized to the entire Rwandan society for their crimes committed against us;
On February 17, 2005, while visiting Rwanda, when he was Foreign Affairs Minister of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete toured the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre, where more than 250,000 remains are laid to rest. In the memorial book, Kikwete wrote: “It is horrifying, saddening, and pitiful too. Let this be a reminder once again for such abominable things to happen again. Let us say never again, and make sure it really doesn’t happen again”.
We wonder whether a difference of about eight years has left President Kikwete in complete loss of memory of what he said at Gisozi. It is shameful that Kikwete can abuse the welcome accorded to him by Rwandans back in 2005, and the following year, as President, as well as the countless times he has visited.
His utterances at the AU present a miscarriage to the late Mwalimu Nyerere legacy for the unity and brotherhood of the Tanzanian peoples, and all African communities. In making his negationist statement, President Kikwete has not only dishonored Nyerere’s Vision but also dehumanized the Tanzanian peoples as unconditional accomplices to his genocide denial and revisionist comments.
If the UN Secretary General is planning peace for this region, at the same time as people like President Kikwete rekindle the seeds of destruction, what peace will be achieved?
We, undersigned, the student survivors, ask for nothing less than an apology for the despicable utterances.
Faithfully,
Cc:
- EAC Heads of States
- The President of the United States of America
- The African Union
- East African Legislative Assembly (EALA)
- All Embassies Accredited to Rwanda
- The National Assembly of Tanzania
- The Rwanda Civil Society Platform
Kikwete told the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last weekend that talks should be held between governments and “rebels hiding in the DRC where they launch attacks against their countries of origin.”
According to a press statement from Tanzania President’s office, Kikwete said, “ADF is attacking Uganda and FDRL is doing the same to Rwanda so efforts should be made to end such attacks.” He said military operations against the rebels would not yield fruits.
Kigali’s fears were reinforced by the arrest of the deputy commander of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam in April.Sources told that Gen Stanislas Bigaruka was spotted by Rwanda intelligence personnel after traveling from DRC for a special meeting at Dar es Salaam Hotel in Dar es Salaam before being captured.The Rwanda government believes that DRC national army, FARDC, also continues to support FDLR militants with food, logistics and intelligence.
Mushikiwabo told the French broadcaster that she did not expect President Kikwete to suggest that Rwanda negotiate with known terrorists since he has served as a foreign affairs minister for his county and knows the FDLR background.
The Rwanda Minister pointed out that President Kikwete could be just another sympathiser for the group whose ideology is still being fought in Rwanda and worldwide.
“There are many spokespeople for the FDLR. Some are ideologically aligned to the FDLR. We stopped the Genocide but we didn’t stop the ideology,” she added. This is the latest direct attack on Kikwete by a top Rwandan government official, confirming Kigali fears that Tanzania has been in bed with FDLR.
Kigali told UN last year that DRC authorities facilitated a visit of two Belgian nationals, Faustin Murego and Joseph Nzabonimpa, to negotiate an alliance with the FOLR to fight against M23 in June 2012.Congolese intelligence services arrested the two but released them on July 10.
It means Kagame’s major political tool has gone; by presenting the Hutu as evil under FDLR, Kagame had managed to knock out a very big potential and actual opposition block.If the Hutu make a come back into Rwanda’s political life as equal human beings not devils as he had managed to paint them, Kagame may consider himself gone.
Kikwete’s comment gives us an insight into the current political limbo in which Kagame finds himself. It fits well into the observation that Kagame does not have both political and military capacity to fight the UN brigade.
Once upon a time, Kagame had convinced everyone around that FDLR was evil incarnate! It was believed, and wrongly of course, that all the crimes committed in DRC were committed by FDLR.
Kagame exterminated people and blamed it all to FDLR. FDLR was called “negative force”. Now, Kikwete, a regional power, is telling Kagame to negotiate with FDLR! The problem is that, practically, FDLR does not exist!! Nobody knows who Kagame is going to negotiate with as FDLR because FDLR, for most part, is Kagame’s force!
FDLR in Rwandan politics is an ambiguous term. For outsiders it may be used to refer to the armed group fighting Kagame from DRC. However, for most Rwandans FDLR also means the Hutu as a group.
The Tanzanian diplomats I have spoken to in NY know this. I am sure Kikwete knows this as well. Is telling Kagame to negotiate with “FDLR” telling him to negotiate with the Hutu, his ethnic enemies?
Kikwete knows how much blood of the Tutsi Kagame has accumulated on his hands for his self-aggrandizement. All legitimate Tutsi opposition leaders have been branded “working with” FDLR. Now Kagame is being told to negotiate with FDLR. Then he’s being told to negotiate with the Tutsi political opposition. In general, the term FDLR in Kagame’s political paradigm means ” political opposition.”
In the last couples of years, several leaders of the FDLR based in Europe have been arrested and imprisoned at the instigation of the Rwandan government which branded their group as terrorist. Kagame’s image was then still bright and almost intact among western partners who were interested in pursuing their regional economic interests. As the strongman of the region, they required his complicit support to access DRC’s resources. However, despite a weakened but still disciplined FDLR, the group remains an inescapable force to have lasting peace in Eastern Congo
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