The Power of Horror in Rwanda

Fifteen years ago, efforts at genocide killed about 800,000 Rwandans. Now that tragedy is providing the government with a cover for repression.

by Kenneth Roth

During a gruesome three months in 1994, about 800,000 Rwandans were murdered as part of a calculated effort by a group of Hutu extremists to eradicate the country's Tutsi population.

The genocide ended only with the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel group founded by Rwandan exiles who ousted the Hutu extremists. The front's austere and savvy commander, Paul Kagame, now serves as Rwanda's president.

In the 15 years since the extremist government was ousted, Rwanda has become an island of stability in a volatile region. The economy is booming, the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi is officially downplayed, and ethnic and political violence has been largely eradicated. Kigali, the capital of a country that likes to portray itself as the Switzerland of Africa, is orderly and manicured.

But Rwanda has a long way to go. Despite the facade of occasional elections, the government essentially runs a one-party state. And ironically, it is the genocide that has provided the government with a cover for repression. Under the guise of preventing another genocide, the government displays a marked intolerance of the most basic forms of dissent.

There is no meaningful opposition. The press is cowed. Nongovernmental organizations are under attack. When parliamentary elections held last September produced a whopping 92% victory for Kagame's ruling party, evidence collected by the European Union and Rwandan monitors suggested that the government actually inflated the percentage of opposition votes so as to avoid the appearance of an embarrassing Soviet-style acclamation.

One tool of repression has been the gacaca courts -- informal tribunals run without trained lawyers or judges -- which the government established at the community level to try alleged perpetrators of the genocide. The original impetus was understandable: Rwandan prisons were overpopulated with tens of thousands of alleged genocidaires and no prospect of the country's regular courts trying them within any reasonable time. The gacaca courts provided a quick, if informal, way to resolve these cases. In theory, members of the community would know who had or had not been involved in the genocide, but in reality the lack of involvement by legal professionals has left the proceedings open to manipulation.

Today, 15 years after the genocide, people are still coming forward and accusing their neighbors of complicity in it, suggesting that gacaca has morphed into a forum for settling personal vendettas or silencing dissident voices. The prospect of suddenly being accused of past participation in the genocide, with little legal recourse against concocted charges, is enough to make most people keep their heads down in the political arena.

The government says it will close the gacaca courts in June. But the government has another tool of control -- the crime of "genocide ideology." Formally adopted last year, the law outlawing "genocide ideology" is written so broadly that it can encompass even the most innocuous comments. As many Rwandans have discovered, disagreeing with the government or making unpopular statements can easily be portrayed as genocide ideology, punishable by sentences of 10 to 25 years. That leaves little political space for dissent

Pressing the government to amend these repressive laws and practices is not easy, as I discovered in recent meetings with senior officials from the prime minister on down. They are understandably sensitive about political invective that can lead to renewed ethnic slaughter, but the public faces the very real danger that any political criticism of the government will be construed as fomenting genocide.

Western governments, guilt-ridden at not having stopped the genocide and impressed by Rwanda's stability and economic growth, have been all too willing to close their eyes to this repressive sleight of hand.

But Kagame's strategy is shortsighted and dangerous. He claims to be building a society in which citizens are only Rwandans, not Tutsi or Hutu, but his repression of civil society means that avenues to forge alternative bonds among people are limited. That makes it more likely that in moments of tension Rwandans will resort to their ethnic identity, as so often happens in repressive societies.

The challenge for world leaders 15 years after Rwanda's genocide is to overcome guilt and look beyond the enforced peace to convince Kagame and his government to build the foundation for more organic, lasting stability.

The best way to prevent another genocide is to insist that Kagame stop manipulating the last one.

Kenneth Roth is executive director of Human Rights Watch.

RWANDAN DEAD MUST BE HONOURED BY ENDING GENOCIDE - BAN

Marking the 15th anniversary of the 1994 mass killings in Rwanda today, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asserted that preventing genocide was the most important collective response to the tragedy.

"Only by meeting this challenge can we match the resolve of the survivors and truly honour the memory of those who died in Rwanda 15 years ago," he said in a statement.

April 1994 saw the beginning of a slaughter in the tiny East African country in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates died, mostly by machete, during a period of less than 100 days.

The UN is observing the anniversary with a mid-day reading of the testimonies of survivors of the genocide, coinciding with similar events taking place in Congo, Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Mexico and Japan.

Two photography exhibits on Rwandan survivors will also be launched in the visitor's lobby of UN Headquarters in New York.

One exhibit, entitled Visions of Rwanda: Images of Survival, Reconciliation, Forgiveness and Hope," documents the 2007 coming together of 12 survivors, including orphans, widows, rape and assault victims, a judge and perpetrators, some of whom were responsible for the killing of family members of other participants.

The other – "Intended Consequences: Photographs and Interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik" –portrays the ordeals of several Rwandan women who bore children conceived by rape during the massacres.

"The resounding voices of survivors touch us in ways that no other words could," Mr. Ban commented in his statement, adding that they also depict a country moving toward reconciliation.

"Yet the silence of the more than 800,000 innocent victims still haunts our collective conscience," he said.
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UN HELPS DEMOBILIZE 880 CHILDREN LINKED TO ARMED GROUPS IN DR CONGO

UN HELPS DEMOBILIZE 880 CHILDREN LINKED TO ARMED GROUPS IN DR CONGO
New York, Mar 4 2009 4:00PM

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has demobilized 880 children associated with armed groups in the volatile eastern province of North Kivu between 30 January and 2 March, it was announced today.

Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesperson for the mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, told a news conference in Kinshasa that the great majority of the 839 boys and 41 girls are Congolese, but there are also 31 Rwandans, two Burundians and two Ugandans.

All of the children were handed over to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for their return and reintegration into their families and communities, after they were demobilized by MONUC's Child Protection Unit.

In early February, MONUC had separated 98 additional children from the various armed groups in North Kivu, where fighting between the Government army (FARDC), a mainly Tutsi militia known as the CNDP, Hutu groups and others has displaced some 250,000 civilians since last August.

The separation of children from armed forces and groups is one of MONUC's priorities, within the framework of its support to the process of the accelerated integration of armed groups into the FARDC.

MONUC calls on all actors to continue to support its efforts in this area, "so that children are not sent to the front, and to allow all minors associated with armed groups to be able to reintegrate into civilian life as soon as possible," the mission said on its website.

Also at today's news conference, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that attacks against humanitarians are on the increase in several parts of North Kivu, with five cases reported in January, 13 in February and four already in the first few days of March.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of MONUC, Alan Doss, has welcomed a new stabilization and reconstruction plan for the eastern DRC, which was agreed upon by local and international stakeholders under the auspices of the Congolese Prime Minister. Mr. Doss specifically pledged to support the plan in the areas of security and the restoration of State authority.

In related news, a joint mission led by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has arrived in Katanga province, in the area of Ankoro, to address the issue of malnutrition. OCHA says that since September 2008, there have been nearly 1,200 cases of children suffering from acute malnutrition in Ankoro, a situation being compounded by population increases as well as malaria.

Also in Katanga, the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting local efforts to treat a cholera epidemic.
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RELATIONS BETWEEN RWANDA AND DR CONGO FOCUS OF BAN'S TALKS IN KIGALI

RELATIONS BETWEEN RWANDA AND DR CONGO FOCUS OF BAN'S TALKS IN KIGALI
New York, Mar 1 2009 3:00PM

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Paul Kagame discussed the situation in the border region between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today during their meeting in Kigali, the current stop on the United Nations chief's five-nation Africa trip.

"I expressed to President Kagame my satisfaction at the steps he has taken to open a new chapter in Rwanda-DRC relations," Mr. Ban told reporters after his meeting, adding that he is "heartened" by the President's intention to establish full diplomatic relations with DRC.

In a move supported by the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUC), DRC and Rwanda launched a joint military offensive in January against the ethnic Hutu militia known as the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), which has caused havoc in the eastern part of DRC for years.

Mr. Ban noted that t
he joint operation appears to have made progress. At the same time, he urged President Kagame "to ensure that these operations do not affect negatively the civilian population and humanitarian access to those in need."

Just a couple of weeks ago, MONUC reported that the FDLR is conducting a campaign of terror, systematically raping, murdering, looting and abducting civilians in an attempt to undermine the joint operation.

Since then the mission has boosted its efforts to protect and reassure threatened populations, mostly in North Kivu province where some 250,000 civilians have been uprooted by fighting between Hutu groups, a mainly Tutsi militia known as the CNDP, the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and others since August.

Mr. Ban had a chance to hear some of the concerns of the civilians uprooted by the fighting, when he met earlier in the day with a group of people living in the Kibati camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.

"Their first concern is security," Mr. Ban noted during his visit to the camp. "Even though they want to return, they fear that when they do, they may be attacked by the FDLR. This must stop, and the United Nations, led by MONUC and the FARDC will provide the necessary security and safety to those returning to their homes."

Another concern is humanitarian assistance, and in this regard, the Secretary-General appealed for support from all quarters to enable the UN and others to provide the vital relief that the IDPs need.

He also expressed his gratitude to the many aid agencies and their partners who are assisting those at the camp, which at the peak of the crisis sheltered more than 80,000 IDPs. It currently has some 20,000 residents.

Mr. Ban noted that his visit to the camp, as well as yesterday's meeting in Goma with victims of sexual violence, has "strengthened my resolve to work even harder for all those many people who
need our support."

In addition to DRC and Rwanda, the Secretary-General also visited South Africa and Tanzania on his current trip, which will take him next to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for an international conference on Gaza's reconstruction.

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