Category: Opinion

The word genocide needs to always be put into perspective to eliminate any iota of controversy regarding its execution. An we have had several of them carried out around the world incluing the Jesiwhs Holocaust, the Bosnian genocide and most recently here in Rwanda back in 1994. By definition, the word “Genocide” is the deliberate extermination of a racial, religious or ethnic group.

It is mass murder deliberately planned and carried out by individuals, all of whom are responsible, whether they made the plan, gave the order or carried out the killings. In rwanda’s case, the genocide took place from 6th April 1994, where about one million people died in just 100 days. People who had been trained to massacre were members of the civilian death squad “Interhamwe” who used machetes and clubs to kill, maim, torture and rape their victims.

The Genocide ideology had in Rwanda become so widespread and so quick .One of the major contributors to this was the media, the use of radio, as a means of spreading hatred amongst the people. (ignorance and illiteracy in most areas also did not help, leading people to believe what they were told.)

Rwanda has come a long way from where it was and has come around in such ways and time that most cannot believe. Through sheer determination, perseverance, hard work, education, the people of Rwanda and its government are aiming in the right direction.

One of the most important and challenging tasks the Rwandan government and its people had to (and still) face, is combating the genocide ideology. The Government set out policies and strategic actions to help with this. Through emphasising ways in which education and sensitisation on important issues such as rehabilitation, healing and reconciliation is crucial to achieving development goals, promoting programs, foundation, building a stronger, prosperous and secure future. Some of the organisations which have made remarkable progress with major results are still positive and working towards ensuring Rwanda’s continued success in combating genocide ideology.

The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) was created because of the atrocities that were committed. The commission is a national, independent and permanent institution which not only fights against the genocide ideology but also educates and helps people understand the history of Rwanda and what happened. It has three organs : a commissioner’s council, an executive secretariat, and an advisory council. The National Commission is working at fighting Genocide Ideology, helping in the healing and rehabilitation of the youth and the general poplation by educating them, holding events such as the genocide exhibition, held alongside the commemoration from 7th April to 13th,with some four other related activities which are to be launched, among others. CNLG also works with other organisations such as the Gacaca courtsand is also involved in dealing with testimonies, witnesses, perpetrators, prosecutors as well as survivors. 

The Gacaca courts established in 2001 are one of the ways in which the trials of prisoners were dealt with. Their activities were carried out in three steps, including the collection of information relating to the genocide, categorising of persons prosecuted for having committed genocide or having played a role in different genocidal crimes, and the trial of cases falling under their competence (or jurisdiction).

The Gacaca proceedings were recorded by the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda in Kinyarwanda (English transcripts and subtitles are available). Survivors and prisoners both get to testify and confess. Their contribution to the justice system was major in speeding up of the process and allowing for many trials, which would have never been completed.

 It is through organisations like these that we learn about the genocide ideology and their magnitude. It is also important to know how much of it has affected the people and educate them on the issue. Using communication and education, people can be given moral, psychological and practical support and succeed in halting the Genocide dogma.

The Gacaca courts have faced immense challenges such as, dealing with the number of people accused of genocide and having to come up with a system to deliver fair and just trials. Time was definitely not on their side, if nothing was to be done right away, things could have worsened, neither were the conditions in which they had to keep the accused in prisons too overcrowded, where prisoners of all sorts of criminals, from petty one to full scale psychopaths would be locked together. The emotions and trauma of the people was still extremely high and raw. The people were also in tension and conflict with each other. Those are but a few of the challenges they had to bear in mind. With very little universal help and a new government just in place, the Gacaca courts had immense goals to reach.

Despite the obstacles and especially criticism from all over the world by human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights watch, which claimed that the Gacaca courts were not up to international standards to deliver fair trails, they the courts managed to fulfill a vital truth function in pursuit of justice.

They handled what others could not especially by helping people to openly participate as fairly as possible. They gave a survivor a chance to tell what happened and demand his or her right to justice against the perpetrators as the latter confessed and told their side of the story. the courts also helped many Rwandans to open their eyes and ears, come together in order to heal, reconcile and join forces to build their country.

Culture is one of the indices that signify personal and natural identity. I could not think of a better description of the word ‘culture’ than those of Walter Rodney, a prominent Guyanese historian and political activist who said,“Culture is a total way of life, it embraces what people ate and what they wore, the way they walked and the way they talked, the manner in which they treated death and the way they greeted newborns”.

I concur with Walter Rodney as I am sure many of you do too. But the question has risen on the minds of many of the youth today, as to how our cultural values and morals can coincide with today’s constant changing economic, political but mostly social status. We all agree that Rwanda was a very different country ten years ago and will be even more so in next ten years. The futuristic destination of our country is quite the same as the rest of our neighboring nations (maybe even a little more) both at home in Africa, as well as, abroad in developing countries, but the cultures and traditional values remain the same.

Let us look at examples such as India, a former British colony, which is now has one of the biggest movie industries in the world after the U.S, producing over 1000 movies per year. Today, the movie industry has helped India’s economy grow by 50 percent to 60 percent. The film industry in India though, still has a clear understanding and respect of its moral obligation in respecting and keeping the country’s cultural values alive. If you have ever watched a Hindu movie, you can clearly see their cultural and moral beliefs portrayed all over the screen ; there is no nudity, no kissing. The portrayal of a true and virtuous Indian woman is captured showing a man attempting to woo a woman but she will not be screened with him alone without a chaperon, until the day she is married. 

Many of these traditions are still being practised today, even though the way they dress is more modern and their ideas towards educating women has dramatically changed over the last decade. Many of their thousand years old cultural values and traditions have remained, the most commonly known in India is arranged marriages. The same goes to China where a thousand year old traditions are still being practised everywhere and every day. They uphold their culture starting from their amazing calligraphy that cannot be imitated anywhere else in the world. When tourists go to China, they go there hoping to see the Great Wall of China among other different cultural attractions. I doubt people go all the way across the globe to experience the latest Nokia phone.

I decided to start with these examples to explain to our youth that despite living in the 21th century, we ought to keep our old traditions and cultural values alive while still being very much a part of today’s society.

From the earliest inhabitants of Rwanda, who were hunters and gatherers, ouor rich culture plays a major role in our tourism sector today. Many of the tourists, who visit Rwanda every year always remember the ‘intore’ dancers since that is what they want to see the most. The dance touches on different aspects like keeping our culture alive, teaching us how our ancestors would prepare for hunting or prepare for battle among others. It also depicts the story of their bravery and excellent skills. In our culture, traditional gatherers would gather cow dung to build their hut. This culture has not died either. In fact, when you walk into various arts and craft shops, restaurants, cafes and homes, you will notice that paintings made from cow dung are sold not only in Rwanda, but across the globe.

The same goes for the weaving of baskets which has now become a great source of revenue for Rwandan women who were victims of the genocide. These baskets come with new meaning and importance without losing its old cultural meaning. Rwandans called them ‘Agaseke’ and they still carry the name today. The only difference is that since the genocide, they have come to be known as ‘Baskets of Peace’ because women of various ethnic backgrounds can come together and weave baskets together as one people.

I believe that every time tourists arrive in Rwanda and experience all the above, they have not only experienced a new and improved Rwanda, which is currently up to speed with all of society’s latest trends and futuristic dreams.

Beyond this, they also leave with a clear, beautiful and realistic image of where Rwanda is truly from, what it is about, how we live, our beliefs and traditions, our moral integrity and most importantly our cultural history.

Today in every paper across our nation, you read about Kayumba et al, about Rwandans support to Somalia, about the East African Community, yet there seems to be little concern about the dilemma that is happening to our university students.

 Last year, Rwanda’s government approved the decision to cancel bursary loans used by government supported students. The Education Minister Dr Charles Murigande also announced that in the 2011 academic year, they will be no more merit scholarships for university students based on excellent secondary school results. SFAR,( Student Financing Agency) which covers students’ accommodation and living expenses, would loan 250,000 Rwandan francs to students, who would then reimburse the money once they find employment but now all that is being taken away.

This has now become a great source of concern for the students who depend on government’s financial support. Many students were planning to request an appointment with the President Paul Kagame to discuss their plight, saying they are worried about their future, some are saying that this was a hasty decision and they believe the government should have considered the impact that this will have on the levels of education, as well as the impact it shall have on the number of students, who claim they will be forced to drop out of university, because without the financial support, they have no support at all.

Minister of Education, Dr Charles Murigande, said that the government will continue to support students financially and the money which was supposed to be used for student loans is simply being reduced not abolished. He says that in future, students will be expected to carry their own weight, and pay for their own university costs. . The student population, believe there will be no students left in university in the future, except for the students who have private funding.

“The education budget has been shortened and the government decided that students, from next year, must accommodate on their own. The money they were given by SFAR must develop newly implemented education policies like Nine Years Basic Education and technical education training, to give a chance to those who did not attend university,” said the minister.

Rwanda now has free primary education up to the third year of secondary school, amounting to nine years of free education. This has made Rwanda’s primary school enrollment the highest in the region.
Rwanda one the few African countries that has considerably contributed to developing higher education, will at the same time help in the development of information, communication, technology, and Internet infrastructure in the country. Yet there is still the expressed concern from students and parents about the latest developments, especially the fears of university costs, and the worries of how students will survive without the Government’s financial support.

While the government expects the students to be able to support their own weight in paying for their university costs, the students are expecting the government to provide jobs so that students can study and make a living at the same time, but they say the only available jobs are those such as, waitressing, working in supermarkets, cleaning houses. They say that none of these jobs are in the least capable of financially helping a student pay for their school fees, their rent, let alone the monthly fee for food. The government must find a solution to this problem, before our nation finds itself with no leaders to govern our nation in the future.

The media in Rwanda is guilty of playing a major role as perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. However,we must honour and remember the innocent journalists who perished during the mass killings.

The genocide of Rwanda has shattered the world’s perception on Rwanda’s media ethics because of the undeniable part they played in leading the country to destruction and virtual standstill. Today, as Rwanda commemorates the lives of the people we lost in 1994, we especially pay tribute to our fallen comrades, who were killed in just the same way as the other million Tutsi and moderate Hutu victims.

We all have either heard, read or even experienced the atrocious acts of 1994 by the interahamwe extremists who rampaged the country savagely slaughtering and torturing Tutsis and their sympathisers. As the world remained silent, our nation was screaming out from both sides of the massacre, the screams of the people who were being killed, such as the 70 innocent Tutsi journalists, and those of the perpetrators who were screaming out for the blood of the Tutsis to be spilled.

The media in Rwanda had not only incited the violence but encouraged it by sending hate messages over the radio and TV stations such as radio the Rwanda and Radio- Television Libre de Mille Collines, which would broadcast messages of accusation, demonisation and dehumanisation, becoming the main apparatus of the genocide, creating a false and unjust image that anyone affiliated with the media were involved and guilty.

Today, the Media High Council which is an autonomous body regulating the press in Rwanda, has a whole new code of journalistic and media ethics, that aims at promoting and upholding a true and free flow of information. This is a promise that should lead any country towards true democracy and development. The first acts of such promise began with what seems to be the release of the names of the 70 Tutsis who were working as journalists at the time of the genocide. The release of the list has helped shed some truth that not ‘all’ persons who were working for the media then were Hutu, nor working for or towards the hate propaganda that was otherwise the media’s main occupation.

Not only is the MHC busy cleaning up the image of the Rwandan media’s integrity in the eyes of the world but at home as well. One of these benevolent acts is honouring the victims as well as the families of the innocent journalists who were brutally killed in the genocide. Patrice Mulama, the Media’s High Council Executive secretary, said the MHC would help the families of these fallen journalists, which lies under the regulatory body’s social responsibility programme.

Frances Ndoli a reporter for the New Times quoted Patrice Mulama in an article written on the 12 March, 2011 saying “”We want to come up with something in conjunction with other media organisations as we identify the families which are mostly in need of support, We will collaborate with the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide and IBUKA, to agree on what to provide ; it could be shelter or something else’.

These journalists, whose honourable work has been besmirched by the ghosts of a terrible past, should be remembered as a beacon of truth. They area also a reminder that not all honour and proper journalistic code was lost during the genocide and write. On the behalf of our fallen comrades, whose names are written below, may their souls rest in eternal peace.

Media houses and names of Journalists

ORINFOR 1 RUBWIRIZA Tharcisse

2 MWUMVANEZA Médard

3 GASANA Cyprien

4 KARAKE Claver

5 KARAMBIZI Gracien

6 KARINDA Viateur

7 RUDAHANGARWA J. Baptiste

8 SEBANANI André

9 KALISA Callixte

10 NSABIMANA Emmanuel

11 BUCYANA Jean Bosco

12 MBUNDA Felix

13 MUNYARIGOGA Jean Claude

14 NSHIMIYIRYO Eudes

LE PARTISANT 15 HABINEZA Aphrodice (SIBO)

LE TRIBUN DU PEUPLE 16 MUKAMA Eugène

17 HATEGEKIMANA Wilson

18 GAKWAYA Eugène

19 RUGAJU Jean Claude

LE FLAMBEAU 20 BAZIMAZIKI Obed

21 KARINGANIRE Charles

22 MUNANA Gilbert

23 RAFIKI KAYIHURA Octave

24 NTAGANZWA Alexis

25 KINYAMATEKA NKUBIRI Sylvestre

26 MUGANZA Clement

27 KAYINAMURA M.Beduwa

28 SERUVUMBA Anastase

29 LE SOLEIL KAYIRANGA Marcelin

30 MUKAMUSONI Jeanne d’Arc

31 BURASA Prisca

32 ISIBOMURERAMANZI Néhémie

33 KANYARWANDA NKUNDIMANA Joel

34 MUTESA Donat

35KANGUKA RWABUKWISI Vincent (RAVI)

36 MBARAGA Wellars

37 KIBERINKASHABAKAKA Vincent

38 NYIMBUZI Aloys

39 KAMANAYO Théotime

RWANDA RUSHYA 40 KAMURASE Martin

41 MUDATSIKIRA Joseph

42 KAMEYA André

43 L’OBSERVATEURMUNYAKAZI Bernard

44 Free lancers MBUGUJE Sixbert

45 MUKAMANA Winifred

46 RUKUNDO Emmanuel

47 RUTSINDURA Emmanuel

48 RUTSINDURA Alphonse

49 RWEMARIKA Claude

50 TWAGIRAMUNGU Felix

Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda, we should all be so proud. Over the past ten years, I have seen Rwanda grow before my eyes, but It feels like only yesterday when I came to this green hilly heaven that I then thought was the end of the world and my parents sent me here as punishment for not doing my homework. I arrived here in 1996 when the streets were still empty, the population consisted of mainly elders whom I believe were here for retirement, the President and his government and the few newborns that were wailing am sure after sensing that their youth was going to wasted on Sunday swimming lessons and football and mabigibigi.

There really wasn’t anything going on except the re-construction of our nation,, for which I commend our president for not only redeeming our nation, but also the excellent work he has done and is still doing for our country. There was the occasional concert once a year, there were the few nightclubs but since I was too young, I will cross that out from the list. Ok maybe I am exaggerating a little, they may have been things one could do but am not exaggerating when I say, Rwanda was dead boring to me personally. I don’t know about you, I know my father loved it so much that a 45 minute drive to Muhazi was like taking a kid to Disney World (it was beautiful I admit).

The living conditions were awful in some places. There was a lack of jobs for returnees and those struggling in school and work at the same time. There was internet, but it was uncommon and many didn’t know how to use the internet at that time. There were a million reasons why Rwanda was not a place I saw myself living in for long. But I think the most important reason would be that I behaved like any young teenager from abroad. I didn’t realise what my country could become. I wasn’t interested in being part of the rehabilitation but only inhabiting in it.I had no faith in believing that Rwanda would not only survive after the genocide but also be better than before( I bet that none of you saw this coming either).Today, I feel I am not only sure that I can live here but I am confident that this is where I will be buried (unless I die in a plane crash somewhere over the Atlantic ocean).

I have heard many Rwandans who have returned proclaim such statements as ‘oh my God Rwanda has become so civilized’, like they were expecting to see men with spears and woman running bare-chested in the middle of the roads or what ? Caucasians might be ignorant about Africa but never an African. Most of my friends left because they felt they could not live on the meager salaries that they were making. You can imagine, that these same people have said that they now realise that earning our ‘so called’ meager salary here, is a hundred times better then working long hours, in Western capitals, while having to commute from one city to the next. They have credit limits, but still after paying off all their bills and tuition fees, they still are most of the time in debt. This obviously doesn’t mean that it is every one.

But this is not just about how good our broadband connection is or how great our coffee is (though you do know how good our coffee is). No, this is about Rwandans and their immense dedication in proving, home is where the heart is. After what this country and its people have been through, I walk the streets and see all kinds of people and the kinds of work they do to survive everyday and yet most of them are happy. I was going home by bus the other day when curiosity got the better of me and I asked a construction worker how much he gets paid. He told me he earns “1500 francs per day. ” I asked him how he survived on such a meagre amount and he responded, “I can afford to buy food for my family have transport to go home, and buy myself a beer at the end of the day, why would I complain, I have everything I want and what I do is important, your ministers wouldn’t have where to work if it wasn’t for people like us. ”

To that in French we say ‘chapeau’(hats off to you.) He continued that not only was it more than he expected to get paid but he feels proud when he walks past the buildings he has helped put up. But what I respected the most was the way in which he was more proud in having said he worked on the Parliament buildings, than being concerned with the amount of money anyone else would dismiss if told to do the same job this man does. Imagine if one lowly construction worker is that content in his life, imagine what it would be like if you had your dream job here in Rwanda ? Would you want to go ?

In my opinion, hell no ! Just have to find my dream job first. Our country is not only physically beautiful but there is immense loyalty that one can’t help but feel it grow in you no matter how far you run. Well, I know that I have run my course and know that I do take Rwanda as my lawfully wedded country, through sickness and health, through economic, political, geographical ups and downs, till death do us part !