When there is a different path in Africa, when the common evils and weakness in this continent notably ‘corruption, poor governance and bad leadership, civil wars and alarming poverty seem to fade in a country like Rwanda; devil becomes the earth’s Archangel and preaches peace, human rights, bringing supportive funds all for total control among both African populace and its leaders.
Talking of justice in this world and “as far as Africa is concerned or Rwanda in particular according to the words of Paul Kagame himself, “it’s not possible to tell whether what is applied is justice or politics – you cannot easily see the dividing line”.
In the call to International justice, the Rwandan President says: “just like so many other things we have seen in the recent past, International justice is used to define and determine how Africans should live their lives.”
Yes, he said it all when he even provoked the reality as open as the dawn in the summer season, revealing what many do not seem to know or if they know then they do not care and/or they care but admit too much weakness. That donors use the very aid as a political stick to beat up Africans and lead us in the direction of their choosing. One day they use international justice to lead you where they want.
This is political Persecution which is not different from other known injustices done to poor countries in Africa particularly Rwanda. The so called international justice according to President Paul Kagame in his recent speech to Rwanda’s members of Parliament has no ‘clear guidelines’. “This international justice is not used where there is injustice. Instead, they use it for their political interests”, he says
Sequential analysis of the bullying over Rwanda against historical facts
You see them shaking hands with us, a Judas kiss indeed. They smile as Delilah in her softened words to conspire Samson but as these ancient tales; you won’t know their hidden agenda.
While analysing the current sequencing allegations about Rwanda, you may wonder whether these International organisations have even gone to school or at least have any sense of reason at all. You then realise that they have all that abilities and credit but no ethics, dignity and humanity for that matter. They only care for their interests but will never admit it. Congo Problems, presence of Rwandaphones, Corruption, poor governance, and several others are only used by western parties for interests not other than the land’s huge deposits of minerals like Gold and Diamond. It is one of few areas in the world where these business wizards can fetch almost all types of wood, hunt wild animals for meat, hides, tusks, rhino horns and you can make the list hundreds of pages; all which is done under the supervision of United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MUNOSCO)
Congo and Rwanda share borders today but they both used to share land too before the colonial robbery. In 1908 until 1960 this area was known as Belgian Congo what French call (Congo Belge) ruled by Belgian. It was established by the Belgian parliament to replace the previous, privately owned Congo Free State, after international outrage over abuses there brought pressure for supervision and accountability. The official Belgian attitude was paternalism: Africans were to be cared for and trained as if they were children. They had no role in legislation, but traditional rulers were used as agents to collect taxes and recruit labour; uncooperative rulers were deposed. In the late 1950s, when France and the United Kingdom worked with their colonies to prepare for independence, Belgium still portrayed the Congo as an idyllic land of parent-child relationships between Europeans and Africans.
This is why president Kagame uses words like ‘Ideological Bankruptcy’ as he states “….I would first denounce those that caused the M23 to exist in first place. I would denounce the government that does not respect or work for its own citizens. I would denounce the international community that seems blind to what is happening, before I denounce anybody else. To me, M23, the Government of Congo, the international community, are all ideologically bankrupt because they cannot properly define a simple problem that they see. They keep running in circles. For over a decade, they’ve been running around and keep blaming Rwanda for the problems of the Congo. Why don’t they have courage to blame themselves and take part of the responsibility before anybody else will take the responsibility? What is this blackmail about?”
Brief but intriguing background
If everyone would at least be sincere just for once, the Land by the name Democratic republic of Congo was formally known as Congo Belge. Two independent Kingdoms of Rwanda (Ruanda) and Burundi (Urundi) were annexed by Germany along with the other states of the Great Lakes region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was attached to German East Africa, a region that had only a minimal German presence.
In the First World War, the area was conquered by forces from the Belgian Congo in 1916. The Treaty of Versailles divided German East Africa with the vast majority known as Tanganyika going to Great Britain. The westernmost portion, which was formally referred to as the Belgian Occupied East African Territories went to Belgium. In 1924, as the League of Nations issued a formal mandate that granted Belgium full control over the area, the area officially became Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgians were far more involved in the territory than the Germans; especially in Rwanda the history will tell you how they are the root cause of divisionism in the region that even led to the Genocide Against Tutsi in 1959, 1973, and the grand one that took lives of more than a million Tutsis in 1994, just 18 years ago.
There are more than reasons for both Rwandans and good wishers to be angry when some political corners rise from airs and dictate what people should do and that they should not while the country has progressively taken its lessons and proved itself worth. “There is no country in this world that receives aid and accounts for it better than Rwanda. There is none. So, I am not sure if these people who give us aid want us to develop. They give us aid and expect us to remain beggars. They give you aid so that you forever glorify them and depend on them. They keep using it as a tool of control and management….. Africans must refuse to be treated as nobodies.” Stressed Rwanda’s head of state
He furthered, “these powerful countries create a court for Africans and call it “international”, when it is only for Africans. And it’s not necessarily for those who have done wrong. It’s for those who have disobeyed. They pretend and. There are people who kill, who rape, who everything but these powerful countries just keeps quiet about them. Is that how Africans should be? Is it what they want them to be?” He poses a question
With such a nature of Mr. Rights, Democracy Dictators and freedom makers for the third world, they do not care “if you are killing your own people, if every day you are inciting people to kill other people, these powers will not show up. They will be quiet because, after all, to them there are some people who deserve to be killed. That’s what we are seeing across in the Congo”. Kagame noted.
Congo has bigger problems other than M23
It was not all in his unclothed truth, he put the whole matter on the plate like the late Mozambican Journalist Carlos Cardoso Once outlined “in the business of truth, it is forbidden to put words in handcuffs” the President was not only speaking to Rwanda’s Parliament but to the whole world and especially those primarily responsible for DRC, those who are sponsoring tens of rebels in order to create a situation for their Organisations, for their jobless people, for their industries’ raw materials, their adventure, for justifying why they need funds and several forms of aids for refugees, to create mushroom sects of churches to come pretending to preach peace on one side while maintaining insecurity on the other hand so that they remain in the area. Kagame said no to these lies:
“There are main and big parts in the democratic republic of Congo, where crimes are committed in broad daylight, that’s none of their business. It’s ok because people who are being killed, who are being raped, maybe deserve it. And then they turn to the other part and say everything wrong that has happened in the Congo now has to have people who should be responsible – the so-called M23. People who are raped and killed in Kinshasa, M23 is blamed and Rwanda must condemn it. People killed in Kindu, in Uvira, wherever, M23 is responsible and Rwanda must condemn it. People who raped young girls in those refugee camps, its M23. Even now in the territory that is occupied by representatives of that international community…..This injustice does not make us compliant, it makes us defiant. I am not one of those who would be made to comply by means of injustice done to my people, to my country. I am one of those who will be openly defiant. On being defiant, count me on that”.
According to the head of the state, the only crime Rwanda and its Leaders have committed is: “to be trying our best to be decently making progress. That’s a crime! Let me tell you: No, it cannot happen. It should not happen. It should not be allowed. It should not be accepted. Let us continue to do what we can do. Those insults thrown upon us every day, you ignore them. Don’t even accept to put these unhappy faces on because they will think they have got where they wanted you. Just let us continue doing our best and let us not accept to be provoked. Let us remain balanced. Let us keep mastering our art of getting the most out of the very little we have in our hands. Let us also try and continue to be decent people.
Ambiguity and high level of deception
This is another thing that Kagame finds as upsetting “First of all they are the law unto themselves. They consider themselves as the law and what they say or want is what should be done. They even influence international justice institutions to do their bidding and this is where international justice ends up being politicised. There is no respect for justice. When you don’t respect the law, why do you expect others to do so?
We are told that they are pursuing their interests but you are left wondering sometimes how we have stood in the way to stop them from pursuing their interests. It is difficult to understand what they really want. We have never questioned or stopped anyone from taking Congo’s wealth because it’s not even our business. However, you will hear the same people turn around and accuse Rwanda of progressing because of Congo’s wealth. How can this happen if the wealth cannot make the Congolese who own the wealth progress? What is saddening is that even the Congolese themselves will join the chorus about Rwanda progressing because of their wealth. Why won’t they use their wealth to develop their country? How can wealth benefit others and not those who possess it?
The only external wealth that I acknowledge to have helped Rwanda progress is the aid that is given to us and taken away as those who give it wish. We are always courteous enough to register our appreciations to those who assist us. However, there are those who give you assistance and want to control and follow you up to show you how you should use the assistance. What culture is this? I think this is too much contempt and arrogance. This cannot happen in a society that values its culture.
People who have power, and have a lot of it for that matter, should also be wise. They should wisely exercise that power. After all if you have power, why not exercise it diligently, in a wise way? Why do you have power and go tramping on people who are powerless? When the powerful get angry, it’s not justified. But many times the powerless have a lot of justifications to be angry.”
His Excellence punched the whole matter with an intellectual guidance: “It is not appropriate in any culture for the powerful to use excessive power on the weak, the poor and powerless. This only happens in a world without a culture and values. But the weak, the poor, the powerless have a different potential that they should use correctly to get out of this kind of position we find ourselves in every time. There is another kind of power that we have and should use: The Power of being right, being correct, and refusing injustice”.
If there is anything that Rwandans must be concerned about, it is not on DRC issues and how they relate to Rwanda. It is a neighboring country and whatever happens on the other side has effects on this side, but this does not mean a Rwandan has to worry on how to solve whatever problem other than helping to restore peace and unity; a process that has always been put in practice despite international intentional blindness. Rwandans have to find new ways to fasten their development in all spheres, doing more to surpass among those who call themselves number ones.
