Persons close the Rwandan regime are, sometimes genuinely, surprised by the way I criticise it.
There are many flaws in Rwandan political governance, such as widespread human rights abuse, monopolisation of power, ethnic poltics under the guise of ethnic amnesia, heavy-handed and top-down social and economic engineering, and much more. But these practices can be seen in other countries too, and they would perhaps not warrant particular attention.
There are however two aspects that are not so common, and that force me to keep focusing on Rwanda.
The first is that regime behaviour generates a great deal of structural violence. All field research that I’m aware of shows widespread resentment, fear, marginalisation and the nurturing of revenge in a situation seen as profoundly repressive and unjust. This structural violence was prevalent before the genocide, and it could again lead to widespread violence.
The second is that, contrary to many, I haven’t forgotten that the RPF has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, before, during and after the genocide in Rwanda, in Zaire/DRC end 1996-beginning 1997 and again in Rwanda’s Northwest in 1997-1999. These crimes have remained unpunished, while they are not prescriptible. In addition, the victims cannot commemorate these crimes, a fact that adds to the structural violence mentioned earlier.
Therefore, my writings are pro-Rwandan, not anti-Rwandan, unless Rwanda equals the RPF.
