By Richard A Luce
Rwanda: ‘the most undemocratic and brutal regime of this age’ – according to Dr Rudasingwa.
“Rwanda is on the brink of civil war. The world is once again silent. The policies and actions of the United States and the United Kingdom in Rwanda will, unless stopped and reversed, sooner than later prove to be the fuel that will ignite Rwanda into another war. And, with war, there is greater likelihood of humanitarian catastrophe, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
Twenty years since the East African country was engulfed in a humanitarian catastrophe that may have claimed a million lives said to be mainly Tutsi, the warning above was given by a leading Tutsi opposition leader who at one time was President Paul Kagame’s Chief of Staff, Maj Dr Theogene Rudasingwa. In a letter he has written to both US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, a copy of which has been obtained by The London Evening Post, the exiled Rwandan politician accused mostly the United States, which gave him asylum and protection from his pursuers in Kigali, as well as the United Kingdom for having abandoned Rwandans in their pursuit of friendship with Kagame.
“It was the United States that initiated the shameful policy of abandonment which the rest of the international community had to follow, leading to the guilt-laden behaviour of the international community in post-genocide Rwanda,” he said. He added: “It is this unquestioning support to one of the most undemocratic and brutal regimes of this age that has fuelled Kagame’s arrogant intransigence with impunity; politically motivated assassinations, disappearances and imprisonment of political opponents, journalists and human rights activists; total closure of political space; war-making and gross human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Dr Rudasingwa accused the United States and Great Britain of “overtly and covertly sheltering President Kagame and officers under his command from accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo”. His comments came before the United States urged both Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi to investigate the founding of more than 40 dead bodies floating in the Kagera River. The corpses, some wrapped in plastic, were discovered by fishermen doing their trade along the border of the two East African countries. FULL STORY