Hirondelle is a very sober, Swiss-funded news service that does a lot of coverage of justice affairs in Rwanda. So I sat up sharply when I read this piece on one of their recent newsfeeds. It is a short review of a book newly published in France by Lieutenant Abdul Ruzibiza, who states that as a member of a trusted commando group under the control of the country’s present president, Paul Kagame, he was a member of the unit that shot down the plane of former president Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994.
That attack– which killed both Habyarimana and the president of neighboring Burundi– led in very short order to the unleashing of the maelstrom of genocidal violence that engulfed Rwanda for 100 days, leaving an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and 200,000 Hutus dead there.
The Hirondelle reporter writes that Ruzibiza is categorical that it was Kagame who gave the order to shoot down the plane. The reporter adds about Ruzibiza:
- His book published by editions Panama in Paris is a war diary that retraces “the October war day by day” and the ensuing atrocities committed by different factions especially members of the RPF.
The armed conflict which took place in Rwanda between October 1990 and July 1994 was christened the “October War”. [It was in the last 13 weeks of that period– after the shooting-down of Habyarimana’s plane– that the genocide occurred. ~HC]
Nearly all books on the Rwandan genocide gave a wide coverage to human rights violations committed by the government side [that was then in power, i.e., before the RPF takeover] but very little has been documented in the zone controlled by the RPF.
As an “insider”, Ruzibiza was on many fronts and had first hand information on what went on in the “liberated” zones where the population was huddled together and killed en masse.
Ruzibiza does not hesitate to use the term “genocide of Hutus” and according to him, the rebel [i.e. RPF] high command “had given orders to commanders of different units and intelligence officers to kill as many Hutus as possible especially if they were found grouped together”.
The author considers April 1994 “the worst month in the history of Rwanda”. Apart from the massive genocide of Tutsis, “a large number of Hutu citizens were massacred because of a crime not all of them committed; that of having exterminated Tutsis”.
Ruzibiza is quick to warn those who might be tempted to misinterpret his book to forward the “double genocide” theory. “It should not be understood that way. The Genocide of Hutus should neither be blamed on Tutsis nor that of Tutsis on Hutus. The gravity of these crimes surpasses ethnic dimensions. Those who committed these crimes are savages who should individually answer for them”…
Well, there’sa huge food for thought there. Most accounts of the shooting down of the plane say, in effect, that the identity of the shooters is shrouded in mystery. There have been some accusations from French officials that that Kagame and his RPF were responsible– but they seemed fairly easy to discount, given the strong antipathy between the French and the RPF.
The publication of this book– and the fact that the Hirondelle team, whose members are very familiar with the politics of Rwanda (many of them also being, in fact, Rwandan), gives such serious attention to it– means that some of these key but until now murky facts about Rwanda’s history may be becoming a little clearer.
No, of course it is false to say that if the RPF shot down the plane, then that in any way “excuses” the anti-Tutsi genocide. Nothing does that. But still, it does mean that Kagame’s role in the events is not quite the shining “saint” role that many in the west have attributed to him.
Okay, here’s why I’m writing about this here. Yes, partly in case any of you wants to join a discussion on this issue. But also to make a request that perhaps some kind JWN reader living in France might be able to get hold of a copy of the book and send it to me.
Anyone?
I shall of course be happy to reimburse all the costs involved.
And, um, just so I don’t get a truckload of copies landing on my doorstep, if you think you might be able to do this, could you drop me a line? Thanks!
The Rwandan tragedy is a complex one.
For along time we’ve heard many different stories on Rwanda tragedy and most of the time the media tends to portay some people as angels or victims and others as evils or baddies.
Killing is killing, whether you are watched by a camera or not. Killing far from the cameras doesn’t make you less criminal or angelical.
How can someone discredit Ruzibiza? He was there.
Is he going to be called Interahamwe (Those responsible of Genocide) as most people who dare to say the truth tend to be portayed and discredited?
Mr Ruzibiza is implicating himself in the killings of many civilians and the shooting down of the plane carrying two presidents (Burundian President and the Rwandan President in 1994).
Either this guy is crazy or very courageous.
I consider him as the latter as I don’t see the reason why you would put your head online unless you really believe in what you are saying.
A few months ago Rafic Hariri, the lebanese prime minister, was assassinated in a bomb attack. A few weeks later the UN had asked for an investigation into his killing!
How come that after eleven years, the UN has never asked for a similar investigation in the shooting down of the plane in which two African presidents where killed and ignited the 1994 genocide in Rwanda?
Does the investigation implicate one of the big powers?
How come that the present Rwandan government has never asked for an investigation?
How can you set up an international tribunal to look into crimes committed in Rwanda and ignore an important event which was the KEY, the ignition which started the genocide?
Do we need to be born in a certain place, culture, social class to have justice?
I believe people like Ruzibiza will make the international community understand more about the realities of the Rwandan Tragedy and help us accordingly.
Us who lost relatives, parents, friends, us who lost our loved ones during the Rwandan tragedy still have hope in justice, justice for everyone, from there we, Rwandans, will be able to pick ourselves up and rebuild our country.
You can’t build on lies, you can’t heal people with lies, we need justice us our foundation.
Don’t hijack or think you have the monopoly of sorrow! Don’t use our relatives blood for your own gain.
Truth will prevail.
You can have the book shipped to you by Amzon.com France :
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/403-8520127-7643667