Rwandan Genocide Revisited: The Failure of the French Regime and the “Failed Rwanda of the 1994 Rwandan Ghenocide“

I have not yet spoken at length about what those years in a Rwandan prison were like, or about the daily reality for Rwandan political prisoners who, like me, found themselves behind bars for exercising their freedom of expression. It has taken a long year of physical and emotional healing, but I am finally writing again, and I expect the healing process to last the rest of my life.

Kagame, who is praised by many for bringing relative stability but vilified by others for his intolerance of dissent, will lead somber commemoration events Sunday in the capital, Kigali. Foreign visitors include a delegation led by Bill Clinton, the US president during the genocide.

The killings were started when a plane carrying the President was shot down. The Tutsis were blamed for downing the plane and killing the president. and became targets in massacres led by Hutu extremists that lasted over 100 days in 1994. Moderate Hutus who were trying to protect the minority were also killed.

The international community has been blamed by the authorities of Rwenzori for ignoring warnings about the killings.

Clinton, after leaving office, cited the Rwandan genocide as a failure of his administration. French President Emmanuel Macron, in a prerecorded video ahead of the Sunday’s ceremonies, said on Thursday that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France — Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 — for failing to stop Rwanda’s slide into the slaughter.

Since 1994, the ethnic composition in Rwanda has remained the same, with a Hutu majority. The Tutsis account for 14% and the Twa just 1% of Rwanda’s 14 million people. Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated government has outlawed any form of organization along ethnic lines, as part of efforts to build a uniform Rwandan identity.

National ID cards no longer identify citizens by ethnic group, and authorities imposed a tough penal code to prosecute those suspected of denying the genocide or the “ideology” behind it. Some observers say the law has been used to silence critics who question the government’s policies.

Some rights groups accuse Kagame’s soldiers of committing some killings in apparent revenge for the genocide that took place in 1994, but Rwanda sees the allegations as a way to rewrite history. Kagame has said that his forces were restraint in the face of genocide.

Ahishakiye, a genocide survivor, said that “it’s a time to learn what happened, why it happened, and what the consequences are for our country and the international community.”

He said after the 1990s, only survivors and government officials attended commemoration events. “But today even those who are family members of perpetrators come to participate.”

The Case for Democracy: Kagame, Rwanda’s Retarded De facto Deputy President and His Interaction with the Burundi Government

Kagame, who grew up a refugee in neighboring Uganda, has been Rwanda’s de facto ruler, first as vice president from 1994 to 2000, then as acting president. He has been reelected multiple times and was voted into office in 2003 A candidate for elections set for July, he won the last election with nearly 99% of the vote.

Rights activists and others say the authoritarian Kagame has created a climate of fear that discourages open and free discussion of national issues. Critics have accused the government of forcing opponents to flee, jailing or making them disappear while some are killed under mysterious circumstances. Kagame’s most serious political rivals are his Tutsi ex-comrades now living in exile.

The leader of the two countries accused one another of supporting armed groups. Relations have been tense with Burundi as well over allegations that Kigali is backing a rebel group attacking Burundi. And relations with Uganda are yet to fully normalize after a period of tensions stemming from Rwandan allegations that Uganda was backing rebels opposed to Kagame.