A Critical Look at the "Genocide in Rwanda" Story
"All Things Considered"
National Public Radio
Washington, D.C.
Dear "All Things Considered"
I am one of your regular listeners. I have noticed that every second
month or
so you produce a report on Rwanda and/or Burundi in Central Africa. The
most
recent was last week. In every program you refer to the "Hutu rebels"
and use
phrases like "after the genocide."
The fact remains that the Tutsis, the supposed victims of the genocide
and
only 9% of the population of Rwanda before the conflict, are in power
in
Rwanda. They have a well-armed army, supplied by Israel and the U.S.
through
Uganda, and became so strong that they intervened in the conflict in
Burundi
as well as in Congo.
By contrast, the Hutus, 91% of the population, have been
disenfranchised.
Hundreds of thousands of the Hutus are still refugees. Thousands of
them are
jammed into Rwanda's prisons on accusations of "genocide." In the
meantime,
the destruction of the Hutu power structure in Burundi is also
underway.
The facts on the ground do not support the "genocide" story. The
violence in
Rwanda started after the elected Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi (both
Hutus) were killed when their plane was shot down on April 6, 1994 by
Tutsi
rebels. The date of the tribal fighting is agreed upon by all witnesses
as
April 7, 1994. Western reporters did not enter Rwanda till the end of
April
1994, but these media had already reported "100,000 killed" by then
with no
evidence on the ground. In May 1994 the figure was arbitrarily raised
to
200,000 killed and thereafter to several times that.
I have looked at journalists "on the ground" reports and all they
amount to
are a few hundred bodies discovered and rumors of "thousands" more
killed.
WHAT THEN IS THE REAL STORY?
Rwanda and Burundi were once one country. From 1899 to 1916 they were
ruled
by Germany. From 1916 to 1962, the rulers were Belgians. These European
rulers systematically used the policy of divide-and-rule and left a
legacy of
intense bitterness. The sources of the bitterness can be understood if
one
realizes that the small minority of Tutsis (9%) ruled the great
majority wth
the help of the Belgians. The majority Hutus (91%) were kept in a
condition
of serfdom.
The story of Rwanda and Brundi is the story of rising political
awareness of
the Hutus and the attempts of the Tutsis to suppress them.
This classical case of divide-and-rule (comparable to the ANC-Inkatha
conflict in South Africa) was compounded by the work of European
missionaries
who converted the Tutsis to extreme Christian fundamentalism.
Israel, whose agencies are active all over Africa now, is the more
recent
factor in the ongoing tragedy of the Hutu people. (Israel can best be
described as a European settler state planted in the Islamic heartland
through the justifications of religious fundamentalism and extremism.).
With a fundamentalist group, heavily armed, in power in Rwanda, it
takes some
gall on your part to keep on claiming that the people in power are the
victims and the vast majority, made homeless in their own home, are a
nation
of killers and murderers en masse.
Unfortunately, human rights groups in America are so fixated on the
idea of
the persecution of minorities that they cannot see the suffering of the
majority. Human rights' ideology thus becomes a blinding factor.
Peace cannot come to central Africa until the oppressive minority is
removed
from power and the vast majority achieves its basic human rights.
Sincerely
Kaukab Siddique, Ph.D
410-638-5965
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2000-09-25 Mon 12:36ct