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Victoire Ingabire: An unwieldy trophy for RPF’s 25th anniversary

 

Victoire Ingabire: An unwieldy trophy for RPF's 25th anniversary

Posted on December 18, 2012 | Leave a comment
Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire - Imprisoned leader of FDU-Inkingi

Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire – Imprisoned leader of FDU-Inkingi

The world around in different places is readying to celebrate Christmas in people's families.
Imprisoned Rwandan politicians from the opposition, namely Victoire Ingabire, Deogratias Mushayidi, Bernard Ntaganda, and many others won't have such opportunity.
So will too spend these festive seasons in precarious conditions displaced hundreds of thousands of Congolese families, – those which are still together-, which are victims of the Rwandan-backed M23 fighting the Kabila's government in Eastern Congo.
While Victoire Ingabire, chairperson of FDU-Inkingi, spends her consecutive third Christmas in Kagame's prison, the Rwandan Patriotic Front is celebrating
North Kivu - Courtesy Jason Stearns

North Kivu – Courtesy Jason Stearns

its 25th anniversary of existence, and flexing its muscles around Goma to put pressure on the Congolese delegation in Kampala negotiations  to abide by M23's demands.
When one looks at RPF initial motivations at the time of its creation, the institution appears totally having disappointed many by what they have become today, if present evidence has ever been different from what was profoundly intended.
In order to illustrate that reality, let's look at those objectives
  • restoration of unity among Rwandans
  • defend the sovereignty of the country and ensure the security of its people and property
  • establishing democratic leadership
  • promoting the economy based on the country's natural resources
  • fighting corruption, favouritism and embezzlement of national resources
  • improving the living conditions of the citizens
  • Eliminating all causes for fleeing the country and returning Rwandan refugees back into the country
  • Promoting international relations based on mutual respect, cooperation and mutually beneficial economic exchange
  • fighting genocide and genocide ideology
Any person or organisation that have closely monitored Rwanda in recent years could easily find by themselves plenty examples of achievements/ or situations which are far remote from the list of highlighted objectives.
The chairperson of FDU-Inkingi Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has been imprisoned since October 14th, 2010.
Displaced Congolese who found refuge in a Monusco protected location in Goma - Picture Bloomberg.

Displaced Congolese who found refuge in a Monusco protected location in Goma – Picture Bloomberg.

While the Rwandan regime fights for its own survival, it becomes difficult to see it concerned with the freedom or fairness of one of its victims, when it should be accountable for millions of innocent people.
Among many of its unmanageable trophies, RPF can certainly claim having imprisoned Victoire Ingabire. But such action has had consequences which feature among those presently precipitating Paul Kagame's regime.
After July 4th, 1994 the Rwandan strongman had before him a new canvas on which he could've drawn a country different from the one the majority of its citizens don't think they belong presently, or that Congolese people see as source of their misery.
"He united those he conquered into a meaningful force and invested himself … In order to prevent his newly-acquired army from simply disintegrating in the steppe, it was necessary to create a perpetual state of war."
This was the Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan as referred to by author Claire Burges Watson in "Silk Route Adventure". Like him, since getting in power, the Rwandan president Paul Kagame does not seem to have time for concern for those that he oppresses or those who end up as his victims inside Rwanda or elsewhere.
"I don't care! I wasn't responsible for his security. He wasn't responsible for mine either. And he wouldn't have cared if I had died. I don't care that it happened to him."
That was how he responded to the BBC journalist Stephen Sackur on Hard Talk programme on December 7th, 2006 when he was asked about his responsibility in the assassination of his predecessor president Juvenal Habyarimana.
Not caring could be seen as Paul Kagame's signature. But it seems also to become his demise.

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