12-28-2019, 05:12 PM
It’s amazing how many stories on the atrocities by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) I’ve found...
It looks like Kagame and the RPF, with Washington’s support, bear the greatest responsibility for the massive death toll from April to July 1994. It is certain that hundreds of thousands of Hutus also died during this period, mostly at the hands of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) commanded by Kagame.
Some analysts, like Christian Davenport and Allan C. Stam, have claimed that even more Hutus than Tutsis died in this period.
The dictatorial RPF regime in Rwanda actually contained several Hutu ministers.
The RPF recruited Hutu leaders including: Col. Alexis Kanyarengwe, who was installed as chairman of the movement; and Seth Sendashonga, who had left Rwanda because of dissatisfaction with Habyarimana’s politics, and served as liaison between the RPF and political opposition parties in Rwanda.
Between 1990 and 1993, RPF soldiers killed and abducted civilians and pillaged property in north-eastern Rwanda. They also attacked a hospital and displaced persons’ camps.
The RPF massacred groups of unarmed civilians in eastern, central, and southern Rwanda after government forces had left the area, in clear violations of international humanitarian law.
On 20 April 1995, after Paul Kagame had ordered the massacre, 2 RPA battalions surrounded the camp in Kibeho, and stopped all food and water. On 22 April 1995, the RPA opened fire. The next morning, the Australian Medical Corps counted 4,200 bodies before they were stopped.
The Rwandan government claimed that the RPA battalions were merely defending themselves, and that only 338 were killed.
An estimated 2 million Rwandans (many of them Hutus) fled after the RPF took dictatorial control of Rwanda. Most of them went to Zaire, where they were chased by the RPA.
The population of the Mugunga camp rose to 800,000, making it the world’s largest refugee camp at the time. After the international media had been expelled, on 13 November 1996, the major assault by the RPA (with the help of the Zairian AFDL) started. There are no reliable figures on the number of casualties. Many refugees were driven back to Rwanda, while hundreds of thousands fled into the surrounding forests; pursued by the RPA/AFDL who shot or bludgeoned them to death if they caught them.
On 2 March 1997, 150,000 refugees at the Tingi-Tingi camp they were fired on with mortars and machine guns. Survivors fled west in Zaire or to the Central African Republic, Gabon, and Congo-Brazzaville. They were again chased, and if found brutally murdered.
On 8 August 1997, the RPA moved into the Mahoko market and opened fire. Thousands fled to the caves in the mountainous commune of Kanama. The army massacred them by throwing grenades into the caves. Amnesty International wrote that a couple of hundred had died at the Mahoko market, and 5,000 to 8,000 were massacred in the Kanama caves.
In mid-1997, Kagame’s Rwandan government proclaimed its refugee problem settled.
French historian Gérard Prunier with president of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Sakado Ogato, estimated the Rwandan refugee death toll at 213,000 to 280,000.
Since July 1994, everyone lived in fear of being accused of being a génocidaire. Rwanda’s prison population soared, from 1,000 in July 1994, to over 100,000 by 1997, many of them innocent.
In October 1994, senior judge in Kigali, Gratien Ruhorahoza, tried to free 40 prisoners without files. Ruhorahoza was murdered.
When 26 magistrates tried to free innocent prisoners, they were arrested and charged as génocidaires.
Carina Tertsakian, formerly for Human Rights Watch in Rwanda, wrote that between September 1994 and May 1995, 13% of Rwanda’s prison population died, which is “unparalleled in any part of the world”.
Kagame’s death squads have pursued his opponents across the world. His best-known victims include: Théoniste Lizinde (1996) and Sendashonga (1998) in Kenya; Théogène Turatsinze (2012) in Mozambique; and Patrick Karageya (2013) in South Africa.
A South African magistrate stated that 4 suspects in Karageya’s murder are “directly linked to the Rwandan government”. He also accused the Rwandan government of attempts on the life of the exiled former Rwandan army chief of staff, General Kayumba Nyamwasa.
Victoria Ingabire Umuhoza is the latest major challenger to Kagame. In 2010, she returned from exile in the Netherlands and formed the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties.
Umuhoza criticised that the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre didn't acknowledge the Hutus that also died during the genocide and stressed that those who committed genocide or other war crimes and crimes against humanity should be brought before the courts of justice. This challenge to the official genocide narrative resulted in an eight-year prison sentence for “conspiracy against the country through terrorism and war” and “genocide denial”. In December 2013, the Rwandan Supreme Court increased her sentence to 15 years.
Umuhoza was released in September 2018, after President Kagame exercised his prerogative of “mercy”. Since then she has been interrogated 2 to 3 days per week by the cops, and the Rwandan state media have since referred to here as “a convicted criminal who was never rehabilitated”: https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/05/03...-years-on/
(http://archive.is/Tt2Ov)
Judi Rever wrote about the crimes of the RPF since 1997, in “In praise of blood: The crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front” (2018):
Bill Clinton, who was US president when the genocide was orchestrated, has hailed Paul Kagame as “one of the greatest leaders of our time”, while the Clinton Foundation awarded him its Global Citizen prize: https://www.blackagendareport.com/praise...ic-front-0
(http://archive.is/7mMW7)
It looks like Kagame and the RPF, with Washington’s support, bear the greatest responsibility for the massive death toll from April to July 1994. It is certain that hundreds of thousands of Hutus also died during this period, mostly at the hands of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) commanded by Kagame.
Some analysts, like Christian Davenport and Allan C. Stam, have claimed that even more Hutus than Tutsis died in this period.
The dictatorial RPF regime in Rwanda actually contained several Hutu ministers.
The RPF recruited Hutu leaders including: Col. Alexis Kanyarengwe, who was installed as chairman of the movement; and Seth Sendashonga, who had left Rwanda because of dissatisfaction with Habyarimana’s politics, and served as liaison between the RPF and political opposition parties in Rwanda.
Between 1990 and 1993, RPF soldiers killed and abducted civilians and pillaged property in north-eastern Rwanda. They also attacked a hospital and displaced persons’ camps.
The RPF massacred groups of unarmed civilians in eastern, central, and southern Rwanda after government forces had left the area, in clear violations of international humanitarian law.
On 20 April 1995, after Paul Kagame had ordered the massacre, 2 RPA battalions surrounded the camp in Kibeho, and stopped all food and water. On 22 April 1995, the RPA opened fire. The next morning, the Australian Medical Corps counted 4,200 bodies before they were stopped.
The Rwandan government claimed that the RPA battalions were merely defending themselves, and that only 338 were killed.
An estimated 2 million Rwandans (many of them Hutus) fled after the RPF took dictatorial control of Rwanda. Most of them went to Zaire, where they were chased by the RPA.
The population of the Mugunga camp rose to 800,000, making it the world’s largest refugee camp at the time. After the international media had been expelled, on 13 November 1996, the major assault by the RPA (with the help of the Zairian AFDL) started. There are no reliable figures on the number of casualties. Many refugees were driven back to Rwanda, while hundreds of thousands fled into the surrounding forests; pursued by the RPA/AFDL who shot or bludgeoned them to death if they caught them.
On 2 March 1997, 150,000 refugees at the Tingi-Tingi camp they were fired on with mortars and machine guns. Survivors fled west in Zaire or to the Central African Republic, Gabon, and Congo-Brazzaville. They were again chased, and if found brutally murdered.
On 8 August 1997, the RPA moved into the Mahoko market and opened fire. Thousands fled to the caves in the mountainous commune of Kanama. The army massacred them by throwing grenades into the caves. Amnesty International wrote that a couple of hundred had died at the Mahoko market, and 5,000 to 8,000 were massacred in the Kanama caves.
In mid-1997, Kagame’s Rwandan government proclaimed its refugee problem settled.
French historian Gérard Prunier with president of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Sakado Ogato, estimated the Rwandan refugee death toll at 213,000 to 280,000.
Since July 1994, everyone lived in fear of being accused of being a génocidaire. Rwanda’s prison population soared, from 1,000 in July 1994, to over 100,000 by 1997, many of them innocent.
In October 1994, senior judge in Kigali, Gratien Ruhorahoza, tried to free 40 prisoners without files. Ruhorahoza was murdered.
When 26 magistrates tried to free innocent prisoners, they were arrested and charged as génocidaires.
Carina Tertsakian, formerly for Human Rights Watch in Rwanda, wrote that between September 1994 and May 1995, 13% of Rwanda’s prison population died, which is “unparalleled in any part of the world”.
Kagame’s death squads have pursued his opponents across the world. His best-known victims include: Théoniste Lizinde (1996) and Sendashonga (1998) in Kenya; Théogène Turatsinze (2012) in Mozambique; and Patrick Karageya (2013) in South Africa.
A South African magistrate stated that 4 suspects in Karageya’s murder are “directly linked to the Rwandan government”. He also accused the Rwandan government of attempts on the life of the exiled former Rwandan army chief of staff, General Kayumba Nyamwasa.
Victoria Ingabire Umuhoza is the latest major challenger to Kagame. In 2010, she returned from exile in the Netherlands and formed the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties.
Umuhoza criticised that the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre didn't acknowledge the Hutus that also died during the genocide and stressed that those who committed genocide or other war crimes and crimes against humanity should be brought before the courts of justice. This challenge to the official genocide narrative resulted in an eight-year prison sentence for “conspiracy against the country through terrorism and war” and “genocide denial”. In December 2013, the Rwandan Supreme Court increased her sentence to 15 years.
Umuhoza was released in September 2018, after President Kagame exercised his prerogative of “mercy”. Since then she has been interrogated 2 to 3 days per week by the cops, and the Rwandan state media have since referred to here as “a convicted criminal who was never rehabilitated”: https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/05/03...-years-on/
(http://archive.is/Tt2Ov)
Judi Rever wrote about the crimes of the RPF since 1997, in “In praise of blood: The crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front” (2018):
Quote:In areas seized by the RPF or already under its control, its soldiers and intelligence agents worked with similar ethnic zeal, but they were more discreet: they cordoned off areas and killed Hutus secretly, with great precision. They operated mobile death squads, massacring Hutus in their villages.
They brought large groups of Hutus to areas where NGOs and the UN agencies were not permitted to go. Under the cover of night, they transported displaced Hutus by truck, killed them, and burned their bodies with gasoline and gas oil.
These atrocities took place mainly near Gabiro, a military training barracks in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park. Portions of the park became outdoor crematoriums, and human ashes were spread in its lakes. It was mass murder leaving barely a trace.
Bill Clinton, who was US president when the genocide was orchestrated, has hailed Paul Kagame as “one of the greatest leaders of our time”, while the Clinton Foundation awarded him its Global Citizen prize: https://www.blackagendareport.com/praise...ic-front-0
(http://archive.is/7mMW7)
The Order of the Garter rules the world: https://www.lawfulpath.com/forum/viewtop...5549#p5549