RE: [wanabidii] Re: Why Rwanda all the time?

Well said "Mjukuu" Richard. Bibi.

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From: RICHARD MGAMBA
Sent: 21/06/2013 18:20
To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Re: Why Rwanda all the time?

My brother Orton,

What puzzles me is that we are being so hostile against Rwanda as we are a nation of angels, which have no serious issues affecting us that needs our debate. Today alone Hamisi Kilimba has posted three hostile postings against Rwanda, which some are archived but are re-posted here for further debate. Let us be fair and portray both sides of the story about Rwanda.

 

After all why should suddenly Tanzanians show serious concern about Rwanda? My memory are still fresh on how the media was used to spread propaganda, which finally created the human disaster in 1994. We may be dancing into the tunes of Hutus and France theory without knowing.

 

Why should we spend much time debating Rwanda, a tiny country while we have our issues to discuss? I am just wondering that we either becoming anti-Rwanda or just exercising the so called freedom of the press. Kagame is the leader of his country, and Rwandans at the end of the day have the right to judge me no matter how many times we shall attack him and his regime.

In journalism, one of the cardinals is fairness. Then I hope my Brother Hamisi Kilimba aka... will be fair so that we get both sides of the Rwandan story.

From: kiishweko orton <kiishorton2000@yahoo.com>
To: "wanabidii@googlegroups.com" <wanabidii@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 12:28 AM
Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Re: Kikwete in Trouble Over FDLR, but Does He Really Understand Who They Are?

Thanks for bringing us this, Mgamba.And I agree, it has so much 'acceptable' truth and 'real truth'For many, inlcluding yours truly,it is so important to sieve through so much(literature,intelligencia and on the ground experiences,-some anedoctal) to be able to make sense of such 'much highlighlited and acceptable narratives in books and media ' such that we understand complexities in this country, its people therein and those called Banyamulenge in that part of Congo.But ultimately,a war,I believe, wont solve the problem. And that is what Tanzania has suggested.Orton

From: RICHARD MGAMBA <rmgamba2000@yahoo.com>
To: "wanabidii@googlegroups.com" <wanabidii@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 4:41 AM
Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Re: Kikwete in Trouble Over FDLR, but Does He Really Understand Who They Are?

Elisa Muhingo and others,

I thought this debate was ended last week, but it seemed some of you are still living in the illusion of Tutsi Empire, a propaganda, which was carefully initiated soon after the collapse of the brutal Hutu's regime in Rwanda in 1994. Banyamulenge are Tutsi born in Congo with Rwandan origin, but are called so because they are perceived to be arrogant, and powerful when it comes to protecting their identity and tradition. It's the same with your region, Kagera, where you have a group of Haya, which is highly regarded as very important, arrogant, educated etc known as 'Abaziba' from a place called Kiziba.

 "The Banyamulenge is a term historically describing the ethnic Tutsi concentrated on the High Plateau of South Kivu, in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, close to the Burundi-Congo-Rwanda border. The ambiguous political and social position of the Banyamulenge has been a point of contention in the province, leading to the Banyamulenge playing a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003." Wikipedia

Today, Banyamulenge are estimated to be about 70,000 populations in South Kivu Province. What puzzles me is that most of the time, we hear a lot of Banyamulenge as if within the Hutus residing in Congo, there's no that kind of a clan. There's also Banyamasisi, the mostly Hutu Banyarwanda in North Kivu, which played the host during the exodus of Hutus regime in Rwanda and has today merged with FDLR to form a government within a government inside the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The difference between Banyamulenge and Banyamasisi is that the former is very strong, and have entrepreneurial skills compared to the latter. Though in terms of numbers, the former are minority, they have managed to outsmart the latter in terms of wealth mainly cattle and land as well as war tactics.

Banyamulenge originate from the word "Mulenge" which was their clan name, while Banyamasisi take their clan name from Masisi. Both arrived in Congo in 17^th century, and therefore it is absurd to hear cheap claims from some leaders inside Congo, that these people especially Banyamulenge should be repatriated back to their country of origin.

Historically because the Mobutu regime disliked this group due to the stronger tie between the former Kinshasa government and Kigali, which was under Hutus, Banyamulenge suffered heavily forcing most of them to flee to Uganda and in Tanzania as well. During the war to topple the Hutus regime initiated by RPF in 1990, this group supported their allies from Rwanda, and when they succeeded, some were given a choice either to be Rwandans or return back to Congo where they were born.

The 1971 Citizenship Decree by President Mobutu Sese Seko granted citizenship to Banyarwanda who had arrived as refugees from 1959 to 1963. However, many saw this as an alarming sign of the growing influence of Banyarwanda in the administration, specifically Chief of Staff Barthélémy Bisengimana. In 1976, the word "Banyamulenge" first came into wide usage after Gisaro Muhazo, a South Kivu minister of parliament, began an initiative to regroup the Banyamulenge of Mwenga, Fizi and Uvira into a single administrative entity. Muhazo's attempt failed, but the term he introduced remained and, over decades, became a catchall label for Kivu Tutsis.

According to available details, in reaction to the apparently growing influence of the Banyamulenge, the majority ethnicities, particularly the Nande and Hunde of North Kivu, focused on dominating the 1977 legislative elections. Once accomplished, they passed the 1981 Citizenship Bill, stating that only people who could prove descent from someone resident in Congo in 1885 would qualify for citizenship. From the perspective of the "indigenous" ethnicities, such as the Bafuliro, the name "Banyamulenge" was thus a claim to originality in Mulenge, of which the Bafuliro themselves claimed "ownership". However, the bill proved difficult to implement by the time of the 1985 provincial assembly elections, so the "indigenous" Kivutian majority came up with an ad hoc measure: Banyarwanda were allowed vote in elections but not run for political office. This appeared to aggravate the situation as those Banyarwanda who actually qualified as citizens under the 1981 law found their political rights curtailed. The response of some Banyarwanda, particularly Tutsi, was to smash ballot boxes in protest.^[14] Others formed Umoja, an organization of all Congolese Banyarwanda. However, the increasingly tensions within the Banyarwanda led to the division of the organization into two Tutsi and Hutu groups in 1988.

Mobutu regime took the advantage of its connection with Kigali, to deal with Tutsi, a situation that forced most of them, as I said earlier, to flee the country.

 Elisa and your colleagues, you will recall that shortly after the collapse of the Hutus led regime, there was also a movement launched in Goma by Laurent Desire Kabila to topple the Kinshasa regime under Mobutu. To mobilise the resources, the Banyamulenge decided to go back to Congo to fight alongside Kabila's movement in order to topple the regime that has oppressed them for years. These included General Sultan Emanuel Makenga, the current military leader of M23, General Bosco Ntaganda and Laurent Nkunda who is under house arrest in Rwanda for some years.

After victory, Kabila betrayed this group when he ordered them to return back to their country of origin, which is Rwanda, though most of them were born and raised in Congo's South Kivu province. Now was it fair to repatriate the people whose grandparents entered Congo in the 17^th century? Was is it fair to Kabila to betray those who supported him at the time when he needed help? Just one day when you have time you can poise this question to the late Kabila where's he is.

Since this group is still suffering in Congo, it decided to fight these injustices by forming a rebel faction known as CNDP, which was last year transformed into M23. The biggest sin that we have committed in Africa is politics of exclusions, where certain tribes or clans are purposely marginalised because of the unknown fears. Julius Nyerere was against these politics, but today, some of our leaders aren't.

Elisa and your colleagues, those spreading the gospel of Tutsi Empire are the very same individuals who lost the battle in 1994, and decided that to win the sympathy in the region, they should brand Tutsi are dangerous people with ambition to rule the great lakes region. In short-run they have succeeded to brainwash people like you and many in this region, but in long-run, their propaganda would be just another myth. To continue with the genocide ideology, the Hutus through their propaganda machine in this region have branded their rivals, Tutsi as very dangerous people who should terminated once and for all. They have used people like a self-proclaimed Reverend Mtikila to spread this ideaolgy because of his connection to them. His wife is a Hutu, a biological sister of Leonard Nyangoma.

There's no such thing as Tutsi Empire and it has never been there. It's a creation aimed at re-branding Tutsi as very dangerous people who should be terminated at any cost. If Tutsi wanted to build that Empire, why did majority of them return back in their country Rwanda during the 1990s RPF military struggle and have remained there till today. Some of you may claim that we still have Tutsi working here, which is true, but we also have more Hutus living and working here more than their rivals.

 

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