Rwanda
Leaving Uganda through the border was no problem. Then it was the Rwandan side. I was under the impression that no Visa was required but they told me it was 50 US $ and no other currency not even their own. I still had 40 US $ left which I exchanged in Aswan in Egypt and they told me I can get a further 10 US $ from a bank in the same grounds there. I used my credit card for that purpose and then went back to the customs office again. I gave them the 40 US $ from Egypt plus the 10 US $ from the bank and they put it through a machine. Although the money had some water marks in it looked like fraudulent money. I must say when I got it in Egypt from the money exchanged company I also told the guy there that it look bit odd as the colour of the notes were a bit of a different colour. I then told the guy in the custom office that I got the money from a proper official money ex changer in Egypt. He must have looked at the different notes for about 5 minutes and then disappeared in the office behind him to get approval from someone there as well and when he came back he stamped my passport. Outside the customs office was the photos of 5 of the previous government officials that was responsible for the genocide and that has fled the country. The reward was a whopping 5000 000 US $ should you be able to hand one of these guys over to the government. I ask them if I could take a photo of the poster to which they had no objection. You never know traveling through Africa I might just see one of them and with that amount of money I could drive around the world nonstop.
Then it was off toward Kigali the Capital of Rwanda. The first impressions of the country were that this is not just your normal African country. The roads were beautiful and everything was clean. Not even a piece of paper. Plastic bags are banned in this country. The fields were beautiful cared for. Drivers kept to the rule of the road and not one tried to run me off the road like in Uganda. The people were neat and friendly and this is the country that had a genocide when we had our elections in South Africa in 1994. Every couple of kilometres you would see a board with a sign that says genocide memorial site so the killing must have been rife in this area.
I reach Kigali at about midday and stopped in the city centre to look for accommodation on my GPS. As I was busy doing that a guy walked up to me and asked me if I was sorted. I notice his accent and I asked him if he was from South Africa. He confirmed that and I introduced myself. His name was Nick. When he saw my Wilddog sticker he said he wanted to introduce me to his boss Brent who is also a Wilddog forum member. He then went across the road to the new high rise building that they were busy to work on. Brent then came out and introduced himself and all his workers then wanted to pose for a photo with me. He in turn then said that they want to introduce me to yet another Wilddog forum member a guy by the name of Philip Opperman “fingers” on the forum. What a small world. They then phoned him and as it was Saturday he was busy doing shopping just 2 blocks away. Accommodation was arranged with him and I followed Nick on his bike to the shopping centre where Philip was. I was introduced to him and then followed him home behind his bakkie. Philip had his son there from South Africa and we had a nice braai there that afternoon.
The next morning early I was off to the Kigali Genocide Memorial about 5 kilometres from Philips house. Entrance is free but you have to pay if you want to take photos inside the building. The mood inside is somber. Many of the bones of the Tutsis who was murdered are buried in the garden around the building. Inside are some bones and skeletons in a glass cupboard. As you walk along through the passages with the history exhibited on the side you get a picture of what happened during the genocide. I hereby include an article which was written by the United Human Rights Council.
Genocide in Rwanda
In 1994, Rwanda’s population of seven million was composed of three ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%). In the early 1990s, Hutu extremists within Rwanda’s political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures. Tutsi civilians were also accused of supporting a Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Through the use of propaganda and constant political maneuvering, Habyarimana, who was the president at the time, and his group increased divisions between Hutu and Tutsi by the end of 1992. The Hutu remembered past years of oppressive Tutsi rule, and many of them not only resented but also feared the minority.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. Violence began almost immediately after that. Under the cover of war, Hutu extremists launched their plans to destroy the entire Tutsi civilian population. Political leaders who might have been able to take charge of the situation and other high profile opponents of the Hutu extremist plans were killed immediately. Tutsi and people suspected of being Tutsi were killed in their homes and as they tried to flee at roadblocks set up across the country during the genocide. Entire families were killed at a time. Women were systematically and brutally raped. It is estimated that some 200,000 people participated in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide.
In the weeks after April 6, 1994, 800,000 men, women, and children perished in the Rwandan genocide, perhaps as many as three quarters of the Tutsi population. At the same time, thousands of Hutu were murdered because they opposed the killing campaign and the forces directing it.
The Rwandan genocide resulted from the conscious choice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This small, privileged group first set the majority against the minority to counter a growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then, faced with RPF success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, these few power holders transformed the strategy of ethnic division into genocide. They believed that the extermination campaign would reinstate the solidarity of the Hutu under their leadership and help them win the war, or at least improve their chances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control of the state and used its authority to carry out the massacre.
The civil war and genocide only ended when the Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the RPF, defeated the Hutu perpetrator regime and President Paul Kagame took control.
Although the Rwandans are fully responsible for the organization and execution of the genocide, governments and peoples elsewhere all share in the shame of the crime because they failed to prevent and stop this killing campaign.
Policymakers in France, Belgium, and the United States and at the United Nations were aware of the preparations for massive slaughter and failed to take the steps needed to prevent it. Aware from the start that Tutsi were being targeted for elimination, the leading foreign actors refused to acknowledge the genocide. Not only did international leaders reject what was going on, but they also declined for weeks to use their political and moral authority to challenge the legitimacy of the genocidal government. They refused to declare that a government guilty of exterminating its citizens would never receive international assistance. They did nothing to silence the radio that televised calls for slaughter. Even after it had become indisputable that what was going on in Rwanda was a genocide, American officials had shunned the g-word, fearing that it would cause demands for intervention.
When international leaders finally voiced disapproval, the genocidal authorities listened well enough to change their tactics although not their ultimate goal. Far from cause for satisfaction, this small success only highlights the tragedy: if weak protests produced this result in late April, imagine what might have been the result if in mid-April the entire world had spoken out.
End of Article
I am no politician but what is particularly bad according to myself is the fact that Rwandans are not allowed to get Visas to come to South Africa and I think the reason for that is that some of those perpetrators of the genocide who’s photos are on that poster at the border are actually living in South Africa and in the newspapers recently it was suggested that they are protected by our government. So if Rwandans could come into the country they could do an arrest and claim the money.
The current president in Rwanda is one of the best in Africa if not in the world. He has just been voted in for the third term and what he does for the country is just too fantastic. Once a month on a weekend he gets his hands dirty and do community work. He has by now involved the whole country and everyone is now involved. As a nation they do clean-up projects and building projects and that is why the country is so clean. Houses are painted and hedges are planted around most houses and this country just stands head and shoulders above the rest of Africa. The President was also instrumental in bringing the genocide to and end and he united the Tutsis and the Hutus and if you would asked anyone in Rwanda today are you a Hutu or a Tutsi then they will tell you they are Rwandans. He also send the people who did the killing to 25 years in prison and if they were prepared to do community work then they got half there sentence off.
After the Kigali Genocide Memorial I went back to Philips house packed my bags and made it off to the border and I felled a bit sad to leave such a beautiful and special country behind.
