Hutu 10 Commandments
Date: / Mon, 4 Aug 1997 06:39:23 GMTReply-To: / Tribunal Watch List <[log in to unmask]
Sender: / Tribunal Watch List <[log in to unmask]
From: / Dr Peter Hall <[log in to unmask]
Subject: / The problems facing the people of Rwanda
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It is difficult to think of a people inheriting a more unfavourable set of circumstances than that has been facing the people of Rwanda since the end of the genocide. Chris McGreal's (below) report reminds us of the difficulties they face.
Many former Nazis retained political repsosibilty in West Gerrmany at the end of WWII - few Nazis were tried despite the genocide in which 6 millon Jew being killed in the holocaust. The perperators did not have to live with the survivors.
In Rwanda, not only was there was a much higher degree of complicity on the part of the general population with the genocide of Tutsis (and moderate Hutus) but the former civilian administration, from Presidnet down to the most humble community official, formed the very instrument that made the genocide happen.
Unlike Germany, the two ethnic groups (+ the Twa who make up 1% of the population) in Rwanda have no choice but to continue to live cheek by jowl. Also, traditionally, family ties are all important - a Rwandese person defines his/herself by his/her relationships, so loyalty has a huge influence.
The alleged genocidaire's claim that he risked his life to protect Tutsis does not mean he did not take part in the genocide. One of the 'interesting' features of the genocide was that individual genocidaires did protect some Tutsi friends.
He is also alleged to have been the author of anti-Tutsi writings in the Hutu extremist newspaper 'Kangura'. Below the article from the Guardian is reproduced the notorious racist '10 commandments', published in 'Kangura'
Peter Hall
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New governor on Rwandan death list
August 1, 1997
Chris McGreal
Kigali - Rwanda's Parliament is demanding that the government arrest a prominent Hutu politician who has been appointed as a regional governor despite his inclusion on the administration's own list of men wanted for the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.
Boniface Rucagu is number 120 on the list of about 2 000 people who face the death penalty for organising the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of victims.
President Pasteur Bizimungu says Rucagu's inclusion on the list is a mistake. But survivors of the genocide say there is ample evidence that Rucagu not only participated, but helped plan the mass murder, and that he was appointed governor of Ruhengeri province two months ago as a political measure to quell unrest among Hutus.
Deus Kagiraneza, a genocide survivor sitting in Parliament, submitted a Bill demanding Rucagu's removal from office and his arrest. "His appointment was a blunder," he said. "The position of the president is that someone is innocent until proven guilty. But that isn't good enough."
Before the genocide, Rucagu was an MP in the extremist ruling party, the MRND, which laid the ground for the killing. After his name was included on the new government's list of people accused of leading the genocide, he launched a vigorous campaign to clear his name.
This included issuing a 40-page pamphlet in which he claimed to have opposed the slaughter: "There is no evidence I did anything. I was opposed to killing. I put my own life in danger to try and stop it," he said.
But Rucagu's case is undermined by his own virulently anti-Tutsi writings in the Hutu extremist newspaper Kangura, which predicted the mass murder before it happened. He was also a founding shareholder of Radio Mille Collines, which broadcast some of the most inflammatory exhortations to kill.
Parliament summoned two Cabinet ministers to explain Rucagu's appointment. Sheikh Karim Harerimana, the interior minister, was defensive. "There is no concrete evidence Rucagu committed genocide. We believe he was included on the list by mistake. But if evidence against Rucagu were to be provided he will be dealt with like other killers," he told Parliament.
For Kagiraneza and many other MPs there is more than enough evidence. "There's plenty. He never resigned from the MRND. He was among the founding fathers of Radio Mille Collines. He had shares in Kangura. We have video tapes showing him at meetings. He was very proud of preparations for the genocide. He participated in preparing and executing genocide. When we asked why this evidence wasn't used we were told his file was lost," Kagiraneza said.
Among those prepared to testify against Rucagu is a former governor of Gitarama province who says he saw him kill six people. Another politician, an MP, is prepared to swear he heard him give a speech in Gitarama urging people to murder Tutsis.
Rucagu has been arrested and freed three times in the past two years. His final release came after his wife produced letters apparently written by him to the president of the extremist former regime pleading for an end to the genocide.
But Kagiraneza maintains the letters are fakes as there is no mention of their arrival at the president's office despite meticulous records kept by the former administration.
Parliament debated the issue for three days before ordering the government to sack Rucagu. The administration has so far refused.
Copyright 1997 Mail and Guardian. Distributed via Africa News Online( For information about the content or for permission to redistribute, publish or use for broadcast, contact Mail and Guardian at the link above.
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The Hutu 10 commandments
Published in "Kanguru", 10th December 1990.
1. Every Muhutu should know that a Mututsi woman, wherever she is, works for the interest of the Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall consider a traitor any Muhutu who: marries a Tutsi woman befriends a Tutsi woman employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine
2. Every Muhutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their roles as woman, wife, and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest?
3. Bahutu women be vigilant and try to bring your husbands brothers and sons back to reason.
4. Every Muhutu should know that every Mututsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result any Muhutu who does the following is a traitor
-makes a partnership with Batutsi in business -invests his money or the governments money in a Tutsi enterprise -lends or borrows money from a Mututsi -gives favours to a Mututsi in business (obtaining import licences, bank loans, construction sites, public markets...)
5. All strategic positions, political, administrative, economic, military and security should be entrusted to Bahutu
6. The education sector (school pupils, students, teachers) must be majority Hutu
7. The Rwandese Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. The experience of the October (1990) war has taught us a lesson. No member of the military shall marry a Tutsi
8. The Bahutu should stop having mercy on the Batutsi
9. The Bahutu, where ever they are must have unity and solidarity, and be concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers.
-The Bahutu inside and outside Rwanda must constantly look for friends and allies for the Hutu cause, starting with their Bantu brothers; -They must constantly counteract the Tutsi propaganda -The Bahutu must be firm and vigilant against their common Tutsi enemy
10. The social revolution of 1959, the referendum of 1961, and the Hutu ideology, must be taught to every Muhutu at every level. Every Hutu must spread this ideology widely. Any Muhutu who persecutes his brother Muhutu for having read, spread, and taught this ideology is a traitor.