Don't Write Off Rwandan Violence as Ethnic; Uganda Shares Blame
To the Editor:
Uganda's army-dominated Government shares indirect responsibility for the deaths of Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana, its prime minister, United Nations peacekeepers, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi and for plunging their two countries into uncontrolled ethnic violence (front page, April 7).
Bloodletting escalated in Rwanda in October 1990, when Tutsi Rwandan refugees in Uganda, armed by Uganda's National Resistance Army and commanded by the Ugandan army officers Maj. Gen. Fred Rwigyema and Maj. Paul Kagame invaded that country, seeking to oust the Hutu-dominated government. General Rwigyema died and Major Kagame, trained in the United States under an International Military Training Program in 1990, is now commander of the Rwanda Patriotic Front. They weren't ever court-martialed.
The heavily equipped "guerrillas," backed by artillery, rolled back government forces, compelling President Habyarimana to agree last April that the Tutsi invaders who called themselves the Rwanda Patriotic Front (Tutsis were Rwanda's former feudal elite) should make up 40 percent of the army and half the cabinet, although Tutsis are only 15 percent of the population and Hutus 85 percent. The country was to hold multiparty elections, which wouldn't have resolved enmity since parties take on ethnic lines and Hutus would win.
Uganda's army-dominated Government shares indirect responsibility for the deaths of Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana, its prime minister, United Nations peacekeepers, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi and for plunging their two countries into uncontrolled ethnic violence (front page, April 7).
Bloodletting escalated in Rwanda in October 1990, when Tutsi Rwandan refugees in Uganda, armed by Uganda's National Resistance Army and commanded by the Ugandan army officers Maj. Gen. Fred Rwigyema and Maj. Paul Kagame invaded that country, seeking to oust the Hutu-dominated government. General Rwigyema died and Major Kagame, trained in the United States under an International Military Training Program in 1990, is now commander of the Rwanda Patriotic Front. They weren't ever court-martialed.
The heavily equipped "guerrillas," backed by artillery, rolled back government forces, compelling President Habyarimana to agree last April that the Tutsi invaders who called themselves the Rwanda Patriotic Front (Tutsis were Rwanda's former feudal elite) should make up 40 percent of the army and half the cabinet, although Tutsis are only 15 percent of the population and Hutus 85 percent. The country was to hold multiparty elections, which wouldn't have resolved enmity since parties take on ethnic lines and Hutus would win.
The Ugandan Army includes thousands of Tutsi refugees who were recruited by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda during his successful guerrilla campaign against former President Milton Obote between 1980 and 1985. In 1990 many of these soldiers, including officers, launched the invasion into Rwanda.
The success of the Tutsi rebels in Rwanda probably emboldened Tutsis in Burundi, where they are also a minority but in control of the army, to murder President Melchior Ndadaye and scores of Hutu ministers, during an attempt to overthrow a newly democratically elected government.
Burundi, like Rwanda, has since plunged into brutal ethnic conflict. It was no coincidence that the leaders of the aborted takeover initially sought sanctuary in Uganda.
Tutsis have legitimate grievances. President Habyarimana didn't champion democracy and ignored the exiles' plight. Tutsis fled from massacres after Hutus overthrew a Tutsi monarchy in a 1959 uprising. In exile they were discriminated against in jobs, denied citizenship and exploited. In the 1960's Uganda's Obote recruited them into his hated secret police, as the dictator Idi Amin later did. They have always longed for and deserve to go home, but a coup is hardly the key.
A unity government would collapse as soon as one side thinks it has military superiority, as in 1975 and 1990 in Angola. There is too much bad blood, which explains why someone cuts off another person's head and limbs after already killing him. Partition must be considered as a solution to the carnage.
The United Nations can curb hostilities with an arms embargo against Uganda and all combatants in Rwanda. The centuries-old blood enmity compares to Serb-Muslim hatred in the former Yugoslavia and between Hindus and Muslims on the Indian subcontinent before Pakistan was created. Such conflicts don't simply fade away. MILTON G. ALLIMADI New York, April 15, 1994 The writer is a Ugandan journalist based in New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/20/opinion/l-don-t-write-off-rwandan-violence-as-ethnic-uganda-shares-blame-841447.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm
The success of the Tutsi rebels in Rwanda probably emboldened Tutsis in Burundi, where they are also a minority but in control of the army, to murder President Melchior Ndadaye and scores of Hutu ministers, during an attempt to overthrow a newly democratically elected government.
Burundi, like Rwanda, has since plunged into brutal ethnic conflict. It was no coincidence that the leaders of the aborted takeover initially sought sanctuary in Uganda.
Tutsis have legitimate grievances. President Habyarimana didn't champion democracy and ignored the exiles' plight. Tutsis fled from massacres after Hutus overthrew a Tutsi monarchy in a 1959 uprising. In exile they were discriminated against in jobs, denied citizenship and exploited. In the 1960's Uganda's Obote recruited them into his hated secret police, as the dictator Idi Amin later did. They have always longed for and deserve to go home, but a coup is hardly the key.
A unity government would collapse as soon as one side thinks it has military superiority, as in 1975 and 1990 in Angola. There is too much bad blood, which explains why someone cuts off another person's head and limbs after already killing him. Partition must be considered as a solution to the carnage.
The United Nations can curb hostilities with an arms embargo against Uganda and all combatants in Rwanda. The centuries-old blood enmity compares to Serb-Muslim hatred in the former Yugoslavia and between Hindus and Muslims on the Indian subcontinent before Pakistan was created. Such conflicts don't simply fade away. MILTON G. ALLIMADI New York, April 15, 1994 The writer is a Ugandan journalist based in New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/20/opinion/l-don-t-write-off-rwandan-violence-as-ethnic-uganda-shares-blame-841447.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm
Comments
Post a Comment