Tribunal on Hutus is Hypocrisy

By Simon Templer, 21 February 1996

What Henry Mirima writes has very little bearing with reality. I suspect he is a Muhutu that looks back at the days of Habyarimana with a lot of nostalgia. A few disclaimers first; I'm not Rwandese and do not profess to be an authority on Rwanda. I probably have lived in Rwanda longer than Mr. Mirima and therefore have the benefit of having lived through both a Tutsi & a Hutu regime in Rwanda.

He eludes to a conspiracy by " some big powers" having aided the Batusi in overthrowing the Bahutu but fails to offer any proof or contributing factors that substantiate his claim. Secondly, he seems firmly convinced that the Hutus (because they are the majority) are a better alternative when it comes to ruling Rwanda. I have lived in Rwanda on and off for the last fifty years or so.

That is, I experienced the first Tutsi led regime and also the Hutu (Habyarimana & Co.) regime that was recently forced out of Rwanda. Hate to burst Mr. Mirima's bubble but the Hutus at the time weren't doing any better a job for the masses in Rwanda than the current government in Kigali is doing today. Yes, they were Hutus; yes, they were the majority; that, however, didn't seem to elevate them from the vices that most African governments seem to be prone to, i.e. corruption, murder of political opponents greed, avarice, emptying State coffers (misappropriation of public funds in the interest of a select few at the expense of the rest the country) etc... (you get the picture). Suffice it to say that because one is a Hutu or Tutsi, in-of-itself does not make one a better "leader". Further, the argument that Mirima makes..."Thus, the big powers, and the persons who supplied the RPF with weapons, is an act which provoked the Hutus..." is utter stupidity (and I'm being polite)!!! That's the kind of thinking that led to the genocide. It is like saying that because some Hutu killed my wife in Paris, it therefore follows (according to Mirima's logic) that I kill all the Hutus I can find here in New York!! Why didn't Hutu troops go & fight the RPF that was on course to fight them instead of killing INNOCENT citizens of Rwanda that didn't have anything to do with the RPF??

My opinion is that lets give the current folks in power a chance because neither one of the former regimes did a stellar job in leading the country to economic prosperity - which I believe the "common Rwandese" on the street in Kigali is more interested in rather than which "race" (Hutu or Tutsi) is in power!!!