Rwanda and the new scramble for Africa : from tragedy to useful imperial fiction

256 Pages·2013·3.84 MB·English

by  Philpot

Robin Philpot
RWANDA AND THE NEW
SCRAMBLE
FOR AFRICA
From Tragedy
to Useful Imperial Fiction
© Robin Philpot and Baraka Books 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
Cover and book design by Folio infographie
Photo credits: All photos by Robin Philpot except "Paul Kagame in Israel" (Africa International) and "Rwandan refugees at Zaïre-
Rwanda border" (Jacques Godon).
Legal Deposit, 4th quarter 2013
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Philpot, Robin
[Ça ne s’est pas passé comme ça à Kigali. English]
Rwanda and the new scramble for Africa: from tragedy
to useful imperial fiction / Robin Philpot.
Translation of: Ça ne s’est pas passé comme ça à Kigali.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-926824-94-9 (pbk.). – ISBN 978-1-77186-005-5 (epub). –ISBN 978-1-77186-006-2 (pdf). – ISBN 978-1-77186-007-9
(mobi/kindle)
1. Genocide – Rwanda – History – 20th century. 2. Rwanda – History – Civil War, 1994. I. Title.
DT450.435P4813 2013 967.57104 C2013-907435-X
C2013-907436-8
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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing
for our translation activities and through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.
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To the memory of Juvénal Habyarimana
and Cyprien Ntaryamira and their staff whose shamefully
trivialized assassination led to a terrible human tragedy.
They will not be forgotten.
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
T
his book would not have been possible in the original French version and in
this new enriched English version without the support and participation of a vast
number of people. I sincerely thank them for their understanding and
contribution through aid in research, interviews, comments, criticisms, and more.
Thanks are due to the original French-language publisher Les Intouchables in
Quebec and later Duboiris in France. They withstood unbelievable pressure to
ensure the book would be available. Thanks also to Phil Taylor at Taylor-
Report.com for posting an earlier version in English—and in German—when all
other English-language publishers chose not to touch the book or the issue.
Thanks to Ed Herman for insisting that I update the book and publish a hard
copy. Thanks also to my colleagues at Baraka Books for supporting this
publishing adventure and to Josée Lalancette for her skill and devotion to book
design. Any errors are entirely my responsibility.
Robin Philpot
November 1, 2013
L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Internal Refugees, 1993
Paul Kagame in Israel, October 1996
Marie-Béatrice Umutesi
Faustin Twagiramungu, Prime Minister of Rwanda, 1994-95
In Comparison: “The Mood for Spy Hunts”
Internal refugee camp just north of Kigali, c. January 1994
Letter from Louise Arbour refusing to grant an interview French investigative
journalist Pierre Péan Jean-Paul Akayesu, Maison centrale d’arrêt, Bamako,
Mali Front Page of New York Times Magazine, September 15, 2002
Rwandan refugees at Zaïre-Rwanda border, November 1996
Raymond Chrétien, special envoy of the UN secretary general in the 1996
refugee crisis
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Until lions produce their own historians the story of the hunt will glorify only
the hunter
African proverb
T
“ he genocide in Rwanda was one hundred percent the responsibility of the
Americans!” Those are not the words of a political leader who has been
marginalized like Robert Mugabe, Fidel Castro or Bashar al-Assad. Nor are they
the words of a nostalgic African activist bewailing the fall of the Soviet bloc.
Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali made that
statement in July 1998, and he repeated it to me in November 2002 and again in
2004. People in the White House liked to call Boutros-Ghali “Booboo Ghali” or
“Frenchie,” while they methodically ejected him from the United Nations, an
operation conducted by then United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Madeleine Albright who vetoed his re-election on November 19, 1996.
His analysis flies in the face of all the clichés and accepted ideas about the
Rwandan catastrophe whose effects have spread well beyond the borders of that
small African country. The story of Rwanda is so littered with clichés and blind
beliefs that a modern Flaubertian would be well advised to draft a new
Dictionary of Received Ideas.
Throughout his life Flaubert wanted to compile a dictionary containing all that
should be said in good company to be right and proper and to laud the things the
right thinking agree upon. What should be said about Rwanda at cocktail parties
in Europe and North America—which Boutros-Ghali obviously did not say—in
order to be well thought of among the right thinking? If your ears perk up at such
events where Rwanda is mentioned, you are sure to here some or all of the
following statements.
Rwanda is a beautiful little country perched on a plateau in the heart of dark
Africa where horrible Hutu génocidaires massacred a million defenceless
Tutsis after a plane crash killed an African dictator on April 6, 1994.
The United Nations and the international community hopelessly failed to
respond in time despite the clear warning in a fax sent on January 11, 1994
by the valorous Canadian General Roméo Dallaire and the numerous
warnings issued by devoted and neutral human rights workers.
In a predictable return to its iniquitous and colonialist past, France flew to
the rescue of génocidaires and dictators by deploying its army in the
Opération Turquoise.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front led by the brilliant military and political
strategist Paul Kagame, now President of Rwanda, put an end to the
genocide when he swept down from the north and marched into Kigali on
July 4, 1994, taking power on July 19, 1994.
Pressured by impartial, non-governmental, human rights groups and in light
of the trustworthy information they provided, the international community
got its senses back, established the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda, arrested and indicted the bloodthirsty génocidaires, and brought
these big fish to justice in Arusha, thanks in particular to Canadian
Prosecutor Louise Arbour, who later became judge on the Supreme Court
of Canada and then head of the UN Human Rights Commission.