Gen KK's arrest: Contest of spirit and might

The arrest of Lt General Karenzi Karake in London just over a week ago caused outrage and drew sharp condemnation not only in Rwanda but across Africa. Indeed decent and fair-minded people around the world felt the same outrage. The anger was expected. Rwanda has a history of reacting swiftly and decisively to this sort of treatment of its citizens. But regardless, the UK authorities went ahead and arrested General Karake anyway. Why did they do this well knowing what the reaction would be? The principal reason, as nearly every commentator has noted, is politics and demonstration of power over a country that dares not behave according to type. The official explanation given of respect for legal obligations and serving the interests of justice are only pretexts. Put bluntly, the position most Western countries have taken regarding Rwanda and other countries with similar tendencies is this: don’t raise your head; stay where we have decided you belong. Shut up and don’t ask awkward questions that put us in a moral quandary. Stop talking about agaciro, self reliance, a united and reconciled nation and such nonsense. In the case of Rwanda, this is even a deflection of responsibility of the failure to live up to legal and moral obligations towards the people of this country. This is what happens when some Western governments are asked why they permit known genocidaires to live and move freely in their countries even when there is compelling evidence to bring them to trial. It is what happens when some of them are reminded about their complicity in the genocide of the Tutsi or their inexplicable inability to stop it. It is what happens when they fail to deal with the FDLR in DR Congo. The arrest of Lt General Karake is only one instance of humiliation among and further demonstrate the inequality of nations despite pretences to the contrary. The powerful do as they wish. They bully, twist arms, and distort facts to get what they want. They behave according to a different code of conduct. As President Kagame put it last Thursday, they treat us with contempt. The reason for this is because they are strong and we are weak. If we were strong, as some commentators have noted, this would not happen. Indeed it is said that the Spanish have withdrawn an indictment against the Chinese for alleged crimes in Tibet. Obviously the change of heart is because China is powerful. If ever President Kagame’s constant urging about dignity, to modernise and grow strong individually or better still as regional blocs needed proof, this is it. We are always informed that such institutions like the International Criminal Court and concepts like universal jurisdiction were created to end impunity and give justice to the weak and defenceless. The irony is that they actually promote the impunity of the strong and deny the weak justice. Again they only serve to demonstrate inequality in the international system. Returning to this particular case, it is the latest in a series of provocative actions intended to do a number of things. First, it is to discredit the government of Rwanda by tagging on its leadership responsibility for crimes against humanity, even simply by mere suspicion. The associations this creates in the public mind is powerful and enough to discredit all the achievements of the government. This is the logic behind reports of alleged disappearances of supposed dissidents, journalists and so on. It is what informs stories about purported assassination attempts in foreign countries, including the UK. Remember reports of Scotland Yard warning Rwandan exiles about imminent threat to their lives by Rwanda government assassins coming from the continent? No arrests or follow up were ever made. Secondly, it is aimed at denying the genocide of the Tutsi since the indictment on which the arrest warrant was based is premesed on the grounds that the genocide did not happen. Again, this is why such things as the BBC documentary, Rwanda’s Untold Story, are made – to create doubt about the truth of the genocide. The evidence for such stories comes from avowed deniers of the genocide. These include some academics, journalists, activists of every sort, and Rwandan fugitives from justice. In normal circumstances, such evidence would be worthless, but because it is carried by a respected media organisation, it becomes unquestionably credible. Thirdly, it serves a revisionist agenda of the history of Rwanda in the last 21 years. The aim is this: there is more than one history of the country – the official version, which shouldn’t be believed, and the real one, which is true and credible but suppressed. Who tells the supposedly correct version? Foreigners and outlaws, people with misplaced biases. Again underlying this view is this: You have the cheek to write your own history without our permission and to challenge the view we decree to be the correct one? Finally, this is part of an attempt to derail Rwandans in their efforts to chart a path of their choice and write the story of their future. Can it be a coincidence that every time Rwandans are about to make important choices, accusations against the current leadership of Rwanda suddenly surface? The Mapping Report and various other UN reports by so-called groups of experts appear from nowhere, followed by a barrage of rabid attacks in the media. It is clear that the arrest of Lt General Karake follows a now familiar pattern. But it is also clear that it will meet an equally familiar response. Rwandans will fight for their dignity. Now, as in similar instances in the past, we are witnessing a contest between the power of the spirit and right and the power of might. In a contest of unequals, the spirit matters and there is never a guarantee that might wins. Jorwagatare@yahoo.co.uk

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Gen KK's arrest: Contest of spirit and might