At a meeting on UN peacekeeping that started in Kigali on Monday, the Rwandan Minister of Defence emphasized the dangers paused by hate speech and how it affects communities including leading to the worst atrocities that can be committed against mankind. Thirty years ago, Rwanda saw the worst of hate speech when a section of Rwandans descended on their innocent compatriots and killed them without any provocation. Within just 100 days, over a million innocent civilians had been killed and the national fabric devastatingly broken. It has taken a resolute leadership and perseverance of the general population to build a unified state that Rwanda is today. However, some of those who perpetuated the Genocide against the Tutsi are hell-bent on completing their agenda to completely annihilate their Tutsi compatriots. The purveyors of this toxic ideology have been more present in far-flung places especially those countries where they have found safe haven despite the serious crimes that they face back home. However, of late, the monster is lurking in our midst and the earlier something is done to address it, the better. This past week, a group of militiamen in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo stormed the Rwandan border commonly known as Petite Barriere in Rubavu district and started chanting the same songs and slogans we last heard from the murderous Interahamwe militia nearly 30 years ago. These mass murderers have for decades lived in the neighbouring country where they continue to nurture their ambition to annihilate one section of the Rwandan population and they enjoy full support of the Kinshasa regime. Through their terror group calling itself FDLR, these criminals have a free-reign to wreak havoc in the neighbouring country especially targeting the Congolese Tutsi whom they kill, maim and loot from with help of other like-minded militia groups and the government soldiers. Unfortunately, such events are happening in full glare, in the full presence of UN’s largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO. Reports have been authored – including by the UN Human Rights Commission - pointing to the dangers of the pervasive hate speech in the east of DR Congo, but the peacekeepers there remain nonchalant. If this monster is to ever be completely subdued, there is need for global solidarity in confronting it.
