Citation
Eyewitness
There are not many who think of the residents of the Meridien hotel in
Gisenye as victims of Rwanda's civil conflict. But, as members of the
beleaguered government, that is what they would have the world
believe.
The core of the dispersed administration forced to flee the capital
has retreated to the hotel on the northern shores of Lake Kivu, yards
from the Zairean border and about as far as you can go and remain in
Rwanda.
The interim president, the prime minister and most of the cabinet are
surrounded by solders in what amounts to the interim capital of the
less than half of Rwanda they still control.
In some of the rooms lives are bargained for. Individuals with enough
influence or cash seek documents to rescue people from the slaughter,
usually Tutsis in hiding. They try to buy passes, or army guards, for
safe passage through the militia roadblocks, in the hope of smuggling
a relative or friend to safety.
In other rooms, remnants of the administration try to wash their hands
of responsibility for Rwanda's tragedy and persuade the world that it
has got it all wrong.
The health minister, Casimir Bizimungu, is among those leading the
effort to absolve the government of responsibility for the murder of
hundreds of thousands of Tutsis.
Some, such as the foreign minister, invariably speak harshly of
Tutsis. Mr Bizimungu is more subtle, but his message is the same.
He deplores the "horrendous" slaughter, but despairs that the outside
world cannot understand that Tutsis murdered by marauding militias
have brought it upon themselves by backing the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF), which restarted the war.
They are responsible for all of this
, he says. The RPF resumed
fighting immediately after the president's plane was shot down, and
the tensions were so exacerbated that in different districts the
people began killing each other. Who is responsible? The RPF and the
Tutsis.
He has confused the chronology. The militia began picking off the
government's political opponents and the ethnic minority within hours
of President Juvenal Habyarimana's death. The resumption of the war
was a consequence of the massacres, not a cause.
But he is not deterred. He promises to talk very sincerely
, and
relates a bizarre catalogue of alleged Tutsi and RPF plots.
The RPF military leader, he says, notified the United Nations of the
rebels' intention to murder Mr Habyarimana, and the UN covered it
up. And, he insists, the Tutsis were planning the mass murder of the
Hutus before they themselves fell victim.
It's very unfortunate that you come here when I've been waiting for a
document from one of the government security services taken from homes
of Tutsis.
Those documents show clearly there was a plan for a number of months
to identify people who should be massacred, people who are not on the
RPF side. People were being taught ideologically how to hurt and kill
the Hutu.
Some might find it remarkable that, in such circumstances, the
overwhelming number of victims were those supposedly plotting the
killings. But Mr Bizimungu is not concerned about that. What he is
keen to do is to make sure that his government does not get the blame
when the UN begins to investigate the genocide.
He says there was nothing it could do to stop the killing, because the
army was busy fighting at the front.
- French special forces yesterday evacuated 43 nuns from Kibuye,
western Rwanda, who had been living in terror for 10 weeks
threatened by machete-wielding thugs who staged mock
executions. Government soldiers and extremist militias massacred
thousands of people, mostly Tutsis, in Kibuye who had sought shelter
in the church and stadium.
