Lawyer ventures into Kigali to defend Ingabire

Olivier Nyirubugara (Brussels:23 May 2010)-Professor Peter Erlinder flew to Kigali last Saturday 22 May to meet Ms Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader currently under arrest on charges of denying the genocide against the Tutsi and collaborating with terrorist groups.

Ingabire returned home earlier this year after 16 years of exile in the Netherlands. She was then hoping to register her party, the United Democratic Forces and to run for presidency in coming August. All seems to be turning in a nightmare for her as her passport, computer and mobile phone were seized.

I met professor Erlinder in Brussels a few hours before his flight to Kigali. He was attending a conference on the legacy and lessons from the UN Tribunal for Rwanda. The mission will certainly be difficult as local pro-government media have portrayed him as a genocide minimizer. In this interview, Professor Erlinder gives his point of view on the road ahead.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Rwanda
• Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
• Peter Erlinder
• RPF
• FDU
• UDF
• Olivier Nyirubugara

[SuperMasterjayjay]

mr Wiko84 ...there was no justification indeed for hutus (extremist Hutus) to kill half a million moderate hutus and a handfull of tutsis who had not mobilised themselves to otherthrow habyalimana's regime from Uganda.(many of us know the rwandese History).But do you think Tutsis (extremist ones)have a justification to launch a killing campaign on october 1 1990.

to launch a hate speech radio (MUHABURA) in the same year.

2 u is there any conexion btwn the killing of Gatabaza gapyisi n others?

[kirundo1]

@wiko84 Let put that genocide in different perspective. Think of Rwanda of 1994 as The USA today, then all of sudden a radical white rebel decides to wage a war and kills American President Barack Obama who's a Black. In your brain and conscious, you would justify the killings of all White people because a Black president was killed by a white person? Huh, what the hell is going on in your brain? Where you guys came from? I cannot comprehend the type of your brain, but I will ask God one day.

[kirundo1]

@wiko84 About the genocide of 1994, it seems that you still have a long way to go. Even if Kagame had killed the former president habyarimana, there was no justification for former Rwandan officials to mobilize the hutus to kill Tutsi. Only in your brain, it's justifiable. Hutus who went to Universities urged their brothers to kill even children and their long time neighbors? Only in your heart it's justifiable. They killed even cows and cut the trees. I'm talking about ELITES Hutus of then.

[kirundo1]

@kirundo1 I'm glad once more to read you saying that you were in Rwanda recently. Ask any one who ever been in Rwanda 20 years ago, he/she will tell you that what's happening in Rwanda is unbeleivable comparing to how Rwanda used to perform in the last 50 years. All that it's not because of Kagame as such. It's because of men and women of Rwanda under good leadership of Kagame. Good leadership means: non-corrupt society, accountability, Security for all, economic self-reliance, blame-free nation

[kirundo1]

@wiko84 Putting Bizimungu and other Hutus in front, was never meant to lie the World because we don't owe any thing to the world that you're talking about. It was what politics of good governance dictated: Means to the End. Do You get it my friend? If I'm in need of negociating with Chinese, for instance, I'd rather use some one who speaks Chinese Mandarine instead of English. Do you get that concept? I hope you do. Once again, it's called: Means to the End. I have a lot of things to teach U

[kirundo1]

@wiko84 My friend, I did not call you stupid, you just said or felt that way, but I wanted to have a constructive dialogue. I like to exchange ideas because it's one of my hobbies. So, let exchange ideas in respectiful manner. First, you said that Kagame was working for Museveni in Uganda! How did he end up working for Museveni in Uganda? Do your research since you said that you know Rwanda very well. Kagame did not work for Museveni, but He used him. Conduct another research my friend.

[wiko84]

@kirundo1 After working for Museveni in Uganda, Kagame came to Rwanda, whe he got what he wanted, he tried to lie the world by putting mr Bizimungu as his cat's-paw when he was the one regulating everything. He silenced mr Faustin Twagiramungu in 2003 by stealing all the vote and putting mr Bizimungu in prison. So my friend I'm not stupid, may be your stupid credo is the one that's wrong because you want to defend and deverge the truth that anyone can see.

[wiko84]

@kirundo1 It's obvious that Kagame is the cause of 1994 genocide in Rwanda because without him killing Habyarimana and Ntaryamira Hutus wouldn't do what they did. You can go to Kigal today and ask Kagame about how those two presidents were killed, he won't give you any answer because he knows what he did. You can lie to me about how many Hutus are educated in Rwanda today, but I've been in Rwanda recently and I know how the RPF system works.

[wiko84]

@kirundo1 Mr Kirundo I appreciate and respect your comments but let me correct you somewhere. You don't educate me, you're just giving me your point of view because I'm not racist, and I didn't say what I said because I hate one ethnic or one group of people. I'm not Rwandese but I know Rwanda very well, I know the history of that region. You can make any comparison you want but the fact is that the HUTU and TUTSI problem will always remain there.

[kirundo1]

@wiko84 This ideology of killing any one who does not look like you will keep you down while blaming Kagame for your misery. Today you want to kill Tutsis, tomorrow you will kill Whites Africans, after that you will kill Asians Africans or may-be you already terminated them like former stupid president Idi Amin of Uganda. From where did you get that kind of ideology? Stupid evil ideology. Do you know how many educated Hutus in Rwanda now? Millions and all in power living better than before