This is a paper I wrote for a War and Theology Class
Introduction:
C.S.
Lewis describes an “Inner Ring” as something that is “morally neutral” and
“unavoidable” in its existence. The overwhelming desire to be part of an Inner
Ring that leads people to neglect former friends or derive pleasure from the
humiliation of outsiders is what causes Inner Rings to become dangerous and
evil.[1]
Paul Kagame, the current president of the African nation of Rwanda, has built
his presidency around an Inner Ring attempting to bring himself to messiah-like
status to the people of his nation out of both fear and cult-like respect.
Demographics and A Brief
History:
In order to understand Paul Kagame’s
Inner Ring, one must understand the demographics and a brief history of Rwanda.
Rwanda is comprised of three tribes: Hutus (85% of the population), Tutsis
(14%), and Twa [also called Pygmy] (1%), with the main tribal conflicts being
between the Hutus and the Tutsis.[2]
Colonial rule by the Germans and the Belgians held to the pre-colonial custom
that the Tutsis were the superior ruling tribe. The colonial powers used the
Tutsis as their “in-country” ruling power.[3]
Between 1959-1961 there was a revolution that overthrew both Belgian (which had
replaced Germany after world War I) authority and Tutsi sub-authority and
established Hutus as the ruling elite.[4]
During this time, many Tutsis (including Kagame, age 2) went into exile into
neighboring nations (in Kagame’s case, with his family, in Uganda).[5]
The political climate and the ruling Hutus, including subsequent President
Juvenal Habyarimana (president from 1973-1994) would not allow the exiled
Tutsis to return to Rwanda.[6]
A group of Tutsis, including Kagame, formed a militia (the Rwandan Patriotic
Front – RPF) and launched a civil war that would last four years culminating in
the Rwandan genocide in 1994 (mainly killing Tutsis[7])
and their eventual takeover of the government of the nation.[8]
The Inner Ring Begins:
C.S. Lewis states, “Unless you take
measures to prevent it, this desire [to be part of an Inner Ring] is going to
be one of the chief motives of your life…”[9]
It is my assertion that Kagame made this determination very early in his military
and political career and quite possibly early in his life [to form and be part
of an inner ring]. While no one can be sure, he may have desired so desperately
to be an “insider” because he was an “outsider” for so long as a refugee. First, Kagame was a commander in the
RPF military. When Kagame came to power in the Rwandan government, he was first
the Vice-President. As Vice-President, however, he was actually leading the
government and military from that position. To begin to create his Inner Ring
by showing his strength and positioning his allies, under the guise of
eliminating the enemy soldiers and genocidaires (those who committed the
genocide of 1994) who had fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC –
Then called Zaire), Kagame ordered a secret full invasion of Zaire with the RPF
army fighting along side the militia of Laurent Kabila in 1996.[10]
The goal was to depose then Zairian President Mobutu and replace him with
Kabila, thought to be an “insider” with Kagame.[11]
The Kagame-Kabila alliance destroyed thousands of innocent human shields used
by Mobutu’s army whom they were fighting.[12]
Kagame repatriated “two and a half million [Rwandan] refugees [hiding from the
RPF] in broad daylight.”[13]
Together, Kagame and Kabila fought until May 17, 1997 when Kabila was
officially part of Kagame’s Inner Ring as president of neighboring Zaire (which
Kabila renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo).[14]
As reported by the United Nations, having
Kabila as part of his Inner Ring meant that Kagame had access to large amounts
of gold, diamonds, and coltan (a vital component in cell phones) – minerals
found in large quantities in the DRC.[15]
Kabila also appointed Rwandan Colonel James Kabarebe, a staunch Kagame ally, to
General and Chief of Staff of the DRC,[16]
no doubt under the influence of Kagame’s power of building an Inner Ring.
Kabila overstepped his boundaries with
Kagame and was quickly removed from Kagame’s Inner Ring when he began listening
to the Congolese people about the disproportionate Rwandan influence in the
Congolese government. In 1998, Kabila fired Kabarebe and removed all Rwandan troops
from the army of the DRC.[17]
These actions by Kabila and an incursion by attackers from the DRC into a
Rwandan city prompted another invasion by Rwanda into the DRC in 1998. Aside
from attacking military targets, there is much evidence that the RPF also
attacked civilians.[18] Under
mysterious circumstances, President Laurent Kabila was assassinated on January
16, 2001 and succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila.[19]
One has to beg the question if C.S. Lewis’ question applies here: “…[Have] you
ever derived actual pleasure from the loneliness and humiliation of the
outsiders after you yourself were in…?”[20]
Did Kagame gain pleasure from his newfound power and ability to make Kabila an
“insider” and then an “outsider?” One can speculate that the answer points to
the affirmative based upon his actions in subsequent years.
Creating and Maintaining
an Inner Ring:
Lewis
says that the desire to create Inner Rings is one of the great permanent
mainsprings in human action and that unless measures are taken to prevent it,
the desire will always be one of the chief motives of life.[21]
As he transitioned from Vice-President into President, Kagame used many
calculated moves to form an Inner Ring to gain and maintain power.
After
gaining power, the RPF (read Kagame) decided that they could not allow politics
to unfold in a conventional manner for fear of another genocide. While many
individuals and nations supported this idea for the first few years of RPF
control, many have come to believe that this ban on “genocide ideology” is a
manufactured effort to repress all political rivals to the RPF.[22]
The first official leader of the RPF, a Hutu, President Bizimungu, resigned in
protest in 2000 making Kagame the official President, thus centralizing his
power to an official capacity. Several Hutus in the RPF government followed
Bizimungu’s lead and resigned their positions showing that they were merely in
office to show a false attempt at multi-ethnic governing.[23]
An official presidential election was scheduled for 2003, and Bizimungu decided
to run against Kagame. Being an authoritarian leader, Kagame had Bizimungu
arrested under trumped up charges of “corruption” and “divisionism.” He was
sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Kagame won the election with 95% of the
vote against a rival candidate who received little press attention due to RPF
authority.[24]
Kagame
began his presidency from the start by running an authoritarian regime and
creating an Inner Ring. He appointed Tito Rutaremara as “ombudsman” to search
through personal records of all government officials for suspicious increases
of wealth. Anyone caught with any indication of corruption is thrown into
disgrace without the chance for rehabilitation.[25]
At first glance, strict oversight may seem honorable, but what is not
immediately seen is that Kagame is the arbitrary judge of the definition of “corruption.”
For example, claiming governmental excess spending Kagame ordered police to
stop and impound luxury cars from hundreds of government officials,[26]
but this same “anti-corruption” Kagame stayed at a $16,000-a-night luxury hotel
in New York City during a meeting at the United Nations.[27]
Kagame
also uses those outside of the government to form his Inner Ring. Rwandan
Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana is an outspoken supporter of Kagame, and Kagame
has welcomed him into his Inner Ring. Bishop Rucyhahana’s role is to give
Christian blessing to Kagame’s person and regime.[28]
While Kagame is not overtly Christian (or identifiable with any religion),
Bishop Rucyhahana insists that, “he’s a divine prescription from God to this
nation [Rwanda].”[29] He
continues that this apparently non-religious president should not be called
“non-religious” because “he may even be more religious than some so-called
religious people. It all depends on what you call religion…”[30]
Kagame has capitalized upon Bishop Rucyahana being in his Inner Ring to blur
the line between church and state, thus even further centralizing his own
power.
Mainly,
Kagame maintains his Inner Ring of loyalty by fear and guilt. Those who are in
the Inner Ring may profess that they are loyal out of Kagame’s accomplishments,
but many will argue that the facts on the ground are just too blatant and prove
otherwise. As already stated
above, Kagame fires and throws anyone into disgrace who is caught in
corruption. This causes others in government under Kagame’s authority to obey
him out of fear. Kagame is also known for disappearances, arrests, and murders
of rivals. Seth Sendashonga, an anti-Kagame figure exiled in Kenya was shot and
wounded. A former RPF exile, Theoneste Lizinde who had joined Sendashonga in
Kenya was assassinated.[31]
Using guilt, Kagame also maintains his Inner Ring by use of the “genocide
credit.”[32]
The “genocide credit” is a “slang”[33]
term of Kagame’s Inner Ring. The premise of the “genocide credit” is to guilt
outsiders by telling them that they (or their nation) did nothing to help
Rwanda during the genocide, or that they are adding pressure that could cause
another genocide, and now they have no authority with which to speak (mainly
against Kagame and/or the RPF). Victore Ingabire, a native Rwandan Hutu
politician, returned to her homeland to run against Kagame in the most recent
presidential election. She was arrested in October 2011 on charges of
divisionism, genocide ideology, and inciting revolt. Her “crime” was that she
gave a speech at the Rwandan National Genocide Memorial and said that the Hutus
killed in the genocide are forgotten, and their families should be given
recognition, and that there is a need for national reconciliation and justice
for the Tutsis who were murdered.[34]
On a personal level, I, myself have received e-mails and messages via Twitter
accusing me of genocide ideology from both Rwandan citizens and Government
officials including Minister of Defense James Kabarebe (mentioned above)
because of activism[35] related to
the recent accusations[36]
by the United Nations that Rwanda was sponsoring and maintaining a militia that
was destabilizing and murdering civilians in the DRC.
A Prime Example of
Leaving the Inner Ring:
Dr.
Theogene Rudasingwa grew up a Tutsi refugee much the same way that President
Kagame did, and when he learned about the formation of the RPF, he joined so
that he could be part of the “liberation” of a homeland he did not remember.[37]
Rudasingwa met Kagame while the RPF was regrouping from a military defeat in
the Rwandan mountains. There, Kagame ordered him to accompany a businessman to
“take advantage of contacts” in Belgium.[38]
This was the beginning of Rudasingwa’s political career in the RPF and being in
Kagame’s Inner Ring. Upon his
return from Belgium, Kagame appointed Rudasingwa as an RPF diplomat though the
RPF had not yet taken full control of Rwanda.[39]
He would go on to serve in several diplomatic appointments. In 2000, Rudasingwa
was appointed as Director of Cabinet to President Kagame; the most senior civil
servant position in Rwanda.[40]
While at first Rudasingwa prized this office, he later came under much pressure
from Kagame who would micro-manage every aspect of his position (and most
government positions). In essence, Kagame was (and still is) keeping his
government a “we-government”[41]
that keeps those that would add any diversity or be outside of Kagame’s control
out of the government. The pressure on Rudasingwa became so great that he
finally realized that he had to get out of the Inner Ring. After much
difficulty, on April 21, 2005, Rudasingwa and his family left Rwanda for the
United States as political refugees.[42]
After returning to his Christian faith, he realized that the power he had in
the Kagame regime was not the life he was meant to live, and though he
struggled at first with faith, he found a church home that spoke to his
struggling mind and heart and rekindled his faith.[43]
Conclusion:
President
Paul Kagame of Rwanda and his RPF regime came into power through a revolution
that culminated in a horrific genocide.
Kagame grabbed power and maintains it to this day by creating an Inner
Ring of loyal government officials and supporters in the population. Whether or
not this support is genuine is largely unknown because Kagame is known for
ruling with fear and guilt. His opponents are often arrested, disappear, or
murdered, and he and his supporters use the “genocide credit” to guilt or pull
their authority over others by saying that they have a moral authority because
of the genocide of 1994. All of
the tactics that Kagame has used and continues to use show that he has chosen
the path of becoming a “scoundrel”[44]
and a despotic authoritarian ruler bent on maintaining his rule at the expense
of human life and dignity as he has shown in the cases cited here and in many
more instances that are not in line with the subject of this paper.
[1] C.S. Lewis,
“The Inner Ring,” accessed from http://www.mit.edu/~hooman/ideas/the_inner_ring.htm
on November 25, 2013.
[2] Theogene
Rudasingwa, Healing a Nation: A Testimony
(North Charleston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013), 68.
[3] Ibid.,
70-71.
[4] Ibid., 73.
[5] Stephen
Kinzer, A Thousand Hills (Hoboken:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008), 12.
[6] Ibid., 38.
[7] Facts about
the Rwandan Genocide are controversial and questions remain as to who started
the killing, who did the killing, and so forth. It is a fact that Tutsis were
the main victims. Any more is a very contentious debate and beyond the scope of
this paper.
[8] Rudasingwa,
75.
[9] Lewis
[10] Kinzer,
201.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid., 202
[13] Kagame
quoted in Kinzer, 204.
[14] Ibid., 205.
[15] Ibid., 212.
[16] Ibid. 206.
[17] Ibid.,
206-210.
[18] Ibid. 210.
[19] Ibid., 218.
[20] Lewis.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Kinzer,
223.
[23] Ibid., 224.
[24] Ibid.,
225-229.
[25] Ibid.
235-236.
[26] Ibid., 237.
[27] Ann
Garrison, “Rwandan President on the Night of Troy Davis’ Execution” accessed
from http://sfbayview.com/2011/rwandan-president-paul-kagame-on-the-night-of-troy-davis’-execution/
on November 25, 2013.
[28] Kinzer,
302-306.
[29] Ibid., 306.
[30] Ibid., 307.
[31] Ibid., 214.
[32] Ibid., 336.
[33] Lewis.
[34] “Victore
Ingabire’s Trial” accessed from http://www.victoire-ingabire.com/Eng/victoire-ingabires-trial/
on November 25, 2013.
[35] My own
activism includes letters to government officials, being on the founding board
of directors of a Refugee Mission, blog postings that are followed by the RPF
and Human Rights agencies, and, to date, 3 published articles concerning
Kagame’s crimes in the DRC.
[36] Steve Hege,
et al., “Letter from the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the
Congo pursuant to Resolution 1533,” accessed from http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2012/843
[37] Rudasingwa,
2-60.
[38] Ibid., 101.
[39] Ibid., 109.
One can compare this arrangement to Palestinian diplomats before Palestine had
any official recognition of statehood.
[40] Ibid., 238.
[41] Lewis. “We”
is a term used by people on the inside of an Inner Ring.
[42] Rudasingwa,
319.
[43] Ibid., 324.
[44] Lewis.
“Scoundrel” is a term used by Lewis to describe a choice that will come to 9
out of 10 people in their lifetimes. They will have a choice to become a
“scoundrel” or to choose to do what is right, but the choice in the moment may
not seem very dramatic.
