Arusha 7

Kabuga's media machinery so successful in duping series
BY GEORGE KAGAME

Arusha
Recently during the lunch time news on a cool Arusha saturday, the anchorman, after the usual blur about headlines, he cleared his voice and said; "the most wanted criminal by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Felcien Kabuga has been arrested by police authorities in Nairobi Kenya."

I have forgotten what else the newsman added but i remember, but the next thing my memory recorded is that i hoped on s cab, (a rare treat in the circumstances) to the nearest internet cafe. The story had circulated to all the international news organisations least of all BBC on line.


I was lost between envy, (against the BBC online) and the feeling of gratification known to a great extent only by teachers, that i had been part of a procces to bring good in society-not neccessarily justice.


Immediately i picked my notes and went to the nearest quite garden and filed a story for my paper but the good old editors never published the story. And no explanation was not given why. I was bitter.

When i reported to work on Sunday, the story had variably changed versions, some versions making me doubt whether i had actually listened carefully to the news the previous day. It turned out that Kabuga was not actually arrested by Kenyan Police had detained a man who resembled the international fugitive.

The man had resembled Kabuga by virtue of the clothes he chose to wear that day. Mixed with a few jibes about DNA tests and all, the Kenyan Police announced albeit in subtle ways that they had arrested Kabuga-a millionaire Rwandan genocide reportedly living large in Nairobi.


Nobody the ICTR was willing to talk about the alleged arrest, but this was not unusual as the ICTR has a strict SILENCE policy that boarders on radical! So as i nursed by bruised ego late in the evenings it dawned on me that a story of that nature involving Kabuga was not unusual, the plot changed dates and names but the script remained familiar.

Kabuga, a wealthy businessman and close family man of Juvenal Habyarimana was very determined to eliminate the entire Tutsi lineage that only did he finance the extremist FM radio station RTLM, he also furnished the Interahamwe with the notorious matchetes purchased in China and imported through Egypt. The entire genocide politics bacame less cloudy since the Kabuga incident.

Here was a country at war, it was difficult ignoring the blatant folly of the 'international community' that in 1994 when an agricultural country like Rwanda was under a period of terror.

With words like genocide being muted and another country-an economic power to say the least, was selling matchetes to Rwanda. China was doing normal business with Rwanda, so was Egypt and South Africa.

Back to Kabuga's arrest story, it turns out that such stories are carefully planted by hi public relations machinery to confuse further the already confused tracking team of the ICTR's prosecutor's office. Kabuga's people are apparently very clever, and they have to be because he is a rich man.

When there man has not appeared in the news for sometime, they create a pseudo event, personality or something crafty succh that his name is smentioned. When it is mentioned, Kabuga's hiding machine learns about the progress in his case and the mandate of the ICTR.

The man can afford so many things, that reach beyond the limit of police and government authorities. On top of top notch PR and security firms working for him, Kabuga is reportedly doing very well comercially in Kenya where he banks revenue from several estate investments through out East Africa's largest economy.

The nature of free market economy is that as long as something is not a threat to the security of a nation, then there's no problem with it, even if it is a genocide. Therefore, while Paul Kagame and his cohorts in the RPF were fighting tooth and nails to get rid of a genocide regime, South Africa, China and Egypt saw nothing wrong with it. They continued business as usual.

Today, as the 'international community' seeks justice for the million Rwandans killed in the Genocide, Kenya sees nothing wrong with him as long as he invests in the country Till another story appears concerning this time a man with 'critical information' in the pursuit of Kabuga and the media duped again the game between Kenya, ICTR and Kabuga will continue.

So Kabuga and his comics survive one more time, justice is eluded and people are fooled. What the fugitive will not dodge however is his old age, the blind and timeless revenge machine!


Much more frustrating about justice is the fact that the combined effort of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations, ICTR, Interpol and the Kenyan police have all failed in implementing another UN duty, 14 years after the same UN failed the Rwandan people.