An important opinion piece by Ken Roth in the Los Angeles Times. Under the guise of recovering from the 1994 genocide — whose 15th anniversary we mark this month — Rwandan president Paul Kagame has created a nation where dissent is not tolerated and talk of the past is carefully controlled.
Despite the facade of occasional elections, the government essentially runs a one-party state. And ironically, it is the genocide that has provided the government with a cover for repression. Under the guise of preventing another genocide, the government displays a marked intolerance of the most basic forms of dissent.
One of the ways the government does this is by pursuing the charge of “genocide ideology.” The law is written so broadly that it can encompass “even the most innocuous comments. As many Rwandans have discovered, disagreeing with the government or making unpopular statements can easily be portrayed as genocide ideology, punishable by sentences of 10 to 25 years.”
Many lessons can be drawn from Rwanda’s experience. But one of the most powerful is this. A country that has gone through a period of political violence must find ways to deal with the past in ways that promotes and accepts a diversity of opinion. To shut down debate — as some in the US want to do with the Bush Admin9istration’s legacy — only means that questions fester.
But they never go away.