AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA EDGAR LUNGU ON THE OCCASION OF HIS OFFICIAL VISIT TO RWANDA

By Mrs Jeanne MUKAMURENZI

Your Excellency Edgar Lungu, on your state visit to Rwanda.

Your excellency, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to Rwanda, a country of thousand hills.

Sir, I have no doubt that you love Rwanda and the people of Rwanda. your country Zambia has continued to host thousands of Rwandese refugees who ran away from Mr.Paul Kagame's killings both in Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Your Excellency, as you embark on a state visit to Rwanda, I felt I should bring some important facts to your attention of which I know very well that Mr. Paul Kagame will not dare to bring to you.

Your Excellency, I was very pleased to see you laying wreaths at Gisozi Genocide memorial site.

Your Excellency, as you may have been told that the memorial is for the Tutsi who were killed in 1994, and those are the only people who are remembered and mostly talked about.

Your Excellency, the killing in Rwanda did not start in 1994, the killing started on 01/10/1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Army invaded Rwanda. They came killing men , women and children mainly Hutu.

Your Excellency, you may wish to know that all these victims who were killed in 1990 to today, are not remembered, their families are not allowed to mourn them, there is no memorial site for them, the foreign dignitaries like yourself your Excellency, are not told about these victims who were killed by Paul Kagame's soldiers under his instructions.

Your Excellency, these are victims who deserve to be remembered , to be mourned by their families and their resting place to be visited and be honored by foreign dignitaries who visit Rwanda.

Your Excellency, in April 1995, Paul Kagame ordered the killing of more than 40'000 (forty thousands) internally displaced Hutus refugees women, men children and elderly people in Kibeho Refugee camp according to the Australian peace keepers who were present when Kagame ordered the killings. Zambian peace keepers under the United nation peace keeping mission watched helplessly while these refugees were being shot dead others being hacked with machetes by Paul Kagame's soldiers under his order.

The Victims were buried in a mass grave and the place has since been forgotten as if nothing happened there, yet thousands of innocent Hutus are lying there, their families are not allowed to talk about them.

Your Excellency, many Rwandans could have loved to see you laying wreath to honor these victims and see for yourself what the Zambian peacekeepers went through trying to save the lives of the innocent victims.

Your Excellency, those who were lucky to survive this atrocity some of them are in Zambia, your country, I would like to thank the Zambian people through you, your Excellency for welcoming these people. The memories of what they went though and saw are still fresh up to now.

This is one of the images of what happened in Kibeho.

Your Excellency, when Mr. Paul Kagame visited your country, he was taken to the embassy Park , a resting place for former Zambian Republican presidents, I know you would wish to do the same on your visit to Rwanda.

Unfortunately,your Excellency, the truth is that in Rwanda such places don't exist . Mr. Paul Kagame has made sure that none of the former Rwanda's head of the state is heard of, their spouses and children even their properties.

Your Excellency , let me give you an example.

His excellency Dominique Mbonyumutwa was our first Republican President. When he died he was buried at Kamarampaka stadium (named as such after the first referendum that changed Rwanda into a Republic from Monarchy) to honor him for fighting for the independence. Hereafter, Mr. Paul Kagame went on to exhume the remains of our Independence hero , Mr. Dominique Mbonyumutwa and no one knows where he took his remains, His family has never been told where the remains of their relative have been put, could they be among those skeletons at Gisozi genocide memorial site? The where about of His Excellency Dominique Mbonyumutwa's exhumed remains remain a mystery among Rwandans and his family at large till today.

In addition, the airport which you landed to this morning was named after our second Republican President His Excellency Grégoire Kayibanda, it was named after him in his honor for fighting also for Independence. However, Mr Paul Kageme as the most selfish President we have ever had, went on and changed the name of that airport to Kigali International airport in order to delete that hero name from the mind of the Rwandan People.

Your Excellency, you will be sad to know that no sooner than Mr. Paul Kagame took power after Shooting down the plane carrying our former Republican President His Excellency Juvenal Habyarimana. This is the indisputable fact which is now taken as the direct cause of Rwandan Genocide.

Your Excellency,

When Mr. Paul Kagame was on a state visit to your Country, you hosted a state banquet in his honor and his entourage and present at the banquet were two Zambian former heads of the state.

Unfortunately your Excellency on your state visit to Rwanda, you won't have an opportunity to meet Rwanda's former heads of state or their spouses, only one is surviving but he is not heard of, probably Mr. Paul Kagame won't even talk about him.

I would like to let you know that Mr. Pasteur Bizimungu is still alive though he is as good as dead under Kagame.

Your Excellency,

Allow me to tell you a bit about the political situation in Rwanda, I know Mr. Paul Kagame won't tell the real situation. Mr.Paul Kagame has closed the political space and he is not ashamed to blag about it.

Your Excellency,

Women and men who have shown different views to those of Mr. Kagame's have found themselves in Prison. The country you have visited, many Rwandans refer to it as an open prison due to a number people who have been thrown in prison for their opposing views, others have been denied an entry into their country, as a refusal to do politics inside Rwanda.

Your Excellency,

I know Mr.Paul Kagame has told you many lies about his government. I felt duty bound to bring few facts to your attention so that you won't dwell on the lies that Mr. Paul Kagame has told you.

I would have wished to go into details telling you about the political situation in Rwanda, but that I will do it next time.

Your Excellency, don't be surprised if you see the people of Rwanda rising against the dictatorship and bad governance of Mr. Paul Kagame.The people of Rwanda are Slowly loosing patience and very soon the whistle of "we refuse the dictatorship of Paul Kagame and his clique "will be blown .

Your Excellency the people of Rwanda will count on you to persuade him to respect the will of the people.

Your Excellency,

I wish you a pleasant stay in Rwanda.

May your state visit to Rwanda make you a unifier of Rwandans who are scattered around the world wishing to return back to Rwanda to build their country.

May you understand the underlying problem of political situation in Rwanda and use your wisdom to give a wise counsel to the concerned part.

I thank you your Excellency.

Jeanne MUKAMURENZI.

A Rwandese refugee living in Norway,

Deputy Secretary General in charge of the youths in Ishema Party.