Since mid 1950’s the people of Rwanda have experienced repeated hardship due to leadership that wanted to access and stay on power by all means. One of the worst consequences, is that ordinary civilians have suffered from abhorrent massacres, grave violations of human rights, war crimes and, in 1994, a genocide that targeted the Tutsi population. Countless political elites have been assassinated.
At every violent episode of political struggle, innumerable Rwandans fled their country such as in 1959 after the “social” revolution, as well as in 1994, after the “liberation” war. Every political transition in Rwanda has been characterised by violent removal from power of a group of Rwandans by another group of Rwandans. The involvement of the international community into these repeated political turmoil in Rwanda is irrefutable and in most of cases it has intervened when the worse has already taken place. We would like to draw the attention of the Rwandan government and the international
community that existential group grievances and systemic failures to address them could lead to another implosion in Rwanda and send in smoke the achievements made in Rwanda in the last 26 years with substantial financial support from abroad. We believe that Rwandans should learn to accept their history, learn from their mistakes and build on the achievements of past regimes. We can build on what we did well and learn from what we failed on. Thereafter, we can chart a way forward on how we can safeguard accomplished developments and build on them to attain even greater achievements. In this way we would have transformed our tragic past into a better history which will inspire the younger generation of Rwandans. The war that was started by the RPF was due to frustrations of a section of the Rwandan people who felt marginalised, denied their inalienable right of having a country they call home, and those who felt that their political and civil rights were not respected. This led to a four-year war and ended up in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed. It is critical that we start to prepare a promising future for the next generation of Rwandans from today. This is what the Road Map for a promising future of Rwanda proposes.
