Henry Mukasa
4 July 2009
Kampala — RWANDA yesterday awarded President Yoweri Museveni two medals in recognition of his contribution to the liberation struggle of the country and his campaign against genocide.
The medals, Uruti (for national liberation) and UMURINZI (for campaign against genocide), were bestowed upon Museveni by the Rwandan leader, Paul Kagame.
Museveni was accompanied by the First Lady, Janet Museveni.
At the colourful ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, Kagame also conferred similar awards on Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and posthumously on former Tanzanian president late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
An emotional widow, Mama Maria Nyerere, received the award on behalf of the family and people of Tanzania.
The RPF came to power on July 4, 1994 after launching a war from Uganda four years earlier. Many of its fighters had served in the National Resistance Army (NRA), a rebel group that had captured power in Uganda in 1986. They were mostly refugees who had fled Rwanda following the 1959 purge targeting Tutsis.
Inspired by the Ugandan struggle against dictatorship the Rwandese used the acquired experience and took up arms to liberate their country.
In the citation read to the packed stadium, Museveni was described as neighbour and brother who throughout his life has pursued with determination the liberation of the African people. He was praised for being hospitable to Rwandese refugees in Uganda and the struggle in the trenches of Mozambique and Luweero Triangle bushes to liberate the African people from tyranny.
"When Rwanda decided to wage its liberation struggle, despite the problems it caused to you, you supported our endeavour to its conclusion," the citation read.
"When the genocide broke out in 1994 you were the first to condemn it and campaign against it consistently."
"For the voice you raised for the Rwanda people in its hour of need His Excellency Paul Kagame and people of Rwanda award you the Uruti and Umurinzi medals," the citation concluded.
Kagame said Rwanda uses the July 4 occasion to reflect and honour the fighters for their sacrifices and the invaluable support of other leaders. "I hope the honour that we have bestowed on you will express to you what we cannot say in words," Kagame told Museveni, Zenawi and Mrs. Nyerere.
"Your Excellency Museveni, you associated with our struggle and stood by us in most difficult time. Some of us benefited significantly from the struggle you led in Uganda. We thank you, the NRM government and the people of Uganda for your valuable contribution to the liberation of Rwanda," Kagame said as the stadium packed to capacity erupted into applause.
Kagame also thanked Nyerere for his wake-up call to the world when the genocide started, his support to African liberation struggles and Tanzania playing host to Rwandan refugees during hard times. Maria Nyerere broke down and sobbed as the citation in praise of her late husband, who Kagame referred to as a "respected statesman", was read out in Swahili.
"Our struggle would have been more difficult if we had not benefited from the people we have honoured today," Kagame stated.
In his acceptance speech Museveni dedicated the medals to the NRA of which he said the late pioneer RPA leader, Maj. Gen. Fred Rwigyema and President Kagame were part. He also dedicated them to FRONASA, the NRM government and the Ugandans "who stood by us when we were being demonised".
"In spite of the strained relations some years ago, President Kagame knows when there were efforts to demonise Rwanda we stood by you. I am glad the relations are now moving towards peaceful co-existence in the Great Lakes region," Museveni said.
The President said the liberation of Rwanda and the bloody events the followed were a result of the 1959 massacres when Hutus expelled Tutsis from Rwanda of which 250,000 were sheltered in Uganda. He lauded Tanzania's Nyerere, Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda and Mozambique's Samora Machel who he said gave many African nations means to liberate themselves from killers. The President recounted how the late Rwigyema and Kagame joined him at various stages of the FRONASA and NRA struggles. He said he kept the Rwandese in the forces despite chauvinist ideas lingering in Uganda.
"Rwigyema kept telling me about his homeland and discrimination," he recalled. He said when he seconded Rwigyema for a staff command course in the US he declined to go, arguing that staying in Uganda was important because some Rwandese in the army might escape and attack Rwanda. Kagame went in his place.
Museveni said the day before he travelled to the US for the UN summit in 1990 Rwigyema came to State House Entebbe to see him. He said although he did not have time to meet him he looked troubled. "While I was in New York I got a telephone call from Mugisha Muntu, who was the army commander, that the Banyarwanda who had been integrated into the army had escaped and attacked Rwanda," Museveni narrated.
"President Juvénal Habyarimana (then president of Rwanda) was also in New York, I tried ringing him up but I was told he was asleep and he could not be woken up."
Museveni said the RPF's action alienated him further because Kenya, Zaire (renamed Democratic Republic of Congo) and Sudan were already hostile to his regime.
The French and Belgians, he revealed, also joined in against his government. At the time Tanzania remained the only friendly neighbour.
"I took two positions: Support the RPF so that they are not defeated on one hand and engage Habyarimana so that he agrees to negotiation. That's how the Arusha talks began," Museveni recalled. He said one European envoy told him if he did not tell RPA to stop fighting 800,000 Tutsis in Kigali would be killed. And in the end that was the figure of Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed following the death of Habyarimana in a plane crash on April 6 1994 when the genocide orders were executed ruthlessly.
"This ambassador should furnish the UN tribunal in Arusha with more information. Why not fight the RPF or NRA whose positions were known. These (genocide) are crimes against humanity. I don't know whether the perpetrators have got justice," he said.
Museveni hailed Rwanda and Burundi's joining of the East African Community and their push for fast-tracking the integration, adding that this vindicates the change of leadership in those countries. "This decision means that you are moving away from the colonial parameters to Pan Africanism and dignity of the black people," he stated.
The President congratulated Rwanda on the 15th anniversary and wished them luck in their long journey to develop Rwanda as country for all Rwandese and not some few.
On his part Zenawi thanked Rwanda for the award and remarked that while he had no illusions about the support people outside Rwanda gave to the liberation struggle, greater honour and praise should be reserved for the resilient fighters and Rwandese.
"The genocide was stopped by the patriotic leaders of Rwanda and the new government. That's the end of the story," Zenawi said drawing cheers and murmurs.
"It's you the fighters of Rwanda under President Kagame that proved the doubters wrong. Nobody could claim to have brought a broken nation and a shattered people together except the Rwandan people," he stressed.
Speaking on behalf of her mother, Rosemary Nyerere, the daughter of the late Tanzanian president, said her father personified the struggle for the dignity of black people, clean politics and human rights. "It's with great humility and pride that we accept this award in recognition of our father on behalf of the family and people of Tanzania," she stated.
The ceremonies included a parade mounted by the Rwanda Defence Forces and the police. It was also coloured with cultural dances and entertainment whose performance represented the transition of Rwanda from chaos to order.
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