20周年に何を見出すか

先週末がRwanda大虐殺の20周年だったようですが、休日出勤のためメディアを読む機会がありませんでした（汗）一週間遅れとなりましたが、メディアをざっと見渡しての感想を記事にします。

政治家の場合には20周年を迎えて「虐殺の犠牲者を悼み、驚異的な復興を遂げた現在を讃える」ことを基調にするのが普通でしょうか。記念式典に参加していた潘基文国連事務総長やトニーブレア元英国首相はまさにそのようなトーンです。



20 years after the genocide, Rwanda is a beacon of hope
It is clear that foreign aid has contributed to recovery, but Rwandans themselves have shaped the policy to heal a nation
Tony Blair
The Guardian, Sunday 6 April 2014 16.18 BST

It means that hard choices still need to be made. The country has ambitious economic targets – Rwanda aims to become a middle-income nation by 2020 – while political and social transformation continues. Last year, media and access to information laws were passed, while the genocide ideology law was loosened. A law criminalising gay people was rejected. And in 2017, the presidential elections will take place.

Rwandans are increasingly united. There is a strong patriotism and belief in the government – almost nine in 10 say they "trust in the leadership of their country". They can never forget their tragic past but do not want to be defined by it. The older generation already know all too well the cost of failure, but a majority of the population, born post-genocide, has inherited the possibility of a different future.

We should remember the lives that were lost. We should recognise that this government undertook, and continues to undertake, a historic exercise in nation-building, and seek to understand the choices the country has made. And we should stand with them as they write the next chapter in their history.

そういう中で、ルワンダのカガメ首相のWSJへの寄稿は少し異質でした。VOAのニュースでもルワンダのカガメ首相がフランスの関与を名指しで批判していることを取り上げていますが、ここでもIn 1994, more than a million people died over 100 days as the Rwandan state, backed militarily and politically by France, told some Rwandans that it was their duty to murder other Rwandans.とフランスの関与を名指しで指摘しています。また、そもそもツチ族とフツ族の違いを考えだしたのは植民地として支配していたベルギーとカトリック教会なのだと、そもそもの原因に植民地主義を持ち出しているのです。

Reflecting on Rwanda's Past—While Looking Ahead
We put aside false divisions between Tutsi and Hutu and held ourselves accountable.
By PAUL KAGAME
Updated April 7, 2014 10:03 a.m. ET

All genocides begin with an ideology—a system of ideas that says: This group of people here, they are less than human and they deserve to be exterminated.

The most devastating legacy of European control of Rwanda was the transformation of social distinctions into "races." We were classified and dissected, and whatever differences existed were magnified according to a framework invented elsewhere. Rwanda's 2,000 years of history were reduced to a series of caricatures based on Bible passages and on myths told to credulous explorers.

Atavistic hostility between something called "Tutsi" and something called "Hutu" was deemed inherent to our nature. The purpose was neither scientific nor benign, but ideological: to justify colonial claims to rule over and "civilize" supposedly lesser peoples.

With the full participation of Belgian officials and Catholic institutions, ethnicity was made the only basis of political organization, as if there were no other way to govern and develop society.

The result was a country perpetually on the verge of genocide. Decade by decade, the number of victims grew. In 1994, more than a million people died over 100 days as the Rwandan state, backed militarily and politically by France, told some Rwandans that it was their duty to murder other Rwandans. Les faits sont têtus—facts are stubborn, and no country is powerful enough, even when it thinks it is, to change the facts.

Africans are no longer resigned to being hostage to the world's low expectations. We listen to and respect the views of others. But ultimately, we must be responsible for ourselves.

まあ、この後は再建に踏み出していることを報告し、「普通のトーン」に戻るのですが、国家元首が名指しで他国を批判しているのはあまり見られるものではないので驚きました。

国連は特設サイトを作っていて、ルワンダの歴史を概観できます。そこでは1932年位にベルギーがフツ族とツチ族などを区別し始めたことや、1963年にツチ族の虐殺が起きていることなど、カガメ大統領の主張はもっともなところをついていることが分かります。

ルワンダのタイムライン

January 1, 1932
Belgium introduces identity cards distinguishing Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa
Prior to the colonial era, Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa lived in relative harmony. The Tutsi (14% of the population) were the cattle herders, soldiers and administrators, the Hutu (85%) were the farmers, and the marginalised Twa (1%) were hunter-gatherers or potters. Individuals could and did move between the categories of Tutsi and Hutu as their fortunes rose and fell, and intermarriage was not uncommon. It was not until Belgian colonization and the introduction of identity cards distinguishing between the three groups that the tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis became focused on race.

*******

December 1, 1963
Massacres of Tutsis
In late 1963, some 20,000 Tutsis in Rwanda were killed in response to a military attack by exiled Tutsis from Burundi. Again more refugees left the country. It is estimated that by the mid-1960s half of the Tutsi population was living outside Rwanda.

植民地支配というのは遠い過去のものと思いがちな自分は、幸いにもそのようなことを経験せずにすんだ国民だから過去のことと思っているだけなのかもしれない。その辺りの感性はにぶっているかもしれないと反省しました。