Former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu left Kigali for Brussels, Belgium in late August 1995 -- two weeks after loosing his post in a government shake-up. I was in Kigali at the time and spoke with Mr. Twagiramungu just hours before his departure.
The former Prime Minister appeared pensive as he waited in his well-guarded Kigali house to be taken to the airport after getting the approval of Rwandan authorities to leave. Mr. Twagiramungu was flying to Brussels, where he said he intended to spend time with his wife and four children who he said he has not seen since April.
In a brief and informal pre-departure interview with me and journalists from three other news organizations, Mr. Twagiramungu said he was leaving at what he called a difficult moment. Although he said he remained hopeful about Rwanda's future, he said the country's leaders will have to show more political will to bring about the twin goals of reconciliation and internal security. In his estimation, that political will is currently lacking and he said he is very sorry about it.
Mr. Twagiramungu said he does intend to return to Rwanda after what he said would be just a short stay abroad. But as to what he will do in the future, he is not certain. He remains head of the Democratic Republican Movement, or MDR, political party, but acknowledged there is no real party activity in the country. He said he is also not ready to enter business. But after five years in politics, he said he is ready for a break.
In earlier interviews, the former Prime Minister, an ethnic Hutu, said he had resigned in a dispute over continuing security problems inside Rwanda, including alleged reprisal attacks by members of the Tutsi-dominated military against members of the ethnic Hutu minority.
However, government officials said he was fired for alleged incompetence.
Some UN officials and diplomats in Kigali said Mr. Twagiramungu had in recent months been acting more like the leader of an opposition than as leader of a government. These sources said there is a growing feeling that the new government may prove to be more efficient in tackling the country's many problems.
Following Mr. Twagiramungu's departure from the cabinet, four other ministers left their posts, including the ministers of justice, interior, and information.
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Brazzaville
Giving a voice to the voiceless -- a reporter remembers
Regrets Only: An Africa Journal
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Brazzaville
Why?
It is October, 1997. I am standing in a rubble-strewn Brazzaville street as the city returns cautiously to life after a bloody civil war. Armed men are all around me, most of them looting, occasionally firing off bursts of bullets in celebration. But I am not concentrating on this anymore. Instead, with the hand holding my microphone limp by my side, my tape running senselessly. I am looking at another corpse -- this one of a man, perhaps in his 20's, his legs charred. I know there will be no voice to record. But his lips are apart, his arms outstretched, fingers together, as if in prayer. It seems another one of Africa's dead is trying to speak to me. And I feel I owe him this one last consideration. I think maybe he wants to share his anguish, his despair, his pain. Or maybe a last word to a parent or a wife or a child. I feel badly -- because I do not know for sure. I do know though that I have seen corpses like this before -- victims of war, or of genocide, or of famine, or of sickness. A symbolic path of the dead now runs through my mind -- a personal collection reflecting the real path their corpses have left across much of Africa: from arid Somalia in the northeast, across Sudan and into northern Uganda, down through steamy Rwanda, Burundi and Congo in the center of the continent. Some have been young men in uniform, their bodies shattered by a bullet or a shell. Some have been old men, thin beyond belief, weakened by hunger or disease. Some have been women, their dresses in tatters, their faces etched with silent agony. Some have been children, too young to die, their skulls cleaved in half. Some I have met in battle-scarred streets, some in burned-out buildings. Some I have seen sprawled amidst flowers in an open field, some floating, limbs bound, in muddy water. Some I have found in groups thrown into a dirt pit, some alone in the aisles of a gutted church. I have, at times, had imaginary conversations with these dead of mine -- their unrecorded voices playing on endlessly inside my head, sometimes loud, sometimes just a whisper. I tell them I am sorry and if it were in my power, I would restore them to life. But I can't. It's not in my power. Perhaps the only help I can give is to try to tell their story.
The Reporter
Alex Belida has been in international broadcasting since 1971. He spent nearly eight years in sub-Saharan Africa as a correspondent for the Voice of America, based first in Nairobi (1993-1996) and then in Johannesburg (1996-2000). He covered conflicts and humanitarian crises in Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville, northern Uganda, Angola and Lesotho as well as political unrest in Zimbabwe and catastrophic flooding in Mozambique. He suffered gunshot wounds while reporting in Somalia.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
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