When
the New Vision failed to publish it, I translated it and had it
published in New Vision's sister paper Orumuri under title
'Omunyarwanda N'oha?' (Who is a Munyarwanda?), in a two-part series.
The 1990-1994 war was supposedly to enable Banyarwanda "return
home", but it ended with hundreds of thousands fleeing into DR
Congo and other hundreds of thousands massacred inside Rwanda.

In
addition, of the many Banyarwanda that left Uganda after the war, a
fair number "returned home" and happily lives in Uganda. In
the said article, I argued that being a Munyarwanda was about
ethnicity, not statehood; Banyarwanda could be at peace outside
Rwanda rather than inside, since Rwanda's major problem was a high
population density with no technological capacity to survive on the
small land area.

I
made two propositions. First, Banyarwanda should be given full
citizenship in the neighbouring countries of Congo, Uganda and
Tanzania which have a lot of land and be free to visit Rwanda as they
wish.

Secondly,
to have a long-lasting solution for the entire region, the states of
Rwanda and Burundi should voluntarily cease to exist: Rwanda being
integrated into Uganda and Burundi into Tanzania or both states go en
bloc to either Uganda or Tanzania.

I
said even if Habyarimana was to be overthrown, it would still remain
a thorny regional issue, rather than a strictly Rwandan national
problem. Habyarimana had argued that Rwanda was too small for all
Banyarwanda, 'its people', which many addicted to the nation-state
paradigm found hard to understand and simply laughed at him.

Rwanda
is among the most highly-densely populated countries in the world.
Despite the genocide and the flight into DR Congo in 1994, official
statistics show Rwanda's population density at 416 people per square
kilometre in 2012.

Kagame
himself has used the 'genocidaire' card to keep thousands of
Banyarwanda away from Rwanda.

Moreover,
the 1959 mass massacre and expulsion of the Tutsi was a precursor of
the 1994 genocide and mass exile into Congo.

The
theatre has simply relocated to Congo; the war isn't over yet. Any
solution short of the region permanently absorbing the 'excess
population' in Rwanda is ostrich wisdom. Yet, as long as Rwanda
remains a state, those Banyarwanda elites who feel they should be in
power in Kigali will remain a source of insecurity in the region and
they will remain 'suspect refugees' in the mass consciousness of the
ethnic communities accommodating them.

Kigali
accuses the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) of
having conducted the 1994 genocide, and the Congo government of
supporting FDLR, but also wants these expelled Banyarwanda to
permanently stay in Congo.

But
not only that: in M23 and their likes, Kigali wishes to maintain a
'discreet donor' to the state budget and the private lifestyle of its
elites. That's why the possibility of eastern Congo breaking away as
a new state is a highly-considered option among elites in Rwanda.

Now
Rwanda-Tanzania relations have tumbled downwards following President
Kiwete's advice in May that all governments in the region hold direct
talks with their rebel movements. Kagame sees this advice as an act
made in ignorance, and at best an "ideological problem that
better stays with those who have it."

But
didn't peace talks succeed in Burundi, thanks to Nyerere's role?

Kagame
is wishing away a reality, just like the USA wishes away the
problem-child Israel under the so-called 'two-state solution' rather
than negotiating for a 'majority-rule state solution'.

This
ostrich wisdom perpetuates the Middle East war by disparaging the
'majority-rule state' option which suddenly silenced the guns and
chaos in South Africa. The longer the war lasts in eastern Congo, the
more Congo and Uganda are affected by refugees, IDPs and diseases,
and the more Rwanda's heart pumps abnormally.