Alfred Kwende
speaks on ...
commonality of human crimes

Transcript

0:00
The experience and some of the things we’ve known to have been causes of what happened in Rwanda, could be communicated to other societies where they have the same seeds of discord.
0:20
I even think, when I think of it in hindsight, I believe that my country, Cameroon, averted a similar genocide only by circumstances. Rwanda has a community of, I will say, three distinctive ethnic groups and so, they could easily be pitched against each other.
0:45
In my country we have about 250. Just by number itself, they cannot be pitched among against each other but some of the things that happened here prior to the genocide, happened to my country using the state radio to incite people to harm people of other sides.
1:06
You have a (__) other ethnic group, send them away from the capital, accuse people and even when a few upheavals come up, you actually find people being bodi-, bodily affected or maimed or killed and so on but not to the extent of here. Maybe one or two people (_), but you see the germs because I do remember following the radio back home.
1:33
So these are things which politicians can avoid and I think humanity itself should avoid in fragile societies because it may not necessarily happen in the west, though if you look at the Nazi, we’d say it happened if you have another Hitler to come up somewhere.
1:53
But in fragile communities like the Third World, especially Africa, where politics i-, is, is not a disciplined profession or a disciplined activity, people don’t seek support through ideas; they seek support through their ethnic alliances.
2:19
Now, you’d always have that. You may always have that, because once in power and since your, your power base is your ethnic group, you may sometimes, you know, be victim of some of the things that are said and done around you.
2:36
These are some of the things I think may affect others and I still think that in most African countries you have that, that feeling, that urge.
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About this video

Country of Origin:
Cameroon
Interview Date:
October 28, 2008
Location:
Kigali, Rwanda
Interviewer:
Lisa P. Nathan
Videographer:
Nell Carden Grey
Excerpt From:
Part 5
Submitted By:
Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal team