Tanzania: Ngara Killings Deplorable

Mboneko Munyaga,

18 June 2011

Early this month, Tanzanians woke up to extremely horrifying media reports that a group of pastoralists from Rwanda had crossed into Tanzania and killed six villagers at Murbanga in Ngara district. There was no fight except that the Tanzanians, peasants tending their farms away from their homesteads, were ambushed and clubbed or hackled to death as their hands were tied behind their backs.

If anything, the killings echoed scenes of the 1994 Rwandan genocide only that the motives were unclear. In any case, it was a foreign invasion and there can be no question that the killers did not know they were on foreign soil. Murder is murder even in Rwanda. The police

forces of the two countries will no doubt sort out the crimes and diplomats will try to mend fences.

Nevertheless, questions arise from this wanton and senseless act by the sick minds that carried out the killings. Who did it and what is Rwanda doing to identify the criminals? Rwandans put a very high premium on the lives of their people. All nations should do the same.

Since the genocide, Rwandans have generally spared no effort, both domestic and international, to ensure non-recurrence of the harrowing experience.

Indeed, this year’s rallying call against genocide was: “End to impunity.”Thus, it is inconceivable that people, who see end to impunity as the bulwark for peace and security within their country, should export and act with impunity in another country.

Violation of the border in that part of Tanzania by the forces of Dictator Idd Amin led to war with Uganda and the ultimate removal from power of the strongman, who had claimed the Kagera Salient to be part of his country. Idd Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Therefore, whichever way one looks at it, Tanzania’s border with its north western neighbours is a highly volatile area. But for the Rwandans to kill Tanzanians is the ultimate abuse of hospitality after Tanzania until about 1996, played host to more than half a million

Rwandan refugees. They had fled their country fearing retribution after the Rwanda Patriotic Forces deposed the government of Juvenal Habyarimana, who was killed in a plane crash on April 6, 1994 and sparked the genocide.

Under normal circumstances, Tanzania’s border with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda should be about the most peaceful zone in the country. The people are more or less the same, speak more or less the same language and can trace kinship stretching back for hundreds of years. But apparently it is not.

One thing is clear. After playing host to refugees from Rwanda and Burundi and working for peace in those once strife-torn states, Tanzania cannot afford to be the region’s new killing field by hordes of cross border criminals.

Experience shows that Tanzania keeps a very porous border with all its neighbours. It is a policy that had served the country well in the past but one that is no longer tenable. There is no alternative now for Tanzania being a garrisoned nation. The nation’s armed forces must

ensure that the country’s borders are secure and that invasion against Tanzania would be met with equal force.

Tanzania had tried to mark all its borders although there were reports that some beacons were sabotaged. But in the modern era of Google Earth, that is futile. Borders can be marked from space. Yet, the country has some quite chaotic borders. This author once visited

Tanzania’s border with Uganda at Nangoma in Bukoba Rural district. It was very difficult to know when you were either in Tanzania or Uganda.

For peace and security to prevail in the region, time has come for the partner states to maintain clear buffer zones between their territories, commonly known as “No Man’s Land.” This would help in the orderly integration process.

The region cannot go into political federation with citizens of one country making it their sport to conduct cross border raids to kill unsuspecting nationals of other countries as it recently happened in Ngara.

Very surprisingly, both Dar es Salaam and Kigali have maintained studied silence about the Ngara killings. It could be that there are efforts being made at other levels of state and government but whatever the case, the people want to know what exactly happened in

Ngara. Above all, they want to see justice done.

The secretariat of the East African Community should also make its position about the Ngara killings known to East Africans. It should also speak out on recent claims that Minjingo Island belongs to Kenya much as a committee that is working on the issue is yet to make its report public.

Granted, there will always be trouble spots. However, what will make the difference is how those problems would be dealt with and solved. East Africa should never be a region of impunity. Luckily, the Rwandans know the cost better and for them to court trouble with their neighbours, least of all Tanzania, is to toy with hard won peace.

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