With Kagame’s Junta Rwanda Cannot Be a Model of Success

by AfroAmerica Network on July 19, 2009

Dear Fareed Zakaria,
Producer/Host CNN GPS

I follow with great interest your insightful program GPS. The July 19, 2009 show dealing with Rwanda and having the current Rwandan President Paul Kagame as a guest was particularly captivating. Your questions pointed to real issues. Unfortunately, the guest failed to provide honest answers, and I believe a contradictory debate would have been a major positive addition.
In your introduction you hailed the achievements by the current Rwandan regime and labelled Rwanda a “success story”. The guest attempted to argue that reconciliation is on a winning streak. Unfortunately, beyond media hypes, the facts on the ground point to a more ominous future and raise doubts on the success of the Rwandan reconciliation and model. The continuing wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the growing mistrust among Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, the widening gap between those living in cities, perceived as mostly Tutsis and those in the countryside, mostly Hutus, and the impact of the Gacaca courts on the social structure do not match the hopes and statements expressed in the interview you conducted with the current Rwandan leader.

Gacaca is a Rwandan tradition, not a creation of Paul Kagame. In the Rwandan tradition, Gacaca was a truth and reconciliation system, and provided consensual and community justice. The form of the Gacaca courts designed and set up by Paul Kagame’s regime are a flawed judicial tool based on ethnic politics and politics of fear. Gacaca courts target only one ethnic group and are an instrument of repression. The impact of the Gacaca courts and “genocide ideology” law was well summarized in the article published on April 11, 2009 in Los Angeles Times and titled: “The power of horror in Rwanda”, by Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth.

Rwanda, or any country, cannot be a model of success without the respect of the basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, press, association, or dissent. Freedom of press does not exist in Rwanda: BBC-Kinyarwanda was recently banned for running a debate on “genocide”, Voice of America (VOA) is under threat, and local journalists are jailed for running articles dissenting with the government views. Rwanda cannot be a success story when hundreds of thousands of refugees are kept outside the country and the political system continues to generate a flow of political refugees.

I agree with Paul Kagame that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is flawed. If ICC was not flawed, Paul Kagame would have been tried for massive war crimes he committed from 1990-1994, the assassination of two presidents (Rwanda and Burundi), and the massacre of more than 5 millions congolese. Both Spain and France have issued indictments against Paul Kagame and 40 of his associates. Hence, Paul Kagame is not opposed to ICC indictment against President Bashir of Sudan because ICC is flawed, but because he, himself, knows he may be next.

I hope GPS will run an other episode with a contradictory debate on the situation of Rwanda. If so I am ready to participate in that show.