Rwanda: Kagame describes The New York Times as “pathetic”

By Rwanda News Agency
Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Kigali: President Kagame on Tuesday came out strongly against a damning article by The New York Times in which it alleged that up to 900 youths are imprisoned on an island on Lake Kivu as a way of suppressing dissent, RNA reports.

Describing the article as “pathetic”, President Kagame accused The Times author of the article Mr. Jeffrey Gentlemen as a “person fond of negatively writing about Rwanda”.

According to the President, the journalist wrote the story to give the impression that he had personally undertaken the “daring operation to discover” the Iwawa Island, when in actual sense he had been invited by the line minister.

Mr. Kagame accused The Times of hiding behind “professionalism” to consistently “tarnishing the image” of the country.

“This is how manipulative some people can be,” Mr. Kagame told a press conference.

Indicative of the seriousness of The New York Times allegations, the question was asked in Kinyarwanda but President Kagame refused to answer in the same language, saying he wanted to respond to an article published in English.

Earlier he had dismissed the reporter who raised the issue as confused - telling the reporter himself Mr. Nelson Gatsimbazi of “misleading or misinterpreting the constitution”.

Mr. Gatsimbazi had told the President that the method in which the Iwawa group is taken there was contravening the constitution, saying the victims are “kidnapped” and forced there.

The President said “most or main bulk” of those youths on the Island was brought from detention centers.

Making gestures in seeming irritation, President Kagame directed that one of the Ministers present at the press conference respond to the issue. He could be seen gesturing like he did not want to continue speaking about The New York Times allegations.

Internal Security Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana was on hand to respond. He said government had the responsibility to look after its people.

According to him, the law gives the authorities the power to hold people on such a program for as long as seven years. Sheikh Harelimana said those youths are not being imprisoned as reported, instead the state is taking care of them.