Rwanda turns heat on media

By WALTER MENYA
The Daily Nation
Saturday, May 8 2010

In Summary:
Its Foreign minister accuses international Press of creating hype about August election.

Rwanda’s government is blaming the international media for creating hype about the forthcoming presidential elections.

Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo on Saturday told the Press in Nairobi that talks of an election crisis and crackdown on opposition candidates was a creation of the western media.

She was on her way to Kigali from the World Economic Forum that ended in Dar es Salaam on Friday.

“International media like to create their own things and portray African elections as occasions for rigging and violence,” Ms Mushikiwabo said, adding: “Domestically, there is no hype. There are no prospects for violence and we are confident the elections will go on well.”

Rwanda goes to the polls in early August to elect the president. Current head of state and the man widely credited for ending the genocide, President Paul Kagame, is seeking a second seven-year term.

But Kagame’s administration has been under the spotlight following the arrest of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire and the suspension of two newspapers — Umuseso and Umuvigizi.

Ms Ingabire who was living in the Netherlands since 1994 came back to contest the presidency but has been in and out of courts accused of propagating the genocide ideology.

Ms Mushikiwabo dismissed as falsehoods the alleged harassment of the media and opposition figures.

“Because of our history 16 years ago, a lot of people are expecting violence but people have to scratch below the surface to understand what has been going on,” the minister stated.

In the 16 years since the genocide, the Rwanda government has been able to create peace and stability besides major infrastructural development, she added.

She dismissed Ms Ingabire candidature as driven by genocide ideology.

“She came back to Rwanda with the genocide ideology claiming to rehabilitate the Hutus who have been sidelined yet Rwandans know very well that the government has had no policy of discrimination.”

She warned that no Rwandans was above the law. “She thinks she is above the law which is not possible. Behind the rhetoric, she is a woman still in the genocide mode.”

“Why would the president intimidate her when she cannot even gather enough signatures to allow her run for the presidency? She is not a threat to the president at all.”

On media freedom, Ms Mushikiwabo said the ban on the two most popular tabloids was long overdue.

The two papers, she said lacked sense of ethics and frequently called for a bloody revolution.

“It is an issue of irresponsible journalism,” she said.

Rwanda has about 60 newspapers and 20 radio stations. But most of them play to the whims of the government which exercises strict control of their contents.