Victoire Ingabire Wins First Political Battle: Dutch Block Budget support

By Colored Opinions
December 7, 2010

Today marks Victoire Ingabire's first major result in influencing public policy and decision making! The Dutch government today reached it's final decision concerning budget support to Rwanda:

"Rwanda will get no budgetsupport because freedom of expression and political space in the central African country are insufficiently guaranteed".

Thus sending a strong signal to other donors!

Michael Cashman, member of the EU Parliament for (Tony Blair's) Labour Party, said today that the Netherlands are wrong concerning human rights violations and lack of democracy in Rwanda:

“Where is the evidence? We’ll have to be careful with accusing Rwanda”, he says.“The word ‘genocide’ is being used far to easily in Eastern Congo. Rwanda has known a genocide and wants to prevent that it will happen ever again.”

However Michael Cashman carries a lot of luggage with him (see picture). As head of the EU Electoral Observation Mission to Rwanda's parliamentary election in 2008, Michael Cashman said:

"The process of democratisation in Rwanda since the end of the genocide is remarkable”

Filip Reyntjens, Professor at the University of Antwerpen explained in 2009 why this statement is contrary even to the content of the report of the EU observation mission itself.

Since 1994 several European and American politicians have kept very close relations with the regime in Kigali. Some even called Paul Kagame their personal friend. Obviously the findings in the Mapping Report won't do much good to the reputation of the likes of Michael Cashman. The mapping report confirms previous findings by a Spanish judge. We can now safely say that French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière was right when he warned the US against closer ties to Rwanda.

Paul Kagame summarized the reasons for his liberation war in 1990 saying:

"the available options were either you had to choose to remain perpetualy a refugee and stateless, or you had to keep hoping that some day somebody in the international community would resolve the problem, or thirdly you had realy to face reality, since oppression is carried out by force, you had to deal with the matter using force."

Exactly the same arguments movements like the FDLR and CNDP and some Burundian rebels would use today to combine forces which according to Filip Reyntjens is happening right now. In the words of Senator and former US ambassador to Burundi and Botswana Robert Krueger:

"as long as this man (Paul Kagame) is the chief executive of the country, there will never be real democracy."

According to Wikipedia a politician or political leader:

"is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making. "

Victoire Ingabire might not be a female Mandela or former IMF director , she certainly is no would be politican!