Swaziland has nothing to learn from Kagame’s Rwanda

By The Editor

Times of Swaziland
December 30, 2011

Right to Reply:

Sir,

Under the name of Alpheous M Nxumalo, the Times of Swaziland published on Thursday November 28, 2011 an article entitled 'SD can learn from Rwanda’s Kagame'. President Paul Kagame is cited by the author as ‘one of my favourite statesmen in the world’. Nxumalo may have been blinded by the hidden agenda of the regime in Kigali as it practices aggressive politics when it comes to media opinions.

Rwanda is a small country situated in Central Africa, with an area of about 26.338 km2 and a population of 11 million inhabitants (more than 400 people per km2). Swaziland is a small country in southern Africa, with an area of 17 000 km2, a population of around 1.2 million. There ends the comparison.

Rwanda is essentially an agricultural country, without important mineral resources. The average Rwandan lives on less than E15 a day (around US$2). The Rwandan capital of Kigali actually counts one million citizens (250 000 in 1994). The country has people from three ethnic groups: one per cent Twa (pygmies), 10 per cent Tutsi (Nilotics) and 89 per cent Hutu (Bantu).

Rwanda is known for the ‘Genocide of 1994’, in the course of which a population of around 600 000 people were massacred in a period of 100 days. On April 6, a plane transporting President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart President Cyprien Ntaryamira, their staff and the three members of the French crew was shot out of the sky over Kigali and this set off the Genocide. Everybody agrees that the downing of this plane was a catastrophe for the people of Rwanda and the surrounding region. The RPF quickly declared the plane had been shot down by extremists from the rival FAR who did not want the Arusha Accords applied. The reality is that the plane was most likely shot down on the orders of some people. No enquiry was initiated by the Rwandan authorities after the Genocide into the ‘accident’ in which two presidents and their staffs perished in a civilian airplane. Last year, under pressure from the families of the French pilots, the French government conducted an inquiry which was supposed to have been published in March 2011. It was reported to have been completed in May 2011, and now we are in December and nothing has been made public, as they don’t want to embarrass the French government with a publication that would, without doubt, threaten the relationship between them and Kagame and his clique.

Nine of Kagame’s generals are the object of international investigations for war crimes or crimes against humanity. Kagame would also be investigated but he has immunity as Chief of State. Forty of Kagame’s officers are being pursued by the Spanish justice system for the same crimes. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (TPIR) has functioned for 16 years without being able to prove who planned the Genocide.

Today, 40 per cent of the budget is consecrated to an army of more than 200 000 soldiers (the Swazi army counts about 5 000 soldiers and the Rwandan army before 1990 counted 8 000) although most of the budget is supported by foreign aid. Rwanda has not only profited from external finance but also from pillaging the natural resources of their giant neighbour, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In effect, under the pretext of pursuing the Interahamwe (the militias responsible for most of the killings in the genocide) into the Congo the army of Kagame has made many incursions into the Congo and profited from pillaging the natural resources of the Congo, above all gold and diamonds – to the point that Rwanda has become a premier producer of diamonds without mining a single carat. In the course of this enrichment, Kagame and his clique have created financial empires in both Rwanda and foreign countries. The Rwandan government has even seen it fit to ‘sell’ the Genocide to foreigners who visit the Genocide Museum in Gisozi.

The political space in Rwanda is dominated by the RPF. Other parties exist in name only and are obliged to work within what is called the Forum of Parties. A party of opposition does not exist. The Rwandan Constitution gives the measure of Kagame because it says a candidate doesn’t have to have finished secondary school – for the sole reason that Kagame allegedly finished only three years after primary school! It’s not good to oppose Kagame because you’ll allegedly end up in prison or disappear mysteriously. Journalists disappear or go into exile. It’s a country where demonstrations are forbidden. In Swaziland, where the police also have a tendency to be rigorous, students and lawyers have been allowed to demonstrate lawfully. The elections in Rwanda are allegedly a farce; Kagame has regularly won (twice, for seven-year terms) with the Stalinesque score of 100 per cent. It is a country of apartheid, where children of Tutsi who escaped the Genocide are entitled to study for free from primary school to universitywhile the children of the Hutu live in total poverty.

Concerned Citizen.