The agony of Rwanda can be traced from the Colonial and Post Colonial regimes, and Kagame is no different from his predecessors. Some Rwandans will be celebrating 25 years of RPF and 18 years of the downfall of a genocide regime but unfortunately replacing it with a murderous regime of President Kagame and his group who have not only conspired with the regime to murder innocent Rwandans but also looting this country without mercy.
As I have mentioned above Rwandans are commemorating the downfall of the dictator but replacing it with another one which has killed more Rwandans than the post colonial regimes combined together. Although the RPF regime has refused to recognize the 1 October for its political reasons, many Rwandans will remember that day, as the beginning of the liberation struggle.
Kagame’s rule is characterized with, torture and summary execution is widespread, and incarceration of his political opponents is on daily basis. As part of the RPF 25 years of commemorations, regional leaders should tell Kagame to end his murderous attitude but equally take part in looking at ways of ending conflicts in Congo which has now cost lives of almost 6 million people.
Mass killings
Kagame is now called the “Butcher of Africa. Many people have been killed on his watch or by his directives to his security forces and as I have mentioned above 6 million Rwandans in Congo and Congolese have both perished in endless wars led by Kagame to serve his economic and political interests in the wealth neighboring nation. Although Kagame’s regime is praised by the West for the economic success, the business in the country is owned by Kagame and his close confidants or his proxies on the expense of the masses.
The international community is under pressure to cut all the relationship with the only remaining dictator on the continent, many guest speakers at the Conservative Party conference recently accused their government of helping an indicted war criminal to lay waste to a swathe of Africa. Step forward President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, a plausible and ruthless autocrat, who was favoured with a special invitation to address the party faithful in 2007. Even at the time, this was an odd decision. Mr Kagame’s subsequent behaviour casts doubt over whether he is fit to have any kind of relationship with Britain.
The United Nations investigators have accused the Rwandan Government of not only supplying weapons but also volunteers to rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who have inflicted yet more bloodshed on that benighted country and driven 470,000 people from their homes. The man behind the uprising is Bosco Ntaganda, a renegade general popularly known as the “terminator”, who appears supremely unconcerned about his indictment by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. There is no doubt that UN is right and Rwanda has been helping this warlord, then Mr Kagame’s behaviour is unconscionable. As usual Kagame has ordered the change of leadership in M23 and the leader is Sulatan Makenga but the real man behind the wheel of M23 is Bosco Ntaganda who gets orders from Kagame through his Minister of Defence Gen. James Kabarebe and Chief of Defence Force Gen. Charles Kayonga.
Britain as the biggest donor to the government of Kagame argues that it cannot continue dishing the British taxpayer’s money. “We are Rwanda’s largest bilateral aid donor, with a programme worth £75 million this year. Unusually, Britain gives Mr Kagame “general budgetary support”, meaning that £37 million goes straight into his coffers. Andrew Mitchell, the former International Development Secretary, is accused of having been too soft for the Kagame regime given the gravity of the charges, this inadequate response suggests that Britain is still inhibited by loyalty to the despot and embarrassment over having favoured him for so long. The idea that any leader who promotes murder and plunder should receive funding is abhorrent. Britain should cancel aid to Rwanda’s government immediately. The recent incarceration of the Opposition leader by Kagame using his own courts and draconian laws should remind the international community that man is not good for the business.
Jacqueline Umurungi
Brussels.