The former British Prime Minister  Tony Blair who is also one of the advisors of  President Kagame has defended his close personal and working relationship with one of Africa‘s most controversial leaders, (Rwanda‘s Paul Kagame), even as some foreign governments distance themselves over accusations of war crimes and the suppression of political opposition. 

Unfortunately Tony Blair has described Rwanda’s president as a “visionary leader” and a friend after making the central African country the focus of the work of his charity, the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), to turn around the continent’s fortunes.

Indeed, Tony Blair has blindly ignored the UN Mapping report and the recent UN and Human Rights Watch which implicate the Rwandan Head of State and his forces of war crimes, including possibly genocide, in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwandan government is increasingly becoming authoritarian and effectively suppressing all the perceived political opponents. Although the White House has on some occasions criticized Kagame for the suppression of political activity and made clear that it does not regard Rwanda as democratic, Kagame continues to enjoy and dine with western leaders.

Tony Blair has admitted that allowances or sacrifices have to be made for the consequences of the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and suggested that Kagame’s economic record outweighed other concerns. He made this unfortunate remark during a visit to Washington to meet the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and promote his Africa initiative, Blair told the Guardian: “I’m a believer in and a supporter of Paul Kagame. I don’t ignore all those criticisms, having said that. But I do think you’ve got to recognize that Rwanda is an immensely special case because of the genocide. Secondly, you can’t argue with the fact that Rwanda has gone on a remarkable path of development. Every time I visit Kigali and the surrounding areas you can just see the changes being made in the country.”

However, Tony Blair is misguided on Kagame and African leaders in general because; similar remarks were made by his predecessor Edward Heath in 1970s when Iddi Amin Dada the former President of Uganda took power in a bloodless coup. Idi Amin was hailed by the west; all was sweetness and light between him and the British establishment. Britain very quickly recognized Amin’s regime, exactly one week after the coup. And he was regarded as a conquering hero in the British press.   The Amin’s support by the West and  British in particular was the strong  opposition of  President Nyerere of Tanzania, Milton Obote of Uganda  and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia  to the then British Prime Minster (Edward Heath)  on his government’s  sell of  weapons to apartheid South Africa,  and  both President Nyerere and Kaunda  requested   President Obote of Uganda to attend the Commonwealth Summit in Singapore  to help present effective opposition to the British government’s arms sales to apartheid South Africa.

Not surprisingly, Amin supported Edward Heath’s stand on selling arms to apartheid South Africa, breaking the unified opposition of the states at the Singapore Commonwealth conference. Amin also denationalized several of the British companies taken over under Obote, and in July 1971 came to London where he had lunch with the queen and meetings with Heath’s cabinet. But the seeds of discord between Britain and Amin were being sown as he began to fail to live up to their expectations of servility.

After the coup, Uganda was granted 10 million pounds in economic aid (to be administered by Britain), in addition to 15Ferret and 36 Saladin armoured cars, other military equipment and a training team for the Ugandan army.

However, Amin resented the fact that Britain would not give him fighter aircraft and other sophisticated equipment to help his expansionist ambitions. In particular, Amin had plans for an invasion of Tanzania, so that he could have a port on the east coast of his own.

Like Idd Amin, Rwanda under President Kagame has received huge sums of money in form of Aid and loans, and Military equipments and training   from both UK and US as long as Kagame will listen to them. It is therefore  the old tradition  where the  west will always support any person who does not threaten their interests regardless of how many people are butchered by their respective governments, Tony Blair is not  bothered by the Congolese children and women  who die on a daily basis on the orders of  President Kagame, he even defends  Kagame’s  crimes  by  disregarding  UN report accusing Rwanda of war crimes in eastern Congo, including the wholesale massacres of civilians and the plunder of minerals.  Despite the continued denials by the Kagame regime the UN and other Human Rights groups have overwhelming evidence to the effect for such crimes for years. Blair argues that Rwanda’s occupation of eastern Congo for many years was justified by the continuing threat from Hutu extremists.

“He (Kagame) and I specifically discussed this,” Blair said. “They [the Rwandan government] very strongly push back against the allegations that are made. 

“You’ve got to understand that it’s a very difficult situation in Congo because you’ve got the rival forces fighting each other and that’s spilling across into his territory.”

While Kagame was appearing on the famous programme of the BBC Hard Talk, he categorically denied the allegations of the UN report and instead   accused the International community body (MONUSCO) of failing the people of the great lakes region.  However, on the same Radio in Kiswahili program the former Rwandan Army Chief and close ally to President Kagame Kayumba Nyamwasa contrasted President Kagame who he said, will do whatever in his power to cause mayhem on communities across the DRC.  “Given this historical perspective, and the chronology of President Kagame’s reckless and ruthless strategy to keep DRC’s Kivu region as a de facto extension of Rwanda through proxy forces”

President Paul Kagame may not know it; but the last drums of war are beating in earnest. No system, no matter how brutal or noble lives forever. Finally the curtain falls on each one of them when the time comes. That was how in ancient times the Greek and Roman empires rose and fell. The same dictum raised Adolf Hitler, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mobutu and Idi Amin and even his predecessor Juvenal Habyarimana to greatness. However, when their time came, they all fell from grace to grass.

If you look at the characters I have mentioned above, they had one thing in common. They were men who earned their greatness in the battle field just like Paul Kagame. The only exception was Adolf Hitler who was elected by Germans through a popular vote.

Like President Kagame when Idi Amin removed Milton Obote of Uganda from power in 1971, the streets of Kampala were awash with celebrations. In Amin, they had seen the messiah who had saved them from a tyrant. The majority of Ugandans danced their legs lame for Amin. On that day, Amin could have married any girl from any royal family. Several years down the line, Ugandans slowly realized that they had celebrated too soon. The proverbial leap from the frying pan to fire had caught up with them. They soon realized that they had exchanged one ogre with a deadlier monster.  Like Kampala, the streets of Kigali were filled with celebrations, people danced (Instinzi bana burwanda), this song was very popular in all the night clubs in and after 1994.

However, the murders and plunder that followed the years of Iddi  Amin’s rule  in Uganda were beyond human imagination. Freedom, security and basic needs became a thing of the past. As Ugandans were massacred by the day, the world community turned a blind eye to all of Amin’s atrocities. The Organization of African Unity at the time together with the then EAC adopted a policy of non- interference in the internal affairs of a member state. Had Nyerere not taken a unilateral decision to invade Uganda to protect Tanzanians from Amin’s aggressive designs, Idi Amin would have remained in power for a couple more years. He would have carried out his atrocities until there would have been no more soul to kill.

Whereas Idd Amin was removed from power by foreign forces, the after Amin was not a smooth road and I think that’s why the international community and the likes of Tony Blair, the mess of 1994 and Genocide are still fresh in their minds and to them Kagame looks as the best of lesser evil. Therefore what happened to Uganda after Amin and other external factors have inevitably played a big role in keeping Kagame in power.   Because following Amin’s flight into exile, Obote returned to power only to commit more atrocities. When Obote was finally overthrown a second time, many presidents were sworn in but they didn’t metal to stabilize Uganda. Binaisa, Lule and Okello tried their hands at the presidency without much success. The killings and plunder continued that culminated into another five year bush war led by Yoweri Museveni.

If the Ugandan lesson is not good enough; we may need to a draw parallel with what happened to Somalia after Siad Barre was toppled almost two decades ago. To date there has never been a steady regime in Mogadishu. Since then, many factions with respective warlords have waged war against one another with no end in sight. Indeed, the international community is not only confused on the right course to take on

Rwanda but also guilty on what happened in Rwanda.  Whereas the international community is well aware on the crimes of President Kagame , they equally know that if Kagame is removed from power the vacuum or the replacement might cause more harm than good, they don’t want to end up in another genocide or  Ivory Coast after Houghet Boigny, Liberia after Doe, DRC after Mobutu and Somalia after Barre. This is because there are potential warlords waiting in the wings to occupy the seat without the due process democratic mechanisms .It happened in DRC just a day after Mobutu left the scene. The international community should therefore encourage President Kagame to talk to his political opponents within and outside the country, the opposition groups should also recognize that, the disgrace departure of Kagame will not solve the Rwandan problems, it will only accelerate the return of the anarchy we witnessed in 1990s during the Habyarimana’s rule after RPF/A invaded Rwanda.

Jacqueline Umurungi

 

Brussels.

 

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