Analysis: Rwanda, the standard-bearer?

Paul Kagame, Jeune Afrique, March 2009
(On Rwanda's internal and foreign policies)

Analysis by Ashley Lewis. April 23, 2009
(Creative Commons photo)

After years of tumultuous history in his country, Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame, has begun to introduce initiatives and governance policies that will aim to symbolize a progressive Republic of Rwanda whilst maintaining autonomy, independence, and sovereignty for the Central African nation.

President Kagame became head of his state in 1994, the year that the Rwandan genocide occurred. Previously, he gained notoriety as a leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi political party held up by refugees and currently the ruling political party in Rwanda. Kagame's involvement in the party and his alleged involvement in the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to accuse him of sparking his country's genocide.

Another controversial chapter of Kagame's history, which he discusses and defends here in an interview with Jeune Afrique, is his initiative of placing Rwandan troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to --according to the president-- fight the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group of Hutu rebels. The Rwandan president describes the situation in the DRC as ‘a security problem, brought on by a historical conflict that everyone knows' and defends his position by citing the importance of the cooperation established between himself and Congolese President Joseph Kabila, which he insists was not encouraged by external pressures from the United States but was instead a completely autonomous decision.

This obvious and forced assertion of independence is a constant theme throughout Kagame’s interview with Jeune Afrique, as he claims autonomy in entering the DRC, the rejection of the notion of external pressure from Sweden and the Netherlands in the form of suspending aid, pressure from France toward reconciliation between the two countries as a result of France’s involvement with the Rwandan genocide, and the ICC’s recent regional arrest warrants.

Much of Kagame’s justification for opposing external involvement in all its forms is his suspicion of an external political agenda. For example, the president has refused to support the ICC and has failed to enforce its arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Mr. Kagame states that this is not because he believes the Sudanese leader to be innocent or because he does not believe in justice, but instead because he can ‘feel and detect, in its [the ICC’s] very selective way of working, a mixture of political agenda and manipulation by the rich against the poor.’ He cites, as an example, that while many crimes against humanity have been committed throughout the world in the recent past the ICC's warrants seem to be targeted at 'Southern' leaders only.

Kagame’s strong ideals toward independent African nations motivate him to call on African countries to reject foreign aid, and to ‘learn to exist without it,’ a stark contrast to Zimbabwe’s recent call for USD 2 billion in aid to help fight the country's cholera epidemic.

President Kagame’s struggle to convert Rwanda into an autonomous and economically independent nation certainly shows some conviction, demonstrated by the president's personal and at times bold initiatives. His dream of an economically independent Africa however might not be around the corner just yet.