KAGAME BLASTS AFRICAN DICTATORS

[mzee]

President Paul Kagame has attacked what he called dictatorial leaders in Africa, saying they are to blame for much of the conflicts plaguing the continent.

"Rwanda has shared much of its problems in the past with most African states. People do not want to relinquish power peacefully until they are forced out after a spell of destructions and this has affected the development of the continent," President Kagame said during the 14th heroes day celebrations held in the country's southern province on February 1.

Even countries that have had a relatively stable political and economic terrain for a number of years, there is little to learn from them.

"They have also ended up in flames. Today one country is in total chaos, then tomorrow another follows suit and the next day violence is reported in another African country.......and all these conflicts are fuelled by bad leadership," he said.
In this case, he says such countries that have fallen in that trap are experiencing even a more worrying situation-of not only anarchy but also a future of uncertainty.

This is the case he cited with most African countries now experiencing violent situations. Actually Mr Kagame run short of mentioning Kenya.But he said this is not the kind of trend Rwanda would want to see.

"I want to see Rwanda, where leaders act by example. Getting rich is not a sin because even God wants us rich but where the riches are obtained in a selfish manner, at the expense of the masses then there is a big problem," he said, adding that in such a situation the end result is likely to be violence as the oppressed population revolts in an effort to realise justice and equity.

African leaders must not wait for violence, they must learn to sense danger and step down, Mr Kagame said.
However, Kagame also failed to turn down a request by one of is cabinet ministers to stand for a second term.

During the well attended event Rwandan Sports and Culture minister Joseph Habineza outlined the achievements made by Kagame's leadership, and later announced that he is looking forward to 2010 when Mr. Kagame will run for another term.

But Kagame did not come out to give his position on the matter. Instead, he said: "I am grateful about the minister's (Habineza) announcements and observations".Meanwhile Fred Rwigyema was recognised among the top heroes for his contribution in stopping the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sun_news/Kagame_blasts_African_dictators.shtml

[JAHAATWACH]

constitutionally Kagame is allowed to stand for two terms, seven years each.


Meanwhile see below for his detail assessment and postulation on Kenyan crisis. He reveals that " some Kenyans" has sought Rwanda's help over the matter.

Jahaatwach

[JAHAATWACH]

The post-election violence in Kenya is threatening to spiral out of control and, protests have rocked the country over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election in the December 27 election. The violence has taken the lid off decades-old divisions between communities over land, wealth and power. The strife spurred by last month’s disputed elections in usually peaceful Kenya has rattled the entire region.

With continental and international allies keen to find a rapid solution to the deadlock, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has come out with views on how the situation can be contained. The New Times’ EDWIN MUSONI was part of the team of journalists who interviewed Kagame and below are the excerpts.

Mr. President, what is your take on the current situation in the Kenya that has claimed close to 1000 lives in merely a few weeks and seems to be getting worse?

Well, it’s difficult for me to pass a judgment on things like that because I am not necessarily very conversant with the details especially as regards the origin of the problem. But what I can say in terms of judging the situation there will depend on what I see at least on televisions, read in the newspapers and hear from people.

There is a lot that you see and you tend to imagine that probably things are even worse than we are able to see as portrayed by the news media.

Judging from this alone, one might believe that there is a tragic situation taking place in Kenya, particularly if you consider the reported numbers being killed, how they are being killed and how, despite the efforts you’ve seen by different people from different parts of the world …the international community, African leaders or elders, and others of high a level of dignity and influence…who have been there and tried to mediate the two camps in order to find a solution, instead the situation seems to be getting worse.

The chairman of the East African Community, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has been there and made effort. I understand he has made proposals on how the problem could be solved in respect of the grievances held by leaders or by different political parties in Kenya.

Despite all these efforts, the situation is not getting any better.
Even though people tend to think that some of the problems we are witnessing are basically caused by certain ethnic groups carrying out killings against other groups. From what I read, I don’t see it as one ethnic group under attack; it seems all of them are involved.

Some say that these problems have been there. What seems obvious is that the current situation has certainly been sparked off by what happened during the elections in Kenya.

There was no that kind of tense situation before elections even though people say that ethnic tensions have been there for long. Or may be there was, but it seems some issues were agreeable and so had not given rise to such a tragic situation as we are witnessing now.

That means that something must have happened during these elections in Kenya, which has sparked off the developments.
Therefore, that needs to be given attention. People may also want to pay attention to why these underlying ethnic tensions were there in the first place.

There are a number of things people have to look at, including the urgent aspect of this situation that has to be addressed – how the killings that are going on can be stopped.

Do you think that this is an ethnic issue or a political crisis that came up as a result of the highly disputed elections?

I really think it is a political situation that developed, but which manifests itself in form of ethnic violence. This is why I said a while ago that we did not have this before the elections.

Much as people might have said that there had been ethnic tensions for many years, Kenya had never had such killings in a manner that they are being carried out. It has only come after the elections that are being contested. The grievances have helped these underlying old tensions to simply surface as a form of expression. This is what it looks like. Therefore something has to be done and the first and main task is really lies with Kenyans.

It must be the Kenyans, with their leaders of different groups, from political parties to ethnic groups, to really come out and contain the situation.

Certainly, when Kenyans are being killed it has consequences beyond Kenya. It touches all of us and nobody wants to see that happening. But we have limitations on how much we can do or what we can do to deal with the situation. That is why I am talking of efforts which apparently don’t seem to be bearing fruit so far, even though they are still going on. I hope it does not happen like it did in our own case.

You know, it starts with five people being killed, then 10 people, then 50 people, then 100, then it is few hundreds, and then it is a thousand. By the time you realize, it has had a dimension that is wiping out entire villages and communities, getting out of hand and the whole political situation in a country is in a mess.

So, we need to attend to this as soon as possible and not allow it to go on, for the good of Kenyans and for the good of all of us in the region and beyond.

We need to support the ongoing efforts by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, working with former Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa and others who are well placed to try and help by getting to understand the depth and details of the situation. But everybody’s worry is how long it is going to take to bring the situation under control, with all these many people losing their lives.

So really, back to the question, it is a serious political situation which tends to even deny anybody or leaders in that situation any sort of legitimacy. This is what it means, and relates back to what could be the underlying factors, relating as well to the whole electoral process.All the same there has to be a solution in one way or the other for the sake of saving lives, especially of the innocent.

There have been many efforts of solving this problem that seems to be persisting. The AU chairman was there, Annan is in Kenya, Museveni was there also, and many others but still the crisis has continued. What do you think could be the missing links or the key to ending?

I think some of the proposals made by President Museveni indicate that examinations have to be made on what took place in the electoral process so that anybody claiming victory has it authenticated and validated by provable facts.

But the way things seem to be running out of hand, nobody is paying enough attention to the situation. Even the other courses of action that would be taken seem to have been left on the way side. No body is paying the required attention, yet all indicators suggest that this is a case of emergency, in which certain things have to be done urgently to stem the killings that are going on.

There is no time available to anyone to go into the niceties and the debates and other things when the killings are still taking place.

If things continue like this and leaders don’t create a situation that stabilizes things on the ground, may be for the sake of saving lives some stable institution in Kenya should step in and initiate a fresh start. For the sake of Kenyans.

Looking at what is going on in Kenya, do you think Kenyans ought to learn a lesson from what happened here in Rwanda 14 years ago?

The whole world should have learnt a lesson from what happened in Rwanda and Kenyans being so close in terms of distance, they need to prevent that and they need to act so urgently to stop it. We wouldn’t wish that for Kenya or any other country

Kenyans should be on the forefront to deal with their problems and they should be the ones mainly doing what it takes to contain this situation.

It is very pathetic for everybody in the situation to sit back and watch. You have the parliament, there is the judiciary, there is the army and the police and they all start losing the whole essence of being there.

The best option at the moment is the dialogue that is taking place. Yet I want to look further and ask should it fail; what happens? Are you going to have a situation simply getting out of control and spilling over in different forms to the whole region? Already it has done so in Uganda, Rwanda Eastern DRC and Burundi.

I am sure Tanzania also in some way is having a negative impact, and so we are all being affected.So, can a situation degenerate to the point that all of us cannot do or say something to save or reverse the situation. Once it reaches that point, I think other workable options should be devised.

Don’t you think the leadership of the EAC should also be condemned for maintaining silence and failing to intervene timely in tabling a solution to the Kenyan violence?

On this issue, I would say yes and no. Yes in a sense that this has now taken a number of weeks because maybe there is nothing concrete that has been done by all of us to stop it.
On the other hand, I would say no because, as I mentioned earlier President Museveni, who is the chairman of EAC has communicated with different leaders in Kenya on the situation right from the time electoral results were announced until recently when he went there and gave some proposals. So the rest of us thought something was being done already.

Apart from the chairman who was acting on behalf of the EAC, you have seen the chairman of AU, former Secretary General of the UN, former Tanzania President, different leaders in various capacities on our continent who are respected people have been there.

I think that tended to make people believe something was happening and they should give it time. But it did not exclude other options like different parties in Kenya using institutional means that are in place to resolve their grievances. So we thought all these were happening and that they would lead to a solution.

Very obviously today, looking back for the last few weeks, we are seeing more killings going on and that makes people wish that may be more efforts or something better had been done to prevent that from continuing.

In fact the EA ministers met and discussed this problem but the way things were discussed, it created an impression that things were being resolved by Kenyans themselves and they had no reason to doubt Kenyans, until we saw today that things are getting worse.

So really, you may be right to blame whoever for that, like for me this is the first time I am talking about the situation in Kenya and this is because you sought me and asked me. But all along I’ve been thinking about it and what is happening there and what people can do about it and I have been finding difficulties about what people can do.

Some Kenyans came here to brief the government about the situation there but unfortunately I was not in the country.
Apparently the picture that came out seems not to be the case today. May be things have degenerated indeed.And I think it would be really absurd that we would keep quiet…it is one thing to fail to do something tangible that would give you results, and it is another to do the simpler thing like speaking out and giving your views and see what would follow, like we are doing now.

Probably this should have come earlier than it has, but again the reasons are what I have explained to you.
It is important also to give time and space and also allow efforts that are underway to see if they will work, but it is a process that we have to keep interested in and finding ways of contribution to.

How is this Kenyan crisis affecting the economy of Rwanda?

It is affecting the economy of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and eastern Congo as I have already said. You know our imports and exports mainly go through that route. You can imagine if goods are stopped from moving; it has already manifested itself in the raised prices of petroleum products and thus hiked prices of other dependent commodities.

Think about transporters who commute the Mombassa route. You hear they have been held in some place or that their trucks have been destroyed. Tomorrow you will hear those drivers or other people doing business in or going through Kenya have been killed or targeted. It is a very difficult situation and this has a tendency to directly affect our economy, no doubt.

Do you think the current mess in Kenya paints an ugly picture on the future of democracy in Africa?

Democracy is a complex thing and in Africa some countries are getting it right, while others are having difficulties or others still getting it wrong all together.

It’s a struggle that continues on our continent. People have to keep struggling to achieve democracy. But of course it can also teach a lesson to all of us, mainly to the developed countries, who tend to always prescribe the standards and give their own formula as to how democracy should look and be practiced like in every situation or in our own countries.

I think democracy has an element that tends to be ignored always. It is the fact that democracy should always be tailored to suit specific conditions, historical or otherwise, in any given situation.

It doesn’t have a one-size-fit-all formula and really these people should be learning their lessons.In principles that are universal, certainly that we all respect. But there are aspects which have to be tailored to situations of individual countries, depending on their histories, cultures and so on, without compromising or eroding the other universal principles I just mentioned.

The blend of these things is where the trick lies and is where people should not under estimate in terms of the consequences, if that blending is not tenable to a given situation, and there is no shortage of examples.

I think it forms a good intellectual debate and a good reflection and lessons for everybody, and so people have to look at what has happened in Kenya and may be Rwanda too.
Ends

Source: New Times Rwanda
www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13426

www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13429&search

[nereah]

Institutions Have Failed Kenyans - Kagame


Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)


NEWS
4 February 2008
Posted to the web 4 February 2008
Kigali

President Paul Kagame on Monday said the ongoing post election chaos in Kenya have become difficult to deal with because the institutions supposed to do just that have either "failed, are not there or have been compromised", RNA reports.

"For things to go the way they have been, I believe up to this day (that) institutions that should have dealt with such problems are not effective, or are not there or have been comprised in one way or another and cannot deal with that situation", Mr. Kagame told a press conference in Kigali.


The President was emphasising his recent comments in which he was quoted to have proposed that the Kenyan military should step in to put the country back to normacy. He had been whether his comments were "personal" or the position of the Rwandan government on the situation in Kenya.

In a lengthy reponse, he told his audience that he "knew the likely interpretation" of his comments for a military solution. "I knew it - but somestimes you have to say what people may not be able to say - for putting so much value on those niceties (talks)", said Kagame.

He emphasised: "I knew people would start wondering what I mean but that is what I meant and am not creating anything but talking about a situation that exists on the ground".

"My position was (that) in such a situation where you have no clear-cut way forward - based on what the institutions should be doing - a vacuum is created and that vacuum is bound to suck in something - something is bound to occupy that vacuum for worse or better", said Kagame.

He added: "I was trying to see that situation and imagined people going on endlessly with debates or dialogue - as it is happening - at the same time people on the ground dying the way they are."

"Before Kofi Annan, there were other respectable leaders who came in.maybe tomorrow another person - they are there saying Kibaki and Raila come together, bring their two sides - blah blah - but on the ground you have reports of hundreds of people dying, burnt in houses, homes or the streets, and getting worse" he said.

President Kagame said his argument is based on the "thinking" that dialogue was taking long to yield results to stop the violence which could lead into "total chaos in Kenya". He however said the situation in Kenya is 'totally different' from what happened in Rwanda.

"Maybe one of the instiutions that may seemingly be stable, or be effective like the army could go to stop the killings primarily as people get time for those important niceties of talking and negociating", he said with laughter.

Mr. Kagame proposed three possible solutions but added that each had its "own merits and lacks". Number one, as he put it could be a re-run of the elections but this could be workable if mechanisms are put in place to ensure that "this time the winner is the winner".

Number two, Mr. Kagame continued, Kenya could have a recount of the votes. "But am not sure if we have anything on the ground to count again - either this is totally lost or it has been tempered with, or you will not have access to it somehow, but you could attempt that if it makes sense", he said.

In option three, Mr. Kagame said the Rwanda experience of power-sharing, though not very popular with "some people", could be applied.

"You could say - 'you know what, we have disagreements and it seems we will not agree with each other soon - so why don't we settle for a common ground' - " Kagame said adding "why don't you share this thing you are fighting for".

He went on: "the winner and the loser - who (-ever) has that in his mind.why don't you share how you govern this country atleast to stabilize the situation on the ground to be able to have more time and move forward in the near future".

This, as he explained means "the ODM and this other party", that he could not bring to mind immediately - before he chipped in "the PNU sharing power".

"Sometimes when I see these things happen, I feel that Rwanda is vindicated in the sense that when Rwanda went the way - in its constitution - of power sharing, of consesus building, and so fourth - people were wondering what sort of democracy that was", said President Kagame.