Rwanda: Darling Tyrant

RWANDA

Darling Tyrant

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in office for almost 20 years, delivered a blunt statement to his enemies during a recent swearing-in ceremony for cabinet members and military brass.

“I want to warn some people among us who hide behind different things. They hide behind politics, democracy, freedom that we actually want,” Kagame said, according to Xinhua. “The people behind this nonsense and even backed and praised by people from outside…are going to face it rough.”

The president stressed he would not tolerate anyone who propagated a “politics of division and hate, and genocide ideology,” wrote the New Times, a local newspaper.

But Kagame was presumably addressing critics who describe him as authoritarian and accuse his security forces and agents of illegal detentions, torture, false charges and other ways of harassing political dissidents, PBS NewsHour reported.

Indeed, opposition members often go missing in Rwanda. The latest was 29-year-old Eugene Ndereyimana, a vocal critic of Kagame who was hoping to run against the president’s Rwandan Patriotic Front.

“Where is he now? Is he alive, or was he killed by police?” asked a town elder in Kibungo, Rwanda, in the Washington Times. “What kind of country is this where one cannot speak freely? He is not the first one to go missing. We are losing our people in mysterious ways.”

A story in CNN listed other dissidents who are now missing.

What is remarkable about all this is that Rwanda is held up as a model of peace and prosperity on the continent. Indeed, Kagame’s version of stability has been pretty good for a country forever scarred by the genocide of 1994. The capital of Kigali is becoming a tourist attraction, reported Bloomberg in a video that featured clean streets, low crime and a growing economy.

Some of Rwanda’s prosperity might be ill-gotten. Citing United Nations reports, the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper noted how the country is likely benefiting from the illegal gold trade, often via routes dating back to its participation in wars in the Congo.

Still, Al Jazeera recently concluded that “Kagame’s Rwanda is still Africa’s most inspiring success story.” It was Kagame who, as commander of a force of uneducated guerrilla fighters, managed to put an end to the genocide. He has been president since 2000 and is credited with bringing stability to the country and leaving old grievances in the past as much as possible.

Kagame’s mix of appeal and repulsion led Politico to dub him the “darling tyrant.”

As in many countries in Africa and around the world, analysts say it’s likely the Rwandans will get tired of their leader, hit the streets and eventually remove him. If that happens, one can hope it’s not at the expense of the peace and prosperity they won so dearly.