Kagame dismisses Spanish publicity stunt

During a recent visit to Spain, Paul Kagame found himself an unwilling victim of a publicity stunt. A special protest had been arranged by an activist group with close links to the Catholic Church. They were dressed in masks with red ink on their hands to symbolise blood and guilt. The group accused the RPF of being responsible for the killing of two Spanish priest during the Genocide against the Tutsi.


“This thing in Spain is an old problem, the indictments in Spain and France have existed for 10 years, if you look at the indictments they start by indicting the RPF and in extension they indict Uganda because they say it was created in Uganda and they think its main purpose was to come from Uganda and kill all Hutus.”


He dismissed the stunt as unproductive and said that the activists had a very limited understanding of the situation. Kagame has recently criticised “self-appointed foreign critics and human rights activists who make it their business to speak on behalf of Rwandans.” He has also challenged the right of judges with what is called universal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes not committed on their soil. “This universal jurisdiction only works one way, so how is it universal?” Two judges from France and Spain respectively have indicted senior members of the RPF en masse, on charges relating to the downing of the plane carrying then president Habyarimana.


He further dismissed the validity of the charges, saying they were too broad and made no distinction between individual members of an organisation.


“It is called a terrorist criminal group (RPF). They blame RPF for the death of two Spaniards who died in Rwanda plus some in Congo, it was investigated, the French police investigated this, and found it was due to the insurgency. On the other deaths there was no conclusion.”



It has since emerged that Zapatero was pressured into withdrawing from the UN summit on the millennium development goals (MDG’S) summit, where Kagame and Zapatero were both co-chairing the summit. He was facing a tense vote the following week and a minority party with close links to the Catholic Church was threatening to torpedo his bill. Spain is going through the shocks of recent economic downturn, the government is going to have to implement serious austerity measures aimed at saving the nation from economic collapse.


Kagame dismissed the relevance of the so-called snub, and said it would not deter him from working towards millennium development goals and representing Africa and Rwanda at global events.


“When I went to Spain it was not on bilateral business or a state visit, he is not a superior co-chair to me, MDG’s have nothing to do with affairs of state.”
The absence of Mr. Zapatero meant that Kagame was the sole chair of the meeting. President Kagame is one of the most high-profile African leaders on the global stage, he routinely meets with heads of state and other influential people to devise new methods of development. Rwanda was named as one of the few countries that is on schedule to meet the targets outlined in the MDG’s and hence Kagame was asked to co-chair the latest meeting.