Interview with New African Magazine
During the month of June, Rwandan President Paul Kagame was interviewed by Regina Jere-Malanda on a wide range of domestic, regional and international issues. Below are some of President Kagame's responses.
On why Rwanda went to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kisangani in particular, President Kagame said:
"The situation in Kisangani is a complex matter which I find hard to explain, and it is difficult to justify everything.
"We were aware of the sovereignty issues involved, but we are not necessarily apologetic for taking over Kisangani. The security situation for us was bad - there were former soldiers (ex-FAR), armed Interahamwe and others who can invade our country from Congo. We have captured some of them and they
have told us how they have been trained by Kabila's forces. We either had to let the same people invade our country and carry out another Genocide, or alternatively cross the border to deal with the problem there but at the expense of violating another country's sovereignty. Wedecided to be selfish,
rather than having another Genocide. We had to breach the sovereignty issue in order to deal with another major problem. These are the facts and this is why we went to the DRC, and we challenge them to prove us wrong on this.
"If the security situation is resolved and we are still in the Congo, then people can be right to accuse us of being there for something else. Those talking about us being there to exploit the wealth of Congo should know that to exploit minerals is an expensive exercise, you need money to do this, which we don't have."
On the Eldoret meeting with DRC President Laurent Kabila, President Kagame said:
"My meeting with President Kabila has to be looked at in the context of the bigger picture. Our primary interest is that of peace - the issues of the Interahamwe, the camps, security or lack of it, genocide and so on, we will need peace from Kabila, Museveni and myself. So at this meeting we looked at this bigger picture.
"Our ultimate goal is not to remove Kabila, but that he should be part of the solution and not part of the problem. During our meeting in Kenya, he agreed to this. He did ask if I could withdraw our forces, and I said that we have no objection to this, but it has to be under certain conditions." On Habyarimana's death, the Genocide and the assertions of a discredited charlatan named John Paul Mugabe, President Kagame said:
"First of all Mugabe was not an RPF intelligence officer but a mere journalist who expected to be appointed an Ambassador, and when he didn't get this he became disappointed and bitter, fled the country for greener pastures then claimed to have been persecuted to get political asylum in America.
What he has been saying lately is simply not true. Even if it were true, Mugabe would not have been the person to be privy to such classified information. He would not even have been present at any meeting where such things could have been discussed.
"About the shooting of Habyarimana's plane, the area where it came down was in total control of Habyarimana's forces. They had taken over a whole village in the area, it was settled by Presidential Guard forces. It would have been difficult for anybody to infiltrate or penetrate the area and conduct an exercise of
downing a plane then get out. Before the incident, Habyarimana himself felt so threatened that he took his army chief to the Arusha conference because he was under suspicion.
"When the incident took place, the area was cordoned off by the Presidential guard and the French troops. They prevented even the UN forces from entering. The RPF was about 15 kilometres away, (in the opposite direction) and they were surrounded by UN troops. Mugabe's story is just being told for political and other reasons.
"But Habyarimana's plane crash had nothing to do with the genocide that followed. It is immoral for people to give it that kind of justification. These are two separate issues. Genocide in Rwanda has its own history, it goes back a long time. Genocide started in 1959, then 1963, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1993, 1994 - it has no link to the downing of the plane.
"As to who and why the plane was brought down, the answer will be a guessing game. It is open knowledge that Habyarimana was considered too soft with the RPF, he was told he could not be allowed to have the RPF as part of the government. As of now, we don't have clear evidence of who did it, but it's not due to a lack of will that the evidence is not forthcoming."
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© The Government of Rwanda.
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