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Kagame speaks to the local and international press in Kigali On 19th December 2001, President Kagame called a press conference for the local and international press at Urugwiro Village in Kigali, to share his thoughts at the end of an eventful year. The President spoke on a wide-range of issues, including the following:

Question: On preparedness for Gacaca trials, President Kagame said:

President KAGAME: Not everything is in place right now, but I am convinced that by the time we start the Gacaca trials next year, everything important will be in place. We have been building awareness about the trials and mobilising the population to participate in them. We have also been building awareness about the significance of the trials.

The most important issue is for us to explain the meaning and significance of Gacaca, and for people to understand that it is aimed at speeding up the process of trying genocide suspects.

A lot more will be done in this regard before the trials commence.

Question: On the Decentralisation and Democratisation processes, President Kagame said:

President KAGAME: Empowerment of the people through decentralisation and democratisation is both necessary and good. The people should have the right to choose their leaders.

The local government elections, which took place in March, went very well right across the country. The elections were free, fair and transparent. People voted for their preferred candidates, and did so based on the ability of the candidates to serve the interests of the people. It was very pleasing that, generally, the population was not concerned about someone’s religion or ethnic background. Their concern was the ability of candidates to deliver good leadership and development to their communities. This was very pleasing because it demonstrated that the Rwandan people are developing a good new democratic tradition, which is free from the divisions of the past.

As to whether the new local governments have the capacity to deliver services to the people, that will remain a challenge. It is a big challenge for the central government as well. We are constantly training central government officials to increase their competence and ability to provide a better service. At the local government level, the challenge may be greater.

However, despite the challenges, the local governments and councils are crucial in determining the most pressing needs and priorities of the population. If the most pressing challenge is hunger or health care or infrastructure, the local councils would know better than anyone else, and should therefore be able to identify these challenges and discuss how best to address them. In this way they can be extremely effective. We should not think that because local governments do not have the capacity we would like them to have, they cannot be effective in serving the people. They can be effective in many ways.

Whatever assistance or support comes from outside the district, it should supplement efforts and ideas of the local government.

Question: On the draft Media Law, President Kagame said;

President KAGAME: “My position on this is very clear, and I have put it on record. But I believe that members of the press are part of the problem, because I understand you contributed to the draft law being the way it is.

My position is very clear. I advised both the parliamentary committee and the bureau of parliament and others, that personally I do not agree with the draft law in its present form. The reason why I do not agree with the draft media law is because I believe that it is a mistake that up until now, we do not have a law against genocide. That, I believe, should have been the area of concentration. They should have concentrated on introducing a law to punish genocide generally, regardless of who is involved whether it is a journalist, a religious leader, businessman or someone in government. For me, that is the starting point, and we need to concentrate on actually establishing that law.

Secondly, I advised them (parliament) – and I am not accusing anybody – that I will not break the law. However, I will use what the law provides for us to work with and exercise my rights as well. My rights are that I should not sign something I do not believe in. The law says that if I do not sign a law within ten days, the Speaker of the National Assembly should sign it. I will let him sign it and I would not have broken the law. Actually, for me, breaking the law is signing something I do not agree with.

I advised parliament that there is need to wait until we have a general law against genocide by which we can hold journalists, businessmen, government officials and others, to account.

That is my position, so you can take it from me, I am not going to sign that law, and not because journalists have been abusing me but because that is what I believe. I have been stating this for months now.”

Question:On poverty reduction and the national economy, President Kagame said:

President KAGAME: “We worked on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for quite sometime. The paper makes the issue of dealing with poverty a priority. It also ensures that we deal with poverty comprehensively. Government officials consulted widely across the country and with a cross-section of the population when drafting the paper. We wanted to get their assessment of what their main problems are and how best to deal with them.

The views of the people came out very clearly and are reflected in the paper. Now we know what to target, and how to deal with the different problems. What remains is how best to do it, especially given our resource constraints. In some cases the resources are not available at all. We find that the magnitude of problems is sometimes greater than our ability to handle either with our own resources or even from resources we are able to mobilise from friends and development partners.

But I think we can say that now we have a clear picture of what needs to be done in rural development, in agriculture, in governance, in dealing with social issues, health, education, and other areas. There is much more clarity now.

What remains is how to mobilise resources to deal with these issues. We have also looked into our own resources and said that part of these resources should go into dealing with poverty related problems through the decentralised local government units.

We have also mobilised resources from outside the country. We are very glad that a number of countries have come up to commit themselves to support this poverty reduction programme comprehensively. Some of them have committed themselves to support specific areas of the programme, but also some have decided to provide support through the budgetary system. Funds can then be allocated to different areas through the budgetary system, without scattering efforts as we have experienced in the past.

Regarding investment, the stability of these programmes will create an appealing environment for investment. The progress we are making on all these programmes I have mentioned makes Rwanda an attractive investment destination.”



Question:On relations between Rwanda and Uganda, President Kagame said:

President KAGAME: “Both countries have agreed not to harm the political or security interests of the other. We had in-depth discussion on this matter at the recent meeting in London. Teams of Rwandan and Ugandan officials have been put in place to investigate allegations on both sides. So far the investigations are going on well. Nothing serious has been established by the teams and the tensions that existed between the two countries a couple of months ago, have subsided. We will continue to work towards achieving a stable relationship, and even aim to make relations as good as they were some years ago.

So generally, the situation is now stable. Both sides seem to be making an effort to improve things and to get whatever obstacles there were out of the way.”



Question:On the DRC conflict and the Lusaka Agreement, President Kagame said:

President KAGAME: “Firstly, I think there is a lot of what I may call politicking or confusion relating to the situation in the Congo.

There was an accusation from the government in Kinshasa about our deployment, or as they said, reinforcement of forces in eastern Congo.

There is an anomaly on this issue. Kinshasa should respect one thing. They should have given whatever information they had to the UN and, based on whether or not the information was correct, the UN would come up with a clear position.

But for Kinshasa to simply go to the UN and accuse Rwanda was, in the first place, an anomaly. It was also incorrect because the reinforcements had not taken place.

At about the same time the Kinshasa government was making these accusations at the UN, we had a delegation of top officials from MONUC here, in particular General Diallo, in Kigali. We were actually surprised by the accusations and raised the matter with them. We asked them what was happening and why they do not verify what is happening.

According to the MONUC officials, they had nothing to do with the accusations. They had no information about it either. What was interesting is that immediately after that the UN’s special representative made the same accusation against us that the UN.

So on the one hand, Gen. Diallo and other officials of MONUC who were here told us that there was no truth in the accusations, and their people on the ground in the DRC had told them that. On the other hand, the official who had not been here or anywhere near the region, the special representative, joined Kinshasa to accuse Rwanda of taking new units to the Congo.

So there was a contradiction there.

I will give you the facts. We had not taken new units into the Congo. What had happened, and will continue to happen even in the future, while we still have troops in the Congo, units of forces can and will change positions. They can move from Bukavu and go Uvira, depending on where the threat is that demands their presence. They move from Bukavu to Goma or from Goma to Walikale or to Masisi. They have been doing that and they will continue to do so as long as they are in the DRC fighting the ex-FAR and Interahamwe.

What is happening in actual fact is that Kinshasa is bringing units down along Lake Tanganyika. They were mixed forces, one cannot tell who exactly they were, but they were supported by the DRC government and included some government forces. They also included Burundian rebels and ALIR. They were going to Fizi, reinforcing over time and then going to Fizi along Lake Tanganyika.

The problems we had in the south-west, which we quickly resolved some months ago, originated from the reinforcements around Fizi. So in actual fact, it was the Kinshasa government that was violating the Lusaka agreement by taking troops to areas that are not supposed to be under their control under Lusaka.

As far as Lusaka is concerned, I can say that partly it has worked and partly it is yet to work. In a general sense, I think we have achieved a ceasefire. We have achieved a ceasefire to the extent that the countries that were involved in fighting against each other in the Congo and the government troops on the one hand and the rebels on the other, has dramatically subsided. Clearly that is what has happened.

The fighting that continues to take place is about the different groups causing insecurity in the region. So as far as the ceasefire is concerned, Lusaka is generally working.

On the question of the inter-Congolese dialogue, it has become an on-and-off situation where the dialogue is on but not proceeding. We are yet to see success in this area, but it is still ongoing. I understand that they will be meeting again in South Africa to discuss their problems. That is good, and it is the direction of the Lusaka processes. We hope they will come up with some results that will address their problems and the concerns of their neighbours.

On the question of the pullout of troops, generally most countries have been pulling out some forces. Rwanda has reduced its forces significantly in the Congo. We partly withdrew forces eastwards from their original positions, and partly withdrew some troops completely and returned them to Rwanda.

Other countries have also taken action. For Uganda, I have been told that they have pulled some forces out of the Congo, but they still have some forces there. That is progress. I am told Namibia has done the same, as did Angola which withdrew most, if not all, their forces. For Zimbabwe, I do not know to what extent they have withdrawn, but the evidence on the ground is that they are not fighting. Whether they are supporting other activities indirectly, I do not know.

Lusaka remains the only framework by which we can work to bring some results in the Congo situation. All we must ensure is that the process does not stall. We must focus our attention on what remains to be done.”

Question:On Rwanda’s Foreign Relations, President Kagame said:

President KAGAME: My opinion is that we are making good progress both in implementation of development programmes within the country and also in the recognition we have been given as a result of this progress, to engage in various initiatives with other countries.

This year I made a number of visits to foreign countries, China more recently, the United States, Europe and elsewhere. During these visits I found that people are aware of our programmes, the progress we are making and understand the challenges we face.

Rwanda was voted onto the 15-nation steering committee of the New Initiative for the Economic Development of Africa, to represent east Africa. This was a result of our work and good relations with other nations, and the visible success of our domestic programmes.

I also find that many people who visit us are amazed by the progress we have made in the last few years, especially when they consider the tragedy and destruction from which we have had to recover.

Our work and initiatives in combating global problems like AIDS, has also been recognised and appreciated. All these efforts are having a good and positive impact on our country.



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