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Kagame speaks on the World Racism Conference

Question: How can a conference like this one in Durban prevent the recurrence of genocide as it took place in Rwanda? I don’t see how it can in anyway help prevent another one?

President KAGAME: There is no one single solution in dealing with such extreme situations. I think we need to look for a combination of efforts. One of these efforts should certainly be dialogue as we have been engaged in here in Durban, where we come out and openly debate, talk about issues, identify priorities, and ask what needs to be done to prevent the recurrence of tragedies like the genocide in Rwanda.

Durban cannot solve all the problems related to racism and discrimination, but it promotes dialogue where people can share experiences and speak out against these problems. That contributes to solving problems and that is the most important thing in my view.

Question: Mr. President, I would like to know if you are disappointed by the low level of representation at this conference from Western countries. Do you think that undermines or weakens the possibility of this conference achieving something useful?

President KAGAME:Well, it would have been very important for senior representatives from Europe and America to have been in attendance. They would have made great contributions and inputs to the many debates and outcomes of the conference. Some of the issues being discussed have references directed against some of these countries, so it would have been good for them to be around to give their points of view.

Question: They chose not to come. Do you see that as arrogance or indifference to the question of racism? There are perhaps 15 Heads of State here, all bar two of whom are African. Doesn’t that mean that this conference cannot really achieve very much? It is not really a dialogue, it is the poor, black African countries talking and the rest of the world not really listening.

President KAGAME:I am not sure about the reasons that prompted them not to send high-level representation here. But their not being here does not mean they are not listening to our dialogue. The most important thing is that those of us who have come here have had the forum to speak out openly and freely about the issues of racism, racial discrimination and intolerance, and perhaps learn from each other’s experiences.

Question: If I could just turn to your own country’s tragic experience. Yesterday, President Mbeki of South Africa spoke very much about the injustices done by white people against black people throughout history. Doesn’t Rwanda’s recent history show us that racism and ethnic division is as much a problem between Africans as it is something inflicted from outside?

President KAGAME: Well, the whole debate is not only about discrimination between White and Black. The debate is much wider than that. Racism, wherever it occurs, whether among Blacks or Whites, or Whites against Blacks, it is racism.

The whole debate is much wider than Black and White. It is about humanity. Here we are talking about mankind as a whole, about humanity. So wherever it happens, and in whatever form, it is wrong. Every human being has a right to life free of discrimination. These rights and freedoms should not be interfered with by anyone. That is what the debate is about.

Question:That is something that you are prepared to acknowledge. It is not always something that your fellow African leaders are prepared to acknowledge. Not only President Mbeki, but most other African Presidents would prefer to see racism as a problem associated with colonialism, White people against Blacks.

President KAGAME: There is no ambiguity for me on this issue. Racism is racism, whether it is between Black people and White people or within Black or White communities. There is no ambiguity about this, it is wrong.

Rwanda’s own experience demonstrates to us that racism is about human beings wherever they are and whoever they are. There were failures primarily of the Rwandese themselves, and there were also failures of the international community as a whole.

Question:I wonder whether a country like Rwanda that has undergone such a tragic experience, forgoes some of the international sympathy due to it when it defends its own interests so aggressively?

President KAGAME: Well we are faced with few choices. The choices are between defending our interests that are to do with our security and survival or to allow another genocide similar to the one that took place in 1994 to take place. I wish someone else could deal with our concerns for us. But there is nobody, so left to us, we have to deal with it ourselves. It is a question of the narrow choices we have.

Question:Mining for minerals in the Congo, that is defending yourselves against another genocide?

President KAGAME: You are assuming that all that is true. I am talking about the security of Rwanda. The debate about the exploitation of the natural resources of Congo is a different matter. The UN report about mining in the Congo had a different agenda altogether. It had a political agenda, with results even before the investigations had been carried out.

The issue is not the minerals. The issue is the reason why we sent our troops to the Congo in 1996 and again in 1998. It had nothing to do with minerals. The issue was and is our security.

There is no truth in the allegations that minerals are being taken by Rwanda. Trade that has been taking place between the peoples of the region for decades continues to take place. Congolese business people are trading with Rwandese, there is no exploitation. There is giving and taking on equal terms, as is the nature in the trade.

Question:I guess that what I am trying to say is that you can almost draw a parallel with Israel. People who have suffered in the past defend their interests so aggressively that they have to make moral compromises along the way too.

President KAGAME: There have been many compromises made in the case of Rwanda. That is why internally we have stability, which had never been witnessed right across the country. We have had many people released from prisons although they were implicated in the genocide. We have made a lot of progress on the ground in terms of reconciliation.

In terms of the security aspects contained in the Lusaka peace process, we also had to make compromises and agree to measures that do not necessarily sufficiently address the security problems that originate in Congo and affect us in Rwanda. We have already pulled our forces back from the forward positions, and have also returned some units back to Rwanda. We also continue to support the peace process. All these are compromises.

But you cannot compare us to Israel. They have strong allies who help them solve their problems. We have nobody helping us in that way. We only have people causing us more problems. These are the same people creating stories about Rwanda being in the Congo to exploit its minerals, forgetting the tragedy we had only in 1994 which could be repeated if our troops were not inside the DRC.

For Israel, the world, the media, the great powers speak for Israel. Nobody speaks for Rwanda. We speak for ourselves. And that is how we have to survive.

Question:But like Israel, you generally get a sympathetic hearing from the West. You’re treated well…

President KAGAME: I am not talking about hearings. Sympathetic hearings don’t add up to very much. Israel is given large sums of money for defence purposes. We are not. All kinds of vetos are passes in their favour. Have you ever heard of a veto in Rwanda’s favour? So you cannot compare us to Israel, it is totally different.



© The Government of Rwanda.