The West out to get me - Paul Kagame

They may kill me, but before they do, I want to remind you that your destiny is in your hands.

Flash back Africa Series

Commentary

By Hosia mviringi

Rwandan President Paul Kagame urged the Youths of his nation to always uphold their culture and protect their nationhood.

Addressing scores of youth graduates who had just completed the twelfth edition of Indangamirwa series of civic education programme, Itores, President Kagame urged the youths to always strive to live by the Rwandan culture.

He delivered on Thursday, the 8th of August 2019 to 698 graduates who had completed the training at Gabiro Combat Training Centre in Gatsibo District, Eastern Province.

This training is the equivalent of the National Youth Training program in Zimbabwe.

Encouraging the young people to be custodians of the Rwandan culture as they build their own future and that of the country, the Rwandan leader urged the youthful citizens and all others to work hard to learn and embrace the Kinyarwanda national dialect.

“I want to encourage you to learn Kinyarwanda because understanding one’s language is part of culture,” he said.

Speaking about Western threats and targeting against his determination to develop Rwanda, Kagame opined:

“The 1994 genocide was an example of how the West are waiting on us to kill each other so they can share our gold and take our lands. I & your fathers came and stopped the killings.

Now, they are not happy, they might kill me, but before then, I want you to understand that your destiny is in your hands. Do not allow yourselves to be manipulated into thinking that you are inferior.

Do not allow yourselves to be manipulated by Arab religion (I’m talking about Islam) or the Western version of Christianity. These alien religions make our people to fight, kill and manipulate each other.

You must protect your cultural heritage, you must protect the lands, you must farm your food, you must protect the forest, you must fly rockets to the space, you must invent AI technology. You’re the pride of Africa, you must always remember this.”

But why would anyone in the West want to get him?

Here is the background.

Late 1994 there was a civil war in Rwanda which ended up as an ethnic cleansing tribal war in which the minority Tutsi tribe was at the receiving end of a carefully planned and ochestrated genocide by the then ruling majority Hutus.

As the genocide was underway France sent in troops which were to provide protection to civilians through what was then known as the Safe Zone.

What surprised and still puzzles many today is the number of civilians who continued to die even after entering the so called Safe Zone which was then established between the Congo and Rwanda.

This raised questions which remain unanswered to this day despite repeated efforts by the Rwandan government to engage the French counterparts to try to find closure.

To exercebate the situation, verified facts on the ground show that the leading perpetrators of the genocide escaped to the Congo through the Safe Zone under the escort of the French troops instead of apprehending them to face justice.

Now twenty five years later, the Rwandese have found closure and established peace amongst themselves through a delicate yet tedious reconciliation process.

This process saw President Kagame emerge as the star and darling of the West through his tolerance, governance system and investment policies which saw Rwanda overtake many established economies as it quickly became a haven for international capital.

Paul Kagame was celebrated in Western Capital as he became a shinning beacon and an example of good leadership in Africa, just as Robert Mugabe was celebrated and subsequently knighted by the queen of England before he was berated as a tyrant as soon as he began to talk Land reform.

Paul Kagame's fallout with the West is precisely due to his insistence that France give account of the extent of their involvement in the genocide in which more than 85000 mainly Tutsis lost their lives.Kagame insists that France has to come clean on their role.

Last year 2019 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Genocide an invitation was extended to the French President Manuel Macron who conveniently turned it down and instead sent a junior Minister.This obviously irked the Rwandan authorities who had anticipated to use the emotional occassion to build bridges and strengthen trust by engaging their counterparts at a higher level.

Mr Macron had a chance to show solidarity with the Rwandan people but he conveniently snubbed the occasion.

But why would the West gang up against Kagame when his fallout is with the French alone? It's a bilateral misunderstanding isn't it?

No it's not.

We all recall how France played a leading role in the invasion of Libya and the brutal murder of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

France managed to mobilize the Western countries that include the USA ,Britain, Italy etc to further its selfish expansionist ambitions.So it wont be surprising if they do the same against Rwanda.

Time will tell.

Over the years Paul Kagame has matured as a leader and has begun to preach pan Africanism to the extent that many Francophone African countries have seen the light and are thus divorcing the French Central Bank.They are repatriating back to Africa billions of African Finance which was hitherto stashed in the French Financial system, thus benefitting France at the expense of the African countries themselves.

They would have to borrow their own money at extortionist rates for their domestic developmental expenditures, of course at the risk of being sanctioned for 'misusing' their own money.

West African countries are fast dumping the Franc in favor of the regional currency to be known as the Eco.

Of course a concoction of these factors have made Paul Kagame a tyrant overnight and a worthy target for elimination.Its to be expected isn't it?

Common sense and history would tell you that once you become the rallying point for African renaissance and an impediment to Western exploitation of African resources you become a worthy target for elimination.

President Paul Kagame is right and his intuition is perfect.

But he is a big boy now isn't he?

#AfricaUnite