Inauguration week

September 6th was inauguration day for President Paul Kagame’s second (and according to the constitution, last) seven-year term. Preparations were intense: on all routes that visiting heads of states and other important personages would take, curbs were being painted in black and white alternating colours. Debris under boulevard trees was being raked onto large pieces of burlap. Banana trees were being planted. The pace of road improvements intensified.

But the news was not good for the government. On August 31st Amnesty International released a lengthy report critiquing the government’s genocide ideology laws (genocide ideology being ideas and actions that promote divisionism and revisionism) saying that they are vague and general and used to silence any criticism. You can read it on their website.

The government responded angrily, saying AI had been invited to participate in reviewing these laws. They saw the release of the report while a review process is going on as a betrayal.

The rains came that week after a three-month absence; the skies filled with lightning and thunder, the rain pounded on roofs and sidewalks while people raced for shelter. The red dust settled to earth but more dirt swirled around the government.

A UN report was leaked, accusing Rwanda and Congolese troops of crimes of genocide against the Hutu during the war in Congo in the years after the genocide. Some have suggested that the leak was because the word genocide might have been taken out in the final draft. In retaliation Rwanda threatened to pull its 3,600 peacekeepers out of Darfur.

At the memorial centre, an obligatory stop for important personages, a small army of cleaners and gardeners spent the week clipping, weeding, loosening hard soil, raking. Tree leaves were washed, pathways scrubbed with soapy water, new toilets installed. The important visitors were greeted and escorted through the exhibits and the mass graves.

On the streets, the tidying continued. When I walk down the hill from the memorial centre to get the mini-bus home, I pass over a little bridge and then past a row of street vendors selling clothes, peanuts, candy, fish, garlic, tomatoes, whatever. That week, they all disappeared and the dusty hillside below the sidewalk was cleared of garbage.

On the day of the inauguration, at six in the morning, people are running towards the stadium, hoping for a seat. Just before ten, the vip’s, in convoys of fast moving black cars, race through empty streets lined with blue uniformed police carrying no weapons. On the tops of buildings, a few armed soldiers are silhouetted against a cloudy sky.

This day is a holiday, and  we searched fruitlessly for a place where we could buy time for our expired electrical meter we realized everything was closed. Only the local hotel resto/bar is open and so we buy tea instead of electricity and watch the inauguration on television. Stereo sounds, from the TVand live from the nearby stadium.

There’s welcoming of dignitaries, prayers (in English by Pastor Rick Warren), and inspection of the troops, precision marching and military bands, a spectacularly choreographed performance of traditional dance and then Kagame speaks. It is finished in two hours.

Two days after the inauguration, Ban Ki-Moon comes to Kigali, attempting to convince Kagame not to pull out the peacekeepers. In an ironic twist, the army accused of genocide in Congo is described as effective, highly disciplined and much needed in Darfur.

You won’t find the UN report on the internet, at least I couldn’t, but I did find some excerpts related to the Rwanda controversy, atrocities attributed to Congolese/Rwandan military. It was not cheerful reading.

As the important visitors slowly dwindle, perhaps the vendors will make a return. Three days after the inauguration I walk to the Kinamba bus stop and see three clothes vendors, one with an armful of men’s pants, one with a display of socks, and one with women’s skirts. A lone woman guards a bucket of fish, vigorously fanning away the flies.

The week left me with many questions. The tone of the international press was hostile, and foreign governments increasingly implied that the Kagame government does not fit their criteria for democracy.

Will there be by a withdrawal of aid? Will this increase the level of poverty, and therefore discontent and therefore stir the ground for conflict? Will this build the soil of democracy?

What will be the impact of the UN report? How will the government handle this? What about the criticism from human rights organizations? If their goal is to open more democratic space, are they going about it the best way? If the goal is to bring down the government, will democracy follow?

Rwanda was abandoned by the world during the genocide, and then embraced and now perhaps to be abandoned again. It will be the still wounded people of Rwanda who will suffer.

Postscript: President Paul Kagame spoke in his distinctive slow and measured English, a speech that held an internationally directed defiance. Afterwards, he turned to the crowd and broke into a rapid and animated Kinyarwanda.

For the record, what he said in English (from my scribbled notes):

“Human rights organizations seek to give the impression that something is terribly wrong, that the country is falling apart.

“Rwandans know what it means to sink to the lowest level possible and they made their point emphatically by voting in peace.

“People need to be mobilized and involved in development efforts. Our biggest problem is not democracy but poverty.

“External actors promote ideas without legitimacy and deserve nothing more than to be ignored.

“We need tools and resources to implement ideas relevant to our circumstances.

“The most successful societies are those that have achieved a level of national cohesion.

“Ethnic divisions are colonial constructs. In our case, divisive policies led to tragedy. National unity does not blind us to diversity; but our commonality is bigger than our diversity.

“It is difficult to comprehend those who want to tell us what direction to take…it will not make a dent in our quest for self-determination.

“This does not mean we have not engaged in self-criticism.

“We are moving toward security, health and education for all, towards development, towards economic and political participation, towards the empowerment of girls and women.

“Let us march together in solidarity with our continent. Let us stand tall to build a nation and a continent that we can call ours.”

For the record.