Paul Kagame

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Paul Kagame, 2016

Paul Kagame (born  October 23, 1957 in the Prefecture of Guitarama , today the Southern Province , in Rwanda ) has been President of Rwanda since April 22, 2000 . On January 28, 2018, Kagame was elected President of the African Union for one year .

Life

In 1962, after pogroms against Tutsi , Kagame and his family had to flee Rwanda. In Uganda he joined Yoweri Museveni , became head of the military secret service and built up his own Tutsi militia , which was later called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). After Milton Obote was overthrown and Museveni came to power, Kagame joined the Ugandan official army that had emerged from the National Resistance Army . In 1990 he was trained in an elite military academy of the United States Army at Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . In the same year he began with the RPF, whose leadership he took over shortly after the death of Fred Rwigema on October 2, 1990, first attempts at invasion of Rwanda. In the civil war that followed from 1990 to 1993, he fought as leader of the RPF together with the Ugandan army against the Rwandan troops.

The RPF seizes power in Rwanda

Interview with United States Secretary of Defense, William Perry , July 31, 1994

When the then President Juvénal Habyarimana was killed on April 6, 1994 in a plane crash that has not yet been resolved, this triggered a genocide in which at least 800,000 Tutsi and opposition Hutu were murdered, which was only due to the military intervention of the RPF and the de facto Conquest of the country ended after 100 days.

On July 19, 1994, Kagame became Rwanda's Vice President and Minister of Defense.

Presidency

Visiting George W. Bush at the White House , April 2005

Following the resignation of President Pasteur Bizimungu , during the Civil War, a follower Kagame, Kagame was on 17 April 2000 by the Parliament voted by a large majority as president; he had already held the office on an interim basis since March 24, 2000. In the presidential elections in August 2003, Paul Kagame was confirmed in office with 94% of the vote. The opposition, led by Faustin Twagiramungu , who himself survived the genocide of 1994 only by chance, accused him of electoral fraud and did not recognize the election.

In November 2006 lawsuits were brought against Kagame and nine other senior Rwandan officials, politicians and the military in France . The trial was led by the chief French investigating magistrate and Vice-President of the Supreme Court, Jean-Louis Bruguière . Kagame was accused of being involved in the shooting down of the presidential plane of Juvénal Habyarimana and thus in the murder of Habyarimana, Cyprien Ntaryamira , the president of Burundi , and the crew. Kagame is said to have anticipated the genocidal reactions of the population to the murder of their (Hutu) president and used them as a justification for his assumption of power. He was threatened with arrest when he entered the EU , and in 2008 his chief of protocol, Rose Kabuye , was arrested at Frankfurt Airport . The allegations were refuted after the investigation was resumed; the new French investigation report came to the conclusion that the then president died from a rocket from the camp of the presidential guard.

With US Secretary of State John Kerry at the 2014 WEF Annual Meeting
Trilateral meeting of President Joseph Kabila and President Paul Kagame with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, September 24, 2012

In the presidential election on August 9, 2010 , Kagame was re-elected. According to the national electoral commission, he received 93.08% of the votes cast. However, the elections took place largely to the exclusion of the opposition, as the three admitted opponents were among Kagame's political allies. According to information from the opposition, the government had used intimidation measures in the run-up to the elections. Several opposition politicians and journalists were killed in attacks. There were also irregularities during the election.

Together with Yoweri Museveni , the President of Uganda, Kagame has been one of the USA's closest allies in the region since the late 1980s. The USA supported the RPF during the invasion of Rwanda and had a stabilizing effect on the regime after Kagame came to power.

In a constitutional referendum on December 19, 2015, according to official figures, 98.4% of the population of Rwanda voted for a lifting of the limitation on the presidential term, which was previously limited to two seven-year terms according to Article 101 of the constitution. This means that Kagame could theoretically remain in office until 2034. The vote was preceded by a petition for which, according to government information, 3.7 million people signed for an extension of Kagame's term of office, who otherwise would have had to resign in 2017. Critics speak of multiple and forced signatures. In view of the restricted freedom of the press and assembly in Rwanda, only the Green Party, not represented in parliament, pleaded for a rejection of the constitutional amendment. Opponents could not organize a campaign in terms of time either: there was only a week between the scheduling and implementation of the vote. Internationally, representatives of the EU and the US ambassador to the United Nation, Samantha Power , called on Kagame to voluntarily resign from office.

In the presidential election on August 4, 2017 , Kagame was re-elected for the third time. According to estimates by the Election Commission, 97% of the 6.9 million eligible voters took part in the elections, of which more than 98% were in favor of Kagame after 80% of the votes were counted.

praise

Paul Kagame is said to have had a profound influence on the development of Rwandan society after the genocide. He is credited with a key role in the stabilization of the country and the economic upswing in Rwanda. Kagame is therefore admired by many Africans across the continent and Rwanda under his rule is seen as a model state for the rest of Africa.

criticism

Nonetheless, according to his critics, these successes were achieved by circumventing democratization in their own country and at the expense of the Congo , whose illegal exploitation of raw materials largely benefits Rwanda.

Criticism of the situation in Rwanda

During the civil war in Rwanda from 1990 to 1994, the RPF, which is subordinate to the Kagame, reportedly committed massive human rights violations. This resulted in the killings of prisoners of war and massacres of the civilian population. The RPF is said to have continued to accept the killings of Rwandan Tutsis and in some cases even provoked them in order to increase pressure on the Habyarimana regime. After the RPF came to power in Rwanda, the Hutu were systematically persecuted. Critics accuse Kagame of having built a dictatorship under the protégé that lacks elementary basic democratic rights. There are complaints about the suppression of the opposition and the lack of freedom of the press in Rwanda today.

Criticism of Rwanda's role in the Congo War

President Barack Obama (left), President Paul Kagame, his daughter Ange Kagame and Michelle Obama at the “United States – Africa Leaders Summit” in Washington, August 2014

His role as leader of the RPF is also viewed critically: Both the invasion of Rwanda in 1990 and the invasion of the Congo in 1996, which marked the beginning of the first Congo War , are not legitimized under international law and are thus viewed as a war of aggression . In a report by the United Nations from 2001, Kagame (and also Museveni) is accused of participating in or exerting influence in the Second Congo War with the aim of massive plundering of the natural resources of Eastern Congo. At times, 70% of the Congolese coltan deposits were controlled by Rwanda.

“Presidents Kagame and Museveni are on the verge of becoming the godfathers of the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the continuation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They have indirectly given criminal cartels a unique opportunity to organize and operate in this fragile and sensitive region. "

“Presidents Kagame and Museveni are on the verge of becoming the mafia patrons of the illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the Congo and the continuation of the conflict there. You have indirectly given criminal cartels the opportunity to operate in this unstable region. "

- Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - UN

The Kenyan economist James Shikwati accuses Kagame of having millions of people in the Congo on their conscience. In a report published by the UN in 2010, the RPF is accused of numerous massacres of civilians in eastern Congo, as well as mass rape and the looting of villages between 1993 and 2003.

Award

literature

Web links

Commons : Paul Kagame  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kagame takes over AU leadership, commits to visa-free regime. Africanews.com, January 28, 2018, accessed January 30, 2018
  2. ↑ Kagame is triumphant. But has the one-time visionary become Rwanda's latest autocrat? In: The Independent.
  3. ↑ Genocide entanglements. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  4. ↑ Chief of Protocol in German custody. Arrest provokes Rwanda. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. ( sueddeutsche.de ( Memento from December 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ))
  5. ↑ Rwanda's president was shot down by his own people in 1994. In: The time . January 11, 2012.
  6. ↑ a b Rwanda reports overwhelming approval for Kagame . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 11, 2010.
  7. ↑ electoral farce in Rwanda . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 9, 2010.
  8. ^ Rwanda presidential campaign ends . In: Al Jazeera English . August 7, 2010.
  9. ^ Albright in Africa: The Embraceable Regimes? In: The New York Times.
  10. ↑ Will Rwanda's President stay in office until 2034? In: Tages-Anzeiger. accessed on August 6, 2017.
  11. ↑ Jesko Johannsen: Kagame's followers put pressure on the population. Deutschlandradio Kultur, December 18, 2015.
  12. ^ Simon Loidl: Referendum for Kagame. In: Junge Welt. December 16, 2015.
  13. ↑ Rwanda's president re-elected with a gigantic majority. In: Tages-Anzeiger . accessed on August 6, 2017.
  14. ↑ Philip Gourevitch: Rwanda's Hope. In: Lettre International 85. ( lettre.de ( Memento from July 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ))
  15. ↑ Peter Beaumont: Paul Kagame: A tarnished African hero. In: The Guardian. July 18, 2010, accessed August 19, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Mehari Taddele Maru: Rwanda and President Kagame. In: al Jazeera. September 17, 2017, accessed August 19, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Richard Grant: Paul Kagame: Rwanda's redeemer or ruthless dictator? July 22, 2010, accessed August 19, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Paul Kagame feted and feared. In: The Economist. July 17, 2017, accessed August 19, 2018 .
  19. ↑ UN Report on Rwanda: When the Victims Kill. In: The time.
  20. ↑ a b c d Dominik J Schaller: Guilt and atonement in Rwanda: How genocide researchers acting as political advisors contribute to the moral and political upgrading of the regime in Kigali. In: Journal for Policy Advice. Volume 1, Numbers 3–4, pp. 626–636, doi: 10.1007 / s12392-008-0064-4
  21. ↑ a b F. Reyntjens: A Dubious Discourse on Rwanda. In: African Affairs. 98 (1), 1999, ISSN  0001-9909
  22. ^ Michel Chossudovsky: The Geopolitics behind the Rwandan Genocide: Paul Kagame accused of War Crimes. In: Global Research.
  23. ↑ Allan Thompson (Ed.): The Media and the Rwanda Genocide. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7453-2626-9 . (on-line)
  24. ^ Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ( Memento of January 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) UNO
  25. ↑ Cancels this help . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 2005 ( online ).
  26. ↑ Africa's World War: Around six million people died between 1993 and 2003. The UN is postponing the report on the atrocities in the Congo so that the regions affected can write their own statements. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. September 3, 2010.
  27. ↑ Dana Goldstein: CGI: "Bill Clinton's Rwanda Guilt". In: The Daily Beast. October 23, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Kagame, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rwandan President (since 2000)
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Guitarama Prefecture , Rwanda