EDITORIAL: Kagame pushes his luck
2014-03-11 06:49:06.0
Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/CHRIS JACKSON
UNDER the steely rule of President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has pretty much
had things its own way for the past 20 years.
With feisty Israel as a role model, the US as chief patron and most
European countries, led by Britain, as friends and funders, Mr Kagame
has allies where it matters. In charge since the end of the 1994
genocide, he has turned the tiny African state into a modern Sparta
whose economic management is as widely admired as its disciplined
army.
But judging by the scraps of evidence which South Africa has made
available to the public, he seems to have pushed his luck this time.
The issue at stake -- the latest chapter in an alleged campaign by Mr
Kagame to permanently silence his exiled opponents -- is so sensitive
that South African officials have refused to speak on the record ever
since last week's reported raid by would-be assassins on the
Johannesburg residence of Rwanda's former army chief, Kayumba
Nyamwasa.
He has survived an earlier assassination attempt, unlike another
one-time Kagame loyalist, former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya,
who was found dead in Sandton in January.
South Africa kicked out three Rwandese diplomats last week and Kigali
reacted, Israeli-style, by expelling six South Africans. Pretoria
could impose further penalties, knowing there is broad international
consent that Mr Kagame has gone too far. He was forced to back down
last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a pro-Rwanda
militia was crushed by a United Nations force bolstered by a stronger
mandate and South African military muscle. That marked the end of the
pretence of cordial relations with Mr Zuma.
Patently, the Kagame government is feeling the pressure from the
inside as well -- from stalwarts of the mainly Tutsi group who helped
him to defeat the Hutu extremists responsible for the genocide.
Mr Kagame is an extraordinary man but he appears to have fallen victim
to a common ailment in African presidencies -- overstaying one's
welcome.
Mr Kagame has fought his way out of tougher corners than this damaging
row with South Africa. But sending hitmen abroad, if that is what he
did, smacks of desperation. The tawdry business may eclipse the
international events on April 7 marking the 20th anniversary of the
start of the genocide.
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SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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