April 20, 2000
Kigali - Acting Rwandan President Paul Kagame recently spoke about both foreign policy issues and domestic politics in a wide-ranging interview with IRIN held on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the 1994 genocide.
The survivors of the genocide say they have had a raw deal in the political and economic life of the country. Do you think their demands are taking on political overtones?
This is in the minds of a very few people who want to overplay some of the problems for their own political benefit. I think it is nothing extraordinary and unmanageable. In the past financial year, we spent Rwanda francs 7.5 billion ($24 million) on top of what they get, like every Rwandan. We have tried to help.
What encouraged you to have a shot at the presidency?
When I became vice-president, it was not according to a well worked out plan. I had been a leader in our liberation struggle and the vice-presidency simply came up as a result of the 1994 situation. Today, I am acting president just because the president resigned.
It was not planned. There is an ongoing process to select a new president. It might be that I turn out to be chosen. I am always willing to serve my country in whatever capacity, be it out of circumstances or otherwise.
Did internal contradictions within the RPF lead to the resignation of President Pasteur Bizimungu?
Yes, there were some problems. The RPF is built on an ideology where people must be modest in doing things. As Africans, with all sorts of problems to overcome, we have to behave and think in a certain way. For example, we believe that corruption must be fought. Along the path to achieve our goals, some people fall away. However, we always believe that with time people can rethink their positions and become part of the struggle again.
If you become president, what would be your goals?
We shall continue with the current programme. Essentially, the goals would remain the same. These are reconstruction, reconciliation and the provision of security.
What options are available for those who have genuine political grievances?
It is a simple matter. Those who were responsible for the genocide should be handled by the justice system and those who have no case to answer should go back to their villages and live a normal life.
Have you integrated any members of the former Rwandan army into your force?
We have so far integrated nearly 15,000 members of the Force Armees Rwandais (FAR) and they are holding different areas of responsibility in the force. In fact, some are among the units fighting in Congo.
Do you think the political parties included in the transition administration share the agenda of the RPF?
I think the political parties in Rwanda have been doing well, given their background. There is common ground on major issues like security, justice, reconciliation and economic development. We might disagree on small details, but that is not a problem. Indeed, that is politics.
Is the RPF preparing for a future as a political force?
I think the future of the RPF is good. We have made our contribution to the liberation of our country. We could make mistakes, but we have a mechanism for sitting down and correcting them. This capacity to re-examine ourselves makes for a good political culture and will help us consolidate as we go along.
Do you think Rwanda needs a new constitution?
Yes, absolutely. We have to work on putting in place a new constitution. In the past, individuals used to sit down and write constitutions based on their personal dreams. We intend to put in place a legal and constitutional commission, which is provided for in the Arusha agreement. This commission will go around the country collecting views. The commission will also travel to other countries both in the region and outside to get ideas about constitution making. If there is need, there will be a referendum to endorse the outcome.
Justice is a major challenge to your government. How will justice be administered in a transparent manner?
Justice is a problem we have been dealing with for the past six years and we have stabilised the situation. But we still have a big problem on our hands, with over 100,000 people in our prisons on genocide allegations. We have been looking at different ways to deal with the situation.
We created categories of responsibilities for the genocide. This has helped us to focus on the main authors of the genocide and handle the lower categories in different ways. We have also come up with an improvisation known as Gacaca, which means that people will be taken to their home communes to be tried in public assisted by the justice system.
Your name has been cited in a memo implicating you as having masterminded the shooting down of former Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane. Is this true?
Some people at the United Nations are very worried about the [former Swedish premier Ingvar] Carlsson report, which puts a lot of responsibility - in terms of the failures in Rwanda before, during and after the genocide - on the UN.
I understand that some of them have now devised ways of trying to intimidate us to keep quiet about these failures. The UN should know what happened. They are the ones who were in charge of the situation before the genocide and should not try to push responsibility elsewhere. We are getting more details about the network at the UN involved in this smear campaign. We are going to expose them.
The situation has not been clear when it comes to the downing of Habyarimana's plane. It is stupid for some people to say that the genocide was a result of the downing of Habyarimana's aircraft. Genocide started in 1950. It was continued in 1963, 1967 and 1973. Of course, we had killings in the 1990s when our struggle was on. If you remember, in 1993, we had to halt the negotiation process in Arusha because there were killings in the north and we demanded that the government should stop them.
Towards the conclusion of the Arusha peace process, one colonel close to Habyarimana openly told people that he was going to Rwanda to plan an apocalypse. What is happening today is an attempt by some people to distort facts.
About Habyarimana's death, I think the issue should be handled separately from the genocide because at that time there were all sorts of forces in charge of the city and neighbouring areas, which included the United Nations force, the Belgium contingent under the UN and the then government forces. At the time, the RPF had a force at a site near town which had no relationship with the place where the aircraft was brought down.
