Rwandan president Paul Kagame says no forgiveness for Hutu extremists in Congo

AP - Sun Sep 17, 4:23 PM ET
Rwandan President Paul Kagame speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in central London Sunday Sept. 17, 2006. Hutu extremists accused of masterminding the Rwandan genocide and then fleeing to Congo cannot expect forgiveness, Rwanda's president Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebels who ended the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, said in an interview Sunday.

The Associated Press
Published: September 18, 2006

LONDON Hutu extremists accused of masterminding the Rwandan genocide and then fleeing to Congo cannot expect forgiveness, Rwanda's president said in an interview.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame also offered advice to Congo's next president, expected to emerge from an Oct. 29 run-off. Kagame said the run-off's loser should be invited into the government to ensure peace after years of war in that country.

Rwandan Hutu extremists, including members of Rwanda's former army and extremist Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe, have been accused of fomenting instability in eastern Congo for years. They remain entrenched in eastern Congo despite a U.N.-led campaign before the recent first round of voting in Congo to quell the threat they pose.

Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebels who ended the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, said he would work with the new Congolese government against the Hutu extremists, but he said he could not envision offering them amnesty, as the Congolese have done for some of their own rebel groups as a strategy to ensure peace.

"There are no grounds whatsoever to say these people ... should be given any amnesty," Kagame said on Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press during a stop in London on his way to New York for the U.N. General Assembly meeting.

He said he did not opposed amnesty in all cases, noting other genocide suspects had been forgiven as part of his country's justice and reconciliation efforts. But he said the groups who fled to Congo included masterminds of the genocide who had shown no remorse, so they must be either brought to justice or militarily defeated.

Rwanda's 100-day genocide in 1994 — in which more than 500,000 people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered — ended when Tutsi-led rebels under Kagame ousted the hard-liners.

Rwanda has invaded Congo twice since 1996 with the stated aim of hunting down the Hutu extremists who fled there. Rwanda's second invasion, in 1998, launched Africa into a war that drew in the armies of six nations, split Western Europe-sized Congo, and caused the deaths of an estimated 3.2 million people in east Congo, primarily through famine and disease.

Kagame has at times struggled to balance democratic values against the need to maintain order and prevent Rwanda backsliding into war. But he also has been credited with keeping his restive country stable and relatively peaceful. That record gives him a certain authority when discussing prospects for peace in his volatile region.

In Congo, both run-off presidential candidates lead personal militia that clashed after no one won a majority in the first round, underscoring the possibility Congo could plunge back into widespread violence and chaos — perhaps again taking neighbors like Rwanda with it.

Kagame counseled whoever won to "involve those on the losing side" in forming a government and building political institutions.

"Nobody wants to win the election and wind up losing the peace," Kagame said.

The government of national unity Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front formed and dominated after stopping the genocide was at first nominally headed by a Hutu, with Kagame as vice president and minister of defense. Kagame later took over as president, though not at first by popular vote.

Kagame then won 95 percent of the vote in 2003 in Rwanda's first multiparty presidential elections since independence from Belgium in 1962. His term expires in 2010 and he is constitutionally allowed to seek just one more.

In the interview, Kagame refused to say whether he would run again. But he did say he would respect the constitutional term limit. Several African leaders, including Kagame's one-time mentor in neighboring Uganda, have in recent years pushed to topple such restrictions, which were meant to keep would-be dictators from cementing holds on power.

Kagame, famous for his soldierly discipline, was composed during the interview. But he revealed emotion at one point, on the subject of the discipline he expects others to maintain.

Rwandans have succeeded in rebuilding their nation because they took responsibility for the violence and for devising processes for coping with its aftermath, said Kagame, who has long accused the international community of doing too little to stop the genocide. He also has said international justice for genocide suspects is flawed, and in the interview said he believed the Rwandan legal system was ready to take over from the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Rwandans "have to fully take possession. They must own these processes," he said, with an uncharacteristic stress on "own."

"People have to own up and take responsibility, work hard, and analyze what the problems are and find solutions and not wait for anybody to come and deal with their problems," he said. "Because they never come, in any case."

During an appearance in London Monday, Kagame repeated calls for African self-sufficiency. But in comments at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Kagame also identified one problem he said needed wider attention: the conflict in Darfur. Kagame has contributed troops to an undermanned, underfunded African Union peacekeeping force in the western region of Sudan. The AU and the United Nations have called for the U.N. to take over the force, but Sudan is opposed.

"Why should anybody have a problem with having the international community deal with the problems in Darfur?" Kagame said.

He also said African governments need to speak with one voice on international affairs, or risk being left on the sidelines as China and other countries compete to strip the continent of its natural resources.

___

Associated Press Writer Raphael Satter in London contributed to this story.

AP Interview: Rwandan president says no forgiveness for Hutu ...

International Herald Tribune, France - 18 Sep 2006Rwandan President Paul Kagame also offered advice to Congo's next president, expected to emerge from an Oct. 29 run-off. Kagame ...

AP Interview: Rwandan president says no forgiveness for Hutu ...

North County Times, CA - 18 Sep 2006LONDON (AP) -- Hutu extremists accused of masterminding the Rwandan genocide and then ... Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebels who ended the ...

Rwandan Leader Firm on Hutu Extremists

Guardian Unlimited, UK - 17 Sep 2006LONDON (AP) - Hutu extremists accused of masterminding the Rwandan genocide and then fleeing to ... Paul Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebels who ended the genocide in ...