Bloomberg News describes Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda for the last quarter century, as “the West’s favorite autocrat.” According to Bill Clinton, Kagame is a “brilliant man,” one of the “greatest leaders of our time,” no less.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair likewise hails Kagame as “a visionary leader.” Blair’s Institute for Global Change has worked closely with Rwanda, and Blair has personally argued against any moves to sanction Rwanda for its violent looting of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It is not merely retired politicians like Clinton and Blair who have chosen to truck with Kagame. The European Union has negotiated a deal with his government to facilitate the extraction of minerals, despite clear evidence that this is encouraging the pillage of the Congo.
The central African country that Kagame rules is tiny — about the size of Maryland. Its population consists of two main ethnic groups: the Hutu, who historically accounted for approximately 85 percent of the population, and the Tutsi, who accounted for most of the remaining 15 percent (statistics on ethnic identity are no longer officially collected).
The EU has negotiated a deal with Rwanda’s government to facilitate the extraction of minerals, despite clear evidence that this is encouraging the pillage of the Congo.
German and Belgian colonial administrations made use of a certain Tutsi stratum as a ruling group. The run-up to independence in 1962 saw a reversal of the colonial order as a Hutu elite seized control and incited a series of…
Auteur: Andy Storey
