Crowd Presses Rwandan President on Congo

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, adressing a full house at the Institue of Politics yesterday evening, faced repeated questions from the audience about the current Congo War as he tried to keep the talk focused on Rwanda's recent strides in its justice system and women's rights.

Kagame gave a short speech on his nation's domestic progress since Rwanda's 1994 genocide--in which Hutu extremists slaughtered as many as one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 90 days--that propelled the central African nation to the forefront of internationl news.

A lengthy question and answer period followed Kagame's 15 minute speech. Many of the questions from the audience focused on Rwanda's current involvement in the Congo War, a subject Kagame did not address in his remarks.

Yesterday's speech was part of an Amercan visit which included meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Congolese President Josheph Kabila.

In 1994, Kagame led the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to overthrow the Hutu power regime, halting the genocide.

Last night, Kagame claimed that, since 1994, three million Rwandan refugees have been repatriated and 300,000 orphans resettled in homes. Eighty-five thousand prisoners--suspected genocide perpetrators--remain in prison, he said, waiting to be tried.

"We are working toward the goal of replacing the culture of impunity with the rule of law," Kagame said in his prepared statement. "We are convinced we can continue to make progress."

Rwanda's judicial system was crippled by the genocide, as a vast majority of its judges were either perpetrators or victims of the slaughter.

In the absence of a formal judiciary, the 85,000 accused perpetrators are being tried under the auspices of Gacaca, a state-organized system of popular courts for trying genocide criminals.

Audience members last night seemed most concerned with the current war in Congo, despite Kagame's clear wish to emphasize domestic issues.

Several Congolese from the audience asked questions about the war; they were polite but visibly upset.

"I laud you for trying to reconstruct your country," said Masuda Bundu, a Congolese man in the audience. "But there are over two million people dead [in Congo], most of them children. That is a genocide, and a greater one than that in Rwanda. Since the Congo did not attack you, why do you have the right to do this?"

Kagame responded, "The aim has not been so much to fight the Congolese. It's to fight the ex-FAR [the remains of the genocide army] and Interahamwe [genocide militia]."

Rwanda entered the first Congo War in 1996 when the FAR and Interahamwe staged attacks over the Rwanda-Congo border. Rwanda continues to claim that the FAR and Interahamwe pose major threats to the nation's security.

"People are truly dying. It's a real problem. But to be fair, these deaths have been taking place for decades in the Congo," Kagame said.

Only one audience member asked about the implications of Kagame's recent meeting in the U.S. with Congo's new president, Joseph Kabila, who came to power when his father was assasinated last month.

"I met Kabila." Kagame said. "I was guided to understand from him that he was interested in working for peace."

Calm throuought the sometimes hostile questioning from audience members, Kagame's one brusque moment came when he was asked about his feelings as to whether the United Nations should have a standing military force of its own to deploy at its discretion.

"More and more, people are talking about peace, but nobody's willing to pay a price," Kagame said. "In Rwanda, we saw [U.N.]forces with tanks and helicopters running from gangs with machetes."