President Clinton in spirited defense of President Kagame

President Kagame shares a relaxed moment with President Clinton during one of his many visits to Rwanda (Photo: PPU)

Former US President Bill Clinton has told BBC “where were those human rights groups criticizing” Rwanda today when Hutus were slaughtering Tutsis – in latest spirited defense of President Kagame’s administration.

Speaking to BBC NEWSDAY programme, Clinton, who is fresh from Rwanda on a social action tour, dismissed accusations of support for rebels in DRC and poor human rights record. President Clinton said his support for President Kagame is no contradiction as suggested in various quarters.

Clinton said the allegation of Rwanda’s support for M23 rebels in DRC “has not been fully litigated”, adding: “Secondly, its complicated by the fact that this section of Congo near Rwanda is full of people who perpetrated the genocide, who spurned the President’s offer to come home and not go to prison…and you can’t get around the fact that the economic and social gains in Rwanda have been nothing short of astonishing under Kagame, and he says he going to leave when his time is up…”

President Clinton added: “…So I understand that some people in the human rights community believe that every good thing that has happened in Rwanda should be negated by what they allege they [Rwandans] have done in eastern Congo…”

Critics have charged that despite the economic transformation the country is experiencing; various other shortcomings such as lack of a free press mean the Government of President Kagame rules unchallenged. His government is also accused of suppressing the opposition.

Clinton does not take any of that arguing: “…all those people who talk about that where were they when the Hutus went crazy in 1994? …. they had a free press that was venomous, hate-filled radio that urged people to go out and commit mass murder.”

Amid laughter, Clinton added: “Look, I believe in a free press. When I was President, I helped to keep the press free that made a living out of feasting on my bones everyday! And I think too many politicians are too sensitive to being criticized. I think we have to be a little sensitive to the fact that if you are Rwandan, you don’t necessarily hear it that way because you remember that an alleged free press helped push Rwanda into a boiling Colden of butchery…”

The former two-term president of the United States shunned the notion that his position on Rwanda is influenced by guilty due to his inaction when he was President as the genocide rolled on in Rwanda. Clinton narrated a story of an encounter between a western journalist and a Rwandan curb driver during a 2001 visit.

Apparently, the curb driver informed the journalist that nobody from the outside asked Rwandans to kill themselves, and that at least Clinton is the only person who had apologized.

Clinton added: “I support a free press in Rwanda, I don’t support the repression of journalists, I don’t think human rights should be violated in the Congo to protect the territorial integrity of Rwanda. But I suppose I do make more allowances for a government that produces as much progress as that one has.”