Rwandan President Gen. Paul Kagame.
Rwandan President Gen. Paul Kagame has spoken out on the thorny issues of stepping down when his term expires in 2017 and the recent killing of a Rwandan dissident, Patrick Karegeya, in South Africa.
During a roundtable discussion with journalists from Canada, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Japan and France at the president’s office in Kigali on Monday, Kagame was emphatic he would have a say on the 2017 polls. He said he was tired of people asking questions about his retirement.
“I can’t run away from it. It keeps coming back to me. Maybe it is part of the misery one has to face in this job. My main problem is unfortunately that I have to be the one being asked this and answering this. Something that has to do with me but not entirely with me because 2017 is an issue of the constitution. I did not write the constitution.”
He explained that the two seven-year term limit for a president that was put in the constitution was not his idea.
“I had entirely debated publically for a different issue. My position was five years, two terms. But the argument out there went on for so many weeks and I was overruled publically. It ended up being seven years and at the same time it applies to me.”
“So in short, come 2017, I cannot say I have nothing to do with what comes out. No. At least at some point because I am directly concerned and involved to an extent, I have a say also because here we are talking about me.”
He stated that the decision on 2017 will not rest entirely with him. “What will happen, will happen. I wish I can be allowed some break and I do my job for the two-and-a-half-years then we will see what happens in 2017.”
Asked whether he thinks Rwanda can survive without him as president, he responded: “I think it had become ready to survive because even if Kagame stayed in 2017, there will be another time when he will go.”
Kagame also spoke about the frosty relations with South Africa which he explained were the result of Rwandan dissidents carrying out illegal activities from there.
“In recent days there have been ups and more downs in the relationship with South Africa. There have been incidents about the people who fled the country and went to South Africa and have lived there and have carried out activities that are directly affecting the security of our country.”
He said there have been a number of grenade attacks in Kigali and the northern part of the country, which are directly linked to these dissident groups.
“There is material evidence to that point. We have shared this with the South Africa government and institutions, but nothing was done and those activities continue.”
Col. Patrick Karegeya served in the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) and rose to the level of intelligence chief. However, he sought asylum in South Africa in 2007 after he fell out with the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) government.
He eventually turned into an outspoken critic of Kagame’s government. He was found dead in a South African hotel on January 1, 2014.
Severally in media interviews, Karegeya publically labelled the regime in Kigali a dictatorship and accused the regime of carrying out a series of political killings. He also said President Kagame was a dictator who would not leave power unless he is forced out by war.
The Kigali government blamed Karegeya and the former army Chief of Staff, Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, for masterminding a plot to overthrow the government by use of force.
Nyamwasa, who also lives in exile in South Africa, was shot in the stomach in June 2010 during an attack perceived to have been politically motivated. Last month, Nyamwasa survived another attack on his life.
In 2011, the two were convicted in absentia by a military court for working with the Hutu extremists, FDLR, to destabilise Rwanda and sowing ethnic divisionism.
Interview
Q:You have every right to say they are bad guys. But what people did not understand was you seem at one time to legitimise the right to kill bad guys?
A: I would still do the same now by saying nobody has a right to go and enjoy protection or security somewhere else while he kills Rwandans.
Q: So you opened the door for people to say government killed Karegeya?
A: I don’t give a damn. I am not going to play on this nonsense of interpretation. My business is to protect Rwandans. And my message is very clear; you cannot, even in the public opinion or international opinion, kill Rwandans and then claim to have a right.
Q: So, Mr. President, are you not unhappy that Karegeya is dead?
A:I am not even supposed to be unhappy. I am not unhappy.
Source: New Vision
