re posted from SPIKED
Rwanda, 25 years on
How Paul Kagame uses the slaughter of 1994 to justify his murderous regime.
by Barrie Collins 3 May 2019
Barrie Collins is the author of Rwanda 1994: The Myth of the Akazu Genocide Conspiracy and its Consequences
A visitor to Rwanda today would be impressed. Kigali, the capital, is modern and well organised. No slums, no litter. There’s even wifi on the buses. It feels like a country on the up, a feeling borne out the rising GDP, which has grown 8.3 per cent on average each year from 2000 to 2017.
Tourism is booming, too. It is centred mainly around the main wildlife attraction – the gorillas in Volcano National Park – but there is also the chance to see the ‘big five’ (lion, leopard, elephant, black rhino and buffalo) at Akagera National Park, and to visit Lake Kivu and Nyungwe forest. Rwanda, the ‘land of a thousand hills’, really is a beautiful place.
Others, however, seek out the genocide memorials, which are there to remind people of the horror Rwandans went through for three months from 6 April 1994, when elements of Rwanda’s majority Hutu populace massacred the minority Tutsis. The main memorial is in Kigali itself where, juxtaposed with a shiny modern city, it indicates the progress made over the past 25 years.
Appearances are deceptive, however. While the economic growth is real enough, it is skewed toward the capital and prestige projects. Rwanda remains a desperately poor country, with 63 per cent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day, and 38 per cent of Rwanda’s children stunted due to malnutrition. Per capita gross domestic product is in fact lower than neighbouring Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. The hype around the economic achievements of Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, reflects his elevated standing in international forums rather than actual economic growth.
In fact, Rwanda is Africa’s most aid-dependent country, with 40 per cent of its annual budget sustained directly by foreign aid. Its big projects are going ahead because of the willingness of international finance organisations to grant Rwanda special status when it comes to lending. Nevertheless, debt repayments are placing severe constraints on development initiatives. Capital flows were negative for the first time in 2016. Kagame’s much vaunted goal of making Rwanda a middle-income country by 2020 has been quietly postponed until 2034.
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