“Only Rwandans will decide their country’s destiny” President Paul Kagame said at a rally in Kirehe, south-east Rwanda on the Tanzanian border in the last few days of the campaign. The 3-week campaign is drawing to a close with Kagame in the lead in most unofficial estimates.
Speaking to thousands of supporters at a campaign rally at Nyakarambi sector in Kirehe district in the eastern province, Kagame, the RPF candidate, said foreigners would not “impose upon us” their own democratic standards.
“What is democracy? We need peace, we need to develop our economy, education, tourism, empower women and chose our own leader and that is democracy,” he said.
Kagame is recent weeks has dismissed international critics who he sees as interfering in Rwandan politics and claims they do not take into account the opinions of ordinary Rwandans. These critics include Human Rights Watch and similar organizations.
“Democracy is not about division or committing crimes. Rwanda will never be developed by criminals,” said the incumbent head of state, who is seeking re-election in next week’s presidential elections.
“Rwanda is not for Hutus, Tustis or Batwa…Rwanda is for Rwandans, therefore our democracy will be based on that principle of equality.”
Reacting to reports that Victoire Ingabire is being persecuted for speaking for one particular group, Kagame said “Even in Europe, their democracy is not based on race or ethnic groups such as whites, coloured, brown people or anything, it’s about all people who have come to live together.”
He reiterated the need for unity and rejected the tendency to divide along ethnic lines, he constantly refered back to Rwanda’s tragic history where one side tried to exterminate the other.
“If Rwandans have chosen with a majority, other people need to respect that. Whoever doesn’t respect that is simply being disrespectful. What I read out of this is sheer contempt, we have already seen this contempt over the last 100 years and where it has led us.”
He was referring to how colonialist divided and categorized Rwandans along ethnic lines and forced them to carry identity cards, this carried on until 1994 when these ID cards were used to differentiate people in order to kill them.
“I want to repeat that we Rwandans owe nobody anything! Rwanda is a country of self-belief. Our politics are about what benefits us as a country. Those who want to destabilize our nation will regret it. This is a new Rwanda. We have won many battles and will win many more, including the war on ethnic division, poverty and insecurity. For those who want to fight us, we’ll give them a fight they will never forget. RPF has struggled to put this country where it is. We will never tire of this struggle.”
The campaign continues in Eastern Province with further rallies in Nyagatare, Rwamagana and Kayonza before the final day on Saturday with a rally in the working class suburb of Nyamirambo.
