Kagame must go now. He is a dictator and war criminal. While President Museveni helped him to take power in Rwanda through a deadly war, Kagame was not interested in sharing power with the former government of Habyarimana. Then he found that the only way to take all the power is to shoot down the plane that was carrying the former President and his entourage. Museveni did not give him arms to shot down the President's plane and to kill civilians who decided to defend themselves against Tutsi insurgents. This trigged the genocide that Kagame blames to the West.
Rwanda is a dictatorial and brutal regime. Uganda is doing well in terms of democracy because Museveni is allowing opposition leaders to compete against him freely. In Rwanda all opposition leaders are in exile or in jail in Rwanda. Kagame should learn from Museveni and allow political freedom and rights.
Publish Date: Dec 07, 2015
KIGALI - Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Sunday lashed out at "other nations" for interfering in his country's internal affairs after criticism over a move that would allow him to extend his rule.
"We can be good friends, we can agree to disagree but there is a line when it comes to the interest of Rwandans," Kagame, 58, told the leadership of his Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR).
"They tell us we should have the right to make our own choices, but our choices then become defined as manoeuvring," he said in quotes relayed by the FPR's Twitter account.
"Our actions do not correspond to the wishes of other nations," he said.
The Rwandan Senate last month passed a constitutional amendment that reduces presidential terms from seven to five years and maintains the two-term limit but makes an exception for Kagame, allowing him to run in 2017 for a third seven-year term, at the end of which the new rules come into force.
The amendment must still go to a national referendum, but is expected to pass easily.
The president's remarks came after the European Union on Thursday warned that the move undermined democratic principles in the central African country.
"The adoption of provisions that can apply only to one individual weakens the credibility of the constitutional reform process, as it undermines the principle of democratic change of government," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement.
Two days earlier, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Kagame must set "an example" for the region.
"We expect President Kagame to step down at the end of his term in 2017," she said.
Kagame said Sunday: "If you want something from me by looking down on me, you can be sure 100 percent you won't get it. You can be sure you will get the opposite."
Kagame has run Rwanda since his ethnic Tutsi rebel army ended the 1994 genocide and ousted Hutu extremists.
While he apparently retains broad public support, his critics have accused him of displaying increasingly authoritarian tendencies.
Supporters portray Kagame as a guarantor of post-genocide stability and the economic growth that has transformed the country over the past 20 years.
But critics say the constitutional move is orchestrated by a government and leader with an iron grip on a country where freedom of expression is severely curtailed, and is part of a wider trend of African leaders seeking to stay put.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/676571-kagame-slams-other-nations-over-third-term-bid-criticism.html
Posted by: Africa Realities <africarealities@gmail.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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