The Good News And Bad News About Rwanda
International Political Forum - 15 hours ago
published on academic publication hub Cairn:
Under [the ruling] Rwandan Patriotic Front's rule, the post-genocide
state has made a large contribution to restoring peace, unity and
reconciliation throughout the country. The Rwandan state structure,
solid and centralized, has facilitated a rapid reconstruction. Unlike
most other African states, Rwanda is capable of exercising territorial
control with great effectiveness. The state institutions have been
restored.
The Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) is an example of those advances.
Created in 2009 with the financial backing of Japan and the United
Nations Development Programme, the RPA has a mission is to carry out
research and to develop and implement professional training courses
and internationally recognized educational programs. Its goal is to
provide the army, police and civil servants with the necessary skills
to respond to current challenges and future peace and security issues
in Africa.

Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, at the World Economic Forum on
Africa 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa- via wikipedia cc-license-2.0
One of Rwanda's most remarkable achievements is the progress of gender
equality in numerous areas. The percentage of women in the Rwandan
parliament, at almost 64 percent, is the highest in the world,
according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union's 2014 ranking of 189
countries.
Louis Michel, a former minister in Belgium and European commissioner,
noted on his personal blog (in french):
These results are spectacular: In less than ten years, more than one
million people have been lifted from extreme poverty and the country
has seen a stable economic growth rate of 8 percent per year. Today
more than 95 percent of children have access to a complete primary
school education, infant mortality has been reduced by 61 percent, and
three-quarters of the population have access to potable water.
Finally, almost 50 percent of women have access to some means of
contraception …. This makes Rwanda one of the very few African
countries that will have almost entirely achieved its Millennium
Development Goals in 2015.
The country's first five-year plan for the development of new
technologies [french], created in 2001, showed significant progress.
During the plan's second phase, which ended in 2010, Rwanda saw a
8,900 percent increase in users, compared with 2,450 percent for the
rest of the continent and a world average of 44 percent. The magazine
African Renewal, hosted by the U.N., reports that four divisions of
the public sector (ministers, agencies, provinces, and districts) and
almost a third of the private sector have an online presence. Rwanda's
capital Kigali plays a primary role in the development of the
surveillance system of navigation and aerial communications throughout
the region.
President Kagame maintains that "the Internet is a needed public
utility as much as water and electricity." In collaboration with the
Rwandan Telecentre Network (RTN), the government has implemented a
plan for the development of Internet access in rural zones. A report
[french] published on balancingact-africa.com states:
Rwandan Telecentre Network (RTN) is rallying with the government's
efforts, pledging to create a national network of 1,000 ITC centers by
the end of 2015 and to train local personnel.
A further sign of advancing access to new technologies is that Rwanda
is the highest achiever among the African countries participating in
the programme,
One Laptop Per Child. According to the OLPC wiki page:
By the end of 2012, 210,000 laptops have been deployed to more than
217 schools accross the country. In 2013: 210k = 110K (before 2012)
+100k (2012) laptops [were distributed] in country
Human rights violations in Rwanda
Unfortunately, this promising work is marred by the grave human rights
violations reported by advocacy groups. Violations have been occurring
for years. In 2012, after having sent several missions to the country,
Amnesty International condemned the violations:
Between March 2010 and June 2012, Amnesty International documented 45
cases of unlawful detention and 18 allegations of torture or
ill-treatment at Camp Kami, Mukamira military camp, and in safe houses
in the capital, Kigali. The men were detained by J2 for periods
ranging from 10 days to nine months without access to lawyers, doctors
and family members.
Assassinations of opposition members [french] have also been reported
outside the country. Journalists and former political leaders close to
the Rwandan president have been arrested or killed. The most recent
arrests were confirmed at the beginning of April 2014.
Singer and activist Kizito Mihigo – Public Domain
In April, it was reports claimed the arrest of famous singer Kizito
Mihigo, a genocide survivor, and three other individuals, including a
journalist accused of plotting a grenade attack on a building in
Kigali. Kizito Mihigo, however, is known for his activism for peace.
He even founded an NGO for peace education. His blog reads:
Since 2003, he has been working for forgiveness, reconciliation and
unity in the Rwandan diaspora in Europe. Upon his return to Rwanda in
2010, he founded the KMP Foundation (Kizito Mihigo for Peace), a
Rwandan NGO that uses art (music, theater, poetry…) in education
focused on peace, reconciliation and non-violence after the genocide.
The singer pleaded guilty, but serious doubts [french] were raised
about many aspects of the case.
Furthermore, for the past several years Kigali has had tense
diplomatic relations [french] with several other countries. Once a
country favored by the West, Rwanda is now becoming a no-go area and
is losing its military and development aid. Diplomatic relations with
South Africa are strained following assassinations of opposition
members in that country. There have already been expulsions of
diplomats on both sides.
This article was originally published on Global Voices.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://internationalpoliticalforum.com/the-good-news-and-bad-news-about-rwanda/&source=s&q=The+Good+News+And+Bad+News+About+Rwanda+International+Political+Forum&sa=X&ei=njySU4PBGYTLsASR74DYBA&ved=0CB8QFjAA
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SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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