On October 4, 2012, in a speech to parliament, Rwandan President Paul Kagame made clear his position on D.R.Congo-Rwanda crisis. Though the occasion was the launch of 2012-2013 as the Judicial year, he spent much of the time explaining how he will not accept to be bullied by the West which uses foreign aid to just do that not only to Rwanda, but to African in general. President Paul Kagame has been under the international community pressure for Rwanda’s role in the ongoing crisis in eastern Congo. His speech was delivered a week after President Kagame was reported to have walked out of a high levelmeeting convened by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York on eastern Congo. Below is a excerpt of President Kagame’s speech; translated by Gahiji Innocent, chief political columnist for Newsofrwanda.
“In English there is the saying about a carrot and a stick. Sometimes they give you a carrot but then later this carrot becomes a stick which they use to beat you up. When international justice is applied to us, there is no carrot and stick. There is only stick; a political stick which they use to lead Africans in the direction of their choosing. One day they use international justice to lead you where they want but another day they use aid. They call it international justice, but there are no clear guidelines. This international justice is not used where there is injustice. Instead, they use it for their political interests.
Let me start with our neighbours in D.R. Congo. This region used to be called Congo-Belge-and-Ruanda-Urundi is if it was one country, remember. Some people still think it is still the same – it is not. The Rwanda of today is totally different from the Rwanda of Ruanda-Urundi-and-Congo-Belge. Those who caused the current problems in Congo know themselves.
They caused these problems in the past centuries. Now, strangely, they want Rwanda to be accountable for the existence of Rwandaphones in Congo. Those who took Rwandophones to the Congo should be the ones accountable for these problems. Read the full speech here
Fast forward to the 17th minute to listem to the President Kagame speaking in English.