Politics: Rwanda: Great leader succumbs to tyrannical self-advancement

August 9, 2k10,  New York Times reporters Jeffrey Gettleman and Josh Kron, surveyed the situation in Rwanda which had undergone the horrors of genocide of the formerly leading tribe's population by the underdog majority Hutus.  Under the title, "Doubts rise in Rwanda as election is held," the reporters did so on the eve of a most predicatable re-election of the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame,  a great leader who had led the country toward justice for the prominent perpetrators and their victimes, and towards a larger social reconciliation between the two main people-groups -- Tutsis and Hutus.  But something has gone terribly amiss, the reporters say.

There is no question that Mr. Kagame, 52, will be re-elected as Rwandans vote on Monday. The real question is how broad — and genuine — the support is for Mr. Kagame, one of Africa’s more incongruous strongmen.

He has packed recent rallies with 100,000 people screaming, “It’s you! It’s you!” And Rwandans have a lot to shout about: new roads and health clinics; millions of dollars of foreign investment; broadband Internet; even national health insurance, a small miracle in this poor, tiny, overcrowded country where the top natural resource may be the few hundred gorillas left in its misty mountains. Mr. Kagame’s spectacled face dominates Kigali, the capital, through countless posters and billboards. “Choose Peace” is his slogan.

This journaletic item deserves to be read, before you turn to the results from yesterday's results from that genocide-devestated country.   The results are expected tomorrow, Wednesday, but "reports from several regions indicated that President Kagame had won between 98 and 100 per cent of the vote" (Irish Times).


-- Politicarp