21st December 2001

Vol 42 N0 25

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Rwanda RWANDA

Everything is risky

President Kagame prepares for national elections while his exiled military opponents regroup in Congo-Kinshasa

In our situation everything we do is risky...' General Paul Kagame told Africa Confidential on 9 December in Kigali as he explained plans to open up the country's politics ahead of national multi-party elections due in 2003. 'We inherited a very complex situation, we cannot hope for soft solutions.' Kagame's hard solution is to pack dozens of political and social reforms into two hectic years. His proclaimed reforms point to a national unity approach of the kind adopted by South Africa's African National Congress and outgoing National Party in 1990: a power-sharing government liberalising Rwanda's authoritarian politics and writing a new constitution in the run-up to free elections. It is no coincidence that South Africa is the Kigali government's strongest African supporter. Reality on the ground is different. Political currents are now a mélange of the options suggested by the Ugandan political scientist Mahmood Mamdani....

(This article contains approximately 1339 words)

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Keywords:

 Paul Kagame, South Africa, Ugandan, Mahmood Mamdani, Israeli, Tanzania, Men in pink, Aloisea Inyumba, Congo-Kinshasa, Pasteur Bizimungu, United States, Burundian, Uganda, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Africa Confidential, mélange, Front Patriotique Rwandais, , gacaca, Parti Démocratique pour le Renouveau, Jeune Afrique, Armée de Libération du Rwanda, Forces Armées Congolaises, Forces pour le Défense de la Démocratie, * When victims become killers by Mahmood Mamdani (James Currey, 2001)., **Consensual democracy in post-genocide Rwanda (ICG, Brussels, October, 2001).