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RWANDA

Blinken issues rebuke over rights, suppression concerns

Published:Friday | August 12, 2022 | 12:07 AM
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta speaks during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday, August 11.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta speaks during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday, August 11.

KIGALI (AP):

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday rebuked Rwandan authorities over democracy and human-rights concerns, saying the Central African country may not reach its full potential without opening up political space and protecting freedoms.

“We recognise Rwanda’s incredibly difficult history of the 1994 genocide and we know the ongoing legacy of that genocide, but the criminalisation of some people ... in politics, harassment of those who express opposition views to the current government, we believe [that] undermines total peace and stability and success, which has been extraordinary in the case of Rwanda,” said Blinken at a press briefing. He was speaking in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, the last stop on his three-nation tour of Africa.

Earlier, Blinken toured a memorial for victims of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, saying he was “moved by this memorial and inspired by the resilience of the survivors and the remarkable progress of this country”.

Blinken laid a wreath at the mass graves honouring the more than 800,000 victims of the genocide perpetrated by Hutu extremists against the Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutus.

“My family experienced the horrors of [the] Holocaust and I appreciate the importance of memorialising such tragic events,” Blinken wrote in a guest book at the memorial. “The United States strongly supports Rwanda’s continued efforts towards renewal and national reconciliation.”

One of Blinken’s aims in Rwanda is to engage officials regarding the case of Paul Rusesabagina, a US permanent resident whose conviction on terror charges and incarceration has drawn attention to what some say is the Rwandan government’s harsh treatment of its critics at home and abroad.

Rusesabagina is the hero of the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda, which dramatised his efforts as a hotel manager to shelter hundreds of Tutsis during the genocide. The US asserts that Rusesabagina, a recipient of the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, is wrongfully jailed in Rwanda.