RWANDAN PRESIDENT'S THIRD TERM MANIA
Paul Kagame's Megalomania Endangers Rwanda
-Attorney Patryk Utulu**

NO LEADER IS SO GREAT AS TO BE GREATER THAN THE NATION'S DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION. Admittedly, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has done a great job of helping (alongside other Rwandan leaders) to stabilize the nation following the Hutu versus Tutsi Rwandan Civil War. Africa thanks him for his service. BUT HE HAS NO BUSINESS AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION OF RWANDA TO GIVE HIMSELF AN ILLEGAL 7-YEAR THIRD TERM IN OFFICE.

A tiny landlocked, resource-poor nation of 12 million, Rwanda suffered a genocidal civil war (aka, the Rwandan Genocide) in the 1990's in which an estimated 1 million Rwandans perished. Rwanda is one of the worst cases of European colonial mischief. Despite its tribal make-up of Hutu (85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%), the colonialists enacted nakedly pro-Tutsi policies that entrenched the Tutsi as tribal vanguard and de facto defender of the European colonial enterprise, sidelined the Hutu majority and enabled the Tutsi to dominate state apparatuses with arrogance and impunity for centuries.

Nearly all Rwandan problems are rooted in Hutu resentment and grievance!

On April 6, 1994, "Hutu" Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's airplane was shot down over Rwandan airspace. Hutu anger at his assassination led to the crises and killings the world would come to know as the Rwandan Genocide. And despite subsequent attempts by France (whose soldiers were inside Rwanda but did absolutely nothing to stop the killings) to blame the genocide on so-called "Hutu Renegades," several reports have since concluded that the assassination was carried out on the orders of Major Paul Kagame, the top Military Intelligence officer. Later, as part of the 1994 Rwandan Civil War Settlement, Pasteur Bizimungu, (a Hutu), became President with Paul Kagame serving as Vice President and Minister of Defence. But in 2000, well before his term of office was due to end, Paul Kagame forced out President Bizimungu and made himself President.

Major Paul Kagame (a Tutsi) executed political opponents mostly on trumped up charges of treason (for Hutu opponents) and "saboteuring" (for fellow Tutsi rivals). Since Rwanda has little or no natural resources Major Kagame's forces repeatedly invaded and occupied neighboring Congo -- often occupying portions larger than the territory of Ghana. (Kagame's cousin is "Congolese" General Laurent Nkunda, the self-styled "Chairman and General in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo" who leads a rebel faction operating in the Congolese province of Nord-Kivu. General Nkunda's predominantly Tutsi forces chiefly extract-exports Congolese natural resources to Rwanda and silences the local population through torture, mass executions and public rape of the women of villages that fail to cooperate the Rwandan warlords). Accounting for natural resources Congo is one of the richest nations on earth but that wealth has been a curse. First, France and Belgium raped Congo for its copper, gold, diamond and timber. Next, Russia and USA almost destroyed Congo while fighting over its cobalt, coltan (used to make electronic devices) and uranium (for atomic bombs). Leaders from Mobutu to Kabila have waged wars to control Congo's oil wealth and vast diamond ("blood diamond". Finally, Paul Kagame's Rwandan warlords compounds the problems by occupying Congo. The Rwandans have said they will never leave because Congo is "Rwanda's eternal food basket."

By 2003 (having killed or driven his political opponents out of Rwanda) Major Kagame organized a constitutional conference. He personally dictated the terms of a new "IRREVOCABLE" Constitution of Rwanda, as he called it in interviews. He set a 2-term limit of 7-year presidential term of office and then invited Rwandans to legitimize the new Constitution by referendum. MAJOR Kagame then "renounced" his military rank and went around the world collecting university honorary degrees and telling the world that he is a new democrat who has put his military and militaristic past behind him. But now, as he approaches the end of this second 7-year term limit (and constitutionally ineligible to run again for President) MR. Kagame's ruling party wants to change Article 101 of the Rwandan Constitution to enable him run for an illegal third 7-year term.

What is wrong with African leaders?

Neighboring Burundi is in political turmoil because President Pierre Nkurunziza (yes, that Nkurunziza who closes major roads in Burundi's capital for his personal football practice and shoots fellow Burundians caught jogging on streets near whichever football field he impulsively chooses) wants to run for an illegal third presidential term. Thus, from Cairo to Harare to Kampala to Malabo to Yaounde, megalomania and delusion of indispensability continue to afflict African leaders.

Again, no leader is so good as to become better than the Constitution!!!

Mr. Kagame should spare Rwandans another crisis and possibly Genocide 2.0. (He has been lobbying and using the charm offensive but Switching Rwanda's national language from French to English and telling the CIA that he is the sole guarantor of peace in the Congo region cannot be THE reason to strangle the growth of democracy in Africa). The United States can't afford to be silent on this issue. President Barack Obama must speak out on Rwanda. Former President Bill Clinton belatedly admitted that the U.S. failed to do "the barest minimum" to help avert the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Now, Mr. Obama has a chance to tell Mr. Kagame that the U.S. will not recognize his power grab.

Mr. Obama needs to assure Africans that he stands for democracy in Africa.

NO MAN IS BEYOND THE REACH OF CONDEMNATION OR APPLAUSE.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, Africans must speak out for how could the world hear the VOICE of the people of Rwanda if fellow Africans won't echo their pain? President Kagame must hear it loud and clear from fellow Africans that he should respect the Rwandan Constitution and vacate his office at the end of his second 7-year term. Mr. Kagame is NOT indispensable. In fact, Mr. Kagama will best serve his nation as a FORMER PRESIDENT -- as a symbol that the Rwandan Constitution is the collective will of Rwandans, not subject to the whims of political leader(ship. The world must recognize that the 85% Hutu Rwandans will not passively accept 20 more years of minority-Tutsi rule. Already, heavy weapons and other instruments of war are pouring in from China and South Africa. Hutu rebels are amassing in neighboring Congo to invade ("liberate" is how they see it) Rwanda, and this time Rwanda's Hutu majority may welcome the "rebellious" hell that would follow the invasion than continue to live under the daily humiliation of Tutsi-led "peace."

RWANDANS CANNOT AFFORD RWANDAN GENOCIDE 2.0!
DON'T DESTROY RWANDA'S CONSTITUTION, MR KAGAME!!
LET A NEW PRESIDENT ARISE THROUGH THE BALLOT BOX!!!

*******
Attorney Patryk A. Utulu
U.S.-based Attorney & Strategic Communications Specialist
Global Defense Analyst and Global Events Commentator
Executive Vice President, Nigerian Diaspora-North America
Executive Director, The Center 4 Community Empowerment & Lifeskills, Inc
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