The visit by Rwandan President Paul Kagame to France last week
has been billed as the beginning of a new era in bilateral relationships
between the two countries, whose relations have been rocky.
The
visit, which coincided with an international conference on technology
bringing together start-ups and investors at the Elysee Palace, which Mr
Kagame attended, was unique in a number of ways.
First
was the fact of a youthful president of France who carries far less
baggage in all matters Rwandan than the French Old Guard who served in
the administration of the late Francois Mitterrand.
That
is the cohort that Kigali accuses of having played a key role in the
Genocide against the Tutsis by supporting and militarily aiding the
Juvenal Habyarimana regime which perpetrated one of the 20th century’s
worst atrocities.
President Emmanuel Macron was 15 when the genocide was raging in mid-1994.
His
age — as a breath of fresh air after the likes of French Presidents
Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, even the more conciliatory Nicolas Sarkozy
as well as Francois Hollande. If one were looking for a leader who
represents a clean break with the past, then it is Macron.
Real influence
From the point
of view of Rwanda, “Macron’s untainted past” is likely to boost efforts
to permanently mend relationships between the two nations.
“It
looks like a new era in Rwanda-France relationships is coming,” said
Meuilleur Murindabigwi, editor of Kinyarwanda language news website, igihe.com.
“Since
the departure of Sarkozy in 2012, no further steps were taken to
improve relationships, but the youthful Macron shows many signs of
taking things well beyond where Sarkozy left them,” said Mr
Murindabigwi.
Mr Sarkozy’s successor, Francois Hollande, was notable for his lack of interest in relationships between France and Rwanda.
And now Mr Macron, in signalling how serious he is about normalising bilateral relations, has done something that, until now, would have been unimaginable coming from a president of France.
He
is backing the candidature of Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Louise Mushikiwabo, to be secretary-general of the influential
International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIM), the
French-speaking world’s answer to the British Commonwealth.
The
brief of the head of the OIM is to promote the interests of
French-speaking countries, and by extension advance those of France, in
culture, language, and economic cooperation that invariably is described
as skewed in favour of France.
A Rwandan, and indeed
someone like Mushikiwabo who speaks French like a native, would not be
the first choice person expected to promote the interests of France.
The
enmity, the accusations and counter-accusations of genocide and crimes
against humanity, the intense mutual distrust that have largely
characterised dealings between the two states would make a candidacy
like Ms Mushikiwabo’s a non-starter.
But in endorsing the Rwandan, Macron may have been calculating beyond a mere show of conciliation.
The
French leader knows that his Rwandan counterpart has, over the years,
built real influence, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and now that he
chairs the AU his influence is even greater.
As
chairman of the African Union, President Kagame’s stance on financing
peacekeeping operations, and the continental body are of interest to
Elysee, said Radio France International.
Self-reliance
The
broadcaster was alluding to the Rwandan president’s approach to the AU
weaning itself off dependency on the West, beginning with the running of
its immediate affairs.
One of Kagame’s reform
proposals is for each African country to deduct 0.2 per cent of its
income from eligible imports and contribute it to the AU Commission.
President
Macron also leads a France that finally looks ready to move on from a
past where it wielded outsized influence on the African continent, to
one where realities dictate it change in a mentality that was long
informed by colonial era master-servant relationships.
Mr
Macron seems to be the man of the moment; one who recognises that the
heydays of the Cold War era when European power dictated policy
willy-nilly in Francophone Africa are long gone, and the wiser counsel
now is to engage on more equal terms.
That was apparent in the tone of the joint press conference that followed the closed-door discussions.
President
Kagame said: “This partnership presents a new mindset on how we need to
collectively address issues and each maintain ownership on ensuring the
outcomes of the partnership benefit us all.”
It also
was apparent that the theme of self-reliance through trade partnerships,
and efforts to tap African innovation in information technology and
other modern industries to grow the continent’s economies was integral
to the agenda of the day.
In this latest meeting
between leaders of the two countries, the hatchet was buried as the
issues responsible for the usually strained relationship between them
did not come up.
The Rwandan administration has often
accused France of complicity in the 1994 Genocide of the Tutsis. Paris
has lashed out in retaliation every now and then.
France’s
continued refusal to do anything about dozens of Rwandan suspects of
the genocide resident on its territory has particularly irked Kigali. To
date, Rwanda has issued 42 arrest warrants against the suspects but the
French have acted on only three of them.
Overcoming
the acrimony will not disappear overnight. But the terms and tenor of
the recent meeting between Presidents Kagame and Macron indicate real
progress could be on the way. Finally.
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