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Rwanda: Bush Wants Successor to Take Genocide Signs Seriously
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
20 February 2008
Posted to the web 20 February 2008
Kigali
U.S. President George Bush says his successor who is most likely to be a Republican has to take warning signs of Genocide to avert preventable bloodshed, RNA reports.
"One of the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda was to take some of the early warnings signs seriously", Bush told a joint news conference with Rwandan host President Kagame after touring the Genocide memorial site in Kigali.
He added: "Secondly, I would tell my successor that the United States can play a very constructive role. I would urge the President not to feel like U.S. solutions should be imposed upon African leaders. I would urge the President to treat our -- the leaders in Africa as partners".
The nomination process in for flag-bearers of the Republican and Democratic parties is ongoing and remains a challenging on the Democratic side. The Republicans seem to have settled for the front-runner Senator John McCain.
The contest between Senators Baraka Obama and Hillary Clinton for Democratic nomination drags on undecidedly.
Mr. Bush condemned countries come into Africa as "colonialists" saying "outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive".
"And an early warning sign (in Rwanda) was -- and it's hard to have seen it, I readily admit, but I'm talking earlier than 1994, and earlier than the '90s -- was the fact that it become a habit to divide people based upon -- you know, in this case, whether they were Tutsi or Hutu, which eventually led to exploitation." he said.
President Bush said his successor should bear in mind that the U.S has to always take a leadership role more so due to the "slowness" and "very bureaucratic" nature of the U.N. Bush said the U.S. can provide money and help and training for military missions that can end conflicts.
".It's kind of a long-winded approach to take problems seriously before they become acute, and then recognize that there's going to be a slowness in the response if you rely upon international organizations", he said.
The U.S. has committed $100 million for the U.N Mission in Darfur with $12 million going directly to Rwanda which has some 7000 soldiers in the troubled Sudanese region.
U.S. marines have been training, airlifting and providing logistics to Rwandan peacekeepers since their mission started in 2004. Status recently shifted from the African Union to a hybrid combination with the U.N. The forces are to be increased to 26.000 troops - but most of who are yet to get to the ground.
No knowledge
President Bush said the contest seems already decided where "Republicans will win". "You know, they - the issues in America are, who is going to fight terror and protect their homeland, and who is going to keep people's taxes low to make sure that the economy is - grows", Bush said in apparent reference to the campaign aspects for Senator McCain.
Mr. Bush caused laughter when he declined to comment on the politics of Rwanda only saying: "I don't know about your politics, Mr. President. It's probably best not to comment too specifically about it."
President Kagame for his part said there election contest in the U.S. and Rwanda have "something in common". "So my party (RPF) will, I think, win these elections, on the basis of how this government and central to it, has performed well; has uplifted the living standards of our people."
There are parliamentary elections scheduled for latter this year in a new political setup where parties have been allowed to campaign at grass-root levels. In the 2003 elections, parties were only allowed to hold offices at the national level.
Small parties joined up with the dominant Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) to merge out a majority position in Parliament.
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"They have protected -- given protection and security and brought in stability to the -- this country, and restored the rights of every individual citizen of this country, and economic progress is being registered. I think the people of this country will be wanting more of what we are doing." Kagame said.
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| Copyright © 2008 Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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