Monday 24 April 2017

[haguruka.com] Rwanda: Why Rwandans Have Interest in French Polls

The expectation in Rwanda is that the winner will apologise for France's alleged role in the genocide against the Tutsi. But analysts doubt this will happen.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201704230017.html

Rwanda: Why Rwandans Have Interest in French Polls

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Photo: Dinkum/Wikipedia

Multiple French flags as commonly flown from public buildings (file photo).

By Robert Mbaraga

As the French go to the ballot to elect a new president, thousands of kilometers away in Rwanda, attention is focused on what a change of tenants at the Elysee Palace could mean for the frosty relations between the two countries.

The first round of the French presidential election takes place on April 23, followed by a likely second round on May 7.

Going by opinion polls, the likely winner will be either the young Emmanuel Macron or Francois Fillon.

The winner would beat Marine Le Pen in a run-off, as it increasingly looks impossible for any of the candidates to garner 50 per cent of the popular vote in the first round.

The expectation in Rwanda is that the winner will apologise for France's alleged role in the genocide against the Tutsi. But analysts doubt this will happen.

"Asking for forgiveness is a big thing for a country. I doubt that any candidate, if elected, would do that, as the political benefits they would get out of it are not clear," said Dr Benjamin Chemouni, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Macron

The don, however, believes that while Mr Macron may not ask for forgiveness, he may recognise the negative role of France, citing the candidate's position on France's past in Africa.

The candidate termed France's colonisation of Algeria as a "crime against humanity," in an interview with an Algerian local TV station when he was there for campaigns in February this year.

He also said, "It's truly barbarous and its part of a past that we need to confront by apologising to those against whom we committed these act." However, many political observers pointed out that Mr Macron's programme and vision are quite unclear, and it is sometimes hard to distinguish what comes from his conviction or from short-term political moves.

"Macron has been critical of French colonialism in places like Algeria where he is wooing the large electorate of North African descent but it would be a stretch for him to tackle the issue of France's role in the Rwandan genocide, which is much less known in France;" said Dr Phil Clark, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Dr Aggee Shyaka Mugabe, a Rwandan political analyst and professor at the University of Rwanda, echoes this, emphasising that though Mr Macron has distanced himself from the bigger political spectrums by starting his own movement -- En Marche!" -- his political roots still bind him.

"Macron is a socialist, the same political family that was in power when the genocide was planned and perpetrated in Rwanda, and I do not see him denouncing his predecessors, some of whom are still alive, and active on the French public scene," he said.

Fillon

Mr Fillon on the other hand is seen as unlikely to swallow France's pride and apologise for its alleged role in arming and training the Interahamwe militias and diplomatically and militarily supporting former president Juvenal Habyarimana's genocidal regime.

"Fillon has made it clear that any attempt to address France's historical wrongs in Africa is tantamount to treason," Dr Clark remark.

When he was prime minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Fillon always refused to express any guilt regarding French colonisation.

According to analysts, French recognition of its alleged dirty past in Africa and in Rwanda in particular, will need a new generation of politicians and top military officials.

They link this to what happened with the Holocaust. France refused, until 1995, to recognise its role in the deportation of Jews during World War II, 50 years earlier.

"It is not a coincidence that it was Jacques Chirac, the first French President since the war who was only a child during the Second World War, who did it, as he could have a more dispassionate approach to the issue," Dr Chemouni notes.

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"Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate. Only Love Can Do That", Dr. Martin Luther King.

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