Protests against Rwanda's Kagame in Paris and Pittsburgh

KPFA/Ann Garrison: That’s the sound of over 1,300 protestors most of them survivors of Rwandan and Congolese wars, chanting first “Assassin!!!”, French for assassin,  then Genocidaire!!!”, French for person who commits or advocates genocide, during Monday’s Paris protest of French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s welcome to Kagame and Kagame’s presence in France.  Spanish organizer Susana Sanz Guardo of Basta de Impunidad en Ruanda, said that the turnout, and the unity of Rwandan and Congolese people victimized by Kagame’s regime, was unprecedented, and that nothing will stop them now that they have lost their fear.

Five days later, on Friday, after short notice of Kagame’s visit to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, 50 protestors including Rwandan and Congolese survivors, gathered from around the U.S. to meet their supporters in Pittsburgh.  This is a clip of Pittsburgh Channel 4 WTAE-TV’s coverage:

Channel 4 WTAE TV-Pittsburgh News Host:  Well, the protest is underway right now on Forbes Avenue, across from University Center on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.   About 50 people are over directing their efforts across traffic. Nearby the Rwandan President speaks inside the university center. Many of these people say they survived the 1994 genocide  Rwandan President Paul Kagame is offering a keynote address, right now, on his country's strategy for growth in the global economy. Now we spoke with one man leading this protest against the university:

Rwanda Genocide survivor Claude Gatebuke tells WTAE TV-Pittsburgh that Carnegie Mellon is signing a deal with a war criminal and mass murderer accused of genocide in a UN report.

 

Claude Gatebuke:  The University is entering into an agreement with a war criminal, a mass murderer, and someone whose military is accused of genocide. 

KPFA: Protestor, Rwanda Genocide survivor, and University of Memphis law student Claude Gatebuke’s statement, that President Kagame has been accused of genocide, refers to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights October 2010 Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1993 - 2003, to the indictments brought by the Spanish court of Fernando Andreu, and, the French court of Jean-Louis Bruguiere, to the civil lawsuit, Habyarimana vs. Kagame brought in a federal district court in this country, and to scholarly investigations by Professors Allan Stam and Christian Davenport, Law Professor Peter Erlinder, and others.

 

For further coverage, see afrobeatradio.net and sfbayview.com.  

 

For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I’m Ann Garrison.