Rwandan president teaches history class

Paul Kagame, a former guerrilla leader who played a crucial role in stopping the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, substituted for Professor Murray Rubenstein in his "In Search of History" class on Wednesday. A surprise visit of Rwandan President was organized by mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, which taped Kagame's teaching for one of its Emmy-nominated "Stand-In" series, due on air at noon on May 16. The Rwandan leader spoke about his homeland, its people, economy and the war.

"Genocide has a long history," said Kagame. During the first half of the twentieth century, the territory of Rwanda was a protectorate of Belgium. The colonialists favored the minority Tutsis over the majority Hutus, introducing in 1926 a system of identification cards that separated the two groups.

Kagame, who is Tutsi, was born in 1957 in the western region of Gitarama, Rwanda. In 1959, the revolt led by frustrated Hutus ousted Rwandan's last monarch, a Tutsi King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa. Thousands were killed in the revolt. Fearing persecution, over 150,000 ethnic Tutsis fled to neighboring countries, Kagame's family being of them. Like many other refugees, they settled in Uganda.

Kagame recalled that when he was about three and a half years old, he asked his father: "How can we be refugees forever?" As a grown up, Kagame played an instrumental role in founding the Rwandan Patriotic Front, first a guerrilla group determined to oust the Hutu-led government of Rwanda, now the country's ruling political party.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwanda's president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, crashed under unclear circumstances, killing all aboard. The militant Hutus in the government charged that RPF, now led by Kagame, had shot down the plane. During the next four months, close to one million Rwandans-both Tutsis and moderate Hutus-were massacred. In the virtual absence of foreign intervention, the killings could go on if the rebellion offence led by Kagame did not defeat the Hutu Power government and put an end to the genocide. He says, "We defeated the forces that totally shattered our country, destroyed our infrastructure."

When asked what he thinks of movies like Hotel Rwanda, which offered a picture of the horrors of the genocide, Kagame shared a mixed response.

"They bring knowledge about Rwanda to people who otherwise would have no knowledge about Rwanda," he said. But at the same time, he added, these movies "tend to highlight the past," and don't show many changes the country has undergone because of the resilience of Rwandans.

Kagame described that among the major steps his government took during the 1994-2000 transitional period was investing in building schools. About 800,000 children were attending primary schools before the reforms took place, but now their number is close to 2 million, he said. Another investment was aimed at developing the country's economy, which is based mainly on agriculture. "Rwandans themselves were not generating much, [and] neither were encouraged to generate," Kagame said. While the economy was severely damaged during the genocide, he said that the government was investing in the agricultural sector, aiming at increasing the value of exports like coffee and tea.

The president stressed the importance of building a Rwanda that would not require foreign aid in order to achieve its goals. "Still, we need money from donors, but need to rely on our own sources, too," he said. More than $300 million were given to Rwanda to help with humanitarian relief efforts during the first year after genocide. The United Stated is among many countries that donated funds to assist Rwanda's reconstruction and development efforts. Yet, the president stressed that strengthening economy now allows the country to support its missions. For instance, towards Rwanda's membership in African Union, Kagame said, "We provide our own contributions."

But most importantly, the post-war government in Rwanda concentrated on building democracy to ensure that ethnic inequality and conflicts that led to the genocide would never repeat again. Under the current system, Kagame said, "The winner party cannot take more than 50 percent of [government] posts - other 50 percent go to opposition." "In our case, we can't afford a situation where the winner takes it all."