MONTHLY POLITICAL ROUNDUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 001092

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2017
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINR ECON RW
SUBJECT: MONTHLY POLITICAL ROUNDUP

REF: A. KIGALI 1069

B. KIGALI 989

Classified By: Ambassador Michael R. Arietti, reason 1.4 (B/D)

Contents
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1. (C) This edition of the monthly political roundup includes:

-- Former senior military officer Patrick Karegeya left
Rwanda suddenly.
-- Dissension continued within the Liberal Party.
-- The Government of Rwanda (GOR) presented its growth and
poverty reduction strategies to the donor community.
-- Police fired 129 officers for corruption and abuse of
office.
-- Rwandan security forces hosted African colleagues to
discuss genocide and terrorism.

Patrick Karegeya: Out Of Prison, Now Out Of Country?
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2. (C) As reported earlier (ref A),former Rwanda Defense
Forces (RDF) spokesman and Director of External Intelligence
at the National Security Service Patrick Karegeya was
released from the Kanombe military detention facility on
November 15 after serving an 18 month sentence. On November
26, several sources told the embassy that Karegeya had left
the country with his mother and children and was now in
Uganda. Independent newspaper Umuseso later ran a
stop-the-presses insert detailing Karegeya's supposedly
surreptitious departure and arrival in Qatar. His wife has
remained behind, and confirmed his departure to close
confidants. The military prosecutor's office told pol/econ
chief November 28 that Karegeya, having received a prison
sentence exceeding six months, and having further been
stripped of his rank at sentencing, was no longer a member of
the Rwanda Defense Forces. His departure, whatever the
circumstances, thus involved no breach of any military
statute or regulation.


3. (C) Comment. Patrick Karegeya's sudden departure from
Rwanda is a quiet contrapuntal chord to the broad chorus of
support the GOR garnered from the international community
this week (see paras 5-7). Rwanda is widely praised for its
effective government, its commitment to significant reform in
many areas, and its cooperative role in regional integration
and the search for peace in the troubled areas of eastern
Congo. Karegeya's departure is a reminder that a number of
senior Rwandan officials and military men have left Rwanda
over the years, after falling from the inner circles of the
government -- several have subsequently become bitter critics
of the Kagame regime. Rwanda does well in international
circles, but contentious critiques of Rwanda's performance
continue, by the remnants of the genocidal
Ex-FAR/Interahamwe, their supporters, and by a few former
officials. End comment.

Liberal Party Internal Dissension Continues
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4. (C) In October two dissident Liberal Party (PL)
parliamentarians lost their seats in the Chamber of Deputies
following their dismissal by party leadership (ref B). In
November they lost their case before the High Court
contesting their dismissal -- they have appealed to the
Supreme Court. A third parliamentarian, Polycarp Gatete, has
now resigned his seat in the Chamber as well as his party
leadership position. Gatete, who had challenged Minister of
Commerce Protais Mitali for the presidency of the party, and
who was widely considered to be the principal backstage
supporter of his two colleagues' public protests and court
case, faced continuing efforts by Mitali to oust him from the
party. Gatete told embassy political section staff that he
consulted with several senior officials in the ruling Rwanda
Patriotic Front (RPF) before he resigned, to reassure them
that he intended to remain in Rwanda as an ordinary PL member
and businessman -- an apparent effort to distance himself
from Patrick Karegeya and other senior Rwandans who have left
Rwanda after losing their senior positions.

GOR Presents EDPRS at Development Partners' Meeting
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5. (SBU) At the seventh annual Rwanda Development Partners'
Meeting in Kigali, November 26-27, the GOR presented its
long-awaited Economic Development and Poverty Reduction
Strategy (EDPRS) to the assembled donor missions and NGO
community. The EDPRS has three main "flagships:" Sustainable
Growth for Jobs and Exports; Vision 2020 Umurenge ("district
level"); and Governance. The first flagship concentrates on
an ambitious public investment program and expansion of the
financial sector. The second flagship focuses on improving
the productive capacity of the rural poor through public
works, promotion of cooperatives, credit packages and direct
support to disadvantaged populations. The third flagship
will "anchor" poverty reduction and economic expansion
through low corruption, efficient government, and
decentralization of service delivery.


6. (SBU) President Kagame in his opening remarks stressed
the importance of agriculture, regional integration
(particularly with the East African Community - the EAC,
which Rwanda joined July 1st),private sector development,
and good governance. "Our country's development prospects
cannot be separated from the fate of our agriculture, because
most of our people toil daily in this sector that remains
essentially subsistence and to a large extent, a poverty
trap." He then went on to highlight those initiatives, aside
from agricultural programs, meant to transform Rwanda's
economy and lift its population from poverty: entry into the
EAC and the prospect of tapping into its many market
opportunities; a strong and dynamic private sector, and a
strong emphasis on technical and vocational training.


7. (SBU) Various members of the donor community expressed
broad support for the EDPRS and Rwanda's development goals,
while cautioning that certain risks and constraints should be
factored into Rwanda's development strategies (factors that a
parade of GOR officials delineated themselves in great
detail). Local IMF head Lars Engstrom applauded Rwanda's
macroeconomic performance, with an economy growing at close
to 6 percent a year for the past half-decade, and inflation
generally under 10 percent. Boosting exports, expanding the
tax base, paying close attention to debt sustainability,
these and other issues required close attention from the GOR
and the donor community, he said. Ambassador Arietti noted
the USG's extensive involvement through PEPFAR and the
President's Malaria Initiative in the health of Rwanda's
growing population, and noted as well the ongoing development
of a Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold Country Plan.
Ambassador Arietti also spoke of the importance of reduced
restrictions on the press and civil society organizations:
"Rwanda must be tolerant of criticism and use it to correct
abuses if and when they occur."

Regional Intelligence Gathering in Kigali
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8. (C) The GOR hosted a meeting of the Committee of
Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA) November
5-9 with the stated focus of developing strategies to fight
genocide ideology on the continent. CISSA, established in
2004 and consisting of 46 African member countries, brings
intelligence and security officials together on a regular
basis to address security challenges faced by members of the
African Union and to promote the sharing of information and
the strategic coordination of intelligence activities. The
Rwandan National Security Advisor told the embassy that CISSA
members, in closed door sessions, also discussed anti-terror
efforts, including terrorist finance and border security
issues.

Police Fire 129 Officers
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9. (SBU) PolOffs met recently with Deputy Police Commissioner
Mary Gahonzire to discuss the recent firings of 129 Rwandan
National Police (RNP) personnel and RNP efforts to combat
gender based violence (GBV). Of the 129 fired policemen
Gahonzire said 62 lost their jobs for corruption offenses
(mainly for soliciting bribes from the public),and 67 for
"gross indiscipline," including theft, drunkenness, sleeping
on duty, and one murder. Those acts which rose to the level
of criminal offenses had been referred to the prosecutor
general's office, and several prosecutions were already
underway, she indicated. To show the Rwandan public that
the RNP took disciplinary issues seriously, the RNP published
an "advertisement" in the New Times showing photographs of
several dozen officers dismissed for corruption. The
dismissed police personnel constituted just over 2 percent of
the police force (roughly 6000 rank and file and 460 senior
officers),she added.


10. (SBU) Gahonzire also outlined the RNP,s strategies to
combat GBV. A Child and Family Protection unit in the RNP
was formed in 2001, and a national gender desk was
established in 2005. As of 2007, each police station also
now has a designated gender officer (approximately 62
nation-wide).
The national gender desk trains officers on GBV investigation
procedures and monitors conviction rates in GBV cases
nationwide. Special facilities for interviewing children and
victims of GBV have been established at the gender desk, and
free medical services are offered to them. A toll-free
hotline for victims of GBV has also been created, and the
number has been communicated through the media. Police have
also trained members of the public as counselors, offered
presentations on GBV in schools, and discussed GBV during
umuganda (monthly community work projects).

















ARIETTI