US embassy cable - 05KIGALI27

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KIGALI 000027 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/C AND DRL/PHD:M.ORONA 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, RW 
SUBJECT: KAGAME CRITICIZES NATION'S OFFICIALS FOR ALLOWING 
MISBEHAVIOR AND LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY 
 
REF: A. 04 KIGALI 1416 
B. 04 KIGALI 322 
B. 04 KIGALI 198 
 
1. SUMMARY: In his closing address to over 800 GOR 
officials attending a constitutionally mandated "National 
Council of Dialogue", President Kagame hailed "good 
governance, security and patriotism" -- rather than 
"foreigners' wishes and beliefs" -- as the foundation for 
Rwanda's development.  He emphasized the importance of 
communities rooting out "bad behaviour", and called for 
greater accountability for officials implementing 
government directives.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. On December 21-22, 2004, President Paul Kagame chaired 
Rwanda's second annual "National Council of Dialogue ", in 
accordance with the 2003 Constitution.  Article 168, in the 
section of the constitution on decentralized authority, 
establishes a "National Council of Dialogue" -- consisting 
of the President, and five representatives of each of 
Rwanda's town councils, municipalities, and 106 districts 
-- to be chaired by the President and attended by cabinet 
members, members of parliament, and all 12 provincial 
governors.  Over 800 participants attended the 2004 forum 
in Kigali, whose agenda called for participants to make 
recommendations about good governance, security, 
patriotism, poverty reduction and economic prosperity. 
 
3. In his closing remarks, President Kagame emphasized 
government officials' responsibilities and accountability 
for promoting quality public service.  Post's informal 
translation of key excerpts from Kagame's remarks 
(originally delivered in Kinyarwanda) follows below. 
 
4. BEGIN TEXT: 
 
"In this Dialogue Forum, Rwanda's problems have been 
discussed, and strategic plans have been set up.  The next 
step is to take specific actions for social and economic 
development.  Good governance, security, and patriotism 
must be foundations of this social and economic 
development.  Rwanda has the capacity, but specific actions 
must occur.  The most important thing will be changing our 
ways of thinking [imyumvire] to aim at allowing efficient 
ways of actions [imikorere], and commitment to productivity 
[umusaruro mwiza].  People in leadership positions at all 
levels must commit themselves to teach those values to 
others through examples." 
 
"This second National Dialogue Summit should be the 
beginning of new methods of action that must characterize 
Rwanda in the near future.  People, especially those in 
leadership positions, must understand that their actions 
must be done in the public interest, in order to create a 
brighter future for future generations.  Rwanda's 
development cannot depend on foreigners' wishes and 
beliefs." 
 
"[...] Questions have frequently been raised related to 
community responsibility.  The community must have 
characteristics reflecting everybody's values.  The 
community must be characterized by values that don't allow 
wrongdoing [ikibi] and their consequences.  Wrongdoers must 
be responsible for their acts.  They should be blamed 
and/or punished as a means to learn how to do good things. 
Those who refuse to change their bad behavior -- commonly 
known as the incorrigible [ruharwa], who will never listen 
to advice -- must also respond, through their acts, and 
stop continuing their bad behavior." 
 
"If the community tolerates bad behavior, even by an 
individual, the bad behavior risks becoming the community's 
behavior.  People start thinking that that bad behavior is 
something worth imitating, especially when there are 
benefits attached to it.  That's how bad behaviors take 
root in the community." 
 
"[...] Questions were also raised about repeating 
objectives that are never implemented.  People should think 
about the reasons for that: when there is evidence that 
some objectives were previously either implemented 
voluntarily or by coercion. People should think about the 
reasons why the same objectives become stagnant at a 
certain point.  In my view, the reason behind that is that 
people let it become this way.  People in charge of 
coordinating the implementation of these objectives only 
talk -- instead of acting, coordinating, and enforcing 
actions." 
 
"Take the example of environmental degradation: the 
consequence for the community is erosion and a reduction of 
rainfall, but there is no direct consequence for 
individuals who caused environment degradation.  There must 
be something not quite right, related to fulfilling duties, 
on the part of people in leading positions.  We must make 
introspection and discover what it is." 
 
"People in the leadership sometimes fail to distinguish 
between personal and public interests linked to their 
responsibilities.  I think the major problem lies there. 
Most of the time, they spend more time on things that 
relate to personal interests than community interests.  I 
think this is the only reason why things are never 
implemented.  However, you may think about it another time, 
and maybe you can identify other reasons." 
"There are a lot of repeated recommendations from various 
meetings and seminars, including Cabinet meetings.  If 
tapes of the meetings were played, one would notice that 
there are people repeating the same things all along for 
years.  We must establish responsibilities, in order to ask 
for an explanation each time there is no action taken when 
a decision was taken.  There should be a way to request 
accountability in order to promote attentiveness [kwirinda 
uburangare] and respect for hierarchy [kwirinda ukutumva]." 
 
"I think we should find time to evaluate the implementation 
of strategies and recommendations we make year after year. 
We should establish accountability at all levels. 
Otherwise, we will repeat over and over again the same 
things." 
 
"Accountability also refers to business agreements at all 
levels (in agriculture, construction, and other sectors). 
I think people should develop a culture to abide by 
contracts.  Each party in a contract must be aware of the 
other party's interests.  They both must understand the 
importance of fulfilling their duties.  Otherwise, it can 
lead to a misconception of duties, when there is no direct 
consequence affecting individual interests.  We must 
develop a community that cannot tolerate any failure to 
fulfill quality/responsibility.  A sense of quality and 
responsibility can influence the community's ways of 
thinking and its objectives." 
 
"[...] I met a participant in this Forum who complained 
about food poisoning.  Later, I was informed that about a 
hundred participants were hospitalized because of food 
poisoning.  In my opinion, the food caterer must be held 
responsible for his poor services, and no payment should be 
made before clarifying the reasons for these poor 
services." 
 
"People lacking sufficient business experience don't bother 
taking enough care of their services, and customers 
sometimes accept expensive and health-threatening services 
without objection.  People should be held accountable for 
bad services.  This also applies to elected people on the 
basis of the quality of their services, who must be 
accountable for meeting their responsibilities." 
 
"[...] In meetings like this one, people always contribute 
good ideas, which are never implemented as a result of 
individuals' and our community's tolerance of lack of 
accountability.  Every bad service and bad habit must be 
denounced, wherever it is found." 
 
"[...] People sometimes prefer not to denounce bad service 
or bad habits because of personal interests, thus 
sacrificing the community's interests.  This should be 
tolerated only when efforts are being for improvement." 
 
"For example, 'genocide ideology' has become a discussion 
topic during meetings.  People should dare to be frank with 
individuals with the ideology, because the consequences of 
their ideology can fall upon the community.  Another 
example can be people destroying anti-erosion utilities 
while others are watching.  I would like to emphasize the 
importance of accountability and responsibility." 
 
"Talking about corruption in general, remember some people 
were compelled to resign their positions.  There must be a 
continuous effort to make people distinguish public 
interests from personal interests.  We should stop allowing 
people to sacrifice public interests for their own 
interests.  There must be consequences.  Authorities at all 
levels (cabinet ministers and local authorities) should be 
the primary actors to promote accountability.  We must 
avoid becoming a country in which everybody prefers not to 
denounce bad quality service and criminal acts." 
 
"The best thing about leadership is that everybody is free 
either to participate in it or not.  Nobody can be coerced 
to become a leader.  Once into the leadership, people 
should be ready to fulfill their responsibilities, and to 
be accountable in case they fail.  The population has the 
right to request leaders' accountability.  I would like to 
encourage them to use their rights." 
 
"Corruption is sometimes justified on the pretext of 
poverty.  Obviously, there is scarcity of resources, but it 
cannot be a pretext for misusing resources.  Let's work 
step by step." 
 
"I would recommend that participants in the next Forum come 
with measurable steps to implement the recommendations of 
the current Dialogue Forum." 
END TEXT. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
CRITICISM OF OFFICIALS FORESHADOWS PURGE? 
----------------------------------------- 
 
5. COMMENT: Kagame's critical remarks foreshadowed the 
Christmas week announcement that Minister of State for 
Energy and Infrastructure Sam Nkusi -- the infrastructure 
ministry's second-highest official and thus a junior member 
of cabinet -- had resigned amid accusations of corruption. 
According to an official from Rwanda's energy monopoly, 
Electrogaz, Nkusi (formerly director-general of Electrogaz 
and director-general of the telephone monopoly, Rwandatel) 
was believed to have had strong ties with South African 
business interests competing against the German company 
that ultimately received approval to manage Electrogaz 
before its privatization. 
 
6. Kagame's reminder that "some people were compelled to 
resign their positions" likely refers to the high-profile 
departures earlier in 2004 of Supreme Court Vice President 
Gerald Gahima (previously Rwanda's Prosecutor General and 
chief interlocutor with the ICTR) and Gahima's brother, 
former Ambassador to the U.S. Theogene Rudasingwa (who 
abruptly announced taking a leave of absence from his 
position as Kagame's presidential chief of staff).  Both 
officials left amid accusations they misused their 
positions for personal gain (ref B), although neither faced 
prosecution. 
 
7. Kagame used the national meeting as an opportunity to 
remind government officials of the continued danger of 
"genocide ideology", the subject of a major parliamentary 
report adopted in early 2004 that led to restrictions on 
NGOs and to the suspension of teachers as late as October 
(ref A).  His repeated references to "leadership" echo his 
February 2004 remarks to the NEPAD African Peer review 
Forum, at which he hailed Rwanda as a model for good 
governance and attributed the 1994 genocide to a "climax of 
bad leadership" (ref C).  Kagame's statement that 
communities risk being undermined by an individual's "bad 
behaviour" --  coupled with his admonition to confront 
individuals with "genocide ideology" -- will likely 
embolden local officials to take stronger actions against 
activities either deemed "divisionist" or contrary to the 
"good governance, security, and patriotism" that Kagame 
asserts must serve as the foundation of Rwanda's 
development.  END COMMENT. 
 
PATRICK