KIGALI, RWANDA: President Paul kagame has rejected claims from a recently released report indicating the status of various states in which Rwanda is ranked as a failed state at position 34 of the 60 countries evaluated.
Speaking to journalists at a monthly press briefing, President Kagame lambasted the report saying, “If you think Rwanda is a failed state then you must be on another planet”.
The Failed States Index (FSI) ranks 177 countries using 12 social, economic and political indicators of pressure on the state, along with over 100 sub-indicators.
In the FSI 2011 report, Rwanda performed poorly under Demographic Pressures, Group Grievances, Human Rights and Factionalized Elites. Other indicators of state vulnerability include Refugees/Internally Displaced People, Uneven Development, Economic Decline, and Delegitimization of the State, Public Services, Security Apparatus and External Intervention.
Each indicator is rated on a scale of 1-10, based on the analysis of millions of publicly available documents, other quantitative data and assessments by analysts. A high score indicates high pressure on the state, and therefore a higher risk of instability.
Some sections of foreign press have described Rwanda government as increasing authoritarianism of including further restrictions on the media and opposition groups, thus this affecting Rwanda’s FSI score card.
Somali was ranked the number one failed state for the fourth consecutive year, citing widespread lawlessness, ineffective government, insurgency, crime and well publicized pirate attacks against foreign vessels.
President Kagame also attacked rights groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International which have called the Rwandan government repressive and criticized the soon to conclude Gacaca courts.
“Gacaca handled over a million cases and allowed people to settle back in their homes and live together and it cost us only 25 million dollars. But some people think we should spend 2billion dollars as they did ICTR yet they only tried 58 people.” He continued, “I don’t care who HRW is. I have never gone to Amnesty International for help so I don’t give a damn about them,” he said.
Regarding warnings given by the United Kingdom to dissidents living in Britain, Kagame said, “There is something fundamentally wrong. I can’t explain these rumors because I don’t know where they came from. But you don’t apprehend just one person and then hold the government of Rwanda responsible,” Kagame said questioning the rationale of UK officials stopping a suspected assassin but then releasing him the same day.
Kagame also responded to assertions that Rwanda could experience a new form of colonialism through its relationship with China and other developed nations, “Rwandan will not accept neo-colonialism from China or the West. The days of colonialism are over. If we can’t agree how to invest for the both of us then we won’t have it”.
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