{{Eric M Wong is The Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali. As a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S Department of State, he has served in China, Africa, and Washington D.C. This is his second assignment in Rwanda. He first served at the US Embassy in Kigali as Political Officer.}}
Last week, he met IGIHE’s Elisée Mpirwa and discussed about the relationship between Rwanda and the United States of America, the current Ebola outbreak and the fight against Rwandan rebels of FDLR.
{{Mpirwa}} : {{Would you walk us through the current Rwanda-US cooperation?}}
{{Eric M Wong}}: Well, I think it’s interesting to note that this year (2014) is the 50th anniversary of when USAID started its activities in Rwanda. So USAID was established worldwide in 1961 and in 1964 it started programs here in Rwanda. So, since the beginning USAID practically, AID has been very active in Rwanda. The United States as you know is the largest bilateral donor to Rwanda. We provide about 200 million USD in assistance each year. Much of that is for health programs, and Rwanda is a beneficiary of PECFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), and that is administered by staff here at the embassy in Kigali, who work for the centres for disease control. (…)
And then USAID is doing programs in food security (something called feed the future Rwanda), programs in agriculture, education… And in addition to what the USAID is doing here in Rwanda, we also have a very active Peace Corps program. I was here in Rwanda before (2003-2005). One of the differences coming back ten years later is what a strong Peace Corps program we have down. Because before it had been suspended and after restarted. So, now we have about a hundred Peace Corps volunteers working in education (English teachers in secondary schools) and in health, working in community health centres. They come here for three months of training at the beginning, where they are supposed to learn Kinyarwanda and the go out to local communities in every district of Rwanda.
And the another aspect is that The United States is working very closely with The Rwanda Defence Forces on building capacity of Rwanda for international peace keeping. And so there was a new initiative announced by President Obama in Washington in August at the US-Africa leaders’ summit where the United States is giving special emphasis to a handful of countries to build their capacity for peace keeping, and Rwanda is one of those countries.
{{Rwanda is commended to be on a good track of development but there is still a long way to go. Do you see any sector that must be emphasised to meet its goals?}}
The government itself through vision 2020 has identified different areas of focus, and I think the fundamental idea is correct that Rwanda has made a lot of progress but there are still some challenges that remain. And one of them is essentially the poverty reduction. Yes, there’s been tremendous economic growth in Rwanda, economic indicators, health indicators increased but Rwanda is still a poor country. A large part of the population still depends on subsistence agriculture. Poverty reduction is a large focus of what the United States is doing here, and I think that touches many sectors. If you look at what the United States is doing (what the USAID is doing), we’re not just working with civil society, we’re not just working with the government, but in a variety of different areas from education, agriculture, health, democracy and governance. So, I wouldn’t say there is a particular sector that needs to be improved and this is why the United States is taking such a broad approach to what is doing here in the country; ranging from Peace Corps volunteers working in local communities, to US trainers working with the Rwandan military.
{{In Africa, Ebola is killing people especially in the Western part of the continent. What is the US doing to fight this disease?}}
The United States is very active right now fighting Ebola. We have specialists from the centres from disease control in Atlanta working in the four western African countries that are primarily affected by Ebola. And you might have seen that there were two American relief workers that were flown back to the United States for treatments after contacting Ebola and they have fortunately recovered. The United States is providing what is called personal protective equipments to many of these countries that are affected. It’s a major concern for the United States. Luckily I think Rwanda has not been affected so far, it is the position of the World Health Organization and much of the International Community that countries try not to close the borders. Because once you close borders it’s difficult to get humanitarian relief. And there is also economic impact. I’m glad that at this point at least Rwanda seems not to have been affected by the crisis.
{{Terrorism is growing in the region. What measures are in place under the US cooperation to avert this threat?}}
Some people make the argument that the war on terrorism began on 9/11. But really if you look beyond that one can argue that it began here in East Africa with the bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998. And arguably maybe even before that in 1993 when the UN peace keeping missions were in Mogadishu/Somalia. And I think that’s why it’s so important that Rwanda is making a very important contribution to international peace keeping. One of the striking things that again I noticed from having been here in 2003, is that at that time the United States was working with Rwanda Defence Forces to send Rwanda troops to Darfur so that Rwanda can help stop genocide in Sudan. And since then, as international community recognises has sent troops to Haiti, to Mali, to Central African Republic, I think it’s a very significant contribution that Rwanda is making to regional peace and security efforts. The key of fighting terrorism is to provide regional stability. And Rwanda is major contributor in that regard.
{{The FDLR has been warned several times to lay down their arms; what does the USA plan to do when they refuse? }}
The United States has been very active looking at the great lakes issue for many years. Senator Russell Feingold serves as the special envoy for the great lakes region. He’s travelled here to Rwanda and to Congo multiple times. He’s travelling in the region now and it’s something that we continue to focus on very closely. As a result of agreements on Nairobi, of course the United States supports fully the disarmament of the FDLR; I think we’d like to see the pass of that disarmament and demobilisation happen more rapidly but it’s something we’re following more closely.
{{What is the level of progress of Presidential Malaria Initiative activities in Rwanda? }}
I don’t know the specific level of malaria prevalence in Rwanda, but I think what I can say is that it’s in pre eradication phase. But I think a lot of progress has been made. A key part of what the United States is doing here in terms of health is implementing programs with president malaria initiative.
{{The US recently called African leaders for a summit to seek trade with Africa. Is the US being threatened by the growing China influence in Africa? }}
No! I don’t think the United States is in competition with China or other countries in Africa. We see our relationship with Africa as a win-win relationship. Certainly I think one of the reasons why The White House organised this US-Africa leaders’ summit was to recognise the growing importance of Africa to The United States. The importance of Africa to The United States is not something that started recently, and it’s not something that is just something that the Republican Party or the Democratic Party has pushed. It’s important to remember that the United States was the first country which was not a member of The African Union to name an Ambassador to the African Union. After we did, the European Union followed. At the same time that the United States and the diplomatic sphere named an ambassador to the African Union, in the defence sphere, it created the US-Africa command diverted entirely to looking at strategic questions in Africa.
Before, the United States looked at Africa through the prism of Europe or other reasons of the world. But when US-Africa command was established in 2007, it was a unique focus on Africa. And similarly on the development side, one has to credit President Bush and other administration since then, with launching specific activities that have really benefited African countries, and particularly Rwanda.
Human rights
As I said before, there’s been a lot of progress made in Rwanda, but still some challenges remain. Obviously the United States takes the position that countries with a strong human rights background benefit from stability, benefit from economic growth, and some economic analysts who make an argument of the relationship between political field and economic field. We are concerned about governments observing their obligations under international human rights law and Rwanda will be submitting its report to something called the universal periodic review in Geneva in few months and so it’s an important area for Rwanda and for the United States.
Leave a Reply