Kigali: President Kagame held a press conference where he answered questions fielded by members of the press representing various local and international media houses from around the world who are in the country to cover events related to the 25th commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi.
President Kagame responded to various issues related to the genocide, peace and security, regional integration and Rwanda’s transformation.
On the security and stability of Rwanda, President Kagame said: “In defense of the future children of Rwanda and our stability, we are prepared for that, as we fought many threats and challenges before, we are now better prepared for any threats that would come today. We are also assuring everyone that this Rwanda with this history of suffering has grown in all bounds including the strength, capacity to wage a war in defense of its stability and peace.”
On the French role during the genocide and the general attitude afterwards, President Kagame stated that Rwandans had said enough about the role of France and it was time to move on to something else and leave that to them.
“There are things that you exhaust, when you have said enough of that, you move to something else. What is the purpose of repeating yourself over the same thing? People have asked us if what we need from France is an apology, our answer is no. You can’t ask people to apologize or ask them how to apologize. That kills the meaning of an apology. This is not to deny the fact that with President Macron term of office, even in a complicated environment of politics there has been very significant progress including the way the archives are being treated because they contain the truth that people can interpret.”
President Kagame told countries facing challenges to understand that there was no problem that is insurmountable, even if it looked so. (Fin)