“Those people [Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete] you
just heard siding with Interahamwe and FDLR and urging negotiations…
negotiations? Me, I do not even discuss this topic, because I will just
wait for you [Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete] at the right place
and I will hit you! He[Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete] did not
deserve my answer. I did not waste my time answering him…It is well
known. There is a line you cannot cross, there is a line, a line that
you should never cross. It is impossible…”“
It is in these ominous terms that the Rwandan dictator General Paul
Kagame threatened to get even with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete,
while addressing Rwandan Youth on June 30, 2013 during a summit called
“Youth Konnect”“, sponsored by his wife, Janet Kagame.
Relations between Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Rwandan leaders have soured in the last weeks. On several occasions
Rwandan leaders called the Tanzanian President “a genocide and
terrorist sympathizer”, “ignorant”, “arrogant”, and “mediocre leader”.
The relations have deteriorated following the recommendation by
President Jakaya Kikwete of open negotiations between Rwandan, Ugandan
and Congolese leaders and their respective armed opposition in order to
bring durable peace and security in the African Great Lakes region.
First
the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo and Defense
Minister, James Kabarebe, publicly cursed the Tanzanian President and
called him a sympathizer of “genocidaires”, a “genocide denier”, and
other names.
Then, General Paul Kagame, while addressing a closed door meeting
with his close aides, called the Tanzanian President “4Bs”, which in
Rwandan language means “an opportunist, attention seeker, arrogant
and contemptible person.”
Then the Rwandan puppet Hutu Prime minister Prime Minister called the Tanzanian President a mediocre leader .
The latest public threats by General Paul Kagame against the
physical person of the Tanzanian President are arguably the most serious
sign of how worse the relations among the two countries and the their
leaders have become. According to sources in Kigali, General Kagame has
also been frustrated by the attention Tanzanian President has been
receiving from World powers. Until a few years ago, Rwanda and its
dictator was the darling of the West. The attention from the West has
since dwindled.
The
recent visit by US President Barack Obama to Tanzania may have further
increased the frustration and perhaps led to the grave public threats by
General Paul Kagame against the Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
The upcoming days and months promise to be full of anticipation and sursprises in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
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