President Paul Kagame has come to love United Nations peacekeeping operations. This is ironic since he hates the United Nations, and does not actually believe in peacekeeping.

In practice, the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) has progressively reduced the space for other political forces to operate in the country. For now, political space in Rwanda is completely closed to political parties that are not co-opted into the RPF monopolistic machinery.

The above headline of mine is surprisingly very civilized compared to ‘Umurabyo’ newspaper’s independent journalist Saidati Mukakibibi’s. She is now languishing in jail in Rwanda for having quite rightly compared President Paul Kagame with the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler.

The Rwandan Genocide was 19 years ago. Though the genocide ended in 1994, its consequences are still deeply felt today. For myself and other survivors, those memories are ever present. We have never forgotten the horrors we lived through as unimaginable violence overtook our country.

Since the end of brutal genocide against the Tutsi, the city of Kigali has undergone a massive move toward modernisation. Formerly known for its old buildings dating back to the colonial era, Kigali is slowly becoming a new city.

The recent high profile visit of British Foreign Secretary William Hague and actress Angelina Jolie to Gisozi genocide memorial briefly drew the attention of the international media back to Rwanda and to the 19th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide on 7 April.

Dear Editor,

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