Editor,In the mid-1990s, I was ashamed to be a Rwandan citizen. My country was put under the world spotlight for recurrent ethnic cleansing which culminated into the 1994 Genocide against the Tusti, our health put at stake by the HIV epidemics, our hills covered with bones and rape of women institutionalised by the criminal ABATABAZI government. Nowadays, Rwanda is internationally recognized as a nation which comes as the rebirth from the ashes of the Tutsi genocide of 1994, listed among the best economic performers in Africa, a country with zero tolerance for corruption, a totally secure place in Africa with a very low criminal rate, a place where people reconciled despite the gruesome past of genocide, a country where each HIV patient is sure to get the antiretroviral drugs, where women have been empowered and have the lions share in the Parliament and the judiciary, where children access free primary school and where patients enjoy primary health care. How come that Paul Kagame, the president of a tiny, Third World, land locked Sub-Saharan country without huge oil and mineral resources can be listed among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by TIME? These are among the few reasons, which explain why I am proud to hold Rwandan citizenship today. aligakwaya@yahoo.f
