Susan Rice arrives

The United States Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Susan E. Rice, arrived in the country yesterday from Tripoli, Libya. According to a statement from the US Embassy in Kigali, Rice will be in the country for four days. Rice is expected to hold talks with government officials, business people as well as community, and civil society leaders. After the Tripoli visit she said: “I’ll have the opportunity for the first time in a while to review the situation 17 years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and really to have the chance to see government, business, community, and civil society leaders who are living in the midst of truly astonishing change”. According to Rice, Rwanda has made extraordinary progress out of the rubble, in terms of women’s empowerment, economic development, agriculture and manufacturing. She is also expected to deliver a key note speech at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology focusing on Rwanda’s significant progress as well as the country’s remaining challenges. A press statement from the Ministry of Health indicates that she will also visit Masaka Health Centre in Kicukiro District today. Rice, while in Libya, met with National Transitional Council (NTC) Chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil and the interim Prime Minister, Abdul Raheem al-Keeb. Rice served as a Senior Advisor for National Security Affairs on the Obama for America Campaign. She later served on the Advisory Board of the Obama-Biden Transition and as co-chair of its policy working group on national security. From 2002-2009, she was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution where she focused on U.S. foreign policy, transnational security threats, weak states, global poverty and development. From 1997 to 2001, Rice was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. She served as Special Assistant to President William J. Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House 1995-1997. Ends