Protesting WPU's Decision To Honor General Kagame
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May 12, 2012 - A coalition of social justice organizations have written a letter to William Penn University to protest the honoring of General Paul Kagame by inviting him to give the commencement speech on Saturday, May 12th.
The Coalition notes that General Kagame's thirty-year career dominated by war, invasion and iron-fisted dictatorship, cannot be something that William Penn would have admired. Honoring that career violates those broader Quaker principles that we deeply admire - simplicity, peace-making, integrity, community and equality.
The coalition mourns the great catastrophe of Rwanda's 1994 genocide which snuffed out nearly a million irreplaceable lives. Indeed, the coalition's passion against dictatorships and for deepening democracy across Africa is fueled by this enduring belief: vibrant democracy powerfully helps prevent genocide and other man-made catastrophes.
And yet, even if one was to give General Kagame the entire credit and moral high ground around the Rwandan genocide, it does not justify his many other attitudes and actions that we deplore. And the stubborn summary of his 30-year military/political career remains: he invaded Rwanda once (in 1990) and DRCongo twice (in 1996 and in 1998); he played a critical leadership role in starting four large unjust wars in Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo; he has plundered the Congo; he has sponsored countless localized proxy wars that facilitate and cover up the plunder; he runs a dangerously repressive minority dictatorship inside post-genocide Rwanda; and he has been implicated in many political assassinations far beyond Rwanda's borders.
As these facts have become better known, many American entities have started exercising greater caution in their relations with the general and his iron-fisted rule. Those concerned included The Obama White House, which issued a statement saying, "[n]o one should underestimate the enormous challenges born of the genocide in 1994. Rwanda's progress in the face of these challenges has been remarkable, and is a testament to the people of Rwanda. Rwanda's stability and growing prosperity, however, will be difficult to sustain in the absence of broad political debate and open political participation."
The Coalition encourages William Penn to continue its partnership with Rwanda's people. Even more important, it is crucial that William Penn immediately distances itself from the current repressive, war-mongering regime in Kigali. The coalition respectfully urges William Penn to walk a nuanced path. The first step on that nuanced path begins by cancelling the decision to honor the regime's embodiment, General Paul Kagame.
Members of the coalition will participate in a demonstration at William Penn University onSaturday, May 12, 2012 from 12 noon to 4 pm in front of the Wilcox Library, 201 Trueblood Avenue, Oskaloosa IA.
The members of the Coalition are Africa Action, Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN), African Great Lakes Action Network (AGLAN), Congo Global Action (CGA), Foreign Policy in Focus, Foundation Shalupe, Friends of the Congo (FOTC), Hope Congo (HC), and Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Congo (MJPC).
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