US condemns Kagame third term resolution

WASHINGTON, Wednesday

The United States has condemned a vote by Rwanda’s two houses of parliament to approve a change to their constitution that allows President Paul Kagame to serve a third term.

A State Department spokesman did not explicitly threaten that US aid to its traditionally close African friend would be cut, but warned ties could be reviewed.

The Rwandan senate’s decision to approve an amendment to the constitution on Monday evening must still go to a referendum, but is seen as likely to pass with little or no opposition.

“The United States notes with great concern the Rwandan senate’s vote,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters in Washington.

GOOD RELATIONS

“We expect President Kagame to follow through on the commitments he has made previously to foster a new generation of leaders in Rwanda and to step down at the end of his current term in 2017,” he said.

Asked whether the US would consider reducing the assistance it provides to Rwanda if Kagame remains in office beyond the end of his term, Toner was cautious.

“If he decides to remain in office, then that could impact US-Rwanda relations going forward,” he said.

Kagame has run Rwanda since his ethnic Tutsi rebel army — Rwanda Patriotic Front — ended the 1994 genocide and ousted Hutu extremists.

He won elections in 2003 and 2010 and — under the current constitution — is bound to step aside in 2017 at the end of his second term.

4O YEARS IN POWER

If passed, the new law would allow him to run for one more seven-year term and then two more of five years, potentially keeping him in office until 2034.

Washington has usually maintained good relations with a leader it sees as having brought stability and a measure of prosperity to a country blighted by poverty and the 1994 genocide.

But it opposes indefinite presidential terms for African leaders, arguing that this harms efforts to build accountable democratic institutions.

And, while Kagame apparently retains broad public support, his critics have accused him of displaying increasingly authoritarian tendencies.

In neighbouring Burundi, violence continues unabated after President Pierre Nkurunziza changed the constitution and ran for a third controversial term in July.

Congo President Dennis Sassou Nguesso, who has been in power for more than 30 years, will also run for a third term following the passing of fa referendum to extend his rule weeks ago.

Other leaders who have successfully changed the law to remain in power are Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Idriss Deby of Chad.