President Paul
Kagame said that Belgium has been oppressing Rwanda for many years, killing
Rwandans, but the process of reconstruction and the efforts made to promote the
country's development show that people do not need to be Belgians or associate
with them.
Belgium colonized
Rwanda after Germany had already lost the First World War, and since then it
has initiated a policy of discrimination and hatred that led to the Genocide
against the Tutsi in 1994.
President Kagame,
speaking to the people of Kigali City on March 16, 2025, said that the
country's tragedy is being colonized by a very small country that ends up
dividing it.
He said,
"One of the tragedies we have is that we were colonized by a small country
like Rwanda. And that country is cutting Rwanda into pieces to make it equal.
That is Belgium I am talking about and I will warn you against."
He continued,
"Belgium killed Rwanda and killed Rwandans, and the history of more than
30 years keeps coming back to us, and it keeps killing those who remain. We
have warned them from the beginning, and we will continue to warn them from now
on."
On May 14, 1910,
a conference was held in Belgium, aimed at resolving the long-standing problem
of the Belgians seeking to expand their territory. The conference included the
Belgians who colonized Congo, the Germans who colonized Rwanda, Urundi and Tanganyika,
and Uganda and Kenya, which were colonized by the British.
After this
conference, from 1910 to 1912, they established borders between Rwanda and
other neighboring countries, using what they called natural borders including
the Volcanoes, Akanyaru, Akagera and Lake Kivu, reducing Rwanda's land area to
a much smaller extent than it was before.
President Kagame
pointed out that the Rwandan population was not sent there by Rwanda, but by
the colonialists.
He said, "So
that when they find themselves in those countries, they tell people to get up
and go back to where they belong in Rwanda, if you want to do that, they will
expel them from their land. But if you use the truth or want peace, you must
give people their rights. If you don't give people their rights, they will
fight for them."
Belgium should be
ashamed of what it is doing.
President Kagame
said that Belgium has taken sides in regional problems but it is the one who
caused them, blaming Rwanda for the problem but it is lying.
He said, “Belgium
colonized these three countries [DRC, Rwanda and Burundi] and they went to
Kinshasa and pointed the finger at Rwanda, saying that they would impose
sanctions on it and they were going to tell the whole world to do the same to
Rwanda. But don’t you have any shame? Calling the whole world to gather for
Rwanda, really, how much?”
He added, “How
can we sit here and be gathered by the whole world? Shouldn’t that be
embarrassing for some people? They left us to fight and want to live the way we
want to live, they gave us peace! We are going because we are equal to them but
they have other places where they can speak better than us?”
