Jersey's support for the Rwandan dictatorship

Ian Gorst with Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame

The Jersey Overseas Aid Commission has defended its financial aid to the central African country of Rwanda as a row breaks out over the country's sponsorship deal with Arsenal football club.

The African state, which has been de facto ruled by President Paul Kagame and his racist Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) since 1994, is to spend £30 million on a sponsorship deal with Arsenal to promote tourism - the footballers will wear "Visit Rwanda" on their t-shirts - while receiving handouts of upwards of £60 million a year from the UK in poverty relief programs, as well as over £2.5 million from Jersey since 2008.

Since 1994, Rwanda has been ruled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a former terrorist organisation that seized power against the backdrop of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Dominated by the Tutsi, the minority ethnic group that ruled the pre-colonial and colonial era Kingdom of Rwanda, the RPF was founded in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity, an organisation of Tutsi refugees thrown out of Rwanda by the majority Hutu people in the 1959 revolution. Enslaved for centuries by the Tutsi, and later the Tutsi's Belgian colonial allies, the Hutu revolt was sparked by the assassination of a Hutu chief by radical Tutsis - many Tutsis fled Rwanda as a result of the revolution.

The RPF's objectives were simple. They aimed to invade Rwanda, removing the Hutu government by force and restoring Tutsi minority rule. Backed by the United States, in 1990 the RPF invaded Rwanda, beginning a four-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands died. In 1994, as the government and social order collapsed against the genocide of Tutsis by extremist Hutu nationalist militias, the RPF eliminated remaining Hutu resistance and took control of the country, ending the violence but restoring Tutsi minority rule. Kagame, originally styling himself as vice-president but officially becoming president in 2000, has since suppressed opposition, placed heavy restrictions on freedom of speech and association, murdered opponents and generally established a violent and authoritarian society. Under the guise of preventing further sectarian violence (and shamelessly exploiting Tutsi fears of further genocide), Kagame has overseen the introduction of a new constitution that effectively turned Rwanda into a one-party state. He was re-elected in 2003, 2010 and 2017, unsurprisingly receiving 95%, 93% and 98% of the vote.

Has this stopped our dictator-loving Chief Minister from cosying up to Kagame and his government? Of course not. Has this stopped the Overseas Aid Commission from pouring money into Rwanda? Of course not.

Is it actually surprising that our oligarchic, tyrant-friendly government is getting in bed with racist African tinpot dictators?

Of course not.