AfroAmerica Network
Kigali
12.26.00
USAID funds may have been used to support Green Hills Academy, a school that discriminates against Hutu and some Tutsi.
Green Hills Academy is located next to Nyarutarama Village, a new section of Kigali where Tutsi who returned from Uganda have been resettled. Rwandan President General Paul Kagame's mother lives there with other wealthy Tutsi.
Green Hills Academy has an elementary school and a high school. It has a conference room and computers. Some Kigali residents say that it is better equiped than Ecole Belge, an international school run by Belgians in Kigali. Kagame's children and other high ranking officials' children attend the school. Until recently former Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu's children attended Green Hills Academy before they run away to South Africa with their parents. They were the only Hutu students there. Most students come from Tutsi families who returned from Uganda after the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1994. Even teachers are Tutsi returnees from Uganda. Teaching is conducted in English, the language spoken by Tutsi elite born in Uganda. "It is reminiscent of the school of the sons of chiefs and subchiefs that existed under Belgian rule", an African diplomate said.
Three women created Green Hills Academy. They are: Janet Kagame, Kagame's wife; Immaculate Nyamwasa, Rwandan Patriotic Army Chief of Staff's wife; and SONARWA Director General Hope Mulera, ENGEN Director General's wife. These women, their husbands, Nyarutarama Village residents, and Green Hills students returned from Uganda in 1994.
To build this academy money had to be raised. A source close to Green Hills Academy told AfroAmerica Network that SONARWA asked USAID to help it improve its services. Once USAID donated funds, Mulera diverted it to this school.
A human rights activists told AfroAmerica Network that Green Hills Academy is a good example of apartheid. He said, "Being a Tutsi who returned from Uganda gives a special social status and privileges here". Mulera could not be reached for comments. A SONARWA secretary said she was not available.
A Rwandan journalist who asked not be identified lashed out at the U.S.: "The U. S. has openly supported the RPF since 1994. It is unfortunate that while many Rwandans have been going hungry and teachers have not been regularly paid, the U. S. has been providing arms and military training to the RPF and supporting petty projects for the rich. The U.S. has now provided money and equipment to organize phony elections just to polish Kagame's dictatorial image. Drive to Bicumbi, 8 miles from here and look at the countryside. People are poorer than ever before."
(c) AfroAmerica Network, December, 2000.
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