Rwanda's Kagame Refusing to Leave Office

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Turkey soccer fans boo during moment of silence for Paris attack
• Rwanda’s president Kagame becomes another leader refusing to leave office

Turkey soccer fans boo during moment of silence for Paris attack

Turkish soccer fans booed and chanted “Allahu Akbar” [God is Great] during a moment of silence called in remembrance of last week’s Paris attack. The moment of silence was held prior to a soccer game versus Greece. Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras watched the game together as a sign of reconciliation after centuries of bloody warfare.

It is not clear to me exactly what the Turkish fans were booing. Here are some possibilities:

• They may have been booing France, since France has been extremely hostile to Turkey in the last decade, even making it a national crime to say that the killing of Armenians in 1916 was not a Turkish genocide. This view is supported by the fact that they also booed Greece’s national anthem, so they may have been booing the two countries.
• They may have booed in support of ISIS’s terrorist attacks. This actually seems a bit far-fetched, since ISIS has been striking at targets in Turkey, but it is supported by the fact that they also booed at a game on October 13 during a moment of silence in remembrance of the brutal terror attack in Ankara just three days earlier, on October 10. The Ankara bombing was the deadliest in Turkey’s history, with 102 people killed and hundreds injured.
• Maybe they were booing the European Union for the implication that Turkey was to blame for the Paris attack by allowing too many refugees to cross over into Greece.
• Or maybe they were just a bunch of kids trying to shock their parents, as when the “Black Lives Matter” kids call for violence against whites in America.
• Or maybe it was all of the above.

Turkey and Greece drew with scores of 0-0 in the game. Today’s Zaman (Istanbul) and Washington Post

Rwanda’s president Kagame becomes another leader refusing to leave office

Rwanda’s senate has unanimously approved a draft constitution that will allow the Tutsi president, Paul Kagame, to run for a third term, not permitted under the existing constitution. The new constitution will have to be approved by a referendum.

We have written in the past how this kind of situation has led to violence in other countries, in the period following a bloody generational crisis civil war:

• In Zimbabwe, the savage monster Robert Mugabe conducted a 1984 pacification campaign that was known as “Operation Gukurahundi” (The rain that washes away the chaff before the spring rain). During that campaign, accomplished with the help of Mugabe’s 5th Brigade, trained by North Korea, tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Ndebele tribe, were tortured and slaughtered.
• In Syria, genocidal president Bashar al-Assad began in 2011 to conduct a campaign to exterminate innocent Sunni protesters, using Sarin gas, Russia’s heavy weapons, terror group Hezbollah’s militias, and Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). The result of al-Assad’s genocidal campaign has been the rise of the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), with thousands of young Sunni jihadists coming from countries all over the world to join.
• In Burundi, president Pierre Nkurunziza appears to be following Mugabe’s model. He has violated the constitution by remaining as president for a third term, and is now using growing violence against political enemies to stay in power.

This kind of power grab is typical of leaders who take power after the end of a bloody generational crisis civil war fought between ethnic groups. The leader claims that he is the only force preventing the violence of a new civil war which, from the point of view of Generational Dynamics, is utter nonsense. To the contrary, the power-grabbing leader becomes the cause of renewed violence.

Kagame’s Hutu political opponents are certain to start protesting his decision to violate the existing agreement that ended the 1994 war between Hutus and Tutsis. The next step will be up to Kagame, who may follow the example of others and begin using violence to eliminate the peaceful protesters. Reuters and AFP

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Greece, France, Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, Ankara, Black Lives Matter, Rwanda, Paul Kagame, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Operation Gukurahundi, Syria, Bashar al-Assad, Iran, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC, Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, Hutus, Tutsis
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