VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #0461 1921245
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 101245Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5440
INFO RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0347
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 1162
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1931
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0482
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0262
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 1259
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0523

UNCLAS KIGALI 000461 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OVIP PGOV PREL RW
SUBJECT: SENATOR NELSON VISITS RWANDA 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary. Senator Bill Nelson (D - FL) visited 
Rwanda July 4-6, meeting separately with President Kagame and 
National Security Service General Secretary Emmanuel Ndahiro, 
discussing Rwanda's regeneration after the 1994 genocide and 
intelligence matters, respectively.  He also lunched with 
Senate leadership, visited the Gisozi genocide memorial, and 
dined privately with Cabinet Affairs Minister Charles 
Murigande.  At the conclusion of his trip, he addressed the 
local press corps with President Kagame, applauding Rwanda's 
ongoing efforts to develop its people and promote national 
unity.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Senator Nelson, accompanied by several aides and 
his wife Grace Nelson, visited Rwanda on the July 4th 
weekend.  After a welcoming July 4th dinner with Ambassador 
Arietti and members of the country team, Senator Nelson began 
his July 5th appointments with briefings at the embassy and a 
meeting with National Security Service chief Emmanuel Ndahiro 
on intelligence matters.  Separately, his wife toured Gahaya 
Links, a basket-weaving cooperative that employs rural women, 
including many genocide survivors, and which markets its 
products to Macys and other U.S. retailers.  A lunch with 
Rwandan Senate leadership followed at the Milles Collines, 
the hotel on which the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda was based. 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  At the lunch, the senators discussed the impact of 
the 1994 genocide on Rwandan society and politics, and the 
upcoming September Parliamentary elections for the Chamber of 
Deputies.  The four senators, representing Rwanda's two major 
ethnic groups (Hutu and Tutsi) and three of its nine 
political parties, also discussed with Senator Nelson and his 
staff their fundraising mechanisms, constituent services, and 
political platforms.  Two of the senators also told harrowing 
stories of their narrow survival in Kigali during the 
genocide.  Following the lunch, Senator Nelson and staff 
visited the Gisozi genocide memorial, burial ground for over 
258,000 Rwandans killed in Kigali in 1994. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  As the highlight of his visit, Senator Nelson and 
staff, paid a call on President Paul Kagame.  Mrs. Nelson 
paid a simultaneous call on Mrs. Kagame.  Nelson began by 
commending what he termed Kagame's "remarkable compassion" at 
the end of the 1994 genocide, opting for efforts to rebuild 
the nation and strive for national unity.  Nelson also 
saluted Rwanda's great progress in combating HIV/AIDS, and 
pledged continuing USG efforts to assist with HIV/AIDs and 
anti-malaria efforts. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  In unusually extended and personal terms, 
President Kagame replied that neither he nor any of the other 
founding members of the RPA/RPF could possibly have imagined 
that they would take power "in a ruined nation with a million 
people dead."   He and his colleagues, armed and civilian, 
had long planned the sort of society they wished to build, 
with peace, security and reconciliation as fundamental 
principles.  As refugees, long denied a place in their own 
nation, said the president, "we knew what injustice meant." 
Yet everything, he said, became so much more difficult as a 
result of the war, death and destruction of 1994.  With the 
start of a brutal insurgency immediately after the genocide, 
the president added, "our burdens increased."  However, he 
said, "we stayed on our feet, kept our balance," and began to 
rebuild the nation. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  In a joint press appearance at the conclusion of 
their meeting, Senator Nelson applauded Rwanda's ongoing 
efforts to develop its people and promote national unity. 
He then proceeded to a private dinner with Cabinet Affairs 
Minister Charles Murigande.  Senator and Mrs. Nelson and 
staff departed Kigali on Sunday morning, July 6. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Senator Nelson did not clear this message. 
ARIETTI