By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – The head of world cycling said the Road World Championships would go ahead in Rwanda in September, dismissing criticism from human rights groups who accuse Kigali of using sports to burnish its image while backing rebels fighting in neighbouring Congo.
Hosting the event, which typically draws the world’s top cyclists and has never previously been held in Africa, would be a public relations success for Rwanda at a time when it is facing diplomatic pushback over its actions in Congo.
Western powers have sanctioned Rwandans over the country’s support for M23 rebels who have seized a large swathe of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this year, while sports executives have maintained partnerships with Rwanda.
David Lappartient, head of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and a candidate to lead the International Olympic Committee in Thursday’s election, told Reuters he had recently discussed Congo with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali.
“Here we have a situation which, without going into detail, is aimed at preventing a general return to a genocidal climate on Rwanda’s borders,” he said, echoing Rwanda’s disputed position on what its forces are doing in Congo.
Congo says Rwanda’s army is fighting alongside M23 to seize territory and plunder its mineral wealth. Rwanda accuses Congo of harbouring a Hutu militia intent on persecuting Tutsis, the ethnic group targeted in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and says it must defend itself against that existential threat.
The European Union on Monday sanctioned several Rwandan army officers, a Rwandan gold refinery and a mining official over the fighting in Congo and the smuggling of Congolese minerals.
The United States last month announced sanctions against a Rwandan minister and close Kagame ally, James Kabarebe, for orchestrating Rwandan support for M23 and the export of minerals extracted from Congo.
“SPORTSWASHING”
Lappartient said he and Kagame agreed that sport was not a sanctioning tool.
“As of today, we don’t have any elements that mean we shouldn’t go to Rwanda. And we haven’t been working on plan Bs, so we’re not working on plan Bs today. We’re working on plan A, which is Rwanda,” he said.
Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said UCI should not lend itself to what he called Rwanda’s “sportswashing”, or using sports to create a positive image while deflecting attention from its actions in Congo.
“If they go ahead, it shows that they are acting in complete indifference to the suffering of the Congolese people,” he said.
Rwanda sponsors soccer clubs Arsenal, Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich, whose players have “Visit Rwanda” emblazoned on their shirts.
In December, Kagame announced a bid to host a Formula One race. Rwanda also has a close partnership with the Basketball Africa League (BAL), which is run jointly by the NBA and the sport’s world governing body FIBA.
Congo’s foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner has called on the three soccer clubs to end what she called their “blood-stained” Rwandan sponsorship deals, and has made similar appeals to Formula One and the NBA.
The soccer clubs declined to comment. Formula One said it was closely monitoring developments and would make decisions based on “the best interests of our sport and our values”.
The NBA’s Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum told Reuters it wanted to use basketball to make a positive impact on people and that as well as the BAL games being hosted this season in Kigali, Dakar, Pretoria and Rabat, it was running youth basketball clinics and community service projects.
“We will continue to monitor developments closely and follow the U.S. government’s directives and guidance regarding our engagement in the region,” he said.
Rwanda’s government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the charge of sportswashing was “a petty and tired trope pushed by those who want to perpetuate negative stereotypes of non-Western countries like Rwanda”.
(Additional reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, Hereward Holland, Ammu Kannampilly and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Martyn Herman in London and Karolos Grohmann in Berlin; Writing by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Ed Osmond)
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