Price of Rwanda鈥檚 clean streets? Detained children, NGO says.
| Johannesburg
As听advertisements for a country go, Rwanda鈥檚 capital, Kigali, is top of the class. Visitors glide into town from its tidy international airport on smooth, pothole-free roads,听passing glossy high-rises, luxury hotels, and the flashing neon dome of a $300 million conference center. In Kigali, often dubbed 鈥淎frica鈥檚 Singapore,鈥� the streets stay swept, the hedges stay trimmed, and the garbage stays in its cans. At night, locals and tourists alike walk with their gazes fixed on the glow of their cellphones, unworried about petty thieves or worse.
But like much of Rwanda鈥檚 success over the 25 years since the country鈥檚 genocide,听the听order of its capital has come at a heavy human cost. To keep its streets clean, the Rwandan government relies on a network of squalid detention facilities where听homeless听people, beggars, informal street vendors, and others accused of 鈥渄eviant behaviors鈥� can be held for months without charge, according to听听last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has documented abuses in these facilities for more than a decade.
Among the victims, according to the most recent report, are likely hundreds of homeless children who have been held听at Kigali鈥檚 Gikondo Transit Center, where they are routinely beaten and denied access to toilets, sufficient food, and clean living quarters.
Why We Wrote This
No one wants to scrutinize success stories 鈥� particularly when the previous chapter is as horrific as Rwanda鈥檚 genocide. But the country鈥檚 dramatic progress sometimes comes at a steep cost for human rights, observers say.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a high price to pay for Kigali鈥檚 image as a pristine city, and it鈥檚 being paid by society鈥檚 most vulnerable,鈥� says Lewis Mudge, the Central Africa director for HRW. 鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 forget that one of the reasons the city is so clean is because of this practice of routinely rounding up people deemed undesirable.鈥�
Rwandan Minister of Justice Johnston Busingye did not respond to the Monitor鈥檚 request for comment, but that the HRW report was 鈥減olitically motivated鈥� and that it was 鈥渋nsane for anyone to suggest that the government is getting rid of its unwanted to keep the streets clean 鈥� ignoring the progress we have made in turning former delinquents into useful citizens.鈥�
But the situation for homeless children in Kigali, indeed, can be seen as a microcosm of Rwanda鈥檚 paradox more generally. The tiny 鈥渃ountry of a thousand hills鈥� is, in many ways, one of the modern world鈥檚 most dazzling success stories.
In the span of a few short months in 1994, nearly 1 million Rwandans were murdered, many by their own neighbors, in one of the most brutal mass killings of the 20th century. But in the years since, Rwanda has shot up the charts on global measures of health, education, and well-being, earning it vaunted status among the world鈥檚 development titans. (鈥淚 hope many African nations will emulate what Rwanda is doing,鈥� said then-United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2013, congratulating the country on its majority-female parliament.)听Its wiry, bookish president, Paul Kagame, who is credited with leading that revolution, is a darling of the Davos set, regularly lauded by global institutions and fellow leaders. In 2018, Forbes named him its 鈥�.鈥�
But the Rwandan miracle has always shown cracks. It is maintained, many critics say, literally at the point of a gun. Mr. Kagame鈥檚 critics have been violently suppressed, and on several occasions, assassinated, although the government denies responsibility. He has won in excess of 90% of the votes in every election he has run. And independent analyses,听, have听suggested that听some of the figures used to mark Rwanda鈥檚 tumbling levels of poverty were intentionally manipulated by the country鈥檚 statisticians to show a more dramatic level of progress.听
And then there are the much-celebrated clean streets.
鈥淜agame is fantastic at PR, and he knows that visibly his country looks a lot better than its neighbors, and that to international observers, that matters,鈥� says听Stephanie Wolters, an analyst on the Great Lakes region of Africa with the South African Institute of International Affairs.听鈥淢any donor countries and international organizations simply aren鈥檛 interested in scrutinizing the situation further.鈥� And they have other reasons not to look too closely, she says, given Rwanda鈥檚 stability in a rough global neighborhood.
Once a month, all Rwandans participate in compulsory neighborhood cleanups called听umuganda. Under Rwandan law, meanwhile, anyone exhibiting 鈥渄eviant behaviors鈥� in its streets, which it describes as 鈥減rostitution, drug use, begging, vagrancy, informal street vending, or any other deviant behavior that is harmful to the public,鈥� can be rounded up and kept for two months without charge in one of the country鈥檚 transit centers.
Last year, Human Rights Watch spoke to 30 children held at the听transit center,听most of whom said they had been beaten there.
鈥淭he police captain with three stars on his uniform hit me at least 20 times with his police club,鈥� said a 15-year-old girl arrested in April 2019. 鈥淗e said that as long as we鈥檙e in the streets, he鈥檒l keep beating us.鈥澨�
Ostensibly, centers like Gikondo are temporary stops before children living on the streets and others are taken to rehabilitation centers to be taught vocational skills. But many of the children interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were never transferred to those centers, and instead released after an arbitrary length of time back onto the streets, beginning the catch-and-release cycle again.
鈥淭hey put us in a car, and everyone was dropped off where they had been arrested. That was the fifth time I was in Gikondo,鈥� explained a 16-year-old girl.听
Although Rwanda鈥檚 case is extreme, it is not the only country to detain people experiencing homelessness to keep them off the streets.听In many countries, major sporting events provide the pretext.听Ahead of the 2008 Olympics, officials in Beijing relocated homeless residents to听. Before the Athens games four years earlier, several Roma communities . And in Brazil ahead of the 2016 Rio games, children鈥檚 advocates about homeless youths being detained arbitrarily.
Mr. Mudge said that he is hopeful that Rwanda鈥檚 interest in maintaining its vaunted international image will compel the country to respond to HRW鈥檚 demands, which include closing Gikondo permanently. After previous HRW reports on the center in 2006 and 2016, the government instituted some reforms, he says, but they ultimately proved shallow.听
鈥淲e want to push the international community to ask tough questions of Rwanda,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd to the government, we hope this will prod them in the right direction.鈥�
