Rwanda Joins Commonwealth of Nations

Central Africa  |  11.29.09   By Randy Odaga

Rwanda has become the 54th member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and is the second country without a British colonial past to join alongside Mozambique. The 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Trinidad and Tobago capital of Port of Spain, approved the admittance of the central African state.

Rwanda’s bid join to the group was supported by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and the host country Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo expressed her pleasure with the decision to the Rwandan New Times.

“My government sees this accession as recognition of the tremendous progress this country has made in the last 15 years. Rwandans are ready to seize economic, political, cultural and other opportunities offered by the Commonwealth network.”

In 2008, as diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris deteriorated, Rwanda expressed its desire to join the Commonwealth, but its bid was heavily undermined by questions about the country’s human rights record and the lack of political freedom.

A report in July by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) urged Rwanda to tackle a lack of political freedom and harassment of journalists before it was admitted. However, the CHRI acknowledges that Rwanda has what appears to be a well-deserved reputation for governmental efficiency and for being less corrupt than a number of other countries.

But Rwanda’s claims about the total absence of corruption appear hollow considering its complicity in the illicit economy of the region, and its plundering of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s natural resources,” the report continues.

In the wake of this new membership Rwanda has also renewed its ties with France after severing them a few years ago. The sour relationship between the two nations dates back to a further time, but was heightened when a French judge issued warrants for the arrest of top Rwandese government officials for allegedly downing a jet carrying former President Juvenal Habyarimana

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