美国国家公共电台 NPR Rwanda's Kagame Has Ushered In Peace And Progress, And Crushed Dissent

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

There is an election in Rwanda today but little ambiguity¹ over who will win. Paul Kagame has ruled that country for the past 17 years, winning election after election. We're joined now by NPR's East Africa correspondent Eyder Peralta for more on Rwanda's leader. Welcome to the program.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE²: Hi, Audie.

CORNISH: So Kagame came to power actually after the Rwandan genocide. Remind us how he was able to do that.

PERALTA: I think it's important to understand the context. At the time, the international community was simply watching as hundreds of thousands of people were being slaughtered³. At the end of it, about 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed over the course of about a hundred days. And Kagame was an exile at the time in Uganda. And he took charge of a rebel army. He marched into Kigali, the capital. He overthrew⁴ the government and put a stop to the genocide. And that has made him a kind of national hero. He started off as vice⁵ president, and then he became president in 2000.

CORNISH: So what's the country been like under his rule?

PERALTA: There's a lot of good and a lot of bad. The good is that he took a broken country, and he made it whole again. The GDP has multiplied. Life expectancy⁶ has shot up. And this is a big deal because Rwanda is very poor, and it doesn't have natural resources. And you know, one of the most important parts is everyone I spoke⁷ to in Rwanda seemed genuinely grateful that they were living in a peaceful place.

But I mean there's also no doubt that Rwandans fear their government. Opposition⁸ figures have been known to be jailed, disappeared or even killed. And Human Rights Watch just released a report that found that dozens of people have been killed for really small things.

CORNISH: When you talk about fear in the country in this way, then I'm - I have questions now about these past elections where Kagame won in these overwhelming landslide⁹ votes. I mean are people afraid?

PERALTA: Yeah, I mean there is fear. I spoke to this one man who said he wanted change. And he wanted to vote for the opposition, but he was scared. He said he couldn't be sure that his vote was secret. I mean that said, this election is a little bit different from the previous ones. While I was in Rwanda, I spoke to Frank Habineza, who is Kagame's most serious opponent. And he said just the fact that he was on the ballot¹⁰ was a big deal. Let's listen to a bit of what he told me.

FRANK HABINEZA: It's a progress because I mean we have struggled for eight years to be on the ballot paper. So we tried in 2010, and we never succeeded. And my deputy was killed. My 12 other colleagues were put in prison. So basically, this is progress.

PERALTA: So what Habineza is saying is that he has faced intimidation¹¹ this time around. But by and large, he says he's been allowed to campaign freely. So he thinks things are moving in the right direction in Rwanda.

CORNISH: Meanwhile, Kagame has been in power since 1994. He's only 59. Do you get a sense he's going anywhere anytime soon?

PERALTA: I mean if you look at the preliminary results which we have started getting, the answer is no. He's winning by a huge margin¹². I did speak to his allies, though. And you know, they're adamant¹³ that he is not like President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda or Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Both of those guys have been in power for decades. And even Kagame himself has said that this will be his last term.

But you know, the truth is that Kagame looms¹⁴ large on this continent. He's been tasked with reforming the African Union. And a lot of leaders view Rwanda as a model. So even if this is his last term, I think we'll continue to see Paul Kagame's influence here for a long time.

CORNISH: That's NPR's East Africa correspondent Eyder Peralta. Eyder, thank you.

PERALTA: Thank you, Audie.

1 ambiguity   

n.模棱两可；意义不明确

参考例句：

• The telegram was misunderstood because of its ambiguity.由于电文意义不明确而造成了误解。
• Her answer was above all ambiguity.她的回答毫不含糊。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 overthrew   

overthrow的过去式

参考例句：

• The people finally rose up and overthrew the reactionary regime. 人们终于起来把反动的政权推翻了。
• They overthrew their King. 他们推翻了国王。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

10 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

11 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

12 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

13 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

14 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》