20100528
all africa

Kigali — The Rwandan government has told off the United States over the human-rights situation in the country, saying that America does not understand Rwanda.

In an email exchange with local reporters Rwanda's foreign minister and government spokesperson Louise Mushikiwabo said America's understanding of Rwanda had to be "contextualized."

"Rwandans in Rwanda don't have any anxiety. They are at a very exciting time of their history," the minister said.

Earlier this week, top American diplomat Johnny Carson warned that the Rwanda government was tightening political expression in the country, and criticized the arrest of an opposition politician.

This comes in the wake of a series of grenade attacks that have shook the capital, Kigali, and cast into question the country's stability ahead of presidential elections this August.

Mr Carson, speaking to the United States Congress in Washington DC, said that the political environment in Rwanda was "riddled by a series of worrying actions," including the arrest of a controversial opposition candidate.

"We appreciate, in the context of the most tragic event in recent history -the genocide - the need for security, stability, and reconciliation is critical, but long-term stability is best promoted by democratic governance and respect for human rights," Mr, Carson said.

In recent weeks international watchdog Human Rights Watch has been kicked out of the country and two of the most popular independent newspapers suspended and taken to court.

Victoire Ingabire, who returned to Rwanda in January to run for president has been arrested and accused of divisionism and 'genocide ideology.'

Two other political parties -- one accused of being ethnically divisive, and the other made up of former ruling-party officials -- have also been unable to register.

But Rwanda's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said that the United States had an "out-of-Rwanda reading" of the country, and that the current politics needed to be "contextualized."

The issue of context is vital in criticism from abroad, and is one of the bedrocks of its development policy and political identity.