The British High Commissioner Jo Lomas is leaving Rwanda after serving for three years.
After meeting President Paul Kagame on Tuesday to bid him farewell, Lomas met a small group of journalists on Friday, June 4, and shared her experience in Rwanda touching on several topics including the Commonwealth Head of States and Governments Meeting (CHOGM), climate change and what she will miss most about Rwanda.
The New Times’ Nasra Bishumba was in attendance and below are the excerpts.
On leaving
I have been here for three and a half years, so it a very sad time to be leaving. I first came here in 1995 on my first job with foreign affairs and saw for myself the devastation and it was an amazing experience to come back in 2018 and see the fantastic progress that Rwanda had made.
When I met His Excellency (President Paul Kagame) for our farewell call on Tuesday, he stressed as he always does, his appreciation for our development support since that time and that has continued and we are very proud of how we have supported Rwanda in its fantastic achievements in terms of development and economic growth.
We have not always agreed on everything but the relationship between Rwanda and the UK is very strong and amicable and what we agree on is much more than what we don’t.
What I have really noticed in the three and a half years that I have been here is how much we have shared in terms of our shared international priorities like climate change, girls’ education, trade and the commonwealth. My main regret is that CHOGM has had to be postponed and we have worked really hard with the Rwandan office to make sure that it is successful. I know that it will be and I wish Rwanda the best of success when it is finally time to host the summit.
On genocide fugitives roaming in the UK
The British justice system is very thorough and investigations must meet all the criteria of the British judicial process. It goes down to basics. The police are conducting all the interviews and looking back at all the original material and it really is a very massive operation.
What I do appreciate is the frustration but we always tell the government of Rwanda that the worst scenario is that the case against these main five genocidaires collapses because it doesn’t meet the standards of the British judicial process. It’s better to do it slowly and thoroughly but get it right.
On CHOGM
When Lord Tariq Ahmad (UK Minister of State for the Commonwealth) came, of course at the back of everyone’s mind was the question of whether this Covid-19 situation will allow CHOGM to happen in June 2021.
He was very clear with the Rwandan government that it was their decision whether to hold it or not and that we would support whatever they decided. What the Commonwealth did was to conduct some sort of soundings of the other countries about it and they concluded that there was too much uncertainty among many leaders. It was easy enough for many Commonwealth members in Africa and Europe to travel, but it was much more difficult for members from remote areas like the Pacific, the Caribbean where they are having strict quarantine and in others where the numbers have really rocketed such as India. The conclusion between Rwanda and the Secretariat was that we couldn’t really host a full CHOGM.
Rwanda was also very clear that they want to host a full CHOGM. We have always agreed that this is not the right summit to hold virtually. Rwanda didn’t want to be in a situation where they may have to cancel side events or have some people attend physically and others virtually.
Rwanda said that they would rather delay and do it properly and have a CHOGM that is successful as it deserves to be. It was planned that we would talk about some issues regarding CHOGM with Lord Ahmad but it was a coincidence that Rwanda made the decision shortly around the time of his visit.
We support Rwanda’s decision and will continue to be behind it when the time comes to host the conference.
I am very sad that I won’t be around for CHOGM but it was a wise decision given the uncertainties.
I know that the government is looking at the direction Covid-19 is taking and they are rolling out vaccines and I hope that they will be making a decision within months on when the conference will be taking place.
Having to delay it twice, we are now keen on not losing the momentum, making sure that all the good work doesn’t go to waste.
Particularly, we are working on how CHOGM can further our climate change objectives ahead of the climate change Conference of the Parties (COP).
On Macron’s visit and the revival
We don’t see this as a competition. We are delighted to see Rwanda’s relations with France improve. We will continue to equip schools to have better understanding of English and if French is an additional language, we support the idea of Rwandan children being tri-lingual.
On climate change
The UN climate change conference is going to take place in Glasgow (Scotland) in November and it comes at a crucial time and we hope that it happens and in person because climate change is not waiting for Covid-19 to disappear. So we are really trying to support high-level ambition when it comes to emission adaptions but we are also looking at how to support countries to adapt to climate change by facilitating communities and habitats and mobilising funds for that purpose. We have committed £11 billion between 2021 and 2025.
On what she will miss most
The climate. I think Rwanda has the best climate in the world. I will miss some of Rwanda’s amazing food, beef, avocados and all the other fresh fruits and vegetables.
I will miss the people and working with the Rwandan government. I find Rwandans that I have worked with, whether in government, civil society or media very conscientious and very enthusiastic and they want Rwanda to succeed. There are not many countries where, as a diplomat, you are invited to speak to a Minister at 5’oclock in the evening. That’s common in Rwanda because officials care so much about the development of their country. So I will miss that great working ethos.