'Give Africa a break'

2005-05-22 21:00

Nairobi - Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Sunday urged western media to refrain from portraying Africa, the world's poorest continent, in a purely negative light, saying that such coverage affected its ability to attract foreign investment.

Instead, he urged them to forge close partnerships in order to improve the living conditions of people in the continent.

"Africa is never an aggregate of brute savages inclined to kill each other when an opportunity arose'," Kagame told the opening session of the International Press Institute (IPI) general assembly in Nairobi.

The three-day conference, which was opened by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, was also attended by the Aga Khan, and about 350 press chiefs from 50 countries.

Kagame, whose nation was wracked by genocide in 1994 that claimed around 800 000 lives, said that despite multiple problems, Africa needed the media's partnerships in promoting development.

"In the face of debilitating poverty, illiteracy human rights abuse, war, environmental degradation and international terrorism ... I urge you to play your role, not merely as watchdogs and whistle blowers, but as advocates and educators in our joint venture to make Africa and tne rest of the world a better place," said Kagame.

"So here is our opportunity to prove the prophets of doom wrong," he added.

- AFP