In the absence of a formal judiciary, the 85,000 accused perpetrators are being tried under the auspices of Gacaca, a state-organized system of popular courts for trying genocide criminals.

Audience members last night seemed most concerned with the current war in Congo, despite Kagame's clear wish to emphasize domestic issues.

Several Congolese from the audience asked questions about the war; they were polite but visibly upset.

"I laud you for trying to reconstruct your country," said Masuda Bundu, a Congolese man in the audience. "But there are over two million people dead [in Congo], most of them children. That is a genocide, and a greater one than that in Rwanda. Since the Congo did not attack you, why do you have the right to do this?"

Kagame responded, "The aim has not been so much to fight the Congolese. It's to fight the ex-FAR [the remains of the genocide army] and Interahamwe [genocide militia]."

Rwanda entered the first Congo War in 1996 when the FAR and Interahamwe staged attacks over the Rwanda-Congo border. Rwanda continues to claim that the FAR and Interahamwe pose major threats to the nation's security.

"People are truly dying. It's a real problem. But to be fair, these deaths have been taking place for decades in the Congo," Kagame said.