Rwanda's leader Paul Kagame has been sworn in aspresident of the central African nation for a seven-year term after his landslide victory last month in his country's first multiparty presidential polls since the 1994 genocide.
"I, Paul Kagame, solemnly swear to the nation that I shalldiligently fulfil the responsibility entrusted to me," he vowedat a ceremony in the national stadium in the capital Kigali.
At least nine African presidents including South Africa'sThabo Mbeki, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Yoweri Museveni ofUganda were on hand to witness Kagame's inauguration, which wasattended by around 30,000 people at the Amahoro stadium.
Kagame has been in charge of Rwandan politics since leadingthe rebel army that ended the country's 1994 genocide and seizedthe capital in July that year. He became president in 2000 andwas re-elected by an overwhelming majority last month.
European Union observers said the country's first multipartypresidential poll since the genocide was not entirely free andfair, although it was an important step towards democracy.Rwanda dismissed the EU report, saying it was one-sided.
"This is the Rwanda we have been working for, the results ofthe 25th August presidential elections is the choice of themajority," Kagame said to applause from the crowd.
"It is our choice of today and tomorrow. To this just andlegitimate choice we seek the understanding and support of ourfriends and partners in the international community."
In a colourful ceremony at which poems in praise of hisleadership were recited, Kagame promised to consolidate his pastachievements and fight corruption as traditional dancers beatdrums and danced to songs in the tribal Kinyarwanda language.
"Ours should be a society that promotes and rewardscorruption-free behaviour and practise, while deterring andpenalising the scourge," he said.
Kagame led the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front to victory with95 percent of the vote in the August presidential poll, but someobservers questioned the huge victory margin.
The country's Supreme Court then quashed a petition by themain opposition candidate Faustin Twagiramungu, a moderate Hutu,to annul the poll, saying he lacked credible evidence to supporthis claims of intimidation and vote rigging by Kagame.
Kagame, 45, is from the Tutsi minority - the main victims inthe genocide when Hutu extremists killed 800,000 Tutsis andmoderate Hutus opposed to their plan for Hutu dominance.
After the genocide, Kagame served as vice president anddefence minister but was seen as the real power in Rwanda. Thenational assembly unanimously elected him president in 2000.
Outside Rwanda, he has been criticised for his involvementin the war in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.