U.S. senators call on NBA to reevaluate Rwanda partnership - ESPN

Two U.S. senators called on the NBA to reevaluate a partnership with Rwanda and its dictator Paul Kagame, citing the American government's changing policy toward the small African nation, which has been accused of widespread human rights abuses.

In a letter sent Friday to commissioner Adam Silver, Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote that they are «increasingly alarmed by the NBA's deepening relationship with Rwanda» and said the league «risks becoming complicit in sportswashing,» where governments or companies use sports to distract from human rights abuses, corruption and other activities. The senators said the partnership is «contrary to the spirit of American sports.»

In a statement to ESPN, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, «We received the letter on Friday and are in the process of responding to it.»

The same senators wrote Silver two years ago in response to an ESPN article that detailed the NBA's embrace of Kagame, the country's leader since 1994. Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, built a 10,000-seat arena in its capital of Kigali, and that facility has been central to the NBA's expansion into Africa.

Kagame's government has been accused by the U.S., UK and other countries, as well as a string of human rights organizations, of abuses ranging from imprisonment, torture and murder of political opponents to the funding of child soldiers in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Just last week, Robert Kabera, a former Rwandan soldier who became an outspoken critic of Kagame and had fled the country in 2020, was found beheaded in Uganda. Human rights organizations have called for an investigation into whether the killing was politically motivated.

The NBA's position on