OPJDR
Talleyville, Delaware, USA
10.06.00
The Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda, Inc. (OPJDR) rejects Kagame's plan to hold indirect elections at the end of this year and early next year and calls on the international community to withhold funds for these elections as long as political parties are not allowed to operate and basic freedom and human rights are not guaranteed.
According to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) plan, Rwandan citizens elect leaders of Cells known as "Selire" or "Nyumabakumi". They line up behind a candidate whom they want to represent them. Selire and Nyumbakumi leaders elect communal councillors. These communal councillors elect a mayor for the Commune or bourgmaster. Mayors elect the prefect or governor. Prefects, bourgmasters, and members of parliament elect the president.
Members of cells have already been elected. All of them are members of the RPF. Being a member of the RPF does not necessary mean that one has to adhere to its fascist ideology of violence, bellicosity, and Tutsi supremacy. Rather a loyal member is a person who adheres to RPF procedures. One of these procedures is that every member must comply with the party's decisions and swear not to betray the party. Betrayal or what is regarded as betrayal by the RPF is punished by the death penalty. In other words no one can run for office without RPF consent and no one can vote for a person without being told to do so by the RPF.
To ensure its political control, the RPF has infiltrated existing political parties and recruited their members. This infiltration policy was reinforced during 1997 RPF Convention held in Murindi, Rwanda on June 9-11, 1999. The convention was aimed to reviewing the achievements and shortcomings of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, since it overthrew the former government in 1994 and to formulate new policies. Such members remain affiliated with the labels of political parties formed before 1994 but they must comply with RPF procedures otherwise they violate the RPF oath of allegiance. The current Prime Minister Bernard Makuza is one of those Hutu politicians who belong to the RPF. Officially he belongs to the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), a party he joined in 1991 when political parties started their activities. Today he is a member of the RPF, an organization he joined in 1992. At the time the RPF was still a rebel movement and joining the RPF was like joining a secret organization.
The RPF has resorted to genocide pretense to forbid political activities and to persuade the international community to accept a dictatorial regime led by a group of Tutsi military officers, most of whom are former members of the National Resistance Army (NRA), the Ugandan army. The grip of the Tutsi military officers and unabated massacres and oppression that target RPF opponents, both from Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, have led to the recent rift within RPF, and the resignation from the RPF by the president and vice-president of RPF in USA, respectively Joseph Nsengimana and Augustine Kamongi, and of one of the main leaders of the RPF, Professor Alexander Kimenyi. Because of the genocide excuse, political parties can exist only in name but cannot hold political rallies. Using the pretext of genocide, RPF has trampled underfoot the basic democratic principle of "one man one vote", arguing that with this principle the Hutu may take over power and commit "a second, third, or fourth genocide of Tutsis." Using the excuse of of genocide, the RPF took it upon itself to hold a person in prison forever without a trial.
The U.S. has released 4,3 million dollars, part of which will be used to organize elections to legitimate Kagame's regime. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Human Rights, and the Montreal-based Democratic Center for Human Rights have regularly accused this regime of war crimes, crimes against humanity, acts of genocide and human rights violations in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This money will legitimate a warmonger, criminal, brutal, and dictatorial regime.
Since the RPF took over power, the U. S. and the United Kingdom saw in its victory a golden opportunity to extend or strengthen their influence in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The U. S. has provided arms, military training, and diplomatic and media support to a regime without popular support. U.S. policy towards Rwanda is reminiscent of past U.S. involvement in Panama where it collaborated with a drug dealer, Emmanuel Noriega; in Chile where it supported General Augusto Pinochet; in Iraq where it armed Saddam Hussein against Iran; and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where it helped Marechal Mobutu ruin his country.
What Rwanda needs is not bogus elections to elect Kagame president and to consolidate Tutsi supremacy in Rwanda but basic freedom and human rights for all Rwandans: Hutu, Tutsi, Twa, and naturalized citizens. Rwandans should recover their properties former Tutsi refugees have taken over since they returned home in 1994. They should live where they want. Concentration camps, euphemistically called villagization, represent a Nazi-like policy that must be condemned. Rwandans should be allowed to choose political leaders from competing political parties so they can have a say in how they are ruled. Most of the thousands of people who are rotting in RPF prisons are political prisoners who must be released. Those with clear criminal evidences are entitled to a speedy and fair trial and should not be left to "Gacaca" courts, an invention of Tutsi supremacists within the RPF whose goal is to enslave Hutu for ever by stigmatizing them. The 4,000 children arrested by the RPF regime should be set free. Genocide should not be used as a license to violate Rwandan and international laws.
OPJDR calls on the international community to withdraw support to policies that are detrimental to peace in Rwanda and in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Peace will not come to Rwanda because indirect elections have legitimated Kagame's regime. Peace will come to Rwanda if all Rwandans: Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa have equal chances of having food, shelter, education, health services, and enjoy the right to run their lives. The United States and other countries should assist all Rwandans not a regime of Tutsi colonels whose main interest is to oppress and exploit other Rwandans. Rwandans will appreciate the U. S. contribution if it helps them liberate themselves from oppression.
The latest events in Yugoslavia should be a reminder that supporting the people against tyrants, war criminals and oppressive regimes constitute the best protection against human tragedies.
Western Democracies and the International Community, especially the United Nations, the United States and the United Kingdom, should understand that their interests in the Great Lakes Region of Africa will be better served by democratic regimes and by a free people, not by the current regimes.
For the Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda, Inc.
Felicien Kanyamibwa, Ph.D.
Coordinator General
Jean Marie-Vianney Higiro, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Public Relations and Spokesperson
OPJDR
P.O. Box 8011
Talleyville, DE 19803
USA.
Tel: (973) 449 3117.
OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.