AfroAmerica Network
Lansing, Michigan
09.09.00
On September 3, the President and Vice president of the RPF in the US resigned and quit the RPF during a convention in Detroit, Michigan.
The Kigali government had dispatched to Detroit a delegation led by the RPF Secretary General, Joseph Muligande. This delegation included two members of the Transitional Assembly: Tito Rutaremara and Paul Muvunyi, and Beatrice Ingabire. Both Rutaremara and Ingabire are RPF ideologues whereas Muvunyi is a businesman, turned politician.
At the convention participants charged that the RPF is a corrupt and criminal organisation. They cited numerous cases of human rights violations such as assassinations and torture of prisonners; the selling off of stated -owned companies to RPF supporters and South African companies; and the concentration of power into the hands of a group of Tutsi colonels who grew up in the Ugandan army.
The Secretary General of the RPF responded to accusations saying that the RPF inherited a difficult political situation. He explained that the preparation of othe genocide of Tutsi in 1994 created an economic crisis and that a strong military structure was needed to bring about peace and economic prosperity. He added that the selling off of state-owned companies and the increasing number of Tutsi seeking asylum in Western Europe and North America should be viewed in that context.
"Politicians like Sebarenzi Kabuye, former Speaker of the National transitional Assemby who fled to the US and RPF military officers who have sought asylum in Europe are individuals who have tried to destabilize the country. Rwanda cannot afford multiparty-democracy. For that reason the RPF has borrowed the no-party democracy, a style of democracy practiced in Uganda under Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. This type of democracy is the only way to insure the RPF victory at the polls." Joseph Muligande said.
Most participants denounced these views as extreme and antidemocratic and called for the demise of the RPF military dictatorship.
On Sunday, the President of the RPF in the US took the floor and resigned. He asked his Vice President to assume the presidency. He also announced that he had quit the RPF and left the convention. The Vice President immediately took the floor. He resigned and announced that he had also quit the RPF.
Professor Alexander Kimenyi, one of the founders of the RPF, took the floor. He told the audience that the RPF had betrayed Tutsi and should be disbanded. He added that he could no longer support an organization accused of crimes against humanity, violation of human rights, corruption and fascism.
The convention started on Saturday, September 2 and lasted until Sunday. Organisers say that more than 90 percent of RPF members who live in the US attended the convention.
According to a source who has asked to remain anonymous, Joseph Muligande and his delegation did not expect this turn of events. "Before he travelled to Detroit Muligande knew that there was dissent in RPF ranks but he expected to receive a standing ovation for RPF policies", added the source.
An expert on the Great Lakes Region of Africa told AfroAmerica that Joseph Muligande is not a member of Kagame's Akazu (corrupt Kagame's inner circle), the group of colonels that wields power in Rwanda. He is a born-again christian who does public relations for a military dictatorship.
Meanwhile Kagame has travelled to LaRoche College which is in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to receive an honary degree. According to his biography available on the website of Rwandan Government, Kagame has 4 years of high school and holds a certificate of management earned from London Open University. Some students at LaRoche Collge are worried that Kagame's visit may tarnish the reputation of the College. They cite accusations linking him to the shooting down of the plane carryig the President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundi Counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira, crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and the Democratic republic of the Congo, the genocide of Hutu, and numeous massacres in the Democratic Republic the Congo.
Among the Board of Directors members of the LaRoche College are Colonel Joseph Karemera, Rwandan Ambassador to South Africa and Mrs. Janet Museveni, the wife of President Kaguta Museveni of Uganda.
Kagame's delegation comprises: Ezechias Rwabuhihi, minister of health; Andre Bumaya, minister of foreign affairs; Aloysia Inyuma, Director for Human Rights in the President's office; Colonel Joseph Karemera, Ambassador to South Africa; Colonel Jacques Nziza, Director of the Department of military Intelligence (DMI); and Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Karegeya, Director of external security at DMI. Some Rwandan exiles say that Jackson Nziza and Karegeya are busy building an international network of hit squads to eliminate opponents to the Kagame Government. In the US this network of hit squads is allegedly targetting Mr. Sebarenzi Kabuye, former Speaker of the National transitional Assembly and Mr. Kigeli Ndahindurwa, the former king of Rwanda overthrown in 1959 during a popular uprising.
(c) AfroAmerica Network, September 2000
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