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RALLY FOR THE RETURN OF | |
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4, RUE A. CLUYSENAAR 1060 BRUXELLES BELGIQUE Tél: 32-2-5348035 Fax: 32-2-5348053 |
7, RESIDENCE MONTESQUIEU 49000 ANGERS FRANCE Tél/Fax: 33-41489987 |
November 21, 1995
Since the 1st October 1990, date when the RPF rebels invaded Rwanda, the people of Rwanda are going trough the most tragic period of their recent history. Massacres, fear, grief, injustice, violence, repression and falsehood are part of the daily problems that the rwandan people have to face.
The RPF has won a military victory, God knows at what human sacrifice, but fifteen months later it has not yet won the trust of the rwandan people.
The Front can not rehabilite the economy. Worse still, the RPF has spread its terrorism in the sub-region by its bloody attacks in refugee camps in Burundi and Zaïre and by organising acts of terrorism. The rwandan problem is political. It can not be solved militarily, and less by falsehood and manipulation of public opinion.
Given this sad and bitter reality, the RDR , faithful to its mission of defending the interests of refugees and other people excluded from the governance of the country feels duty bound to submit to the Heads of State, Heads of delegations and mediators the present memorandum that gives its point of view. of the country.
The crisis that the Great Lakes Region is facing is so complex that it goes beyond the sphere of the five countries invited to the Summit meeting:TANZANIA ,ZAIRE , UGANDA, RWANDA and BURUNDI .
Consequently the UN which already has manpower on the ground both in Rwanda and Burundi should play a more active role at the summit. While it is true that some of its officials have not performed very well , it remains true to say that the Organisation is still the only one that has the machinery and means of coercion to follow up decisions taken and ensure their implementation. Besides the UN was able in 1961 to organise a referendum which gave the rwandan people the chance to choose and put in place freely and democratically a system of government.
Kenya has always been taken geographically and politically as a partner within the countries of the Great Lakes Region. Indeed the first declaration of the ever first regional summit held on the rwandan refugee crisis in Nairobi in January 1995, has become an important reference document in all discussions aimed at finding a lasting solution as confirmed by the last OAU summit that took place in June 1995.
RDR considers the participation of Kenya in this conference as indispensable.
Given the fact that the refugee problem will be at the centre of discussions at the summit, it is the considered view of RDR that refugees should be validly represented as full partners in the present deliberations. Refugees know more than anybody else conditions that are conducive for their return in security and dignity.
RDR is of the view that the choice of mediators has been judicious in consideration of their wisdom and experience. Unfortunately some of them have in the past, consciously or unconsciously .endorsed the position of RPF, of its lobby and its godfather. It is for this reason that RDR will judge their neutrality and objectivity from the results of the meeting.
According to the Press Release issued by "CARTER CENTRE", important topics on the agenda are : repatriation of refugees, national reconciliation process and modalities for the future governance of the country.
At the DAR-ES-SALAAM regional summit held in DAR-ES-SALAAM in February 1991 on rwandan refugees, all the participants including the RPF agreed that there can never be durable peace in Rwanda as long as the refugees do not enjoy their inalienable right to return home and before political dialogue has been established between the RPF and the Rwanda Government.
At that time the number of refugees was around 500.000.
What was valid for the former 500000 former Tutsi refugees should remain so for the over 2.5 million Hutu refugees.
Unfortunately, former refugees who are now in power do everything possible to keep them in exile.
Inside the country, the government is maintaining a state of terrorism by carrying out massacres, arbitrary arrests and detention,disappearances of people, torture and a systematic repression which has always been applied in areas under its control all along the five year war. This is what had pushed a million people to abandon their homes and other property and go to live under abominable conditions in makeshift camps particularly in the outskirts of KIGALI.
It is in this spirit that the UNHCR report known as " the GERSONY Report " which brought to light the massacres of 30,000 people within 4 months in the northern region of the country, was put under embargo.
At the external level,RPF has carried out bloody attacks in refugee camps in Zaire and Burundi. In the same way,the Kigali regime is carrying out a campaign to demonize the refugees , labelling them collectively "criminals " and by publishing wild lists of suspects "criminals " who are no more than the people it considers real or potential political opponents.
Unfortunately, due to a campaign of intoxication carried out through the media and at the diplomatic level the serious violations of international humanitarian law are not brought to light and perpetrators of the "conspiracy of silence" refuse to identify these crimes. In the same way they are not interested in knowing the underlying causes of an exodus of millions of people and their reluctance to return home.
Refugees are not hostages of anybody, and when they refuse to accept repatriation spontaneously, it is because they have legitimate fears for their security, and human dignity once they land in the hands of RPF which they ran away from, and which has not given up its warlike tendencies.
In this regard, the refugees submitted a long time ago to the RPF and the international community minimum conditions for return in security in human dignity likely to reassure refugees and to create a basis for durable peace in Rwanda.
Conditions outlined by refugees for a voluntary , quick and peaceful repatriation, as well as the restoration of durable peace to Rwanda are the following :
1. An end to the climate of insecurity, summary executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and unexplained disappearances of innocent civilians carried out by the Rwandese Patriotic Front and its army.
2. Immediate and unconditional release of people detained illegally
3. Removing soldiers from the countryside where they are a source of terror and insecurity and confining them in barracks
4. Vacate and free immediately and without condition, property held illegally, without waiting for the return of their rightful owners. Indeed, the inviolability of private property is underpinned by a legal principle in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has been endorsed by the Protocol on the rule of law signed in Arusha on 18th Aug 1992, under art 1, chap 1.
In this connection, a legal instrument should be put in place by government to deal with defaulters.
5. The formation of a broad based government , that includes all political forces and shades of opinion representative of refugees as recommended in item 5 of the joint communique of the regional summit on Rwanda held in Nairobi on 7th January 1995, and an end to the policy of ethnic exclusion.
6. Formation of a national Army including elements of the Rwandese Patriotic Front and of the former Rwandese National Army now in exile.
7. Establishing a transitional Parliament that includes all political forces and shades of opinions representative of refugees.
8. Reorganise as soon as possible the judicial system and make it capable of safeguarding the rule of law;
9. Undertaking a firm commitment on allowing political pluralism by lifting the ban on normal political party activities in the country and the freedom of speech.
10. Set a timetable for local, parliamentary and presidential elections within a period not exceeding two years after the formation of a government that includes all political forces and shades of opinion that represent refugees.
The international community is continuing, against all logic and in total violation of international conventions pertaining to refugees, to exert pressure for a forced repatriation of refugees (that UNHCR calls accelerated repatriation).
The RPF reacts to the legitimate demands of refugees by the warlike speeches and brandishing an imaginary threat of invasion by refugees in order to justify over-rearmament.
The Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) is convinced that there will be no durable solution to the refugee crisis before RPF accepts political dialogue with the latter in order to discuss minimum conditions of security and dignity to be put in place. Calls to reconciliation and mutuel pardon made by eminent personalisation who include His Holiness Pope John Paul II, the Secretary General of the UN, BOUTROS BOUTROS GHALI and Archbishop Desmond TUTU failed to provoke a soul searching sentiment among the RPF leadership. Worse still the RPF has reacted negatively by resorting to a policy of revenge, ethnic and political exclusion.
Everybody, including refugees, agrees that massacres that took place in Rwanda, on the 6th April 1994 immediately after the announcement of President HABYARIMANA are horrendous and that perpetrators have to be punished. However victims of these massacres are found in all ethnic groups, just like their perpetrators. It is therefore sadistic, shameful and immoral for the KIGALI regime to use these massacres as a political alibi to justify in the eyes of the public, its gross violations of human rights and legitimise its illegal hold on power seized through force of arms.
It is now an open secret that RPF commited and still continue to commit atrocities. Just to mention but a few, the latest reports made by Mr S. DESOUTER and Professor P. REYNTJENS of June 1995, on the violations of human rights by the RPF/RPA, based on over a hundred sources including human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FIDH, Human Rights without Borders and on UN sources, gives a horrifying account of massacres committed by the RPF.
Some examples will suffice to prove the point : massacres of KISARO-BYUMBA (1994), massacres of 1750 people at SAVE-BUTARE( UNAMIR saw some of the corpses), the massacres of KIRWA-BYUMBA, massacre of 30.000 people(from 9th to 20th April 1994) at NYABWISHONGWEZI-BYUMBA, massacres of GICUMA (15.05.1994), massacres of MUKINGI-GITARAMA (20-21 June 1994), massacres in the Volcanos National Park (3-4 August 1994), massacres of KABARE-KIBUNGO(1994), massacres at the regional stadium of Byumba and Byumba Girls College (April-May 1994) massacres at a camp for the displaced in NYINAWIMANA and BUGARURA-BYUMBA (1994), massacres of GISHALI-MUHAZI (1994) as well as massacres of NYARUBUYE-KIBUNGO (reported by REFUGEE INTERNATIONAL) which has become a place for pilgrimage in honours of the victims of "genocide".
One could also mention massacres at the Catholic Church of MBYO-KANZENZE-KIGALI ( AUGUST 1994), of KAYUMBA-KANZNZE (SEPTEMBER 1994), of EAVK-NGOMA-BUTARE (June 1994), in the Arboretum of the National University of Rwanda and in the valley of RWASAVE where UNAMIR and a delegation of Amnesty International were refused access as well as RANGO-NGOMA where more than 600 people were massacred altogether.
It will be difficult to forget KIBEHO massacres (April 1994) of KANAMA (September 1995) and massacres et IWAWA island (November 1995).
It is therefore clear that the RPF is not as clean as it pretends and that those who preach reconciliation should not talk of pardon in one way but of mutual pardon.
With regard to International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ITR), whose delay in its work, is used by RPF to justify its violations of Human Rights, RDR would like to reiterate that refugees supported the tribunal since its creation and still supports it.
They only reject the transformation of the Tribunal into a forum for a political trial against an ethnic group or political class.
While refugees are prepared to cooperate with the Tribunal, RPF is pushing for a political trial which would get rid of its real or potential political opponents.
It is in this spirit that the RPF rejected the Tribunal on the grounds that it does not provide for death sentence.
The RPF is so determined to sabotage the work of the Tribunal that it has refused the transfer of the cases of more than 100.000 people now languishing in prison for more than one year without trial, to the International Criminal Tribunal. The situation in the prison is so pitiful that the RPF is ashamed to allow visitors to prisoners.
Furthermore, the RPF is negotiating the extradition of suspects who are outside Rwanda, in order to take them away from the jurisdiction of the ITR and thus be able to condemn them to death without any possibility of making an appeal.
On many occasions the RPF has threatened to carry out terrorists acts anywhere its suspects are found and hang them. Whether the Tribunal accelerates its work or stalls, it will not change the plan of RPF massacre people it considers suspects.
The case of suspects who are languishing in prisons that have turned into death chambers proves beyond doubt that justice for RPF is an empty word. While it pretends that it has no funds to rehabilitate the judicial system so as to clear those pending cases, it has enough money to buy arms and pay handsomely its lobby agencies.
The refusal to accept international legal expertise offered generously by the UN proves the bad faith of RPF.
The Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) insists that the ITR shows the same enthusiasm in investigating crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the RPF-Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). This work falls with the jurisdiction of the Tribunal as provided by resolution 955 of the Security Council.
It is at this price that justice will be done to the people of Rwanda, not to RPF, and that it will lay a solid foundation for national reconciliation.
Indeed if the international community, and the RPF are convinced that the present tragedy in Rwanda is the outcome of a "culture of impunity by former regimes", they should be consistent and realise that the impunity of RPF carries automatically with it, seeds of another tragedy.
The present RPF regime was imposed by military force and can not be considered a durable solution to the rwandan crisis.
At the time that the RPF took power, ARUSHA, and the constitution adopted on the 10th of June 1991 constituted the Fundamental Law on which the governance of the country would be based. The Fundamental Law which RPF freely agreed to subscribe to, acknowledged the following basic principles :
1. Establishment of the rule of law ;
2. Power sharing between political forces without any discrimination ;
3. Return of refugees and their integration in all fields of national life.
Up to this day, the governance of the country is not guided by the Fundamental Law. The country is run according to the whim of the military leadership of RPF. Indeed the ARUSHA Peace Agreement, on which RPF regime pretended that it based its rule, was emptied of its real meaning by the creation of a powerful post of Vice-President and reducing the post of Prime Minister to a ceremonial post, and used for window dressing. One may add the exclusion of political forces opposed to RPF.
The RPF has postponed indefinitely elections and suspended political party activities, which undermines the protocol on the Rule of Law signed in Arusha. RPF has already declared that in case the elections take place,it will be opposed to the principle of "one man one vote ".
RPF has a de facto monopoly of power. It coopts the one it wants and dismiss him whenever it wishes so. The recent dismissal of the former Prime Minister TWAGIRAMUNGU FAUSTIN ( and three other ministers ) for having picked the courage ,during a cabinet meeting held on 25th August 1995,to denounce the role of the RPF army in the perpetration of insecurity ,is just a tip of the iceberg.
The deployment all over the country and in all field of national life of a political force called ABAKADA ( CADRES ) like in the Stalinist Russia,to instil fear and submission to RPF is meant to strengthen its hold on the political life of the country.
RPF is a political organisation like any other and has no right at all to usurp the sovereignty of the people in the choice of its leadership.
This is why modalities agreed upon between RPF and all those who are excluded from the governance of their country,must be found in order to arrive at a civilised ,democratic and peaceful management of the country.
This system include opening the political system to all shades of political opinion based on the Arusha Peace Accord, on the recommendation of the Nairobi declaration of January 1995, and on guarantees of all fundamental human rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and taken up in the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda of June 10,1991, among which the freedom of association .
The Rwandese Patriotic Front ( RPF ) fears power competed through free and democratic elections which would inevitably transfer power to political majority outside RPF armpit. In order to reassure everybody,it is recommended that constitutional safeguard be put in place to protect minority rights.
The summit is being held on the eve of the deadline of December 31st agreed upon between the Zairian government and UNHCR for all rwandese refugees to have left Zaire.
Considering that the problem that caused the exodus of rwandese people and prevented them from going back,i.e insecurity and political discrimination ,are still prevailing,it is vital that the summit decides on the postponement of that time limit, and focus seriously on the root causes of the rwandan crisis.
Furthermore,the present summit is taking place amid the rising of a new type of international terrorism sweeping the Kivu region in Zaire, where most of rwandese refugees live.
During this summit, all endeavour should be done in order to diffuse the tension by condemning strongly any use of terrorism in trying to resolve political problems of the sub-region.
National reconciliation is a necessary passage if one is to avoid self destruction of the country. In order to end the impunity,every criminal must be punished. For this to happen, crimes committed by RPF both in the past and present must be investigated and punished.
With regard to the governance of the country,ARUSHA Peace Agreement and Nairobi declaration are useful references to serve as basis to broaden the political power base .
Amendments that are necessary would be discussed between the RPF and representatives of all those excluded from the power ,under the auspices of mediators and in the presence of the United Nations to guarantee the neutrality.
Whatever the case, RPF administration is a product of a military coup and obviously can lead to a deadlock.
Governance that emanates from the wishes of the people expressed through free and fair elections is the only one that can pave a way for peace and development.
The Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) wishes full success to the summit and promises its readiness to leave no stone unturned to restore peace in Rwanda and in the sub-region of the Great Lakes.
