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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE |
RDR
Rally for the Return of
Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda
Rassemblement pour le Retour des Réfugiés et la
Démocratie au Rwanda Ihuliro Liharanira
Itahuka ry’Impunzi na Demokarasi mu Rwanda Pour un
Peuple Reconcilié dans un Etat de droit - For a Reconcilied People in a Rule
of Law Duharanire
Ubwiyunge bw'Abanyarwanda mu Gihugu cyubahiriza Amategeko |
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Victoire Ingabire, President Postbus
3124 Rijswijk, Netherlands Phone/Fax : 00-31-180633822 |
Emmanuel Nyemera, Vice-President P.O. Box 5352, Postal Station B Montreal, Canada, H3B 4P1 Phone : 00-514-340 0618 |
The RDR is member of the coalition
Union of Rwandese Democratic Forces (URDF) |
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PRESS RELEASE NO. 6/2001
THE RDR REJECTS THE «NO PARTY»
ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN RWANDA
Persisting in violations of Rwandan citizens’ rights to
freedoms of association, peaceful assembly,
expression, movement and the right to take part in the government directly
or through freely chosen representatives as recognized by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter for Human and Peoples'
Rights, the dictatorial government of Rwanda led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF) is holding on 6 and 7 March 2001 non-free and unfair municipal elections
under the new brand of tyranny known as the «no party» system imported in
Rwanda from Uganda by the RPF. These municipal elections are a continuation of
«no party» elections initiated in March 1999 at cell and sector levels. On
behalf of the oppressed people of Rwanda struggling for the revival of
republican democracy, freedom and justice, the Rally for the Return of Refugees
and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) strongly condemns once again the Rwandan government’s
violations of civil and political rights by the continuous imposition of the
«no party» electoral system upon the people of Rwanda in the unique purpose of
prolonging indefinitely the RPF’s monopoly on power.
When the RPF seized power in July 1994, it formed a
government including leaders of its sympathetic factions in other political
parties existing at that time. On 24 November 1994, the RPF signed a protocol
of understanding on transitional institutions with its supportive factions of
the political parties (MDR, PDC, PL, PSR, PSD and UDPR) rewarded with posts in
RPF-controlled institutions and banned political party activities for all
organisations except for itself. This banning has closed all lawful modes of
expressing opposition to government policies and dictatorship by argument and
legitimate persuasion. Political parties inside Rwanda exist only in name;
political pluralism is apparent but not real. Political parties are not allowed
to campaign, to designate or back candidates in elections, to issue membership
cards nor to hold public meetings, gatherings or rallies. All candidates in
elections are designated by the government and are forced to stand as
individuals and not as representatives of political parties. Voter’s
registration is mandatory and election is compulsory. Citizens have no
alternative political programmes to choose from and vote for, they are only
asked to reveal their preferences among government-designated candidates. In true democratic elections, candidates
for election should freely be either representatives of political parties or
independents without any coercion. Every citizen should enjoy fully the option
to exercise his right to stand for and be elected at any level of government. The
Rwandan citizens should have the right to elect their leaders at all levels
through universal, direct, free, equal and secret ballot. The «no party» system
does not guarantee free and
fair competition for political leadership; it is far from
true democracy and political enfranchisement.
Voters in
Rwanda’s municipal elections will choose at sector level three councillors
(including a representative of the population, a representative of women and a
representative of youth) among government-designated candidates. Elected
sector’s councillors over all commune’s sectors will form the commune’s
council. The commune’s council, joined by a certain number of administrative
authorities elected at sector and cell levels in March 1999, will then
constitute the commune’s electoral college which will choose the commune’s
executive committee composed of 5 persons: the new mayor, a person responsible
for economic affairs, a person responsible for social affairs, a person
responsible for the promotion of women and a person responsible for the youth,
sports and culture. Ironically, this complex electoral system
replicates on the local level the electoral system for parliamentary elections
used under «one party» regime of the late General Juvenal Habyarimana military
opposed by the RPF. Under the National Revolutionary Movement for Development
(MRND)’s «one-party» regime, the population had to elect Members of Parliament
from the list of government-designated candidates. Mayors, or
commune burgomasters, and provincial governors
were appointed directly by the President since mid 1970’s. The election
of burgomasters could be considered as a break from the past but it is only a
cosmetic change which extends to the municipal level an old method in the
«one-party» system. The RDR finds it deplorable that
some democratic countries have financed elections which violate basic human
rights of the Rwandan citizens and institutionalize dictatorship. By ignoring abuses of civil and political
rights associated with the «no-party» system, some members of the international
community undermine the notion of the universality of human rights. It is
morally unacceptable that human rights be ignored in the case of Rwanda and be
used as sticks in foreign policy against other governments in the African Great
Lakes region or elsewhere.
The ban on political activities has forced
non-submissive democratic political organizations to go underground, establish
their headquarters in exile or take up arms. The reactions of Rwandan and
Ugandan governments have been always the same: rejection of any dialogue with
political opposition, recourse to government’s violence and show of force.
Instead of solving the root causes of the conflicts in their countries, Rwandan
and Ugandan military leaders have embarked on a terrorist campaign of displays of
their military might in order to persuade other countries of their armies’
invincibility and that any resistance to their will is pointless and brings
swift and ruinous retribution in the forms of sabotage, their sponsorship of
anti-government banditry or rebel movements and, in the last resort, invasion.
In these governments’ demonology, all proponents of democracy opposing the
current ruling cliques are globally portrayed as bandits without a cause,
corrupt or incompetent individuals or, in the case of Rwanda, Hutu
genocidaires. Internally, people are bombarded with government’s lies in the
columns of government-controlled press and air-waves of public radio and
television stations. Dictatorship and government’s violence in Rwanda and
Uganda have generated civil wars and disrupted the whole of the African Great
Lakes region. It is morally unacceptable to call for dialogue between the
Congolese government and its political opposition to pave the way to true
democracy in Congo and, at the same time, to support and aid dictatorial
regimes in Rwanda and Uganda. The RDR calls on the United Nations, the
Organisation of African Unity, the European Union, all democratic countries and
freedom-loving people and organizations to condemn the «no party» system of elections
and to condition all future aid flows to Rwanda and Uganda on steps taken on
the road to true democracy.
Done in
Montreal on 6 March 2001
For the
RDR
Emmanuel Nyemera, Ph.D.
Vice-President