Proposals and routes to take to re-establish Rwanda

If we really want to construct a new Rwanda and prepare the future of the present and future generations, we must work to maintain the consensus of Arusha which aimed at splitting power for a transition period, which will have lasted 9 years, and the State of law where liberty, justice and democracy are the foundations of solid institutions. It is true that the Rwandan genocide, its forerunners and its many consequences ripped apart the social fabric and destroyed our families. In return, nothing is stranger than to use this to bury forever all symbols of the Republic and the positive achievements of the negotiations of Arusha contained in the fundamental law. Without a state of law there will be neither liberty nor justice and far less progress in the economic and political development of our country.

A realistic, coherent and viable policy for development must be put into action. This will require, in the framework of the process of economic reform, and whilst democracy, patriotism and political will put down roots, courage, application and tenacity, to successfully tackle the challenges of hidden youth unemployment in rural and urban situations, unemployment amongst qualified youngsters, the struggle of merchants, both small and large, today reduced to poverty by arbitrary actions, the erosion of the purchasing power of workers, the improvement and application of morals to public life. We must give back hope to the farming class and encourage cooperatives in all districts of our country.

To achieve a lasting peace in Rwanda and noticeable improvements in the life of its inhabitants, it is vital to conceive and implement well thought out actions, centred especially on the following priority objectives:

1. Change the prevailing mentalities by fighting racism as the basis of all power in Rwanda, and ensure the primacy of the legality of institutions and respect of the constitution.

2. Promote, at all levels, a new dynamic of education for the citizens, oriented round respect for human dignity, with effectively free primary education, and a considerable expansion in the number of teachers at secondary level and above.

3. Encourage the culture of political and democratic compromise in the pacific resolution of conflicts between national groups.

4. Promote popular participation in direct democracy and leave the right of initiative in the hands of civil society

5. Place man at the centre of the economy of our country and create jobs by all possible means.

6. Make the public administration into a national institutions and not the heritage of a few privileged members of the regime.

7. Concern oneself with public health and, more specifically, that directed towards the most vulnerable.

8. Guarantee justice, security for all and fight against unfair immunity to legal punishment.

9. Put an end to the recruitment of minors into the army and act to make the army truly national and not the property of an oligarchy.

10. Uphold the press in its role of instructing and informing the population in an objective manner.

11. Fight regionalism, nepotism, corruption, exclusion, treachery and cronyism.

12. Imbue the population with unifying values such as solidarity, mutual respect, fraternity and equality amongst citizens.

13. Fight all forms of worship of whoever holds power, instead re-establish the cult of personality in Rwanda.

14. Define diplomacy without arrogance, respect conventions, treaties and international accords, promote regional integration by politics of good neighbourliness, free circulation of goods and services and free movement of people.

15. Respect and honour the memory of our previous heads of State and other national heroes and suggest conditions under which the former king of Rwanda could return.

 In my programme I will certainly have time to set out the details of each of the above proposals. I can confirm, however, that the accomplishment of all these tasks will require efforts from each and every one of us. These efforts are necessary if we no longer wish to live in a country marked by permanent bloody conflicts but in one where the divisions and the losses of human life are relegated to history.