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An incoherent “patriotic” policy

If the balance of politics of the preceding regime used to favour regionalism above all else whilst scandalously excluding the Tutsis from public office, the patriotic policy of the current FPR regime plunges the country into an unprecedented gulf of exclusion. We have simply returned to the colonial era and absolute monarchy. We are all victims of it: those in exile as much as those remaining at home who are reduced to silence in their own country.

In the name of transparency the new governors, making the most of a record transition period of nine years, have not stopped deluging the Rwandans and the international community with chatter and confused and incoherent reports which merely result in rendering opaque discriminatory practices and revealing to the public eye serious insufficiencies in the management of public affairs. We are Rwandan, but we do not all enjoy the same chances.

So what to do? A change of policy seems to be necessary. It cannot be otherwise. It makes itself obligatory.

In similar conditions the repeated calls to solidarity and national cohesion can have no mobilising effect, given the huge frustration of the numerous victims of exclusion and marginalisation. Rwandans from all levels of the administration wish to take part in the management of their country, but not at all costs and above all they do not want to be pawns, “yes men”, or instruments of power.

Confronted with all these difficulties it is time to move to political action, to enthuse the Rwandan people with a new hope. We must re-establish in full their legitimacy, their primacy and their sovereignty.

My convictions and my previous political experience

On the first of September 1990 I became politically engaged by signing a letter, with 32 other Rwandans, addressed to the president of the Rwandan republic to ask him to put into practice the idea behind his speech of the 5th of July 1990 on multi party politics, by authorising us to establish political parties. This letter, to which we attached a declaration on multi-party politics in Rwanda, never received a reply. I therefore took the initiative, no one can contradict me on this, to first of all create a association and then a party which was to become the MDR party (republican democratic movement).

It was from within this party that I was able to put forward my ideas and clarify the values that I still defend today. I was challenging the power of one single man, a dictatorship in other words, Cronyism, the systematic exclusion of Tutsis from power, regionalism in the army, in education and in the public service in a very general manner, the ascendancy of the “akazu” in institutions and, lastly, corruption. After 17 years of dictatorial power, through a national conference (Rukokona), in fashion at that time in black Africa especially in West Africa, the people could express themselves, bury their differences and thus prepare themselves for a new democratic culture. The Rwandan patriotic front attacked our country on the first of October 1990 and thus ruined the project of a national conference despite having been invited to be part of it. This conference was to be formally replaced by the negotiations of the Arusha peace treaty.

President of the MDR party and prime minister 1994-95

In the role of the president of the MDR from 31st August 1992 I was presented as the candidate for the role of prime minister by my supporters and by the other political parties including the MRND. As such I was to direct the transition government from the broad base of the FPR (GTBE) I was also recognised by the FPR. Following the victory of the latter, pushed forward by the international community and wishing to be useful to my country at that time, I left Belgium where I had taken refuge since May 1994 to go to Kigali to direct the government of national unity in accordance with the spirit (and not the letter!) of the Arusha peace accord. As nominal prime minister I made a speech on the 19th of July 1994 but power remained in the hands of a single “strong man” and the army. Following my declarations, which were judged annoying by some and appropriated by others, following also my permanent disagreement with the FPR on many points, I resigned on 28th August 1995 after 13 months of increasing frustration.

I returned to Belgium where I had spent 7 years observing. I tried everything during this period to get my compatriots in Rwanda and abroad to understand each other. I often ran up against incomprehension and extremism from some of them.

Lessons drawn from my introspection and from my contacts:

the fight against exclusion

 If I have chosen since June 2001 to hold myself out of the limelight of national political news, if I chose a form of silence, it was mainly because I felt deceived. I also wanted to be face to face with myself and to give myself the time and the detachment necessary for serene and responsible reflection.

Since 2001 I have increased my contacts with foreign politicians including MPs, ministers and heads of state. I received visits from many Rwandans from different walks of life in Rwanda, both Hutus and Tutsis, who have no political background, have not appeared in the press and never speak on the radio. This does not prevent them from having an opinion on the current regime. They want a change in Rwanda because the country, wounded by the massacres and the crimes against humanity like genocide, is directed by an oligarchy whose arrogance and violence at home and abroad, handicaps both political and economic progress. This affects Rwanda but also the region of the Great Lakes.

I drew on my contacts with Rwandans and other Africans, Europeans and Americans and learnt a lot about our values and about universal values. I will defend everywhere and always, justice, liberty, tolerance, consensus, solidarity between peoples, equal opportunities, work as a basis for the autonomy of the individual, education as a base for knowledge and any kind of progress and, lastly, the love of neighbour and of nation. I will always fight against exclusion and racism in all its forms. So that these values can be effectively defended, I have to live in a New Rwanda where peace and security are guaranteed by a State of law and by institutions of a real democracy rather than by an individual or an oligarchy. I will respect solid institutions which are to my people’s liking rather than individuals who intimidate me, harass me and threaten me with death or imprisonment.

Whilst I was still prime minister I chose to continue to tell the truth, despite only having the power that the fundamental law gave me. This law was negotiated at Arusha and signed in 1993 as an Accord, which was then mutilated by the declarations of the current military regime. I entered the so-called Government of ‘National Unity’ because I aspired to govern as correctly as possible, to reconcile and console the Rwandan people, but above all to tell the truth.

Despite the genocide, I wanted to dedicate myself to the construction of the State, to the restoration of its authority, security and social peace. My preoccupation was to conceive and to put into effect, without constraints or violence, acts and forms of organisation capable of bringing together and engaging all the sons and daughters of Rwanda in the work of reconstructing the country, re-establishing confidence and eradicating unfair immunity from legal punishment.

My idea remains noble and I still believe in it but the lack of political means and the hostile environment have cruelly prevented me from realising it. My aim to combat unfair immunity to punishment under law remains the same – all criminals are the same and deserve the same punishment.

I remain opposed to all inhuman and degrading torture by ‘kiboko’ or whip and particularly by ‘ingoyi’ or ‘kandoya’ (a method of torture where the upper limbs are tied in an appalling manner behind the back of the victim).