Rwanda: Stifling Dissent by Intimidation, Blackmail, and/or Repression Will not Deter Our Quest for a Just and Equitable Society That Respects the Fundamental Rights and Freedom of All its Citizens

Press Release PP No. 01/Feb/10

Rwanda: Stifling Dissent by Intimidation, Blackmail, and/or Repression Will not Deter Our Quest for a Just and Equitable Society That Respects the Fundamental Rights and Freedom of All its Citizens

Once again, the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC), a service of Kigali regime, has launched under the Project N°01/CS/RDRC/2010 yet another Request for expressions of Interest for international consultants to target the opposition including RUD-Urunana leadership. The aim of such project is, among others goals, to supposedly counteract the vigorous campaign conducted in foreign lands by the leaders of opposition parties and provides the regime with tools that will allow the Rwandan government to challenge the opposition assertions.

It is shocking and appalling of seeing a so-called national institution having recourse to bogus studies to intimidate, blackmail, and silence the opposition political leadership. One would remember huge sums of money that have been allocated to African Rights to produce questionable reports. It is a well known fact that Rakiya Omaar of African Rights has been a staunch RPF supporter and has been collaborating with the Rwandan intelligence for a very long period of time. Therefore, no-one would be surprised with the kind of reports that have been submitted by such an organization. Such reports are tantamount to governmental reports that have been recently issued by Mucyo and Mutsinzi’s commissions. Several reputable observers have indicated that most of such work was full of inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and propaganda on the Rwandan regime behalf.

There is persistent information stating that, at the end of this upcoming contract, the Rwandan regime will spend close to a million dollars in this overall operation. Such amount of resources would be enough to cover tuitions of thousands of kids who can not afford to go to school, pay salaries of thousands of teachers, pay medicine of impoverished peasants and/or refurbish several health care centers in rural areas. Hence, spending huge resources while the great majority of rwandans are starving, is not only a sign of bad governance and management, it is irresponsible and immoral.

A lot of rwandans question the real role of the RDRC. There are a lot of reports stating that the demobilized elements of the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) and new Hutu returnees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been enrolled by coercion either in the CNDP troops or have been asked to join RDF units that were and still are deployed in eastern DRC. However, such violation of basic demobilization principles has never been denounced by the RDRC.

In a country where lawful dissent is criminalized, prohibited, and/or repressed forcefully, there is no place of democratic debate. This has been one of the significant traits of the Rwandan regime since its inception. The continuous flow of refugees flocking in neighboring countries is a blatant evidence of such brutality. In addition, the latest persecution and repression that have been unleashed on several political opponents who want to challenge the RPF hegemony in upcoming sham electoral process have confirmed what our organization has been saying all along: such election can and will neither be free nor fair as longer Kagame’s regime is not genuinely interested in finding solutions to underlying problems of our homeland.

Our organization remains strongly convinced that there is no need of hiring the so-called "international experts" whose conclusions are already known in advance. If the Rwandan regime were really keen and interested to know what our organization proposes to tackle challenges that besiege our homeland, it should let the Rwandan government sits around the same table in a neutral setting with the opposition, the Rwandan civil society and discuss all the issues that have plagued our country for a very long time. In such case, the coalition of RUD-Urunana and RPR is ready to fully participate and to contribute without any reservation to the success of such endeavor.

As our organization has always pointed out, the Rwandan problem is political in nature and requires political solutions. To find lasting solutions to the overall problem of the Rwandan refugees in the region, it is important that the root causes of the political instability be addressed. It is our firm conviction that as long as the underlying causes of the rwandan political problems would not genuinely be addressed, the populations of the region will neither enjoy lasting peace nor sustainable development and prosperity.

In order to foster a reconciliatory Justice system, the only foundation of genuine Reconciliation, we urgently ask to hold, under the auspices of the International Community, an Inter-Rwandan Dialogue. In addition, our organization calls for the organization of a "Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation" Commission in our homeland that would help heal a traumatized society.

Our organization remains convinced that only this Dialogue would lead to lasting peace, stability, and the establishment of new political, judiciary, and security institutions that would meet the legitimate aspirations of all the constitutive groups of the Rwandan society.

February 12, 2010

By Dr. Augustin Dukuze
Spokesperson
RUD-Urunana
Rally for Unity and Democracy

National Democratic Congress (NDC) - Congrès National pour la Démocratie (CND)