Rwanda: A Citizen’s Weekly Open Letter to President Paul Kagame-March 15

By Aimable Mugara
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

March 15, 2010

H. E. Paul Kagame
Office of the President
Republic of Rwanda
P.O. Box 15 Urugwiro Village
Kigali-Rwanda
Fax: +250 572431

Copy:

Chief Executive Officer
Editor-in-Chief
The New Times Publications SARL
Immeuble Aigle Blanc
P.O. Box 4953
Kigali - Rwanda

Dear General,

I write to you today, because unlike many people, I do not believe that Rwanda is beyond repair.

I believe that it is not too late to take the steps required to secure sustainable peace and prosperity for all Rwandan citizens. These are my personal opinions. I do not represent anyone but myself. I do however consider myself the voice of reason in the nightmare that has engulfed Rwanda since the war of 1990. As a relatively young Rwandan, I have been appalled by how people of your generation have failed my generation to this day. From killing millions of innocent civilians in Rwanda and neighboring countries, to jailing people without trial for 16 years, so much harm has been done by your generation. Some of you as I write today continue to put our nation’s future on the wrong track. I have had enough and cannot keep silent any longer. As Edmund Burke once said “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror any longer, were I to continue to be a silent witness to the future of my country being squandered away by people of your generation.

August 9th, 2010 is the scheduled date for presidential elections in Rwanda. This day can be an opportunity for a sustainable future, a future where all Rwandan citizens of all backgrounds live together in harmony, where all the fundamental human rights (as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) are respected for all citizens. Or, it could go down in the history books as another banana republic type of election, the type that we have come to expect from dictators around the world, such as the generals in Burma (Myanmar).

It is my commitment to write you once a week sharing my opinion about the state of affairs with regards to the upcoming election in Rwanda. There are 22 weeks left before Election Day.

Therefore, this is the first of 22 letters. I really care about my country’s future and it is an established fact that nations that abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have sustainable peace and prosperity as opposed to nations where these rights are trampled upon for one excuse or other. As a result, my weekly letters to you will be based on what your government is doing in Rwanda compared to what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires.

The current Rwandan law regarding the registration of political parties is completely unfair, in that it allows the ruling party a big say in whether an opposition party can be registered or not.

This is absolutely against Article 20 (i) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states thatThe fact that in Rwanda the ruling party, via its government officials, has the right to approve who can or cannot form a political party is already an insult to true democracy.

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Things get worse when these government officials abuse their power by infringing upon the citizens’ rights enshrined in Article 21 (i) and (iii). Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that:

(i) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(iii) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

It is with deep concern that I have been hearing about some opposition parties in Rwanda being denied the right to register as parties. As I mentioned earlier, there is a conflict of interest when members of the ruling party have an outsized influence on whether a new opposition party can be registered. So far, there have been many excuses from various Rwandan government officials as to why these political parties have been denied the right to register. Some of these excuses were funny, some of them ridiculous and some of these excuses were downright offensive to the human conscience. Some even go as far as to say that the tactics being used by your government officials to deny opposition parties the right to register are a form of military psychological warfare that you may have learned during the 4 years of 1986 to 1990 when you were the Head of Military Intelligence in the neighboring country of Uganda. If this were true, it would be shameful to use coercive military tactics against non-violent civilians.

I call upon you as the highest authority in the land to ensure that Article 20 and Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are applied in Rwanda today. Failure to do so will result in the upcoming elections in Rwanda joining the ranks of other dictatorship elections around the world as just a crowning ceremony of a dictator, and not a representation of the will of the people. It is up to you which path you choose and this will determine your legacy long after you have left this world.

I hope my letter next week becomes praise, which can only happen if the Rwandan government starts abiding by Article 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights mentioned above.

Thank you.

Aimable Mugara
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

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Rwanda: Rhetoric and the politics of genocide