Rwanda opposition calls on EU

By Catherine Ashton
EUX.TV/The European affairs channel
EU, EU Foreign Policy

BRUSSELS — A group composed of three opposition parties in Rwanda has called for “urgent action” from the European Union to use its international influence to prevent a further increase in social and political tension in the country.

Recent interview with US lawyer Peter Erlinder on YouTube
(see original article).

In an open letter to EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, the group said on Monday that the situation in Rwanda is in danger of “degenerating further” ahead of the August presidential elections, threatening peace and security in Rwanda and Central Africa.

“The very tension which is now felt both in the military and in the civil society in general is a result of the government’s repressive measures against those who do not tow the government line,” said the letter by the Permanent Council of Opposition Parties in Rwanda.

The Permanent Council of Opposition Parties in Rwanda brings together United Democratic Forces (FDU–Inkingi), the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and the Parti Social Imberakuri. These parties want to take part in the presidential elections scheduled for 9 August, but so far have not been allowed to register in the elections. The vote will be the second presidential election since the 1994 genocide.

Watch this 2008 EUX.TV interview with Paul Rusesabagina on post-genocide Rwanda
(see original article).
“We would like to request an urgent action from the part of the EU to use its influence to stop the situation from degenerating further.”

The group said it’s surprised that the EU currently is financing the electoral process in Rwanda while it’s clear that these are not democratic.

Peter Erlinder speaking on 22 May 2010 in Brussels from ICTR Legacy on Vimeo.

Peter Erlinder speaking on 22 May in Brussels about his Genocide Documents project.

The head of FDU-Inkingi, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, is currently under house-arrest and is not allowed to leave the country. A U.S. lawyer who travelled to Rwanda to defend her, Prof. Peter Erlinder, was arrested in Rwanda last month.

In jail and denied bail, Erlinder currently faces accusations of “genocide revisionism”, a law which was introduced earlier this year by Rwanda President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi. This law was designed to silence opposition by making it illegal to challenge the official government’s interpretation of the killing of about 800,000 people in 1994. According to the government, only Hutu tribe members engaged in a targeted genocide, while those people accused of “genocide revisionism” argue that both Hutu and Tutsi tribe member engaged in genocide.

Rwanda President Paul Kagame addresses ACP JPA in Kigali, November 2008.
(see original article).

Several opposition candidates in the presidential elections, including Victoire Ingabire, are facing legal proceedings in Rwanda under Kagame’s law on genocide revisionism.

“A proper process in the conduct of the forthcoming elections is a turning point in deciding the political and social development of Rwanda in the future,” writes the group in its open letter to the European Union.

“Supporting, condoning or turning a blind eye to a process that denies Rwandans a freedom of choice between different political programs through transparent competitive elections will be tantamount to complicity in creating seeds of political and social instability in Rwanda.”

The opposition groups collectively asked the EU to insist that the Rwanda government allows the political parties FDU-Inkingi and Democratic Green Party of Rwanda without any condition; that conditions will be put on financial support to the election process so that the process is transparent and fair; and that harassment of opposition parties ends.

They also asked the EU to insist that the Rwanda government creates an independent election commission in which opposition parties are represented as key actors in electoral process, and that the government postpones the elections “until the political situation is conducive to holding free, transparent elections and all political parties are given the right to exercise their civil and political rights fully.”

The opposition groups are “seriously concerned that flawed elections will further increase the social tension with unforeseeable consequences on the political and sustainable economic development of the country.”

For background, click here to read EUX.TV’s Raymond Frenken’s personal account from Rwanda in November 2008.