Rwanda opposition urges international pressure

By AFP
June7, 2010

NAIROBI — Three Rwandan opposition parties called Monday on the US government and the European Union (EU) to pressure their country's government into recognising and ceasing to hassle them.

The call came from the Unified Democratic Forces (UDF), the Democratic Green Party and a faction of PS Imberakuri -- the only one of the three that is registered in Rwanda.

In an open letter the three groups urged the EU to consider measures to force the government to register the political parties without any condition, including placing "conditions on the granting of financial support to the election process in order to ensure that the process is transparent and fair."

They said this means also ending the harassment of political opposition groups and allowing them to register, organise and campaign at grassroots level.

The parties urged removing legal clauses that restrict the freedom of expression, "in particular those that limit criticism of government policies and political leadership."

In another open letter addressed to the US Ambassador in Kigali, the three parties asked Washington to apply pressure to get the law on genocide ideology "clarified and fine-tuned so that it is not used by anyone to freeze political thoughts and dissent voices."

One of the signatories, UDF chief Victoire Ingabire, who was designated by her party as its candidate for the August 9 presidential election, has been charged with denying the 1994 Tutsi genocide and with harbouring genocide ideology.

The letter also said the Rwandan government should postpone the presidential poll "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."