Election brings new fear to Rwanda

President uses memories of genocide to win votes.

By James Astill
The Guardian
Monday 25 August 2003

In a muddy field on a misty east African hillside, President Paul Kagame ended his campaign for today's momentous Rwandan election by offering his people a life-or-death choice.

"Others are advocating genocide," he told a hushed crowd. "But you need not be afraid when you elect me on Monday. I will protect you."

Minutes later, he was gone, swept back to the nearby capital, Kigali, among a convoy of smartly dressed soldiers, while the crowd traipsed quietly away.

"Not everyone likes him," shrugged Laurence Riansofa - one of very few people willing to speak to a foreign journalist - as a flag of Mr Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) hung limply in her hand.

"But nearly everyone will vote for him. He put out the fires in 1994, and nobody wants to return to those terrible times."

Rwanda's first democratic election, nine years after Mr Kagame's Tutsi rebels overthrew the genocidal Hutu-fascist regime which presided over the murder of 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, has excited little hope among Rwandans, but a lot of fear.

By accusing all credible opponents of being intent on rekindling the genocide, Mr Kagame has raised fear of a return to Rwanda's violent past, human rights groups and western diplomats say. By imprisoning opponents and intimidating voters, he has deterred would-be opposition supporters.

"To call this an exercise in democracy is not an accurate description by the standards of any place in the world," Alison Desforges of Human Rights Watch said. "How can you talk of democracy when people are not free to express themselves?"

Faustin Twagiramungu, Mr Kagame's former prime minister and his only serious challenger, is standing as an independent because his Democratic Republican Movement party was abolished earlier this year, accused of "divisionism", a Rwandan codeword for ethnic hate. In the run-up to the election, he was branded a "proto-genocidaire" by an RPF official.

But, Mr Twagiramungu, a Hutu moderate who lost 32 relatives in the genocide, denied the charge.

"Either I'm stupid or the people in the RPF have no memory," he said, sitting on the balcony of the small flat in Kigali from where he was running his campaign.

"I myself used to be called a cockroach," he said, repeating the Hutu-fascist term for a Tutsi. "I lost my family because of these politics. Now, because I'm in opposition [the government] calls me a divisionist."

According to Human Rights Watch, six of his key supporters - mostly former members of Mr Kagame's government - have either fled Rwanda or "disappeared" in recent weeks.

A dozen campaign workers were arrested on Saturday by police who said they were planning violence to disrupt the election. They have not been charged.

Amnesty International says Mr Twagiramungu's campaign material has been seized by police, and his rallies frequently banned.

According to Mr Twagiramungu, his one remaining campaign tool was a photocopy of his business card: "If you're seen with this, you must eat it," he said, handing a copy to the Guardian.

"This is a typically communist way of conducting politics, a Stalinist method."

Despite consistent allegations of human rights abuses, Mr Kagame has remained a favourite of western donors, especially Britain.

Analysts say this is because of Mr Kagame's success in presenting the RPF as the only bulwark against a renewal of the genocide.

According to Ms Desforges: "A number of people in the Rwandan government realise that the genocide constitutes a political resource for use inside and outside the country."

MEP Glenys Kinnock, in Kigali as an election observer, conceded yesterday that donors might view Mr Kagame with a more critical eye after today's election.