By RNA ReporterJuly 23, 2009
Kigali: The Belgian-based party which said on Monday that it will boycott the 2010 Presidential poll exists only in name and its controversial president Boniface Rutayisire is the sole member, according to sources familiar with its operations.
On Monday, Banyarwanda Party sent RNA a press statement saying it will not take part in the September 2010 poll because it is “organized by the RPF for the RPF”. He claimed the elections would be marred with fraud. The other Dutch-based FDU-Inkingi – which also wants to be in the elections, is still on course.
Then on Wednesday, a Rwandan journalist in Brussels Mr. Placide Gahiganwa who manages a popular online news service NKB telephoned RNA claiming that the “so called Banyarwanda Party does not exist”.
The service runs any genre of news on Rwanda for the community in Europe with pieces that tend to be critical of Kigali. Mr. Gahiganwa is also a former long-serving journalist at the Rwanda government-owned broadcaster ORINFOR.
He said he is not aware of anybody with membership in the controversial party other than its self-styled president Mr. Rutayisire.
“Are you really sure Banyarwanda Party exists with known members?” he asked amid prolonged laughter. “I personally know Rutayisire and have met him on several occasions but the thing he calls a party is just a platform for him to attract fame.”
Placide said he would write a piece for RNA detailing the operations of Banyarwanda Party to give readers a picture of who Mr. Rutayire really is. The piece is yet to arrive.
There has not been any comment from officials in Kigali yet, but they have often preferred to ignore such outbursts from exiled politicians.
Mr. Rutayisire is a popular voice on the BBC and VOA Kinyarwanda services. His comments, along with those of other two guests led to the suspension of the BBC on April 25. The British broadcaster has since been restored, but not without a warning to the American broadcaster.
He said on the same programme which did not air in Rwanda that the thousands of Genocide victims buried in Uganda are actually Hutus and not Tutsis as has been known since the 1994 Tutsi genocide. He stunned the host of the programme when he said the burial area is called “Hutu area”.
Kigali accuses Mr. Rutayisire and others of using these foreign airwaves to foment hate – with total disregard of the fragile nature of the country.
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