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Viewing cable 07KIGALI6, RWANDA: OVERSEAS OPPOSITION PARTIES

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07KIGALI6 2007-01-04 08:00 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Kigali
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #0006/01 0040800
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 040800Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3604
INFO RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 1602
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 0801
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1511
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0161
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0715
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0192
UNCLAS KIGALI 000006 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR RW
SUBJECT: RWANDA: OVERSEAS OPPOSITION PARTIES 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary.  Opposition political parties based 
outside Rwanda appear fractured and ineffectual, composed of 
disparate groupings of disaffected former officials or 
relatively unknown politicians nursing various grievances 
against the present government.  What unites them is a 
visceral dislike for the Kagame regime, a focus on ethnic 
politics, and an often poor appreciation of the realities of 
present-day Rwanda.  Prospects for useful dialogue with the 
GOR appear to be slim.  End summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) In the fall of 2006 in Brussels, a new Rwandan 
political coalition publicly announced itself:  the 
FDU-Inkingi/UDF (Forces Democratiques Unifiees/United 
Democratic Forces).  The coalition appears to be an umbrella 
grouping of Rwandan opposition groups operating in Europe, 
particularly Belgium.  Three parties form the core of the 
FDU:  the ADR (Alliance Democratique Rwandaise/Rwandese 
Democratic Alliance), the FRD (Forces de Resistance pour la 
Dmocratie/Resistance Forces for Democracy), and RDR 
(Rassemblement Democratique Republicain/Republican Rally for 
Democracy in Rwanda).  Several minor political personalities, 
unattached to any party, are also members of the coalition. 
 
3.  (U) Two other umbrella coalitions of opposition parties 
remain formally active: Partenariat- Intwari(which includes 
CAN-Ubumwe, FDLR-CMC, and PDN), and PDN-Igihango.  While 
Partenariat-Intwari issues press releases, PDN-Igihango 
appears to be no longer operational. 
 
4.  (SBU) Another recent entrant in expatriate opposition 
politics is PDR-Ihumure, the political party of Paul 
Rusesabagina, the hero of "Hotel Rwanda." He has 
distinguished himself by writing letters to the Queen of 
England and the ICTR Prosecutor, calling for punishment of 
President Kagame and other RPF officials for various offenses 
during and after the genocide.  Jerome Nayigiziki is the 
Secretary General. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
5.  (U) The avowed purposes of these various political 
formations are high-minded and uncontroversial: in their 
communications they often tout such principles as the 
establishment of the Rule of Law and respect for 
international democratic standards, a "genuine" multi-party 
democratic system, an all-inclusive national dialogue, an end 
to discrimination, equal opportunity for all the Rwandan 
citizens, repatriation of refugees and their resettlement and 
reintegration, reorganizing the national economy, and the 
restoration of peace and security in the region. 
 
6.  (SBU) However, their particular critiques are often 
emotional and heavy-handed.  Generally led by disaffected 
Hutu politicians and officials, they have two main 
accusations: lack of sufficient political space in Rwanda, 
and RPF participation in massacres and other human rights 
violations during and after the genocide.  However, they also 
attempt to monitor events in Rwanda, making long-distance 
critiques of GOR policies large and small, from the conduct 
of gacaca trials, to the temporary banning of motorcycles in 
Kigali, or the cutting of banana trees in the countryside. 
Their comments are generally extreme and often ill-informed, 
attributing the most heinous of motivations to the most 
mundane of decisions, and often having their facts not quite 
right.  For example Rusesabagina accused the GOR of a 
"state-sponsored crime against Hutus" in its conduct of 
gacaca trials, and one of the parties affiliated with the FDU 
called a district government campaign to reduce banana 
plantations in downtown Gitarama "Gestapo tactics." 
 
7.  (SBU) The recent three-day National Dialogue in Kigali, 
December 18-20, met predictable condemnation by the FDU and 
Partenariat-Intwari.  In the Dialogue,  senior GOR officials 
from all levels and branches of government debated progress 
on reconciliation (expressing deep concern over recent 
murders of genocide survivors), reviewed national development 
goals, and discussed "political space" (their finding: it 
exists).  President Kagame also signed new performance 
contracts with the 30 district mayors, following a review of 
their 2006 operations.  FDU and Partenariet-Intwari dismissed 
the Dialogue as a "false forum" and an illustration of 
Kagame's domination of the country. 
 
8. (SBU) Some direct contacts have occurred between these 
expatriate political formations and local Rwandans.    For 
example, Dr. Naason Munyandamutsa, the research director for 
IRDP, a government-affiliated think-tank that has published 
interesting papers on political parties, participated in a 
Spanish government program for Rwanda political formations in 
Barcelona in June last year.  Both Partenariat Intwari and 
the FDU attended.  Several days of discussions on Rwanda and 
its future led to the drafting of an 18-point program for 
action that that Munyadamutsa characterized as bitterly 
critical, and uncompromisingly opposed to the GOR and all its 
programs.  "There was nothing for me to do but leave," he 
said. 
 
9.  (SBU) Comment.  In a recent conversation with emboffs, 
Pierre Gakwindi, former secretary general of the dissolved 
MDR party, said parties overseas and the GOR "need to find 
ways to speak to each other."  Otherwise, "they just exchange 
insults."  So far, we are not aware of any fruitful dialogue 
between the two sides.  To advance its reconciliation goals, 
the GOR presumably wishes for a positive and supportive 
environment among Rwandan citizens outside the nation as well 
as internally.  The GOR has had good success organizing 
"Diaspora" sessions with sympathetic Rwandans in the United 
States and other western nations.  Yet it also faces harsh 
criticism from these small political groupings.  We see no 
near term change in this polarized relationship.  End 
comment. 
 
10.  (SBU) Bio Notes on expatriate umbrella political 
organizations: 
 
--Leadership of the FDU:  President: Victoire Ingabire 
Umuhoza, resident of the Netherlands since before 1994 
genocide.  Relatively young (37), she is stridently opposed 
to President Kagame personally and RPF generally.  She is 
also President of the RDR, and a Hutu. 
 
First Vice President: Eugene Ndahayo. Former MDR member and 
Twagiramungu s Director of Cabinet in the Prime Minister's 
Office until 1995, he is the son of a former politician and 
influential Minister during President Kayibanda  s regime. 
He is also President of the FRD party, and a Hutu. 
 
Second Vice President: Ambassador Ndagijimana Jean Marie 
Vianney. He is a former Ambassador to France in the 
Habyarimana government and former Minister of Foreign Affairs 
in 1994 for the RPF.  He left Rwanda in November 1994 on an 
official mission and did not return. Said to have some 
influential friends in French political arenas, he is Hutu. 
 
Secretary General: Dr Mberabahizi Jean Baptiste: He a Member 
 
SIPDIS 
of Parliament representing PSR (Rwandese Socialist Party), 
and left Rwanda in 1996.  He is the son of a former 
politician in President Kayibanda s regime, and President of 
the ADR.  He is Hutu. 
 
--Partenariat-Intwari: ostensibly led by General Emmanuel 
Habyarimana, a Hutu and former Minister of Defense until 
2002. He now lives in Switzerland.  General Habyarimana has 
ceded effective operation of the coalition to his lieutenants 
as he pursues an advanced degree at a Swiss university.  The 
party is essentially run by Do Mushayidi, Secretary General 
and President of PDN.  Mushayidi, a journalist and Tutsi 
genocide survivor from Kibuye, was formerly an RPF cadre and 
worked in the RPF Secretariat. He left the country in 1999 
and lives in Brussels. 
 
--PDN-Igihango: was initially created by Valens Kajeguhakwa, 
a Tutsi businessman, owner of Banque Continentale Africaine 
au Rwanda (BACAR) and former member of Parliament who fled 
the country on fraud charges, Joseph Sebarenzi, Tutsi, former 
Speaker of the Transitional Parliament who fled the country 
in 1999, Deo Mushayidi, Pierre Clstin Rwigema, former Prime 
Minister until 2000, as well as by some political and 
military people close to the FDLR.  Operating on the 
principal of the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend, the 
coalition sought political support from both Hutus and Tutsis 
and intended some sort of affiliation with FDLR military 
commanders.    Mushayidi later joined General Habyarimana in 
Partenariat-Intwari.  Sebarenzi is rumored to be negotiating 
his return to Rwanda. 
 
 
ARIETTI