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MARCH 27, 03:43 EST Rwanda Rulers Eliminate Opposition
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Political assassinations, army desertions and a growing opposition pose the latest challenge to Rwanda, where the behind-the-scenes rulers have again showed they are not yet ready to tolerate dissent for fear of letting the country slip into turmoil. President Pasteur Bizimungu's recent resignation was only the latest in a long line of departures of both Hutu and Tutsi politicians who have voiced opposition to the power in Rwanda being concentrated in the hands of a select few. The handful of young military leaders who run the country — impoverished and traumatized by the 1994 genocide that left more than 500,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus dead — follow a Spartan discipline and are committed to national reconciliation and free-market economics, but not to outright democracy. The government is struggling to build a consensus among bitter Tutsi genocide survivors, the majority Hutu population — who largely feel ostracized — and almost a million Tutsi returnees who spent more than 30 years in exile in Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Congo. The diaspora returned with different languages, mentalities and social customs. Security — established only recently after years of Hutu rebel attacks — has given rise to a political opposition, coming unexpectedly from the Tutsi genocide survivors who feel excluded from power by the Tutsi returnees and the Hutu business elite, some of whom have links to extremists responsible for the genocide. The genocide survivors want a complete break with Hutu political parties in the government and parliament, swift justice for 125,000 jailed genocide suspects, including public executions, an apology and financial compensation. But the inner circle of Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame — the former rebel commander, vice president, minister of defense, and undisputed No. 1 politician in Rwanda — has not tolerated such demands. Kagame led the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front from the refugee camps where they grew up in neighboring Uganda to eventual victory over the former government in July 1994. His troops stopped the 100-day genocide orchestrated by the former extremist Hutu government. Even though the RPF officially shares power with a half-dozen other political parties, Kagame now has the real authority. Supported by the United States and other Western governments, the RPF has been running a social laboratory, carefully balancing the different groups vying for power. Yet critics say the RPF has either tried to silence opponents or send them into exile. Joseph Sebarenzi Kabuye, a popular Tutsi and former speaker of the National Assembly, fled in January after he was accused of planning the return of the exiled Tutsi monarch to challenge Kagame. Last month, another prominent survivor and presidential adviser, Assiel Kabera, was gunned down in front of his house in downtown Kigali, apparently by men in uniform. No arrests have been made. The government has been equally harsh with its Hutu opponents. Last year, parliament became the weapon for attacking ministers and legislators suspected of graft and mismanagement. The first to go were three Hutu ministers and former Prime Minister Pierre-Celestin Rwigema, also a Hutu, who resigned on Feb. 28 on charges of corruption. All were political survivors of the late Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's government. Bizimungu, a 49-year-old Hutu technocrat who made a personal fortune before he fell out with Habyarimana in 1990, accused parliament of selectively going after Hutus — an explosive allegation in the country where ethnicity is often used as a political tool. But his speech attracted little sympathy and only exposed him to allegations that he was trying to hinder an anti-graft campaign that RPF leaders promised would spare no one, Hutus or Tutsis. The allegations led to his resignation, but again demonstrated the RPF's intolerance of dissent . ——— EDITOR'S NOTE: Hrvoje Hranjski has covered central Africa for The Associated Press since 1996. |
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