Dear compatriots,You read several press releases that I recently issued as well as other communications in English, French and Kinyarwanda languages by which I urged Rwandans of the voting age to boycott the August 9, 2010 presidential elections in Rwanda .
This is an important call upon you by all lovers of democracy with the objective to show to General Paul Kagame that we can no longer tolerate his criminal authoritarian regime. Abstention from voting remains the only efficient means by peaceful citizens to reject the candidate of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
We shall abstain from voting to demonstrate to the World our rejection of a dictatorial regime that denies us all freedoms in our country. Contrary to RPF’s methods, we shall not resort to violence, destruction or murder. Our unchanging claim is that we need democracy; we refuse persecution, arbitrary detention, torture and murder at our gate.
The strongest reason why we shall abstain from August 9 election is that we got to the point where we are just fed up with a notoriously criminal President who is seeking to be forcibly renewed in his functions. Definitely General Kagame’s re-election means the status quo where opposition is pushed aside and even assassinated as is currently the case in Rwanda . General Kagame is well aware that he cannot stand in front of Rwandans and say he has clean hands: he knows better than whoever that his hands are blood-maculated as evidenced below:
General Kagame confessed to have assassinated two Presidents: Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprian Ntaryamira of Burundi. The current President of Rwanda is quoted as explaining to journalist Stephen Sackur of BBC during HARD TALK SHOW on December 7, 2006 why he [General Kagame] had killed Habyarimana : “[LAUGHING] but of course Habyarimana, having been on the other side that I was fighting, it was possible that he could easily die”. [End of quotation].
There is overwhelming evidence that it is General Kagame who assassinated flagship leaders who were seen as the hope of Rwanda : Mr. Félicien Gatabazi, Mr. Emmanuel Gapyisi and Mr. Seth Sendashonga. Those prominent politicians were followed by many other victims of Kagame’s cruelty including Colonel Augustine Cyiza, Dr. Léonard Hitimana and Mr. Assiel Kabera.
General Kagame is proud of his criminal assaults against innocent civilians as this is frequently noted in his speech. Addressing the Rwandan Parliament, General Kagame said: “Whatever I promise I deliver. I promised to repatriate refugees from Congo and I dit it. Those who refused to return, I shelled them and killed them.” Still, before the Parliament, General Kagame was full of praise about himself saying how he would use, if necessary, a hummer to kill a fly. We cannot forget President Kagame promising, while in a meeting in Bwisige in 2003, to “grind some people like maize”, meaning he would kill them. To demonstrate his “milling capacity”, President Paul Kagame killed the above mentioned Colonel Cyiza and Dr. Hitimana.
Also to demonstrate he can kill flies, he sent his death squads in South Africa to hound and assassinate General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. The latter survived the attack, which is not the case for journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage and the Vice-President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda Andrew Kagwa Rwisereka. Diversion by General Kagame and his Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo to deny responsibility in the above mentioned murders and assassination attempt cannot work against damning evidences.
Apart from the many crimes committed against Rwandans and Westerners following which he is now under two international arrest warrants, General Kagame does not deserve re-election because of war crimes and looting he committed against the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo for his personal gains. He is seeking re-election in order to enjoy eternally presidential immunity.
We have no reason why to re-elect General Kagame on August 9, 2010 because:
a) He does not guarantee people’s security nor peace of mind. With Kagame, there is no hope for tomorrow.
b) Kagame proved incompetent as regards to solving Rwandan refugee problem. He seems to ignore the same refugee problem was the origin of the 1990 RPF war that culminated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda . Instead, Kagame is forcing more and more Rwandans to exile.
c) General Kagame will not end the ethnic conflict in Rwanda as he continues to exacerbate it under false pretention that he stopped “the genocide of the Tutsi” while he is dehuminizing the Hutu.
As long as we are not allowed to live peacefully in our country, President Kagame’s claims that he has brougth development progress will be meangless. Dictatorship cannot be conducive to progress while citizens live in permanent fear. We prefer to be poor and free than rich under the captivity of a notorious killer. Such richness is anyway doomed and leads only to destruction.
Rwandans cannot afford to trade all the lives that were sacrificed on different altars (in Rwanda as well as in the rainy forestes of the DRC) for electricity, computers, methane gas, Coltan and mansions in Kigali . There is nothing worth all the sacrifices we have made, and we did not make them to turn ourselves stateless, live in conflicts and lose our freedoms. We did not fight previous dictatorships and make sacrifices to put in place Kagame’s harsher dictatorship. Our claim is clear and irrevocable: Modern Leadership, Social cohesion and freedoms in our country Rwanda .
Dear compatriots,
This is time join hands and speak up, without fear, against the criminal ruler who is seeking re-election in Rwanda .
Signed in Brussels , on July 30, 2010
Faustin Twagiramungu
Former Prime Minister of Rwanda
Candidate at 2003 Presidential Election
Tel: 0032 473 210 512 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0032 473 210 512 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
No comments:
Post a Comment