His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda
KIGALI-Rwanda
Your Excellency, President of the Republic,
RE: request not to violate article 101 of the Constitution by running for a third term of office
Having become aware of the shameful actions undertaken by the RPF which, under your chairmanship, has been asking Rwandans to sign letters meant to require that article 101 of the Constitution be revised so as to allow you to run for a third presidential term of office;
Having noticed a lot of signs of alarm that this totalitarian attitude is causing among Rwandans who don’t even dare talk about it openly lest they fall victim to harassment, abduction, imprisonment and even assassination;
Bearing in mind that depriving Rwandans of their freedom and civil rights has often led to catastrophes that struck Rwandans and culminated in the 1994 genocide and massacres;
As we learn from our country’s history that political transition has always occurred after the loss of lives of innocent Rwandans, imprisonment or forced exile for some of them;
Since we pursue the common interests of Rwandans and emphasise our will to solve, once for all, the problems at the origin of divisions among Rwandans, with the view to working together towards the establishment of the rule of law in a country where Human Rights and personal liberties are enforced;
In our capacity as leaders of the PDP-Imanzi political opposition party, we are persistently requesting you to respect the Constitution voted by Rwandans and to make sure that your actions match your words; in more concrete terms, we are requesting you not to run for a third term of office and not to follow the advice of those who are pushing you to cling on power.
Your Excellency, President of the Republic,
The RPFpolitical party, of which you are the chairman, is the very one that did its best to have the presidential term of office extended from five to seven years. It is also the RPF that suggested that the president can be re-elected once and that nobody is allowed to become elected more than twice for the post of the President of the Republic. In addition, the RPF asserts that Rwandans support it to such an extent that any candidate it may present is able to win elections. By way of consequence, there is no reason why you should cling on power, since you have personally stated that if by 2017 you’ve not managed to prepare a candidate to succeed you, you will have been a bad leader, and that this fact will be a sufficient proof that you should no longer run for the position of the President of the Republic. That’s why we are requesting you not to change your mind; otherwise you will be answerable to history.
Your Excellency, President of the Republic,
You say that good governance is part of your goals. Translate those goals into practice and serve as a model by showing that good governance is based on peaceful and democratic power alternation, and by officially telling Rwandans and foreigners that your last term of office as the President of the Republic will end in 2017 when you will give the floor to other Rwandans. Even if Rwandans are silent because they are enduring pressure exerted on them by the RPF representatives at local level who are struggling to dishonestly achieve their goals, they won’t continue to accept injustice and endless oppression. In fact, they are aware of adverse consequences. Therefore, we are requesting you not to listen to those persons who want you to change article 101 of the Constitution with the sole aim of allowing you to to run for another term of office. Those who are telling you that you are the only person capable of leading the country, that they can no longer live if you don’t run for another term of office, they are all cheating you since they are not different from those persons who, under the previous regimes, used to call leaders fathers. Astonishingly enough, after the fall of the previous regime, those persons were the first ones to curse the former leaders in order to get favours from your regime. Please, don’t listen to them and don’t allow them to keep on cheating you. If you take our advice, you will become a model for Rwandans and Africans since you will have promoted the culture of peaceful and democratic power change.
Your Excellency, President of the Republic,
The big number of law breakers doesn’t justify their behaviours; moreover, those who praise leaders deceive him. Those who are signing letters to push you to break the law, no matter how many they are, will suffer the same consequences as as you because of the errors they are drawing you into. The big number of people who are pushing you does not give you the right to commit errors. Your continuous attempts to call upon as many Rwandans as possible to convince you that the Constitution must be changed so that you may cling on power, show that you are personally fully aware of the unlawfulness of your attitude. Even though the RPF, the political party under your chairmanship, perseveres in error by believing that your power will have no end, Rwandans won’t endlessly bear with injustice. You always say that you’ve brought development to the Rwandan people. The development gains you always talk about will be lost just like they were lost during the previous regimes if you are not the first one to safeguard them by enforcing the Constitution. This will have negative consequences on all Rwandans, you in particular.
We advise you to make sure that you bring a good end to your second term of office. By way of consequence, within the time remaining before the end of your term of office, you should open political space, release all political prisoners including Mr Mushayidi Déogratias, chairman of our political party PDP-Imanzi, help all the Rwandans without excluding any of them so that they can sit together and honestly talk about all the problems preventing them from living together in peace and working together to build their country and to reach a consensus on a kind of democracy that may reassure everybody.
Your Excellency, President of the Republic,
We dare hope that you will pay due attention to our open letter and that you will use your power and wisdom to follow the pieces of advice it contains. Therefore, we hope that you won’t fall in the trap of clinging on power.
Your Excellency, President of the Republic, we thank you in advance
Long live freedom, justice and solidarity among the Rwandans
Done at Kigali on 30/06/2015
On behalf of the PDP-Imanzi political party,
– Mushayidi Déogratias, Founder President (Mpanga-Rwanda);
– Kayumba Jean Marie Vianney, Spokesman of PDP-Imanzi (Rwanda); Tel : +250722481057/783366214
– Munyampeta Jean-Damascène, General secretary (Belgique) : Tel. +32477971465
