Election results in Rwanda mark the darkest day for Rwandans

Justin Bahunga, Commissioner for External Relations and spokesperson-FDU-Inkingi

Press Release

While Rwandans and the world expected the North Korean style election results in Rwanda, their announcement is foreboding.  It means a continued repression of Rwandans inside and across borders as well as regional destabilisation. What in store for Rwandans are “arbitrary or unlawful killings; torture; harassment, arrest, and abuse of political opponents, human rights advocates, and individuals perceived to pose a threat to government control and social order; security forces’ disregard for the rule of law; and restrictions on civil liberties hence denying citizens the ability to change their government through free and fair elections”. It will also mean anti people and haphazard policies i.e. agricultural policy, more political and social exclusion which have the root cause of the cycle of political violence in Rwanda.

The illusion of any change of government in the near future has been dispelled by the statement of the Speaker of the Senate Mr Makuza Bernard calling on the people of Rusizi at a rally in the western province on the 28th of July 2017, to start thinking of voting President Kagame for another 10 years i.e. 2024- 2034. The same strategy of preparing the public opinion to the amendment of the Constitution in 2105, was used in 2010 by the Home Affairs Minister Sheikh, Fazil Harelimana

The Unified Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) would like to thank very sincerely the journalists and through them their papers, for helping to remove the blinders that the international lobbies have used to present Rwanda as a country of a burgeoning democracy, a reconciled nation with a promising bright future.

The Unified Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) would like to call on the international community to come out and stand on the side of the Rwandan people and reject the results of this mockery of democratic process.  As Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK pointed out to the US Congress in June 2003, justifying the invasion of Iraq, universal human rights are not just western values. “They are the universal values of the human spirit and anywhere, anytime, ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: Freedom not tyranny. Democracy not dictatorship. The rule of law not the rule of the secret police”.

This is what Rwandans are asking is to be allowed to enjoy their civil and political rights and the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) consider that  supporting a tyrannical and dictatorial regime not only undermines the values of the UN body but is also morally indefensible.

Done in London on 5th August 2017

Justin Bahunga

Commissioner for External Relations and spokesperson

FDU-Inkingi

[email protected]

 

Election results in Rwanda mark the darkest day for Rwandans (PDF)