As Rwanda vote nears, regime's catchword gives pause
KIGALI, Rwanda -- The debate over the term "divisionism" speaks volumes about the state of Rwanda's politics on the eve of the country's first presidential elections since the genocide in 1994.
Divisionism, as written into Rwandan law, refers to attempts by anyone, particularly politicians, to promote distinctions among Rwandans on the basis of ethnicity. It is a clear response to the three months in which murderous militias from the majority Hutu slaughtered 800,000, most of them minority Tutsi, and their Hutu sympathizers.
Now, the concept highlights the most significant difference between the powerful Tutsi president and his Hutu challenger.
"It will be a sin if you go back to the days of division politics," President Paul Kagame, the candidate of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, said at a rally last Sunday in the capital of Kigali.
Kagame's main rival for the presidency in tomorrow's election, Faustin Twagiramungu, who is running as an independent, knows what it's like to be accused of fomenting "divisionism." His statements have been denounced by government commissions. His chief lieutenants have been cooling their heels at police stations. His leaflets have been confiscated.
Kagame, Rwanda's strongman since 1994, has been running a efficient, omnipresent campaign in this nation of 8 million. The party's red, white, and blue flags, hats and T-shirts are also ubiquitous. His punctual, massive rallies come off without a hitch. And few people here doubt he will win.
Twagiramungu, whose campaign works from a small apartment with 12 staff members and a single computer, smells his opponent behind the heavy hand of the state. "Divisionism these days means that you are not behind the RPF -- nothing more," Twagiramungu said in an interview.
Many Western observers agree.
Human Rights Watch has described Rwanda's laws against "divisionism" as a weapon against political opposition. The accusation formed the basis of a decision by the legislature this year to dissolve Rwanda's main opposition party, and it remains an injurious political insult.
Kagame, 47, has sought to focus the campaign on the Rwandan Patriotic Front's achievements since it took power in 1994 -- bringing stability to Rwanda, improving the infrastructure, and defending borders. Twagiramungu, 58, served as prime minister in 1994 and 1995 in cooperation with the Patriotic Front, then quit in protest over what he said was his partner's domineering attitude, and exiled himself.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front, which as a guerrilla movement under Kagame's leadership helped stop the genocide, bills itself as a party that incorporates both Tutsi and Hutu. Though it has prominent Hutu members, most Rwandans perceive it as a primarily Tutsi party, headed by Kagame, the standard bearer.
Ethnicity still matters in Rwanda. But the Rwandan Patriotic Front and Twagiramungu have very different opinions as to why.
With nerves ever raw from the killings of 1994, avoiding appeals to Hutu or Tutsi is essential, said Tito Rutaremara, the Patriotic Front's chief ideologue and a main campaign organizer. The slightest whiff of ethnic politics reminds Rwandans of genocide, he argued.
"Saying you are Hutu or Tutsi is like saying you are black or white," he said. "If you say `elect me because I'm black and he's white,' that's divisionism."
Rutaremara has maintained that the differences between Hutu and Tutsi, who share the country, language, and culture, are artificial and should not play a role in political life lest they lead to another genocide. Kagame, for his part, rarely mentions the words "Hutu" or "Tutsi" in public.
Twagiramungu, who lost some of his family in the genocide, disagrees that talking about ethnicity should be a crime. He says group identities are at the heart of Rwandan problems.
"Hutu and Tutsi -- these are words that have always existed in Rwandan culture," he said, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis. "The RPF philosophy is just not comprehensible."
Twagiramungu has spoken of the need to "prosecute all crimes" arising from the genocide and the wars it spawned in Rwanda and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Such statements are code for bringing to justice the Rwanda Patriotic Front soldiers -- almost all Tutsi -- who, human rights groups say, murdered tens of thousands of Hutu in an orgy of revenge killings. Those deaths have produced a seething, if quiet, resentment among the Hutu, even though prosecutions of Hutu for killing Tutsi lag as well.
Rather than deny the existence of Hutu or Tutsi, Twagiramungu says that Rwandans must acknowledge these identities and ensure that they are not threatening. For example, he has proposed a truth and reconciliation commission, such as that formed in South Africa after apartheid.
"There are means of dissipating hate," Twagiramungu said. "There are ways to live together."
Authorities in a state dominated by the Rwanda Patriotic Front apparently disagree.
Shortly before the campaign began, several political organizers allied with Twagiramungu were "invited in" for questioning at the police station. They have spent every day there in isolation; no charges have been filed. In another episode, police seized Twagiramungu's leaflets. Government panels responsible for administering the elections, and for civic education, have also publicly castigated Twagiramungu.
In the state-run media, the challenger has received about half the coverage Kagame has, almost none of it positive.
One of the few images of Twagiramungu on Rwanda's only television station showed him leaving the American Embassy in Kigali, a jab intended to portray him as the candidate of foreign powers.
The challenger says the Rwanda Patriotic Front is behind his problems: "I'm not an unknown person here: They have to terrorize people into not working with me."
Patriotic Front officials have denied involvement with their opponents' problems, and try to discourage the notion that their party is synonymous with the state. Twagiramungu, they say, should address his complaints to the justice system.
"People have the wrong idea that the RPF runs everything here," Rutaremara said. "It's just not true."
