EngRegional
What is Ingabire’s ‘democracy’?
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
As presidential and
parliamentary elections in Rwanda approach, self-styled politician Victoire
Ingabire Umuhoza has actively waged a campaign in the foreign press to defame the
Rwandan leadership. This comes after her request for rehabilitation was denied
by court due to non-compliance with the law.
With presidential and
parliamentary elections scheduled for July 15, Ingabire and her Western allies
are seeking attention the wrong way, publishing headlines like “Rwanda’s
Undemocratic Election,” claiming that “As a victim of suppression, Ingabire
finds myself once again barred from participating in an electoral process...”
Ingabire claims to fight for
democracy, but what is democracy in Ingabire’s book?
Ingabire is a diehard Hutu
Power ideology extremist relentlessly trying to re-inject that venomous
ideology into today’s Rwandan politics. Her “democracy” is divisionism.
Ingabire sprang to the scene
in the wake of the defeat of the genocidaire government led by then Prime
Minister Jean Kambanda. The remnants of the genocidaire forces fled to eastern
Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and immediately formed what they
called the Republican Rally for Democracy (RDR). The defeated genocidaire leaders created RDR
in April 1995. It comprised the fallen regime's senior army officers who were
responsible for the genocide against the Tutsi.
Ingabire joined RDR in 1997
and, a year later, became its president. In their official statements, RDR
officials declared that their goal was to establish ‘liberal democracy’ in
Rwanda. However, the goal of that ‘democracy’ was to reorganize, re-arm,
forcefully return to Rwanda and finish off the genocide against the Tutsi.
Since RDR was tainted by its bloody past, in April 2006, Ingabire participated in the creation of a new entity, FDU-Inkingi (United Democratic Forces), which she claimed worked for the installation of rule, respect of democracy and good governance, in Rwanda to rebrand and hide her sinister agenda.
Later Ingabire created another
phoney political party she called Dalfa-Umurinzi which, to date, is still not
legally registered.
Ingabire was funding the FDLR
genocidal militia, as proven by files handed over to Rwandan prosecution by
Dutch judicial authorities. Her aim was to use FDLR to enter the country and overthrow
the Rwandan government, thereby forcing herself into the presidential seat.
This, together with genocide
denial crimes she committed upon arriving in Rwanda in 2010 landed her in hot
waters. She was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was released
in 2018 following a presidential pardon.
All the noise Ingabire is
making about “democracy” is for one particular constituent; advocates for Hutu
Power ideologues who tried everything, including armed rebellion against the
current Rwandan government, to re-enter the Rwandan political platform they
excluded themselves from when committing genocide.
She can try to rebrand herself
as much as she wants, but she cannot completely shed off her propensity to
support that hate ideology as well as her tendencies towards genocide denial
and revisionism.
Rwandans deserve better. They
deserve progressive politicians. Not
collaborators of terror groups and genocide ideologues.
Her genocidal ideology ended
with past governments and Rwandans cannot support that again. Rwandans live in
unity. They cannot allow someone like Ingabire to become president as her
mindset is still inclined to ethnic divisions that led to the 1994 genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
All registered political parties in Rwanda will be represented during the July elections, except for unqualified ones. Ingabire and her Western allies claim that there is no political space in the country, yet Rwanda has more political parties than the US and UK combined.
