Rift in Rwandan ruling front

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, MARCH 24. The resignation of the President of Rwanda, Mr. Pasteur Bizimungu, yesterday comes in the wake of reports of tension within the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front, related to the formation of a new Government.

According to an agency report from Kigali, Mr. Bizimungu had clashed with his colleagues over the composition of the new Government which assumed office on Sunday. The previous Government headed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Pierre Celestin Rwigema, resigned last month amidst charges of corruption and mismanagement.

Given Rwanda's history and the correlation of political forces and their ``ethnic'' dimension, the Hutu identity of both Mr. Bizimungu and Mr. Rwigema is bound to be seen as a key factor in these developments.

The new Government continues to be dominated by the RPF, a predominantly Tutsi formation, which captured power in July 1994, following the traumatic developments beginning with the assassination on April 6, 1994, of President Juvenal Habyarimana and the subsequent genocide.

Given the history of Rwanda the political and ethnic anomalies inherent in the political situation in Rwanda (and in the analogous situation in Burundi) since then - a resourceful and undoubtedly victimised (Tutsi) minority dominating a government from which the (Hutu) majority of the population feels marginalised - are yet to be resolved.

Reuters reports:

Rwanda's Vice-President, Mr. Paul Kagame, has taken over as interim President, the Chief Justice Simeon Rwagasore, said today. He told mediapersons that although he had not been officially informed of Mr. Bizimungu's departure, Rwandan law states that the Vice-President takes power if the President resigns.

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Section  : International
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