In the last piece in this series, we saw how President Habyarimana sabotaged the Arusha negotiations. He worked hard to divide the opposition, which instead galvanised it and increased support for the RPF. In this piece we shall see how his government worked for its downfall.
Rwanda was not spared from the political upheavals that occurred in the world in the 1990s. In fact, after the democratisation wave that affected the Eastern Bloc (former Soviet Union satellite states), it was Africa’s turn. Apart from internal disputes, political regimes in Africa received pressure from the West, in this case from France, USA, international organizations and the Bretton Woods institutions, requiring them to adopt political pluralism, failure of which such regimes would no longer get aid from the Western powers.
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President Habyarimana was among the African Heads of State who rejected that injunction, arguing that "multipartyism is not a precondition for democracy”. Yet, political pluralism was imposed on him.
Inside the country, in a letter published on September 1, 1990, "33 intellectuals” called for multipartyism and democracy but the Kigali regime instantly opposed it. Bowing to both internal and external pressure, the regime began to open up politically by creating a commission known as the "Commission Nationale de Synthèse” (CNS). On July 5, 1990, President Habyarimana announced that the country was going to begin a new process for a democratic dispensation.
In January 1991, the commission presented a national political bill which recommended real democratization opening by adopting multipartyism. To have this done, CNS tabled a new constitutional bill authorizing multipartyism. The bill was passed into law by the National Assembly (CND) in June 1991.
The presidential assent in favour of multiparty democracy was granted on November 13, 1990. In fact, in his address to the nation, the president asked the commission to draft a working document before the end of the year and announced a referendum on the national charter to be held on November 15, 1991, after a national debate. On the same occasion, he invited Rwandans to form political parties. The first political party, PDC, was formed on November 16, 1990. Other political parties followed it. Until July 1992, there was a total of 17 political parties but the following made it to national recognition:
Under pressure from internal opposition parties (MDR, PSD, PL and PDC), MRND accepted an entente protocol which gave birth to a transitional government that was set up on April 16, 1992. It was formed by Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye. The President did everything he could to delay the process but failed. Hence, we can talk of a victory by the opposition because many people experienced the advent of a real democratic regime.
The programme of the opposition may be summarized under the following points: negotiate peace, assure internal security, re-organize the administration, organize a national debate on the question of a national conference, boost the economy, solve the problem of refugees and organize general elections.
The RPF realized that the programme had positive ideas which "apparently demonstrated good will to solve many problems which the country was suffering from.” RPF said that Nsengiyaremye proposed a constitutional framework which gave a lot of powers to the President of the Republic. The opposition parties did not have a majority in Cabinet, hence, they could not impose their decisions and they were not represented in the CND. Lastly, the Prime Minister’s programme was unrealistic. The refuge problem and that of peace could not be solved within 12 months as he claimed. Nevertheless, RPF was ready to collaborate with the new government.
After their appearance on the political scene, the opposition political parties did everything to distance themselves from RPF. Dealing with RPF was at the beginning considered as a serious political blunder, indeed a betrayal. Thus, before he became Prime Minister, Nsengiyaremye said that MDR party could not negotiate with RPF. Only PL broke away quickly enough from the others. Its president declared that: "negotiation is not betrayal but rather a solution for the wellbeing of the country”. Other parties constituting the future FDC coalition manifested the same fear and hostility towards RPF.
But gradually, they became closer to RPF in what can be called a tactical alliance, with the view of weakening Habyarimana’s regime in order to take power. As a matter of fact, RPF had a military force which they needed to fight against the regime.
They felt assured of victory over RPF because of an ethnic electoral majority if an election ever took place. From the ideological point of view, fundamental differences still remained. But it was in that context of real politicking that some points were agreed upon by the opposition and RPF by consensus, especially during the negotiations. The manner in which the President managed the crisis alienated him from those who, among the opposition could still have supported him.