In the previous article in this serial narrative, we observed that RPF was in favour of negotiations. It ensured that necessary steps were taken to ensure their success. However, we realised that the Rwandan government sought to sabotage them. In this piece, more of the Rwandan government's intransigence will be laid bare. The Arusha protocol on the power-sharing deal proposed within the framework of a broad-based transitional government revealed many conflicting positions. President Habyarimana's MRND party wished to share ministerial posts and RPF was supposed to join a government led by a Prime Minister and composed of other ministers from the opposition. Whereas, in the spirit of the signed protocol, RPF wanted to change the nature of the MRND regime. The latter did not accept that the president be stripped of his major powers in the transitional government. ALSO READ: How Habyarimana regime sabotaged peace accords RPF thought that during the transition, the President was not supposed to have outrageous powers, which were granted to him by the Constitution. According to the power-sharing configuration provided for in the protocol, MRND and its allies had little chance of having a majority vote. This is why they wanted to integrate CDR in the transitional National Assembly. RPF rejected CDR, which was seen as a sectarian party. The President was therefore involved in manoeuvres aimed at sowing division in the senior ranks of the parties. He succeeded in his endeavour. ALSO READ: Habyarimana accepted talks after pressure, RPA military advances In the protocol on the integration of the armed forces, divergent views were also noted. For MRND, the integration of the armed forces had to respect ethnic balance. As a result, the power-sharing deal would tilt in favour of MRND. For RPF, the Rwandan government had disqualified itself by massacring the very citizens that they were supposed to protect. The obsession with ethnic balance harboured by MRND and its allies did not make sense for the RPF. This protocol was criticised by the allies of the Kigali regime, who shared the same ideology and felt that the RPF demands were excessive. It was reported in the press that Théoneste Bagosora, who participated in the negotiations on the protocol, left Arusha with a resolve to provoke hell (to prepare an apocalypse). Having failed to block the signing of the Arusha Peace Accord of on August 4, 1993, despite all manoeuvres, President Habyarimana and his followers did whatever was in their power to block its implementation. The first opportunity was availed to them by delayed deployment of the UN mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR). This one was supposed to have been done 37 days after signing the peace agreement. In the meantime, Habyarimana continued his manoeuvres aimed at sowing division within political parties with the view to increase the number of his followers both in government and in the Transitional National Assembly. All his attempts to approve his lists failed. On several occasions, the President of the Constitutional Court, Joseph Kavaruganda, was the only competent authority to identify members of political parties who were regularly elected to be in the National Assembly. Kavaruganda rejected the lists that were concocted by the Habyarimana camp. Even though the texts in force gave him no legal authority, President Habyarimana also tried to organise the swearing-in of ministers and members of parliament. The swearing-in ceremonies organised by competent authorities failed because the militia, who were close to MRND/CDR, blocked the entrance of the National Assembly to prevent undesirable candidates from accessing it. For the same reasons of sabotaging the implementation of the Arusha Accord, an ambush was laid against the convoy which was supposed to take to CND political personalities of the RPF who had been summoned to participate in transitional institutions. The RPF politicians delayed their arrival to Kigali but the attack claimed one soldier and injured another. Only President Habyarimana took the oath on January 5, 1994. Thus, up to the end, he succeeded in blocking the establishment of other institutions that were provided for in the Arusha peace accord.
