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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

RWANDA: Former prime minister announces presidential candidature

NAIROBI, 4 March 2003 (IRIN) - Former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu has announced his presidential candidature in a contest that will pit him against the incumbent, Paul Kagame, a Brussels newspaper, Le Soir, reported on Monday.

He told Le Soir that before deciding to enter the race, he had visited the United States, where he met senior members of the Department of State and the National Security Council. He also met members of the Rwandan exile community in the US, including former Senate President Joseph Kebrenzi and Alexandre Kimenyi, a "dissident" of the Front patriotique rwandais (FPR - Rwandan Patriotic Front). All of them, he said, had encouraged him to seek the path to peace and also to run for office.

Le Soir reported that although most of his supporters were members of the political opposition in exile, Twagiramungu said he had failed to convince the Forces pour la démocratie et la libération du Rwanda, considered by Kigali as "genocide perpetrators", to desist from fighting against the Kigali government.

Twagiramungu, 57, has been exiled in Belgium since 1995, after falling out with the victorious FPR, which seized power in July 1994; he has since remained a stern critic of the government in Kigali.

Meanwhile, Kagame, who is in the United States, is due to hold talks on Tuesday with President George W. Bush. They were expected to discuss bilateral ties and the prevailing insecurity in the Great Lakes region, Rwandan Radio reported on Tuesday. The radio quoted Kagame as saying they would also discuss issues of education, trade, development, and the effects of HIV/AIDS in Rwanda.

Kagame was also expected to hold talks with US Secretary of State Collin Powell, Secretary and Defence Donald Rumsfeld, White House Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, as well as the USAID administrator, Andrew Natsios, and members of the US Congress, the radio reported.

Themes: (IRIN) Governance

[ENDS]

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