Military

DATE=08/29/03

TYPE=DATELINE

NUMBER=7-37807

TITLE=RWANDA ELECTION

BYLINE=SARAH WILLIAMS

TELEPHONE=619-2659

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=NEAL LAVON

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

INTRO: Rwandan voters went to the polls this week to cast ballots in the country's first presidential election since the genocide of 1994 that killed nearly a million. In this Dateline report, Sarah Williams looks at the victory of incumbent president Paul Kagame [kah-GAMM-may], and the controversy surrounding the contest.

HOST: Approximately 80 percent of registered voters cast ballots Monday in Rwanda's election. The voting in the central African nation took place against the background of genocidal violence in 1994. That year, an estimated 800-thousand minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

Mr. Kagame, an ethnic Tutsi, won 95-percent of the vote, while his closest rival, ethnic Hutu, Faustin Twagiramungu, received slightly less than four percent.

Hutus make up about 85 percent of the country's population. Mr. Kagame, previously a rebel general who led forces to oust the Hutu extremists, hailed the election results:

TAPE: CUT 1, KAGAME

"I think this vote, this electoral process, and the results which were overwhelmingly in our favor, really vindicate us from different perceptions that have been created about us by the very difficult challenges we have faced and dealt with in the best way we can, and achieved very positive results. I think the vote now says it all, that the people of Rwanda appreciate what we have been doing for the last nine years."

HOST: A European Union observer mission in Rwanda reported a number of irregularities in the election, but said it was an important development in the country's move toward democracy. The E-U said some voters were ordered to cast ballots for Mr. Kagame, while others were intimidated by his supporters.

The White House said Thursday Rwandans demonstrated their commitment to democracy by peacefully turning out for the election in large numbers. While presidential elections have taken place in Rwanda during the 41 years since the country gained independence from Belgium, this was the first time voters had a choice of candidates.

On Tuesday, Rwanda's election commission declared Mr. Kagame the winner, and said he will serve a seven-year term in office. Stephanie Brancaforte, who is in Uganda with Amnesty International's central Africa team, says Mr. Kagame's political opposition had a great disadvantage going into the election:

TAPE CUT 2, BRANCAFORTE

"I guess we can start in April, when the main opposition party, the Democratic Republican Movement, or, MDR, was banned, which already dealt a hefty blow to the opposition, and the successor to the more activist wing of the MDR, the ADEP-Mizero, was denied status as a political party so it severely hampered the opposition's capacity to campaign."

HOST: Amnesty International criticized Mr. Kagame shortly before the election, saying he had created a "climate of fear" among the population. Ms. Brancaforte says while Mr. Kagame deserves credit for helping to end the genocidal carnage in Rwanda, the improving conditions have come at a cost:

TAPE: CUT 3, BRANCAFORTE

"There's no doubt that there's a great deal more security in Rwanda than there used to be. At the same time, this hasn't happened without its consequences. There's been a tradition in the past few years of using fairly repressive tactics, and there's been stronger and stronger control on the media and on human rights activists to speak freely so it's not an unqualified success."

HOST: In addition, there has been criticism of Mr. Kagame's campaign to fight the remnants of Rwanda's genocidal regime, which attacked the country from bases in neighboring Congo. However, he has won praise for his disavowal of ethnic identities. Mr. Kagame has condemned Mr. Twagiramungu as a divisionist for speaking publicly of Rwanda's different ethnicities.

Mr. Twagiramungu, a former prime minister in the post-genocide government, described his reaction to the election results:

TAPE: CUT 4, TWAGIRAMUNGU

"How do you call fraud in English? Is it English? Fraud? I think I also call it rigging."

HOST: Mr. Twagiramungu, who went into exile in 1995 following a disagreement with Mr. Kagame, says the enormous margin of the incumbent president's victory is dubious.

TAPE: CUT 5, TWAGIRAMUNGU

"How in the world can we expect a democratic process where somebody is elected with 95-percent in this 21st-century? That is unacceptable. So, I do not want to say that I want to be president of Rwanda. What I wanted really, was to establish a democratic process in this country. This is not democracy. So I denounce personally the results and the intimidation which proceeded them."

HOST: The day before the voting began, Rwandan police arrested 12 of Mr. Twagiramungu's supporters, and accused them of planning to use violence to disrupt the polls. The opposition leader says they are under arrest.

TAPE: CUT 6, TWAGIRAMUNGU

"My observers are still kept in prison. My observers, who are supposed to go in the provinces, they are still kept in prison, here in Kigali. For what? They are accused of having fomented trouble in the entire country, which is wrong."

HOST: Mr. Twagiramungu says he will challenge the election's outcome in Rwanda's Supreme Court. But observers say his efforts are unlikely to be successful.

For his part, Mr. Kagame says he was surprised by the substantial margin of his electoral victory.

TAPE: CUT 7, KAGAME

"It was largely expected, I couldn't foretell the exact percentage in terms of this victory, but I think I've learned over time that the people of Rwanda with whom we have worked together to rebuild the country have appreciated the hard work we've done together, my political organization, the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front), and myself, so I thought the victory was going to be there, it was going to be a wide margin, but I could not foretell the exact percentage."

HOST: Mr. Kagame dismisses the criticism his government has received of its tactics regarding the election:

TAPE: CUT 8, KAGAME

"Honestly, I think it is one of those situations where the losers have always got things to complain about. But the impression I get from what the other candidate is saying is that he's not complaining that he would have won, but he's complaining about the margin of my victory.

But I don't think that makes a lot of sense, given that this whole electoral process was done in a transparent manner and there were observers here. To find that none of these can substantiate what this candidate is saying, even he himself cannot substantiate it, only that he wishes he had a bigger percentage in terms of results and he could not get that. There are no other facts he presents to support his claims, and I find that quite ridiculous."

HOST: Alison Des Forges (Day Forge) is the senior advisor to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and the author of the book Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda.

She is currently in Tanzania, testifying at the United Nations war crimes court for Rwanda. She says the results of the election were decidedly mixed:

TAPE: CUT 9, DES FORGES

" know that optimistic observers have been saying, well it wasn't perfect, but it least it was some progress and it was a beginning towards democracy. But that raises the question, what is the value of an exercise in voting if it is not democratic?"

HOST: Like Mr. Twagiramungu, Ms. Des Forges believes the lopsided margin of victory is highly suspicious.

TAPE: CUT 10, DES FORGES

"ertainly it raises questions. It's been extremely rare in any democratic system to see one candidate who receives more than 90 percent of the popular vote. So, when you see that, it really does immediately raise a red flag.

But I think more important here, is the whole question of what happened in the run-up to the election. The fact that political parties are not allowed to organize at the grass-roots level, except for the party in power, which was allowed to organize at the grass roots level, that the political campaign was limited to three weeks, and that the meetings, the political meetings were under the very strict control of government officials, that Twagiramungu and other candidates had a great deal of difficulty finding places to have political meetings."

HOST: However, Mr. Kagame rejects all criticism of his government's handling of the election, both from inside and outside the country.

TAPE: CUT 11, KAGAME

"he part of the criticisms that come from the other quarters of the international community, especially the human rights organizations and others, I am many times surprised I think at some individuals are simply confused, they are not able to read the situation correctly and are not able to put what is happening in its real context of our situation. And they are maybe the kind of people who never see anything right anywhere and even when we're doing the right thing, they are not able to realize that, and that's something we've lived with and will continue to live with."

HOST: The impact of Rwanda's election is still to be determined. It will be measured not only in terms of political power, but in terms of democracy and human rights as well. The fate of a country that has witnessed so much bloodshed will only then be revealed to its citizens and to a concerned international community. For Dateline, I'm Sarah Williams.

MUSIC: TRADITIONAL RWANDAN