Rwanda: Government

Principal Government Officials

Chief of State: President Paul Kagame
Head of Government: Prime Minister Pierre Habumuremyi

After its military victory in July 1994, the RPF organized a coalition government called "The Broad Based Government of National Unity." Its fundamental law was based on a combination of the June 1991 constitution, the Arusha accords, and political declarations by the parties. The government outlawed the MRND Party. In April 2003, the transitional National Assembly recommended the dissolution of the Democratic Republican Party (MDR), one of eight political parties participating in the Government of National Unity since 1994. Human rights groups noted the subsequent disappearances of political figures associated with the MDR, including at least one parliamentarian serving in the National Assembly. On May 26, 2003, Rwanda adopted a new constitution that eliminated reference to ubwoko and set the stage for presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003. The seven remaining political parties endorsed incumbent Paul Kagame for president, who was elected to a 7-year term on August 25, 2003. Rwanda held its first-ever legislative elections September 29 to October 2, 2003. A ninth political party formed after these 2003 elections.

In the spring of 2006, the government conducted local non-partisan elections for district mayors and for sector and cell executive committees. Elections for the Chamber of Deputies occurred in September 2008; the RPF won an easy victory in coalition with six small parties, taking 42 of 53 directly-elected seats. As provided in the constitution, 24 seats were also accorded to women candidates in indirect elections. Women now hold 45 of the 80 seats in the Chamber. The elections were peaceful and orderly, despite irregularities. A tenth political party formed in 2010.

Presidential elections were held in August 2010; the National Electoral Commission reported that President Kagame won re-election with roughly 93% of the vote. The presidential election was peaceful and orderly, with heavy turnout. However, the pre-election period was marked by events of concern, including waves of terrorist attacks using grenades in populous areas, the murder of a journalist, the unexplained murder of the vice president of the Democratic Green Party, an assassination attempt on a former high-ranking government official accused of fomenting attacks, and the suspension of two local-language newspapers. In addition, two political opposition figures were arrested on criminal charges, and a party that had been seeking to register for many months was unable to do so.

Challenges facing the government include maintaining internal and regional security, promoting further democratization and judicial reform; completion of prosecution of remaining individuals for crimes relating to the 1994 genocide, either by the regular court system or the gacaca system; integrating former combatants and prisoners; preventing the recurrence of any insurgency directed by ex-military and Interahamwe militia who remain in eastern Congo; and the continuing work on medium- and long-term development.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Rwanda is an active member of the international community and has remained in the international spotlight since the genocide. Rwanda is an active member of the UN, having presided over the Security Council during part of 1995. The UN assistance mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR), a UN Chapter Six peacekeeping operation, involved personnel from more than a dozen countries. Most of the UN development and humanitarian agencies have had a large presence in Rwanda. At the height of the humanitarian emergency, more than 200 nongovernmental organizations were carrying out humanitarian operations. In addition to receiving assistance from the international community, Rwanda has also contributed to international peacekeeping missions. Currently, the RDF has four 800-strong battalions deployed in support of the UNAMID Mission in Darfur and one company in UNMIS (Khartoum). As of June 2009, Rwanda was training its 22nd peacekeeping battalion since 2006.

Several nations--including Belgium, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Libya, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the Holy See, and all members of the EAC (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi) as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.)--maintain diplomatic missions in Kigali, as does the European Union.

In December 2008, after months of bilateral discussions, Rwanda and the D.R.C. announced a joint military operation against a root cause of instability in the Great Lakes Region--the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), which took place in January and February 2009. In January 2009 the governments of the D.R.C. and Rwanda accelerated efforts to achieve the rapprochement that they had initiated in late 2008. The two nations’ forces also cooperated in reintegrating renegade general Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP rebel force into the Congolese armed forces (FARDC); Nkunda was detained by Rwandan authorities.

In the fall of 2006, Rwanda broke diplomatic relations with France, following a French judge's indictment of senior Rwandan officials on charges of having participated in the shooting down of the presidential jet in 1994. Rwanda rejects these charges. In January 2010, Rwanda and France renewed their diplomatic relations after France indicated it had reopened its investigation of the 2006 charges. Rwanda, along with Burundi, joined the EAC in 2007, and it acceded to the Commonwealth in 2009.

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