The Rwandan government has denied accusations levelled by former prime minister Pierre-Celestin Rwigema, who fled to the US recently fearing for his personal security. Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya rejected assertions by Rwigema that the government was “dictatorial”. “The Rwandan government is democratic and is composed of all eight political parties including the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) that he accuses of dictatorship,” he told the Rwanda News Agency (RNA). RPF Secretary-General Charles Murigande said Rwigema “owes much to the RPF, for without its efforts to depose the dictatorial regime [of ex-president Juvenal Habyarimana], he wouldn’t have been a minister and prime minister”. Rwigema claimed the RPF was so “undemocratic” that other parties had become “rubber stamps, singing to the tune of the RPF”. Rwigema resigned as prime minister earlier this year, and President Paul Kagame later appointed him as chairman of the board of directors of Rwandatel, the country’s biggest telecommunications company.
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