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The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi, french: Front patriotique rwandais, FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, winning the
Rwandan Civil War The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces, representing the country's government, and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war aro ...
in 1994. Since 1994, the party has ruled Rwanda using tactics which have been characterised as authoritarian. Elections are manipulated in various ways, which include banning opposition parties, arresting or assassinating critics, and electoral fraud.


History


Rwandese Alliance for National Unity

Following the overthrow of
Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
in 1979, the Tutsi refugee intelligentsia in Uganda set up the region's first political refugee organization, the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU), to discuss a possible return to Rwanda. Though primarily a forum for intellectual discussion, it became militant after
Milton Obote Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962. Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to ...
's election of 1980 resulted in many Tutsi refugees joining Yoweri Museveni in fighting the Ugandan Bush War. In response, Obote denounced Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) as composed of Banyarwanda. A failed attempt to force all Tutsi refugees into the refugee camps in February 1982 resulted in a massive purge, driving 40,000 refugees back into Rwanda. Rwanda declared that they recognized only 4000 of these as Rwandan nationals, while Uganda declared that they would take back only 1000. The remaining 35,000 were left in a legal limbo along the border region that lasted for years, from where many refugee youths left to join the NRA. Two of the militants who were part of the 1981 NRA raid at
Kabamba Kabamba is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname: *Edouard Kabamba (born 1987), Belgian footballer *Maguy Kabamba (born 1960), Democratic Republic of the Congo writer and translator *Nicke Kabamba (born 1993 ...
that began the war were Tutsi refugees:
Fred Rwigyema Fred Gisa Rwigyema (also sometimes spelled Rwigema; born Emmanuel Gisa; 10 April 1957 – 2 October 1990) was a Rwandan politician and military officer. He was the founder of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a political and military force f ...
and Paul Kagame, who had grown up together in Kahunge refugee camp and were both active members of RANU. By the time that the victorious NRA entered
Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...
in 1986, about a quarter of its 16,000 combatants were Banyarwanda, while Rwigyema was its deputy commander. After the Museveni government was formed, Rwigyema was appointed deputy minister of defense and deputy
army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
commander-in-chief, second only to Museveni in the military
chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part. Milit ...
for the nation. Kagame was appointed acting chief of military intelligence. Tutsi refugees formed a disproportionate number of NRA officers because they had joined the rebellion early and thus had accumulated more experience.Mamdani, pp172–173 The contributions of the Banyarwanda in the war were immediately recognized by the new government. Six months after taking power, Museveni reversed the decades-old legal regime and declared that Banyarwanda who had resided in Uganda would be entitled to citizenship after 10 years. In December 1987, RANU held its seventh congress in Kampala and renamed itself the Rwanda Patriotic Front. The new RPF, dominated by Banyarwanda veterans of the war, was far more militaristic than the original RANU.


Rwandan Patriotic Front


Rwandan Civil War

On 1 October 1990, the RPF led by Major-General Fred Gisa Rwigyema invaded Rwanda, starting the
Rwandan Civil War The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces, representing the country's government, and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war aro ...
. The RPF incursion was initially successful, despite the death of Rwigyema from a bullet on 2 October. However, the
Rwandan Army french: Forces rwandaises de défense sw, Nguvu ya Ulinzi ya Watu wa Rwanda , image = Rwanda Defense Force emblem.png , alt = , caption = , image2 = , alt2 = , caption2 ...
received help from Belgium, France and Zaire and within a month had regained the initiative, forcing the RPF back into Uganda.Aimable Twagilimana (2007) ''Historical Dictionary of Rwanda'', Scarecrow Press, p204 Paul Kagame, who had been doing military studies in the United States, returned to take over the RPF. Thereafter the RPF resorted to guerrilla attacks, focusing on the
Byumba Byumba is a city in northern Rwanda, and is the capital of Gicumbi District. It is home to an SOS Children's Village. The city lies about , north of the capital Kigali. This location lies approximately , south of the International border with U ...
and
Ruhengeri Ruhengeri, also known as Musanze or Muhoza, is a city and capital of Musanze District in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Some sources now refer to the city itself as Musanze, after the district in which it lies within. This has to do with the a ...
areas, gaining control of much of the north of the country in 1992.Arthur S Banks, Thomas C Miller, William R Overstreet & Judith F Isacoff (2009) ''Political Handbook of the World 2009'', CQ Press, p1125 Eventually negotiations between the RPF and the Rwandan government led to the signing of the Arusha Accords in 1993, resulting in RPF personnel and other refugees being allowed to return to the country. In 1993 the RPF lost local elections in the northern part of Rwanda which it controlled militarily, leading its leaders to conclude that it would not win free and fair elections in the future. The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing him and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi. It is still unknown who launched the attack; the RPF blamed Hutu extremists in the Rwandan government, while the government claimed that the RPF was responsible for the attack. The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the
Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed H ...
, which began within a few hours. Over the course of approximately 100 days, an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Tutsi were killed, on the orders of the interim government. The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, and took control of the country methodically by cutting off government supply routes and taking advantage of the deteriorating social order. On 7 June, the Hutu Archbishop of Kigali, Vincent Nsengiyumva, was murdered near the
Kabgayi Kabgayi is just south of Gitarama in Muhanga District, Southern Province, Rwanda, southwest of Kigali. It was established as a Catholic Church mission in 1905. It became the center for the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda and is the site of t ...
church center with two bishops and thirteen priests by members of the RPF, who were said to have believed the prelates were involved with the killing of their families.New York Times
June 5-10: New Atrocities in Africa; Three Bishops and 10 Priests Are Slaughtered in Rwanda As Tribal Killings Go On, June 12, 1994
/ref> Some Western observers alleged that the RPF prioritized taking power over saving lives or stopping the genocide. In '' Shake Hands with the Devil'',
Romeo Dallaire Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Lord Montague and his wife, Lady Montague, he secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet, through a pries ...
writes, "The deaths of Rwandans can also be laid at the door of the military genius, Paul Kagame, who did not speed up his ilitarycampaign when the scale of the genocide became clear, and even talked candidly with me at several points about the price his fellow Tutsi might have to pay for the cause." According to
Gerald Caplan Gerald Lewis "Gerry" Caplan (born 8 March 1938) is a Canadian academic, public policy analyst, commentator, and political activist. He has had a varied career in academia, as a political organizer for the New Democratic Party, in advocacy around edu ...
, citing this quote from Dallaire, continued, "The 'cause' was clear. It was not defeating the Government’s forces to stop the genocide as soon as possible. It was continuing the civil war until the RPF could take over the entire country." Luc Marchal, the senior Belgian peacekeeper in Rwanda at the time, told Judi Rever, "Not only did the RPF not show the slightest interest in protecting Tutsis, it fuelled the chaos. The RPF had one objective. It was to seize power and use the massacres as stock in trade to justify its military operations. This is what I saw." The RPF victory was complete when Kigali was captured on 4 July and the rest of the country on 18 July. The RPF was split into a political division which retained the RPF name, and a military one, called the Rwandan Patriotic Army (now the
Rwandan Defence Forces french: Forces rwandaises de défense sw, Nguvu ya Ulinzi ya Watu wa Rwanda , image = Rwanda Defense Force emblem.png , alt = , caption = , image2 = , alt2 = , caption2 ...
).


Postwar governance in Rwanda

After the RPF took control of the country, in 1994, it formed a government of national unity headed by a Hutu president, Pasteur Bizimungu. Kagame became Minister of Defense and Vice-President. According to ''Reuters'', "Cooperation between Bizimungu, a Hutu, and Kagame, a Tutsi, was intended to symbolize post-genocide reconciliation." This collaboration did not survive, however. Bizimungu left the government in 2000, and after forming his own political party, he was arrested in 2002. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he was released with a pardon from Kagame in 2007. Despite political gestures from the RPF toward Rwanda's Hutu majority, there remained substantial distrust of Hutus toward the Tutsi-dominated RPF, based on a number of factors: killings of Hutus by the RPF both in Rwanda and later in Congo, plus mass arrests of suspected genocide perpetrators. In February 1998 Kagame was elected president of the RPF, replacing
Alexis Kanyarengwe Colonel Alexis Kanyarengwe (1938–2006) was a Rwandan officer who fled Rwanda in 1980 amidst accusations that he was plotting against Juvénal Habyarimana. Kanyarengwe rose to power as one of the officers who led a coup on July 5, 1973, that topp ...
, and in March 2000 he became the national president. Following a constitutional referendum in 2003, Kagame was elected president with 95% of the vote. The RPF formed a coalition with several smaller parties, which received 74% of the vote in the 2003 parliamentary elections, winning 40 of the 53 elected seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The coalition won 42 seats in the 2008 parliamentary elections, and Kagame was re-elected as president in 2010 with 93% of the vote. The 2013 parliamentary elections saw the RPF-led coalition win 41 seats. According to political scientist Lars Waldorf, the RPF "sees
majoritarian democracy Majoritarian democracy is a form of democracy based upon majority rule of a polity's citizens. Majoritarian democracy contrasts with consensus democracy, rule by as many people as possible. Characteristics In the majoritarian vision of democra ...
with free elections not just as a recipe for political defeat but also for murderous violence".


Electoral history


Presidential elections


Chamber of Deputies elections


References


Further reading

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External links


Official website
{{Authority control 1987 establishments in Rwanda Guerrilla organizations Political parties established in 1987 Political parties in Rwanda Rebel groups in Rwanda Rwanda–Uganda relations Rwandan genocide Tutsi