Rwandan president resigns in wake of political strife
ATTENTION - INCORPORATES Rwanda-Politics-Kagame takes over ///
KIGALI, March 23 (AFP) - Rwanda's Hutu President Pasteur Bizimungu, in
office for almost five years since the genocide of 1994, resigned Thursday
in
the wake of rows with fellow members of the mainly Tutsi ruling party.
His resignation was accepted within hours by the Transitional National
Assembly (TNA) meeting in extraordinary session, parliamentary speaker
Vincent
Biruta told AFP.
"As of today, March 23, 2000, for personal reasons, I give up my duties
as
the president of the Rwandan Republic," Bizimungu had earlier said in a
letter
to the speaker of parliament and to political parties, a copy of which AFP
obtained.
Bizimungu made no reference to internal wrangles in the ruling Rwandan
Patriotic Front (RPF), or to his run-ins with party leader Paul Kagame, who
took over as acting president following his rival's resignation
"The interim presidency is assumed by Vice President Paul Kagame, who
normally replaces the president when he is absent," parliamentary speaker
Vincent Biruta told AFP.
Despite his junior position vis-a-vis Bizimungu, Kagame has long been
considered the most powerful man in Rwanda.
Kagame, a Tutsi, is leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) a former
rebel group which swept to power in 1994, whereas Bizimungu, a Hutu who
joined
the rebellion in 1990, is deputy leader of this ruling party.
The double-act of the French-speaking Hutu Bizimungu and the
English-speaking Tutsi Kagame, was meant to symbolise post-genocide
reconciliation.
MPs at the assembly meeting voted unanimously to accept Bizimungu's
resignation, Biruta said.
"We took a vote to accept the president's resignation and all the
deputies
present voted to accept this decision," he said.
According to early reports from the meeting, MPs lambasted Bizimungu,
saying his criticism of parliament, which has conducted a number of probes
into government activity, violated the constitution.
Bizimungu was installed as head of state in July 1994 after the mainly
Tutsi RPF routed Hutu soldiers and militias held responsible for the
genocide.
Divisions within the RPF came to a head most recently over the weekend
formation of a new government.
The president had threatened to resign if these internal squabbles were
not
resolved.
Bizimungu has on several occasions crossed swords with Kagame, who led
the
RPF as a rebel force.
The party's political bureau is due to hold an extraordinary meeting on
Friday, according to Secretary General Charles Murigande.
One legislator, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the formation
of
the new government was delayed by disagreements between Kagame and
Bizimungu
over its composition.
During the new government's inauguration, Kagame was alone among
ministers
in not swearing allegiance to Bizimungu.
The MP said that the row between Kagame and Bizimungu had ended when it
was
agreed not to include in the cabinet Patrick Mazimhaka, a close ally of the
president's, a former minister in his office and an influential member of
the
RPF.
"The president explained why he wanted Mazimhaka to stay in the
government," said the parliamentarian, who added that Kagame had stressed
that, contrary to rumour, he was not seeking the presidency of Rwanda.
Bizumungu had also criticised the divisive effects of parliamentary
probes
into the actions of government.
"Checks of government action should help the government to work well and
not seek its fall," Bizimungu said Monday.
On February 28, the prime minister Celestin Rwigema, also a Hutu,
resigned
amid such investigations into his alleged role in the diversion of public
funds.
The latest ministerial nominations marked the first time that the
allocation of posts in post-genocide governments of national unity failed
to
respect a power-sharing arrangement cut in 1994 between the RPF and the
then
Hutu-majority regime of president Juvenal Habyarimana.
It was the death of Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 when his plane was shot
down over Kigali that immediately triggered what was evidently the
organised
mass butchery of between half a million and 800,000 Tutsis and politically
moderate Hutus.
The genocide lasted until the RPF seized Kigali in July that year and
established a government based on the tatters of a peace pact struck in
Arusha, northern Tanzania.
nkb-eg/afm/dc
END
sidi sanneh
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