In her end-of-year message to Rwandans, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the President of the opposition political party DALFA Umurinzi, urges the Rwandan authorities and population to change their mentality to better embrace participatory democracy. According to her, this is a necessary condition for lifting the country out of poverty and no longer being ranked among the poorest countries in the world.
The political opponent against the RPF regime, known for her audacity, deplores the fact that the regime in Kigali continues to block its political opponents. In particular, she denounces the political assassinations and mysterious disappearances of members of the Rwandan opposition as well as the institutionalized injustices that continue to gnaw at Rwandan society.
The winner of the 2019 International Human Rights Prize awarded by a Spanish human rights association, considers that the objectives of Vision 2020 set by the RPF have not been achieved. She attributes this failure in particular to the closure of political space, to the rejection of democratic alternation of power, to the lack of consultation of the components of Rwandan society in decisions that concern them, to the exclusive attribution of certain rights and privileges to oligarchs, and to the weakness of institutions. Faced with these challenges, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who spent 8 years in prison for her activism in favor of democracy announces that she will never give up until Rwanda becomes a state governed by the rule of law!
Finally, she calls on the Rwandan authorities to consider political opponents as essential partners rather than labelling them as enemies of the country. As for Rwandans, she asked them to feel concerned about what happens in their country, to dispose make use of their rights in the name of democracy, to get involved in all societal matters with mutual respect, without tearing each other apart or resorting to arms, and to move the country forward so that there would be freedom and development for all.
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