After different statements and allegations made against us in the media and elsewhere, the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda re-confirms its commitment to its principle of non-violence and would also like to state the following : We declare our commitment to nonviolence and strive for a culture of peace and cooperation between individuals in the Rwandan community as the basis of national security and sustainable development. We believe that national security should not rest only on military strength but also on cooperation, economic and social development, environmental safety, and respect for human rights. Basing on this principle and after careful consideration of the Rwandan history, which has been marked with use of force and violence to solve national problems, since 1959 to 1994 genocide, which claimed over one million innocent lives. We re-confirm our commitment on the principle on non-use of confrontational politics, since it only helps to make matters worse other than improve them. We re-confirm our position to not work with people or groups, who may have intentions of taking back the country backwards. The good things the country has achieved have taken a lot of efforts and energy. This should be highly valued. We shall continue to strive for consultative politics, diplomacy, cooperation and peaceful competition for political power. But based on mutual understanding, truth and avoidance of abusive language. We commit ourselves to condemning any causes of war and conflicts by understanding and respecting the Rwandan culture, eradicating racism, promoting freedom and democracy, and eradication of poverty. We strive for a national security system capable of the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts using peaceful means. In the process to register the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, we were always pushed on the wall and ended up in reactionary politics ; this has coasted us a lot and never gave us chance to tell Rwandans our message of peace and hope. We recognise the different achievements made by the RPF led Government for the last 16 years, especially in the areas of economic development, educational sector (where all Rwandans are accessing education on merit other than race), improvement in national security and many others. We believe that there is still a big room for improvement in other areas like democracy and good governance. As an opposition party, we also have an important role to play in the sustainable development of Rwanda. We shall strive for a better Rwanda, where all Rwandans from different parts of the world, will feel free to come back home in a country of peace and justice. Non-violence is indeed the sustainable solution to Rwandan problems ; we encourage all Rwandans to embrace it. It’s our guarantee for a better future and better Rwanda. Issued at Kigali, 10th May 2010 Signed by The National Executive Committee : Names and Position 1. Mr. Frank HABINEZA, President 2. Mr. Andre RWISEREKA KAGWA, First Vice President 3. Ms. Jeanine UWINEZA, Second Vice President 4. Ms. Didacienne KANGEYO, Secretary General 5. Mr. Jean Claude NTEZIMANA, Deputy Secretary General 6. Mr. Alexis MUGISHA, Treasurer General 7. Ms. Carine MAOMBI, Deputy Treasurer General 8. Ms. Diane MUYISENGE, Communication Secretary
Extract of the Law on Registration of Political parties in Rwanda, from Law N° 19/2007 of 04/05/2007 Organic Law modifying and complementing Organic Law n° 16/2003 of 27/06/2003 governing Political Organizations and Politicians French N° 19/2007 du 04/05/2007 Loi Organique modifiant et complétant la Loi Organique n° 16/2003 du 27/06/2003 régissant les Formations Politiques et les Politiciens Kinyarwanda N° 19/2007 ryo kuwa 04/05/2007 Itegeko Ngenga rihindura kandi ryuzuza Itegeko Ngenga n° 16/2003 ryo kuwa 27/06/2003 rigenga Imitwe ya Politiki n’Abanyapolitiki Article 3 : Application for registration of a political organization and the number of those signing its statutes Article 9 of the Organic law n° 16/2003 of 27/06/2003 governing political organizations and politicians is modified and complemented as follows : “Persons intending to form political organizations shall submit to the Minister in charge of political organizations an application letter requesting for registration of the political organization for which an acknowledgment of receipt shall be issued. The number of signatories to any political organization’s statute shall be at least two hundred (200) from the whole country including at least five (5) persons from each District. The provisions of the first two paragraphs of this Article shall not apply to political organizations already registered before the publication of this Organic Law in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Rwanda”. Article 4 : Documents accompanying a political organization’s application for registration Article 10 of the Organic Law n° 16/2003 of 27/06/2003 governing political organizations and politicians is modified and complemented as follows : “The application letter requesting for the registration of a political organization shall include the following : 1° three (3) certified true copies of the political organization statutes, three (3) copies of the minutes of the constituent assembly of the political organization and three (3) copies of its internal rules and regulations ; 2° a statement describing the head office of the political organization and its basic equipment ; 3° for each legal representative of the political organization : a. a certificate of full identity ; b. a residence certificate which is issued by the Sector’s Executive Secretary of his or her residence ; c. Criminal record”. FRENCH VERSION Article 3 : Demande d’enregistrement d’une formation politique et nombre des signataires de ses statuts L’article 9 de la loi organique n° 16/2003 du 27/06/2003 régissant les formations politiques et les politiciens est modifié et complété comme suit : « Les fondateurs des formations politiques doivent déposer une demande d’enregistrement auprès du Ministre ayant les formations politiques dans ses attributions contre récépissé. Le nombre des membres signataires des statuts des formations politiques doit être au moins de deux cent (200) personnes dans tout le pays, dont au moins cinq (5) domiciliés dans chaque District. Les dispositions des deux précédents alinéas du présent article ne concernent pas les formations politiques agréées au Rwanda et formées avant la publication de la présente loi organique au Journal Officiel de la République du Rwanda. » Article 4 : Documents accompagnant la demande d’enregistrement d’une formation politique L’article 10 de la loi organique n° 16/2003 du 27/06/2003 régissant les formations politiques et les politiciens est modifié et complété comme suit : « Le dossier de demande d’enregistrement d’une formation politique doit comprendre : 1° trois (3) exemplaires des statuts notariés, trois (3) exemplaires du procès-verbal de l’assemblée constituante de la formation politique ainsi que trois (3) exemplaires de son Règlement d’ordre intérieur ; 2° une déclaration indiquant l’adresse du siège de la formation politique et son matériel de base ; 3° concernant chaque représentant légal de la formation politique : a. une attestation d’identité complète ; b. une attestation de résidence délivrée par le Secrétaire Exécutif de Secteur de résidence ; c. un extrait du casier judiciaire. » MU KINYARWANDA Ingingo ya 3 : Urwandiko rusaba ko umutwe wa politiki wandikwa n’umubare w’abashyira umukono ku mategeko awugenga Ingingo ya 9 y’Itegeko Ngenga n° 16/2003 ryo kuwa 27/06/2003 rigenga imitwe ya politiki n’abanyapolitiki ihinduwe kandi yujujwe ku buryo bukurikira : “Abashinga imitwe ya politiki bagomba gushyikiriza Minisitiri ufite imitwe ya politiki mu nshingano ze urwandiko rusaba ko umutwe wa politiki wandikwa kandi bagahabwa icyemezo ko rwakiriwe. Umubare w’abashyize umukono ku mategeko agenga umutwe wa politiki ugomba kuba nibura magana abiri (200) mu gihugu cyose, barimo nibura batanu (5) babarurirwa muri buri Karere. Ibiteganyijwe mu bika bibiri bya mbere by’iyi ngingo ntibireba imitwe ya politiki yemewe mu Rwanda yagiyeho mbere y’uko iri tegeko ngenga ritangazwa mu Igazeti ya Leta ya Repubulika y’u Rwanda”. Ingingo ya 4 : Ibigomba guherekeza urwandiko rusaba ko umutwe wa politiki wandikwa Ingingo ya 10 y’Itegeko Ngenga n° 16/2003 ryo kuwa 27/06/2003 rigenga imitwe ya politiki n’abanyapolitiki ihinduwe kandi yujujwe ku buryo bukurikira : “Urwandiko rusaba ko umutwe wa politiki wandikwa ruherekezwa n’ibi bikurikira : 1° kopi eshatu (3) z’amategeko agenga umutwe wa politiki ziriho umukono wa noteri, kopi eshatu (3) z’inyandikomvungo z’inteko rusange yashinze umutwe wa politiki na kopi eshatu (3) z’amategeko ngengamikorere yawo ; 2° inyandiko igaragaza ibiro umutwe wa politiki ukoreramo n’ibikoresho by’ibanze ufite ; 3° kuri buri wese mu bahagararira umutwe wa politiki imbere y’amategeko : a. icyemezo cy’umwirondoro wuzuye ; b. icyemezo cy’aho abarizwa gitangwa n’Umunyamabanga Nshingwabikorwa w’Umurenge w’aho aba ; c. icyemezo cy’ubutabera kigaragaza ko atigeze akatirwa, yaba yarakatiwe kikagaragaza icyaha yahaniwe“.
Hon. Minister of Justice, We humbly request you to allow us sign the founding documents for the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda in the MINIJUST Public Notary’s office. FRANK HABINEZA B.P. 6334 Kigali, Tel : 078 85 630 39, Email : fhabineza@rwandagreendemocrats.org 7th May, 2010 The Hon. Minister of Justice (MINIJUST) Kigali, Rwanda Dear Sir, RE : Requesting to Sign Founding Party Documents in Public Notary’s Office. We humbly request you to allow us sign the founding documents for the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda in the MINIJUST Public Notary’s office. Hon. Minister, as you may be aware, our party founding Congress of 30th October 2009, which the MINJUST’s public Notary had come to witness, was cancelled due to security reasons. Ever since then, we have been trying to hold another party congress in Gasabo District, but we were unsuccessful to get the permission to do so, since the District was not sure that we shall have a peaceful meeting. We have examined the Organic Law, No.16/2003 of 27/06/2003, governing political organizations and politicians, and Organic Law No. 19/2007 of 04/05/2007, which modifies and completes Law No.16/2003 of 27/06/2003 and found out that, actually in order for a party to get registered, it does not need to have a party congress, but rather to have its founding documents notified/certified by a public Notary. It’s in light of this legal provision, that we are appealing to you to allow us come and sign the party founding documents in the MINIJUST’s public Notary’s office. We plan to bring very few people as required by the law and at separate occasions, in order to avoid big crowds, and be sure that we don’t get any intruders who may become a security threat. The Law normally requires at least 5 people from each district. If allowed, we could come province by province, and this would at least require 5 working days, since we have 4 provinces and the City of Kigali. We would be happy to present our signatures in the presence of the Public Notary from 17th -21st May. We understand the public Notary has a lot of other duties, but we believe that since we shall be bringing very small numbers from the provinces, this activity may not take more than two hours a day. We are also privileged to note that it’s the same Public Notary who had also done the proof-reading and corrections of the Party Constitution, so we believe that this activity will go on very smoothly and peacefully. We are looking forward to getting your kind consideration. Yours Faithfully Frank HABINEZA Founding President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
Hon Minister of Local Government, We are pleased to inform you of our new strategy which will help us legally register the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda in peace and without holding a party Congress. FRANK HABINEZA B.P. 6334 Kigali, Tel : 078 85 630 39, Email : fhabineza@rwandagreendemocrats.org 7th May 2010 The Hon. Minister of Local Government (MINALOC) Kigali, Rwanda Dear Sir, RE : Informing you of our new strategy for Registering the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda We are pleased to inform you of our new strategy which will help us legally register the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda in peace and without holding a party Congress. Hon. Minister, as you are aware, we wrote to you on 19th Feb 2010, requesting your intervention in our situation between the District of Gasabo and the Police Headquarters as regards the assurance that we could have a peaceful meeting. Considering that we met with MINALOC officials on 24th March 2010 and considering that due to several emergences on the MINALOC’s side, three other appointments were cancelled, we were unable to meet again to find a common solution to hold a peaceful congress We have examined the Organic Law, No.16/2003 of 27/06/2003, governing political organizations and politicians, and Organic Law No. 19/2007 of 04/05/2007, which modifies and completes Law No.16/2003 of 27/06/2003 and found out that, actually in order for a party to get registered, it does not need to have a party congress, but rather to have its founding documents notified/certified by a public Notary. We are therefore planning to bring very few people as required by the law and at separate occasions, to the Notary, and thus be able to avoid big crowds and be sure that we don’t get any intruders who may become a security threat. The Law normally requires at least 5 people from each district. We plan to bring people province by province and this would at least require 5 working days, since we have 4 provinces and the City of Kigali to complete the process successfully and peacefully. Once the activity of signing the party documents is complete, we shall then submit officially our dossier to MINALOC, this way, we hope we shall have a peaceful process and it would be a win-win situation. We have also been able to re-organise the party Leadership after some of our members defected and we have no problem internally, we are attaching on this Letter two recent press-releases, one is our official response on the defectors and the second one is about our new executive committee and new party strategies. Thank you very much for all your support, we are looking forward to a good collaboration with your ministry. Yours Faithfully, Frank HABINEZA Founding President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda is pleased to inform its members, the Rwandan public and the International Community at large, its new Executive Committee and new party strategies. The New Executive Committee is composed of : Position and Names 1. President, Mr. Frank HABINEZA 2. First Vice President, Mr. Andre RWISEREKA KAGWA 3. Second Vice President, Ms. Jeanine UWINEZA 4. Secretary General, Ms. Didacienne KANGEYO 5. Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Jean Claude NTEZIMANA 6. Treasurer General, Mr. Alexis MUGISHA 7. Deputy Treasurer General, Ms. Carine MAOMBI 8. Communication Secretary, Ms. Diane MUYISENGE The new Secretary General, Ms. Didacienne KANGEYO is a former member of Social Democratic Party (PSD), she worked at the Party Headquarters, as a National Permanent Secretary, for 6 years, since 2002-2008. Her brother NGANGO Felician, was a founder member and former First Vice President of PSD, he was assassinated in 1994 during the genocide. She joined the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, in October 2009 ; she is a mother of three, and a Social Scientist by profession. The other new entrants are : Ms. Diane MUYISENGE (Communication Secretary) and Ms. Carine MAOMBI (Deputy Treasurer General). NEW PARTY STRATEGIES 1. We have resolved not to do a party congress in order to get registered. This comes two months after we petitioned the Ministry of Local Government to intervene, and after having met them once, and after three planned appointments were cancelled due to some emergencies on the MINALOC side, we have not been able to find a lasting solution for a peaceful congress as had been requested by Gasabo District. 2. The Law for Political Parties, does not require a party to have a congress in order to get registered, but requires the signatures of party members to be notified/certified by a public Notary. The Party Congress only helps to bring many people at a certain day and sign the documents at the same time. We shall therefore take our members, on different occasions to a Government Notary to certify our documents and then take the dossier to the Ministry of Local Government for registration. This way, we hope that our security will be guaranteed, since we shall be taking very small numbers, required by the Law to the Public Notary. 3. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, had no chance to present its political program to the Rwandan population, due to the different problems it faced in quest for registration. We are now going to concentrate more on our Green principles, which are : Participatory Democracy, Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Non Violence, Respect for Diversity and Sustainable Development. We have never had any intention to do confrontational politics and this shall remain our focus. We strive for consultative politics in Rwanda. 4. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda is an opposition party and calls for more political space, freedom of expression, freedom of media, other freedoms and respect for human rights in the Republic of Rwanda. This does not make us enemies of the state, we just have different constructive ideas and it’s our constitutional and fundamental human right and part of our political program. Issued at Kigali, 6th May 2010 Signed by : Frank HABINEZA Founder President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
We, members of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, strongly condemn the statements made to different media houses by Mr.Charles KABANDA, Mr.Vincent NSHIMIRIMANA and Ms. Jean Marie Vianey KANTENGWA, who defected from the party on 22 April 2010. We strongly condemn their statements, due to the following reasons : 1. The allegations made to the Founding President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, Mr.Frank HABINEZA, that he made statements they don’t agree with while in the African Greens Congress, Kampala, Uganda. This is a total lie. It was actually Mr.Charles KABANDA who presented the report on Rwanda and not Frank Habineza. 2. The Party Leadership has been having serious concerns on these two men, Mr.Charles KABANDA and Mr.Vincent NSHIMIRIMANA : • Charles KABANDA : ever since he became a member of the party, he has never publically condemned the harassment and intimidation done to the Green Party, yet as a Secretary General it was in his capacity and duties to do so, but rather he was always giving excuses of not wanting to talk to the media and also discouraging the Leadership from doing so. This behavior indicated that he was not totally a committed member of Green Party, and thus had one leg in the party and another leg somewhere else. We had tolerated that behavior and discussed it with him, hoping that time will come for him to change. The truth is now clear. He has exposed himself. • Vincent NSHIMIRIMANA : Ever since he became a member of the Green Party, we started getting information of an infiltrator/spy amongst our midst (at one occasion he was confronted by someone who had information about him spying on us, and this was done in the presence of the President of the Party, though he denied it). Some of our internal discussions and decisions in party meetings used to be heard outside the office and we would wonder who was it, taking the party secrets and internal information outside the party, even some party documents used to get lost and be seen somewhere else. But because we knew that we never had any bad plans in our secrets, we became patient, believing that whoever was doing it would at some point in time change that behavior of betraying the party. Now, instead of changing this behavior, he has publically shown his true colors. • Ms. KANTENGWA Jean Marie Vianey : was probably mislead by these two men, they exerted a lot of pressure on her, that her life was in danger, if she remained in the party. They (Kabanda and Nshimirimana) actually had done the same to other party members but failed, (they did this as soon as the Party President had left the country to Holland). The Leadership of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, would like to inform all party members and Rwandans in general, that the going away (defection) of those people, is a big blessing, because they have been a heavy burden, we are so much relieved now that their evil plans have come to pass, their plan to destroy the party has failed and they can never afford it. We wish them a good journey. We shall communicate to you soon about their replacements. Issued at Kigali 26th April 2010 Signed by Green Party Leadership (se) : 1. Frank HABINEZA , President (se) 2. RWISEREKA KAGWA Andre, First Vice President (se) 3. UWINEZA Jeanine, Second Vice President (se) 4. MUGISHA Alexis, Treasurer (se) 5. NTEZIMANA Jean Claude, Organizing Secretary (se)
The Leadership of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, in its Executive Committee meeting of 5th May 2010, has replaced the vacant position of the Secretary General and re-organized the Executive Committee membership. The new Secretary General, Ms. Didacienne KANGEYO is a former member of Social Democratic Party (PSD), she worked at the Party Headquarters, as a National Permanent Secretary, for 6 years, since 2002-2008. Her brother NGANGO Felician, was a founder member and former First Vice President of PSD, he was assassinated in 1994 during the genocide. She joined the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, in October 2009 ; she is a mother of three, and a Social Scientist by profession. The other new entrants are : Ms. Diane MUYISENGE (Communication Secretary) Mr. Martin NSENGIYUNVA (Organising Secretary) and Ms. Carine MAOMBE (Deputy Treasurer General). Other details will be given in a separate Press Release
