Mission finds evidence of harassment in Rwanda poll

Date: 11/09/03

By David Cronin

SUPPORTERS of the opposition candidate in Rwanda's presidential election were subject to harassment and intimidation, an EU mission has found.

Led by Luxembourg's Liberal MEP Colette Flesch, the observer team found that aides to Fausten Twagiramungu were hampered from running an effective campaign before the 25 August poll because many of them, including 12 provincial coordinators, were arrested. Twagiramungu secured just 3% of the vote in an election, where the outgoing president won with a 97% landslide.

The observers sharply criticized Kagame for making use of state resources for electioneering purposes. They also found that media coverage had been heavily biased towards Kagame, the former head of the Tutsi rebel army who came to power following the 1994 genocide by a Hutu militia, which left an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates dead.

After monitoring press coverage from 1 August to polling day, the team concluded that 60% of television and radio reporting on the election was devoted to Kagame and that 99% of that coverage was positive towards him. By contrast, 65% of the reporting about Twagiramungu cast him in a negative light.

The printed media was found to have initially respected a plea by a national press council for impartial reporting. "Rapidly, however, the profiles of the candidates and their programmes were replaced by a celebration of Kagame's success and accusations of 'divisionism' against Twagiramungu," the team noted. 'Divisionism' is a term equated with ethnic hatred in Rwanda.

The team, which visited 372 polling stations throughout the country, also reported that polling day was "punctuated by certain irregularities and cases of fraud".

It found that in certain stations, the officials tasked with handing out ballot papers "tried clearly to influence" voters to support Kagame.

And the team voiced disquiet about the "massive and intimidating presence" of staff from a national electoral commission and, in some cases, workers for Kagame in polling outlets.

Instances where lists of eligible voters were "modified illegally" and of suspected stuffing of ballot boxes were unearthed too.

The report by the 58-strong team was discussed by the European Parliament's development committee this week.