Republican Rally For Democracy in Rwanda - History

History

The "Rally for the Return of Refugee and Democracy in Rwanda" (RDR) was formed on April 3, 1995 by a group of Rwandan refugees in Mugunga, Eastern region of the then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The creation of the RDR was a response to the outcome of Rwandan civil war and the resulting refugee crisis in the African Great Lakes Region. By August 1994, over two million Rwandan refugees had fled to neighbouring African countries creating an extreme humanitarian crisis. Inside Rwanda, the internally displaced population were at risk of famine. In refugee camps, the presence of former governmental military personnel and Interahamwe, a Hutu extremist group responsible for the Tutsi genocide undermined the welfare of innocent civilian refugees, making the humanitarian relief effort vastly complex.

In October 1994, a group led by Mr. Francis Nzabahimana, a former civil servant, initiated a meeting in Bukavu. The meeting would pave way to the historical gathering of April 1995 which was attended not only by representatives of the refugees from various camps in Africa, but also by the exiled individuals from Europe and North America. For two days of debate, refugees were considering setting up an organization that is able to break the media and diplomatic embargo suffered by refugees. At the end of this first gathering, the refugees published the charter for a peaceful and speedy return of refugees with their prerequisites.

On April 3, 1995 at Mugunga, the RDR was born. The RDR was intended to be a non-partisan organization that would bring together all the refugee groupings irrespective of political, ethnic, regional or professional background. RDR was an organization that would not compete with the political parties in exile and its action was placed beyond the traditional scope of activities of political parties. While acknowledging and defending the achievements of the multiparty system, the RDR was aware of the limitations and disadvantages of different political parties in exile such as the stifling of political parties within Rwanda by the RPF and its government.

RDR mission was to solely represent the interest of these civilian refugees and to negotiate their return to their homeland in peace and dignity. The long term goal of the RDR group was to establish true democracy in Rwanda in order to break the decades-old cycle of violence between Hutu extremists and Tutsi extremists, a cycle in which most victims were innocent civilians on each side.

A year later, as refugees spread beyond the African Great Lakes region, with no solution to the refugee crisis in sight, the RDR grew into a political party with branches in Europe and North America. The group’s name has since changed to the Republican Rally for Democracy in Rwanda.