Kibeho Fallout: Cabinet Shake-Up

The resignation and simultaneous dismissal of Rwanda's Prime Minister and the subsequent replacement of three other key cabinet ministers also regarded as moderate representatives of the country's ethnic Hutu community has stunned diplomats and other foreign observers. I filed this report on the late August 1995 shake-up, triggered in large part by the Kibeho controversy.

One disappointed diplomat in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, calls the departure of Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu and three key associates from the Interior, Justice, and Information ministries a crippling blow to the hopes of all moderates and ethnic Hutu in the country.

This diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the purge of the four best-known ethnic Hutu in the cabinet definitely means so-called hardline ethnic Tutsi elements in the government formed last year have gained the upper hand.

That government was always thought to have been dominated by its ethnic Tutsi members, principally the powerful Vice President and Defense Minister, Paul Kagame. But officials from President Pasteur Bizimungu on down always pointed proudly to the fact that most members of the cabinet were neither Tutsi nor members of the Rwandese Patriotic Front, the one-time rebel group led by General Kagame that seized power after last year's genocide.

Sources in Kigali say there were always tensions in the government -- especially between the Prime Minister and Mr. Kagame. But Mr. Twagiramungu was regarded as the only member of the moderate wing who stood up regularly to the hardline forces. There were frequent acrimonious exchanges between the Prime Minister and his opponents, often aired publicly over Radio Rwanda.

But sources say their differences apparently came to a head earlier this year after the killings of displaced hutus at the Kibeho camp in southwestern Rwanda. Mr. Twagiramungu pointedly began distancing himself from other officials of the government, particularly those in the defense ministry.

Two of the other ministers relieved this week -- Seth Sendashonga of Interior and Justice Minister Alphonse-Marie Nkubito -- were also described by eyewitnesses as livid with anger over the alleged massacre of refugees by RPF soldiers at Kibeho.

The situation in Kigali following the apparent government purge was said by residents to be calm, with no extra roadblocks or troops evident in the streets. However, efforts to determine the whereabouts of Mr. Twagiramungu and the other dismissed ministers were unsuccessful. Some reports indicated their phone lines had been cut.

Some aid workers expressed alarm over the change in the Rwandan government, especially at a time when UN officials are seeking to promote the voluntary repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees in camps in Zaire and Tanzania. These aid workers claimed the departure of the Prime Minister will cause many Hutu refugees considering a return home to rethink their decisions.

But other relief officials said many of the extremist refugee leaders would seize on any reason to justify remaining in camps.

Sources in Kigali say it is uncertain whether the shake-up in the Rwandan government marks the final move in a political chess game or whether there will be a ripple effect throughout the country. Whatever the case, one diplomat says Rwanda's Tutsi power brokers appear to have once again harmed their own image in the eyes of the international community.