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KIGALI, Dec 31 (AFP) - Rwandan Prime Minister Sylvestre Nsanzimana has announced the formation of what he called a coalition government, but 16 of the 17 cabinet posts are held by the party of President Juvenal Habyarimana.
Ten key posts remained unchanged in the new government, announced by the premier late Monday, but Habyarimana gave up control of the defense portfolio he had held since 1965.
Colonel Augustin Ndindiliyimana, formerly the president's top national security adviser, was named to the job.
The three main opposition parties refused to participate in the new government in protest at the October 12 appointment of Nsanzimana by Habyarimana.
The 10 unchanged posts included Foreign Minister Casimir Bizimungu, Interior Minister Faustin Munyazesa and Planning and Cooperation Minister Augustin Ngirabatware.
The only portfolio not held by a member of Habyarimana's National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development went to Gaspard Ruhumuliza, head of the tiny Christian Democratic Party.
The three main opposition parties -- the Republican Democratic Movement, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party -- had boycotted Nsanzimana's efforts to form a coalition government, complaining they had not been consulted in the premier's appointment.
Three other parties had offered to participate, but Nsanzimana said Monday that they had not yet held public meetings and so could not be considered for cabinet positions.
Among the new faces were Enoch Ruhigira, an agronomist named to head the finance ministry, and Fidele Nkundabagenzi as information minister, a post which has been left out of every government formed under Habyarimana since 1974.
The main figure missing from the new cabinet was former mines and industry minister Joseph Nzirorera, a close associate of the president whose name has come up in connection with several corruption cases.
The National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development ruled Rwanda as the sole legal party for 18 years, until constitutional changes in June opened the door to multi-party elections.
mgu/dm/ns AFP AFP
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