Citation
KIGALI, Nov 15 (AFP) - Ethnic Tutsis in the Rwandan opposition Liberal Party (PL) took control of the party at the weekend after evicting two high-ranking Hutu members during an extraordinary congress, an informed source said Monday.
The Tutsis elected new party officers after dismissing PL president Justin Mugenzi -- the current trade, industry and crafts minister -- and executive secretary Agnes Ntambyariro, who is also justice minister.
Both evicted members are ethnic Hutus, who form a majority in Rwanda as well as in neighbouring Burundi.
The PL, often accused by President Juvenal Habyarimana's Democratic Republican Movement (MRD) of being a branch of the ex-rebel Tutsi-majority Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), had repeatedly denied being a mono-ethnic party.
A peace accord was signed between the government and the RPF on August 4, ending three years of civil war in the country.
Another opposition party, the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), underwent a similar shakeup in July, although that power struggle was unrelated to ethnicity.
Certain MDR dissidents -- who wanted to maintain the candidature of former premier Dismas Nsengiyaremye for the post of prime minister in a future broad-based transitional government -- organized a special congress and dismissed party president Faustin Twagiramungu (the transitional government's designated prime minister), along with current Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and three other MDR ministers.
In another unrelated incident, Kigali appeals court prosecutor Alphonse Marie Nkubito was wounded in a grenade attack against his home overnight Sunday, according to an informed source. The extent of his injuries was not known.
As of Monday afternoon no one had taken responsibility for the attack against Nkubito, who is also president of the Rwandan human rights association.
mgu-at/btr/bb
