Rwandan Leader Quits After Clashes With Colleagues

Hutu President Pasteur Bizimungu, in power since the end of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, resigned Thursday after falling out with leading members of his Tutsi-dominated ruling party.

Political observers said Bizimungu had clashed with colleagues in the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, over the makeup of a new Cabinet that was announced Sunday.

He had also criticized parliament over a recent investigation into official corruption, which has led to the resignation of a number of ethnic Hutus and Tutsis from his coalition government.

“From today, March 23, 2000, I resign from the post of president of the Republic of Rwanda,” Bizimungu said in a statement, without giving any further details.

The RPF formed a government of national reconciliation that sought to embrace both ethnic groups after the genocide of hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus at the hands of Hutu extremists.

But several Hutus have since quit the government. Last month, Pierre Celestin Rwigema, another Hutu, resigned as prime minister after parliament accused him of corruption.

Most of the power in Rwanda rests with Vice President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi who is also chairman of the RPF. Rumors have circulated in Kigali, the capital, for months about strained relations between Kagame and Bizimungu.

Regional diplomats said the resignation did not come as a surprise but said they feared it would foster greater mistrust between the majority Hutu population and the minority Tutsis who control the government.

“Even if you are just an ordinary member of the public you will see it as in the Hutu-Tutsi dichotomy,” said a senior foreign ministry official from one of Rwanda’s neighboring nations.

“It is a setback because even if they appoint another Hutu to be president, he will find himself in the same situation, with no power,” the official said.

Bizimungu launched a stinging attack Monday on the Central African country’s parliament, saying it had been partisan in its corruption investigations and ignored powerful Tutsi politicians.

The speech was not carried on state-run radio or television.

Some diplomats said Bizimungu might have resigned to preempt investigations of himself. Others said it appeared that Kagame was tightening his grip on power and weeding out potential opponents.

Parliament accepted Bizimungu’s resignation unanimously during an emergency session Thursday.

Under Rwandan law, the speaker of the National Assembly, Vincent Biruta, a Tutsi, will replace Bizimungu until another president is selected from the RPF.