Who we are
Who are the FDU, in brief?
The Unified Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) are a Rwandan political organisation born of the initiatives of Rwandan exiles. Their main objective is to end the dictatorship and totalitarianism installed in Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) since 1994, and to replace them with the rule of law and good governance founded on democracy, justice, equal opportunity and understanding between ethnic communities. This moral responsibility is inescapable, because the regime practises, among other things, a policy built on ethnic discrimination, injustice and terror, both inside and outside Rwanda.
Founded in 2006 through the merger of three political parties — the FRD (Forces de Résistance Démocratique), the ADR-Isangano (Alliance Démocratique Rwandaise) and the RDR (Rassemblement Républicain pour la Démocratie au Rwanda) — together with independent figures, the FDU-Inkingi established themselves in Rwanda in 2010. Ever since, the RPF has relentlessly persecuted our members: many have been murdered, imprisoned or disappeared.
In 2010, for example, when Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, our president at the time, travelled to Rwanda to register the party and stand in the presidential election against President Paul Kagame, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was able to bring the case before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), which ruled against Rwanda, finding that her conviction had violated her rights to freedom of expression and to an adequate defence. Instead of releasing her in compliance with the Court's decision, President Paul Kagame granted her a presidential pardon (in 2018). The regime has nevertheless continued to deny the FDU-Inkingi the right to register as a political party in Rwanda.
Who are the FDU's leaders?
- 2006-2010: Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza (Netherlands)
- 2010-2014: Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza (Rwanda) and Eugène Ndahayo (Belgium)
- 2014-2018: Joseph Bukeye (Belgium)
- 2018-2021: Justin Bahunga (United Kingdom)
- Since 2021: Placide Kayumba (Belgium)
The values and principles of FDU-INKINGI
The rule of law
The very foundation of public life, the rule of law our organisation seeks to promote puts forward the principles of legality, the primacy of law and equality before the law. It rejects arbitrary rule. In a country like Rwanda, which has known an unbroken succession of authoritarian, even autocratic, regimes, our organisation fights for political institutions that defend the fundamental rights of the human person and rest on political pluralism.
Equality and freedom
We fully embrace the ideals of equality and freedom that justified the struggle against the racism, slavery and colonisation inflicted on Black people. In a country like ours which, on the one hand, has known the absolute racism of genocide and mass crimes against humanity and, on the other, continues to foster ostracism among its citizens, our attachment to these founding values of pan-Africanism needs no further proof. Guaranteeing equality before the law, equal opportunity and fundamental freedoms against the oppression of power must be our organisation's daily struggle.
Individual autonomy
This is the capacity and the right of the human person to unleash their creativity, to take charge of their own problems, to determine and pursue their destiny, to decide and answer for their own actions. Individual autonomy is the foundation of democracy as an institution of all, for it is as equals that citizens take part in the management of society. Faced with a centralising and authoritarian political culture that has bred generalised conformism and blind obedience to power ("Ilivuze umwami"), our organisation recognises resistance to oppression as a right — one that moves the individual to denounce any state, any policy, any ruler that violates the humanity of the human person, the humanity on which citizenship itself is founded.
Solidarity
Solidarity means permanently recognising the interdependence that binds the different groups in society — rich and poor, families, generations, indeed people with one another. It gives rise to social justice. We are not born with the same fortune, and life does not always grant us equal opportunities; our organisation fights for that equality and affirms that every person is entitled, whatever the circumstances, to a decent life founded on sufficient resources and their fair distribution. Solidarity is incompatible with racism, ethnic sectarianism and the rejection of minorities.
The duty of remembrance
The genocide, the crimes against humanity and the unspeakable violence committed in Rwanda have left indelible marks on people's memories. It is criminal to deny or relativise the absolute tragedy suffered by the victims and their surviving relatives. These victims and their families now form a specific group whose particular suffering must be acknowledged, to whom justice must be rendered and whose harm must be repaired, even partially. So that such a catastrophe never happens again, our organisation is committed to defending the absolute right to life and to keeping a candle lit in memory of the victims.
Popular participation
For citizens to trust institutions and make them their own, they must directly oversee and genuinely inspire the exercise of power. It is essential that every individual, at every level of society, becomes aware of their rights and duties. To that end, our organisation is committed to having the popular initiative recognised and enshrined in the Constitution as a constitutional right: the ability of citizens to exercise their share of sovereignty directly, alongside parliament and government.
Decentralisation
A successful democracy also shows itself when decisions are taken as close as possible to the citizen, so that citizens feel fully part of public life. Decentralisation means multiplying decision-making bodies within the citizen's reach — local power — where the national level leaves free rein to local creativity. It would allow the free expression of certain cultural particularities and the emancipation of economic and social dynamics.
Sustainable development
Our organisation attaches great importance to the sustainable and equitable management of natural resources, to the conservation of the environment and to the rehabilitation of ecosystems degraded by human activity. Because we stand in solidarity with future generations, to whom we owe the resources for their own lives, every political decision must be assessed for its medium- and long-term effects on ecological balances and on the future of human societies, Rwandan society in particular.