Additional information
by Judi Rever (Foreword by), Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza (Author)
"Everything begins on my return to Rwanda" begins Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's new book written from her prison cell.Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's new book written from her prison cell.After 16 years of exile in Holland, Victoire decided to return to her home country. This book recounts her life experience for 3 years, from the moment she announced her candidacy for presidential elections, to her incarceration into the famous "1930" maximum security prison.In this book, she describes her encounter with corrupt Rwandan judicial system from within. Interrogations, continuous threats, fabricated charges, her attempts to register her party, the prohibition of visiting her family in the Netherlands especially not being able to attend her son's 8th birthday."Those politicians are ruthless. There are reasons to be afraid to live in this country. I have just spent more than twelve hours behind bars having done nothing, whatsoever" "The problem is not that they ignore who I am or that they don't know what is good for our fellow citizens, they just don't want to run the risk of losing power."
Author Biography
In January 2010, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, a mother of three, left her well paid job and family in the Netherlands to go to Rwanda to be the voice of the people under a dictatorial regime. Her arrival in Rwanda proved to be a threat to the ruling party RPF. Nicknamed the "Female Mandela", Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is involved since 1997 in a democratic struggle with the sole goal to install in her country, Rwanda, a state governed by the rule of law and respect for international democratic standards centred around shared political ideas and not on ethnic or regional basis. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was politically active for years and worked with a range of Rwandan opposition groups in the diaspora. She joined the Republican Rally for Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) in 1997, becoming President of the Netherlands branch in 1998 and President of the party in 2000. Between 2003 and 2006, she was President of the Union of Rwandan Democratic Forces (UFDR), a coalition of political opposition parties to which the RDR belonged. Then in 2006, she helped create the FDU-Inkingi party, later becoming its President. Victoire Ingabire attempted to bring together a range of political opposition parties in the diaspora with the aim of creating an opposition movement. She participated in a number of international conferences, including in Spain and the Netherlands where she made speeches and written interventions. Elected by the political bureau to represent her political party FDU Inkingi in the presidential elections of August 9, 2010, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza resigned from her day job in April 2009 to devote herself to her return to her homeland to help the reconciliation and the reconstruction of the war -torn country since 1990. Upon her arrival in Rwanda on the 16th January 2010, she immediately became a victim of physical aggression, intimidation, harassment and media lynching by the government agents to prevent her from registering her party and to stand as its candidate for election. Victoire is a Sakharov Price nominee and she is currently serving a 15 year prison sentence in Kigali famous 1930 prison.
