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by Victoire Ingabire.

“The world is failing Rwanda once again, and the democracy ideal is thwarted.
A new long crisis is looming.”
Victoire Ingabire.

POLITICISED JUSTICE AMIDST THE CONFUSION OF AN ELECTION CARTOON

Only a few days before the presidential election masquerade, politicised Kigali courts are still busy loading the regime�s jails with political prisoners.
Last week the bail appeal for Mr. Bernard NTAGANDA, the President of PS IMBERAKURI was rejected and the case of Mr. Deogratias MUSHAYIDI was postponed.
Today, it was the turn of Mr. Martin NTAVUKA, the Nyarugenge leader of FDU INKINGI to join them in the Kigali maximum prison on charges of illegal protest.

He did not protest because he was arrested and beaten in my residential premises with a bunch of �democracy and fair justice� T-shirts on 24 July 2010.
In June 2010, Mr. Andr� KAGWA RWISEREKA, a leader of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda was beheaded, and until now there is no independent investigation and instead the authorities are still conning the world that they have a suspect in custody, freed some days ago.
Members of the opposition have disappeared, or have been victim of torture and ill treatments. The justice is quiet. What kind of justice is that?

While some members of the international community and even a handful set of militant diplomats fool the world that the ongoing sham election has some sort of credibility, the country is getting closer to the brink of chaos. The world is failing Rwanda once again, and the democracy ideal is thwarted. A new long crisis is looming.

The presidential campaign circus has reached its pick with four candidates all backing the incumbent electoral pledges and hyperboles. Those who are backing this electoral mockery are powered by their selfish interests well known to them and their countries.

Again we call upon the Rwandan government to give back total freedom to all detained or bailed members of FDU INKINGI, to return my passport and to register our political party.

Soon or later, Rwandans shall overcome.

Ms. Victoire INGABIRE UMUHOZA
FDU INKINGI, CHAIR

“We will fight whoever starts a war against us�
Kagame.

Kigali – From telling western critics they can hang, incumbent President Kagame now says for those planning war, they had better take a second chance to think over their plans. This is after an exiled ex-spy chief said President Kagame like other �dictators� don�t step down, they are �brought down�.

“We will fight whoever starts a war against us,� said Kagame in Bugesera district on the latest leg of his campaigns. �Rwandans must be allowed to make their choice�whoever is not happy can die of envy.�

Without singling out any specific individuals or groups, the RPF candidate said nobody will scare Rwandans with threats of war.

Ex-spy chief Col Patrick Karegeya, who is in South Africa with wounded Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, said in an interview with a Ugandan tri-weekly The Observer that only armed rebellion would remove President Kagame.

�A dictator can never step down, they are brought down. It�s only Rwandans who can stand up now and fight for their freedom. Kagame will have his breaking point and I think it will be very soon,� Karegeya said.

In a firry speech � a tactic he has employed since Friday last week, President Kagame told Bugesera that critics are wrong to suggest that since everybody supports RPF, then there is no democracy in Rwanda.

“Some falsely claim that Rwanda has no democracy because everybody supports RPF,” said Kagame.

“Who told them this is not democracy. If they want the truth then let them inquire from Rwandans, and residents of Bugesera in particular.”
He added: “Democracy and development are twins not enemies. Each requires the other.”

[ARI-RNA]

Kagame
Climate of fear and terror in Rwanda.

Next Monday, August 9, the presidential elections in Rwanda take place in a climate of fear and terror.
President Paul Kagame (RPF) is expected to win with a record score because the opposition has been neutralized in the recent months. “But there is an end-of-reign atmosphere. A palace revolution in the clan of Kagame is a greater threat than the political opposition,” said the renowned Rwanda-specialist Filip Reyntjens this week in Knack.

On June 19, General Kayumba, the former chief of staff who fled to South Africa, survived another attack. Three other generals were arrested in Rwanda itself. According to Reyntjens there is a coup in the air. “I think there is a real risk of a coup, and that can still happen before the elections. There are plenty of conspiracies, my sources tell me. The paranoia was already great, but now Kagame doesn�t not know anymore who he can trust.”

Even the opposition leader Victoire Ingabire (FDU), who after her arrest in Kigali has been in a form of house arrest, said in Knack that an internal power struggle is in progress: “The ruling party RPF is faced now with a split, and they will not solve that problem with these sham elections. I call for the boycott of this electoral masquerade.” Last week there was again a brutal police raid on her house, where two local FDU leaders were ruthlessly arrested.

After 16 years of exile in the Netherlands since the 1994 genocide, the perfect Dutch-speaking Victoire Ingabire has returned to Rwanda a half year ago. “I fear for my own safety, but I can not let my life be determined by fear,” she said. “I must overcome fear in order to continue with my struggle.”

Prof. Filip Reyntjens is irritated by the silence of Foreign Affairs in Brussels, despite the long series of political killings and arbitrary arrests. “A senior official in the State Department tells me that the Americans are very worried and assume that the regime is behind the killings,” said Reyntjens. “Rwanda is a volcano, temporarily still with a lid on. But sooner or later will jump that lid off.”

Original article in Dutch: Knack