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by Human Rights Watch.

Rwanda: Attacks on Freedom of Expression, Association, and Assembly in the Run-up to Presidential Election

January to July 2010

The following is a chronology of violations of the right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly in Rwanda, and related events, from January through July 2010, leading up to presidential elections on August 9. Human Rights Watch documents listed in related materials provide additional information on some of these cases.

The chronology focuses primarily on selected incidents affecting members of opposition parties, journalists, and nongovernmental organizations. It is not an exhaustive list, and Human Rights Watch has documented additional incidents that are not included.

[Human Rights Watch].

Foreign-based dissidents trying to damage Rwanda’s reputation may be behind recent killings of opposition and media figures that sparked worldwide criticism, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Human rights groups and others accuse President Paul Kagame of clamping down on dissent ahead of an August general election. They also point to the closure of two newspapers, the arrest of activists and the fact some opposition parties are barred from running.

That has the potential to worry foreign investors who have been increasingly attracted to Rwanda in recent years, drawn by potential growth in agriculture, infrastructure, solar, gas and hydropower generation as well as services and technology.

Two high profile killings of a journalist critical of the government and an opposition leader as well as the shooting of a dissident general in South Africa drew global media attention.

“It is unfortunate because it is not the real story of Rwanda,” Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told Reuters on a visit to London.

“We believe it is simply to do with the election. It will go away after the election. It is not a long-term problem,” she said in an interview arranged by a Western public relations firm hired to burnish the central African state’s image.

Asked who might be behind the killings and other isolated acts of violence, Mushikiwabo said they were still being investigated but pointed to rogue elements abroad possibly linked to the 1994 genocide.

“I think it’s mainly outside the country,” she said. “There are people who have fallen out with the government and have their own agenda. There is a diaspora element — some of them involved in the genocide.”

Rwanda’s genocide experience, in which politicians and broadcasters whipped up tensions leading to mass slaughter, meant it had to be particularly careful with what it allowed media outlets and others to do, she said.

LOOKING EAST, HIRING PR FIRM

“We cannot allow the media or others to encourage violence,” she said. “But our security and intelligence agencies are very good and very much on top of the problem.”
Rwanda has been heavily dependent on Western and multilateral aid that until last year made up more than 50 percent of its budget. This had come down to 40 percent in the upcoming financial year as new investments came in.

These included Chinese and Korean projects as well as hotel projects with Dubai’s troubled state-linked Dubai World, which had been scaled back in the last year.
Mushikiwabo said there were no signs yet of Western countries cutting aid commitments to Rwanda because of financial difficulties at home, but she was keenly aware of the shift in power to emerging nations.

Rwanda was opening embassies in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere and doubling its New Delhi diplomatic staff.

“There’s no doubt the money is in the East,” she said. “It’s a new challenge and one we have to adapt to. It’s totally different to five years ago.”

But Rwanda also takes its reputation in Western capitals very seriously.

Like several other nations, it has contracted a Western PR consultancy to help. The interview in London was offered up swiftly after a story on rule of law in Rwanda that made reference to investor concerns.

“I think it’s necessary to do business these days,” said Mushikiwabo, who herself once worked in the PR industry. “But we have a saying: “just because a woman wears make-up doesn’t mean that she wasn’t good-looking to begin with”.”

[ARI-RNA]

�If you are foreigners or Rwandans, if you want to fight us we will fight back and we will win because it seems you don�t know Rwandans and the RPF, and you must know us, we are strong, we will fight back and we will win.�
Paul Kagame.

Kirehe (Rwanda) – Incumbent President Paul Kagame warned Wednesday on the latest campaign leg that he would stop at nothing to combat foreign support for what he described as so-called �illegitimate� opposition leaders.

In clear reference to FDU-Inkingi party leader Victoire Ingabire, Kagame said foreigners and even Rwandans should not be supporting her.

�Some foreigners say there is a woman who is fighting for Hutu rights and they want us to listen to that woman because she represents the majority, but which majority is that?� he said to the crowd in Kirehe district, in Eastern Rwanda.

�Which majority are they talking about because the majority is you people and Rwanda doesn’t belong to Hutu, Tutsi or Twa – it belongs to Rwandans.�

While this message has been delivered at various rallies throughout the week, none was more forceful than Kirehe�s. The crowd gathered at Kirehe was met by a stern-looking Kagame, pointing his finger and shaking his fist with more vigour than usual.

President Kagame came under criticism this week from exiled ex-spy chief Col Patrick Karegeya – now living in South Africa, who gave an interview to the Ugandan paper The Observer. In the story, he referred to Kagame as a dictator who would not leave power unless he was forced out by war.

�We owe nobody nothing!� Kagame said in the opening minutes of his speech, the only English phrase he used.

Juxtaposed with the condemnation of support for unrecognized opposition leaders was Kagame�s defense of Rwanda�s democracy. Rwandans are ready to fight for their rights and people should recognize this, he said.

�What the majority of Rwandans choose, you have to respect that, and if you don�t respect it then that�s disrespectful and undermining,� said Kagame.

Players such as Ingabire and other unrecognized opposition leaders are a threat to that democracy, he said, but Rwandans won�t succumb to such threats.

�Rwandans have won big fights in the past, and we will also win fights that some people want to impose on us,� he said.

�If you are foreigners or Rwandans, if you want to fight us we will fight back and we will win because it seems you don�t know Rwandans and the RPF, and you must know us, we are strong, we will fight back and we will win.�

Kagame campaigned in Kirehe on Wednesday and later moved to Ngoma � both in the east bordering Tanzania. He came with his wife Jeanette Kagame.

The Ngoma rally speech neither had the same forcefulness as Kirehe�s nor the same subject matter. Instead, Kagame spoke about the successes of the RPF in Rwanda and then proceeded to dance close to the chanting crowd with his wife.

A dusty haze filled the air as the Kagames danced and clapped their hands above their heads. Singing and cheering flowed from the thousands of supporters in attendance, and while the mood was high, the Kagame entourage exited through the middle of the crowd.

[ARI-RNA]