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Rwanda: no room left in politics, only in jail

by Olivier Nyirubugara.

When she left the Netherlands in January 2010, Victoire Ingabire was hoping to occupy some room in the political space of her home country Rwanda. She even wanted to run for presidency to challenge incumbent president Paul Kagame, who finally won the almost one-horse race with 93 percent of votes.

Ingabire was allowed neither to register her party, nor her candidacy. Instead, she was accused of disseminating the genocidal ideology. Her lawyer, Peter Erlinder, was caught and jailed for the same crime, but was released later, after pressure coming from the US and all over the world.

Apparently, the charges proved not to be strong enough. A new one was added: Ingabire is a terrorist preparing attacks on Rwanda. A key witness who bought arms for her is already in custody. It’s a state security case and no one can have access to her. Thus, from the status of ambitious politician operating from her European exile, Ingabire turned out to be a ‘terrorist’, the most serious crime for which other politicians have received a life imprisonment.

It should be noted that her arrest followed president Kagame’s historic speech on 7 October, which many analysts have considered to be a turning point in his relations with the West. Apart from frontally attacking and mocking his now critical western backers, Kagame triumphantly announced that ‘the political space is well and fully occupied by the people of this country’, who spoke in ‘big numbers’ and – this one is important — freely.

Now that Ingabire is in jail, in the hands of those she constantly and virulently criticised, three scenarios are possible for the coming months and years. First, one would say that Ingabire stands a very little chance to be acquitted by Rwandan courts, as two of the most serious crimes in post-genocide Rwanda hang on her head. Thus, she will most likely spend the coming years at 1930, the famous Kigali central prison, where she would be isolated from other inmates for fear she would contaminate them. She would then be invited or pushed to repent, and ask for a presidential pardon, which was the case for former president Pasteur Bizimungu. That scenario consists in a psycological death, followed by, and resulting in, a political death. Bernard Ntaganda is in this scenario.

The second scenario would be that the judicial masquerade would lead to international outrage and increase pressure from the Western backers. The judges would then receive instruction to release her either conditionally or unconditionally. Bishop Augustin Misago and recently Ingabire’s lawyer Peter Erlinder, were in this scenario. This one consists in ‘surrender’ and would most likely free some room in the full and fully occupied political space

A third scenario could be envisaged: Physical death while in detention. Any way Green Party’s vice-president Rwisereka was beheaded and nothing happened. The reasoning might go in the direction of a slow, seemingly natural but assisted death. Ingabire’s husband, Lin Muyizere fears already for the health of his wife, whose blood pressure is said to be very low. She is also reported to sleep on bare floor and to receive to food or proper medication.

October 25, 2010   No Comments

Audio: UN Tribunal confirms Rwanda has green light to prosecute US lawyer Peter Erlinder for genocide denial

Listen:
Rwanda Prosecutor Ngoga vows to persecute law ICTR defence counsel Prof. Peter Erlinder for genocide denial
Radio Rwanda:
? UN Tribunal confirms Rwanda has green light to prosecute US lawyer Peter Erlinder for genocide denial.
? If Prof. Erlinder fails to respond to summons, Rwanda will turn to Interpol.

Law professor Peter Erlinder, jailed in May in Rwanda and released in June on bail, will be criminally charged with denying the genocide that devastated that country in the early 1990s, according to that Rwanda’s chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga.

Erlinder, 62, is a well-known human rights lawyer who had travelled to Rwanda to represent Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, an opposition leader who was barred from challenging President Paul Kagame in the Aug. 9 elections. Ingabire was arrested in April, released on bail and placed under house arrest, and then rearrested in October on charges of genocide denial and terrorism.

Earlier this year, Erlinder helped file suit in U.S. federal court (Oklahoma) alleging that Kagame was the mastermind of the violence that triggered the 1994 genocide.

Related:
Peter Erlinder’s statement in response to the news that Rwanda’s Prosecutor demands his return


October 25, 2010   1 Comment

Peter Erlinder�s statement in response to the news that Rwanda�s prosecutor demands his return

With water and toilet paper at hand, Erlinder consults with the lawyer on his way back to the Kigali Central Prison, known in Rwanda as �1930�, awaiting his bail verdict

On Oct. 21, Rwandan Chief Prosecutor Martin Ngoga announced that he wants U.S. law professor and U.N. Rwanda Tribunal lead defense counsel, Peter Erlinder, back in court to stand trial for �genocide denial� based on articles written in the U.S. and published on the internet.
Here is the statement made by Prof. Erlinder:

St. Paul, Oct. 21 � Following my release for medical reasons, the well-publicized myth that the Kagame dictatorship had changed, that misled both me and my former client, Madame Ingabire, has been exposed.

After my release, the banning of all serious political opposition, the beheading of the vice-president of the Green Party, Madame Ingabire�s arrest, the assassination of journalists, the attempted assassination of Mr. Kagame�s former chief of staff who defected to South Africa, the assassination of another ICTR defense counsel and Kagame�s �election� with 93 percent of the vote caused the Obama White House to question the state of democracy in Rwanda on Aug. 13:

�(A) series of disturbing events prior to the election includ(es) the suspension of two newspapers, the expulsion of a human rights activist, the barring of two opposition parties from taking part in the election, and the arrest of journalists � (S)tability and prosperity will be difficult to sustain without broad political debate and open political participation � Democracy is about more than holding elections.�

On Aug. 28, Le Monde and the New York Times leaked a 600-page report from the files of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights detailing crimes of Kagame�s troops in the Congo between 1993-2003, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. These are the same sort of crimes Chief ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte�s 2009 English language memoir says were committed by Kagame�s troops in Rwanda in 1994, but her honesty cost her job in 2003 when she refused to follow U.S. orders NOT to prosecute Kagame�s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) at the ICTR.

These U.N. documents also confirm the evidence I put in the ICTR record that acquitted my client of �conspiracy and planning to commit genocide� in a February 2009 judgment, for which I have been accused of �genocide denial� and �spreading rumors.� Observing that the ICTR judgment runs counter to the victor�s description on the internet of the how the war developed makes me a �genocide denier� in Rwanda. My �crime� has been to say that, if there was no long-term planning and conspiracy, the victor�s story of the �Rwandan genocide� must be re-examined.

Professor Peter Erlinder

But my prosecution has larger implications as well. If U.N. immunity does not apply to any prosecution of defense counsel by the Kagame government, then all defense counsel and defendants have reason to fear that meaningful representation at the U.N. Tribunal will be impossible, especially since the former chief U.N. prosecutor has confirmed that Kagame and the RPF should be in the dock themselves.

Professor Peter Erlinder is the director of the International Humanitarian Law Institute at the William Mitchell College of Law, 875 Summit Av., St. Paul, Minn.

October 25, 2010   3 Comments

China to fund Rwanda army marine regiment

Listen:
Rwanda-China-Military-Cooperation
Radio Rwanda.

The Chinese government will finance the marine regiment for the Rwanda Defense Forces to improve its capabilities – as part of a broad military cooperation agreement concluded between Beijing and Kigali, RNA reports.

Visiting Defense Minister General James Kabarebe and Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie finalized a major military cooperation agreement on Friday � concluding a 5-day trip of the Rwandan delegation.

The agreement signed Friday contains a protocol under which China will give Rwanda a grant to construct a floating dock for the marine regiment. No specifics are given in the statement from the Chinese Defense Ministry, but it could be referring to setting up marine capabilities on Lake Kivu and Muhazi.

“The ministers pledged to deepen and widen military cooperation by opening up new areas of cooperation such as research and development, intensifying military visits and exchange programmes,” said the statement.

Recent years have witnessed accelerated development of military ties between the two nations. And China says it attaches great importance to developing ties with the Rwandan military.

The two armies are involved in peacekeeping operations in Sudan.

[ARI-RNA]


October 25, 2010   2 Comments