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CHRI Press Release-6 March 2010.
CHRI (Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives) is deeply concerned at the continued restrictions and threats to opposition parties in the run up to Rwanda�s Presidential elections on 9 August 2010 and urges the Rwandan Government to take immediate steps to ensure respect for the basic, universal rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly of opposition parties. The absence of these rights is tantamount to breaches of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political principles that insist on free and fair elections (Harare Declaration 1991).

On Commonwealth day, 8 March 2010, CHRI once again brings to the notice of the Commonwealth Secretary General the growing number of concerns surrounding political freedoms in Rwanda. Despite grave representations by CHRI and others about the appropriateness of Rwanda�s readiness for membership, given its record on human rights and its questionable role in the conflict in the Congo, Rwanda was unconditionally admitted to the Commonwealth as its newest member at the Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago last November.

Rwanda�s membership requires that it honours and complies with the Commonwealth�s fundamental political principles which include respect for civil society and human rights. The Chair of a new opposition party, United Democratic Forces (UDF) has written to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth alleging state orchestrated harassment, describing violence against herself and colleagues as well as outlining the restrictive environment facing opposition parties in their electoral challenge to the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

Under Article 13 of the Rwandan constitution it is an offence to engage in �revisionism� or �negationism� (denial of the genocide). These are so broadly defined to include anyone who disagrees with the ruling RPF�s account of the Genocide. On the 25th of February the Ministry for Security in Rwanda issued a statement saying that any politician who �slanders the country� or is �against public unity� would be punished. In addition the Minister for Local Government has reportedly threatened to crackdown on unregistered political parties who are members of the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties. Further opposition parties have alleged that the government is making it hard to register by continually changing registration rules; the National Electoral Commission which regulates these matters is controlled by the members of the RPF. A number of opposition parties have also complained that they face repeated harassment from government officials and the members of the RPF.

It is imperative that the Government of Rwanda thoroughly investigates, in a manner satisfactory to opposition parties, the many incidents of intimidation and bring those responsible to justice. It should also ensure that its electoral processes are consistent with UN and Commonwealth standards for free and fair elections.

CHRI urges the Commonwealth Secretary General to insist that the Rwandan government makes every effort to create genuine democratic political atmosphere in the country prior August 2010 elections. We call upon the Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, in his meetings this week with President Kagame, to urge him to ensure that in these first Rwanda elections as a Commonwealth member, the standards are patently free and fair and in compliance with Commonwealth values.
Maja Daruwala
Director, CHRI
Website: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/

Dr Susan thomson

For most ordinary Rwandans, life since the genocide has not been as pleasant as the country’s authorities would pretend.

That is what clearly appears in the article “False Reconciliation” published by Susan Thomson (SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa). Here is what she writes:

As Rwanda gears up for Presidential elections in August, it is a good time to reflect on the progress the country has made since the genocide in 1994, both in image and in reality.

By most popular accounts, Rwanda is a nation rehabilitated. Diplomats and journalists talk of President Paul Kagame�s phenomenal success in rebuilding the once-shattered country.

The capital, Kigali, boasts a modern airport, several international hotels, a modern ICT infrastructure, and countless new residential and commercial properties. Numerous caf�s and nightclubs have opened, catering to the city�s growing middle class of bureaucrats and businesspeople. Kigali�s crime rate is low and its streets are clean.

In the Rwandan Parliament, women hold 56 per cent of seats, the highest proportion of female representation in the world. Tony Blair is a presidential advisor and international dignitaries, including Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Howard Schultz of Starbucks, frequent the country.

Kagame is praised as a benevolent and thoughtful leader who cares deeply about his people. His policies have reconciled the Hutu perpetrators of the genocide with Tutsi survivors. Community-based gacaca courts have processed more than 100,000 Hutu accused of acts of genocide with most successfully reintegrated into society.

But most foreign visitors do not see the deep poverty and daily hardships that confront ordinary Rwandans. For most of them, Hutu and Tutsi alike, life since the genocide is not as bright and shiny as the authorities in Kigali would pretend.

Some 90 per cent of Rwandans are peasants who rely on subsistence agriculture. Few of them have benefited from the country’s rapid reconstruction. The gap between the wealthy urbanites and the poor rural dwellers is on the increase. Government policies favour the urban elite, many of whom are Tutsi who returned to the country after the genocide.

The vast majority of Rwandan women and men who survived the genocide remain extremely poor, politically marginal, and, in many cases, traumatised by what they lived through. Almost 95 per cent of Rwandans in the country during the genocide have post-traumatic stress disorder. Few receive government-sponsored counselling or support.

With rare exceptions, Rwandan peasants are thin, their eyes lacklustre from continued hunger, with weathered hands and faces, giving them the appearance of being older than their actual age. Some have orange hair, a telltale sign of malnutrition. Many go barefoot and dressed in ragged clothes � often the extent of their wardrobe.

Most of the Rwandans I spoke to lamented the constant struggles of everyday life since the genocide. For them, there is a lack of food, clean water, and affordable and proximate health services.

Increasing levels of authoritarianism by the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) stifle any attempts to address these inequalities.

Public space for free and open political expression is limited. The media and civil society operate at the behest of the RPF. Any individual or group that challenges the official government version of Rwanda as a rehabilitated nation, peaceful and secure, is harshly dealt with.

Opposition politicians, journalists, and ordinary folk alike who criticize the government are all subject to harassment, intimidation, disappearance, and, in extreme cases, death. Just ask Joseph Sebarenzi, the former Speaker of the House. Kagame forced him into exile in 2001 for his efforts to constitutionally limit the powers of the president. He writes about his experience in his recent book “God Sleeps in Rwanda“.

Instead of allowing for frank and open discussion of the genocide, the RPF has forced reconciliation upon the people. They make Hutu tell the truth about what they did during the genocide, and make Tutsi forgive them. Reconciliation is not a sincere affair of the heart; it is an administrative matter.

The ordinary Rwandans I talked with are more than just skeptical about the government�s commitment to reconciliation; they also recognise it as a form of social control.

As Olive, a Hutu widow whose Tutsi husband died during the genocide told me, �All these confessions are a program of the government. Hutu confess to get free. But we know what happened! We were there in 1994. Not all who killed get justice � the government pardons them for reconciliation. Not all who didn�t kill go free � the government puts them in prison for reconciliation. What kind of peace is this? It is not from the heart.�

Local officials harass and intimidate those who fail to embrace this reconciliation; anyone who questions the sincerity of it can be imprisoned.

This is not a process grounded in an enlightened vision of peace and security. Instead, it forces Rwandans to remain silent and to not question the RPF version of peace and security. Rwandans are only simulating reconciliation as a means of coping with the demands of their government. As Jeanne, a Tutsi widow, said, �There can be no peace in the heart if there is no peace in the stomach.�

For many ordinary Rwandans, this has been an alienating, oppressive and sometimes humiliating experience � something that could, paradoxically, crystallize and create stronger dissent in the future, perhaps erupting into violence as early as August 2010 when Rwandans go to the polls again.

Premier Bernard Makuza

KIGALI – Prime Minister Bernard Makuza has lashed out at Victoire Ingabire, the leader of the yet-to-be-registered political party � FDU-Inkingi, for what he said is an attempt to disrespect Rwandans and the country�s laws.

The Prime Minister said that Ingabire�s rhetoric showed utter disrespect for Rwandans and what they have worked hard to achieve over the past 16 years.

�Wanting to disrespect Rwandans [saying] that they live in fear, or belittling what they have achieved, like Gacaca which Rwandans created on their own, as well as other policies meant to bring about unity and reconciliation, is something Rwandans cannot accept,� Makuza said.

He accused Ingabire of trying to instil fear in people, strongly warning her against this path, especially the attempt to use ethnic card.

�Rwandans have long since done away with such fear and they cannot allow anyone to lead them into the politics of anarchy that takes them back while destroying what they have built�.

The PM made the remarks yesterday while briefing reporters outside his offices in Kimihurura, shortly after holding separate closed bilateral discussions with the new Ambassadors of DRC and Burundi.

He downplayed Ingabire�s recent summoning to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), saying that it was normal procedure.

The Premier stressed that with respect to the law, what was important was whether the people or institutions interrogating anyone have the legal authority to do so and are doing it within the confines of the country�s laws.

�I think that the institutions like the police have that right. If at all they did not do that, even Rwandans would question why those institutions do not carry out their duties yet they have that responsibility�.

Makuza stressed that Ingabire, or any other Rwandan, has the right to aspire to be a presidential candidate or any other post, but must not contravene the law.

�Rwanda is not a jungle where people do whatever they want. That is why there are laws � if you don�t respect the law, the law takes you to task,� the PM warned.

Victoire Ingabire

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza who returned to the country last month after 16 years in the Netherlands and who is the presidential candidate of the FDU-Inkingi for the upcoming presidential elections, has been an outspoken critic of the RPF government. She has angered Paul Kagame�s regime when she declared that Hutu who have been killed during the genocide should also be remembered and their killers brought to justice. Rwandan authorities consider her declarations as �divisive and revisionist� and espousing the double genocide theory.

Source: newtimes.co.rw.

Victoire Ingabire

KIGALI – Victoire Ingabire, leader of the opposition party FDU-Inkingi was yesterday summoned and interviewed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Police Headquarters in Kacyiru.
The details of the investigations have not been clarified by the Police.
Victoire Ingabire was questioned and was later allowed to return home.
The Rwanda News Agency quoted Kagame on Monday as charging that Ingabire was “making comments and doing all her activities illegally and as an ‘individual’ because her party has not been registered.”
Victoire Ingabire who was in the company of her lawyer Protais Mutembe during the questioning, declared afterwards to the BBC that the questioning was related to her views about genocide and crimes against humanity and her alleged relationship with the FDLR rebels.
Victoire Ingabire who returned to the country last month after 16 years in the Netherlands, has been an outspoken critic of the RPF government. She has angered Paul Kagame’s regime when she declared that Hutu who have been killed during the genocide should also be remembered and their killers brought to justice. They consider her declarations as �divisive and revisionist� and espousing the double genocide theory.
Last week, Ingabire and her assistant Joseph Ntawangundi were attacked by RPF militia at Kinyinya Sector.
Since then, Joseph Ntawangundi has been jailed as a 2007 Gacaca court convict for genocide crimes. Joseph protests his innocence and his party FDU-Inkingi claims he could not have committed such crimes as he was not in Rwanda in 1994.
These series of incidents are meant as intimidation tools meant to harass people, discourage any meaningful opposition and undermine the advent of democratic rule in Rwanda.

The New Times newspaper of spreading false propaganda about her aide, Joseph Ntawangundi.

A few days after Victoire Ingabire and her assistant Joseph Ntawangundi were nearly lynched by a rowdy group of local militia in the administration offices, the New Times newspaper – mouthpiece of the ruling RPF party of President Paul Kagame – reported that Ntawangundi was a fugitive long wanted by the Gacaca court on charges related to the 1994 genocide.

Here is what The New Times (http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14163&article=25610) publishes in an article titled:

Ingabire�s assistant a Gacaca fugitive:
� Handed 19 yrs in absentia

KIGALI – Victoire Ingabire�s assistant, Joseph Ntawangundi, the man who came to the limelight in the saga at Kinyinya Sector, is a wanted Genocide fugitive who, in 2007, was sentenced in absentia to 19 years in prison by a Gacaca Court.

Ntawangundi was found guilty by the Gacaca court in Rusenyi cell, Gitwe sector in the former Kibungo Province, present day Ngoma, for killing two young people only identified as Nsabimana and Hategeka.

The two were students of IAVE Gitwe Secondary School in Kibungo where he was a director at the time. He was also found guilty of conspiring with militias to murder eight other people.

According to Beline Uwineza, the coordinator of Gacaca in the Eastern Province, Ntawangundi fled in 1994 to Benaco Refugee Camp in Tanzania before finding his way to Europe.

�His file and arrest warrant have been around. His case was a category two type. We were surprised when we saw his pictures in the news media after all these years,� she said.
�The arrest warrant is still valid of course. The next step will be to make sure he serves his jail term. Gacaca will do everything within its means to bring him to book�.

Witnesses testified that Ntawangundi being the director of the school, many students ran to him for protection during the Genocide, but that he kept turning them away and they would then be killed by militias lurking outside.

The two children he killed had also run to him for protection.

He is one of the thousands of people whom Gacaca has sentenced in absentia.

This is the second time that someone connected to the presidential aspirant is discovered to have links to the killings of innocent people during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Ingabire�s own mother, Therese Dusabe, had also been found guilty earlier on two separate occasions and sentenced to 30 years and life respectively.

According to FDU-Inkingi’s chair Victoire Ingabire, this Gacaca story is a pure lie as Joseph Ntawangundi had left Rwanda in 1993! Read Victoire Ingabire’s press release explaining why in the article: Kigali � Case of Joseph Ntawangundi: Another Evidence of Gacaca Courts Farce in Rwanda.
This is again another proof that the Kagame regime would continue to recourse to any sort of of lies and character assassination propaganda, in order to bar the opposition from fairly challenging him in the upcoming presidential elections.

KIGALI – The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has released an updated calendar of the upcoming presidential elections detailing dates for the series of events that will lead to the August 9 Presidential Polls.

The electoral code that is currently in parliament is expected to be promulgated soon and published in the official Gazette.

Here are the key dates for the events that will lead to the August 9 Presidential Polls:
- Between June 24 and July 02: Nomination of presidential candidates
- July 07: Declaration of the final list of candidates approved by NEC.
- July 20: Nominated candidates will start campaigning
- August 08: End of electoral campaign
- August 09: Presidential polls.
- No later than August 17: Final declaration of presidential election results and announcement of the winner.

Note that one newcomer in the Rwandan politics, Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, has already been designated by her still-to-be-registered FDU-Inkingi party as their presidential candidate and is already in Rwanda, trying against all odds to register her party in order to challenge the redoutable RPF candidate Paul Kagame.

Victoire Ingabire

Kigali – After escaping the militia-like attack against her yesterday, the leader of Rwanda�s opposition United Democratic Forces (UDF-Inkingi), Victoire Ingabire, asks the Rwandese government to protect her ahead of the scheduled August general election.
Here is how Victoire Ingabire, the leader of Rwanda�s opposition United Democratic Forces recounts her story through an interview by Peter Clottey of Voice of America News:
�Today, I received a call from the mayor of the sector where I live, Kinyinya, and he told me that I have to return my ID. And when I arrived in his office, there were younger people who began to batter us, me and one of my colleagues. And they took my bag. (Then,) I went back quickly to my car, but my colleague stayed back and they battered him. And after (that, I) took him to hospital,� she said.

Ingabire accused the police of failing to stop the attack:
�When they battered us, the police were there and they didn�t do anything. They watched us (as) the young people battered us,� she contended.

Ingabire said the ruling party wants to undermine her campaign ahead of the forthcoming presidential elections.

�We see that the government of General Kagame does not accept all political activities in our country. You know that I have been back to the country now three weeks ago, and they are doing everything to prevent (me) from participating in the election. They know that the population needs the change and they know that the population wants (me) to participate in the election, and they want me as the leader of them. This is why they (will) do everything that people will be afraid to come to me,� Ingabire said.

Some Rwanda�s opposition groups have condemned the attack and accused President Kagame�s ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front party (RPF) of masterminding it. After visiting Ingabire�s injured assistant at the King Faycal Hospital, they have vowed to defeat the ruling party in the upcoming election.
Listen to what Victoire Ingabire says.
Source: VOA News

Victoire Ingabire

Victoire Ingabire has sent on Wednesday a protest letter to the Rwandese government, denouncing what she called: �administration backed lynching and harassments by sections of secret services, the police and the army.�
Here is the content of the letter sent:
�Today at 11:25, responding to an invitation by the authorities of Kinyinya Sector (Gasabo District) to collect our administrative papers, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the Chairperson of UDF-INKINGI narrowly survived a prepared lynch mob. Within the administration premises, my assistant, Joseph Ntawangundi, was savagely dragged out of the car, beaten and stabbed. It is only after one hour that the police stopped the lynching.
I escaped the mob. The militia snatched my handbag containing my identity card, my passport, and other valuable belongings. Joseph Ntawangundi severely injured, his clothes torn apart was rushed to King Faycal Hospital for emergency treatment.
This is just the latest in a growing list of blatant attacks and harassments that compromise public confidence in our security systems. Militia lynching, the reign of terror being carried out by certain sectors of the administration, security services and the police forces are unacceptable.
It is with great regret that we must take issue with the on-going aggressive surveillance and tailing by Secret Services and Army officers coupled with police harassments and intimidation against the UDF-INKINGI leader, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
We mainly refer to these other incidents:
� Wednesday 27th January 2010, Nyagasambu (Kigali). Exercising our rights to freedom of movements in our country, our two vehicles were ordered by police officers to pull off. Drivers� Licenses and vehicles registration papers were confiscated. The official charge was �careless driving� and a FRW 50,000 fine was levied. Unable to substantiate the allegations on spot, the officers confirmed that they received orders from their hierarchy to stop our vehicles.
� The same day, we have been tailed by an army vehicle with men in uniforms between Rwamagana and Kibungo and all the way back. The mobile surveillance continued with cars wearing civilian plates. The surveillance was extensively carried on in an intimidating fashion even while shopping vegetables in both Rwamagana and Kibungo public markets.
� Sunday 17th January 2010, 2 manned vehicles tailed us from Kigali to Gitarama and all the way back;
� Since 16th January 2010 to date, we have been submitted to a 24-hour intensive surveillance.
We call on all relevant authorities to investigate the militia lynching within Kinyinya Sector premises, harassments by sections of Secret services, the Police and the military. It is time the authorities take action and ensure we are allowed to carry out our work and to enjoy our rights to free movements without any harassment.
We don�t believe this brutality, terror, militia lynching and those harassments are, for some reason, beyond the control of the government.�

This letter was addressed to Hon. Minister of Local Government, Hon. Minister of Defense, Hon. Minister of Internal Security, RDF Commander and Commissioner General of Police with copies to H.E. General Paul KAGAME (President of Rwanda), The Right Hon. Mr. Bernard MAKUZA (Prime Minister) and Diplomatic Missions in Kigali.

The formerly exiled opposition politician returned to Rwanda on January 16 and has publicly expressed her intentions of challenging President Paul Kagame during the forthcoming presidential elections.

Victoire Ingabire

Kigali – As announced on Wednesday afternoon, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Chair of UDF-Inkingi and flag bearer of the party for the upcoming presidential election in Rwanda, has been beaten, along with her assistant, Joseph Ntawangundi. The FDU Inkingi explains what happened:
“At around noon, an executive officer from Kinyinya Sector, known as Shema, invited her to collect administrative papers in respect to the application for a police record.
Upon arrival at Kinyinya premises, Mrs Ingabire was surrounded by a prepared lynch mob, beaten but managed to retreat to her vehicle. The assailant militia snatched her handbag and other personal belongings including her newly acquired ID and her passport.

Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, was savagely and thoroughly beaten by the vicious assailants without any intervention from the authority. He suffered ribs and legs injury and was stripped half naked. He was later rushed to King Fay�al Hospital in Kigali for emergency treatment and his condition is still worrying.

Alerted by the driver, the police reached the scene later and despite his condition took Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, for interrogations. He was released after one and half hour.” declares the Office of the FDU-Inkingi Chairperson.

Victoire Ingabire

KIGALI – The Rwandan police have arrested five men among those who have attacked Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and her assistant Joseph Ntawangundi this Wednesday. While Victoire Ingabire managed to escape, her assistant� was severely beaten up and is still in hospital.
The attack on Victoire Ingabire is part of the intimidation campaign which has started since the day she arrived in Rwanda a few weeks ago, determined to challenge Paul Kagame during the August presidential elections. The government accuses Victoire Ingabire of stirring latent tensions between Hutus and Tutsis, and of “playing the ethnic card” to garner support ahead of the elections.
Police spokesman Eric Kayiranga said the arrested men were angered by Ingabire’s politics.
“They were saying that she was against the unity and reconciliation of Rwanda, that she was talking about (ethnic) divisionism and the genocide,” Kayiranga said.