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Joseph Ntawangundi arrested

This must be an embarrassing situation for Mrs Victoire Ingabire, Chair of FDU-Inkingi, who is forced to confirm what The Rwandan authorities and their mouthpiece New Times has been claiming about her Assistant Joseph Ntawangundi.

In a press release issued today, Mrs Victoire Ingabire states:

UPDATE ON JOSEPH NTAWANGUNDI�S CASE

Since the arrest of Joseph Ntawangundi on 05th February 2010 and the subsequent incommunicado detention, UDF-INKINGI is conducting its own investigations. At this stage, troubling details about his curriculum vitae raise a certain amount of questions on the information he volunteered before the arrest. This has resulted in regrettable errors in our press release dated 05th February 2010.

Therefore we dissociate ourselves explicitly from the earlier records of his occupational environment, and call on serious investigations.
His lawyer is still trying in vain to obtain a copy of the infamous 2007 in absentia trial. Until proven otherwise, Joseph Ntawangundi is presumed innocent. We call on the government to ensure that he is granted a fair, prompt and public trial.

Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chair UDF-INKINGI

Source: fdu-rwanda.org.

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.

Some banners at London Manifestation

LONDON – On Wednesday 10th February 2010, a group of Rwandans and Congolese from DRC convened from 2.00 pm at the High Commission of Rwanda in UK to protest against the regime of Kigali for harassing Rwandan political opponents.
The manifestation took place in front of the Rwanda House located at 120 � 122 Seymour Place, London W1H.
Slogans on the displayed banners included the following messages: �Democracy for Rwanda Now, Stop Harassing Opposition, Free Joseph Ntawangundi Now.� On some of the banners were pictures showing Joseph�s scars after the beating by RPF militia in Kigali on 3rd February 2010.
The protesters find that people have been patient enough about the crimes and abuses of human rights by the RPF regime against Rwandans.
They are very much inspired by the courageous determination of Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Chair of United Democratic Forces UDF-Inkingi, to politically and pacifically challenge the Kagame regime in Rwanda. They told news reporters that what Victoire Ingabire has started won�t stop until Rwandans have democracy, justice and respect of the basic human rights they have been denied for the last 20 years because of RPF. They expect the world to know more about their suffering and help them make pressure on Paul Kagame to change his policies towards the Rwandan population.
Congolese who joined the protest are fed up by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Great Lakes region where occur recurring wars sponsored by international interests in the mineral resources of DRC. All recognize that RPF is the source of all the tragedies in the whole region and agree that re-instauring democracy in Rwanda will greatly ease the suffering of so many millions in the region.

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.

Ingabire's Assistant beaten-up

After her assistant Joseph Ntawangundi was put in police custody following revelations by the New Times that he was a ‘Gacaca fugitive’ already sentenced to 19 years jail, the opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, chair of the UDF-Inkingi alias FDU-Inkingi issued a statement stressing that this is another shameful propaganda based on lies in the Gacaca system.
Here follows Ingabire�s press release:

NEW TIMES, A JUDGE AND JURY, EXPLOITING FORGED GACACA EVIDENCE, TO MAKE MORE VICTIMS.

We read with utmost concern, the New Times of Saturday, 6th February 2010. The fire spitting media has unveiled its true colors. The title on the front page �Ingabire�s assistant a Gacaca fugitive� alleging that Joseph Ntawangundi was sentenced to 19 years in absentia, is sheer lies.

Joseph Ntawangundi left Rwanda in 1986 for studies in Poland (Wroclaw), returned to Rwanda in 1992 and worked in Kigali (CESTRAR). In 1993, he left Rwanda for ICFTU – AFRO (international confederation for free trade unions, African Regional Organisation, NAIROBI, Kenya) as a Research and Training Officer until 2002. During the genocide, Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was attending, on behalf of the ICFTU � AFRO, a 2-month training course in Sweden (GANGNEF) and returned to Kenya.

He never officiated in the education sector in Rwanda, in any capacity whatsoever. He has never been school director in Gitwe during the genocide, as claimed by the paper. Either the reporters have been mislead, or they deliberately want to mislead the readers for their own agenda.

Since Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza returned to Rwanda, this paper has been recklessly issuing fabricated stories without giving any chance of counter evidence, in total disregard of media ethics.

I challenge the paper to produce any evidence of its allegations, at least for the sake of the readers’ respect. Else, let it give a right of answer to Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi.

Even if our position about GACACA has not changed, we hope that it has not fallen this low to condemn an innocent who was not even in Rwanda during the genocide, and for crimes committed in a place he has never been to.

Meanwhile, we’ve just learnt that Mr Joseph Ntawangundi has been picked up by the police and is currently held at Remera police station. This shows the kind of relationship between New Times and security forces which rely on libels from this paper.

We would like to recall that Mr Joseph Ntawangundi is still recovering from injuries sustained on 3rd February 2010, following attacks in government premises in Kinyinya sector. He is expecting justice, not mob justice.

UDF INKINGI
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson

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 Umuhoza

After the physical attack perpetrated against Victoire Ingabire in Kigali on Wednesday, UDF INKINGI alias FDU Inkingi issues a declaration condemning the Kagame government:
�UDF INKINGI hold the government responsible of that incident, as it took place in a government building, without any intervention at all from the authority. This is a grotesque and horrific practice of terror towards an opposition candidate.
This is just the latest in a growing list of blatant attacks and harassments that compromise public confidence in our security systems. The reign of terror being carried out by certain sectors of the administration, the police forces and militia lynching is unacceptable.
We mainly refer to other incidents that occurred on Wednesday 27th January 2010, at 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�. Unable to substantiate the allegations on spot, the officers confirmed that they received orders from their hierarchy to stop our vehicles.
This is notwithstanding the numerous hate editorials of a section of public and hate media.
UDF INKINGI warns that these coward acts of intimidation will not deter the party from its resolve to push ahead for more democratization of the country.
UDF INKINGI calls on the government to face its responsibilities and stop these acts which may jeopardize the whole electoral process.”