A Rwandan Journalist Ms.Agnes Uwimana Nkusi was arrested

Another Rwandan Media Editor Arrested Trying to Flee the Country.
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9 July 2010

Barely a month after a Rwandan editor was assassinated in Kigali, another Rwandan editor was arrested last night trying to flee the country.

Agnes Uwimana Nkusi, editor of the local vernacular newspaper "Mulabyo" was arrested on charges of alleged sectarianism, discrimination, genocide denial and inciting hatred in the public.

Our sources have told us that Uwimana was arrested in the district of Rushashyi in Northern Province where she was trying to escape to DR Congo after a tip off that the security sources planned to arrest her.

This is the second time she has been arrested on similar charges. She was first arrested in 2007 and was sentenced to one year in Kigali's main prison, 1930.

A number of journalists have been arrested and illegally detained, forcing many into exile while many independent newspapers have been banned. The threat of imprisonment is by far the greatest threat to the independent journalists in Rwanda.

As we were compiling this report, our sources in Kigali told us that the Minister in of Information and Executive-Secretary, together with the Director of Information, are holding a press conference at the Media High Council Office in Kigali to brief journalists on a new executive order requiring that everyone acquire new press cards. To obtain the card, every journalist will first have to be interrogated by the CID.

In May of this year, the international watchdog group Reporters Without Borders branded Rwandan President Paul Kagame as a "media predator”.
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Editor's Note: In addition, Mr. Jason Sterns, blogger at "Congo Siasa (Politics)," discovered that, "David Himbara, the influential former Principle Private Secretary (PPS) to President Kagame, also left Rwanda in January for South Africa. The circumstances of his departure are, however, not clear. He has not made any declarations since his arrival in South Africa, although sources among the RPF dissenters suggest he might have fallen out with the powerful First Lady." (http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/2010/07/another-arrest-in-rwanda.html)