RWANDA:shooting of Rwandan exiled in South Africa

By Associated Press from Washington Post

Paul Kagame and RPF Soldiers

JOHANNESBURG — One of the men accused of trying to kill a former Rwandan general exiled in South Africa said that Rwandan soldiers with plenty of cash and cars were behind the plot, a friend testified Wednesday.
The testimony came on the second day of trial in the June 2010 shooting of Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. The former Rwandan military chief went into exile just months before he was attacked in Johannesburg.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s government has denied allegations of involvement in the case. However, witnesses in the trial have asked for special protection, saying they fear the Rwandan government.
Kalisa Mubarak, a 36-year-old Rwandan who immigrated to South Africa in 2003, testified Wednesday that he has known one of the six suspects since they were children.
He said that former Rwandan soldier Amani Uriwani told him about being recruited by some European-based Rwandans to help with a job in Johannesburg.
Mubarak said his friend would only say the target was also a soldier, and he tried to talk Uriwani out of taking part. Uriwani was offered 10,000 rand (about $1,400) for his part in the attack, according to his friend’s testimony.
Prosecutors say Mubarak has been moved with his wife and three children to a secret location under a witness protection program.
Two body guards sat nearby as he testified in English and Kinyarwanda. He wore dark glasses and sat in the witness stand with his chin sunk in a black-and-white checked scarf draped around his neck.
Three Rwandans and three Tanzanians are accused of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in Nyamwasa’s shooting.
Nyamwasa and other Rwandans living abroad have accused the president of crushing dissent and democracy after he helped to end the 1994 genocide that left more than 500,000 people dead in Rwanda.
In May, British police warned some Rwandan exiles living in the U.K. that their lives were in danger, and the threat is believed to have emanated from the Rwandan government.
Human rights groups say opposition politicians, journalists and civil society activists have been subjected to crackdowns inside Rwanda as well.
The key suspect in the South Africa case is Pascal Kanyandekwe, a Rwandan businessman. He’s also accused of plotting to kill Nyamwasa while the general was hospitalized after the shooting.
Kanyandekwe and four men not linked to the shooting are to stand trial in the hospital plot later this month. He also is accused of bribery after two police officers said he offered them $1 million to let him go when they arrested him in July 2010.
The shooting victim, who has kept a low profile since the June 2010 attack, also faces international war crimes charges linked to the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide — allegations he denies.
Nyamwasa and other senior Tutsis are accused of waging an extermination campaign against Hutus in the chaotic aftermath of Rwanda’s genocide — charges that Nyamwasa denies.
A Spanish judge in 2008 charged Nyamwasa and 39 other members of the Rwandan military with the mass killings of civilians after they seized power in Rwanda.
A U.N. report last year echoed the 2008 Spanish charges, accusing invading Rwandan troops of killing tens of thousands of Hutus in 1996 and 1997 in neighboring Congo.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Rwanda blocks website of independent newspaper

By: Simon Columbus on 27 June 2011

Posted in Political filtering, Rwanda, Sub-Saharan Africa

Editor of blocked website murdered in Rwanda

Rwanda news Web site blocked after paper suspended

Taking offline censorship online: Rwanda may start filtering

Exactly one year after the murder of independent newspaper Umuvugizi’s deputy editor, the paper's website is again inaccessible in Rwanda. Its editor has just re-launched the paper as an online-only publication.
Last weekend, Umuvugizi went online with a re-launched version of its website, publishing in Kinyarwanda and English. According to reports on Twitter, the site is currently inaccessible in Rwanda.
Umuvugizi has been a constant victim of Internet filtering since the offline publication was suspended for six months in April 2010 by Rwanda’s Media High Council for undisclosed reasons. The suspension effectively prevented the independent weekly from covering that year’s presidential elections in August. Chief editor John Bosco Gasasira fled for exile, first in Uganda, now in Sweden, aiming to ensure continued publication.
Umuvugizi online was launched merely a month after the ruling, prompting immediate threats of censorship by members of the Media High Council who claimed the publication was “defying its suspension”. The website was blocked for the first time by June 3, 2010, perhaps in response to a story about the lavish travel expenses of President Paul Kagame, as the Committee to Protect Journalists speculates.
Umuvugizi’s deputy editor Jean-Leonard Rugambage Cheriff was shot in the capital Kigali on June 22, 2010, in what the newspaper claims to have been an attack by government security forces. Rugambage's alleged killers were later tried and received life sentences, but Umuvugizi continues to claim that these were mere scapegoats.
Converted into an online-only publication, Umuvugizi has faced on-and-off filtering throughout the last year. In early June 2011, the website was again blocked for three days prior to a court ruling that sentenced chief editor Gasasira in absentia to 2.5 years in prison for insulting the president and inciting civil disobedience.
Herdict: Help us track whether Umuvugizi is blocked!
Internet censorship reporting site Herdict allows Internet users to track which sites are blocked in their countries. If you are in Rwanda, please let us know whether you can access Umugivizi.com. You can submit a report via the Herdict reporter or using Twitter or e-mail.