Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library
Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda, (OPJDR) a human rights organization established in the United States of America, is calling for immediate and unconditional release for Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, President of the yet to be registered opposition political party United Democratic Force- FDU INKINGI.
According to Mr. Eric Kayiranga, spokesperson of Rwanda National Police, Ms. Victoire Ingabire has been arrested in Kigali on October 14, 2010 for allegedly participating in the formation of an unknown armed terrorist organization called Coalition for Democratic Forces (CDF).
One recalls that Ms. Victoire Umuhoza had already been arrested in April 2010 for divisionism, genocide ideology, negationnism and collaboration with a terrorist group. She was later released on bail but put on extended house arrest, and could not leave the capital city of Kigali. Now one wonders how somebody in house arrest can contribute to the formation of a terrorist group.
Police states that her detention has been triggered by the arrest the day before of one Major Vital UWUMUREMYI, former member of FDRL who was mandated to recruit and start a new rebellion to overthrow the government of Rwanda. This statement contradicts the fact that Ms. Victoire Ingabire‘s residence has been surrounded by police starting October 8, 2010. It appears that Ms Ingabire is being harassed for her political opinions and not of any subversive activities.
According to the latest information available, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is being held at Kicukiro Police station in inhumane and degrading conditions. In fact she is seating and sleeping on concrete cement floor and handcuffed 24 hours a day. She has been prevented from receiving visits and daily meals from her friends and lawyer. Even the Red Cross has not been authorized to meet her. Therefore, OPJDR calls and pleads for the following urgent actions:
1. To the Government of Rwanda.
To unconditionally and immediately release Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and other political prisoners including Bernard Ntaganda of PS Imberakuri incarcerated since June 2010 and now under intensive care in hospital for harsh treatment in prison, Mr. Deogratias Mushyayidi, Mr. Charles Ntakirutinka and Theoneste Niyitegeka, all incarcerated for their political opinions. The government of Rwanda should understand that having dissent opinions does not make anybody a criminal or enemy of state.
2. To the International Community.
Personal appeals are made to President Barack Obama of the United States of America and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, and all leaders of countries members of European Union, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations to stand for the people of Rwanda and ask President Paul Kagame to free all political prisoners, respect human rights, and open up the political space to allow democracy takes roots in Rwanda as the main ingredient of avoiding cyclical conflict in that country.
OPJDR condemns the assassination of opposition political leaders and independent journalists along with multiple arrests and disappearances in the rank of opposition only few weeks ahead of the Presidential election on August 9, 2010. People of Rwanda have suffered so much in the past and unfortunately the situation is getting worse every passing day.
1. Five death squads in only one month:
On Saturday morning June 19, 2010, Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa, once Chief of Staff in Rwanda Military and High Commissioner in India was shot but survived the attack at Athol Mews complex in Melrose Arch, northern Johannesburg, South Africa, where he had sought asylum after fleeing Rwanda in late February 2010.
On June 20, 2010, Denis Semadwinga, a Tutsi from Rutshuru in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and once Chief of Staff of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) Goma and then to Gen. Laurent Nkunda of National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), was beheaded at his home in Gisenyi - Rwanda. He had continued to be active in the CNDP even after General Laurent Nkunda was arrested and detained by Rwanda military authorities since January 2008. According to CNDP leaders, “score of its officials have been arrested by Rwandan security forces who have privately blamed them for the recent grenade attacks in Kigali in cahoots with Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa”.
On June 24, 2010, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, a journalist working for a private newspaper “Umuvugizi” has been shot dead by two men in front of his house in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
Local journalists in Kigali told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Rugambage had been preparing to join Umuvugizi Editor Jean-Bosco Gasasira in exile after reporting to his friends and colleagues that he was being followed by unidentified people and had received death threats over the phone.
On July 13th 2010, Mr. Andre KAGWA RWISEREKA, the First Vice President and founding member of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda disappeared from his home in Butare, Southern Province, and was found dead on 14th July 2010, with his head almost completely removed from his body.
On July 13th, 2010, a Tanzanian Professor Jwani Mwaikusa, was shot dead by unknown assailants in front of his Salasala residence in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Professor Jwani Mwaikusa, was a Lawyer, and a lead defense counsel for Yusuf Munyakazi, a Rwandan genocide convicted, who was sentenced to a 25-year term last month by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Professor Jwani Mwaikusa strongly opposed the Prosecutor's motion requesting transfer of Yusuf Munyakazi to Rwanda filed on 7 September 2007, saying that Rwandan judiciary lacked competence and impartiality. "It is absurd to transfer a case to a system which should be answering the same charges," he said, apparently referring to the alleged atrocities committed by the ruling party Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) during the 1994 genocide and the indictments issued by French and, more recently, by Spanish judges charging the RPF leadership of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
2. Arrests, kidnappings, tortures and disappearances:
On June 24th, 2010, several members of opposition political parties: Social Party, PS Imberakuri, Unified Democratic Forces - FDU INKINGI, and Democratic Green Party of Rwanda were arrested while preparing to attend a peaceful demonstration. Those arrested include , Maitre Bernard NTAGANDA, President and Founder of PS IMBERAKURI, Theobald MUTARAMBIRWA, Secretary General of PS Imberakuri, Mrs. Alice MUHIRWA, the FDU party’s treasurer, Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the FDU party’s General Secretary, Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA, Martin NTAVUKA, and the FDU’s lawyer Mr. Theogene MUHAYEYEZU.
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Chairperson of FDU INKINGI was held at home as she is in an extended house arrest since March 2010. In addition Mr. SIBOMANA RUSANGWA Aimable, Private Secretary for the PS IMBERAKURI party founder and President was reported missing since June 13, 2010 and his whereabouts are still unknown up today.
During their appearances before the Judge on July 7 and 8, all the defendants showed physical signs of tortures and Mrs. Alice Muhirwa, fainted in court room and was rushed to the hospital as she has been profusely bleeding due to the coups she received on lower stomach areas. On July 9, the Judge found two defendants not guilty of any wrongdoing, six where granted bail with interdiction to travel abroad, and Maitre Bernard NTAGANDA was denied bail.
The state of insecurity is felt not only in capital city, Kigali but also across the country. Here are few examples: The following are people recently arrested in Bugarama, Cyangugu whose whereabouts are unkown. They are Jean Damascene Ngarambe, an employee at the Banque Populaire, Anatole Kayisire, a medical assistant in Bugarama, Muzeye, a Branch Manager at Banque Populaire in Bugarama, a certain Reverand, a driver in Nzahaha, Steven Buturu, a motocycle operator in Bugarama, Theoneste Mazimpaka of Bugarama and Jacques, a Teacher in Mushaka.
On June 27, 2010, Mr. Dominiko Makeli, a former Rwanda journalist living in exile in Uganda has been kidnapped by four people from his home in Kampala. They told him that they were bringing him to Rwanda but later dropped him on the highway near Kampala after they realized that a neighbor who has seen their car should report them. They promised to Mr. Makeli that they will come to get him on a later date.
On July 8, 2010, Agnes Uwimana, the editor of the independent newspaper UMURABYO, has been arrested.According to the Police spokesman Eric Kayiranga, Mrs Uwimana is accused of “incitement to civil disobedience, contempt of the head of state, spreading rumors to cause public disorder and denying the genocide of the Tutsis.”
On July 12, 2010, Saidati Mukakibibi, another journalist who works for the above independent newspaper Umurabyo, was arrested for comparing President Paul Kagame with the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler, accusation reformulated as defamation, inciting public disorder and ethnic “divisionism”.
On July 14, 2010, Rwanda security forces entered Uganda territory and with the complicity of Uganda authorities forcibly repatriated more than 2000 refugees who have been living in Nakivale and Kyaka camps in Southern of Uganda. According to UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), operation was performed with an unprecedented brutality that score of refugees have died and many other seriously injured among them babies and six pregnant women.
3. Recommendations:
To the Government of Rwanda
OPJDR calls on the Rwandan authorities for the constitutional obligations to protect the Rwandan population against these severe and endless human rights abuses.
OPJDR calls on the Government of Rwanda, especially on President Paul Kagame, to open political space in the country by allowing opposition political parties to register and to operate freely;
OPJDR calls on the Government of Rwanda to guarantee freedom of expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly as stated in the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda.
To the International Community:
OPJDR calls the United Nations, European Union, United States of America, African Union, Commonwealth members and other friends of Rwanda to stand up for the people of Rwanda by publically and officially asking President Paul Kagame to open political space in Rwanda, to respect human rights and to promote freedom of expression and association.
OPJDR asks all donors of Rwanda to freeze all non direct humanitarian assistance until President Paul Kagame complies with the basic standard rules for a democratic country.
OPJDR asks the international community to withdraw its supports to upcoming presidential elections including financial support and on ground observers as no real opposition party has been allowed to participate.
OPDJR highly appreciated the Prime Minister of Spain, Mr. Jose Luiz Zapatero who refused on July 16, 2010 to meet with President Paul Kagame for his questionable human rights and undemocratic records. OPJDR recommends all world leaders to emulate the Primer Minister of Spain as a starting point to put pressure on Kagame’s regime for change.
Sincerely,
Pascal Kalinganire Coordinator General
Copies:
Honorable Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC20520
Excellence Mr. Herman Van Rompuy
President of European Union Council
Rue de la Loi, 175 B-1048 Brussels
Excellency Dr. Bingu Aa Mutharika,
President of the Republic of Malawi Chairperson of the African Union
African Union Headquarters
P.O. Box 3243
Roosvelt Street - W21K19
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Excellency Mr. Kamalesh Sharma
Secretary General of the Commonwealth Marlborough House, Pall Mall LondonSW1Y 5HX, UK
Excellence Mr. Zhang Yesui
China Ambassador to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations 350 East 35th Street
New York, NY 10016
Excellence Mr. Jean-Maurice Ripert
France Ambassador to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations
245 East 47th Street, 44th Floor
New York, NY10017
Excellence Mr. Vitaly Churkin
Russian Federation Ambassador to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
136 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10065 Excellence Sir John Sawers
United Kingdom Ambassador to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom OneDagHammarskjoldPlaza, 885 Second Avenue
P.O. Box 5238 New York, NY10017
Excellence Mrs. Susan E. Rice
US Ambassador to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations
140 East 45th Street
New York, N.Y. 10017
Honorable Ban Ki-Moon
UN Secretary-General
760 United NationsPlaza,
Manhattan, NY10017
Honorable U.S. Senator John Kerry
Chair of Foreign Relations Committee
218 Russell Bldg; Second Floor
WashingtonD.C.20510
Excellency Major General Paul Kagame March 21, 2010 President of Republic of Rwanda N° 20/R/PK/310 PO Box 15 Kigali Rwanda.
Object: The Rights and Safety of the General Kayumba Nyamwasa’s Family
Excellency;
The Organization for Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR).Inc.; a Human Rights Organization, based in the United States is concerned with the security and safety of General Kayumba Nyamwasa’s Family, relatives and friends who are under police pressure and threats in Rwanda and India. OPJDR believes that, if the government has issues with General Nyamwasa Kayumba, it should go with him alone and leave his family, relatives and his friends out of political harassments since they were not performing the government functions.
OPJDR has learned from the Rwanda News paper Umuseso No 398 of March 08, 2010 that General Kayumba Nyamwasa’s wife Rosette Kayumba and children are held in house arrest in India, and their passports were taken away. Unless demonstrated otherwise, OPJDR understands that whatever General Nyamwasa is accused of by the Rwandan government does not extend to his whole family and relatives therefore they should get their rights restored and free to reunite as a family or simply choose to go where they think their lives will be safe.
Also, OPJDR believes that Mr Kazora, General Kayumba’s brother- in- law who was recently arrested and jailed in Rwanda, should not be threatened for the potential crimes his in-law might have committed.
Our organization is on the firm belief that any person accused is always innocent until proven guilty. It is by the same token that OPJDR asks General Nyamwasa to contact the local authorities of South Africa, or where ever else he currently resides, as soon as possible in order to facilitate his surrendering to the Spanish Justice so he can respond to the accusations for the crimes committed in Rwanda that he is accused of.
Sincerely, Pascal Kalinganire Coordinator General
CC: Excellency Minister Shri S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs South Block, New Delli- 110 011 India Email: usxps@mea.gov.in
Honorable Mr.Jeffrey Thamsanqa Radebe, MP Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Republic of South Africa Private Bag X276, PRETORIA, 0001 16th Floor, 329 Momentum Centre, Pretorius Street, Pretoria, South Africa Tel: 012 - 357 8217 / Fax: 012 - 315 1749 E-mail: Ministry@justice.gov.za
Honorable Mr. Kenneth Roth Executive Director of Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Honorable Ms. Maja Daruwala, Executive Director of Institute of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX, UK Phone: +44 (0)20 7747 6500 (switchboard) Fax: +44 (0)20 7930 0827 Email: secretary-general@commonwealth.int
