Protests prompt Spain PM to skip meeting with Rwanda leader

Protests prompt Spain PM to skip meeting with Rwanda leader

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Protests prompt Spain PM to skip meeting with Rwanda leader Spain's prime minister shunned Friday a UN-backed meeting with Rwandan leader Paul Kagame after protests that his regime was linked to the 1994 genocide as the UN chief called for a probe into recent deaths in the central African nation. Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Zapatero had received a request from several other Spanish political parties that he not meet Kagame because of Spanish legal proceedings against 40 Rwandan officers linked to the genocide. He was "sensitive to that and responded" by deciding not to attend the meeting which was attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, she told public television TVE. Spain was represented instead by Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos at the first meeting of the MDG Advocacy Group set up last month by the United Nations to advance the Millennium Development Goals, which include halving extreme poverty by 2015. Kagame and Zapatero are the co-chairs of the group. The meeting had also been moved from government headquarters to a Madrid hotel while Zapatero met separately with Ban. "It is not a big deal for us. It is Spain's internal politics," Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told reporters on the sidelines of the gathering. "We would like the Spanish people to get to know Rwanda's President Kagame better. He is not what we see him portrayed as." In 2008 Spain's High Court announced its intention to prosecute 40 Rwandan army officers for genocide, crimes against humanity and terrorism related to events that took place between 1994 and 2000, including under Kagame's rule. Kagame's then rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front in July 1994 ended the 100-day slaughter of at least 800,000 people, mostly from his Tutsi minority, by Hutu extremist militias and government troops. But the Spanish judiciary accuses Kagame of fomenting the ethnic clashes in a bid to seize power. The Rwandan officers are accused, among other things, of murdering nine Spanish missionaries and expatriates allegedly witnesses to massacres. But Kagame is immune from prosecution because of his status as head of state. His government has vehemently rejected the accusations. During an interview with Spanish news radio Cadena Ser, Ban refused comment on the Spanish legal proceedings against Rwandan officials. He stressed that Rwanda was one of the "rare" African nations that have made "significant" progress in the fight against infant mortality. The meeting in Madrid comes ahead of a high-level MDG Advocacy Group summit that will take place at the UN's headquarters in New York in September which Ban said Friday would be attended by 150 heads of state. "This is an unprecedented number," he said, adding the Millennium Development Goals "can not be changed" despite the global economic downturn. During talks with Rwandan leader Paul Kagame in Madrid, Ban "expressed his concerns" that the recent murder of opposition official Andre Kagwa Rwisereka and journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage has "caused political tensions" in Rwanda ahead of August 9 presidential elections, his spokeswoman said. "He encouraged the Rwandan authorities to carry out a full investigation into these incidents," Ban's his spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci told AFP. Rwisereka was the deputy president of the Rwandan Democratic Green Party. His nearly decapitated body was found dumped by a river on Wednesday. Rugambage, who was critical of Kagame's government, was shot dead near his home on June 24. The Rwandan Democratic Green Party is unregistered and has no candidate for next month's presidential elections. It has accused Kagame of blocking it from taking part in the polls. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Friday urged the Rwandan authorities to "clarify the exact circumstances" of Rwisereka's "horrific killing and bring the perpetrators rapidly to justice."

President Kagame - Becoming a dictator?

President Kagame - Becoming a dictator?

Paul Kagame is the president of Rwanda. Time and again, he has been linked to assassination attempts on the country’s opposition politicians. But again this is a man who Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister is supporting for introducing good governance. The question is, has Blair been tricked into believing that Kagame is free from corruption and not guilty of political intimidation? Apparently, Kagame seems to have surrounded himself with a lethal secret service apparatus that have been accused of doing his dirty work.

Tony Blair’s good governance initiative is not only in Rwanda, but also present in Sierra Leone and recently introduced in Liberia. But unlike his Rwandan counterpart, the Sierra Leone president does not engage in political intimidation of opposition politicians. And the press in Sierra Leone enjoys unprecedented media freedom. The Sierra Leone leader is a fine example of a true statesman who enjoys worldwide acclaim for his commitment to good governance.

The differences between the two leaders are apparent. As one engages ruthless determination to quash any opposition to his barbaric rule and the other entertains opposition to improve on his credentials. Rwanda as a country, has suffered in the hands of those it entrusts with the mantle of running its state. And the people have been let down and have suffered the indignities of being treated as second class citizens by its own leaders. Millions have been killed in the quest for tribal domination, where one tribe engages in ethnic cleansing to wipe out any trace or existence of the other.

Recently, it has been revealed that Foreign security operatives were involved in the shooting of a Rwandan military officer in Johannesburg, South Africa’s foreign ministry has said. Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa was wounded outside his house last month. He had fled to South Africa earlier this year after falling out with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame. Rwanda has denied accusations it tried to assassinate Lt Gen Nyamwasa. Four people have been charged with his attempted murder. They are reportedly from Tanzania, Somalia and Mozambique. “It also involves a country with which we have good and strong diplomatic relations,” foreign ministry official Ayanda Ntsaluba said, refusing to name the country involved. His wife, Rosette, said a lone gunman approached the car after the couple returned to their house from a shopping trip on Saturday 19 June. The gunman told the driver of their car to allow space so he could aim at Lt Gen Nyamwasa, she said.

Rwanda had asked South Africa to extradite both Lt Gen Nyamwasa and Patrick Karegeya, a former colonel in the Rwandan army also living in exile in South Africa. Lt Gen Nyamwasa is accused of being behind grenade attacks in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, earlier this year in which more than 30 people were injured and one person was killed. Mr Ntsaluba said the general, who has denied the grenade allegations, was seeking asylum in South Africa. “This matter involves security operatives and an attack on a person who has gone through the correct legal channels to seek asylum in South Africa,” the foreign ministry’s director general said.

A week ago, Rwandan journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage, who had been investigating the general’s case, was shot dead outside his home in Kigali. The Rwandan authorities say that two men have been arrested for that attack, which they say was a revenge killing, denying reports it was linked to the exiled general. Since arriving in South Africa, Lt Gen Nyamwasa has accused Rwanda’s leader of corruption charges Mr Kagame denies.

There have been several recent defections from the military ahead of elections due in August. Lt Gen Nyamwasa played an important role in the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame, which put a stop to the 1994 genocide and which is now in power. But France and Spain have issued arrest warrants against Mr Nyamwasa for his alleged role in killings in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior RPF figures.

Mr Kagame is viewed by many in the West as one of Africa’s more dynamic leaders. However critics have raised concerns about his more authoritarian tendencies and the government has recently been accused of harassing the opposition ahead of the elections. It seems there are serious lessons the Rwandan leader can learn from his Sierra Leonean counterpart, who seems to believe that good governance can only be achieved by a free press; free from any political interference, and that opposition politicians should be given a free hand in subjecting the government to accountability and criticism, albeit through the constitutional framework of the law. Although the country’s opposition SLPP party chairman, John Oponjo Benjamin, has flouted this principle time and again by holding personal-vendetta-ochestrated press conferences to voice his opinion about government policies instead of going through the legitimate parliamentary procedures, this has not limited the general freedom of expression atmosphere that exists in the country.

Rwanda need to move on and shed its devastating past and embrace a future that embodies freedom, respect and dignity for all its people. And those who are presently engaged in running the country, should hang their heads in shame as they once more subject their people to the horrors of oppression, albeit in a different way

Rwandan Opposition Leader Me Ntaganda Bernard Had to Ask to Step Away from the dock and sit because he was weak from not eating

In This Photo Maitre Ntaganda Bernard in Court room,he was too weak because he was starved by the police.

Rwanda's P.S.-Imberakuri Party Leader Bernard Ntaganda in a Kigali courtroom on Monday, 07.04.2010. He had to ask to step away from the dock and sit down because he was weak from not eating.

Yesterday, I took the time to go through a research paper that delves into the situation of the Rwandan refugees living in Uganda. The title is, “A Dangerous Impasse: Rwandan Refugees in Uganda” and the paper is available online. The paper is a final effort to address the precarious situation of Rwandan refugees who, as the paper alleges, have been ignored and abandoned by the rest of the world. Of recent, they face the threat of imminent “forced repatriation” back to a country that has denied them their citizenship and whose disregard for human rights is the reason they live in exile. Just as in the past, the Rwandan/Hutu refugees have no choice but to be “humbled and humiliated” and forced to return to a country whose government they consider both “repressive and illegitimate”. The work is of high quality and with detailed information as well as meticulous analysis on the current situation in Rwanda through the perspective/experience of the “invisible people”, mostly rural peasants who have encountered unspeakable suffering since the RPF took power; I highly recommend you read the paper.

Anyway, a friend suggested I go through the paper, after he read one of my emails protesting against the current detention and consequent torture of Rwandan opposition activists at the hands of an increasingly authoritarian RPF regime. The exact numbers of those detained is hard to establish as most of them are yet to be arraigned in court. Pictures of a frail, weak and emaciated Bosco Ntaganda, the leader of the opposition party P.S Imberakuri, surfaced on the internet. According to his testimony delivered in the Kigali court, Ntaganda is denied food, and kept in a dark dungeon surrounded by a pack of ferocious dogs. As a result of this inhuman treatment, he has started to lose his eye sight and is suffering from a mental breakdown. Another activist, Alice Muhirwa collapsed during the court session. She suffers internal wounds and needs urgent medical attention. Unfortunately, these activists have been denied the necessary medical care.

I will discuss some of the key pertinent issues that the paper raises. But, like I said, I urge you to read the paper for a deeper and more contextualized understanding.

The end of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda resulted into a mass exodus of approximately 3 million Rwandan/Hutu refugees. The majority took shelter in the eastern region of the democratic Republic of Congo. About 600,000 of them fled to Tanzania and tens of thousands remained scattered around east and central Africa. The article notes that the first terrible mistake by the international community and the UNHCR was the failure to “distinguish genocidaires from genuine refugees.” The result of this tragic shortcoming continues to be felt to date.

In a nutshell, the failure to distinguish the genocidaires from the refugee situation has resulted into two major problems.

First, the refugee population even in absence of evidence was always treated as criminals who were running away from justice. This has resulted into the collective incrimination of all Hutu refugees and perpetuated “Hutu stereotypes”. Ironically, the government of Rwanda continues to bolster this stereotype claiming that all refugees should return and those who refuse are doing so because they have something to hide. The genuineness of Hutu refugees is questioned by the very institutions that have the mandate to protect them.

The second problem is that the international community has allowed for unconventional mistreatment of these refugees. Actions that out rightly defy the rights of refugees are pursued with the acquiescence of the UN. One particular action is forced repatriation. Generally, refugees cannot return to their homeland unless there is proof that the situation has changed since they left. However, in the case of Rwanda, regime change was always accepted as proof enough for situational change. This disregards the highly complex nature of the Rwandan problem—especially the question of ethnicity and citizenship.

As a result, Rwandan refugees have never experienced full protection. In 1996 the new Rwandan army invaded the refugee camps near the Rwandan/Congo border slaughtering tens of thousands of Hutu refugees. While hundreds of thousands were “successfully” repatriated, many more fled into the jungles of Congo where they died due to starvation or were killed by the RPF forces. The documentary "Kisangani Dairy" gives an account of these horrors.

During the same year, half a million Hutu refugees were forcefully returned from their camps in Tanzania. The repatriation process was handled by the Tanzanian army in liaison with the UNHCR. Several thousands were hit by cars or died by committing suicide to avoid the eventual return. Others trekked to Nakivale Refugee Camp in Uganda—where they remain to this day and are faced with yet another threat of forceful return.

The report further identifies other key problems associated with the refugee question. First is the worry that the Rwandan government uses the Genocide to meet political ends. In other words, the Genocide is used purposefully to oppress Hutu civilians through “collective assumption of guilt”. Hutus who dare challenge the government are immediately charged with genocide related crimes. The fact that all Rwanda opposition politicians have been charged with similar crimes adds weight to this testimony.

For instance, it has never been clear how many Rwandan/Hutu participated in the Genocide. The best estimates so far come from Scott Straus who predicts anything between 175,000-210,000. As is to be expected, the Rwandan government has given an inflated figure of 3 million Hutu. Given the fact that immediately after the genocide, close to a million people were incarcerated and that the Gacaca courts have prosecuted several millions, the claim of collective incrimination and the usage of the legal process (Gacaca) as a tool for oppression of Hutus has some strong merits.

Another point of contention seems has to do with access to equal justice. The refugees feel strongly that the lack of a legal mechanism for them to pursue cases against those who murdered their relatives undermines their equal status as citizens of Rwanda. On one side, crimes perpetrated against Tusti civilians are punishable while crimes committed against Hutu civilians are never discussed. As witnessed by the recent charges against Hutu opposition candidate, Madame Victoire Ingabire, even talking about these crimes remains criminal. According to the UN The estimates of Hutus murdered by the RPF range between 25,000-45,000—the number could be significantly higher if one is to consider the numbers of Hutu refugees massacred in Eastern Congo from 1996 to date.

Lastly, the report explores the question of citizenship. Rwandan Hutu feel marginalized (second-hand citizens). This is evidenced by their elimination and exclusion from the political process. Also, by a negligent legal system that only safeguards the interest of some. To use their words, the refugees believe that in Rwanda today, only Tutsi are Rwandans. The fact that Rwanda has banned ethnic identities is, a clear message to them that only Tutsi matters. The Hutu (as a group of citizens) have officially seized to exist and are no longer important. The new “Rwanda” identity is comprised exclusively of those Rwandans—mostly Tutsi and a few Hutu—who support the RPF regime. Anyone else is an enemy of the state, a divisionist or igipinga, rebel and will be dealt with. Also, important to mention is the extent to which rural life is tightly controlled in a way that many would call communist. The rural peasants have rules on what they can grow and are mandated to sell their produce through an RPF run “cooperative”. The cooperative sets levies and taxes (bribes or imisanzu) and dictates the prices for the produce. This is a very unpopular policy in the rural areas and ironically a anathema to free market principles that the government purports to practice. The reality of Rwanda, at least on the village level, is very different from that projected by the local and international media.

The report hopes that an amicable and durable solution will be found for the Rwandan refugees. It proposes resettlement to a third country but acknowledges that the resettlement of Hutu refugees on a mass scale has never occurred. On my part, I propose democratic reforms in Rwanda. It is very sad that people should run away from their country. Even sadder that they should be forced to return in absence of the necessary reforms for them to enjoy their rightful citizenship. With the conduct of the current government and its dictatorial stance, it is very unlikely that anything will change soon. However, we remain committed to fighting for dignity, fairness and equality in our motherland.

Aluta Continua!

Opposition politician found dead in Rwanda

(CNN) -- A Rwandan opposition politician was found dead Wednesday after he went missing the day before, according to an official with the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.

Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, deputy-president of the party, was last seen alive by his sister Monday night, and was planning to make his way to the Rwandan capital of Kigali for a meeting Tuesday, said Frank Habineza, the party's president.

Rwisereka's car was found abandoned Tuesday, Habineza said. His car and house keys and driver's license were inside, but there was no sign of him.

Rwisereka's body was found by residents in a wetland area about 3 kilometers from the city of Butare and 2 kilometers from the National University of Rwanda, Habineza said. Rwisereka's head was nearly severed from his body, he said.

The body was taken into police custody, and an investigation is under way, Habineza said Wednesday, but no arrests had been made.

Habineza said both he and Rwisereka had been receiving death threats since February, but he said the police have not provided them with protection.

"We are very threatened as a party and as individuals," he said. "We are scared. We are also sad about the demise of our colleague."

The party, launched in 2009, is aimed at bringing about "a real, genuine and authentic political opposition in the country," according to its website.

The party "is a people's party, striving for a progressive people's democracy, the type of democracy that will ensure all Rwandans are able to freely live in their country without fear and enjoy all their rights ... DGPR strives for a Rwanda that is at peace with itself and its neighbors, the continent of Africa and the international community."

Journalist Naisenya Leposo contributed to this report for CNN.

Is Rwanda losing what it has gained since 1994?

First published by Ally Kanga

The script most of the world has about Rwanda is of a nation on the verge of losing what it has gained since 1994. Not surprising. Sixteen years ago, Rwanda, many will agree looked a complete write off. The mess that was the genocide had left the country on its bare minimum, with no clean water, no hospitals, no justice system or infrastructure and a people that saw themselves as victims or perpetrators.

So much needed fixing. The marauding Interahamwe had been defeated, the killings halted and a new government promised so much in terms of development and getting the country back on track. At the centre of all this, a certain Major Gen Paul Kagame, was pulling the strings. After successfully leading the force that took over Kigali, he embarked on forming an inclusive government, with the aim of uniting Rwandans. Not credit him for trying or at least for the economic progress that Rwanda has witnessed during this period, would be unfair.

There is going to be the argument about time spent in power. People can rightly argue that he has had so much time to do what he has done, and that with as much aid that Rwanda has received during his tenure, any fit-for-purpose human being would have performed.

This may be true but you still would have needed someone with character. While President Kagame has the character, has had the luck, agility and steady fastness, he truly is no saint. So often, he has been discovered as wanting in statesmanship, democracy and ability to engage with perceived enemies.

Mr. Kagame is from the school of thought who consider dissent as being irrational, uncalled for, and therefore, something that must be fought. To Kagame, leaders are meant to be respected and any divergent views must be expressed directly through stipulated channels (in most cases, composed of his most trusted lieutenants) and on which he has ultimate control. In doing so, he has centralised power, creating or promoting a circle of top trusted friends, who many se as the inner circle, that is out to make or break Rwanda. Remember, this is a government, which accused their predecessors of promoting the infamous “Akazu” a top circle grouping of Juvenile Habyalimana’s trusted cadres, believed to have executed the genocide.

So, when Hilary Clinton, says that “We really don’t want to see Rwanda undermine its own remarkable progress by beginning to move away from a lot of the very positive actions that undergirded its development so effectively,” she has a point.

Culture of Silence

Rwanda’s problem has been and continues to be the inexplicable silence embraced by her citizens who despite having mixed feelings about what is going on inside their country choose to either pretend that everything is right, or keep numb about all. Silence in Rwanda, is a virtue. Anything said, risks being misinterpreted for the bad and after years of experience, Rwandans have learnt to gag themselves, or control their speech. It is a culture not only of silence but self censorship as well.

While silence insulates some of the prevalent anger from some members of society at say such things as governance issues, imbalance in power, lack of political space or a not very fair policy, some say, on unity and reconciliation, it encourages pretence. In Rwanda today, there are people who believe that the government should have borrowed a leaf from South Africa’s handling of apartheid, when dealing with genocide and its effects. But because such rhetoric risks being interpreted as a way of inciting public anger, a possible crime under the genocide ideology law, many choose to stay silent and instead moan about it to friends and relatives under closed doors. The government then, gets the feeling that the policy is working when in actual fact, it is the silence and the fear of persecution or being wrongly misinterpreted, which are keeping argument, at bay.

Normally, when members of the public are so afraid to speak out, the onus falls on the media to express people’s views. But the media in Rwanda remains dysfunctional. Weeks after a critical journalist was shot under circumstances that we may never establish, another, Saidati Mukakibi, has been arrested for comparing Kagame to Hitler. The state maintains her writings would have incited public disorder and promoted divisionism. I asked a government minister if Kagame has become so incomparable that trying to find a comparison amounts to a criminal offence. On top of insisting that I don’t quote him, the minister believes “the police should not have over reacted to someone’s personal opinion although the president deserves respect”. Hitler, the minister added, “can not be the best comparison you can have”.

If Hitler is worse a comparison, then who is, I asked? He hung up before answering. My chat with the minister goes to explain what many struggle to see with Rwandan politics. In Rwanda, you either, dance to the melody of Kagame is Lord, the best we ever had, or challenge his views and risk being done for corruption or immorality. If a minister finds it hard speaking to journalists, even when he is giving a plain statement, imagine how it must feel being a local and standing out to challenge the establishment, inside Rwanda?

Is there hope?

A friend of mine asked me this particular question the other day on Facebook. While I believe in hope being abundant, I know it takes some convincing to tell people it is there when you have pregnant mothers being imprisoned for attending peaceful demonstrations, opposition party members like Bernard Ntaganda, the founder president of PS-Imberakuri being denied their constitutional right to bail and some opposition party activists simply disappearing, as in the case Andrew Kagwa Rwisereka of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.

The future looks not so clear and I am sure there are so many Rwandans out there, who would love to see Clinton, demand freedoms from Rwanda’s iron man, instead of meandering around diplomatic language and deploring the fact that Rwanda is in danger of losing what it has gained since 1994.

America, just like other Western countries should rethink their relationship with Mr. Kagame, not for his sake but that of democracy and Rwandans. Like Timothy Kalyegira put it the other day, for all the fine wine, decorations and music at a wedding party, it is resolving differences, balancing needs and compromises that are the core of a marriage.

Rwandan opposition leader found dead

Rwandan opposition leader found dead

Discovery of Andre Kagwa Rwisereka's body near river follows attacks on two other critics of President Paul Kagame

Xan Rice in Nairobi

Paul Kagame's government has been accused of clamping down on political opponents. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

A senior member of a Rwandan political party has been murdered in the third attack on a government critic in a month.

Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, vice-president of the Democratic Green party, which was unable to gain registration to contest next month's presidential election, was found near a river close to Butare, in southern Rwanda. He had been reported missing on Tuesday.

"His head was almost completely removed from his body. His brother, Antoine Haguma, confirms seeing the dead body," said Frank Habineza, the party president.

Police confirmed the death and said a machete was found near the victim, who had also suffered chest wounds.

Eric Kayiranga, a police spokesman, said Rwisereka had reportedly been carrying a lot of money and robbery may have been the motive.

The murder follows the killing in Rwanda on 24 June of Jean Leonard Rugambage, acting editor of the Umuvugizi newspaper.

The government suspended the paper for six months in April for "inciting insubordination in the army and police" and publishing "information that endangers public order". Five days earlier, the former Rwandan army chief Lieutenant General Kayumba Nyamwasa, who had fallen out with President Paul Kagame, was shot in the stomach in South Africa.

Both the exiled Umuvugizi editor and Nyamwasa's wife accused the Rwandan government of being behind the attacks. The government has vigorously denied this, and there is no evidence of its involvement.

But human rights groups have accused Kagame's regime of clamping down on political opponents and the independent media in recent months. On Tuesday, the press watchdog Reporters Without Borders called on the European Union and other donors to suspend financial support for the election because of "a series of grave press freedom violations".

"How much longer will the international community continue to endorse this repressive regime?" the organisation said.