Rwanda: Two arrested for killing reporter Rugambage

Two people have been arrested over the shooting of a reporter last week, with police saying it was a revenge attack.

Witnesses say Jean Leonard Rugambage, the acting editor of Umuvugizi newspaper, was fired on by two men who then fled in a car.

The government has denied as "baseless" accusations it was behind the killing.

A police statement says one of the suspects is related to someone allegedly killed by Mr Rugambage during the 1994 genocide.

Mr Rugambage, who is survived by his wife and a child, was acquitted of genocide crimes by a local "gacaca" court in 2006.

Human rights groups have accused President Paul Kagame of intimidating the media and the opposition ahead of elections due to take place in August.

A police statement quoted by the pro-government New Times newspaper says the pistol used to shoot Mr Rugambage has been recovered.
RWANDA'S TURBULENT YEAR
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* January: Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire returns home and causes a stir for highlighting crimes against Hutus during the genocide
* February: Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa flees with another army officer to South Africa
* March: From exile, Lt Gen Nyamwasa denies being behind recent grenade attacks in Kigali
* April: Umuvugizi paper, critical of the government, suspended
* April: Two top military men put under house arrest after military leadership reshuffle
* April: Ms Ingabire arrested and charged with genocide denial
* June: Her US lawyer arrested
* June: Lt Gen Nyamwasa survives assassination attempt
* June: Umuvugizi reporter Jean Leonard Rugambage shot dead
* August: Presidential elections due

Division in Rwanda's military ranks

The authorities recently suspended the Umuvugizi paper, prompting it to start publishing online instead.

Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled to Uganda in April after his paper was suspended, said Kigali had masterminded the assassination of Mr Rugambage who died in hospital after the shooting.

"I'm 100% sure it was the office of the national security services which shot him dead," he told US state-funded radio Voice of America.

Mr Gasasira said it was because of an article published on the Umuvugizi website relating to the attempted killing earlier this month of former army chief Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa.

But Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo strongly denied such accusations.

"Of course, this is not true, it's baseless," she told the AFP news agency.

"We are not a government that assassinates journalists, we are a responsible government."

The government has also denied accusations it was behind the shooting of Lt Gen Nyamwasa.

He went into exile in South Africa earlier this year after falling out with President Kagame.

In April, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership and two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.

Earlier in the month, Umuvugizi was suspended for six months by the press council for inciting opposition to the government.

Its website, launched in May, is not currently accessible through Rwandan internet providers; the authorities deny involvement in blocking it.

Mr Kagame's government argues that it must take care to control the media and politicians to avoid a repeat of the genocide, in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered

Rwanda takes its media persecution online

Persecution of independent newspapers extended to online versions

Published on 11 June 2010
In the same country

26 April 2010 - Editor of bi-monthly acquitted on appeal

14 April 2010 - Two leading independent weeklies suspended for six months

23 February 2010 - Court sentences three journalists to imprisonment

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its concern about the harassment of independent newspapers in Rwanda after learning that access to the Umuvugizi news website has been blocked in Rwanda since 3 June on the orders of the Media High Council.

Umuvugizi editor Jean Bosco Gasasira launched the website on 21 April, one week after the Media High Council suspended the print version of his fortnightly newspaper for six months on 13 April. The weekly Umuseso was suspended at the same time.

The executive secretary of the Media High Council, which regulates the media under the supervision of the president’s office, had announced that the Umuvugizi website would be blocked shortly after its launch, arguing that banned newspapers were also banned online.

“The censorship of these newspapers, whether they appear online or in print form, constitutes a crude act of manipulation in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for 9 August,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“President Paul Kagame’s government, which had already deployed a large arsenal of measures to gag the press, has set a disturbing precedent by blocking this website,” the press freedom organisation added. “The regime has shown it is able to innovate in order to pursue its long-standing obsession about controlling news and information.”

Gasasira told Reporters Without Borders: “Blocking Umuvugizi’s website very clearly shows that President Kagame does not want independent media in Rwanda and will not allow his own people to express views or publish independent news reports by means of journalism.”

He said he thought the site was blocked as a result of an article portraying Kagame as one of the world’s most corrupt dictators and contrasting his acquisition of two jets for 100 million dollars with the fact that 60 per cent of the government’s budget comes from foreign donations while the population is hit by poverty and AIDS.

When the Media High Council suspended Umuseso and Umuvugizi in April, it accused them of “inciting insubordination in the army and police regarding orders from superiors,” publishing “information that endangers public order,” rumour mongering, defamation and invasion of privacy. But it did not cite any articles to support these charges.

Gasasira set up the website after moving to Uganda because he was being harassed and was getting threatening letters in Rwanda. The website is being blocked inside Rwanda by Internet Service Providers such as MTN and Rwandatel, but it is still accessible outside the country.

Last year, Gasasira was convicted on charges of defamation and invasion of privacy. He was also attacked and beaten unconscious.

Rwanda has the fourth lowest ranking in Africa in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index while President Kagame is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Predators of Press Freedom.

More Paul Kagame Sycophancy From the Press

By Tom Rhodes,

Rwandan President Paul Kagame toured America late last month and a number of articles in the American press have sung praises to his leadership. Undoubtedly, the economic recovery under Kagame since the 1994 genocide is remarkable, but his repressive record on press freedom tarnishes this record.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed by Anne Jolis praised Kagame for his free market thinking while the Associated Press reported on Kagame's presence at the premier of a Tribeca film, "Earth Made of Glass." The film portrayed Kagame in a heroic light, AP reported, and was inspired by a chance dinner conversation the director, Deborah Scranton, had with Kagame two years ago.

The greatest praise and defense of Kagame's leadership stemmed from this week's piece written by Michael Fairbanks on HuffPost. Fairbanks applauds Kagame for his efforts to develop the economy, education, and foreign relations in Rwanda and claims critics of his press freedom record within the international community are myopic, even racist. The premise has merit -- the international community must end its arrogance and listen to Rwandans more instead of pushing their own rash solutions. But all these authors seem to listen to only one Rwandan -- Paul Kagame.

Fairbanks questions why a CNN interview with Kagame, for instance, focused too much on "a minor opposition candidate" Victoire Ingabire. Ingabrire, a Hutu opposition party candidate for the upcoming August elections, was detained April 21 and questioned in court over alleged "evidence of wire transfers showing that Ingabire sent thousands of dollars" to a ruthless Hutu paramilitary group. But Fairbanks failed to mention that she was released on bail the following day since the state prosecutor could not provide sufficient evidence to prove the allegations.

Press freedom organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are admonished by Fairbanks for defending two local-language "so-called opposition newspapers," Umuseso and Umuvugizi, which were recently suspended. Umuseso and Umuvugizi constitute the only critical local media voices left in the country, and both are now conveniently banned prior to the presidential elections. He goes on to contrast these suspensions with a myriad of international media organizations allowed to operate in the country. While many international media houses do visit Kigali, the one with local-language programming and regular local coverage, BBC, is often intimidated and has been suspended in the past.

Where Fairbanks strategically omits information, at other times it appears his facts are plain wrong. A famous Rwandan general once aligned with Kagame reportedly fled this year fearing arrest after he was accused by the government of terrorism. A few independent journalists went into hiding after Kagame announced at a press conference that he was aware of some journalists interviewing the allegedly dissident general. But Fairbanks spoke to a "senior military official" and claims the general actually fled the country because he was caught cheating on his wife, not for any political reason. The international press was fooled, Fairbanks says, into portraying a womanizer as a valiant opponent to oppression. But perhaps Fairbanks should listen to more Rwandans than one military elite -- the general accused of infidelity is currently in a Rwandan jail and never fled as claimed.

No doubt blanket criticism of the Kagame is unjustified, but so is blanket sycophancy. As it currently stands, Kagame will run in the August presidential elections with only one opposition party "allowed" to register and no independent local media to cover them. Thanks to the likes of Fairbanks, western donors will praise Kagame for holding the elections and the foreign aid will continue to flow, whether the people of Rwanda approve or not.