Trial starts in shooting of Rwandan in S.Africa

From MSNBC by Donna Bryson

AP-JOHANNESBURG — First a gunman shot the exiled Rwandan army general. When he survived, prosecutors say the people who wanted him dead plotted to strangle him in his South African hospital bed.

Prosecutors won't say whether they believe Rwandan President Paul Kagame's government was behind the attack carried out in another corner of the continent.
But on Tuesday as the trial began, prosecutors disclosed that key witnesses are now under special protection in South Africa because they fear the Rwandan government.
Rwandan authorities have angrily denied the allegations of involvement in the June 2010 attack on Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, and have even hired a South African lawyer to monitor the court proceedings this week in Johannesburg.
"The government of Rwanda doesn't have anything to hide. They're not involved in this," their lawyer Gerhard van der Merwe told The Associated Press.
Prosecutor Shaun Abrahams refused to say Tuesday whether his case would implicate the Rwandan government. He said the evidence will speak for itself during the complex trial, which is being conducted in English and translated into three other languages: French, Swahili and Kinyarwanda.
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.

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Nyamwasa was once Rwanda's military chief before he fell out with the president and went into exile in South Africa last year. He and several other top Kagame aides have since been convicted in absentia on charges that include threatening state security.
Now three Rwandans and three Tanzanians are accused of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in Nyamwasa's shooting in South Africa. They each pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday.
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 UK that their lives were in danger, and the threat is believed to have emanated from the Rwandan government.
Human rights activists also charged last year that Rwanda's Tutsi-led government was pursuing Hutus in neighboring Uganda. Rwanda's government denied involvement in a series of attacks on Hutu Rwandans in Uganda.
Human rights groups say opposition politicians, journalists and civil society activists have been subjected to crackdowns inside Rwanda as well. Earlier this year, in a case Human Rights Watch said was politically motivated,
Rwanda's High Court sentenced an opposition leader to four years in prison on charges of endangering national security, attempting to organize unauthorized protests and inciting ethnic divisions.
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 other two Rwandans accused in the case are Nyamwasa's driver and a former Rwandan soldier, according to prosecutors.
While Nyamwasa portrays himself as a champion of democracy and is a victim in the trial that opened Tuesday, he also faces serious criminal charges.
He 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.
South African refugee and human rights groups have gone to court to try to have Nyamwasa's asylum status stripped because of the allegations.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, the groups acknowledge it might not be safe for Nyamwasa to return to Rwanda and instead proposed that he be tried in South Africa.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

OPJDR:Condemns the Assassination of the Rwandan Opposition Political Leaders

PRESS RELEASE Nº 29/J/PK/710 July 16, 2010

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, DC 20520

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
London SW1Y 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, NY 10017

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
One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 885 Second Avenue
P.O. Box 5238
New York, NY 10017

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 Nations Plaza,

Manhattan, NY 10017

Honorable U.S. Senator John Kerry

Chair of Foreign Relations Committee

218 Russell Bldg; Second Floor
Washington D.C. 20510

Honorable U.S. Senator Russ Feingold

US Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs

506 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510-4904