According to the Amnesty International Annual Report on Rwanda in 2013, gross human rights violations in all aspects of fundamental and universal Human Rights as enshrined in the United Nations Universal declaration for Human Rights  was  of great concern. This year is no better as more political prisoners of conscience, assassinations, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, both freedom of press and assembly are on the increase.

As I have mentioned above, the government continues to stifle legitimate freedom of expression and association. Cases of illegal detention and allegations of torture by both Police and Rwandan military intelligence are not investigated. Military support from Rwanda to armed groups with intention of destabilizing Tanzania, Burundi and neighboring Congo is latently being organized by Rwanda military under the new regional Kagame policy.

The armed groups in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) although tarnished Rwanda’s international image, the international community did little or nothing to warn Kagame against the continued supporting of armed groups in the region.

Kagame is more corrupt than the traditional African dictators like Mobutu of former Zaire, or Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, yet the international community image is far from the reality, because they talk of economic success and low levels of corruption. The international community’s support for Rwanda should be based on the scales of human rights improvement   both domestic and regional stability.

BACKGROUND

According the final report by the UN Group of Experts on the DRC, published in November 2012, and contained evidence that Rwanda had breached the UN arms embargo by transferring arms, ammunition and military equipment to the M23. The report stated that Rwandan military officials were supporting the M23 by recruiting civilians in Rwanda and providing logistics, intelligence and political advice. Yet Kagame has not been punished or pay any price for those crimes contained in the above report.

 

Again a report published in June 2013, the Group of Experts named high-ranking Rwandan military officials – including the Minister of Defence – as having played a key role in providing this support. As usual Rwanda published a detailed rebuttal, denying any support and criticizing the methodology and credibility of the sources used. The Rwandan Minister of Defence would have been under sanctions for those crimes, yet nothing has happened.

Insignificant but symbolic sanctions by Major donors to Rwanda, including the USA, the EU, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, subsequently suspended or delayed part of their financial assistance. Unfortunately some the suspended assistances have been reinstated without any improvement in the human rights record in Rwanda.

In October, Rwanda was elected to hold a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for two years starting in 2013. This is another serious blow to the international community and a failure of principles in dealing with dictators on the African continent and beyond.

The new law to deal with the cases of Community-based gacaca courts, set up to try unfair genocide cases, which completed their work in 2012 and were officially closed in June 2013 following several delays has not been implemented. This is not only a miscarriage of justice but fundamentally detrimental to the reconciliation and confidence building of the Rwandan communities.

 

IMPUNITY

The government has continued to illegally detain political dissents and has failed to investigate and prosecute cases of illegal detention and allegations of torture by Rwandan military intelligence. In May and October 2013, Amnesty International published evidence of illegal and incommunicado detention and enforced disappearances. The research included allegations of torture, including serious beatings, electric shocks and sensory deprivation used to force confessions during interrogations, mostly of civilians, in 2010, 2011 and, 2013 and this has not stopped.

In May 2013, the government categorically denied all allegations of illegal detentions and torture by Rwandan military intelligence before the UN Committee against Torture. In June 2013, the Rwandan Minister of Justice acknowledged that illegal detentions had occurred, attributing them to operatives’ “excessive zeal in the execution of a noble mission”. On 7 October, the government issued a statement reaffirming that illegal detentions had taken place, but made no reference to investigations or prosecutions.

The Rwandan government should be held accountable because despite the denials, the above vices have not subsided.

 

Many innocent people have continued to be tortured and killed on the orders of president Kagame who in June this Year in Nyabihu, Musanze District said that suspects should be shot without even going to courts of law. For those who know the Rwanda system, the Presidents statement should be taken seriously; very few will question any legal or political repercussions.

 

  • The driver of the former Gen. Frank Rusagara, was tortured and he gave his testimony in the court, yet the court continued his detention without giving him due medication care. Many people have been reporting their loved ones as missing to the local police. Gen Rwarakabije , the  Commissioner General of the Rwanda Correctional Service, told the international media VOA that many former community service (TIG) are missing, recently we witnessed dead people in Lake Rweru in Burundi.
  • The Rwandan Government has not investigated or reported back to the public whether the missing people were discovered.

 

 

 

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

There is almost no space for critical journalism in Rwanda. The aftermath of a 2010 clampdown on journalists and political opposition members left few independent or none voices in the country. Private media outlets remained closed. Efforts to improve media freedom through legislative reform, technical improvement and private sector investment, were undermined by the continued imprisonment of journalists for their legitimate work. Defamation remains a criminal offence. The recent shutdown of the BBC Great Lakes Service in Kinyarwanda – Kirundi should wake up the international community and the British Government that Kagame has crossed a red line.

 

Laws on ‘genocide ideology’ and ‘sectarianism’

Vaguely worded laws on “genocide ideology” and “sectarianism” continue to be misused to criminalize legitimate dissent and criticism of the government. A new law on “genocide ideology” has not improved the illegal and crackdown on dissent and freedom of assembly in the country. Indeed, whoever tries to question the dictatorship of president Kagame does not see the next sun rise.

Journalists

 

As I have mentioned above the only remaining source of independent media the BBC was closed without even legal procedure, several media-related laws that are in place continue to suffocate independent media and many have closed down or imprisoned.

Although Agnes Uwimana Nkusi, editor of the private Kinyarwanda tabloid newspaper Umurabyo, and her deputy editor, Saidati Mukakibibi, were released  after spending  four and three years respectively, they have not yet opened their tabloid or even if they re opened it , they will be handicapped by fear and intimidation.

The only crime committed by the dual was a report published in February 2011, with an opinion criticizing government policies and alleging corruption in the run-up to the 2010 presidential elections.

 

Both ladies were found guilty of defamation and threatening national security, a crime that has been used to crackdown other people with different political opinions in the country.

 

UNFAIR TRIAL

The Rwandan Courts have lost legitimacy and independence, Victoire Ingabire, President of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), was sentenced to Fifteen years in prison. She had returned to Rwanda in January 2010 after 16 years in exile. She had hoped to register FDU-Inkingi prior to the August 2010 presidential elections, before she was first arrested in April 2010.

Despite international scrutiny, the trial was marred by violations of due process. The court failed to test evidence brought by the prosecution. Confessions of two co-accused incriminating Victoire Ingabire were made after a prolonged period of detention in a military camp where Amnesty International has documented allegations of the use of torture to coerce confessions. A defence witness claimed he had been held in military detention with one of the co-accused and alleged that the individual’s confession had been forced.

In the build-up to the trial, official statements were made by the Rwandan authorities who posed problems in relation to Victoire Ingabire’s presumption of innocence. The freedom of expression charges lacked a clear legal basis and certain charges were based on pieces of imprecise and broad Rwandan legislation punishing “genocide ideology” and “discrimination and sectarianism”. The accused was not treated fairly during the trial and was regularly interrupted and subject to hostility.

 

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Rwanda lacks independent political parties and many perceived to be independent have been unable to register. Members of political opposition parties are being harassed and intimidated, and many are imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of association.

  • On 27 April, the Supreme Court upheld charges against Bernard Ntaganda, president of the Ideal Social Party (PS-Imberakuri). He was recently released after   serving a four-year prison sentence after being found guilty on 11 February 2011 of “divisionism” for making public speeches criticizing government policies ahead of the 2010 elections, breaching state security and attempting to plan an “unauthorized demonstration”.

The recent change of the government in Burkina Faso by the people coming on the streets should be encouraged by the international community, US, UK and EU.  The international community should put more financial assistance in opposition rather than civil societies because many civil societies in Rwanda have been compromised. Until they regain their independence, the focus should be put on the strengthening the opposition as it’s in the developed world.

 

Joseph Ruhumuriza

Senior Researcher Great Lakes Human Rights Link.

http://www.greatlakeshumanrightslink.com/ruhumuriza-narrates-on-rwanda-human-rights-violations/