International Community is taking what they hear from Rwandan dissidents seriously. Their own investigations have confirmed their stories, and they are trying to protect the dissidents by urging Mr. Kagame to hold back and stop the attack against Rwandan dissidents.

In Manchester, on 25th October, a member of the Rwanda National Congress was attacked by unknown people who posed as waiting for somebody at the bus stop, which is located near the house of Mr. Jean Paul Nizeyimana.

 

Mr. Jean Paul who is the Vice – coordinator of RNC the North – UK, was followed and chased by three men and he managed to escape unharmed.   The local Police have been informed about the attack and they are advising Mr. Jean Paul accordingly.

He strongly believes the attack and harassment is linked to his activities as member of opposition party in UK.  As RNC leader, Jean Paul has been campaigning in the North West of UK to stop President Kagame from changing the constitution of Rwanda in order to allow him life president.

Activities aimed at suppressing political dissents inside and outside the country have to be seen in the context of Kagame’s increasingly obvious attempt to run for a third term. This project requires changing the Rwandan constitution, which stipulates that the president can serve a maximum of two seven-year terms and under no circumstance can a president run after his second term expires.

But it’s not easy for Kagame or his supporters to make a compelling case for why he must stay for another seven years; given the fact that, there is no credible political opposition in Rwanda or independent Journalism to verify that, really all the Rwandans want to change the constitution in order to elect Mr. Kagame for another seven years.

This is not the first time, an opposition member has been attacked;  The Independent newspaper(Sunday, 23/October/2011) reported that the Scotland Yard warned two Rwandan opposition politicians living in the United Kingdom of reliable intelligence that the Rwandan government poses an imminent threat to them.

According to the Independent newspaper; Mr. Musonera, 46, who is RNC Commissioner in charge of mobilization was told that police cannot offer round-the-clock protection, and he said he was terribly scared because he knows what the Rwandan government can do. “Rwandan killers are not bothered about observing the laws of the countries in which they carry out their activities.”

The Foreign Office said the threat faced by Rwandans in Britain had been raised with the Kigali government. Ironically, the U.K spends about $100 million in development aid to Rwanda per year, much of it going directly to the Government.

The assassination plots to the Rwandan dissents should be a matter of concern to the Western World because of their implications for a country that is crucial to their foreign policy in the Great Lakes Region. Although Rwanda’s population is about 12 million, it has been a key player in the wars and rebellions that have killed millions of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its role in perpetrating violence beyond its borders has often been ignored because of the worldwide sympathy for the 1994 genocide. Even reports from UN investigators accusing Mr. Kagame’s army of mass slaughters in Congo in the 1990s have generally been brushed aside by the West, which continues to offer huge amounts of aid and political support to the RPF Regime.

The U.S. State Department has already warned the Kagame government not to silence dissidents and it has expressed deep concern over Mr. Kagame’s public threats against critics and the apparent politically motivated attacks on them.

It is unlikely that the intimidation campaign will abate for the foreseeable future; The Rwandan regime is acting increasingly paranoid towards any challenge to its authority, both from inside the country and abroad.

Indeed, the government is not a huge fan of dissenting voices, and with political opponents of Kagame getting killed or disappeared regime is willing to enforce its political control at home and abroad.