Rwanda sends opposition leader to 8 years in jail
By Reuters
Thu 01 Nov. 2012, 12:20 CAT
A Rwandan court on Tuesday sentenced the country's top opposition political leader to eight years in prison for treason and on a charge stemming from this central African nation's murderous ethnic attacks 18 years ago - genocide denial.
The opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, returned to Rwanda in 2010 after living abroad for 16 years and quickly visited the country's genocide memorial, where she asked why Hutus killed in the violence were not recognised like the minority Tutsis were. She had planned to run for president but instead was arrested.
More than 500,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In the wake of that violence, the government set out to de-emphasise ethnicity. Many in the country now identify themselves simply as a Rwandan, not a Hutu or Tutsi.
The government accused Ingabire - who has had contacts with the FDLR, a group of Hutu fighters in Congo - of trying to raise an armed group, a charge Ingabire denied. The court on Tuesday acquitted her on charges of promoting ethnic division, genocide ideology, creating an armed group, and complicity in terrorist acts.
Ingabire's lawyer, Iain Edwards, said Ingabire will appeal the court's ruling.
"That's the problem I have with this government. If you talk about ethnicity, they say you are a divisionist," Ingabire said in a 2010 interview after she was put under house arrest. "I think the better solution is you talk about it and find a solution."
The government's chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga, responded that Ingabire's statements were not simply a free-speech issue because she could incite Rwanda "to once more explode" as it did in 1994.
President Paul Kagame has been lauded by the international community for leading Rwanda through nearly two decades of peace, for advancing women's rights and for leading the country to strong economic growth. But the court's sentence reinforces the view by political analysts that opponents of Kagame have little space to operate in post-genocide Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch criticised the guilty verdict as the culmination of a "flawed trial that included politically motivated charges."
"The prosecution of Ingabire for 'genocide ideology' and divisionism illustrates the Rwandan government's unwillingness to tolerate criticism and to accept the role of opposition parties in a democratic society," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"The courts should not be used for such political purposes." - Reuters
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, PAUL KAGAME, RWANDA, VICTOIRE INGABIRE UMUHOZA
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'Hotel Rwanda' manager accused of funding subversion
By BBC News
Thu 28 Oct. 2010, 10:30 CAT
The Rwandan authorities have accused the man on whom the film "Hotel Rwanda" is based of funding subversion. Paul Rusesabagina became a well-known figure after the film depicted his efforts to save hundreds of Tutsis at his hotel during the genocide of 1994.
Now Rwanda's top prosecutor has accused him of sending money to two former commanders of an extremist rebel group.
Rwanda's prosecutor general, Martin Ngoga, said Rusesabagina had helped to finance what he described as terrorist activities in Rwanda by funding commanders of the FDLR, or Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
He accused Rusesabagina, who now lives in exile, of acting together with the opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire.
Ingabire was arrested last week and accused of working with a terrorist group - a charge which she denies.
'Harassment'
Correspondents say in recent years Rusesabagina has spoken out against the government of President Paul Kagame, which has faced criticism from several quarters that it targets its political opponents.
In a BBC interview, Rusesabagina accused the government of launching a smear campaign against him.
"It is the latest step in a campaign against me by the Rwandan government that has included public insults from the president himself, lies and physical harassment," he said.
"I'm not a man of violence... But anyone who opposes Kagame is treated with this kind of harassment."
No formal charges have yet been filed against Rusesabagina.
Labels: HOTEL RWANDA, PAUL KAGAME, PAUL RUSESABAGINA, RWANDA, VICTOIRE INGABIRE UMUHOZA
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Rwandan Opposition Leader Victoire Ingabire Arrested
by Ann Garrison
Global Research, October 15, 2010
Digital Journal - 2010-10-14
Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has been arrested in Rwanda, according to members of her FDU-Inkingi Coalition of Rwandan political parties, who also report that authorities have taken her to an undisclosed location.
On Oct. 9, Ingabire spoke to KPFA Radio-Berkeley, CA, by phone and confirmed reports that the Rwandan government security operatives surrounding her home in Rwanda's capitol, Kigali, had been replaced by police with firearms, and that six of them were visible from inside. Others reported that there were Rwandan troops in her neighborhood, and that shops had been ordered to close.
Ingabire returned to Rwanda, from European exile, in January, intending to run for the presidency against Rwandan President Paul Kagame, but she was not allowed to register her party or contest the election. Instead she was arrested, the first time in March, for violating Rwanda's "genocide ideology" statutes, which criminalize disagreement with the official history of the horrific violence of 1994 that became known as the Rwanda Genocide. American law professor and international criminal defense attorney Peter Erlinder then traveled to Rwanda to defend her, only to be arrested on the same "genocide ideology" charges.
Erlinder was released on medical grounds, after which he returned to the United States and continued to speak out against the Rwandan government and against the Pentagon's use of Rwanda, and Uganda and Burundi, as its military proxies in Africa. This week Rwandan prosecutors announced their intention to proceed with their case against Erlinder after removing any citations of his pleadings at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda as evidence against him.
Ingabire and Erlinder have both been outspoken about the UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo that was leaked to Le Monde on August 26th, then officially released on October 1st, with responses by the Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Angolan governments, all of whose armies were implicated. The report most shocked the world with its documentation of the Rwandan army's genocidal massacres of civilian Hutu people, Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus, from Congo's eastern to western border, during the 1990s.
Of the three opposition candidates who attempted to contest this year's Rwandan presidential election, against incumbent President Paul Kagame, two are now in prison, not only Ingabire but also Bernard Ntaganda, leader and presidential candidate of the Parti Social Imberakuri was arrested on June 24th and has not been released. He has reported being tortured, and on Monday, Ingabire reported that he had been moved to an undisclosed location.
Frank Habineza, chair and presidential candidate of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, has taken refuge with his family in Sweden, since the body of the party's vice president, Andre Rwisereka, was found beheaded and dumped in the wetlands of the Makurera River in southern Rwanda on July 14th.
There were also assassinations and assassination attempts against prominent opponents of the Rwandan government in neighboring South Africa, D.R. Congo, and Tanzania during the election year, which concluded, on August 9th, with the report that Rwandan President Paul Kagame had been re-elected with 93% of the vote.
Ann Garrison is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Ann Garrison
Labels: ANN GARRISON, PETER ERLINDER, RWANDA, VICTOIRE INGABIRE UMUHOZA
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