The situation of human rights in Rwanda

By Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
President, FDU-INKINGI
Madrid, October 21, 2009

Also available in French.

According to an investigative report released by Agence France Press ( AFP ) in Kinshasa last week, soldiers within the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), who were recently integrated into the army from the armed rebel group National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) allied to Rwanda, have killed 50 Rwandan Hutu refugees and kidnapped some forty women who were victims of “rape” during the attack against an internally displaced refugee camp in North Kivu (Eastern DRC ) on April 26, 2009. A UN special reporter had already been appointed to carry out such an investigation following continued reports of widespread massacres of Rwandan refugees.

The Kinshasa government has acknowledged that it was aware of such killings, but decided not to arrest the CNDP officer who was responsible for these abuses alleging that such an arrest would have caused problems of dramatic consequences than the death of the refugees!

Last week, a 22-year old student from the National University of Rwanda, Butare campus, was murdered outside the campus along with a 58-year old man, all killed by the local defense force. A lifeless body of a woman who had refused to let her banana plantation be destroyed was recovered in Lake Kivu.

A few days earlier, according to a local radio in neighboring Burundi , more than 400 Rwandans fleeing the massacres were taking refuge in Burundi . The radio revealed that lifeless bodies floating down the Akanyaru River , which separates Rwanda and Burundi , have been seen by people who live near this river.

One should also recall that Rwandan refugees in Uganda are stubbornly refusing to be forcibly repatriated for fear of being arbitrarily brought before the infamous Gacaca courts. Similarly, Rwandan refugees in DRC continue to be massacred in order to force them to return to Rwanda.

The Gacaca courts, which are culturally intended to resolve disputes related to social relationships but never to try bloody crimes, still pose numerous problems by sentencing people, without any substantial evidence, to life imprisonment penalties with outlandish damages and interests. All of this while ignoring the foundations of the Rwandan culture and the minimum standards of law-abiding justice.

As if the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior were to tighten the repressive machinery and restrict the exercise of the fundamental rights, it recently presented to the parliament a new law aimed at hardly restricting the freedom of expression and association of non- governmental organizations (NGOs). There is a great danger that this law may serve as an excuse for a new wave of persecution of NGOs.

Meanwhile, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the ruling party, continues to resist any attempt to judge its own elements, suspected to have played a role in crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Rwanda and DRC . The recent criticism leveled by the Rwandan government at the Spanish government and the detention of a Spanish citizen on obscure charges, are irrefutable proof of its lack of consideration for both national and international justices.

As this has very well been outlined by Human Rights Watch, we are convinced, that “The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)’s failure to address the war crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front risks leaving the impression that it is delivering only victor's justice”. “That is a poor legacy for this historic effort at international justice”. This is why we urge the French and Spanish justices to not succumb into the political manipulation of justice in which the Rwandan regime is tirelessly making every effort to take them.

Such a sudden reinvigoration of the human rights violations and political violence by the Rwandan government is taking place in a context of preparation for presidential elections in August 2010 to which our political organization in exile, the United Democratic Forces UDF-INKINGI, decided to participate and present a candidate for the presidency. It is feared that these crackdown on the civil society and exactions against the population are simply aimed at intimidating and terrorizing the latter specifically in order to destabilize an electorate that is increasingly open to political competition and changes.

The United Democratic Forces, UDF-INKINGI, contemplate with some satisfaction the awakening of the Rwandan population, which is eager to regain control of its destiny. They strongly appeal to all countries enamored with peace and freedom, Friends of Rwanda, especially Spain, which we are visiting today to support the Rwandan people in this democratic process and help them establish a climate of peaceful political dialogue, the only guarantor of the advent of a genuine multiparty democracy and an equitable and reconciliatory justice.