By Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
President of FDU-INKINGI
Brussels, November 03, 2009
The United Democratic Forces, FDU-INKINGI, express their sincere sympathy and solidarity to the Secretary General and his family.
The FDU-INKINGI took knowledge and would like to inform the public of the following facts:
1. On Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 7:30 pm, Mrs. Mazimpaka left her home and went to Bockstael Place located within five minutes drive from her home in Laeken, a district of Brussels City.
2. Around 10:30 pm, Mr. Jean Baptiste Mberabahizi who realized that his wife was not coming back tried to contact her on her cell phone and tried several times without success.
3. The next day, on Sunday, October 25, 2009, at 4:49 pm, while Mr. Mberabahizi was getting ready to go to fill out a missing report for his wife without waiting the 48-hour requirement, he received on his cell phone a call from Dr. Wolf from Saint Pierre Hospital who told him that his wife had been brought to the emergency around midnight and that she was admitted to the orthopedic surgical unit. Dr. Wolf added that he would like to talk to Mr. Mberabahizi as soon as possible.
4. Upon his arrival at the hospital, Mr. Mberabahizi found his wife lying down unable to recognize him. Mr. Mberabahizi was briefed by Dr. Wolf on facts that he had taken knowledge. The doctor said that Mrs. Mazimpaka was amnesiac, had swollen lumbar vertebrae probably due to a fall from at least three meters height and that she was psychologically shocked because of the aggression. A conversation with her was impossible. She was totally confused. She also had a lesion on each cheek, due to cigarette burns.
5. Dr. Wolf said Mrs. Mazimpaka was found lying beside a road side wall near the Haacht Street, in the intersection with Lambermont Boulevard, in Schaerbeek, by a patrol of the Police, Zone 5344, from Schaerbeek-Saint-Josse Evere, led by Inspector Aarab Nabil. She was wearing a blindfold and her both hands were tied behind her back.
6. After trying in vain to meet with the Inspector Aarab Nabil, who had intervened on the spot where Claudine was laying on Monday, October 26, 2009, Mr. Mberabahizi went to the Police office, Zone 5344, near the Schaerbeek station for information about the circumstances in which his wife was found.
7. Inspector Philip Swinnen who received him said that Mrs. Mazimpaka had been found at 10:30 pm at Schaerbeek station, Haecht Street, near the bridge with Lambermont Boulevard. He confirmed that Mrs. Mazimpaka was tied up and bandaged.
8. According to the inspector, Mrs. Mazimpaka could not have voluntarily gotten there. Mr. Mberabahizi requested a copy of the minutes prepared by the team that had intervened but the inspector refused to release it.
9. The police at no time attempted to contact Mr. Mberabahizi, from the moment his wife was found by the patrol of Inspector Nabil Aarab until today. Yet Mrs. Mazimpaka was clearly identified through a transport card from the Public Transport Company of Brussels (STIB) found in her belongings. Moreover, this was not the first time she was assaulted. And these facts were well known by the police.
10. Indeed, on August 8, 2009, between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm, three men, black hooded and speaking Kinyarwanda, one of whom posing as the landlord, managed to break into their apartment. They knocked Claudine down, severely beat her, tied her with electric cables, gagged her with towels and attached her by the ankles, before searching the apartment, stealing any documents relating to Rwanda. They unsuccessfully tried to open the computer and steal the hard drive. She finally managed to drag herself to the door threshold where a neighbor found her nearly unconscious. The neighbor cut the electric cables and freed her before alerting the police.
11. Since February 2009, the couple has not stopped receiving text messages seeking to blackmail Mr. Mberabahizi but also containing death threats against him, his wife and their children. In April 2009, the stroller of their son has been burned with cigarettes. The perpetrators of this heinous act subsequently claimed it by anonymous letter. Several emails were also sent to Mr. Mberabahizi. Some of these messages which tend to smear his reputation have been sent to his contacts. Some of these messages addressed to FDU-INKINGI have been posted on their site, via a contact forum aimed at maintaining exchanges with the public.
12. On June 27, 2009, realizing that such a campaign of harassment and intimidation did not stop Mr. Mberabahizi complained to the police. He was heard by Inspector Patrick Spiessens from Laeken Police, Zone 5339. He then asked the police to launch investigations aimed at identifying the authors of such anonymous text messages. Four months later and despite such a heinous aggression which his wife Claudine Mazimpaka had been subjected to, the police had done nothing for almost more than a month.
13. After several unsuccessful phone calls to the Inspector Patrick Spiessens, on October 21, 2009, Mr. Mberabahizi went to Laeken police to ascertain the progress of his complaint. The police officer who received him told him that his request had been forwarded to the Public Prosecutor and that he should go to the courthouse. However, the police officer did not specify which service Mr. Mberabahizi should report to.
14. On October 22, 2009, just two days before the latest attack on Saturday, Mr. Mberabahizi visited the Public Prosecutor’s office located in Building Portalis, 4 rue des Quatre Bras. The police officer who received him told him that his wife’s case was still open and that he had to wait. Mr. Mberabahizi insisted by requesting updates about the investigation progress given the fact that the threats against him and his family had continued and had even been implemented since his wife had been assaulted in August and that the assailants had claimed this crime by anonymous text messages boasting to be assured of a complete impunity. In response, the police officer told him that he has to renew his complaint and wait or write a letter to the Public Prosecutor.
15. On October 22, 2009, Mr. Mberabahizi wrote a letter to the Public Prosecutor, to request updates on investigation about the identity of the authors of such anonymous threats. One should also keep in mind that all threatening text messages received by Mr Mberabahizi were from Belgian cell phone numbers as they all had the Belgian country code +32. To date, Mr. Mberabahizi did not receive any information from the prosecution concerning his letter.
16. On October 27, 2009 at 7:00 pm, together with her sister and one of his sister’s friends, Mr. Mberabahizi brought his two children to visit their mother and help her recover the memory. Mrs. Claudine Mazimpaka did not recognized her children. She said that her assailants forced her to drink water containing alcohol. She pointed her fingers to an almost empty plastic bottle which contained mineral water. Having consumed that water, she had intermittently vomited that afternoon while complaining of burning stomach aches.
17. Shocked by that information and knowing that his assailants were still at large and could enter her hospital room any time, they examined the bottle, which according to them, smelled of disinfectants. They then alerted the nurse on duty and Dr. Snacken who confirmed the suspicious smell. Dr. Snacken promised to refer to the internist care giver who also confirmed this problem.
18. Mr. Mberabahizi decided to call the police right away. After several refusals under various pretexts, the police finally send a patrol. The suspected bottle was seized and sent to relevant departments for analysis. On Mberabahizi’s request of whether a guard could be mounted in front of his room, the Inspector Blaise who headed the patrol told him that the police could not do it and that he had to hire a private security guard by himself.
19. Therefore, one should conclude from the foregoing that the stalkers of Mr. Mberabahizi and his family are still at large and continue to operate undisturbed. They seem to enjoy a virtual impunity as they have already boasted to do so in their anonymous text messages.
20. The campaign of harassment and vilification and all attacks that Mrs. Mberabahizi has been subjected to began after the decision of FDU-INKINGI to participate in the 2010 presidential elections in Rwanda.
The FDU-INKINGI protest against these old criminal practices, which in light of the evidence in our possession, aim at silencing Mr. Mberabahizi, a political opponent to the Rwandan regime led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). They condemn in the strongest terms, all these intimidation attempts, which are not bode well as we approach the presidential elections in August 2010 to which the FDU-INKINGI decided to participate.
The FDU-INKINGI regret that attacks on Rwandan exiles and especially opponents to the current regime in Kigali are openly committed in democratic countries that are deemed to be respectful of human rights in a complete indifference of the public opinion and fail to lead to concrete measures aimed at protecting individuals who sought refuge on their territory.
Mrs. Mazimpaka’s case clearly illustrates the unwillingness of the Belgian police to identify and arrest the perpetrators of the anonymous threats that are now implemented against Mberabahizi’s family, threats for which authors have the insolence to boast in their anonymous text messages that they are assured of impunity. Indeed, since the beginning of the harassment against the Mberabahizi’s family, the Belgian police have been informed but no concrete steps were taken to protect this family and especially put out of harm these criminals who seek to silence political opponents by a campaign of intimidation and brutality, memories of a bygone era in a democratic Belgium.
These acts are not without reminding us of the revelations made by the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Yves Leterme, that a foreign leader had asked him for help to arrest and even kill his/her opponents.
The FDU-INKINGI firmly ask the Belgian authorities, administrative, police and judiciary to do their utmost to ensure that investigations are thoroughly conducted to identify and prosecute without delay the perpetrators and sponsors of these criminal acts unworthy of a democratic state and that the protection of all persons admitted in Belgium be guaranteed.
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