By Jérôme Nayigiziki
Secretary General
PDR-Uhumure
jnayigizik@aol.com
Washington, DC - USA
April 21, 2010
The Party for Democracy in Rwanda (PDR-Ihumure) is profoundly outraged by the news of incarceration of Ms. Victoire Ingabire by the RPF government in Kigali on charges of the so-called “genocide ideology”, “divisionism”, “genocide denial”, and “collaboration with a terrorist organization”. Ms. Ingabire is the chair of UDF-Inkingi political party and its standard bearer in the upcoming presidential elections in Rwanda in August 2010.
The RPF regime, which in 16 years of power has become past master in stifling opposition, lately has pushed its intolerance of dissent to a new level by “excreting” unwanted generals in the army and incarcerating anyone else holding a different point of view as the presidential elections draw closer. Rwandan refugees in many African countries are being threatened with forcible repatriation. Déogratias Mushayidi, a political opposition leader, was two months ago abducted from a neighboring country, shackled and jailed like a dog on bogus charges without a trial. Ms. Ingabire, who last month was barred from traveling out of Rwanda, is now jailed without a trial. Up next are Bernard Ntaganda of the PS-Imberakuri party, and Frank Habineza of the Green party, both of whom are also gearing up for a run in the presidential elections this summer. This way, the jail-happy RPF regime has ruthlessly cleared the way for President Kagame to run unopposed by keeping with its infamous tradition of using extra-judicial arrests and incarcerations to prolong its grip on power.
But in the realm of political folly, today’s arrest of Ms. Victoire Ingabire ranks in a class of its own. It gives a whole new meaning to arrogance of power and utter contempt of western principles of democracy and the rule of law, coming as it did without due legal process and on a day when the Governor General of Canada - a woman no less - is visiting Rwanda. It is the height of chutzpah for President Kagame to orchestrate such an unlawful arrest thereby lacking even a modicum of respect for the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, all of which self-importance is a result of years of adulation by western powers as the “man who stopped the Rwandan genocide”. It is deeply ironic and troubling that the RPF regime has used a terrorist process to accuse Ms. Ingabire of supposed terrorist connections as a way to bring her down. But more troubling is the stunning silence of chanceries in Kigali who are nowhere to be heard as Rwanda drifts away into a spiral of dictatorial repression.
The PDR-Ihumure deeply condemns the on-going state-sponsored terrorism against innocent civilians, and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all people detained illegally, including Déogratias Mushayidi and Victoire Ingabire. The PDR-Ihumure wants to alert the international community that the conditions of yet another cataclysmic tragedy in Rwanda are gradually falling into place, and the time to act and prevent it from happening is now, not tomorrow.
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