By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer, Max Delany, Correspondent
The Christian Science Monitor
April 22, 2010
Johannesburg; and Kampala, Uganda
In the latest sign of rising tensions ahead of presidential elections in August, Rwandan authorities have arrested a leading opposition politician on charges of denying the 1994 genocide, spreading genocide ideology, and collaborating with a brutal Rwandan rebel army based in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Victoire Ingabire, head of the yet-to-be-registered United Democratic Forces and a former accountant who belongs to the ethnic Hutu majority, returned to Rwanda in January to register her party and launch a vigorous campaign against President Paul Kagame for August 2010 elections.
Since her return, Ingabire has been repeatedly questioned by police until eventually being arrested and charged in the capital, Kigali, Wednesday. On Thursday, she was released on bail on the condition that she report regularly to the authorities and not leave the country, according to Protais Mutembe, her lawyer.
The arrest of Ms. Ingabire comes just days after the arrest of top Rwandan Army generals on corruption charges, and weeks after a senior Rwandan diplomat fled to South Africa for safety, claiming that Mr. Kagame’s strong-armed rule had limited “the political space” in Rwanda.
"The prosecution's case against Ms Ingabire is based on facts and evidence," said Rwanda’s chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga. “The actions that led to these charges against Ms. Ingabire are extremely serious and cannot go unpunished.”
Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in a 100-day orgy of violence organized by ethnic Hutu extremists, politics and one’s view of history are often still colored by ethnic divides.
Some Rwandans see the Kagame regime as a dictatorship in which criticism is punished as a crime. But officials have argued that tight control has led to stability and economic growth in a country still scarred by horror – and Kagame supporters see opposition leaders like Ingabire as whipping up ethnic hatred, and returning the country to civil war.
“The Kagame regime maintains a siege mentality, which is the justification to beat up one’s opposition as genocidaires,” says Richard Cornwell, an independent political analyst based in Pretoria. By linking Ingabire to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the armed militia linked to the 1994 genocide, Kagame builds himself up as a savior and tears down his opponent as a criminal. “The Rwandans play for keeps,” Mr. Cornwell says. “You get your revenge in first.”
Ingabire: persecuted for challenging ruling elite
Ingabire adamantly denies official accusations against her. In a recent interview, she said instead that she was being persecuted for challenging the ruling elite.
To hear her side of the story, she is simply trying to open up the political dialogue to those whose views differ from those of Kagame, not just among Ingabire’s own Hutu majority but also among Tutsis as well. She is one of only a handful of genuine opposition figures, and given limitations on free expression, it is almost impossible to judge the opposition’s popularity, analysts say.
"We have to talk about us Hutus, us Tutsis, and to see how in the future we will not have the same problem," Ingabire said in a recent interview in her Kigali home. "I would like to resolve this cycle of violence in the country."
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