Louise Mushikiwabo and Martin Ngoga fail to answer questions at a conference in Washington, DC

On July 20, 2010 the Atlantic Council hosted a conference with Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Hon. Louise Mushikiwabo, and the nation's Prosecutor General, Mr. Martin Ngoga.

As expected, the event titled "Democracy and Genocide Denial Politics in Rwanda" was an RPF propaganda meeting. The Time for questions was limited and very selective. Only one question was allowed per person.

Indeed, the Atlantic Council is a Pentagon offshoot. Its members include senior military officers and former national security agents. Its former Chairman General James Jones is now National Security Adviser to President Barack Obama.

As a friendly reminder, the Pentagon and the US National Security bodies strongly support Paul Kagame since 1990. Many human rights experts of the African Great Lakes Region view Paul Kagame as a Pentagon friendly tyrant just like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.

Below, please find a list of questions to which Hon. Louise Mushikiwabo and Mr. Martin Ngoga were unable to provide answers. 
 
Handouts of the questions were largely distributed to the audience.
 
Stay tunned.
 
The fight goes on.

FROM THE RWANDAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

Questions for Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs

In the aftermaths of the Rwandan genocide committed against the Tutsis the UN Security Council in its resolution #955 of November 1995 stated that both warring sides which were fighting for power in Rwanda i.e. the Habyarimana’s regime and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of Paul Kagame shared some responsibilities in the killings that took place in Rwanda. These killings have been divided into three categories, including: crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace.

When Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza arrived in Rwanda after 16 years in exile, she recalled such a UN resolution to remind the Rwandan people that anyone who is responsible for any crime committed in Rwanda must face justice and that all victims deserve the right of memory for their loved ones who perished. Mrs. Ingabire also stressed that this is a necessary step for the sake of a genuine national reconciliation in Rwanda.

1) Honorable Minister, as a high ranking Rwandan official, do you see Rwanda’s problems this way?

2) Which divisionism or genocide ideology do you see in such statements?

In Rwanda there was indeed genocide against the Tutsis. It was committed by extremist Hutus.

3) How can you explain to this audience that in Rwanda there are no ethnic groups?

Among the solutions that Mrs. Ingabire is proposing to solve Rwandan problems is that the Rwandan people should be free to speak clearly about their current problems so that they can achieve a genuine reconciliation and find tangible solutions to their problems specifically by installing strong institutions where every Rwandan feels represented and protected.

4) Honorable Minister, do you see things this way?

On June 24, 2010, when members of the opposition who were peacefully demonstrating were arrested by the Rwandan police, these people were beaten and tortured by the police along with heinous utterances such as: “You Hutus, you are all fed up with too much blood but now we’re going to beat you so that you may throw up that blood. The “hutus” like Ingabire and Ntaganda that you all are following will never get to power as long as we will live in Rwanda”.

When Rwandan officials say things like these it is obvious that there is no reconciliation in Rwanda. It also is obvious that there are still ethnic tensions in Rwanda, especially when it comes to power sharing.

5) Honorable Minister, why do you deny such things while you knowingly know that there is clearly a problem in Rwanda?

When Mrs Ingabire brings up these problems which are shared with all Rwandans you label her as divisionist.

6) Honorable Minister, between Mrs Ingabire who is pointing out these problems and asking for tangible solutions and the police that are torturing people with such heinous utterances, who do you think is harboring divisionism or genocide ideology?

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FROM THE RWANDAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

Questions for Martin Ngoga, Rwandan Prosecutor General


1) Since February 2010 you’ve been saying that you have irrefutable evidence showing that Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza collaborates with the FDLR armed group. Why have you failed to try her in court so far?

2) Recently, as political parties were registering their candidates, you said that such evidence against Ingabire was not available because it was to come from abroad. What kind of evidence are you waiting for especially that some of the evidence in question has reportedly been requested from the USA, when everybody knows that Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza never lived in the USA?

3) If the RPF government's intent is not to prevent registering the UDF-Inkingi political party that Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza chairs and to keep her from running in the upcoming presidential elections, why would it take 5 months before trying her in court?

4) When you interrogated Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza about her collaboration with the FDLR you used the 2009 UN report where it says that she had a meeting with the FDLR. But when one looks at the website of the NGO that convened such a meeting i.e. VeritasRwanda he/she can clearly see that the meeting was also attended by some RPF delegates. It is also clear that the conclusions of the meeting were all about problems facing Rwanda and their possible solutions. Why is it a crime for Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza to attend the same meeting as your RPF delegates? Do you by any chance also accuse your RPF delegates of the same crimes?

5) With regard to those military officers you arrested in Burundi in September 2009 for allegedly working for Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, why didn’t you indict them immediately if it was true that they were suspected of preparing attacks against Rwanda when you know that the Rwandan law says that anybody who is arrested and provisionally jailed should be indicted within 72 hours.

6) When you started charging Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza of collaboratiion with the FDLR, there were newspapers that a few days before had spread news that there were people that had been paid by RPF to say that they were FDLR members and that they work with Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and indeed it exactly happened that way. How can we trust your justice system where people are trained to serve as false witnesses against other people?

7) On the 24th of June, 2010 opposition party members held a peaceful demonstration in Kigali, which they had called "demonstration for democracy". They were arrested by the police and were tortured. As a result, Mrs Alice Muhirwa, UDF-Inkingi treasurer, collapsed in front of the judge after spending five days unsuccessfully asking to see a doctor.

The day Mrs Alice Muhirwa collapsed in court the same police that had beaten her took her to a police hospital were they fabricated a medical report saying that she was not ill despite the fact that their doctors gave her some medical prescriptions for her beating condition.

It is obvious that these doctors wouldn’t have given Mrs Alice Muhirwa such medical prescriptions if she was not ill.

Your police officers tortured these political prisoners despite the fact that in 2008 Rwanda signed a treaty banning torture of detained prisoners. What do you intend to do with regard to those police officers who tortured political prisoners?
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Related Materials:
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