Thursday, 24 June 2010
Kigali: Police said Thursday that “between 20 and 30” people have been arrested over “unlawful assembly” but dismissed opposition claims that PS Imberakuri politician Bernard Ntaganda has gone missing, RNA reports.
Police spokesman Superintendent Eric Kayiranga told RNA this afternoon that those in custody were “summoned for questioning”. RNA had reported in the morning that several dozen people were bundled into police vans outside the US embassy as they prepared a demonstration.
It has emerged that those arrested were opposition sympathizers of yet-to-be registered Green Party, FDU-Inkingi and PS Imberakuri - who had converged at the US embassy to ask America for support. The three groups accused the electoral commission of being partisan.
The police said the assembly was illegal. “We had information that some people were planning an unlawful gathering,” said Kayiranga.
Among those picked up were Green Party leader Frank Habineza and his deputy Andre Kagwa Rwisereka. Their ID cards and phones were taken but returned as they were released about an hour later.
The opposition coalition claimed in a statement that Bernard Ntaganda, organiser of the protest, was “violently grabbed from his home by unidentified, armed, plain-clothed officers” early in the morning. The coalition says he being “held incommunicado in a police cell”.
The Police spokesman revealed to RNA that Bernard Ntaganda had been arrested on charges not related to the others.
“Ntaganda was summoned for questioning on charges of forming groups aimed at propagating words which promote ethnicity and the attempted assassination of Mukabonane Christine,” said Kayiranga.
In May, RNA ran an exclusive report detailing allegations from several people linking Ntaganda to the failed arson attack on Mukabone, who heads a splinter faction of the PS Imberakuri party. Ntaganda dismissed the allegations, accusing RNA of working for the ruling RPF party to tarnish his image.
The story alleged that the young man Uwizeye Theophile, who tried to set ablaze the house of Mukabone on May 15, was Ntaganda’s bodyguard. Police cleared another politician, Pasteur Noel Hakizimfura, and Uwizeye is in jail awaiting the start of his trail.
The Police rejected on Thursday allegations that Ntaganda had been taken into custody to stop the planned demonstration.
“It is just a coincidence,” said spokesman Kayiranga.
Meanwhile, presidential hopeful Ms. Victoire Ingabire, who is out on bail over several charges, reportedly woke up today to find that her house in Kinyinya had been surrounded by armed policemen. Writing on Twitter, Ingabire claimed she was prevented from leaving the residence by the officers, whose numbers are unknown.
The Ntaganda faction of PS Imberakuri wrote to Gasabo district on June 17 seeking permission to demonstrate on Thursday. The letter specified that the demonstrations were to start from the Prime Minister’s Office in Kimiruhura, continue to the Parliament and then end at the Ministry of Local Government in Kacyiru, where a public message was to be read, according to organiser.
It is not clear if the opposition groups had intended to disrupt the ongoing submission of candidacies at the National Electoral Commission, which is located a few metres from the Prime Minister's Office.
Incidentally, ruling party flag-bearer President Kagame filed his documents with the commission the same morning.
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