Rwandan police arrest dozens of opposition protesters

By Hereward Holland
Reuters
Thu Jun 24, 2010

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan police arrested dozens of opposition protesters on Thursday, as President Paul Kagame presented his papers for re-election to the National Election Commission.

Kagame is widely expected to secure a second seven-year term in the August 9 ballot. He has held de facto power since 1994 when his guerrilla force took power after ending massacres of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu authorities.

Opposition leader and presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire, who is facing trial on charges of genocide denial and belonging to a terrorist organisation, said members of her United Democratic Forces party, which mainly represents Hutus, had been detained during a peaceful protest in Kigali.

"I think more than 100 were arrested," she told Reuters by telephone.

Police spokesman Eric Kayiranga said 20-30 people had been arrested across the capital for causing disorder and that another presidential hopeful, Bernard Ntaganda, was taken in for questioning on Thursday morning.

Ingabire's party and the Democratic Green Party have called for presidential elections planned for August 9 to be postponed to allow them to meet technical requirements to register. The two are the only parties that have not been able to register.

A Reuters witness saw several Ingabire supporters arrested at the Justice Ministry as they unfurled party banners.

"They have to accept the registration of all political parties and that we can participate in the election," Ingabire said.

Ntaganda leads a faction of the opposition Social Party Imberakuri. In December last year he denied senate charges of peddling ethnic "divisionism" and genocide ideology.

"(Ntaganda) has not been charged yet, we will continue working on it. We are still collecting evidence," Kayiranga said by telephone.

Kagame has won praise for economic reforms and completely rebuilding state institutions since 1994 but international rights groups and the United States, a major donor and military ally, have expressed growing concerns about democratic freedoms ahead of the ballot.

"We've made very good progress, but there's a long way to go. There's still a lot to go ahead of us to be where we want to be," Rwanda News Agency quoted Kagame as saying after handing in his papers to the electoral body.