Letter to the Rwandan Minister of Internal Security with regard to the ongoing vague of Rwandan refugees fleeing Rwanda to Burundi

By Pascal Kalinganire
General Coordinator
Organization for Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR), Inc.
5830 West Thunderbird Rd, Ste B8-PMB207
Glendale, AZ 85306
Phone: (603) 361-6473 & (602) 284-2294
http://www.opjdr.org/

October 1, 2009

His Excellency Sheikh Mussa Fazil HARERIMANA
Minister of Internal Security
P.O Box 446 Kigali
RWANDA

Excellency,

I am writing on behalf of the Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in
Rwanda and Great lakes Region (OPJDR), Inc. based in the United States, to express our concern about the Human Rights abuses in Rwanda especially for the current killings of one part of population by the Rwandan National Police (RNP) and Rwandan Local Defense Forces (LDF).

According to witnesses and the news at Radio France International (RFI) on 10/01/2009 of 12:30 -01:00, more than three hundreds Rwandan Hutus fled Rwanda to Burundi, mostly in Kirundo province. These refugees state that are fleeing the political violence in Rwanda where during nights, some of their family members are being arrested, executed and the bodies thrown in the Akanyaru River located between Rwanda and Burundi. This information confirms the
Burundian Local Radio, which recently, stated about the bodies recuperated by Burundian police from Akanyaru River. Also, during only these last two months of
August and September, OPJDR counted more than 20 families who fled Rwanda to
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Europe, all of them are fleeing the same threat of political violence in Rwanda. Most of these people were residents of the former provinces of
Butare, Gikongoro and Ruhengeri.

Among these threats, OPJDR received several complaints from the people who have no where to live because their houses were confiscated by high ranking officers or other influent members of the governing party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), after their relatives were wrongly accused in Gacaca tribunals for their participation in genocide and incarcerated.

Excellency Minister, OPJDR requests you to use your power to restore Human rights in
Rwanda, to stop killings of the population who don’t share same political views with the presidential party RPF, to investigate on the above cited killings, and prosecute all people who are responsible of all these human abuses and killings.

Sincerely,

Pascal Kalinganire
Coordinator General
OPJDR

CC:
Excellency Hillary R. Clinton
Secretary of State
US State Department
Washington, DC 20520

Honorable Jane Holl Lute
Deputy Secretary of US Department of Homeland Security
Nebraska Avenue Complex
Washington, DC 20528

Honorable James B. Steinberg
Deputy Secretary of US Department of States
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Excellency Mr. Kenneth Roth
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700, Fax: 1-(212) 736-130

Honorable Irene Khan
Secretary General
Amnesty International
1 Easton Street
London, United Kingdom
WC1X0DW, UK

Note:
OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and Cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

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