Historical Background On April 6, 1994, on return from a regional peace summit in Dar es Salaam, the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down. Extremist members of Habyarimana’s Hutu ruling party immediately blamed the assassination on a Tutsi-led paramilitary organization, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). A clique of extremist Hutu leaders from the military high command seized power and used the pretext of that blame to implement a systematic plan of annihilation throughout Rwanda. In the capital city of Kigali, the killing of political opposition leaders – both Tutsis and moderate Hutus – began moments after the crash, on the basis of preestablished lists with instructions on how to find the victims. By noon the following day, the moderate political leadership of Rwanda was dead or in hiding. The violence quickly spread from Kigali to the countryside, with thousands of Tutsi civilians being murdered in one village after another. The gravity of the crisis was clear within days. As the death toll mounted, many were quick to use Lemkin’s word – “genocide” – in describing the violence. On April 19, US-based Human Rights Watch and other organizations approached the UN Security Council with reports from the field and made it clear that these acts constituted “genocide.” The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights followed with a similar pronouncement on April 21. On April 23, a New York Times editorial began: “What looks very much like genocide has been taking place in Rwanda.” On April 27, Pope John Paul used his weekly general audience to “invite all leaders…to stop this genocide” in Rwanda. On that same day, the Czechs and Argentines introduced a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that included the term. Oxfam, clergy and missionaries on the ground in Rwanda, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Committee of the Red Cross were providing reliable and corroborating evidence of the ethnic targeting of Tutsi that validated “genocide” as the appropriate description. In the months before the genocide began, cables to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations from UN peacekeepers on the ground in Rwanda had warned of impending mass ethnic killings and the urgent need for reinforcements. UN Secretary-General Boutros BoutrosGhali, in a response called “positively anemic…timid, indecisive, and deceitful” by one scholar, failed to inform the Security Council of these reports and ordered the peacekeepers to remain “impartial.” It would not be until the genocide was in its second month – with the greatest rate of murder having already occurred in the first four weeks – that Boutros-Ghali would begin using the word in reference to what was happening in Rwanda. On May 4, on ABC’s Nightline, he finally used the word “genocide” in a public forum. In subsequent reports to the Security Council – the UN “enforcer” and the only principal organ whose resolutions are binding on member states – Boutros-Ghali, trying to affect a public persona of leadership, repeatedly stressed the need for responding to Rwanda. On May 31, he reported to the Security Council that “there can be little doubt that it [Rwanda] constitutes genocide.” Again, on June 20, he delivered a perfunctory statement expressing “the need for an urgent and coordinated response by the international community to the genocide which has engulfed that country.”
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Responses from the UN Security Council – which has the authority to resolve international disputes through negotiation, sanctions, and even the use of force – were markedly equivocal. Through April and May 1994, a series of UN Security Council resolutions strongly condemned “the very numerous killings of civilians” and recalled “that the killing of members of an ethnic group with the intention of destroying such a group, in whole or in part, constitutes a crime punishable under international law.” Despite its transparent reference in the phrase “a crime punishable under international law,” the word “genocide” appeared in none of the resolutions from the Security Council; each of which concluded with the ironically passive statement that the Security Council decided “to remain actively seized of the matter.” There was a clear recognition that naming the “matter” would carry with it an obligation – if not legal, at least moral – to confront the crime, and members of the Security Council were not prepared to take that step. The center of Hutu extremism, Kigali, finally fell to the RPF on July 4, 1994. By July 19, the RPF was nearly in complete control of Rwanda and a unilateral ceasefire was declared. The genocide had ended. All told, at least 800,000 people were killed in just a hundred days in the spring and early summer of 1994 in Rwanda. Of these, the vast majority belonged to the Tutsi minority (indeed, it is almost impossible to find a Tutsi family who did not lose a member to the genocide), but more than 50,000 Hutus identified with opposition parties also were slaughtered. Charles Mironko estimates that “97% of child survivors…witnessed killing and death during the genocide,” often the murder of their own parents and/or family members. Rwanda stands as the most rapid, efficient, and intensive genocide in recorded history. Nearly three months later, on October 1, 1994, an impartial Commission of Experts, established at the request of the UN Security Council, concluded “Acts of genocide against the Tutsi group were perpetrated by Hutu elements in a concerted, planned, systematic and methodical way. These acts of mass extermination against the Tutsi group as such constitute genocide within the meaning of article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” Their report, finally using the word “genocide,” marked the first – and only – time, since the passage of the Genocide Convention in 1948, the United Nations had officially identified an instance of genocide.
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A Summary of Some Risk Factors for Genocide in Rwanda, Using the OSAPG Framework of Analysis “The eight categories of factors are not ranked, and the absence of information relating to one or more categories does not necessarily indicate the absence of a risk of genocide. It is the cumulative effect of the factors that is significant in triggering the concern of the Special Adviser in any particular situation. Where these factors are effectively addressed, no longer exist or are no longer relevant, the risk of genocide is assumed to decrease.” — p. 2, Office of the Special Adviser of the Secretary-‐General on the Prevention of Genocide, Analysis Framework, A Guide for States Risk Factor Category 1: Inter-‐group relations, including record of discrimination and/or other human rights violations committed against a group • Relations between and among groups in terms of tensions, power and economic relations, including perceptions about the targeted group; • Existing and past conflicts over land, power, security and expressions of group identity, such as language, religion and culture; • Past and present patterns of discrimination against members of any group which could include: o Serious discriminatory practices, for instance, the compulsory identification of members of a particular group, imposition of taxes/fines, permission required for social activities such as marriage, compulsory birthcontrol, the systematic exclusion of groups from positions of power, employment in State institutions and/or key professions; o Significant disparities in socio-‐economic indicators showing a pattern of deliberate exclusion from economic resources and social and political life. • Overt justification for such discriminatory practices; • History of genocide or related serious and massive human rights violations against a particular group; denial by the perpetrators; • References to past human rights violations committed against a possible perpetrator group as a justification for genocidal acts against the targeted group in the future.
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In terms of ethnic makeup, the Rwandan population is 85% Hutu, 15% Tutsi, and less than 1% Twa. Hutu and Tutsi speak the same language (Kinyarwanda), practice the same religion, and have intermarried for thousands of years, but historically have practiced different occupations, with Hutus working the land (considered “lower-‐class”) and Tutsis herding livestock (considered “upper-‐class”). [Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, Alison Des Forges, 1999]
First signs of preferential treatment appear in 1860 with the ascendance of a Tutsi king
(Kigeri Rwabugeri) and the creation of a hierarchical administration favoring Tutsi. Under German (1894–1916) and then Belgian (1916–62) colonial rule, the Tutsi were considered racially superior. [“Deep Cleavages That Divide”: The Origins and Development of Ethnic Violence in Rwanda, Deborah Mayersen, 2012] The Belgians systematically removed Hutu from positions of power, excluded them from higher education needed for a career in state administration, and introduced registration, with identity cards issued to indicate the individual’s “ethnicity” [Des Forges]. The years 1959 to 1961 saw ongoing incidents of intergroup violence, culminating in Hutu Uprising against the Tutsi elite (20,000 Tutsi killed; 300,000 forced into exile in Uganda). Tutsis react by killing and arresting prominent Hutu leaders. Monarchy is ended, as well as Belgian colonial rule, and a First Republic established with Hutu president Grégoire Kayibanda. Rwanda becomes a Hutu-‐dominated one-‐party state. Burundi also gains independence, with similar Hutu-‐Tutsi tensions. [The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide, Gérard Prunier, 1995] Ethnic violence continues to recur: In 1963 Bugesera invasion, Tutsi refugees, coordinated by the Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR), enter Rwanda from Burundi and march on capital. Defense of Kigali turned into massacres of Tutsi nationwide, with 10,000 to 14,000 killed [Mayersen]. Hutu militants begin to use term inyenzi (“cockroaches”) to describe Tutsi rebels who infiltrate from outside. In Burundi in 1972, Tutsi-‐controlled army launches mass killings of Hutu that amount to genocide according to a UN-‐established International Commission of Inquiry. Army general Juvénal Habyarimana (also Hutu) overthrows President Kayibanda in 1973, and two years later creates Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour la Développment as Rwanda’s only legal political party. Not only favors Hutu in Rwanda, but supports them against Tutsi in Burundi. Page | 4
In 1990 civil war breaks out between Habyarimana’s regime and Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi rebel group based in Uganda. Assassination of Habyarimana in April 1994 sparks genocide, with the Hutu majority slaughtering some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus. UN fails to stop killing. Genocide ended by armed forces of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). After the 1994 genocide, Paul Kagame, commander of the RPF, became president of the country. Under his leadership, Rwanda went on to involvement in the First Congo War (1996– 97) and the Second Congo War (1998–2003), pursuing Hutu forces that had crossed the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo after the genocide. In October 2010, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released the “Report on most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law between 1993 and 2003 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” also known as the DRC Mapping Report. The UN’s Navi Pillay emphasized that the report was “first and foremost” about the DRC, but the 550-‐page report included evidence that the Rwandan army, in its pursuit of Hutu militia and refugees after the 1994 genocide, killed tens of thousands of Hutu, including children and women, in a campaign that the Mapping Report said may have constituted genocide. Rwanda in its official comments on the report dismissed not only in its conclusions but its methodology as well: “Rwanda categorically states that the Draft Mapping Report is unacceptable.” Risk Factor Category 2: Circumstances that affect the capacity to prevent genocide Structures that exist to protect the population and deter genocide include effective legislative protection; independent judiciary and effective national human rights institutions; presence of international actors such as UN operations capable of protecting vulnerable groups; neutral security forces and independent media
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR47/003/2010/en/26e9e4e0-‐37b1-‐4e09-‐9191-‐ 96eb5ac72fa4/afr470032010en.html
DOCUMENT - RWANDA: END HUMAN RIGHTS CLAMPDOWN BEFORE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS Page | 5
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI Index: AFR 47/003/2010 Date: 24 April 2010
Rwanda: End human rights clampdown before presidential elections NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE UNTIL 04.00 GMT 24 APRIL 2010 Amnesty International strongly condemns the diminishing space for freedom of expression in Rwanda as the country prepares for presidential elections in August 2010. As part of a continued clampdown on human rights, Rwandan immigration today rejected a work visa re-application by the Rwanda-based researcher for the international human rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW). The de-facto expulsion of an international human rights worker from Rwanda is another indication of the worsening human rights situation in the country in the run-up to the elections. This latest incident is part of a pattern of repression, as the space for any kind of independent reporting and debate in Rwanda diminishes fast. International human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have recently been attacked in public speeches by senior government officials. The pro-government press has recently published several articles and opinion pieces attempting to discredit their work. Recent months have seen a number of government measures against critics and opponents of the government including restrictions on freedom of expression and association. Amnesty International urges the Rwandan Government to respect freedom of expression and association, including by allowing space for human rights work. On 21 April, presidential aspirant, Victoire Ingabire, President of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), a party seeking registration in Rwanda, was arrested, charged with “genocide ideology and minimising the genocide, divisionism and collaboration with a “terrorist” group”, and released the following day while proceedings continue. In the trial against Ingabire, the prosecution would need to prove that what Ingabire said constitutes advocacy of hatred to demonstrate that she is not being punished for political dissent. They would also need to show that Ingabire herself committed a recognisable criminal act. Last week, the High Media Council (HMC) suspended two Kinyarwanda newspapers until after the elections. The two newspapers, Umuseso and Umuvigizi, were suspended for six months. The HMC alleged that Umuseso had insulted the President and caused trouble in the army that could lead to insubordination. Amnesty International strongly condemned harassment and intimidation of opposition groups, including the Green Party and the Ideal Social Party, in February 2010. Past Rwandan elections have been marred by intimidation and
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the ability of members of the political opposition to carry out their activities in accordance with their human rights has been restricted. Background Immigration authorities first cancelled the work visa of Human Rights Watch’s Rwanda-based researcher, Carina Tertsakian, on 10 March. The authorities alleged discrepancies in her documents, relating to signatures of her employer which they claimed were inconsistent. They also cited an error in the date on the contract mistakenly dated October 2010, rather than 2009. Rwanda’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) summoned Carina Tertsakian twice in March to respond to allegations of using false documents. She submitted a second visa application on 16 March with additional letters from the Human Rights Watch headquarters notarised to certify their authenticity. Today the Immigration Authorities informed Carina Tertsakian that they were not satisfied with the explanations Human Rights Watch had submitted. They refused to provide a response in writing and reminded Tertsakian that as a British national she has 90 days to stay in the country. The 90 day period expires tomorrow. The latest developments coincide with the deadline for all international NGOs based in Rwanda, including Human Rights Watch, to apply for renewal of their registration certificate. The original 31 March deadline was extended to 30 April. The Rwandan Government has a history of clamping down on human rights work in advance of elections. In September 2008, the late Alison Des Forges, Human Rights Watch’s Senior Advisor, was barred from entering Rwanda shortly before the Rwandan legislative elections. She was again refused entry in December 2008. ENDS/
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-‐world/2012/rwanda
Rwanda: Freedom in the World 2012 Despite hopes for an improvement in conditions following August 2010 presidential elections, the Rwandan Patriotic Front maintained strict controls on civic and political life in 2011. The prosecution of journalists and opposition politicians continued during the year, with harsh sentences delivered in several cases.
Belgian colonial rule in Rwanda, which began after World War I, exacerbated and magnified tensions between the minority Tutsi ethnic group and the majority Hutu. A Hutu rebellion beginning in 1959 overthrew the Tutsi
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monarchy, and independence from Belgium followed in 1962. Hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were killed or fled the country in recurring violence over the subsequent decades. In 1990, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a guerrilla war from Uganda to force the Hutu regime, led by President Juvénal Habyarimana, to accept power sharing and the return of Tutsi refugees. Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down near Kigali in April 1994. Hutu extremists immediately pursued the complete elimination of the Tutsi. During the genocide, which lasted approximately three and a half months, as many as a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed. By July, however, the RPF had succeeded in taking control of Kigali and establishing an interim government of national unity. The Hutu-dominated army and militia, along with as many as two million Hutu refugees, fled into neighboring countries, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These forces were able to retrain and rearm in the midst of international relief efforts to assist the refugees. The RPF responded by attacking refugee camps in the DRC in 1996. A 2010 UN report provided strong evidence of war crimes committed by RPF forces in incursions in the DRC from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2003. Nearly three million refugees returned to Rwanda between 1996 and 1998 and were reintegrated into society. Security improved considerably after 1997, although isolated killings and disappearances continued. The RPF-led government closely directed the country’s political life. In 2000, President Pasteur Bizimungu, a moderate Hutu installed by the RPF, resigned and was replaced by Vice President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi. Rwanda’s extended postgenocide political transition officially ended in 2003 with a new constitution and national elections. The RPF’s preeminent position—combined with a short campaign period, the RPF’s ability to suppress opposition, and a pliant political culture traumatized by the effects of the genocide—ensured victory for Kagame in the presidential vote and for the RPF and its allies in subsequent parliamentary elections. The largest opposition party, the Hutu-based Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), was declared illegal by the authorities before the elections for allegedly promoting ethnic hatred, as was a new party created by Bizimungu in 2001. A series of four parliamentary commissions between 2003 and 2008 investigated allegations of “genocide ideology” and “divisionism” in domestic and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), opposition political parties, the media, and schools. These commissions equated criticism of the RPF-led government with denial of the genocide, and made accusations against numerous individuals and organizations without recourse to due process, driving a number of government critics into exile and pushing some NGOs and political parties to curtail their activities. The RPF-led coalition handily won the 2008 parliamentary elections, taking 42 out of 53 elected seats in the lower house. Monitoring by a European Union observer team indicated that the actual RPF share of the vote was higher than reported, suggesting a manipulation of results to make the elections appear more democratic. In advance of the August 2010 presidential election, the government prevented new political parties from registering and arrested the leaders of several parties, effectively preventing them from fielding candidates. The most credible
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opposition candidate, Victoire Ingabire, the leader of the United Democratic Forces–Inkingi (FDU-Inkingi), was arrested and released in April on charges of denying the genocide and collaborating with a terrorist group. The Social Party–Imberakuri (PS-Imberakuri) was allowed to register, but its presidential candidate, Bernard Ntaganda, was also arrested in June. André Kagwa Rwisereka, the vice president of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, was assassinated in July. With no serious challengers on the ballot, Kagame won reelection with 93 percent of the vote. Ingabire was arrested again in October 2010, accused of engaging in terrorist activities. In February 2011, Ntaganda of PS-Imberakuri was sentenced to four years in prison for breaching state security and “divisionism” based on his 2010 election campaign speeches, as well as planning unauthorized demonstrations. Three members of FDU-Inkingi were also given heavy fines in February for supporting “divisionism” by conspiring to participate in unauthorized demonstrations in June 2010. Ingabire’s trial, which began in September 2011, continued at year’s end. A limited number of special genocide courts continued to operate in 2011, trying those accused of more serious crimes that fell outside the jurisdiction of community-based gacaca courts. The gacaca courts themselves moved to complete their work, as a revision of the gacaca law charged them with trying cases of rape and other serious crimes previously reserved for the special genocide courts. By the end of 2011, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had arrested 83 individuals and completed cases against 70, with trials of 5 individuals ongoing, and only 1 detainee awaiting trial. Meanwhile, RPF officials facing charges leveled by a Spanish judge for war crimes allegedly committed during the genocide were expelled from or denied entry to a number of countries in 2011.
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES: Rwanda is not an electoral democracy. International observers noted that the 2010 presidential and 2008 parliamentary elections, while administratively acceptable, presented Rwandans with only a limited degree of political choice. The 2003 constitution grants broad powers to the president, who can serve up to two seven-year terms and has the authority to appoint the prime minister and dissolve the bicameral Parliament. The 26-seat upper house, the Senate, consists of 12 members elected by regional councils, 8 appointed by the president, 4 chosen by a forum of political parties, and 2 representatives of universities, all serving eight-year terms. The Chamber of Deputies, or lower house, includes 53 directly elected members, 24 women chosen by local councils, 2 from the National Youth Council, and 1 from the Federation of Associations of the Disabled; all serve five-year terms. The constitution officially permits political parties to exist, but only under strict controls. The charter’s emphasis on “national unity” effectively limits political pluralism. The RPF dominates the political arena, and parties closely identified with the 1994 genocide are banned, as are parties based on ethnicity or religion. These restrictions have been used to ban other political parties that might pose a challenge to RPF rule. The constitutionally mandated Political Party Forum vets proposed policies and draft legislation before they are introduced in Parliament. All parties must belong to the forum, which operates on the principle of consensus, though in practice the RPF guides its
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deliberations. Parliament generally lacks independence, merely endorsing government initiatives. However, parliamentary committees have begun to question ministers and other executive branch officers more energetically, and some of these deliberations are reported in the local press. Government countermeasures have helped limit corruption, though graft remains a problem. A number of senior government officials in recent years have been fired and faced prosecution for alleged corruption, embezzlement, and abuse of power, including the director of the National Institute of Statistics and permanent secretaries in the Ministries of Infrastructure and Education. Government institutions focused on combating corruption include the Office of the Ombudsman, the auditor general, and the National Tender Board. Rwanda was ranked 49 out of 183 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index. The RPF has imposed numerous legal restrictions and informal controls on the media, and press freedom groups have accused the government of intimidating independent journalists. Prior to the 2010 elections, the government banned numerous newspapers, journals, and radio stations, many of which did not reopen in 2011. In February 2011, Umurabyo newspaper journalists Agnès Uwimana Nkusi and Saïdati Mukakibibi were sentenced to 17 and 7 years, respectively, for denying the genocide, inciting civil disobedience, and defaming public officials based on an article published in 2009 criticizing President Paul Kagame. In August, the bimonthly Ishema temporarily suspended publication after receiving threats for printing an opinion piece that referred to Kagame as a “sociopath.” Fidèle Gakire, Ishema’s publisher, along with the board of the newspaper jointly decided to cease publication for a month.Ishema also printed a special edition apologizing to the president, and Gakire apologized to Rwanda’s High Media Council, which had ruled that the opinion piece was libelous. Nevertheless, Gakire remained the target of multiple threats, and the Forum of Private Newspapers, a council created to ensure that publications self-regulate, suspended his membership for six months. On November 30, Charles Ingabire, editor of the Uganda-based online publication Inyenyeri News and an outspoken critic of the Kagame regime who had fled Rwanda in 2007 due to threats, was shot dead in Uganda. There were reports that the government blocked three critical websites in 2011, and that it monitored e-mail and internet chat rooms. Religious freedom is generally respected, though relations between religious leaders and the government are sometimes tense, in part because of the involvement of clergy in the 1994 genocide. In July, a court in Rwamagana sentenced priest Emile Nsengiyumva to a year and a half in prison for threatening state security because of a sermon he gave criticizing a government housing program and family planning policies. Fear among teachers and students of being labeled “divisionist” restrains academic freedom. Following the 2004 and 2008 parliamentary commission reports on “divisionism,” numerous students and teachers have been expelled or dismissed without due process. A 2010 Amnesty International report indicated that the 2008 law against “genocide ideology” continued to stifle academic freedom. The crackdown ahead of the 2010 presidential election that severely stifled general free discussion—with the Department of Military Intelligence closely monitoring the population—did not ease in 2011. Although the constitution codifies freedoms of association and assembly, in reality these rights are limited. Some NGOs have complained that registration and reporting procedures are excessively onerous, and activities that the
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government defines as “divisive” are prohibited. Several organizations have been banned in recent years, leading others to refrain from criticizing the RPF. In August 2011, leaders of the League for Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region, one of the remaining independent human rights groups in Rwanda, were detained and prevented from traveling. However, most civil society organizations that are not focused on sensitive subjects, such as democracy and human rights, function without direct government interference. The constitution provides for the rights to form trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and strike. Public workers are not allowed to unionize, however, and the list of “essential services” in which strikes are not allowed is excessively long. The International Trade Union Confederation reported that although a new 2009 labor code improved workers’ rights, the government continues to pressure unions in subtle and indirect ways. In January and May 2011, respectively, trade unionists were dismissed from the textile factories UTEXRWA and ECOBANKRwanda, with no government response. Recent improvements in the judicial system include an increased presence of defense lawyers at trials, improved training for court staff, and revisions to the legal code, but the judiciary has yet to secure full independence from the executive. The gacaca courts faced criticism from legal experts not only because of their failure to address genocideera crimes allegedly committed by the RPF, but also because they routinely tried politically motivated cases. Individual police officers sometimes use excessive force, and local officials periodically ignore due process protections. The construction of new prisons during the past decade has improved prison conditions, even as gacaca trials have once again increased the prison population. Equal treatment for all citizens under the law is guaranteed, and legal protections against discrimination have increased in recent years. A national identity card is required when Rwandans wish to move within the country, but these are issued regularly, and no longer indicate ethnicity. The 2003 constitution requires women to occupy at least 30 percent of the seats in each chamber of Parliament, and women filled 10 of the 26 Senate seats following the 2011 elections. Legislation has strengthened women’s rights to inherit land. Despite these improvements, de facto discrimination against women continues. Domestic violence is illegal, but remains widespread.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-‐net/2012/rwanda
Rwanda: Freedom on the Net 2012 Despite the generally open online atmosphere, an incident in the months leading up to the last presidential election in August 2010 raised concerns that the authorities may be willing and able to restrict online content. In April 2010, Rwanda’s two main independent newspapers, Umuseso and Umuvugizi, both published in Kinyarwanda, were given six-month suspensions as a consequence for defaming the president and other offenses.[28] The suspension was widely perceived as an effort to suppress critical
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coverage in the run-up to the election. Umuvugizi’s editor, who fled Rwanda into exile, launched an online version of the paper in late April 2010, but in early June the Media High Council ordered the website to be blocked, arguing that the ban on the newspaper applied to the online version as well.[29] Appealing such a ban was possible based on provisions of the Media Law, although in this instance, the publications chose not to appeal. Umuvugizi was unblocked after the six-month suspension period had expired, though it reportedly experienced periodic filtering throughout the 2011 and was blocked again for three days in June 2011 prior to a court case that sentenced the website’s exiled editor-in-chief to two and a half years in prison (see “Violations of User Rights”).[30] The government-operated High Media Council has established an online monitoring department to screen web content, and the Council has been known to contact websites to request the removal of certain information.[31] In addition to the blocking of Umuvugizi, two other online news websites, Umusingi and Umurabyo, have experienced government requests to delete content related to local political affairs and ethnic relations. There have also been instances reported of opposition sites being blocked.[32] As a result of these controls, online journalists based in Rwanda are joining their print and broadcast colleagues and exercising self-censorship, particularly on topics that can be construed as disruptive to national unity and reconciliation. Many fear the further increase of government control over online media with the proposed amendments to the 2009 Media Law currently in review as of early 2012, which if passed, may provide a legal basis for the blocking of unfavorable websites.[33]
[. . .] While there are no laws that specifically restrict internet content or criminalize online expression, Rwanda’s generally restrictive legal provisions governing traditional media could be applied to the internet, particularly given the lack of a fully independent judiciary. For example, the decision to ban the online version of Umuvugizi was based on charges of publishing “divisive language,”[46] a category of expression that is criminalized by the 2001 Law on Discrimination and Sectarianism.[47] Similarly, penalties for criminal defamation in print and broadcast media may be applicable to the internet, though these penalties have sparked complaints from media workers, prompting discussions about amendments.[48] As of early 2012, the penalties have not yet been agreed upon or amended; nevertheless, parliament has already reduced the length of the penalty for defamation, and it is expected that sooner or later defamation will be de-penalized altogether.[49] Although many traditional journalists view the threat of imprisonment as a key constraint on their work, such punishment has been less common for online expression. One instance of imprisonment is known, that of Idesbald Byabuze, a Congolese journalist and professor based in Rwanda who was arrested in February 2007 and held in detention for one month while awaiting trial on charges of “segregation, sectarianism, and threatening national security” for several articles he had written. These included a June
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2005 piece about human rights concerns in Rwanda that was published on an overseas website. The charges were dropped after his release, but he was quickly deported from the country.[50] Since 2007, there have been no other reported cases of imprisonment for online expression, possibly because most activities by opposition forces are carried out in foreign countries. Nevertheless, intimidation tactics are becoming more common. In one case, the editor of Umuvugizi, Jean-Bosco Gasasira, who fled Rwanda in 2010 to operate the online version of the paper from abroad, was sentenced in June 2011 to two and a half years in prison in his absence.[51] Government monitoring of online communications does not appear to be widespread; however, there have been several instances in recent years of emails, phone calls, and text messages being produced as evidence in trials. This was the case during the trial of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire in which emails and proof of money transfer to FDLR (French acronym for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) rebels were used as evidence.[52] These were mostly obtained via low-tech methods of confiscating suspects’ mobile phones and computers rather than via service providers. There are no restrictions on anonymous communication online in Rwanda. In May 2011, however, RURA announced plans to implement SIM card registration to curb mobile phone crimes and increase security over mobile phone commerce. Under the registration scheme, subscribers will be required to provide the details on their identifications cards, which will be stored by the operator. As of May 2012, the SIM card registration process had only just begun.[53] In a case that signaled the possibility of violence against print journalists creeping into the online sphere, in June 2010, Jean-Leonard Rugambage, an editor for Umuvugizi—the above-mentioned newspaper which was banned in April 2010 but continued to publish online—was assassinated in front of his home in Kigali. Rugambage was the last of the publication’s journalists to remain in Rwanda and was reportedly preparing to join colleagues in exile due to threats and intimidation.[54] In November 2010, two individuals were convicted of the killing, claiming that it was a reprisal for acts of violence Rugambage allegedly committed during the 1994 genocide. However, fellow journalists expressed skepticism over the handling of the case, believing the murder was punishment for critical reporting on the government.[55] Another grave instance of violence involved the killing of Charles Ingabire, an online editor and journalist based in Uganda, who was mysteriously shot dead in Kampala in December 2011. The website for which he wrote, Inyenyerinews.org, is known for publishing critical news of current Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his government. Prior to his murder in September 2011, Ingabire was beaten by unknown perpetrators and had his computer and phones stolen. Media watchdogs have blamed the killing on the Rwandan government, which has denied responsibility for the incident.[56]
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There have been no reported cases of serious cyberattacks in the country,[57] though the Rwandan police has recently noted an increasing trend in cybercrime.[58] RURA has initiated a strategy to increase awareness of such threats among business owners and ordinary users.[59]
Risk Factor Category 3: Presence of illegal arms and armed elements • Whether there exists a capacity to perpetrate genocide -‐ especially, but not exclusively, by killing; • How armed groups are formed, who arms them and what links they have to state authorities, if any; • In cases of armed rebellions or uprising, whether a state has justified targeting groups from which armed actors have drawn their membership.
Risk Factor Category 4: Motivation of leading actors in the state/region; acts which serve to encourage divisions between national, racial, ethnic, religious groups • Underlying political, economic, military or other motivation to target a group and to separate it from the rest of the population; • The use of exclusionary ideology and the construction of identities in terms of “us” and “them” to accentuate differences; • Depiction of a targeted group as dangerous, disloyal, a security or economic threat or as unworthy or inferior as group; • Propaganda campaigns and fabrications about the targeted group used to justify acts against a targeted group by use of dominant, controlled media or “mirror politics”; • Any relevant role, whether active or passive, of actors outside the country (e.g., other Governments, armed groups based in neighboring countries, refugee groups or diasporas) and respective political or economic motivations.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-‐national.php?ID=260
Greens in the US protest attempts by the government of Rwanda to suppress the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Monday, November 2, 2009 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
[email protected] Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
[email protected]
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Statement from party founder Frank Habineza; government officials use obstructions, security forces use violence to prevent Rwandan Greens from meeting; breaking news posted at http://www.gp.org/campaigns/international/rwanda/index.php The Fall 2009 issue of Green Pages, the Green Party's national publication, is now online:http://gp.org/greenpages-blog WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States today expressed solidarity with the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR, http://rwandagreendemocrats.org) and condemned attempts by Rwandan government security forces to sabotage the party and prevent it from holding its historic first national congress. On October 30, over 600 members and supporters of the new party came from all over Rwanda to Kigali, the capital, to present their notarized signatures for the DGPR's registration dossier with the Ministry of Local Government. They were driven away by police, while a meeting that was underway was violently attacked by unidentified men who called out their support for the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front, while he was throwing a chair into the crowd. Police interrupted and canceled the meeting and arrested DGPR members who tried to restrain the disruptors instead of the disruptors themselves. According to DGPR founder Frank Habineza, the attacks were no accident: “We have established the man who started the shouting and threw chairs (on October 30th) is an ex-soldier in the Rwandan army and a former employee of Military Intelligence." For more information on the incident, see "Police halts Green Party congress 'due to insecurity'", Rwanda News Agency, October 30, 2009, (http://www.gp.org/campaigns/international/rwanda/Rwanda-News-Agency.pdf) and "Arrests and broken bones at 1st Rwandan Green Party Congress" by Annie Garrison, Green Change, October 30 (http://network.greenchange.org/news/10878-arrests-and-broken-bones-at-1st-rwandan-green-party-congress). The Green Party of the United States has set up a web page featuring breaking news from Rwanda (http://www.gp.org/campaigns/international/rwanda/index.php). On October 2, more than 900 members and supporters had traveled to a similar meeting in Kigali, only to be told by the Nyarugenge District Mayor that even though the Greens had secured a location and a notary, it had to resubmit its request for permission to hold the meeting. The party has met with similar official obstructions ever since it was launched on August 14, 2009, at a press conference in Kigali with an audience that included representatives from the Embassies of the US, Sweden, and the Netherlands, as well as the BBC, SABC, Newvison-Uganda, Africa Press Agency, and Umuseso Newspaper (http://www.rwandagreendemocrats.org/spip.php?article23). "We protest all violence and obstruction aimed at peacefully organizing political parties throughout the world. We especially deplore actions taken to prevent our fellow Green Parties in other nations from participating in the political process. The Rwandans who've been blocked, intimidated, and injured by provocateurs are heroes in the struggle for democracy," said Steve Herrick, co-chair of the International Committee of the Green Party of the United States. US Green Party leaders have encouraged Americans outraged by the political repression and violence to complain to the Rwanda Embassy in Washington, DC (Contact Pagehttp://www.rwandaembassy.org/contact.html). "Although far more brutal, the hostile actions undertaken by Rwandan officials, police, and security forces against Greens mirror the efforts taken by many Democrats and Republicans in office in the US to keep keep Greens and other parties' candidates off the ballot. In Pennsylvania, Green candidates face the threat of personal financial ruin for trying to run. In many states, biased ballot access rules privilege major party candidates and bar all others. As Americans and as Greens, we demand democracy -- in Rwanda, in the US, and everywhere," said Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry of the Black Caucus of the Green Party of the United States. Ms. Curry is helping to prepare an international summit on the situation in Rwanda. Unedited statement by Frank Habineza, founder of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and one of the three African Greens representatives on the 12-member Global Green Coordination (http://www.globalgreens.org/ggc/ggc_homepage): Its indeed been a terrible day, the man who started the shouting and threw chairs, we have established that he is an
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Ex-Soldier and a former employee of Military Intelligence, the other three people who joined him, one of them had something like a gun-pistol, it was also seen by the US Envoy and Netherlands Envoy and many others. This was a well planned sabotage done by security operatives. Another guy was also from the Local Defense Forces. The police was not helpful at all. It looked like they were compromising us. What is surprising though is that the police has released the guys who caused trouble and rather arrested our members one of them a mother. Thankfully our members have been released but made statements at the police. They were asked why they decided to be members of our party. Several people are injured, one Lady is in intensive care. Her Back is having a problem. Am still finding out how many are injured. Keep us in prayers, Frank Habineza MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus Petition to the Rwandan Government to Register the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda The Green Party of Canada, October 7, 2009 http://www.greenparty.ca/blogs/103/2009-10-10/rwandan-green-party-struggles-receives-help-global-greens "A Sad Day for Democracy - Government interferes with establishment of Green Party in Rwanda" By Mike Feinstein, Green Pages, Fall 2009 http://gp.org/greenpages-blog/?p=1913 ~ END ~
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-‐and-‐updates/news/intimidation-‐rwandan-‐opposition-‐ parties-‐must-‐end-‐20100218 18 February 2010
Intimidation of Rwandan opposition parties must end Amnesty International has strongly condemned a worrying attack on a Rwandan opposition group as the country prepares for presidential elections in August 2010. In a letter to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Amnesty International urged him to use the elections as an opportunity to show the government's commitment to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. "Past elections have been marred by intimidation, however this year's vote gives Rwanda the chance to promote rights not repression," said Amnesty International's Africa Programme Deputy Director Tawanda Hondora.
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The letter was prompted by a recent attack on two members of United Democratic Forces (Forces Démocratiques Unifiées, FDU-Inkingi) and harassment of the President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (Parti Démocratique Vert du Rwanda, DGPR). "Amnesty International is concerned that these recent incidents are part of a wider pattern of intimidation and harassment to discourage and discredit opposition groups," said Tawanda Hondora. On 3 February, Victoire Ingabire, president of the FDU-Inkingi, and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi were attacked in the capital Kigali while collecting documents needed for the party's registration from a government building. During the attack Victoire Ingabire's passport was stolen and Ntawangundi was severely beaten. Amnesty International has welcomed the police enquiry into the incident. However, Police Spokesman Eric Kayiranga confirmed, as of 15 February, that no charges were pressed and some of those arrested had been released. "Opening an investigation is a good first step," said Tawanda Hondora, "but an effective investigation must be prompt, impartial and bring those responsible for the attack to justice." Three days after the incident, the New Times alleged that Ntawangundi had been convicted of genocide in absentia in 2007 by a gacaca court – a community tribunal set up to try genocide cases. He was arrested the same day, 6 February, on charges of involvement in the 1994 genocide, which left as many as 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu dead. A law criminalizing "genocidal ideology," whose terms are vague and ambiguous, was promulgated on 1 October 2008, unduly stifling freedom of expression. The offence is punishable by 10 to 25 years’ imprisonment. Victoire Ingabire, has regularly been denounced in media close to the government as being "negationist" of the genocide or "divisionist" for public remarks made since her return from exile in January 2010 calling for the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Hutu by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The leader of the Ideal Social Party (PS-Imberakuri, PSI), Bernard Ntaganda, was also called before the Rwandan Senate to answer accusations of genocide ideology in late 2009. "Rwanda has an obligation to prohibit speech that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" said Tawanda Hondora, "but Rwanda's laws on genocide ideology too often conflate legitimate political dissent with such incitement." Frank Habineza, the President of the Green Party, has also reported being threatened by a man he suspects to be a security agent on 4 February in a hotel in Kigali, the capital. Habineza reported the incident to the police on 5 February and is awaiting further information on the status of investigations.
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Amnesty International has called on the Rwandan government to investigate the intimidation of opposition groups, bring those responsible to justice and take immediate steps to respect the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly of opposition parties.
http://www.amnesty.org/fr/node/18270
Communiqués de presse 5 août 2010
Rwanda: Pre-election attacks on politicians and journalists condemned Amnesty International condemns attacks on politicians and journalists in the run up to the presidential election on August 9 and calls on the government to ensure the poll is held in an atmosphere where Rwandans can freely express their views. The murder of a journalist and an opposition politician – both critical of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) - in late June and mid-July has created a climate of repression likely to inhibit freedom of expression ahead of the vote, the organisation said. “In recent months killings, arrests and the closure of newspapers and broadcasters has reinforced a climate of fear,” said Amnesty International’s Africa Programme Deputy Director, Tawanda Hondora. “The Rwandan government must ensure that investigations into the killings are thorough and reinstate closed media outlets.” On 14 July, André Kagwa Rwisereka, the vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, was found dead in Butare, southern Rwanda. Amnesty International has obtained photographs that show that his head was severed from his body. Rwisereka, who left the RPF to create the Green Party, had reportedly been concerned for his security in the weeks before his murder. Other Green Party members said they had also received threats . Investigations into Rwisereka’s death continue, but insufficient evidence has been gathered to press charges, according to the Prosecution. None of the main opposition parties are able to stand in Monday’s elections. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and FDU-Inkingi have been obstructed from holding the meetings required to register their parties. The only new opposition party to secure registration – PS-Imberakuri – was unable to stand after the party’s leader, Bernard Ntaganda, was arrested on June 24. Ntaganda was charged with “genocide ideology” and “divisionism” under vague laws, ostensibly used to restrict hate speech, but often used to silence legitimate dissent. Opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, has still not been brought to trial on charges of “genocide ideology”, “minimising the genocide”, “divisionism” and “collaborating with a terrorist group” following her arrest in April. In May, the Prosecution said that investigations may take up to a year, ruling out a trial before the elections.
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“Until an independent enquiry into Rwisereka’s murder reveals the true circumstances surrounding his death, Rwandans will fear that it was linked to his opposition activities,” said Tawanda Hondora. “They may be reluctant to express themselves as a result.” Jean-Leonard Rugambage, a journalist working for the Umuvugizi newspaper, was shot dead on June 24 outside his home in the capital, Kigali. Rugambage had been investigating the shooting in South Africa of the exiled former general, Kayumba Nyamwasa. On the day of his murder, Umuvugizi published a story alleging that Rwandan intelligence officials were linked to Nyamwasa’s shooting. Two suspects have been arrested for Rugambage’s murder and are currently awaiting trial. Rwandan media critical of the government has effectively been dismantled in the run-up to elections. In late July, the Rwandan High Media Council, a regulatory body close to the ruling party, banned some 30 media outlets arguing they failed to adhere to a 2009 media law. The law restricts media freedom. Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, the editor of the Umurabyo newspaper, was arrested in July and charged with “genocide ideology”. Two other newspaper editors fled Rwanda in recent months after their papers were suspended and they received repeated threats. The United Nations, the European Union, the United States, France and Spain have already publicly expressed concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Rwanda ahead of the election. Amnesty International calls on other countries to also express their concerns. “No country should be a silent witness to pre-electoral repression”, said Tawanda Hondora. “Speaking out about violations is the best way to ensure that the next Rwandan administration respects human rights.”
Index AI : PRE01/273/2010
In 2010 Amnesty International “strongly condemned a worrying attack on a Rwandan opposition group” in the lead-‐up to presidential elections, citing the case of Victoire Ingasbire, president of the FDU-‐Inkingi (United Democratic Forces) and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi, attacked in February 2010 while collecting party registration documents from a government building in Kigali. The sole new opposition party to secure registration, PS-‐Imberakuri, had its presidential candidate Bernard Ntaganda arrested on June 24, charged with “genocide ideology” and “divisionism.” Rwandan Green Party president Frank Habineza also reported threats. In October 2009 a Rwandan Green Party meeting was violently broken up by police, Page | 19
with authorities preventing registration of the party or allowing it to run a candidate in the presidential election. Only weeks before the election, on 14 July 2009, André Kagwa Rwisereka, vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, was found dead, with his head severed almost entirely, in Butare, southern Rwanda. Public scrutiny of government policies and practices has been curtailed. In June 2009 Jean-‐Leonard Rugambage, a journalist for the Umuvugizi newspaper, was shot dead outside his home in Kagali. Umuvugizi at the time was supporting a critical investigation into the attempted murder of former Rwandan general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, in exile in South Africa. In July 2009 Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, editor of Umurabyo newspaper, was charged with “genocide ideology.” Risk Factor Category 5: Circumstances that facilitate perpetration of genocide (dynamic factors) Any development of events, whether gradual or sudden, that suggest a trajectory towards the perpetration of genocidal violence, or the existence of a longer term plan or policy to commit genocide. Examples: • Sudden or gradual strengthening of the military or security apparatus; creation of or increased support to militia groups (e.g., sudden increases in arms flow) in the absence of discernible legitimate threats; • Attempts to reduce or eradicate diversity within the security apparatus; • Preparation of local population to use them to perpetrate acts; • Introduction of legislation derogating the rights of a targeted group; • Imposition of emergency or extraordinary security laws and facilities that erode civil rights and liberties; • Sudden increase in inflammatory rhetoric or hate propaganda, especially by leaders, that sets a tone of impunity even if it does not amount to incitement to genocidal violence in itself; • Permissive environment created by ongoing armed conflict that could facilitate access to weapons and commission of genocide.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/20/rwanda-‐allow-‐independent-‐autopsy-‐opposition-‐ politician
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Rwanda: Allow Independent Autopsy of Opposition Politician Foreign Experts Should Investigate Circumstances of Murder JULY 21, 2010
This is the second killing of an outspoken critic of the Rwandan government in less than a month. An independent autopsy and inquiry are necessary to determine what happened to Rwisereka. Kenneth Roth, executive director
(New York) - The government of Rwanda should allow independent foreign experts to carry out an autopsy on the body of André Kagwa Rwisereka, vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, Human Rights Watch said today. Rwisereka was last seen late in the evening of July 12, 2010. His body was found near the southern town of Butare on July 14. His head had been severed, and witnesses described unusual marks on several parts of his body. "This is the second killing of an outspoken critic of the Rwandan government in less than a month," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "An independent autopsy and inquiry are necessary to determine what happened to Rwisereka." Events leading up to Rwisereka's death indicate that the murder may have been politically motivated. He had long told close friends and colleagues that he feared being killed as a result of his opposition to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the country's ruling party. In recent weeks, Rwisereka had seemed increasingly concerned about his safety. In late June, the former Green Party secretary general, Charles Kabanda, visited Rwisereka at the Sombrero Club, the bar run by Rwisereka in Butare, and tried to convince him to leave the Green Party. Rwisereka had told people close to him that Kabanda, who left the Green Party earlier in the year, had told him that the RPF would never allow Rwisereka to leave the "family" - referring to the RPF - and questioned what would happen to members of the Green Party. Rwisereka told people close to him that he interpreted this as a threat.
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Rwisereka, like Kabanda and many other Green Party members, was formerly a member of the RPF. In previous months, other members of the Green Party had come under pressure to abandon their party activities by individuals believed to be close to the RPF or the government. The police initially stated to the media that Rwisereka had been the victim of a robbery, and that people who had seen him on the night he disappeared claimed that he was carrying a large sum of money. However, further investigations by Human Rights Watch and others revealed that he had left some money with a relative on the evening of July 12, but had been carrying little money and no valuables at the time of his death. The police subsequently changed their explanation, alleging a financial dispute between Rwisereka and Thomas Ntivuguruzwa, the last person to see Rwisereka before his disappearance. Ntivuguruzwa, whom the police are treating as the prime suspect, has been arrested and remains in custody. "The conflicting police statements and discrepancies between the police version and those provided by sources close to the victim are creating doubt and confusion about the circumstances of Rwisereka's death," Roth said. "A thorough independent investigation would confirm or dispel these different explanations." The Circumstances Surrounding Rwisereka's Death Human Rights Watch has established that on July 12, Rwisereka arrived at the Sombrero Club at around 10 p.m. and shared drinks and food with Ntivuguruzwa, a regular customer there. At around 1 a.m., Rwisereka left the bar and drove off in the direction of his house. Ntivuguruzwa retired to the hotel room he had reserved at the Sombrero Club and was not seen to leave the hotel until the following morning at around 9 a.m. Police spokesman Eric Kayiranga told Human Rights Watch that Rwisereka never arrived home. The following morning, an individual living in the area saw Rwisereka's car, which was approximately three kilometers from the Sombrero Club, and called the police. The police told Human Rights Watch that the windshield was broken but that they did not believe that it was the result of a traffic accident. Rwisereka's identity papers and keys were inside the car. Kayiranga said that the police conducted a cursory search of the area but did not expect to find Rwisereka near the site. Family and friends also searched the area for several hours, over a distance of nearly two kilometers, without finding any sign of Rwisereka.
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On July 14, police were alerted to a body that had been found by local farmers and confirmed that it was Rwisekera. His head had been severed almost entirely and his face showed signs of beatings. The police said his left arm was injured and his left leg broken. Others who saw the body reported to Human Rights Watch that it was covered with dozens of marks. In statements to the media, the police spokesman rejected claims by the Green Party that Rwisereka's body showed signs of torture. A large butcher's knife was found at the scene, according to police. Human Rights Watch's investigation revealed that Rwisereka's body was actually found only one kilometer away from his car, not three kilometers as the police spokesman had said. The police told Human Rights Watch that there was a lot of blood at the scene. However, when Human Rights Watch visited the scene the day after the body was found, there was little blood there. The blood was located in a single spot which roughly matched the size of Rwisereka's head, and the body was on a steep slope, suggesting that Rwisereka may have been killed elsewhere. The police also told Human Rights Watch that Ntivuguruzwa had given a false identity and had not revealed his name on the hotel register. However, Human Rights Watch has seen the hotel register and confirmed that Ntivuguruzwa provided his full name and identity card number. André Kagwa Rwisereka and the Green Party Rwisereka was a longstanding member of the RPF, the former rebel movement that carried out attacks in Rwanda from Uganda from 1990, overthrew the government that planned the genocide, and ended the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. In July 1994, the RPF formed a government that still rules Rwanda. Rwisereka had worked closely with high-ranking RPF officials in raising funds for the movement while in exile in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but did not occupy an official position in the party or in the government formed by the RPF after the genocide. Over time, Rwisereka became disillusioned with the RPF. In 2009, he left the party to create the Democratic Green Party - a new opposition party - with other former RPF members. The Green Party has suffered numerous difficulties and has been unable to obtain authorization from the police or local authorities to hold its meetings. In October 2009, one of its meetings was violently broken up by police. Repeated obstacles by district officials have since prevented it from registering as a political party or competing in the presidential elections scheduled for August 9. Several of its members, including
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its president, Frank Habineza, have been threatened and urged to abandon their political activities. Earlier this year, three prominent members, including Kabanda, defected from the party and denounced its policies in what many observers believe was an RPF-backed attempt to destabilize the Green Party. While Habineza is usually the Green Party's public spokesperson, Rwisereka had also spoken out on several occasions. In an interview with the BBC in October 2009, he said: "It is time for people to act to bring about changes, as the RPF is incapable of having an internal revolution. So it has to accept that others come to its aid. A party that does not renew itself, from the point of view of its ideas, ends up falling. All the parties you have known which have worked with dictatorship, where are they now? " Other Recent Attacks and Intimidation of Government Critics Several other critics of the government have been targeted in recent weeks. On June 24, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, a journalist with the independent newspaper Umuvugizi, was shot dead outside his home in Kigali, the capital. His murder may have been linked to his newspaper's critical stance and the sensitive investigations he was conducting in the days leading up to his death, including on the attempted murder of former general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa. The police have arrested two suspects, who have allegedly confessed to planning to kill Rugambage, in revenge for a killing they claim he committed during the genocide. Umuvugizi, along with the other main independent newspaper Umuseso, was suspended for six monthsby the Media High Council in April 2010, effectively preventing it from covering events in the election period. The leader of the PS-Imberakuri opposition party, Bernard Ntaganda, was arrested on June 24 and remains in detention. He is facing several charges, including endangering national security and inciting ethnic divisions. Several other members of his party, and the FDU-Inkingi, another opposition party, were arrested on June 25. They were released a few days later, but the case against them is pending. Like the Green Party, the PS-Imberakuri and the FDU-Inkingi have been prevented from offering candidates in the forthcoming presidential elections. The FDU-Inkingi has been unable to register as a party due to obstacles similar to those encountered by the Green Party. Its leader, Victoire Ingabire, has been formally accused of collaboration with armed groups, genocide ideology and "divisionism." The PSImberakuri registered as a party, but was then taken over by dissident members who set up a parallel
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structure and appointed their own president to replace Ntaganda. Neither this new president nor Ntaganda are candidates in the presidential elections. On June 19, a former Rwandan general, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, was the target of an attempted murder in South Africa. Once a close ally of President Paul Kagame and a former chief-of-staff of the Rwandan army, Kayumba fled to South Africa in February. In exile, he became an outspoken critic of the Rwandan government and of Kagame. Senior Rwandan officials, including the president, have in turn criticized him publicly. The Rwandan government has requested his extradition from South Africa, accusing him of being behind a spate of grenade attacks in Kigali earlier this year. The South African police have arrested several suspects in connection with the attempted murder of Kayumba. Correction This July 21, 2010 news release originally incorrectly stated that Andre Kagwa Rwisereka had left some money with a relative on the evening of July 14. The correct date is July 12, 2010.
Risk Factor Category 6: Genocidal acts/Acts that could be elements of genocide • Acts that could be obvious “elements” of the crime of genocide as defined in Article 6 of the Rome Statute, such as killings, abduction and disappearances, torture, rape and sexual violence; ‘ethnic cleansing’ or pogroms; • Less obvious methods of destruction, such as the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival and which are available to the rest of the population, such as clean water, food and medical services; • Creation of circumstances that could lead to a slow death, such as lack of proper housing, clothing and hygiene or excessive work or physical exertion;
• Programs intended to prevent procreation, including involuntary sterilization, forced abortion, prohibition of marriage and long-‐term separation of men and women; • Forcible transfer of children, imposed by direct force or through fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion; • Death threats or ill treatment that causes disfigurement or injury; forced or coerced use of drugs or other treatment that damages health.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2010/10/2010101132151710397.html
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Rwanda rejects DRC genocide report UN documents gruesome attacks by Rwandan and Ugandan troops against tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus in the 1990s. Last Modified: 01 Oct 2010 23:41 GMT
Rwanda has categorically rejected a UN report which concluded that crimes carried out by its armed forces against Hutu refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be crimes of genocide. The report , released on Friday, documents 617 of the most gruesome attacks by Rwandan and Ugandan troops against tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus during the 1990s. "Many of the attacks were directed against civilians consisting primarily of women and children", the report says. The government of Rwanda categorically rejected the report, accusing the UN of seeking to promote the theory of "double genocide". "The desire to validate the double genocide theory is consistently present throughout The Draft Mapping Report by mirror imaging the actors, ideology, and methods employed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide," the statement from Rwanda said. The accusations of genocide hit Kigali particularly hard as its government has largely based its legitimacy on being the force that stopped the Rwanda genocide in 1994. 'Allegations toned down' The UN has reportedly toned down the document after Rwanda and Uganda angrily protested a draft version that was leaked to the press in late August. However, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that "the substance [of the report] remains the same". The UN report is the product of a "mapping exercise" that took more than two years to research and produce.
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More than 1,200 individual witnesses were interviewed to corroborate or invalidate alleged violations, including previously unrecorded incidents, and more than 1,500 documents were collected and analysed. "The period covered by this report is probably one of the most tragic chapters in the recent history of the DRC," the report says. "Indeed, this decade was marked by a string of major political crises, wars and multiple ethnic and regional conflicts that brought about the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people." The report notes the involvement of at least 21 armed Congolese groups in human rights violations, as well as operations by the military forces of other states inside DRC, among them also Burundi, Angola and Zimbabwe. While the exercise was not about establishing individual criminal responsibility, the report does, however, identify armed groups involved in specific incidents. Violence against children The report devotes particular attention to an inventory of violence against women and children amid a climate of near-total impunity, which continues today. "Violence in the DRC was, in fact, accompanied by the apparent systematic use of rape and sexual assault allegedly committed by all combatant forces," it says. Declaring that children in the DRC "have suffered far too much," the report cites estimates that at least 30,000 children were recruited or used by the armed forces or groups during the conflict. Moreover, the report notes that children have been subjected to "indescribable violence," including murder, rape, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, forced displacement, destruction of their villages and deprivation of their rights. Violations of human rights linked to the exploitation of the DRC's natural resources by both domestic and international actors are also listed. In her foreword to the report, Pillay stated that "no report can adequately describe the horrors experienced by the civilian population" in the DRC (formerly Zaire), "where almost every single individual has an experience to narrate of suffering and loss."
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Commenting on Friday, Pillay noted that the leak in late August of the draft had led "to intense focus on one aspect of it" – namely the raising of the possibility that the armed forces of Rwanda and their local allies may have committed acts which could constitute crimes of genocide. "The report stresses that this question can only be addressed by a competent court," she said.
Risk Factor Category 7: Evidence of “intent to destroy in whole or in part . . .” • Statements amounting to hate speech by those involved in a genocidal campaign; • In a large-‐scale armed conflict, widespread and systematic nature of acts; intensity and scale of acts and invariability of killing methods used against the same protected group; types of weapons employed (in particular weapons prohibited under international law) and the extent of bodily injury caused; • In a non-‐conflict situation, widespread and/or systematic discriminatory and targeted practices culminating in gross violations of human rights of protected groups, such as extrajudicial killings, torture and displacement; • The specific means used to achieve “ethnic cleansing” which may underscore that the perpetration of the acts is designed to reach the foundations of the group or what is considered as such by the perpetrator group; • The nature of the atrocities, e.g., dismemberment of those already killed that reveal a level of dehumanization of the group or euphoria at having total control over another human being, or the systematic rape of women which may be intended to transmit a new ethnic identity to the child or to cause humiliation and terror in order to fragment the group; • The destruction of or attacks on cultural and religious property and symbols of the targeted group that may be designed to annihilate the historic presence of the group or groups; • Targeted elimination of community leaders and/or men and/or women of a particular age span (the ‘future generation’ or a military-‐age group); • Other practices designed to complete the exclusion of targeted group from social/political life.
Risk Factor Category 8: Triggering factors Future events or circumstances seemingly unrelated to genocide that might aggravate conditions or spark deterioration in the situation, pointing to the likely onset of a genocidal episode. These ‘triggers’ might include: • Upcoming elections (and associated activities such as voter registration or campaigning; revision of delimitation of electoral boundaries; a call for early elections or the postponement or cancellation of elections; disbanding of election commissions; imposition of new quotas/standards for
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political party or candidate eligibility); • Change of Government outside of an electoral or constitutionally sanctioned process; • Instances where the military is deployed internally to act against civilians; • Commencement of armed hostilities; • Natural disasters that may stress state capacity and strengthen active opposition groups; • Increases in opposition capacity, which may be perceived as a threat and prompt preemptive action, or rapidly declining opposition capacity which may invite rapid action to eliminate problem groups.
Rwanda: Shrouded in Secrecy Illegal Detention and Torture by Military Intelligence http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/rwanda-‐must-‐investigate-‐unlawful-‐detention-‐and-‐torture-‐military-‐ intelligence-‐2012-‐10-‐05 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR47/004/2012/en/ca2e51a2-‐1c3f-‐4bb4-‐b7b9-‐ e44ccbb2b8de/afr470042012en.pdf SUMMARY Progress over the last decade by the government of Rwanda in improving conditions of detention in prisons falling under the authority of the Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS) is being undermined by the parallel detention system run by the military. Scores of people are held in detention in military camps and the safeguards which protect detainees in police stations and other official places of detention are circumvented. Hidden from view, detainees have been unlawfully detained as well as reportedly tortured and otherwise ill-‐treated. This report details unlawful detention, torture and other forms of ill-‐treatment and enforced disappearances, mostly of civilians, at the hands of Rwanda’s military intelligence, known as J2. It is based on information gathered during more than two years of research, including seven visits to Rwanda. The report documents more than 45 cases of unlawful detention and 18 allegations of torture or other ill-‐treatment by Rwandan military intelligence in 2010 and 2011. Some individuals who were disappeared remain in secret detention in 2012. Amnesty International believes that the actual number of people who were detained and who were at risk of, or subjected to, torture and other ill-‐treatment during this period is higher than those documented here. Amnesty International began to receive reports of enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-‐treatment by Rwandan military intelligence in March 2010. This spate of human rights violations happened as military intelligence launched investigations into threats to national security in the run-‐up to the August 2010 presidential elections. Grenade attacks, rare in recent years, multiplied after February 2010. Some security analysts attributed them to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed opposition group based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Growing tensions within the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) following the departure of the former army Page | 29
chief, General Kayumba Nyamwasa, in February 2010 also allegedly raised the spectre of potential security threats from within the army. As part of the Rwandan authorities’ investigations into security matters, individuals were arrested, often arbitrarily, by the military, sometimes acting in collaboration with the police. Those arrested were almost exclusively men aged between 20 and 45. Most of the cases documented here are of civilians, including demobilized military. Other cases include members of the Rwandan army or individuals suspected by the Rwandan authorities of belonging to the FDLR. After their arrest, the men were detained incommunicado and interrogated by military intelligence. For their families, unable to confirm their whereabouts or if they were still alive, their loved ones had effectively disappeared. The authorities denied holding those arrested or did not respond to requests for information from family members or lawyers. During their detention by the military, often spanning several months, they were denied access to lawyers, family members and medical assistance. Some were reportedly subjected to torture or other ill-‐treatment. Not knowing the whereabouts of their relatives had a tremendous psychological impact on the families of the disappeared. As those missing were almost exclusively men, and round-‐ups often included people from the same community, male family members were forced to live with the constant fear that they might be arrested next. Women – wives, mothers and sisters – bore the brunt of trying to locate their relatives. At the time of writing in July 2012, Amnesty International believes that the number of new cases of unlawful detention of civilians by the military has fallen over the last year. However, the absence of investigations or prosecutions for the human rights violations documented here increases the likelihood that Rwandan military intelligence will revert to these practices each time that they perceive national security to be under threat. Amnesty International urges the Rwandan government to immediately end the unlawful detention of civilians, disclose the fate or whereabouts of all those subjected to enforced disappearance, investigate allegations of torture and other ill-‐treatment, suspend those security officers alleged to be responsible for these human rights violations pending the outcome of investigations, and hold them accountable through criminal prosecutions.
Rwanda Timeline http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-‐africa-‐14093322 03/29/13
A chronology of key events: 1300s - Tutsis migrate into what is now Rwanda, which was already inhabited by the Twa and Hutu peoples. 1600s - Tutsi King Ruganzu Ndori subdues central Rwanda and outlying Hutu areas.
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Late 1800s - Tutsi King Kigeri Rwabugiri establishes a unified state with a centralised military structure. 1858 - British explorer Hanning Speke is the first European to visit the area. 1890 - Rwanda becomes part of German East Africa. 1916 - Belgian forces occupy Rwanda. 1923 - Belgium granted League of Nations mandate to govern Ruanda-Urundi, which it ruled indirectly through Tutsi kings. 1946 - Ruanda-Urundi becomes UN trust territory governed by Belgium.
Independence 1957 - Hutus issue manifesto calling for a change in Rwanda's power structure to give them a voice commensurate with their numbers; Hutu political parties formed. 1959 - Tutsi King Kigeri V, together with tens of thousands of Tutsis, forced into exile in Uganda following inter-ethnic violence. 1961 - Rwanda proclaimed a republic. 1962 - Rwanda becomes independent with a Hutu, Gregoire Kayibanda, as president; many Tutsis leave the country. 1963 - Some 20,000 Tutsis killed following an incursion by Tutsi rebels based in Burundi. 1973 - President Gregoire Kayibanda ousted in military coup led by Juvenal Habyarimana. 1978 - New constitution ratified; Habyarimana elected president. 1988 - Some 50,000 Hutu refugees flee to Rwanda from Burundi following ethnic violence there. 1990 - Forces of the rebel, mainly Tutsi, Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invade Rwanda from Uganda. 1991 - New multi-party constitution promulgated.
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1993 - President Habyarimana signs a power-sharing agreement with the Tutsis in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, ostensibly signalling the end of civil war; UN mission sent to monitor the peace agreement. 1994 April - Habyarimana and the Burundian president are killed after their plane is shot down over Kigali; RPF launches a major offensive; extremist Hutu militia and elements of the Rwandan military begin the systematic massacre of Tutsis. Within 100 days around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus are killed; Hutu militias flee to Zaire, taking with them around 2 million Hutu refugees. 1994-96 - Refugee camps in Zaire fall under the control of the Hutu militias responsible for the genocide in Rwanda. 1995 - Extremist Hutu militias and Zairean government forces attack local Zairean Banyamulenge Tutsis; Zaire attempts to force refugees back into Rwanda. 1995 - UN-appointed international tribunal begins charging and sentencing a number of people responsible for the Hutu-Tutsi atrocities.
Intervention in DR Congo 1996 - Rwandan troops invade and attack Hutu militia-dominated camps in Zaire in order to drive home the refugees. 1997 - Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebels depose President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire; Laurent Kabila becomes president of Zaire, which is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. 1998 - Rwanda switches allegiance to support rebel forces trying to depose Kabila in the wake of the Congolese president's failure to expel extremist Hutu militias. 2000 March - Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, resigns over differences regarding the composition of a new cabinet and after accusing parliament of targeting Hutu politicians in anti-corruption investigations. 2000 April - Ministers and members of parliament elect Vice-President Paul Kagame as Rwanda's new president. 2001 October - Voting to elect members of traditional "gacaca" courts begins. The courts - in which ordinary Rwandans judge their peers - aim to clear the backlog of 1994 genocide cases.
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2001 December - A new flag and national anthem are unveiled to try to promote national unity and reconciliation. 2002 April - Former president Pasteur Bizimungu is arrested and faces trial on charges of illegal political activity and threats to state security. 2002 July - Rwanda, DR Congo sign peace deal under which Rwanda will pull troops out of DR Congo and DR Congo will help disarm Rwandan Hutu gunmen blamed for killing Tutsi minority in 1994 genocide.
DR Congo pull-out 2002 October - Rwanda says it has pulled the last of its troops out of DR Congo, four years after they went in to support Congolese rebels against the Kabila government. 2003 May - Voters back a draft constitution which bans the incitement of ethnic hatred. 2003 August - Paul Kagame wins the first presidential elections since the 1994 genocide. 2003 October - First multi-party parliamentary elections; President Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front wins absolute majority. EU observers say poll was marred by irregularities and fraud. 2003 December - Three former media directors found guilty of inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis during 1994 genocide and receive lengthy jail sentences. 2004 March - President Kagame rejects French report which says he ordered 1994 attack on president's plane, which sparked genocide. 2004 June - Former president, Pasteur Bizimungu, is sentenced to 15 years in jail for embezzlement, inciting violence and associating with criminals. 2005 March - Main Hutu rebel group, FDLR, says it is ending its armed struggle. FDLR is one of several groups accused of creating instability in DR Congo; many of its members are accused of taking part in 1994 genocide.
Mass prisoner release 2005 July - Government begins the mass release of 36,000 prisoners. Most of them have confessed to involvement in the 1994 genocide. It is the third phase of releases since 2003 - part of an attempt to ease overcrowding. Page | 33
2006 January - Rwanda's 12 provinces are replaced by a smaller number of regions with the aim of creating ethnically-diverse administrative areas. 2006 November - Rwanda breaks off diplomatic ties with France after a French judge issues an international arrest warrant for President Kagame, alleging he was involved in bringing down Habyarimana's plane. 2006 December - Father Athanase Seromba becomes the first Roman Catholic priest to be convicted for involvement in the 1994 genocide. The International Criminal Tribunal sentences him to life in prison. 2007 February - Some 8,000 prisoners accused of genocide are released. Some 60,000 suspects have been freed since 2003 to ease prison overcrowding. 2007 April - Former president, Pasteur Bizimungu, is released from jail three years into his 15-year sentence after receiving a presidential pardon. 2007 October - Inquiry launched into 1994 presidential plane crash that sparked genocide. 2007 November - Rwanda signs peace agreement with Democratic Republic of Congo. Under the deal DRC will hand over those suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide to Kigali and to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Arrests abroad 2008 January - French police arrest former Rwandan army officer Marcel Bivugabagabo who is on list of war criminals wanted for trial by the Rwandan government. 2008 February - A Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan army officers, accusing them of genocide, terrorism and crimes against humanity. 2008 April - President Paul Kagame says the Spanish judge who issued arrest warrants for Rwandan army officers can "go to hell". 2008 May - A former cabinet minister, Callixte Kalimanzira, goes on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, charged with taking part in the 1994 genocide. 2008 August - Rwanda accuses France of having played an active role in the genocide of 1994, and issues a report naming more than 30 senior French officials. France says the claims are unacceptable.
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2008 September - President Paul Kagame's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) wins large majority in parliamentary elections. 2008 September - Former deputy prosecutor Simeon Nshamihigo is sentenced to life imprisonment for role in genocide by the UN tribunal. He was working as a defence investigator at the tribunal under an assumed name when arrested in 2001. 2008 October - Rwanda decides all education will be taught in English instead of French, officially as a result of joining the English-speaking East African Community. 2008 November - Rwanda expels German ambassador and recalls own ambassador in row over detention in Germany of presidential aide Rose Kabuye in connection with the shooting down of President Habyarimana's plane.
Genocide trials 2008 December - One of Rwanda's most famous singers, Simon Bikindi, is sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting violence during the genocide. UN report accuses Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo of directly helping Tutsi rebels fighting in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda denies supplying aid and child soldiers. Theoneste Bagosora sentenced to life imprisonment at UN tribunal for masterminding genocide. 2009 January - Former Justice Minister Agnes Ntamabyariro is jailed for life by a Kigali court for conspiracy to plan the genocide and speeches inciting people to take part. 2009 February - Rwandan troops leave the Democratic Republic of Congo five weeks after entering to attack Hutu rebels. UN war crimes court finds former army chaplain Emmanuel Rukundo guilty of genocide, sexual assault and kidnapping during genocide, sentences him to 25 years in jail. 2009 March - Rwandan MP and member of Tutsi-led governing party Beatrice Nirere found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment in Rwandan gacaca traditional community court. Dutch court finds Rwandan Hutu Joseph Mpambara guilty of torture during the genocide but not of war crimes. Page | 35
2009 November - Rwanda is admitted to the Commonwealth, as only the second country after Mozambique to become a member without a British colonial past or constitutional ties to the UK. France and Rwanda restore diplomatic relations, three years after they were severed over a row about responsibility for the 1990s genocide. 2009 December - Rwanda declared free of landmines - the first country to achieve this status. 2010 February - French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits to mark reconciliation after years of accusations over the genocide. Rwanda said France armed Hutu extremists, and a French judge accused President Kagame of involvement in the death of President Habyarimana. 2010 April - Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who planned to run against President Kagame in the August elections, is arrested. Her lawyer is later detained. Two senior officers are arrested within days of a reshuffle of the military leadership. 2010 June - Ex-army chief of staff Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former ally turned critic of President Kagame, is wounded in a shooting while in exile in South Africa. Kagame re-elected 2010 August - President Kagame wins new term in elections. 2010 October - UN report into 1993-2003 conflict in DR Congo says Rwandan forces took part in attacks on Hutu civilians which - if proven in court - could amount to genocide. 2010 December - Exiled military officers General Kayumba Nyamwasa and Colonel Patrick Karegeya form new political party - Rwanda National Congress. Members of the pygmy community - known as the Batwa - say authorities have destroyed hundreds of their homes as a part of a purge of traditional thatched houses. 2011 February - Opposition leader Bernard Ntaganda, accused of stoking ethnic tensions, is sentenced to four years in jail. Rights groups criticise the ruling. Page | 36
2011 June - Former family minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko becomes first woman to be found guilty of genocide by an international court. 2011 September - Former presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire goes on trial accused of genocide denial and working with a terrorist group. 2011 December - International Criminal Court (ICC) frees Hutu rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana after ruling there is insufficient evidence to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is the first suspect brought to the court to be freed. 2012 June - Rwanda shuts down "gacaca" community courts that for 10 years tried those accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide. Human rights group say they fell short of international legal standards. Rwanda says about 65% of the nearly two million people tried were found guilty. 2012 July - The US, Britain and the Netherlands halt aid to Rwanda over UN accusations that it is fuelling a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo by training rebel troops. Rwanda denies the charge. 2012 October - A Rwandan court sentences opposition leader Victoire Ingabire to eight years in jail on charges of threatening state security and "belittling" the 1994 genocide. 2012 December - The UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicts former government minister and key organiser of the 1994 genocide Augustin Ngirabatware to 35 years in prison. 2013 February - The ICTR overturns the 2011 genocide convictions of former ministers Justin Mugenzi and Prosper Mugiraneza, to the dismay of Rwandan prosecutors.
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