Rwanda: Suspicious murders ahead of election

Rwandan President Paul Kagame is running for re-election on Aug. 9. A wave of repression is bringing critical attention to his government. Here Kagame inspects army troops during a ceremony in Kigali, Aug. 14, 2004. (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

KIGALI, Rwanda — It’s three weeks before presidential elections in Rwanda, and news of an opposition leader’s brutal murder is still fresh in the minds of many.

Green Party Vice President Andre Kagwa Rwisereka’s head was “almost completely removed from his body,” according to Frank Habineza, Green Party chairman. “It is very sad and very shocking,” he told GlobalPost. “We are calling on the government to bring a quick investigation and bring to justice those who committed this crime.”

On top of that atrocity earlier this month, in which Rwisereka’s body was found dumped near a river outside the country’s second largest city Butare, there have been a slew of other suspicious incidents — including the murder of a prominent journalist, the shooting of an exiled army general and the arrests and harassment of scores of opposition activists.

How worrying are the signs that Rwanda is becoming more politically repressive?

President Paul Kagame's government — which has been praised for leading the country to stability since the genocide in 1994 — is drawing more critical attention.

So far, there are no proven links between the recent killings and the Kagame government. Yet critics of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) say the events must be seen in a context where opposition groups and independent media have been intimidated in advance of the Aug. 9 election.

Kagame is widely expected to win re-election in a poll opposition leaders charge will be an “obvious masquerade,” as, only parties allied to Kagame's RPF have been allowed to register candidates for the ballot.

“As the August presidential election approaches, the government is organizing a tightly controlled and monolithic electoral campaign in which all sources of criticism are being suppressed,” said Reporters Without Borders, an international media watchdog, in a recent statement.

The Paris-based organization called on the European Union and other international donors to suspend their assistance to the Rwandan government and stop providing funds for the election.

“If the European Union stopped disbursing its funding, it would be clear sign of opposition to the Rwandan government’s practices,” the group wrote on July 13.

Just weeks ago, it appeared diplomatic pressure might help ease Rwanda’s political tension.

Until mid-June, the election campaign had been dominated by the saga of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire and her American attorney Peter Erlinder, both of whom were arrested and charged with violating a series of laws prohibiting speech that questions the official history of the genocide.

Erlinder, lead defense council for genocide suspects at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, was hospitalized several times during a three-week stint in a Rwandan prison, including what Rwandan authorities allege was a faked attempt at suicide.

On June 17 Erlinder was released on bail for medical reasons with the reported assistance of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and was allowed to return to the U.S.

While few in Rwanda harbored illusions of a fair election, many hoped that Erlinder's release would reduce tensions between Kagame and his many critics. Kagame had already been nudged by Clinton — on behalf of the U.S., a key donor and military ally. The 52-year-old president is known for his mastery of public relations to draw aid and investment to Rwanda and many in the West, including Clinton, have praised Kagame for Rwanda's efficient government and economic development. However there is growing concern that Kagame's effective leadership is being overtaken by a more ruthless drive to stay in power.

“We really don't want to see Rwanda undermine its own remarkable progress by beginning to move away from a lot of the very positive actions that undergirded its development so effectively," said Clinton at a June 14 foreign policy roundtable on Africa at the State Department.

Just days later, Kaymuba Nyamwasa, an army general and former Rwandan ambassador to India, was shot and wounded in his self-imposed exile in South Africa. A long-time Kagame insider, Nyamwasa was director of RPF military intelligence during its four-year civil war against the regime of former President Juvenal Habyarimana — a conflict that ended when the RPF seized power in the wake of the genocide.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/100719/rwanda-murders-election