{"id":34773,"date":"2017-09-29T15:33:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T13:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/34773-rwanda-post-election-political-crackdown.html"},"modified":"2017-09-29T15:33:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T13:33:56","slug":"rwanda-post-election-political-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/34773-rwanda-post-election-political-crackdown.html","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda: Post-Election Political Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Nairobi, September 29, 2017) \u2013\u00a0Rwandan<\/a>\u00a0authorities have arrested, forcibly disappeared, and threatened political opponents since the August 2017 presidential elections, Human Rights Watch said today. The incumbent, Paul Kagame, won the election with a reported 98.79 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Those targeted include a would-be independent presidential candidate, Diane Rwigara, and her family members and supporters, and several leaders and members of the Forces d\u00e9mocratiques unifi\u00e9es (FDU)-Inkingi opposition party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rwandan government\u2019s crackdown shows that it is unwilling to tolerate criticism or accept a role for opposition parties, and it sends a chilling message to those who would dare challenge the status quo,\u201d said\u00a0Ida Sawyer<\/a>, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cWith each arrest in Rwanda, fewer and fewer people will dare to speak out against state policy or abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rwandan authorities took no chances with the August 4 presidential vote, despite the weak prospects for any opposition candidate. Several presidential aspirants were barred from participating. The only two allowed to enter the race and compete against Kagame, Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana, said they experienced harassment, threats, and intimidation. In the days following the vote, Human Rights Watch\u00a0interviewed local activists and private citizens<\/a>\u00a0who spoke of intimidation and irregularities in both the campaign period and during the voting.<\/p>\n

On August 29, police showed up at Rwigara\u2019s office in Kigali, the capital,\u00a0and took her to her home, where they interrogated Rwigara and her family members and barred them from leaving their house. On August 30, following rumors that Rwigara may have been arrested or forcibly disappeared, the police announced that she was not in detention but that she was under investigation.<\/p>\n

After several weeks of intimidation, questioning, and restrictions on their movements, Rwigara and her sister, Anne, a dual Rwandan and American citizen, and her mother, Adeline, a dual Rwandan and Belgian citizen, were arrested on September 23. They are being held in police custody in the capital, Kigali.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0police say that they arrested the three<\/a>, in part, for \u201cpublicly revealing information that is, by law, supposed to be confidential.\u201d During the interrogations in the weeks before her arrest, Rwigara told Human Rights Watch that she was being accused of forgery linked to alleged invalid signatures to establish her candidacy, of illegally forming and leading a political organization, and of inciting insurrection or trouble among the population. The family was also accused of non-payment of taxes.<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to her arrest, Rwigara spoke with international media outlets and criticized the police actions and the accusations against her. Hours before her arrest, Rwigara told one outlet that her family was being \u201cpersecuted for criticizing the government<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Would-be<\/a><\/p>\n
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Would-be independent presidential candidate Diane Rwigara speaks to the media in Kigali, Rwanda, June 20, 2017.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a9 2017 Jean Bizimana\/Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The harassment of Rwigara began in May, when \u2013 72 hours after she announced her intention to run in the presidential election \u2013 nude photos of her were published on social media in an apparent attempt to humiliate and intimidate her.\u00a0Rwigara said the photos were photoshopped<\/a>. In July, the National Electoral Commission rejected her candidacy, claiming that many of the required signatures supporting her candidacy were invalid. Rwigara rejected the accusations and said she had fulfilled the eligibility requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all linked to my political activities,\u201d Rwigara told Human Rights Watch on September 13. \u201cThey would not let me campaign freely, and now they are after me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Rwigara has come under police investigation, some of her supporters have been arrested or harassed. On September 12, police arrested a supporter at his home, where they found t-shirts supporting Rwigara. He was held in an unknown location and questioned about Rwigara, then released five days later. Two of his family members were also arrested and one was released after being held in an unknown location for a week. The other remains in police custody.<\/p>\n

Rwigara\u2019s arrest comes amid growing pressure on other political opponents. On September 6, seven FDU-Inkingi members\u00a0were arrested<\/a>, including four of the party\u2019s leaders: Boniface Twagirimana, first vice-president; Fabien Twagirayezu, head of party mobilization; L\u00e9onille Gasengayire, assistant treasurer; and Gratien Nsabiyaremye, assistant commissioner. Th\u00e9ophile Ntirutwa, Kigali representative of the party, went missing on September 6. Police arrested other FDU-Inkingi members in the following days.<\/p>\n

The FDU-Inkingi has faced serious challenges since 2010. The party has not been allowed to register or take part in elections, and its members have been arrested and harassed repeatedly. The party\u2019s president, Victoire Ingabire, has been in prison\u00a0since 2010<\/a>\u00a0and is serving a\u00a015-year sentence following a flawed trial.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Members of the FDU-Inkingi political party at court in Nyamirambo, Kigali, on September 26, 2017. Eight members of the party have been charged with forming an irregular armed group and offenses against the president. Other political opponents in Rwanda have been convicted of state security crimes and sentenced to long prison terms after flawed trials.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a9 2017 Private<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On September 26, charges were confirmed against eight FDU-Inkingi members, including the four leaders, and they are being held in preventative detention in Remera, a suburb of Kigali. They are charged with forming an irregular armed group and offenses against the president. One party member was released.<\/p>\n

Ntirutwa, the FDU-Inkingi member who went missing on September 6, was forcibly disappeared and held incommunicado for 17 days, before a family member could visit him at the Remera police station on September 23. During this period, the police would not confirm to Human Rights Watch or his family whether he was in custody. Ntirutwa has not been charged.<\/p>\n

A person taken with Ntirutwa later told Human Rights Watch that he and Ntirutwa were crossing the street in Kicukiro, a Kigali suburb, \u201cwhen a private car pulled up and we were forced in by men with guns. One said, \u2018You are being taken because you want to cause insecurity in Rwanda.\u2019 Our heads were covered so we could not see where we were going.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was later interrogated about the party. \u201cWhen I asked for a lawyer, I was told, \u2018We will kill you.\u2019 They pushed me to the ground and kicked me and said I was an idiot.\u201d Later, a man in civilian clothes pulled the mask off, put a gun to his face and said, \u201cIf you continue to refuse answers to our questions, you will see.\u201d After about 20 hours, he was released from the Remera police station.<\/p>\n

Ntirutwa had previously been detained on September 18, 2016, allegedly by the military, in Nyarutarama, a Kigali suburb. He was detained, beaten, and questioned about his membership in the FDU-Inkingi, then released two days later.<\/p>\n

Gasengayire, another of those arrested, was\u00a0previously arrested after visiting Ingabire<\/a>\u00a0in prison in March 2016. The police detained her for three days, beat her, questioned her, and denied her access to a lawyer. The police released her without charge, but re-arrested her in August 2016, and charged her with inciting insurrection and disorder among the population. They also accused her of stirring up local opposition to the expropriation of land belonging to residents in her home district and of promoting the FDU-Inkingi. Residents who tried to testify on her behalf at her trial were intimidated. A court acquitted and released her on March 23, 2017.<\/p>\n

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