Le Burundi informe l’UA de préparer le rapatriement immédiat de tout le contingent de soldats burundais
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Rwanda: A Year On, No Justice for Refugee killings
Police Shot Dead at Least 12 During Protest
Rwandan authorities have failed to release their investigations of the fatal shooting of 12 refugees by police in western Rwanda on February 22, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today. A year after the killings, the authorities have not revealed how many people were killed nor have they identified those responsible for using excessive force and held them to account.
Rwandan police fired live ammunition on refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo protesting outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Karongi District, Western Province, on February 22, 2018, immediately killing at least eight. Another died later that day from her injuries and two pregnant women who had fled the shooting miscarried. Police sent to guard the Kiziba refugee camp killed three people there as they tried to leave to help the wounded protesters, a witness said.
“There can be no justification for shooting at unarmed protesters,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Rwandan government is trampling on the graves of the victims by refusing to acknowledge how many people were actually killed or holding those responsible to account.”
Over the past year, Human Rights Watch spoke individually with six survivors, five family members of survivors or victims, three sources in Rwanda who have information on the court cases, and one UNHCR representative.
The protests began after UNHCR and the World Food Program announced in January 2018 that they would cut food rations by 25 percent due to funding constraints, including at Kiziba, which hosts over 17,000 Congolese refugees. The food allowance was then reduced from Rwf 7,600 (about US$8.90) to Rwf 5,700 (about US$6.70) per person per month.
Three to four thousand refugees left Kiziba on February 20 and walked for several hours to gather outside of the UNHCR office in Karongi district and protested the cut in food rations. Police shot live ammunition to disperse the crowd as refugees made their way to Karongi, injuring one.
On February 21, a police officer speaking through a megaphone outside the UNHCR office told the crowd of refugees in Kinyarwanda that women and children should be separated from the men and not be “a part of the conflict.”
On February 22, the police encircled the group and again told the protesters at the UNHCR office to separate women and children from the men. The refugees refused. “After we had shouted ‘No!’ I saw tear gas and I thought, OK, they are making us go back to the camp,” one survivor told Human Rights Watch. “But then I heard bullets and I knew this was different. I saw dead bodies and ran into the bush.”
In a statement published on its website on February 23, Rwandan police said that 20 refugees had been wounded and five of them “succumbed to their injuries.” Rwanda’s National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), which is closely linked to the government, opened an investigation on February 23, but has yet to publish a report. The commission has covered up government violations in the past.
Theos Badege, then the police spokesman, told the media on February 23 that the refugees had been warned, had “defied” the police and thrown objects at them. “It’s important to know that when someone disturbs public order, they don’t control the consequences of their actions,” he said. Rwandan police reported that seven police officers were injured.
While some protesters and a UNHCR representative said they saw a few men throw stones on February 22, the same UNHCR representative confirmed to Human Rights Watch that no protesters carried weapons.
At a news conference on March 13, Louise Mushikiwabo, then the foreign affairs minister and now head of the International Organization of the Francophonie (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, OIF), accused the refugees of starting a revolt, and of becoming “extremely violent and trying to take hostages.”
While refugees temporarily blocked the door at UNHCR between February 21 and 22, Human Rights Watch was not able to substantiate any claims of refugees attempting to hold Rwandan citizens, UNHCR staff, or police officers “hostage.”
Rwandan National Police arrested over 60 refugees between February and May 2018 and charged them with participating in illegal demonstrations, violence against public authorities, rebellion, and disobeying enforcement of law. Some were also charged with “spreading false information with intent to create a hostile international opinion against the Rwandan state.”
Rwandan police are obliged to respect the rights to life, bodily integrity and liberty and security, including by not resorting to the use of fire arms unless necessary for self-defense or the defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, when less extreme means are insufficient. Police may resort to intentional lethal force only when strictly necessary to protect life.
Rwandan police should be trained in, and abide by, the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, Human Rights Watch said.
The National Commission for Human Rights and the Justice Ministry did not respond to a request for information from Human Rights Watch sent on February 1, 2019.
“Prosecuting refugees deflects responsibility from the real culprits of violence and abuse,” Mudge said. “Instead, Rwandan authorities should ensure investigations are independent and hold accountable the police officers responsible for the killings.”
Excessive Use of Force on February 22, 2018
Human Rights Watch interviewed six survivors from the killings at Karongi and Kiziba on February 22, 2018. They said the police were quick to use lethal force in circumstances that were wholly unjustified by the protesters’ actions. Some survivors said that the shooting started within three to four minutes after police started throwing teargas, while others said it may have been as long as 10 minutes. One refugee said:
I washed my eyes with water after they shot the gas. But when it became too thick, I started to run. Just then, the shooting started. I assumed it was in the air, but a young man in front of me fell down dead. I ran straight for the forest. I saw three dead bodies as I ran… The police said we were armed, but they are lying. Most of us put our hands up. Some men threw stones, but once the tear gas started, we started to move away from the area.
An elderly man, who had stayed in Kiziba camp on February 22, described the killings of the refugees who tried to leave the camp:
It was late in the day, and we started getting messages saying that the police had shot on people in Karongi. The police were manning a barrier just outside the camp, but some of the refugees tried to pass anyway. The police did not warn the men for even half a minute before they opened fire on them. I saw a younger man I know, Bizimana, shot down. We were all shocked by what we saw. The Rwandan police have no pity.
Developments After the Shootings
Refugees told Human Rights Watch that since the shootings they had been intimidated by local authorities and the police told them not to cause trouble or say anything negative about the government.
A leader of the Congolese refugees told Human Rights Watch in March: “The government is angry because we dared protest. We can’t even have small meetings without the local authorities’ permission. This government won’t let us say what is wrong in our community.”
In late April, the police increased their presence at Kiziba and sent senior government and police officials to visit the camp.
On May 1, police entered the camp to arrest refugee representatives. Some refugees threw stones at the police and the delegation. The police again responded with tear gas and live ammunition, killing one person and injuring several others.
“The police came into the camp [on May 1], and this time they were very serious,” a refugee said. “We knew they wanted to arrest our executive committee as they openly called the committee [members] enemies on the radio. The police shot teargas and started shooting. Everyone ran, then I ran, and I saw one young man who had been killed.”
At a news conference in Geneva on May 4, a UNHCR spokesperson said that one person died, a 12-year-old boy was injured and that 23 refugees were reportedly arrested “apparently for provoking Rwandan Police patrols.”
The UN Code of Conduct, in addition to spelling out that law enforcement officials may only use force in exceptional circumstances, specifies that they may not “inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Under the Basic Principles, in cases of death or serious injury, appropriate agencies are to conduct a review and a detailed report is to be sent promptly to the competent administrative or prosecutorial authorities.
Refugees on Trial
The arrested refugees were charged with participating in illegal demonstrations, violence against public authorities, rebellion, and disobeying enforcement of law.
Three leaders of the refugee camp’s executive committee also were charged with “spreading false information with intent to create a hostile international opinion against the Rwandan state.” All three had signed a letter sent to UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on January 5, 2018, in which the Executive Committee expressed concern that refugees would be living on “US$0.20 a day” after the cuts and wrote of a fear of refugees dying of hunger.
One refugee was accused of sharing information with Human Rights Watch. The communications were used as evidence against him in his trial. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison on October 31. Other trials have been delayed or postponed, while most accused refugees remain in detention.
In an April 30, 2018 statement, the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees accused the refugees’ executive committee of “mobilizing refugees to revolt against government officials” and dissolved the committee.
The National Commission for Human Rights
On March 9, 2018 the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) stated it was investigating the killings and would publish a report “in due time.” The statement shows a bias towards the police and asserts the police were “attacked while trying to quell violence” and that the protest “caused injuries and death of some protesters.” The report has yet to be released.
Source: Human Right Watch
OPEX Turquoise (Rwanda ): Communiqué of Général Jean Claude LAFOURCADE, former Commander
A requirement of truth
The Turquoise Force is regularly accused of having protected the Rwandan government by acting and of facilitating its escape in July 1994, a charge that is systematically repeated by the media. I denounce an amalgam and a counter truth.
While this government was composed of 21 people, only two members passed through the Turquoise zone from 16 to 17 July before moving to Zaire. These are:
Dr. Theodore Sindikuwabo, Speaker of the National Assembly and Acting President of the Rwandese Republic from 9 April to 19 July 1994 (died in 1998 in Bukavu).
Jerome Bicamumpaka Minister of Foreign Affairs (arrested in 1999, transferred to the ICTR, acquitted of all charges on 30 September 2011 and released.
Two out of twenty-one people do not constitute a “government” but they are mere isolated and uninfluenced individuals, one of whom has been laundered by the ICTR. It is therefore wrong to say that the Rwandan interim government passed through the Turquoise zone.
In addition, the Turquoise Force could not arrest prominent foreign government officials who were still members of the UN Security Council at the time. She had neither the mandate nor the legal capacity.
As the anniversary of the genocide begins, It is important that French journalists, in accordance with their professional ethics charter, implement the principles of this charter by checking the information provided by pressure groups before relay without discernment or hindsight. Otherwise, they participate in a misinformation company.
General Jean Claude LAFOURCADE
Former Commander of Operation Turquoise (Rwanda)
The ASAF expresses its unwavering support to the French soldiers who were engaged in Operation Turquoise in 1994.
It denounces the lies and manipulations of Paul Kagame, tyrant and genocidal, president of Rwanda for a quarter of a century, which unfortunately enjoys the complicity of some French media.
Reissued on the ASAF website: http://www.asafrance.fr
https://www.asafrance.fr/item/opex-turquoise-rwanda-communique-du-general-jean-claude-lafourcade-ancien-commandant.html
J’agis pour Déogratias MUSHAYIDI
Le 19 / 02 / 2019Militer pour la paix
Déogratias Mushayidi a toujours milité de manière non-violente en faveur de la paix et la démocratie au Rwanda. Tutsi, il a perdu sa famille durant le génocide de 1994, où plus de 800 000 Tutsis ont été massacrés. M. Mushayidi était alors le représentant en Suisse du Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR), la rébellion armée dont Paul Kagamé – aujourd’hui président de la République – était l’un des principaux leaders politiques. À la fin de la guerre, M. Mushayidi rejoint le secrétariat général du FPR au Rwanda. Constatant des exécutions extra-judiciaires commises en toute impunité par le FPR, il décide au bout de 6 mois de quitter son poste. Il entame alors une carrière de journaliste au Rwanda et critique ouvertement les dérives autoritaires du FPR.
Sous le poids des menaces, il s’exile en Belgique en 2000 et obtient le statut de réfugié. En Europe, il se mobilise pour rassembler Hutus et Tutsis en vue d’un changement politique pacifique au Rwanda. En novembre 2008, il fonde en Belgique, le parti Pacte de défense du peuple (PDP), dont il devient président.
L’année suivante, il rejoint le continent africain et tente de rassembler la diaspora rwandaise. Son voyage s’arrête en mars 2010 où il est arrêté en Tanzanie avec un visa périmé sur un faux passeport burundais. Il est transféré successivement au Burundi puis au Rwanda.
Un prisonnier oublié dans les geôles rwandaises
M. Mushayidi est condamné six mois plus tard, le 17 septembre 2010, à la prison à perpétuité par la Haute Cour de justice après avoir été reconnu coupable, au cours d’un procès expéditif sans témoin à charge, de « fausse déclaration pour l’obtention d’un passeport burundais, propagation de rumeurs incitant à la désobéissance civile et recrutement d’une armée pour agresser le pouvoir en place ». Il fait appel de ce procès politique. En février 2012, la Cour Suprême confirme sa peine.
Depuis, M. Mushayidi se comporte de manière exemplaire en prison. Sans famille au Rwanda (sa femme et ses deux enfants habitent au Canada), il reçoit peu de visite. La communauté internationale et la société civile l’ont oublié et ne plaident plus sa cause depuis que sa détention a été officialisée au Rwanda. Alors que l’opposante Victoire Ingabire, a été libérée le 15 septembre 2018 (en même temps que 2 140 autres détenus), M. Mushayidi reste désespérément emprisonné. Pourtant, il n’a jamais été violent et a toujours plaidé pour une nation rwandaise unie dans la paix. Ensemble, exigeons la libération de Déogratias Mushayidi.
Source : ACAT
Les dépliants d’Addis, Bujumbura explique sa démarche
Willy Nyamitwe: “Ce peuple meurtri a droit à la justice et c’est la démarche des instances judiciaires.”
Des dépliants ont été distribués par la délégation gouvernementale en marge du 32e sommet de l’UA évoquant le mandat d’arrêt du président Pierre Buyoya. Des tracts à mobile politique, selon le concerné.
Les opposants parlent de diversion et de récupération de l’affaire Ndadaye pour mobiliser l’électorat hutu à la veille des prochaines élections de 2020, et passer ainsi pour le justicier qui n’a pas peur de terrasser l’ancien homme fort du Burundi.
Le conseiller principal à la présidence de la République n’y va pas de main morte. L’ambassadeur Willy Nyamitwe assure que dans le même paquet que les détracteurs, il faut aussi ajouter la clique d’extrémistes qui, après avoir échoué à renverser les institutions démocratiquement élues par le truchement d’une insurrection et d’un Coup d’Etat, pensent qu’il est toujours possible de tirer sur la corde sensible, celle de l’ethnisme, pour capter la sympathie de l’opinion et attirer l’ostracisme sur le Gouvernement du Burundi. « Quand il fut battu par le président Ndadaye en 1993, le major et son artillerie propagandiste de mauvais perdants n’hésitèrent point à dénigrer le Peuple Burundais prétextant qu’il n’y avait pas eu d’élections mais qu’à la place d’une expression démocratique d’électeurs il y avait eu un recensement ethnique. La suite on la connaît, macabre. » Willy Nyamitwe indique qu’au-delà de leur appétit démesuré du pouvoir, ils ont commis l’irréparable, renversé les institutions et balayé avec une cruauté sans nom des vies humaines dont le nombre ne sera malheureusement jamais connu. « Ce peuple meurtri a droit à la justice et c’est la démarche des instances judiciaires. Que ceux qui détractent le Burundi et ses institutions comprennent que les temps sont révolus. »
Il est clair que Bujumbura ne va pas lâcher l’affaire. S’il ne mise pas trop sur l’extradition de l’ancien président, il n’en reste pas moins qu’il a décidé de ternir l’image du haut fonctionnaire de l’UA qu’il est devenu. Le dépliant le présente comme l’assassin du premier président démocratiquement élu et ses collaborateurs.
Au-delà de la bataille diplomatique et médiatique entre Bujumbura et Buyoya, les proches collaborateurs du président Melchior Ndadaye craignent que le volet judiciaire ne soit occulté.
Le président Sylvestre Ntibantunganya se dit favorable aux poursuites judiciaires. Les Burundais ont droit de connaître la vérité sur la préparation et l’exécution de l’assassinat du président Ndadaye. Pour l’ancien président qui a été destitué par le deuxième putsch de Pierre Buyoya, l’assassinat du président Ndadaye est la cause de toutes les difficultés auxquelles le Burundi a été confronté depuis lors jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Il n’exclut pas l’hypothèse d’une volonté de récupération politique. «Il a toujours été dit que d’une part le dossier sera tiré des tiroirs en cas de besoin pour des intérêts politiques. Et que d’autres se serviront de la politique d’autre part pour étouffer l’instruction judiciaire du dossier».
Pour rappel, Melchior Ndadaye est le premier président burundais démocratiquement élu. Investi le 10 juillet 1993, il est assassiné après 102 jours de pouvoir au cours d’un coup d’Etat sanglant, le 21 octobre 1993. Pontien Karibwami, président de l’Assemblée nationale, Gilles Bimazubute, vice-président de l’Assemblée nationale, Juvénal Ndayikeza, ministre de l’Administration du territoire et du Développement communal, trouvèrent également la mort.
Ce coup de force va déchaîner des violences inter-ethniques dans tout le pays, déclenchant une guerre civile, qui fera, selon les estimations, entre 50 000 (chiffre avancé par la Commission internationale d’enquête des ONG) et 100 000 (chiffre avancé par les délégués du Haut-commissariat aux Réfugiés).
Stupéfaction de Buyoya
la justice pour écarter des personnalités gênantes. »
Lors du 32e sommet de l’UA, la délégation de Bujumbura a arpenté couloirs et salles de conférence, distribuant un dépliant (deux pages) qui fait: « une mise au point du Burundi sur le mandat d’arrêt du président Pierre Buyoya. » Le dépliant explique que l’ancien homme fort du pays, Pierre Buyoya, doit rendre des comptes. Il est accusé d’être l’instigateur de l’assassinat du président Melchior Ndadaye et de plusieurs de ses collaborateurs.
Cette « mise au point » du Burundi, c’est aussi une réponse à Moussa Faki, le président de la commission de l’Union africaine. Dans son communiqué sorti au lendemain du lancement du mandat d’arrêt contre Buyoya, 2 décembre dernier, il s’était fermement opposé à cette poursuite estimant que « Cela va compliquer la recherche d’une solution consensuelle conformément à l’esprit de réconciliation nationale ».
Le dépliant distribué à Addis Abeba est clair. Bujumbura persiste et signe. « Pour le Burundi, ne pas poursuivre les auteurs et/ ou planificateurs d’un renversement d’institutions démocratiquement élues et de crimes atroces de 1993, c’est cela qui compliquerait, plutôt, la recherche d’une solution consensuelle ».
« Cela porte atteinte à mon honneur »
« Stupéfaction » C’est ainsi que l’on pourrait résumer la réaction de Pierre Buyoya, présent au sommet de l’Union africaine. Il s’est vite empressé de réagir. « Cela porte atteinte à mon honneur » a-t-il déclaré. L’ancien président occupe un poste important de haut représentant de l’Union Africaine pour le Mali et le Sahel. Dans son communiqué, il a parlé de tract distribué en méconnaissance des règles de fonctionnement de l’Union africaine. Pour lui, à un an des élections, le pouvoir veut instrumentaliser la justice pour écarter des personnalités gênantes. Pour « cette poursuite contre lui est une entreprise politique qui ne peut que pérenniser la haine dans l’esprit et la haine dans l’esprit et la mémoire du Burundais ». Bujumbura, dit-il, doit avoir d’autres priorités notamment un dialogue sincère pour mettre un terme à la crise.
Rwanda’s Masterful Deception
Source:WWW.IOL.CO.ZA
Exactly twenty years ago I sat in an Ottawa cafe with Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, the former Commander of the UN Peacekeeping operation in Rwanda at the time of the genocide. Six years after his utterly failed mission, Dallaire was suffering from post-traumatic stress, but I was told he had something very important to tell me. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was to hear, especially considering I had just visited Rwanda, its genocide memorials, and sat taking notes around a dinner table with the Rwandan cabinet.
Dallaire did say that he didn’t expect me to believe what he was saying under the circumstances, but that it was the truth, and one day I would realise the veracity of what he was telling me. It has taken me twenty years to process that conversation and to have the courage to write about it.
Dallaire started out by recounting the horrifying days of the genocide, and his sheer helplessness in the face of the refusal of the big powers sitting at the UN to authorise and capacitate his mission on the ground to intervene to stop the bloodletting. A genocide unfolded before his eyes that took 800 000 Tutsi lives in 100 days. The trauma of that type of guilt is something too grave for any human to overcome.
Much of Dallaire’s story is recounted in his memoir Shaking Hands with the Devil. What I never expected to hear from him, however, was what came next. Dallaire alleged that the Rwanda Patriotic Front’s Tutsi Commander Paul Kagame had allowed the genocide to continue longer than it needed to. Dallaire’s interpretation was that in Kagame’s calculations, the extent of the genocide was likely to ensure that the RPF would be able to rule the country for decades into the future, due to the collective guilt of the international community. At the time, it was all too much for me to absorb or accept.
Dallaire also told me about emails he had been receiving since the end of the genocide from French Canadian nuns he had known on the ground in Rwanda. Their repeated messages said that Hutus were disappearing on a weekly basis in Rwanda, taken from their homes in the dead of night, never to be seen again. The idea that the liberators could have been slowly cleansing their society of members of the Hutu majority, quietly abducting them without a trace, was horrifying. Dallaire claimed to have heard similar reports from other people he considered reliable sources.
As time went by more was unravelled, this time by human rights organisations about camps of Hutu refugees in the Eastern DRC having been “liquidated” by the Rwandan military in the years after the genocide. These were camps with tens of thousands of men, women and children in them that were simply eliminated from the face of the earth. It is something that the Rwandan government, with Paul Kagame as its President denied, but many mass graves were eventually found by the UN and human rights organisations.
If one peels away all the gloss that is the dominant narrative about Rwanda – the 8% economic growth rate, the reduction in poverty and maternal mortality rates, the advances in education, IT, and the low levels of crime and corruption – a very different picture emerges. The miracle and image of Rwanda’s successes gives way to a nation gripped by fear, fear to say what they really think, to vote the way they want, to challenge government policies, or to hold their leaders to account. The 25 years of Kagame’s rule has ensured this culture of fear and intimidation, where at each election Kagame claims to have won well over 90% of the vote, boasting that the poll is nothing but a formality to confirm his right to rule.
The intoxicating addiction to power led Kagame to preside over a referendum in 2015 to amend the constitution to allow him to run for a third term in office in 2017, enabling him to extend his rule by a further seven years. The amendment also allows him to stand for a further two terms beyond 2024, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2034. The result of the referendum was supposedly 98% in favour.
The EU and the US may have criticised the amendments saying it undermined democratic principles, but the US continues to provide 20% of the Rwandan national budget, the UK is the second biggest donor and Rwanda’s foreign aid budget as a whole total US$1 billion annually. No matter how Kagame may have manipulated electoral outcomes, he has remained the darling of the West. Collective guilt for not intervening to stop the genocide? A desperate need for a foreign aid success story? Or the reliable extraction of strategic minerals from the Eastern DRC, and the secure corridor Rwanda provide for their transport out of the region?
Whatever drives the West, what is particularly troubling is the levels of domestic repression Rwandans are living under. Any attempt to criticise the government is deemed a threat to national security and an attempt to stoke sectarianism. Critics, opponents, and journalists are jailed or disappeared, and the numbers are rising. It is no longer only opposition leaders or critics that are jailed, but their family members as well. To add to the draconian nature of the state, it is documented by Human Rights Watch that petty criminals are being extra-judicially executed by the security forces. Some villagers are shot for stealing a cow or a bike. It is all part of a strategy to spread fear in the society to enforce order, absolute control, and keep the electorate subdued.
For the last year Kagame presided over the African Union as its Chair, but his façade of good governance and democracy was never challenged. Perhaps it is time to tell the truth about the way things really are in Rwanda and to start challenging some of the myths that surround the notion of the Rwandan miracle. I have to wonder whether if Madiba was still alive he wouldn’t have called for a more transparent electoral system, and supported the notion of majority rule in Rwanda?
* Shannon Ebrahim is the Group Foreign Editor
L’opposante rwandaise Diane Rwigara, critique du président Paul Kagame, a été acquittée jeudi par un tribunal de Kigali d’incitation à l’insurrection et falsification de documents, des charges qui lui ont valu d’être emprisonnée pendant plus d’un an et dénoncées comme politiques par l’intéressée.
GAHUNDE 