[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 75 (Friday, May 27, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E982-E983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        OPPOSING POLITICAL KILLINGS BY THE GOVERNMENT OF RWANDA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 26, 2011

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the 
current campaign of extra-judicial killing eing waged by the government 
of Rwanda. Political assassination has no role to play in the twenty 
first century. It must be condemned and it must cease. The government 
of Rwanda should understand that the large amounts of aid that Rwanda 
receives through America's generosity can not and will not be given to 
a state that kills its own citizens overseas and at home for political 
ends.
  The government of Rwanda is conducting a campaign of terror and 
murder against those it sees as enemies. On May 19, 2011 the New York 
Times reported that Rwandan dissidents in London had been warned by 
Scotland Yard that the Rwandan government ``was plotting to kill 
them.'' The BBC reported on May 21st that British police had told the 
men that ``The Rwandan government poses an immediate threat to your 
life.''
  These are not just empty threats. The British police prevented a 
Rwandan assassin from entering the UK. In June 2010, former Rwandan 
Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, survived a botched 
assassination attempt in South Africa. Later that same month, Rwandan 
journalist, Jean-Leonard Rugambage, working on a story on the attack on 
Mr. Nyamwasa, was himself shot dead in Kigali.
  The Government of Rwanda is using every means at its disposal to 
harass those it sees as enemies but whom are merely exercising their 
democratic rights. In January 2011, four former top officials--
including Gen Nyamwasa--who have fallen out with President Kagame and 
gone into exile were sentenced in absentia to long terms in prison for 
threatening state security and promoting ethnic divisions. My own 
constituent, American citizen and distinguished human rights lawyer and 
campaigner, Paul Erlinder, was detained on bogus charges for several 
weeks in Kigali.
  Rwanda's recent history has been tragic, but a stable and prosperous 
country has been born from the ashes of the 1994 genocide. However, 
this tragic history does not give the current government the right to 
commit murder. The United States currently gives Rwanda over $200 
million per year in aid. This generosity must surely be reexamined if 
the government continues to attack and kill those it disagrees with.

                      [From the BBC News, Africa]

           Rwandan Exiles in London ``Threatened by Hitman''


Two Rwandan exiles living in London were warned last week by UK police 
              that they faced the threat of assassination.

       It has emerged that the men were visited by officers who 
     told them they were in danger of being killed by a hitman 
     sent by the Rwandan government.
       Shortly before the warning was issued, a Rwandan man 
     suspected of involvement was prevented from entering the UK.
       The Rwandan High Commission in London has denied 
     involvement in any alleged plot to kill the two exiles.
       ``The government of Rwanda does not threaten the lives of 
     its citizens wherever they live,'' High Commissioner Ernest 
     Rwamucyo said.
       The government later said that the Metropolitan police had 
     not approached it with evidence of the allegations.
       ``We are ready as always to work with them to ensure that 
     nobody, be they Rwandan or not, is the victim of violence on 
     British soil,'' a statement said, quoted by the New Times 
     website in Kigali.


                               ``Scared''

       The two men--Rene Mugenzi and Jonathan Musonera--have both 
     been involved in political groups opposed to the ruling party 
     of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame.
       A week ago, UK police officers knocked on their doors and 
     told them that they could not guarantee their safety. They 
     advised them to increase the security around their homes or 
     move away.
       The police gave them written statements saying: ``The 
     Rwandan government poses an immediate threat to your life. 
     The threat could come in any form.''
       It is understood that shortly before visiting the two men, 
     counter-terrorism officers had stopped a Rwandan man as he 
     tried to enter the country at Folkestone.
       They questioned the unidentified man and turned him away.
       Mr. Musonera said he and his family were very scared.
       ``I was not surprised, because this is not the first time 
     they've tried to disturb the opposition,'' he told the BBC's 
     Focus on Africa programme after learning about the death 
     threat.
       ``I take this problem very seriously. I used to drive my 
     car. Right now I stopped because the police told me to use 
     limited movement or go out with friends.
       ``My wife, she is scared. We have cut off the home phone. 
     The children now they stay at home, they can't go out. They 
     can't go out with friends. I stopped visitors coming to our 
     home.''


                           Opposition meeting

       BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says it is not the first 
     time there have been reports of threats to Rwandan exiles 
     living in the UK.
       The UK's Security Service (MI5) has apparently been 
     attempting to prevent an assassination campaign for some 
     time, he adds.
       In April, it was reported that MI5 had warned Mr Rwamucyo 
     to halt an alleged campaign of harassment against critics of 
     his country's government.
       The police's warning was issued just prior to a meeting in 
     London of exiles last weekend that brought together Tutsi and 
     Hutu opposition politicians.
       The meeting heard from a former Rwandan chief of staff, Lt 
     Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who addressed the gathering by 
     videolink from South Africa, where he survived an 
     assassination attempt in June 2010.
       The Rwanda government has denied any links to the shooting 
     of Gen Nyamwasa, who was a close ally of Mr Kagame before 
     fleeing to South Africa last year.
       The party representing the imprisoned Hutu politician, 
     Victoire Ingabire, was also at the meeting.
       The possibility that Hutu and Tutsi political parties could 
     begin working together would be worrying for the Rwandan 
     government, our correspondent says.
       In January, four former top officials--including Gen 
     Nyamwasa--who have fallen out with Mr Kagame and gone into 
     exile were sentenced in absentia to long terms in prison for 
     threatening state security and promoting ethnic divisions.
       President Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power in 
     1994, ending the genocide in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis 
     and moderate Hutus were killed.
       He was re-elected last year with 93% of the vote, amid 
     opposition claims of harassment.
                                  ____


                [From the New York Times, May 19, 2011]

            British Police Warn Rwandan Dissidents of Threat

                  (By Josh Kron and Jeffrey Gettleman)

       Kampala, Uganda.--The British police have warned two 
     outspoken Rwandan dissidents living in London that their 
     lives are in danger because the Rwandan government may be 
     plotting to kill them, according to British officials and 
     documents.
       In hand-delivered letters dated May 12, the Metropolitan 
     Police Service warned the dissidents that the threat on their 
     lives ``could come in any form'' and that ``unconventional 
     means'' had been used before.
       ``Reliable intelligence states that the Rwandan government 
     poses an imminent threat to your life,'' the warning letters 
     read. They added, ``Although the Metropolitan Police Service 
     will take what steps it can to minimize the risk, the police 
     cannot protect you from this threat on a day-by-day, hour-by-
     hour basis.''
       British officials confirmed the documents' authenticity on 
     Thursday.
       Human rights groups have increasingly criticized the 
     Rwandan government as being repressive and intolerant of any 
     dissent, and several Rwandan dissidents living abroad have 
     been mysteriously killed.
       Last year, a former Rwandan general who had broken with the 
     government was shot in South Africa, and assailants later 
     tried to kill him while he was recovering in the hospital. 
     Western diplomats contended that was evidence of a government 
     plot to kill him.
       The Rwandan government has rejected such accusations, 
     including any threats in London.
       ``The government of Rwanda does not threaten the lives of 
     its citizens wherever they live,'' it said in a statement. 
     ``The Metropolitan Police have not approached us with 
     evidence of allegations, but we are ready, as always, to work 
     with them to ensure that nobody, be they Rwandan or not, is 
     the victim of violence on British soil.''
       The form letters, signed by a member of the Metropolitan 
     Police Service, did not vouch for the accuracy of the threat 
     but said it came from a source whose account the police had 
     ``no reason to disbelieve.''
       One of the recipients of the warning, Rene Claudel Mugenzi, 
     has been actively working with Rwandan opposition groups in 
     London and said he was contacted by the British police late 
     on May 12. ``They said it was important,'' Mr. Mugenzi said, 
     ``that I should not leave home.''
       Mr. Mugenzi, 35, said he was aware that the Rwandan 
     government did not appreciate his political views. But when 
     two police officers showed up at his door in east London 
     around 10:30 p.m. and told him and his wife of a threat to 
     his life, he said he was speechless.
       ``I did not think they could think to kill me here in the 
     U.K.,'' he said.
       Mr. Mugenzi says that in March he asked a pointed question 
     to Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, during a BBC call-in show 
     about whether Mr. Kagame believed an Egypt-style revolution 
     could happen in Rwanda.
       He also helped organize a recent meeting of exiled Rwandans 
     in London. The Rwandan government has accused many opposition 
     officials of working with a rebel group in eastern Congo that 
     has been classified as a terrorist group by the United States 
     and linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
       Mr. Mugenzi, who says he holds British as well as Rwandan 
     citizenship, also works as a director at the London Center 
     for Social Impact. He ran with the Liberal Democrats in local 
     London elections last year and lost.

[[Page E983]]

       He has been living in Britain since 1997 and has frequently 
     criticized Rwanda's government for rights abuses.
       ``Take such remedial action as you see fit to increase your 
     own safety measures, e.g., house burglar alarms, change of 
     daily routines, always walk with an associate,'' said the 
     warning letter. ``It may even be that you decide that it is 
     more appropriate for you to leave the area for the 
     foreseeable future.''
       He said he had no plans to leave, but he was not ruling it 
     out.
       The other recipient of the warning, Jonathan Musonera, said 
     he was a former Rwandan Army captain who fled to Britain in 
     2001 after defecting while the army was fighting in Congo. He 
     said he was subsequently tortured by the Rwandan government. 
     Now a critic of the government, he said the British police 
     visited his home about an hour before the visit to Mr. 
     Mugenzi.
       ``They told me about the Rwandan government,'' Mr. Musonera 
     said, ``that they put my life in danger and they were trying 
     to kill me.''
       Critics of the Rwandan government have been killed or have 
     simply vanished. Seth Sendashonga, a former member of the 
     governing party, was fatally shot in Kenya in 1998. Augustin 
     Cyiza, a former vice president of Rwanda's Supreme Court, 
     disappeared and is believed to have been killed in 2003. 
     Leonard Hitimana, an opposition politician, disappeared the 
     same year.
       A Rwandan journalist covering the apparent assassination 
     attempt of the general in South Africa was shot dead the day 
     his story was published. The shooting strained relations 
     between South Africa and Rwanda, with South Africa recalling 
     its ambassador in August.
       Last month, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported 
     that Britain's domestic intelligence service, MI5, had warned 
     Rwanda's high commissioner in London that a harassment 
     campaign against Rwandan dissidents must be stopped or more 
     than $100 million in foreign aid to Rwanda could be cut.
       The Rwandan government has repeatedly denied that it 
     represses its citizens or has had a hand in any of the 
     attacks on high-profile dissidents.

                          ____________________