OPEN LETTER TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW WORKING GROUP OF THE OFFICE OF THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER ON HUMAN RIGHTS

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Subject: Call for the piloting of your Universal Periodic Review recommendations for Rwanda made at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on January 25, 2021.

Dear members (all)

The Rwandan Alliance for the National Pact – RANP Abaryankuna would like to express its gratitude to you and to all member countries for your statements calling on the regime in Kigali to respect fundamental human rights and to ensure that the Rwandan people benefit from them. Undeniably, it is never too late and it becomes even urgent for the whole world to come out and condemn in the strongest terms the dictatorial manoeuvres that are becoming a status quo in Rwanda on a progressive basis since two decades.

Indeed, we would like to bring to your attention the cases of many young Rwandans who joined our movement since the beginning until now, who even paid it with their own lives. We will mention first the founding members made of the trio of Niyomugabo Nyamihirwa Gerald, Kizito Mihigo and Ntamuhanga Cassien. The first two died in custody while the last one is currently being hunted by the Rwanda regime. Others who joined the movement like the journalist Phocas Ndayizera and his 12 comrades are currently imprisoned in Rwanda since the end of 2018^[1]. Others like Ntiyatwibagiwe Jean Bosco simply disappeared and many others went the exile for their safety.

Subsequently, in April 2019, the Rwandan secrets services kidnapped Mr. Albert Higiro, the fourth person in Ntamuhanga Cassien’s family after his brothers Ngabo Fikiri, Jimmy Ngabonziza Moses, and Mutuyimana Joel all kidnapped by the same services in October 2016. Until to date, their whereabouts and fate remain unknown.

Despite the false statement made by Mr. Johnson Busingye, the current Rwanda Minister of Justice, a number of young members of our movement were arrested, imprisoned in secret detention cells, tortured until they made false confessions accusing themselves of plotting against the regime of President Paul Kagame. For instance Eliakim Karangwa^[2] « had made the confession under pressure because he was disoriented (questioned in a place where he did not know where it was) and blindfolded. It should be recalled here that the twelve co-defendants of Phocas Ndayizera remained missing, without their families knowing where they were for a month. They miraculously reappeared at the Phocas Ndayizera’s first public hearing. »

(From left to right)Ngabo Jimmy, Ntamuhanga, Moses Ngabo nziza and Joel Mutuyimana. Ntamuhanga’s brothers and Albert Higiro who is missing since April 2019!

In 2019, Neil Edwards kindly recommended tothe United States of America to set a clear and unified policy that encourages the Rwandan government to adopt inclusive institutions as 66%^[3] of the Rwandan population was born after 1990, therefore, the war or genocide perpetrated against Tutsis or other mass crimes that have not been qualified as genocide as pointed out by the late Kizito Mihigo, cannot be used to repress their freedom of expression or political opinion because of their young age at the time of these dramatic events that plunged Rwanda into mourning. We can mention Bizimana Terence, 23 years old today, who joined our movement and is now in prison. On June 9, 2020, he declared this in the hearings: “I don’t have the means to overthrow the regime, I don’t know why the prosecutor said that. Only a person with the means can overthrow a power, that’s what history teaches us, I have no means! »^[4]

In that parody of justice, we waited until September 18, 2020 the day that the Rwandan public prosecutor’s office mentioned without admitting it the real reason why he put innocent people in prison. On that day the public prosecutor’s office pushed into its corners and declared that “^[5]Ntamuhanga and Ndayizera founded the “Abaryankuna” movement that criticized the Rwandan authorities and that Cassien Ntamuhanga was “the coordinator of the movement”. The prosecutor’s office told the court that there were four audio recordings of Ntamuhanga criticizing the current Rwandan regime. ». On that day, the court was expected to rule on the guilt or innocence of the defendants, and instead the prosecution decided to reclassify the facts for which they are being prosecuted that are: “conspiring against the Rwandan government with the intention of overthrowing it by means of war or other force; conspiracy and incitement to commit a crime of terrorism; the illegal use of explosives in public places and to engage in criminal activities”, and he added the crimes of “complicity”-icyitso” and “planning – gucura umugambi”. Again, this is a pure parody of justice.

In January 2021 a group of individuals were arrested in Kigali for not following the lockdown government guidelines. One of them is Gatete Nyiringabo a strong supporter of the regime and active on twitter. They will be released few days later while our member and a freelance journalist Niyonsenga Dieudonne known as Cyuma Hassan who reported to the Voice of America the wounds he found on Kizito Mihigo dead body is still incarcerated for violating the same lockdown guidelines since April 2020.

We remain convinced that if the USA recommendations^[6] to Rwanda government below:

Promote the right to freedom of expression by ending detentions and harassment of members of the media and civil society for their reporting.
Independently and transparently investigate credible allegations of unlawful or arbitrary arrests and detentions, killings, and enforced disappearances of human rights defenders, political opponents, and journalists, prosecuting alleged perpetrators under the law.
Enforce the protection of all persons’ rights to life and liberty by strengthening the independence of the justice system and ensuring no one is convicted on the basis of information extracted under torture or duress.

would have been followed, Phocas Ndayizera and his co-defendants and so many other members of our movement would have not been in jail.

The pursuit of the parody of justice in the case of Phocas Ndayizera and co-accused is planned to take place this February 08, 2021. While we commend your recent review on Rwanda’s basic human right records, we call upon again on you to initiate further follow-up actions in that sense that could bring justice to many including those in custody mentioned in this letter. The continued inaction and or timid reactions of the international community will continue to make the current regime of Paul Kagame unanswerable of those basic human right abuses and hence make it much more dictatorial.

In 2020, 48^[7] people were victims of extra-judicial executions by Rwandan security forces and no one was prosecuted or imprisoned. The government denied^[8] your statements by stating that the committee members who raised concerns have no evidence, however based on the above examples we join our voice to your call you on behalf of 12 million of the Rwandan people and the victims of the regime to continue to demand that the Rwandan government:

Conduct transparent, credible and independent investigations into allegations of extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture, and bring perpetrators to justice.
Protect and enable journalists to work freely, without fear of retribution, and ensure that state authorities comply with the Access to Information law.
Screen, identify and provide support to trafficking victims, including those held in Government transit centres.

Beyond your recommendations, we would like to invite you to closely follow-up the continuation of the trial of Phocas Ndayizera and his 12 co-accused to ensure that the Rwandan government rectifies the situation and release them. This trial alone cannot explain the magnitude of the repression that the members of our revolutionary movement are and have been victims of with the only crime of expressing our political agenda to eradicate the ethnic resentment among Rwandans and make Never Again a meaningful statement in Rwanda. And not only for the members of our movement but also for others activists, politicians, journalists, students, ordinary citizens, jailed and silenced for only expressing their political opinions in Rwanda.

To act for the future of Rwanda is to act for the end of the culture of impunity and the end of parallel justice that President Paul Kagame himself admits to have installed^[9]. The free and democratic Rwanda will not only benefit its population but also the entire Great Lakes Region whose socio-economic, historical and political interconnectivity has been revealed to the world.

Yours Sincerely,