Rwandan Security Operatives Target Opposition and Critics in DIaspora

Photo: Tom Ndahiro

The Rwandan Government, led by a small minority within the Tutsis ethnics has unleashed a campaign of harassment, attacks on its critics and opposition leaders in the diaspora. The attacks include media saturation, meetings, and security operatives to target opposition.
The campaign follows attempts to act on a hitlist by Rwandan Intelligence services were thwarted by leaks (see The Rwanda Hit List – Conscious Being Alliance ) and tender offers to harass and persecute oppositions leaders (see here) and other media, political and diplomatic actions failed to reach its goals.
The campaign is coordinated by Tom Ndahiro, the Communication Adviser to the Rwandan General Dictator Paul Kagame and General Emmanuel Ndahiro, the head of Intelligence, and Rwandan Ambassador in USA, James Kimonyo .
The campaign coincides with political unrest across Africa  with entrenched dictators being toppled by people rising against years of oppression.

THE HIT LISTS
In 2010 the Rwandan head of intelligence services General Emmanuel Ndahiro, alegedly initiated a covert action to target leaders in the diaspora (see The Rwanda Hit List – Conscious Being Alliance ).   In 2009 and 2010, Jean Sayinzoga, the Chairman of Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC), under an order titled Recruitment of International Sensitisation consultant No. 02/CS/RDRC/09 launched a  tender worth of more than a million dollars to target opposition leaders living in America. The terms of the contract singled out RUD-Urunana in North America as the enemy number one of the Rwandan Government, because of "the critically detrimental role played by the RUD-Urunana’s leaders abroad, particularly in Europe and North America, in sustaining the armed movements on the ground, in projecting a powerful image of the opposition abroad and in promoting their goals internationally… RUD-Urunana reflects a policy to seek alliances and support abroad from foreign governments, regional and international organizations, the media, the church and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), through misinformation and deception".
On December 30, 2009, the Rwandan opened another tender for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The tender  N°01/CS/RDRC/ 2010  titled "Request for expressions of interest for the consultant to support the Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission´s work with regard to Rwandese armed groups in foreign countries,"  was signed by Mr. Sayinzoga Jean on 30th December 2009 and published on January 18, 2010. With the tender, the Rwandan Government invited “expressions of interest for an international consultant who will help to address the gaps that allow campaigns of misinformation and disinformation of armed groups to go unchecked with far-reaching consequences.”
The hit-lists and the two tenders, all targeting the opposition leaders and NGOs in the opposition appears to be the tip of the iceberg of the criminal intentions of the Rwandan tyrants.

TOM NDAHIRO’S CRUSADE

In several posts on blogs (see ttp://friendsofevil.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/academics-lawyers-and-journalists-joined-in-genocide-denial/  and http://friendsofevil.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/spanish-fame-and-shame-manipulations-of-ngos-and-media/) Tom Ndahiro sets the tone and put a mark on key individuals to target. The indiividuals include leaders of Rwandan opposition groups, but also anyone who dared to say: there is a problem of governance, freedom, and human rights in Rwanda.

★ First the foreign lawyers and academics:
✴ Peter Erlinder, a man wanted by Kigali, he was jailed in Rwanda for daring to defend a Rwandan opposition leader. He was released after pressure from the US State Department.
✴ Jeffrey Gettlemen, New York Times journalist: for daring to write articles documenting abuses in Rwanda, especially documenting the human rights abuses in Iwawa (see our article here: http://www.afroamerica.net/Africa/World_Events/Entries/2010/5/2_Iwawa%2C_the_Rwandan_Gulag.html, comparing the prison of Iwawa to Russian gulags)

✴ Peter Robinson, an ICTR lawyer and Ann Garrison, for being among Peter Erlinder’s friends and colleague or as TOm Ndahiro puts it: “in Erlinder’s network.”

✴ Journalists Harmon Snow and David Barouski: “prolific deniers” for Tom Ndahiro
✴ Robin Phillips, executive director of the Advocates for Human Rights, accused on being in “Erlinder’s network”.

✴ Chris Black for being “a known genocide denier” over Canada

✴ John Philpot, defense council at the ICTR for being “a known genocide denier

✴ Arthur Vercken and Anta Guisse, “two French lawyers at the ICTR who have joined the bandwagon” of critics of the Rwandan regime.

✴ David Guesspass, for having questionned the motives behind Erlinder’s case

✴ Kenneth Gallant, law professor of the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas, for playing a role in “thoughtless defense”.

✴ Niloufer Bhagwat, the Vice President of the Indian Association of Lawyers, for joining the cohort of “deniers”.

✴ Eric Janus, the dean at William Mitchell, for describing Peter Erlinder as “a tenacious and vigorous advocate” of human rights.

✴ ”Infected Academics”: Christian Davenport, Professor of Political Science at the University of Maryland, Allan Stam, William Van der Griend, and Mick Collins.

★ Foreign Countries and Government:
✴ Spanish Government: for indicting criminals within the Rwandan Patriotic Front
✴ Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, for refusing “to meet President Paul Kagame” and snubbing the Rwandan dictator and demonstrating “his lack of sound judgement ” and having been “influenced by two ill-famed genocide enthusiasts, Juan Carrero and Bernat Vicens.”

★ Foreign Human Rights Activists and politicians:
✴ Spanish Senator, Pere Sampol for being a “virulent extremist” and behind the indictments of RPF criminals.
✴ Juan Carrero, President of Fundation S’Olivar: for being an “active coordinators of the anti-Tutsi hate movement and being behind the indictments of RPF criminals. Also labelled “chief bigot.”
✴ Fundacion S’Olivar for being a “ lobbying group [that] has co-opted various NGOs, the judiciary, private lawyers, academics, city councils, and now, the central Spanish government,” Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney: for being a “plaintif” in the case against the RPF criminals

★ For being “Hutus and Tutsis in exile” or associations of Hutus and Tutsis in exile:
✴  Marie Béatrice Umutesi—“sociologist, writer, Rwandan victim and refugee;”
✴ Assistance Aux Victimes Des Conflits en Afrique Centrale” (AVICA);
✴ Association of Victims Pro Justitia;”
✴ “Centre de Lutte contre l’Impunité/ Centre for the Struggle against Impunity and Injustice”(CLIIR);
✴ Forum on Justice in the Great Lakes Region
✴ Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR).


★ Rwandans:
✴ Dr Pascal Ndengejeho, for “accusing the RPF of being behind the founding of militia groups, including the Interahamwe itself.”
✴ Dr Leopold Munyakazi, for referring to the 1994 Rwandan massacres as “ as civil war, not genocide; it was about political power.”
✴ Antoine Nyetera told the court that: “It is the RPF that started the killings, this brought about the Hutu reaction that led to the overall killings.”
✴ Joseph Matata, President of CLIIR, for being “ a self-proclaimed defender of genocide ideology and genocidaires.” Charles Ndereyehe, for being “a leader and an ideologue of genocidaires” and “invoking the syndicates of liars”
✴ Dr. Félicien Kanyamibwa and Jean Marie Vianney Higiro for being “the founders of [OPJDR] organisation” and advocating to “Set up an international commission to investigate the genocide of Hutu committed by the RPF in Rwanda and DRC.”


©AfroAmerica Network, 2011