Over a long period, a pattern of repression, crimes, assassinations and kidnappings have marked the Rwandan regime under the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) since 1994, ruled by the Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame. Despite well documented proofs, these crimes and repressions appeared to be overlooked by the international community, influential media, and other main organizations. Even Western Democracies have seemed to overlook these crimes and bloody repression and continued to support and welcome Paul Kagame and other RPF leaders. In May 2024, the nonprofit organization Forbidden Stories, under the Rwanda Classified project, published results of cover investigations on the crimes and repression committed by the Rwandan regime. The findings show horrific actions, leading to questions on what is next for the Rwandan regime and its leaders.
Independent Investigations by Forbidden Stories on Crimes and Repression by Cold-Blooded Officials within Rwandan Regime.
Forbidden Stories was founded in 2017 by Laurent Richard, with a mission to provide a journalistic response to crimes against journalists.
Under the Rwanda Classified project Forbidden Stories investigated the widespread repression and crimes, using a consortium of 50 journalists representing 17 media outlets in 11 different countries over an extended period. They interviewed several people including former senior leaders of the RPF regime, such as Theogene Rudasingwa, a former RPF Secretary General and a former Rwandan ambassador to the United States and Eugene Gasana, a former Rwandan Ambassador to the United Nations.
Based on the reports by Forbidden Stories, the investigative journalists working on Rwanda Classified project focused on the crimes, assassination attempts, intimidation, kidnappings, suspicious deaths, and the use of surveillance technologies by the RPF regime under Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame.
The repressive acts, assassinations attempts and surveillance go further, even targeting members of the ruling party and critics both at home and abroad, and even foreign leaders.
Among the known victims and targets covered by Rwanda Classified Project are:
- In 1998, former Rwandan Interior Minister, Seth Sendashonga, while in exile in Kenya, after falling out with Paul Kagame about the killing of Hutu (unarmed) civilians, was assassinated. The assassination followed that of Col. Theoneste Lizinde, in 1996 a former High ranking military officer and former governor of Byumba who had also fled to Kenya after falling out with Paul Kagame about the same concerns ;
- In 2010, General Kayumba Nyamwasa, former head of military intelligence, survived an assassination attempt in Johannesburg, South Africa;
- In 2011 former Rwandan intelligence chief, Patrick Karegeya was assassinated iin a hotel room in Johannesburg, South Africa (see: South African Prosecution Impatient Over Former Rwandan Spy Patrick Karegeya's Assassination );
- In 2014, Canadian journalist Judi Rever was threatened while on a trip in Belgium and had to protection by the Belgian State Security Service;
- In June 2018, the Belgian-Rwandan lawyer Thomas Ngeze was hung in a hotel room in Johannesburg, South Africa. A month latter, a Belgian lawyer Pieter-Jan Staelens was burned in his car in Hermanus, South Africa while investigating Ngeze’s death on behalf of his family.
- In 2020 Gospel singer Kizito Mihigo captured when he tried to flee Rwanda by crossing its southern border into Burundi, after spending four years in prison for recording a song in which he dared to challenge the narrative of the RPF ruling elite. He said that the Rwandan Genocide was a tragedy for both of the country’s two major ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi. He had told the truth that each group massacred members of the other, and called for mutual compassion and forgiveness, as the only road towards true reconciliation.
- In 2020, activist Paul Rusesabagina was kidnapping by the RPF agents in Dubai, on a trip to Burundi;
- Rwandan journalists John Williams Ntwali and Samuel Baker Byansi, who were targeted for investigating the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), under the cover of M23 rebels; In January 2023, John Williams Ntwali was killed in Kigali, Rwanda. Although the Rwandan police said that a car accident, the investigation and several witnesses affirmed that it was an assassination by alleged Rwandan security agents;
- Social media activists Yvonne Idamange and Aimable Karasira, imprisoned following voicing their opinions on injustice and repression going on in Rwanda against common people (see: Rwanda: Activist Yvonne Idamange Iryamugwiza Condemned to 15 Years of Prison for Denouncing Crimes, Assassinations and Widespread Human Rights Abuses by the Government
- Former journalist Cassien Ntamuhanga, who disappeared in 2021 after seeking asylum in Mozambique;
- Journalist Dieudonné Niyonsenga, also known as Cyuma, who says he has been enduring “inhumane” conditions and beatings behind bars;
- Journalist Agnès Nkusi, who fled the country after being jailed and tortured and serving a jail sentence, for reporting on the on-going repression, corruption in the judicial system, and other forms of oppression;
- Anne Rwigara, the late sister of presidential candidate Diane Rwigara, was killed in USA, after being allegedly targeted by Rwandan intelligence services, using Pegasus over many years (see: Rwanda: Opposition Leader Diane Rwigara and her Mother Adeline Released from Jail on Bail );
- Former justice minister Tharcisse Karugarama was also allegedly targeted by Rwandan intelligence services, using Pegasus.
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What is Next?
In a country where, according to accounts and published reports from respected independent observers, human right organizations, and institutions, arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, disappearances, fake trials in front of political courts, incarcerations, imprisonment, and assassinations have become common, the prospects may not appear good.
In fact, one key question was on why, despite all crimes, including United Nations documented invasion and war crimes and potential genocide committed in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo over decades, RPF leaders and Paul Kagame, unlike other leaders with similar crimes, repression, and harrowing acts, have evaded the UN Sanctions. The investigation showed that Rwandan leaders have been evading United Nations sanctions due, in part, to the high number of Rwandan soldiers serving under UN Peace peeping missions.
However, it was also found that these troops are actually used by an investment fund controlled by RPF and Paul Kagame, to pursue economic interests in several countries on the continent and partners with influential businesses in Western countries.
Hence, like other voices and independent analysts, the Forbidden Stories ended their Rwanda Classified Investigation reports wondering how a repressive regime, such as the one ruling Rwanda has persisted and kept relations with Western democracies, despite damning dire reports on assassinations, war crimes, repression by several independent organizations including the UN, intelligence services in western and African countries, and independent observers. One path taken by the Rwandan regime is the use of a hidden army of lobbyists, trolls and agents ready to smear any opposition or dissenting voice regarding the Rwandan government's narrative.
One key action taken by one country, Belgium, is related to Vincent Karega, the former Rwandan Ambassador to South Africa, who was in office when former RPF regime NISS chief, Patrick Karegeya, Thomas Ngeze and Pieter-Jan Staelens were killed. The Belgium government refused the accreditation of Vincent Karega, when Paul Kagame's government sought to appoint hime as the Rwandan ambassador to Belgium in 2023. He had also been expelled from DR Congo.
The Forbidden Stories wonder whether Rwandan leaders use the economic partnership with governments of or companies in the Western countries like in Mozambique, the judicial cooperation on matters of migration with countries like UK , or the troops deployed to United Nations peacekeeping missions to put pressure on Western governments and the United Nations. But behind this gleaming image is a hidden army of lobbyists, trolls and agents ready to smear any opposition
The final question is what the double standards used towards Rwandan regime and its leaders, especially the dictator Paul Kagame, achieve for Western powers and leaders to the point of not calling for sanctions or taking measures to safeguard democracy, humanitarian values, justice, and freedom.
The Rwandan government has rejected the findings claiming that, as usual " government officials and Rwandan citizens have been pestered by politically motivated campaigners planning a series of media hit pieces on Rwanda... Rwandans have come to expect this kind of media flurry by the usual actors, timed to disrupt our upcoming presidential and legislative elections."
For more on Forbidden Stories Rwanda Classified project see here: Forbidden Stories
AfroAmerica Network is closely following the dynamics following the findings of Forbidden Stories' Rwanda Classified Investigation.
@2024 AfroAmerica Network
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