Ruanda’s Kagame regime has no regard for human rights: German government and Rheinland-Pfalz must review Ruanda policy

Following the dismissal of the German ambassador from Ruanda the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) called on Wednesday for a review of relations with the African state. "The dark side of the autocratic Kagame regime can no longer be ignored”, said the GfbV Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius. Ruanda is held up, not only in the partner country of Rheinland-Pfalz, but also by the German government, as a model. It was only in April 2008 that the Defence Minister, Franz-Josef Jung, conducted talks with the Ruandan President on the matter of military cooperation. Severe violations of human rights in Ruanda were then ignored. The Kabuye affair was not the first indication that the Kagame government has very considerable problems with the recognition of human rights. There is no question of freezing relations, but a more realistic approach to Ruanda’s leaders is urgently needed.

"Human rights are still being blatantly disregarded and the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and the freedom of the right to hold meetings are still not allowed”, said Delius. Ruanda is listed by the Press Index of the human rights organisation "Reporters Without Borders” as one of the 28 worst enemies of the freedom of the press in the world (number 145 out of 173). Anyone questioning the actions of the authoritarian state must reckon with repression. As an example: the former minister and Kagame critic Charles Ntakiontinka is serving a prison sentence until 2012. He was sentenced in an unfair trial to ten years imprisonment because he had "worked with criminal elements”. He had dared to found an opposition party together with regime critics.

Ruanda does have good laws, which are however constantly being disregarded by the government security forces. The police are accused of exercising excessive force and torture. International standards for the conduct of justice are being disregarded. The most recent reform of the system of justice could not ensure the freedom of the courts from arbitrary action and respect by government offices for the independence of justice.

"The dignity of the victims of the genocide in Ruanda is being seriously assailed by the miserable mud-slinging which France and Ruanda have been indulging in while legally evaluating their responsibility for the genocide”, criticised Delius. About one million people were killed in the genocide in Ruanda in 1994. When prosecution proceedings were initiated in France in 1994, which led to the arrest of Kagame’s chief of protocol, Rose Kabuye, Ruanda set up in turn a commission to investigate the involvement of France in the genocide. The ensuing report, 500 pages long, contains very serious accusations against 33 leading French politicians and military. Paris reacted with indignation at the report. Ten of the French officers accused by Ruanda sued Ruanda’s government on 4th November 2008 for libel.