Earlier this week Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s newspaper, The New Times of Rwanda, called out foreign supporters of Rwandan political prisoners Victoire Ingabire and Paul Rusesabagina, the real life hero of the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” The paper called them criminals and said that only criminals would form an opposition political party to challenge the ruling party. Many members of Rwandan opposition parties who do not have high profiles and supporters in the West have been disappeared or summarily executed.
This week Paul Rusesabagina said that he would no longer attempt to defend himself in Kagame’s kangaroo court, as Victoire Ingabire did in 2012, when she was on trial for challenging the legally enforced history of the Rwandan Genocide and attempting to run for president against Paul Kagame. Ingabire served eight years in prison, from 2010 to 2018, and she remains a prisoner in Rwanda, forbidden to leave the country. Here, in honor of Women’s History Month, is Victoire Ingabire addressing the Women’s International Network for Democracy and Peace at the 2020 Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize Awards:
