Kanimba said that in one brief conversation with the consular official Rusesabagina had referred to “waking up” in Kigali. The family was also seeking information from anyone who might have witnessed his arrival in Rwanda, which they believed occurred early on 28 August after Rusesabagina was forced or tricked into taking a private chartered jet from Dubai to Kigali.
Officials in Kigali have said he was arrested on what they described as “an international warrant” but have not provided further details.
It is also unclear who Rusesabagina was meeting in Dubai or where he was when first detained. Kanimba said she had booked his flight to Dubai and that it was not unusual for her father to travel to meetings, but that she had not booked his hotel.
Rusesabagina appeared in a Kigali court on Monday facing charges of terrorism and murder. His family have staunchly denied the charges, and say he has not been allowed access to his own team of lawyers.
“The whole charade is just a show,” said Kanimba. “My anticipation is that they will force him to plead guilty and that whatever torture he is experiencing will force him to do that.”
A spokesperson at the Belgian foreign ministry said officials from its embassy in Kigali had visited Rusesabagina last week and were offering him consular assistance, while declining to give further details.
“We have been following the issue through our embassy in Kigali,” said the spokesperson, who would not say whether Belgium had any plans to speak out publicly for him.
Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy advocacy group, said it was not surprising that neither Belgium nor the US had publicly launched a campaign on Rusesabagina’s behalf.
Smith said he believed it reflected a reticence to criticise a country that was seen as having benefited from development aid and western support, and emerged as an African success story – even as grave human rights abuses by Kagame’s government had been ignored by the western leaders who supported him.
The US state department also issued a tepid response to the arrest of Rusesabagina, who was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by George W Bush in 2005.
Last week, Tibor Nagy, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs tweeted that the US expected the Rwandan government to provide humane treatment, adherence to the rule of law, and a fair and transparent legal process for Rusesabagina.
But Smith said the US state department’s own human rights report on Rwanda raised doubts about whether those were feasible. The US government had pointed to “significant human rights issues”, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by Rwandan security forces, forced disappearances and torture by state security forces, and “unlawful interference with privacy”.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
