By Judi Rever February 5, 2014
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 11, 2009 (Eric Miller/World Economic Forum
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 11, 2009 (Eric Miller/World Economic Forum
Joel Mutabazi, a former presidential bodyguard facing terrorism charges in Rwanda, is a shadow of his former self.
“He’s like a skeleton,” said his emotionally frayed wife Gloria Kayitesi in an interview, commenting on pictures of him splashed on the Internet.
Shackled and abased, Mutabazi appeared in military court last week in full view of journalists. In photos, his complexion was sallow and the whites of his eyes were inflamed with tiny veins. Physically diminished and with little prospect for freedom, he had become a man with nothing to lose.
And yet the former child soldier and repository of secrets that worked for President Paul Kagame for two decades emerged defiant. In a statement that shocked the court, Mutabazi refused to be tried, said his life was in danger and he was not guilty of terrorism and other alleged crimes.
Mutabazi—viewed as the ‘highest caliber target’ among Rwandan Tutsi refugees in Uganda capable of incriminating Kagame and his senior officials—was seized three months ago in Kampala where he had been living in a UN safe house under police surveillance. In breach of international law, Rwanda engineered his forced return and accused him of forming an armed group and conspiring to kill the president.
“If anyone knows the circumstances under which I was deported from Uganda and how the law was ignored in this process, I do not believe that there are other laws in this country that will guarantee my innocence,” Mutabazi said.
“I therefore do not wish to say anything throughout this trial, but I came here to tell my family that whatever happens to me in future, this is my stand on the charges: I am not guilty of all of them and I will not defend myself against them.”
Mutabazi knows his rights and how they’ve been acutely violated. In 2010, he was suspected of having close ties with Kayumba Nyamwasa—now one of Kagame’s enemies that used to Rwanda’s defense chief—and subjected to electric shocks, beatings, waterboarding, and sensory deprivation at Camp Kami, a notorious detention center in Rwanda.
He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in July 2012, after fleeing to Uganda and given refugee status, when armed gunman stormed his residence in Kampala. In August 2013, Rwandan agents and rogue Ugandan police abducted him from a UN safe house yet were quickly forced to return him when senior Ugandan police and the prime minister’s office intervened. The botched operation highlighted the mercurial divisions among Ugandan government and police officials who are regularly bribed and infiltrated by Rwanda.
The latest plot point in Mutabazi’s dramatic life occurred on October 25 when Joel Aguma, Uganda’s deputy director of crime intelligence who’d just returned from a stint at Rwanda’s National Police College, set up a police sting for the refugee that saw his brutal handover to Rwandan authorities.
Officials tasked with protecting refugees called the transfer “an act of criminality” for two reasons: no Interpol arrest warrant had been approved for Mutabazi and his return was in blatant violation of the Refugee Convention, which stipulates that no refugee should be returned a country where he is likely to face persecution or torture.
Last week, after Mutabazi appeared in a Kigali courtroom, a US State Department official offered this statement:
“The United States and other concerned countries are working together to maintain a regular presence at the trial.”
“We have expressed to the Ugandan government our concern that Mutabazi was handed over to Rwandan law enforcement, despite his refugee status, and reiterated our expectation that Uganda will adhere to its obligations to protect refugees on its territory in the future.”
In December, the United States called on Rwanda to ensure that Mutabazi gets a fair trial—and is protected and monitored in detention.
“The United States has urged the government of Rwanda to ensure that Mr. Joel Mutabazi’s rights are protected while he is in detention, and that he be provided due process, other fair trial protections, and continued access to adequate legal counsel,” said Charles Hawley, public affairs officer for the US embassy in Kigali.
“We have also urged the Rwandan government to continue to grant independent monitoring organizations access to Mr. Mutabazi during his detention,” Hawley added.
Despite attempts by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross to get access to Mutabazi in detention, he remains off limits—another breach of humanitarian norms. His lawyer in pretrial proceedings, Antoinette Mukamusoni, meanwhile announced she would no longer represent him and has refused all comment.
His lawyer’s frustrations stem in part from the fact that Mutabazi changed his plea in December, admitting under apparent duress he was guilty of fomenting a rebellion. At the time, Mutabazi is alleged to have said he had contacts with the FDLR, a Hutu rebel group in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo formed from the remnants of militants accused of carrying out genocide against Rwandan Tutsis in 1994. He also reportedly confessed that he had ties to the Rwandan National Congress (RNC), an opposition group that includes General Nyamwasa.
Yet his wife and supporters contend that Mutabazi has been beaten and kept in inhumane conditions, spending 24 hours a day in a dark cell, his hands and feet bound, sleeping on the cement and suffering from blood in his urine after being subjected to genitalia torture.
A rights activist interviewed by this journalist said Mutabazi had been “beaten so bad that he sent a message to his family through an intermediary that he might not even recover from his injuries. During those beatings, he was told to plead guilty.”
And so it was a surprise to many observers last week when Mutabazi denied all charges against him, openly defying the Rwandan government and setting himself up for more torture and possible death.
