The life of the woman who leads Rwanda’s most prominent opposition to Paul Kagame’s dictatorship is being publicly threatened in the wake of the killing of many of her supporters.
“I call on its donors to press Rwandan authorities to open political space and help us establish the rule of law in our country.”
On May 26, I interviewed opposition leader Victoire Ingabire. Our exchanges were transmitted electronically between my home in the San Francisco Bay Area and hers in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Ann Garrison: Victoire, I received a press release from your supporters in Europe which said that someone called a TV channel there in Kigali—Channel 250—to say that you should be “arrested at least and killed at best.” This doesn’t sound good.
Victoire Ingabire: Yes, I heard this message on “My 250 TV.” My lawyer is preparing a complaint, but I have meanwhile informed the Rwandan Investigation Bureau.
AG: That’s the same investigation bureau that keeps calling you in for questioning, right? Sometimes leaving you to sit in a chair in a room all day by yourself?
VI: Yes, but it is their job to protect all the people of Rwanda.
AG: There has been another murder. Nine armed men killed Pastor Theoneste Bapfakurera when they mistook him for shopkeeper Theophile Ntirutwa, a member of your opposition party. Tell us about that.
VI: Yes, on Monday, May, 11, 2020, nine armed men attacked the shop of Theophile Ntirutwa, a member of my political party. They stabbed to death a customer, Theoneste Bapfakurera, and tied up other customers who were in the shop. Theophile had time to hide under the counter when the attackers pushed people into his shop. He immediately called me and I gave him the police number to call for help.
He told me that attackers arrived in the neighborhood and asked an elderly man to bring them to where his sister lived. Once there, they asked his sister to bring them to his shop. The people in this neighborhood said that the assailants asked them to switch off the lights. So when they entered Theophile’s shop, they asked, “Who is Theo?” and Pastor Theoneste answered that he was. Then they killed him and left the shop believing they had accomplished their mission even though they had killed another Theo.
AG: So many of your party members have been murdered or disappeared since your release from prison in September 2018 that I can’t remember them all. So, rather than go back through previous reports, I’ll ask you to tell me their names and what happened to them again.
VI: Yes, you are right. Since my release many members of my former party, United Democratic Forces of Rwanda (FDU-Inkingi) were killed, as were members of my new party, Development and Liberty for All-Umirinzi. Remember that I left FDU-INKINGi to create the new party De velopment and Liberty for All- Umurinzi, not because of disagreements with FDU, but because FDU is largely a party of exiles and refugees outside Rwanda, and Rwandans living here need their own party.
There were also killings and disappearances of members of FDU, in 2016, two years before I was released. That year Jean Damascène Habarugira’s throat was cut.
Also in 201
By Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 27 May 2020
