British Police Claims Spark Row With Govt

The Independent (Kampala)

27 May 2011

Reports published recently in the British media alleging that the Rwandan government is actively threatening Rwandan citizens in the UK with violence have caused a serious diplomatic row between the Rwandan and British governments.

Articles which were published in the UK’s Independent and BBC claim that Rwanda is plotting an assassination against two Rwandans living in the UK.

The Independent UK said British Metropolitan Police warned two Rwandan critics of President Paul Kagame that “their lives are in imminent danger from the Rwandan government.”

However, UK authorities are not quoted anywhere in the media, prompting authorities in Kigali to demand a retraction of the statements by the UK’s Police department.

Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo asked Rwanda’s Ambassador to the UK, Ernest Rwamucyo, to approach British authorities for details on the matter.

“We asked them to explain how, where, when, and there was no answer to that,” says Mushikiwabo.

As a result of not getting sufficient clarifications, the minister decided to summon the UK High Commissioner to Rwanda for more explanation on the allegations made by his government.

She told The Independent that, “I asked the UK High Commissioner to Rwanda to provide the reliable evidence. He did not,” she says. “As we were trying to figure it out, the next thing we see is every UK media outlet running the story.”

The Independent has obtained a copy of the document issued by the Metropolitan Police to the two Rwandan men, Rene Mugenzi and Musonera, which says “Reliable intelligence states that the Rwandan government poses an imminent threat to your life. The threat could come in any form.”

The Rwandan government has issued a statement that blatantly counters the document. The statement says: “Unveiling identities of people whose lives are supposedly threatened and then calling the alleged culprits ‘Government of Rwanda’ without a shred of evidence, is both unfair and unjust.”

The statement also adds that, “The Metropolitan Police have not approached us with any evidence of these allegations.”

After bitter exchanges between the two governments, the British Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, said the suggestion of foreign nationals sanctioning violence on the streets of London is a very serious matter. He suggested that, “there be a full investigation and make public its findings where appropriate.”

Rwanda says it welcomes requests by UK Members of Parliament to shed light on this whole affair, and should these allegations be shown to be false, “the Government of Rwanda would expect the Metropolitan Police to make a full and public retraction of their previous statements.”

Nevertheless, before investigations have been carried out, the attitude of British MPs appear to favor the allegations.

The Independent UK quoted the former Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, as saying that “The Rwandan High Commissioner should be told in the strongest possible terms that conduct of the kind threatened will simply not be tolerated.”

According to Minister Mushikiwabo, such a view reflects the level of contempt that Western governments have toward their African counterparts. “This perfectly fits with the perception that our governments in Africa face: that all African countries are made of dictators, repressive regimes.”

However, in this particular case, the Rwandan government does not allocate entire blame to the British government.

In a press statement issued on Monday May 23, 2011, Rwanda said, “Manipulation of media and opinion by individuals and groups engaged in criminal activities against Rwandan people and the tarnishing of our nation’s image should not be given any value.”

The Independent reliably found out that the two Rwandan men involved in this diplomatic crisis, are among the followers of a group of Rwandan fugitives headed by Kayumba Nyamwasa and Patrick Karegeya, former allies of President Paul Kagame.

In fact, a credible source in Rwanda intelligence told The Independent that they alerted British authorities that those Rwandan enemies would hold a meeting on May 14, 2011.

“We told them ahead of the meeting, and we chose to deal with the UK because we don’t need to reprimand those enemies,” says the source. However, Rwanda intelligence says UK authorities ignored their information only to later turn around and accuse Rwanda of wanting to hurt these individuals.

Rwandan officials believe British authorities could have become suspicious as to how Rwandan intelligence could have known about this meeting, and instead of taking the concern seriously, “they used that information to reinforce their perception that we are actually following these enemies,” says the intelligence source.

Earlier this year, Rwandan authorities point out, a group of young Rwandans went to the Rwandan Embassy in London to seek support for their NGO. The two men, Mugenzi and Musonera, were among the group.

From the embassy, they held a small meeting at a restaurant to discuss the embassy’s promise to support their NGO. There, the group also discovered that not all of its purported members had been briefed that the NGO was in fact a cover for an underground political movement. The uninformed member later defected from the group and went back to the Rwandan embassy to report the group’s activities.

These groups, according to authorities in Kigali, have been approaching Rwanda’s supporters in the UK in an attempt to smear the Kigali government.

“I am hoping nobody in a position of authority in the UK is falling in the trap of our enemies, but that is what it looks like to me,” says Mushikiwabo.

Rwanda intelligence officials told The Independent that they have shared their information regarding Karegeya and Kayumba’s harmful activities with UK authorities.

But such concerns have been ignored since Karegeya and Kayumba formed the Rwanda National Congress political party. “They are now seen as opposition, but not a threat to peace,” says Rwandan intelligence.

Internationally, Kagame’s administration has been strongly criticized of being oppressive and intolerant of dissidents.

But Minister Mushikiwabo says it is a tendency, which has become almost a genre, of separating economic from political progress in Rwanda. However, she argues, “it is not possible to advance economically and politically if you are a human right violator.”

Amidst all these allegations, Rwanda has invested heavily in access to information, high speed internet, and authorities, including President Kagame, have been encouraging Rwandans to go out and speak.

“I don’t know too many dictators who want everybody on the internet,” Mushikiwabo says.

“President Kagame talks to the press all the time, foreign and local,” says the minister. “The smallest thing that happens everywhere about Rwanda takes on a different dimension. We are possibly an attractive country, but we don’t welcome the unfairness that comes with it.”

Rwanda considers the outbreak of allegations of the assassination attempts against Rwandans in foreign countries as a war being waged by Karegeya and Kayumba against their country. Rwanda says they have taken advantage of current communication tools–the media and social networks–to advance their propaganda.

“They are rattling through the weaknesses to undermine and taint the credibility of President Kagame’s regime,” says the intelligence source.

And they have actually been successful in their campaign. Tory member, Nicola Blackwood, is one vindication of how the propaganda has changed the mind of admirers of Kagame’s government.

He told the Independent UK that, “Rwanda has made such impressive strides in so many areas of development but political freedom is important too, and if these claims are true they are very worrying.”

For Mushilkiwabo, this raises serious concerns, although she thinks it is just a matter of time until many observers realize the truth.

Mid last year, Kayumba was shot while in South Africa, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Rwanda and South Africa after allegations surfaced that Rwanda was trying to assassinate him.

The relationship between the two countries has since improved after the South African government learnt that the information they were given was false.

Intelligence reports received by Kigali from South Africa say that it was Karegeya who had provided the information to South African investigators dealing with the shooting case.

Right now, after discovering that Karegeya had jeopardised South Africa’s relationship with Rwanda, security organs have decided to block him from any movement. He is currently under house arrest and all his documents have been impounded.

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