Regime denies involvement, international community shocked

Police in Rwanda say the murder of Jean Leonard Rugambage, the editor of Umuvugizi, a vernacular newspaper was a revenge attack for his participation in the 1994 genocide. Rugambage was murdered on June 24 by unidentified people. 

The police said in statement released on June 27 that they had arrested two men in connection with the murder.

“Probable motive is family conflict/revenge linked to 1994 genocide as one of the suspects is related to a person said to have been killed by Leonard Rugambage during 1994 Tutsi genocide,” reported The New Times of Kigali.

“It should be noted that Rugambage was once charged by Gacaca courts, got imprisoned for a period of three years but later released in 2007,” the statement said.

Rugambage was accused of murder during the genocide and then sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of court; he was detained for 11 months in 2005 and 2006 before finally being acquitted.

The Police said that there is strong evidence indicating that that the two suspects worked together to murder of Rugambage.

The Rwanda Police is also said to have seized, from one of the suspects, a pistol, identified as the murder weapon.

The police continue to condemn “fictional accounts (of the murder) being peddled by individuals and groups for political gains.” reported The New Times.

Rugambage was a deputy editor of the Umuvugizi website following the closure of the newspaper by the Kigali government.

The Umuvugizi was closed together with Umumeso following accusations by the High Media Council that they had insulted President Paul Kagame. Other charges included provoking possible insubordination in the army and causing panic in the population and causing panic to potential investors.

Earlier, Rwanda National police spokesperson, Eric Kayiranga told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that an assailant shot the acting editor of Umuvugizi as he drove through the gate of his home in the capital, Kigali, around 10 pm.

The CPJ in a statement expressed shock and warned that the murder will add to the climate of uncertainty among independent journalists in Rwanda ahead of the August presidential election.

The murder of Rugambage is likely to further stir the debate on the state of freedom and democracy in Rwanda.

Unconfirmed reports say that Rugambage was fired on by two men who then fled in a car.

Umuvigizi’s former editor Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled into exile following the closure of the newspaper in April this year, has accused the Kigali government of master-minding what he called an assassination of Rugambage who died in hospital after the shooting.

“I’m 100% sure it was the office of the National Security Services which shot him dead,” he told US state-funded radio Voice of America.

Gasasira, said that Rugambage’s assassination was as a result of a story by the Umuvugizi website which linked the Kigali government in the attempted assassination of Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa.

Rugambage who left a wife and a one year old child was the Rwanda correspondent of the regional press freedom organisation Journalists in Danger (JED).

Rwanda has denied accusations it was behind the shooting of Nyamwasa who went into exile this year after falling out with his erstwhile ally President Paul Kagame.

President Kagame has been praised for leading Rwanda from problems associated with the 1994 genocide in a short period of time but he is coming under increasing pressure over incidents on insecurity in his country.

Human rights groups have accused the Rwandan government of repressing independent media in the country, which Kigali denies.

Allan Thompson, professor of journalism at Carleton University and editor of the book The Media and the Rwanda Genocide describes as “fragile,” the situation of the media in Rwanda.

“The media will report about the ministers and the policies, but they won’t criticise the president, Paul Kagame,” Thompson said.

A report by the Paris-based media rights watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, this year named Rwanda among the world’s worst press predators.

Rwanda was ranked 157th out of 179 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. The countries are ranked from 1, for most free, to 179 for worst performer.

In a recent interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, President Kagame said that human rights activists base their reports on views of a small group of people to judge the situation in the country.

The Rwanda government claims to be taking precaution to avoid another genocide which is said to have been partly orchestrated by the media. Rwanda’s own RTLM radio station is said to have incited people to commit mass killings in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

Meanwhile, charges have been dropped against two men of the six who were arrested over the shooting Nyamwasa. According Brig Govindsamy Mariemuthoo, Gauteng’s Police spokesman, they will be charged with attempted murder.

Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach by unknown assailants at the gate of his home in Johannesburg. His wife has accused President Kagame of involvement in the crime but the Kigali regime denies.

Nyamwasa was released from hospital and is being cared for at his home in Johannesburg.

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