A Rwandan opposition leader who returned from exile days ago to register her party and run in the August presidential election, claimed yesterday she was being harassed by the government.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who chairs the Unified Democratic Forces (UDF) party, condemned what she called “a media hate campaign” and “vicious propaganda... with the clear intention to bludgeon opponents into silence.”
“Some extremists are currently mobilising associations of genocide survivors, widows and others for demonstrations appealing to the government to suspend our work and put me in jail,” she claimed.
Immediately after returning to Rwanda from years in exile in the Netherlands, Ingabire had laid a wreath at the Gisozi national genocide memorial in the capital Kigali.
There, she had called for former rebels from President Paul Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to be prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed during the 1994 genocide.
Her speech had been interpreted by some media and by genocide survivor organisations as negating the genocide carried out by Hutu extremists against Kagame’s Tutsi minority.
According to the UN, at least 800,000 people - mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus - were killed in 100 days.
“They don’t yet understand that silencing my voice won’t stop this growing movement of claims as long as many Rwandans aspire to more democracy,” Ingabire warned in her statement.
In its world report released last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch charged that the Rwandan regime was tightening the screw on political freedoms.
“Rwanda has used its criminal law against ‘genocide ideology’ to silence individuals critical of current government policies or those who challenge past abuses committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front,” it said.
Kagame, who has been at the helm the central African country since the end off the genocide, is widely expected to secure re-election this year.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who chairs the Unified Democratic Forces (UDF) party, condemned what she called “a media hate campaign” and “vicious propaganda... with the clear intention to bludgeon opponents into silence.”
“Some extremists are currently mobilising associations of genocide survivors, widows and others for demonstrations appealing to the government to suspend our work and put me in jail,” she claimed.
Immediately after returning to Rwanda from years in exile in the Netherlands, Ingabire had laid a wreath at the Gisozi national genocide memorial in the capital Kigali.
There, she had called for former rebels from President Paul Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to be prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed during the 1994 genocide.
Her speech had been interpreted by some media and by genocide survivor organisations as negating the genocide carried out by Hutu extremists against Kagame’s Tutsi minority.
According to the UN, at least 800,000 people - mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus - were killed in 100 days.
“They don’t yet understand that silencing my voice won’t stop this growing movement of claims as long as many Rwandans aspire to more democracy,” Ingabire warned in her statement.
In its world report released last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch charged that the Rwandan regime was tightening the screw on political freedoms.
“Rwanda has used its criminal law against ‘genocide ideology’ to silence individuals critical of current government policies or those who challenge past abuses committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front,” it said.
Kagame, who has been at the helm the central African country since the end off the genocide, is widely expected to secure re-election this year.
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