Of HRW’s insidious agenda against Rwanda

For the last 27 years, the New-York-based so-called rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has never hidden its poisonous agenda against Rwanda - publishing fabricated reports aimed at smearing the reputation of Rwandan government and its institutions.

Lately, on March 16, HRW published another report, “Rwanda: wave of free speech Prosecutions.” In this report, it alleges that opposition leaders and commentators in Rwanda are being persecuted by the authorities for their speech and opinion.

It’s a rehash of similar critique it levelled against the Rwandan government in its 2021 report: “Rwanda: “Crackdown on opposition, Media intensifies.” Such alarmist reports, often based on mere fabrications, should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

In response to the new report, Yolande Makolo, Rwandan government spokesperson, said: “The judicial system in Rwanda operates fairy and transparently with Rwanda’s laws, as well as our regional and international obligations. Everyone is equal to the law, and no one is persecuted for having political opinions.”

She stressed that “the sustained harassment of Rwanda” by HRW does nothing more than entrench negative stereotypes about justice and human rights in Africa.

The HRW’s fury against Rwanda was better exposed by Richard Johnson, a retired US diplomat, in his paper: “The Travesty of Human Rights on Rwanda,” published in March 2013.

He wrote: “What Human Rights Watch (HRW) does about Rwanda is not human rights advocacy.  It is political advocacy which has become profoundly unscrupulous in both its means and its ends.  HRW’s Board of Directors should hold Executive Director Kenneth Roth and the HRW personnel who cover Rwandan issues accountable for this travesty, which has dangerous implications for Western policy toward Rwanda and for the overall credibility of Western human rights advocacy. 

“Donors to HRW should think seriously about what causes their money might serve.  Western governments should be careful about following HRW advice, and courageous enough to challenge them publicly when need be.”

Johnson explained that HRW’s discourse on Rwanda over the years has been viscerally hostile to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which defeated the genocidal Hutu Power regime in 1994, and systematically biased in favour of letting unrepentant Hutu Power political forces back into Rwandan political life.

What HRW calls free speech of Youtubers who have fallen foul of the law is, on the contrary, ill-intentioned criminal minds that engage in genocide denial or propagate the extremist Hutu ideology.

Such crimes are punished by law according to Rwanda’s Constitution, much to the chagrin of HRW and supporters of those fugitives blamed for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi which claimed the lives of more than one million innocent Rwandans.

This genocide ideology and the genocidaires who instigated it were defeated in 1994. But as noted by Johnson, HRW wants them rehabilitated and infected into Rwandan governance structures by the back door.

He wrote: “HRW’s discourse has been an important part of their life-support system, particularly over the past twelve years.  This discourse -- what is said and left unsaid, what is highlighted and what is downplayed, what is averred and what is implied -- can best be understood as four commands addressed to the post-genocide Rwandan government: let the genocidal parties back in, do not outlaw their ideology, don’t hold more than a few perpetrators accountable, and forget about their foreign accomplices.  Admit that you are no better than they.”

As for alleged disappearances, in 2012 HRW declared that Alexis Bakunzibake, Vice President of the non-registered PS Imberakuri party had been kidnapped by Rwandan recurity organs. Few days later he was presented to FDLR members as a new ally by its president Brig Gen Gaston Iyamuremye. The FDLR is a DRC-based terrorist group formed by remnants of the masterminds of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The list of people who were declared missing or disappeared and ended up later having crossed to DRC, Burundi or Uganda is endless. Those include David Ngendahimana who was declared missing in 2021 and later, it was established, was in Uganda operating a private online TV. 

Theobald Mutarambirwa was decaled missing in 2010, and in 2019, he was arrested by the FARDC (Congolese Armed Forces) where he had joined the MRCD/FLN militia group of terror kingpin Paul Rusesabagina.

In July 2017, just before presidential elections, HRW published a report with a list of persons alleged to have been ‘summarily’ executed by Rwandan security forces for petty crimes, such stealing goats. The seven people cited by HRW were: Tharcisse Nsanzabera, Alphonse Majyambere, Daphrose Nyirabavakure, Elias Habyarimana, Donati and Emmanuel Hanyurwabake. They were later produced in a press conference, much to the embarrassment of HRW.

The HRW is a very corrupt organisation. According to The Intercept of March 2, 2020, HRW took money from a Saudi businessman after documenting his coercive labour practices. The money was given to its director Ken Roth.

HRW’s agenda against Rwanda is clear. This time around, issuing such a venomous report ahead of CHOGM 2022 in Kigali has no other purpose but to try paint Rwanda in a very bad light and therefore spoil the party.

This is futile because the summit will take place. This is HRW’s modus operandi. But forces of evil shall not prevail where Rwanda is concerned.