Former presidential candidate Diane Shima Rwigara has sent President Paul Kagame an emotionally open letter accusing him of condoning political assassinations.
After the gruesome killing of a prison guard named Jean Paul Mwiseneza aka Nyamata on June 10, Rwigara wrote the letter. Mwiseneza was stabbed and dismembered repeatedly, supposedly soon after talking to Rwigara about the June disturbances at Mageragere Penitentiary, which left many prisoners severely injured.
Rwigara claims she decided to write straight to the president because organizations such as the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (CNLG) and Ibuka, which are accountable for pursuing justice for victims of genocide, “are too afraid to stand up to the ruling party”.
She claims the government appears committed to keeping the burning memory of individuals murdered during genocide.
In her letter she stated thus, “Your Excellence, the international community has rightly congratulated Rwanda for abolishing the death penalty. But I am forced to ask: why are our fellow citizens continually the object of extrajudicial executions? And, as our head of state, why would you condone such executions in your May 10, 2019, Rubavu speech? Your subordinates emulate you. At Mwiseneza’s funeral, Chief Superintendent Innocent Iyaburunga blamed Mwiseneza for his own death…”, Rwigara writes in the 9-page letter.
Rwigara continues to challenge the slogan of Kagame Never Again that she says “presumed meant that no more Rwandan blood ever would be shed unjustly as it looks like Rwandan lives seem to not matter”.
She goes on to say that she remains “very grateful” to the Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front for ending the genocide, but she continues by asking whether stopping the genocide gives anyone the right to terrorize the “saved” citizens.
“Rwandans experienced enough trauma, anguish and loss during the slaughter of their countrymen and women; the last thing they need is oppression from their liberators. I humbly ask: what to do when those designated to protect are the ones persecuting?,” she writes.
“Your Excellency, we rightly accuse the international community to have remained silent during the Genocide. Yet, 25 years later, we are forced to stand aside and watch helpless as our loved ones become victims of cruel, inhumane politics. How long can this last? Anybody supporting this extreme injustice and advising to continue in this direction does not love this country and is pushing for the slow death of our nation,” she writes in the letter.
She asks Kagame to use “the fullest extent of your authority” to put an end to these continuing “senseless deaths” and expects the president to think of these killed males and women’s families, kids, siblings and spouses. She says the president walked his daughter down the aisle a couple of days ago, but on their wedding day “daughters of slain Rwandan men will not get that chance.”
Finally, Rwigara adds the names of survivors of genocide she says died with a “short description of the highly unusual circumstances surrounding their deaths”.
She says many survivors have lost their lives “at an alarming rate,” but for this letter she will focus on survivors as the country is in the 100-day mourning period of the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.