Thursday 11 of March 2010
Rwanda: Kagame tries to link bombs to critical press
Journalists in Kigali are on tenterhooks after President Paul Kagame, left, made new accusations of their supposed involvement in a bomb attack in Rwanda. Just months before Rwanda’s presidential elections, Kigali was recently hit by two grenade attacks that killed two people and injured 30 others, according to news reports.
In a press conference last week, Kagame accused Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former ambassador to India and chief of staff, and another senior ex-military officer, Patrick Karegyeya, of polotting the first grenade attack. The president went on to say that journalists had met with Karegyeya in South Africa prior to the attacks, leaving a not-so-subtle implication of impropriety. “There are those [journalists] who found Karegeya in South Africa and spoke to him. There are even those who went there, but have not returned,” he said.
No journalists were named, but Charles Kabonero and Jean Bosco Gasasira, founders of two private vernacular weeklies, knew that the president’s message was aimed at them. Both papers had conducted interviews with Karegyeya. For his part, Kabonero makes no apologies. "I believe that Kagame is educated enough to know that, as a journalist, if I had a chance to meet [Osama] bin Laden I would not hesitate to do it [in order to] to get news. It’s the job. So, yes, I met Karegyeya for journalism-related purposes,” he told CPJ.
Nyamwasa and Karegyeya have left Rwanda, but Nyamwasa has denied the president’s allegations in interviews with international news outlets. Over the weekend, the former president of the Rwanda Journalist Association, Deo Mushayidi, was arrested in connection with the recent grenade attacks. Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga announced at a press conference that Mushayidi was part of a network of people threatening Rwanda’s security.
This is not the first time the Rwandan government has accused independent journalists of involvement in a bomb attack. The pro-government bimonthly magazine, The Rwanda Focus, claimed in April 2006 that Kabonero conspired with a military officer to launch a wave of bombings in Kigali. Reporters Without Borders investigated the allegations and claimed the allegations were baseless.
Further, Rwanda is not the only African country that accuses journalists of conducting terrorist activities. In December 2008, freelance award-winning journalist Andrison Manyere was seized and imprisoned for nearly four months in Zimbabwe on false bombing charges. Another Zimbabwean freelancer, Frank Chikowore, was arrested on false charges in April 2009 for allegedly setting a bus on fire. Both arrests and accusations occurred around tense election periods.
Godwin Agaba, a Rwandan correspondent for the Ugandan online publication 256 News, went into hiding after he heard Kagame’s televised remarks. The reporter, who has written about Nyamwasa, was warned to stop writing about the general, a vocal critic to the president, according to CPJ sources.
In fact, any interviews with critics of the current regime seem to raise eyebrows with the president. During the same press conference last week, Kagame singled out the Nairobi-based regional weekly, The East African, which he described as “insulting” and “offensive,” for interviewing opposition candidate Victoire Ingabire, according to the Kenya-based Media Institute.
One thing is clear: Kagame’s televised warnings will help silence critics prior to the August presidential election. With pro-government media outlets outweighing the country’s beleaguered private press, the chances of balanced election coverage are now slimmer than ever.
Comments
This comment is a typical CPJ observation. It is taking bits and pieces of the whole text, amplifying them and hammering on the part that looks suspicious and taking it out of context. I explain:
First of all it would be better to consider the transcript of the whole press conference.
Kabonero isn’t present in Rwanda but Gasasira is still publishing from Rwanda. Why Kabonero isn’t present has more to do with his extra journalistic business and Umuseso is to date still coming out every week. If Agaba decided to duck that is his personal choice. As a reminder: Agaba used to work for the New Times and was found guilty of corruption and extortion during that time. He only joined Gasasira’s paper after being fired by the New Times. Reporting about Nyamwasa and Karegeya isn’t enough to be in “danger” of repercussion from the “strong man”.
Nyamwasa denied the allegations … fair enough. That leaves us with two opinions. It doesn’t make the one or the other better.
Talking about Mushayidi … CPJ forgets to mention that when he was the president of the Rwandan Journalists Association he fled the country with the whole budget that had been provided by UNESCO for the rebuilding of press institutions after the Genocide. And by the way Mushayidi left behind his wife and child. Meanwhile she rebuilt her own life without him, and she was never stopped to follow him. Mushayidi has since been very vocal on the side of the “opposition” and even claimed he had started an “armed’ insurgence. He also declared that he was present on Rwandan soil in Kinihira. Being a “former’ doesn’t make him immune from being linked to the grenade attacks, does it?
Why is the Focus of Rwanda labeled pro-government by CPJ? The editor is a former colleague of Kabonero and delivers critics on some member of the establishment, government inclusive. Or has CPJ “impeccable” sources to state this.
Reporters Without Borders is cited to have investigated the allegations linking Kabonero to terror threats and decided that they were baseless. So what? Does is it mean the information is correct? Are they Scotland Yard, the Mossad, the CIA or another prosecutor? Fair enough, to date nobody has proved Kabonero was linked to the threats.
Why referring to the “Kenyan Media Institute” to comment and criticize the President’s viewpoint on the interview of the East African with Victoire Ingabire. Why not citing his critic lengthily through his own words and expression? After all it was part of the press conference.
What an offense for national press to hear that according to CPJ there are only three media capable to deliver an objective coverage of future elections. Objective means in this case critical on Kagame.
Well the question remains: how objective is CPJ, how serious is the desk in charge of Rwanda at CPJ?
While everybody should be considered as innocent before being proved guilty, all of the actors mentioned above fall in this category … but what about CPJ?
Read more comments on the article on the CPJ website
- March 10, 2010 by Tom Rhodes (Africa Program Coordinator)
.................
Source: cpj.org/blog/2010/03/in-rwanda-kagame-tries-to-link-bombs-to-critical-p.php (accessed 11.03.10)
By Al on <abbr class="published" title="2010-03-10T18:30:58-05:00">March 10, 2010 6:30 PM ET</abbr>