Day: September 1, 2021

KIGALI - Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has removed the justice minister but made him ambassador to Britain amid international scrutiny over the trial of Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier credited with saving many lives during the 1994 genocide.

A government statement issued on Tuesday gave no reason for the dismissal of Johnston Busingye, who had served as justice minister and attorney general since 2013.

Busingye was appointed Rwanda's ambassador to Britain, the statement said.

Kagame did not immediately name a new justice minister. Requests for comment to government spokespeople and the presidency office were not answered.

Rusesabagina was hailed as hero after he used his connections as the manager of a Kigali hotel to save ethnic Tutsis from slaughter during the genocide. He was portrayed in the 2004 Hollywood film "Hotel Rwanda."

Now he is accused of nine terrorism-related charges, including forming and funding an armed rebel group. Before his arrest, Rusesabagina, who was living in the United States, was a vocal critic of the Kagame government.

Prosecutors have requested a life sentence for Rusesabagina, whose family says he is in poor health and being mistreated in prison. The court is scheduled to issue its verdict on Sept. 20.

In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in February, then Minister Busingye said the government had paid for the flight that brought Rusesabagina to Rwanda last year, which Rusesabagina's family said resulted in his kidnapping.

Rusesabagina's trial has drawn attention to Kagame, whom rights groups say has used authoritarian tactics to crush political opposition and extend his rule.

The government's arrest of Rusesabagina amounted to an enforced disappearance, a serious violation of international law, New York-based Human Rights Watch said at the time.

Kagame became head of state in 2000 after he and his rebel forces halted the genocide in 1994 after 100 days of bloodletting and around 800,000 deaths of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. He won landslide victories in subsequent elections, the most recent in 2017, when he won nearly 99% of the vote. He changed the constitution in 2015, enabling him to rule legally until 2034.

Source: Voice of America

BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - Four civilians were killed and dozens were taken hostage Wednesday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when suspected Islamist militants ambushed a convoy and set fire to the vehicles, the government said.

Congo's army has freed more than 50 of the hostages in Ituri province and operations are underway to recover the remaining captives from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, the communications ministry said on Twitter.

The ministry did not say how many people were still being held hostage. A local lawmaker said earlier that about 80 people were believed to be missing after the attack on a convoy of about 100 vehicles that was traveling with army protection on the road between the cities of Beni and Butembo.

Attacks by the armed groups operating in eastern Congo's borderlands with Rwanda and Uganda have continued unabated despite the government's imposition of martial law in Ituri and North Kivu province at the beginning of May.

The installation of army generals as provincial governors was meant to quell a surge in violence that the military largely attributes to the ADF.

But the number of civilians killed in such attacks has increased, according to the Kivu Security Tracker. Survivors of Wednesday's attack recalled a hail of gunfire as the convoy passed near the village of Ofaye.

"Bullets started flying in every direction," one of the survivors, Malanda Dague, told Reuters. "Some vehicles were hit and then burned."

Jean-Paul Ngahangondi, a member of parliament in North Kivu province, where the convoy started, criticized what he said was the army's slow response, a frequent complaint of local people.

"The army just waits for the rebels to kill the population and only then pursues them without any positive results," he said.

Eastern Congo has been plagued by violence since regional wars around the turn of the century. Islamic State has claimed dozens of killings blamed on the ADF, although U.N. experts say they have not found conclusive evidence that IS has control over ADF operations.

Source: Voice of America

The terrorism case against the leader of Tanzania's main opposition party can go ahead as planned, a high court judge in Dar es Salaam said Wednesday, dismissing objections by his party.

Chadema party chairman Freeman Mbowe and his supporters have described the charges as a politically-motivated effort to crush dissent, and accused police of torturing him in custody.

His lawyers had argued that the high court's Corruption and Economic Crimes Division where he appeared had no powers to hear the case, which was previously being handled by a magistrate's court.

But on Wednesday judge Elinaza Luvanda said that "this court has the jurisdiction to hear terrorism cases and therefore I don't agree with the objection made by defendants."

The hearing took place under tight security, with some representatives from foreign embassies and Chadema's senior leaders in attendance, but many journalists were banned from entering the courtroom by police.

Mbowe has been behind bars since July 21 when he was arrested along with a number of other senior Chadema officials in a night-time police raid hours before they were to hold a public forum to demand constitutional reform.

The 59-year-old has been charged with terrorism financing and conspiracy in a case that has sparked concerns about democracy and the rule of law under President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

On Monday, Mbowe had appeared in court to pursue a case against top legal officials, claiming his constitutional rights had been violated during his arrest and when he was charged.

His defense team says he was held without charge for five days and then charged without his lawyer being present.

The opposition has denounced the arrests as a throwback to the oppressive rule of Tanzania's late leader John Magufuli who died suddenly in March.

There had been hope Hassan would bring about a new era of democracy after the increasingly autocratic rule of Magufuli, nicknamed the "Bulldozer" for his uncompromising style.

But Chadema leaders say the arrests reflect a deepening slide into "dictatorship."

Prosecutors say the allegations against Mbowe do not relate to the constitutional reform conference Chadema had planned to hold in the port city of Mwanza in July, but to alleged offences last year in another part of Tanzania.

Chadema has said prosecutors accuse Mbowe of conspiring to attack a public official, and of giving 600,000 Tanzanian shillings ($260/220 euros) towards blowing up petrol stations and public gatherings and cutting down trees to block roads.

Source: Voice of America