Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the leader of a Rwandan opposition party that was never allowed to register, is facing life in jail for a speech the Rwandan government described as inciting genocide.
Umuhoza is facing six charges, including “forming an armed group with the aim of destabilizing the country,” and “genocide denial.” Umuhoza and international observers, such as Amnesty International, say the trial is politically motivated.
“Most of the world doesn’t understand the importance of this [trial], doesn’t understand that the truth of both the Rwandan genocide and the Congo wars, an ongoing conflict that is contested in this trial,” said Ann Garrison, a journalist and Pacifica Radio producer.
Genocide Denial
Genocide denial is considered a serious crime in Rwanda, where Africa’s largest genocide in modern times occurred in 1994. In the genocide, essentially an ethnic conflict between Hutu and Tutsi, about 800,000 people or 20 percent of the population were slaughtered over the course of 100 days.
Since the ethnic division between the Hutu and Tutsi is considered to be at the root of the conflict, strict laws against “genocide ideology” and “divisionism,” were implemented in 2003 to keep these atrocities from happening again. It is thus forbidden by law to have any political activity or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion. Charges such as revisionism and genocide denial can easily result in a life sentence or 20 years and more in prison.
“The government has outlawed open discussion of ethnicity, but it remains on everyone’s mind, and people seem to know who is Tutsi and who is Hutu, or think they do,” said Garrison.
Critics say that it is precisely such laws, which are liable to different interpretations that are now used by the Rwandan government to silence and crack down on opposition and criticism.
Umuhoza Returns to Rwanda
Umuhoza lived in exile in the Netherlands for 16 years but returned to Rwanda in January 2010 to participate in the elections in August.
Yet, she and her assistant were physically assaulted by a mob in front of the government office when she was to register her political party, Unified Democratic Forces (UDF). Umuhoza was first given house arrest and later imprisoned in October 2010.
Umuhoza ’s imprisonment did not come as a surprise because Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused her in a press conference of “divisionism” and warned, “Eventually the law will catch up with her.”
Umuhoza said she never denied genocide but that she disagreed with the official government version of genocide in which, she says, the killing of Hutu’s is denied.
“My party and I have never denied the genocide. There was genocide against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. We don’t have to forget that,” Umuhoza said on the “Women’s International News Gathering Service.”
Poor Evidence
One of the pieces of evidence brought against Umuhoza is a recording of a controversial speech she made at the Gisozi Genocide Memorial in Kigali, the nation’s capital and where her trial will be held, during the run-up of the presidential elections last year.
In legal terms, the speech is considered proof of “provoking divisionism, genocide ideology, and inciting the masses to revolt against the government by spreading harmful propaganda.”
Yet, Amnesty International says in a report titled “Safer to Stay Silent,” that the remarks cannot reasonably be construed as hate speech.
“We are here honoring at this Memorial the Tutsi victims of the genocide; there are also Hutu who were victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, not remembered or honored here. Hutu’s are also suffering. They are wondering when their time will come to remember their people,” Umuhoza said at Gisozi Genocide Memorial in Kigali according to a translation of the speech.
The speech at that location, however, was considered by some Rwandans, such as Bigabo Patrick, a senior Rwandan journalist, as an insult to Tutsi victims and an act of defiance toward the Rwandan government.
“Here nearly every Rwandan has been affected by the 1994 Tutsi genocide, including me, so when someone like Umuhoza comes and makes comments at a graveyard of Tutsi victims … then I think she deserves to be tried in courts of law,” said Patrick.
Rwandan officials have said that the charges are not solely based on the words themselves, but also on their context or underlying philosophy.
The National Public Prosecuting Authority (NPPA) said it also has proof of Umuhoza’s links to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which it describes as “a terrorist group made up of forces responsible for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi to form a military wing known as Coalition of Defense Forces (CDF) with the aim of launching subversive activities to destabilize Rwanda.”
Umuhoza has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
“I think they [the charges] are trumped up ridiculously. If Victoire Ingabire’s a terrorist, I'd like to sell you 500 tons of yellow cake uranium ore from Niger. Or convince you that I’ve just been appointed the new U.S. commander of AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command,” said Garrison in a response to the charges.
“Everyone I know seems to agree that the outcome of the trial is determined, everyone has agreed on that from the beginning. That’s why I’m so appalled to see the international press going silent,” said Garrison.
If Umuhoza is found guilty, many predict she will receive a life sentence.
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