Rwandans want independent enquiry into murder of refugee in Maputo

MAPUTO, Mozambique

The president of the Association of Rwandan Refugees in Mozambique on Wednesday called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the murder of a fellow countryman in Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo.

“What we are asking is that there is an independent commission to investigate this case and I am sure there will be results,” Cleophas Habiyareme told Lusa.

Rwandan businessman Revocat Karemangingo (above), who had lived in Mozambique since 1996 – where he took refuge after the Rwandan genocide in 1994 – was shot dead near his home when he was returning home alone from one of his stores that sells soft drinks and beers, according to the police (PRM).

Revocat was reportedly intercepted on the 13th, at 17:30 (16:30 in Lisbon), by two vehicles, which blocked his path, from which unknown persons fired several shots.

The president of the Rwandan association also wants the same independent commission to investigate the disappearance in May of journalist Ntamuhanga Cassien, who lived on the island of Inhaca, near Maputo, and an attempt to kidnap the association’s secretary.

Cleophas Habiyareme questions the fact that the Rwandan community is the “only” one experiencing this type of problem, and therefore asks the Mozambican government to “think about it”.

“These are three cases that have occurred within the same community. Here we have four major refugee communities, including Rwandans, Burundians, Congolese and Somalis, but the only one that is having a bad time, that suffers kidnapping, disappearance, death, is the Rwandan community,” the president of the association told Lusa indignantly.

Contacted today by Lusa, PRM said there were still no results of the investigations into the death of the Rwandan businessman.

“We are still working,” said Carminia Leite, PRM spokeswoman in Maputo province.

According to the president of the Association of Rwandan Refugees in Mozambique, the businessman had been the target of political persecution since 2016, when he lived in Boane, south of Maputo: he escaped an alleged assassination attempt, followed by a process of “psychological torture” against him and “all those who were considered opponents [of the regime] in Kigali”, Rwanda’s capital, and President Paul Kagame.

Rwanda’s leader since 1994, Paul Kagame is credited with developing the country after the genocide of Tutsis that year, but the head of state is also accused of limiting freedom of expression and repressing opposition.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in late March accused the Rwandan authorities of limiting people using the internet to express themselves in the country, after restricting freedom of expression in the media.

The restriction of freedoms has also been denounced and condemned by other organisations such as Reporters Without Borders and the European Union (EU).

The genocide in Rwanda was responsible for the deaths of more than 800,000 people, mainly from the Tutsi minority, between April and July 1994.

Rwanda was the first foreign country to field troops in Mozambique under a bilateral agreement to fight Islamist insurgents in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province.

With the support of the 1,000 Rwandan soldiers, Maputo recaptured rebel bases and localities that had been occupied but which the Mozambican military had been unable to recover on their own.