RWANDA: CONGOLESE JOURNALIST ARRESTED

UNCLAS KIGALI 000195 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV RW SUBJECT: RWANDA: CONGOLESE JOURNALIST ARRESTED REF: KIGALI 49 ¶1. (SBU) Deputy Prosecutor General Alphonse Hitiyaremye confirmed to polchief on February 27 the recent arrest of Congolese citizen Idesbald Byabuze. Byabuze, reportedly a professor at the Bakuvu Catholic University, as well as the publisher of a Bakuvu newspaper, the Mashariki News, is in custody at the Central Kigali "1930" prison. Although there is some dispute as to which of his publications led to this arrest, most sources point to a 2005 article entitled Rwanda Alert, in which the author denounces at length an alleged Tutsi domination of Rwanda's Hutu majority. Byabuze apparently crossed into Rwanda in the last several weeks to begin teaching as a visiting instructor at the Kigali campus of UNILAC, the Private International University of Central Africa. ¶2. (SBU) Hitiyaremye said that investigation of the journalist "continued" without formal charges so far levied against him. However, likely offenses included denial of the genocide and divisionism. His "preventive detention" would continue for up to 30 days. When asked if the GOR would consider expelling the journalist rather than prosecuting him, Hitiyaremye said no, the accused was present on Rwandan soil, had likely broken Rwandan law, and would have to answer for his offenses in a court of law. ¶3. (SBU) Comment. This is the second journalist arrested this year, both for published articles that explicitly proclaim the existence of a Tutsi hegemony and thorough-going oppression of the Hutus (reftel). This latest example is less harshly and emotionally critical of the Kagame government, but more comprehensive in its litany of evils purportedly committed by the present government. As noted in earlier reporting, the GOR now tolerates wide-ranging criticism of its policies without comment (such as January articles in several independent newspapers questioning Kagame's "dictatorial" tendencies),but it reacts with alacrity when explicit ethnic attacks are made against it and its policies. End comment. ARIETTI