RWANDA: PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS NGO UNDER FIRE?

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000300 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM RW SUBJECT: RWANDA: PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS NGO UNDER FIRE? REF: A. KIGALI 113 ¶B. KIGALI 204 ¶C. KIGALI 259 ¶D. KIGALI 266 Classified By: Ambassador Michael Arietti, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: The executive secretaries of Rwanda's two most outspoken human rights organizations recently described their relations with the Government of Rwanda (GOR). The Great Lakes Human Rights League (LDGL) alleged harassment and attempts to damage the organization, while LIPRODHOR spoke cautiously of productive relations. Each executive secretary saw the human rights situation as better than in previous years. LDGL appears, however, for the moment as the more critical observer of GOR actions. LDGL's description of GOR attempts to harass and damage it are troubling, although some progress appears to have been made in its approaches to government officials. Government delay in processing LDGL's re-registration application may affect its plan to monitor the September elections; mission will engage with GOR officials on that issue. End summary. ¶2. (C) EmbOffs and visiting AF/C desk officer met with Pascal Nyilibakwe, Executive Secretary of the local umbrella human rights NGO LDGL April 1 to discuss the group's work and current government relations. Nyilibakwe, on the job for eight months, first described the regional structure of LDGL and outlined several of the organization's primary areas of concern: land disputes, agricultural policy, and political space and the expansion of political parties. ¶3. (C) Nyilibakwe reported LDGL had experienced increasing difficulties in its relations with the government. He believed the GOR was delaying the NGO's yearly registration, with months having gone by with no response to LDGL requests for action. He also mentioned several visits by young men who claimed to be students, but who he asserted had "a military bearing" and asked several hostile questions about LDGL, including the source of its finances. Nyilibakwe also described occasions when police had taken extensive photographs of the LDGL offices. ¶4. (C) Most disturbingly, Nyilibakwe charged the GOR wanted to "destroy LDGL from the inside." He presented a copy of an unsigned internal communication from a Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC) official to the Minister in which LDGL and several other organizations were listed as "unfriendly" to the GOR (the document was in Kinyarwanda and was briefly examined by Embassy's political assistant). The document, dating from the first of the year, discussed potential strategies to undermine those groups, such as sending pro-GOR individuals to infiltrate them or by delaying their registration. ¶5. (C) In a follow-up meeting on April 23, Nyilibakwe said he had met with the author of the unsigned communication at MINALOC, and discussed LDGL's approach to human rights investigations and its work in Rwanda. Nyilibakwe said the MINALOC official had welcomed his visit and had acknowledged his poor understanding of LDGL's work. Since this meeting, said Nyilibakwe, no more visits from police photographers or hostile questioners had occurred, and he hoped a new understanding had been reached with the Ministry. However, he said his organization continued to have difficulty obtaining its re-registration certificate (a process now transferred to Immigration from MINALOC),and worried that transferred to Immigration from MINALOC),and worried that LDGL might have difficulty conducting election monitoring for the September House of Delegates elections if not officially re-registered. Further, he said he had a meeting with officials at the Electoral Commission, who appeared non-committal on the subject of LDGL election monitoring efforts. ¶6. (C) In a separate meeting April 1, EmbOffs and DeskOff met with Gertrude Nyampinga, the recently-hired executive secretary of local human rights NGO LIPRODHOR, who reported SIPDIS productive relations with the GOR. Nyampinga took the place of the former executive secretary, who reportedly left last fall for training outside Rwanda and never returned. Cautiously claiming no knowledge of his whereabouts, Nyampinga cited improvements in human rights in Rwanda in recent years, while noting ongoing concerns, particularly regarding irregularities in the gacaca process (Note: Gacaca is the traditional justice system adapted to try most of Rwanda's genocide cases. End note.). As an improvement, Nyampinga said members of LIPRODHOR have now been granted access to each of Rwanda's 14 prisons (the prison in Butare was previously off-limits due to an unhelpful prison director) and that they were invited to "relevant" government meetings on human rights issues. Nyampinga claimed LIPRODHOR was not required to re-register on an annual basis, and professed surprise that LDGL had problems re-registering. The biggest challenge to LIPRODHOR, according to Nyampinga, was a scarcity of funding. ¶7. (C) Comment: Human rights groups in Rwanda range from the docile to the outspoken regarding GOR policies and actions, with many more of the former than the latter. LIPRODHOR head Nyampinga is the organization's fifth executive secretary in the past 18 months, and her cautiously optimistic view of the human rights situation in Rwanda may be more reflective of LIPRODHOR's continuing personnel changes than of the current human rights situation. LDGL's Nyilibakwe was in contrast more open in his critique of the GOR. The GOR's continuing unwillingness to accept criticism from "outside" groups (reftels) in the case of LDGL takes on a more disturbing aspect. Nyilibakwe's accounts of GOR moves to quietly weaken his organization are quite troubling, although we are somewhat encouraged by his discussions with MINALOC officials on that ministry's attitude toward his organization. LDGL was critical of the 2003 Presidental and Parliamentary elections, and this may be a factor in the delay of its re-registration. Mission will engage with election officials and other GOR contacts on this issue. End comment. ARIETTI