RWANDA: MONTHLY POLITICAL ROUNDUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000455

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM RW
SUBJECT: RWANDA: MONTHLY POLITICAL ROUNDUP

REF: A. KIGALI 426

B. KIGALI 323

C. KIGALI 79

D. 07 KIGALI 0035

Classified By: Amb. Michael Arietti for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

This edition of the monthly political roundup includes:

--The New Times - Inside the GOR Mouthpiece

--Alfred Kalisa - Former Bank Head Gets 2 Years

--New Gacaca Law - More Cases to Try

--President Kagame - Battling French, Spanish Judges, and
Independent Journalists at Press Conference

--Senior Police Officers Suspended

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Little Editorial Freedom at the New Times
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1. (C) Kitty Llewelyn (protect),editor of the Sunday
magazine for Rwanda's only daily newspaper, the
English-language New Times, spoke with poloff June 7 about
her experience as an expatriate working for the paper.
Llewellyn described a culture in which members of the news
room struggled against the dictates of the New Times
management, which included editorial meetings focused on ways
to promote the dominant Rwandan Patriotic Front in the
upcoming legislative elections. She confirmed that the
Office of the President sends and approves images of
President Kagame used on the front page of the paper and said
if management "had its druthers," Kagame would be featured
every day. She also said open criticism of individual
Government of Rwanda (GOR) officials was more acceptable to
the paper's leadership than general criticism of the GOR at
large, particularly in cases where an individual was falling
out of favor.


2. (C) Llewellyn said a small number of Rwandan journalists
at the paper "worked with integrity," but were demoralized by
their interactions with the paper's management staff and
feared losing their jobs by speaking out or writing more
critically. She described a "lost battle" in which newspaper
management axed an op/ed piece addressing responsibility for
the expulsion of journalists on World Press Freedom Day (ref
B). She noted the dearth of economically feasible options
for independent journalists and said her own efforts were
focused on improving other technical aspects of the paper
rather than the "quixotic goal" of changing the orientation
of the New Times away from "GOR mouthpiece."


3. (C) Comment: The New Times is ostensibly an independent
publication; the extent of GOR influence on its content and
the active role the New Times has been assigned in
strengthening the dominant RPF in upcoming elections is
revealing. End comment.

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Alfred Kalisa Not Guilty on Most Charges
--------------


4.(C) On June 10, a Rwandan court found former bank chairman
Alfred Kalisa not guilty of the most serious fraud, forgery
and abuse of position charges relating to his management of
BCDI (now known as ECOBANK, following its sale to West
African investors). Under arrest since January, 2007, Kalisa
was sentenced to two years, three months in prison and given
a 10 million Rwf fine (approximately $18,000) for two minor
charges -- failure to pay interest on an overdraft and
non-compliance with central bank directives on BCDI's
capitalization (ref A). Kalisa has filed an appeal,
according to his attorney, hoping to overturn the two minor
charges. Family members welcomed the result, although his
sister told conoff that she believed no charge had been
proven by the prosecution, and that Finance Minister James
Musoni had pleaded with the judge to find Kalisa guilty of
"something."


5. (C) Comment. The prosecution may have had difficulty
sufficiently documenting the charges, particularly as the
trial judge's original intent (on motion from Kalisa's
lawyers) had been to add the bank's entire board as
co-defendants -- a move blocked by the Supreme Court (ref C).
A good part of the story behind the abuse and self-dealing
at the bank may have been lacking; the local IMF
representative believes the central bank turned its back on
Kalisa's faults for quite some time (ref D). Kalisa hired
the best criminal lawyers in the country, and they vigorously
conducted his defense. Dismissal of most charges, in a
high-profile prosecution of a former regime insider, can be
fairly considered as judicial independence in action.

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New Gacaca Law - More "Justice on the Grass"
--------------


6. (U) On June 1, a revised gacaca law came into effect,
extending gacaca court jurisdiction to additional Category 1
genocide cases, including local leadership and rape and
sexual torture cases. The revised statute also provides for
the commutation of custodial sentences; satisfactory
completion of the original community service portion
transforms the remaining jail term into community service.
(Note: those convicted of genocide offenses now serve their
suspended and TIG sentences first, followed by jail time).
In a presentation on the new statute at the recent Judicial
Reform Conference in Kigali (septel),National Gacaca Service
head Domatilla Mukantaganzwa provided information on these
cases, noting that 9362 cases remained to be heard under the
revised statute, including 6608 bases of rape and sexual
torture. The bulk of genocide cases already underway before
ordinary courts will also be transferred to gacaca courts,
about 1,200 cases. Mukantaganzwa said the actual prosecution
of the remaining cases, most of which were found in the
Southern Province, would begin "soon." Those categorized as
national or provincial leaders of the genocide (several
hundred cases) would still be tried before ordinary courts.

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President's Press Conference
--------------


7. (U) In a June 18, press conference, President Kigali
addressed the recent arrest of four Rwanda Defense Force
officers for the killing of Catholic clergymen in 1994, the
French and Spanish indictments of senior Rwandan officials
and universal jurisdiction, Zimbabwe elections, and the
absence of independent journalists from the press conference.
On the four officers, Kagame asked that the context of the
killings be considered, suggesting the executed clergymen had
been complicit in the genocide -- although the President was
quick to add that no soldier should take justice into his own
hands. He also said he was "scandalized" by the comments of
Archbishop Thaddee Ntihinyurwa, a Hutu and head of the
Catholic Church in Rwanda, who had suggested on BBC that the
four soldiers could not be tried properly in Rwanda.


8. (U) On the French and Spanish indictments, Kagame
endorsed the concept of universal jurisdiction as exercised
by international bodies, but suggested serious concerns
existed regarding the concept's abuse by national
jurisdictions. He termed the French and Spanish indictments
of Rwandan officials "pure politics." On Zimbabwe, Kagame
questioned the actions of President Mugabe and his
unwillingness to allow opposition parties to take power if
they win elections. Finally, on the absence of "independent"
journalists from the press conference (representative of
three local papers, Umuseso, Umuvugizi, Rushyashya, were not
admitted, nor were Kinyarwanda service journalists from BBC
and VOA) Kagame questioned their professionalism and their
status as journalists, wondering if they qualified as "real"
reporters. Kagame said he fully supported the actions of
Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo (who expelled several
journalists from the World Press Freedom Day event mentioned
in paragraph 2).

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Senior Police Officers on Administrative Leave
-------------- -


9. (C) On Friday, June 27, Commissioner of Police Andrew
Rwigamba, head of the Criminal Investigation Division Costas
Habyara, and a senior police official on the internal
tendering board were suspended. An investigation has
supposedly revealed favoritism and violation of tendering
regulations regarding refurbishment of a unoccupied office
building in downtown Kigali intended for use as a future
police headquarters. Generally known as the Kabuga Building
((a property still owned by at-large genocide suspect
Felicien Kabuga),one version of the story has Rwigamba
pressuring the tender board to bestow contracts on a favored
bidder, and the payment of cash to the tender board by a
winning businessman. The story broke over the weekend in the
local press, with police and interior ministry officials
ducking phone calls from journalists looking for
confirmation. From recent visa interviews with his children,
we learned that Rwigamba has three children in college in the
U.S., with sixty thousand dollars in yearly tuition bills to
meet on his Commissioner's salary of approximately one
thousand dollars a month.


10. (C) Comment. Corruption within senior police circles
is never a cause for celebration, but suspensions and
possible arrests do buttress the image President Kagame seeks
to project of a government that punishes improperly behavior
without fear or favor. End comment.

ARIETTI