POLICE ARREST PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL INGABIRE'S AIDE

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000075 C O R R E C T E D COPY (PARA MARKINGS) SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/8/2010 TAGS: PGOV KJUS PHUM PINS RW SUBJECT: POLICE ARREST PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL INGABIRE'S AIDE FOR POSSIBLE GENOCIDE CRIMES REF: A. KIGALI 66 ¶B. KIGALI 67 Classified By: Ambassador W. Stuart Symington for reasons 1.4 (b) (d) ¶1. (SBU) Police on February 6 arrested Joseph Ntawangundi, an aide to would-be presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire, on charges that a gacaca court in 2007 tried and convicted him in absentia for genocide-related crimes. Ingabire's camp shortly afterward released a press statement, claiming Ntawangundi was out of the country during the genocide. According to one local source, a gacaca court in Eastern Province may indeed have convicted one Joseph Ntawangundi, but it may be a different individual with the same name. (Note: The arrest came three days after an unknown group of individuals at or near a local government office assaulted Ingabire and Ntawangundi, succeeding in grabbing Ingabire's handbag and ripping off Ntawangundi's shirt. Days before that, pro-government newspaper The New Times reported that Ingabire's own mother had been tried and convicted of genocide-related crimes. End Note.) ¶2. (C) COMMENT: It strikes us as unlikely that Ntawangundi would have returned to Rwanda if he or the FDU-Inkingi political group that Ingabire chairs felt he were at risk of arrest for genocide-related crimes. In the absence of reliable information, the most plausible explanation is mistaken identity. END COMMENT. SYMINGTON