Sweden expels a Rwandan diplomat for spying on political refugees.

Last Wednesday, 8 February the Swedish authorities expelled Evode Mudaheranwa, the Rwandan embassy’s second highest-ranking official for ‘spying’ on political refugees.The diplomat was given 48 hours to leave the Swedish territory.

Sweden

According to insiders, this expulsion may be linked to the disappearance last month of a Rwandan journalist, Jean Bosco Gasasira,  editor of the online newspaper Umuvugizi , who lives in Sweden.

A week after the expulsion, Gasasira reappeared from his hiding place claiming he had been sick and was hiding because he feard for his life. He told the BBC that the swedish police helped him hiding and that without their help, he would be dead at that time.

It is not the first time that Rwandan diplomats are linked to espionage and other obscure activities towards exiled critics of president Paul Kagame. In May 1998, Seth Sendashonga, former member of the ruling party RPF, and first post-genocide Interior Minister, was shot dead in Kenya. Sendashonga had survived the first assassination attempt in 1996, about which a Rwandan diplomat in Nairobi, Francis Mugabo, was accused of carrying out on behalf of Kigali.  Suspected by the Kenyan authorities of involvement in the attack, Francis Mugabo was detained for a while then released without trial, under pressure from the Rwandan government.

In its call for an inquiry into assassination of Rwandan opposition leader, Amnesty International stated:  “We believe Seth Sendashonga’s assassination is likely to be directly connected to his frequent criticisms and denunciations of human rights violations by the current government and security forces in Rwanda – and to his profile as one of the few, credible peaceful political opposition figures to have emerged since 1995”.

In 2010, Jean Pierre Bizimana, then ambassador of Rwanda to the Netherlands, refused to return to Rwanda for the 2010 ambassadors’ retreat in Kigali and instead sought political asylum in the Republic of Ireland. According to some sources, he feared of getting arrested once in Kigali allegedly for failing to help assassins sent by Kigali to kill the opposition leader, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, shortly before her return to Rwanda in January 2010 to register her political party, FDU-INKINGI, and contest the 2010 presidential election.

In April 2011, it was reported that the British intelligence service MI5 warned Mr. Ernest Rwamucyo, the Rwandan High Commissioner in London, to halt an alleged campaign of harassment against critics of his country’s government. The London Metropolitan police went on warning two Rwandan exiles living in London that they were facing an “imminent threat” of assassination at the hands of the Rwandan government.

Send us Akabanga but keep your spies away

Speaking to JamboNews , a Rwandan who has been following the matter closely but who chose to remain anonymous said: “While the Rwandan government has repeatedly rejected these accusations, lately it looks like it has doubled its efforts trying to smuggle its ‘intelligence services’ into western countries. It is a very sad thing to see and I hope European authorities will remain very vigilant.. If there is something Rwandans in Europe, US, Australia or elsewhere in the world don’t need and don’t miss, it is these spies. These spies/murderers are the ones that made many of us leave Rwanda in the first place. We are very grateful and satisfied with the freedom and liberty we have here and we won’t trade them for anything. We always appreciate it when they send us Akabanga (hot chilli sauce made in Rwanda) but they should keep their spies away.”

By Amani Tuyishime.

Jambonews.net