Rwanda: How the Juvénal Habyarimana Military Regime Murdered, Disappeared, and Imprisoned Rwandans from all Walks of Life
Here is Amnesty International’s 1986 Report on Rwanda. The Report documents the Juvenal Habyarimana government’s killings, disappearances, and imprisonment of Rwandans from all walks of life. Among the killed and the disappeared were cabinet ministers and senior officials of the Gregoire Kayibanda government overthrown in 1973. Included also in the report is the imprisonment of my brother Aloys Ngurumbe who was kidnapped from Zaire where he lived in exile since the 1960s.
Rwanda
Amnesty International remained concerned about the imprisonment of several prisoners of conscience but others were released during the year. It welcomed the government’s clarification of the fate of more than 50 political prisoners who had “disappeared” in the mid 1970s, all of whom had been secretly killed in prison. Those alleged to be responsible for their deaths were brought to trial. Five were sentenced to death but had not been executed by the end of 1985.
Five prisoners of conscience adopted by Amnesty International were released during the year. Four of them had been convicted in November 1981 and April 1983 of distributing seditious documents and were released before the expiry of their sentences. Kabalira, who had been detained without charge or trial since February 1983 (see Amnesty International Report 1985), was also released. At least eight and perhaps as many as 20 other political prisoners were released during the year. They included one uncharged detainee held since 1980 and several prisoners serving long sentences for armed opposition to the government in the 1960s. At the end of the year only Aloys Ngurumbe, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984 after being forcibly repatriated from Zaire in 1982, was still imprisoned for armed opposition to the government in the 1960s.
Amnesty International continued to work for the release of several prisoners of conscience including Melchior Nzamwita, a former army lieutenant, and eight others who received prison terms ranging from six to 12 years in November 1981 after the State Security Court convicted them of distributing seditious documents. However, the Organization decided to re-examine the case of two of them who were tried in June on charges unrelated to the original reasons for their imprisonment. One was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for destroying incriminating evidence and the other to 12 years’ Imprisonment for complicity in the illegal detention of a prisoner who was subsequently starved to death in prison.
Another prisoner of conscience who remained in jail was Alphonse Utagirake, who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in August 1984 for allegedly criticizing the presidential election of 1983 and arguing that obligatory communal work should be abolished. Some Jehovah’s Witnesses were imprisoned during 1985 although It appeared that membership of the sect was not prohibited. At the beginning of the year, Amnesty International knew of 11 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were in prison, most of them at Gisenyi. They were believed to have been released later in 1985 but new arrests were reported, particularly at Gitarama. In June 12 people, mostly former government officials, were tried In connection with the “disappearance” of 56 political prisoners in the 1970s. The principal defendant was Theoneste Lizinde, the head of the national security service from 1973 to 1979. He had been arrested In April 1980, then tried and sentenced to death by the State Security Court in November 1981 for plotting to kill the head of state. However, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. During the trial, the State Security Court had ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to try Theoneste Lizinde on an additional charge of causing the deaths of two prisoners.
The 11 other defendants who stood trial with Theoneste Lizinde in June included the former directors of Gisenyi prison and Ruhengeri Prison, where some 56 political prisoners were alleged to have been killed extrajudicially between 1974 and 1978. The other defendants were the former military commander of Ruhengeri and two other soldiers, who were accused of some of the killings, and several businessmen, who were accused of arranging for people with whom they had disputes to be imprisoned or killed. Most of the defendants had been held since 1980; three of them had been sentenced to prison terms in 1981 for distributing seditious documents.
Nine of the accused were alleged to have participated directly in the murder in prison between 1974 and 1978 of 56 political prisoners, including former members and officials of the government of President Gregoire Kayibanda, which was overthrown in July 1973. Thirty of the 56 had been convicted by a military court in June 1974 on charges of conspiring to murder General Juvenal Habyarimana while he was Minister of Defence and before he replaced President Kayibanda as head of state. Some were sentenced to death, but in July 1974 their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Despite this, as the information made public in June 1985 revealed, all 30 defendants in the 1974 trial were subsequently killed secretly in prison. in addition, some 20 other officials or supporters of President Kayibanda’s government, and six other prisoners, had also been secretly killed in Ruhengeri or Gisenyi prison.
Amnesty International had previously expressed concern about the reported “disappearance” of political prisoners in the mid-1970s/see Amnesty International Report /982) and had obtained the names of about 30 of the victims. Some sources had suggested that, in all, more than 100 prisoners had “disappeared” and that more government officials had been involved in the killings than those who were ultimately brought to trial in 1985.
The trial of Theoneste Lizinde and other former government officials took place in June before the tribunal of first instance in Ruhengeri and lasted for eight days. The proceedings were conducted lli camera and the defendants apparently were not assisted by legal counsel. One of the defendants was acquitted but the others were convicted. Theoneste Lizinde and four other defendants were sentenced to death for murder and two others convicted of the same offence received eight-year prison terms. The remaining defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to 12 years. Appeals lodged on behalf of those sentenced to death had not been heard by the end of 1985. While Amnesty International welcomed government investigation into the “disappearances” and believes that the perpetrators of such abuses should be brought to justice, it was concerned that the procedure followed may not have conformed to international standards for a fair trial and about the imposition of death penalties, which it opposes in all cases.
In November the Minister of Justice informed Amnesty International that his ministry had been given powers to monitor the activities of the national security service and had introduced measures to curb its powers of arbitrary arrest and detention without trial and prevent further ill-treatment or killings of prisoners.
