In its latest report, Freedom House, which at least in Rwandas case, conceives “freedom” as the right to form irregular armed groups that launch terror attacks targeting innocent civilians, has decided to challenge Rwanda’s right to preserve its security. This is part of its political agenda that is at odds with any advocacy for human rights and justice or any quest for freedom since if they cared about freedom they would be concerned for the victims of terror (and demand justice) rather than its perpetrators. Freedom House claims that labelling groups like the RNC (Rwanda National Congress) as terrorist organizations gives the Rwandan government a veneer of legitimacy on the world stage, and offers a pretext for taking action against alleged affiliates of the group. This misleading framing of issues, which is premised on the false idea that the government persecutes innocent people on the grounds that they expressed mere dissent, is problematic on many aspects. One, it aims to sanitize a terror group involved in a series of grenade attacks that hit Kigali in 2010 and targeted innocent civilians. Two, it denies justice to victims – who should be the primary concern of any genuine human right organization or any freedom house for that matter – by labelling as “persecution” any attempt by the Rwandan government to bring to account those responsible for these crimes, including any individual lending support to such groups. Imagine any Washington DC media outlet claiming that an Al Qaeda affiliate is suffering from American persecution! Yet, this silly idea that Rwanda persecutes terror organizations like the RNC and its affiliates is a recurring theme in the entire report in efforts to sanitize terror as a legitimate means to remove what Freedom House considers an “authoritarian” government. The same silly notion reemerged with the arrest of Paul Rusesabagina whom and the western media industrial complex, completely out of thin air, has long turned into a hero. The media advocacy, such as is happening with Freedom House, attempted to erase from the public discourse Rusesabagina’s openly stated support and actually ownership of the FLN terror organization that perpetrated terrorist attacks in Southern Rwanda on different occasions in 2018. FLN indiscriminately killed civilians, burnt vehicles and looted shops. Rusesabagina supported these crimes with his infamous call for war on Rwanda was viewed as “dissent” in western media. It is from this silly perspective that Freedom House insists on his fictitious and discredited depiction as a ‘hero’ who saved Tutsi during the genocide, an unrelated issue that can never be a shield from the serious accusations Rusesabagina faces. Freedom House would rather promote the “dissenting views of terrorists” than allow for due process for a terror leader. It rehashes more “dissenting” voices from members of the RNC and FDU-Inkingi terror outfits who are given space to promote their conspiracy theories and radical extremism. Unsurprisingly, Freedom House doesn’t find it convenient to inform its audience that the RNC and the FDU-Inkingi are two of the five ‘political’ movements belonging to the P5 umbrella that a UN group of experts’ report in December 2018 pinned for running illegal armed groups arming in DRC bent on destabilizing Rwanda. Yet, the misinformation campaign– that aims to sanitize Rusesabagina and these other groups by exploiting the ignorance of western audience –also describes as rendition the bilateral mechanisms of cooperation that have led to the arrest and repatriation of FLN, RNC and FDLR combatants, including notorious criminals such as Callixte Nsabimana and Joel Mutabazi. If the western audience wasn’t so gullible, at this point of the report one would be justified to throw it in the bin where it belongs. Freedom House isnt done, however. It regurgitates the usual smears about “deaths squads” sent to kill Rwandans abroad, which they back with “testimony” of self-avowed enemies of Rwanda. But how credible is a testimony of an RNC member - the same people that were throwing grenades in markets and other public places in Rwanda not too long ago - like Robert Higiro? Higiro claims he was “asked to kill Kayumba Nyamwasa and Colonel Patrick Karegeya in South Africa, for a fee of $1 million.” How can the words of a high-profile member of a terrorist group bent on destabilizing a government be taken as gospel truth about the leadership of that very government he wishes to do harm? But since Freedom House is not accountable to anyone, yet it seeks the accountability of the government of Rwanda, it doesn’t find it necessary to assess the credibility of its interview subjects. It claims to have “conducted interviews” with Rwandans “that shed light on a diaspora community living in intense fear of their home country’s (Rwanda) government.” But if Freedom House sought out Higiro, one can be certain that these interviews are of the same kind as Higiro’s. Western media like the BBC, was fond of publishing similar rumours peddled by Rene Mugenzi, a man whose father is a genocide perpetrator yet he claims to be a survivor of the very genocide his father perpetrated. This should have raised red flags for the BBC. Yet, it continued to take him as a credible source in its agenda against Rwanda. Mugenzi appeared in a British court and pleaded with the magistrate to ban any mention of his name in newspapers following his condemnation for fraud on the grounds that being an outspoken critic of the Rwandan government, his life was in danger. Of course, his interest was to prevent the public from learning that his lies had finally caught up to him, embarrassing himself and the BBC in the process. However, the magistrate Judge Katharine Moore dismissed this camouflage ruling that Mugenzi himself had repeatedly appeared in the media, published photos of his location on social media, revealed his work addresses online, and even stood to become an MP in 2015. This evidence was brought to court by residents of Norwich who, unlike Freedom House, were not willing to help a criminal masquerading as a human rights activist conceal his crimes and continue to mislead unsuspecting audiences. Freedom House’s advocacy, its whitewashing of RNC and its boss Nyamwasa, is the most damning evidence of its agenda to impose its version of events, far removed from the truth. Nyamwasa declared, ordered, and instigated violent insurrection in Rwanda and in the process his actions led to the indiscriminate killing of innocent people in markets and bus parks. The facts are there for anyone interested in looking. Nyamwasa is still plotting for more bloodshed. Yet Freedom House lionizes him as a “principled dissenter. One wonders what principles are in the killings of innocent people going about their lives. Plotters of instability and their backers will never succeed because Rwandans know that nothing good can come out of terrorism. Western audiences should know better.
