Senate president’s son stabbed in Belgium

A son to Senate president Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo was on Saturday stabbed in the stomach in Brussels as he was in transit back to school in the US.Roger Ntawukuriryayo, a university student, left Rwanda last Thursday after a two month holiday before making a stopover in Brussels on Saturday to pick some documents that he needed, according to his family.Reports indicate that Roger, in his early 20s, was ambushed by a gang of about eight black men, in the company of two Rwandans and one Congolese friend.He was stabbed in the abdomen and later rushed to a hospital where he was admitted in the intensive care unit.“He is out of the intensive care, I managed to talk to him on phone today but he sounded very weak,” his father, Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, told The New Times last evening. He was at the Kigali International Airport shortly before boarding a Brussels bound plane to go and see his son.No suspects have been arrested yet but it is believed that those who attacked Roger are linked to a ring of Congolese gangs, who have been accused of carrying out violent attacks on Rwandans living in Brussels in recent months.The attack came weeks after another Rwandan, Jules Mwiseneza, 22, was attacked by a Congolese mob at Merode subway station in Brussels, and was later admitted in hospital with a fractured jaw.Mwiseneza is a son to Charles Uyisenga, once an employee of the Rwanda’s Embassy in Belgium, who now works with the National Electoral Commission in Rwanda.The attacks came in the wake of eruption of fighting in eastern Congo between government troops and the M23 rebels, who mutinied in April following the collapse of a 2009 peace deal under which they had been integrated into the army.Kinshasa has accused Kigali of backing the rebels but the latter has denied the allegations.Speaking in Kigali on Sunday, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Didier Reynders, said Brussels was aware of the attacks targeting Rwandans, saying they would ensure justice for the victims. “We have organised all possible activities for proper prosecution. It is unacceptable – we have the police, the logistics, we will do whatever it takes,” Reynders told journalists at the end of a two-day visit to Rwanda.The association of the Rwandan Diaspora in Belgium petitioned the authorities over the attacks, which are supposedly linked to allegations of Rwanda’s involvement with the DRC conflict. On August 18, the group staged a peaceful protest against the attacks in Brussels.There have also been reports of targetted attacks and torture against Rwandans in DRC in recent months.