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RWANDA-POLITICS
Rwandan opposition party member stabbed to death
KIGALI, Sept 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Rwandan opposition party said Tuesday
that one of its officials had been stabbed and murdered, fuelling concerns
over a string of unsolved killings of its members.
Victoire Ingabire, leader of the unregistered but vocal FDU-Inkingi party,
said Syridio Dusabumuremyi had been attacked by two men on Monday night in
the shop where he worked.
“Our party deplores the assassination of its national coordinator, Mr
Dusabumuremyi. He was savagely stabbed by two individuals this Monday shortly
after 9pm,” Ingabire told AFP.
“After several unsolved assassinations of our party members, we have no
hope that his murder will be fully investigated and solved,” she added.
Rwandan police said two suspects had already been detained.
“Two people have been arrested in connection with the murder and
investigations are ongoing,” the Rwanda Investigative Bureau (RIB) said in a
statement.
Ingabire’s party has lost several members to mysterious deaths and
disappearances, which it sees as an attack on dissenting voices in the
country.
In March, party spokeman Anselm Mutuyimana, was abducted and his body was
found in a forested area in the west of the country.
A man was later arrested as a suspect in his death, but no details around
the suspect were provided.
RIB spokesperson Modeste Mbabazi told AFP “investigations are ongoing.”
Another member, Eugene Ndereyimana, has been missing since July and is
feared dead.
Ingabire, a critic of the government, was released from jail in September
last year after receiving an unexpected presidential pardon.
She was arrested in 2010 as she planned to contest elections against
President Paul Kagame.
Ingabire, an ethnic Hutu, was accused of “genocide ideology” and
“divisionism” after publicly questioning the government narrative of the 1994
genocide of mostly Tutsi people that killed around 800,000 people.
Members of Ingabire’s party were frequently arrested during her detention,
and human rights groups accused the military of torturing them.
Rights groups accuse Kagame of ruling with an iron fist, clamping down on
dissent and opposition politicians.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1711 hrs