Opposing Political Killings by the Government of Rwanda

Floor Speech

* Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the current campaign of extra-judicial killing eing waged by the government of Rwanda. Political assassination has no role to play in the twenty first century. It must be condemned and it must cease. The government of Rwanda should understand that the large amounts of aid that Rwanda receives through America's generosity can not and will not be given to a state that kills its own citizens overseas and at home for political ends.

* The government of Rwanda is conducting a campaign of terror and murder against those it sees as enemies. On May 19, 2011 the New York Times reported that Rwandan dissidents in London had been warned by Scotland Yard that the Rwandan government ``was plotting to kill them.'' The BBC reported on May 21st that British police had told the men that ``The Rwandan government poses an immediate threat to your life.''

* These are not just empty threats. The British police prevented a Rwandan assassin from entering the UK. In June 2010, former Rwandan Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, survived a botched assassination attempt in South Africa. Later that same month, Rwandan journalist, Jean-Leonard Rugambage, working on a story on the attack on Mr. Nyamwasa, was himself shot dead in Kigali.

* The Government of Rwanda is using every means at its disposal to harass those it sees as enemies but whom are merely exercising their democratic rights. In January 2011, four former top officials--including Gen Nyamwasa--who have fallen out with President Kagame and gone into exile were sentenced in absentia to long terms in prison for threatening state security and promoting ethnic divisions. My own constituent, American citizen and distinguished human rights lawyer and campaigner, Paul Erlinder, was detained on bogus charges for several weeks in Kigali.

* Rwanda's recent history has been tragic, but a stable and prosperous country has been born from the ashes of the 1994 genocide. However, this tragic history does not give the current government the right to commit murder. The United States currently gives Rwanda over $200 million per year in aid. This generosity must surely be reexamined if the government continues to attack and kill those it disagrees with.

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