Amnesty criticises harassment of Rwandan opposition
Nairobi/Kigali - Human rights group Amnesty International on Thursday condemned the harassment of opposition figures in Rwanda - ahead of presidential elections planned for August.
Members of opposition parties FDU-Inkingi and the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda have been attacked and harassed in the East African nation, where rebel-turned-president Paul Kagame is often accused of cracking down on political opponents.
'Past elections have been marred by intimidation, however this year's vote gives Rwanda the chance to promote rights not repression,' Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of the group's Africa programme, wrote in a letter to Kagame.
'Amnesty International is concerned that these recent incidents are part of a wider pattern of intimidation and harassment to discourage and discredit opposition groups.'
Victoire Ingabire, president of FDU-Inkingi, and her aide Joseph Ntawangundi were attacked in early February in the capital Kigali.
Ntawangundi has since been arrested after allegedly having been sentenced in absentia to 19 years in prison by a gacaca court.
The gacaca system is a network of grassroots tribunals set up to try people accused of the involvement in the 1994 genocide, during which 800,000 Tutsis and moderates Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days.
Ingabire, a Hutu who spent 16 years in exile, caused controversy earlier this year when she demanded that Tutsi rebels who committed war crimes against Hutus be brought to justice.
Kagame, whose Tutsi rebel group ousted the genocidal regime, is expected to stand at the upcoming elections.