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Rwanda: Fugitive Editor Suspected to Be Hiding in Biryogo
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Focus Media (Kigali)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
The Police are looking for Bonaventure Bizumuremyi the editor of Umuco who has just published an issue of the newspaper with articles that, among other things, compare President Kagame to the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler.
According to the Police spokesman, Inspector Marcel Higiro, they want to arrest Bizumuremyi and hand him over to the courts.
Following the newspaper's publication, the Rwanda Media Ethics Committee has recommended that Bizumuremyi's press card be revoked, his newspaper suspended for a year and that he answers court on charges of gross defamation of the President.
Speculation is rife as to where Bizumuremyi may be hiding. Some in the media fraternity think he may already be out of the country.
But Inspector Higiro is certain the young man is holed up in the Biryogo slum, precisely where they do not know. "But we are on the look-out for him and you can be certain we will inform you as soon as we have him," Inspector Higiro told Focus.
Bizumuremyi ran away and went into hiding as soon as the ethics committee came up with its recommendations last week.
The Hitler article among other things says Kagame and his government, which it says is similar to the Nazis, are facing their last days.
The article says the President of Rwanda will either be arrested like former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, or that he will flee to exile like Hissene Habre, the 1980s president of Chad, or that he will end up committing suicide like Hitler.
"I have seen people write some unbelievable things in this country but this is quite new in my experience," said Gaspard Safari, president of the Rwanda Journalists Association.
Even the usual defenders of Umuco and other newspapers like it are dumbfounded, including some staff of international media rights bodies. Tom Rhodes of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists during a call to the RJA to find out more about Bizumuremyi said, "Comparing President Kagame to Hitler was too much."
Interestingly, as this controversy surfaced, news came up that a few weeks ago during a program on Rwanda Television, the discussants were busy praising Umuco as one of the newspapers doing good work in Rwanda. The guests on the program were Charles Kabonero, editor of Umuseso and Desire Bizimana, an official of the High Council of the Press.
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During the program, Mr Kabonero had no one asking him tough questions; it actually looked like Mr Bizimana was cheerleading him on, praising Umuseso as a newspaper that truly is doing good work. Others in for praise were Umuco, Umuvugizi and Rushyashya. These are the "independent" newspapers of Rwanda.
Asked why they did not at least host someone whose views are not the same as Kabonero's, TVR Director Kije Mugisha said she wasn't aware the program had been aired. The director of the National Information Office, Orinfor, Oscar Kimanuka said the producer of the program, Astrida Uwera, has been suspended while the matter is investigated.
Mr Patrice Mulama of the High Council of the Press too had a denial to make. "Bizimana was on that program in his own capacity," he said. "I did not authorize him to be on it, and I didn't even know of the program until after it had aired."
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