According to a new report, Rwanda is accused of being one of the biggest perpetrators of “transnational repression” in the United States, lurking, harassing and threatening exiles there.
A report by the Freedom House Advocacy Group in Washington named Rwanda, along with China, Russia, Iran and Egypt, as the main perpetrators in an effort to expand their repressive regimes in the United States.
Isabel Linzer, one of the report’s authors, said the findings raised further questions about the UK government’s agreement with the Kigali to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. The first deportation flight is on June 14.
“People often focus on Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Russia, but Rwanda is one of the most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression in the world,” Linzer said. “And it certainly hasn’t received the same level of scrutiny as some of these other countries.
“The asylum deal between the United Kingdom and Rwanda is quite shocking, given how often the Rwandan government has persecuted Rwandans in the United Kingdom, and the British government is well aware of this,” she added.
The Freedom House report “Uncertain in America: Transnational Repression in the United States” notes that attacks on exiles took place after the Cold War, but added that “foreign intelligence operations have intensified in recent years.”
“Autocrats cast a long shadow over American soil,” it said. “The governments of Iran, China, Egypt, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and other countries are increasingly disregarding US laws to threaten, harass, monitor, stalk and even physically injure people across the country.
One of the targets was Paul Rusesabagina, the former manager of a hotel in Kigali, whose efforts to save people in the 1994 genocide are described in the film Hotel Rwanda.
Rusesabagina, a permanent resident of the United States and a notorious dissident, was abducted during a trip to the Middle East in August 2020, tricked into boarding a private jet that took him to Rwanda, where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Last month, the US State Department officially declared him “illegally detained.”
The daughter of Rusesabagina, Karin, and other Rwandan dissidents has been found to be under surveillance using Pegasus spyware produced by the Israeli security company NSO Group.
The Rwandan government has denied using spyware, but declined to comment on the Freedom House report.
Rwandan oppositionists in the United States have spoken of constant surveillance, harassment and threats.
Patrick Karegea, former head of espionage in Rwanda, who was found dead in a hotel in South Africa in 2013. Photo: AP
“You understand that this is a part of your life,” said Theogen Rudassingwa, a former chief of staff to President Paul Kagame who was once Rwanda’s ambassador to the United States and is now a staunch critic of the Kagame administration. “My wife is constantly in fear. My children are constantly in fear, especially for me. Every time I leave the house, they are on the edge. I decided that I could not be paralyzed and live in fear 24/7, but the feeling of being persecuted is around me 24/7, “Rudasingwa told the Guardian.
Three months ago, he said he came out of his local bank to tell a passerby that they had seen someone pass under his car. Rudassingwa called police, who conducted a three-hour search but found nothing, possibly because the intruder was worried.
Rudassingwa was the target of a conspiracy to assassinate in Belgium in 2015, which failed when he postponed a planned trip there. Following the assassination of his counterpart opposition leader, former Rwandan intelligence chief Patrick Karegea, in South Africa in 2013 – an assassination allegedly ordered in Kigali – the State Department has advised Rudassingwa to take additional precautions.
“They told me they had turned to Kigali to warn them not to try to do such things here in the United States,” he told the Guardian.
In March this year, the FBI launched a website on transnational repression that provides advice on how to report incidents as part of a broader campaign by the administration to counter the growing threat.
“Transnational repression is used not only to hurt or threaten individual dissidents, journalists, activists and members of the diaspora, but also to silence entire communities,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council.
“Our intention is to use the full range of tools and resources at our disposal to protect and build support for targeted individuals and communities and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.
However, Claude Gatebook, another Rwandan activist who has received repeated anonymous threats, said many in the diaspora did not report harassment due to close diplomatic ties between Washington and Kigali.
“Part of the reason people don’t talk is because they know the Rwandan government has a very close relationship with the US government, and by sharing information, they think they’re talking to themselves,” Gatebook told Freedom House.
Senior members of Congress also expressed concern over Washington’s embrace with Kagame. After General Stephen Townsend, head of US command in Africa, posted photos of himself posing next to Rwanda’s president, Senate Republican Senior Foreign Affairs Officer James Rich warned that bilateral relations “face serious complications”.
“The depiction of the opposite is counterproductive and undermining [state department] messages on other leading diplomatic issues, “Rish wrote on Twitter.
“I am always sensitive to the fact that there is this level of interaction at the intelligence level, at the FBI level, of senior officials who always go to Kigali as if it were their Mecca,” Rudasingwa said. “How can I say that I am safe by sharing sensitive information with them? So sometimes you just keep it to yourself.
“No one ever calls Kagame. No one is holding him accountable, “he added. “They hit their wrists from time to time, but then you see that the United Kingdom is sending refugees there. So where do you get the courage to call him when he does you a favor?
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