VZCZCXYZ0012
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #0195 0590643
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 280643Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3821
INFO RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0017
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 0828
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1543
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0185
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0788
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0208

UNCLAS KIGALI 000195 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV RW
SUBJECT: RWANDA: CONGOLESE JOURNALIST ARRESTED 
 
REF: KIGALI 49 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Deputy Prosecutor General Alphonse Hitiyaremye 
confirmed to polchief on February 27 the recent arrest of 
Congolese citizen Idesbald Byabuze.  Byabuze, reportedly a 
professor at the Bakuvu Catholic University, as well as the 
publisher of a Bakuvu newspaper, the Mashariki News, is in 
custody at the Central Kigali "1930" prison.  Although there 
is some dispute as to which of his publications led to this 
arrest, most sources point to a 2005 article entitled Rwanda 
Alert, in which the author denounces at length an alleged 
Tutsi domination of Rwanda's Hutu majority.  Byabuze 
apparently crossed into Rwanda in the last several weeks to 
begin teaching as a visiting instructor at the Kigali campus 
of UNILAC, the Private International University of Central 
Africa. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Hitiyaremye said that investigation of the 
journalist "continued" without formal charges so far levied 
against him.  However, likely offenses included denial of the 
genocide and divisionism.  His "preventive detention" would 
continue for up to 30 days.  When asked if the GOR would 
consider expelling the journalist rather than prosecuting 
him, Hitiyaremye said no, the accused was present on Rwandan 
soil, had likely broken Rwandan law, and would have to answer 
for his offenses in a court of law. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Comment.  This is the second journalist arrested 
this year, both for published articles that explicitly 
proclaim the existence of a Tutsi hegemony and thorough-going 
oppression of the Hutus (reftel).  This latest example is 
less harshly and emotionally critical of the Kagame 
government, but more comprehensive in its litany of evils 
purportedly committed by the present government.  As noted in 
earlier reporting, the GOR now tolerates wide-ranging 
criticism of its policies without comment (such as January 
articles in several independent newspapers questioning 
Kagame's "dictatorial" tendencies), but it reacts with 
alacrity when explicit ethnic attacks are made against it and 
its policies.  End comment. 
ARIETTI