VZCZCXYZ0025
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #0289 0801507
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211507Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3931
INFO RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0034
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 0846
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1567
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0195
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0818
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0216

UNCLAS KIGALI 000289 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV RW
SUBJECT: CONGOLESE JOURNALIST RELEASED, EXPELLED 
 
REF: KIGALI 195 
 
¶1.  (SBU) On March 21, Rwandan authorities released from 
custody Congolese journalist Idesbald Byabuze, in detention 
for approximately a month, and under investigation for a 2005 
article criticizing the alleged Tutsi domination of the Hutu 
majority in Rwanda (reftel).  At the central "1930" prison in 
Kigali, a local embassy employee observed Byabuze's departure 
in an automobile under the supervision of four police 
officers, who were escorting Byabuze to the DRC border at 
Cyangugu/Bukavu.  According to a local journalist given 
access to Byabuze inside the prison, a representative of the 
Prosecutor General handed Byabuze a letter officially 
expelling him from Rwanda.  Byabuze's attorney later 
confirmed for us Byabuze's departure from the country at the 
Cyangugu border post. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Deputy Prosecutor General Alphonse Hitiyaremye told 
polchief later in the day that his office had "exercised its 
prosecutorial discretion" in deciding "not to pursue Byabuze 
at this time."  Rather, the decision had been taken to expel 
the journalist, he said.  Hitiyaremye noted that the 
journalist had not been formally charged with any offense 
during his detention, but that his office had reviewed the 
submissions of the police and its own investigators, and 
determined "not to take the opportunity" to prosecute. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Comment. Hitiyaremye had earlier indicated the 
likelihood that Byabuze had violated the Rwandan divisionism 
statute in his explicit ethnic attack on the policies and 
composition of the Kagame government (reftel).  The GOR 
appears to have decided that expulsion rather than 
prosecution is the better policy choice, in regard to a 
Congolese journalist easily escorted to the DRC border.  End 
comment. 
ARIETTI