Press release N° 002/2015
Dumping ground for the "underdogs" of Rwandan capital Kigali exposed by HRW: but just a tip of an iceberg.
The political platform composed of political organisations Amahoro PC, FDU-Inkingi, PDP – Imanzi, PS -
Imberakuri and Rwanda National Congress - RNC would like to express its gratitude to the Human Rights Watch
for calling for the closure of the Unofficial Detention Centre in Gikondo - Rwanda.
The platform is quite pleased that the Human Rights organisation has helped to demonstrate with this small
but sad story, the true nature of the Rwandan regime: lack of empathy and disregard for the disadvantaged
people in the community, mockery of the rule of law, cynicism and obsession with external image at the
expense of its own citizens. As Daniel Bekele, the Africa Director at the Human Rights Watch points out, the
positive image of Kigali as clean and tidy is highly paid by the underdogs of the city: the socially and politically
excluded i.e. street vendors, sex workers, beggars, homeless people, and suspected petty criminals who are
forcefully collected as refuse from the streets of Kigali and dumped in a centre away from the eyes of external
visitors. "The contrast between the immaculate streets of central Kigali and the filthy conditions in Gikondo
couldn't be starker", the HRW points out.
The underlying part of the iceberg.
The platform has learnt from reliable retired intelligence officers that this centre which is run by the Police also
serves as a screening place for suspected members of the FDLR and other opposition groups who undergo
torture before they are transferred to DMI torture chambers in Nasho and Kami Barracks for further
interrogations. Some of these suspects and others, picked at random, are said to be sent among others to
Nasho military camp that trains military interrogators and they are used as Guinea pigs for trial in various
interrogation techniques or chemical substances used to kill or debilitate critics. According to credible sources
the trainers include North Koreans. Those who do not survive the interrogation techniques are thrown away,
especially when they have no relatives or the latter are not aware of their whereabouts.
The Platform would like to call for the immediate closure of the dumping centre for the poor and destitute and
condemns in the strongest terms possible the use of the poor as guineas pigs in the research for the most
effective interrogations techniques.
Brussels October 13, 2015
Joseph Bukeye
Chair Platform
jbukeye11@yahoo.fr
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