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Newspaper editor, others still in custody

    NAIROBI

    Rwandan police are holding the editor of a privately owned newspaper arrested on Wednesday near the Ugandan border, according to Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), a media watchdog in Paris.

    On Thursday, RSF reported that Robert Sebufilira, editor of Umuseso, was arrested as he went to collect 4,000 copies of the weekly printed in Uganda, where it is cheaper. After his arrest he was taken to the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

    Sebufilira's deputy, McDowell Kalisa, and three other staff members were also arrested on Thursday when they went to the CID office to inquire about Sebufilira, RSF said.

    Citing unnamed sources, RSF said the arrests seemed to be linked to the publication of an article on the "planned demobilisation" of army chief of staff Maj-Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa. It said Nyamwasa was now the director of the national security service, the Service National de Securite.

    The Associated Press quoted police spokesman Damas Gatare as saying the men were charged with publishing false information and violating the law against encouraging sectarian divisions. Such divisions led to the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people died.

    AP also quoted the head of the Judicial Police, Assistant Commissioner Emmanuel Bayingana, as saying those arrested were "spreading rumours calculated to cause discord within the population and among senior government officials".

    The arrests came as the country's media governing body, the High Council of the Press, committed itself to speeding up the promotion and protection of a free media. The Rwandan News Agency reported on Thursday that during a workshop the director of information in the Ministry of Information, Jean-Pierre Kagubari, spoke favourably of the importance of a free media in the development of democracy.

    Recalling the presidential order setting up the council Kagubari said, "The letter has the mission to guarantee and ensure freedom and protection of the press and ensure respect for press ethics among other things."

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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