Police deny arrest of Bizimungu

Rwandan police at the weekend denied it had arrested former president Pasteur Bizimungu and former transport minister, Charles Ntakirutinka, Rwandan radio reported. “It is not true,” chief superintendant of police, Emmanuel Bayingana told journalists. “Pasteur Bizimungu is not in detention. To my knowledge he is at home and well,” he said. He explained that sometime back, Bizimungu had talked to BBC radio saying that he had been attacked by thugs in the locality of Remera in Kigali. “I had never learnt of that until I heard it over the radio, over BBC,” he said. “I never took it serious until a few days ago, because when I asked Remera police station, which controls that area, they had not had any complaints from Pasteur Bizimungu. So I dismissed the thing as a rumour,” he said. Last week, Bayingana summoned Bizimungu to his office in Kacyriru, “to come and tell if that was the truth”.

“Indeed he came and told me that indeed he was attacked on 8 August this year by unknown thugs. I asked him whether he reported the matter to any police station and he said no,” Bayingana said. “I went further to find out why he never reported to the police and he said that he could not trust the government agencies, that is why he decided to put the matter to the whole world, on the airwaves of BBC.” When Bayingana expressed displeasure with the way Bizimungu had handled the issue, the latter reportedly apologised and also agreed to help police start investigations.