Rights body appeals for charges against detainees

The Human Rights Watch appealed to the Rwandan authorities on Thursday to make public "any charges" against two publishers of a journal arrested at the weekend, or release them promptly if there is no adequate reason for their detention.

The organisation said Laurien Ntezimana and Didace Muremangingo were being held at the Butare central prison in southern Rwanda. The organisation quoted local judicial authorities as saying that they were arrested in connection with a journal both men published, called Ubuntu. The authorities refused to explain further.

Ntezimana, had worked for reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups both before and after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which at least 500,000 people were killed, while Muremangingo was a young survivor of the genocide, Human Rights Watch said.

It added that the journal had used the term "ubuyanja", which means rebirth of strength or energy, in some of its articles. Human Rights Watch said authorities had previously questioned Ntezimana about the use of this term. The same term had appeared in the name of a political party, which the former president, Pasteur Bizimungu, had attempted to organise in June 2001, Human Rights Watch said, adding that Rwandan authorities had immediately declared the party illegal.

In December, one of the organisers of the party was killed at midday in Kigali, and no one had been arrested for the crime, the rights body said. Bizimungu and others associated with the party had been detained and interrogated several times in the last few months. In addition, street gangs attacked Bizimungu and one of his associates in August 2001, the rights body added.

"If all these men have done is publish a word that authorities don't like, they should be freed immediately," Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa Division of the rights body said. "To do otherwise violates the freedom of expression that the Rwandan government has vowed to protect, and suggests a troubling move towards political repression."

Efforts to obtain a comment from the Rwandan authorities failed.