Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Rwanda: Victoire Ingabire Endures Relentless Interrogation
Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
30 Oct 2019
Rwanda: Victoire Ingabire Endures Relentless Interrogation
Rwanda: Victoire Ingabire Endures Relentless Interrogation

Rwanda's democratic opposition leader says “there is no space for people to speak freely and peacefully and engage in real democratic process in Rwanda.”

“I will not live in fear of re-imprisonment or assassination.”

Militia attacks killed 14 civilians in northern Rwanda during the first week of October. The attackers have not been identified, but the Rwandan Investigation Bureau has interrogated Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire several times a week since. Ingabire was released from prison in September 2018 but not allowed to leave Rwanda. Her party, the Democratic Forces of Rwanda, oppose Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s elite totalitarian rule and his ongoing invasion and occupation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

I spoke to Victoire Ingabire.

Ann Garrison: What is the Rwandan Investigation Bureau interrogating you about? 

Victoire Ingabire: The Rwandan Investigation Bureau keeps questioning me about the militia attacks in the north of our country.

AG: And do you know anything about these attacks?

VI: No, I don’t know anything about these attacks, because I don’t believe that the political problems that we have in our country should be resolved by war. I don’t believe in war struggle. I believe in democratic struggle. We need dialogue between the government and the opposition.

AG: In the meantime, have there been any further investigations of the murders and disappearances of your fellow party activists?

VI: The Rwandan Investigation Bureau keeps telling me the investigations are going on, but no one has been arrested or charged.

AG: Are they still interrogating you all day three days a week?

VI: This week I was at the police station only two days. 

AG: Have any international human rights advocates or organizations asked the Rwandan government to stop tormenting you like this?

VI: Not that I know of.

AG: In 2010, when you attempted to run for president against Paul Kagame, Pacifica Radio and the San Francisco Bay View newspaper were the only US outlets who spoke to you, but now many far better known outlets, including CNN, seem to report each assassination and disappearance of your fellow party activists and come to speak to you.

VI: I’m glad that the international press is now paying attention, but my wish is to hear something more reported about my country than the assassinations and disappearances of our members and others who dare to oppose its government. 

“I’m glad that the international press is now paying attention.”

AG: I hate to say it, but this sounds very much like the constant interrogation they put you through in 2010 before sentencing you to eight years in prison and increasing the sentence to 15 years on appeal.

VI: You are right. It is very similar to my interrogation in 2010. But, as I have said before, I will not live in fear of re-imprisonment or assassination.

AG: Is there anything else you’d like to say?

VI: The powerful and wealthy nations who send foreign aid to Rwanda need to understand that they are supporting an unstable, unsustainable government, because there is no space for people to speak freely and peacefully and engage in real democratic process in Rwanda. Shutting down political space risks the return of mass violence to Rwanda sooner or later. I have devoted my life to preventing that and helping my people lift themselves up.

Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann(at)anngarrison.com 

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

Kagame Rwandan dictatorship

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Kagame and Other Stooges Do U.S. Bidding in Haiti
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Kagame and Other Stooges Do U.S. Bidding in Haiti
19 July 2023
The U.S. is committed to invading Haiti but needs Black “leaders” to give them cover.
Paul Rusesabagina is free after being kidnapped and taken to Rwanda in 2020. But Rwanda's president Kagame no doubt exacted a high price from the U.S. in exchange for his freedom and will resume pillaging Congo with no fear of interference.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
US Uses Rusesabagina’s Release to Whitewash Its Decades of Support for the Kagame Regime
05 April 2023
Paul Rusesabagina is free after being kidnapped and taken to Rwanda in 2020.
2023 Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize Awarded to John Williams Ntwali and Kambale Musavuli
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
2023 Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize Awarded to John Williams Ntwali and Kambale Musavuli
29 March 2023
The Victoire Ingabere Umuhoza Prize for Democracy and Peace is awarded to people who work for democracy, peace, and freedom in the Great Lakes
Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora
21 September 2022
Most reporting on the Rwandan 1994 atrocities was false and driven by the Clinton administration's need to hide its culpability. The book Survi
 Presentation of the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize by the International Women’s Network for Democracy and Peace to Mr. John Philpot
John Philpot
Presentation of the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize by the International Women’s Network for Democracy and Peace to Mr. John Philpot
26 April 2022
Canadian attorney John Philpot received the Victoroire Ingabire Umuhoza Prize for Democracy and Peace on March 19, 2022.  The prize is given in
The Hoops and the Hype: Basketball Africa League Debuts
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
The Hoops and the Hype: Basketball Africa League Debuts in Rwanda
19 May 2021
The decision to debut the Basketball Africa League in Rwanda is a huge public relations coup for totalitarian, war criminal, and US military partne
Open Letter to Superstar Rapper J. Cole about Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Open Letter to Superstar Rapper J. Cole about Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
12 May 2021
Dear Mr. Cole:
Voices Are Raised Against the NBA Launching Its New African League in Rwanda
David Zirin
Voices Are Raised Against the NBA Launching Its New African League in Rwanda
06 May 2021
Human rights groups are concerned that using Rwanda as a backdrop would provide a public relations boost for its autocratic leader.
Rwanda and Zaire (DRC) 1990 to 1997, Where the US Blocked Real Humanitarian Intervention
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Rwanda and Zaire (DRC) 1990 to 1997, Where the US Blocked Real Humanitarian Intervention
07 April 2021
The real story of the Rwandan genocide begins in 1990, when exiled Tutsis from Uganda invaded northern Rwanda, unleashing a deadly campaign that up
Still Unsolved: the Great Crime that Triggered the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
Jeremy Kuzmarov
Still Unsolved: the Great Crime that Triggered the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
07 April 2021
After 27 years, strong evidence implicates Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame and the CIA in the downing of Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana’s airplane

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 30, 2025
    30 May 2025
    In this week’s segment we talk about jails and prisons in New York City and State and the end of city control of the infamous Rikers Island jail. But first a Washington DC activist analyzes how the…
  • Democratic party where are you
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Afeni on Fighting the Bipartisan Fascist Consensus
    30 May 2025
    Afeni is an activist and lead organizer with Herb and Temple in Washington, DC. She joins us from Oakland to discuss politics in the U.S. and how the people can fight the fascism produced by the…
  • Rikers protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Eric Adams Loses Control of Rikers Island to Federal Receivership
    30 May 2025
    Our guest is Melanie Dominguez, Organizing Director, New York with the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. She joins us from New York City to discuss the federal takeover of Rikers Island…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Charles Rangel and the End of Black Politics
    28 May 2025
    The late Charles Rangel served as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for more than 40 years. But the goals of Black politics and electoral politics are not necessarily the same.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Intellectual Origins of Imperialism and Zionism, Edward Said, 1977
    28 May 2025
    “In theory and in practice, then, Zionism is a degraded repetition of European imperialism.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us