Rwanda has withdrawn a controversial candidate as its intended ambassador to the Netherlands. Minister Alfred Gasana’s nomination caused unrest among Rwandan refugees in the Netherlands and other European countries. They accuse him of involvement in human rights violations and asked the Dutch government to refuse consent to his appointment.
Gasana served for many years as Director General of the Rwandan Internal Security Service and has been Minister of the Interior since December 2021. Rwanda put him forward as the intended ambassador after the previous ambassador, Olivier Nduhungirehe, was discredited in May last year following a publication in NRC. Nduhungirehe appeared to threaten and intimidate critics of the regime of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He used an anonymous account on
Members of Parliament asked for measures against Nduhungirehe. GroenLinks-PvdA demanded that diplomats guilty of intimidation be expelled from the country. Nduhungirehe was then brought back to Rwanda, where President Kagame appointed him foreign minister.
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Accusations
Kagame, in power since 2000, has been praised by many governments for bringing stability to Rwanda after the 1994 genocide that killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Netherlands invested 144 million euros, mainly in the judiciary in Rwanda. Nevertheless, it is not considered independent.
The downside of Kagame’s regime is that any form of opposition at home and abroad is severely suppressed. One of the means is to accuse political opponents of denying the genocide or being involved in it. Ambassador Nduhungirehe also regularly did this to critics in the Netherlands.
Members of the Rwandan diaspora immediately announced last year that his intended successor was at least as feared. In a letter to the Dutch government at the end of June, Rwandan organizations accused Gasana of murdering political prisoners, under the guise of an escape attempt, during his time as Minister of the Interior. Cases of kidnapping and torture of opposition figures during Gasane’s time as head of the internal security service were also described.
Request ‘thoroughly’ studied
President Kagame suddenly announced another intended ambassador to the Netherlands in an official communiqué on December 20. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not want to confirm that Gasana has been refused by the Netherlands. A spokesperson said that the Rwandan request to agree to Gasana as ambassador had been “thoroughly” studied. “Because this is a confidential process, we cannot comment on the progress of this application. Only when a new ambassador presents his or her credentials to the king will the ambassador formally take office and this will also be announced,” the spokesperson said.
We don’t know yet whether there are any dangerous people in the new staff
According to Rwandan opposition media, Gasana refused because of its bad reputation in the field of human rights. This is also the assumption of Gloria Uwishema, from the Dutch interest group for Rwandan refugees All for Rwanda. “Rwanda is of course not going to acknowledge that its intended ambassador has been rejected. But that is clear to us and we are very happy with that. It seems that Rwanda realizes that the Netherlands now pays more attention to who is delegated. The new ambassador-designate is not known to have endangered people.”
Take away passports
The new ambassador-designate, Lambert Dushimimana, was until recently governor of the Western Province in Rwanda, one of the five Rwandan provinces. Still, Uwishema is not completely confident. “No Rwandan ambassador can be trusted. Ultimately, they implement Kagame’s policies. We also do not yet know whether there are any dangerous people in the new staff,” says Uwishema.
In 2023, Belgium refused a proposed Rwandan ambassador. This Vincent Karega turned out to be involved in the murder of Kagame’s opponents in South Africa.
The article in NRC last year showed that the Netherlands plays an active role in confiscating passports and revoking residence permits from people with a Rwandan background on suspicion of involvement in the genocide. This turned out to be remarkably often about people affiliated with the Rwandan opposition. They cannot count on a fair trial in Rwanda.
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