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With his Belgian passport and job as a Brussels bus driver, Norbert Rukimbira would not have stood out as a suspected international assassin as he sat on board the Eurolines coach that pulled into the passport control building at Folkestone’s Eurotunnel terminal three weeks ago.

According to British newspaper The Independent, within moments of his arrival on British soil, the 43-year-old teaching graduate found himself surrounded and being quietly taken aside by counter-terrorism officers, and questioned about his suspected involvement in an assassination squad allegedly sent to London by the Rwandan government to kill two critics of the government of Rwanda.

Acting on information supplied by Scotland Yard, the Kent Police detectives knew that while Mr Rukimbira is now a public transport worker in a glittering European capital, he was until 2001 an officer in Rwanda’s intelligence services with 20 years of experience in Rwanda’s military and police.

After six hours of questioning during which his baggage was searched and a mobile phone SIM card confiscated, Mr Rukimbira was sent back whence he came – put on a late-night coach back through the Channel Tunnel. Yesterday, he spoke for the first time to strongly deny any role in the alleged plot, saying it was an “insult” to his knowledge of the shadowy world of national security.

The interception at Folkestone had its roots in a six-month investigation which last month led the Yard to serve extraordinary notices to two Rwandans living in the UK, stating that police had “reliable intelligence” that the Rwandan government posed an “imminent threat” to their lives.

Rene Mugenzi, a 35-year-old community worker, and Jonathan Musonera, an opposition political activist, were warned to improve security at their homes, change their daily routines and never walk unaccompanied.

Mr Rukimbira, who was travelling to London he says to attend a conference for the Rwandan National Conference, a new political party co-founded by Mr Musonera, was removed from the coach taking him from his home in the Belgian capital at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Folkestone by Kent Police officers on 13 May – the same day that Scotland Yard officers visited Mr Mugenzi and Mr Musonera to warn their lives were in danger.

The disclosure of the alleged assassination plot on British soil is the latest incident that threatens to cool the hitherto close relationship between Rwanda and Britain, which is the single largest aid donor to Kigali with an annual package worth £82m.

The Independent revealed in April that the High Commissioner to London, Ernest Rwamucyo, had been warned by MI5 to halt a claimed campaign of harassment against critics of Mr Kagame among Rwandan expats and MPs called for Britain to review its relationship with Kigali in the light of the Yard’s latest investigations.

Police sources told The Independent that Mr Rukimbira, a former investigator in a special intelligence unit of the Rwandan police who fled the country in 2001 and now works as a driver for the Brussels bus service, was stopped under counter-terrorism legislation because of a suspected link with the alleged assassination plot. He was served with a document, known as a Schedule 7 notice, stating that he was being questioned to determine whether he “is or has been concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “At approximately 7pm on 13 May, a 43-year-old man was stopped by Kent Police. He was not arrested and subsequently left the UK.”

Mr Rukimbira, who is currently sitting exams to become a taxi driver, insists that he was the victim of misinformation about the purpose of his visit London, where he had been due to stay in the home of Mr Musonera, a childhood friend and former comrade in the Rwandan Patriotic Front – the army led by Mr Kagame which stopped the 1994 genocide.

Speaking in a Brussels tea salon after insisting that he wanted to clear his name, Mr Rukimbira dismissed the idea that he had been sent to assassinate Mr Musonera, describing him as a “brother” because “we grew up together and served in the same army”.

In a remarkable statement, the tall, balding former police inspector said: “I wasn’t going to carry a weapon and risk being searched on entry to the UK. As a former member of Rwandan intelligence, that would be an insult to my 20 years of career experience.

“When you’re planning an operation like that, I would have taken all the precautions, not leaving anything. I wouldn’t have used my own mobile number, [I] would have used a public telephone. I’m not an idiot, I am a cop, and you can imagine I wouldn’t have brought my contacts with me.”

While working as a lieutenant in the Rwandan intelligence services, Mr Rukimbira was named by relatives of Assiel Kabera – a former ally of Mr Kagame shot dead in 2000 – as a suspect in the killing. Mr Rukimbira strongly denies the allegation and insists that he fled the country a year later after refusing money to investigate the defection of eight colleagues.

He said: “Since leaving Africa, the way I see life has changed. Here I am free man, I love music and do other things. What I do is drive a bus, I work in a public company, I am known. I cannot do anything bad.”

The image of hit squads roaming London was denounced by the Rwandan government, which has now asked the Metropolitan Police to provide details of its allegations. In a statement, a spokesman for Mr Kagame said: “Never does the Government of Rwanda threaten the lives of its citizens, nor use violence against its people wherever they live.”

Mr Musonera said he had no view on the reasons why Mr Rukimbira had been stopped by police. He added: “I’ve faced death a million times.”

For his part, the bus driver said he was dedicated to finding a peaceful solution to Rwanda’s political problems. He said: “My motivation is that I am a person who hates persecution. And I love peace because I know its price. And even here, I will try to make sure that among all the people they have peace because I like it. There can be problems but these need to be solved through dialogue.”

Yoletta Nyange is a Rwandan-born freelance journalist.

American based human rights body Amnesty International is calling on Rwanda to ease restrictions on free speech.

According to several news sources including AFP and Reuters, the rights group says the months leading up to last year’s presidential election were marked by a crack down on freedom of expression.

Amnesty is calling on Rwanda to allow opposition politicians, journalists and human rights activists to express their views without fear for their safety.

Amnesty, which has often been accused by the Government of unfair criticism, also wants Rwanda to revise laws on genocide ideology and divisionism, which it says Rwanda uses to curb free speech.

The laws were put in place after the 1994 genocide, when extremist Hutus killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Amnesty says the laws prohibit hate speech but are so broad they criminal other expression, including criticism of the government.

The supreme court Friday sentenced Umuvugizi editor Jean Bosco Gasasira to two and a half years in jail, after finding him guilty of inciting civil disobedience and insulting the president.

Gasasira was acquitted by a lower court in September but the prosecutor appealed against the acquittal and asked for a 10-year sentence.

“The supreme court found him guilty of inciting civil disobedience, and insulting the head of state and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison,” a source at the court said.

Umuvugizi was suspended for six months on 13 April 2010. As tension mounted in the run-up to the August 2010 presidential election, Gasasira went into exile in order to continue working, and launched an online version of the newspaper.

In June 2010 Jean-Leonard Rugambage, Umuvugizi’s deputy editor, was shot and killed at the gate of his home in Kigali.

Two men have been jailed for life for the killing but rights groups have charged that the authorities were behind it, a claim they have repeatedly dismissed.

As plans to host the annual Kwita Izina ceremony gather steam, a mountain gorilla has given birth to twins, a rare occurrence for an endangered species whose numbers have dwindled to less than 800, the Rwanda Development Board-Tourism announced Friday.

“The two babies, one male and one female, were born May 27,” said Rica Rwigamba, head of tourism and conservation at the Rwanda Development Board.

“The two new-borns and their mother Ruvumu are well,” she said.
It is only the seventh time in the last 40 years that a gorilla has given birth to twins. Twin gorillas were last born in February.

Twenty-two baby mountain gorillas will be “baptised” in a name-giving ceremony on June 18 in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.

The twins born in February will be among those baptised but the latest two will only be named at next year’s ceremony.

According to a 2010 census, the total number of mountain gorillas has increased by a quarter over the past seven years to reach more than 780 individuals.

Two-thirds of them are found in the Virunga chain that straddles Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were brought to the attention of the outside world by the renowned US primatologist, the late Dian Fossey.

Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, who is presently on a visit to Japan, has expressed hope that Japan will balance its efforts to rebuild from the devastating quake and tsunami and keep supporting the world’s poor.

The minister, who came to Japan for a two-day international meeting on poverty reduction through Friday, said in a recent interview with Kyodo News that she appreciates Tokyo for hosting the conference as scheduled, despite the massive disaster.

“I applaud Japan for making sure that some of its important commitments are maintained,” Mushikiwabo said.

“That does not take away from the necessity for Japan to pay close attention to investing into this reconstruction,” she said. “But in this global world, it is also to the benefit of Japan, as a country that is quite well-positioned globally, to keep its commitments.”

The minister said Rwanda respects Japan’s sovereign decision to cut its official development assistance by around 10 percent for fiscal 2011 from the initial plan to raise funds for recovery efforts from the March calamities.

“I have no doubt that this reconstruction is going to cost money, and it’s quite normal that the Japanese people want to rebuild their own nation,” Mushikiwabo said. She added that the Central African country, not foreign donors, is responsible for the well-being of its own nationals.

“So long as the spirit of support and help for other nations remains, I think this is just a time that has brought that necessity,” the minister said.

At the ministerial meeting to explore effective ways to implement the eight-point U.N. Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction, Rwanda expects to learn lessons from other countries in its endeavor to fulfill the targets set in 2000 to be achieved by 2015, Mushikiwabo said.

The MDG include halving abject poverty by 2015 from 1990 levels, stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, reducing child mortality and ensuring primary education is made available to all.

The minister said Rwanda, whose economy has been expanding at a fast pace, has “done very well” with many of the targets and is set to achieve all of the MDG by 2015. But she noted that the level of poverty “don’t necessary come down quickly,” if the wealth is not shared properly.

She said Rwanda counts on technical and vocational training from Japan, as the country has “a number of retired, very skilled people.”