Rwandan opposition says leader barred from seeing doctor

The leading Rwandan opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, who is in a Kigali jail on charges of supporting terrorism, has been barred from seeing her doctor since April, her party said Sunday.

"Since April 2011, she is in total isolation. She has not been allowed to be seen by her doctor," Ingabire's Unified Democratic Forces said in a statement, without giving any details about her state of health. "All incarcerated opposition leaders remain in extreme isolation," it added.

The statement comes as both Ingabire's party and another opposition movement, the Rwandan Democratic Congress, stage a conference in Belgium where they are to raise a series of concerns about the hardline rule of President Paul Kagame.

Among those expected at the meeting in Brussels are former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa who is now living in exile in South Africa and has accused Kagame's security forces of trying to assassinate him.

Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager during the 1994 genocide in the former Belgian colony whose story inspired the film "Hotel Rwanda", is also expected to attend.

In its statement, the United Democratic Forces criticised European countries for not cold-shouldering Kagame, leader of the former Belgian colony since the genocide, which left some 800,000 people dead in a 100-day genocidal spree.

"The shrinking of political space in Rwanda and the intimidation of opposition leaders and journalists are practices tolerated by some European donors who still believe that dictatorship is better for Africans than democracy, it said.

Ingabire, who was arrested last October, is charged with "giving financial support to a terrorist group, planning to cause state insecurity and divisionism." Her trial is due to begin on September 5.

Rwandan prosecutors claim to have evidence of Ingabire's alleged "terrorist" activities, including proof of financial transfers to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu rebel movement based in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Unified Democratic Forces, which has been refused accreditation, accuses the authorities of fabricating evidence against its leader in order to prevent her from participating in Rwandan political life.

AFP