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Rwanda: Congolese Professor Released but Declared Persona Non Grata

Professor Idesbald Byabuze Katabaruka a Congolese University arrested and detained in Rwanda on 16 February 2007, has been released on 21 March 2007. However, despite the fact that all charges against him have been dropped, he was declared ‘persona non grata’ by the state prosecutor and immediately escorted by two policemen and an immigration officer to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congolese Professor Jailed in Rwanda
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Alert Update-Rwanda

Rwanda
Date: 26 Mar 2007
Source: Reporters Without Borders
Classification: NEAR Member
Violation: Person Imprisoned
Affected Persons: Idesbald Byabuze Katabaruka
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Katabaruka, a professor at the Catholic University of Bukavu in Sud-Kivu, a province in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was giving a class at the Adventist Lay University of Kigali (UNILAK) on 16 February 2007 when he was arrested. A prosecutor told him he would be tried for endangering state security, "segregation" and "sectarianism." On 23 February 2007, a court ordered him held for 30 days pending trial.

Katabaruka has, over the years, written a number of alarming reports about the humanitarian situation on the border between Rwanda and the DRC. His name appeared as one of the authors of an 8 June 2005 report for the Missionary Service News Agency (MISNA) entitled "Rwanda Alert." The other two authors were an Italian nun and a Congolese nun with Catholic missions in the east of the DRC. It was a scathing assessment of Kagame and the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) since Kagame became president in 1994. The professor, speaking with RSF, said that the appearance of his name on the report was "unfortunate" and he was not responsible for its content. He added: "They must have put my name at the foot of the report because, at the time, I was supervising some of the work of these nuns."

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