Our Statement on the Disappearance of Innocent Bahati

Statement

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights calls for a full, independent and transparent investigation into the disappearance of the poet Innocent Bahati, and for the authorities to publicly account for his whereabouts.

Innocent Bahati is a popular Rwandan poet known for his open and critical expression. On 7 February 2021 he left his home in Kigali to meet an unnamed person he had just spoken with on the phone. He was last seen that day in Nyanza district, in the Southern Province. He has not been seen since.

This was not the first time he vanished. In 2017, after he posted criticism of the government on Facebook, Bahati disappeared for several days before turning up in police custody. Human Rights Watch has said his 2021 disappearance should be treated as suspicious, and PEN International, together with writers including Margaret Atwood, has called on Rwanda to investigate and to publicly account for his fate. Years later, his family and his readers still have no answer to the only question that matters: where is Innocent Bahati?

A state that respects the rule of law does not lose track of its citizens. A disappearance that follows earlier arbitrary detention, that follows peaceful criticism, and that is never credibly investigated, points in only one direction.

Our Demands

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights demands:

• An immediate, independent and transparent investigation into the disappearance of Innocent Bahati, and the publication of its findings.
• That the Rwandan authorities publicly account for his whereabouts and his fate, and for the circumstances of his disappearance.
• An end to enforced disappearances and to every form of reprisal against those who express critical opinions.

Say his name. Innocent Bahati. Where is he?