Statement: The Abduction of Joel Mutabazi in Uganda by Rwandan Agents

Joel Mutabazi, a Rwandan refugee recognised by the United Nations refugee agency and living under the protection of the Ugandan authorities, was abducted from his safehouse in Kampala on 25 October 2013 and handed back to the government he had fled. We condemn this act, which the world only learned of days later, in the strongest possible terms.

What Happened

On 25 October 2013, a group of armed men, some dressed in Ugandan police uniforms and others in civilian clothes, seized Mutabazi from the safehouse where he had been placed under the protection of the Ugandan state. Days later he was in Rwandan custody. The Rwandan authorities had hunted him for more than two years, and the Ugandan authorities allowed them to take him from inside their own country.

Who Joel Mutabazi Is

Mutabazi is a former bodyguard of President Paul Kagame. After speaking out about abuses he had witnessed, he was detained and tortured in Rwanda, escaped, and fled to Uganda in 2011. The United Nations refugee agency recognised him as a refugee. He was precisely the kind of person international refugee law exists to protect, a man whose life was at risk in his own country and who was told that a neighbouring state would keep him safe.

What the Law Says

Handing a recognised refugee back to the state he fled is a violation of the absolute prohibition on refoulement, the cornerstone of the Refugee Convention and the Convention against Torture. No exception applies here. Uganda, as the state that hosted him and guaranteed his protection, bears direct responsibility. Rwanda, whose agents carried out the operation, bears responsibility for an act of transnational repression committed on foreign soil.

What We Demand

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights demands that:

• The Government of Uganda publicly account for how Rwandan agents, including men wearing Ugandan police uniforms, were able to abduct a protected refugee from a safehouse in Kampala.
• Those responsible for the abduction, on both the Ugandan and Rwandan sides, are identified and held accountable.
• The Rwandan authorities guarantee Mutabazi's physical safety, independent medical examination and access to a lawyer of his own choosing.
• United Nations bodies, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and refugee-hosting governments investigate and respond to this act of transnational repression.

Where He Is Now

Mutabazi has since been brought before a military court in Kigali and charged with terrorism and related offences, alongside other critics of the regime. Independent monitors have documented that confessions used in cases of this kind are extracted under torture. We will not treat his conviction as legitimate, and we will not let the circumstances of his capture be forgotten.

Every Rwandan dissident in exile understood the message: no refuge is safe. We refuse that message, and we will continue to document and expose every act of transnational repression against Rwandans until it is met with consequences.