Calls are growing for an investigation into the apparent accidental death two weeks ago of a prominent Rwandan journalist and government critic.
John Williams Ntwali, a regular critic of the authorities, was found dead on 18 January. According to reported police accounts, he was killed when a speeding vehicle rammed a motorcycle on which he was riding pillion in the capital, Kigali. A US senate committee said he had been “silenced”. Human rights organisations have joined other activists in raising doubts about the cause of the death of the 44 year-old editor of The Chronicles newspaper.
Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent NGO based in New York, are among media and rights organisations calling for an independent investigation.
“Two weeks after the alleged accident, Rwandan authorities have failed to provide a police report, the exact location of the alleged accident, any photo or video evidence, or detailed information on the others involved in it,” a network of press associations and civil society organisations said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Signed by more than 60 organisations, the statement said Ntwali, was “regularly threatened and attacked in pro-government media for his investigative reporting” and called on Rwanda’s international partners, including the Commonwealth, “to stand by their stated commitment to media freedom and to call on Rwanda to allow an effective, independent and prompt investigation” into his death.
On Monday, Unesco’s director general, Audrey Azoulay urged the Rwandan authorities to “initiate a full and transparent investigation into this case to fully account for the circumstances of his death”.
USAid administrator Samantha Power called for action in a tweet on Saturday.
The US, along with the UK, has previously called for Rwanda to improve its human rights record.
Tuesday’s statement said Ntwali was one of only a few journalists in Rwanda covering high-profile, politicised trials of journalists, commentators and opposition members, and posting videos about their conditions in prison.
Days before he died, Ntwali posted a YouTube video about the unexplained disappearance of a genocide survivor who had reportedly spoken out about police brutality.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Ntwali told friends last year he had been intimidated by government officers and feared for his life.
Police authorities declined to comment on Ntwali’s death, saying the case had been taken over by the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
“This is a regime which has a track record of extrajudicial killings, political assassination, disappearances, unexplained deaths involving human rights activists, journalists, opposition leaders and politicians,” said British journalist Michela Wrong, whose book Do Not Disturb alleges the involvement of President Paul Kagame in numerous human rights abuses against prominent Rwandans – allegations he denies. “It’s against that context that [Ntwali’s] death has to be judged.”
Lewis Mudge, central Africa director at HRW, said: “Rwanda is an incredibly closed country with regard to people’s ability to do free and fair reporting. Journalists know the red lines, and don’t go near them for their own safety. Ntwali was one of the only journalists in Rwanda who would speak about what was happening.”
Rights groups say Ntwali’s death fits within a pattern of political opposition figures, prominent government critics and journalists who have disappeared or been found dead under suspicious circumstances in recent years.
In 2021, the poet Innocent Bahati, whose work was regarded as a “critical expression on issues affecting Rwandan society”, went missing.
The same year, radio journalist Cassien Ntamuhanga was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy against the government and complicity in terrorism. After what HRW calls his “highly politicised trial” he escaped to Mozambique but was arrested there. Mozambican authorities denied having detained him and his whereabouts have been unknown since.
In 2020, the death of Rwandan gospel singer and genocide survivor Kizito Mihigo raised suspicions. The singer was convicted of conspiracy against the government after writing a song that called for empathy towards Hutu as well as Tutsi victims of the genocide, to which he later claimed he was forced to confess. He was reported to have killed himself in police custody – just days after an attempted escape to neighbouring Burundi. Requests for an independent inquiry into his death were unsuccessful.
“There’s just too many cases of people who are considered to be critical of the government who disappear in these mysterious ways,” said Mudge.
“Ntwali’s death is going to send yet another chilling message to anyone who tries to do independent reporting in Rwanda,” he said. “That if you dare to do investigations and cross the line – you could pay with your life.”
