Amnesty International accused Rwandan military intelligence services of engaging in torture, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances of civilians on Monday by members of the J2.
According to human rights archivist, some group members of a Rwandan military intelligence department, known as J2 had tortured civilians during uprising. They used electric shocks in beatings and forcing the victims to confessions. They held civilians in military detention without charge or trial for months. Rwanda’s Ministry of Justice reveals that while some illegal detentions had taken place, these abuses were handled by the courts.
He explains that this occurred as a result of volatility on the part of individuals within the security services and their actions dealt with the courts which immediately put in place corrective measures. Rwanda did not report the allegations of torture straight away but nevertheless the ministry said reports of torture are investigated through established channels and are treated with the extreme genuineness. Amnesty has called for contributor of the accusation to suspend funding for Rwanda’s security forces.
Amnesty has recorder 45 cases of unlawful detention and 18 allegations of torture or ill-treatment at a military camp and in safe houses in Kigali between March 2010 and June 2012. Most of the detained were charged with threatening national security. Many men interviewed by Amnesty said they were stoked in Rwanda after grenade attacks in Kigali in March 2010 and in the run-up to the presidential elections in August 2010 where the incumbent president Paul Kagame won with 93% of the vote.
Last month a report by Human Rights Watch said Rwanda has been supporting a rebellion in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where the M23 rebels have committed widespread war crimes, including dozens of rapes and killings. Rwanda has frequently denied this allegation. United Nations report says Rwandan officials were supplying the rebels with weapons and logistics.
