The building has all the makings of an upscale suburban home. The environment is calm and green. However, it is an official building: the Rwandan embassy in Belgium, in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, one of the most chic communities in Brussels. This Rwandan diplomatic representation would be the essential link in a system for monitoring opponents abroad. This is what the “Rwanda Classified” investigation reveals, coordinated by Forbidden Stories associated with 17 media outlets from around the world, including the Radio France investigation unit. With The eveningRTBF and Knack, we continued the work of journalist John Williams Ntwali, who died in suspicious circumstances in January 2023 in Kigali.
This work led us to take an interest in Théogene Rudasingwa, 64 years old. The man has long been a close collaborator of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He was successively secretary general of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Kagame’s armed and then political movement, Rwanda’s ambassador to Washington, then chief of staff of the president. He has lived in the United States since 2005, after breaking up with Kagame. In 2010, with other former RPF executives in exile, he created the Rwandan National Congress (RNC). This opposition movement is well established in Belgium where a significant Rwandan diaspora lives (nearly 30 000 people). But Theogene Rudasingwa does not go there easily, as a precaution, he tells us: “Several times, here in the United States, the FBI came to my house to alert me. Once, I had to leave for Brussels, they warned me as I was going to the airport. They told me ‘don’t go’. I canceled my trip.”
According to figures from the “Rwanda Classified” project, the Rwandan authorities have carried out around twenty actions over the last ten years to monitor, intimidate, threaten or even attempt to assassinate Rwandans residing or passing through Belgium. Since 2004, we have recorded at least four suspicious deaths of Rwandans in this country.
Paul Rusesabagina, 70, also feared for his safety. During the genocide, he saved the life of 1 200 people by hosting them in his luxury hotel in Kigali. Celebrated as a hero around the world, central character in the film Hotel Rwanda (2004), he was however accused by certain journalists of having monetized these rescues. Paul Rusesabagina therefore left Rwanda for Belgium, where he obtained nationality. But he lives part of the time in Texas for, he says, security reasons. Because over the years, he has also become a fierce opponent of Paul Kagame.
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In 2018, the former hotel manager filed a complaint after being warned, according to his statements, that three Rwandans had been sent to Belgium to kill him. According to his account, two of them were linked to a Rwandan military intelligence agent. Paul Rusesabagina remembers other disturbing elements: “My daughter, Lys, was contacted by a person I didn’t know. She sent him audio recordings in which people explained how to track, threaten, and even kill people abroad. The first target they talked about was me.” He mentions several burglaries at his home where, according to him, only documents in Kinyarwanda (the official language of Rwanda) were stolen.
But the worst is yet to come. In Belgium, he meets a man named Constantin. “He was introduced to me as ‘a pastor from Burundi’ by a Belgian-Rwandan lawyer at the end of 2017-beginning of 2018. We became friends. He told me : ‘You talk about justice, reconciliation, dialogue. Your message is very important. Why not talk about it in my churches in Burundi?”
Paul Rusesabagina, however, fears taking a commercial flight to Bujumbura (the largest city in Burundi, Rwanda’s neighboring country). He fears being kidnapped during a stopover in Kenya or Tanzania, where the Rwandan secret services have the capacity to act. “Constantin” then offers to rent a private plane which will fly from Dubai, officially to Burundi. But he’s going to fall from a height. On August 26, 2020, he says, “I realized we were landing in Kigali [la capitale du Rwanda] when I saw the airport control tower. I almost passed out. When they opened the plane door, I saw soldiers waiting on the tarmac. Intelligence agents seized me. Constantin was one of those who beat me.” Sentenced to 25 years in prison, Paul Rusesabagina was released in 2023 after international mediation by the United States, Qatar, the European Union and Belgium. His family filed a complaint in Belgium. The investigation is still in progress. Rwandan authorities admitted to having organized the theft but assert that “legality was respected”.
Several journalists were also threatened in Belgium. This is the case of the Canadian Judi Rever who wrote books very critical of Paul Kagame. In July 2014, she arrived in Belgium to interview former members of the FPR, the party founded by Kagame: “I showed up at my hotel in Brussels. A team from the Belgian security services was waiting for me. The chief told me that they had credible information that the Rwandan embassy in Brussels was threatening my life. I signed a protection agreement with the Belgians during my stay.”
In 2018, informed by military intelligence, Belgian police warned Rwandan journalist Serge Ndayizeye, close to the opposition and the RNC, that his life could be threatened. The latter lives in Washington and traveled to Belgium to cover a visit by Paul Kagame.
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In 2023, British journalist Michela Wrong must present in Brussels his latest investigative book on Rwandaalso dependent. His conference is scheduled for May 23 in an African restaurant. But “the organizer suddenly contacted me a day before the eventshe says. He told me that the restaurant owner had received complaints from supporters of the Rwandan regime in Belgium, threatening emails and anonymous phone calls from Rwanda.” The conference was relocated elsewhere in the Belgian capital, not without difficulty, because “Organizers noted that three men showed up asking where ‘the genocide denier’ was, but were turned away. We can assume that they wanted to sabotage the meeting.” concludes Michela Wrong. According to Théogene Rudasingwa, “The Rwandan embassy in Brussels is a key location for the regime’s operations in Europe. That’s where they deploy in terms of intelligence and resources. That’s why, of all the places I go I’m out in the world, it’s Brussels that I fear the most.”
On June 18, 2019, the online media Jambonews, very critical of the Rwandan government, reveals the existence of a so-called “support” or “intervention” group. Base in Belgium, he would be responsible for intimidating opponents of the regime living in Europe, or even escorting President Kagame during his European trips. According to Jambonews, the coordinator of this group is a Rwandan diplomat in Brussels. We were able to confirm this assertion: GN, who has been stationed for ten years at the Rwandan embassy in Brussels, is an intelligence officer of the Rwandan secret service NISS. With students, fake opposition members, and even Brussels taxi drivers under his orders. Neither GN nor the Rwandan embassy in Belgium responded to our questions.
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Faced with these elements, according to information collected as part of the “Rwanda Classified” investigation, the Belgian authorities have sent a very clear message to the Rwandan secret services: their behavior must stop. One of our sources believes that “the actions of the Rwandan state involved unacceptable clandestine activities”. On the Belgian military intelligence side, we closely monitor the activities of the Rwandan secret services and their networks, in collaboration with the other Belgian services and their counterparts from other countries. “A better relationship with Rwanda would require that he refrains from any action which harms this relationship”, explains another interlocutor.
In 2023, Belgium also refused to accredit the new ambassador in Brussels proposed by Rwanda. Notably because Vincent Karega had represented his country in South Africa from 2011 to 2019. However, during these eight years, two Belgians, including one of Rwandan origin, and the former head of Rwandan foreign intelligence died in suspicious conditions in South Africa. For Grady Vaughan, associate researcher at the Freedom House (an American association responsible for defending human rights), “when we talk about the transnational repression of Rwanda, we are in the top 10 alongside other countries like China, Russia or Iran.”
Today, far from Belgium, Paul Rusesabagina and Théogene Rudasingwa tell how, even in the United States, Rwandans still come to disrupt their conferences. The first remembers : “Once I was speaking at the University of Texas at Austin. I had two police officers, on my right and on my left.” The second says: “The FBI people told me that if I had a problem or saw anything suspicious, I was to call the police who would alert them. But time to do it, It might be too late.”
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