KIGALI, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) on Friday disproved a report released by a U.S. based human rights organization on "extrajudicial executions" by Rwandan security forces.
The Human Rights Watch(HRW) report said Rwandan security forces summarily executed at least 37 suspected petty offenders in Rwanda's Western Province between July 2016 and March 2017.
NCHR, whose mission is promoting and protecting human rights, carried out its own investigation and found major errors in the HRW's report, "which raise serious concerns about the way the organization conducts its work," said Madeleine Nirere, chairperson of NCHR, at a press conference held in Rwanda's capital city Kigali.
Nirere called upon international and national institutions to which the HRW report was submitted to disregard its contents including the recommendations, as "the entire report is built on fabricated information."
NCHR presented findings of its inquiry at the press conference, which indicated that seven people reported executed in the HRW report are alive.
Alphonse Majyambere whom HRW reported was executed attended in the press conference.
NCHR said four people that HRW claims were executed died of disease.
Ten people who are reported to have been executed are unknown to local authorities or residents of administrative entities where they are said to have been living, according to NCHR.
Six people whom HRW claimed executed died as a result of various accidents, said NCHR.
Of the two people who the HRW report claimed were killed on orders of local authorities, NCHR established that the perpetrators were prosecuted and sentenced by courts as they committed the offence on their own behalf, it said.
In the case of Nzitakuze Emmanuel who HRW reported was executed by an RDF soldier, NCHR found out that the perpetrator, Captain Nkurunziza Francois, was prosecuted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, it further said.
The commission said the allegation by HRW that 10 people were executed by Rwanda military or police officers after being accused of petty theft was established to be untrue. At different times, these individuals were shot by border patrols while crossing the Cyanzarwe Valley from Democratic Republic of the Congo at night, a pathway usually used by a Rwandan Hutu rebel group to infiltrate Rwanda, said NCHR, adding that local authorities have regularly alerted residents not to cross the valley during the night for security reasons.
Rwandan justice minister Johnston Busingye had in July described the report as "clearly fake," saying the organization is "desperate for attention."
The Friday's disproving is two days after Busingye accusing HRW of "recycling old baseless allegations for which they have no credible evidence," following HRW's latest report on Rwanda's human rights, which said scores of people suspected of collaborating with "enemies" of the Rwandan government were detained unlawfully and tortured in military detention centers by Rwandan army soldiers and intelligence officers between 2010 and 2016.
