Your Excellency:
We have learned with great concern of the arrests of a number of Rwandan refugees in Nairobi. The reason given for the arrests is, that their names appear on a list, issued by the government in Rwanda, of persons whom that government accuses of having been involved in genocide in 1994.
As Your Excellency is well aware, the juridical practice of the current government of Rwanda is being sharply criticised internationally, for not respecting the standards of due process of law, and for detaining more than 100.000 prisoners, among them women and children, in inhumane conditions for years, without any formal procedure. As for the list of 1.700 names circulated by the Rwandan government, it is feared by international legal experts, that this list constitutes a prejudgment of persons, without sufficient evidence having been gathered to accuse them; it also is viewed as a denial of the normal means for defense of those named.
As Your Excellency is also well aware, the international press in recent weeks has launched an outcry of protest against massacres committed by Rwandan soldiers against Hutu refugees in East Zaire. The general secretary of the United Nations, Koofi Anaan, has accused the "rebel forces" in Zaire, of which Rwandan soldiers are an important element, of implementing the "final solution" against those refugees.
Your Excellency, under these conditions, the current government of Rwanda, which lacks democratic legitimacy and which usurped power militarily after the tragic events in 1994, is in no position, morally or legally, to demand the handing over of political refugees.
We appeal to you, therefore, to issue a public statement confirming or denying the veracity of the reported arrests. If persons have been arrested, we ask that you make public whatever evidence there may be to warrant such arrests. We further call on Your Excellency to identify the means by which the rights to legal defense of said persons are being guaranteed. Finally, we appeal to you to state publicly that under no circumstances will such detained persons be extradited to Rwanda.
We wish to assure you of our support internationally, in whatever efforts Your Excellency undertakes, to guarantee that all the rights of these refugees be protected.
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Respectfully Yours,
(Signature)