Rwandan President Paul Kagame's government should know that Greens and other human rights activists are watching Frank and the Rwandan Democratic Greens, especially during the next two weeks, as they continue their struggle to register as a political party with a ballot line, and convene in Rwanda's capital city, Kigali, on October 30th, despite have been shut down by the state three times. Please post to your Facebook pages, websites, e-lists, and/or blogs, and urge others concerned with political rights, in Rwanda, Central Africa, and beyond, to do so as well.
Canadian, Australian, European, and African Greens have all spoken out for the Rwandan Greens, and some have spoken to Rwandan Embassies. We're waiting for a statement from the Green Party U.S.A., but this is not just about Green Party rights; it's about political rights, and the safety of those fighting for them."
LGBT human rights are also at issue, to say the least, in Rwanda, where official policy has long been that "homosexuality does not exist." Frank Habineza told me he would try to contact members of the LGBT community willing to speak to press outside Rwanda, but also said that "they are so beaten down here that they are very hard to find above ground."
Frank Habineza is also on Facebook.
For background on what is at stake, see:
Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, website
Rwandan Democratic Greens still struggling, Colored Opinions
Green Party banner over Rwanda, Colored Opinions and the OpEdNews
Rwandan Green Party cries foul over possible sabotage, Colored Opinions and the OpEdNews
Rwanda's Democratic Greens shut down, for the third time, Colored Opinions and the OpEdNews'
Barack Obama and Reverend Rick Warren, KPFA Evening News
End the conflict in Congo, San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper
Holocaust in D.R. Congo, war for the sake of war itself, San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper
All Things Pass, the website of investigative journalist Keith Harmon Snow
