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0:40

Tautus.

0:51

Hello, it's Basha here and you're listening to the

0:54

slow newscast from Tautus. Now,

0:56

there are moments in every country when you can

0:58

feel the political mood harden into

1:00

something specific. And we've

1:02

known for a while, since the previous Conservative

1:05

government under Boris Johnson, that the

1:07

small boats crisis, the number of migrants

1:10

and asylum seekers arriving on Britain's shores

1:12

was going to be a key political

1:14

issue. But it wasn't until a new

1:17

plan was announced, the Rwanda deal,

1:19

that a new front line in British politics

1:22

locked into place. has been

1:24

much reporting in the British press about

1:26

how and why Rwanda. But in this week's

1:28

slow newscast, my colleagues Will Brown, Patricia

1:31

Clarke and Rebecca Moore investigate

1:33

the cost of such a deal to Rwandans,

1:35

to freedom of speech and to our principles.

1:38

And they start with the mysterious death of

1:40

a journalist just weeks ago.

1:43

It's an honour to be back

1:45

in Rwanda and I want

1:47

to put on record my deep thanks

1:49

to you personally and your

1:52

officials for the incredibly

1:54

constructive partnership

1:57

that we have secured.

2:01

Last month, the British Home Secretary,

2:03

Suwela Bratman, flew to Kigali, the

2:05

capital of Rwanda. She

2:07

was there to sell the small East African

2:09

nation as a solution to a problem.

2:12

A problem that had become urgent and

2:15

was now at the top of her Conservative government's

2:17

agenda. The small boats crisis.

2:20

The British people deserve to

2:22

know which party is serious about

2:25

stopping the invasion

2:27

on our southern coast and

2:30

which party is not. That's

2:33

how her government was characterising the surge

2:36

in the number of asylum seekers and migrants

2:38

arriving on Britain's shores in inflatable

2:40

dinghies, from countries like Iran,

2:43

Afghanistan and Albania.

2:46

Migrant detention centres were in disarray,

2:48

full and facing outbreaks of disease. Politicians

2:51

were angry about asylum seekers being

2:53

housed in expensive hotels. The

2:55

system was broken. Rwanda,

2:59

we were being told, was the solution.

3:02

You might have seen a picture of Sowela

3:05

Bravenman that went viral online. She's

3:07

standing in front of a new detention center in Kigali,

3:10

where she hopes to send Britain's asylum seekers.

3:13

Her head is thrown back in a hearty laugh.

3:16

She looks elated. I

3:18

sincerely believe that

3:20

this world-leading partnership between

3:24

two allies and two friends, the United

3:27

Kingdom and Rwanda will

3:29

lead the way in finding

3:31

a solution which is both humanitarian

3:35

and compassionate. There is a real

3:37

opportunity here to resettle

3:39

people in safe

3:41

and secure environments. But a few weeks

3:44

before the Home Secretary landed, just

3:46

a couple of miles from the new detention centre,

3:49

something happened.

3:50

Something that reveals a side of

3:52

the Rwanda that the The UK government does not

3:55

want the British public to see, a

3:57

side that flies in the face of any

3:59

nation�

4:00

that the country is safe

4:02

or compassionate.

4:05

This

4:11

is John Williams Twally, a renowned

4:13

journalist who had been covering Rwanda for

4:15

decades. He

4:17

was a rarity, one of the

4:19

few local journalists who dared to go up

4:21

against the 30-year regime of

4:23

the Rwandan president,

4:25

a man called Paul Kagame. I'm

4:28

focused on justice, human

4:30

rights and advocacy. And

4:33

I know all those three areas are

4:35

risky here in Rwanda, but I'm

4:38

committed to.

4:40

John reported on corruption, torture

4:42

and lies,

4:43

the bulldozing of poorer neighbourhoods and

4:45

the court trials of other journalists like him

4:48

who dared to go against official narratives.

4:51

He was a fierce guy and he

4:53

didn't fear anyone, But the

4:56

kind of work that he was doing,

4:59

I had really no doubt that

5:01

he's going to be in trouble.

5:04

In January, John

5:06

died. He was 44 years

5:09

old. The Rwandan authorities

5:11

say it was a car crash in the middle of the night

5:14

near the city centre. But

5:16

the people who knew John and have worked

5:18

in the country have their doubts. They

5:20

think it's unlikely it was an accident.

5:22

In

5:24

his last international interview,

5:26

John spoke out about the dangers of being

5:28

a journalist in his country. Those who

5:30

try to speak out, they are

5:32

jailed, harassed, intimidated or

5:34

jailed. Second, forced

5:38

to free the country. Three,

5:41

some of them disappear in a

5:43

thin air. Or

5:45

even they die.

5:52

I'm Will Brown and you're listening to the

5:54

slow newscast from Tortoise.

5:57

John

6:00

Williams Twaly went largely ignored

6:02

in the UK, particularly by

6:04

our politicians. But his death tells

6:07

us everything we need to know about our relationship

6:09

with our friends and allies in Rwanda. What

6:13

is the UK government prepared to look away

6:15

from to get this policy through?

6:19

They also made it

6:21

clear that if I don't live, it's

6:25

most likely that I'm going to be eliminated.

6:28

People don't forgive and they don't

6:30

forget. That's the nature

6:33

of my country.

6:47

No

6:47

one is aspiring to become a journalist, to become

6:49

rich in Rwanda. They're doing it out

6:51

of real love for the trade and a real love

6:54

to ask difficult questions, hold

6:57

leaders accountable. That's

7:00

hard to do in any context in

7:02

this day and age, but it's particularly

7:04

hard in Rwanda.

7:08

This is Louis Mudge, Central Africa

7:10

Director at the NGO Human Rights Watch.

7:13

Louis was based in Kigali, and he spoke

7:15

regularly to John Williams Twali.

7:17

I'll always remember him as someone

7:20

with a microphone talking to very poor people,

7:22

living in these, what some people

7:25

refer to as slums, in Kigali

7:27

and really giving them a voice to explain

7:29

why they didn't want to be forced out of their homes

7:32

and why they felt they had a right to stay there.

7:36

Lewis is not allowed back to Rwanda anymore.

7:38

He was kicked out. In fact, he's the third

7:40

human rights watch researcher to be expelled for criticising

7:43

the government since 2008.

7:45

Rwanda is not an easy place to

7:47

work.

7:48

The defining moment in the country's history came

7:51

in 1994, when

7:52

decades of divide and rule tactics

7:55

among the country's two main ethnicities, the

7:57

Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.

8:00

descended into genocide.

8:07

It was a slaughter on an unimaginable

8:10

scale. Hutu extremists

8:12

had been told that tutsis were little better

8:14

than cockroaches

8:16

and were to be eliminated like

8:18

pests. Around 800,000 tutsis

8:22

and moderate Hutus were massacred over 100

8:25

days with clubs,

8:27

guns and machetes. We're

8:30

exposed to death every

8:32

day and night. It's

8:36

disparationally red on all the faces

8:38

here. A calamity of such epic

8:41

proportions, so massive in size

8:43

and scope, the truth of it is

8:45

far beyond journalism's reach.

8:49

From the ashes, Rwanda seemed to mount

8:51

an extraordinary recovery.

8:53

on the outside, at least.

8:56

Nearly 30 years later in the capital,

8:58

everything feels big and shiny and new. Wide

9:01

litter-free streets, towering offices,

9:04

with a network of buses that run like clockwork,

9:06

and a parliament where ever 60% of the

9:08

MPs are women. The

9:10

country has become a darling of the international

9:12

community. It's held up as a shining

9:15

example of what billions of dollars of

9:17

Western aid money can do. But

9:19

there are things you simply can't touch

9:22

as a journalist.

9:23

You cannot criticise senior officials. You

9:25

cannot write about corruption or abuses

9:28

by the regime. But

9:30

John was the editor of a news outlet called The Chronicles,

9:33

and the news website's heading says it

9:35

all, serving your right to

9:37

know the truth. He also

9:39

had a YouTube channel called PAX TV, which

9:42

broadcast reports in the local Kinjawanda

9:44

language. He said this was

9:46

where he could do his boldest reporting.

9:49

Of course, if one works with a TV

9:51

or a radio station, anyone that is easily

9:54

to interfere with them, to cancel them

9:56

or to even censor

9:58

what they have been doing.

10:00

In those videos, he'd often be reporting

10:03

in his characteristic frameless glasses

10:05

and small goatee. His channel

10:07

got about two million hits a year, an impressive

10:09

audience considering there are only about 15 million

10:12

Kinjirawanda speakers in the world.

10:15

Friends tell me that John was motivated

10:17

to be a journalist because of the genocide.

10:20

He wanted to hold the powerful to account, to

10:23

make sure people could never be manipulated

10:25

in the same way again.

10:27

The man actually who used to be

10:29

the husband to my auntie

10:33

is the one who killed her and he

10:36

killed also his kids, two

10:38

children,

10:39

because he believed that they

10:41

have a tootsie blood in

10:44

them. And

10:46

so,

10:47

yeah, he killed them

10:49

anyway. Yeah. So

10:52

that's the whole background. That's the whole

10:55

pain of the country. the country,

10:59

that's part of our history as

11:01

Rwandans. So

11:04

growing up

11:05

in this kind of environment, you

11:08

really want to do something that

11:11

can help, can change

11:13

the history. This

11:15

is Fred Mavuny,

11:17

another Rwandan journalist and a friend of John's.

11:21

John

11:23

and Fred both thought that journalism

11:25

was the thing they could do to help.

11:27

There were certain areas

11:30

of media that people couldn't

11:33

dare go to, and

11:36

that was politics and human rights. He was

11:39

a journalist already, and one of those

11:42

fearless journalists that we had

11:44

at the time, We

11:47

struggled. We first,

11:50

I mean, have been arrested.

11:53

God knows how many times in Rwanda,

11:56

all intimidated by security organs

11:59

because you're trying.

12:00

to push, so-called pushing the

12:02

limits. We walk along

12:04

the edge knowing that at the

12:06

time, you know, it could go south

12:09

and it's over. But

12:11

John found a way to cope with the constant

12:13

threats he faced. He was

12:15

a funny guy. He used

12:18

to tell jokes and even difficult

12:21

ones like getting

12:23

killed. And John

12:26

will still find words to

12:30

make those words even smooth

12:32

and funny. You feel like, you

12:34

know, you're just doing this. You're in danger.

12:36

But it's OK. You

12:39

know, this is the word we live in. He

12:41

was a professional. As

12:44

a human being, of course, I mean, he was

12:48

so friendly. Every time I

12:50

wanted to talk to him, I could find

12:53

him. He was never too busy

12:55

to have

12:55

time for me. It's

12:58

clear though that John had a keen sense of the

13:00

line he was walking. I had really

13:02

no doubt that he's going to

13:04

be in trouble. I had no doubt

13:07

that he's going to be in trouble. Not just

13:09

what I saw in the media

13:12

being

13:14

threatened that he will be eliminated.

13:19

Eliminated. It really strikes

13:21

me to hear Fred say that word,

13:23

to use the language of the genocide 30 years

13:26

later.

13:28

He had been threatened on numerous occasions before

13:30

his death. He was told face to face

13:32

by

13:33

people who said they were intelligence agents, that

13:35

he had to stop being so critical that,

13:38

well, why can't you focus on the good

13:40

things that are happening in this country?

13:44

The Rwandan

13:44

authorities say that John

13:46

died in a motorbike accident on an unidentified

13:49

road near the centre of Kigali at

13:51

around 2.50am on January 18th. In

13:55

the few details released, they say a speeding

13:57

car hit the motorbike from behind, knocking

14:00

looking John to the ground.

14:02

But the other details are sketchy. Nothing

14:04

about the case seems to add up.

14:07

In Rwanda, if you are

14:09

deemed as critical, there

14:12

is, curiously, the

14:14

odds of you having an accident go

14:17

up.

14:18

The only way for John,

14:21

like his future was

14:23

pretty defined and delineated. It was either

14:26

like shut up and cross your fingers,

14:30

leave the country, get

14:32

arrested or have an accident.

14:35

Shortly before his death, John told his

14:37

friends he was terrified. One person

14:40

told me he was too scared to leave the house

14:42

after dark or to use a motorbike

14:44

taxi. So why

14:46

did he end up on a motorbike taxi

14:49

in the dead of night?

14:50

Then, while John apparently died

14:53

immediately of his wounds, the driver

14:55

walked away with only a mild shoulder injury.

14:58

The trial was held with no

15:00

independent observers or journalists present.

15:03

The road where he supposedly died was named,

15:06

but their exact location was not.

15:10

This is Kigali. I mean, I think a

15:12

lot of people might, who aren't familiar

15:15

with Central Africa or Rwanda, might think

15:17

that this is a very third world,

15:19

poor city. It's not.

15:22

Kigali has CCTV

15:24

cameras all over the city.

15:27

This is a city that's very,

15:29

very well surveilled. And

15:32

to have had an accident involving

15:34

someone of this profile happen under

15:37

shady circumstances, and then

15:39

to have had this closed-door trial

15:41

in which nothing about the actual

15:44

circumstances of his death has come out, frankly,

15:47

for folks like myself, only leads

15:49

to more questions and answers. A

15:52

medical report was vaguely referenced

15:55

in the verdict, but

15:56

the details about who carried out the autopsy

15:59

and the report into his

16:00

death have not been released.

16:02

John is not the only Rwandan to be targeted

16:04

for not toeing the line. In 2021,

16:07

a YouTuber was jailed for humiliating

16:09

state officials. A journalist was charged

16:11

with disseminating propaganda and a university

16:13

lecturer imprisoned after posting

16:16

critical videos online.

16:18

John Williams' Twili's death means that

16:20

one of the last critical voices in Rwanda

16:22

is gone.

16:24

We don't know how he died, but his death

16:26

feels to Fred and to others like

16:28

a message.

16:30

Fred knows the ins and outs of the whole system.

16:33

He used to run the Rwanda Media Commission,

16:35

a group campaigning for more independent media,

16:37

which has now ceased to exist.

16:40

I've received threats, death threats

16:43

as well. I've had the

16:45

police. Here I

16:47

was investigating people chasing

16:51

me. Every time I did

16:53

my job as a journalist, some of the

16:56

government people, including ministers

16:58

and some of the, from

17:01

the intelligence services,

17:04

they were not happy. And

17:08

yeah, they initially, there

17:10

were plans to have me arrested

17:13

and then they

17:14

were also, when

17:16

the arrest was not probably

17:19

the best idea, they were talking about

17:22

how to emanate me. There's

17:26

that word again, eliminate. Fred

17:29

worked with that word hanging over his head for

17:31

years.

17:34

John and Fred had parallel lives until

17:37

one crucial moment, a decision

17:39

to leave or stay. That

17:41

happened in 2014. The

17:43

BBC aired a documentary questioning

17:46

their official narrative around the genocide. President

17:49

Polkegami disagreed with their line and

17:52

tried to ban the BBC from Rwanda. Fred

17:55

Mavunyay stood up to the government on the issue.

17:58

That was when, according to... On

18:00

his account, he found out through security

18:02

contacts that there was a plan to

18:04

eliminate him. He

18:07

decided to flee his home in the middle of the night

18:10

and run for his life across the border into

18:12

Uganda.

18:13

I was like,

18:14

OK, this is going beyond

18:17

the

18:18

usual threads. This

18:20

is serious. And they also made

18:23

it clear that if I don't leave, it's

18:28

most likely that I'm going to be eliminated.

18:31

But

18:31

while he got away with his life, in

18:33

exile, he lost everything. I

18:35

left my son,

18:37

I left my family, my parents,

18:39

my siblings. So I only

18:42

left alone, so on my own. And

18:46

since then, I've never

18:48

went back. I've lost relatives

18:50

that I never had a chance to

18:53

say goodbye to them who died.

18:55

My son was

18:58

six years when I left and now he's

19:01

turning 14. I'm not in his

19:03

life in practical way or

19:06

emotional way and he's not

19:08

in mine. Then I've also left

19:11

the media fraternity that I worked

19:13

for. Some of

19:15

them have died, others have been

19:17

killed, detained. So

19:21

the cultural,

19:23

everything that forms a human

19:26

being and makes us

19:28

who we are, I left

19:30

them. You know, I left them, I don't have

19:33

them. I don't have my son.

19:36

I don't have the

19:38

community that I deserve to have.

19:41

So I left everything.

19:44

In one word, I left everything.

19:46

I have nothing.

20:00

Seriously, they can stop! Thankfully,

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21:12

This

21:12

country, the

21:13

country Fred Mavuny fled eight years

21:16

ago, where

21:16

John Williams Twally died in suspicious

21:18

circumstances two months ago,

21:20

is the same country British politicians are

21:22

praising as as a tolerant and compassionate

21:25

haven.

21:26

This is the same country the UK

21:28

is now paying 140 million pounds

21:30

to,

21:31

to house asylum seekers and more

21:33

UK tax money is on the way.

21:35

Working with our friends in Rwanda, the

21:38

people who come here will be resettled to live

21:40

a safe and secure life. That's the

21:42

humane approach and that's

21:45

the compassionate

21:45

approach.

21:47

The deal was announced in April, 2022.

21:50

It goes like this.

21:51

Until at least 2027, Britain

21:54

gets to send several hundred people

21:56

a year to Rwanda for processing, asylum

21:59

and resettlement. The

22:01

Conservative Party gets to say

22:03

it's being tough on migration to its voter base.

22:06

Rwanda gets a big pot of cash,

22:08

legitimacy, political capital and

22:11

the backing of a permanent member of the UN

22:13

Security Council. But

22:14

since it was announced nearly a year ago, not

22:17

a single plane has taken off with an

22:19

asylum seeker on board because of legal

22:21

wranglings in the UK High Court. But

22:24

that hasn't stopped this government's investment

22:26

in the plan.

22:27

I've been incredibly impressed with

22:30

my visit today both to

22:32

meet local

22:34

innovators and entrepreneurs and

22:36

to see the job creation and the wealth creation

22:39

going on in the vibrant economy of Rwanda

22:41

but also to the Buiza estate

22:45

and to see the extensive

22:48

construction work which is being

22:51

rolled out some of which

22:53

will be used for

22:55

the resettlement

22:57

and integration of migrants.

23:00

But there have been plenty of criticisms. The

23:03

Archbishop of Canterbury has described the plan

23:05

as ungodly, and human rights activists

23:07

say it tears up the very refugee conventions

23:10

that Britain helped to forge after the Holocaust.

23:14

But

23:14

this is what I can't understand.

23:16

How can the government say this

23:18

is a safe country for asylum seekers,

23:21

who are often political dissidents themselves

23:24

when

23:24

they are more than aware of what's

23:26

happening to people like John and

23:28

Fred. Hi,

23:30

how are you doing? Hi, alright. I've

23:32

come to meet Michaela Rong. I love your masks. Yeah,

23:35

yeah. These are from Rwanda, obviously. The

23:41

walls in her apartment are lined with books about

23:43

Africa, as well as masks and wooden

23:45

sculptures. She's collected them all

23:47

over her 30 years travelling back and forth

23:50

to the continent as a writer and reporter.

23:53

Michaela

23:53

was there in Rwanda in 1994, reporting

23:56

on the genocide. There's

23:58

always been a love in. between

24:00

British politicians and Kagame,

24:03

ever since the genocide. There

24:05

was a feeling of tremendous guilt

24:07

that we hadn't been there, the international

24:10

community hadn't been there to stop the genocide

24:12

in its tracks. And so there

24:14

was a feeling of, oh my goodness, we did nothing,

24:16

now we must make up for it. Since the

24:18

genocide, the UK has sent hundreds

24:20

of millions of pounds in aid to Rwanda. And

24:24

a recipient of all that attention,

24:26

goodwill and money was President

24:28

Paul Kagame,

24:29

a former intelligence officer from the Tutsi minority

24:32

background.

24:33

He led the guerrilla rebels, known as

24:35

the Rwandan Patriotic Front, into

24:37

the country to end the killing back in 1994. He's

24:40

been in office since then for almost 30

24:43

years and he has a golden reputation

24:45

in the UK. Paul Gagami was the

24:47

man who pulled Rwanda out of the Abyss

24:49

and built a thriving economy out of

24:52

the ruins.

24:53

Rwanda's undergone the most

24:55

traumatic time, obviously, because

24:57

of the genocide that was here, it's then rebuilt itself

25:00

as a country. Britain, when I was

25:02

prime minister, played a significant

25:04

part in helping that process. And

25:07

the President of Rwanda is someone I've got a lot of respect

25:09

for, a lot of time for, and I think he has

25:12

got a vision for the country now. There's

25:14

no doubt that Pukagami is a titan

25:17

of African history.

25:18

However, Michaela Rong says the West has

25:20

been naive about his regime.

25:23

Rwanda is this miracle country.

25:26

It's got incredible growth

25:28

rates. It's the cleanest place in Africa.

25:30

It's the Switzerland of Africa. There's

25:33

no rubbish on the ground. There are no plastic

25:35

bags in the street, even cigarette butts.

25:38

She has heard the stereotypes countless times,

25:40

but she says it obscures the truth.

25:43

The more critical stuff like, well, yes, but

25:45

it doesn't have a free press. Look

25:47

where its opposition leaders are. What about

25:50

all these assassinations? What about all this

25:52

intimidation. What about all these people

25:54

who are in jail or who fled the country?

25:56

None of that really seems to have any traction because

25:59

you just see the same

26:00

stereotypes being rolled

26:02

out every time his name is mentioned. The

26:05

Rwandan authorities claim that

26:07

Pukugami won 99% of the vote in 2017.

26:11

The one before that was 97%. Before

26:13

that, it was 99% again. There

26:16

is no doubt that the president is popular

26:18

in Rwanda, but a system of oppression

26:21

at home and abroad, which has seen the

26:23

regime's opponents end up dead or

26:25

behind bars, has allowed the government

26:27

to control the narrative.

26:30

Rwanda sells itself at the International

26:32

Monetary Fund and at investors' conferences

26:34

in Western capitals

26:36

as an economic miracle.

26:38

On paper, it looks like the aid that the UK

26:40

and others in the West sent after

26:42

the genocide really worked.

26:45

It's a feel-good story for everyone giving

26:47

cash. If you really want

26:49

to check this economy's pulse, the

26:51

bustling streets of downtown Kigali are

26:54

a good place to start. A

26:56

far cry from the ruined city it was. The

26:59

Rwandan government claims that his economy

27:01

has expanded by around 8% a year

27:03

for more than a decade. That poverty

27:05

has declined sharply because of state programs.

27:08

Michaela Rong isn't social. I

27:10

think what I often say to people is, if

27:12

you are dealing with a dictatorship, you

27:15

should regard every statistic that comes

27:17

out of a dictatorship as inherently

27:19

suspect. While

27:21

there has been extraordinary progress

27:23

since 1994, The brutal source

27:26

that much of Kigali's wealth is plain

27:28

to see just a few hours drive across the border

27:31

in the Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC

27:33

has huge mineral reserves,

27:36

but many of the mines in the east are run

27:38

by Rwandan-controlled militias. R

27:52

across the region for more than a year, forcing

27:54

about 600,000 of the poorest people on Earth to

27:58

flee their homes. Rwanda

28:00

denies any involvement, but the United

28:02

Nations experts and the US have

28:04

condemned it for supporting and arming M23

28:06

rebels.

28:07

When something similar happened in 2012,

28:10

Britain condemned Rwanda and cut off

28:12

aid money until it withdrew its militias.

28:15

A decade on, it's a different

28:17

story. Now the

28:19

UK is turning to Rwanda. I

28:21

would love to be having a front

28:24

page of the telegraph with a plane

28:27

taking off to Rwanda. That's my dream.

28:30

And now, a journalist is dead. But

28:32

rather than respond with strong condemnation

28:35

and call for proper investigation into

28:37

what happened to John Williams Twiley,

28:39

the British government has sent one of its top politicians

28:42

to extol the virtues of the Rwandan

28:44

regime. Rwanda

28:47

is dynamic. Rwanda is welcoming.

28:50

Rwanda has a

28:52

tradition of providing humanitarian support

28:55

of a high quality. the housing

28:58

project that we visited.

29:01

That story that Michaela Rong mentioned,

29:04

the one of Rwanda, as a plucky

29:07

country fighting to recover from the genocide,

29:10

it was carefully created by Paul Kagame

29:13

and it's been honed over the years. I

29:15

was

29:15

trying to bring to the attention

29:18

of everybody the importance of

29:20

being together as a nation. At

29:22

the end of the day, we have to bring our energies together

29:25

for the common good of the the country instead of breaking

29:27

it apart as we have already experienced. So we've

29:30

learned lessons from that. It isn't just a story,

29:32

we are told it's also a life we have lived. And

29:34

UK politicians?

29:36

Well,

29:37

ever since New Labour in the 90s,

29:39

they've been drinking the Kool-Aid. But

29:42

this fascination with Paul Kagame's Rwanda

29:44

was supercharged when the Conservative

29:47

Party took over in 2010.

29:49

One man who is key to understanding this is

29:52

Andrew Mitchell, a senior conservative MP

29:54

who currently serves as Foreign Office Minister

29:56

for Development and Africa.

29:58

of Kagame for

30:01

years, repeatedly defending

30:03

the regime. The

30:05

truth is that President Kagame rescued

30:08

his country while the world looked the other way

30:11

and has built a stable and strong

30:13

state. This is a country that was destroyed by

30:15

violence, where neighbour killed neighbour, and

30:17

he's stopped that. He's built an economy that is strong.

30:20

Virtually all children now go to school in Rwanda,

30:23

and as I say, huge numbers have been lifted out

30:25

of poverty. He's

30:27

been taking almost £40,000 a year in

30:29

consultancy fees from Southbridge, a

30:32

Rwandan investment bank for nine

30:34

days' work.

30:36

Southbridge is run by Pulgagami's

30:39

old right-hand man and finance minister.

30:42

Andrew Mitchell says he stopped taking money

30:44

from the bank when he rejoined government in

30:46

October, but a senior British diplomat

30:49

working on Africa once described him

30:51

to me as Rwanda's man in parliament.

30:54

We asked Andrew Mitchell to discuss why

30:56

he took tens of thousands of pounds every

30:58

year from a man so clearly linked

31:01

to an authoritarian regime.

31:03

He declined to speak, but he did issue

31:05

the following statement. My close friendship

31:08

with this remarkable country which has some of the best

31:10

development outcomes in the world enables

31:12

me to have frank discussions on all matters

31:14

and support the development, economic

31:17

and security interests we jointly share.

31:19

It is slightly disappointing that the success

31:22

story of aid and development in Rwanda

31:24

isn't more worthy of your scrutiny.

31:27

He also set up Project Umibano,

31:30

a charity which took various conservative

31:32

MPs out to Rwanda.

31:34

And of course, anyone who does that and goes

31:36

to Rwanda and is then immediately taken

31:38

to the genocide memorial sites and

31:41

goes to see the guerrillas and bombs with the

31:43

people that they're working with, they come back and they

31:45

have swallowed the narrative. They have swallowed

31:48

the Rwandan government's line and

31:50

what happened in the past. So Project

31:52

Umibano has been a great way

31:55

of propagating the RPF narrative

31:58

to the Conservative party.

32:00

One of those starry-eyed political tourists

32:03

was then Conservative election candidate

32:05

and former barrister, Sohala Brafman. I'm

32:07

pleased to welcome the Home Secretary

32:09

to Rwanda, and I should say, actually

32:12

I should say

32:13

back to Rwanda because you have been here

32:16

some years ago in another

32:18

capacity. The woman who had

32:20

become Home Secretary travelled to the country

32:23

in 2008 and 2010,

32:25

and later co-founded a charity that

32:28

cooperated with the government in Kigali and

32:30

trained lawyers now working inside

32:32

Rwanda's Justice Ministry.

32:34

More than a dozen serving and future

32:36

MPs were on the same trip as Braverman

32:39

in 2008,

32:40

including the second most powerful man

32:42

in government today, Chancellor Jeremy

32:44

Hunt. Thanks

32:45

to Andrew Mitchell's efforts, Rwanda's

32:48

image was set. The

32:49

country was a partner,

32:51

an easy win,

32:52

a good news story. And

32:55

so, more than a decade on, here

32:57

we are. There is a real opportunity here

33:00

to resettle people in

33:02

safe and secure environments where they

33:05

can lead a prosperous and healthy

33:07

life. We have done a lot

33:09

of work at Tortoise to understand how the asylum

33:11

deal with Rwanda came about.

33:13

My colleagues produced an episode of this podcast

33:16

called Hostile Environment

33:18

that went inside the home office to understand the

33:20

deal. What they found was

33:22

not a carefully designed plan. Rwanda

33:25

was one of dozens of countries that the UK approached,

33:28

but it was the only one which agreed. We

33:30

have just had a good meeting where we discuss

33:32

our migration and economic-run partnership.

33:36

These innovative... Looking back over

33:38

the decade of interactions between senior

33:41

Conservative Party members and the Kagame

33:43

government, it comes as no surprise

33:46

that when Rwanda said it was willing,

33:48

the UK received it favourably. Kagame,

33:52

he knows what he's doing. I mean, that's political

33:54

transaction. You know, he does them

33:57

a favor, they do him a favor.

34:00

in one way or the other. They

34:02

won't criticise him, they won't criticise

34:04

his policies. So that's how

34:07

it works, and that's terrible,

34:09

unfortunately.

34:11

A fundamental part of Pukagami's staying

34:14

power is his army of PR-savvy

34:17

officials. Their

34:18

attack lines are well-rehearsed and

34:20

designed to play on Western guilt.

34:22

This relationship that we're getting

34:25

into with the UK, this migration and

34:27

economic development partnership, It's

34:29

going to be resourced. Well, resourced, there's

34:32

a lot of opportunity in Rwanda.

34:33

This is government spokesperson

34:35

Yolande McCullough speaking to Channel 4

34:37

News in 2021.

34:39

She says arguments against the deal stem

34:42

from racist colonial attitudes

34:44

and that critics of the Rwandan government are

34:47

looking down at a system that broadly works.

34:49

Rwanda is not the UK, it's

34:52

not the US. Even these countries

34:54

have their own issues. We're all

34:56

working to unite our people. We're not going

34:58

to mimic a system of government

35:01

that is also imperfect. We

35:03

have a system that works for us.

35:05

Some of Yolande Mccollough's language

35:07

might sound familiar.

35:09

It's a narrative that's been repeated by Suela

35:11

Brabman and the Conservative Party over

35:14

and over again.

35:16

I think there has been far too much

35:20

prejudice, frankly, snobbery

35:24

amongst the critics, who

35:27

most of whom haven't even visited Rwanda.

35:31

What this carefully constructed narrative doesn't

35:33

include is the death of John Williams

35:35

Toile.

35:36

It doesn't include the pattern of death,

35:39

torture and exile at the hands of

35:41

the Rwandan regime.

35:42

So why is the UK parroting the

35:44

line of a dictatorship? You

35:48

forgive me because I'm really emotional

35:50

on this. maybe I won't even make sense,

35:53

yeah, sense about what I'm saying.

35:56

But I see this as another

35:59

sort of...

36:00

slave trade. Like

36:02

this transaction between the UK

36:05

and Rwanda, the amount of money

36:07

the UK government is giving to Rwanda

36:09

to take human beings, to

36:12

take care of human beings. So

36:15

that itself kills me to

36:18

the core that it's

36:21

not acceptable in 21st

36:23

century. I think Kagame was

36:26

recent, he was right.

36:31

One journalist did ask him

36:33

about this issue and how

36:36

the human rights record in Rwanda is so

36:38

terrible. And Kagame

36:40

responded, but you guys,

36:43

who are you to

36:45

actually question this? Who

36:47

are you to

36:49

even teach me about human rights? Because

36:51

you have no respect of human rights.

36:54

As an example, you're

36:56

shipping people who are running

36:59

to you,

37:00

you're shipping them to me.

37:05

Fred Mavenie knows better than anyone

37:07

else what it's like to flee your home and

37:10

leave everything and everyone you

37:12

love behind. He still

37:14

waits in exile in the hope that he

37:16

will see his family again.

37:18

But this asylum deal isn't actually

37:20

about people like him.

37:22

It's not about finding a compassionate solution

37:25

for asylum seekers. And it's not

37:27

about safe havens. There's a deal being

37:29

done, which is we will send you

37:31

our unwanted refugees. You will

37:33

process them for a price, 140 million

37:35

so far, but it's going to be much

37:38

more than that. We are not going to

37:40

make the slightest fuss. Journalists

37:43

can die in the most questionable circumstances,

37:46

and we will say nothing. You know,

37:49

you're proposing to send refugees

37:52

who might then have some issues with the authorities

37:55

to a country where journalists

37:57

are routinely

37:58

being jailed for doing their

38:00

job and in the worst instances

38:03

are dying in completely suspect circumstances

38:06

and you're okay with that.

38:08

Even though it's getting more expensive, it's

38:10

likely the Rwanda asylum deal may eventually

38:13

come to nothing.

38:15

Not a single plane has taken off and

38:18

they won't anytime soon because asylum

38:20

seekers are peeling the decision to send them

38:22

away.

38:23

But the deal is done. Both sides

38:26

have what they want. The Conservative

38:28

Party can tell their voters they're

38:30

being tough on migrants crossing the channel and

38:32

they'll blame the courts if it fails. And

38:35

Paul Kagame has one legitimacy

38:37

on the international stage and the silence

38:39

of the United Kingdom. That

38:41

final interview from John. Those who try

38:44

to speak out, they are

38:46

jailed, harassed, intimidated or

38:48

jailed. Second, forced

38:51

to free the country.

38:53

Three, some of them disappear

38:56

in a thin air. Or

38:59

even they die.

39:05

It now sounds like a message from

39:07

beyond the grave.

39:13

This episode was reported by me, Will

39:16

Brown. It was co-written and produced by

39:18

Patricia Clarke and Rebecca Moore.

39:20

The sound design was by Tom Burchill and

39:22

the editor was Basha Cummings.

39:24

Become a Tortoise member for just 60 pounds a

39:26

year to receive early and ad-free

39:28

access to all our award-winning audio journalism,

39:31

plus tickets to live events, newsletters,

39:33

and more. Just go to tortoosemedia.com

39:36

forward slash slow down

39:38

today. in complete and complete

39:40

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39:51

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