Here's why Eric Nshimiye is innocent of Rwandan genocide accusations | Guest column

Longtime Lake Township resident and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. engineer Eric Nshimiye stands accused of lying on his immigration application by hiding crimes he allegedly committed 30 years ago during the Rwandan genocide.

Specifically he is accused of rape, murder and lying under oath in defense of Jean Leonard Tegana, a Rwandan friend accused of similar crimes. He and his friend were both medical students at the National University of Rwanda in Butare, Rwanda, at the time.

These are horrific crimes, but I believe Eric is innocent. As a Pacifica Radio reporter and contributing editor to Black Agenda Report, I have covered many similar cases over the past 15 years, and I know a witch hunt when I see one.

The most high-profile case is that of Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life hero of the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” whom the Rwandan government kidnapped in 2020 while he was boarding a flight from Dubai bound for Burundi. Rusesabagina was released in 2023, thanks to an international lobbying campaign inspired by his status as the hero of “Hotel Rwanda.”

Another witch hunt was that of Dr. Leopold Munyakazi, a gentle scholar who speaks six languages. Dr. Munyakazi was teaching at Maryland’s Goucher College when he gave a lecture at the University of Delaware in which he characterized the Rwandan genocide as in fact “a civil war for political power.” He also called it “fratricide” rather than genocide because Rwandans are, he said, one people who speak the same language, eat the same food, and share the same culture.

The First Amendment protected his speech here, but any such dissident interpretation of Rwanda’s 1994 tragedy is a legally codified and enforced speech crime — ”genocide ideology” — in Rwanda.

After Dr. Munyakazi gave this lecture, the Rwandan government accused him of genocide crime, and a federal U.S. court accused him of hiding his guilt on his immigration application, just as they later accused Jean Leonard Teganya and Eric Nshimiye.

Dr. Munyakazi was convicted, then deported to Rwanda to stand trial for genocide crime, which he was acquitted of on appeal. However, he was then sentenced to nine years for his speech at the University of Delaware, and another five years were added for his speech inside prison.

Eric will be tried “on the merits of the case,” meaning on the specific accusations against him, but both his friends and neighbors and the wider world should understand their political context, as revealed in a recent Human Rights Watch report titled “‘Join Us or Die’: Rwanda’s Extraterritorial Repression.” Much of the report is summarized in a shorter release titled “Rwanda: Global Playbook of Abuse to Silence Critics.” The latter begins with three bullet points:

• Rwandan authorities and their proxies are using violence, judicial mechanisms, and intimidation to try to silence criticism from Rwandans living around the world.

• Rwandans living abroad practice self-censorship, refrain from political activism, and live in fear of traveling, being attacked, or seeing their relatives in Rwanda targeted.

• Rwanda’s partners should open their eyes to the consequences of three decades of impunity for the ruling party, see this wide-reaching repression for what it is, and demand that it stop.

It goes on to describe “a global ecosystem of repression, aimed not only to muzzle dissenting voices but also to scare off potential critics.”

“The Rwandan government,” it says, “has sought to use global police cooperation, including Interpol Red Notices, judicial mechanisms, and extradition requests to seek deportations of critics or dissidents back to Rwanda.”

If Eric is convicted, he will face prison time in the U.S. for immigration fraud. Then, upon his release, he will face deportation to Rwanda to stand trial for genocide crime and most likely be imprisoned for decades, if not for life.

What was Eric’s real crime? I have no doubt that, in the eyes of the totalitarian, globally repressive Rwandan government, his crime was testifying on behalf of his friend, Jean Leonard Teganya. Burundian American Lazare Kobagaya was similarly charged after testifying on behalf of a Rwandan pastor in Finland, as Canton Repository reporter Tim Botos explained in his in-depth report on Eric’s case.

Eric’s employer, Goodyear, issued a statement which said, “Goodyear is deeply troubled to learn of the recent charges brought against one of our associates and is fully cooperating with authorities.” One of the civic associations that Eric has been active with, the volunteer mentoring organization MentorStark, similarly expressed shock and stated that “MentorStark condemns the acts reflected in the charges and, like everyone, will await the results of the Justice Department’s legal proceedings. Our thoughts and concerns are with the victims still recovering from these atrocities.”

I hope that Goodyear, MentorStark, and Eric’s American friends and neighbors will take time to read the Human Rights Watch report and/or its shorter version, and keep Eric and his family in their thoughts and concerns as well.

Ann Garrison, an independent journalist from Albany, California, is a contributing editor at Black Agenda Report and a contributor to The Grayzone, Pacifica Radio, and other outlets. 

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Eric Nshimiye is innocent of Rwandan genocide, Ann Garrison writes