HRW researcher deported from Rwanda

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher has been deported from Rwanda, as relations between the organisation and the Paul Kagame regime remain strained. Franco-British national Clémentine De Montjoye, a senior researcher in the Africa division at HRW, was denied entry upon arrival at Kigali International Airport last week. News24 reports that she was due to meet officials from foreign embassies stationed in Kigali, but because she was ‘not welcome in Rwanda’, she was put on the next Kenyan Airways flight out. Before she made the trip, De Montjoye notified the country's Justice Ministry twice in late April and early May but got no response. The executive director at HRW, Tirana Hassan, said Rwanda's hostility was geared towards hiding human rights abuses. ‘Rwanda touts itself as an open and welcoming destination, but the treatment reserved for those who may investigate abuse exposes the government's deep-seated hostility to human rights monitoring and independent scrutiny of any kind,’ she added. A month after her last visit, the HRW released a document titled Join Us or Die: Rwanda's Extraterritorial Repression which detailed how Kagame's critics were targeted across the world. The report alleged his enemies faced physical violence, enforced disappearances, surveillance, misuse of law enforcement and online trolls.