Cause of activist’s death still unclear
RWANDA gospel singer and government critic Kizito Mihigo was buried on Saturday in Kigali after his death in unclear conditions in a police cell.
According to reports and witnesses who attended the funeral, the body had three injuries on the face, and other injuries.
Various sources say Mihigo’s body was not released until he was buried and no one was allowed to touch or see it before the burial, according Tomas Nahimana, an exiled Rwanda Catholic priest.
According to Catholic doctrine, people who have taken their own lives cannot be buried with Catholic honours, but Mihigo’s mass was attended by more than 2 000 Christians and friends, and more than 20 priests.
“When I learned he was going to get a Catholic mass and benediction, I realised that he had not committed suicide, because the Catholic Church does not allow that. But when I realised he had injuries on his face, I concluded that things did not happen as the Rwanda Investigation Bureau said,” said Jean Damascene Murengerantwari, a mourner of Mihigo.
Ishema TV online channel reporter Cyuma Hassan Dieudonné said he too saw injuries on the face of Mihigo, which had led people to conclude he did not commit suicide as the official version says. “He was a God-fearing man.
“He was aware of the importance of life. He was asked several times to be used to kill opponents but he refused. It was not possible for him to commit suicide,” said Nahimana.
Some in Rwanda allege that Mihigo was killed by those who don’t want to see Rwanda’s ethnic groups reconciled, and especially the reconciliation between Hutu and Tutsi after the genocide that claimed the lives of more than 800 000 Tutsis and some moderate Hutus in 1994.
Mihigo had said he was orphaned by the genocide that claimed his father, and forced him into exile in Burundi in 1994. However, he said, he was aware that all Hutus were not bad, and some of them lost loved ones and needed also to be recognised as victims of crimes committed during the war.
This is how the relations between Mihigo and the government broke down, and he was jailed in 2015 until 2018. He was also accused of being in touch with members of RNC, an opposition party led by Kayumba Nyamwasa, who is exiled in South Africa.