Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers in Mozambique expressed concern Wednesday at the ratification of an extradition treaty between the two African countries, raising fears that it will be used to persecute dissidents.
The text initially signed in Kigali in June was officially approved by the Mozambican government on Tuesday, paving the way for ratification by parliament.
The Rwandan Senate ratified the agreement earlier this week.
‘Horrify’
Rwanda is regularly accused of pursuing its enemies in exile, a charge Kigali has always denied.
“This agreement … is terrifying,” a spokesman for the Rwandan refugee association in Mozambique told AFP.
“We want to use it for justice, but recent events make us believe that this is persecution,” he said, asking not to be named.
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Several Rwandan dissidents have been killed or forcibly disappeared in southern Africa in recent years.
A former Rwandan lieutenant was shot dead on the outskirts of Maputo in 2021, and in 2012 the body of the former head of the Development Bank of Rwanda was found floating in the sea in the capital.
Mozambican government spokesman Filimao Suazi said the extradition agreement covers past and future crimes and sentences.
Several thousand Rwandan refugees are living in Mozambique, according to UN figures.
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Most of them settled in the country after the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed around 800,000 people.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has ruled with an iron fist ever since.
The agreement targets genocide fugitives “and other suspects or convicts”.
Rwanda Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit
According to the Rwanda Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit, 13 genocide suspects live in Mozambique.
But opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, a staunch Kagame critic, told AFP the agreement was open to abuse.
“People are fleeing the country for political reasons and persecution and the government can use the treaty to persecute people and make it a crime just to extradite them,” he said.
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At a signing ceremony in June, Rwanda’s legal affairs minister Soline Nyirahabimana said the agreement meant both countries were “now safe from criminals”.
Kigali has helped Mozambique fight an Islamist insurgency in the country’s gas-rich north, deploying more than 2,000 troops and bringing large swaths of territory back under government control.