Why is HRW deliberately discrediting Rwanda?

Editor,This is in reference to Sunny Ntayombya’s article, “HRW has no legal teeth, only a flat track bully”, published in The New Times edition of August 7.HRW wrote that “M23 officers told Human Rights Watch that some of the Rwandan fighters in their units told them they had served in Somalia or Darfur as part of the Rwandan army’s peacekeeping contingent.”Note that characteristic HRW style that attempts to turn empty fluff into something exciting: “HRW wrote ... told Human Rights Watch ... told them ....” How many times does a person or an organisation “report” about being “told” by those who supposedly “were told” and expect such testimony to be taken plausibly?And serious people claim to find such unsubstantiated allegations of hearsay piled on top of more hearsay built on even more hearsay to the nth degree to be credible!We are not even offered the slightest factual evidence (that are not mere claims or assertions from HRW) to help us assess the credibility of the HRW assertions that there were indeed people claiming to be M23 officers.Given HRW’s own lack of credibility on Rwandan matters, how can one even be sure HRW isn’t itself making up those claims and putting them in the mouths of non-existent fictional witnesses or those who do not even know they have been turned into unwitting witnesses (à la Bruguière and his many “witnesses” who subsequently excoriated the “judge” for fabricating “testimony” and falsely attributing it to them denied testimony attributed to them)?Knowing how diligently DRC’s “intelligence” has been manufacturing “captive” Rwandan military officers in recent months -- the case of Captain Janvier Sadat, a FARDC captain transformed into a Rwandan officer by the ANR for the eager benefit of Michelle Faul of AP, comes to mind -- and the readiness of HRW to collaborate in such fabrications if they can have some material with which to smear Rwanda, why would anyone believe anything HRW says?The well-known virulent anti-Rwanda agenda of Kenneth Roth and his HRW is such that any serious analyst of the sub-region should know by now that nothing his organisation says about Kigali can have any credibility whatsoever.Mwene Kalinda, Kigali, Rwanda

Opinions

Why is HRW deliberately discrediting Rwanda?