Two U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley and Marsha Blackburn, sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver asking him to “reevaluate a partnership with Rwanda.” But the allegations they used to back up that demand don’t hold up.
One is the recent death of Robert Kabera in Uganda. They’re using this incident to paint Rwanda as a human rights violator. This is a joke, and not even a funny one.
There is no investigation linking the Rwandan government to the killing, yet before the Ugandan authorities have even presented the results of their investigations, two U.S. senators seem to know who the culprit is. This alone should stop the NBA from taking them seriously.
As a matter of fact, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, suspects elements of Kayumba Nyamwasa’s terrorist outfit, the RNC. That suspicion should not be dismissed. It would not be the first time the so-called Rwandan opposition has gone after Rwandan citizens.
In 2016, the head of the Rwandan diaspora community in Mozambique, Louis Baziga, was shot dead near Mozambique’s capital, Maputo. He was accused by genocide fugitives and their relatives of supporting the Rwandan government.
In another instance of internal squabbling, RNC member Ben Rutabana disappeared and has never been seen since, an incident that triggered public dissension within the RNC, with many RNC members implicating Kayumba Nyamwasa as the man who ordered his assassination.
Another claim made by the two senators is that Rwanda has deployed 18,000 troops in eastern DRC. That number is silly, advanced by UN experts who have never been on the ground. It’s triple the number of Rwandan troops deployed in northern Mozambique, an operation that costs over $100 million a year and must be financially supported by international partners and foreign corporations.
Moving nearly 20,000 troops into Congo is Hollywood-style fiction. It’s meant to sell a story of “DRC invasion” while ignoring the real and ongoing crisis caused by the FDLR and internal Congolese disputes that have pushed Congolese refugees to take up arms and impose their right to return.
The FDLR is an armed genocidal group backed by the Tshisekedi regime, and it has to be dismantled under the Washington Accords if peace is to be realized in the Great Lakes region.
The two US senators appear totally unaware of the terms of the peace agreement brokered by their own country.
The NBA should also remind the two senators that Rwanda’s partnership with the NBA through the Basketball Africa League has produced African basketball talent since it started. It has also promoted Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality sectors, thus stimulating national economy growth. That’s a far cry from their “sportswashing” allegations.
Tshisekedi has been playing this lobbying game for a long time. A recent investigation found that his regime sent an unjustified $17 million to lobby firm for support in the United States.
Cutting to the chase, Commissioner Adam Silver should ignore the allegations peddled by Senator Merkley and Blackburn. They’re enabling Tshisekedi’s manipulative campaigns right to their bank accounts.
