Rwanda arrests 3 for ''offences against state security''

KIGALI (AFP) - Police in Rwanda said Monday they had arrested three people on charges of threatening state security, among them a radio journalist and a famous peace activist musician.

In a statement police said the three are accused of connections with the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), an opposition party in exile.

They are also accused of "working for some time in collaboration with the FDLR", Rwandan Hutu rebels who include the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in their ranks and who are based in the forests of neighbouring DR Congo.

According to the police, musician Kizito Mihigo was arrested on Friday, demobilised soldier Jean Paul Dukuzumuremyi over the weekend, while Cassien Ntamuhanga, a journalist at Amazing Grace Radio who had earlier been reported missing, was taken in on Monday.

The arrests come as Rwanda holds commemorations to mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide, but also amid mounting criticism of the alleged suppression of political dissent by Rwanda's strongman President Paul Kagame.

"Mihigo, Ntamuhanga and Dukuzumuremyi are under investigation for involvement in planning terrorist attacks against Rwanda, planning violent overthrow of the government, planning to assassinate government officials and inciting violence among the population," the statement said.

"The three are suspected to be working closely with senior members of Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and the FDLR, and participating actively in a network that has carried out several grenade attacks and continues to plan terrorist action against Rwanda," it added.

Musician Mihigo is well-known in Rwanda. A devout Catholic and peace campaigner who took part in composing a new national anthem in 2001, he studied in France and Belgium and campaigned for peace and reconciliation.

He was also known to give performances to prisoners jailed for their role in the genocide that left an estimated 800,000 dead, even though he had lost his father in the bloodshed.

But his most recent song was viewed as being critical of the Rwandan regime by alluding to crimes allegedly committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which is led by President Kagame and which has dominated the country since its then-rebel army ended the genocide.

Ntamuhanga lead the Amazing Grace Christian radio station, and according to colleagues quoted by the organisation Reporters Without Borders, had recently been questioned by the authorities over former colleagues who have fled the central African nation.

The media watchdog ranked Rwanda 162nd out of 180 countries in its 2014 press freedom index.

According to police spokesman Damas Gatare, officers have "ample evidence including grenades and testimonies obtained from other accomplices" and the three "have admitted to working closely with senior members of RNC and FDLR".