By BUGIRIMFURA Rachid
The instructions of the Director General of Rwanda Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board, n° 003/mines/rmb/2019 of 18/07/2019, provide for the entry and exit of minerals in Rwanda and how they are carried out, as well as the process of issuing documents to those who are allowed to do this business in Rwanda, but almost two tons of minerals were seized from the hands of the police and their owners lack justice.
One of petitioners, is a Congolese identified as Mr.Kolonji Lupandu Danniel. He says these minerals of Tourmaline kind were seized in 2020, being the property of different people of different nationalities including Rwandans, Congolese, Pakistanis and Cameroonians.
The seized minerals would cross through Rwanda to be sold abroad, and had all the documents to cross borders as the company called Gem Gold Stone BusinessLTD (GFS) is already working and has the documents showing that they do this business.
Elie Hassan Hakizimana, a Rwandan who had had shares on this property says that the loss of their minerals is still confusing and they did not get justice.
“The minerals confiscated by the policeman are around 2 tons of Tourmaline, the policeman used his title to confiscate our properties because for us, we did not break any rule when bringing the minerals in the country. Another confusion is that they took the minerals from the car and went to our working site to collect others,” he said.
One of the victims who preferred anonymity said they had suffered a serious injustice.
“Our problem is known to all the authorities dealing with minerals in Rwanda, but no action was taken. The big problem is that none of property owners were accused of any other crime, we were not deprived of the documents to continue working, but they refused to give us our property back.
Testimony of the victims
“The anti-trafficking police officer in Masoro called us and we explained the situation to him, thereafter, the Director of Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) in the Western Province also called us and we explained the case to him. All of these officials promised to solve the problem so that we get our minerals back, but we waited in vain.”
Some of the foreigners who were deprived of the minerals wanted to appeal to their embassies in Rwanda, but were advised to proceed slowly and trust the informed authorities.
These business people say that in all these matters, Mediatrice Mukanoheri was the one who had to receive the money because they were buying in the name of her company. She told them to hold on while she is doing a follow up, but her colleagues later revealed that it was a lie and a strategy to work with police to embezzle the minerals.
“At the beginning, she was promising us that we are getting our minerals back, but she is playing with our mind until she cut off the Telephone line through which we used to call her,”
What happened for the property to be lost in the country?
The problem started when a police officer named Nsengiyumva Jean Pierre, who worked in the RPU department (responsible for anti-trafficking), withheld the car that was loaded with those minerals, saying it is suspected of crime issues, but the owners followed and found that minerals had not been taken to the place where the seized minerals with allegations are taken.
Currently, the Rwanda Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board (RMB) is the one to handle the issues of the minerals seized by the police, but the minerals never reached the RMB.
The owners of the minerals used all the efforts to find out the whereabouts of their property, and they were assured by Revenue Protection Unit (RPU) and the Rwanda Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board (RMB) that they were going to follow up the case, but in the end, they did not get any response.
This issue has been handled by individuals, but was not included in the written issues to be followed up. Owners of the minerals were secretly informed by one of the RMB officials, that the minerals were sold and advised them to keep quiet and forget it to avoid further risks.
Civil society tried, but failed
The victims say that after realizing that the problem is the benefit of the big fishes (senior officials), preferred to call the support from Hope for Living organization to advocate for them. The organization currently give supports to people facing injustice but, unfortunately, no solution came out as of now.
The Director of Hope for Living, Athanase Iyamuremye was asked if they filed a complaint in the Rwandan courts, he told us that he had to do his own investigation first to know the status of the problem, noting that concerned officials need to understand the case and provide a solution. He said he has met people who are concerned with the case and no action was taken.
“We have never stopped pursuing the issue, and we usually talk to those citizens, they know for sure that Hope for Living has never stopped to help them get justice.” He said.
“Apart from these government institutions, we also took the problem to the National Commission for Human Right who also revealed injustice committed to these people, but the problem is that there is no solution yet.”
The vehicle that was carrying the minerals was found, minerals gone missing
The Tourmaline minerals that were seized were of different grades so that their value is difficult to calculate in Rwandan francs, but while the owners were shouting, the person in charge of the minerals transport, Mr. Eugene Musiriza got his car back after a year, but it was returned empty.
When asked, Eugene Musiriza confirmed that his car was locked up for a year, and they gave it to him without a fine, unlike other people who were arrested for smuggling. This car has ever been put up for auction, but Hope for Living Organization intervened.
“In fact, the car was not locked up over the crime of smuggling, but over individuals’ interests,” he said.
He spent two weeks in a transit center
Eugene Musiriza, who was caught in a car containing minerals and which was locked in a police cell, spent two nights there. As the missed a crime to accuse him, they imprisoned him in Kanzenze transit center on the order of Nsengiyumva Jean Pierre, the other policeman who seized his car.
“I spent 14 days in this vagrancy center and was released by the district officials who had come to visit the center. I was detained as bandit, vagrant by a policeman who also confiscated our minerals.” He said.
Hakizimana Elie Hassan, a Rwandan who was robbed in such a manner the minerals worth more than USD 7,000, approximately to more than 7 million Rwandan francs says: “This case was taken to all concerned authorities and we held discussions with police, the Rwanda Revenue officials also told us that there was no tax problem with our minerals, and the RMB officials told us that did not know and see our minerals,”
The information from the investigation conducted by Intego newspaper, revealed that the police officer who seized the minerals was immediately transferred to work in Rusizi, and the residents suspected that he was on a mission to steal the minerals.
Regarding the problems of minerals in Rwanda, sources say there are people in the government’s institutions who make it a business, whereby they confiscate the minerals of the citizens and put them in a confusion, putting pressure of fears on them until they leave it.
When speaking to Intego newspaper, Mediatrice Mukanoheri who is accused of treachery in the disappearance of those minerals said: “I will not tell you anything about the disappearance of these minerals unless you first tell me who gave you that information.”
Police, RMB not on speaking terms
Police spokesperson CP Kabera Jean Bosco acknowledges that the minerals were seized by the police because they were contraband.
“Those minerals were seized by the police because they were smuggled and transported through illegal ways.”
When asked about the quantity of minerals seized and where they are stored, the National Police did not give any answer, but said: “The laws that provide how legal business is conducted and how things seized in smuggling are clear,”
The Rwanda Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board, which is responsible for testing and certifying minerals and proving some with problems, says that they were not aware of seized Tourmaline minerals in the past two years.
Narcisse Dushimimana, Head of Legal and Inspection Department of Mining at RMB says that, usually when the police seize illegally imported minerals, they are immediately handed over to this institution but that these ones of Tourmaline seized in Rubavu District had never reached RMB.
Dushimimana says that minerals from outside the country that do not meet the requirements are returned to their place of origin by RMB, and that this institution did not know why the late was seized as it was not informed.
