Rwanda genocide-row politician attacked
Fri 05 Feb, 2010.
Source: bbc news

Victoire Ingabire spent the past 16 years in the Netherlands

A Rwandan politician who stirred up controversy with comments on the genocide recently has been attacked by a group of men at a government office.

About 10 men set upon Victoire Ingabire and her driver as they waited for papers to register their party for next year's election.

She escaped unharmed but her driver was said to have serious injuries.

Ms Ingabire, a Hutu, was criticised last month for highlighting crimes against Hutus during the 1994 genocide.

Some 800,000 people were killed in 100 days of violence in Rwanda - most of them Tutsis, but many moderate Hutus were also massacred.

Police spokesman Supt Eric Kayiranga said Ms Ingabire had jumped the queue at the local government office in Kigali, Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported.

He said a group of local men attacked her because they were angry that a person who "negates the genocide" could be served before them.

But she dismissed the police version of events, saying there had been no-one waiting at the office.

"When we arrived, I saw the men who attacked us seated near houses which neighbour Kinyinya Sector. I greeted them from afar," she told RNA.

"They followed me hurriedly inside the sector office, grabbed my bag and continued roughing up my driver as I fled to the car and drove off."

She says she will now write to President Paul Kagame asking for protection.

Ms Ingabire, who recently returned to the country after 16 years in the Netherlands, has been an outspoken critic of the government.

Mr Kagame's Tutsi-dominated former rebels took power to end the genocide.

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