KAGAME:South Africa tries 6 for allegedly trying to kill Rwandan critic

From the GLOBAL POST
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — A politically charged trial here is drawing new attention to explosive allegations that the Rwandan government sent out agents to assassinate critics in foreign countries.
The case centers on the attempted murder of a former Rwandan military general who fled into exile in South Africa after falling out with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa was shot in June 2010, as he returned to his home in an affluent Johannesburg suburb, in an ambush that had all the hallmarks of an assassination attempt.
One of the witnesses, a Rwandan who emigrated to South Africa in 2003, testified that the men who plotted to kill Nyamwasa were soldiers in the Rwandan army, flush with cash and cars.
Nyamwasa’s wife, Rosette, said a gunman approached their black BMW as they waited to pass through a security entrance to their gated community in the Johannesburg's Melrose Arch area. The gunman shot once through the window, hitting Nyamwasa in the stomach, and then reportedly tried to finish the job with a second shot — but the gun jammed and the shooter fled.
The story didn’t end there: South African prosecutors say the people who wanted Nyamwasa dead plotted to strangle him in his hospital bed as he recovered from the gunshot wound.
Standing trial in a Johannesburg court are three Rwandans and three Tanzanians, all of whom have pleaded not guilty to the charges. They include a former Rwandan soldier, and Nyamwasa’s chauffeur, Rwandan Richard Bachisha, who was driving the BMW at the time of the attack.
Pascal Kanyandekwe, a Rwandan businessman with a Belgian passport, has been accused of plotting to kill Nyamwasa while he was hospitalized after the shooting, and has also been charged with corruption after allegedly trying to bribe his way to freedom by offering $1 million to two police officers.
Key state witnesses in the case have received special protection from South African authorities because they fear being attacked by the Rwandan government, according to media reports here.

Considering the world's many crises, this week's winner asks, is the trouble worse than we think? Check back in mid-July for the story.

Rwandan dissidents have accused Kagame’s government of involvement in the attack. Prosecutors won’t say whether they think Kagame’s government was behind the attack, and Rwandan authorities have angrily denied the allegations of involvement in the ambush and hired a South African lawyer to monitor the court proceedings in Johannesburg.
"The government of Rwanda doesn't have anything to hide. They're not involved in this," their lawyer Gerhard van der Merwe told the Associated Press.
Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front party have been in power since the end of the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, when he led a rebel army into the capital to expel a Hutu-led government. It is this history that Kagame uses to justify his continuing authoritarian rule.
But Kagame’s government is accused of becoming increasingly despotic. Human rights groups say opposition politicians, journalists and civil society activists in Rwanda have been subjected to growing crackdowns.
In May, British police warned some Rwandan exiles living in the U.K. that their lives were in danger, and the threat is believed to have come from the Rwandan government.
In the lead-up to the presidential election last year, there were mysterious deadly grenade attacks in the capital, Kigali, and a crackdown by government on opposition politicians and journalists.
Nyamwasa, who was most recently Rwandan ambassador to India, has become an outspoken critic of Kagame, but has kept a low profile since the apparent assassination attempt last June.
Nyamwasa and Patrick Karegeya, a former intelligence chief, were blamed in the grenade attacks. Both men fled to South Africa, joining the dozens of once high-ranking exiles who have defected to neighboring countries since Kagame came to power.
“The regime in Kigali is really descending into total dictatorship and you know absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Nyamwasa told Voice of America last year. “You are not supposed to debate and if you are perceived to have a different opinion on anything, then you are an enemy. That’s what happened to me.”
In Rwanda, Nyamwasa and other former top Kagame aides have been convicted in absentia on charges that include threatening state security.
Nyamwasa, who received refugee status in South Africa in 2010, faces international war crimes charges linked to the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide —allegations he denies.
A Spanish judge in 2008 charged Nyamwasa and 39 other members of the Rwandan military with the mass killings of Hutu civilians after they seized power in Rwanda.
Rights groups have demanded that South Africa strip Nyamwasa of his refugee status because of these allegations.

Three Rwandan complaints against a planned documentary on France 2

Three Rwandan complaints against a planned documentary on France 2 click here for original article in French
Paris, June 18, 2011 (FH) - Three Rwandans have filed a complaint referred to the Court of Paris against the documentary "Genocide in Rwanda: the killers among us," whose distribution is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 by the public television France 2.
The widow of President Habyarimana, Agathe Kanziga, filed the first complaint against the company France Televisions and the production company Tony Committee. She was joined by two other Rwandans interviewed by the director of Manolo Arthuis, as part of a television documentary produced for the show The Great Hunt.
"Our goal is not to condemn or to prevent the spread of this documentary, provides counsel for Agathe Habyarimana, Philippe Meilhac. All that we ask today is to watch it, in order to see whether or not a violation of the presumption of innocence. Despite several requests, we refused it. "
"It took us six months of investigation to make this documentary and film, of course with their consent, three genocide suspects living on French soil," said Manolo for Arthuys.
Agathe Habyarimana was shot "in the presence of his lawyer and two members of his family," while the doctor was Twagira Charles' home and without a lawyer, "and the former Rwandan army officer Marcel Bivugabagabo" in a rectory and without a lawyer, "says the director.
"I received from Mr. Arthuys almost a year ago, I allowed him to see my client continues Me Meilhac. What worries me deeply is that we are on a serious subject, that in terms of process it is at the very beginning, and I am a little surprised at how they present the show. It seems that it is totally dependent. "
A press of France Televisions, cited by the plaintiffs, announced in effect: "Sixteen years after the fact, the Rwandan justice and international justice are tried and sentenced many officials. But how many are still at large? While some are hiding in Africa, others live with impunity in Europe, particularly in France where Manolo for Arthuys found them. "
Another release presents the show The Great Hunt, made a documentary and a discussion moderated by journalist Nicolas Poincaré, as "a collection of five investigative documentaries devoted to men who are or have been, the most sought after in the world. "
On the set of the show's June 28, four guests are scheduled to date for the debate: James Kabale, Ambassador of Rwanda, Alain Gauthier, president of the Collective of plaintiffs for Rwanda (CPCR), Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law at the University of Antwerp and a journalist, Maria Malagardis.
In their chambers, each of the three complainants argue that none of them is under an indictment before the French courts or prosecution before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Only preliminary proceedings are initiated.
The most famous of them, Agathe Habyarimana, is within the scope of an extradition request issued by Rwanda, which will be heard June 29 in Paris. It is also the subject of a judicial investigation opened in March 2008, following a complaint of the SCRC, in which it is heard as a witness simple.
The former Lieutenant-Colonel Marcel Bivugabagabo has also been a Rwandan extradition request rejected by the court of Toulouse in 2008. The same year, the SCRC has filed a complaint against the former officer. This indicates, in its application for interim relief, since he had "never been heard by an investigator."
The Hirondelle News Agency has learned, however, in January 2010 that Marcel Bivugabagabo was the subject of a "preliminary investigation" during a visit to Rwanda two French investigating judges, and Brigitte Jolivet Nicolas Aubertin.
Charles Twagira for his part in 2007 obtained the status of political refugee in France. He is also the subject of a complaint of the SCRC, filed in the court of Rouen in early 2010 and sent to the court to Paris, where a judicial inquiry was opened. He works as a doctor.
Initially scheduled May 31, the distribution of this document has been extended to June 28, May 26 arrest of former military leader of Bosnian Serbs, Ratko Mladic, then having been a special issue of The Great Hunt.
The three complaints filed with the interim High Court of Paris will be heard as a group, Monday, June 20
Eighteen court records concerning the Rwandan genocide suspects residing on French soil are being educated to the high court of Paris.
PF / GF

Telephone leak of the murder List in Rwanda

This post is also available in: Kinyarwanda by UMUVUGIZI

Gen Nziza: The brain behind the continued murders!!

With the continued search for truth and justice, Umuvugizi newspaper has once again managed to unearth evidence of how the regime in Kigali continues to shade blood of the unsuspecting victims notably those who fall out with the powers that be.
This time the newspaper brings out the telephone conversation of the head of military spy network Col. Dan Munyuza with those who were supposed to assassinate Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa mid 2010 in South Africa. According to the conversation, though the attempt failed, plans to have him killed continue, this time in a more sophisticated manner; a slow death that no medics will get to its bottom.
In the conversation, Col Munyuza informed those supposed to carry out the bloody mission that the list of those to be killed had over ten people whose death should not raise any suspicions like the attempted assassination on Kayumba did.
The colonel says that since killing with guns is more dangerous and failing them. The machinery have introduced the use of a liquid poison to be put in food or drink. According to the conversation, the poison has been tested beyond doubt that even medics cannot find the cause of death when they carryout post-mortems on its victim.
Those on the urgent death list include Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, col. Patrick Karegeya, the tycoon Tilbert Rujugiro who fell out with the regime and the former Principle Private Secretary to the president Dr David Himbara. Attempts to have Himbara hijacked off Nairobi airport in 2010 failed after they found that he possessed a Canadian passport. The list also has some Rwandans in the USA and Europe.
According to the leaked telephone conversation, Gen Jack Nziza and company carry out the bloody mission with Kagame full knowledge and support. This is evidenced in the way they bargain on how much the killing will cost and how Kagame will get to their throats if they failed him.
In the coded telephone conversation, they refer to Karegeya as Umuzungu (Whiteman)
This article comes as a warning to all those Rwandans who ran away from Kagame’s blood-thirsty regime not to eat or drink from any places for their security just as Col Dan Munyuza explains in the attached telephone conversation.
Johnson, Europe

Impunity Regarding Mr. Assiel Kabera Assassination by RPF

Dr. Josue Kayijaho,

3225 St Patrick St                                                     Windsor, February 24, 2011

Windsor, Ontario

 N9E 3H2, Canada

Email: kayija@hotmail.com

=============================================================

To H.E. President Paul Kagame,

Republic of Rwanda

Re: Updates related to Mr. Assiel Kabera’s assassination.

Mr. President,

We, the family of the sorely missed Mr. Kabera Assiel, adviser to the former President Pasteur Bizimungu, are once again, re-writing to you to express our profound frustration by the lack of investigations of the cause of his cold blood assassination, in front of his residence entrance gate, on the night of on March 5, 2000 in Kigali, RWANDA.

At the same time, we call upon you, to fulfill your promises to the Mr. Kabera’s family as stated in a letter of condolence from your office, in which you expressly promised to use all means at your disposal to bring the culprits to justice.

Needless to recall that on February 24, 2005, we wrote you a letter, in which we gave you a long list of people who, allegedly participated in the ignominious assassination of our beloved father, husband and brother. In this letter, we were asking you to order an in-depth investigation of these individuals, in order to reveal the truth on this careful, calculated and planned cold blood assassination.

The following year, On February 24, 2006, we wrote a second letter to you to express our frustration by the lack of investigations in the death of Mr.Kabera and asked you to fulfill your promises to Kabera’s family. 

As of today, we are still waiting and asking ourselves why this cold blood assassination of a public figure is becoming a “secret d’état”.

Mr. President, the national and international media and the human rights associations have gone on the record saying that the assassination of Assiel Kabera was politically motivated.

Mr. President, you may recall a meeting at your Kacyiru office, in the presence with Aloysie Inyumba, former Executive Secretary of the Commission of Unity and National Reconciliation and the two younger brothers of late Assiel Kabera, namely Dr. Kayijaho Josue and Mr. Niyibizi Hosea.  You stated: “Mr. Assiel Kabera’s assassination was the work of a “mafia” network composed of elements within the national army and some civilians linked by mutual interests not yet identified”. And you continued saying,” I will never let the country be run by such a mafia “.

Mr. President, why don’t you order a throughout investigation on this cold blood assassination of Mr. Kabera to prove otherwise?

Our own research has led us to identify certain individuals who might have commissioned, planned, and/or carried out the assassination.  The names of those culprits have been provided to you in our February 24, 2005 letter as mentioned above.

 Mr. President, it has been seven long years after Mr. Kabera assassination and two years after you received the names of culprits.  Yet, we are still in dark of any actions taken by your government to investigate and bring these individuals to the Court of justice.

As we all know, justice delayed is justice denied. No one should be above of the rule of law regardless of the position occupied in the military or in the administration. The impunity which has characterized our country should be banished forever and the eradication of this impunity should not remain in good speeches made by leaders but rather should be translated into action.

It is more than time, Mr. President, to urge your government to direct its services to a throughout investigation of all persons who have allegedly been involved in Mr. Kabera assassination and let his family know of any progress in this endeavor. 

Mr. President, we will continue to call upon you to fulfill your promises to Mr. Kabera’s family, as stated in the enclosed copy of the letter you sent to us on March 7, 2000. We believe that, eventually, justice will prevail.

While we await an answer, please accept our highest regards.

Sincerely,

For Assiel Kabera’s family,

Dr. Josue Kayijaho

CC:

H.E. The U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, B.P 28 Kigali

H.E. The U.K. Ambassador to Rwanda, B. P 573 Kigali

H.E. The France Ambassador to Rwanda, B.P 53 Kigali

H.E The Suisse Ambassador to Rwanda, B. P 579 Kigali

H.E. The Germany Ambassador to Rwanda, B.P 355 Kigali

H.E. The Belgium Ambassador to Rwanda, B. P 81 Kigali

H.E. The Holland Ambassador to Rwanda, B.P 254 Kigali

The Representative of Amnesty International, 1Easton Street London WC 1X ODW

The Representative of Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Avenue, 34 floor, New York, NY 10118-3299.

The National and International media.

Attachment:

1. Condolence’s letter to Assiel Kabera’s family from the office of then “vice president” of the Republic of Rwanda dated March 7, 2000.
2. Letter to the President dated on February 24, 2005.