RWANDA:Is Rwanda preparing for Gen. Kayumba’s war?

From INYENYERI NEWS

KAYUMBA AND KAGAME

With continued reports of Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa raising forces to wage war with support from certain countries, Rwanda has taken serious measures in preparation.
Great Lakes Voice’s highly placed security sources that are familiar with Rwanda Defence Forces [RDF] nature and modalities say that Rwanda intelligence believes Gen. Kayumba who is exiled in South Africa is busy recruiting in Uganda targeting all categories of people and has forces in Walikale area of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
“Rwanda Defence forces (RDF) at the beginning of this year mobilized new recruits and is now organizing former RDF soldiers who were demobilized to form a new structure under the reserve force,” the source says.

According to this source, every demobilized combatant is not allowed to pass through the airport or cross the boarders with only passports unless he/she gets a traveling permit from the army head quarters.

“Formally, the decision to ban the demobilized soldier’s movement was applied to the officers who were crossing to Uganda but now the principle has applied to all countries of the region and to all ranks,” the sources say.
Apparently the decision was taken to avoid Kayumba’s recruitment of some former Rwandan Patriotic Army [RPA] officers who feel marginalized. And the second reason was to bring them back to the military structure and get prepared for the possible war.

Rwanda Defence and military spokesman, Lt Col. Jill Rutaremara has not responded to our questions for a week after promising us to respond in details.

However, an official in the Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence speaking on condition of anonymity since he is not authorized to speak on army issues defended the travel ban for ex-combatants to Uganda as a “protection measures” given the officers who are mistreated by Uganda security suspected of being Rwanda spies.

“When these demobilized guys go to Uganda, they are arrested without informing Rwanda government and rot in custody and tortured, we wanted their travel to be protected,” the official said without explaining why those measures applied to other neighboring states.

The story envisages a scenario that the conflict between the two countries would be fought through proxies in Congo with Ugandan elements supporting Gen. Kayumba’s rebels.

Ugandan forces would enter Congo stating aim to curb Lord’s Resistance Army forces (LRA) of Joseph Kony who is wanted by International Criminal court [ICC] for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Observers have appointed out Uganda’s acquiring of hi-tech Sukhoi fighter jets as a major factor in regional security thinking.

Local Defence units dissolved

Meanwhile the reserve forces which every retired RDF is a member by default according to this Ministry of Defence official are to be equipped, armed to replace the Local Defence units, a local government militia.
“These Ex-RDF (read reserve forces) will be paid, put in a military structure in every district and sector and be used any time there is a threat,” the official added.

Did Col. Karegyeya expose Col. Muzoora?

Unconfirmed reports allege that former Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officer and fugitive Colonel Edison Muzoora was in Kigali for a meeting before travelling to Johannesburg a few weeks before he was killed and his body dumped at his home in Bushenyi, western Uganda.

With some Rwandan intelligence believing that some officers in Ugandan security are supporting Kayumba and Patrick Karegyeya, Col. Muzoora’s group together with Col. Mande and Kyakabale was supposed to act as a counter measure.

One source suggests that, Col. Muzoora’s plot was exposed by Col. Patrick Karegyeya’s network that tracked his movements and passage through South Africa to Uganda to carry on the secret mission and thus informed Ugandan security.

MNL

RWANDA:Jeannette Kagame’s Juvenile Diplomacy in Uganda Flops

  by: Malik Azaad from the AFRICAN DICTATOR

A Soft Smile behind a Darker Heart of Jeannette

Madam Jeannette Kagame began her recent diplomatic offensive in Uganda in style. She flew her husband’s 50 Million Dollar-Bombardier Global Express presidential jet, with an entourage of a Cabinet Minister, her four children, a team of security details and headed for the Republic of Uganda. Her work would prepare the visit for her husband who would soon follow and become friends with Uganda’s President like in the good old days. Her accomplishments were however an entirely different matter.
What was her mission to Uganda?
Her mission was an advance party for her man – Mr. Paul Kagame, the President of the Republic of Rwanda. Her assignment was to persuade Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni , the President of the Republic of Uganda to receive her husband who is keen to urgently begin the process of reconciliation. The plan was that Mr. Paul Kagame would soon follow his wife’s diplomatic undertaking for softening the ground. The Rwandan dictator was prepared to spend several days in Uganda to mend fences with his former mentor turned arch rival and indeed enemy, as mutually acknowledged.
Jeannette’s juvenile diplomacy collapses
Jeannette Kagame’s mission impossible to Uganda was a total flop. President Museveni would not even receive her let alone agree to the Kagames’ scheme of reconciliation. Madam Kagame went back to Rwanda empty-handed and humiliated. Her attributes at diplomacy and famous charm failed to soften President Museveni. Mr. Kagame’s planned visit for reconciliation will have to wait for a long time indeed – time which the Rwandan dictator does not have on his side.
Why did Madam Kagame’s charm diplomacy flop so terribly?
One has to look back at the relationship between President Museveni and President Kagame during the past 17 years that may be highlighted as follows:
• Museveni’s NRM government was the springboard for Kagame and his RPF to wage a war against the Habyarimana dictatorship in Rwanda;
• Museveni sought to guide even post-genocide Rwanda, which irritated Kagame who was by now determined to be his own man, and not a junior to Museveni;
• Kagame and Museveni went to Zaire together, removed Mobutu and installed Kabila 1, who they thought would be their stooge;
• Soon the former allies fell upon each other by fighting three times in Kisangani, with Rwanda generally winning these wars – with Kagame utterly humiliating his former mentor Museveni;
• Each side started sponsoring exiled senior officials to destabilize their homelands, and siding with and supporting opposition groups;
• When General Kayumba Nyamwasa was escaping for his life from Rwanda, Uganda assisted him to find his way to South Africa, which infuriated Kagame and his regime;
• An increasingly isolated Rwandan dictator failed to attend Museveni’s swearing for his new term of office, having already failed to show up at the swearing in for Tanzania’s President Kikwete;
• Even when the former Rwandan health minister Sezibera took office as the Secretary General of the East African Community, after Kagame aggressively lobbied for this, the Rwandan dictator was a no show for the occasion;
• The exiled Uganda’s Colonel Muzoora, who was often seen in Kigali, met unexplained death, and his body was dumped at his home village, with some fingers pointing to Kagame’s role;
A toxic environment between former allies
Such was the toxic environment into which Madam Kagame jumped to begin the process of rehabilitating her husband’s shattered image among her peers, beginning with Museveni. His isolation goes far beyond East Africa. Kagame could not set foot at AU Summit in Equatorial Guinea, or at the celebration of South Sudan’s independence. He was also a no show at the World Economic Forum held in Cape Town. In South Africa, of course, Kagame stands accused of attempting to assassinate Kayumba Nyamwasa.
Why did Jeannette Kagame’s charm offensive disintegrate?
The arrogance of the Kagames knows no bounds – they seem to believe that the entire world revolves around them. The Kagames naively assumed that Museveni would happily welcome their “offer” for reconciliation on the Kagames’ terms. The Rwandan dictator couple assumed that the Madam would show up with her children, smile charmingly, and that the butcher of Rwanda would simply follow, spend several days in Uganda, and that they would live happily ever after, having tamed Museveni with their charm. But Museveni knows Kagame’s treachery only too well. Kagame was after all called Pillato when he served in the Ugandan struggle where he was a one-man killing machine and a super spy on everybody. Pillato was of course the military intelligence officer in Uganda where Museveni observed his manipulative skills from close quarters. Museveni has also observed how Kagame rules Rwanda, and how he has betrayed, humiliated, imprisoned, and even killed his former RPF comrades. Where Museveni retains all “historicals” Kagame has none left on his side. Moreover, Museveni has seen the shocking treatment of Fred Rwigema’s widow by the Kagames. Recently, Madam Rwigema could not even travel to Uganda to witness and receive a medal awarded posthumously to her late husband for his bravely during the Ugandan armed struggle. With all this and more as a backdrop, would Museveni dare trust the one-sided scheme of reconciliation hatched by the butcher of Rwanda and his Madam? The answer is NO.
Museveni will not come cheap
Museveni must be smiling to see the boastful and ruthless Rwandan tyrant sweat in the tight corner he has put himself in. Museveni fully recognizes that the troubled dictator next door gasping for the last breath on top of a sinking ship. And the last thing on Kaguta’s mind is to throw the Rwandan dictator a lifeline.
What next after Jeannette’s juvenile diplomatic offensive in Uganda? It is back to the drawing board

Government summons foreign envoy over Muzoora’s death

By Nelson Wesonga & Nicholas Kalungi  from DAILY MONITOR

Internal Affairs Minister Hillary Onek said yesterday Uganda has summoned the ambassador of an unnamed neighbouring country to explain the circumstances under which the late Col. Edison Muzoora’s body turned up in Uganda.

But even as he addressed a news conference, there were conflicting signals from government over the matter which has led to the arrest of at least five individuals including officials of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is supposed to handle Uganda’s consular relations with diplomats posted here, said it was not aware that any envoy has been called in on this issue. “It is possible but I am not aware of it,” Amb. James Mugume, the foreign affairs permanent secretary, said on phone last evening.

Mr Onek said at a news conference in Kampala yesterday morning that Uganda summoned an ambassador of a neighbouring country, which he did not name, to discuss the issue. Mr Onek said the question Uganda wants answered is whether the late Col. Muzoora sneaked through that country without its authority.

“We want to discuss with that country why this happened through their country, and why they did not inform Uganda and yet they knew what Col. Muzoora was involved in,” Mr Onek had said.

“For the sake of diplomatic harmony between the two states, Uganda has invited the ambassador of that country for interaction on how to address the issue.”
Rwanda, a country which has had a cooling of relations with Kampala over security issues, yesterday denied that its ambassador to Uganda has been summoned over Col. Muzoora’s death.

No communication
Mr John Ngarambe, the first secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in Kampala, told Daily Monitor that they have not received any official communication to this effect. “I have not seen a copy of any such official communication and so can’t say anything about it,” said Mr Ngarambe.

Rwandan ambassador Frank Mugambaje, according to Mr Ngarambe, is out of the country and would not return until the weekend. In 2003, Uganda officials, some directly others indirectly, claimed that the late Col. Muzoora had like other UPDF renegade officers Anthony Kyakabale and Samson Mande fled Uganda through Rwanda -- accusations Rwanda denied.

Before his death, Col. Muzoora was also linked to a shadowy anti-Kampala rebel group, the People’s Redemption Army, which Uganda’s security reportedly suspected was being sponsored by Rwanda – a charge also denied by that country.

According to Mr Onek, Col. Muzoora entered Uganda on May 5 and died on May 27 in the home of William Mukaira, the Bushenyi District FDC chairperson. Assistant Inspector General of Police Asan Kasingye confirmed that Abel Kacwano, Obed Musinguzi a.k.a Sebagala, Deus, Boniface Mumbere, William Mukaira and Dr Aggrey Byamaka are being held as suspects in the colonel’s death.

The police also said all suspects were in its custody. Until yesterday, it had maintained that it did not know the whereabouts of Dr Byamaka even as the army said they had handed him over to the police.

Mr Onek said the government doubts the credibility of the initial postmortem report since it was prepared by one of the suspects, Dr Byamaka.

Uganda's Museveni says he's not sweating 'Egyptian-like revolution'

From Foreign Policy
Uganda is holding elections on Friday and increasingly autocratic President Yoweri Museveni has made it clear he won't tolerate any street protests like those that have swept the Middle East recently: 

Most analysts expect Museveni to win, though his share of the vote dwindled at each of the last three elections. The opposition alleged vote-rigging at each of the polls.
"There can be no Egyptian-like revolution here," Museveni told a final news conference ahead of polling day. "Someone taking power by extra-constitutional means? That one is out of the question. It will not happen."
Besigye, who is facing former ally Museveni for the third time, told Reuters in an interview last month that a popular uprising in Uganda was "even more likely" than in either Egypt or Tunisia after what he says are years of corruption.[...]
Museveni also warned his security forces were ready to deal with violence.
"Very simple, just lock them up," he said when asked how the government would deal with rioters. "In as humane a manner as possible, bundle them into jails. And that will be the end of the story. And to the courts."

Museveni, who first took power in 1986, has now been president almost as long as Hosni Mubarak. Also like Mubarak, he's been a strategically important U.S. ally -- Uganada is the primary contributor to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia and has carried out a U.S.-backed effort to eradicate the brutal Lord's Resistance Army rebel group -- and a major recipient of U.S. aid. If anti-government demonstrations erupt this weekend, the White House will again be in a tough spot. 
My colleague Elizabeth Dickinson wrote recently on how sub-Saharan Africans are reacting to the news coming out North Africa and the Middle East in recent weeks. Another country to watch, which has been almost entirely ignored by the international media, is Gabon, which is in the midst of a popular uprising against President Ali Bongo Ondimba, son of longtime strongman Omar Bongo, who won a widely-disputed election in 2009. Julie Owono's blogging on Global Voices is a valuable source for following the latest developments.

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Source Describes Second Attempted Assassination

Published by the Black Star News 

Dr Olara Otunnu, the Ugandan Politician

Source Describes Second Attempted Assassination

Olara Otunnu, the president of Uganda People's Congress (UPC) and candidate in the East African country's presidential election this coming Friday was involved in a "suspicious" automobile incident today, The Black Star News has learned.

Otunnu has been hospitalized but details of his condition were not available. A female passenger traveling with the presidential candidate suffered a broken collar bone. A person familiar with the matter described the incident as another attempt on Otunnu's life.
Details of the incident were not yet available.
On December 21, 2009, Otunnu, a former United Nations Under Secretary, said he was the victim of an assassination attempt by the Gen. Yoweri Museveni regime when vehicles of the notorious Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) which is commanded by Museveni's son, deliberately veered in front of his car on a highway in Ugandan and forced his vehicle off the road. Otunnu escaped serious injury. At the time U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy asked that the alleged assassination attempt be investigated.

At the time, the Uganda authorities denied it was behind any attempt to kill Otunnu. During a visit to New York City last September, Uganda's minister for foreign affairs/international relations Oryem Henry Okello told The Black Star:
"The Ugandan government does not assassinate political opponents. If the government wanted to kill Otunnu why wouldn't the government just shoot him?"

Uganda is a major recipient of U.S. foreign and military assistance primarily because it's the only African country which has provided troops to prop the U.S.-installed government in Somalia. In cables leaked through WikiLeaks the U.S. ambassador described Gen. Museveni as an "autocrat" who was not in touch with changes in the country and also wrote of corruption by his senior officials.

Days after Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was driven from office, Otunnu had this week called on Ugandans to "take back" their country. Otunnu, together with leaders of the other major opposition parties, the Forum For Democratic Change (FDC) headed by Dr. Kizza Besigye and the Democratic Party (DP) under Norbert Mao recently met with the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnny Carson during his visit to Uganda. The opposition leaders warned Carson that the elections would not be free and fair.

In December 2009, the U.S. Congress had directed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to monitor the Uganda elections and to issue periodic reports. Clinton's reports have been critical of the Museveni government's failure to level the playing field and was especially harsh in the Election Commission which was hand picked by Museveni.

In the leaked cables, the U.S. ambassador, Jerry Lanier, also warned of potential violent conflict if the Feb. 18 elections were not free and fair.

[News Update]

Observers say Otunnu was miraculously almost unscathed after today's incident and after medical examination has resumed his campaign by heading to Lamwo in Acholi, as an act of defiance.
Three members of Otunnu's team who were in the car suffered "serious injuries" and were transferred to Kampala International Hospital, a person familiar with the matter told The Black Star News. Details are still sketchy but one person says the incident was caused when another automobile swung in front of Otunnu's, causing the candidate's vehicle to "roll over several times." U.S. officials in Kampala briefed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has been directed by Congress to monitor the Uganda elections, about the incident.


"Speaking Truth To Empower."

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