Excellency Major General Paul Kagame

Excellency Major General Paul Kagame March 21, 2010
President of Republic of Rwanda N° 20/R/PK/310
PO Box 15 Kigali
Rwanda.



Object: The Rights and Safety of the General
Kayumba Nyamwasa’s Family


Excellency;

The Organization for Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR).Inc.; a Human Rights Organization, based in the United States is concerned with the security and safety of General Kayumba Nyamwasa’s Family, relatives and friends who are under police pressure and threats in Rwanda and India. OPJDR believes that, if the government has issues with General Nyamwasa Kayumba, it should go with him alone and leave his family, relatives and his friends out of political harassments since they were not performing the government functions.

OPJDR has learned from the Rwanda News paper Umuseso No 398 of March 08, 2010 that General Kayumba Nyamwasa’s wife Rosette Kayumba and children are held in house arrest in India, and their passports were taken away. Unless demonstrated otherwise, OPJDR understands that whatever General Nyamwasa is accused of by the Rwandan government does not extend to his whole family and relatives therefore they should get their rights restored and free to reunite as a family or simply choose to go where they think their lives will be safe.

Also, OPJDR believes that Mr Kazora, General Kayumba’s brother- in- law who was recently arrested and jailed in Rwanda, should not be threatened for the potential crimes his in-law might have committed.

Our organization is on the firm belief that any person accused is always innocent until proven guilty. It is by the same token that OPJDR asks General Nyamwasa to contact the local authorities of South Africa, or where ever else he currently resides, as soon as possible in order to facilitate his surrendering to the Spanish Justice so he can respond to the accusations for the crimes committed in Rwanda that he is accused of.

Sincerely,
Pascal Kalinganire
Coordinator General



CC:
Excellency Minister Shri S.M. Krishna,
Minister of External Affairs
South Block, New Delli- 110 011
India
Email: usxps@mea.gov.in

Honorable Mr.Jeffrey Thamsanqa Radebe, MP
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development
Republic of South Africa
Private Bag X276, PRETORIA, 0001
16th Floor, 329 Momentum Centre, Pretorius Street,
Pretoria, South Africa
Tel: 012 - 357 8217 / Fax: 012 - 315 1749
E-mail: Ministry@justice.gov.za

Honorable Mr. Kenneth Roth
Executive Director of Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA

Honorable Ms. Maja Daruwala,
Executive Director of Institute of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Marlborough House, Pall Mall,
London SW1Y 5HX, UK
Phone: +44 (0)20 7747 6500 (switchboard)
Fax: +44 (0)20 7930 0827
Email: secretary-general@commonwealth.int

Rwanda Confirms Being Probed on Assassination Attempt

Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister, Ms. Louise Mushikiwabo, has confirmed that South African police arrested Captain Francis Gakwerere, as part of the ongoing probe into the attempted assassination of fugitive, Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, last month.

Our sources have also said South African police have landed on information implicating the Rwandan Government and intelligence operatives. This is the information they were working on when they arrested Capt. Gakwerere.

Gakwerere was later released on bail but was supposed to report back to the police
but vanished, leaving behind his identification documents. The story
of the arrest of Francis Gakwerere was first disclosed by some South
African media out lets, based on sources in Rwanda and South
Africa, along with the implication of the Rwandan Military hierarchy
and Rwandan Intelligence Operatives in the assassination plot.

This
was later confirmed by other news outlets and social media.

South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation,
through the Director General of Foreign Affairs, Ayanda Ntsaluba,
implicated, on July 1, 2010, the “Intelligence Operatives” of the
government of a “Foreign Country” in the failed assassination attempt
against the exiled Rwandan Gen. Nyamwasa.

Sources close to both Rwandan Intelligence and South African Police
had pointed at foreign country as having a hand in the attempt on Kayumba's troubled life.

The development is likely to flare tensions between the two countries and cause a major diplomatic row in the year of the World Cup.

Nyamwasa wanted in Spain and France

Nyamwasa wanted in Spain and France
By Daily Monitor

South Africa yesterday confirmed France and Spain have issued fresh extradition requests for Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa wanted for allegedly participating in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

“Yes, there are [new] extradition requests from those two countries that we are considering,” Mr Tlali Tlali, the spokesman for South Africa’s Foreign Ministry, told this newspaper by telephone last evening.

A French judge indicted Gen. Nyamwasa in 2006 for allegedly shooting down the plane carrying Rwanda’s ex-President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprian Ntaryamira, whose deaths sparked the unprecedented 1994 murder of an estimated 800, 000 Rwandans in three months.

Related Stories

* Two Nyamwasa shooting suspects freed
* Kayumba shooting - the inside story
* Clinton questions Rwanda’s democracy

Separately, Spain in 2008 accused him of having links to the death of Spanish nuns during the genocide. The fresh extradition requests, which together with that made by Rwanda now total three, came to light as Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, on Tuesday summoned South Africa’s Ambassador, Gladstone Gwadiso, to protest the way investigation into Gen. Nyamwasa’s June 19 shooting is being handled.

This followed what Ms Mushikiwabo called “insinuations emanating from official circles in South Africa and carried in the media [that] appear to be pointing a finger at the Rwandan government.”

“Naturally, there is no truth to this. We find these insinuations very alarming,” she told French news agency AFP. Mr Tlali said Rwanda’s extradition request too is “under consideration” but Gen. Nyamwasa has already been offered asylum.

The former confidant of President Kagame and an influential military figure in Rwanda Defence Forces ran into exile alleging Rwandan authorities were hounding him on fabricated charges. President Kagame said he was on the run to “avoid accountability

“Did Nyamwasa fall on his own sword?” by Nkwazi Mhango

By ASABAGNA

Recent attempt on the life of diplomat-turned former Rwandan Chief of Staff, Lt-Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, in Johannesburg, dented Rwandan reputation a great deal more. When did it all began? Fall-out and now attempt on lives of compatriots! When cronyism and nepotism ceased to pay back. The rosy bed became thorny and ridiculously messy.

Kigali regime distanced itself from the killings despite the allegations by Nyamwasa that they were behind it. But again, many are still asking, what did words by Kagame that he shall crush all flies (Nyamwasa and the likes) meant in the first place? On this Nyamwasa said: “In parliament he called us ‘flies’ whom he will crush with a hammer; with [the magazine] Jeune Afrique he called me a ‘traitor’.” These allegations were repeated by Nyamwasa’s wife on the wake of shooting. Stalking, silencing and killing dissidents is a cowardly-perfected weapon that used to be used by chicken-hearted stinking dictators but not reformers.

This, apart from denting Kagame’s reputation, makes it difficult for him to recapture his mojo. To do it, he needs miracles thanks to the fact that the victims who accuse him of all bad things used to be a ton of his closest allies. The only way out of this is true reconciliation and introduction of true democracy based on the will and choice of the people, not rulers.

Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, many are commiserating with the general whilst detractors are openly saying he’s fallen on his own sword thanks to being a powerful player behind the making of the current regime.

Remember Nyamwasa is among indicted top RPF officials in Spain and France for the role he played prior and during the genocide, not to mention robbery in DRC. Before the fall-out he was a highly regarded as a hero by the Kigali he helped to make. Sadly though, now it has turned against him.

His corruption allegations against his former arch-foe-turned-buddy and compatriot to whom he was a consigliore, Paul Kagame, are also damning. Unfortunately when Nyamwasa alleged that Kagame is corrupt through and through, Kagame did not deny it. Instead, the regime in Kigali offered light answers just the same way it did after being alleged it were behind the attempt on Nyamwasa. And this is not the first time for such allegations on Kagame’s hard-nosiness to surface from his inner sanctum. Apart from this making allegations likely credible, it is seen as friendship gone sour thanks to Kagame‘s desire to lead other by the nose.

What’s more, in May, Nyamwasa was quoted as thus: “I would wish to illustrate my point as follows, Firstly since President Kagame likes to talk about accountability to institutions, I would expect him to have appeared before Parliament to account for owning two XR Executive Jets which he hires to himself and makes at least two trips to America a month to receive fictitious honours, doctorates for himself and his wife or visiting his children.”

The minimum cost for each trip is close to $1 million. The two aircraft were bought by government money and registered in the names of a pseudo company. He should appear before the Ombudsman together with his adviser and an embassy official to explain where they got $100 million to buy the two executive aircrafts. The minister of finance should tell Parliament why the government should service privately-owned aircraft. Does this reflect zero tolerance of corruption which the President constantly enforces? [The Rwandan government says it leases the jets from a private company.

Ironically, apart from fighting alongside Kagame as they tried to topple the former regime, he thus has Kagame’s secrets right under his nose. And this is likely to go wide inside Kagame’s unknown. Mark my words, history is likely to make such allegations more credible than anything else. If you want to know who Nelson Mandela truly is, ask Winnie his ex-wife.

Surprisingly, when I wrote that Rwanda needs true and real reconciliation, I was branded a genocide denier. But looking at this fissure in the fall-out among Kagame and his inner sanctum, one will concur with me that what we’re told is reconciliation in Rwanda is but a hoax. How can Kagame be able to reconcile with his arch enemies (Hutus he has branded killers) and fail to do the same with his inner circle? Many are arguing this: shall it not be arrested and addressed is likely to rock the boat altogether.

This can be evidenced upon examining what the opposition sees as a cooked case the Hutu opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, is facing. If this is not sorted out nicely, chances are some chauvinistic politicians are likely to capitalize on it and say Ingabire is harassed for the fear that majority Hutus are likely to vote for her and pull down Kagame, just like the blacks did in South African in post-apartheid elections by voting Mandela. If there would have been true reconciliation such views would not add up. This means tribalism and tribal hatred are still rampant in the core of Rwandan society.

Many political scientists believe that the majority Hutus that are unfairly, purposely and collectively referred to as genocidiares, cannot forgive this sin. What complicates things some analysts argue, is the fact that whatever the current regime says is taken wholesomely, even where it is not supposed to. Those trying to put sense into it are referred to as genocide deniers. Who is right? It is for history to tell just soon and what is going on in Rwanda is but the beginning. For nothing is forever except God.

When Ingabire and others asked the regime and those that sympathize with it to rethink about the status of genocide, she was referred to as a genocide denier and advocate of genocide ideology. There is no genocide ideology but misunderstanding of others’ feelings and views of what transpired in Rwanda in 1994. No sane mind can deny the occurrence of genocide.

After all what was categorized by international community as genocide is genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus, but not the current so-called genocide against Tutsi. Why are they ignoring the Hutus who were killed simply because they did not support the extermination of others? Is this fair for those that lost their lives for the love of others?

Though this might be seen as a bitter pill to swallow, it’d make more sense for Kagame to take Mandela’s path, retiring before being immersed into dirt as it’s has started to seem. This is the only safe, mature and heroic take that can put Rwanda’s genocide ghost to rest. It sounds nice for Kagame to retire after 16 years he’s been in power. Those wrongly or otherwise thinking he’s afraid, thanks to the mess he’s sitting on, will be put to shame by this move shall Kagame give it a nod, even a try. Comparably, Kagame’s stay in power has already exceeded any two term allowed in many constitutions in the world. If he were the president of US, he’d have already served four-four-year terms, whilst three-five-year terms and a year if in neighbouring Tanzania, or two-seven-year terms plus two years if it were France.

Zimbabwean strong man Robert Mugabe, even the Ugandan one, are in a cul-de-sac for not reading the signs of time. When a people you rule say they’re tired of you, the best thing to do is retire forthwith. And verily, there won’t be any winner in this abracadabra of attack, counter attack and denials, not to mention attempted murders by Kagame and his inner sanctum. Instead, many dirtiest linens will be put in the agora. This will surely open a Pandora’s box for the country whose stability is delicate.

Verily, Nyamwasa fell on his own sword. This reminds me of Olivia Isil’s words that when a loose cannon flogs a dead horse, there’s the devil to pay. And shall this standoff live on, chances are many secrets will be unearthed for the detriment of protagonists and their cabal.

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.

South African Government Implicates a “Foreign Government” in Assassination Attempt

South Africa Implicates a “Foreign Government” in Assassination Attempt.

by David O'Brian

South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, through the Director General of Foreign Affairs Ayanda Ntsaluba, has implicated, on July 1, 2010, the “Intelligence Operatives” of the government of a “Foreign Country” in the failed assassination attempt against the exiled Rwandan General Kayumba Nyamwasa.

Sources close to both Rwandan Intelligence and South African Police have told AfroAmerica Network that the foreign country is “Rwanda.”

Already, on June 21, 2010 article (click here: Rwandan RPA Officer Suspected in Assassination Attempt) and June 22, 2010 article (click here: General Kazura Allegedly Implicated in Assassination Attempt) AfroAmerica Network was the first to disclose, based on the sources in Rwanda and South Africa, the implication of the Rwandan Military hierarchy and Rwandan Intelligence Operatives in the assassination plot. This was later confirmed by other news outlets and social media.
In this photo Brig.Gen Kazura

These sources had told AfroAmerica Network that the South African police had arrested a group of six suspects, mostly ex Rwandan Patriotic Army officers. Two of the suspects were subsequently released. The other suspects allegedly implicated General Jean Bosco Kazura as the ring leader of the conspiracy to assassinate the Rwandan General Kayumba Nyamwasa.

According to the same sources, it appeared that General Jean Bosco Kazura was sent on a mission by the Rwandan Government to travel to South Africa and organize the assassination while the South African police was busy with the opening of the FIFA Soccer World Cup.

After the death squad was put in place, General Jean Bosco Kazura quickly returned to Rwanda, leaving the squad under the command of Captain Francis Gakwerere, an officially retired Rwandan military officer, but an actual undercover Rwandan intelligence operative. To divert the attention, the Rwandan Department of Military Intelligence arrested General Jean Bosco Kazura upon his return. The motive of the arrest was allegedly to be able to deny the involvement of the Rwandan government in case the assassination attempt was discovered by the South African security services.

Contrary to the usually secrecy within the RPF, the arrest of General Kazura, under the pretext of an unauthorized trip outside the county by a high ranking military officer, was publicized allegedly to create a smokescreen.

Captain Francis Gakwerere was also initially arrested, and then released, pending further investigations, as he did not seem to be the actual shooter or to be immediately linked to the shooting. He was required to report to police later on. But when those detained started talking, the South African Police could not find Francis Gakwerere. He had vanished.

The suspects detained by the South African police apparently hold fake IDs from Tanzania, Mozambique, and Somalia.

In the past, the Rwanda Government has been accused of giving Rwandan ID to Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, and Chadians to fight in the counter-insurgency against Hutu rebels, the Rwandan neighbors, and the Chadian Government. Some of these Somalis, Eritreans and Ethiopians may have used Rwandan ID to emigrate in countries in Africa and elsewhere or to serve as Rwandan Intelligence operatives across the World. The Chadian rebels were trained in Rwanda, as Rwandans, and sent to overthrow the Chadian government. They advanced all way to the Chadian presidential palace in the Capital Ndjamena before being beaten back by the Chadian military forces, supported by French special forces and commandos.

In the recent past, the Rwandan Department of Military Intelligence also supported the notorious Lord Resistance Army (LRA) when it suspected that the Ugandan Government was secretly supporting the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a coalition of the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD-Urunana) and Rally for the Rwandan People (RPR-Inkeragutabara), composed of Rwandan ethnic Hutu and Tutsi rebels pressuring the Rwandan Government to implement democratic changes in Rwanda. Subsequently, the UN Experts reported that these rebels were recruiting fighters in Uganda, accusation that both the rebels and the Ugandan government denied.

The Rwandan Military secretly shipped arms to LRA through the airport of Waw, Bahr Al Ghazal, close to the border separating Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Central African Republic, a triangle in which LRA rebels roam.

Foreign agents in shooting of Rwanda general: S.Africa

Foreign agents in shooting of Rwanda general: S.Africa

(AFP) – 14 hours ago

PRETORIA — Foreign "security operatives" were involved in the shooting of a Rwandan general who was living in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa's foreign ministry said Thursday.

General Faustin Nyamwasa was shot and wounded outside his Johannesburg home on June 19, four months after he came to South Africa seeking asylum.

Four people have been arrested, but police have declined to comment on their motive or identify their nationalities.

"This matter involves security operatives, and an attack on a person who has gone through the correct legal channels to seek asylum in South Africa," said Ayanda Ntsaluba, the foreign ministry's director general.

"It also involves a country with which we have good and strong diplomatic relations," he said. "This why we will not make a determination about where the suspected attackers of General Nyamwasa come from."

Nyamwasa's wife Rosette, who was in the car with him during the shooting, believes the attack was a political assassination attempt. Nothing was stolen during the incident, she said.

Rwanda has denied any role in the shooting.

"We want to be cautious and we are not pointing an accusing finger at any country," Ntsaluba said.

"It is accepted practice that the foreign missions of any country has fully declared intelligence and security operatives," he said. "If people from another country operate clandestinely, that is an entirely different dimension."

"They must not get caught because that compounds relations between countries," he added. "It cannot be taken lightly because that is subverting the stability of a country."

The Rwandan government has accused Nyamwasa, and former army colonel Patrick Karegeya, of masterminding grenade attacks earlier this year in the run-up to presidential elections in August.

Nyamwasa fled to South Africa in February after abandoning his post as Rwanda's envoy to India.

Prior to being sent to India, Nyamwasa, whose background is in military intelligence, was a powerful and respected figure in Kigali.

Five days after Nyamwasa's shooting, a journalist critical of Rwandan President Paul Kagame was shot dead in Kigali.

Jean-Leonard Rugambage was acting editor of Umuvugizi, a banned local-language newspaper. Its exiled editor said he believed the killing was linked to Rugambage's investigations into Nyamwasa's shooting.

Two people have been arrested over the journalist's killing, but police said the shooting was a revenge attack over Rugambage's alleged role in the 1994 genocide.

Rugambage did appear in 2005 before the Rwandan grass-roots courts tasked with trying those who carried out the genocide, but he was acquitted the following year.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

Rwanda Army Hits Back At Kayumba Nyamwasa

Maj. Rutaremara: Says Kayumba will ultimately be held responsible for his actions
The Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) has in no uncertain terms fired back at dissident General, Kayumba Nyamwasa (pictured), who is now hiding in South Africa after fleeing from Kigali in February this year. He was quoted last week attacking President Kagame.

Below is the full uneditted statement from the RDF spokesman, Maj. Jill Rutaremara, sent to 256news.com this evening:

Kayumba Continues to Reveal His True Character


Kayumba was once again, recently in the news media attempting to do a
smear job on the government of Rwanda as he works to cover-up his
crimes of terrorism. From Kayumba's utterances it is very clear that
he has not changed.

Kayumba's current status is self explanatory, going by his record in
the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF). He is a victim of a clash between his
true character on one hand, and the expected standards that were
required of an officer in his position.

Kayumba did not only fail to attain the standards expected of him, but
also chose to undermine the institution that he was supposed to serve.
While Kayumba has accused others in the government and RDF of
intrigues, he was, throughout his tenure as a Chief of Staff,
characterised not only by the intrigues he seeks to ascribe to others,
but also by greed, lack of accountability, cheap popularity and
creation of cliques among the Rwanda Defence Force fraternity.

Indeed, he tried to bribe some officers into forming cliques using
money meant for military operations until some officers went public
and exposed him.

He attempts to explain away his lack of accountability by arguing that
he "submitted his wealth declaration forms to the Ombudsman's office
in time and that he has never appeared on the list of Government
officials suspended for lack of accountability".

Kayumba, deliberately misleads the public. He is aware that the
definition of accountability in Rwanda is much broader and different
from what he tries to portray.

While he denies the existence of institutions charged with
transparency and accountability in Rwanda, he turns around and cites
the institution of Ombudsman and some of the measures it applies
against government officials who do not declare their wealth in time.

In his recent BBC interview, Kayumba came out in his true colours as a
terrorist criminal when he sought to sanitise a well-known regional
terrorist organisation; the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of
Rwanda (FDLR).

By defending Victoire Ingabire and FDLR, Kayumba was not only
publically identifying with a terrorist criminal organisation, but
also seeking sympathy from the outfit.

Kayumba refers to the war in the DRC as unjustifiable, yet, as Chief
of Staff, he actively took part the planning and execution of the war
for most of the duration of the conflict.

Kayumba writes that he was once commended by the Commander-in-Chief as
an "exemplary officer". Military citations and commendations are not
casual comments. They are awarded within institutional framework and
recorded accordingly. There is no such citation with regard to Kayumba
anywhere in the RDF records.

Kayumba's outrageous claim that he, on two occasions, saved the then
Chairman of the High Command of the Rwandan Patriotic Army, Paul
Kagame, after everyone else had abandoned him, simply paints the true
picture of who Kayumba is.

To come to a point where the supreme commander of a fighting force is
abandoned by everyone, except one soldier, in this case Kayumba, would
have simply meant the end of the war and the struggle. This does not
require any one to have any level of military expertise to discern
that Kayumba is a pathological liar.

Kayumba's claim that in 2003 he sought permission to leave the army is
another example of the liar that he is, as once again, there is no
record in the RDF of his application to that effect.

While Kayumba has chosen the path of violence against his own people,
the Officers who served and interacted with him in the RDF are living
witnesses to the efforts the institution expended in trying to help
him to come to his senses by urging him to reform. Until he left the
country the RDF had continued to give him the benefit of the doubt,
but to no avail.

This kind of help was not tailored to Kayumba. It is one of the
methods used by the RDF to help individual officers and men deal with
issues of character and it has, indeed, helped many in the force to
gain their balance and stability.

Kayumba needs to understand that he is a terrorist who has targeted
the Rwandan people, and as long as he continues on this course, he
will ultimately be held responsible for his actions.

The author is the Rwandan Defence and Military Spokesma

A letter to General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa

A letter to General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa
June 29, 2010

This final week of June 2010 I learnt from the Monitor that Rwandan troops were being deployed at the border with Uganda, probably for another show of military might or other venture as Paul Kagame strategically uses such tactic whenever confronted with political problems. With time, people have come to realize his modus operandi in difficult periods. He avoids fronts he knows he can easily loose and takes his energy to battlefields where he can comfortably win whatever the human cost. You would probably be leading on one of such fronts if you were still in good favors with him. The deployment could also mean something else. As the Election Day nears, those many among Rwandans who would like to flee increasing insecurity through the Ugandan border may not find any way out. This would confirm what most people say of the country as a prison difficult to escape from, views also shared at some extent by organizations such as International Refugee Rights Initiative, Refugee Law Project, and Social Science Research Council, in their joint research report, ‘A Danderous Impasse: Rwandan Refugees in Uganda.’

General, you seem to be a serious threat to his feeling good mood, especially when he treats his detractors and opponents, as useless and worthless. Because of that he wants you dead. He just attempted once. He missed. Maybe you will be luckier than others like Seth Sendashonga, his ex-minister of interior affairs that he killed in Nairobi on the second attempt of assassination. I assume you already know, while you recover from his messenger’s shots, that Jean-Leonard Rugambage, editor of the banned Rwandan newspaper Umuvugizi, didn’t have a second chance. The fact of investigating on who may be behind the attempt of assassination on your person was fatal for him. His killer’s gun didn’t jam. Several shots at the head and heart couldn’t leave him alive.

Contrary to your killer’s wish, most Rwandans would like to see you alive than dead. You shared criminal responsibilities with Kagame, your today’s declared enemy, this according to Spanish and French judges, and of course thousands of Rwandans that your military expeditions have made orphans, widows, destitute, and refugees. Your death doesn’t serve Rwandans but Kagame’s only interests, because with it he can close one of the windows of possible reconciliation between them.

As a military man, you may have had to obey orders blindly, decimating everything alive in some places. Only those who miraculously survived your military expeditions, tell of your triumphs. Even you acknowledge yourself how worthy was what you were doing then through an interview you gave to BBC while in mission. If you die without telling Rwandans, Hutus and Tutsis, how far you disagreed with what Paul Kagame got you involved in unwillingly, people will only remember what you will have left them to contemplate, only a sort of personal enmity between you and him.

Before fleeing you explained that your RPF peers requested from you to ask for forgiveness for things you disagreed with. You then decided to leave Rwanda. Knowing how the system works you passed through its control mechanisms and found yourself outside the country. I wonder if you had to ask for forgiveness what it would be for. What your RPF colleagues were asking you would’ve apparently been for the wrong reasons. Would you ever consider that the victims of your military expeditions from 1990 until the time you left the soldier career were not necessary and that there were some other possibilities?

As an exiled Rwandan and Tutsi, you helped Joweri Museveni, the Ugandan President, to get into power. Tactic used implied killing thousands of civilians. Today 24 years after Museveni has become a notorious dictator who is far away from leaving power. The same tactics were again used in Rwanda. They were later exported in Democratic Republic of Congo. Today 16 years after 1994, Kagame the colleague you helped to get where he is now is described by the Economist as the worst dictator the African continent has ever had.

Following you downfall from Kagame’s regime, there are emerging voices which think that you could lead another armed movement for the liberation of Rwanda. That would be one of the reasons that Kagame wants you dead. But I don’t personally think Rwandans need other sacrifices in thousands on the battle fields. They long for democracy, for freedom of speech, justice and development. As you will reckon with me, none of these concepts has ever taken root wherever you passed, though everything was loudly claimed to be done in their name. There are others who think you could be of some help in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. So far, in all your declarations, there seems to be rather a personal vendetta against Kagame than a much broad concern for Rwandans.

I sincerely wish you good and speedy recovery. Before he catches you next time I would like you think of the best way you could help Rwandans, all ethnic groups inclusively. Otherwise, your premature death, as of millions before you in the Great Lakes region, could be vain for the victims of your military expeditions and those you rightly thought you were fighting for.

2 cleared in general's shooting

2 cleared in general's shooting

Johannesburg - Charges against two people accused of involvement in the shooting of a former Rwandan general were dropped in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

"All six people that were arrested appeared in court but charges against two of them were withdrawn," said Gauteng police spokesperson Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.

He said the other four were remanded in police custody and would re-appear on June 29.

Lieutenant General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa was wounded when he was shot outside his house in the luxury Melrose Arch estate in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Nyamwasa's wife, Rosette, called it an assassination attempt.

Nyamwasa had been in exile in South Africa since February.

On Tuesday, the department of justice said it was deciding whether South Africa should consider an extradition request for Nyamwasa.

Spokesperson Tlali Tlali said that Nyamwasa was granted asylum in South Africa, and the ministry was consulting the law to assess whether the country could extradite a person who had been granted asylum.

Tlali confirmed the Rwandan government had made an extradition request to the South African government.

He said while South Africa does not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda, such a request could still be considered.

Nyamwasa had been accused in his home country of trying to destabilise Rwanda while he was in the country and while he was in India, where he recently served as Rwanda's ambassador. He was also allegedly linked to three grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital.

The attacks in central Kigali reportedly killed one person and injured 30.

His wife Rosette told Sapa after his shooting on Saturday night that the Rwandan government had attempted to assassinate him, a charge the Rwandan government has denied.

- SAPA

Kayumba shooting - the inside story

By Daniel K. Kalinaki (email the author)

Posted Monday, June 21 2010 at 00:00

Daily Monitor’s Managing Editor, Daniel K. Kalinaki, who is on holiday in South Africa, was the first journalist to see Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa after he was shot in Johannesburg on Saturday. He chronicles the events before, during, and after the shooting as told to him by eyewitnesses.

Johannesburg
Saturday, June 19 was an ordinary day in the Kayumba household but it would turn out to be a day to remember for the family. Gen. Nyamwasa and his wife Rosette had gone out shopping with their driver. At around midday, they drove back to the apartment block in Melrose Arch, a posh neighbourhood in Johannesburg that has been home for the family since fleeing into exile a couple of months ago.

As in most residential areas in Johannesburg, the apartment block, which has at least 12 other families, has a fence, a gate, and 24-hour guards. When the Kayumbas arrived at the house in their black BMW X3 the guards, who are at the house 24 hours, opened the gate.

Stranger appears
As they drove in, an unidentified man ran behind the car and knocked on the driver’s window. Surprised, the driver stopped and rolled down the window. When the window was halfway down, the man suddenly drew a pistol and fired at Gen. Kayumba, who was in the front passenger seat. The bullet struck Gen. Kayumba in the stomach, just below the lungs.

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* Kagame said he will kill Kayumba, wife alleges

The gunman then went round the car to the passenger side where Gen. Kayumba was. As the gunman came around the car, Gen. Kayumba opened the door to confront him and try to disarm him. The general reached for the pistol and tried to wrestle it out of the gunman’s grip. As they fought for the gun, the gunman fired another shot, which glazed Gen. Kayumba’s finger.

With Kayumba rapidly losing strength, the gunman then pulled the trigger again but the pistol jammed. He tried again without success. Gen. Kayumba’s legs gave away and he collapsed in a pool of blood. By this time the driver had come around and also tried to wrestle the gun from the gunman.

An eyewitness who spoke to Daily Monitor said the gunman, speaking in Kiswahili, told the driver to leave him alone, warning that he would kill him if he did not let him be. Seeing that the gun had jammed and the fracas was attracting attention in the area, the gunman then ran back outside, jumped into a waiting car, which then sped off. Throughout all this time, the guards at the apartment block were nowhere to be seen. They would later reappear and claim that they had ducked for their own safety.

Kayumba rushed to hospital
Upstairs in the Kayumba household, the general’s two teenage children were watching television. They were shocked out of their fantasy world when they heard screaming – probably from their mother – and dashed outside to find their father lying in a pool of blood.

With the help of a couple of neighbours, Rosette and her children helped Gen. Kayumba into the car and sped him off to Morningside Clinic, about 10 minutes away, in Sandton, where he was immediately put on a respirator while doctors worked furiously to stop the bleeding.

When this newspaper arrived at the hospital, Gen. Kayumba’s son, Mark, his jacket covered in blood, stood protectively over his father. Moments earlier he’d smashed a glass door in a combination of anger, frustration and, quite possibly, teenage adrenaline. His sister stood next to him, her big eyes starring ahead blankly, as if asking for answers.

Robber or assassin?
As relatives, friends and other Rwandans living in Johannesburg started trickling into the hospital, so did the rumours and the speculation of who might have done it. Johannesburg has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Carjacking and robbery are widespread, as is murder.

Yet the gunman who shot Kayumba did not ask for the keys to the Beemer neither did he take anything. His decision to go round the car and try to shoot Gen. Kayumba again suggests that he was a man with a license – or call it mission – to kill. As expected, many eyes have turned to Rwanda.

In an interview with the BBC, Rosette Nyamwasa accused President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who her husband fell out with, of having a hand in the shooting. “[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him,” she told the BBC. But Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign minister, issued a statement in which she said Mr Kagame’s government “does not condone violence”.

Sources in the South African police, who spoke anonymously in order not to jeopardise an on-going investigation, told Daily Monitor that they are “keeping all options open” on whether it was “an assassination attempt”. By press time yesterday, doctors in Morningside said Gen. Kayumba was in a stable condition, despite the bullet that struck him still being lodged in his body. Doctors will decide later on whether to remove it or not.

It will be several weeks, even months, before an official report is issued over the shooting but according to many visitors to the Morningside Clinic, the bullet that struck Gen. Kayumba was not fired by a robber but by a would-be assassin.

Who is Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa?

•Born in 1960s.
•Obtained a Bachelor’s degree from Makerere University (in 1980s) after taking A-level examinations at Mbarara High School in western Uganda.
He was a resident of Lumumba Hall while at the university.
•In 1984, he joined the National Resistance Army rebel group, then headed by President Museveni, and later the Rwanda Patriotic Army/Front that took over government after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
•Gen. Nyamwasa headed RPF’s military intelligence during its bush days and was later named the army Chief of Staff.
•In 2001, he was sacked as the military chief and replaced with Gen. James Kabarebe. The general was, in November 2002, re-deployed as Head of Security Services.
•A couple of years later, Gen. Nyamwasa was appointed Rwanda’s High Commissioner to India. Early this year, he fled from Kigali during a government retreat in Rubavu.
The Rwandan government immediately stripped him of diplomatic immunity after the defection that stirred suspicion with neighbours.

Compiled by Tabu Butagira from online sources

General Kazura Allegedly Implicated in Assassination Attempt

General Kazura Allegedly Implicated in Assassination Attempt

by David O'Brian on Jun.22, 2010, under African Great Lakes Refugees, Global Issues, International Justice and Crimes

The saga of the assassination attempt on the exiled Rwandan General Kayumba Nyamwasa may have taken another twist, according to sources in South Africa and Rwanda. These sources told AfroAmerica Network that the South African police has already the group of six suspects, mostly ex Rwandan Patriotic Army officers, talking. The suspects are allegedly implicating General Jean Bosco Kazura as the ring leader of the conspiracy to assassinate the Rwandan General Kayumba Nyamwasa.

According to the same sources, it appears that General Jean Bosco Kazura was sent on a mission by the Rwandan Government to travel to South Africa and organize the assassination while the South African police was busy with the opening of the FIFA Soccer World Cup.

After the death squad was put in place, General Jean Bosco Kazura quickly returned to Rwanda, leaving the squad under the command of Francis Gakwerere. To divert the attention, the Rwandan Department of Military Intelligence arrested General Jean Bosco Kazura upon his return. The motive of the arrest was to be able to deny the involvement of the Rwandan government in case the assassination attempt was discovered by the South African security services.

Contrary to the usually secrecy within the RPF, the arrest of General Kazura, under the pretext of unauthorized trip outside the county by a high ranking military officer, was publicized allegedly to create a smokescreen.

If these allegations turn out to be true, the South African and Rwandan Government may be facing a serious diplomatic row.

©2010 AfroAmerica Network

Press Release : ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT OF LT.GEN KAYUMBA NYAMWASA BRINGS FEAR AND UNREST TO RWANDANS

Press Release : ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT OF LT.GEN KAYUMBA NYAMWASA BRINGS FEAR AND UNREST TO RWANDANS

Press Release :

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT OF LT.GEN KAYUMBA NYAMWASA BRINGS FEAR AND UNREST TO RWANDANS

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, strongly condemns the assassination attempt of Lt.Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa that took place on 19th June 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The General is a former Army Chief of Staff of Rwandan Defense Forces and Ex-Ambassador to India. The sad news of his assassination attempt has caused a lot of fear and unrest to both the Rwandan politicians and the Rwandan Public in general.

This assassination attempt, as details get unveiled from the South African Police, seems to have been well-planned and coordinated. The question remains on who was behind it.

We call upon the South African Government to investigate thoroughly well this matter and bring to justice all those behind this killing mission. We would also like to call upon the International community and most especially the American Government to help with the services of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-FBI and take a special interest in this case, like it is doing in the assassination case of the Congolese Human Rights activist Floribert CHEBEYA, who was killed in Kinshasa on 1st June 2010.

Yesterday, 21st June 2010, in Gisenyi, Northern Rwanda (Bordering Goma-DRC), BBC Great Lakes reported the assassination of Denis Ntare Semadwinga, former Chief of Staff to General Laurent NKUNDA who is under house arrest in Rwanda for over a year and has never appeared in court despite several demands by his legal team and family.

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda is very concerned because even its Founding President, Frank HABINEZA has also received several death threats. Even though we reported the matter to the Rwandan Police and wrote to the Minister of Internal Security requesting for protection, we never received any response. The death threats suggested that Frank HABINEZA would be killed before the August 2010 presidential elections.

We are also very seriously concerned, since Lt.Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa was linked to the Green Party. Two Newspapers (UMUSESO and UMUVUGIZI) reported this matter in December 2009. The alleged leaked intelligence report indicated that Lt.Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa was among the many said to be behind the formation of the Green Party. We held a press conference on 24th December 2009 and published a Press Release on the same day, where we strongly denied all those allegations.

Today there seems to be a deepening military crisis in the Rwandan Army : three Generals are under house arrest but have not appeared in any court yet (Lt.Gen Charles Muhire, former Air force Chief of Staff and Ex-Commandant of the Reserve Forces, Maj.Gen Karenzi Karake-former Chief of Staff for Land Forces and of recent Brigadier General Jean Bosco Kazura –former Security Adviser to the President of the Republic and head of the Rwandese Football Federation). All these details are happening after Lt.Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa went into exile in South Africa in February 2010.

We now have army foot patrols in almost all small roads and paths in the City of Kigali. There are also road blocks in some places. The situation is indeed very scaring and alarming. It’s like we are living in a state of emergency, though it has never been approved by Parliament.

This is indeed the time when the International Community should show its true friendship to the Rwandan people. Before the 1994 Genocide, there were all signs and indications that Rwandan people were going to be killed, even the former Commander for the UN Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR), Lt.Gen Romeo Dallaire, raised these concerns to the UN Security Council but instead of acting positively, they even took away the few soldiers that were present, and Rwandans cried for help but in vain. Over one million people were killed.

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, strongly believes that the timely intervention of the United Nations and the International Community will help in resolving this Rwandan crisis and help to reduce the political and military tension we are experiencing now, while we are preparing for the 9th August 2010 Presidential elections. Rwandans need to be assured that life will go on even after the Presidential elections. It’s your call.

Done at Kigali, 22nd June 2010.

Frank HABINEZA

Founding President

Democratic Green Party of Rwanda

Former Rwandan army chief shot in South Africa. Was it an assassination attempt?

Former Rwandan army chief shot in South Africa. Was it an assassination attempt?

Former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa - a top critic of Rwanda's authoritarian leader, Paul Kagame - was shot Saturday in Johannesburg, South Africa, in an apparent assassination attempt.


General Nyamwasa as the Rwandan Army Chief Of Staff for the Rwandan Patriotic Army.He was part of the Tutsi rebel movement that invaded Rwanda in 1990s to topple the Hutu government led by the late President Habyarimana Juvenal who was assassinated along with his Burundian counterpart while they were from peace initiative in Arusha to end the civil war.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame (r.) at the nation's parliament on May, 17. One of Kagame's biggest critics, former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, was shot Saturday in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is currently being called an assassination attempt.

Jason Straziuso/AP

By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer / June 20, 2010
Johannesburg, South Africa

A top critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the former Rwandan army chief Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, was shot Saturday in front of his house in what police are treating as an assassination attempt.
The Rwandan government told the BBC that it “does not condone violence” and would trust the South African police to investigate the shooting.

Gen. Nyamwasa has been living in exile in South Africa since February, when President Kagame’s government accused him of launching grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, and also masterminding a failed coup attempt back in 2001. Nyamwasa, who was shot once in the stomach, is reported to be in stable condition in a Johannesburg hospital.

The apparent assassination attempt comes just months before Rwanda’s second set of scheduled elections since Kagame came to power, sweeping aside a Hutu majority government that is blamed for launching a genocide that killed 800,000 Rwandans, most of them ethnic Tutsis.Kagame, Nyamwasa, and much of his ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, are members of the ethnic Tutsi minority.

The shooting also comes after a series of troubling events – the banning of two independent newspapers, the arrest of Kagame’s chief opponent in the presidential elections for “genocide denial,” and the defection of several high-level RPF members – that call into question Kagame’s credentials as a democratic leader.

Kagame’s 16-year rule over Rwanda has created a state where there is very little political space for opposition and dissent, says Jason Stearns, an independent analyst and former UN panelist on Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The biggest danger isn’t the Hutu opposition, and it isn’t even the FDLR,” says Mr. Stearns, referring to the Congo-based Hutu-led rebel group whose leaders are blamed for the genocide. “The dissent that Kagame fears is within the RPF itself. What he worries most about is a coup from within.”

The shooting of Nyamwasa occurred outside the general’s house in the posh Johannesburg suburb of Melrose Arch, after a shopping trip with his wife. According to Nyamwasa’s wife, Rosette, who was in the car, a gunman approached Nyamwasa’s car as it waited to get in through the security gate of their high security residential complex. The gunman shot once through the window, and then attempted to finish the job with a second shot, when the gun apparently jammed. The gunman then jumped into a waiting car and escaped.

“When we got to the gate, a black man with a pistol came to the driver’s window... and he fired a shot,” Mrs. Nyamwasa told the South African Press Association. After the shot, Nyamwasa got out of the car and began to struggle with the shooter. It was certainly an assassination attempt, she said, because the shooter made no demand for money.

Kagame himself is regarded by many Western leaders as one of Africa’s more economically enlightened reformers.

Rwanda has reformed its laws to make foreign investment easy, and the time it takes to set up a business in Rwanda is a mere 3 days, compared to 14 days in the past. Kagame has also pinned his country’s hopes not on natural resources, which Rwanda sorely lacks, but instead on its educated workforce. Rwanda recently became the first country to be completely connected to a fiber optic internet connection.

Yet these reforms come at a heavy political price, say Kagame’s critics.

“Rwanda is the most secure country, but it is also one of the more repressive,” says Col. Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda’s former head of external intelligence from 1994-2004, who has also fled into exile in South Africa. “This country is a one-man show. It’s obvious even to people who support him. Nobody can talk to him. Nobody can write what they feel. Can you imagine reconciling with people who you don’t talk to?”

Exiled general shot in Johannesburg

In an extraordinary twist to the ongoing fallout from the 1994 Rwanda genocide, this weekend's assassination attempt on an exiled general in Johannesburg has dragged yet another country into the saga.

Legalbrief reports that while several European countries are actively involved in apprehending genocide suspects, SA has been relatively unaffected - until now. Six people have been arrested in connection with the shooting of General Kayumba Nyamwasa, who is accused of terrorism in his homeland. BBC News reports that France and Spain had issued arrest warrants against Nyamwasa for his alleged role in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior Rwandan Patriotic Front figures. Nyamwasa was admitted to hospital after being shot in the stomach in the driveway of his Melrose Arch home on Saturday afternoon. The Star reports that police spokesperson Brigadier Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the suspects would face charges of attempted murder. He declined to give further details of the arrests as he did not want to jeopardise ongoing investigations. The Times has established that Nyamwasa was being driven in a black BMW X3 with his wife from the Blue Bird shopping centre when a man, on foot, followed their car into their complex. Security personnel at the complex tried to prevent the man from entering the complex but he ignored them. 'The man clung onto the window while the car was moving. He then pulled out a firearm, cocked it and fired a single shot at Nyamwasa,' said an insider.


Nyamwasa's wife Rosette, who was with him when the attack occurred, has blamed Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the shooting. Kagame and Nyamwasa were close associates until a dispute early this year. According to a report on the IoL site, the Rwandan Government had linked Nyamwasa, who came to SA earlier this year, to three grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital in February. The attacks in central Kigali killed one person and injured 30. The Rwandan Government has accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilise Rwanda while he was in the country and while he was in India where he recently served as Rwanda's ambassador. In February, during a summit in Kigali for Rwandan envoys from around the world, Nyamwasa fled through Uganda and Kenya after falling out with Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front leadership. The Monitor reports that he eventually sought asylum in SA which has declined to extradite him as requested by Rwandan authorities after President Jacob Zuma said his country was obliged to respect international law on asylum seekers. In a statement from Rwanda on Sunday, Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said her government was not involved in the crime and it heard of it through the medi

S.Africa arrests 6 in attempt on exiled Rwandan

SAfrica arrests 6 in attempt on exiled Rwandan

By LESEGO MOTSHEGWA (AP) – 1 hour ago

JOHANNESBURG — Police have arrested six suspects after an exiled Rwandan general accused of grenade attacks in his homeland was shot in South Africa over the weekend, authorities said Monday.

Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa and his wife were returning to the upscale gated community where they live in northern Johannesburg when a lone gunman fired on him Saturday. Rosette Nyamwasa said her husband was shot in the stomach and would recover.

Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo would not say whether the suspects arrested were Rwandan, nor would he discuss possible motives in what he described as a murder attempt.

Nyamwasa's wife has accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of being behind the shooting, a charge the Rwandan government denies.

"The Government of Rwanda does not condone violence, and we wish the family strength and serenity," said government spokeswoman Louise Mushikiwabo. "We trust in the ability of South African authorities to investigate the incident thoroughly."

Nyamwasa and Kagame were once allied but have fallen out, reportedly because Kagame sees his former military chief as a political rival. Nyamwasa came to South Africa earlier this year.

Rwandan officials have accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilize their government. The Rwandan government says it has linked Nyamwasa to three grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital Feb. 19 that killed one person and wounded 30 others.

South African police said earlier this year they had not arrested Nyamwasa because they do not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda.

Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who wants to challenge Kagame in the Aug. 9 presidential election, said Saturday's shooting was a "planned assassination attempt."

"This incident is a nefarious conspiracy for disruption of peace in Rwanda, a country sinking deeply into a political and military crisis," Ingabire said in a statement. "The lack of political space, the arrest of opposition leaders, lawyers and senior military officers, the use of violence and all kind of intimidation of dissenting voices are obvious signs of a country on the brink of chaos."

Ingabire was arrested in April and charged with promoting a genocidal ideology. She was freed on bail but her passport was seized and she cannot leave Kigali. Critics of Kagame's government argue the ruling party has used the concept of genocide ideology to discredit detractors and defeat political opponents.

Hutu militias killed more than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, ended the killing when he led a Tutsi-dominated force into the country. Critics say his rule since then has been authoritarian but Kagame argues strict measures are necessary to prevent a repeat of the violence.

The U.S. State Department said in a March report on Rwanda that citizens' rights to change their government are "effectively restricted" and cited limits on freedoms of speech, press and judicial independence.

Nyamwasa's shooting is not the first time Rwanda has been accused of attempting to kill or killing a prominent Rwandan exile.

Former Rwandan Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga was killed in May 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya. His widow later testified that she believed Rwanda was behind her husband's killing. She claimed he had been set to testify before the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is trying the suspected masterminds of the genocide.

A Kenyan judge acquitted the three suspects in Sendashonga's killing, saying the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the crime. The judge went further to say that the Rwandan government's refusal to waive diplomatic immunity for some of its embassy officials suggested that there was a political motive behind the killing.

Associated Press Writer Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.