Are Rwanda’s courts ready to prosecute the country’s worst crimes? As opposition leader Victoire Ingabire announces she will boycott her terror trial after losing all hope of having a fair trial, some critics are saying it appears not.

By Josephine Uwineza, Hilversum

“Ingabire’s decision to withdraw from the trial certainly doesn’t increase her chances of being acquitted,” says her British lawyer, Iain Edwards. “But she’s a grown woman, she’s an intelligent woman, she’s an independent woman and she has taken the decision that she has.”

Ms Ingabire Victoire The Would be President of Rwanda And now in Prison. Western Governments should improve their sincerity on democratic issues in Africa. The Criminal Kagame is no way intimidated He's even encouraged to assassinate That woman who still believes in DEMOCRATIC VALUES Enough is Enough

ICTR judges had previously kept Uwikindi in Arusha, saying they couldn’t send him back until “a suitable monitoring mechanism is established to oversee his trial." In ruling that Uwikindi could be returned, court President Judge Khalida Rachid Khan instructed the registry to “urgently undertake discussions and negotiations” to put such a monitoring system in place. While ultimately the ACHPR (African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights) will monitor the domestic trials, for now, an interim monitor is doing the job.
Fair trial?
Courts worldwide—including those in Canada, Norway, Sweden and even the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights)—are also ruling that it is safe to send Rwandans back home for fair trials.
But Victoire Ingabire insists it is not.

During her trial in Kigali last month, she challenged judges to nullify the laws related to “divisionism” and “genocide ideology.” She argued they are too broad and being exploited by current President Paul Kagame’s government to limit the freedom of thought.


The ideology law is seen by many legal specialists and human rights organizations as “impossibly vague, broad and abstract,” according to a 2010 Amnesty International report.


But just last week, Rwandan Supreme Court judges rejected her plea on a technicality, saying “she had failed to secure a copy of the 2008 law on genocide, which was also supposed to be attached to her plea.”
Ingabire’s key witness, Michel Habimana, a Lt Colonel of the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), told the court he has been intimidated by prosecutors’ threats and interrogated by unknown officials, casting further doubts, say legal experts, on the independence of the judiciary.

 
African SurViVors International (ASI) is an international nonpartisan charity organization devoted to defending human rights. It’s an organization working to promote democracy and national reconciliation, inside countries of the African Great lakes Region.

As International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;
As International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. As Internatioal does not support nor condone violence.

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron fist, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.
So long as justice and accountability for RPF past and current crimes are ignored and delayed, Peace and Stability will remain illusive and impossible in Rwanda=>As International]


AS International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;

AS International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.



The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

donderdag 29 maart 2012
door DeWereldMorgen Vertaaldesk, An Ansoms















Rwanda viert binnen enkele maanden zijn 50ste
onafhankelijkheidsverjaardag. Het autoritaire beleid van president
Paul Kagame pakt graag uit met indrukwekkende groeicijfers. Volgens
het Nationale Instituut voor Statistiek van Rwanda is de armoede er
met niet minder dan 12 procent gedaald. Het probleem is, zegt
UCL-onderzoekster An Ansoms, dat die cijfers niet overeenkomen met de
realiteit.

Maïskolven hangen te drogen aan de huizen in Rwanda
Volgens de laatste cijfers van het Nationale Instituut voor Statistiek
van Rwanda is de armoede in het land met een indrukwekkende 12 procent
gedaald in de laatste vijf jaar. Om tot deze conclusie te komen,
werden de cijfers van het EICV3 ('Enquête Intégrale sur les Conditions
de Vie des Ménages') vergeleken met de cijfers van het EICV1 uit
2000-2001 en het EICV2 van 2005-2006.

Daar waar in 2000-2001 59 procent van de bevolking onder de nationale
armoedegrens leefde, en in 2005-2006 nog 57 procent, was dat volgens
de laatste cijfers nog maar 45 procent. Volgens de Rwandese regering
een waar succesverhaal en een rechtstreeks bewijs dat haar economisch
groeimodel leidt tot een verbetering van de levensomstandigheden van
de Rwandese bevolking.

Zeer verwonderlijke resultaten, volgens An Ansoms van de Université
Catholique de Louvain (UCL), die sinds 2006 veldonderzoek verricht
betreffende de levensomstandigheden van plattelandsboeren in Rwanda.

Zij onderzoekt de impact van het landbouwbeleid in zes dorpen,
verspreid over drie verschillende districten. Hoewel de resultaten van
deze studies niet zonder meer kunnen geëxtrapoleerd worden naar heel
Rwanda, stelde zij tijdens haar laatste studie van 2011 vast dat de
problemen die zich in heel Rwanda voordoen en het leven van deze
boeren bemoeilijkt.

Een toelichting bij drie belangrijke problemen en knelpunten.

Landbouwbeleid gericht op productie voor de markt
Het huidige landbouwbeleid verplicht de Rwandese boeren ertoe
marktgericht te produceren. Dit houdt in dat in een bepaalde regio een
bepaald gewas (of een beperkt aantal gewassen) geteeld mogen worden en
in een andere regio een ander gewas. Hierdoor wordt de handel
gestimuleerd waarbij de verschillende gewassen 'uitgewisseld' worden.
Voor de kleinschalige landbouw (het overgrote deel van de
landbouwsector in Rwanda valt onder deze categorie) stelt dit echter
twee problemen.

Met een gemiddelde van acht gewassen kunnen tegenslagen opgevangen
worden als bijvoorbeeld door ziekte of slechte weersomstandigheden de
oogst van een gewas tegenvalt. Met een beperkt aantal gewassen valt
dit vangnet helaas weg.

Doordat de boeren aangewezen zijn op handel, moeten zij vaak een
beroep doen op tussenpersonen. Het zijn deze handelaars die het
sterkst staan in de onderhandelingen en met de winst gaan lopen. De
kleine boeren staan in een zwakke onderhandelingspositie.

Dit probleem zou moeten worden opgevangen door coöperaties, waar de
kleine boeren gezamenlijk actie kunnen ondernemen. In de praktijk is
er echter een gebrek aan transparantie in het beleid van de
coöperaties en de kleine boeren hebben er weinig zeggenschap (zie
verder).

Beleid van 'verdorpelijking' en hervestiging
Traditioneel wonen mensen in Rwanda niet in duidelijk te onderscheiden
dorpen, maar wonen zij verspreid over de heuvels. Als een jongeman de
overgang wil maken naar de volwassenheid, moet hij - volgens de
traditie - aan zijn vader een deel van het land vragen om zijn eigen
thuis te kunnen bouwen. Als hij dat wenst, kan hij dit indien nodig en
financieel mogelijk, verder uitbouwen. Een eigen huis hebben, is de
voorwaarde om als volwassene te kunnen doorgaan, te kunnen trouwen en
een eigen gezin te kunnen beginnen.

Dit patroon van verspreid wonen, strookt niet met de visie van de
overheid van hoe een moderne staat eruit moet zien. Het doel is de
plattelandsbevolking tegen 2020 te hervestigen in duidelijk
afgebakende nederzettingen en dorpen. De prijs van de grond in deze
'dorpen' is dikwijls zeer hoog. Daar komt nog bij dat de huizen moeten
worden gebouwd volgens bepaalde standaarden. Zo moet er bijvoorbeeld
een aparte keuken, toilet en stal zijn. Weerom erg kostelijk.
 
Het gevolg is dat veel jongemannen geen eigen huis kunnen bouwen. Dus
niet als volwassene beschouwd worden en ook niet kunnen trouwen.
Vooral in de armere families raken veel jonge mensen niet los van hun
status van 'onvolwassene'. Hiermee nauw verbonden, is de toename van
het aantal ongehuwde moeders, wat resulteert in sociale uitsluiting en
marginalisatie.

Bevolking gaat onder de vele verplichtingen gebukt
Zoals hierboven beschreven, moeten de Rwandese boeren aan vele eisen
tegemoetkomen. Hieronder enkele voorbeelden van de talloze
verplichtingen die de regering oplegt en van de mistoestanden die er
uit ontstaan.

- De huizen moeten worden gebouwd volgens bepaalde standaarden. De
koeien moeten in stallen gehouden worden en mogen niet los lopen te
grazen. Noch het huis zelf, noch de stal, mag een dakbedekking hebben
van bananenbladeren. De dakbedekking moet bestaan uit steeds duurder
wordende dakpannen. In één van de dorpen in de buurt van Kigali, waar
ik onderzoek doe, had het dorpshoofd beslist dat alle huizen die niet
gebouwd waren met bakstenen, moesten verdwijnen.

- De mensen moeten schoenen en 'deftige' kledij dragen als ze niet op
het land werken.

- Het land dat iemand bezit, moet worden geregistreerd, wat weerom
extra kosten betekent.

- Iedereen men een ziekteverzekering betalen. Sinds juni 2011 is het
bedrag verdrievoudigd van 1.000 Rwandese frank (zo'n 1,5 keer een
gemiddeld dagloon) naar 3.000 Rwandese frank.

- Ook met de coöperaties zijn er problemen. Allereerst de kost voor
het lidmaatschap. Zonder lidmaadschap geen toegang tot het vruchtbare
moerasland dat zij dikwijls al decennia lang bewerken. De leden worden
verplicht hun oogst aan de coöperatie over te dragen. Soms volgen
zelfs huiszoekingen tijdens de oogsttijd om vast te stellen dat mensen
geen deel van de oogst achterhouden.

Er is een geval bekend waar de leden minder geld terugkregen dan dat
ze in de coöperatie gestopt hadden. Alle winst bleef aan de handen van
de leiders van de coöperatie plakken. Voor het huwelijk van de baas
van de coöperatie moesten alle leden 5.000 Rwandese frank betalen als
'geschenk'.

- In een ander dorp werden de boeren verplicht hun koffie te verkopen
aan de nabijgelegen koffiefabriek. Deze is in handen van het Rwandese
ministerie van Defensie. Het is in dat dorp verboden koffiestruiken
uit te trekken. Ook hier is er sprake van huiszoekingen om er zeker
van te zijn dat de mensen geen koffie achterhouden om te gaan verkopen
op de lokale markt.

- Om een artisanaal baksteen- of tegelbedrijf te runnen, is een
speciale toelating nodig. Enkel moderne ovens zijn toegestaan. Voor
lokale investeerders is dit gewoon te duur. Om actief te zijn in de
kleinhandel is ook toelating nodig en moet belasting worden betalen.

Ook de lokale autoriteiten staan onder zware druk van de regering in Kigali
Onder het derde probleem vallen ook de verplichtingen voor de lokale
autoriteiten. Er is een heel systeem van 'prestatiecontracten'. Op
alle niveaus, van dorp tot district, moeten de autoriteiten aan
bepaalde door de regering vastgestelde doelstellingen voldoen.

Enkele voorbeelden:
- een bepaalde productietarget halen voor bepaalde gewassen;
- ervoor zorgen dat 90 procent van de bevolking hun ziekteverzekering betaalt;
- ervoor zorgen iedereen in een huis woont dat voldoet aan de standaardnormen.

Op zich lijkt het niet slecht dat de lokale autoriteiten deze
doelstellingen nastreven. Maar door angst voor een sanctie of ontslag,
worden de doelstellingen heel star en blindelings toegepast, zonder
rekening te houden met eventuele negatieve gevolgen voor de lokale
bevolking.

De frustratie groeit
Bij het onderzoek dat ik in 2007 deed, waren de reacties van de
geïnterviewden nog erg gereserveerd, vooral wat kritiek op het
overheidsbeleid betreft. In 2011 was dit helemaal anders. De
frustratie van de mensen was aanzienlijk toegenomen. De onderzoekers
kregen nu gedetailleerde informatie over de moeilijkheden waarmee de
kleinschalige landbouwers moeten zien te overleven, en de grote impact
die het overheidsbeleid heeft op hun levensomstandigheden.

Hoe deze verhalen te rijmen vallen met de optimistische evolutie in de
armoedecijfers van de Rwandese overheid blijft een mysterie.

An Ansoms

An Ansoms is als assistent hoogleraar verbonden aan de Université
Catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve. Het oorspronkelijk artikel
verscheen onder de titel: 'The miracle versus the reality on the
ground. A short note in reaction to the new data of EICV3 (2010/11)'
(UCL, 15 maart 2012).

(vertaling uit het Engels door Marisa Abarca)

AS International is an international nonpartisan charity organization devoted to defending human rights. It’s an organization working to promote democracy and national reconciliation, inside countries of the African Great lakes Region.


AS International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;

AS International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

Philippe Brou – cameroonvoice.com, le 17 mars 2012









"Ses amitiés suspectes avec des chefs d'Etat sulfureux. Comment il est manipulé par les Occidentaux. Le quotidien Le Monde dénonce ses méthodes contestables.

La question de son bilan et de ses méthodes plus que discutables est donc à l'ordre du jour. Et Le Monde ne passe pas par quatre chemins pour le tacler sévèrement. «Dans ses communiqués, M. Moreno-Ocampo revendique une impartialité qui est démentie par les faits. Poignée de main chaleureuse avec l'Ougandais Yoweri Museveni, admiration déclarée pour le Rwandais Paul Kagamé, dont les pratiques sont pourtant dénoncées par l'ONU et les ONG», écrit Le Monde. Qui aurait également pu noter la rencontre discrète d'Ocampo et de Ouattara à son domicile privé parisien, et la «poignée de main chaleureuse » avec Guillaume Soro, pourtant soupçonné des pires crimes contre l'humanité.

A Yoweri Museveni et Paul Kagame, qui ont historiquement prêté leurs pays comme bases arrières aux rébellions congolaises et qui ont été les alliés indispensables des multinationales qui pillent la RDC, Le Monde aurait pu adjoindre Blaise Compaoré, revolver françafricain tendu sur l'Afrique de l'Ouest, complice de Charles Taylor au Liberia, en Sierra Leone et en Côte d'Ivoire mais jamais inquiété, tellement dans le secret des dieux qu'il a pu «prophétiser » dès 2003 sur l'extradition du président Laurent Gbagbo à la CPI. Museveni, Kagame et Compaoré sont les alliés des Occidentaux et des «nouveaux prédateurs» en Afrique et, sous Ocampo, cela vaut impunité.

Le Monde poursuit dans sa lancée. «C'est par le jeu des preuves que la justice internationale peut être manipulée. En enquêtant par des intermédiaires, par procuration, le procureur multiplie les risques. Sa victoire dans l'affaire Lubanga semble être une goutte d'eau dans la lutte contre l'impunité au Congo. En obéissant à la même stratégie au Darfour, en Libye ou en Côte d'Ivoire, M. Moreno-Ocampo reste soumis au bon vouloir des puissances régionales et occidentales», écrit Stéphanie Maupas. En évoquant les «intermédiaires» dont se sert l'actuel procureur, la journaliste du Monde met les pieds dans le plat et permet de comprendre la pertinence de la démarche de l'avocat principal du président Gbagbo à la CPI, Maître Emmanuel Altit, qui entrave la stratégie d'Ocampo, qui veut «expurger» (faire disparaître des dossiers) de manière systématique et sans s'expliquer les noms de ses «victimes» mais également de tous les membres de son bureau, de tous ses enquêteurs et de tous ses traducteurs. Parce que, selon toute évidence, il a travaillé main dans la main avec des officines du RDR, et ne voudrait pas que la Défense enquête sur ses enquêteurs et leur crédibilité. La référence aux «intermédiaires» fait également penser à l'utilisation excessive de Human Rights Watch, ONG financée en grande partie par le milliardaire Georges Soros, qui est réputé avoir financé la campagne d'Alassane Ouattara.

La technique d'Ocampo, qui consiste à «séquencer» les crises et les crimes liés à ces crises afin d'accabler les personnes qu'il vise, sans avoir à s'en prendre aux protégés des grandes puissances, est également dénoncée par la correspondante du Monde à La Haye.

«Jean-Pierre Bemba, principal opposant au président congolais, Joseph Kabila, est à La Haye depuis novembre 2010. Il est un acteur majeur des guerres de l'est du Congo. Mais pourtant, devant la CPI, il ne répond que des crimes commis en République centrafricaine. Un peu comme si le tribunal pour l'ex- Yougoslavie avait inculpé l'ancien président Slobodan Milosevic pour la seule guerre du Kosovo, faisant l'impasse sur son rôle en Bosnie-Herzégovine. Les accusations du procureur sont circonscrites à quelques faits. Elles ne donnent pas une vision claire des responsabilités dans la guerre féroce que se sont livrés par milices interposées l'Ouganda, le Rwanda et le Congo.
«Il voulait conduire une affaire rapide et facile»

Le pli politicien de Luis Moreno-Ocampo, plus soucieux des effets de manche que de la soif de justice des victimes, transparaît également de l'article du quotidien français. Pour gagner du temps, et se donner de la contenance avant son départ, le procureur qui n'avait jusque-là bouclé aucun de ses nombreux dossiers, a envoyé valdinguer toutes les charges relevant des violences sexuelles et des massacres au sujet de l'affaire Lubanga. «Le procureur nous avait demandé d'oublier les massacres, il voulait conduire une affaire rapide et facile, affirmait en 2009 un enquêteur qui avait claqué avec amertume la porte de la Cour», révèle Stéphanie Maupas. Au final, l'article du Monde reprend quasiment tous les griefs que les analystes ivoiriens critiquant la méthode Ocampo ont développés ces derniers mois.

Le Nouveau Courrier n'est pas peu fier d'avoir été à la pointe du combat contre les impostures du procureur argentin sur une affaire Gbagbo qu'il laissera comme une patate chaude à son successeur, la Gambienne Fatou Bensouda, qui sera déjà à la barre lors de l'audience de confirmation des charges le 18 juin prochain. Bien entendu, rien ne prouve qu'elle sera plus soucieuse du droit et moins politicienne que son prédécesseur. Comme lui, elle a été, au fond, cooptée par les puissances occidentales qui utilisent tant la CPI comme un jouet que son crédit ne cesse de s'éroder. Dangereusement. »
AS International is an international nonpartisan charity organization devoted to defending human rights. It’s an organization working to promote democracy and national reconciliation, inside countries of the African Great lakes Region.
AS International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;
AS International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron fist, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.
So long as justice and accountability for RPF past and current crimes are ignored and delayed, Peace and Stability will remain illusive and impossible in Rwanda=>ASIF]


Follow Ijwi Rya Rubanda Here 




RPA commander, Paul Kagame tours RPF-controlled areas, Feb. 11, 1993.

CONFIDENTIAL

The shooting down of Falcon 50 jet carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, and French flight crew. April 6, 1994.

An eye witness account. By code name "Water Melon". Narrated on January 17, 25, and 28, 2007. Narrated to Timothy Kalyegira.

1. At the time of the August 1993 ceasefire between the government of Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in Arusha, Tanzania, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) had set up its military intelligence headquarters at Mulindi, in the Byumba district of Rwanda.

2. The Commanding Officer of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in the RPA was Colonel Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. The vice Commanding Officer was Lieutenant Colonel Jackson Mutabazi Rwahama. Water Melon was an escort to Rwahama.

3. At the time of the invasion of Rwanda in October 1990, Rwahama was a Captain. He was later to become the Commanding Officer of the RPA Military Police after 1994. Up to 1993, Rwahama was the administrative officer of the RPA's Directorate of Military Intelligence.

4. Under the terms of the Arusha accords, the RPA's DMI was to provide security to the RPF Members of Parliament in Kigali who had been selected to represent the RPF in the National Assembly. 600 RPA soldiers were to be based at the parliament in Kigali to provide this security to the RPF members of parliament. The RPA unit at the Kigali parliament buildings was called the Republican Guard.

5. The DMI agents used to transport firewood to the RPA soldiers at the parliament buildings which was used for cooking. The firewood was ferried in a Mercedes Benz trailer lorry.

6. Hidden on the floor of the Mercedes trailer were RPA soldiers whom the RPA was secretly taking to Kigali to reinforce the 600 soldiers agreed upon under the terms of the Arusha accords. A few RPA soldiers at a time were ferried to Kigali until their total reached 1,400 men. This brought the total number of RPA soldiers in Kigali to 2,000. At that point, the RPA stopped taking any more men to Kigali and the mission was brought to an end.

7. Around February 1994, the RPF went on a secret mission. The Rwandese refugees in Uganda had created an association which they called "Banyamulyango", to coordinate their political and social activities.

8. Secretly, a large consignment of machetes (known in East Africa as pangas) was purchased and sent to the NRA detach at a place called Kamwezi in the Kabale district of southwest Uganda. The machetes were wrapped in polythene paper and packed in wooden crates.

9. They were loaded onto a yellowish-green Tata lorry with Ugandan registered number plates. The RPA intelligence officer, Lt. Colonel Jackson Rwahama, came to the RPA detach in a red Toyota single cabin pick up and received the machete consignment.

10. Rwahama then drove across the border into Rwanda and with the Tata lorry behind him, the consignment was taken to the PRA headquarters at Mulindi. High security was observed around the lorry. Soldiers who saw the machetes as they were unpacking them were told that they had been brought to clear the jungle and bush area around the Mulindi camp.

11. In March 1994, the RPA turned to another mission: to try and locate the best vantage point to position themselves as close as possible to the flight paths over the Kanombe airport. "Water Melon" was able to establish this new mission based on the conversations that he picked up as an escort to the DMI's vice commanding officer, Lt. Col. Rwahama.

12. To carry out this reconnaissance, the DMI operatives had to evade roadblocks set up in Kigali by the FAR government army. To do this, they got help from a Tutsi employee of the United Nations based in Kigali.

13. This Tutsi who worked for the UN, was in his 50s or late 40s, he lived in a suburb of Kigali called Kikukiro, and most of his family lived in Burundi.

14. This Tutsi man drove a blue Toyota Hilux single cabin pickup and his role was to guide the RPA's DMI agents around Kigali and he helped them locate the best vantage point below the aerial flight paths leading to Kanombe airport.

15. The UN guide took the RPA DMI personnel on three trips to study the Kigali area. The first trip took them along the Bugesera, while the second reconnaissance trip took the group long the Mulindi road. They came back through the Masaka road and returned to the Parliament buildings.

16. A third trip was made and it would be the final one. On this third trip, the DMI crew left the Parliament buildings on foot to the home of the UN man in the Kikukiro suburb. They returned to Parliament in his Toyota pickup.


17. The RPA had an armory at their camp at the Parliament buildings. In that armory the RPA kept three missiles. These missiles and a missile launcher were wrapped in an olive green polythene material.

18. After the DMI personnel returned from the Kikukiro suburb on the Toyota pickup, they headed for the armory. They got out three missiles and took them outside. The missiles were put onto a four-inch foam mattress. The launcher was also put alongside the missiles. The mattress was then rolled and tied up.

19. Supervising the whole exercise was Lieutenant Bosco Rumenera who was the Intelligence Officer of the RPA Republican Guard. Also supervising this mission of packing the missile was Major Stephen Munyandinda, the Operations Intelligence Officer of the 600-man Republican Guard.

20. Another man on that missile team was Sergeant James Rwaka of the DMI staff. He was in charge of logistics and finances. It was his job to pay the DMI staff and pay them on their missions. He had studied for a Law degree from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

21. Also on the DMI team was a man called Joseph Nyamitale. He was a Ugandan of the Bakonjo tribe from Kasese in western Uganda. He was a private in the RPA and was an artillery specialist. He had received his artillery training at the RPA's training wing in Gikoba, in Rwanda.

22. The missiles and launcher were put onto the Toyota pickup. Then around or just after five O'Clock in the afternoon of April 6, 1994, the DMI team and their escort "Water Melon" left the Parliament buildings. The UN man was driving the pickup.

23. Bosco Rumenera was dressed in a tan suit, white shirt, and striped necktie. He was a tall man and had a missing front left tooth.

24. The UN man wore a brown shirt and ash-grey trousers. Nyamitale wore a black T-shirt and black jeans.

25. During that day, the RPA commander Major-General Paul Kagame sent a radio message to the RPA units in Kigali giving some instructions.

26. They drove along Masaka road via Mulindi and then turned onto a dirt road off the Masaka road. They drove about five kilometres along that road until they reached a house belonging to a friend of the UN man.

27. It was an old house with an iron sheet roof. Outside the house were four cows grazing. The DMI team stayed inside the house until after sunset and then set off again.

28. The DMI team walked to a nearby hillock and settled at the top of it. The hillock was about 50 metres away from the old house.

29. This hillock was about three kilometres away from Kanombe airport and the DMI team could see the lights of the airport in the distance from where they stood.

30. The Tutsi UN man remained in his pickup a short distance away from the old house as the DMI team settled on top of the hill.

31. On top of that small hill was a large white tent with the initials "UNHCR" printed on it. The DMI team took the missiles and launcher with them into the tent where they were unwrapped.

32. The missile launcher was an olive green military colour. It was in two parts that the DMI team fitted together into one tube. The point where the two tubes were joined together was black. The DMI team then waited for a while. It was now around half past seven or coming toward eight O'Clock in the evening.

33. About 30 minutes after they arrived at the hillock, a male voice came on Lt. Bosco Rumenera's Motorola two-way radio. Lt. Bosco Rumenera's radio code name was "Sixteen-Charlie".

34. The voice called out, in English: "Sungu-Sungu, Four-Nine-Romeo."
Sungu-Sungu replied, in English, "Go ahead."
Four-nine-Romeo then said, in English, "Connect me Double Five."
Sungu-Sungu called out three times: "Double Five?" but there was no reply from Double Five.
Sung-Sungu then told Four-Nine-Romeo, in Kiswahili and English: "Enda direct kwa Two-Zero-Nine." ("Go direct to Two-Zero-Nine").
Four-Nine-Romeo then called out three times, in English: "Two-Zero-Nine, Four-Nine-Romeo?"
Four-Nine-Romeo then came back, in English: "Two-Zero-Nine connect me Sixteen-Charlie."
Two-Zero-Nine then called twice, in English: "Sixteen-Charlie, Two-Zero-Nine?"
Two-Zero-Nine then replied, in English: "Four-Nine-Romeo, go ahead."
Four-Nine-Romeo then called out, in English: "Sixteen-Charlie, Four-Nine-Romeo?"
Sixteen-Charlie then replied, in Kiswahili: "Sukuma ujumbe." ("Send your message").
Four-Nine-Romeo then gave the order, in Kiswahili: ""Okiwone kitu yote, piga!" ("If you see anything, hit!")
After that order, Sixteen-Charlie replied, in English: "Over, out."

35. The artillery specialist, Private Joseph Nyamitale, then got the launcher, now with a missile inside it, and placed it on his shoulder. He pointed the launcher into the dark night sky.

36. The missile launcher then started giving off a wailing, siren-like noise. Nyamitale then told his colleagues in Kiswahili: "Missile ena liya. Kwisha pata target." ("The missile is crying. It has located its target.")

37. After Nyamitale said this, the escort "Water Melon" of the DMI was ordered to leave the location and return to the old house. A teenage boy at the old house who had followed the team out of curiosity was also sent back to the house.

38. The escorts had barely left the location when they heard a single explosion at the location where the DMI officers stood. It was the sound of the missile being fired.

39. The escorts stayed at the house while the team led by Bosco Rumenera remained at the location where they had fired the missile. During the aftermath of the firing of the missile, Bosco Rumenera and his team got into steady radio communication with unknown people in another part of town.

40. The lights at the airport remained on for a while in the immediate aftermath of the shooting down of the presidential jet.

41. Three hours later, at about 11:00 p.m., on April 6, 1994, the escorts were finally called back and told to pack the remaining two missiles onto the back of the Toyota pickup. The team then drove off.

42. The team, driven by the UN Tutsi official, encountered a roadblock at Mulindi manned by the government soldiers. The UN man suggested that they avoid the roadblock and instead walk through the nearby bush back to the Parliament buildings.

43. The DMI team got out of the pickup and started walking in the direction of the airport while the UN official turned back and drove in the opposite direction with the two remaining missiles and other accessories.

44. The DMI team emerged from the bush and onto the road leading from the airport to the Lemera suburb of Kigali. The whole of Kigali city was in upheaval, with chaos everywhere and people on the streets and roads talking about an aircraft accident. But at that time, Bosco Rumenera, Joseph Nyamitale, and the DMI team did not understand what was going on.

45. They walked on, toward a place called Kyemihurura and encountered a serious roadblock, manned by soldiers and men in civilian clothes holding machetes. The DMI team were ordered to stop but pleaded to be allowed to go on their way.

46. The soldiers ordered them to sit down by the roadside. At that point, sensing danger, Bosco Rumenera drew out a pistol and shot two of the civilians in the chest. They fell down dead on the road.

47. Other men at the roadblock, seeing this, pounced onto the DMI team and overpowered them. They cut Bosco Rumenera into pieces with a machete. Joseph Nyamitale, the man who fired the missile that blew up the Falcon 50 jet, was also hacked to death by this group manning the roadblock. Sergeant Rwaka was taken away captive.

48. The escort "Water Melon" had been walking at a distance of about 30 metres behind the DMI team and he stopped in his tracks when he saw what was happening at the roadblock.

49. After he watched his colleagues being hacked to death, he fled the scene and back in the direction from which they had come, toward town until he found the St. Famille Church and took refuge there. Inside the church were ordinary civilians, both Hutu and Tutsi, and some of them were listening to the news over small radios.

50. The news was entirely about the death of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, blown up by a missile as the plane approached landing at Kanombe airport en route from a summit in Tanzania. That was when "Water Melon" made the connection between their DMI mission that night and the events unfolding in Rwanda.

51. There was no other aircraft that had been shot down by a missile or any other gunfire that night over Kigali or any other part of Rwanda. This made "Water Melon" realise that their mission, which they did not fully understand at the time, had been to shoot down the plane carrying President Habyarimana.

52. Lieutenant Bosco Rumenera and Private Joseph Nyamitale died at the roadblock without knowing the magnitude of the mission that night, April 6, 1994.

Related Materials:
Paul kagame plotted to kill Habyarimana

The Mutsinzi Report: A Video Analysis of Habyarimana Plane Crash

A Rebuttal of the Mutsinzi Report on the Rwandan genocide

Report of the Mutsinzi "Experts Committee" : a collection of distortions of the truth, speculations, lies, paradoxes and antitheses

Rwanda: Habyarimana Death - Findings Out But Where Are the Black Boxes?

The alleged mystery surrounding the black box of the Rwandan genocide


African SurViVors International (AS International) is an international nonpartisan charity organization devoted to defending human rights. It’s an organization working to promote democracy and national reconciliation, inside countries of the African Great lakes Region.

AS International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;

AS International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron fist, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.
So long as justice and accountability for RPF past and current crimes are ignored and delayed, Peace and Stability will remain illusive and impossible in Rwanda=>ASIF]

General Paul Kagame should be taken aside with Bashar Assad and pay for his crimes as did Mohammar Khadafi

1. Forget Gaddafi. Blair's NEW best friend is a despot guilty of even bloodier slaughter
2. 19.01.12 - FRANCE/RWANDA - EXPERT REPORT CASTS SOME NEW LIGHT ON CRASH THAT SPARKED GENOCIDE

Kagame Aka Khadafi, What Have You Done To Gasasira?

• BEST SCENARIO: Gasasira may be under the protection of the Swedish police to save him from certain death hatched by Kagafi Embassy in Sweden.
• SECOND BEST SCENARIO: Gasasira went into hiding without even telling his family. That’s why the Swedish police still considered him as “missing.â€�
• WORST SCENARIO: Gasasira may have been killed by Kagame’s aka Kagafi death squads, which prompted Swedish authorities to expel Kagafi killer Evode Mudaheranwa.

Back here in Rwanda, Gasasira's mother has been taken hospital in emergency: she has taken the bad news hard. She has seen her son beaten almost death; exiled to Uganda and then to Sweden: and now the latest sinister turn of events.

AS International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;
AS International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.



The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron fist, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.

So long as justice and accountability for RPF past and current crimes are ignored and delayed, Peace and Stability will remain illusive and impossible in Rwanda=>ASIF]





Washington, DC. 06 February (Asiantribune.com):

Ambassador Stephen RappThe United States' Global war crimes investigator Ambassador Stephen Rapp, head of the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice, will be in Sri Lanka this week to engage in high level talks with the government on the determinations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, applicability of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to the 2009 final battle with Tamil Tigers, and accountability of GSL military forces in the final months of the battle.
Ambassador Rapp's visit comes ahead of the UN Human Rights Council Session due to commence end of this month in which the US, Britain and some EU nations want Sri Lanka to agree to substantive talks of the LLRC findings and recommendations.

Sri Lanka has vehemently opposed to this.

Mr. Rapp used ambiguous and conflicting information and data to accuse Sri Lanka of violating International Humanitarian Laws (IHL) in a report released to the US Congress in October 2009 about the military battle between the government forces and the Tamil Tiger fighting cadre during final - January to May 2009 - stages of the Eelam War 4.

Ambassador Stephen Rapp commences his official tour in Sri Lanka in search of answers to what happened during those five months and the government's accountability and reconciliation process with a very heavy baggage;his own culpability of covering-up Rwanda's 1994 genocide as an attempt to white-wash the United States involvement in that episode as the Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations-appointed International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR).

In October 1990, the Ugandan army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF) led by Major General Paul Kagame (who is now the president of Rwanda) invaded Rwanda. The guerrillas who violated international laws and committed massive war crimes were backed by Britain, Belgium, the United States and Israel, according to many investigators and researchers. By July 1994, the RPF completed its coup d'etat and consolidated its power in Rwanda.

On April 6, 1994, the governments of Rwanda and Burundi were decapitated when the plane carrying the two presidents and top military staff was shot down over Kigali, Rwanda's capital. The well-planned assassinations of Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira sparked a massive escalation of warfare that is falsely portrayed as the result of meaningless tribal savagery. These assassinations were major war crimes, and the RPF was largely responsible, but almost every attempt to honestly investigate the double presidential assassinations has been blocked by the U.S. and its allies.


Professor Peter Erlinder, of the William Mitchell College of Law in Pennsylvania who was very much involved in defending some at the ICTR which was functioning in Arusha in Tanzania has come out with an array of evidence and interpretations of the direct culpability of the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame in the Rwandan genocide, how he and his colleagues were given military training in the U.S., how Kagame as the head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a proxy force of the Pentagon according to Erlinder, invaded Rwanda to unleash a genocide with tacit approval of the United States, and in the following years how the United States took covert and overt steps to cover up its involvement in the Rwandan mass massacre.

It is here that Ambassador-at Large Stephen Rapp’s name emerge. Mr. Rapp who is traveling to Sri Lanka as the head of the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice (until late last year was known as Office of War Crimes Issues) in his previous position as the chief prosecutor of the Rwandan genocide, according to Peter Elinder, and many other investigators, was one of the main person who was involved in the cover up of US involvement in the Rwandan Genocide.

Prof. Elinder outlined the United States endeavor in the cover up of its own culpability in the Rwandan genocide, and the role played by Stephen Rapp as the Chief Rwanda Prosecutor of the United Nations.

He said: “The July 9, 2009 New York Times reported that the Obama administration had selected Stephen Rapp to replace the Bush administration Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Pierre Prosper. Rapp began his international career at the UN Security Council Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001, while Carla Del Ponte was Chief Rwanda Prosecutor. Rapp’s nomination just a few months after Del Ponte’s of her memoir of her years as Chief UN Prosecutor, Madam Prosecutor:

Confronting Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity was published in English.

“Del Ponte’s book describes in detail the systematic U.S.-initiated cover-up of crimes by the current Rwandan government, a U.S. ally, committed during the Rwanda Genocide, and how she was removed from her ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) position in 2003 by U.S. Ambassador Prosper, himself, when she refused to cooperate with the U.S.-initiated “cover-up.”
According to Del Ponte, her ICTR Office had the evidence to prosecute Kagame for “touching-off” the Rwanda Genocide by ordering the assassination of Rwanda’s former President Juvenal, Habyarimana, long before 2003. She also details the dozens of massacre sites, involving thousands of victims, for which the current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame and his military, should be prosecuted. The well-publicized canard, that “the identity of the assassins of Habyarimana is unknown” is a bald-faced lie, well -known by ICTR Prosecutors, according to Ms. Del Ponte, writes Prof. Elinder in a popular/well read web site Global Research.

Two years after Del Ponte was removed from office, Stephen Rapp became “Chief” of ICTR Prosecutions with access to all of the evidence known to Ms. Del Ponte, and more that has been made public in the past few years. During his four years at the ICTR, Ambassador Rapp like Del Ponte, also was in a position to prosecute Kagame and members of the current government of Rwanda but, not One member of Kagame’s military has been prosecuted at the ICTR, to date…and the “cover-up” revealed by Del Ponte, continues today. And, unlike, Ms. Del Ponte, who was fired by the U.S., Mr. Rapp was first rewarded with an appointment as Chief Prosecutor at the U.S.-funded Sierra Leone Tribunal and now, a coveted ambassadorship by the Obama administration as the chief of the Office of Global Criminal Justice at the United States Department of State.

In February 2009, the ICTR issued its Judgment the Military-1 case, that main case at the ICTR, in which Mr. Rapp personally appeared for the Prosecution. Although massive violence did occur in Rwanda, the court certainly recognized that blaming only one side WAS a falsehood, when it acquitted all of the “architects of the killing machine” (as Mr. Rapp called the defendants in court) of conspiracy or planning to kill civilians. The highest ranking military-officer was acquitted of all charges.
And, although it is now clear from Ms. Del Ponte’s memoirs that Mr. Rapp had the evidence to clear the ICTR defendants of the assassination charges and only the losing side has been blamed for all crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994. Simply put, Mr. Rapp and other ICTR prosecutors have withheld evidence that would be beneficial to the defense, contrary to Tribunal Rules; have prosecuted defendants for crimes they knew were committed by Kagame’s forces; and, have created a system of “judicial impunity” that has permitted Kagame to kill millions in the eastern Congo.

It is in this context that Prof. Peter Elinder writing to Global Security questioned President Obama’s wisdom in appointing Stephen Rapp as the head of the Office of War Crimes Issue (as was known before) at the State Department in this manner: “This “inconvenient-African-truth,” raises an uncomfortable question regarding President Obama’s nomination of Mr. Rapp, in the first place: Are Obama and his advisors ignorant of the public record regarding Rapp’s complicity in the ICTR Cover-up….or do they just not give a damn?”

Ambassador Stephen Rapp was also privy to the following information when he was the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTR:

The US Ambassador to Rwanda, and declassified US documents from 1994, establish that:

(a) the assassination of the President of Burundi in October 1993 triggered a “genocide of 150,000 Burundian Hutus;”
(b) hundreds of thousands of Burundian Hutu refugees then poured into Rwanda;
(c) Rwandan Patriotic Front military aggression displaced 1.5 million Rwandans in early 1993; and
(d) the Rwandan Patriotic Front assassinated the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi in April 1994.

And, that these were the actual causes of the Rwanda Genocide.

The U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda personally warned Kagame in November 1993 that, if he resumed the war, he would be responsible for mass violence in Rwanda in 1994, like that in Burundi in 1993. This was confirmed by cables from the State Dept on April 7, 1994;
UN documents show that the RPF was militarily dominant as of February 1993 and, according to UN Gen. Dallaire's cables to the UN in April-June 1994, Kagame refused to stop the violence because he was winning;

Former ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s 2009 memoirs document then–Gen. Kagame’s culpability for the assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi of April 6, 1994 that began the Rwandan Genocide, as does the 2008 indictment issued by Spanish Judge Fernando Abreu Merelles and the 2006 indictment of French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière;

The Spanish indictment also describes, prefecture-by-prefecture, 325,000 murders of Hutus and Tutsis for which Kagame and the RPF are responsible, not including the massive killing after 1994, in both Rwanda and neighboring Congo;

In 2009 published Edward S. Herman and David Peterson's investigative/research book The Politics of Genocide said: “The United States and its allies worked hard in the early 1990s to weaken the Rwandan government, forcing the abandonment of many of the economic and social gains from the social revolution of 1959, thereby making the Habyarimana government less popular, and helping to reinforce the Tutsi minority’s economic power. Eventually, the RPF was able to achieve a legal military presence inside Rwanda, thanks to a series of ceasefires and other agreements. These agreements led to the Arusha Peace Accords of August 1993, pressed upon the Rwandan government by the United States and its allies, called for the “integration” of the armed forces of Rwanda and (Kagame's) RPF, and for a “transitional,” power-sharing government until national elections could be held in 1995. These Peace Accords positioned the RPF for its bloody overthrow of a relatively democratic coalition government, and the takeover of the Rwandan state by a minority dictatorship.”

The U.S. State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues - now known as Office of Global Criminal Justice - chief Stephen Rapp knew this entire Rwandan episode, the U.S. interests in Paul Kagame, the UN concealment of the 1994 report at the behest of the Clinton administration, the U.S. military assistance to Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front and the entire exercise of the ‘Rwandan cover up’ to conceal the U.S. culpability in the Rwandan genocide when he focused his attention elsewhere; Sri Lanka
African SurViVors International (AS International) is an international nonpartisan charity organization devoted to defending human rights. It’s an organization working to promote democracy and national reconciliation, inside countries of the African Great lakes Region.


AS International centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;

AS International’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.