Rwanda: Cartographie des crimes
Rwanda: cartographie des crimes du livre "In Praise of Blood, the crimes of the RPF" de Judi Rever
Kagame devra être livré aux Rwandais pour répondre à ses crimes: la meilleure option de réconciliation nationale entre les Hutus et les Tutsis.
Let us remember Our People
Let us remember our people, it is our right
You can't stop thinking
Don't you know
Rwandans are talkin' 'bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
The majority Hutus and interior Tutsi are gonna rise up
And get their share
SurViVors are gonna rise up
And take what's theirs.
We're the survivors, yes: the Hutu survivors!
Yes, we're the survivors, like Daniel out of the lions' den
(Hutu survivors) Survivors, survivors!
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
et up, stand up, don't give up the fight
“I’m never gonna hold you like I did / Or say I love you to the kids / You’re never gonna see it in my eyes / It’s not gonna hurt me when you cry / I’m not gonna miss you.”
The situation is undeniably hurtful but we can'stop thinking we’re heartbroken over the loss of our beloved ones.
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom".
Malcolm X
Welcome to Home Truths
The year is 1994, the Fruitful year and the Start of a long epoch of the Rwandan RPF bloody dictatorship. Rwanda and DRC have become a unique arena and fertile ground for wars and lies. Tutsi RPF members deny Rights and Justice to the Hutu majority, to Interior Tutsis, to Congolese people, publicly claim the status of victim as the only SurViVors while millions of Hutu, interior Tutsi and Congolese people were butchered. Please make RPF criminals a Day One priority. Allow voices of the REAL victims to be heard.
Everybody Hurts
“Everybody Hurts” is one of the rare songs on this list that actually offers catharsis. It’s beautifully simple: you’re sad, but you’re not alone because “everybody hurts, everybody cries.” You’re human, in other words, and we all have our moments. So take R.E.M.’s advice, “take comfort in your friends,” blast this song, have yourself a good cry, and then move on. You’ll feel better, I promise.—Bonnie Stiernberg
KAGAME - GENOCIDAIRE
Paul Kagame admits ordering...
Paul Kagame admits ordering the 1994 assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda.
Why did Kagame this to me?
Inzira ndende
Search
Hutu Children & their Mums
Rwanda-rebranding
Rwanda-rebranding-Targeting dissidents inside and abroad, despite war crimes and repression
Rwanda has “A well primed PR machine”, and that this has been key in “persuading the key members of the international community that it has an exemplary constitution emphasizing democracy, power-sharing, and human rights which it fully respects”. It concluded: “The truth is, however, the opposite. What you see is not what you get: A FAÇADE”
Rwanda has hired several PR firms to work on deflecting criticism, and rebranding the country.
Targeting dissidents abroad
One of the more worrying aspects of Racepoint’s objectives
was to “Educate and correct the ill informed and factually
incorrect information perpetuated by certain groups of expatriates
and NGOs,” including, presumably, the critiques
of the crackdown on dissent among political opponents
overseas.
This should be seen in the context of accusations
that Rwanda has plotted to kill dissidents abroad. A
recent investigation by the Globe and Mail claims, “Rwandan
exiles in both South Africa and Belgium – speaking in clandestine meetings in secure locations because of their fears of attack – gave detailed accounts of being recruited to assassinate critics of President Kagame….
Ways To Get Rid of Kagame
How to proceed for revolution in Rwanda:
- The people should overthrow the Rwandan dictator (often put in place by foreign agencies) and throw him, along with his henchmen and family, out of the country – e.g., the Shah of Iran, Marcos of Philippines.Compaore of Burkina Faso
- Rwandans organize a violent revolution and have the dictator killed – e.g., Ceaucescu in Romania.
- Foreign powers (till then maintaining the dictator) force the dictator to exile without armed intervention – e.g. Mátyás Rákosi of Hungary was exiled by the Soviets to Kirgizia in 1970 to “seek medical attention”.
- Foreign powers march in and remove the dictator (whom they either instated or helped earlier) – e.g. Saddam Hussein of Iraq or Manuel Noriega of Panama.
- The dictator kills himself in an act of desperation – e.g., Hitler in 1945.
- The dictator is assassinated by people near him – e.g., Julius Caesar of Rome in 44 AD was stabbed by 60-70 people (only one wound was fatal though).
- Organise strikes and unrest to paralyze the country and convince even the army not to support the dictaor – e.g., Jorge Ubico y Castañeda was ousted in Guatemala in 1944 and Guatemala became democratic, Recedntly in Burkina Faso with the dictator Blaise Compaoré.
Almighty God :Justice for US
Killing Hutus on daily basis
RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya
Fighting For Our Freedom?
KAGAME VS JUSTICE
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Gacaca : l’injustice continue au Rwanda
Institution traditionnelle rwandaise visant la réconciliation, le gacaca a été présenté comme moyen pour accélérer l’examen des dossiers des personnes accusées de génocide qui se trouvaient par dizaine de milliers en prison depuis 1994. Grâce au soutien économique de la Communauté internationale, la juridiction gacaca est entrée en fonction le 15 janvier 2005 et a largement semé dans le pays peur et injustice. Voici un témoignage direct et actuel.
Gacaca prolongé
En principe le gacaca aurait dû se terminer en 2007, mais la liste des gens à juger est encore longue, c’est pourquoi les autorités ont prolongé son activité jusqu’à cette année 2008, pour les provinces où la liste des procès n’est pas terminée. A ces endroits, c’est même pire qu’auparavant : on est pressé, on n’a pas le temps d’écouter les témoins à faveur. Jusqu’à présent, le jour du gacaca, tout est fermé, sauf les hôpitaux et les écoles, et la population est obligée d’y assister. Pendant le procès il est interdit de rire (parfois on en a envie, un rire de déception), d’applaudir, de montrer un sentiment quelconque : les local defense qui surveillent interviennent et bousculent les gens, jusqu’à les frapper.
Actuellement il y a deux aspects qui prennent plus d’importance et nous font peur: le viol et l’idéologie génocidaire. Une femme peut venir déclarer au gacaca : « Pendant le génocide, tel m’a violée ». Ce sont des femmes souvent manipulées par Ibuka[1]. Leur accusation provoque l’immédiate arrestation de l’accusé. Par la suite, Ibuka cherche de témoins à charge, qui provoqueront une condamnation à vingt-cinq ans de prison. Dans le cas d’un viol récent, c’est l’hôpital qui donne son avis. Il est vrai, des viols se sont passés, mais maintenant c’est devenu une accusation facile pour se défaire de certaines personnes.
Quant à l’idéologie génocidaire, les parents sont accusés de l’enseigner à leurs enfants. Or, c’est le système scolaire d’aide aux enfants des rescapés qui fausse tout : on leur paie les taxes scolaires, l’uniforme, le matériel scolaire ; on leur donne la priorité dans l’accueil aux internats. Mon enfant m’a dit de ne pas lui acheter l’uniforme, il l’achètera bas prix à l’école auprès des camarades qui la reçoivent gratuitement de la part du FARG (Fond pour les rescapés du génocide). A l’école, Ibuka fait des réunions pour les seuls enfants des rescapés. Parmi eux certains ne sont pas sérieux à l’école, parce qu’ils disent qu’ils ne payent rien. Et malheur au professeur qui ose les corriger. Tout récemment un professeur a été condamné à cinq ans de prison et au dédommagement de 500.000 francs rwandais[2], parce qu’il a osé exhorter un enfant de rescapé indiscipliné à s’engager et à songer à son avenir.
Une fille rescapée s’entendait bien avec d’autres filles de l’internat, en particulier avec deux sœurs. Lorsque la maman de ces dernières venait leur rendre visite, elles partageaient avec leur copine la pommade et tout ce qu’elle leur amenait. Le père de ces deux filles était en prison, et un jour l’aînée alla lui rendre visite. En rentrant, elle dit à la cadette que son père la saluait et qu’il ne prévoyait pas que les hommes puissent le libérer, Dieu seul pouvait le faire. La fillette se mit à pleurer. En voyant cela, la fille rescapée, leur amie, courut dire qu’on était en train de l’insulter. La fillette a été chassée de l’école.
Maintenant les députés descendent dans les écoles secondaires, soi-disant pour prêcher la réconciliation, mais ils expliquent le histoire du pays d’une façon déformée et les parents craignent qu’ils prêchent la haine. A mon petit enfant à l’école on dit d’éviter l’idéologie génocidaire. « Est-ce que j’ai l’idéologie génocidaire ? », m’a-t-il demandé. On est en train d’intoxiquer la nouvelle génération. A l’université, c’est grave aussi : dans les campus, ce sont les rescapés qui ont la priorité. Une fille de ma parenté a été renvoyé de campus, soi-disant qu’il n’y avait pas de place, et sa place a été occupée par une étudiante rescapée. Ce sont des choses qui blessent les jeunes.
Le gacaca de remboursement du dégât et pillage
On dit qu’il y a des provinces où les gacaca ont déjà terminé leurs listes : on se tourne alors vers les biens. On cherche à arracher aux gens les biens qu’ils ont : si un hutu a une vache, on lui dit qu’il l’avait volée pendant le génocide. Si un rescapé dit qu’avant les massacres il avait dix vaches et une maison, on part à la recherche de ceux qui ont mangé ses vaches et abîmé sa maison. Bien sûr, il y a eu des pillages et des vols, et ceux qui les ont commis ont payé juste après la guerre. A ce moment-là, c’était terrible : on frappait les gens, même si tu n’avais rien volé, il te fallait payer.
Maintenant, il suffit que le rescapé désigne celui qui lui aurait volé un bien pendant le génocide, et cette personne est mise sous procès. Souvent on cherche de faux témoins pour qu’elle cède ce bien ; par peur, personne n’ose contredire l’accusateur, seul l’accusé essaie de se défendre.
Une personne de ma connaissance avait régulièrement acheté un champs dans les années ’80. L’ancien propriétaire, malheureusement, fut tué pendant le génocide. La commission d’enquête sur les biens instituée après les massacres avait reconnu que le champs appartenait à celui qui l’avait acheté auparavant. Maintenant, des gens sont allés suggérer à un membre de famille de cet homme de prétendre le champs. C’est ainsi qu’on a appelé en jugement le propriétaire du champ.
Ibuka toujours à la recherche
Ibuka est une organisation à différents niveaux : elle a des représentants au niveau national, provincial… jusqu’à la plus petite entité, la cellule. Le niveau le plus bas est chargé d’identifier les intellectuels hutu du milieu qu’on peut accuser. Il en transmet la liste à l’échelon suivant, jusqu’à ce qu’elle parvient au niveau supérieur : là on décide comment procéder et on donne l’ordre aux comités de juges qui dirigent les gacaca de condamner certaines personnes[3]. Jusqu’à présent, dans un quartier on peut trouver deux jeunes hutu qui ont terminé l’Université, qui n’ont de problèmes avec personne, mais les gens d’Ibuka les regardent : « Celui-là, pourquoi vit-il en de bonnes conditions ? ». Ils peuvent venir poser des questions, provoquer, pour dire enfin : « Vous avez échappé d’être mis sur la liste des accusés, mais maintenant c’est votre tour».
Avant que le procès gacaca n’ait lieu, Ibuka prépare les gens qui y assisteront pour qu’ils accusent l’inculpé. Quand celui-ci commence à parler pour se défendre, les juges et des personnes présentes à la séance l’interrompent en posant beaucoup de questions souvent insensées. Avant même qu’il commence à répondre à l’une, ou à peine a-t-il commencé à parler, un autre intervient pour lui en poser une autre. Découragé et énervé, l’accusé se taît, et les juges partent délibérer.
Le premier jugement se fait à niveau de secteur, où il y a aussi une deuxième chambre, d’appel. Si après cet appel on n’est pas satisfait, on peut recourir à la suprême responsable de Gacaca, qui peut donner l’autorisation de représenter appel – le dernier – dans un autre secteur
La peur continue
La peur dans la population hutu, majoritaire dans le pays, continue : nous avons peur du pouvoir, parce que le pouvoir n’a pas de pitié. Lorsque les gens se rencontrent, ils se disent discrètement : « Faites attention, ne dites pas…, ne faites pas… ». La population garde l’espoir qu’un jour la paix reviendra, mais chaque fois que les puissances du monde félicitent le pouvoir rwandais, elle sent cette paix plus lointaine. Nous espérons qu’un jour la Communauté internationale connaîtra à fond le problème du Rwanda. Peut-être faudrait-il un pouvoir neutre qui donne la liberté aux deux ethnies. Nous espérons qu’on enlèvera l’idée que tout hutu est méchant : tous n’ont pas tué, il y a des tutsi aussi qui ont tué ! Pendant la guerre commencée en 1990 et le génocide de 1994, d’un côté et de l’autre il y a eu des morts ; FPR et MRND se battaient pour le pouvoir.
Si les autorités n’incitaient pas à la haine, nous la population serions déjà retournés à la situation d’auparavant, lorsqu’on se mariait sans problème entre différentes ethnies. Maintenant les autorités disent aux tutsi : « Ce sont vos ennemis, il ne faut pas les marier ». L’Etat avait souhaité que chaque enfant orphelin puisse quitter l’internat et aie une famille : c’est ainsi que beaucoup de familles, tutsi et hutu, ont accueilli des orphelins, en provenance de l’orphelinat ou de familles victimes de la guerre.
Grâce aux aides reçus, on a maintenant dans le pays beaucoup plus d’écoles. Quand il y a des calamités, le gouvernement intervient rapidement ; par exemple, à l’occasion du récent tremblement de terre, l’Etat a mobilisé le personnel médical, a transporté par hélicoptère les blessés plus graves à Kigali, a fourni des soins gratuits aux sinistrés. En général, toutefois, les aides enrichissent les autorités, plutôt que secourir les pauvres. Les Eglises se taisent par peur : car si vous osez dire que tel chose n’est pas bonne, on vous accusera de développer l’idéologie génocidaire, de lutter contre le programme du gouvernement.
Fait dans la Région des Grands Lacs, le 25 mars 2008. Habineza
[1] Association des rescapés. Sont appelés « rescapés » les survivants Tutsi du génocide.
[2] Environ 1000 dollars américains.
[3] Ibuka a fait cela au départ des gacaca : elle faisait récolter les informations, a composé les listes des personnes à accuser et a ordonné aux juges de libérer tel, d’emprisonner tel autre.
Institution traditionnelle rwandaise visant la réconciliation, le gacaca a été présenté comme moyen pour accélérer l’examen des dossiers des personnes accusées de génocide qui se trouvaient par dizaine de milliers en prison depuis 1994. Grâce au soutien économique de la Communauté internationale, la juridiction gacaca est entrée en fonction le 15 janvier 2005 et a largement semé dans le pays peur et injustice. Voici un témoignage direct et actuel.
Gacaca prolongé
En principe le gacaca aurait dû se terminer en 2007, mais la liste des gens à juger est encore longue, c’est pourquoi les autorités ont prolongé son activité jusqu’à cette année 2008, pour les provinces où la liste des procès n’est pas terminée. A ces endroits, c’est même pire qu’auparavant : on est pressé, on n’a pas le temps d’écouter les témoins à faveur. Jusqu’à présent, le jour du gacaca, tout est fermé, sauf les hôpitaux et les écoles, et la population est obligée d’y assister. Pendant le procès il est interdit de rire (parfois on en a envie, un rire de déception), d’applaudir, de montrer un sentiment quelconque : les local defense qui surveillent interviennent et bousculent les gens, jusqu’à les frapper.
Actuellement il y a deux aspects qui prennent plus d’importance et nous font peur: le viol et l’idéologie génocidaire. Une femme peut venir déclarer au gacaca : « Pendant le génocide, tel m’a violée ». Ce sont des femmes souvent manipulées par Ibuka[1]. Leur accusation provoque l’immédiate arrestation de l’accusé. Par la suite, Ibuka cherche de témoins à charge, qui provoqueront une condamnation à vingt-cinq ans de prison. Dans le cas d’un viol récent, c’est l’hôpital qui donne son avis. Il est vrai, des viols se sont passés, mais maintenant c’est devenu une accusation facile pour se défaire de certaines personnes.
Quant à l’idéologie génocidaire, les parents sont accusés de l’enseigner à leurs enfants. Or, c’est le système scolaire d’aide aux enfants des rescapés qui fausse tout : on leur paie les taxes scolaires, l’uniforme, le matériel scolaire ; on leur donne la priorité dans l’accueil aux internats. Mon enfant m’a dit de ne pas lui acheter l’uniforme, il l’achètera bas prix à l’école auprès des camarades qui la reçoivent gratuitement de la part du FARG (Fond pour les rescapés du génocide). A l’école, Ibuka fait des réunions pour les seuls enfants des rescapés. Parmi eux certains ne sont pas sérieux à l’école, parce qu’ils disent qu’ils ne payent rien. Et malheur au professeur qui ose les corriger. Tout récemment un professeur a été condamné à cinq ans de prison et au dédommagement de 500.000 francs rwandais[2], parce qu’il a osé exhorter un enfant de rescapé indiscipliné à s’engager et à songer à son avenir.
Une fille rescapée s’entendait bien avec d’autres filles de l’internat, en particulier avec deux sœurs. Lorsque la maman de ces dernières venait leur rendre visite, elles partageaient avec leur copine la pommade et tout ce qu’elle leur amenait. Le père de ces deux filles était en prison, et un jour l’aînée alla lui rendre visite. En rentrant, elle dit à la cadette que son père la saluait et qu’il ne prévoyait pas que les hommes puissent le libérer, Dieu seul pouvait le faire. La fillette se mit à pleurer. En voyant cela, la fille rescapée, leur amie, courut dire qu’on était en train de l’insulter. La fillette a été chassée de l’école.
Maintenant les députés descendent dans les écoles secondaires, soi-disant pour prêcher la réconciliation, mais ils expliquent le histoire du pays d’une façon déformée et les parents craignent qu’ils prêchent la haine. A mon petit enfant à l’école on dit d’éviter l’idéologie génocidaire. « Est-ce que j’ai l’idéologie génocidaire ? », m’a-t-il demandé. On est en train d’intoxiquer la nouvelle génération. A l’université, c’est grave aussi : dans les campus, ce sont les rescapés qui ont la priorité. Une fille de ma parenté a été renvoyé de campus, soi-disant qu’il n’y avait pas de place, et sa place a été occupée par une étudiante rescapée. Ce sont des choses qui blessent les jeunes.
Le gacaca de remboursement du dégât et pillage
On dit qu’il y a des provinces où les gacaca ont déjà terminé leurs listes : on se tourne alors vers les biens. On cherche à arracher aux gens les biens qu’ils ont : si un hutu a une vache, on lui dit qu’il l’avait volée pendant le génocide. Si un rescapé dit qu’avant les massacres il avait dix vaches et une maison, on part à la recherche de ceux qui ont mangé ses vaches et abîmé sa maison. Bien sûr, il y a eu des pillages et des vols, et ceux qui les ont commis ont payé juste après la guerre. A ce moment-là, c’était terrible : on frappait les gens, même si tu n’avais rien volé, il te fallait payer.
Maintenant, il suffit que le rescapé désigne celui qui lui aurait volé un bien pendant le génocide, et cette personne est mise sous procès. Souvent on cherche de faux témoins pour qu’elle cède ce bien ; par peur, personne n’ose contredire l’accusateur, seul l’accusé essaie de se défendre.
Une personne de ma connaissance avait régulièrement acheté un champs dans les années ’80. L’ancien propriétaire, malheureusement, fut tué pendant le génocide. La commission d’enquête sur les biens instituée après les massacres avait reconnu que le champs appartenait à celui qui l’avait acheté auparavant. Maintenant, des gens sont allés suggérer à un membre de famille de cet homme de prétendre le champs. C’est ainsi qu’on a appelé en jugement le propriétaire du champ.
Ibuka toujours à la recherche
Ibuka est une organisation à différents niveaux : elle a des représentants au niveau national, provincial… jusqu’à la plus petite entité, la cellule. Le niveau le plus bas est chargé d’identifier les intellectuels hutu du milieu qu’on peut accuser. Il en transmet la liste à l’échelon suivant, jusqu’à ce qu’elle parvient au niveau supérieur : là on décide comment procéder et on donne l’ordre aux comités de juges qui dirigent les gacaca de condamner certaines personnes[3]. Jusqu’à présent, dans un quartier on peut trouver deux jeunes hutu qui ont terminé l’Université, qui n’ont de problèmes avec personne, mais les gens d’Ibuka les regardent : « Celui-là, pourquoi vit-il en de bonnes conditions ? ». Ils peuvent venir poser des questions, provoquer, pour dire enfin : « Vous avez échappé d’être mis sur la liste des accusés, mais maintenant c’est votre tour».
Avant que le procès gacaca n’ait lieu, Ibuka prépare les gens qui y assisteront pour qu’ils accusent l’inculpé. Quand celui-ci commence à parler pour se défendre, les juges et des personnes présentes à la séance l’interrompent en posant beaucoup de questions souvent insensées. Avant même qu’il commence à répondre à l’une, ou à peine a-t-il commencé à parler, un autre intervient pour lui en poser une autre. Découragé et énervé, l’accusé se taît, et les juges partent délibérer.
Le premier jugement se fait à niveau de secteur, où il y a aussi une deuxième chambre, d’appel. Si après cet appel on n’est pas satisfait, on peut recourir à la suprême responsable de Gacaca, qui peut donner l’autorisation de représenter appel – le dernier – dans un autre secteur
La peur continue
La peur dans la population hutu, majoritaire dans le pays, continue : nous avons peur du pouvoir, parce que le pouvoir n’a pas de pitié. Lorsque les gens se rencontrent, ils se disent discrètement : « Faites attention, ne dites pas…, ne faites pas… ». La population garde l’espoir qu’un jour la paix reviendra, mais chaque fois que les puissances du monde félicitent le pouvoir rwandais, elle sent cette paix plus lointaine. Nous espérons qu’un jour la Communauté internationale connaîtra à fond le problème du Rwanda. Peut-être faudrait-il un pouvoir neutre qui donne la liberté aux deux ethnies. Nous espérons qu’on enlèvera l’idée que tout hutu est méchant : tous n’ont pas tué, il y a des tutsi aussi qui ont tué ! Pendant la guerre commencée en 1990 et le génocide de 1994, d’un côté et de l’autre il y a eu des morts ; FPR et MRND se battaient pour le pouvoir.
Si les autorités n’incitaient pas à la haine, nous la population serions déjà retournés à la situation d’auparavant, lorsqu’on se mariait sans problème entre différentes ethnies. Maintenant les autorités disent aux tutsi : « Ce sont vos ennemis, il ne faut pas les marier ». L’Etat avait souhaité que chaque enfant orphelin puisse quitter l’internat et aie une famille : c’est ainsi que beaucoup de familles, tutsi et hutu, ont accueilli des orphelins, en provenance de l’orphelinat ou de familles victimes de la guerre.
Grâce aux aides reçus, on a maintenant dans le pays beaucoup plus d’écoles. Quand il y a des calamités, le gouvernement intervient rapidement ; par exemple, à l’occasion du récent tremblement de terre, l’Etat a mobilisé le personnel médical, a transporté par hélicoptère les blessés plus graves à Kigali, a fourni des soins gratuits aux sinistrés. En général, toutefois, les aides enrichissent les autorités, plutôt que secourir les pauvres. Les Eglises se taisent par peur : car si vous osez dire que tel chose n’est pas bonne, on vous accusera de développer l’idéologie génocidaire, de lutter contre le programme du gouvernement.
Fait dans la Région des Grands Lacs, le 25 mars 2008. Habineza
[1] Association des rescapés. Sont appelés « rescapés » les survivants Tutsi du génocide.
[2] Environ 1000 dollars américains.
[3] Ibuka a fait cela au départ des gacaca : elle faisait récolter les informations, a composé les listes des personnes à accuser et a ordonné aux juges de libérer tel, d’emprisonner tel autre.
Monday, July 28, 2008
PROSECUTOR DEL PONTE: “The Legacy of the ICTR – the Creation of Legal Impunity”
Exerpts from: PEACE AND PUNISHMENT: THE SECRET CONFLICT BETWEEN POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE[1]
Evidence of Kagame/RPF war crimes within ICTR jurisdiction sufficient to prosecute.[2]
261-- Carla Del Ponte, in December 1999, had opened investigations into Tutsi officers of the army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) under Kagame’s command. These investigations, known as "special investigations", did not relate to the genocide of Tutsis, the primary mandate of the ICTR, but to the massacres of the genocidaires and ordinary Hutu civilians who fled Rwanda in large numbers before the advance of the RPF…. It would make it possible, at the same time, to short circuit the inclination of Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere to have President Kagame indicted by the ICTR. Since 1998, the French judge had been in charge of the inquiry into the attack on the plane of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana…
262--…The Judge was convinced that Paul Kagame was the instigator of this attack. However, even though his investigations had reached the conclusion that the current Rwandan Président was involved, the immunity granted in France to Heads of State in situ prevented any prosecution there…In November 2001, the Americans were interested in Judge Bruguiere’s progress at the ICTR and questioned Del Ponte on what she knew about Kagame. But they did not at this time make known their opposition to any proceedings against their ally in the area of the Great Lakes, or against his entourage…
263--The International Tribunals were by now perceived as providing justice at too high a price, without quantifiable impact and as having a destabilising effect both in Rwanda and in ex-Yugoslavia: they were simply obstacles to the management of the post-war period… [U.S. Envoy] [Pierre]Prosper remained deaf to the recommendations of the International Tribunal. At the beginning of 2003, he made it more obvious than ever that the Americans wished to subject the court to an entirely political management of its exit strategy….
265--…A side effect of the ICC was to drive the International Tribunal [ICTY/ICTR] out of the Europeans’ concerns; they failed to understand that this abandonment suited the American administration’s crusade against international justice. The great powers from now on had no further scruples in taking the decision to close the court. … The year 2003 was to be the high point of international justice’s difficulties in maintaining its principles in the face of political powerplay…
Rwandan Government maniputates ICTR Prosecutions
…Prosper[3] forced a meeting between the Rwandan leaders and the prosecutor of the International Tribunals Carla del Ponte. For a year relations between Kigali and Arusha had been at a low point. In the summer of 2002, the Rwandan government had, for several weeks, paralysed the genocide trials by preventing the arrival of the witness-victims in Arusha. Del Ponte protested in July, then again in October, to the Security Council of UN…
266--[In December 2002]…Prosper further encouraged Del Ponte to…reopen a dialogue with the Rwandan leaders…The prosecutor accepted readily, because Kigali’s obstructionism was likely to lead to the acquittal of the genocide suspects, for lack of witnesses. Almost all the prosecution witnesses come from Rwanda. This formidable weapon available to the Rwandan capacity was a counter-attack by Kigali to prevail on Del Ponte to give up her investigations parallel to the genocide, aimed at officers of the tutsi army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front…According to independent experts, some thirty thousand Hutu had been killed on Rwandan territory, at the time the army of the FPR was advancing. The Arusha prosecution had catalogued fourteen sites of massacres and was making efforts to go up the chain of command.
Officially, Kagame promised his assistance, but the General-President never intended to hand over a single one of his men to the ICTR. As a result of the pressures exerted during the summer 2002 Del Ponte was forced to order her three investigators to suspend their mission in Rwanda, but she refused to suspend, even temporarily, the work…Unknown to Carla Del Ponte, the American Michael Johnson, who had arrived in September 2002 in Arusha to take over temporarily the duties of the deputy prosecutor…ordered the suspension of the "special investigations". Del Ponte discovered this only in December…responsibility for the investigation was then entrusted to a British substitute, Marks Moore. The Rwandan authorities knew from now on that Del Ponte would not yield. They turned to their powerful American and British allies …
Del Ponte Ordered by the U.S. to drop RPF prosecutions…or else.
267--The arrival of Del Ponte in mid-May 2003 in Washington was the occasion for the two parties to get together. Prosper reassured the prosecutor: the United States was proposing to use their good offices and did not intend to interfere in the discussions. Del Ponte did not suspect for a moment what would occur.
On Wednesday May 14, 2003, at the end of the afternoon…at the State Department… Del Ponte and her advisers took their seats around the table, opposite the Rwandan delegation[4]…Pierre Prosper…took an active role, suggesting the broad outline of the discussions. The game was skewed from the beginning. It was played according to rules pre-established by the Americans and the Rwandan…he ended this first meeting by underlining the need for arriving at an agreement on the transfer of cases to Rwanda.
On Thursday May 15 at 5pm there was a further meeting in the same room of the State Department…The message was clear: The ICTR cannot legitimately conduct investigations against the Tutsi soldiers when it is far from having completed its work on the genocide. The Rwandans did not deny the crimes…
268--They said they wanted to deal with it themselves…Prosper intervened on several occasions to encourage the prosecutor to give up the special investigations to Rwanda…[del Ponte] was ready to grant the Kigali authorities a few months to show evidence of their desire to do justice:
"These crimes exist, they cannot be overlooked. To bring proceedings would be a contribution to reconciliation", she insisted.
But she demanded control of these investigations. Prosper tried to dissuade her from this: "Rwanda would lead the inquiries and the proceedings…But in a Rwanda dominated by the Tutsi soldiers…Del Ponte…was unable to allow them to be in sole charge of the possible prosecutions nor give up her primacy in the trials…as Prosper insistently suggested…Prosper proposed that these should be summarized, in the next few days, in a document which could be used as a basis for future negotiations…
269--Friday May 16, at 11 a.m….Del Ponte was at the State Department to discuss the ICTY. Prosper and his advisers …present a document to her entitled "Summary of the conclusions between the government of Rwanda and the ICTR"…Taken by surprise, Del Ponte agreed nonetheless to look at the text.
The document was a travesty of the content of the discussions of the previous day. It envisaged the abandonment of all the investigations against suspects belonging to the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) by the ICTR prosecution and their reference to Rwandan jurisdiction, without any guarantee of results. It required the Arusha prosecution to hand over its catalogue of the sites of massacres and also "to share all the evidence with the government of Rwanda", in spite of the prohibition on transmission of witness statements to another jurisdiction without their agreement…. Del Ponte…repeated the position she had expounded the previous day. Prosper invited her to modify the text…
The State Department advisers noted the objections, and promised to make the necessary corrections. …The document arrived the following week at the office in The Hague. The Americans had not modified anything of substance. Under the terms of the alleged "agreement” … The prosecutor of the ICTR would no longer have any control of the investigations nor over the course of possible proceedings and would have to yield all information in her possession to the Rwandan authorities.
270-- Del Ponte rejected the document out of hand…For her part, she informed Kofi Annan’s office: he condemned the American manoeuvre but objected to Del Ponte having exposed herself to State pressure.
Del Ponte ejected from the ICTR for upholding the Security Council Mandate
Prosper[‘s] …government was under obligation to Kigali having already negotiated the quid pro quo. In exchange for the guarantees of impunity against any prosecutions of tutsi soldiers before the TPIR, Kigali was soon to sign a bilateral agreement with the United States which protected American nationals from proceedings before the International Criminal Court….preventing American nationals from being handed over to the ICC. After signing, Kigali would have the benefit of the lifting of the embargo on weapons… substantial military aid from the United States although the war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo was still raging, having already cost more than three million lives... to exploit the mineral and natural resources in the area which are the cause of so much greed.
271-272-- Reprisals were not long in coming. The Americans asked the British to take the lead. A powerful supporter of the ICC, Great Britain would be more convincing as the protagonist in this trial of strength against the International Tribunals. At the end of June, Jack Straw gave to Kofi Annan, while passing through Geneva, a letter requesting the separation of the post of prosecutor, hitherto common to the ICTR and the ICTY, and the appointment of a separate prosecutor for the Arusha Tribunal...the renewal of the Del Ponte’s mandate seemed to suit everyone, with the exception of London and Washington, who wanted to put her out of the game…
...The negotiations between the members of the Security Council to divide Del Ponte’s job, which combined the ICTR and the ICTY began in early July 2003. London and Washington skilfully prepared the ground with the assistance of Kigali. To mobilize diplomatic support, the Rwandan authorities, from the very start of June, together with the victims’ organisations, got up a virulent campaign against the ICTR. Kigali was thus able to denounce a "part-time" prosecutor…[t]he Americans and the British claimed that she did not devote enough time to Arusha… The arguments appeared convincing and the majority of the members of the Security Council received the proposal favourably.
Little did they suspect a manoeuvre motivated by the desire to set aside Del Ponte in order to put an end to the "special investigations"…. At the beginning of July, the draft Resolutions began to circulate, initially between the five permanent members then between the ten other non-permanent members of the Security Council. The Americans and British were pulling the strings but continued to deny their involvement. They represented to their partners that the initiative came from Kofi Annan… But Kofi Annan was not ready for a new confrontation with the Americans.
…Disillusioned, Iqbal Riza confided privately to Del Ponte: "Its all politics. It should not have happened like this, but everything is politicized.” Del Ponte responded "It is unfair that politics undermines our work. I find it wounding to see that we have managed to ridicule the principles of international justice just because Kagamé has signed a bilateral agreement [on the ICC with the United States ]…... And Iqbal Riza concluded: "Yes, I know. I recognize the strength of your arguments, I entirely concur, but do not quote me publicly ".
The American and British manoeuvring caused a reaction in France which... fought successfully for a mention of the "special investigations" in the resolution. The final text invited Rwanda "to intensify [ its ] co-operation with the ICTR in particular on the investigations into the Rwandan Patriotic Army".
Supported by several members of the Security Council, Paris also managed to block the original Anglo-American proposal...London and Washington’s initiative was to be emptied of its substance, except for the ousting of Del Ponte from the ICTR. ..the fifteen members of the Security Council did not want to take responsibility for demanding a dead halt to the investigations, thus giving impunity to top leaders who were already in the prosecution’s sight…[But] [a]ccording to the terms of Security Council resolution 1503 of August 28, 2003, the Tribunal from now on, was required to concentrate its activity on "those principally responsible" for the crimes committed in ex-Yugoslavia.
-…Carla Del Ponte was excluded from the ICTR prosecution with immediate effect.
[1] Paix et chatiment : les guerres de la politique The author, Ms. Florence Hartmann, has been a close associate of former ICTR/ICTY Chief Prosecutor for the time period covered in the book. [Flarion Publishers, Paris, Sept. 10, 2007]. Numbers refer to the original pagination in the French text:
[2] Subtitles NOT in the original [ed.] Editing of translated text by: Prof. Peter Erlinder, Lead Ntabakuze Defence Counsel in Military 1 and President of ADAD, the defence counsel interests at the ICTR and pas- President of the National Lawyers Guild, NY,NY. peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu
[3] Peter “Pierre” Prosper was the lead prosecutor in the Akeyesu Case at the ICTR and was appointed Ambassador for War Crimes and served in the U.S. State Department.
[4] The Rwandan delegation was composed of Gerald Gahina, Prosecutor General of Rwanda, Martin Ngoga, Rwandan liaison officer at the ICTR, and Richard Sezibera, Rwandan ambassador to the United Nations
Exerpts from: PEACE AND PUNISHMENT: THE SECRET CONFLICT BETWEEN POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE[1]
Evidence of Kagame/RPF war crimes within ICTR jurisdiction sufficient to prosecute.[2]
261-- Carla Del Ponte, in December 1999, had opened investigations into Tutsi officers of the army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) under Kagame’s command. These investigations, known as "special investigations", did not relate to the genocide of Tutsis, the primary mandate of the ICTR, but to the massacres of the genocidaires and ordinary Hutu civilians who fled Rwanda in large numbers before the advance of the RPF…. It would make it possible, at the same time, to short circuit the inclination of Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere to have President Kagame indicted by the ICTR. Since 1998, the French judge had been in charge of the inquiry into the attack on the plane of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana…
262--…The Judge was convinced that Paul Kagame was the instigator of this attack. However, even though his investigations had reached the conclusion that the current Rwandan Président was involved, the immunity granted in France to Heads of State in situ prevented any prosecution there…In November 2001, the Americans were interested in Judge Bruguiere’s progress at the ICTR and questioned Del Ponte on what she knew about Kagame. But they did not at this time make known their opposition to any proceedings against their ally in the area of the Great Lakes, or against his entourage…
263--The International Tribunals were by now perceived as providing justice at too high a price, without quantifiable impact and as having a destabilising effect both in Rwanda and in ex-Yugoslavia: they were simply obstacles to the management of the post-war period… [U.S. Envoy] [Pierre]Prosper remained deaf to the recommendations of the International Tribunal. At the beginning of 2003, he made it more obvious than ever that the Americans wished to subject the court to an entirely political management of its exit strategy….
265--…A side effect of the ICC was to drive the International Tribunal [ICTY/ICTR] out of the Europeans’ concerns; they failed to understand that this abandonment suited the American administration’s crusade against international justice. The great powers from now on had no further scruples in taking the decision to close the court. … The year 2003 was to be the high point of international justice’s difficulties in maintaining its principles in the face of political powerplay…
Rwandan Government maniputates ICTR Prosecutions
…Prosper[3] forced a meeting between the Rwandan leaders and the prosecutor of the International Tribunals Carla del Ponte. For a year relations between Kigali and Arusha had been at a low point. In the summer of 2002, the Rwandan government had, for several weeks, paralysed the genocide trials by preventing the arrival of the witness-victims in Arusha. Del Ponte protested in July, then again in October, to the Security Council of UN…
266--[In December 2002]…Prosper further encouraged Del Ponte to…reopen a dialogue with the Rwandan leaders…The prosecutor accepted readily, because Kigali’s obstructionism was likely to lead to the acquittal of the genocide suspects, for lack of witnesses. Almost all the prosecution witnesses come from Rwanda. This formidable weapon available to the Rwandan capacity was a counter-attack by Kigali to prevail on Del Ponte to give up her investigations parallel to the genocide, aimed at officers of the tutsi army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front…According to independent experts, some thirty thousand Hutu had been killed on Rwandan territory, at the time the army of the FPR was advancing. The Arusha prosecution had catalogued fourteen sites of massacres and was making efforts to go up the chain of command.
Officially, Kagame promised his assistance, but the General-President never intended to hand over a single one of his men to the ICTR. As a result of the pressures exerted during the summer 2002 Del Ponte was forced to order her three investigators to suspend their mission in Rwanda, but she refused to suspend, even temporarily, the work…Unknown to Carla Del Ponte, the American Michael Johnson, who had arrived in September 2002 in Arusha to take over temporarily the duties of the deputy prosecutor…ordered the suspension of the "special investigations". Del Ponte discovered this only in December…responsibility for the investigation was then entrusted to a British substitute, Marks Moore. The Rwandan authorities knew from now on that Del Ponte would not yield. They turned to their powerful American and British allies …
Del Ponte Ordered by the U.S. to drop RPF prosecutions…or else.
267--The arrival of Del Ponte in mid-May 2003 in Washington was the occasion for the two parties to get together. Prosper reassured the prosecutor: the United States was proposing to use their good offices and did not intend to interfere in the discussions. Del Ponte did not suspect for a moment what would occur.
On Wednesday May 14, 2003, at the end of the afternoon…at the State Department… Del Ponte and her advisers took their seats around the table, opposite the Rwandan delegation[4]…Pierre Prosper…took an active role, suggesting the broad outline of the discussions. The game was skewed from the beginning. It was played according to rules pre-established by the Americans and the Rwandan…he ended this first meeting by underlining the need for arriving at an agreement on the transfer of cases to Rwanda.
On Thursday May 15 at 5pm there was a further meeting in the same room of the State Department…The message was clear: The ICTR cannot legitimately conduct investigations against the Tutsi soldiers when it is far from having completed its work on the genocide. The Rwandans did not deny the crimes…
268--They said they wanted to deal with it themselves…Prosper intervened on several occasions to encourage the prosecutor to give up the special investigations to Rwanda…[del Ponte] was ready to grant the Kigali authorities a few months to show evidence of their desire to do justice:
"These crimes exist, they cannot be overlooked. To bring proceedings would be a contribution to reconciliation", she insisted.
But she demanded control of these investigations. Prosper tried to dissuade her from this: "Rwanda would lead the inquiries and the proceedings…But in a Rwanda dominated by the Tutsi soldiers…Del Ponte…was unable to allow them to be in sole charge of the possible prosecutions nor give up her primacy in the trials…as Prosper insistently suggested…Prosper proposed that these should be summarized, in the next few days, in a document which could be used as a basis for future negotiations…
269--Friday May 16, at 11 a.m….Del Ponte was at the State Department to discuss the ICTY. Prosper and his advisers …present a document to her entitled "Summary of the conclusions between the government of Rwanda and the ICTR"…Taken by surprise, Del Ponte agreed nonetheless to look at the text.
The document was a travesty of the content of the discussions of the previous day. It envisaged the abandonment of all the investigations against suspects belonging to the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) by the ICTR prosecution and their reference to Rwandan jurisdiction, without any guarantee of results. It required the Arusha prosecution to hand over its catalogue of the sites of massacres and also "to share all the evidence with the government of Rwanda", in spite of the prohibition on transmission of witness statements to another jurisdiction without their agreement…. Del Ponte…repeated the position she had expounded the previous day. Prosper invited her to modify the text…
The State Department advisers noted the objections, and promised to make the necessary corrections. …The document arrived the following week at the office in The Hague. The Americans had not modified anything of substance. Under the terms of the alleged "agreement” … The prosecutor of the ICTR would no longer have any control of the investigations nor over the course of possible proceedings and would have to yield all information in her possession to the Rwandan authorities.
270-- Del Ponte rejected the document out of hand…For her part, she informed Kofi Annan’s office: he condemned the American manoeuvre but objected to Del Ponte having exposed herself to State pressure.
Del Ponte ejected from the ICTR for upholding the Security Council Mandate
Prosper[‘s] …government was under obligation to Kigali having already negotiated the quid pro quo. In exchange for the guarantees of impunity against any prosecutions of tutsi soldiers before the TPIR, Kigali was soon to sign a bilateral agreement with the United States which protected American nationals from proceedings before the International Criminal Court….preventing American nationals from being handed over to the ICC. After signing, Kigali would have the benefit of the lifting of the embargo on weapons… substantial military aid from the United States although the war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo was still raging, having already cost more than three million lives... to exploit the mineral and natural resources in the area which are the cause of so much greed.
271-272-- Reprisals were not long in coming. The Americans asked the British to take the lead. A powerful supporter of the ICC, Great Britain would be more convincing as the protagonist in this trial of strength against the International Tribunals. At the end of June, Jack Straw gave to Kofi Annan, while passing through Geneva, a letter requesting the separation of the post of prosecutor, hitherto common to the ICTR and the ICTY, and the appointment of a separate prosecutor for the Arusha Tribunal...the renewal of the Del Ponte’s mandate seemed to suit everyone, with the exception of London and Washington, who wanted to put her out of the game…
...The negotiations between the members of the Security Council to divide Del Ponte’s job, which combined the ICTR and the ICTY began in early July 2003. London and Washington skilfully prepared the ground with the assistance of Kigali. To mobilize diplomatic support, the Rwandan authorities, from the very start of June, together with the victims’ organisations, got up a virulent campaign against the ICTR. Kigali was thus able to denounce a "part-time" prosecutor…[t]he Americans and the British claimed that she did not devote enough time to Arusha… The arguments appeared convincing and the majority of the members of the Security Council received the proposal favourably.
Little did they suspect a manoeuvre motivated by the desire to set aside Del Ponte in order to put an end to the "special investigations"…. At the beginning of July, the draft Resolutions began to circulate, initially between the five permanent members then between the ten other non-permanent members of the Security Council. The Americans and British were pulling the strings but continued to deny their involvement. They represented to their partners that the initiative came from Kofi Annan… But Kofi Annan was not ready for a new confrontation with the Americans.
…Disillusioned, Iqbal Riza confided privately to Del Ponte: "Its all politics. It should not have happened like this, but everything is politicized.” Del Ponte responded "It is unfair that politics undermines our work. I find it wounding to see that we have managed to ridicule the principles of international justice just because Kagamé has signed a bilateral agreement [on the ICC with the United States ]…... And Iqbal Riza concluded: "Yes, I know. I recognize the strength of your arguments, I entirely concur, but do not quote me publicly ".
The American and British manoeuvring caused a reaction in France which... fought successfully for a mention of the "special investigations" in the resolution. The final text invited Rwanda "to intensify [ its ] co-operation with the ICTR in particular on the investigations into the Rwandan Patriotic Army".
Supported by several members of the Security Council, Paris also managed to block the original Anglo-American proposal...London and Washington’s initiative was to be emptied of its substance, except for the ousting of Del Ponte from the ICTR. ..the fifteen members of the Security Council did not want to take responsibility for demanding a dead halt to the investigations, thus giving impunity to top leaders who were already in the prosecution’s sight…[But] [a]ccording to the terms of Security Council resolution 1503 of August 28, 2003, the Tribunal from now on, was required to concentrate its activity on "those principally responsible" for the crimes committed in ex-Yugoslavia.
-…Carla Del Ponte was excluded from the ICTR prosecution with immediate effect.
[1] Paix et chatiment : les guerres de la politique The author, Ms. Florence Hartmann, has been a close associate of former ICTR/ICTY Chief Prosecutor for the time period covered in the book. [Flarion Publishers, Paris, Sept. 10, 2007]. Numbers refer to the original pagination in the French text:
[2] Subtitles NOT in the original [ed.] Editing of translated text by: Prof. Peter Erlinder, Lead Ntabakuze Defence Counsel in Military 1 and President of ADAD, the defence counsel interests at the ICTR and pas- President of the National Lawyers Guild, NY,NY. peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu
[3] Peter “Pierre” Prosper was the lead prosecutor in the Akeyesu Case at the ICTR and was appointed Ambassador for War Crimes and served in the U.S. State Department.
[4] The Rwandan delegation was composed of Gerald Gahina, Prosecutor General of Rwanda, Martin Ngoga, Rwandan liaison officer at the ICTR, and Richard Sezibera, Rwandan ambassador to the United Nations
Sunday, July 27, 2008
TRIBUNAL PENAL INTERNATIONAL POUR LE RWANDA
CHAMBRE DE PREMIERE INSTANCE III
Devant : Khalida Rachid Khan, Presiding
Joseph Asoka Nihal De Silva
Emile Francis Short
Greffe Monsieur Adama Dieng
Date : 10 April 2008
LE PROCUREUR
CONTRE
Ildephonse HATEGEKIMANA
Case No. ICTR-2000-551
ICTR-ADAD Submissions as Amicus Curiae
(ICTR Association des Avocats de la Defence/ ICTR Association of Defence Counsel)
LE BUREAU DU PROCUREUR DEFENCE COUNSEL
Hassan Bubacar Jallow Roberto Ahlonko Dovi
Bongani Majola Ata-Quam Dovi-Avouyi
Silvana Arbia
Alex Obote-Odora ADAD BUREAU
Richard Karegyesa
George Mugwanya Prof. Peter Erlinder, Pres. (U.S.)
Inneke Onsea Me. Otachi O Bw’amanwa, V.P. (Kenya)
Francois Nsanzuwera Me. M. Sahinkuye, Gen. Sec (Denmark)
Florida Kabasinga Me. Christopher Black (Canada)
Me. Nathalie Leblanc (Canada)
Me. John Philpot (Canada)
INTRODUCTION
“It is unfair that politics undermines our work. I find it wounding to see that
we have managed to ridicule the principles of international justice…”
…..Former ICTR Chief Prosecutor Hon. Carla Del Ponte[1]
Pursuant to the March 20, 2008 Decision of this Honorable Chamber, the following is submitted on behalf of ADAD as Amicus Curiae in the above-captioned case, with thanks to the Chamber for an enlargement of time for the submission in light of communication difficulties between Arusha and the United States. These submissions are made with the intention of assisting the Chamber in determining whether the Government of the Republic of Rwanda (hereinafter, the Kagame Government), which deposed the previous government (hereinafter the Habyarimana Government) by force of arms, is the proper situs of trials and other functions now within the jurisdiction of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
The focus of the ADAD submissions are factual, and are based upon the collective experience of dozens of defence counsel at the ICTR who have gained an in-depth familiarity with the actual functioning of the ICTR, as mandated by the Chamber. All of these observations, of course, are supportive of the more strictly legal arguments which can be advanced by attorneys for the Accused and other Amici. For the following reasons, ADAD objects to the transfer of any UN-ICTR functions to the Kagame Government now, or in the future.
I. Pending United Nations Member-State Indictments and INTERPOL Warrants
Charging Leading Members of the Kagame Government with the Very Crimes Being Prosecuted at the ICTR, Disqualifies Rwanda as a Proper Venue for Further Proceedings Related to Any Crimes Committed in Rwanda in 1994.
1. As this Chamber is well aware, the judiciary of two United Nations Member-States (one of which is a member of the Security Council) have issued Indictments and INTERPOL warrants for high-ranking members of the Kagame Government. Judge Bruguiere of France has recommended to former Secretary General Annan that the ICTR undertake the prosecution of the Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the assassination of former Rwandan President Habyarimana (and the former Burundian President and second Burundian “Hutu” president assassinated in 6 months[2]). (See generally, Bruguiere Indictment issued by the judiciary of France (November 2006)[3], Florence Hartman, “Peace and Punishment…” (Sept. 2007), Carla Del Ponte, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals,” (April 2008) infra ).
2. On February 8, 2008, a second Indictment and INTERPOL warrant alleging the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide were issued by Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles of Spain for some 40 high-ranking members of the Kagame Government, and alleging the responsibility of Rwandan President Kagame, who could not be charged in Spanish domestic courts, but who is amenable to the jurisdiction of the ICTR. (See Annex 1, 182 pp. Andreu Indictment issued by the judiciary of Spain, February 8, 2008).
3. If the ICTR, and this Chamber, transfers trials, detainees, and other ICTR matters to the jurisdiction of the Kagame Government, it will be the first time in history that any International Tribunal has transferred matters within its mandate to a government whose members are under Indictment for War Crimes, much less alleged war crimes that occurred within the Mandate of that Tribunal, itself.
4. Were this to become the precedent to be followed by the International Criminal Court and future international tribunals, this Tribunal will have established precedent that undermines both exercise of universal jurisdiction by Member-States in the investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, it will establish the appearance of a United Nations created “impunity” more dependent upon political considerations and influence by powerful Member-States, rather than international jurisprudence and the Rule of Law. (See Annex 2, Excerpts from Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment” and the recently published memoire of former Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals,” April 2008)
II. Transfer of UN-ICTR Proceedings to the Kagame Government Will Enshrine
The ICTR as the First Tribunal in History, Mandated to Prosecute Both Sides to a Conflict,
that Did Not Fulfill Its Mandate, for Reasons Now Known to be Political[4]
5. As the Chamber is well aware, the Security Council Mandate that established this Tribunal charged the Tribunal, and the Office of the Prosecutor, with investigating and prosecuting all crimes committed in Rwanda during the calendar year 1994, irrespective of the association of the alleged perpetrators with either the Kagame Government, or the Habyarimana Government.[5]
6. This historic undertaking followed the precedent established by the Tokyo and Nuremburg Tribunals following World War II in which leaders of nations engaged in that war where held accountable for crimes committed by those under their influence and command, which were organized and carried out by the Allied Forces who eventually established the United Nations.
7. By design, these Tribunals were intended to focus entirely on crimes committed by the defeated forces and, though extreme care was taken to ensure that the proceedings not be perceived as “show trials” or “victor’s justice,” with a high degree of success. However, an apparent policy decision was made to avoid touching on crimes committed by the Allied Forces, such as the fire-bombing of Dresden or massacres of civilians on the Eastern or Western Front in Europe, or the fire-bombing of Tokyo or the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
8. The United Nations Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda were established with a completely different Mandate by the World’s most respected international forum, the Security Council of the United Nations, to investigate and prosecute all crimes committed during the wars that swept each nation.
9. In the case of the ICTY, this Mandate has been fulfilled in that some members of each side of the four primary participants to the conflict in the Former Yugoslavia have been held to account for the crimes committed on all side during that war.
10. However, in the case of the ICTR, the Chambers have been deprived of any opportunity to evaluate or consider alleged crimes committed by the Kagame Government after July 15, 1994, or by the Rwandan Patriotic Front or the Rwandan Patriotic Army, which was commanded by then General Paul Kagame. (Annex 3, Affidavit of former ICTR Chief Investigator Michael Hourigan, Military-I Exhibit DNT 365. See generally, Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment” and Del Ponte, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals”)[6]
11. The ICTR, then, and all of us associated with this Tribunal must accept that history will either judge that the four-year war in Rwanda is either: (a) the first war in history in which only ONE side committed crimes worthy of note, or (b) the ICTR Chambers have been deprived of evidence of crimes committed by both sides, not by design like the Tokyo and Nuremburg Tribunals, but by other means designed to frustrate the Mandate of the ICTR, itself.
12. Since it is unlikely that the Rwanda War was absolutely unique in history (with respect to crimes having been committed by only one side to the conflict) each of us associated with the ICTR will have to judge whether we will insist on the Security Council Mandate being respected, and furthered, to the extent we are able to do so, or whether we will become complicit in what history is sure to judge a magnificent manipulation, as more of the actual history of the Rwanda War comes to be known to the World.
13. As this foregoing relates to the issue before the Chamber now, the question is not only whether this will be the first time in history that trials, detainees and other matters are put in the hands of indicted war criminals by a United Nations body, but whether this will occur when the evidence of the alleged war crimes committed by the Kagame Government are already in the public record of the ICTR in the Military-1 and Military-II Trial records. (See, infra).[7]
III. Evidence of Kagame Government Crimes, Already in the ICTR Public Record,
Disqualify Rwanda as a Proper Venue for the Transfer of Any ICTR Proceedings.
14. Much of the evidence cited in the French and Spanish Indictments (Annex 1 and Bruguiere Indictment) has long been present in the ICTR public record, primarily to be found in the Military-I Trial, and the ongoing Military-II Trial, because both were the first trials in which the overall responsibility for crimes committed during the four-year Rwanda War were formally at issue and the assassination of President Habyarimana was found to be relevant to the Defence evidence explaining what actually occurred in Rwanda in 1994, which has not been made known to the ICTR Chambers by the OTP.[8] This evidence includes, but is not limited to:
a. The assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994 was carried out as a military operation that was a prelude to a final assault by the RPA to seize power at any cost (Annex 3, DNT 365-Hourigan Affidavit, DNT-366 Deme Affidavit, Bruguiere Indictment; testimony of former RPA Lt. Abdul Ruzibiza and others).
b. Testimony before ICTR Chamber I (Judge Mose Presiding) of former RPA Officer Lt. Abdul Ruzibiza of March 9/10/11, 2006 in the Military-I Trial and the book of Lt Ruzibiza, which is in evidence in Military-I,[9] tending to establish that he and other RPF officers were personally involved in the assassination of former President Habyarimana and the Burundian President on April 6, 1994 at the direction of then-General Kagame;
c. Former RPA Lt. Ruzibiza’s testimony, of March 9 and 10, 2006 was corroborated by other RPA officers, in the public record of the Military-I and Military-II Trials, who testified for the defence, but who were well-known to the OTP for many years and whose evidence was withheld from the ICTR Chambers by the OTP, including Military-I witnesses (as well as other witnesses in Military-II):
1. BRA-1
2. ALL-42
3. LX-1
d. The responsibility of former General Kagame for the assassination of the Presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994 was also the subject of the Affidavits of former Chief OTP Investigator, Michael Hourigan, Q.C. and Amadou Deme, the former Chief Military Intelligence Officer for UNAMIR General Dallaire, which unequivocally state that the evidence necessary to prosecute President Kagame for both of these crimes, at least, was presented to Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour in early 1997. Both of which were also submitted into evidence in the Military-I Trial and are a matter of public record. (See Annex 3, Affidavit of Hourigan, Military-I Exhibit 365 and the Affidavit of Amadou Deme. Military-I Proposed Exhibit 366).
e. References to additional specific evidence suggesting that the assassination of these two Presidents at the hands of the RPA can be found in both the French and Spanish Indictments (See, Andreu and Bruguire Indictments) which have not been presented to the ICTR Chambers by the OTP, but are now in the public record before for this Chamber, and all concerned parties.
15. Evidence of other crimes committed by the RPA during 1994 in Rwanda, many of which have been charged to members of the former Habyarimana Government or the legal successor government established on April 8, 1998[10] by the OTP, include:
a. Assassination of national and local political leaders in late 1993 and early 1994 by elements of the RPA or RPA-trained civilians as part of a destabilization campaign in preparation for a final assault to seize power, which occurred after April 1, 1994.[11]
b. RPA rejection of the Arusha Accord settlement supported by all parties, including the United States (See Annex 4, Cable from U.S. Embassy in Kigali to U.S. Embassy in Kampala, U.S. Ambassador Rawson, April 1, 1994 describing RPA blocking of Arusha Accords settlement, NOT the Habyarimana Government as asserted by the ICT-OTP, which was contrary to U.S. State Department policy, also an Exhibit in Military-I).
c. The planned assassination of President Habyarimana as a pre-cursor to a pre-planned final assault which began on the night of April 6, 1994, in response to civilian killings as alleged by the OTP. (See testimony of former RPS officer BRA-1 who was based in RPA Mulindi Headquarters on April 6, 1994).
d. According to Gen. Dallaire, and UN-OLA, there was no coup but rather a re-organization of a civilian government authorized by the 1992 Rwandan Constitution and the April 8 Government was a legal representative with United Nations recognition. (See, May 25, 1994 Code Cable from Ralph Zacklin Chief, UN-Office of Legal Affairs, Military-1 Exhibit DNT 193)
e. The lawful successor- Interim Government and military made repeated overtures to the RPA to enter into an unconditional cease-fire, which was necessary to permit troops to withdraw from the front to put-down civilian massacres touched off by the assassination of President Habyarimana and the renewed invasion by the RPA.
d. UNHCR Report of May 17, 1994 (See, Annex 5) and Military-1 Exhibit DNT 259 describing massive killing of civilians by the RPA in southeastern Rwanda, in the general vicinity of Kibungo, that had been occurring long before that date.
e. Massive killings in northeast Rwanda, in and around Byumba in early May when the RPA seized the city, most of which have been charged to the former Habyarimana or Interim Government forces. (Testimony of Abdul Ruzibiza, BRA-1 and others).
f. Confirmation of on-going military-style killings in areas controlled by the RPA in the southeast, which were confirmed by UNCHR human rights investigator Gersony and contemporaneous reports published by Human Rights Watch of October 1994, Military-I, Exhibit 261 and Amnesty International of September 1994, Military-I, Exhibit 258.
IV. ICTR- OTP Has: (a) Withheld Evidence Regarding RPA-Kagame Government Crimes,
(b) Distorted the Functions of the ICTR and its Chambers; and,
(c) is Not a Neutral Proponent Regarding Transfer of ICTR Matters to Rwanda.
16. As already noted above, the Affidavits of the former OTP Investigator Michael Hourigan, Q.C. and members of his investigation team reveal that the complicity of current Rwandan President Kagame in the assassination to two Heads of State on April 6, 1994 was known to Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour no later than January 1997 (See Affidavit of former ICTR-OTP Chief Investigator Hourigan, Military-I Exhibit DNT 365 and related affidavits) and to Judge Carla Del Ponte no later than July 2003, when she publicly announced her intention to prosecute members of the Kagame Government. (See Hartmann and Del Ponte, infra)
17. However, the Affidavit of Amadou Deme, who had been appointed by General Dallaire as his Chief Military Intelligence Officer, indicates that information leading to this conclusion was available long before it was actually presented to Chief Prosecutor Arbour in early 1997. Military-I, proposed Exhibit DNT 366.
18. Also, the above-mentioned documents which describe a much different picture of events in Rwanda in 1994, which include objective Third Party reports of massive crimes against civilians being committed by the RPA, were all derived from United Nations and OTP files. All of which were available for disclosure to the Chambers by the OTP during the entire period of the Tribunal’s operations.[12]
19. UN documents reporting meetings in Kigali between Kofi Annan and Brian Atwood of U.S.AID, and the then-Foreign Minister of Rwanda who had been recently recruited from the former government, Jean Marie Ndagijimana indicate that crimes being committed by the RPA and Kagame Government were known to the United Nations and the United States Government no later than August 1994. (See Gersony Subpoena Motion, Annexes 1-4, Military-I Exhibit DNT 260 and related documentary evidence).
The existence and substance of these meetings were confirmed by Mr. Ndagijimana in his testimony in Military-I in November 2006, as well as his refusal to take-part in suppressing the reports of crimes and his decision to go into exile shortly thereafter.
20. As the Chamber must be aware, in September 2007 the former press-aide to former ICTR-ICTY Prosecutor Hon Carla Del Ponte, Ms. Florence Hartmann, has publicly asserted that Judge Del Ponte had publicly acknowledged what had been known within UN and U.S. circles for many years…that the RPA and Kagame Government were responsible for crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, all of which had been charged to members of the former government and military in the summer of 2003.[13]
21. As described by Ms. Hartmann, Judge Del Ponte was called to Washington, D.C. and ordered to take the same sort of actions that former Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour had ordered her Chief Prosecutor, Q.C. Michael Hourigan to undertake in 1997, i.e. to forget the investigation and suppress the crimes committed by the Kagame Government or the RPA.
22. Significantly, Ms. Del Ponte has not disavowed any significant aspects of these public accounts of her removal from office in the fall of 2003, after she refused the “orders” from former ICTR Prosecutor Pierre Prosper.[14] In addition, recent news accounts indicate that Ms. Del Ponte may be collaborating with Judge Bruguiere to bring some balance to the accounts of the Rwanda War that have been presented to the ICTR Chambers by the OTP.[15]
V. Interference with the ICTR Defence Function, by the Kagame Government,
Disqualifies Rwanda as the Venue of Trials and Other ICTR Functions.
23. First, ADAD would note that even if none of the foregoing were in the public record and the evidence placed before the Chamber was impeccable, which it obviously is not, the suggestion that the United Nations should surrender members of a vanquished government and military, to the care and custody of the government and military that deposed them, is completely contrary to logic, as well as the mandate of the Security Council that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda function in an even-handed manner, untainted by the “victor’s justice” that was necessarily attendant to the Tokyo and Nuremburg Tribunals.
24. However, in addition to the foregoing there is substantial evidence that the Kagame Government continues to consider itself an “interested party” in the ICTR litigation, as well as in maintaining a legal system in Rwanda that makes fair trials impossible, for one or more of the following reasons:
a. The “crime” of Negationism enacted by the Rwandese Parliament[16] criminalizes alternative explanations for the Rwanda War and the last 90 days of that War that might shed light on the involvement of the now well-established involvement of the RPA and Kagame Government in crimes committed during 1994, as well as before and after.
b. ICTR defence counsel, including the undersigned President of ADAD, has been publicly accused of this crime in Rwanda and has been personally denounced by President Kagame for suggesting that the substance of former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Judge Del Ponte’s assertions, and those of former Chief ICTR Investigator Michael Hourigan are correct (Exhibit DNT 365), i.e. that the RPA and members of the Kagame Government are responsible in large part for the crimes that have been charged to their opponents by the ICTR-OTP both before and after Judge Del Ponte was removed from office.
c. In addition, the Rwandese Investigator of undersigned President of ADAD, Emilien Dusabe, was accosted in Rwanda by the Auditor Militaire, after he was obligated by the UN Office in Kigali to report incidents of intimidation of defence witnesses of which he had become aware. Mr. Dusabe was subsequently threatened with prosecution himself, and was obliged to seek asylum in Europe and was lost as an asset to the defence.
d. Similarly, Rukondo defence investigator Nshogoza was seized in Rwanda last summer and charged with “Negationism”[17] until being released, only to be charged by the same ICTR- OTP that has declined to prosecute the Kagame Government, or President Kagame in what only can be seen as an exact example of the close relationship, and unity of interests between the ICTR Office of the Prosecutor, and the Kagame Government, as described in the Hartmann reports of a political quid pro quo at the heart of the decision- making of the ICTR-OTP.[18]
e. These attacks on the defense are not limited to defence staff, but ICTR Defence Counsel have also been seized at the behest of the Kagame Government, as occurred in September 2006 to our ADAD colleague Callixte Gakwaya, a Rwandese ex-patriot with asylum in Mozambique. Me. Gakwaya was arrested by Tanzanian authorities when he arrived in Arusha to meet with his client and was released only with the assistance of the President and the Registry but, as a result he was unable to continue with his ICTR assignment.
f. The foregoing make clear that, even at the ICTR located outside of Rwanda, the Kagame Government has sought to use its considerable power to interfere with the zealous advocacy necessary to ensure the presumption of innocence, even a United Nations undertaking, much less proceedings within the full control of the Kagame Government.
VI. Interference with ICTR Evidence and Witnesses by the Kagame Government Disqualifies Rwanda as a Venue for the Transfer of ICTR Cases, and Other Matters.
25. Former expert witness for the Office of the Prosecutor, Prof. Filip Reyntjens, has submitted an expert report (See, Annex 6) which confirms and summarizes the experience of defence counsel over the past several years. The Kagame Government has played an active role in preparing OTP witnesses to testify at the ICTR in a way that will absolve witnesses of criminal charges of “Negationism” upon their return, by coaching and rewarding witnesses for providing evidence that support the Kagame Government’s posture of assigning all blame for the Rwanda War to those the RPA and Kagame Government defeated.
26. The Report of Prof. Ryentjens documents the use of Ivega and Abuka, supposedly “survivors” organizations, to coordinate and “shape” witness-testimony presented with the assistance of the OTP to ICTR Chambers in a concerted attempt to mislead the Judges of the ICTR as to the actual circumstances which arose during the temporal jurisdiction of the Tribunal, as described by Judge Del Ponte.
27. In addition, numerous ADAD members have reported example after example of particular examples of apparently “manufactured” testimony provided by Rwandans whose very existence now depends on acceptable relations with the Kagame Government, who former ICTR Chief Prosecutor, Judge Del Ponte, has identified as at least partly responsible for crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, which means that evidence must have been manipulated to prevent the crimes of the government with whom the OTP requires cooperation, from coming to the attention of the ICTR Chambers.[19]
28. There are simply too many examples of both documentary evidence and witness testimony having been manipulated by the Kagame Government, or by the OTP (as described by Judge Del Ponte and Chief Investigator Hourigan) with the necessary assistance of the Kagame Government too list. However, ADAD would suggest that a search of the record in any of the cases in which members of this Chamber have participated will provide many specific examples which the Honorable Judges will recall.[20]
VII. The ICT-OTP and Registry Have Apparently Already Begun the Transfer of Cases to Rwanda, thus Making the Decision of this Chamber, or Others, Either Futile or a Nullity.
29. The OTP has, of necessity, relied upon the assistance of the Kagame Government to provide evidence necessary to create cases to put before the ICTR Chambers, since nearly all Prosecution witnesses live under the jurisdiction and control of the Kagame Government in Rwanda, and the laws of Rwanda criminalize dissent from the Kagame Government’s official explanation of the events that resulted in it having risen to power by force.[21]
30. The existence of a close relationship between the Kagame Government, and its United States sponsor, as articulated in the experiences of former ICTR Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte and the policy of protecting the Kagame Government from responsibility by manipulating the OTP function, as demonstrated by the statements and actions of former ICTR Prosecutor Pierre Prosper described in the Hartmann book (which has NOT been disavowed by Ms. Del Ponte and has been expanded upon in her own recently published book) provides additional insights into the manipulations have prevented the ICTR Chambers from facts upon which to base juridically sound rulings.[22]
31. The appearance that the Chambers are merely “window dressing” for a previously established plan to close the Tribunal and to shift all function to Rwanda was heightened during the past month when the visit of U.S. President Bush in Kigali coincided with the public announcement of the ICTR Registry that Rwanda had been approved as a proper venue to which ICTR matters may be transferred. In light of the Spanish Indictment of some 40 members of the Kagame Government for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the announcement was almost amusing in its open disregard for basic principles of neutrality, in the face of growing disclosures of manipulation of the Tribunal by interested UN Member-States, including the United States of America and the Kagame Government, were it not a matter of life and death for UN-ICTR detainees who ADAD members are sworn to properly represent before the ICTR.
32. Moreover, for nearly a year, the ICTR Registry in the person of Mr. Amoussouga with others, has been organizing “training sessions” in Kigali to prepare members of the Kigali Bar to assume responsibility for ICTR cases that apparently will be transferred there. Since there is no evidence of the training of lawyers in other possible transfer venues, one can only conclude that the Registry has already decided the matter, despite the fact that any decision is supposed to be pending before this and other Chambers.[23]
33. A “pre-emptive” transfer seems to have already have occurred…according to both the OTP and the Registry, leaving this Chamber with “deciding” a fait accompli. The question is whether, in light of the foregoing, this Chamber and others, will continue to permit themselves to be manipulated by the OTP submission of incomplete and misleading information to accomplish the real objectives set for the ICTR by powerful Member-States, as described by Judge Del Ponte: to further the political quid pro quo between the major benefactor of the Tribunal, the United States of America, its United Kingdom ally, and its surrogate-armed forces in Central Africa, the Kagame Government and Rwandan Armed Forces.
WHEREFORE, the Association des Avocats de la Defence (ADAD), the only organized defence lawyers organization at the ICTR, grateful for this opportunity to present its views and unique experience as Amicus Curaie, requests that his Honorable Chambers reject any consideration of the transfer of ICTR functions to the Republic of Rwanda and, furthermore, that the Chamber request an extension of the Mandate of the ICTR to complete the investigation and prosecution of all crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, including those of the Kagame Government and the Rwandan Patriotic Army, which have improperly been charged to the ICTR Accused, at least thus far.
In the last analysis the question for each member of the ICTR Chambers, and all of us who have labored long and hard to establish the ICTR as a respectable foundation for the development of international criminal jurisprudence, including Ms. Del Ponte, is…..
How will history judge us, and what we have done here?[24]
The answer is in the hands of the Chamber.
Respectfully submitted, on behalf of ADAD, as amicus curiae
_______________________________ April 10, 2008
Prof. Peter Erlinder, Pres. (U.S.) peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu
ADAD Bureau
Me. Otachi O Bw’amanwa, V.P. (Kenya) gershomotachi@yahoo.com
Me. M. Sahinkuye, Gen. Sec (Denmark) sahinkuye2002@yahoo.fr
Me. Christopher Black (Canada) bar@idirect.com
Me. Nathalie Leblanc (Canada) nathalieleblanc@hotmail.com
Me. John Philpot (Canada) jphilpot@videotron.ca
ANNEXES 1. Indictment of 40-Kagame Government leaders issued by Judge Andreu, February 8, 2008, 182 pp. 2. Translated Excerpts from Hartmann, Paix et chatiment, les guerres de la politique (Flammarion, Paris) September 2007. 3. Affidavit of former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Michael Hourigan with references to documents in the Military-1 record. 4. April 1, 1994 Cable from U.S. Ambassador Rawson to Kampala verifying that the RPF/A bear responsibility for the failure of the Arusha Accords. 5. UNCHR Report of May 17, 1994 reporting massive war-crimes committed by the RPF/A in the area they occupied in eastern Rwanda. 6. Report of former OTP expert-witness Prof. Filip Ryentjens, submitted in Prosecutor v. Kanyabashi, ICTR-96-15-I, 16 August, 2007. 7. ADAD Dossier, submitted to attendees of ICTR Legacy Conference, December 1, 2007. 8. Hirondelle article regarding Hon Carla Del Ponte’s book to be published in Italy April 2008. [1] Quoted in Hartmann, Paix et chatiment: les gueres de la politique (Flammarion, Paris September 2007). [2] The assassination of President Ndadaye in October 1993 by this own military, and the massive killings of Burundian civilians that followed, set the stage for the Rwanda massacres following the assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana and the second Burundian President six months later. Former U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, Robert Flaten, testified in Military-1 that he personally warned Paul Kagame that he would be responsible for the massive civilian-on-civilian killings if he resumed the war. (See testimony of Hon. Robert Flaten, July 2006). The Burundian military, which carried out the assassination and civilian killings was allied with the RPA, as the Chamber is aware. See, Ntabakuze Amended Final Trial Brief Part Three, II. Alternative Explanation for Tragic Events Occurring in Rwanda in 1994, pp. 138-175 and associated Exhibits (May 28, 2007)[3] Introduced into the public record of the Military-I Trial, December 2006/January 2007.[4] Given the revelations of Ms. Del Ponte, QC Michael Hourigan (infra), the evidence already in the public record at the ICTR (references, infra), it seems unlikely that the political manipulations that have prevented the ICTR Chambers from receiving the full-range of evidence available to the OTP will not become generally known in the near future, as historians and others assess the ICTR and the contributions made by its participants to the establishment of a system of international criminal jurisprudence.[5] Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Article I.[6] Documents describing RPF crimes currently being charged to ICTR Accused include: Military-I Exhibits DNT 263A, DNT 263B, DNT 263C, DNT 264, DNT 257, DNT 261, DNT 258, DNT 365, DNT 366, DNT 260, DK 112 (hard-copies available upon request and are referenced for ease of transmission, all are in the public record of the Military-I Trial), as well as testimony of numerous former RPA officers and other witnesses described, infra.[7] See, Ntabakuze Amended Final Trial Brief Part Three, II. Alternative Explanation for Tragic Events Occurring in Rwanda in 1994, pp. 138-175 and associated Exhibits (May 28, 2007)[8] Id. [9] Ruzibiza, “Rwanda, the Secret History” (Paris 2005), referred to by former RPA Lt. Ruzibiza in Military-I testimony March 2006, Exhibit DNT 126.[10] Please see letter from United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Ralph Zacklin, informing UNAMIR personnel in Rwanda that the “interim government” was established pursuant to the 1992 Rwandan Constitution and, in light of the collapse of the Arusha Accords, constituted the legally constituted successor government to that of former President Habyarimana of May 25, 1994. Military-I exhibits DNT 117, DNT 193, DNT 194. Also, see the Code Cable from Gen. Dallaire to DPKO of April 13, 1994 disavowing that the Interim Government represented a “coup”, Military-I Exhibit DNT 108.[11] See Testimony of Abdul Ruzibiza, other former RPA officers and book by Ruzibiza, Military-I Exhibit DNT 216.[12] See, Ntabakuze Amended Final Trial Brief Part Three, II. Alternative Explanation for Tragic Events Occurring in Rwanda in 1994, pp. 138-175 and associated Exhibits (May 28, 2007)[13] Judge Del Ponte announced in the summer of 2003 that evidence sufficient to begin prosecuting the RPA and Kagame Government was known to the OTP at that time. See Hartmann, supra and infra.[14] See, Annex 3, excerpts from Florence Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment” (Flammarion, Paris, September 7, 2007) and recent book by Judge Del Ponte, “Hunt, Me and War Criminals” (April 2008)[15] Id. and Hirondelle, April 2008.[16] L’Article 4 de law Loi Rwandaise Negationisme de Genocide. LOI No 33 Bis/2003 Reprimant le Crime de Genocide Les Crimes Contre L’imanite et les Crimes de Guerre.[17] See Annex 7. Urgent Appeal from ICTR Defence to the International Community, November 24, 2007 in ADAD Dossier for the ICTR Legacy Conference, December 1, 2007, Arusha, TZ.[18] See, Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment”…and Del Ponte, “Hunt…etc”[19] The examples are too numerous to catalogue here, but two good examples were witnesses DH-90 and DH-91 in the Military-I Trial who insisted on testifying anonymously because, as residents of Rwanda, they feared retaliation against themselves or their close associates should the Kagame Government learn that they were “Negationists.” Both were members of a religious order, and of European descent. (See Closed Session testimony of Military-I witnesses DH-90 and Dh-91. There are many, many others in all trials before all Chambers.)[20] It is a matter of public record that the Kagame Government cut-off the flow of witnesses to the Tribunal making it necessary for the former President and the Registrar to assure President Kagame that prosecution witnesses would not be aggressively cross-examined by the Defence and other concessions necessary to restore the flow of prosecution witnesses, discussed in Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment…” and Del Ponte, “Hunt….”[21] Id.[22] Id.[23] Defence Counsel, Me. Peter Robinson, has been engaged to participate in panel discussions and other programs organized by the Registry to “train” Rwandan lawyers to accept cases from the ICTR, as though the Decision of this and other Chambers has already been made. (Additional documentation available upon request).[24] See Annex 7. ADAD Dossier prepared for the ICTR Legacy Conference, December 1, 2007, Arusha, TZ. Including the March 26,2007 letter from ADAD to the Security Council making a public record of the evidence in the ICTR record nearly 6-months before the Hartmann book was published and nearly a year before the February 08, 2008 indictment issued by Judge Andreu.
CHAMBRE DE PREMIERE INSTANCE III
Devant : Khalida Rachid Khan, Presiding
Joseph Asoka Nihal De Silva
Emile Francis Short
Greffe Monsieur Adama Dieng
Date : 10 April 2008
LE PROCUREUR
CONTRE
Ildephonse HATEGEKIMANA
Case No. ICTR-2000-551
ICTR-ADAD Submissions as Amicus Curiae
(ICTR Association des Avocats de la Defence/ ICTR Association of Defence Counsel)
LE BUREAU DU PROCUREUR DEFENCE COUNSEL
Hassan Bubacar Jallow Roberto Ahlonko Dovi
Bongani Majola Ata-Quam Dovi-Avouyi
Silvana Arbia
Alex Obote-Odora ADAD BUREAU
Richard Karegyesa
George Mugwanya Prof. Peter Erlinder, Pres. (U.S.)
Inneke Onsea Me. Otachi O Bw’amanwa, V.P. (Kenya)
Francois Nsanzuwera Me. M. Sahinkuye, Gen. Sec (Denmark)
Florida Kabasinga Me. Christopher Black (Canada)
Me. Nathalie Leblanc (Canada)
Me. John Philpot (Canada)
INTRODUCTION
“It is unfair that politics undermines our work. I find it wounding to see that
we have managed to ridicule the principles of international justice…”
…..Former ICTR Chief Prosecutor Hon. Carla Del Ponte[1]
Pursuant to the March 20, 2008 Decision of this Honorable Chamber, the following is submitted on behalf of ADAD as Amicus Curiae in the above-captioned case, with thanks to the Chamber for an enlargement of time for the submission in light of communication difficulties between Arusha and the United States. These submissions are made with the intention of assisting the Chamber in determining whether the Government of the Republic of Rwanda (hereinafter, the Kagame Government), which deposed the previous government (hereinafter the Habyarimana Government) by force of arms, is the proper situs of trials and other functions now within the jurisdiction of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
The focus of the ADAD submissions are factual, and are based upon the collective experience of dozens of defence counsel at the ICTR who have gained an in-depth familiarity with the actual functioning of the ICTR, as mandated by the Chamber. All of these observations, of course, are supportive of the more strictly legal arguments which can be advanced by attorneys for the Accused and other Amici. For the following reasons, ADAD objects to the transfer of any UN-ICTR functions to the Kagame Government now, or in the future.
I. Pending United Nations Member-State Indictments and INTERPOL Warrants
Charging Leading Members of the Kagame Government with the Very Crimes Being Prosecuted at the ICTR, Disqualifies Rwanda as a Proper Venue for Further Proceedings Related to Any Crimes Committed in Rwanda in 1994.
1. As this Chamber is well aware, the judiciary of two United Nations Member-States (one of which is a member of the Security Council) have issued Indictments and INTERPOL warrants for high-ranking members of the Kagame Government. Judge Bruguiere of France has recommended to former Secretary General Annan that the ICTR undertake the prosecution of the Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the assassination of former Rwandan President Habyarimana (and the former Burundian President and second Burundian “Hutu” president assassinated in 6 months[2]). (See generally, Bruguiere Indictment issued by the judiciary of France (November 2006)[3], Florence Hartman, “Peace and Punishment…” (Sept. 2007), Carla Del Ponte, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals,” (April 2008) infra ).
2. On February 8, 2008, a second Indictment and INTERPOL warrant alleging the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide were issued by Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles of Spain for some 40 high-ranking members of the Kagame Government, and alleging the responsibility of Rwandan President Kagame, who could not be charged in Spanish domestic courts, but who is amenable to the jurisdiction of the ICTR. (See Annex 1, 182 pp. Andreu Indictment issued by the judiciary of Spain, February 8, 2008).
3. If the ICTR, and this Chamber, transfers trials, detainees, and other ICTR matters to the jurisdiction of the Kagame Government, it will be the first time in history that any International Tribunal has transferred matters within its mandate to a government whose members are under Indictment for War Crimes, much less alleged war crimes that occurred within the Mandate of that Tribunal, itself.
4. Were this to become the precedent to be followed by the International Criminal Court and future international tribunals, this Tribunal will have established precedent that undermines both exercise of universal jurisdiction by Member-States in the investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, it will establish the appearance of a United Nations created “impunity” more dependent upon political considerations and influence by powerful Member-States, rather than international jurisprudence and the Rule of Law. (See Annex 2, Excerpts from Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment” and the recently published memoire of former Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals,” April 2008)
II. Transfer of UN-ICTR Proceedings to the Kagame Government Will Enshrine
The ICTR as the First Tribunal in History, Mandated to Prosecute Both Sides to a Conflict,
that Did Not Fulfill Its Mandate, for Reasons Now Known to be Political[4]
5. As the Chamber is well aware, the Security Council Mandate that established this Tribunal charged the Tribunal, and the Office of the Prosecutor, with investigating and prosecuting all crimes committed in Rwanda during the calendar year 1994, irrespective of the association of the alleged perpetrators with either the Kagame Government, or the Habyarimana Government.[5]
6. This historic undertaking followed the precedent established by the Tokyo and Nuremburg Tribunals following World War II in which leaders of nations engaged in that war where held accountable for crimes committed by those under their influence and command, which were organized and carried out by the Allied Forces who eventually established the United Nations.
7. By design, these Tribunals were intended to focus entirely on crimes committed by the defeated forces and, though extreme care was taken to ensure that the proceedings not be perceived as “show trials” or “victor’s justice,” with a high degree of success. However, an apparent policy decision was made to avoid touching on crimes committed by the Allied Forces, such as the fire-bombing of Dresden or massacres of civilians on the Eastern or Western Front in Europe, or the fire-bombing of Tokyo or the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
8. The United Nations Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda were established with a completely different Mandate by the World’s most respected international forum, the Security Council of the United Nations, to investigate and prosecute all crimes committed during the wars that swept each nation.
9. In the case of the ICTY, this Mandate has been fulfilled in that some members of each side of the four primary participants to the conflict in the Former Yugoslavia have been held to account for the crimes committed on all side during that war.
10. However, in the case of the ICTR, the Chambers have been deprived of any opportunity to evaluate or consider alleged crimes committed by the Kagame Government after July 15, 1994, or by the Rwandan Patriotic Front or the Rwandan Patriotic Army, which was commanded by then General Paul Kagame. (Annex 3, Affidavit of former ICTR Chief Investigator Michael Hourigan, Military-I Exhibit DNT 365. See generally, Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment” and Del Ponte, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals”)[6]
11. The ICTR, then, and all of us associated with this Tribunal must accept that history will either judge that the four-year war in Rwanda is either: (a) the first war in history in which only ONE side committed crimes worthy of note, or (b) the ICTR Chambers have been deprived of evidence of crimes committed by both sides, not by design like the Tokyo and Nuremburg Tribunals, but by other means designed to frustrate the Mandate of the ICTR, itself.
12. Since it is unlikely that the Rwanda War was absolutely unique in history (with respect to crimes having been committed by only one side to the conflict) each of us associated with the ICTR will have to judge whether we will insist on the Security Council Mandate being respected, and furthered, to the extent we are able to do so, or whether we will become complicit in what history is sure to judge a magnificent manipulation, as more of the actual history of the Rwanda War comes to be known to the World.
13. As this foregoing relates to the issue before the Chamber now, the question is not only whether this will be the first time in history that trials, detainees and other matters are put in the hands of indicted war criminals by a United Nations body, but whether this will occur when the evidence of the alleged war crimes committed by the Kagame Government are already in the public record of the ICTR in the Military-1 and Military-II Trial records. (See, infra).[7]
III. Evidence of Kagame Government Crimes, Already in the ICTR Public Record,
Disqualify Rwanda as a Proper Venue for the Transfer of Any ICTR Proceedings.
14. Much of the evidence cited in the French and Spanish Indictments (Annex 1 and Bruguiere Indictment) has long been present in the ICTR public record, primarily to be found in the Military-I Trial, and the ongoing Military-II Trial, because both were the first trials in which the overall responsibility for crimes committed during the four-year Rwanda War were formally at issue and the assassination of President Habyarimana was found to be relevant to the Defence evidence explaining what actually occurred in Rwanda in 1994, which has not been made known to the ICTR Chambers by the OTP.[8] This evidence includes, but is not limited to:
a. The assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994 was carried out as a military operation that was a prelude to a final assault by the RPA to seize power at any cost (Annex 3, DNT 365-Hourigan Affidavit, DNT-366 Deme Affidavit, Bruguiere Indictment; testimony of former RPA Lt. Abdul Ruzibiza and others).
b. Testimony before ICTR Chamber I (Judge Mose Presiding) of former RPA Officer Lt. Abdul Ruzibiza of March 9/10/11, 2006 in the Military-I Trial and the book of Lt Ruzibiza, which is in evidence in Military-I,[9] tending to establish that he and other RPF officers were personally involved in the assassination of former President Habyarimana and the Burundian President on April 6, 1994 at the direction of then-General Kagame;
c. Former RPA Lt. Ruzibiza’s testimony, of March 9 and 10, 2006 was corroborated by other RPA officers, in the public record of the Military-I and Military-II Trials, who testified for the defence, but who were well-known to the OTP for many years and whose evidence was withheld from the ICTR Chambers by the OTP, including Military-I witnesses (as well as other witnesses in Military-II):
1. BRA-1
2. ALL-42
3. LX-1
d. The responsibility of former General Kagame for the assassination of the Presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994 was also the subject of the Affidavits of former Chief OTP Investigator, Michael Hourigan, Q.C. and Amadou Deme, the former Chief Military Intelligence Officer for UNAMIR General Dallaire, which unequivocally state that the evidence necessary to prosecute President Kagame for both of these crimes, at least, was presented to Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour in early 1997. Both of which were also submitted into evidence in the Military-I Trial and are a matter of public record. (See Annex 3, Affidavit of Hourigan, Military-I Exhibit 365 and the Affidavit of Amadou Deme. Military-I Proposed Exhibit 366).
e. References to additional specific evidence suggesting that the assassination of these two Presidents at the hands of the RPA can be found in both the French and Spanish Indictments (See, Andreu and Bruguire Indictments) which have not been presented to the ICTR Chambers by the OTP, but are now in the public record before for this Chamber, and all concerned parties.
15. Evidence of other crimes committed by the RPA during 1994 in Rwanda, many of which have been charged to members of the former Habyarimana Government or the legal successor government established on April 8, 1998[10] by the OTP, include:
a. Assassination of national and local political leaders in late 1993 and early 1994 by elements of the RPA or RPA-trained civilians as part of a destabilization campaign in preparation for a final assault to seize power, which occurred after April 1, 1994.[11]
b. RPA rejection of the Arusha Accord settlement supported by all parties, including the United States (See Annex 4, Cable from U.S. Embassy in Kigali to U.S. Embassy in Kampala, U.S. Ambassador Rawson, April 1, 1994 describing RPA blocking of Arusha Accords settlement, NOT the Habyarimana Government as asserted by the ICT-OTP, which was contrary to U.S. State Department policy, also an Exhibit in Military-I).
c. The planned assassination of President Habyarimana as a pre-cursor to a pre-planned final assault which began on the night of April 6, 1994, in response to civilian killings as alleged by the OTP. (See testimony of former RPS officer BRA-1 who was based in RPA Mulindi Headquarters on April 6, 1994).
d. According to Gen. Dallaire, and UN-OLA, there was no coup but rather a re-organization of a civilian government authorized by the 1992 Rwandan Constitution and the April 8 Government was a legal representative with United Nations recognition. (See, May 25, 1994 Code Cable from Ralph Zacklin Chief, UN-Office of Legal Affairs, Military-1 Exhibit DNT 193)
e. The lawful successor- Interim Government and military made repeated overtures to the RPA to enter into an unconditional cease-fire, which was necessary to permit troops to withdraw from the front to put-down civilian massacres touched off by the assassination of President Habyarimana and the renewed invasion by the RPA.
d. UNHCR Report of May 17, 1994 (See, Annex 5) and Military-1 Exhibit DNT 259 describing massive killing of civilians by the RPA in southeastern Rwanda, in the general vicinity of Kibungo, that had been occurring long before that date.
e. Massive killings in northeast Rwanda, in and around Byumba in early May when the RPA seized the city, most of which have been charged to the former Habyarimana or Interim Government forces. (Testimony of Abdul Ruzibiza, BRA-1 and others).
f. Confirmation of on-going military-style killings in areas controlled by the RPA in the southeast, which were confirmed by UNCHR human rights investigator Gersony and contemporaneous reports published by Human Rights Watch of October 1994, Military-I, Exhibit 261 and Amnesty International of September 1994, Military-I, Exhibit 258.
IV. ICTR- OTP Has: (a) Withheld Evidence Regarding RPA-Kagame Government Crimes,
(b) Distorted the Functions of the ICTR and its Chambers; and,
(c) is Not a Neutral Proponent Regarding Transfer of ICTR Matters to Rwanda.
16. As already noted above, the Affidavits of the former OTP Investigator Michael Hourigan, Q.C. and members of his investigation team reveal that the complicity of current Rwandan President Kagame in the assassination to two Heads of State on April 6, 1994 was known to Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour no later than January 1997 (See Affidavit of former ICTR-OTP Chief Investigator Hourigan, Military-I Exhibit DNT 365 and related affidavits) and to Judge Carla Del Ponte no later than July 2003, when she publicly announced her intention to prosecute members of the Kagame Government. (See Hartmann and Del Ponte, infra)
17. However, the Affidavit of Amadou Deme, who had been appointed by General Dallaire as his Chief Military Intelligence Officer, indicates that information leading to this conclusion was available long before it was actually presented to Chief Prosecutor Arbour in early 1997. Military-I, proposed Exhibit DNT 366.
18. Also, the above-mentioned documents which describe a much different picture of events in Rwanda in 1994, which include objective Third Party reports of massive crimes against civilians being committed by the RPA, were all derived from United Nations and OTP files. All of which were available for disclosure to the Chambers by the OTP during the entire period of the Tribunal’s operations.[12]
19. UN documents reporting meetings in Kigali between Kofi Annan and Brian Atwood of U.S.AID, and the then-Foreign Minister of Rwanda who had been recently recruited from the former government, Jean Marie Ndagijimana indicate that crimes being committed by the RPA and Kagame Government were known to the United Nations and the United States Government no later than August 1994. (See Gersony Subpoena Motion, Annexes 1-4, Military-I Exhibit DNT 260 and related documentary evidence).
The existence and substance of these meetings were confirmed by Mr. Ndagijimana in his testimony in Military-I in November 2006, as well as his refusal to take-part in suppressing the reports of crimes and his decision to go into exile shortly thereafter.
20. As the Chamber must be aware, in September 2007 the former press-aide to former ICTR-ICTY Prosecutor Hon Carla Del Ponte, Ms. Florence Hartmann, has publicly asserted that Judge Del Ponte had publicly acknowledged what had been known within UN and U.S. circles for many years…that the RPA and Kagame Government were responsible for crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, all of which had been charged to members of the former government and military in the summer of 2003.[13]
21. As described by Ms. Hartmann, Judge Del Ponte was called to Washington, D.C. and ordered to take the same sort of actions that former Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour had ordered her Chief Prosecutor, Q.C. Michael Hourigan to undertake in 1997, i.e. to forget the investigation and suppress the crimes committed by the Kagame Government or the RPA.
22. Significantly, Ms. Del Ponte has not disavowed any significant aspects of these public accounts of her removal from office in the fall of 2003, after she refused the “orders” from former ICTR Prosecutor Pierre Prosper.[14] In addition, recent news accounts indicate that Ms. Del Ponte may be collaborating with Judge Bruguiere to bring some balance to the accounts of the Rwanda War that have been presented to the ICTR Chambers by the OTP.[15]
V. Interference with the ICTR Defence Function, by the Kagame Government,
Disqualifies Rwanda as the Venue of Trials and Other ICTR Functions.
23. First, ADAD would note that even if none of the foregoing were in the public record and the evidence placed before the Chamber was impeccable, which it obviously is not, the suggestion that the United Nations should surrender members of a vanquished government and military, to the care and custody of the government and military that deposed them, is completely contrary to logic, as well as the mandate of the Security Council that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda function in an even-handed manner, untainted by the “victor’s justice” that was necessarily attendant to the Tokyo and Nuremburg Tribunals.
24. However, in addition to the foregoing there is substantial evidence that the Kagame Government continues to consider itself an “interested party” in the ICTR litigation, as well as in maintaining a legal system in Rwanda that makes fair trials impossible, for one or more of the following reasons:
a. The “crime” of Negationism enacted by the Rwandese Parliament[16] criminalizes alternative explanations for the Rwanda War and the last 90 days of that War that might shed light on the involvement of the now well-established involvement of the RPA and Kagame Government in crimes committed during 1994, as well as before and after.
b. ICTR defence counsel, including the undersigned President of ADAD, has been publicly accused of this crime in Rwanda and has been personally denounced by President Kagame for suggesting that the substance of former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Judge Del Ponte’s assertions, and those of former Chief ICTR Investigator Michael Hourigan are correct (Exhibit DNT 365), i.e. that the RPA and members of the Kagame Government are responsible in large part for the crimes that have been charged to their opponents by the ICTR-OTP both before and after Judge Del Ponte was removed from office.
c. In addition, the Rwandese Investigator of undersigned President of ADAD, Emilien Dusabe, was accosted in Rwanda by the Auditor Militaire, after he was obligated by the UN Office in Kigali to report incidents of intimidation of defence witnesses of which he had become aware. Mr. Dusabe was subsequently threatened with prosecution himself, and was obliged to seek asylum in Europe and was lost as an asset to the defence.
d. Similarly, Rukondo defence investigator Nshogoza was seized in Rwanda last summer and charged with “Negationism”[17] until being released, only to be charged by the same ICTR- OTP that has declined to prosecute the Kagame Government, or President Kagame in what only can be seen as an exact example of the close relationship, and unity of interests between the ICTR Office of the Prosecutor, and the Kagame Government, as described in the Hartmann reports of a political quid pro quo at the heart of the decision- making of the ICTR-OTP.[18]
e. These attacks on the defense are not limited to defence staff, but ICTR Defence Counsel have also been seized at the behest of the Kagame Government, as occurred in September 2006 to our ADAD colleague Callixte Gakwaya, a Rwandese ex-patriot with asylum in Mozambique. Me. Gakwaya was arrested by Tanzanian authorities when he arrived in Arusha to meet with his client and was released only with the assistance of the President and the Registry but, as a result he was unable to continue with his ICTR assignment.
f. The foregoing make clear that, even at the ICTR located outside of Rwanda, the Kagame Government has sought to use its considerable power to interfere with the zealous advocacy necessary to ensure the presumption of innocence, even a United Nations undertaking, much less proceedings within the full control of the Kagame Government.
VI. Interference with ICTR Evidence and Witnesses by the Kagame Government Disqualifies Rwanda as a Venue for the Transfer of ICTR Cases, and Other Matters.
25. Former expert witness for the Office of the Prosecutor, Prof. Filip Reyntjens, has submitted an expert report (See, Annex 6) which confirms and summarizes the experience of defence counsel over the past several years. The Kagame Government has played an active role in preparing OTP witnesses to testify at the ICTR in a way that will absolve witnesses of criminal charges of “Negationism” upon their return, by coaching and rewarding witnesses for providing evidence that support the Kagame Government’s posture of assigning all blame for the Rwanda War to those the RPA and Kagame Government defeated.
26. The Report of Prof. Ryentjens documents the use of Ivega and Abuka, supposedly “survivors” organizations, to coordinate and “shape” witness-testimony presented with the assistance of the OTP to ICTR Chambers in a concerted attempt to mislead the Judges of the ICTR as to the actual circumstances which arose during the temporal jurisdiction of the Tribunal, as described by Judge Del Ponte.
27. In addition, numerous ADAD members have reported example after example of particular examples of apparently “manufactured” testimony provided by Rwandans whose very existence now depends on acceptable relations with the Kagame Government, who former ICTR Chief Prosecutor, Judge Del Ponte, has identified as at least partly responsible for crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, which means that evidence must have been manipulated to prevent the crimes of the government with whom the OTP requires cooperation, from coming to the attention of the ICTR Chambers.[19]
28. There are simply too many examples of both documentary evidence and witness testimony having been manipulated by the Kagame Government, or by the OTP (as described by Judge Del Ponte and Chief Investigator Hourigan) with the necessary assistance of the Kagame Government too list. However, ADAD would suggest that a search of the record in any of the cases in which members of this Chamber have participated will provide many specific examples which the Honorable Judges will recall.[20]
VII. The ICT-OTP and Registry Have Apparently Already Begun the Transfer of Cases to Rwanda, thus Making the Decision of this Chamber, or Others, Either Futile or a Nullity.
29. The OTP has, of necessity, relied upon the assistance of the Kagame Government to provide evidence necessary to create cases to put before the ICTR Chambers, since nearly all Prosecution witnesses live under the jurisdiction and control of the Kagame Government in Rwanda, and the laws of Rwanda criminalize dissent from the Kagame Government’s official explanation of the events that resulted in it having risen to power by force.[21]
30. The existence of a close relationship between the Kagame Government, and its United States sponsor, as articulated in the experiences of former ICTR Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte and the policy of protecting the Kagame Government from responsibility by manipulating the OTP function, as demonstrated by the statements and actions of former ICTR Prosecutor Pierre Prosper described in the Hartmann book (which has NOT been disavowed by Ms. Del Ponte and has been expanded upon in her own recently published book) provides additional insights into the manipulations have prevented the ICTR Chambers from facts upon which to base juridically sound rulings.[22]
31. The appearance that the Chambers are merely “window dressing” for a previously established plan to close the Tribunal and to shift all function to Rwanda was heightened during the past month when the visit of U.S. President Bush in Kigali coincided with the public announcement of the ICTR Registry that Rwanda had been approved as a proper venue to which ICTR matters may be transferred. In light of the Spanish Indictment of some 40 members of the Kagame Government for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the announcement was almost amusing in its open disregard for basic principles of neutrality, in the face of growing disclosures of manipulation of the Tribunal by interested UN Member-States, including the United States of America and the Kagame Government, were it not a matter of life and death for UN-ICTR detainees who ADAD members are sworn to properly represent before the ICTR.
32. Moreover, for nearly a year, the ICTR Registry in the person of Mr. Amoussouga with others, has been organizing “training sessions” in Kigali to prepare members of the Kigali Bar to assume responsibility for ICTR cases that apparently will be transferred there. Since there is no evidence of the training of lawyers in other possible transfer venues, one can only conclude that the Registry has already decided the matter, despite the fact that any decision is supposed to be pending before this and other Chambers.[23]
33. A “pre-emptive” transfer seems to have already have occurred…according to both the OTP and the Registry, leaving this Chamber with “deciding” a fait accompli. The question is whether, in light of the foregoing, this Chamber and others, will continue to permit themselves to be manipulated by the OTP submission of incomplete and misleading information to accomplish the real objectives set for the ICTR by powerful Member-States, as described by Judge Del Ponte: to further the political quid pro quo between the major benefactor of the Tribunal, the United States of America, its United Kingdom ally, and its surrogate-armed forces in Central Africa, the Kagame Government and Rwandan Armed Forces.
WHEREFORE, the Association des Avocats de la Defence (ADAD), the only organized defence lawyers organization at the ICTR, grateful for this opportunity to present its views and unique experience as Amicus Curaie, requests that his Honorable Chambers reject any consideration of the transfer of ICTR functions to the Republic of Rwanda and, furthermore, that the Chamber request an extension of the Mandate of the ICTR to complete the investigation and prosecution of all crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, including those of the Kagame Government and the Rwandan Patriotic Army, which have improperly been charged to the ICTR Accused, at least thus far.
In the last analysis the question for each member of the ICTR Chambers, and all of us who have labored long and hard to establish the ICTR as a respectable foundation for the development of international criminal jurisprudence, including Ms. Del Ponte, is…..
How will history judge us, and what we have done here?[24]
The answer is in the hands of the Chamber.
Respectfully submitted, on behalf of ADAD, as amicus curiae
_______________________________ April 10, 2008
Prof. Peter Erlinder, Pres. (U.S.) peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu
ADAD Bureau
Me. Otachi O Bw’amanwa, V.P. (Kenya) gershomotachi@yahoo.com
Me. M. Sahinkuye, Gen. Sec (Denmark) sahinkuye2002@yahoo.fr
Me. Christopher Black (Canada) bar@idirect.com
Me. Nathalie Leblanc (Canada) nathalieleblanc@hotmail.com
Me. John Philpot (Canada) jphilpot@videotron.ca
ANNEXES 1. Indictment of 40-Kagame Government leaders issued by Judge Andreu, February 8, 2008, 182 pp. 2. Translated Excerpts from Hartmann, Paix et chatiment, les guerres de la politique (Flammarion, Paris) September 2007. 3. Affidavit of former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Michael Hourigan with references to documents in the Military-1 record. 4. April 1, 1994 Cable from U.S. Ambassador Rawson to Kampala verifying that the RPF/A bear responsibility for the failure of the Arusha Accords. 5. UNCHR Report of May 17, 1994 reporting massive war-crimes committed by the RPF/A in the area they occupied in eastern Rwanda. 6. Report of former OTP expert-witness Prof. Filip Ryentjens, submitted in Prosecutor v. Kanyabashi, ICTR-96-15-I, 16 August, 2007. 7. ADAD Dossier, submitted to attendees of ICTR Legacy Conference, December 1, 2007. 8. Hirondelle article regarding Hon Carla Del Ponte’s book to be published in Italy April 2008. [1] Quoted in Hartmann, Paix et chatiment: les gueres de la politique (Flammarion, Paris September 2007). [2] The assassination of President Ndadaye in October 1993 by this own military, and the massive killings of Burundian civilians that followed, set the stage for the Rwanda massacres following the assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana and the second Burundian President six months later. Former U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, Robert Flaten, testified in Military-1 that he personally warned Paul Kagame that he would be responsible for the massive civilian-on-civilian killings if he resumed the war. (See testimony of Hon. Robert Flaten, July 2006). The Burundian military, which carried out the assassination and civilian killings was allied with the RPA, as the Chamber is aware. See, Ntabakuze Amended Final Trial Brief Part Three, II. Alternative Explanation for Tragic Events Occurring in Rwanda in 1994, pp. 138-175 and associated Exhibits (May 28, 2007)[3] Introduced into the public record of the Military-I Trial, December 2006/January 2007.[4] Given the revelations of Ms. Del Ponte, QC Michael Hourigan (infra), the evidence already in the public record at the ICTR (references, infra), it seems unlikely that the political manipulations that have prevented the ICTR Chambers from receiving the full-range of evidence available to the OTP will not become generally known in the near future, as historians and others assess the ICTR and the contributions made by its participants to the establishment of a system of international criminal jurisprudence.[5] Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Article I.[6] Documents describing RPF crimes currently being charged to ICTR Accused include: Military-I Exhibits DNT 263A, DNT 263B, DNT 263C, DNT 264, DNT 257, DNT 261, DNT 258, DNT 365, DNT 366, DNT 260, DK 112 (hard-copies available upon request and are referenced for ease of transmission, all are in the public record of the Military-I Trial), as well as testimony of numerous former RPA officers and other witnesses described, infra.[7] See, Ntabakuze Amended Final Trial Brief Part Three, II. Alternative Explanation for Tragic Events Occurring in Rwanda in 1994, pp. 138-175 and associated Exhibits (May 28, 2007)[8] Id. [9] Ruzibiza, “Rwanda, the Secret History” (Paris 2005), referred to by former RPA Lt. Ruzibiza in Military-I testimony March 2006, Exhibit DNT 126.[10] Please see letter from United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Ralph Zacklin, informing UNAMIR personnel in Rwanda that the “interim government” was established pursuant to the 1992 Rwandan Constitution and, in light of the collapse of the Arusha Accords, constituted the legally constituted successor government to that of former President Habyarimana of May 25, 1994. Military-I exhibits DNT 117, DNT 193, DNT 194. Also, see the Code Cable from Gen. Dallaire to DPKO of April 13, 1994 disavowing that the Interim Government represented a “coup”, Military-I Exhibit DNT 108.[11] See Testimony of Abdul Ruzibiza, other former RPA officers and book by Ruzibiza, Military-I Exhibit DNT 216.[12] See, Ntabakuze Amended Final Trial Brief Part Three, II. Alternative Explanation for Tragic Events Occurring in Rwanda in 1994, pp. 138-175 and associated Exhibits (May 28, 2007)[13] Judge Del Ponte announced in the summer of 2003 that evidence sufficient to begin prosecuting the RPA and Kagame Government was known to the OTP at that time. See Hartmann, supra and infra.[14] See, Annex 3, excerpts from Florence Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment” (Flammarion, Paris, September 7, 2007) and recent book by Judge Del Ponte, “Hunt, Me and War Criminals” (April 2008)[15] Id. and Hirondelle, April 2008.[16] L’Article 4 de law Loi Rwandaise Negationisme de Genocide. LOI No 33 Bis/2003 Reprimant le Crime de Genocide Les Crimes Contre L’imanite et les Crimes de Guerre.[17] See Annex 7. Urgent Appeal from ICTR Defence to the International Community, November 24, 2007 in ADAD Dossier for the ICTR Legacy Conference, December 1, 2007, Arusha, TZ.[18] See, Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment”…and Del Ponte, “Hunt…etc”[19] The examples are too numerous to catalogue here, but two good examples were witnesses DH-90 and DH-91 in the Military-I Trial who insisted on testifying anonymously because, as residents of Rwanda, they feared retaliation against themselves or their close associates should the Kagame Government learn that they were “Negationists.” Both were members of a religious order, and of European descent. (See Closed Session testimony of Military-I witnesses DH-90 and Dh-91. There are many, many others in all trials before all Chambers.)[20] It is a matter of public record that the Kagame Government cut-off the flow of witnesses to the Tribunal making it necessary for the former President and the Registrar to assure President Kagame that prosecution witnesses would not be aggressively cross-examined by the Defence and other concessions necessary to restore the flow of prosecution witnesses, discussed in Hartmann, “Peace and Punishment…” and Del Ponte, “Hunt….”[21] Id.[22] Id.[23] Defence Counsel, Me. Peter Robinson, has been engaged to participate in panel discussions and other programs organized by the Registry to “train” Rwandan lawyers to accept cases from the ICTR, as though the Decision of this and other Chambers has already been made. (Additional documentation available upon request).[24] See Annex 7. ADAD Dossier prepared for the ICTR Legacy Conference, December 1, 2007, Arusha, TZ. Including the March 26,2007 letter from ADAD to the Security Council making a public record of the evidence in the ICTR record nearly 6-months before the Hartmann book was published and nearly a year before the February 08, 2008 indictment issued by Judge Andreu.
SILENCING THE SURVIVING RWANDA REFUGEES
HOW RWANDA MANUFACTURES AND EXPORTS GENOCIDE
keith harmon snow
www.allthingspass.com
An investigation has uncovered an asylum system scandal where bogus Rwandan “refugees” infiltrate the U.S. and U.K. and work as undercover agents to hunt down critics of the Rwandan dictatorship and legitimate refugees and drag them back to Rwanda. This is yet the latest revelation on how the dictatorship in Rwanda manufactures and exports terrorism using an ideology of genocide and how the West supports terrorism by backing its Rwanda proxy. Meanwhile, business in Rwanda is booming and the criminal networks of the Kagame military machine continue to plunder the blood-drenched Congo.
In October 1990, the Ugandan army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF/A) led by Major General Paul Kagame invaded Rwanda.[1] This action set in motion a course of history that determined the fate of millions of innocent people in Central Africa.
After more than 18 years of systematic disinformation about Rwanda there exists a collective ignorance about what really happened in Rwanda and who is responsible. The so-called “Rwanda Genocide” is one of the most widely misunderstood events in contemporary history, and not because the evidence is lacking or because the truth is obscured by butchery.
According to the official story, extremist Hutus in the government and military committed an orchestrated and pre-planned genocide against the Tutsi minority from April 6 to about July 16, [4th July 1994] 1994. [14th July most of Rwandans have crossed the borders before RPF closed them all except the Turquoise zone] In this mythology, some 800,000 to 1.2 million Tutsi were butchered with hoes, axes, and machetes, over the now infamous “100 days of genocide.” [The special envoy to Rwanda Deni Ségui said 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus whereas RPF’s figures show 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus and now 1,2 million]
The real story seems to be that the RPF were the killers to a far greater extent, the majority of the victims were Hutus, and the numbers of dead during those 100 days were far less. The final insult to truth comes in the upside-down assertion that the RPF “stopped the genocide by winning the war.”
Even those experts on “genocide in Rwanda” who do not contest the official story will attest to the myriad complexities that surround accusations and counter accusations about victims and perpetrators in post-1994 Rwanda.[2] Under the new power structure there were strong motivations to accuse the stigmatized Hutus of crimes that were never committed.
By July 1994, the RPF completed its coup d’etat and consolidated its power in Rwanda. The government of Paul Kagame has since then maintained political power and manipulated public sympathy by promoting a highly politicized ideology of genocide.[3]
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.
On February 6, 2008, a Spanish court delivered international arrest warrants against forty of the top military officials in the Rwandan regime. President Paul Kagame was investigated but not indicted but only because heads of state have immunity. The arrest warrants charge the RPF officials with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1990 and 2002.[4]
The Spanish indictments join the November 17, 2006 indictments issued by French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who concluded that the RPF, under the direct orders of Paul Kagame, carried out the surface-to air-missile attacks on the airplane carrying the two presidents.[5]
Now, an investigation has uncovered a scandal where fake Rwandan asylum seekers infiltrate the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (U.K.) and work undercover to hunt down critics and survivors of the Rwandan dictatorship and bring them back to Rwanda. This scandal revolves around networks of informers and agents and it encapsulates all the machinations of the growing industry around “genocide in Rwanda”.
Prejudged by Western human rights organizations, journalists, and mass media, the Rwanda government’s critics and survivors forced to flee for their lives are falsely accused and publicly branded as genocide perpetrators. Shunned as humanity’s lowest criminals, arrested and imprisoned without trial for months or years, legitimate refugees are framed, extradited and neutralized by a government whose top officials have international arrest warrants against them.
Journalists, human rights defenders, businessmen, and ordinary citizens both inside and outside Rwanda are persecuted and neutralized if they deviate from the falsified “victim” and “survivor” ideology used as a political weapon by the military dictatorship of Paul Kagame and his vast network of propagandists, state agents, and foreign backers.
Innocent Rwandan asylum seekers live under perpetual fear of being hunted down, branded as genocide perpetrators, ostracized, and persecuted by the Kagame regime.[6] As examples to follow will show, host governments generally capitulate without investigation or resistance and support the Kagame regime’s requests for arrest and extradition.
Using international legal instruments and institutions, like the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR), Western governments—the U.S., Belgium, Canada and Britain in particular—actively assist the Kagame regime in hunting refugees and critics, because all four governments backed the Rwanda Patriotic Front’s guerrilla war, 1990-1994, and the years of terrorism that have followed, 1994-2008.
REFUGEES FRAMED BY THE BBC
Early one morning in the fall of 2006, a Rwandan national who gained U.K. citizenship after a six year asylum process was confronted on the street as he exited the offices of the London-based charity where he worked.
Waiting for Dr. Vincent Bajinya outside on Pott Street in the brusque early morning London air was Fergal Keane, a prominent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist known for his extensive reportage in Rwanda during the 1994 cataclysm; Keane has maintained a permanent focus on “the Rwanda genocide” since then and has won many awards for his Rwanda reportage.
Without any appointment or prior warning, Fergal Keane shoved a television camera in Dr. Bajinya’s face and began interrogating him about his alleged role as a “Mastermind” of the Rwandan Genocide.[7]
The “Mastermind” accusation has been leveled against refugees in Canada, Belgium, Netherlands and the U.S. as well.[8]
“An investigation by BBC News has revealed that a man—wanted for genocide in Rwanda—is living and working in Britain,” began Fergal Keane’s BBC report of November 6, 2006. “Vincent Bajinya has been working as a doctor and has served on a refugee task force for the government.” [9]
“He’s not a voluntary worker,” Keane continues in a short commentary with racist insinuations, as if former refugees who have been granted British citizenship do not deserve to earn an honest wage. “He’s actually paid to the job.”
To whip up the outrage of BBC news consumers, the final insult to truth and freedom—and to the honest, hard-working British consumer who looks to the BBC for impartial reporting—comes when Fergal Keane “exposes” the fact that “much of that money comes from the British taxpayer.” [10]
Following the BBC reports by Fergal Keane, Dr. Vincent Bajinya was arrested in December 2006 and has spent fifteen months in detention. Dr. Bajinya’s rights were doubly trampled upon by a government that had already granted him citizenship.
Dr. Vincent Bajinya is considered a “Category One Offender” by Rwandan prosecutors. However, the “Category One Offender” status seems to be reserved for the most educated and astute critics of the Kagame regime; in other words, the intellectuals.
“He is just an intellectual Hutu who managed to have a British citizenship and a good employment,” says Rosalie Brown, Vincent Bajinya’s wife of 19 years. “Every person who is not RPF or who does not share the same opinion with the RPF is the enemy. They did not have to do anything wrong. No way. He has the right to be RPF or not. This detention has been like torture for him, an innocent man. My children and I, we suffer a lot for no good reason. The U.K. government should not have arrested [my husband] before it completed an investigation, but it arrested him just because the Rwanda government said to.”[11]
The U.S. and U.K. are both signatory to the 1951 United Nations High Commission for Refugees Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.[12] Under this convention a refugee is assured the same rights to due process and legal protections as any citizen and the host government has a legal obligation to protect refugee’s rights. Certainly, the 1951 Convention forbids anyone from hunting and persecuting any asylum seeker in collaboration with the government that the refugees are fleeing from.
Within days of Fergal Keane’s first report, the entire Western media was abuzz with stories about Dr. Vincent Bajinya. The articles combined the story of Dr. Vincent Bajinya with the story of three other Rwandan refugees “hiding” in the U.K., and the media framed all four refugees as “Most Wanted” criminals and the “Masterminds” of the Rwanda genocide of 1994.
“Rwanda is seeking extradition of four suspected masterminds of the country's 1994 genocide,” Reuters reported on November 7, 2006, “including a medical doctor, who are living and working in Britain, the Justice Minister told Reuters on Tuesday.”[13]
“All these fugitives are living a comfortable life in the United Kingdom but are surely key planners of the 1994 genocide,” Reuters quoted Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda’s Justice Minister. “The dilemma we have is that most of these fugitives have changed their identities, which makes it difficult for us to track them.”[14]
“For the fear of being tracked down and wrongly judged in Rwanda or Arusha [ICTR] one of the three mayors had changed his name and applied for asylum as a former teacher, the other one applied for asylum as a Burundian citizen,” says Patrick Mahoro, a Rwandan Hutu and former U.K. asylum seeker who now has citizenship and lives in Coventry, England.[15] “This was not because what they might have done but because of the fear of being arrested and accused of genocide as it has happened to many others. This was their explanation in the court hearing last year [2007].”[16]
“Dr. Bajinya has never hidden himself,” Mahoro continues. “He became a concern to Kigali when he became a member of a task force advising the U.K. government on re-qualification of refugee health professionals. [People say the issue became so sharp because of his position. He could be a barrier to the RPF infiltrators falsely seeking asylum. So he had to be removed]Privately he is known to have strong views about the RPF, and by becoming a member of that particular task force it was thought he might get close to U.K. officials who do not know the truth about the RPF. He also comes from the same village as [former President Juvenal] Habyarimana.”[17]
According to Rosalie Brown, she and Dr. Vincent Bajinya began fleeing the violence in Rwanda on April 8, 1994. They fled their home in the Rugenge District of Kigali for Gisenyi, where they stayed with extended family until they were forced to flee in July 1994 for fear of persecution by the Kagame regime. Like so many others they flew from the cauldron into the fire: Zaire.[18] For two years they lived in the Mugunga refugee camp near Goma, Zaire, and they fled in August 1996, just before the Hutu refugee camps were attacked in contravention of international law.[19] [I confirm]
The RPF, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for Congo-Zaire (AFDL-CZ) invaded Zaire in September of 1996 and began massacring Hutu refugees by the tens of thousands. The invasion was backed by the Pentagon through bases in Uganda and Rwanda and U.S. administrators downplayed the killing of Hutu refugees.[20] The International Rescue Committee (IRC) reportedly set up at bases nearby and shelled the refugee camps.[21] The genocidal campaign against Hutus swung into high gear as the RPF and UPDF—backed by the Pentagon—chased hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees from Goma to Kinshasa—into Zaire’s forests and swamps where they hunted them down and killed them and destroyed the evidence.[22]
In August 1996, Dr. Vincent Bajinya and his wife Rosalie fled with their two children to Kenya where Dr. Bajinya was employed at the Jomo Kenyatta Hospital; Rosalie Brown went on to London with their two kids (1998) until Dr. Bajinya was able to join them (2000). [confirm. When I fled from Rwanda, I met him in Nairobi where he was working for Kenyatta Hospital]
Meanwhile, unreported by Fergal Keane and the BBC, are the numerous “refugee” and “asylum” cases of Rwandan nationals who have infiltrated the U.K. and U.S. by working the very same asylum system and benefiting from hundreds of thousands of pounds (and dollars) of taxpayer subsidies. [ we got the same issue here in the Netherlands, they say they are refugees or with the government scholarship, they stay in the country as fake students]. [After the Spanish arrest warrants were issued, the Rwandan parliament agreed to send more spies, death squads to Europe because as they said, the RPF interests here are dying out]
Amongst the many asylum seekers who arrived in London and claimed to be fleeing the repression in Rwanda are Tony Kavutse, Ignatius Mugabo, Linda Bihire, Vivenie Mugunga and Moses Kaganda, all of whom used the asylum process to eventually gain British citizenship in the U.K. Most of these are former RPF soldiers, RDF soldiers or military intelligence agents who today continue to work for the Kagame regime.
Tony Kavutse, Moses Kaganda and Vivenie Mugunga are all currently employed at the embassies of the government they claimed to be fleeing: Rwanda. Each used the asylum process to get free housing, medical assistance, psychological counseling, and higher education at elite colleges in England.
And there are other “asylum seekers” claiming persecution by the Rwanda Government whose insider roles as intelligence agents and secretive businessmen make a horrible joke out of U.K. asylum system.
THE GENOCIDAIRE BRAND
In October of 2006, Dr. Vincent Bajinya was working for Praxis, a U.K. non-government organization (NGO) that assists refugees in transition, and for Refugee Nurses Task Force, a 24-member task-force set up by the U.K. government to link refugee nurses with U.K. employers.
“Fergal Keane was waiting for Dr. Bajinya in front of the entrance door of his work,” says Rosalie Brown. “He was just in the street very early in the morning without any contact or warning if I can say! Shock and surprise you know? My husband had never meet Fergal Keane before and now he [Keane] was accusing him of genocide in Rwanda!” [23]I saw the clip on the BBC screen
It was not Fergal Keane’s first visit to the Praxis offices however, and within a week of the auspicious early morning encounter the BBC aired a major story convicting Dr. Vincent Bajinya a priori of genocide and setting the stage for his public ostracism and imminent arrest by U.K. officials.
The BBC documentary reveals that Fergal Keane (or someone whose voice sounds identical) previously visited Dr. Bajinya’s offices at Praxis and covertly filmed him using a hidden camera. Keane begins the four-minute BBC docudrama “undercover” and he confides in viewers that the initial filming was done in “secret”—the admission of secrecy sensationalizes the report and frames the story so that it will appear that Dr. Vincent Bajinya is a “wanted” criminal on the run. The rising chorus of media reports soon declared that Dr. Bajinya changed his name to avoid being detected as a “genocidaire” hiding in London.
The term genocidaire is a French term often used to castigate innocent Hutus as deeply sinister and evil.
“I was with [my husband] in the war,” says Rosalie Brown, “everywhere, all the time, he did not do anything. We fled like everyone else, suffered like every Rwandan, we lost many lovers, family members and friends. We went through the asylum process once we got to the U.K. and on our Rwandan names. This Fergal Keane story is all made up.” [24]
According to numerous sources, Dr. Vincent Bajinya was completely open about his refugee status during the entire process of gaining U.K. citizenship and changed his name after citizenship was granted and for practicality purposes relating to the dictates of work, and marriage, and living in the U.K.
“Why does the Rwanda government suddenly want my husband now in 2007 [sic] after 13 years of war in Rwanda?” says Rosalie Brown. “We all had different names and for our children’s future as they grow up in this country [U.K.] why can we not all have the same name Brown once the law in this country gives us the full rights to do so?” [25]
“Excuse me sir, do you work here?” the voice behind the hidden camera asks Dr. Vincent Bajinya as the short clip opens. Fergal Keane misrepresents the BBC from the start, a telling indication of the misrepresentations to come. He knows that Dr. Bajinya works at the Praxis clinic and he is not interested in the clinic. “Do you know…is the clinic open today? There’s a clinic here…a couple days a week?”[26]
Fergal Keane discredits his reportage further as the film unfolds because he frames the reportage in such a way that Dr. Vincent Bajinya is accused, tried, and convicted in a four minute documentary. But the BBC reports about Dr. Vincent Bajinya are full of inconsistencies and the various reports raise important questions that should be put to Fergal Keane and his producer, Andrew Head.
Using the low-quality images of Dr. Bajinya snatched in secret during the initial visit, Keane traveled to Rwanda to find witnesses who would testify that Dr. Vincent Bajinya was indeed a genocide perpetrator. In Dr. Bajinya’s home village, so we are told, Keane finds the witness he needs.
“Far from London we’ve uncovered evidence tying Dr. Bajinya to horrific crimes,” Fergal Keane announces. The video begins its Rwanda segment showing dark skies over the land of a thousand hills, but quickly jumps to gruesome images of bodies lying along the road.[27] These are the images of gruesome death from 1994 that are recycled over and over in a pornography of African violence that is used to foster the ignorance that has infected the collective consciousness.
“And today in this neighborhood where Dr. Bajinya lived, survivors recall a fanatic who searched for Tutsis at roadblocks,” Fergal Keane continues. “They claim Tutsi civilians, even a three-month old baby, were amongst those killed by militia men he directed.”
Like the fake asylum seekers used by Fergal Keane as sources to frame Dr. Bajinya and pressure Praxis, whom we will soon meet, it seems that his chosen “genocide survivors” also have a lot in common with RPF intelligence agents.
PLANTED SPIES AND AGENTS
In the BBC documentary of November 6, 2006 titled “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” we are introduced to a Rwandan man Keane calls only “Dieudonne”—a “genocide survivor” whom we are told lives in Dr. Bajinya’s former community. The BBC video flashes the man’s name, but the tiny banner is blurry and unreadable.
“Dieudonne is one of several eyewitnesses who told us Bajinya instructed the militia to kill,” says Fergal Keane. “From our photographs Dieudonne identified Dr. Bajinya as the man he saw giving orders for murder.”
The “eyewitness” Dieudonne tells the story of Dr. Bajinya’s supposed crimes in the Kinyarwanda language, while Fergal Keane translates for English viewers. “Bajinya told them, ‘Look, this is not how you kill a man, you're just playing with him. He might survive if you just leave him the way he is.’ So they killed him off. It is an image of Bajinya that stays in my mind.”
However, in the BBC press release of the following day titled “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” the article cites a man named Janvier Mabuye to say exactly the same thing that Fergal Keane claims that the eyewitness Dieudonne is saying in the BBC film.
“Janvier Mabuye says he heard Dr Bajinya ordering the killers to finish off a taxi driver who had already been attacked with machetes. Janvier says: ‘Bajinya told them look this is not how you kill a person, you’re just playing with him. He might survive if you just leave him the way he is. At that point he called a young man and another neighbor and they came and killed him off. That is one of the images that always lasts each time I remember the genocide. It’s one of the images of Bajinya that remains in my mind.’” [28]
The BBC has produced two reports where two different eyewitnesses have made exactly the same accusations, word-for-word, verbatim, against Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
More importantly, the eyewitness Janvier Mabuye[I have heard about him in the Rwandan embassy in Nairobi, and many guys know him in Brussels] who is produced by the BBC for the print stories and a longer video documentary about Dr. Vincent Bajinya, is identified by Rwandan refugees as an RPF intelligence agent who has worked in the Rwandan Embassies in Uganda, Nairobi and Brussels.
On March 29, 2002 Janvier Mabuye was nominated 2nd Secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in Kampala, Uganda; later in 2002 he worked as 1rst Secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.[29] In October 2003, Janvier Mabuye was based in Brussels as 2nd Secretary and Cultural Attaché, a post he held until at least 2005.[30]
In December 2004, Mabuye issued a communiqué from the Rwanda Embassy in Brussels to the Rwandan community informing them how, with the support of the Rwandan Embassy in Brussels, they can acquire investment properties in Rwanda.[31]
Fergal Keane and the BBC have outdone themselves by producing exactly the same accusations by two independent witnesses and by producing a “genocide survivor” who is actually a Rwandan intelligence agent.[32]
“Janvier Mabuye is not from Dr. Bajinya’s neighborhood and he is not a genocide survivor,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “Like many other young Tutsis he left Rwanda after the October 1990 invasion to join the RPF in Uganda.”
From the BBC video we see that Dr. Bajinya is not an expert English speaker. Keane’s method of confrontation forces the entire life and history of another human being—who has lived a reality few of us can fathom—into Keane’s framework of assumptions and biases about what happened in Rwanda and who is responsible and it leaves no room for Dr. Vincent Bajinya or his unique identity to exist. [True, I witnessed the camera’s attack on Dr Bajinya]
Who is the more credible witness to events in Rwanda? Dr. Vincent Bajinya, a Rwandan who grew up in Rwanda, a man who knew the place and the people, and who finally fled with his family in 1996 after years of terror? Or Fergal Keane, a white reporter from England who arrived in Rwanda for the first time in May 1994 and worked with the assistance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and their intelligence and information warfare departments?
Keane closes his attack with a ten-second media sound bite about genocide that entirely destroys the context of Dr. Vincent Bajinya’s worldview and the history of trauma and devastation he has both witnessed and survived. Dr. Bajinya responds to the arrogance of Fergal Keane with terse summary statements in poor English, and does this standing up for his rights as a British citizen and a human being.
“The doctor says both sides were massacred in Rwanda and refuses to accept Tutsis were victims of genocide,” Keane states as he approaches Dr. Vincent Bajinya on Pott street.[33]
“You believe there was no genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda?” Keane asks Dr. Vincent Bajinya. In Keane’s tone and manner there is the self-righteous assumption of a higher moral purpose.[34]
“I believe that, yes,” says Dr. Vincent Bajinya.[35]
“Because the international community believes there was a genocide.” Keane is now speaking for the nebulous “international community,” obviously pleased with himself for having elicited the response that can be used to figuratively hang Dr. Vincent Bajinya as a genocide negationist.[confirm. Looking the way he approached and asked him, that was the obvious intention of Keane]
“Yeah, it’s my belief,” Dr. Bajinya says. Not interested in Fergal Keane’s crusade. “The international community can believe other things. It is my right to believe in what I believe.”[36]
THE BOGUS ASYLUM OF TONY KAVUTSE
According to legitimate Rwandan refugees in the U.K. the man primarily responsible for orchestrating the branding, arrest, detention and persecution of Dr. Vincent Bajinya is a fake Rwandan asylum seeker who claimed to have fled Rwanda under fear of persecution. The man who tracked down Dr. Vincent Bajinya today works at the Rwandan Embassy in London under the name Tony Kavutse. He was assisted by several other fake asylum seekers also working as Rwandan agents or agent-provacateurs in London.
Legitimate Rwandan refugees in London report that Tony Kavutse is a long-time RPF and RDF soldier and intelligence agent. Kavutse was reportedly born in Uganda. Rwandan refugees in London claim that the Rwandan Embassy staff is 100% Ugandan citizens. Some of them reportedly fought with President-for-Life Yoweri Museveni, an ethnic Hima (a tribe related to the Tutsis), and the National Resistance Army (NRA) during the Ugandan guerrilla wars in the 1980’s and later joined the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).
According to Rwandan refugees in London, the entire Rwandan Embassy staff in London is comprised of Ugandans who call themselves Rwandans. Many Ugandan citizens hold powerful positions in the Rwanda Government today because they joined the RPA/NRA war machine in its conquest of Rwanda. “The conquering RPF were mainly the English-speaking Ugandans.”[37]
Legitimate asylum seekers claim that Tony Kavutse continues to work as an RPF intelligence agent for the Rwanda government and that he tracks down any critics or legitimate victims of terrorism that have fled Rwanda.[38]
Documents obtained by this correspondent show that Tony Kavutse filed for formal protection status under U.K. law and obtained significant resources through the assistance of numerous U.K. charities and quasi-government or government agencies.
In a document dated July 13, 2002, the U.K. Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, refused asylum status for Tony Kavutse but “because of the particular circumstances of [his] case” granted him informal asylum status in the category “Exceptional Leave to Remain.” [39] According to the Kavutse documents, officials were convinced Kavutse would be in danger if the U.K. returned him to Rwanda.
Kavutse gained assistance through the Medical Foundation in London, an NGO that works with asylum-seeking victims of torture. Medical Foundation trustees include John Le Carre, the accomplished novelist who has taken a serious interest in the events in central Africa.[40]
The Medical Foundation peddles the standard story about genocide in Rwanda, but also appears to address, at least to some extent, the terrorism of the post-1994 Kagame regime.
Documents dated July 29, 2002 confirm that Kavutse was a “priority need” client of the Medical Foundation “receiving ongoing treatment” for his claims of torture. Kavutse arrived in January 2002 and medical treatment began then. Documents also establish that Kavutse received financial and insurance benefits from the state.[41]
The Medical Foundations Dr. Hamra Yucel apparently assessed Kavutse’s status based on his testimony. “Mr. Kavutse has been subjected to torture,” she opined, “including severe beatings, and most importantly witnessed his father being shot in December 2001.”[42]
According to Rwandan sources in London who know of the particulars of the case, Tony Kavutse’s claims of being tortured by the current government are fabricated (there was no apparent physical evidence of torture). While Dr. Hamra Yucel’s clinical assessments fit the classic psychological profile of a torture survivor, Rwandan sources claim that RPF-allied asylum seekers are coached on how to expertly work the system and gain asylum status by claiming all the proper symptoms of torture.
When asked how it is possible that an asylum seeker claiming to have been tortured by the Rwandan Government could then end up in their diplomatic corps, Michelle Alexander from the Medical Foundation responded that, “the Medical Foundation is not at liberty to disclose details of any individual’s case and cannot confirm whether the person you refer to is a client of the Medical Foundation.” [43]
Tony Kavutse received lodging assistance through the support of the community council of the London Burrough of Waltham Forrest.[44] In August 2004, Kavutse received full state educational support and attended the University of London’s elite Birbeck School of Management and Organizational Psychology.[45] All of Kavutse’s accommodations and tuition for approximately five years was paid for in full by a combination of these non-governmental supporting agencies and the U.K. Government.
Today Tony Kavutse lives in London and is working as a secretary on the diplomatic staff at the Rwandan Embassy in London.[46] Kavutse did not respond to questions.
Tony Kavutse is also a relative of another top RPF cadre: his mother is the sister of Dr. Zac Nsenga, an RPF agent who became the Rwandan Ambassador to the United States.
Zac Nsenga’s wife has been living in the U.K., where she reportedly gained refugee status under false asylum claims under an alias name.[47] Rwandan refugees in London claim that she travels regularly to Rwanda and Uganda. However, in late March or early April 2008 Madamu Nsenga traveled to Rwanda for a visit and Zac Nsenga reportedly took her refugee asylum documents from her due to a quarrel (it’s believed Zac Nsenga has a mistress and the marriage is estranged). Now Madamu Nsenga is caught in the limbo of not being able to return to the U.K., lacking her U.K.-Rwanda asylum papers, and she is trying to go to Uganda to solve the problem since she is officially not allowed to go to Rwanda—the country she was seeking refuge from.[48]
“Dr. Zac Nsenga was the Rwandan ambassador in Washington,” says Professor Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, former director of the Rwandan Information Office (ORINFOR). “Before the victory of the RPF, he was in charge of hygiene at a camp set up by the RPF in Gabiro, Rwanda, where the corpses of Hutus killed by the RPF were burnt. Nsenga was in charge of that camp. In other words, he oversaw the suppression of evidence regarding the massacres committed by the RPF. In RPF circles the camp is known as the CDR camp. The CDR was the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic, a political party regarded by the RPF and its supporters as the party of Hutu extremists. So RPF soldiers referred to the camp as CDR camp because all the Hutus who were taken to that camp for execution or the bodies of the Hutus taken to that camp for burning were globally considered as Hutu extremists who espoused the CDR world view. ”[49]
“The three primitive one-story barrack blocks, one with its roof being repaired, are basic shelters for the [RPF] men at the Gabiro army camp,” wrote British journalist Nick Gordon. “It all looks devastatingly innocent: a complex that may be an affront to the classic rolling African skyline, but no more than that. There are no tell-tale chimneys, no railway lines leading into the restricted area. Indeed, as I munch my bread and wait for the photographer to snatch his picture, it is hard to believe that this dot on the map is an extermination camp. What goes on inside Gabiro [camp] is truly revolting, and it is not an isolated example. All over the country since the new government took control, Hutus have been killed in the thousands.”[50]
A Tutsi born in Rwanda, Dr. Zac Nsenga earned a medical degree at Makerere University Medical School in Uganda and a degree in human medicine at the University of Westminster with an MA in diplomatic studies and a certificate in strategic studies. He practiced medicine both in Uganda and Lesotho before becoming a Major in the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) in December 1990. Later he served as Secretary General in the Ministry of Internal Security (overseeing National Police and Prisons Services). Nsenga was also Ambassador to Israel (1995-1996) and the U.K. (1998-2001). As the Rwandan Ambassador in the U.S., Zac Nsenga worked with Paul Kagame and former U.S. President Bill Clinton to oversee and delineate the Clinton Foundation’s AIDS activities in Rwanda.[51]
Rwandan refugees in the U.S. claim that Major Zac Nsenga has played an active role in hunting down critics and legitimate refugees and having them arrested as fugitives from justice and, of course, branded as genocidaires.
“It is easy to come to the United States and hide,” said Zac Nsenga, the Rwandan ambassador to the United States, quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about a Rwandan named Jean-Marie Vianney Mudahinyuka (arrested in Chicago) and other supposed genocidaires hiding in the U.S. “Americans don’t know that amidst them are people who did very bad things.”[52]
Nsenga—and the Rwandan Embassy in the U.S.—collaborates with the specially formed Human Rights Violators and Public Safety Unit (HRVPSU) of the office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, formed in 2003, to track down foreigners, take them to court, jail and then deport them for even the slightest infractions of immigration laws.[53]
Nsenga’s role in the U.S. is to spread the official genocide story, hunt down Rwandan critics, sell the establishment narrative on HIV/AIDS involving big pharmaceutical companies, further the business interests of Rwanda, and suppress any political dissent about the Kagame regime.[54]
Nsenga is known to be very close to former Ambassador Andrew Young, the Kagame regime’s number one public relations agent whose PR consulting firm Goodworks International whitewashes the regime and its major corporate allies and partners.[55] GWI is also tight with the Africa-America Institute, a CIA backed think tank involved in information warfare and subversive activities all over Africa.[56] Andrew Young has reportedly built a mansion on Rwanda’s Lake Muhazi.[57]
Zac Nsenga “is a strong endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network (GIN).”[58] The Genocide Intervention Network is at the forefront of promoting the official line on genocide in Rwanda as a pivotal tool in the new hegemonic human rights discourse.[59] Other GIN endorsers include some of the highest profile official Rwandan genocide storytellers: General Romeo Dallaire, Samantha Power and Gerald Kaplan.
“[Nsenga] was in Ruhengeri killing people also,” says Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana. “As a promotion, he was given the post of Ambassador to Washington D.C.”[60] [many of RPF criminals have seen themselves being promoted as secretaries generals only because they mass-murdered people from Ruhengeri and Byumba]
PRESSURING THE U.K. ASYLUM SYSTEM
The BBC’s November 7, 2006 report about Dr. Vincent Bajinya appears to target the charity Praxis for having supported Dr. Bajinya using U.K. taxpayers’ money. By targeting Praxis the BBC set the stage for greater restrictions and controls surrounding the asylum process in England, a process that has since come under strict reform on asylum issues.
The articles about Bajinya and other refugees appeared in the fall of 2006 and by January 2007 the U.K. had issued new formal guidelines about refugees and formal policy had been drastically reformed to meet new U.K. immigration standards. Interestingly, the British asylum and immigration system relies heavily on private security companies noted for rather specious “security” missions.[61]
The BBC article quoted Reverend Vaughan Jones, the director of Praxis, but the comment representing Vaughan Jones suggests that Praxis was the victim of the circumstances, not Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
“The director of Praxis, Reverend Vaughan Jones, said if the allegations were true it would represent a betrayal of his organization's trust,” reported Fergal Keane.[62]
“I had no suspicions and when I saw the allegations I was very shocked,” Reverend Vaughan Jones stated in a subsequent BBC report of November 7, 2006. “If they are true then I would feel betrayed, because we work with people who have come from difficult situations and need proper support. We are aware that there are all kinds of allegations and counter allegations in the community and sorting out the victim from the perpetrator is extremely hard.” [63]
When contacted by email at Praxis, Reverend Vaughan Jones replied that “Dr Bajinya was immediately suspended as a result of the allegations. He is no longer our employee.”[64]
In a follow-up query, Reverend Vaughan Jones replied: “Praxis has never attempted to form a judgment in relation to guilt or innocence that is the responsibility of others and beyond our competency. We are very aware of the complexity of the issues. As an organization which works with vulnerable people we have a duty of care primarily to them and it would not have been irresponsible to allow someone to work in the organization with such serious allegations having been made. We have always said that this matter should be resolved through the due process of law.”[65]
However, Praxis fired Dr. Vincent Bajinya based on the campaign spawned by the BBC reports of Fergal Keane. It was enough for Reverend Vaughan Jones that Fergal Keane and the BBC said that Dr. Vincent Bajinya was “accused” of genocide for them to immediately go on the defensive to protect their own good name. This is how the genocide label is used as a brand and a weapon against anyone that deviates from the Rwandan government’s policies or falls out of favor with the elite criminal networks in power.
“How does Praxis protect vulnerable people?” notes U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro, who also benefited from the assistance of Praxis. “And how is it possible that Tony Kavutse, an asylum seeker and “refugee” who claimed to have been tortured by the current government of Rwanda could end up working for the government he was seeking asylum from?”
Mahoro notes that Praxis has been utilizing the volunteer services of another false asylum seeker who is also working at the Rwandan Embassy. This individual is flagged by the Rwandan asylum community as another informant and RPF agent.
“As soon as these reports came out by the BBC, true Rwandan asylum seekers stay away from Praxis for fear that they will be identified and accused of genocide,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “There is a woman Rose Ngabire, a Tutsi who was working at Praxis in Dr. Bajinya’s department, who we know is a Rwanda government informant.”
Rose Ngabire was a volunteer on work placement at Praxis at the same time as Dr. Vincent Bajinya. Ngabire left Praxis and is now the full-time receptionist at the Rwandan Embassy in London.
Ngabire is another Ugandan-Rwandan dual citizen who is accused by legitimate Rwandan refugees of acting as a spy to identify and help separate the legitimate refugees from the fake refugee-agents and insure that the legitimate refugees are sent back to Rwanda and the fake refugees are processed through the asylum system for the benefit of the regime in Kigali.
Fergal Keane’s BBC reports do not identify the RPF agent Rose Ngabire and Keane’s reportage is further discredited with the awareness that one of the “expert” voices chosen by Fergal Keane to buttress the fabricated story about Dr. Bajinya is another fake RPF asylum seeker named Vivenie Niragira Mugunga.
Vivenie Mugunga arrived in the U.K. as an asylum seeker over six years ago and has already gained U.K. citizenship. Mugunga claimed to be a survivor of the Rwanda genocide and gained refugee status by fleeing from the Kagame regime. However, both of her claims are reportedly false. Mugunga was reportedly not in Rwanda during or after1994. Instead, she came from Burundi, where she was born and raised. After she earned higher education degrees at universities in South England, Mugunga became an agent of the Kagame regime who promotes Rwanda investments and organizes government-affiliated events.
Fergal Keane has also used Vivenie Mugunga to pull on the heart strings of his BBC viewers and gain sympathy—channeled into outrage to help convict and hang Dr. Vincent Bajinya in the court of public opinion. In one long film clip about the Dr. Vincent Bajinya story, Fergal Keane has Vivenie Mugunga, who is portrayed as a Rwandan genocide survivor, crying that the organization Praxis has extremists on their staff—meaning Dr. Bajinya—and they discriminated against her when she sought services there. Turning truth upside-down as usual, Keane and Mugunga say nothing about the other bogus refugee agents—like the Tutsi agent Rose Ngabire—working at Praxis.
An honest investigation of Dr. Vincent Bajinya’s case would examine Fergal Keane’s role in traveling to Rwanda and producing genocide charges by using the BBC as a political weapon in an obvious collaboration with the selective political agenda of the Kagame government.
According to one U.K. intelligence insider, U.K. news corporations routinely run disinformation planted by U.K. intelligence assets from MI-6. “For example, the Guardian and very occasionally the London Sunday-Times have been seen to have reporters who are assets of the U.K. intelligence services. Incidentally this may also apply to Andrew Gilligan of the BBC…”[66]
It may also apply to the BBC’s Fergal Keane. [Many times I have blamed BBC for being a corrupt media, but I have never had reaction from them. RPF killed one of the best BBC correspondents operating in Tanzania, there was no inquiry about his death and only a couple of lines on the BBC web page saying that Shinani Kabendera committed suicide. But everybody knows he got killed by RPF death squad. Ask BBC how many times they received my messages asking investigation].
Keane traveled to Rwanda where “evidence” of the crimes of Bajinya was scraped up and delivered to the news consuming Western public in manipulative and highly structured BBC productions.
“This Bajinya [frame-up] was 100% set-up by Kigali and Fergal Keane,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “The spies at the Rwanda Embassy in London informed Keane that they want Dr. Vincent and they arranged for Keane to go to Rwanda to interview ‘witnesses’ and come back here to accuse Dr. Bajinya, who all this time did not know anything was happening.” [67]
“Using BBC South East [England] where Vivenie Mugunga was living,” says Patrick Mahoro, “Fergal Keane convinced his producer Andrew Head to fund his investigation into the allegations and accusations by a south east England resident—the fake asylum seeker Vivenie Mugunga—about an U.K. organization—Praxis—harboring genocidaires and extremists—Dr. Vincent Bajinya.”[68]
“After that Fergal Keane went to Praxis with the hidden camera. Then he traveled to Rwanda funded by the BBC. Of course he had contact with Kigali because he was set up by the Rwandan Embassy here and he met with officials in Kigali. In his ‘investigation’ in Rwanda he shows that he found out that Dr. Bajinya has been issued an arrest warrant. Keane speaks to the prosecutor in Kigali who shows him the file submitted by Kigali to the U.K. And then Keane gets an RPF agent—Janvier Mabuye—to be his eyewitness and claim on the video that Dr. Bajinya committed genocide. And then finally he goes back to London and accuses Dr. Bajinya.” [69]
At the end of the day the BBC makes money by producing a sensationalist TV show where Fergal Keane is supposed to represent everything that is good and Dr. Vincent Bajinya everything that is evil. So it’s the good versus evil story distilled out of the Hutus versus Tutsis mythology about Rwanda.
Curiously indicative of some insider trading and deeper political agenda is the fact that reforms in the asylum process in the U.K. occurred soon after the arrest of Dr. Vincent Bajinya and the other three “Masterminds” of genocide. According to U.K. Home Office documents outlining asylum seeker protocol, prior to granting asylum of Rwandan refugees, U.K. officials are now required to refer to special “lists” provided by the Kagame regime.
On the one hand the documents obtained in the Tony Kavutse case clearly validate the claims of legitimate refugees by formally documenting what the U.K., U.S., and most Western governments deny: That torture and killings do occur in Rwanda and that they are committed by agents of the current government.
On the other hand the documents also clearly establish that RPF-allied false asylum seekers may be claiming to have been tortured in Rwanda to manipulate the system and gain the advantages now being taken away from legitimate asylum seekers.
The U.K. and U.S. governments claim Rwanda is “safe”. Under this classification the U.K. Government has advanced certain refugee and asylum protocols which simultaneously institutionalize infiltration by RPF agents, on one hand, and the persecution of legitimate refugees on the other. The asylum situation in the United States is much the same.
According to the British Home Office of Immigration and Nationality Department statistics, the numbers of Rwandan asylum seekers arriving in Britain have skyrocketed under the Kagame regime, especially since 1999. From 1994 to 1997, Britain received approximately 100 asylum seekers annually. But the numbers increased with increasing repression in Rwanda. In 1999 there were approximately 300; in 1999 and 2000 there were some 800; with 550, 700 and 275 in 2001, 2002 and 2003.[70]
Harsh conditions in detention centers and human rights violations against asylum seekers in the U.K. mirror those in the United States. Anne Owers, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, has released a series of damning reports on the UK’s detention estate.[71]
In Britain and the U.S. tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children are jailed for long periods without charges in contravention of the 1951 UNHCR Refugee Convention.[72] While none of these people are detained for committing a criminal offense, they are held in prison-like conditions to facilitate government policies of rounding up asylum-seekers in order to deter them from seeking refuge in Britain or the U.S.
There is literally a war on refugees.
In one assessment the Medical Foundation in 2004 determined that aggressive force effectively constituting torture had been used against individuals during attempts to remove them from the U.K.[73] There have been many cases of suicides and mass hunger strikes by asylum seekers in the U.K.[74]
The Kagame regime is meanwhile ushering bogus “asylum” seekers off to London armed with all the false documentation necessary to gain a positive asylum status and, eventually, citizenship. The regime’s goal is to infiltrate Western countries with more and more Rwandans who have benefited from the current political climate and who do not challenge the inverted victim versus killer ideology or the criminal enterprises and networks of the elites involved.
RWANDA’S GENOCIDE LISTS
According to legitimate Rwandan refugees in London, the Rwandan refugee community is perpetually under surveillance and effectively under attack by fake asylum seekers working as agents; these agents send the names of legitimate refugees to the ever updated “genocide lists” that Kigali provides to the U.K. Home Office and other governments, and they meanwhile help to build bogus “legal” cases against the legitimate refugees, as happened with Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
The U.K. government regularly arrests asylum seekers (of all nationalities) and holds them in detention pending review of their cases for a “pass” or “fail” of the asylum granting process, but most are almost automatically slated for return to their country of origin. British policies are particularly egregious in the cases of countries where Britain is more actively involved in the ongoing warfare, especially Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan (Darfur), or where it has a deep military and intelligence relationship, especially Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
While their cases await resolution, asylum claimants are banned from working. Once their cases have been failed, they face total destitution, with no right to work, no benefits, no accommodation, no proper access to health services, and the constant fear of removal. This is on top of the psychological trauma, and in some cases physical injury, that continues to trouble them as a result of their experiences.
In the case of Rwanda, selected asylum seekers are further stigmatized and dehumanized by being branded as genocidaires—a label applied to describe Hutu “extremists” and highly targeted individuals in well-organized frame-ups—in cases like Dr. Vincent Bajinya’s, where the frame-up involved Rwandan intelligence agents and the BBC.
According to Rwandan asylum seekers the Kigali government routinely manipulates the asylum system to get students and intelligence agents into the U.K. asylum system to gain U.K. citizenship at no financial cost for the short- and long-term benefit of the Kigali regime.
In 2007, around 200 Rwandan students arrived in the U.K. as asylum seekers and around 150 of these became stateless after falsely claiming to be Rwandan asylum seekers; about 50 of these were official Rwandan students possessing documents provided by the Rwanda government who had been given educational scholarships from the U.K. government.
After Kigali sends false asylum claimants to the U.K. their asylum claim is either passed or failed like any other refugee. Once asylum has been successful and refugee status granted, these false claimants can access student loans and housing and medical support. To improve the chances of a “passed” asylum claim Kigali sets up fake asylum seekers with fake documents to strengthen their cases: e.g., arrest warrants, prison release documents, and medical reports about being tortured.
Next, Rwandan agents in the U.K.—like Mary Blewitt Kayitesi and Tony Kavutse—assist the false asylum seekers to access U.K. refugee assistance agencies like the Medical Foundation, Praxis, or Survivor’s Fund (SURF). Some enhance their status by claiming to be genocide survivors.
Some asylum claimants “pass” relatively easily but for those asylum seekers who are “failed” by the U.K. government—which is eager to reject all refugees to meet its goals of low immigration—the Rwandan Embassy is contacted to determine the status of the asylum seeker and the Embassy denies that these clandestine government supported “refugees” are from Rwanda at all. In some cases the U.K. deports the false claimants back to Kigali, even forcibly, where the Rwandan immigration officials again—checking their lists of supported but fake asylum seekers—refuses that the asylum seekers originated from Rwanda. In both cases the fake asylum seekers, disowned by Rwanda, gain a stateless refugee status which under the 1951 UNHCR protections insures that the U.K. cannot deport them (since they are unable to identify their state or origin).
When the U.K. government detains legitimate refugees—obviously not supported by Kigali but rather hunted by them—the Rwandan Embassy is again contacted while they are still in London, or the refugee is deported directly back to Kigali. In either of these cases involving actual refugees the Kagame regime validates to the U.K. government that these are legitimate refugees, because Kigali is happy to have critics of the regime and other legitimate refugees fleeing state persecution delivered back into their hands.
One legitimate refugee “failed” by the U.K. immigration system and forcibly returned to Rwanda was Rene Murabukira, a Rwandan refugee who fled after his family was killed in 1996.[75]
Rene Murabukira started a new life in Edinburgh and after 11 years in the U.K. he was a charity worker with the Edinburgh-based Action Group helping physically and mentally disabled adults when the U.K. immigration agents tracked him down and arrested him at work.
When Murabukira arrived in the U.K. in 1996 he was only 17 years old. He was given temporary leave to remain in the U.K. as well as a work permit, and told his case for permanent asylum was under consideration. He built a life in Edinburgh and was engaged to be married to Aneta Jarzmik, a U.K. citizen.
Murabukira’s case was deferred for eleven years, until Rwanda was declared “safe.” But in April 2007, U.K. immigration officials swooped in packed Murabukira off to a detention centre. He was apparently extradited in May 2007, shipped back to Rwanda.
Murabukira claimed that Tutsi rebels killed his parents, sister and cousins at his home in 1996.
Rwandans in London believe there have been about 65 cases of legitimate asylum seekers deported back to Rwanda since 2000.[76]
Of course there are also those fake refugees who betray Kigali once they have achieved their mission and gained asylum status abroad.
U.K. ASYLUMS DIRECTED BY KIGALI
For its part the British Government has adopted a refugee asylum policy that looks to the Kagame regime—the persecuting government—for its decisions about Rwandan asylum cases and refugee returns.
The U.K. asylum system came under “reform” during the Blair government, but not in favor of refugees or asylum seeker’s rights. This is made clear in the case of Rwandan asylum seekers where the immigration and detention shake-up seems to have involved a stripping away of refugees’ legal protections.
By the end of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s term in office, the asylum reform process was in full swing and a special “Ten-Point Plan for Border Protection and Immigration Reform” was launched. Under this plan, the Prime Minister committed the U.K. Government to accelerate and massively increase the removal of foreign national prisoners. According to the Home Office, it is the biggest shake-up of the immigration system in its history.[77]
On January 24, 2007—not so long after the British public was sensitized to the infiltration of Dr. Bajinya and the other three supposed “Masterminds” of genocide in Rwanda—the U.K. Home Office issued a special “Operational Guidance Note” on Rwanda that establishes and revises the formal policy for dealing with Rwandan asylum seekers. The guidance notes that all asylum seekers must be considered on a case by case basis but all case workers must follow the outlines of this operational guidance document.[78]
The document, meant to educate case workers, opens with a “country assessment” that presents a highly inaccurate version of events in Rwanda. The assessment is heavily based on BBC sources, especially the BBC “Timeline” on Rwanda, and it has a decidedly pro-RPF bias. Some select examples of the bias are can be seen in the following excerpts:
[1] CLAIM: “Rwanda is a republic dominated by a strong presidency.”[79]
REALITY: Rwanda is a one-party dictatorship with a façade of democracy and the consolidation of the dictatorship achieved through highly rigged and manipulated “demonstration elections” that are widely misperceived to have been democratic and fair.[80]
[2] CLAIM: “In 1985 Tutsi exiles in Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Having failed to negotiate their return to the country, the RPF invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990, demanding representation and equality for all Rwandans.[81]
REALITY: Most of the so-called “Tutsi exiles in Uganda” were Ugandan born citizens and they became battle-hardened guerrillas fighting for Yoweri Museveni and the NRA—a war that Museveni ran out of the Hotel Des Diplomats in Kigali in the mid-1980’s.[82] Paul Kagame was Museveni’s Director of Military Intelligence and he was responsible for tortures, massacres and assassinations.[83] Museveni had ignored calls by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to downsize his army of approximately 180,000 fighters to 70,000. By mid-April 1994, Museveni had sent some scores of thousands of UPDF soldiers into Rwanda—possibly as many as 70,000.[84]
To say that these soldiers and the RPF’s political representatives demanded “representation and equality for all Rwandans” is so patently false that it defies any rational attempt to deconstruct it. Working together, Museveni and Kagame utilized terrorist tactics to assign all blame—for atrocities they committed against both their enemies and their own people—on their enemies. They used psychological operations, embedded international reporters, and fabrication of massacres. These tactics have continued to the present.
“Let me give you an example of media manipulation,” says Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, Director of ORINFOR. “In 1994 people took shelter at a mosque in Kabuga near Kigali. After the RPF took control of the location, they killed all the people who had taken shelter there, then called reporters to see what the Interahamwe had done to Tutsis.” [85]
[3] CLAIM: “A civil war in the border area ensued. Each incursion by the RPF was followed by reprisal massacres, largely of Tutsis, by government forces. A peace agreement was brokered in 1993, the Arusha Peace Accords, which inter alia provided for a power-sharing arrangement involving all political forces and the RPF.” [86]
REALITY: The RPA’s persecution and killings of Hutus and Tutsis in Northern Rwanda went largely unchallenged. Meanwhile the international “human rights” community hammered away at the Habyarimana government following a now common pattern of punishing the victims and accusing them of crimes committed in self defense but never accusing the perpetrators of the original, and greater, injustices.[87]
It is interesting that a guerrilla army can invade a sovereign country and attack a sovereign government and commit terrorist acts, driving over a million people before it, and that it could today be summarized as it is above. [88] This exemplifies the hegemonic imperialist bias of the Western human rights establishment and the mantle of genocide carried by the Genocide Intervention Network and its octopus of affiliates.
The rest of the country assessment follows in similar fashion, uttering ridiculous lies that are now so deeply inculcated in the collective insanity of human consciousness as to make them as absolute and unchallengeable as the Ten Commandments. The summary glosses over the human rights record in Rwanda, validates the legitimacy of the institutionalized injustice at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and shamelessly absolves the Kagame regime of its terrorist involvement in extortion, racketeering, war crimes and genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Perhaps the most ludicrous statement in the entire document is this one: “The Rwandan government is strongly committed to national reconciliation and there is no evidence of any state-sponsored or societal discrimination on ethnic grounds that would amount to persecution.”
The source documents which the Operational Guidance on Rwanda relies upon include references to: USAID; U.S. Department of State; Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; U.N. and U.K. profiles; and the Economist. Most notably, there are four references to British Broadcasting Corporation reports or documents. Given their relationships to the production and maintenance of the establishment narrative, all of these sources are highly compromised in their capacity to present the true picture of Rwanda or insure refugee protections.
For the purposes of rounding up refugees and dragging them back to Rwanda, the Operational Guidance on Rwanda requires that asylum caseworkers begin the process by checking the names of asylum seekers against several lists maintained by the Kagame government.[89]
Section 3.5 of the Operational Guidance on Rwanda establishes the hierarchy of protocols for dealing with Rwandan asylum seekers. If “the applicant’s name appears on either of the two published lists maintained by the Rwandan government of those wanted for genocide or where there is any evidence that the applicant was, for example, politically active, employed in any official, religious, media or military capacity at the time of the genocide” decision-makers are instructed to consider whether to apply one of several special exclusion clauses and must refer such cases to the War Crimes Unit.[90]
According to the U.K. Home Office, “the War Crimes Unit was formed in March 2004 with the specific remit of introducing screening processes in order to identify people involved in the commission of atrocities in connection with modern day conflict situations.”[91]
In February 2007, the Israeli Government successfully pressured the U.K. Home Office to water down anti-torture and war crimes legislation.[92] The injustices in cases of Rwandan war criminals are amongst the most pronounced.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is today the public relations consultant and economic adviser for the Kagame regime, a position Blair assumed in February, 2008. John Major was prime minister and the Conservative (Tory) Party was in power at the time of the U.S./U.K. backed coup d’etat in Rwanda 1994.
MILKING THE ASYLUM PROCESS
The Rwandan asylum scam allows the Kagame regime’s to facilitate higher political and economic status for more and more Rwandans by gaining green cards or citizenship abroad.
Moses Kenneth Bugingo Rugema arrived in the U.K. around 2003 on a false asylum claim against Rwanda. Although U.K. citizenship can be granted after five years his citizenship is uncertain.
When asked about his former refugee status and current political appointment with the government he sought asylum from, Rugema responded evasively and aggressively. “I have no time to waste in replying to you in the future,” Rugema replied. “But as a gentleman I just wanted to tell you I exist and your facts are not correct. It’s up to you to prove it.”[93]
Rugema is another Ugandan-Rwandan, and a former RPF soldier whose “flight” from persecution in Rwanda quickly led to his employment at the Rwanda Embassy in London as a receptionist. From the Embassy, Rugema helped Kigali track down legitimate refugees. Rugema also set up his current business enterprise and continues to operate out of London as an economic agent dealing in the export/import of top quality Rwandan Arabica green bean coffee for the Kagame regime.[94]
On November 2, 2007, the Rwandan cabinet appointed Rugema to the post of 2nd Counselor at the Rwandan Embassy in New York City.
“It is very interesting that this Rwandan refugee is now working as a business agent for the government he ran away from,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “It is 100% certain that Moses Rugema used the asylum system as a bogus asylum claimant and worked at the Rwanda Embassy in London.”
One of the highest-profile RPF-allied asylum seekers who has milked the system to gain status in the U.K. is Linda Bihire, recently appointed to the RPF’s cabinet under the recent government reshuffling that was advised by Kagame’s new spin doctor, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
On March 13, 2008, Bihire was appointed to Rwandan Cabinet as Minister of Infrastructure. However, Linda Bihire is another Ugandan-born “Rwandan” whose lineage and origins are belied by her inability to speak the native Kinyarwanda language of Rwanda. During her swearing-in ceremony in Kigali, Bihire’s inability to read the Oath of Office forced the organizers to switch to English.[95]
Bihire’s cabinet selection was engineered by Rwanda’s top intelligence agent, Emmanuel Ndahiro, a feared agent in and out of Rwanda who controls Rwanda’s state daily New Times newspaper and uses it as a political tool to peddle disinformation and attack critics of the RPF. Linda Bihire is Emmanuel Ndahiro’s mistress and they have a son of about 19 years old. Lt. Col. Dr. Emmanuel Ndahiro is also a maternal cousin to Paul Kagame and Director General of Rwanda’s dreaded National Security Service.
Bihire is also a close friend of another RPF-allied Rwandan asylum seeker in the U.K., Rose Ngabire, the secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in London. Prior to her cabinet appointment Bihire milked the U.K. asylum system to get higher education, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in civil engineering and a Master’s Degree in project management from the University of Nottingham and University of Porstmouth respectively.
Bihire’s new life apparently began soon after she finished her elementary schooling in Kampala, Uganda, when RPF agent Emmanuel Ndahiro organized her “political asylum” status and facilitated her transfer to London.[96] Bihire was soon identified as a Rwandan agent by legitimate Rwandan asylum seekers in England.[97]
After she arrived in London, Dr. Zac Nsenga, the ambassador to the U.K. at the time, stepped in and landed Bihire a government scholarship for her higher education.
Another U.K. asylum fraud was perpetrated by Joseph Mutaboba, Secretary General of Rwanda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and former Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September 2006, Mutatoba co-chaired the United Nations Permanent Advisory Committee on Security Issues in the Central African Region. Since 2003, he participated in preparatory meetings of the International Conference on Peace and Security in the Great Lakes region and as Coordinator for Rwanda and Head of the Peace and Security Thematic Group. All these “security” posts occurred even while Rwanda continued to plunder Congo. However, Joseph Mutaboba’s wife is another Rwandan “refugee” living in North London and using the asylum process for personal gain.
Another RPF agent who infiltrated England through the asylum process is Ignatius Mugabo, a naturalized citizen of Uganda who first sought asylum in Denmark but later joined his wife Jacqueline in Britain; Mugabo may by now have gained British citizenship. Mugabo’s wife Jacqueline was reportedly granted full refugee protection under the 1951 UNHCR Convention, which guarantees that any asylum seeker is automatically entitled to be joined by their families.[98] According to Rwandan asylum seekers, Mugabo joined is wife in London in 2003.[99]
Ignatius Mugabo not only worked for the RPF , he became one of Kagame’s top intelligence officials and an active hunter of Kagame’s critics abroad. In March of 2007, just prior to the 13th anniversary of the April 6, 1994 presidential assassinations, Mugabo set up a petition to the British Prime Minister calling on Rwandans in Britain to support his campaign to hunt down and arrest genocidaires. Eighteen people signed the petition, including Ignatius Mugabo.
The petition statement reads:
“We the members of the Rwandan Community resident in the U.K., during the 13th anniversary of the genocide in our country, concerned that many suspected perpetrators of this heinous crime continue to hide in Western countries including U.K., call on the British Prime Minister and his government to increase their support for the delivery of justice to the victims of the Rwandan genocide by tracking and arresting whoever is suspected of having played a role in this tragedy.”[100]
“Mugabo set up this petition on the U.K. Prime Minister’s web site,” says one Rwandan refugee in London, “but he received few signatures to get any action from the Prime Minister. All members of the Rwandan community did not sign as they feared their name to be recognized on the list of asylum seekers. Mugabo was disappointed to receive so few supporters.”[101]
Ignatius Mugabo is also on the management committee of the Rwandan Community Association of the U.K., in charge of organizing events meant to draw out Rwandan refugees, and he is Director of Rwanda Diaspora Investment Ltd., another business front for Kigali.[102] Legitimate Rwandan asylum seekers note with curiosity how Mugabo works with the Rwandan Embassy to organize official events while he and his family have reportedly fled the Kagame regime.
Igatius Mugabo is considered the second most feared intelligence agent of the Kagame regime in London, second only to his associate, James Wizeye. Ignatius Mugabo, Tony Kavutse and Rose Ngabire all work on the Rwanda Embassy staff under the guidance of its two top espionage agents: James Wizeye and Claver Gatete.
James Wizeye was appointed as the 1st Secretary at the Rwanda Embassy in London on June 29, 2005 and today he is also the most feared Rwandan intelligence operative involved in hunting Rwanda’s state enemies, critics and asylum seekers in England and, more widely, in Europe.
A former RPF soldier and current member of Kigali’s intelligence apparatus, Wizeye formerly worked as administrative attaché at the Rwanda Embassy in Kampala, Uganda. However, Wizeye was expelled by the Uganda government in November 2004 after accusations surfaced that Rwanda was training rebels hostile to the Ugandan government: Wizeye was implicated in rebel activities and accused of espionage.[103]
Wizeye is reportedly wanted today in Uganda and banned from visiting for his role as part of an elite RPF “hit squad” that operated in Uganda to track down enemies of the RPF regime.[104] Wizeye set up intelligence cells and purchased information from Ugandan agents who were later arrested.[105]
“In the U.K. James Wizeye is involved in hunting refugees, weapons dealings and protecting Rwanda’s ‘good image’ by using the media,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “He grew up in Uganda and now he is wanted there because of spying and killings in 2000 and 2001. His success in these [terrorist] operations for the Kagame regime earned him a diplomatic post in London.”[106]
Rwandan intelligence agent James Wizeye lives inside the Rwanda Embassy compound at 120-122 Seymour Place in London. Wizeye has attended high-level conferences with U.S. officials, including Ambassador Jendayi Frazer.[107] According to Rwandans familiar with Wizeye’s activities, he is one of the RPF’s top weapons and minerals agents working in London—possibly a key player in Kigali’s fencing of contraband stolen from the Democratic Republic of Congo and arranging of weapons transfers.[108]
Raised and educated in Uganda, Claver Gatete is the Rwandan Ambassador in London appointed to the Cabinet on September 7, 2005. Gatete is an economist who left Uganda for higher education in Canada. He is known to be an “extremist” RPF official—one of the actual “Masterminds” of RPF strategy to seize and consolidate power in Rwanda—who supported the RPF movement from Canada and the U.S. as a key member of the Association of Banyarwanda in Diaspora.[109]
Gatete organized the RPF campaign abroad, working on funding, lobbying and political alliances and went on to become a senior Presidential adviser to Paul Kagame. Gatete also worked as Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and we was Steering Committee member as part of President Clinton’s euphemistically named New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a hegemonic U.S. state department project in neoliberal economics and protectionist trade.[110]
“Claver Gatete is 500% involved in hunting down Hutus and spreading the genocide ideology of Kigali,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro.
THE GENOCIDE MISERY INDUSTRY
Bogus asylum seekers in the U.K. are also working to raise tens of millions of pounds annually, ostensibly to support genocide survivors and social programs in Rwanda. Instead much of this money reportedly disappears behind the smokescreens of “aid” and “development”.
There are many charities and non-government organizations from the U.S. and U.K. that run large money-making operations that claim to benefit Rwanda. These charities complete the circle of propaganda and seal the doubt of public opinion by legitimizing a terrorist government under the unimpeachable veneer of humanitarianism and goodwill.
These charities work the media system, providing expert spokespeople and framing issues for mass media. The media system works the charities, using them to institutionalize ideology and further their select political agendas. Like the media, the charities peddle the establishment line throughout, meanwhile claiming that they are “not political.” But it always the same: like Praxis they unflinchingly adhere to the upside-down mythology which turns victims into killers and killers into victims with very little middle ground in between.
For example, Fergal Keane is a patron of MSAADA, a “charity based in Dorset, England that helps surviving orphans and widows of the Rwandan genocide.”[111] With the assistance of the British media system, MSAADA advances the standard mythology about genocide in Rwanda.
“In 100 days an estimated one million people were butchered in the Rwandan genocide, while the United Nations refused to intervene to halt the bloodshed,” reads the MSAADA disinformation. “The world turned its back on the people of Rwanda once, and now the country is largely forgotten again.”
RPF agent and false asylum seeker Ignatius Mugabo is on the management committee of IMIZI, a U.K.-based Rwanda charity.[112]
Vivenie Niragira Mugunga, the RPF agent and false asylum seeker—who served as Fergal Keane’s critic of Praxis—is the director of a Rwanda/U.K. charity called RYICO.[113]
One of the largest and most influential charities working the Rwanda Genocide for political and economic profit is the big U.K. non-government organization (NGO) Aegis Trust. Aegis works closely with several U.K. government departments on Holocaust and genocide issues and plays a leading role in the Intergovernmental Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research established by Bill Clinton, Goran Persson (former Prime Minister of Sweden) and Tony Blair in 1998. Aegis Trust is also the primary funder of the Genocide Memorial in Gisozi, the largest memorial in Rwanda. Aegis Trust patrons include General Romeo Dallaire, Bob Geldof, Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel.[114]
Another high profile charity working in the U.K. is Survivor’s Fund—SURF—a large NGO that “works to improve the lives of the Rwandan Survivors of Genocide.” According to their web site, “SURF was founded by a British Citizen of Rwandan origin (who lost family members and relations during this tragic event) and other Rwandans based in U.K., and concerned British individuals. Although support to survivors dates back to 1995, SURF was formally established and registered in 1997.”[115]
According to legitimate Rwandan refugees however, SURF founder Mary Kayitesi Blewitt gained British citizenship by falsely claiming to be both a genocide survivor and a Tutsi from Rwanda. She is also reported to be the first RPF “diplomatic” representative to have arrived in the U.K., and the one who effectively opened the new Rwandan Embassy in London—running RPF operations out of one small room at the Uganda High Commission at Trafalgar Square—after the RPF “victory” of July 1994.[116]
“She is 100% Ugandan and 100% liar,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “Ask her what village she came from in Rwanda, which prefecture, which commune. Ask her where she lived, where her family lived in Rwanda. She can’t answer. She doesn’t speak the language fluently and she claims she lost 50 members of her family in Rwanda in 1994, but her family was all in Uganda.”
“A year after the genocide in Rwanda, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt returned to her village to dig through a mass grave in search of her family,” reported the U.K.’s Independent on October 12, 2004. “The rains had washed away the topsoil, revealing the bodies of about 200 people… She lost 50 members of her family in the genocide, including her brother John Baptiste, 27, whose leg was hacked off by his killers. He was left to bleed to death in front of his wife and children.”[117]
According to Rwandan sources Mary Kayitesi Blewitt has used fake genocide survivors and their sympathy stories to perpetrate a massive fundraising scandal—raising millions of pounds for the RPF regime. Like most “humanitarian” NGOs, the fundraising relies on the mass media for brand recognition (brand names like ‘UNICEF’, ‘CARE’, and ‘Save the Children’) and to broadcast images of suffering African “survivors’ of genocide. Fortunately, Mary Kayitesi’s Survivor’s Fund benefits from the patronage of Fergal Keane and Lindsay Hilsum—two high-profile storytellers always pressing the establishment’s Rwandan genocide narrative.
In return, and closing the cycle, the media personalities endorse the organization.
“Mary Blewitt is quite a remarkable human being,” said Fergal Keane, “one of the most remarkable I have ever met. Her work has involved extraordinary personal sacrifice. Those of us who witnessed genocide in Rwanda know that Mary Blewitt stands among the bravest of the brave, the kindest of the kind.” [118]
“The money goes to the criminal networks in Kigali,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “They are killing each other fighting over the money. That is why you see RPF sometimes falling out with Kagame. They had even arrested Mary Kayitesi in Kigali in 2007; they held her a few days while they were fighting over the money but of course they had to release her because she is their fundraising source!”
For her sacrifice “to the survivors of the Rwandan genocide in Rwanda and the U.K.,” Mary Kayitesi Blewitt was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles on February 28, 2008.[119] After the publication of his book Season of Blood, and for his “services to journalism,” Fergal Keane was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles in 1996.
Mary Kayitesi Blewitt is also listed as a member of the U.K. Holocaust Memorial Trust.[120]
The compromised mission of the Survivor’s Fund—ostensibly an apolitical non-government humanitarian organization—and its true political agenda is further underscored by the false asylum status and sudden financial windfall of its founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt.
In early March, 2008, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt resigned her post as the Founder and Director of Survivor’s Fund. According to sources in London, Blewitt has informed her closed friends that she is moving back to Uganda where she has built a big health spa—Ultimate Escape Health Spa—that will operate in the heart of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.
According to the promotional materials, “Ultimate Escape Health Spa is a social enterprise which will offer holistic healing treatments, health, fitness and beauty regimes in a soothing stress relieving environment. Scheduled to open in 2009, Ultimate Escape Health Spa will offer sanctuary and safe haven. Profit will be donated to survivors of the Rwandan genocide to enable them to escape from their troubles and trauma.”[121]
“What an interesting move for someone who has spent the last 14 years working for genocide survivors,” notes Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “Moving into business now? And not in Rwanda, but in Uganda? The reason is it is the only country she knows well. She was born in Uganda and lived in Uganda although she falsely represented herself as a Rwanda genocide survivor to raise money. And this is another scam. Making people feel good thinking they will help Rwanda genocide survivors. Scam, scam, scam.” [122]
THE MEDIA AS GENOCIDE TRIBUNAL
Prior to confronting Dr. Vincent Bajinya in person, Fergal Keane collaborated with the Kagame regime to collect the “evidence” of genocide crimes. Thus it is important that Fergal Keane make public his connections with the Kagame government and the facts surrounding his sudden interest in Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
Keane’s role as an apologist for the Kagame regime and the Rwanda Patriotic Front began in April of 1994 when Keane contacted the RPF in Belgium, met their agent in Uganda, and traveled with RPF assurance and protection in Rwanda during April and May 1994.[123]
In 2003, Keane also served as a prosecution witness against Sylvestre Gacumbitsi at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. According to the ICTR Press Release, Keane “was in Rwanda in the months of May and June in 1994, told the court about the many dead bodies he saw in various parts of the Kibungo prefecture and in particular at Nyarubuye Catholic Church. The witness who has written a book, Season of Blood; the Rwanda Journey, showed a video film about the killings.” [124]
The ICTR Press Release does not point out that Fergal Keane set up his visit to Rwanda in 1994 through the Rwandan Patriotic Front office in Belgium; that he met his RPF escort in Uganda at the border, and that he travelled with the assurance of safety from the RPF. Further, it seems the atrocities that occurred at Nyarubuye were staged by the RPF.
Professor Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, former director of ORINFOR, offers the “massacre of Tutsis” at Nyarubuye as another example of how the Kagame regime manufactured and tampered with massacre sites before inviting the media to “witness” and document the evidence of genocide blamed on Hutu extremists.
“In Nyarubuye, the Interahamwe killed Tutsi at a parish in a building used for religious education where Tutsis had sought shelter,” says Higiro. “When the RPF arrived with the Interahamwe they had rounded up in commune Murambi, they took them to the local Catholic Church and executed them and left their bodies there. Then RPF soldiers killed civilians in and around Nyarubuye and brought the bodies to the church. After its victory and to show the world what had happened in Rwanda, the RPF dug up bodies and placed them on stilts outside of churches. But all the people killed by the RPF were blamed on Hutus.”[125]
Fergal Keane tracked down Sylvestre Gacumbisi in a refugee camp in Tanzania and accused him on film much as he did Dr. Vincent Bajinya. The “evidence” for Keane’s charges likely was fabricated by the Kagame regime much as it was fabricated to frame Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
“Sylvestre Gacumbitsi was defended by a Mr. Kouengowa and Ms. Anne Mbattang, both from Cameroon,” says former ICTR defense investigator Phil Taylor. “Hirondelle [news agency] reported that the trial was one of the ‘fastest’ in ICTR history. I have not read his testimony but according to his book Fergal Keane was tight with one of his RPF handlers and it was this man who led him to two people who claimed to be witnesses.[126] The massacre occurred mid-April [1994] and Keane went to the site in June.” [127]
On June 17, 2004, Sylvestre Gacumbisi was found “guilty” of crimes against humanity and genocide by the court.
The work of Fergal Keane and the BBC in framing “the Rwanda genocide” story is mirrored by the numerous other award-wining journalists. At the top of the list are Lindsay Hilsum of Britain’s Observer newspaper and Channel Four television and Stephen Kinzer, the New York Times writer who recently published A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It, a shamelessly positive biography of the heroic Paul Kagame.
“Ten years ago, one million Rwandans perished in the worst genocide since the Second World War,” Lindsay Hilsum says. Hilsum was working with the The Observer in 1994 and was reportedly the only British journalist in Kigali as the killing began.[128] Hilsum echoes the standard tripe about Rwanda. “Rwanda’s genocide could have been prevented.” [129]
Instead of reassessing and revising her original analyses, which would be the appropriate thing to do in the face of the rising evidence of the RPF’s crimes, Lindsay Hilsum—like many others—takes the apology for murder a step further to explain away the RPF terrorism in Congo: “Guilt over their failure to stop the killings spurred donors—especially Britain, the U.S. and the Netherlands—to back the Rwandan Government, despite its poor human rights record and involvement in plundering the Congo.”[130]
Like most of the establishment journalists, Fergal Keane’s reporting has attracted widespread critical acclaim. He was named as overall winner of the Amnesty International Press Awards in 1993 and won an Amnesty television prize in 1994 for his investigation of the Rwandan Genocide, called “Journey Into Darkness.”
However, during the years when the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana was under attack by the RPF, the documentation produced by international human rights bodies decidedly took the side of the RPF.[131] This pattern has continued, and it should come as no surprise that Fergal Keane and Lindsay Hilsum are the chosen recipients of the Amnesty International Press Award and Television prizes.
According to his own testimony Keane gained access to Rwanda’s killing fields in partnership with the Rwanda Patriotic Front. In late May and early June of 1994, as the killings in Rwanda were drawing to a close—but as pockets of Tutsis were still being hunted down—Keane traveled for several weeks with the advancing Tutsi RPF forces.[132]
“By the time we got to the border with Rwanda through Uganda, we had made contact with the RPF in Brussels,” Keane stated in PBS Frontline’s “Ghosts of Rwanda”. “And they had, by that stage, become relatively organized about linking up and giving people safe passage down through the country. It was the most organized guerilla army I had ever come across. And I’d been with the rebels in Eritrea, and they have a name for being very strict and highly organized. But the RPF were certainly in a class of art in terms of organization.”[133]
To set up the false dichotomy between savage killers—Hutus—and organized saviors—the RPF—journalists like Fergal Keane and Philip Gourevitch—and like Donatella Lorch and Raymond Bonner of the New York Times and Gary Streiker of CNN—hammered the point home over and over: The RPF is highly disciplined and organized.[134] The RPF’s crimes were not reported because virtually every western journalist was embedded with the RPF (and/or the Western intelligence establishment).
“We met a very helpful and friendly young lieutenant,” continues Fergal Keane, describing his foray into the killing fields in May of 1994. Keane innocuously introduces “a guy called Frank Ndore who guided us down through the country.”[135]
Fergal Keane’s contact and escort, arranged through Brussels in advance, was an RPF soldier. Lieutenant Frank Ndore was born in Uganda to Rwandan Tutsi parents who fled in 1959. He was a veteran of Museveni’s National Resistance Army and the RPF offensive in 1990.[136]
“And the most striking thing about driving in through Rwanda at that stage was the emptiness,” Keane continues. “I was used to an Africa of crowded villages, of people working in the fields—a vibrant, living Africa. And this place, it was like somebody had got a Hoover [vacuum cleaner] and placed it over the country and just sucked all of the life, hoovered the life up out of the place. There was nothing. Just emptiness.”[137]
“In Byumba—where the RPF first invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990—Kagame went to a market and committed so many atrocities,” says Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, a Rwandan medical doctor practicing in Laredo, Texas, whose father, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, was judged, tried and convicted by “journalist” Philip Gourevitch in his fictitious book.[138]
“More than a million people fled to Kigali,” says Eliel Ntaki. “All their farms had been taken, all their goats killed, they were living on the streets. When these people heard that the RPF is coming to Kigali, what do you think they are going to do? They are going to fight!” [139]
Philip Gourevitch shares the dubious honor of being one of Kigali’s premier bounty hunters for framing, accusing, judging, and convicting Hutus in his New Yorker features and his fictional [sic] award-winning book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.[140]
Philip Gourevitch’s book is “completely one-sided” says Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life subject of the film Hotel Rwanda. “His book took very much the RPF side. He was more or less like an RPF advocate.”[141]
Gourevitch is known for fabricating a New Yorker story called “The Genocide Fax” in alliance with Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Undersecretary James Rubin—Philip Gourevitch’s brother-in-law.”[142]
According to Gourevitch and the New Yorker, the fax, sent by Major General Romeo Dallaire, the U.N. force commander in Rwanda, to peacekeeping headquarters in New York, “reported in startling detail the preparations that were under way to carry out the [Hutu] extermination campaign [against Tutsis].”[143]
But there was no fax sent by General Romeo Dallaire, and the “genocide fax” was a fabricated document meant to divert attention and misleed. The “genocide fax” was actually sent by Colonel Connaughton of the British military at Sandhurst Academy
Read it. Very very good. Cant find anything wrong with it factually. Very
compelling writing. Only comment, Lindsay Hilsum is probably an intel
asset as well as she was the Observer reporter to whom Colonel Connaughton
sent a copy of his fabricated "genocide" fax (the other was a Belgian
reporter) and around the same time he faxed it into New York. Anyway, she
is trusted to do the right thing by the British Army. Secondly, I heard or
read (maybe from Onana?) that Aegis is a CIA front org. It also is used to
publish propaganda material for the ICTR.
Gourevitch’s Rwanda “genocide” project was funded by the U.S. Institute for Peace, a euphemistically named think-tank.[144] Gourevitch birthed the idea that the Tutsis are “the Jews of Africa” and he is often invited to speak about his firsthand experience with genocide in Rwanda—at Jewish religious events.[145]
Gourevitch helped facilitate journalist Michela Wrong’s book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, which was funded by London’s Financial Times, and is another whitewash of the RPF invasions of Zaire in 1996, the killing of Hutu refugees, and the role of the West in supporting Mobutu and terrorizing the people of Congo/Zaire.[146]
But the Gourevitch connection to the information warfare against the people of Congo—and trusting Western “news” consumers back home—doesn’t end there. James Rubin, Gourevitch’s brother-in-law and Madeleine Albright’s Undersecretary of State, also primed his future wife, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, to cover up the criminal racketeering and plunder, and the Hutu genocide committed by the RPF and UPDF and their backers from the Western defense and intelligence establishment.[147]
“Philip Gourevitch came to my house,” says Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana. “I should have listened to my lawyer. I didn’t know this guy was working with the [U.S.] State Department. I completely believe that Philip Gourevitch accused, tried and convicted my father in his book. Gourevitch set up my father and consistently lied about him. The stories [Gourevitch] tells about the maid and the stories about Genny, my wife, were all fabricated.”[148]
Philip Gourevitch is known to be a very close friend of Paul Kagame and had the support of the Kagame regime, and the backing of the U.S. State Department, from the start. Gourevitch’s fictional treatise on genocide in Rwanda was funded by the euphemistically named U.S. Institute for Peace, a U.S. establishment think-tank known for the production of disinformation in service to select agendas.
“Several attempts were made to take the Tutsi workers amd hide them by Gerard and Pastor Elizaphan but they declined the offer,” says Eliel Ntakirutimana, speaking about his father and brother’s true actions in Rwanda in 1994. “People stayed at the churches because their Tutsi sons who were in the RPF were telling them to stay there, we will come for you. But Kagame refused to allow RPF soldiers leave to go to the churches to protect their families. He wanted victims, something big to use to gain power. Kagame wanted dead bodies.”[149]
After inciting hatred and fear and driving millions of people into flight, Kagame got exactly what he wanted and this formed the pillars of the genocide ideology successfully used to silence both critics and truth.
“Gerard Ntakirutimana was a good doctor with no politics who returned from abroad to help his community in Rwanda in 1993,” says former ICTR defense investigator Phil Taylor. “One year later disaster struck with the assassination of the President and a brutal war. I believe that both Dr. Gerard and his father Elizaphan are innocent and victims of political hysteria.”[150]
Gerard and Elizaphan Ntakirutimana were framed by the Rwanda government, and Philip Gourevitch played the central role in furthering the fabrications in his prize-winning U.S. State Department novel.
Elizaphan Ntakirutimana was found guilty of XXXXXXX genocide and sentenced to 10 years in prison. On December 6, 2006, after serving 10 years in arrest or prison, he was released. The 83 year-old pastor died just over a month later, on January 22, 2007.
Gerard Ntakirutimana was convicted XXXXX
THE BIG BUSINESS OF GENOCIDE
The war that rocked Rwanda in the early 1990’s set the stage for a complete reorganization of power and control in the tiny landlocked country. The role of Rwanda in plundering Congo has been highly censored by the establishment press, but greatly illuminated by certain independent journalists. Even the U.N. Panel of Experts reports remain apt testimonials to the plunder which continues, no matter the denials and public relations statements to the contrary, under the watchful eyes of the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo (MONUC) and the so-called international “human rights” community.
On February 8, 2008, for one egregious example of politically motivated disinformation, Kemal Saiki, MONUC’s Chief Public Information officer, gave a public interview in which he stated that Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) were not present or involved in Congo.[151] This is an outright lie and it is not the first lie that Kemal Saiki has told.[152]
Rwanda continues to pull the purse strings in eastern Congo and strangle all hope for truth, liberty, justice and life for millions of Congolese people. Congo’s gold, coltan, niobium, oil and diamonds continue to pass through Rwanda and Uganda in transit to international markets. General Laurent Nkunda routinely travels freely back and forth from Congo to Rwanda.[153]
By depopulating Rwanda, rich land was opened up for new multinational corporate exploitation and the war brought about new ownership and means of control. Excluding the profits from the extractive industries in Rwanda and Congo, Rwanda’s top money makers are tea, coffee and gorilla tourism. Close on the heels of these are the HIV/AIDS scams involving the Clinton and Pangea Foundations, and their pharmaceutical backers like Pfizer.
In the past six to eight years USAID has invested over US$ 10 million in the coffee sector in Rwanda, which was radically reconfigured—in terms of plantations, landholders, and market dominance—due to the power shift that occurred between 1989, when world coffee prices crashed, and 2006, when USAID, the Kagame government and Starbucks—a major promoter of the Hollywood film King Kong and Kong paraphernalia—announced huge economic gains in the international coffee market. Starbucks provided coffee expertise and training in Rwanda, and their ‘superior’ specialty ‘award-winning’ Rwandan coffee was highlighted in 5,000 Starbucks coffee outlets during March and April 2006. [154]
USAID and its business partners have estimated that coffee sector could generate at least US$ 117 million in export revenues per year for Rwanda by 2010. The tea industry has potential to generate US$ 91 million in export revenues by 2010. The goal for the tourism industry is to attract 70,000 tourists to visit Rwanda and to generate US$ 99 million in revenues by 2010.[155] Huge development projects are underway.
All of these require land cleared of people. Enter USAID, Africa Wildlife Fund, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Conservation International, Royal/Dutch Shell, Jane Goodall Institute, Starbucks, Green Mountain Coffee—and Goodworks International, putting a happy face on it all.
“The more you consume coffee from Rwanda, the more you give Rwanda hope,” said Rwanda’s Ambassador Zac Nsenga. “It’s the quality and the story behind it that makes it special.”
The genocide business and the depopulation behind it is a special story indeed.
HUNTING AND KILLING HUTUS
The state security and intelligence networks in Uganda and Rwanda today revolve around terrorism state-run “safe” houses proliferate with very little, if any attention from human rights organizations or western media institutions. Anyone who violates the code of state-orchestrated silence will be silenced themselves, perhaps by being ‘disappeared.’
Said one source working in Central Africa: “By the ‘undercover iron hand’ in Rwanda I mean that people are whisked away by government operatives into ‘safe houses’ or [unidentified] torture houses. Nobody knows the whereabouts of these houses but they exist, for some of those who have been taken there can reveal their horrendous experiences.”[156]
But the true history or terrorism in the region is well- hidden by the media propaganda system, the public relations, and the official Rwanda genocide story.
“We now know that the Rwandan Patriotic Front operated 36 active clandestine cells in Rwanda when it invaded on October 1, 1990, and that these cells worked through human rights groups,” writes Canadian author Robin Philpot in his book, “Colonialism Dies Hard.”[157]
In 1988, Rwandan multi-millionaire Assinapol Rwigara financed a 1988-1989 bicycling tour of Rwanda in which Paul Kagame and other RPF/A agents secretly toured the country in a support van belonging to the Ugandan cycling team. Such people as Assinapol Rwigara create inconvenient truths that challenge the establishment narrative about “Hutu extremists planning and organizing genocide” in Rwanda: Rwigara was a Tutsi businessman and close associate of Juvenal Habyarimana who betrayed President Habyarimana by financing the RPF/A. [158]
In a situation report (SITREP) dated May 17, 1994, Mark Prutsalis of Refugees International (RI), a U.S. State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) linked non-government organization (NGO), described the situation of Hutu refugees arriving at the rate of 3000 people per day and crossing the Tanzanian border from Rwanda. Some 70,000 refugees had already crossed three major crossing points and the presence of the RPF at the border was noted and described. The document provided “incident” excerpts from a UNHCR protection report made on May 14 and 15, 1994.[159]
In the Kigarama Sector of the Rusumo Commune, “The RPF came and called for a ‘peace meeting.’ Those who did not participate voluntarily were forced to the meeting. At the school people were tied together three by three—men/women/children—and stabbed. The bodies were put on trucks and thrown into the Kagera River, north of Rusumo Bridge.”[160]
In the Nyamugari, Gisenyi, and Nyarubuje sectors of the Rusumo Commune, “The RPF comes at 05h00 waiting for villagers to open their doors. The villagers are caught and taken away to the river by trucks. No one has returned. Refugees of the area have seen people being tied together and thrown into the river. It seems as if guns are only used if somebody tries to escape.”[161]
At Rusumo commune, sector Muzaza, Gasarabwayi Village (four kms from the Akagera River): “The RPF launched several attacks on the village and its population. On [May 13] 40 RPF soldiers came at 07h00. They surrounded the village. Villagers were gathered in houses, which were burned down. An eyewitness saw 20 people being killed this way. Eight villagers were thrown into a latrine, and the latrine was filled with soil. Asked by UNHCR field officer the refugee said that the RPF did not care whether the victims were Hutu or Tutsi villagers.”[162]
At the Mugoma border crossing: “The refugees report that on 15 May as many as 100 refugees (maybe more) were killed by the RPF on a hill opposite the closest crossing point [Mugoma].”[163]
The report cites only RPA/F soldiers involved in killing and the conclusion section includes comments by an International Rescue Committee (IRC) staff member sent to the IRC offices. “Things are getting very bad at the border here… Someone really needs to do something about all of the killing and torture on the other [Rwandan] side. Each day there are more and more bodies in the river and most of them without their heads; the count is between 20 to 30 [bodies] each thirty minutes.”[164]
If Fergal Keane were working as an unbiased journalist he could have taken the opportunity to interview refugees in the Tanzanian camps about the RPF slaughter they witnessed. Instead, Keane was on a personal crusade to the Tanzanian camps to track down and convict a supposed Hutu genocidaire named Sylvestre Gacumbisi.
According to a United Nations cable dated October 14, 1994, UNHCR special investigator Robert Gersoni gave a detailed verbal briefing (from his notes) on his findings and conclusions after completing an investigation in Rwanda during August and September of 1994. The meeting was attended by Kofi Annan, then the Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, by UNAMIR II Force Commander Major General Guy Tousignant, and by several others. Annan had attended a previous meeting with Gersoni on September 14 and warned high-level officials that if Gersoni’s findings were correct they would be very damaging to Kagame’s government and to the United Nations.[165]
Robert Gersoni was not known for making mistakes. He was a professional investigator of high-repute known for 25 years of well-documented work for UNHCR, USAID and other bodies. According to UNHCR, Gersoni’s report was based on a five-week investigation that interviewed 300 Rwandans in 41 of Rwanda’s 145 communes and at nine refugee camps. The secret cable was designed to mitigate the repercussions of the Gersoni charges and begin the process of damage control.[166]
“We are now engaged in a damage limitation exercise,” wrote Shaharyar Khan, Special Representative to Kofi Annan from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda II (UNAMIR II).[167]
According to the cable:
“In a two hour briefing, Gersoni put forward evidence of what he described as calculated, pre-planned, systematic atrocities and genocide against Hutus by the RPF, whose methodology and scale, he concluded (30,000 massacred), could only have been part of a plan implemented as a policy from the highest echelons of the [Kagame] government. In his view these were not individual cases of revenge and summary trials but a pre-planned, systematic genocide against the Hutus. Gersoni staked his 25 year reputation on his conclusions which he recognized were diametrically opposite to the assumptions made, so far, by the U.N. and international community.”[168]
The document noted Gersoni’s claim that the RPF traveled around committing a genocide against Hutus with hoes, clubs and machetes.[169]
The above excerpts come from a huge cache of official documents, some of which have been seen only by attorneys at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. These documents attest to the many people who were in positions of power in the early 1990’s and know what really happened in Rwanda and how the RPF orchestrated and carried out a highly coordinated and calculated program of depopulation and terror.
“Scratch the surface, the red earth of Rwanda, and you will, it appears, find one vast cemetery,” wrote British journalist Nick Gordon in a shocking 1996 expose. “The people who passed me the document know it will be hard to investigate. Many areas are no-fly zones. The government has exhumed graves, dried the skeletons and burned them. Some graves have been used more once: they contain bodies from both the first genocide and the counter-genocide. Often the people who have buried the dead, the creusers, are themselves killed so they cannot bear witness.”[170]
After 14 years this correspondent has slowly but surely come to the conclusion that if anyone planned genocide in Rwanda, it was the RPF, and only the RPF. If I must accept that a pre-planned genocide was committed by the Interahamwe and “extremist Hutus” as defined by the official Rwanda genocide narrative that is now deeply instilled in the public mind in what can only be considered a collective insanity, then I must insist that the same people who make this claim acknowledge the genocide planned and committed by the RPF.
In the latest show of military and political support for terrorist partners serving the U.S. military expansion and natural resource plunder from Africa, the Pentagon in late 2007 extended the Kagame government a military training package worth $7-12 million. When President Bush was in Kigali in 2008, the Pentagon extended another $12 million aid package for ‘peacekeeping’ training in Darfur, a euphemism for terrorism of the RPF kind.
END
[1] The initial invasion was led by the legendary leader and one of the founders of the RPF, Major General Fred Gisa Rwigema, who just a few months before had been the Ugandan Vice-Minister of Defense. Rwigema and his two seconds were murdered reportedly on the orders of Museveni, and Kagame was brought back from the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, to take command. See : Mick Collins, « The General’s Book on Rwanda, » <http://cirqueminime.blogcollective.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/21/877913.html>.
[2] Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, International Panel of Eminent Personalities, Section 18.39, <http://www.africa-union.org/Official_documents/reports/Report_rowanda_genocide.pdf >.
[3] See Professor Peter Erlinder, “The Great Rwanda ‘Genocide Coverup’,” Global Research. February 20, 2008, <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8137>.
[4] See: International Forum for Truth and Justice in the Great Lakes of Africa,.
[5] The Report by French Anti-Terrorist Judge Jean-Louis Brugiere on the Shooting Down of Rwandan President Habyarimana’s Plane on April 6, 1994.
[6] Legitimate Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K. and U.S., several Rwandans who have gained citizenship, and certain Rwandan journalists under threat of persecution who were used as sources for this story cannot be identified.
[7] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[8] “Rwanda Urges Canada to Extradite ‘Genocide Masterminds’,” CBC News, August 31, 2007.
[9] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Suspect Worked at UK Trust,” BBC. November 6, 2006.
[10] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Suspect Worked at UK Trust,” BBC. November 6, 2006.
[11] Private communication, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[12] Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UNHCR 1951.
[13] “Rwanda seeks genocide fugitives from Britain,” Reuters, November 7, 2008.
[14] “Rwanda seeks genocide fugitives from Britain,” Reuters, November 7, 2008.
[15] Private communication, Hutu Rwandan and U.K. citizen “Patrick Mahoro” (pseudonym used for his protection), March 2008.
[16] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[17] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[18] The Democratic Republic of Congo was renamed Zaire during the reign of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. After the AFDL-CZ overthrew Mobutu the name was changed back to the Democratic Republic of Congo by the short-lived President Laurent Desire Kabila.
[19] Jean-Christophe Nzeyimana gives an account of life and death at the Mugunga refugee camp in: David Barouski, “Surviving the Rwanda Genoce: An Interview with Jean-Christophe Nzeyimana,” ZNET, June 19, 2007, <http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/SurvivingtheGenocide.pdf>.
[20] See: keith harmon snow, “Darfurism, Uganda and the U.S. War in Africa,” www.allthingspass.com; see also Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellon Press, 1999.
[21] According to a top United Nations investigator, the IRC moved into bases in eastern Zaire in 1996 and started shelling the refugee camps with heavy weapons. Private interview, name withheld for confidentiality, July 2006.
[22] This correspondent has interviewed witnesses to the war crimes committed against Hutu refugees all across the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Rwanda, Uganda and the United States. See also: Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellon Press, 1999; Howard W. French, A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, Random House, 2004; and keith harmon snow, Hotel Rwanda: Hollywood and the Holocaust in Central Africa, <www.allthingspass.com>.
[23] Private communication, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[24] Private communication, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[25] Private communications, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[26] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[27] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[28] “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” BBC Press Release, November 7, 2006.
[29] IBITANGAJWE N’INAMA Y’ABAMINISITIRI YO KUWA 29 WERURWE 2002
[30] http://www.diplomatie.be/nl/pdf/corpsconsulair.pdf
[31] Janvier Mabuye, Twiyubakire Mu Rwanda, December 22, 2004, <http://www.ambarwanda.be/pages/contentActual.asp?ActualId=118>.
[32] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[33] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[34] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[35] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[36] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[37] Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, International Panel of Eminent Personalities, Section 17.8, <http://www.africa-union.org/Official_documents/reports/Report_rowanda_genocide.pdf >.
[38] Personal interviews with three Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K. and one source in Rwanda.
[39] Home Office document, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Tony Kavutse, July 15, 2002.
[40] Medical Foundation, <http://www.torturecare.org.uk/about_us/patrons_and_trustees>.
[41] Hamra Yucel, MD, Request for Crises Loan RE: Mr. Tony Kavutse, DOB 29/10/76. Previously of Leabridge House, 497-501 Leabridge Road, London, E10 7 EB, Medical Foundation, July 29, 2002.
[42] Hamra Yucel, MD, Request for Crises Loan RE: Mr. Tony Kavutse, DOB 29/10/76. Previously of Leabridge House, 497-501 Leabridge Road, London, E10 7 EB, Medical Foundation, July 29, 2002.
[43] Email communication from Michelle Alexander, Medical Foundation, April 1, 2008.
[44] Sarah Tipton (Housing Advisor), Letter from Waltham Forrest to Dr. Hamra Yucel, Augst 29, 2002.
[45] Jenny Cook (Departmental Administration), Letter from the Birbeck School to Tony Kavutse, August 2004.
[46] Tony Kavutse did not responde to repeated requests for communication.
[47] Private communications with Rwandan refugees in London, March and April 2008.
[48] Private communications with Rwandan refugees in London, March and April 2008.
[49] Private communication, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, March 2008.
[50] Nick Gordon, “Return to Hell,” Sunday Express, April 21, 1996, <http://www.abarundi.org/documents/NGordon_RDA_eng_01.html>.
[51] The establishment narrative on “AIDS in Africa” offers another example of disinformation suggesting a humanitarian agenda that is merely, in fact, window dressing for multinational corporations and the department of defense. It will not be examined here. I would remove this. It is out of place and deserves its own paper.
[52] Don Terry, “Suburban America: Hiding place for thousands of war criminals?” Chicago Tribune, July 5, 2005.
[53] See: “Public Security: ICE Wins Landmark Rwandan Genocide Case,” Inside ICE, Vol. 1, Issue 13, <http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/insideice/articles/insideice_101204_web2.htm?searchstring=rwanda>.
[54] See e.g.: “Mrs. Bush's Remarks in Honor of the Visiting Guests from the Mothers to Mothers-To-Be Programme in Capetown, South Africa,” The White House, March 13, 2006, <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060313-2.html>.
[55] Goodworks International has a permanent office in Kigali run by managing director Mary Kamari. The Goodworks promo film Rwanda Rising was showcased on Delta Airlines flights beginning in the fall 2007 (see: Rwanda Convention Association, <http://www.rwandaconvention.org/past-conventions.htm>).
[56] Africa-America Institute, <http://www.aaionline.org/About/Board.aspx>.
[57] Private communications, Rwandan researchers, June 2007.
[58] Clinton Presidential Center, “Rwanda’s Ambassador to the U.S. Zac Nsenga Speaks on the Genocide 12 Years Ago,” <http://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org/062806-nr-pc-gn-rwa-pr-rwanda-ambassador-zac-nsenga-speaks.htm>.
[59] Genocide Intervention Network, <http://www.genocideintervention.net/network/endorsers >.
[60] See: David Barouski, “Surviving the Rwanda Genocide: An Interview with Jean-Christophe Nzeyimana,” ZNET, June 19, 2007, <http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/SurvivingtheGenocide.pdf>.
[61] Several of the Private Military Companies involved in Britain’s immigration detention centres, notably SODEXHO and SERCO, are also contracted to work at the U.S. torture center in Guantanamo Bay.
[62] “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” BBC Press Release, November 7, 2006.
[63] “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” BBC Press Release, November 7, 2006.
[64] Private communication, Vaughan Jones, Praxis, March 13, 2008.
[65] Private communication, Vaughan Jones, Praxis, March 13, 2008.
[66] Private communication, British Department of Defense insider, March 12, 2008. The same insider has supported the Broken Arrows reports published by Wayne Madsen Report: Wayne Madsen, “Broken Arrows, Lies and the Vice President,” Wayne Madsen Report, April 8, 2007, <http://www.factivism.com/content/view/94/33/>.
[67] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[68] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[69] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[70] British Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Department, Numbers of Rwandan Asylum Seekers in U.K. from 1994-2003 (bar graph).
[71] http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspect_reports/irc-inspections.html/
[72] Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UNHCR 1951.
[73] Harm on Removal: Excessive Force against Failed Asylum Seekers, Medical Foundation, <http://www.torturecare.org.uk/publications/reports/277>.
[74] Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons: <http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspect_reports/irc-inspections.html/>.
[75] “Rwandan Man Detained in Edinburgh,” Urgent Action Needed, <http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/364584>.
[76] Personal communications with Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K., March and April 2008.
[77] Home Office News Release (005/2008), Government News Network, January 14, 2008, http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/156324 (use a uniform font and size for all citations)
[78] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[79] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[80] The term “demonstration elections” was coined by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman. See, e.g., Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) or The Political Economy of Human Rights: The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (1979).
[81] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[82] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo TX, October 7, 2007.
[83] There are many accusations against Paul Kagame for his role as DMI chief under Museveni. See, e.g., Remigius Kintu, The Truth Behind The Rwanda Tragedy (prepared upon request and presented to the ICTR at Arusha, Tanzania), March 20, 2005.
[84] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo TX, October 7, 2007.
[85] Private communication, Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, April 9, 2008.
[86] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[87] The most auspicious one-sided examples come from Africa Watch, a division of Human Rights Watch. See e.g., Rwanda: Talking Peace and Waging War: Human Rights Since the October 1990 Invasion, Africa Watch, Vol. IV, Issue No. 3, February 27, 1992. See also: by Mr. B.W. Ndiaye. Special Rapporteur, on his mission to Rwanda from 8 to 17 April 1993, United Nations Economic and Social Council, E/CN.4/1994/7/Add.1, 11 August 1993; and The Government and Armed Forces Responsible for the Reign of Terror in Rwanda, Press Release, Rights & Democracy, March 8, 1993.
[88] See: Robin Philpot, Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard, The Taylor Report and Robin Philpot, 2003.
[89] The Operation Guidance on Rwanda refers case workers to the Rwanda lists on two websites: and <www.parquetgeneral.gov.rw>.
[90] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[91] U.K. Home Office 2008.
[92] See: “Home Office to water down anti-torture/war crime legislation under pressure from Israeli government,” The Guardian, February 7, 2006; and Vikram Dodd, “U.K. considers curbing citizens' right to arrest alleged war criminals,” The Guardian, February 3, 2006.
[93] Private communication, Moses Kenneth Bugingo Rugema, April 1, 2008.
[94] The address of Rugewa’s business in London is: Longford Court, Belle Vue Road, London NW4 2BU (move this after ‘England.’ England; Tel: 00 44 [0] 208 201 5722 - Fax: 00 44 [0] 208 202 1616.
[95] “President Kagame’s New Cabinet Stung by Allegations of Spy Chiefs Ménage a Trios,” Radio Katwe, Kampala, March 12, 2008.
[96] “President Kagame’s New Cabinet Stung by Allegations of Spy Chief’s Ménage a Trios,” Radio Katwe, Kampala, March 12, 2008.
[97] Private communications, Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K., March and April 2008.
[98] Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 1951.
[99] Private communications, Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K., March and April 2008.
[100] 10 Downing Street, E-Petitions, Rwanda Petition, <http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/rwandagenocide/>.
[101] Private communication, Rwandan refugee in London, March 2008.
[102] Rwanda Diaspora Investment Ltd., <www.investinrwanda.co.uk>.
[103] Frank Nyakairu, “Rwanda Speaks on PRA Training Bases,” The Monitor, November 28, 2004.
[104] Private communication, Rwandan asylum seekers in England, March and April 2008.
[105] Thomas Ofcansky, Rwanda: Recent History, <www.europaworld.com> and <http://www.zacharykaufman.com/pub/2007_book_chapter_rwanda_recent_history.pdf>.
[106] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” April 1, 2008.
[107] Africa Partnership Forum, October 4-5, 2005, <http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/2/38983282.pdf>.
[108] Private communications, Rwandan refugees in England, March and April 2008.
[109] Private communications, Rwandan refugees in England and U.S.A., and Rwandan journalists in Kigali.
[110] Rwanda NEPAD Magazine, Issue 002, November 2004: <http://www.nepad.gov.rw/docs/Rwanda_NEPAD_magazine_issue_2.pdf >.
[111] MSAADA, <www.msaada.org>.
[112] IMIZI: <www.imizi.org>.
[113] RYICO: <www.ryico.org/index.html>.
[114] Aegis Trust, <http://www.aegistrust.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=66>.
[115] Survivor’s Fund, History of SURF, <http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/about/history.php >.
[116] Private communications, Rwandan refugees in England, March and April 2008.
[117] Terri Judd, “Honour for Women Who Dedicated Her Life to Genocide Survivors,” The Independent, October 12, 2004.
[118] Terri Judd, “Honour for Women Who Dedicated Her Life to Genocide Survivors,” The Independent, October 12, 2004.
[119] Surf Founder Receives OBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace Ceremony, February 29, 2008, <http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/assets/docs/pr/surf_founder_receives_obe.pdf>.
[120] Holocaust Memorial Day, <http://www.hmd.org.uk/files/1157734432-106.pdf>.
[121] Ultimate Escape Health Spa, <http://www.ultimate-escape.com/>.
[122] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” April 8, 2008.
[123] Fergal Keane, Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey, Penguin Books, September 1997.
[124] Trial of Sylvestre Gacumbitsi, ICTR Press Release, ICTR/INFO-9-2-353.EN, Arusha, 28 July 2003. (1 date format)
[125] Private communication, Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, April 9, 2008.
[126] Probably RPF soldiers Lt. Frank Ndore or his bodyguard Valence, both of whom worked with Fergal Keane.
[127] Private communication, Phil Taylor, April 3, 2008.
[128]
[129] Lindsay Hilsum, “Rwanda's genocide could have been prevented. The UN let people die and now it watches as the survivors die,” The Observer, March 28, 2004.
[130] Lindsay Hilsum, “Rwanda's genocide could have been prevented. The UN let people die and now it watches as the survivors die,” The Observer, March 28, 2004.
[131] Again, the most auspicious one-sided examples come from Africa Watch, a division of Human Rights Watch. See e.g., Rwanda: Talking Peace and Waging War: Human Rights Since the October 1990 Invasion, Africa Watch, Vol. IV, Issue No. 3, February 27, 1992. See also: by Mr. B.W. Ndiaye. Special Rapporteur, on his mission to Rwanda from 8 to 17 April 1993, United Nations Economic and Social Council, E/CN.4/1994/7/Add.1, 11 August 1993; and The Government and Armed Forces Responsible for the Reign of Terror in Rwanda, Press Release, Rights & Democracy, March 8, 1993.
[132] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[133] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004. Add website link to his interview
[134] Donatella Lorch, “Rwanda Rebels: Army of Exiles Fights for a Home,” New York Times, June 9, 1994: 10; and “Rwanda Rebels’ Victory Attributed To Discipline,” New York Times, July 19, 1994: 6. Raymond Bonner: “How Minority Tutsi Won the War,” New York Times, September 6, 1994: 6; and “Rwandan Refugees Flood Zaire as Rebel Forces Gain,” New York Times, July 15, 1994: 1.
[135] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[136] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[137] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[138] Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, Farrar-Strauss-Giroux, 1998.
[139] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo, TX, October 2007.
[140] Philip Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda, Farrar-Strauss-Giroux, 1998.
[141] keith harmon snow, “The Grinding Machine: Terror and Genocide in Rwanda,” Toward Freedom, April 20, 2007.
[142] See, e.g., Robin Philpot, “The New Yorker's Congo Distortions: An Open Letter to Philip Gourevitch,” Counterpunch, June 7, 2003. See also Philip Gourevitch, “Annals of Diplomacy: The Genocide Fax,” The New Yorker, May 11, 2998, p. 42: <http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998/05/11/1998_05_11_042_TNY_LIBRY_000015508>.
[143] Philip Gourevitch, “Annals of Diplomacy: The Genocide Fax,” The New Yorker, May 11, 2998, p. 42: <http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998/05/11/1998_05_11_042_TNY_LIBRY_000015508>.
[144]
[145] See, e.g., Kane Yerbu (monthly newsletter of the Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes), November 10, 2006.
[146] See: Michela Wrong, In The Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, Fourth Estate, 2000: p. ix.
[147] See e.g., Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellen Press, 1999.
[148] See the case of Pastor Elizaphan Ntakiritumana as elaborated by Philip Gourevitch in We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda, Farrar-Strauss-Giroux, 1998.
[149] Private interview, Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo, TX, October 7, 2007.
[150] Private communication, Phil Taylor, April 6, 2008.
[151] Louis-Pual Eyenga Sana, La Monuc nie la présence de l’armée rwandaise à l’Est de la RDC, Le Potentiel, February 8, 2008; <http://www.lepotentiel.com/afficher_article.php?id_article=59209&id_edition=4242>.
[152] Kemal Saiki has issued false MONUC press releases to cover for the actions of MONUC troops, some of which involved criminal in intent and nature. False statements have also been made directly to this correspondent. See also: David Barouski, “Press Release,” World News Journal, February 8, 2008
[153] See: David Barouski, “Press Release,” World News Journal, February 8, 2008
[154] “USAID and Rwanda Ambassador Celebrate Rwandan Coffee,” USAID Press Release 0411-06-032, April 11, 2006, < http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2006/pr060411_1.html >.
[155] Development Management Solutions, The East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Trade Hub: Development of National AGOA Export Strategies, USAID, 5 October 2005, < http://www.ecatradehub.com/reports/rp.downloads/2005.AGOA.Strategy.Rwanda.pdf >.
[156] Private communication, Eastern Congo. 2007.
[157] Robin Philpot, Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard. The Taylor Report and Robin Philpot, 2003; on the RPF/A cells, Robin Philpot cites: Reed, William Cyrus, “Exile, Reform and the Rise of the RPF/A,” in Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3, 1996, p. 496.
[158] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo, TX, October 7, 2008.
[159] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[160] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[161] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[162] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[163] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[164] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[165] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[166] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[167] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[168] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[169] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[170] Nick Gordon, “Return to Hell,” Sunday Express, April 21, 1996, <http://www.abarundi.org/documents/NGordon_RDA_eng_01.html>.
HOW RWANDA MANUFACTURES AND EXPORTS GENOCIDE
keith harmon snow
www.allthingspass.com
An investigation has uncovered an asylum system scandal where bogus Rwandan “refugees” infiltrate the U.S. and U.K. and work as undercover agents to hunt down critics of the Rwandan dictatorship and legitimate refugees and drag them back to Rwanda. This is yet the latest revelation on how the dictatorship in Rwanda manufactures and exports terrorism using an ideology of genocide and how the West supports terrorism by backing its Rwanda proxy. Meanwhile, business in Rwanda is booming and the criminal networks of the Kagame military machine continue to plunder the blood-drenched Congo.
In October 1990, the Ugandan army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF/A) led by Major General Paul Kagame invaded Rwanda.[1] This action set in motion a course of history that determined the fate of millions of innocent people in Central Africa.
After more than 18 years of systematic disinformation about Rwanda there exists a collective ignorance about what really happened in Rwanda and who is responsible. The so-called “Rwanda Genocide” is one of the most widely misunderstood events in contemporary history, and not because the evidence is lacking or because the truth is obscured by butchery.
According to the official story, extremist Hutus in the government and military committed an orchestrated and pre-planned genocide against the Tutsi minority from April 6 to about July 16, [4th July 1994] 1994. [14th July most of Rwandans have crossed the borders before RPF closed them all except the Turquoise zone] In this mythology, some 800,000 to 1.2 million Tutsi were butchered with hoes, axes, and machetes, over the now infamous “100 days of genocide.” [The special envoy to Rwanda Deni Ségui said 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus whereas RPF’s figures show 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus and now 1,2 million]
The real story seems to be that the RPF were the killers to a far greater extent, the majority of the victims were Hutus, and the numbers of dead during those 100 days were far less. The final insult to truth comes in the upside-down assertion that the RPF “stopped the genocide by winning the war.”
Even those experts on “genocide in Rwanda” who do not contest the official story will attest to the myriad complexities that surround accusations and counter accusations about victims and perpetrators in post-1994 Rwanda.[2] Under the new power structure there were strong motivations to accuse the stigmatized Hutus of crimes that were never committed.
By July 1994, the RPF completed its coup d’etat and consolidated its power in Rwanda. The government of Paul Kagame has since then maintained political power and manipulated public sympathy by promoting a highly politicized ideology of genocide.[3]
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.
On February 6, 2008, a Spanish court delivered international arrest warrants against forty of the top military officials in the Rwandan regime. President Paul Kagame was investigated but not indicted but only because heads of state have immunity. The arrest warrants charge the RPF officials with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1990 and 2002.[4]
The Spanish indictments join the November 17, 2006 indictments issued by French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who concluded that the RPF, under the direct orders of Paul Kagame, carried out the surface-to air-missile attacks on the airplane carrying the two presidents.[5]
Now, an investigation has uncovered a scandal where fake Rwandan asylum seekers infiltrate the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (U.K.) and work undercover to hunt down critics and survivors of the Rwandan dictatorship and bring them back to Rwanda. This scandal revolves around networks of informers and agents and it encapsulates all the machinations of the growing industry around “genocide in Rwanda”.
Prejudged by Western human rights organizations, journalists, and mass media, the Rwanda government’s critics and survivors forced to flee for their lives are falsely accused and publicly branded as genocide perpetrators. Shunned as humanity’s lowest criminals, arrested and imprisoned without trial for months or years, legitimate refugees are framed, extradited and neutralized by a government whose top officials have international arrest warrants against them.
Journalists, human rights defenders, businessmen, and ordinary citizens both inside and outside Rwanda are persecuted and neutralized if they deviate from the falsified “victim” and “survivor” ideology used as a political weapon by the military dictatorship of Paul Kagame and his vast network of propagandists, state agents, and foreign backers.
Innocent Rwandan asylum seekers live under perpetual fear of being hunted down, branded as genocide perpetrators, ostracized, and persecuted by the Kagame regime.[6] As examples to follow will show, host governments generally capitulate without investigation or resistance and support the Kagame regime’s requests for arrest and extradition.
Using international legal instruments and institutions, like the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR), Western governments—the U.S., Belgium, Canada and Britain in particular—actively assist the Kagame regime in hunting refugees and critics, because all four governments backed the Rwanda Patriotic Front’s guerrilla war, 1990-1994, and the years of terrorism that have followed, 1994-2008.
REFUGEES FRAMED BY THE BBC
Early one morning in the fall of 2006, a Rwandan national who gained U.K. citizenship after a six year asylum process was confronted on the street as he exited the offices of the London-based charity where he worked.
Waiting for Dr. Vincent Bajinya outside on Pott Street in the brusque early morning London air was Fergal Keane, a prominent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist known for his extensive reportage in Rwanda during the 1994 cataclysm; Keane has maintained a permanent focus on “the Rwanda genocide” since then and has won many awards for his Rwanda reportage.
Without any appointment or prior warning, Fergal Keane shoved a television camera in Dr. Bajinya’s face and began interrogating him about his alleged role as a “Mastermind” of the Rwandan Genocide.[7]
The “Mastermind” accusation has been leveled against refugees in Canada, Belgium, Netherlands and the U.S. as well.[8]
“An investigation by BBC News has revealed that a man—wanted for genocide in Rwanda—is living and working in Britain,” began Fergal Keane’s BBC report of November 6, 2006. “Vincent Bajinya has been working as a doctor and has served on a refugee task force for the government.” [9]
“He’s not a voluntary worker,” Keane continues in a short commentary with racist insinuations, as if former refugees who have been granted British citizenship do not deserve to earn an honest wage. “He’s actually paid to the job.”
To whip up the outrage of BBC news consumers, the final insult to truth and freedom—and to the honest, hard-working British consumer who looks to the BBC for impartial reporting—comes when Fergal Keane “exposes” the fact that “much of that money comes from the British taxpayer.” [10]
Following the BBC reports by Fergal Keane, Dr. Vincent Bajinya was arrested in December 2006 and has spent fifteen months in detention. Dr. Bajinya’s rights were doubly trampled upon by a government that had already granted him citizenship.
Dr. Vincent Bajinya is considered a “Category One Offender” by Rwandan prosecutors. However, the “Category One Offender” status seems to be reserved for the most educated and astute critics of the Kagame regime; in other words, the intellectuals.
“He is just an intellectual Hutu who managed to have a British citizenship and a good employment,” says Rosalie Brown, Vincent Bajinya’s wife of 19 years. “Every person who is not RPF or who does not share the same opinion with the RPF is the enemy. They did not have to do anything wrong. No way. He has the right to be RPF or not. This detention has been like torture for him, an innocent man. My children and I, we suffer a lot for no good reason. The U.K. government should not have arrested [my husband] before it completed an investigation, but it arrested him just because the Rwanda government said to.”[11]
The U.S. and U.K. are both signatory to the 1951 United Nations High Commission for Refugees Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.[12] Under this convention a refugee is assured the same rights to due process and legal protections as any citizen and the host government has a legal obligation to protect refugee’s rights. Certainly, the 1951 Convention forbids anyone from hunting and persecuting any asylum seeker in collaboration with the government that the refugees are fleeing from.
Within days of Fergal Keane’s first report, the entire Western media was abuzz with stories about Dr. Vincent Bajinya. The articles combined the story of Dr. Vincent Bajinya with the story of three other Rwandan refugees “hiding” in the U.K., and the media framed all four refugees as “Most Wanted” criminals and the “Masterminds” of the Rwanda genocide of 1994.
“Rwanda is seeking extradition of four suspected masterminds of the country's 1994 genocide,” Reuters reported on November 7, 2006, “including a medical doctor, who are living and working in Britain, the Justice Minister told Reuters on Tuesday.”[13]
“All these fugitives are living a comfortable life in the United Kingdom but are surely key planners of the 1994 genocide,” Reuters quoted Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda’s Justice Minister. “The dilemma we have is that most of these fugitives have changed their identities, which makes it difficult for us to track them.”[14]
“For the fear of being tracked down and wrongly judged in Rwanda or Arusha [ICTR] one of the three mayors had changed his name and applied for asylum as a former teacher, the other one applied for asylum as a Burundian citizen,” says Patrick Mahoro, a Rwandan Hutu and former U.K. asylum seeker who now has citizenship and lives in Coventry, England.[15] “This was not because what they might have done but because of the fear of being arrested and accused of genocide as it has happened to many others. This was their explanation in the court hearing last year [2007].”[16]
“Dr. Bajinya has never hidden himself,” Mahoro continues. “He became a concern to Kigali when he became a member of a task force advising the U.K. government on re-qualification of refugee health professionals. [People say the issue became so sharp because of his position. He could be a barrier to the RPF infiltrators falsely seeking asylum. So he had to be removed]Privately he is known to have strong views about the RPF, and by becoming a member of that particular task force it was thought he might get close to U.K. officials who do not know the truth about the RPF. He also comes from the same village as [former President Juvenal] Habyarimana.”[17]
According to Rosalie Brown, she and Dr. Vincent Bajinya began fleeing the violence in Rwanda on April 8, 1994. They fled their home in the Rugenge District of Kigali for Gisenyi, where they stayed with extended family until they were forced to flee in July 1994 for fear of persecution by the Kagame regime. Like so many others they flew from the cauldron into the fire: Zaire.[18] For two years they lived in the Mugunga refugee camp near Goma, Zaire, and they fled in August 1996, just before the Hutu refugee camps were attacked in contravention of international law.[19] [I confirm]
The RPF, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for Congo-Zaire (AFDL-CZ) invaded Zaire in September of 1996 and began massacring Hutu refugees by the tens of thousands. The invasion was backed by the Pentagon through bases in Uganda and Rwanda and U.S. administrators downplayed the killing of Hutu refugees.[20] The International Rescue Committee (IRC) reportedly set up at bases nearby and shelled the refugee camps.[21] The genocidal campaign against Hutus swung into high gear as the RPF and UPDF—backed by the Pentagon—chased hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees from Goma to Kinshasa—into Zaire’s forests and swamps where they hunted them down and killed them and destroyed the evidence.[22]
In August 1996, Dr. Vincent Bajinya and his wife Rosalie fled with their two children to Kenya where Dr. Bajinya was employed at the Jomo Kenyatta Hospital; Rosalie Brown went on to London with their two kids (1998) until Dr. Bajinya was able to join them (2000). [confirm. When I fled from Rwanda, I met him in Nairobi where he was working for Kenyatta Hospital]
Meanwhile, unreported by Fergal Keane and the BBC, are the numerous “refugee” and “asylum” cases of Rwandan nationals who have infiltrated the U.K. and U.S. by working the very same asylum system and benefiting from hundreds of thousands of pounds (and dollars) of taxpayer subsidies. [ we got the same issue here in the Netherlands, they say they are refugees or with the government scholarship, they stay in the country as fake students]. [After the Spanish arrest warrants were issued, the Rwandan parliament agreed to send more spies, death squads to Europe because as they said, the RPF interests here are dying out]
Amongst the many asylum seekers who arrived in London and claimed to be fleeing the repression in Rwanda are Tony Kavutse, Ignatius Mugabo, Linda Bihire, Vivenie Mugunga and Moses Kaganda, all of whom used the asylum process to eventually gain British citizenship in the U.K. Most of these are former RPF soldiers, RDF soldiers or military intelligence agents who today continue to work for the Kagame regime.
Tony Kavutse, Moses Kaganda and Vivenie Mugunga are all currently employed at the embassies of the government they claimed to be fleeing: Rwanda. Each used the asylum process to get free housing, medical assistance, psychological counseling, and higher education at elite colleges in England.
And there are other “asylum seekers” claiming persecution by the Rwanda Government whose insider roles as intelligence agents and secretive businessmen make a horrible joke out of U.K. asylum system.
THE GENOCIDAIRE BRAND
In October of 2006, Dr. Vincent Bajinya was working for Praxis, a U.K. non-government organization (NGO) that assists refugees in transition, and for Refugee Nurses Task Force, a 24-member task-force set up by the U.K. government to link refugee nurses with U.K. employers.
“Fergal Keane was waiting for Dr. Bajinya in front of the entrance door of his work,” says Rosalie Brown. “He was just in the street very early in the morning without any contact or warning if I can say! Shock and surprise you know? My husband had never meet Fergal Keane before and now he [Keane] was accusing him of genocide in Rwanda!” [23]I saw the clip on the BBC screen
It was not Fergal Keane’s first visit to the Praxis offices however, and within a week of the auspicious early morning encounter the BBC aired a major story convicting Dr. Vincent Bajinya a priori of genocide and setting the stage for his public ostracism and imminent arrest by U.K. officials.
The BBC documentary reveals that Fergal Keane (or someone whose voice sounds identical) previously visited Dr. Bajinya’s offices at Praxis and covertly filmed him using a hidden camera. Keane begins the four-minute BBC docudrama “undercover” and he confides in viewers that the initial filming was done in “secret”—the admission of secrecy sensationalizes the report and frames the story so that it will appear that Dr. Vincent Bajinya is a “wanted” criminal on the run. The rising chorus of media reports soon declared that Dr. Bajinya changed his name to avoid being detected as a “genocidaire” hiding in London.
The term genocidaire is a French term often used to castigate innocent Hutus as deeply sinister and evil.
“I was with [my husband] in the war,” says Rosalie Brown, “everywhere, all the time, he did not do anything. We fled like everyone else, suffered like every Rwandan, we lost many lovers, family members and friends. We went through the asylum process once we got to the U.K. and on our Rwandan names. This Fergal Keane story is all made up.” [24]
According to numerous sources, Dr. Vincent Bajinya was completely open about his refugee status during the entire process of gaining U.K. citizenship and changed his name after citizenship was granted and for practicality purposes relating to the dictates of work, and marriage, and living in the U.K.
“Why does the Rwanda government suddenly want my husband now in 2007 [sic] after 13 years of war in Rwanda?” says Rosalie Brown. “We all had different names and for our children’s future as they grow up in this country [U.K.] why can we not all have the same name Brown once the law in this country gives us the full rights to do so?” [25]
“Excuse me sir, do you work here?” the voice behind the hidden camera asks Dr. Vincent Bajinya as the short clip opens. Fergal Keane misrepresents the BBC from the start, a telling indication of the misrepresentations to come. He knows that Dr. Bajinya works at the Praxis clinic and he is not interested in the clinic. “Do you know…is the clinic open today? There’s a clinic here…a couple days a week?”[26]
Fergal Keane discredits his reportage further as the film unfolds because he frames the reportage in such a way that Dr. Vincent Bajinya is accused, tried, and convicted in a four minute documentary. But the BBC reports about Dr. Vincent Bajinya are full of inconsistencies and the various reports raise important questions that should be put to Fergal Keane and his producer, Andrew Head.
Using the low-quality images of Dr. Bajinya snatched in secret during the initial visit, Keane traveled to Rwanda to find witnesses who would testify that Dr. Vincent Bajinya was indeed a genocide perpetrator. In Dr. Bajinya’s home village, so we are told, Keane finds the witness he needs.
“Far from London we’ve uncovered evidence tying Dr. Bajinya to horrific crimes,” Fergal Keane announces. The video begins its Rwanda segment showing dark skies over the land of a thousand hills, but quickly jumps to gruesome images of bodies lying along the road.[27] These are the images of gruesome death from 1994 that are recycled over and over in a pornography of African violence that is used to foster the ignorance that has infected the collective consciousness.
“And today in this neighborhood where Dr. Bajinya lived, survivors recall a fanatic who searched for Tutsis at roadblocks,” Fergal Keane continues. “They claim Tutsi civilians, even a three-month old baby, were amongst those killed by militia men he directed.”
Like the fake asylum seekers used by Fergal Keane as sources to frame Dr. Bajinya and pressure Praxis, whom we will soon meet, it seems that his chosen “genocide survivors” also have a lot in common with RPF intelligence agents.
PLANTED SPIES AND AGENTS
In the BBC documentary of November 6, 2006 titled “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” we are introduced to a Rwandan man Keane calls only “Dieudonne”—a “genocide survivor” whom we are told lives in Dr. Bajinya’s former community. The BBC video flashes the man’s name, but the tiny banner is blurry and unreadable.
“Dieudonne is one of several eyewitnesses who told us Bajinya instructed the militia to kill,” says Fergal Keane. “From our photographs Dieudonne identified Dr. Bajinya as the man he saw giving orders for murder.”
The “eyewitness” Dieudonne tells the story of Dr. Bajinya’s supposed crimes in the Kinyarwanda language, while Fergal Keane translates for English viewers. “Bajinya told them, ‘Look, this is not how you kill a man, you're just playing with him. He might survive if you just leave him the way he is.’ So they killed him off. It is an image of Bajinya that stays in my mind.”
However, in the BBC press release of the following day titled “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” the article cites a man named Janvier Mabuye to say exactly the same thing that Fergal Keane claims that the eyewitness Dieudonne is saying in the BBC film.
“Janvier Mabuye says he heard Dr Bajinya ordering the killers to finish off a taxi driver who had already been attacked with machetes. Janvier says: ‘Bajinya told them look this is not how you kill a person, you’re just playing with him. He might survive if you just leave him the way he is. At that point he called a young man and another neighbor and they came and killed him off. That is one of the images that always lasts each time I remember the genocide. It’s one of the images of Bajinya that remains in my mind.’” [28]
The BBC has produced two reports where two different eyewitnesses have made exactly the same accusations, word-for-word, verbatim, against Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
More importantly, the eyewitness Janvier Mabuye[I have heard about him in the Rwandan embassy in Nairobi, and many guys know him in Brussels] who is produced by the BBC for the print stories and a longer video documentary about Dr. Vincent Bajinya, is identified by Rwandan refugees as an RPF intelligence agent who has worked in the Rwandan Embassies in Uganda, Nairobi and Brussels.
On March 29, 2002 Janvier Mabuye was nominated 2nd Secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in Kampala, Uganda; later in 2002 he worked as 1rst Secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.[29] In October 2003, Janvier Mabuye was based in Brussels as 2nd Secretary and Cultural Attaché, a post he held until at least 2005.[30]
In December 2004, Mabuye issued a communiqué from the Rwanda Embassy in Brussels to the Rwandan community informing them how, with the support of the Rwandan Embassy in Brussels, they can acquire investment properties in Rwanda.[31]
Fergal Keane and the BBC have outdone themselves by producing exactly the same accusations by two independent witnesses and by producing a “genocide survivor” who is actually a Rwandan intelligence agent.[32]
“Janvier Mabuye is not from Dr. Bajinya’s neighborhood and he is not a genocide survivor,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “Like many other young Tutsis he left Rwanda after the October 1990 invasion to join the RPF in Uganda.”
From the BBC video we see that Dr. Bajinya is not an expert English speaker. Keane’s method of confrontation forces the entire life and history of another human being—who has lived a reality few of us can fathom—into Keane’s framework of assumptions and biases about what happened in Rwanda and who is responsible and it leaves no room for Dr. Vincent Bajinya or his unique identity to exist. [True, I witnessed the camera’s attack on Dr Bajinya]
Who is the more credible witness to events in Rwanda? Dr. Vincent Bajinya, a Rwandan who grew up in Rwanda, a man who knew the place and the people, and who finally fled with his family in 1996 after years of terror? Or Fergal Keane, a white reporter from England who arrived in Rwanda for the first time in May 1994 and worked with the assistance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and their intelligence and information warfare departments?
Keane closes his attack with a ten-second media sound bite about genocide that entirely destroys the context of Dr. Vincent Bajinya’s worldview and the history of trauma and devastation he has both witnessed and survived. Dr. Bajinya responds to the arrogance of Fergal Keane with terse summary statements in poor English, and does this standing up for his rights as a British citizen and a human being.
“The doctor says both sides were massacred in Rwanda and refuses to accept Tutsis were victims of genocide,” Keane states as he approaches Dr. Vincent Bajinya on Pott street.[33]
“You believe there was no genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda?” Keane asks Dr. Vincent Bajinya. In Keane’s tone and manner there is the self-righteous assumption of a higher moral purpose.[34]
“I believe that, yes,” says Dr. Vincent Bajinya.[35]
“Because the international community believes there was a genocide.” Keane is now speaking for the nebulous “international community,” obviously pleased with himself for having elicited the response that can be used to figuratively hang Dr. Vincent Bajinya as a genocide negationist.[confirm. Looking the way he approached and asked him, that was the obvious intention of Keane]
“Yeah, it’s my belief,” Dr. Bajinya says. Not interested in Fergal Keane’s crusade. “The international community can believe other things. It is my right to believe in what I believe.”[36]
THE BOGUS ASYLUM OF TONY KAVUTSE
According to legitimate Rwandan refugees in the U.K. the man primarily responsible for orchestrating the branding, arrest, detention and persecution of Dr. Vincent Bajinya is a fake Rwandan asylum seeker who claimed to have fled Rwanda under fear of persecution. The man who tracked down Dr. Vincent Bajinya today works at the Rwandan Embassy in London under the name Tony Kavutse. He was assisted by several other fake asylum seekers also working as Rwandan agents or agent-provacateurs in London.
Legitimate Rwandan refugees in London report that Tony Kavutse is a long-time RPF and RDF soldier and intelligence agent. Kavutse was reportedly born in Uganda. Rwandan refugees in London claim that the Rwandan Embassy staff is 100% Ugandan citizens. Some of them reportedly fought with President-for-Life Yoweri Museveni, an ethnic Hima (a tribe related to the Tutsis), and the National Resistance Army (NRA) during the Ugandan guerrilla wars in the 1980’s and later joined the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).
According to Rwandan refugees in London, the entire Rwandan Embassy staff in London is comprised of Ugandans who call themselves Rwandans. Many Ugandan citizens hold powerful positions in the Rwanda Government today because they joined the RPA/NRA war machine in its conquest of Rwanda. “The conquering RPF were mainly the English-speaking Ugandans.”[37]
Legitimate asylum seekers claim that Tony Kavutse continues to work as an RPF intelligence agent for the Rwanda government and that he tracks down any critics or legitimate victims of terrorism that have fled Rwanda.[38]
Documents obtained by this correspondent show that Tony Kavutse filed for formal protection status under U.K. law and obtained significant resources through the assistance of numerous U.K. charities and quasi-government or government agencies.
In a document dated July 13, 2002, the U.K. Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, refused asylum status for Tony Kavutse but “because of the particular circumstances of [his] case” granted him informal asylum status in the category “Exceptional Leave to Remain.” [39] According to the Kavutse documents, officials were convinced Kavutse would be in danger if the U.K. returned him to Rwanda.
Kavutse gained assistance through the Medical Foundation in London, an NGO that works with asylum-seeking victims of torture. Medical Foundation trustees include John Le Carre, the accomplished novelist who has taken a serious interest in the events in central Africa.[40]
The Medical Foundation peddles the standard story about genocide in Rwanda, but also appears to address, at least to some extent, the terrorism of the post-1994 Kagame regime.
Documents dated July 29, 2002 confirm that Kavutse was a “priority need” client of the Medical Foundation “receiving ongoing treatment” for his claims of torture. Kavutse arrived in January 2002 and medical treatment began then. Documents also establish that Kavutse received financial and insurance benefits from the state.[41]
The Medical Foundations Dr. Hamra Yucel apparently assessed Kavutse’s status based on his testimony. “Mr. Kavutse has been subjected to torture,” she opined, “including severe beatings, and most importantly witnessed his father being shot in December 2001.”[42]
According to Rwandan sources in London who know of the particulars of the case, Tony Kavutse’s claims of being tortured by the current government are fabricated (there was no apparent physical evidence of torture). While Dr. Hamra Yucel’s clinical assessments fit the classic psychological profile of a torture survivor, Rwandan sources claim that RPF-allied asylum seekers are coached on how to expertly work the system and gain asylum status by claiming all the proper symptoms of torture.
When asked how it is possible that an asylum seeker claiming to have been tortured by the Rwandan Government could then end up in their diplomatic corps, Michelle Alexander from the Medical Foundation responded that, “the Medical Foundation is not at liberty to disclose details of any individual’s case and cannot confirm whether the person you refer to is a client of the Medical Foundation.” [43]
Tony Kavutse received lodging assistance through the support of the community council of the London Burrough of Waltham Forrest.[44] In August 2004, Kavutse received full state educational support and attended the University of London’s elite Birbeck School of Management and Organizational Psychology.[45] All of Kavutse’s accommodations and tuition for approximately five years was paid for in full by a combination of these non-governmental supporting agencies and the U.K. Government.
Today Tony Kavutse lives in London and is working as a secretary on the diplomatic staff at the Rwandan Embassy in London.[46] Kavutse did not respond to questions.
Tony Kavutse is also a relative of another top RPF cadre: his mother is the sister of Dr. Zac Nsenga, an RPF agent who became the Rwandan Ambassador to the United States.
Zac Nsenga’s wife has been living in the U.K., where she reportedly gained refugee status under false asylum claims under an alias name.[47] Rwandan refugees in London claim that she travels regularly to Rwanda and Uganda. However, in late March or early April 2008 Madamu Nsenga traveled to Rwanda for a visit and Zac Nsenga reportedly took her refugee asylum documents from her due to a quarrel (it’s believed Zac Nsenga has a mistress and the marriage is estranged). Now Madamu Nsenga is caught in the limbo of not being able to return to the U.K., lacking her U.K.-Rwanda asylum papers, and she is trying to go to Uganda to solve the problem since she is officially not allowed to go to Rwanda—the country she was seeking refuge from.[48]
“Dr. Zac Nsenga was the Rwandan ambassador in Washington,” says Professor Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, former director of the Rwandan Information Office (ORINFOR). “Before the victory of the RPF, he was in charge of hygiene at a camp set up by the RPF in Gabiro, Rwanda, where the corpses of Hutus killed by the RPF were burnt. Nsenga was in charge of that camp. In other words, he oversaw the suppression of evidence regarding the massacres committed by the RPF. In RPF circles the camp is known as the CDR camp. The CDR was the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic, a political party regarded by the RPF and its supporters as the party of Hutu extremists. So RPF soldiers referred to the camp as CDR camp because all the Hutus who were taken to that camp for execution or the bodies of the Hutus taken to that camp for burning were globally considered as Hutu extremists who espoused the CDR world view. ”[49]
“The three primitive one-story barrack blocks, one with its roof being repaired, are basic shelters for the [RPF] men at the Gabiro army camp,” wrote British journalist Nick Gordon. “It all looks devastatingly innocent: a complex that may be an affront to the classic rolling African skyline, but no more than that. There are no tell-tale chimneys, no railway lines leading into the restricted area. Indeed, as I munch my bread and wait for the photographer to snatch his picture, it is hard to believe that this dot on the map is an extermination camp. What goes on inside Gabiro [camp] is truly revolting, and it is not an isolated example. All over the country since the new government took control, Hutus have been killed in the thousands.”[50]
A Tutsi born in Rwanda, Dr. Zac Nsenga earned a medical degree at Makerere University Medical School in Uganda and a degree in human medicine at the University of Westminster with an MA in diplomatic studies and a certificate in strategic studies. He practiced medicine both in Uganda and Lesotho before becoming a Major in the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) in December 1990. Later he served as Secretary General in the Ministry of Internal Security (overseeing National Police and Prisons Services). Nsenga was also Ambassador to Israel (1995-1996) and the U.K. (1998-2001). As the Rwandan Ambassador in the U.S., Zac Nsenga worked with Paul Kagame and former U.S. President Bill Clinton to oversee and delineate the Clinton Foundation’s AIDS activities in Rwanda.[51]
Rwandan refugees in the U.S. claim that Major Zac Nsenga has played an active role in hunting down critics and legitimate refugees and having them arrested as fugitives from justice and, of course, branded as genocidaires.
“It is easy to come to the United States and hide,” said Zac Nsenga, the Rwandan ambassador to the United States, quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about a Rwandan named Jean-Marie Vianney Mudahinyuka (arrested in Chicago) and other supposed genocidaires hiding in the U.S. “Americans don’t know that amidst them are people who did very bad things.”[52]
Nsenga—and the Rwandan Embassy in the U.S.—collaborates with the specially formed Human Rights Violators and Public Safety Unit (HRVPSU) of the office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, formed in 2003, to track down foreigners, take them to court, jail and then deport them for even the slightest infractions of immigration laws.[53]
Nsenga’s role in the U.S. is to spread the official genocide story, hunt down Rwandan critics, sell the establishment narrative on HIV/AIDS involving big pharmaceutical companies, further the business interests of Rwanda, and suppress any political dissent about the Kagame regime.[54]
Nsenga is known to be very close to former Ambassador Andrew Young, the Kagame regime’s number one public relations agent whose PR consulting firm Goodworks International whitewashes the regime and its major corporate allies and partners.[55] GWI is also tight with the Africa-America Institute, a CIA backed think tank involved in information warfare and subversive activities all over Africa.[56] Andrew Young has reportedly built a mansion on Rwanda’s Lake Muhazi.[57]
Zac Nsenga “is a strong endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network (GIN).”[58] The Genocide Intervention Network is at the forefront of promoting the official line on genocide in Rwanda as a pivotal tool in the new hegemonic human rights discourse.[59] Other GIN endorsers include some of the highest profile official Rwandan genocide storytellers: General Romeo Dallaire, Samantha Power and Gerald Kaplan.
“[Nsenga] was in Ruhengeri killing people also,” says Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana. “As a promotion, he was given the post of Ambassador to Washington D.C.”[60] [many of RPF criminals have seen themselves being promoted as secretaries generals only because they mass-murdered people from Ruhengeri and Byumba]
PRESSURING THE U.K. ASYLUM SYSTEM
The BBC’s November 7, 2006 report about Dr. Vincent Bajinya appears to target the charity Praxis for having supported Dr. Bajinya using U.K. taxpayers’ money. By targeting Praxis the BBC set the stage for greater restrictions and controls surrounding the asylum process in England, a process that has since come under strict reform on asylum issues.
The articles about Bajinya and other refugees appeared in the fall of 2006 and by January 2007 the U.K. had issued new formal guidelines about refugees and formal policy had been drastically reformed to meet new U.K. immigration standards. Interestingly, the British asylum and immigration system relies heavily on private security companies noted for rather specious “security” missions.[61]
The BBC article quoted Reverend Vaughan Jones, the director of Praxis, but the comment representing Vaughan Jones suggests that Praxis was the victim of the circumstances, not Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
“The director of Praxis, Reverend Vaughan Jones, said if the allegations were true it would represent a betrayal of his organization's trust,” reported Fergal Keane.[62]
“I had no suspicions and when I saw the allegations I was very shocked,” Reverend Vaughan Jones stated in a subsequent BBC report of November 7, 2006. “If they are true then I would feel betrayed, because we work with people who have come from difficult situations and need proper support. We are aware that there are all kinds of allegations and counter allegations in the community and sorting out the victim from the perpetrator is extremely hard.” [63]
When contacted by email at Praxis, Reverend Vaughan Jones replied that “Dr Bajinya was immediately suspended as a result of the allegations. He is no longer our employee.”[64]
In a follow-up query, Reverend Vaughan Jones replied: “Praxis has never attempted to form a judgment in relation to guilt or innocence that is the responsibility of others and beyond our competency. We are very aware of the complexity of the issues. As an organization which works with vulnerable people we have a duty of care primarily to them and it would not have been irresponsible to allow someone to work in the organization with such serious allegations having been made. We have always said that this matter should be resolved through the due process of law.”[65]
However, Praxis fired Dr. Vincent Bajinya based on the campaign spawned by the BBC reports of Fergal Keane. It was enough for Reverend Vaughan Jones that Fergal Keane and the BBC said that Dr. Vincent Bajinya was “accused” of genocide for them to immediately go on the defensive to protect their own good name. This is how the genocide label is used as a brand and a weapon against anyone that deviates from the Rwandan government’s policies or falls out of favor with the elite criminal networks in power.
“How does Praxis protect vulnerable people?” notes U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro, who also benefited from the assistance of Praxis. “And how is it possible that Tony Kavutse, an asylum seeker and “refugee” who claimed to have been tortured by the current government of Rwanda could end up working for the government he was seeking asylum from?”
Mahoro notes that Praxis has been utilizing the volunteer services of another false asylum seeker who is also working at the Rwandan Embassy. This individual is flagged by the Rwandan asylum community as another informant and RPF agent.
“As soon as these reports came out by the BBC, true Rwandan asylum seekers stay away from Praxis for fear that they will be identified and accused of genocide,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “There is a woman Rose Ngabire, a Tutsi who was working at Praxis in Dr. Bajinya’s department, who we know is a Rwanda government informant.”
Rose Ngabire was a volunteer on work placement at Praxis at the same time as Dr. Vincent Bajinya. Ngabire left Praxis and is now the full-time receptionist at the Rwandan Embassy in London.
Ngabire is another Ugandan-Rwandan dual citizen who is accused by legitimate Rwandan refugees of acting as a spy to identify and help separate the legitimate refugees from the fake refugee-agents and insure that the legitimate refugees are sent back to Rwanda and the fake refugees are processed through the asylum system for the benefit of the regime in Kigali.
Fergal Keane’s BBC reports do not identify the RPF agent Rose Ngabire and Keane’s reportage is further discredited with the awareness that one of the “expert” voices chosen by Fergal Keane to buttress the fabricated story about Dr. Bajinya is another fake RPF asylum seeker named Vivenie Niragira Mugunga.
Vivenie Mugunga arrived in the U.K. as an asylum seeker over six years ago and has already gained U.K. citizenship. Mugunga claimed to be a survivor of the Rwanda genocide and gained refugee status by fleeing from the Kagame regime. However, both of her claims are reportedly false. Mugunga was reportedly not in Rwanda during or after1994. Instead, she came from Burundi, where she was born and raised. After she earned higher education degrees at universities in South England, Mugunga became an agent of the Kagame regime who promotes Rwanda investments and organizes government-affiliated events.
Fergal Keane has also used Vivenie Mugunga to pull on the heart strings of his BBC viewers and gain sympathy—channeled into outrage to help convict and hang Dr. Vincent Bajinya in the court of public opinion. In one long film clip about the Dr. Vincent Bajinya story, Fergal Keane has Vivenie Mugunga, who is portrayed as a Rwandan genocide survivor, crying that the organization Praxis has extremists on their staff—meaning Dr. Bajinya—and they discriminated against her when she sought services there. Turning truth upside-down as usual, Keane and Mugunga say nothing about the other bogus refugee agents—like the Tutsi agent Rose Ngabire—working at Praxis.
An honest investigation of Dr. Vincent Bajinya’s case would examine Fergal Keane’s role in traveling to Rwanda and producing genocide charges by using the BBC as a political weapon in an obvious collaboration with the selective political agenda of the Kagame government.
According to one U.K. intelligence insider, U.K. news corporations routinely run disinformation planted by U.K. intelligence assets from MI-6. “For example, the Guardian and very occasionally the London Sunday-Times have been seen to have reporters who are assets of the U.K. intelligence services. Incidentally this may also apply to Andrew Gilligan of the BBC…”[66]
It may also apply to the BBC’s Fergal Keane. [Many times I have blamed BBC for being a corrupt media, but I have never had reaction from them. RPF killed one of the best BBC correspondents operating in Tanzania, there was no inquiry about his death and only a couple of lines on the BBC web page saying that Shinani Kabendera committed suicide. But everybody knows he got killed by RPF death squad. Ask BBC how many times they received my messages asking investigation].
Keane traveled to Rwanda where “evidence” of the crimes of Bajinya was scraped up and delivered to the news consuming Western public in manipulative and highly structured BBC productions.
“This Bajinya [frame-up] was 100% set-up by Kigali and Fergal Keane,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “The spies at the Rwanda Embassy in London informed Keane that they want Dr. Vincent and they arranged for Keane to go to Rwanda to interview ‘witnesses’ and come back here to accuse Dr. Bajinya, who all this time did not know anything was happening.” [67]
“Using BBC South East [England] where Vivenie Mugunga was living,” says Patrick Mahoro, “Fergal Keane convinced his producer Andrew Head to fund his investigation into the allegations and accusations by a south east England resident—the fake asylum seeker Vivenie Mugunga—about an U.K. organization—Praxis—harboring genocidaires and extremists—Dr. Vincent Bajinya.”[68]
“After that Fergal Keane went to Praxis with the hidden camera. Then he traveled to Rwanda funded by the BBC. Of course he had contact with Kigali because he was set up by the Rwandan Embassy here and he met with officials in Kigali. In his ‘investigation’ in Rwanda he shows that he found out that Dr. Bajinya has been issued an arrest warrant. Keane speaks to the prosecutor in Kigali who shows him the file submitted by Kigali to the U.K. And then Keane gets an RPF agent—Janvier Mabuye—to be his eyewitness and claim on the video that Dr. Bajinya committed genocide. And then finally he goes back to London and accuses Dr. Bajinya.” [69]
At the end of the day the BBC makes money by producing a sensationalist TV show where Fergal Keane is supposed to represent everything that is good and Dr. Vincent Bajinya everything that is evil. So it’s the good versus evil story distilled out of the Hutus versus Tutsis mythology about Rwanda.
Curiously indicative of some insider trading and deeper political agenda is the fact that reforms in the asylum process in the U.K. occurred soon after the arrest of Dr. Vincent Bajinya and the other three “Masterminds” of genocide. According to U.K. Home Office documents outlining asylum seeker protocol, prior to granting asylum of Rwandan refugees, U.K. officials are now required to refer to special “lists” provided by the Kagame regime.
On the one hand the documents obtained in the Tony Kavutse case clearly validate the claims of legitimate refugees by formally documenting what the U.K., U.S., and most Western governments deny: That torture and killings do occur in Rwanda and that they are committed by agents of the current government.
On the other hand the documents also clearly establish that RPF-allied false asylum seekers may be claiming to have been tortured in Rwanda to manipulate the system and gain the advantages now being taken away from legitimate asylum seekers.
The U.K. and U.S. governments claim Rwanda is “safe”. Under this classification the U.K. Government has advanced certain refugee and asylum protocols which simultaneously institutionalize infiltration by RPF agents, on one hand, and the persecution of legitimate refugees on the other. The asylum situation in the United States is much the same.
According to the British Home Office of Immigration and Nationality Department statistics, the numbers of Rwandan asylum seekers arriving in Britain have skyrocketed under the Kagame regime, especially since 1999. From 1994 to 1997, Britain received approximately 100 asylum seekers annually. But the numbers increased with increasing repression in Rwanda. In 1999 there were approximately 300; in 1999 and 2000 there were some 800; with 550, 700 and 275 in 2001, 2002 and 2003.[70]
Harsh conditions in detention centers and human rights violations against asylum seekers in the U.K. mirror those in the United States. Anne Owers, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, has released a series of damning reports on the UK’s detention estate.[71]
In Britain and the U.S. tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children are jailed for long periods without charges in contravention of the 1951 UNHCR Refugee Convention.[72] While none of these people are detained for committing a criminal offense, they are held in prison-like conditions to facilitate government policies of rounding up asylum-seekers in order to deter them from seeking refuge in Britain or the U.S.
There is literally a war on refugees.
In one assessment the Medical Foundation in 2004 determined that aggressive force effectively constituting torture had been used against individuals during attempts to remove them from the U.K.[73] There have been many cases of suicides and mass hunger strikes by asylum seekers in the U.K.[74]
The Kagame regime is meanwhile ushering bogus “asylum” seekers off to London armed with all the false documentation necessary to gain a positive asylum status and, eventually, citizenship. The regime’s goal is to infiltrate Western countries with more and more Rwandans who have benefited from the current political climate and who do not challenge the inverted victim versus killer ideology or the criminal enterprises and networks of the elites involved.
RWANDA’S GENOCIDE LISTS
According to legitimate Rwandan refugees in London, the Rwandan refugee community is perpetually under surveillance and effectively under attack by fake asylum seekers working as agents; these agents send the names of legitimate refugees to the ever updated “genocide lists” that Kigali provides to the U.K. Home Office and other governments, and they meanwhile help to build bogus “legal” cases against the legitimate refugees, as happened with Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
The U.K. government regularly arrests asylum seekers (of all nationalities) and holds them in detention pending review of their cases for a “pass” or “fail” of the asylum granting process, but most are almost automatically slated for return to their country of origin. British policies are particularly egregious in the cases of countries where Britain is more actively involved in the ongoing warfare, especially Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan (Darfur), or where it has a deep military and intelligence relationship, especially Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
While their cases await resolution, asylum claimants are banned from working. Once their cases have been failed, they face total destitution, with no right to work, no benefits, no accommodation, no proper access to health services, and the constant fear of removal. This is on top of the psychological trauma, and in some cases physical injury, that continues to trouble them as a result of their experiences.
In the case of Rwanda, selected asylum seekers are further stigmatized and dehumanized by being branded as genocidaires—a label applied to describe Hutu “extremists” and highly targeted individuals in well-organized frame-ups—in cases like Dr. Vincent Bajinya’s, where the frame-up involved Rwandan intelligence agents and the BBC.
According to Rwandan asylum seekers the Kigali government routinely manipulates the asylum system to get students and intelligence agents into the U.K. asylum system to gain U.K. citizenship at no financial cost for the short- and long-term benefit of the Kigali regime.
In 2007, around 200 Rwandan students arrived in the U.K. as asylum seekers and around 150 of these became stateless after falsely claiming to be Rwandan asylum seekers; about 50 of these were official Rwandan students possessing documents provided by the Rwanda government who had been given educational scholarships from the U.K. government.
After Kigali sends false asylum claimants to the U.K. their asylum claim is either passed or failed like any other refugee. Once asylum has been successful and refugee status granted, these false claimants can access student loans and housing and medical support. To improve the chances of a “passed” asylum claim Kigali sets up fake asylum seekers with fake documents to strengthen their cases: e.g., arrest warrants, prison release documents, and medical reports about being tortured.
Next, Rwandan agents in the U.K.—like Mary Blewitt Kayitesi and Tony Kavutse—assist the false asylum seekers to access U.K. refugee assistance agencies like the Medical Foundation, Praxis, or Survivor’s Fund (SURF). Some enhance their status by claiming to be genocide survivors.
Some asylum claimants “pass” relatively easily but for those asylum seekers who are “failed” by the U.K. government—which is eager to reject all refugees to meet its goals of low immigration—the Rwandan Embassy is contacted to determine the status of the asylum seeker and the Embassy denies that these clandestine government supported “refugees” are from Rwanda at all. In some cases the U.K. deports the false claimants back to Kigali, even forcibly, where the Rwandan immigration officials again—checking their lists of supported but fake asylum seekers—refuses that the asylum seekers originated from Rwanda. In both cases the fake asylum seekers, disowned by Rwanda, gain a stateless refugee status which under the 1951 UNHCR protections insures that the U.K. cannot deport them (since they are unable to identify their state or origin).
When the U.K. government detains legitimate refugees—obviously not supported by Kigali but rather hunted by them—the Rwandan Embassy is again contacted while they are still in London, or the refugee is deported directly back to Kigali. In either of these cases involving actual refugees the Kagame regime validates to the U.K. government that these are legitimate refugees, because Kigali is happy to have critics of the regime and other legitimate refugees fleeing state persecution delivered back into their hands.
One legitimate refugee “failed” by the U.K. immigration system and forcibly returned to Rwanda was Rene Murabukira, a Rwandan refugee who fled after his family was killed in 1996.[75]
Rene Murabukira started a new life in Edinburgh and after 11 years in the U.K. he was a charity worker with the Edinburgh-based Action Group helping physically and mentally disabled adults when the U.K. immigration agents tracked him down and arrested him at work.
When Murabukira arrived in the U.K. in 1996 he was only 17 years old. He was given temporary leave to remain in the U.K. as well as a work permit, and told his case for permanent asylum was under consideration. He built a life in Edinburgh and was engaged to be married to Aneta Jarzmik, a U.K. citizen.
Murabukira’s case was deferred for eleven years, until Rwanda was declared “safe.” But in April 2007, U.K. immigration officials swooped in packed Murabukira off to a detention centre. He was apparently extradited in May 2007, shipped back to Rwanda.
Murabukira claimed that Tutsi rebels killed his parents, sister and cousins at his home in 1996.
Rwandans in London believe there have been about 65 cases of legitimate asylum seekers deported back to Rwanda since 2000.[76]
Of course there are also those fake refugees who betray Kigali once they have achieved their mission and gained asylum status abroad.
U.K. ASYLUMS DIRECTED BY KIGALI
For its part the British Government has adopted a refugee asylum policy that looks to the Kagame regime—the persecuting government—for its decisions about Rwandan asylum cases and refugee returns.
The U.K. asylum system came under “reform” during the Blair government, but not in favor of refugees or asylum seeker’s rights. This is made clear in the case of Rwandan asylum seekers where the immigration and detention shake-up seems to have involved a stripping away of refugees’ legal protections.
By the end of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s term in office, the asylum reform process was in full swing and a special “Ten-Point Plan for Border Protection and Immigration Reform” was launched. Under this plan, the Prime Minister committed the U.K. Government to accelerate and massively increase the removal of foreign national prisoners. According to the Home Office, it is the biggest shake-up of the immigration system in its history.[77]
On January 24, 2007—not so long after the British public was sensitized to the infiltration of Dr. Bajinya and the other three supposed “Masterminds” of genocide in Rwanda—the U.K. Home Office issued a special “Operational Guidance Note” on Rwanda that establishes and revises the formal policy for dealing with Rwandan asylum seekers. The guidance notes that all asylum seekers must be considered on a case by case basis but all case workers must follow the outlines of this operational guidance document.[78]
The document, meant to educate case workers, opens with a “country assessment” that presents a highly inaccurate version of events in Rwanda. The assessment is heavily based on BBC sources, especially the BBC “Timeline” on Rwanda, and it has a decidedly pro-RPF bias. Some select examples of the bias are can be seen in the following excerpts:
[1] CLAIM: “Rwanda is a republic dominated by a strong presidency.”[79]
REALITY: Rwanda is a one-party dictatorship with a façade of democracy and the consolidation of the dictatorship achieved through highly rigged and manipulated “demonstration elections” that are widely misperceived to have been democratic and fair.[80]
[2] CLAIM: “In 1985 Tutsi exiles in Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Having failed to negotiate their return to the country, the RPF invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990, demanding representation and equality for all Rwandans.[81]
REALITY: Most of the so-called “Tutsi exiles in Uganda” were Ugandan born citizens and they became battle-hardened guerrillas fighting for Yoweri Museveni and the NRA—a war that Museveni ran out of the Hotel Des Diplomats in Kigali in the mid-1980’s.[82] Paul Kagame was Museveni’s Director of Military Intelligence and he was responsible for tortures, massacres and assassinations.[83] Museveni had ignored calls by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to downsize his army of approximately 180,000 fighters to 70,000. By mid-April 1994, Museveni had sent some scores of thousands of UPDF soldiers into Rwanda—possibly as many as 70,000.[84]
To say that these soldiers and the RPF’s political representatives demanded “representation and equality for all Rwandans” is so patently false that it defies any rational attempt to deconstruct it. Working together, Museveni and Kagame utilized terrorist tactics to assign all blame—for atrocities they committed against both their enemies and their own people—on their enemies. They used psychological operations, embedded international reporters, and fabrication of massacres. These tactics have continued to the present.
“Let me give you an example of media manipulation,” says Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, Director of ORINFOR. “In 1994 people took shelter at a mosque in Kabuga near Kigali. After the RPF took control of the location, they killed all the people who had taken shelter there, then called reporters to see what the Interahamwe had done to Tutsis.” [85]
[3] CLAIM: “A civil war in the border area ensued. Each incursion by the RPF was followed by reprisal massacres, largely of Tutsis, by government forces. A peace agreement was brokered in 1993, the Arusha Peace Accords, which inter alia provided for a power-sharing arrangement involving all political forces and the RPF.” [86]
REALITY: The RPA’s persecution and killings of Hutus and Tutsis in Northern Rwanda went largely unchallenged. Meanwhile the international “human rights” community hammered away at the Habyarimana government following a now common pattern of punishing the victims and accusing them of crimes committed in self defense but never accusing the perpetrators of the original, and greater, injustices.[87]
It is interesting that a guerrilla army can invade a sovereign country and attack a sovereign government and commit terrorist acts, driving over a million people before it, and that it could today be summarized as it is above. [88] This exemplifies the hegemonic imperialist bias of the Western human rights establishment and the mantle of genocide carried by the Genocide Intervention Network and its octopus of affiliates.
The rest of the country assessment follows in similar fashion, uttering ridiculous lies that are now so deeply inculcated in the collective insanity of human consciousness as to make them as absolute and unchallengeable as the Ten Commandments. The summary glosses over the human rights record in Rwanda, validates the legitimacy of the institutionalized injustice at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and shamelessly absolves the Kagame regime of its terrorist involvement in extortion, racketeering, war crimes and genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Perhaps the most ludicrous statement in the entire document is this one: “The Rwandan government is strongly committed to national reconciliation and there is no evidence of any state-sponsored or societal discrimination on ethnic grounds that would amount to persecution.”
The source documents which the Operational Guidance on Rwanda relies upon include references to: USAID; U.S. Department of State; Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; U.N. and U.K. profiles; and the Economist. Most notably, there are four references to British Broadcasting Corporation reports or documents. Given their relationships to the production and maintenance of the establishment narrative, all of these sources are highly compromised in their capacity to present the true picture of Rwanda or insure refugee protections.
For the purposes of rounding up refugees and dragging them back to Rwanda, the Operational Guidance on Rwanda requires that asylum caseworkers begin the process by checking the names of asylum seekers against several lists maintained by the Kagame government.[89]
Section 3.5 of the Operational Guidance on Rwanda establishes the hierarchy of protocols for dealing with Rwandan asylum seekers. If “the applicant’s name appears on either of the two published lists maintained by the Rwandan government of those wanted for genocide or where there is any evidence that the applicant was, for example, politically active, employed in any official, religious, media or military capacity at the time of the genocide” decision-makers are instructed to consider whether to apply one of several special exclusion clauses and must refer such cases to the War Crimes Unit.[90]
According to the U.K. Home Office, “the War Crimes Unit was formed in March 2004 with the specific remit of introducing screening processes in order to identify people involved in the commission of atrocities in connection with modern day conflict situations.”[91]
In February 2007, the Israeli Government successfully pressured the U.K. Home Office to water down anti-torture and war crimes legislation.[92] The injustices in cases of Rwandan war criminals are amongst the most pronounced.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is today the public relations consultant and economic adviser for the Kagame regime, a position Blair assumed in February, 2008. John Major was prime minister and the Conservative (Tory) Party was in power at the time of the U.S./U.K. backed coup d’etat in Rwanda 1994.
MILKING THE ASYLUM PROCESS
The Rwandan asylum scam allows the Kagame regime’s to facilitate higher political and economic status for more and more Rwandans by gaining green cards or citizenship abroad.
Moses Kenneth Bugingo Rugema arrived in the U.K. around 2003 on a false asylum claim against Rwanda. Although U.K. citizenship can be granted after five years his citizenship is uncertain.
When asked about his former refugee status and current political appointment with the government he sought asylum from, Rugema responded evasively and aggressively. “I have no time to waste in replying to you in the future,” Rugema replied. “But as a gentleman I just wanted to tell you I exist and your facts are not correct. It’s up to you to prove it.”[93]
Rugema is another Ugandan-Rwandan, and a former RPF soldier whose “flight” from persecution in Rwanda quickly led to his employment at the Rwanda Embassy in London as a receptionist. From the Embassy, Rugema helped Kigali track down legitimate refugees. Rugema also set up his current business enterprise and continues to operate out of London as an economic agent dealing in the export/import of top quality Rwandan Arabica green bean coffee for the Kagame regime.[94]
On November 2, 2007, the Rwandan cabinet appointed Rugema to the post of 2nd Counselor at the Rwandan Embassy in New York City.
“It is very interesting that this Rwandan refugee is now working as a business agent for the government he ran away from,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “It is 100% certain that Moses Rugema used the asylum system as a bogus asylum claimant and worked at the Rwanda Embassy in London.”
One of the highest-profile RPF-allied asylum seekers who has milked the system to gain status in the U.K. is Linda Bihire, recently appointed to the RPF’s cabinet under the recent government reshuffling that was advised by Kagame’s new spin doctor, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
On March 13, 2008, Bihire was appointed to Rwandan Cabinet as Minister of Infrastructure. However, Linda Bihire is another Ugandan-born “Rwandan” whose lineage and origins are belied by her inability to speak the native Kinyarwanda language of Rwanda. During her swearing-in ceremony in Kigali, Bihire’s inability to read the Oath of Office forced the organizers to switch to English.[95]
Bihire’s cabinet selection was engineered by Rwanda’s top intelligence agent, Emmanuel Ndahiro, a feared agent in and out of Rwanda who controls Rwanda’s state daily New Times newspaper and uses it as a political tool to peddle disinformation and attack critics of the RPF. Linda Bihire is Emmanuel Ndahiro’s mistress and they have a son of about 19 years old. Lt. Col. Dr. Emmanuel Ndahiro is also a maternal cousin to Paul Kagame and Director General of Rwanda’s dreaded National Security Service.
Bihire is also a close friend of another RPF-allied Rwandan asylum seeker in the U.K., Rose Ngabire, the secretary at the Rwandan Embassy in London. Prior to her cabinet appointment Bihire milked the U.K. asylum system to get higher education, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in civil engineering and a Master’s Degree in project management from the University of Nottingham and University of Porstmouth respectively.
Bihire’s new life apparently began soon after she finished her elementary schooling in Kampala, Uganda, when RPF agent Emmanuel Ndahiro organized her “political asylum” status and facilitated her transfer to London.[96] Bihire was soon identified as a Rwandan agent by legitimate Rwandan asylum seekers in England.[97]
After she arrived in London, Dr. Zac Nsenga, the ambassador to the U.K. at the time, stepped in and landed Bihire a government scholarship for her higher education.
Another U.K. asylum fraud was perpetrated by Joseph Mutaboba, Secretary General of Rwanda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and former Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September 2006, Mutatoba co-chaired the United Nations Permanent Advisory Committee on Security Issues in the Central African Region. Since 2003, he participated in preparatory meetings of the International Conference on Peace and Security in the Great Lakes region and as Coordinator for Rwanda and Head of the Peace and Security Thematic Group. All these “security” posts occurred even while Rwanda continued to plunder Congo. However, Joseph Mutaboba’s wife is another Rwandan “refugee” living in North London and using the asylum process for personal gain.
Another RPF agent who infiltrated England through the asylum process is Ignatius Mugabo, a naturalized citizen of Uganda who first sought asylum in Denmark but later joined his wife Jacqueline in Britain; Mugabo may by now have gained British citizenship. Mugabo’s wife Jacqueline was reportedly granted full refugee protection under the 1951 UNHCR Convention, which guarantees that any asylum seeker is automatically entitled to be joined by their families.[98] According to Rwandan asylum seekers, Mugabo joined is wife in London in 2003.[99]
Ignatius Mugabo not only worked for the RPF , he became one of Kagame’s top intelligence officials and an active hunter of Kagame’s critics abroad. In March of 2007, just prior to the 13th anniversary of the April 6, 1994 presidential assassinations, Mugabo set up a petition to the British Prime Minister calling on Rwandans in Britain to support his campaign to hunt down and arrest genocidaires. Eighteen people signed the petition, including Ignatius Mugabo.
The petition statement reads:
“We the members of the Rwandan Community resident in the U.K., during the 13th anniversary of the genocide in our country, concerned that many suspected perpetrators of this heinous crime continue to hide in Western countries including U.K., call on the British Prime Minister and his government to increase their support for the delivery of justice to the victims of the Rwandan genocide by tracking and arresting whoever is suspected of having played a role in this tragedy.”[100]
“Mugabo set up this petition on the U.K. Prime Minister’s web site,” says one Rwandan refugee in London, “but he received few signatures to get any action from the Prime Minister. All members of the Rwandan community did not sign as they feared their name to be recognized on the list of asylum seekers. Mugabo was disappointed to receive so few supporters.”[101]
Ignatius Mugabo is also on the management committee of the Rwandan Community Association of the U.K., in charge of organizing events meant to draw out Rwandan refugees, and he is Director of Rwanda Diaspora Investment Ltd., another business front for Kigali.[102] Legitimate Rwandan asylum seekers note with curiosity how Mugabo works with the Rwandan Embassy to organize official events while he and his family have reportedly fled the Kagame regime.
Igatius Mugabo is considered the second most feared intelligence agent of the Kagame regime in London, second only to his associate, James Wizeye. Ignatius Mugabo, Tony Kavutse and Rose Ngabire all work on the Rwanda Embassy staff under the guidance of its two top espionage agents: James Wizeye and Claver Gatete.
James Wizeye was appointed as the 1st Secretary at the Rwanda Embassy in London on June 29, 2005 and today he is also the most feared Rwandan intelligence operative involved in hunting Rwanda’s state enemies, critics and asylum seekers in England and, more widely, in Europe.
A former RPF soldier and current member of Kigali’s intelligence apparatus, Wizeye formerly worked as administrative attaché at the Rwanda Embassy in Kampala, Uganda. However, Wizeye was expelled by the Uganda government in November 2004 after accusations surfaced that Rwanda was training rebels hostile to the Ugandan government: Wizeye was implicated in rebel activities and accused of espionage.[103]
Wizeye is reportedly wanted today in Uganda and banned from visiting for his role as part of an elite RPF “hit squad” that operated in Uganda to track down enemies of the RPF regime.[104] Wizeye set up intelligence cells and purchased information from Ugandan agents who were later arrested.[105]
“In the U.K. James Wizeye is involved in hunting refugees, weapons dealings and protecting Rwanda’s ‘good image’ by using the media,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “He grew up in Uganda and now he is wanted there because of spying and killings in 2000 and 2001. His success in these [terrorist] operations for the Kagame regime earned him a diplomatic post in London.”[106]
Rwandan intelligence agent James Wizeye lives inside the Rwanda Embassy compound at 120-122 Seymour Place in London. Wizeye has attended high-level conferences with U.S. officials, including Ambassador Jendayi Frazer.[107] According to Rwandans familiar with Wizeye’s activities, he is one of the RPF’s top weapons and minerals agents working in London—possibly a key player in Kigali’s fencing of contraband stolen from the Democratic Republic of Congo and arranging of weapons transfers.[108]
Raised and educated in Uganda, Claver Gatete is the Rwandan Ambassador in London appointed to the Cabinet on September 7, 2005. Gatete is an economist who left Uganda for higher education in Canada. He is known to be an “extremist” RPF official—one of the actual “Masterminds” of RPF strategy to seize and consolidate power in Rwanda—who supported the RPF movement from Canada and the U.S. as a key member of the Association of Banyarwanda in Diaspora.[109]
Gatete organized the RPF campaign abroad, working on funding, lobbying and political alliances and went on to become a senior Presidential adviser to Paul Kagame. Gatete also worked as Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and we was Steering Committee member as part of President Clinton’s euphemistically named New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a hegemonic U.S. state department project in neoliberal economics and protectionist trade.[110]
“Claver Gatete is 500% involved in hunting down Hutus and spreading the genocide ideology of Kigali,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro.
THE GENOCIDE MISERY INDUSTRY
Bogus asylum seekers in the U.K. are also working to raise tens of millions of pounds annually, ostensibly to support genocide survivors and social programs in Rwanda. Instead much of this money reportedly disappears behind the smokescreens of “aid” and “development”.
There are many charities and non-government organizations from the U.S. and U.K. that run large money-making operations that claim to benefit Rwanda. These charities complete the circle of propaganda and seal the doubt of public opinion by legitimizing a terrorist government under the unimpeachable veneer of humanitarianism and goodwill.
These charities work the media system, providing expert spokespeople and framing issues for mass media. The media system works the charities, using them to institutionalize ideology and further their select political agendas. Like the media, the charities peddle the establishment line throughout, meanwhile claiming that they are “not political.” But it always the same: like Praxis they unflinchingly adhere to the upside-down mythology which turns victims into killers and killers into victims with very little middle ground in between.
For example, Fergal Keane is a patron of MSAADA, a “charity based in Dorset, England that helps surviving orphans and widows of the Rwandan genocide.”[111] With the assistance of the British media system, MSAADA advances the standard mythology about genocide in Rwanda.
“In 100 days an estimated one million people were butchered in the Rwandan genocide, while the United Nations refused to intervene to halt the bloodshed,” reads the MSAADA disinformation. “The world turned its back on the people of Rwanda once, and now the country is largely forgotten again.”
RPF agent and false asylum seeker Ignatius Mugabo is on the management committee of IMIZI, a U.K.-based Rwanda charity.[112]
Vivenie Niragira Mugunga, the RPF agent and false asylum seeker—who served as Fergal Keane’s critic of Praxis—is the director of a Rwanda/U.K. charity called RYICO.[113]
One of the largest and most influential charities working the Rwanda Genocide for political and economic profit is the big U.K. non-government organization (NGO) Aegis Trust. Aegis works closely with several U.K. government departments on Holocaust and genocide issues and plays a leading role in the Intergovernmental Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research established by Bill Clinton, Goran Persson (former Prime Minister of Sweden) and Tony Blair in 1998. Aegis Trust is also the primary funder of the Genocide Memorial in Gisozi, the largest memorial in Rwanda. Aegis Trust patrons include General Romeo Dallaire, Bob Geldof, Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel.[114]
Another high profile charity working in the U.K. is Survivor’s Fund—SURF—a large NGO that “works to improve the lives of the Rwandan Survivors of Genocide.” According to their web site, “SURF was founded by a British Citizen of Rwandan origin (who lost family members and relations during this tragic event) and other Rwandans based in U.K., and concerned British individuals. Although support to survivors dates back to 1995, SURF was formally established and registered in 1997.”[115]
According to legitimate Rwandan refugees however, SURF founder Mary Kayitesi Blewitt gained British citizenship by falsely claiming to be both a genocide survivor and a Tutsi from Rwanda. She is also reported to be the first RPF “diplomatic” representative to have arrived in the U.K., and the one who effectively opened the new Rwandan Embassy in London—running RPF operations out of one small room at the Uganda High Commission at Trafalgar Square—after the RPF “victory” of July 1994.[116]
“She is 100% Ugandan and 100% liar,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “Ask her what village she came from in Rwanda, which prefecture, which commune. Ask her where she lived, where her family lived in Rwanda. She can’t answer. She doesn’t speak the language fluently and she claims she lost 50 members of her family in Rwanda in 1994, but her family was all in Uganda.”
“A year after the genocide in Rwanda, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt returned to her village to dig through a mass grave in search of her family,” reported the U.K.’s Independent on October 12, 2004. “The rains had washed away the topsoil, revealing the bodies of about 200 people… She lost 50 members of her family in the genocide, including her brother John Baptiste, 27, whose leg was hacked off by his killers. He was left to bleed to death in front of his wife and children.”[117]
According to Rwandan sources Mary Kayitesi Blewitt has used fake genocide survivors and their sympathy stories to perpetrate a massive fundraising scandal—raising millions of pounds for the RPF regime. Like most “humanitarian” NGOs, the fundraising relies on the mass media for brand recognition (brand names like ‘UNICEF’, ‘CARE’, and ‘Save the Children’) and to broadcast images of suffering African “survivors’ of genocide. Fortunately, Mary Kayitesi’s Survivor’s Fund benefits from the patronage of Fergal Keane and Lindsay Hilsum—two high-profile storytellers always pressing the establishment’s Rwandan genocide narrative.
In return, and closing the cycle, the media personalities endorse the organization.
“Mary Blewitt is quite a remarkable human being,” said Fergal Keane, “one of the most remarkable I have ever met. Her work has involved extraordinary personal sacrifice. Those of us who witnessed genocide in Rwanda know that Mary Blewitt stands among the bravest of the brave, the kindest of the kind.” [118]
“The money goes to the criminal networks in Kigali,” says U.K.-Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “They are killing each other fighting over the money. That is why you see RPF sometimes falling out with Kagame. They had even arrested Mary Kayitesi in Kigali in 2007; they held her a few days while they were fighting over the money but of course they had to release her because she is their fundraising source!”
For her sacrifice “to the survivors of the Rwandan genocide in Rwanda and the U.K.,” Mary Kayitesi Blewitt was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles on February 28, 2008.[119] After the publication of his book Season of Blood, and for his “services to journalism,” Fergal Keane was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles in 1996.
Mary Kayitesi Blewitt is also listed as a member of the U.K. Holocaust Memorial Trust.[120]
The compromised mission of the Survivor’s Fund—ostensibly an apolitical non-government humanitarian organization—and its true political agenda is further underscored by the false asylum status and sudden financial windfall of its founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt.
In early March, 2008, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt resigned her post as the Founder and Director of Survivor’s Fund. According to sources in London, Blewitt has informed her closed friends that she is moving back to Uganda where she has built a big health spa—Ultimate Escape Health Spa—that will operate in the heart of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.
According to the promotional materials, “Ultimate Escape Health Spa is a social enterprise which will offer holistic healing treatments, health, fitness and beauty regimes in a soothing stress relieving environment. Scheduled to open in 2009, Ultimate Escape Health Spa will offer sanctuary and safe haven. Profit will be donated to survivors of the Rwandan genocide to enable them to escape from their troubles and trauma.”[121]
“What an interesting move for someone who has spent the last 14 years working for genocide survivors,” notes Rwandan Patrick Mahoro. “Moving into business now? And not in Rwanda, but in Uganda? The reason is it is the only country she knows well. She was born in Uganda and lived in Uganda although she falsely represented herself as a Rwanda genocide survivor to raise money. And this is another scam. Making people feel good thinking they will help Rwanda genocide survivors. Scam, scam, scam.” [122]
THE MEDIA AS GENOCIDE TRIBUNAL
Prior to confronting Dr. Vincent Bajinya in person, Fergal Keane collaborated with the Kagame regime to collect the “evidence” of genocide crimes. Thus it is important that Fergal Keane make public his connections with the Kagame government and the facts surrounding his sudden interest in Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
Keane’s role as an apologist for the Kagame regime and the Rwanda Patriotic Front began in April of 1994 when Keane contacted the RPF in Belgium, met their agent in Uganda, and traveled with RPF assurance and protection in Rwanda during April and May 1994.[123]
In 2003, Keane also served as a prosecution witness against Sylvestre Gacumbitsi at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. According to the ICTR Press Release, Keane “was in Rwanda in the months of May and June in 1994, told the court about the many dead bodies he saw in various parts of the Kibungo prefecture and in particular at Nyarubuye Catholic Church. The witness who has written a book, Season of Blood; the Rwanda Journey, showed a video film about the killings.” [124]
The ICTR Press Release does not point out that Fergal Keane set up his visit to Rwanda in 1994 through the Rwandan Patriotic Front office in Belgium; that he met his RPF escort in Uganda at the border, and that he travelled with the assurance of safety from the RPF. Further, it seems the atrocities that occurred at Nyarubuye were staged by the RPF.
Professor Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, former director of ORINFOR, offers the “massacre of Tutsis” at Nyarubuye as another example of how the Kagame regime manufactured and tampered with massacre sites before inviting the media to “witness” and document the evidence of genocide blamed on Hutu extremists.
“In Nyarubuye, the Interahamwe killed Tutsi at a parish in a building used for religious education where Tutsis had sought shelter,” says Higiro. “When the RPF arrived with the Interahamwe they had rounded up in commune Murambi, they took them to the local Catholic Church and executed them and left their bodies there. Then RPF soldiers killed civilians in and around Nyarubuye and brought the bodies to the church. After its victory and to show the world what had happened in Rwanda, the RPF dug up bodies and placed them on stilts outside of churches. But all the people killed by the RPF were blamed on Hutus.”[125]
Fergal Keane tracked down Sylvestre Gacumbisi in a refugee camp in Tanzania and accused him on film much as he did Dr. Vincent Bajinya. The “evidence” for Keane’s charges likely was fabricated by the Kagame regime much as it was fabricated to frame Dr. Vincent Bajinya.
“Sylvestre Gacumbitsi was defended by a Mr. Kouengowa and Ms. Anne Mbattang, both from Cameroon,” says former ICTR defense investigator Phil Taylor. “Hirondelle [news agency] reported that the trial was one of the ‘fastest’ in ICTR history. I have not read his testimony but according to his book Fergal Keane was tight with one of his RPF handlers and it was this man who led him to two people who claimed to be witnesses.[126] The massacre occurred mid-April [1994] and Keane went to the site in June.” [127]
On June 17, 2004, Sylvestre Gacumbisi was found “guilty” of crimes against humanity and genocide by the court.
The work of Fergal Keane and the BBC in framing “the Rwanda genocide” story is mirrored by the numerous other award-wining journalists. At the top of the list are Lindsay Hilsum of Britain’s Observer newspaper and Channel Four television and Stephen Kinzer, the New York Times writer who recently published A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It, a shamelessly positive biography of the heroic Paul Kagame.
“Ten years ago, one million Rwandans perished in the worst genocide since the Second World War,” Lindsay Hilsum says. Hilsum was working with the The Observer in 1994 and was reportedly the only British journalist in Kigali as the killing began.[128] Hilsum echoes the standard tripe about Rwanda. “Rwanda’s genocide could have been prevented.” [129]
Instead of reassessing and revising her original analyses, which would be the appropriate thing to do in the face of the rising evidence of the RPF’s crimes, Lindsay Hilsum—like many others—takes the apology for murder a step further to explain away the RPF terrorism in Congo: “Guilt over their failure to stop the killings spurred donors—especially Britain, the U.S. and the Netherlands—to back the Rwandan Government, despite its poor human rights record and involvement in plundering the Congo.”[130]
Like most of the establishment journalists, Fergal Keane’s reporting has attracted widespread critical acclaim. He was named as overall winner of the Amnesty International Press Awards in 1993 and won an Amnesty television prize in 1994 for his investigation of the Rwandan Genocide, called “Journey Into Darkness.”
However, during the years when the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana was under attack by the RPF, the documentation produced by international human rights bodies decidedly took the side of the RPF.[131] This pattern has continued, and it should come as no surprise that Fergal Keane and Lindsay Hilsum are the chosen recipients of the Amnesty International Press Award and Television prizes.
According to his own testimony Keane gained access to Rwanda’s killing fields in partnership with the Rwanda Patriotic Front. In late May and early June of 1994, as the killings in Rwanda were drawing to a close—but as pockets of Tutsis were still being hunted down—Keane traveled for several weeks with the advancing Tutsi RPF forces.[132]
“By the time we got to the border with Rwanda through Uganda, we had made contact with the RPF in Brussels,” Keane stated in PBS Frontline’s “Ghosts of Rwanda”. “And they had, by that stage, become relatively organized about linking up and giving people safe passage down through the country. It was the most organized guerilla army I had ever come across. And I’d been with the rebels in Eritrea, and they have a name for being very strict and highly organized. But the RPF were certainly in a class of art in terms of organization.”[133]
To set up the false dichotomy between savage killers—Hutus—and organized saviors—the RPF—journalists like Fergal Keane and Philip Gourevitch—and like Donatella Lorch and Raymond Bonner of the New York Times and Gary Streiker of CNN—hammered the point home over and over: The RPF is highly disciplined and organized.[134] The RPF’s crimes were not reported because virtually every western journalist was embedded with the RPF (and/or the Western intelligence establishment).
“We met a very helpful and friendly young lieutenant,” continues Fergal Keane, describing his foray into the killing fields in May of 1994. Keane innocuously introduces “a guy called Frank Ndore who guided us down through the country.”[135]
Fergal Keane’s contact and escort, arranged through Brussels in advance, was an RPF soldier. Lieutenant Frank Ndore was born in Uganda to Rwandan Tutsi parents who fled in 1959. He was a veteran of Museveni’s National Resistance Army and the RPF offensive in 1990.[136]
“And the most striking thing about driving in through Rwanda at that stage was the emptiness,” Keane continues. “I was used to an Africa of crowded villages, of people working in the fields—a vibrant, living Africa. And this place, it was like somebody had got a Hoover [vacuum cleaner] and placed it over the country and just sucked all of the life, hoovered the life up out of the place. There was nothing. Just emptiness.”[137]
“In Byumba—where the RPF first invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990—Kagame went to a market and committed so many atrocities,” says Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, a Rwandan medical doctor practicing in Laredo, Texas, whose father, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, was judged, tried and convicted by “journalist” Philip Gourevitch in his fictitious book.[138]
“More than a million people fled to Kigali,” says Eliel Ntaki. “All their farms had been taken, all their goats killed, they were living on the streets. When these people heard that the RPF is coming to Kigali, what do you think they are going to do? They are going to fight!” [139]
Philip Gourevitch shares the dubious honor of being one of Kigali’s premier bounty hunters for framing, accusing, judging, and convicting Hutus in his New Yorker features and his fictional [sic] award-winning book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.[140]
Philip Gourevitch’s book is “completely one-sided” says Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life subject of the film Hotel Rwanda. “His book took very much the RPF side. He was more or less like an RPF advocate.”[141]
Gourevitch is known for fabricating a New Yorker story called “The Genocide Fax” in alliance with Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Undersecretary James Rubin—Philip Gourevitch’s brother-in-law.”[142]
According to Gourevitch and the New Yorker, the fax, sent by Major General Romeo Dallaire, the U.N. force commander in Rwanda, to peacekeeping headquarters in New York, “reported in startling detail the preparations that were under way to carry out the [Hutu] extermination campaign [against Tutsis].”[143]
But there was no fax sent by General Romeo Dallaire, and the “genocide fax” was a fabricated document meant to divert attention and misleed. The “genocide fax” was actually sent by Colonel Connaughton of the British military at Sandhurst Academy
Read it. Very very good. Cant find anything wrong with it factually. Very
compelling writing. Only comment, Lindsay Hilsum is probably an intel
asset as well as she was the Observer reporter to whom Colonel Connaughton
sent a copy of his fabricated "genocide" fax (the other was a Belgian
reporter) and around the same time he faxed it into New York. Anyway, she
is trusted to do the right thing by the British Army. Secondly, I heard or
read (maybe from Onana?) that Aegis is a CIA front org. It also is used to
publish propaganda material for the ICTR.
Gourevitch’s Rwanda “genocide” project was funded by the U.S. Institute for Peace, a euphemistically named think-tank.[144] Gourevitch birthed the idea that the Tutsis are “the Jews of Africa” and he is often invited to speak about his firsthand experience with genocide in Rwanda—at Jewish religious events.[145]
Gourevitch helped facilitate journalist Michela Wrong’s book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, which was funded by London’s Financial Times, and is another whitewash of the RPF invasions of Zaire in 1996, the killing of Hutu refugees, and the role of the West in supporting Mobutu and terrorizing the people of Congo/Zaire.[146]
But the Gourevitch connection to the information warfare against the people of Congo—and trusting Western “news” consumers back home—doesn’t end there. James Rubin, Gourevitch’s brother-in-law and Madeleine Albright’s Undersecretary of State, also primed his future wife, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, to cover up the criminal racketeering and plunder, and the Hutu genocide committed by the RPF and UPDF and their backers from the Western defense and intelligence establishment.[147]
“Philip Gourevitch came to my house,” says Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana. “I should have listened to my lawyer. I didn’t know this guy was working with the [U.S.] State Department. I completely believe that Philip Gourevitch accused, tried and convicted my father in his book. Gourevitch set up my father and consistently lied about him. The stories [Gourevitch] tells about the maid and the stories about Genny, my wife, were all fabricated.”[148]
Philip Gourevitch is known to be a very close friend of Paul Kagame and had the support of the Kagame regime, and the backing of the U.S. State Department, from the start. Gourevitch’s fictional treatise on genocide in Rwanda was funded by the euphemistically named U.S. Institute for Peace, a U.S. establishment think-tank known for the production of disinformation in service to select agendas.
“Several attempts were made to take the Tutsi workers amd hide them by Gerard and Pastor Elizaphan but they declined the offer,” says Eliel Ntakirutimana, speaking about his father and brother’s true actions in Rwanda in 1994. “People stayed at the churches because their Tutsi sons who were in the RPF were telling them to stay there, we will come for you. But Kagame refused to allow RPF soldiers leave to go to the churches to protect their families. He wanted victims, something big to use to gain power. Kagame wanted dead bodies.”[149]
After inciting hatred and fear and driving millions of people into flight, Kagame got exactly what he wanted and this formed the pillars of the genocide ideology successfully used to silence both critics and truth.
“Gerard Ntakirutimana was a good doctor with no politics who returned from abroad to help his community in Rwanda in 1993,” says former ICTR defense investigator Phil Taylor. “One year later disaster struck with the assassination of the President and a brutal war. I believe that both Dr. Gerard and his father Elizaphan are innocent and victims of political hysteria.”[150]
Gerard and Elizaphan Ntakirutimana were framed by the Rwanda government, and Philip Gourevitch played the central role in furthering the fabrications in his prize-winning U.S. State Department novel.
Elizaphan Ntakirutimana was found guilty of XXXXXXX genocide and sentenced to 10 years in prison. On December 6, 2006, after serving 10 years in arrest or prison, he was released. The 83 year-old pastor died just over a month later, on January 22, 2007.
Gerard Ntakirutimana was convicted XXXXX
THE BIG BUSINESS OF GENOCIDE
The war that rocked Rwanda in the early 1990’s set the stage for a complete reorganization of power and control in the tiny landlocked country. The role of Rwanda in plundering Congo has been highly censored by the establishment press, but greatly illuminated by certain independent journalists. Even the U.N. Panel of Experts reports remain apt testimonials to the plunder which continues, no matter the denials and public relations statements to the contrary, under the watchful eyes of the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo (MONUC) and the so-called international “human rights” community.
On February 8, 2008, for one egregious example of politically motivated disinformation, Kemal Saiki, MONUC’s Chief Public Information officer, gave a public interview in which he stated that Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) were not present or involved in Congo.[151] This is an outright lie and it is not the first lie that Kemal Saiki has told.[152]
Rwanda continues to pull the purse strings in eastern Congo and strangle all hope for truth, liberty, justice and life for millions of Congolese people. Congo’s gold, coltan, niobium, oil and diamonds continue to pass through Rwanda and Uganda in transit to international markets. General Laurent Nkunda routinely travels freely back and forth from Congo to Rwanda.[153]
By depopulating Rwanda, rich land was opened up for new multinational corporate exploitation and the war brought about new ownership and means of control. Excluding the profits from the extractive industries in Rwanda and Congo, Rwanda’s top money makers are tea, coffee and gorilla tourism. Close on the heels of these are the HIV/AIDS scams involving the Clinton and Pangea Foundations, and their pharmaceutical backers like Pfizer.
In the past six to eight years USAID has invested over US$ 10 million in the coffee sector in Rwanda, which was radically reconfigured—in terms of plantations, landholders, and market dominance—due to the power shift that occurred between 1989, when world coffee prices crashed, and 2006, when USAID, the Kagame government and Starbucks—a major promoter of the Hollywood film King Kong and Kong paraphernalia—announced huge economic gains in the international coffee market. Starbucks provided coffee expertise and training in Rwanda, and their ‘superior’ specialty ‘award-winning’ Rwandan coffee was highlighted in 5,000 Starbucks coffee outlets during March and April 2006. [154]
USAID and its business partners have estimated that coffee sector could generate at least US$ 117 million in export revenues per year for Rwanda by 2010. The tea industry has potential to generate US$ 91 million in export revenues by 2010. The goal for the tourism industry is to attract 70,000 tourists to visit Rwanda and to generate US$ 99 million in revenues by 2010.[155] Huge development projects are underway.
All of these require land cleared of people. Enter USAID, Africa Wildlife Fund, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Conservation International, Royal/Dutch Shell, Jane Goodall Institute, Starbucks, Green Mountain Coffee—and Goodworks International, putting a happy face on it all.
“The more you consume coffee from Rwanda, the more you give Rwanda hope,” said Rwanda’s Ambassador Zac Nsenga. “It’s the quality and the story behind it that makes it special.”
The genocide business and the depopulation behind it is a special story indeed.
HUNTING AND KILLING HUTUS
The state security and intelligence networks in Uganda and Rwanda today revolve around terrorism state-run “safe” houses proliferate with very little, if any attention from human rights organizations or western media institutions. Anyone who violates the code of state-orchestrated silence will be silenced themselves, perhaps by being ‘disappeared.’
Said one source working in Central Africa: “By the ‘undercover iron hand’ in Rwanda I mean that people are whisked away by government operatives into ‘safe houses’ or [unidentified] torture houses. Nobody knows the whereabouts of these houses but they exist, for some of those who have been taken there can reveal their horrendous experiences.”[156]
But the true history or terrorism in the region is well- hidden by the media propaganda system, the public relations, and the official Rwanda genocide story.
“We now know that the Rwandan Patriotic Front operated 36 active clandestine cells in Rwanda when it invaded on October 1, 1990, and that these cells worked through human rights groups,” writes Canadian author Robin Philpot in his book, “Colonialism Dies Hard.”[157]
In 1988, Rwandan multi-millionaire Assinapol Rwigara financed a 1988-1989 bicycling tour of Rwanda in which Paul Kagame and other RPF/A agents secretly toured the country in a support van belonging to the Ugandan cycling team. Such people as Assinapol Rwigara create inconvenient truths that challenge the establishment narrative about “Hutu extremists planning and organizing genocide” in Rwanda: Rwigara was a Tutsi businessman and close associate of Juvenal Habyarimana who betrayed President Habyarimana by financing the RPF/A. [158]
In a situation report (SITREP) dated May 17, 1994, Mark Prutsalis of Refugees International (RI), a U.S. State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) linked non-government organization (NGO), described the situation of Hutu refugees arriving at the rate of 3000 people per day and crossing the Tanzanian border from Rwanda. Some 70,000 refugees had already crossed three major crossing points and the presence of the RPF at the border was noted and described. The document provided “incident” excerpts from a UNHCR protection report made on May 14 and 15, 1994.[159]
In the Kigarama Sector of the Rusumo Commune, “The RPF came and called for a ‘peace meeting.’ Those who did not participate voluntarily were forced to the meeting. At the school people were tied together three by three—men/women/children—and stabbed. The bodies were put on trucks and thrown into the Kagera River, north of Rusumo Bridge.”[160]
In the Nyamugari, Gisenyi, and Nyarubuje sectors of the Rusumo Commune, “The RPF comes at 05h00 waiting for villagers to open their doors. The villagers are caught and taken away to the river by trucks. No one has returned. Refugees of the area have seen people being tied together and thrown into the river. It seems as if guns are only used if somebody tries to escape.”[161]
At Rusumo commune, sector Muzaza, Gasarabwayi Village (four kms from the Akagera River): “The RPF launched several attacks on the village and its population. On [May 13] 40 RPF soldiers came at 07h00. They surrounded the village. Villagers were gathered in houses, which were burned down. An eyewitness saw 20 people being killed this way. Eight villagers were thrown into a latrine, and the latrine was filled with soil. Asked by UNHCR field officer the refugee said that the RPF did not care whether the victims were Hutu or Tutsi villagers.”[162]
At the Mugoma border crossing: “The refugees report that on 15 May as many as 100 refugees (maybe more) were killed by the RPF on a hill opposite the closest crossing point [Mugoma].”[163]
The report cites only RPA/F soldiers involved in killing and the conclusion section includes comments by an International Rescue Committee (IRC) staff member sent to the IRC offices. “Things are getting very bad at the border here… Someone really needs to do something about all of the killing and torture on the other [Rwandan] side. Each day there are more and more bodies in the river and most of them without their heads; the count is between 20 to 30 [bodies] each thirty minutes.”[164]
If Fergal Keane were working as an unbiased journalist he could have taken the opportunity to interview refugees in the Tanzanian camps about the RPF slaughter they witnessed. Instead, Keane was on a personal crusade to the Tanzanian camps to track down and convict a supposed Hutu genocidaire named Sylvestre Gacumbisi.
According to a United Nations cable dated October 14, 1994, UNHCR special investigator Robert Gersoni gave a detailed verbal briefing (from his notes) on his findings and conclusions after completing an investigation in Rwanda during August and September of 1994. The meeting was attended by Kofi Annan, then the Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, by UNAMIR II Force Commander Major General Guy Tousignant, and by several others. Annan had attended a previous meeting with Gersoni on September 14 and warned high-level officials that if Gersoni’s findings were correct they would be very damaging to Kagame’s government and to the United Nations.[165]
Robert Gersoni was not known for making mistakes. He was a professional investigator of high-repute known for 25 years of well-documented work for UNHCR, USAID and other bodies. According to UNHCR, Gersoni’s report was based on a five-week investigation that interviewed 300 Rwandans in 41 of Rwanda’s 145 communes and at nine refugee camps. The secret cable was designed to mitigate the repercussions of the Gersoni charges and begin the process of damage control.[166]
“We are now engaged in a damage limitation exercise,” wrote Shaharyar Khan, Special Representative to Kofi Annan from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda II (UNAMIR II).[167]
According to the cable:
“In a two hour briefing, Gersoni put forward evidence of what he described as calculated, pre-planned, systematic atrocities and genocide against Hutus by the RPF, whose methodology and scale, he concluded (30,000 massacred), could only have been part of a plan implemented as a policy from the highest echelons of the [Kagame] government. In his view these were not individual cases of revenge and summary trials but a pre-planned, systematic genocide against the Hutus. Gersoni staked his 25 year reputation on his conclusions which he recognized were diametrically opposite to the assumptions made, so far, by the U.N. and international community.”[168]
The document noted Gersoni’s claim that the RPF traveled around committing a genocide against Hutus with hoes, clubs and machetes.[169]
The above excerpts come from a huge cache of official documents, some of which have been seen only by attorneys at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. These documents attest to the many people who were in positions of power in the early 1990’s and know what really happened in Rwanda and how the RPF orchestrated and carried out a highly coordinated and calculated program of depopulation and terror.
“Scratch the surface, the red earth of Rwanda, and you will, it appears, find one vast cemetery,” wrote British journalist Nick Gordon in a shocking 1996 expose. “The people who passed me the document know it will be hard to investigate. Many areas are no-fly zones. The government has exhumed graves, dried the skeletons and burned them. Some graves have been used more once: they contain bodies from both the first genocide and the counter-genocide. Often the people who have buried the dead, the creusers, are themselves killed so they cannot bear witness.”[170]
After 14 years this correspondent has slowly but surely come to the conclusion that if anyone planned genocide in Rwanda, it was the RPF, and only the RPF. If I must accept that a pre-planned genocide was committed by the Interahamwe and “extremist Hutus” as defined by the official Rwanda genocide narrative that is now deeply instilled in the public mind in what can only be considered a collective insanity, then I must insist that the same people who make this claim acknowledge the genocide planned and committed by the RPF.
In the latest show of military and political support for terrorist partners serving the U.S. military expansion and natural resource plunder from Africa, the Pentagon in late 2007 extended the Kagame government a military training package worth $7-12 million. When President Bush was in Kigali in 2008, the Pentagon extended another $12 million aid package for ‘peacekeeping’ training in Darfur, a euphemism for terrorism of the RPF kind.
END
[1] The initial invasion was led by the legendary leader and one of the founders of the RPF, Major General Fred Gisa Rwigema, who just a few months before had been the Ugandan Vice-Minister of Defense. Rwigema and his two seconds were murdered reportedly on the orders of Museveni, and Kagame was brought back from the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, to take command. See : Mick Collins, « The General’s Book on Rwanda, » <http://cirqueminime.blogcollective.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/21/877913.html>.
[2] Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, International Panel of Eminent Personalities, Section 18.39, <http://www.africa-union.org/Official_documents/reports/Report_rowanda_genocide.pdf >.
[3] See Professor Peter Erlinder, “The Great Rwanda ‘Genocide Coverup’,” Global Research. February 20, 2008, <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8137>.
[4] See: International Forum for Truth and Justice in the Great Lakes of Africa,
[5] The Report by French Anti-Terrorist Judge Jean-Louis Brugiere on the Shooting Down of Rwandan President Habyarimana’s Plane on April 6, 1994.
[6] Legitimate Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K. and U.S., several Rwandans who have gained citizenship, and certain Rwandan journalists under threat of persecution who were used as sources for this story cannot be identified.
[7] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[8] “Rwanda Urges Canada to Extradite ‘Genocide Masterminds’,” CBC News, August 31, 2007.
[9] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Suspect Worked at UK Trust,” BBC. November 6, 2006.
[10] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Suspect Worked at UK Trust,” BBC. November 6, 2006.
[11] Private communication, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[12] Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UNHCR 1951.
[13] “Rwanda seeks genocide fugitives from Britain,” Reuters, November 7, 2008.
[14] “Rwanda seeks genocide fugitives from Britain,” Reuters, November 7, 2008.
[15] Private communication, Hutu Rwandan and U.K. citizen “Patrick Mahoro” (pseudonym used for his protection), March 2008.
[16] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[17] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[18] The Democratic Republic of Congo was renamed Zaire during the reign of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. After the AFDL-CZ overthrew Mobutu the name was changed back to the Democratic Republic of Congo by the short-lived President Laurent Desire Kabila.
[19] Jean-Christophe Nzeyimana gives an account of life and death at the Mugunga refugee camp in: David Barouski, “Surviving the Rwanda Genoce: An Interview with Jean-Christophe Nzeyimana,” ZNET, June 19, 2007, <http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/SurvivingtheGenocide.pdf>.
[20] See: keith harmon snow, “Darfurism, Uganda and the U.S. War in Africa,” www.allthingspass.com; see also Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellon Press, 1999.
[21] According to a top United Nations investigator, the IRC moved into bases in eastern Zaire in 1996 and started shelling the refugee camps with heavy weapons. Private interview, name withheld for confidentiality, July 2006.
[22] This correspondent has interviewed witnesses to the war crimes committed against Hutu refugees all across the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Rwanda, Uganda and the United States. See also: Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellon Press, 1999; Howard W. French, A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, Random House, 2004; and keith harmon snow, Hotel Rwanda: Hollywood and the Holocaust in Central Africa, <www.allthingspass.com>.
[23] Private communication, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[24] Private communication, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[25] Private communications, Rosalie Brown, March 2008.
[26] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[27] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[28] “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” BBC Press Release, November 7, 2006.
[29] IBITANGAJWE N’INAMA Y’ABAMINISITIRI YO KUWA 29 WERURWE 2002
[30] http://www.diplomatie.be/nl/pdf/corpsconsulair.pdf
[31] Janvier Mabuye, Twiyubakire Mu Rwanda, December 22, 2004, <http://www.ambarwanda.be/pages/contentActual.asp?ActualId=118>.
[32] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[33] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[34] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[35] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[36] Fergal Keane. “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK,” BBC News. November 6, 2006. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6120000/newsid_6123000/nb_wm_6123042.stm>.
[37] Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, International Panel of Eminent Personalities, Section 17.8, <http://www.africa-union.org/Official_documents/reports/Report_rowanda_genocide.pdf >.
[38] Personal interviews with three Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K. and one source in Rwanda.
[39] Home Office document, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Tony Kavutse, July 15, 2002.
[40] Medical Foundation, <http://www.torturecare.org.uk/about_us/patrons_and_trustees>.
[41] Hamra Yucel, MD, Request for Crises Loan RE: Mr. Tony Kavutse, DOB 29/10/76. Previously of Leabridge House, 497-501 Leabridge Road, London, E10 7 EB, Medical Foundation, July 29, 2002.
[42] Hamra Yucel, MD, Request for Crises Loan RE: Mr. Tony Kavutse, DOB 29/10/76. Previously of Leabridge House, 497-501 Leabridge Road, London, E10 7 EB, Medical Foundation, July 29, 2002.
[43] Email communication from Michelle Alexander, Medical Foundation, April 1, 2008.
[44] Sarah Tipton (Housing Advisor), Letter from Waltham Forrest to Dr. Hamra Yucel, Augst 29, 2002.
[45] Jenny Cook (Departmental Administration), Letter from the Birbeck School to Tony Kavutse, August 2004.
[46] Tony Kavutse did not responde to repeated requests for communication.
[47] Private communications with Rwandan refugees in London, March and April 2008.
[48] Private communications with Rwandan refugees in London, March and April 2008.
[49] Private communication, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, March 2008.
[50] Nick Gordon, “Return to Hell,” Sunday Express, April 21, 1996, <http://www.abarundi.org/documents/NGordon_RDA_eng_01.html>.
[51] The establishment narrative on “AIDS in Africa” offers another example of disinformation suggesting a humanitarian agenda that is merely, in fact, window dressing for multinational corporations and the department of defense. It will not be examined here. I would remove this. It is out of place and deserves its own paper.
[52] Don Terry, “Suburban America: Hiding place for thousands of war criminals?” Chicago Tribune, July 5, 2005.
[53] See: “Public Security: ICE Wins Landmark Rwandan Genocide Case,” Inside ICE, Vol. 1, Issue 13, <http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/insideice/articles/insideice_101204_web2.htm?searchstring=rwanda>.
[54] See e.g.: “Mrs. Bush's Remarks in Honor of the Visiting Guests from the Mothers to Mothers-To-Be Programme in Capetown, South Africa,” The White House, March 13, 2006, <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060313-2.html>.
[55] Goodworks International has a permanent office in Kigali run by managing director Mary Kamari. The Goodworks promo film Rwanda Rising was showcased on Delta Airlines flights beginning in the fall 2007 (see: Rwanda Convention Association, <http://www.rwandaconvention.org/past-conventions.htm>).
[56] Africa-America Institute, <http://www.aaionline.org/About/Board.aspx>.
[57] Private communications, Rwandan researchers, June 2007.
[58] Clinton Presidential Center, “Rwanda’s Ambassador to the U.S. Zac Nsenga Speaks on the Genocide 12 Years Ago,” <http://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org/062806-nr-pc-gn-rwa-pr-rwanda-ambassador-zac-nsenga-speaks.htm>.
[59] Genocide Intervention Network, <http://www.genocideintervention.net/network/endorsers >.
[60] See: David Barouski, “Surviving the Rwanda Genocide: An Interview with Jean-Christophe Nzeyimana,” ZNET, June 19, 2007, <http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/SurvivingtheGenocide.pdf>.
[61] Several of the Private Military Companies involved in Britain’s immigration detention centres, notably SODEXHO and SERCO, are also contracted to work at the U.S. torture center in Guantanamo Bay.
[62] “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” BBC Press Release, November 7, 2006.
[63] “British Charity Employs Doctor Accused of Crimes Against Humanity,” BBC Press Release, November 7, 2006.
[64] Private communication, Vaughan Jones, Praxis, March 13, 2008.
[65] Private communication, Vaughan Jones, Praxis, March 13, 2008.
[66] Private communication, British Department of Defense insider, March 12, 2008. The same insider has supported the Broken Arrows reports published by Wayne Madsen Report: Wayne Madsen, “Broken Arrows, Lies and the Vice President,” Wayne Madsen Report, April 8, 2007, <http://www.factivism.com/content/view/94/33/>.
[67] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[68] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[69] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” March 2008.
[70] British Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Department, Numbers of Rwandan Asylum Seekers in U.K. from 1994-2003 (bar graph).
[71] http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspect_reports/irc-inspections.html/
[72] Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UNHCR 1951.
[73] Harm on Removal: Excessive Force against Failed Asylum Seekers, Medical Foundation, <http://www.torturecare.org.uk/publications/reports/277>.
[74] Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons: <http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspect_reports/irc-inspections.html/>.
[75] “Rwandan Man Detained in Edinburgh,” Urgent Action Needed, <http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/364584>.
[76] Personal communications with Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K., March and April 2008.
[77] Home Office News Release (005/2008), Government News Network, January 14, 2008, http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/156324 (use a uniform font and size for all citations)
[78] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[79] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[80] The term “demonstration elections” was coined by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman. See, e.g., Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) or The Political Economy of Human Rights: The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (1979).
[81] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[82] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo TX, October 7, 2007.
[83] There are many accusations against Paul Kagame for his role as DMI chief under Museveni. See, e.g., Remigius Kintu, The Truth Behind The Rwanda Tragedy (prepared upon request and presented to the ICTR at Arusha, Tanzania), March 20, 2005.
[84] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo TX, October 7, 2007.
[85] Private communication, Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, April 9, 2008.
[86] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[87] The most auspicious one-sided examples come from Africa Watch, a division of Human Rights Watch. See e.g., Rwanda: Talking Peace and Waging War: Human Rights Since the October 1990 Invasion, Africa Watch, Vol. IV, Issue No. 3, February 27, 1992. See also: by Mr. B.W. Ndiaye. Special Rapporteur, on his mission to Rwanda from 8 to 17 April 1993, United Nations Economic and Social Council, E/CN.4/1994/7/Add.1, 11 August 1993; and The Government and Armed Forces Responsible for the Reign of Terror in Rwanda, Press Release, Rights & Democracy, March 8, 1993.
[88] See: Robin Philpot, Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard, The Taylor Report and Robin Philpot, 2003.
[89] The Operation Guidance on Rwanda refers case workers to the Rwanda lists on two websites:
[90] U.K. Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Rwanda, Rwanda OGN v7.0, Issued 24 January 2007.
[91] U.K. Home Office 2008.
[92] See: “Home Office to water down anti-torture/war crime legislation under pressure from Israeli government,” The Guardian, February 7, 2006; and Vikram Dodd, “U.K. considers curbing citizens' right to arrest alleged war criminals,” The Guardian, February 3, 2006.
[93] Private communication, Moses Kenneth Bugingo Rugema, April 1, 2008.
[94] The address of Rugewa’s business in London is: Longford Court, Belle Vue Road, London NW4 2BU (move this after ‘England.’ England; Tel: 00 44 [0] 208 201 5722 - Fax: 00 44 [0] 208 202 1616.
[95] “President Kagame’s New Cabinet Stung by Allegations of Spy Chiefs Ménage a Trios,” Radio Katwe, Kampala, March 12, 2008.
[96] “President Kagame’s New Cabinet Stung by Allegations of Spy Chief’s Ménage a Trios,” Radio Katwe, Kampala, March 12, 2008.
[97] Private communications, Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K., March and April 2008.
[98] Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 1951.
[99] Private communications, Rwandan asylum seekers in the U.K., March and April 2008.
[100] 10 Downing Street, E-Petitions, Rwanda Petition, <http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/rwandagenocide/>.
[101] Private communication, Rwandan refugee in London, March 2008.
[102] Rwanda Diaspora Investment Ltd., <www.investinrwanda.co.uk>.
[103] Frank Nyakairu, “Rwanda Speaks on PRA Training Bases,” The Monitor, November 28, 2004.
[104] Private communication, Rwandan asylum seekers in England, March and April 2008.
[105] Thomas Ofcansky, Rwanda: Recent History, <www.europaworld.com> and <http://www.zacharykaufman.com/pub/2007_book_chapter_rwanda_recent_history.pdf>.
[106] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” April 1, 2008.
[107] Africa Partnership Forum, October 4-5, 2005, <http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/2/38983282.pdf>.
[108] Private communications, Rwandan refugees in England, March and April 2008.
[109] Private communications, Rwandan refugees in England and U.S.A., and Rwandan journalists in Kigali.
[110] Rwanda NEPAD Magazine, Issue 002, November 2004: <http://www.nepad.gov.rw/docs/Rwanda_NEPAD_magazine_issue_2.pdf >.
[111] MSAADA, <www.msaada.org>.
[112] IMIZI: <www.imizi.org>.
[113] RYICO: <www.ryico.org/index.html>.
[114] Aegis Trust, <http://www.aegistrust.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=66>.
[115] Survivor’s Fund, History of SURF, <http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/about/history.php >.
[116] Private communications, Rwandan refugees in England, March and April 2008.
[117] Terri Judd, “Honour for Women Who Dedicated Her Life to Genocide Survivors,” The Independent, October 12, 2004.
[118] Terri Judd, “Honour for Women Who Dedicated Her Life to Genocide Survivors,” The Independent, October 12, 2004.
[119] Surf Founder Receives OBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace Ceremony, February 29, 2008, <http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/assets/docs/pr/surf_founder_receives_obe.pdf>.
[120] Holocaust Memorial Day, <http://www.hmd.org.uk/files/1157734432-106.pdf>.
[121] Ultimate Escape Health Spa, <http://www.ultimate-escape.com/>.
[122] Private communication, “Patrick Mahoro,” April 8, 2008.
[123] Fergal Keane, Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey, Penguin Books, September 1997.
[124] Trial of Sylvestre Gacumbitsi, ICTR Press Release, ICTR/INFO-9-2-353.EN, Arusha, 28 July 2003. (1 date format)
[125] Private communication, Jean Marie Vianney Higiro, April 9, 2008.
[126] Probably RPF soldiers Lt. Frank Ndore or his bodyguard Valence, both of whom worked with Fergal Keane.
[127] Private communication, Phil Taylor, April 3, 2008.
[128]
[129] Lindsay Hilsum, “Rwanda's genocide could have been prevented. The UN let people die and now it watches as the survivors die,” The Observer, March 28, 2004.
[130] Lindsay Hilsum, “Rwanda's genocide could have been prevented. The UN let people die and now it watches as the survivors die,” The Observer, March 28, 2004.
[131] Again, the most auspicious one-sided examples come from Africa Watch, a division of Human Rights Watch. See e.g., Rwanda: Talking Peace and Waging War: Human Rights Since the October 1990 Invasion, Africa Watch, Vol. IV, Issue No. 3, February 27, 1992. See also: by Mr. B.W. Ndiaye. Special Rapporteur, on his mission to Rwanda from 8 to 17 April 1993, United Nations Economic and Social Council, E/CN.4/1994/7/Add.1, 11 August 1993; and The Government and Armed Forces Responsible for the Reign of Terror in Rwanda, Press Release, Rights & Democracy, March 8, 1993.
[132] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[133] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004. Add website link to his interview
[134] Donatella Lorch, “Rwanda Rebels: Army of Exiles Fights for a Home,” New York Times, June 9, 1994: 10; and “Rwanda Rebels’ Victory Attributed To Discipline,” New York Times, July 19, 1994: 6. Raymond Bonner: “How Minority Tutsi Won the War,” New York Times, September 6, 1994: 6; and “Rwandan Refugees Flood Zaire as Rebel Forces Gain,” New York Times, July 15, 1994: 1.
[135] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[136] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[137] Fergal Keane, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” PBS Frontline, March 19, 2004.
[138] Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, Farrar-Strauss-Giroux, 1998.
[139] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo, TX, October 2007.
[140] Philip Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda, Farrar-Strauss-Giroux, 1998.
[141] keith harmon snow, “The Grinding Machine: Terror and Genocide in Rwanda,” Toward Freedom, April 20, 2007.
[142] See, e.g., Robin Philpot, “The New Yorker's Congo Distortions: An Open Letter to Philip Gourevitch,” Counterpunch, June 7, 2003. See also Philip Gourevitch, “Annals of Diplomacy: The Genocide Fax,” The New Yorker, May 11, 2998, p. 42: <http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998/05/11/1998_05_11_042_TNY_LIBRY_000015508>.
[143] Philip Gourevitch, “Annals of Diplomacy: The Genocide Fax,” The New Yorker, May 11, 2998, p. 42: <http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998/05/11/1998_05_11_042_TNY_LIBRY_000015508>.
[144]
[145] See, e.g., Kane Yerbu (monthly newsletter of the Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes), November 10, 2006.
[146] See: Michela Wrong, In The Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, Fourth Estate, 2000: p. ix.
[147] See e.g., Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellen Press, 1999.
[148] See the case of Pastor Elizaphan Ntakiritumana as elaborated by Philip Gourevitch in We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda, Farrar-Strauss-Giroux, 1998.
[149] Private interview, Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo, TX, October 7, 2007.
[150] Private communication, Phil Taylor, April 6, 2008.
[151] Louis-Pual Eyenga Sana, La Monuc nie la présence de l’armée rwandaise à l’Est de la RDC, Le Potentiel, February 8, 2008; <http://www.lepotentiel.com/afficher_article.php?id_article=59209&id_edition=4242>.
[152] Kemal Saiki has issued false MONUC press releases to cover for the actions of MONUC troops, some of which involved criminal in intent and nature. False statements have also been made directly to this correspondent. See also: David Barouski, “Press Release,” World News Journal, February 8, 2008
[153] See: David Barouski, “Press Release,” World News Journal, February 8, 2008
[154] “USAID and Rwanda Ambassador Celebrate Rwandan Coffee,” USAID Press Release 0411-06-032, April 11, 2006, < http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2006/pr060411_1.html >.
[155] Development Management Solutions, The East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Trade Hub: Development of National AGOA Export Strategies, USAID, 5 October 2005, < http://www.ecatradehub.com/reports/rp.downloads/2005.AGOA.Strategy.Rwanda.pdf >.
[156] Private communication, Eastern Congo. 2007.
[157] Robin Philpot, Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard. The Taylor Report and Robin Philpot, 2003; on the RPF/A cells, Robin Philpot cites: Reed, William Cyrus, “Exile, Reform and the Rise of the RPF/A,” in Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3, 1996, p. 496.
[158] Private interview, Dr. Eliel Ntakirutimana, Laredo, TX, October 7, 2008.
[159] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[160] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[161] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[162] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[163] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[164] Mark Prutsalis, Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania, Refugees International, SITREP #10. May 17, 1994.
[165] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[166] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[167] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[168] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[169] United Nations Outgoing Code Cable. “The Gersoni ‘Report’ Rwanda,” October 14, 1994.
[170] Nick Gordon, “Return to Hell,” Sunday Express, April 21, 1996, <http://www.abarundi.org/documents/NGordon_RDA_eng_01.html>.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)
Profile
I am Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, an Economist, Content Manager, and EDI Expert, driven by a passion for human rights activism. With a deep commitment to advancing human rights in Africa, particularly in the Great Lakes region, I established this blog following firsthand experiences with human rights violations in Rwanda and in the DRC (formerly Zaïre) as well. My journey began with collaborations with Amnesty International in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and with human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and a conference in Helsinki, Finland, where I was a panelist with other activists from various countries.
My mission is to uncover the untold truth about the ongoing genocide in Rwanda and the DRC. As a dedicated voice for the voiceless, I strive to raise awareness about the tragic consequences of these events and work tirelessly to bring an end to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)'s impunity.
This blog is a platform for Truth and Justice, not a space for hate. I am vigilant against hate speech or ignorant comments, moderating all discussions to ensure a respectful and informed dialogue at African Survivors International Blog.
Genocide masterminded by RPF
Finally the well-known Truth Comes Out.
After suffering THE LONG years, telling the world that Kagame and his RPF criminal organization masterminded the Rwandan genocide that they later recalled Genocide against Tutsis. Our lives were nothing but suffering these last 32 years beginning from October 1st, 1990 onwards. We are calling the United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, and Great Britain in particular, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany to return to hidden classified archives and support Honorable Tito Rutaremara's recent statement about What really happened in Rwanda before, during and after 1994 across the country and how methodically the Rwandan Genocide has been masterminded by Paul Kagame, the Rwandan Hitler. Above all, Mr. Tito Rutaremara, one of the RPF leaders has given details about RPF infiltration methods in Habyarimana's all instances, how assassinations, disappearances, mass-slaughters across Rwanda have been carried out from the local autority to the government,fabricated lies that have been used by Gacaca courts as weapon, the ICTR in which RPF had infiltrators like Joseph Ngarambe, an International court biased judgments & condemnations targeting Hutu ethnic members in contraversal strategy compared to the ICTR establishment to pursue in justice those accountable for crimes between 1993 to 2003 and Mapping Report ignored and classified to protect the Rwandan Nazis under the RPF embrella . NOTHING LASTS FOREVER.
Human and Civil Rights
Human Rights, Mutual Respect and Dignity
For all Rwandans :
Hutus - Tutsis - Twas
Rwanda: A mapping of crimes
Rwanda: A mapping of crimes in the book "In Praise of Blood, the crimes of the RPF by Judi Rever
Be the last to know: This video talks about unspeakable Kagame's crimes committed against Hutu, before, during and after the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda.
The mastermind of both genocide is still at large: Paul Kagame
KIBEHO: Rwandan Auschwitz
Kibeho Concetration Camp.
Mass murderers C. Sankara
Stephen Sackur’s Hard Talk.
Prof. Allan C. Stam
The Unstoppable Truth
Prof. Christian Davenport
The Unstoppable Truth
Prof. Christian Davenport Michigan University & Faculty Associate at the Center for Political Studies
The killing Fields - Part 1
The Unstoppable Truth
The killing Fields - Part II
The Unstoppable Truth
Daily bread for Rwandans
The Unstoppable Truth
The killing Fields - Part III
The Unstoppable Truth
Time has come: Regime change
Drame rwandais- justice impartiale
Carla Del Ponte, Ancien Procureur au TPIR:"Le drame rwandais mérite une justice impartiale" - et réponse de Gerald Gahima
Sheltering 2,5 million refugees
Credible reports camps sheltering 2,500 million refugees in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been destroyed.
The UN refugee agency says it has credible reports camps sheltering 2,5 milion refugees in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been destroyed.
Latest videos
Peter Erlinder comments on the BBC documentary "Rwanda's Untold Story
Madam Victoire Ingabire,THE RWANDAN AUNG SAN SUU KYI
Rwanda's Untold Story
Rwanda, un génocide en questions
Bernard Lugan présente "Rwanda, un génocide en... par BernardLugan Bernard Lugan présente "Rwanda, un génocide en questions"
Nombre de Visiteurs
Pages
- Donate - Support us
- 1994 MASSACRES IN RWANDA WERE NOT GENOCIDE ACCOR...
- Les massacres du Rwanda 20 plus tard. À la recherc...
- About African survivors International
- Congo Genocide
- Twenty Years Ago, The US was Behind the Genocide: Rwanda, Installing a US Proxy State in Central Africa
- Rwanda Genocide
- Our work
Popular Posts - Last 7 days
-
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand,...
-
Contacts:: Kitty Kurth, Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation 312-617-7288 Friends of the Congo 202-584-6512 Africa Faith and Justice N...
-
By Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, The Truth-Telle r [Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the...
-
Tension entre militaires burundais et rwandais à la frontière nord Twenty years after the pivotal events of 1994 , it is time ...
-
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand, ty...
-
Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) To the personal attention of the Prosecutor Ocampo Post Off...
-
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination , the Tutsi minority ethn...
-
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, ty...
-
The blog of African Survivors International is like a library or a public park where we can all go to think, learn and g...
-
03-01-2010 posted by Ann Garrison Harsh anti-gay legislation proposed in both Uganda and Rwanda has turned more Western attention to E...
Archives
Everything happens for a reason
Bad things are going to happen in your life, people will hurt you, disrespect you, play with your feelings.. But you shouldn't use that as an excuse to fail to go on and to hurt the whole world. You will end up hurting yourself and wasting your precious time. Don't always think of revenging, just let things go and move on with your life. Remember everything happens for a reason and when one door closes, the other opens for you with new blessings and love.
Hutus didn't plan Tutsi Genocide
Kagame, the mastermind of Rwandan Genocide (Hutu & tutsi)