A Candle For Remembering
May this memorial candle lights up the historical past of our beloved Country: Rwanda, We love U so much. If Tears could build a stairway. And memories were a lane. I would walk right up to heaven. To bring you home again. No farewell words were spoken. No time to say goodbye. You were gone before I knew it And. Only Paul Kagame knows why. My heart still aches with sadness. And secret tears still flow. What It meant to lose you. No one will ever know.
Why did Kagame this to me?
Can't forget. He murdered my mother. What should be my reaction? FYI: the number of orphans in Rwanda has skyrocketed since the 1990's Kagame's invasion. Much higher numbers of orphans had and have no other option but joining FDLR fighters who are identified as children that have Lost their Parents in Kagame's Wars inside and outside of Rwanda.If someone killed your child/spouse/parent(s) would you seek justice or revenge? Deep insight: What would you do to the person who snuffed the life of someone I love beyond reason? Forgiving would bring me no solace. If you take what really matters to me, I will show you what really matters. NITUTIRWANAHO TUZASHIRA. IGIHE KIRAGEZE.If democracy is to sell one's motherland(Africa), for some zionits support, then I prefer the person who is ready to give all his live for his motherland. Viva President Putin!!!
RPF committed the unspeakable
The perverted RPF committed the UNSPEAKABLE.Two orphans, both against the Nazi world. Point is the fact that their parents' murder Kagame & his RPF held no shock in the Western world. Up to now, the Rwandan Hitler Kagame and his death squads still enjoy impunity inside and outside of Rwanda. What goes through someone's mind as they know RPF murdered their parents? A delayed punishment is actually an encouragement to crime, In Praise of the ongoing Bloodshed in Rwanda. “I always think I am a pro-peace person but if someone harmed someone near and dear to me, I don't think I could be so peaceful. I would like to believe that to seek justice could save millions of people living the African Great Lakes Region - I would devote myself to bringing the 'perp' along to a non-happy ending but would that be enough? You'd have to be in the situation I suppose before you could actually know how you would feel or what you would do”. Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Libre Penseur
Hutu Children & their Mums
Look at them ! How they are scared to death. Many Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi, Foreign human rights advocates, jounalists and and lawyers are now on Death Row Waiting to be murdered by Kagame and his RPF death squads. Be the last to know.
Almighty God :Justice for US
Hutu children's daily bread: Intimidation, Slavery, Sex abuses led by RPF criminals and Kagame, DMI: Every single day, there are more assassinations, imprisonment, brainwashing & disappearances. Do they have any chance to end this awful life?
Killing Hutus on daily basis
RPF targeted killings, very often in public areas. Killing Hutus on daily basis by Kagame's murderers and the RPF infamous death squads known as the "UNKNOWN WRONGDOERS"
RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya
Rape, torture and assassination and unslaving of hutu women. Genderside: Rape has always been used by kagame's RPF as a Weapon of War, the killings of Hutu women with the help of Local Defense Forces, DMI and the RPF military
The Torture in Rwanda flourishes
How torture flourishes across Rwanda despite extensive global monitoring
Fighting For Our Freedom?
We need Freedom, Liberation of our fatherland, Human rights respect, Mutual respect between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority
Friday, May 6, 2016
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), disappearances and mass arrests of Hutus by the RPF criminal organization =>AS International]
by Christopher Black , 2006
Rwanda - The night of April 6, 1994 the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, respectively, as well as General Nsabimana, the Rwandan Army Chief of Staff and several other dignitaries and [the three-man French civilian flight] crew were assassinated when the plane they were on was shot down over Kigali airport by anti-aircraft missiles fired by members of the so-called, Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Front, with the assistance of the governments of several countries. The current leader of the RPF junta now in control of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, gave the final order for the shoot down (1), but he did so with the assistance or complicity of the governments of the United States of America, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania. The UN itself was also complicit (2). The United States and Britain, hoping to gain total control of the resources of Central Africa through their proxies in the Tutsi RPF provided the military support for the RPF invasion of Rwanda from Uganda beginning in 1990, flowing that support through Uganda. Britain also supplied the technical means and funding for the RPF propaganda radio station Muhabura as well as the training of RPF soldiers at their base at Jinja, Uganda.(3) Uganda was a direct aggressor against Rwanda, and all the soldiers and officers involved in the RPF invasion of Rwanda carried Ugandan army identity cards.
It is now known that the missiles used to shoot down the aircraft came from stockpiles the Americans had seized in their first war against Iraq. It was in a warehouse at Kigali airport, rented by a CIA Swiss front company, that the missiles were assembled (4). In fact, the French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who has spent several years investigating the shoot down on behalf of the families of the French flight-crew, told Boutros-Boutros Ghali, the Secretary-General of the UN in 1994, that the CIA was involved in the shoot down, adding strength to Boutros-Ghali's earlier statement that the Americans are 100% responsible for what happened in Rwanda.(5)There is strong direct and circumstantial evidence that the Belgian and Canadian contingents of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1993-94, known as UNAMIR, were involved in the shoot down and assisted the RPF in their final offensive launched with the decapitation strike on the President and the Army Chief of Staff.(6) It was the Canadian, General Romeo Dallaire, Force Commander of UNAMIR, who arranged for one axis of the runway at the airport to be closed at the request of the RPF, making it easier to shoot down the plane as it tried to land. Dallaire also consistently sided with the RPF during his mandate, gave continuous military intelligence to the RPF about government army positions, took his orders from the American and Belgian ambassadors and another Canadian general, Maurice Baril, in the Dept of Peace-Keeping Operations in New York, lied to his boss, Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, about his knowledge of a build-up for a final Ugandan Army-RPF offensive(7), and turned a blind eye to the infiltration into Kigali of at least 10 battalions and possibly 13,000 RPF combatants when they were permitted only 600 under the Arusha Accords.(8) It was another Canadian, General Guy Tousignant, who took over from Dallaire after the RPF took power when UNAMIR II helped the RPF consolidate the rewards of its aggression. Burundi was involved both by permitting 600 US Army Rangers to be situated in Burundi in case they were needed by the RPF and by invading Rwanda from the south in May, 1994 to link up with the RPF forces. Tanzania was involved in both the planning of the shoot down and, itself, invaded Rwanda from the east and south blocking escape routes for the Hutu refugees fleeing the atrocities of the RPF in their sweep towards Kigali.
This was all part of the long-term strategy of the RPF and its allies before their renewal of hostilities on April 6th, 1994. They had conspired to use the facilities provided by the power sharing agreements, to take over the institutions of the country and seize power militarily whatever the cost. A military solution was the sole option developed by the RPF and its allies. In a pamphlet provided to its supporters in Kigali in January 1994, the RPF defined four scenarios for taking full control of power before the projected general elections, initially planned by the Arusha Accords to end the 22 months transition period. The fourth scenario(9) and the only one pursued provided for a military takeover within nine months from the date of the signature of the Arusha peace Accords and then the rescheduling of the elections to the most convenient time for the RPF, which, in essence, meant never.
As a matter of fact, President Habyarimana’s assassination and the final RPF offensive that followed occurred exactly eight months from the date of the Arusha Agreement 4 august 1993 and there has never been a legitimate transition government formed since the RPF’s seizure of power.
For reasons it continues to refuse to provide, the UN has never investigated the shoot down of the Presidential plane. The French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière's report of his investigation into the shoot down was leaked to Le Monde in 2004 and states that the RPF was responsible and that the CIA was also involved. The Chief Prosecutor for the International War Crimes Tribunal For Rwanda, Canadian judge Louise Arbour had begun an investigation soon after she accepted the position and was told by her lead investigator, Australian lawyer Michael Hourigan, that it was the RPF group known as the "Network", with the assistance of a foreign power and including the involvement of the CIA, that was responsible for the shoot down.
At that point Arbour ordered the investigation closed, making her an accessory to a war crime. She then completely reversed herself and took the position that the shoot down was not within the ICTR mandate. This policy of protecting war criminals, in fact those who started the Rwanda war, has continued at the ICTR to this day with the full support of the US selected judges.
To add salt to the wound, the murder of the two Hutu presidents was preceded a few months before, on 21 October, 1993, by the murder of President Melchior Ndadaye of Burundi, also a Hutu, murdered by Tutsi officers of the Burundian Army. It is strongly suspected that the RPF was also involved in that assassination and it is known that Paul Kagame was in Bujumbura a few days before the Hutu president was murdered. This complicity of the RPF in the murder of the President of Burundi was a principal factor in creating extreme fear in the Hutu majority population of Rwanda that the RPF intended to kill as many Hutus as possible and that no political solution was ever possible with an organization whose methods were worthy of Murder Incorporated of the US Mafia.
The Prime Minister
At that point Arbour ordered the investigation closed, making her an accessory to a war crime. She then completely reversed herself and took the position that the shoot down was not within the ICTR mandate. This policy of protecting war criminals, in fact those who started the Rwanda war, has continued at the ICTR to this day with the full support of the US selected judges.
To add salt to the wound, the murder of the two Hutu presidents was preceded a few months before, on 21 October, 1993, by the murder of President Melchior Ndadaye of Burundi, also a Hutu, murdered by Tutsi officers of the Burundian Army. It is strongly suspected that the RPF was also involved in that assassination and it is known that Paul Kagame was in Bujumbura a few days before the Hutu president was murdered. This complicity of the RPF in the murder of the President of Burundi was a principal factor in creating extreme fear in the Hutu majority population of Rwanda that the RPF intended to kill as many Hutus as possible and that no political solution was ever possible with an organization whose methods were worthy of Murder Incorporated of the US Mafia.
The Prime Minister
But there was another important Hutu political figure killed within hours of the president's death, the Rwandan prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, known by the population simply as Agathe. She was killed the morning of April 7th, 1994, by persons unknown. As with the death of the president, there has never been an investigation into who was responsible for her death or why she was killed. And there, as the say, hangs a tale.
Agathe was a member of the pro-RPF, Movement for a Democratic Republic, or MDR party. The RPF and Tribunal propaganda has always been that the government of Rwanda was under the thumb of a dictatorial Hutu president. However, since the implementation of the internal political parties agreement signed in April 1992, and the Arusha Accords in 1993, the president had lost all real governmental power and, according to Dallaire, "was little more than a figurehead.(10)
Agathe, herself, who was in practical control of all the government ministries including the civilian intelligence service, was in reality little more than a puppet of Faustin Twagiramungu, the prime minister designate under the Arusha designed Broad-Based Transitional Government that was to be sworn in to conduct national elections. He in turn was a close ally of the RPF.
The real role of Agathe was revealed on January 5th, 1994, at the ceremonies for the swearing in of the Transitional Government. The RPF has always blamed President Habyarimana for the failure to install the new government on that day. However, the facts tell a different story. It had been agreed that each party would send a list of designated deputies to be sworn in after the president, as head of state, had been sworn in. A problem arose when the Liberal Party or PL split into two factions, one pro-majority Hutu rule and one pro-RPF minority rule.
The day the Transitional National Assembly was to be installed, the PL had not yet come to an agreement within its two factions as to who should occupy the seats allocated to the party. Two conflicting lists of candidates stood. Because of that problem, neither of the two factions was invited to represent the PL and to take the oath as PL parliamentarians. However, with the complicity of UNAMIR, the pro-RPF faction was brought by the Belgian UN soldiers to the place of the ceremony and tried to enter the premises during the ceremony, but the UN Bangladeshi security force on guard refused to allow them entry without the proper accreditation.
There was some scuffling at the entrance which was turned by the RPF propagandists into a beating of its allies. To further ensure that the ceremonies never succeeded the RPF never even turned up at the event, even though they were billeted in the same building complex, and General Dallaire snubbed the ceremonies as well by refusing to attend them even though he was an important invited guest. However, the swearing in of the president at least took place that morning and then the president announced that the swearing in of the deputies would take place that afternoon, despite the refusal of the RPF to take part. But the afternoon ceremonies never took place. Instead, Agathe sabotaged them by sending out a letter to all parties and officials canceling the ceremonies with no reason given.(11)
It was clear the RPF and its allies did not want the ceremonies to go ahead and thereby give the Hutu majority the balance of power in the National Assembly. The ceremonies were suspended with no date fixed for their resumption. However, on 8 January 1994, taking advantage of the absence of the President from the country, Agathe, the pro-RPF President of the Constitutional Court and Faustin Twagiramungu, together with the RPF, tried to persuade Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General and political head of UNAMIR, to support holding a ceremony swearing in the deputies in the absence of the president and in their favour. Since only the president could officially preside at such a ceremony, the attempt "could be considered an attempted coup d'etat," according to the testimony of Colonel Claeys of the Belgian Army before the ICTR in the Military II trial in late 2005. However, Booh-Booh refused to play their game and to be drawn into their plot, and nothing ever took place on the 8th.(12)
Rumours of another coup attempt by Agathe on behalf of the RPF were circulated on April 4th, I994, when a meeting was held between Agathe and some officers from the south of the country, for the most part gendarme junior officers. It was apparently an occasion for drinks. Whatever the reality, someone leaked the meeting to the RTLM radio station, noted for its opposition to all things RPF, and leaked information that she had discussed the planning of a coup against the president along with the RPF and southern officers sympathetic to the RPF. From that point she was seen by the population as suspect if not an outright traitor. One can only wonder who provided RTLM with the information and why. But it served to set her up for a fall two days later. It also provided a convenient reason to blame the Rwandan Army for her death.
What is little known is that in the night of the 6th of April, at a crisis meeting of the Rwandan Army and Gendarmerie after the murder of the president and Army Chief of Staff, the senior Army and Gendarme officers had agreed with Booh-Booh and Dallaire that Agathe would continue as prime minister even though some officers were suspicious of her loyalties and of her involvement in the murder of the president. They were intent on keeping the peace process going at almost any cost. However she completely failed that night to undertake any of her responsibilities or functions.(13) Instead of immediately contacting the Army and Gendarmerie and the various ministers of the government to coordinate a response to the murder of the president, she did nothing in that regard and allowed herself to be manipulated by the RPF, Faustin Twagiramungu and General Dallaire.
After the shoot down of the presidential plane, senior army and gendarme commanders took steps to maintain security and manage the crisis. They immediately sought the assistance and advice of the UN. As early as only half an hour after the announcement of the crash, they invited General Dallaire to the first meetings they held in the Chief of staff’s office and sought his advice as well as that of Booh-Booh. But at the same time they were getting advice from Booh-Booh, Faustin Twagiramungu was calling the prime minister by telephone and asking her to commit to making a radio address to the nation that the president had been killed in an "accident". According to the French investigative journalist Pierre Péan she was also to tell the nation not to obey any army communiqués, only hers. It was no doubt expected by the RPF that the Army would reject her as prime minister thereby giving the RPF the opportunity to openly support this "moderate" Hutu against the Army and through her seize power. They did not expect the Army to agree to her continuing as prime minister. Once she had the support of the Army, however reluctant that support was, the RPF could no longer come out in her support in opposition to the Army.
The speech that never was
The speech Twagiramungu wanted Agathe to make was never made. But why?
For reasons unknown, General Dallaire, who was aware from the start of her intention to make a radio address to the nation, never mentioned the speech at the senior officers meeting the night of the 6th.(14) The senior officers were completely unaware of it. For some reason she and Dallaire saw fit to keep it a secret. Instead of fulfilling her duties as prime minister in a time of national crisis, she took instructions from others. Twagiramungu states, "I called her to ask her to prepare a statement to the nation..." (15) The senior officers only became aware of the radio address after General Dallaire had left the meeting with Colonel Bagosora to meet Booh-Booh at his residence. A Belgian officer, Colonel Luc Marchal, the Kigali UN commander, arrived later to inform them. There was surprise but no expressed opposition to the idea.(16) When they came back from the meeting with Booh-Booh, neither Bagosora nor Dallaire spoke of any problem concerning Prime Minister Agathe. General Dallaire partially confirms this in his book. He states that Agathe called him seeking his assistance. Dallaire also states in his book that General Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff of the Gendarmerie, wanted to post guards at key points in the city, including Radio Rwanda, the government station on which Agathe was to make her address, to prevent sabotage. Dallaire states that it seemed a good idea but that it had to be done in coordination with UNAMIR, and Ndindiliyimana agreed.(17) It was decided to organize joint patrols by UNAMIR troops and the Gendarmerie.
Dallaire then says that about 2:00 am on the 7th he told Colonel Marchal not to go ahead with the plans for the joint patrols worked out with the Gendarmerie. He says he thought the presence of Belgian troops on the streets would be a provocation, though he does not say why. So he instructed Marchal to cut back those patrols(18) , and the Belgian UN troops did not show up at the stations designated to be the bases for those night patrols. The real reason remains obscure but the effect of the withdrawal of the joint UN-Gendarme patrols was to contribute to the break down in the security situation and give the RPF a free hand to activate the 10-13,000 soldiers they had infiltrated into the city and to gather the arms they had secreted in weapons caches all over the city under the deliberately blind eye of Dallaire and in continuous violation of the Arusha Accords.(19)
However, Dallaire says that he did order Colonel Marchal to send an escort to Agathe's house to take her to the radio station. He says also that sometime after 3:00 am Agathe called him about the radio address, but he does not disclose the contents of that conversation. Dallaire then says that the Radio Rwanda station-manager telephoned to say that he refused to give her air time unless his family was protected and then, in a second conversation, that nothing could be done, as soldiers were around the station. Dallaire states that he suggested a telephone interview but the station manager said it was not possible.
In complete contradiction to Dallaire, the station manager, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, states(20) that Agathe called him at 2:20 am stating she would make an address at 5:00 am. "She asked me to send journalists to her house to record her statement. Towards 4:20 am I called her to be prepared to do the interview by telephone because sending personnel to her was impossible as the roads around Radio Rwanda had been cut (referring to the gendarmes trying to protect Radio Rwanda from saboteurs). I then asked the technicians to record the prime minister's message by telephone and to broadcast it."
Higiro then telephoned his Chief of Services to advise him of developments and was told that he had just received an anonymous telephone call that no messages should be broadcast without the approval of the Army. He had assumed the call came from someone in the Army or Ministry of Defense, but if it had it would have been an official call from a named officer or official. It would have been normal under the circumstances for the army to consider such a precaution, so there was no need to make an anonymous call. Further no official or officer has ever stated that they made such a call. So who made it and why? Was it someone who did not want Agathe's message to get out?
The Army had already agreed to the broadcast when Colonel Marchal announced it. The only ones who could want to prevent her from making the address were those who had first proposed the idea. But why? Had the contents of her address changed?
Why does Dallaire state in his book that a telephone interview was not possible when Higiro states it had all been set up?
Why does Dallaire say nothing in his book of the anonymous telephone call Higiro states was the reason the address was not made.
Did Dallaire or someone in his service make that anonymous call?
Higiro says he telephoned Agathe at about 4:30 am to tell her the broadcast was no longer possible. She seemed resigned. He then states that between 6:00 am and 6:30 am, Dallaire telephoned to ask why the prime minister had not made the address and was told why. But, strangely, in his book, Dallaire states that it was he who phoned Agathe to tell her the broadcast was off. So Dallaire’s phoning the station at 6:00 am to ask why she had not been on the radio makes no sense. He already knew why. Agathe knew at 4:30 am the broadcast was off. She must have spoken to Dallaire about the same time about the matter. Was his 6:00 am call a diversion to draw suspicion away from himself?
It is clear that Agathe could have made the radio address to the nation. Even if Dallaire had wanted to take her physically to the station it could easily have been arranged. All he had to do was contact his partners in the Army and Gendarmerie to ensure her arrival as they had already agreed to the address. The radio station was guarded by gendarmes, with Dallaire's approval. So why did Dallaire not mention the speech to the Gendarmerie commander? Why did he fail to mention it to Booh-Booh as to enlist his support?
The night of the 6th at the meeting between Dallaire, Booh-Booh and Colonel Bagasora, Booh-Booh suggested that a meeting be held at the America ambassador's residence the next morning at 9:00 am with various ambassadors, Agathe, senior officers of the Army and Gendarmerie and UNAMIR to discuss the situation. However, at the appointed time only Bagasora, another army colonel and General Ndindiliyimana of the Gendarmerie showed up. The American ambassador, Mr. David Rawson, not only failed to express any condolences on the death of the president and the others, he told them that he did not know why none of the others had come and stated he could not make contact with anyone. But he was aware that Agathe had planned to make a radio address as he asked why she had not done so. So he must have been advised of the matter by Dallaire the night before.(21)
It is likely that the others never showed up at the meeting with Ambassador Rawson because they already knew that Agathe had left her house some hours before and was no longer playing their game, and so the meeting had no point.
Rawson must have been aware that Agathe had left her house and was now in the UNDP complex, but inexplicably he failed to mention this fact to the Rwandan officers. Rawson had to know this as Dallaire states that he was in contact with New York about Agathe's situation around the time of the meeting and that he and "various ambassadors" maintained close communication.(22)
Colonel Bavagumenshi, the officer in charge of the Gendarme VIP security detail states that at 21:00 hours, the night of the 6th, he received orders to reinforce the VIP’s protection and that of Agathe in particular. When he testified in the court martial trial of Colonel Marchal, Bavugamenshi said that during that night, he telephoned the office of Colonel Marchal at least five times to inform him of the degrading VIP’s security situation.
Bavagumenshi stated that he discussed the VIP’s security with Colonel Marchal again in the morning of the 7th April. Colonel Marchal promised him that he would act but nothing was done by UNAMIR in favor of those Ministers. At 7:00 am he again telephoned Marchal and this time was told by Colonel Marchal that he could join an escort mission at 8:30 am to take her to the radio station. Inexplicably, Marchal kept secret the fact that a team of 13 Belgian soldiers had already arrived at Agathe's residence between 4:30 am and 5:OO am.(23) Bavagumenshi showed up at 8:30 am only to be told the mission was scrubbed because Agathe had fled her house. Marchal must have been aware that the Prime Minister had fled her house and sought refuge in the UNDP compound by that time, but again, inexplicably, Marchal never told Bavagumenshi that he knew where she was, that she was in UN hands, and that the escort mission could have been redirected to the UNDP compound where she was then located.
Also, inexplicably, General Dallaire took part in a meeting with senior Rwandan officers at 11:00 am the morning of the 7th at the Officers Military School or ESM and said nothing to those there that he knew where the prime minister was and had known for over three hours. This is the same meeting at which Dallaire fails to tell them that he was aware his men were under attack by mutinous soldiers.
Agathe’s Final Hours
What happened to Agathe after the station manager told her at 4:30 am that the telephone interview was not possible? It is important to recall that this was just after the placing of the anonymous telephone call supposedly preventing any radio addresses. And that anonymous call was made shortly after Dallaire talked to Agathe by telephone some time after 3:00 am. Had she told him that she now refused to go on air and say it was an "accident"? Did she threaten to tell the world that she knew who was responsible for the shoot down of the plane? In other words, had she become a liability and signed her own death warrant?
The Ghanaian UN soldiers on guard at her house the night of the 6th and 7th of April have provided statements to Belgian investigative judge Vandermeersch, investigating the deaths of the Belgian soldiers who had gone to Agathe’s house at 4:30 am. Sgt. George Aboye, who commanded the unit of 5 men, states that at about 4:30 am to 5:00 am, that is, shortly after Dallaire's conversation with Agathe and the placing of the anonymous call to the radio station, four Belgian jeeps arrived at her house. It is important to note here that both Dallaire and his Deputy Force Commander state in their respective books that they had asked Agathe in the early morning of the 7th if she wanted to be taken out of her house but that she had refused.(24)
These Belgians were the same men who had gone out to the area east of Kigali airport area from which the missiles were fired, earlier on the 6th on a mission only Dallaire is aware of, and it is these same men who had been intercepted and detained, coming out of the area from which the missiles were fired, by the Rwanda Army, just after the plane was shot down.(25)
The Ghanaian commander approached the Belgian officer in charge and asked him what their mission was. The Ghanaians, also inexplicably, had no prior notice that the Belgians were coming there even though they were in radio contact with the UN command. The Belgian officer, Lt. Lotin, refused to answer, stating simply, "We are coming to see the Prime Minister." The Sgt, then accompanied the Belgians to the door of Agathe's residence. They knocked on the door but Agathe refused to answer the knock or open the door. Did she know these men had been involved in the murder of the president? Why had they been sent to her house secretly? Were they there, or did she think they were there, to kill her also? A clue may be found in a cryptic entry in the official Belgian Army history of the events known as the KIBAT (for Kigali Battalion) Report. On page 13, at paragraph k, the report states that the Belgian officer radios to his superior that the "Rwandans believe that the Belgians want the skin of Agathe."(26)
The Ghanaian Sgt. then states that shooting in the area got very close and everyone took cover; the 4 or 5 gendarmes and 5 Ghanaians who made up her security detail, and the 13 Belgians who had just arrived. They stayed in firing positions until, at about 7:00 am, the gendarmes suddenly cut a hole in the barbed wire fence at the back of her house and then took her and her family out of the compound. The Ghanaians and Belgians stayed in their positions. At about 7:15 am Rwandan soldiers entered the residence compound and detained the UN soldiers. They were disarmed but then allowed to board a bus without armed guard to take them to Camp Kigali, the nearest UN post. The officer was allowed to keep his pistol. This is confirmed by the UN military observer stationed at Camp Kigali, Capt. Apedo, who states that Ghanaians and Belgians arrived there at 7:00 am.(27)
We must pick up the story from the only seemingly reliable witness to her death. The witness is a UN functionary. Despite this, his testimony has been suppressed by the Prosecutor at the ICTR, thereby emphasizing its importance. His name is Willy Mpoye and he lived at the UNDP complex to which the gendarmes took Agathe and her family. The gendarmes state that they took her there and then, so as not to attract attention to her whereabouts, left the scene, believing her to be safe in UN hands.(28)
He says(29) that she arrived in the compound about 7:30 am and went to the house of a Mr. Daff, while her husband and children were put in the house of Bampieng Maxime. Around 8:30 am, the witness contacted a man named Yvon LeMoal, Chief UN Security Coordinator, somewhere in Kigali, who promised to contact New York and UNAMIR regarding her presence at the UNDP complex. Indeed, Dallaire confirms he knew where she was at about that time as does the Deputy Force Commander, Brigadier Anyidoho.(30) At 9:30 am, that is, over two hours after the Rwandan soldiers had entered her house nearby, the witness re-contacted LeMoal by radio and telephone to say soldiers were near the house.
He then says that at 10:04 am four soldiers speaking Kinyarwanda, entered the compound, first searched the house in which the witness was located, failed to find her, searched another house, found her, shot her and left. He says that at 12:30 pm General Dallaire arrived at the compound with a Belgian officer, asked questions, looked around and then left leaving the Belgian officer on the site.
At 2:30 pm Dallaire returned this time with a Senegalese officer, left him at the site and departed with the Belgian officer. The witness does not say what became of the body of the prime minister. Since the witness was in contact with LeMoal who was in contact with New York and UNAMIR, Dallaire must have been aware by at least 10:30 am that Agathe had been killed. Only this explains the complete failure by Dallaire to mention Agathe's name at the meeting with senior Army and Gendarme officers at 11:00 am that morning, which surprised them in light of the heavy pressure he had put on them to continue supporting her just a few hours before. Now it was as if she did not exist.
Why did Dallaire not tell them she was dead? Why does he say in his book that it was only around 1:00 pm that he learned of her death when Mpoye says he was at the UNDP compound at I2:30 pm? Why does he state in his book that he and another officer named Robert walked without any trouble whatsoever from Camp Kigali to the UNDP compound to see Agathe at about I:00 pm only to be met by a Senegalese UN officer who informed him Agathe was dead, whereas the UNDP witness states it was Dallaire who brought the Senegalese officer and that not until 2:30 pm?
Dallaire goes to great lengths in his book to make it appear that he did not know of Agathe's death when everything indicates he did know. Who were the four men who came in, quickly shot her and left? Why does the prosecutor of the ICTR deliberately keep this evidence buried, all the while alleging, without credible proof, that Agathe was killed at her house by the Rwandan Army?
It is certain that Agathe knew many things. It is clear that she was counted on by the RPF and its allies to be their puppet and to calm the nation by telling them about an "accident". It is clear that the RPF hoped to use her as a front for their seizure of power. But things went wrong.
Unexpectedly the Army accepted her as prime minister instead of rejecting her. Her utility decreased. Then between 2:20 am and 4:30 am something happened with the speech. In that time she talked to Dallaire. But he fails to state what they talked about.
Did she threaten to tell the world what really had happened and who was responsible?
Did she realize that she had been set up, made a patsy, by the RTLM rumours that she was plotting against the president just two days before, and that she would be labeled as a prime suspect in his assassination?
Did she want to clear herself in the eyes of the public?
Was that why the anonymous call was made, so that she could not make such an address?
Was that why the 13 Belgians were secretly sent to her house, men implicated in the assassination of the president?
Is that why she refused Dallaire's "offer" to take her out of her house, or to answer the knock of the Belgian officer?
Was she fleeing the Rwandan soldiers or the Belgians and the RPF?
She may have thought she was safe at the UNDP compound. But New York and Dallaire were alerted to her presence and for several hours did nothing to ensure her safety. Why did General Dallaire and Colonel Marchal do nothing to protect the prime minister, the most important political figure in Rwanda, though they easily protected the prime minister designate, and her controller, Faustin Twagiramungu? Just like men, dead women tell no tales. Agathe cannot tell us who killed her. Her children, still alive, are silent. There are many disturbing questions to be asked of General Dallaire, Colonel Marchal, Faustin Twagiramungu, Paul Kagame and others regarding the death of the prime minister. It is time an international investigation was conducted into the affair to learn the answers, something the prosecutor at the ICTR singularly refuses to do.
(1) Bruguiere Report as published by Stephen Smith, Le Monde, 2004. Abdul Ruzibiza,Testimony before the ICTR, March 2006, Military I trial, Jean Pierre Mugabe, Hourigan Report of the UN, I997
(2) Testimony of Francois-Xavier Nsanzuwera, ICTR, before the Belgian Senate, May 22, I997.
(3) Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, and testimony before US Congressional Subcommittee on International Operations and the Human Rights Committee on International Relations, Chaired by Cynthia McKinney
(4) Bruguiere,supra, Madsen, ibid
(5) Interview with Robin Philpot, Feb. 26/27 2005. Counterpunch, "Second Thoughts on Hotel Rwanda, Boutros-Ghali: A CIA Role in the I994 Assassination of Rwanda President Habyarimana
(6) Radio intercept night of April 6, I994, Statement of James Gasana, testimony before French National Assembly, 1998
(7) Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, Dallaire's Boss Speaks, Editions Duboiris, Paris, 2005
(8) Abdul Ruzibiza, Rwanda, A Secret History, Duboiris, Paris, 2005, Outgoing Code Cable Dallaire to Baril, April 7, I994
(9) Guichaoua : « LES CRISES POLITIQUES AU BURUNDI ET AU RWANDA » p 656-658 :
L'environnement actuel et l'avenir de l'organisation (document confidentiel non signé ni daté, attribué au FPR, Kigali, février 1994, 13 p. :
Scénario IV: Rupture des accords par la chute du gouvernement de transition à base élargie de Twagiramungu et reprise des hostilités au détriment de Habyarimana…………. - rupture des accords d'Arusha et recomposition d'un gouvernement en écartant par la force militaire et populaire Habyarimana et ses satellites, dans un délai ne dépassant pas neuf mois à partir de la date de la signature des accords de paix ; - redéfinition de la Transition ; - organisation des élections au moment jugé opportun par le FPR.
(10) Dallaire, Shake Hands With The Devil, Random House, Toronto, 2003, p193
(11) Letter, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, January 50th, I994, made a defence exhibit in the Military II trial, ICTR.
(12) Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, supra
(13) General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff, Rwanda Gendarmerie, Testimony, Belgian Senate, I997
(14) Ndindiliyimana Testimony, ICTR, April 3, 2000ana,supra
(15) Testimony, ICTR, April 3, 2000ana,supra
(16) Ndindiliyimana, To the author
(17) Dallaire, supra, p 224
(18) Dallaire, ibi, p 228
(19) Confidential Inter-office Memo,15th April, I994, Mil Observer to Dallaire. "RPA is conducting massive but concealed infiltrations in Kigali. It has assured that about 10 battalions are already in the city...It also seems that the RPA had begun infiltrations before the current hostilities.
(20) Letter dated November 29th', 1994, from Higiro to Herve Deguine, Reporter Without Borders
(21) Ndindiliyimana, testimony before the Belgian Senate, 1997
(22) Dallaire, UNAMIR Code Cable to Baril, April 7th, 1994
(23) Statements of 5 Ghanian UN soldiers on guard duty at Agathe's, provided to the Belgian investigative authorities in I995
(24) Brigadier Anyidoho, Guns Over Kigali, Waeli, Accra, 1999
(25) This is the Belgian blue helmets who had disappeared from their duty the whole day of 6th, it has been alleged in the Belgian Parliamentary Commission that they had accompanied a VIP RPF team to the national part of Akagera, to the east of the Capital city. Colonel Marchal alleges that no one knew about that mission. It is from that area that the lethal missiles were fired in the evening.
(26) Kibat Report, Col. Dewez, Belgian Army, Sept. 20, 1995
(27) Statement of Capt. Apedo, UN Military Observer, Camp Kigali, in the Dounkov Report, UNAMIR, made April 7th', I994
(28) Testimony of prosecution witness OOX, ICTR
(29) Appendix, Rapport sur l'evacuation du personnel international du système des nations Unis au Rwanda, 7-I2 April. I994
(30) Anyidoho, supra, Dallaire, Code Cable April 7th' to Baril supra
Dallaire then says that about 2:00 am on the 7th he told Colonel Marchal not to go ahead with the plans for the joint patrols worked out with the Gendarmerie. He says he thought the presence of Belgian troops on the streets would be a provocation, though he does not say why. So he instructed Marchal to cut back those patrols(18) , and the Belgian UN troops did not show up at the stations designated to be the bases for those night patrols. The real reason remains obscure but the effect of the withdrawal of the joint UN-Gendarme patrols was to contribute to the break down in the security situation and give the RPF a free hand to activate the 10-13,000 soldiers they had infiltrated into the city and to gather the arms they had secreted in weapons caches all over the city under the deliberately blind eye of Dallaire and in continuous violation of the Arusha Accords.(19)
However, Dallaire says that he did order Colonel Marchal to send an escort to Agathe's house to take her to the radio station. He says also that sometime after 3:00 am Agathe called him about the radio address, but he does not disclose the contents of that conversation. Dallaire then says that the Radio Rwanda station-manager telephoned to say that he refused to give her air time unless his family was protected and then, in a second conversation, that nothing could be done, as soldiers were around the station. Dallaire states that he suggested a telephone interview but the station manager said it was not possible.
In complete contradiction to Dallaire, the station manager, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, states(20) that Agathe called him at 2:20 am stating she would make an address at 5:00 am. "She asked me to send journalists to her house to record her statement. Towards 4:20 am I called her to be prepared to do the interview by telephone because sending personnel to her was impossible as the roads around Radio Rwanda had been cut (referring to the gendarmes trying to protect Radio Rwanda from saboteurs). I then asked the technicians to record the prime minister's message by telephone and to broadcast it."
Higiro then telephoned his Chief of Services to advise him of developments and was told that he had just received an anonymous telephone call that no messages should be broadcast without the approval of the Army. He had assumed the call came from someone in the Army or Ministry of Defense, but if it had it would have been an official call from a named officer or official. It would have been normal under the circumstances for the army to consider such a precaution, so there was no need to make an anonymous call. Further no official or officer has ever stated that they made such a call. So who made it and why? Was it someone who did not want Agathe's message to get out?
The Army had already agreed to the broadcast when Colonel Marchal announced it. The only ones who could want to prevent her from making the address were those who had first proposed the idea. But why? Had the contents of her address changed?
Why does Dallaire state in his book that a telephone interview was not possible when Higiro states it had all been set up?
Why does Dallaire say nothing in his book of the anonymous telephone call Higiro states was the reason the address was not made.
Did Dallaire or someone in his service make that anonymous call?
Higiro says he telephoned Agathe at about 4:30 am to tell her the broadcast was no longer possible. She seemed resigned. He then states that between 6:00 am and 6:30 am, Dallaire telephoned to ask why the prime minister had not made the address and was told why. But, strangely, in his book, Dallaire states that it was he who phoned Agathe to tell her the broadcast was off. So Dallaire’s phoning the station at 6:00 am to ask why she had not been on the radio makes no sense. He already knew why. Agathe knew at 4:30 am the broadcast was off. She must have spoken to Dallaire about the same time about the matter. Was his 6:00 am call a diversion to draw suspicion away from himself?
It is clear that Agathe could have made the radio address to the nation. Even if Dallaire had wanted to take her physically to the station it could easily have been arranged. All he had to do was contact his partners in the Army and Gendarmerie to ensure her arrival as they had already agreed to the address. The radio station was guarded by gendarmes, with Dallaire's approval. So why did Dallaire not mention the speech to the Gendarmerie commander? Why did he fail to mention it to Booh-Booh as to enlist his support?
The night of the 6th at the meeting between Dallaire, Booh-Booh and Colonel Bagasora, Booh-Booh suggested that a meeting be held at the America ambassador's residence the next morning at 9:00 am with various ambassadors, Agathe, senior officers of the Army and Gendarmerie and UNAMIR to discuss the situation. However, at the appointed time only Bagasora, another army colonel and General Ndindiliyimana of the Gendarmerie showed up. The American ambassador, Mr. David Rawson, not only failed to express any condolences on the death of the president and the others, he told them that he did not know why none of the others had come and stated he could not make contact with anyone. But he was aware that Agathe had planned to make a radio address as he asked why she had not done so. So he must have been advised of the matter by Dallaire the night before.(21)
It is likely that the others never showed up at the meeting with Ambassador Rawson because they already knew that Agathe had left her house some hours before and was no longer playing their game, and so the meeting had no point.
Rawson must have been aware that Agathe had left her house and was now in the UNDP complex, but inexplicably he failed to mention this fact to the Rwandan officers. Rawson had to know this as Dallaire states that he was in contact with New York about Agathe's situation around the time of the meeting and that he and "various ambassadors" maintained close communication.(22)
Colonel Bavagumenshi, the officer in charge of the Gendarme VIP security detail states that at 21:00 hours, the night of the 6th, he received orders to reinforce the VIP’s protection and that of Agathe in particular. When he testified in the court martial trial of Colonel Marchal, Bavugamenshi said that during that night, he telephoned the office of Colonel Marchal at least five times to inform him of the degrading VIP’s security situation.
Bavagumenshi stated that he discussed the VIP’s security with Colonel Marchal again in the morning of the 7th April. Colonel Marchal promised him that he would act but nothing was done by UNAMIR in favor of those Ministers. At 7:00 am he again telephoned Marchal and this time was told by Colonel Marchal that he could join an escort mission at 8:30 am to take her to the radio station. Inexplicably, Marchal kept secret the fact that a team of 13 Belgian soldiers had already arrived at Agathe's residence between 4:30 am and 5:OO am.(23) Bavagumenshi showed up at 8:30 am only to be told the mission was scrubbed because Agathe had fled her house. Marchal must have been aware that the Prime Minister had fled her house and sought refuge in the UNDP compound by that time, but again, inexplicably, Marchal never told Bavagumenshi that he knew where she was, that she was in UN hands, and that the escort mission could have been redirected to the UNDP compound where she was then located.
Also, inexplicably, General Dallaire took part in a meeting with senior Rwandan officers at 11:00 am the morning of the 7th at the Officers Military School or ESM and said nothing to those there that he knew where the prime minister was and had known for over three hours. This is the same meeting at which Dallaire fails to tell them that he was aware his men were under attack by mutinous soldiers.
Agathe’s Final Hours
What happened to Agathe after the station manager told her at 4:30 am that the telephone interview was not possible? It is important to recall that this was just after the placing of the anonymous telephone call supposedly preventing any radio addresses. And that anonymous call was made shortly after Dallaire talked to Agathe by telephone some time after 3:00 am. Had she told him that she now refused to go on air and say it was an "accident"? Did she threaten to tell the world that she knew who was responsible for the shoot down of the plane? In other words, had she become a liability and signed her own death warrant?
The Ghanaian UN soldiers on guard at her house the night of the 6th and 7th of April have provided statements to Belgian investigative judge Vandermeersch, investigating the deaths of the Belgian soldiers who had gone to Agathe’s house at 4:30 am. Sgt. George Aboye, who commanded the unit of 5 men, states that at about 4:30 am to 5:00 am, that is, shortly after Dallaire's conversation with Agathe and the placing of the anonymous call to the radio station, four Belgian jeeps arrived at her house. It is important to note here that both Dallaire and his Deputy Force Commander state in their respective books that they had asked Agathe in the early morning of the 7th if she wanted to be taken out of her house but that she had refused.(24)
These Belgians were the same men who had gone out to the area east of Kigali airport area from which the missiles were fired, earlier on the 6th on a mission only Dallaire is aware of, and it is these same men who had been intercepted and detained, coming out of the area from which the missiles were fired, by the Rwanda Army, just after the plane was shot down.(25)
The Ghanaian commander approached the Belgian officer in charge and asked him what their mission was. The Ghanaians, also inexplicably, had no prior notice that the Belgians were coming there even though they were in radio contact with the UN command. The Belgian officer, Lt. Lotin, refused to answer, stating simply, "We are coming to see the Prime Minister." The Sgt, then accompanied the Belgians to the door of Agathe's residence. They knocked on the door but Agathe refused to answer the knock or open the door. Did she know these men had been involved in the murder of the president? Why had they been sent to her house secretly? Were they there, or did she think they were there, to kill her also? A clue may be found in a cryptic entry in the official Belgian Army history of the events known as the KIBAT (for Kigali Battalion) Report. On page 13, at paragraph k, the report states that the Belgian officer radios to his superior that the "Rwandans believe that the Belgians want the skin of Agathe."(26)
The Ghanaian Sgt. then states that shooting in the area got very close and everyone took cover; the 4 or 5 gendarmes and 5 Ghanaians who made up her security detail, and the 13 Belgians who had just arrived. They stayed in firing positions until, at about 7:00 am, the gendarmes suddenly cut a hole in the barbed wire fence at the back of her house and then took her and her family out of the compound. The Ghanaians and Belgians stayed in their positions. At about 7:15 am Rwandan soldiers entered the residence compound and detained the UN soldiers. They were disarmed but then allowed to board a bus without armed guard to take them to Camp Kigali, the nearest UN post. The officer was allowed to keep his pistol. This is confirmed by the UN military observer stationed at Camp Kigali, Capt. Apedo, who states that Ghanaians and Belgians arrived there at 7:00 am.(27)
We must pick up the story from the only seemingly reliable witness to her death. The witness is a UN functionary. Despite this, his testimony has been suppressed by the Prosecutor at the ICTR, thereby emphasizing its importance. His name is Willy Mpoye and he lived at the UNDP complex to which the gendarmes took Agathe and her family. The gendarmes state that they took her there and then, so as not to attract attention to her whereabouts, left the scene, believing her to be safe in UN hands.(28)
He says(29) that she arrived in the compound about 7:30 am and went to the house of a Mr. Daff, while her husband and children were put in the house of Bampieng Maxime. Around 8:30 am, the witness contacted a man named Yvon LeMoal, Chief UN Security Coordinator, somewhere in Kigali, who promised to contact New York and UNAMIR regarding her presence at the UNDP complex. Indeed, Dallaire confirms he knew where she was at about that time as does the Deputy Force Commander, Brigadier Anyidoho.(30) At 9:30 am, that is, over two hours after the Rwandan soldiers had entered her house nearby, the witness re-contacted LeMoal by radio and telephone to say soldiers were near the house.
He then says that at 10:04 am four soldiers speaking Kinyarwanda, entered the compound, first searched the house in which the witness was located, failed to find her, searched another house, found her, shot her and left. He says that at 12:30 pm General Dallaire arrived at the compound with a Belgian officer, asked questions, looked around and then left leaving the Belgian officer on the site.
At 2:30 pm Dallaire returned this time with a Senegalese officer, left him at the site and departed with the Belgian officer. The witness does not say what became of the body of the prime minister. Since the witness was in contact with LeMoal who was in contact with New York and UNAMIR, Dallaire must have been aware by at least 10:30 am that Agathe had been killed. Only this explains the complete failure by Dallaire to mention Agathe's name at the meeting with senior Army and Gendarme officers at 11:00 am that morning, which surprised them in light of the heavy pressure he had put on them to continue supporting her just a few hours before. Now it was as if she did not exist.
Why did Dallaire not tell them she was dead? Why does he say in his book that it was only around 1:00 pm that he learned of her death when Mpoye says he was at the UNDP compound at I2:30 pm? Why does he state in his book that he and another officer named Robert walked without any trouble whatsoever from Camp Kigali to the UNDP compound to see Agathe at about I:00 pm only to be met by a Senegalese UN officer who informed him Agathe was dead, whereas the UNDP witness states it was Dallaire who brought the Senegalese officer and that not until 2:30 pm?
Dallaire goes to great lengths in his book to make it appear that he did not know of Agathe's death when everything indicates he did know. Who were the four men who came in, quickly shot her and left? Why does the prosecutor of the ICTR deliberately keep this evidence buried, all the while alleging, without credible proof, that Agathe was killed at her house by the Rwandan Army?
It is certain that Agathe knew many things. It is clear that she was counted on by the RPF and its allies to be their puppet and to calm the nation by telling them about an "accident". It is clear that the RPF hoped to use her as a front for their seizure of power. But things went wrong.
Unexpectedly the Army accepted her as prime minister instead of rejecting her. Her utility decreased. Then between 2:20 am and 4:30 am something happened with the speech. In that time she talked to Dallaire. But he fails to state what they talked about.
Did she threaten to tell the world what really had happened and who was responsible?
Did she realize that she had been set up, made a patsy, by the RTLM rumours that she was plotting against the president just two days before, and that she would be labeled as a prime suspect in his assassination?
Did she want to clear herself in the eyes of the public?
Was that why the anonymous call was made, so that she could not make such an address?
Was that why the 13 Belgians were secretly sent to her house, men implicated in the assassination of the president?
Is that why she refused Dallaire's "offer" to take her out of her house, or to answer the knock of the Belgian officer?
Was she fleeing the Rwandan soldiers or the Belgians and the RPF?
She may have thought she was safe at the UNDP compound. But New York and Dallaire were alerted to her presence and for several hours did nothing to ensure her safety. Why did General Dallaire and Colonel Marchal do nothing to protect the prime minister, the most important political figure in Rwanda, though they easily protected the prime minister designate, and her controller, Faustin Twagiramungu? Just like men, dead women tell no tales. Agathe cannot tell us who killed her. Her children, still alive, are silent. There are many disturbing questions to be asked of General Dallaire, Colonel Marchal, Faustin Twagiramungu, Paul Kagame and others regarding the death of the prime minister. It is time an international investigation was conducted into the affair to learn the answers, something the prosecutor at the ICTR singularly refuses to do.
(1) Bruguiere Report as published by Stephen Smith, Le Monde, 2004. Abdul Ruzibiza,Testimony before the ICTR, March 2006, Military I trial, Jean Pierre Mugabe, Hourigan Report of the UN, I997
(2) Testimony of Francois-Xavier Nsanzuwera, ICTR, before the Belgian Senate, May 22, I997.
(3) Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, and testimony before US Congressional Subcommittee on International Operations and the Human Rights Committee on International Relations, Chaired by Cynthia McKinney
(4) Bruguiere,supra, Madsen, ibid
(5) Interview with Robin Philpot, Feb. 26/27 2005. Counterpunch, "Second Thoughts on Hotel Rwanda, Boutros-Ghali: A CIA Role in the I994 Assassination of Rwanda President Habyarimana
(6) Radio intercept night of April 6, I994, Statement of James Gasana, testimony before French National Assembly, 1998
(7) Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, Dallaire's Boss Speaks, Editions Duboiris, Paris, 2005
(8) Abdul Ruzibiza, Rwanda, A Secret History, Duboiris, Paris, 2005, Outgoing Code Cable Dallaire to Baril, April 7, I994
(9) Guichaoua : « LES CRISES POLITIQUES AU BURUNDI ET AU RWANDA » p 656-658 :
L'environnement actuel et l'avenir de l'organisation (document confidentiel non signé ni daté, attribué au FPR, Kigali, février 1994, 13 p. :
Scénario IV: Rupture des accords par la chute du gouvernement de transition à base élargie de Twagiramungu et reprise des hostilités au détriment de Habyarimana…………. - rupture des accords d'Arusha et recomposition d'un gouvernement en écartant par la force militaire et populaire Habyarimana et ses satellites, dans un délai ne dépassant pas neuf mois à partir de la date de la signature des accords de paix ; - redéfinition de la Transition ; - organisation des élections au moment jugé opportun par le FPR.
(10) Dallaire, Shake Hands With The Devil, Random House, Toronto, 2003, p193
(11) Letter, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, January 50th, I994, made a defence exhibit in the Military II trial, ICTR.
(12) Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, supra
(13) General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff, Rwanda Gendarmerie, Testimony, Belgian Senate, I997
(14) Ndindiliyimana Testimony, ICTR, April 3, 2000ana,supra
(15) Testimony, ICTR, April 3, 2000ana,supra
(16) Ndindiliyimana, To the author
(17) Dallaire, supra, p 224
(18) Dallaire, ibi, p 228
(19) Confidential Inter-office Memo,15th April, I994, Mil Observer to Dallaire. "RPA is conducting massive but concealed infiltrations in Kigali. It has assured that about 10 battalions are already in the city...It also seems that the RPA had begun infiltrations before the current hostilities.
(20) Letter dated November 29th', 1994, from Higiro to Herve Deguine, Reporter Without Borders
(21) Ndindiliyimana, testimony before the Belgian Senate, 1997
(22) Dallaire, UNAMIR Code Cable to Baril, April 7th, 1994
(23) Statements of 5 Ghanian UN soldiers on guard duty at Agathe's, provided to the Belgian investigative authorities in I995
(24) Brigadier Anyidoho, Guns Over Kigali, Waeli, Accra, 1999
(25) This is the Belgian blue helmets who had disappeared from their duty the whole day of 6th, it has been alleged in the Belgian Parliamentary Commission that they had accompanied a VIP RPF team to the national part of Akagera, to the east of the Capital city. Colonel Marchal alleges that no one knew about that mission. It is from that area that the lethal missiles were fired in the evening.
(26) Kibat Report, Col. Dewez, Belgian Army, Sept. 20, 1995
(27) Statement of Capt. Apedo, UN Military Observer, Camp Kigali, in the Dounkov Report, UNAMIR, made April 7th', I994
(28) Testimony of prosecution witness OOX, ICTR
(29) Appendix, Rapport sur l'evacuation du personnel international du système des nations Unis au Rwanda, 7-I2 April. I994
(30) Anyidoho, supra, Dallaire, Code Cable April 7th' to Baril supra
SOURCE: Read Original texte
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Friday, April 22, 2016
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus)and mass arrests of Hutus by the RPF criminal organization =>AS International]
Dictator in Disguise
Dictator in Disguise. By Ari Berman
Kagame speaking at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town in 2009
Upon initial inspection, he’s unassuming: tall, thin as a rail, with large glasses dominating the frame of his face. His voice is neither powerful nor commanding. He’s quite the opposite of the burly, hardened, Stalin-esque impression many have of a dictator. Perhaps that’s why it’s surprising that he holds an autocratic grip on Rwandan “democracy.”Paul Kagame is known for having led the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front, which took control of Kigali in 1994. Kagame first served as vice president and then was elected to the presidency in 2000. Ever since then, he has been taking steps to bring Rwanda’s economy up to higher standards while simultaneously consolidating power in his own hands.
In contrast with much of Central-East Africa, Rwanda’s government remains relatively stable. Its immediate neighbors, Burundi and the DRC, continue to suffer from civil wars and unrest over upcoming elections, and in both countries, warlords harvesting raw minerals dominate the economy. By comparison, Rwanda is vastly more institutionalized, with no recent violent grabs for power and a functioning government, including a supreme court and parliament. Rwanda’s economy is growing as well: Rwanda sold 400 billion dollars in bonds to foreign investors in 2013 and has experienced an average GDP increase of 8 percent since 2001. The number of Rwandans living in poverty has decreased 6 percent in 10 years.
It may seem perplexing to many, especially in the West, that the otherwise successful country could currently be under a dictator’s thumb. Indeed, despite his campaign of countrywide modernization, Kagame has centralized political power by repressing opposition, limiting free press, and diminishing civil liberties, all the while using the memory of the Rwandan Genocide to legitimize his actions.
Rwanda’s Dictator
Rwandan leadership falls into a continuum of dictatorial relativity. Compared to its immediate, warlord-plagued neighbors, it is a thriving democratic state. But this relatively “democratic” character should not excuse Kagame and his government from criticism. In fact, Rwanda is following a dangerous road to authoritarianism. At the end of 2015, Rwanda’s senate approved a constitutional referendum to allow the president to run for three additional terms, effectively allowing him to remain in office until 2034. Kagame has been president since 2000, and should have completed his last allotted term this year. Nevertheless, he has declared his candidacy for a third term in next year’s election, a decision that has already sparked criticism from the international community.
Kagame, on a visit to Harvard, defended himself in a public address. He argued that part of what makes a democracy is having a constitution, which presents the possibility of occasional amendment. While this may be true, another central part of democracy is peaceful turnover of power. By preventing the transfer of the nation’s highest office to a successor, the constitutional amendment limits Rwanda’s democratic viability.However, President Kagame continued to justify his decision to run again by explaining that his country has asked him to do so. Rwanda, he explained, simply is not ready for a new leader. However magnanimous his justification, no one is forcingKagame to run for a third term. If his country is as free as he proclaims it to be, he should easily be able to decline another term with confidence that another capable politician would step into his role. Kagame’s refusal to turn over power not only limits democracy now, but also inhibits the chance of a stable transition in the future. His country may become accustomed to the idea of extended executive rule, and naturally, people will fight for a shot at the throne. Rwanda could follow in the footsteps of the DRC, where after Mobutu’s 32 year reign, oppositions groups spiraled into violence and vied for control of the country.
Additionally, Kagame’s decision to run fundamentally contradicts a previous statement made when he announced his campaign for his third term. He noted, “I don’t think that what we need is an eternal leader.” But the recent amendment and his decision to run provide for exactly that.
Civil Liberties in Rwanda
The central irony in Kagame’s address to the JFK Forum lay in his discussion of his country’s progress. He inspirationally proclaimed that there can be “no progress without empowerment of the individual,” citing the majority-women Rwandan parliament as an example of exactly that. He also mentioned the Africa 2020 plan, set by coalition of 26 developing African nations intent on creating a free trade block by 2020.
However grand this talk may be, it is at odds with the situation emerging on the ground in Rwanda. Fundamentally, individuals cannot be fully empowered if they cannot speak their minds. Kagame’s praise of his country’s freedom is inconsistent with the concerning state of affairs regarding civil liberties in his country.
While the country’s constitution provides that “Freedom of the press and freedom of information are recognized and guaranteed by the State,” those words do not seem worth the paper they are written on. According to Freedom House, Rwanda scores 6 out of 7 (7 being the worst) on an index of civil liberties, the same level as Iran. This rating’s veracity was reflected in legislation passed in 2009 by the RPF (Kagame’s party). The “divisionist law” allows punishment for “the use of any speech, written statement, or action that divides people, that is likely to spark conflicts among people, or that causes an uprising which might degenerate into strife among people based on discrimination.”
A street in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital and largest city.
This intensely restrictive law stems from the fact that one of the main sources of genocide ideology in 1994 was print and broadcast media. In Rwanda, the Hutu power movement took to controlling the Radio RTLM and the newspaper Kangura to oppose the Tutsi RPF, telling citizens that the RPF would return the Hutus to the oppressive socioeconomic status they experienced under colonial rule. Naturally, there is fear amongst Tutsis that press freedom would regress into another spell of ethnic conflict. It is this lingering thought—that genocide ideology is intrinsically connected to free media—that propels legislation like the 2013 media law.
In light of Rwanda’s speech-restrictive reality, President Kagame’s comments to the HPR in a post-speech interview were surprising. Although he mentioned in his speech that prosperity could not be achieved without empowering citizens, his government has failed to empower its citizens through free press. President Kagame responded to this incongruence first through denial, then by alleging media bias, stating, “if you also read different surveys carried out by different international organizations … in terms of freedoms and how citizens relate to leaders and institutions, we rank very high.” He then remarked that international polls only talk about the “lack of freedom in our country.” By contract, within his own country, he claimed, “There are reports—if you will—that show freedom prevails.”
Kagame chose to deflect blame onto international organizations and the phrasing of the question instead of providing concrete counterevidence from unbiased sources.
The claim that the bias of international organizations led to the reports on lack of freedom is especially problematic. Part of the reason why there are no domestically produced reports on the lack of freedom in Rwanda is because the RPF’s 2013 media law and the divisionist law prevent such speech from being published. It is likely for this reason that Rwanda’s English-language daily newspaper, the New Times, shows no sign of any recent Kagame criticism.
Moreover, the “reports” that Kagame alludes to that demonstrate Rwanda’s press freedom clash with existing evaluations from Freedom House and the U.S.Department of State describing the lack of free speech in the country. It seems that the evidence Kagame cites to urge re-evaluation of Rwanda’s free speech is shaky at best and contested by several reputable sources.
Rwanda’s Leadership and Legacy
Kagame is likely to be elected to his third term with an overwhelming majority, much like his 2010 election, in which he won with over 90 percent of the vote. Under Kagame’s continuing rule, Rwanda will be faced not only with repressed civil liberties, but also reduced likelihood that the country will escape the shadow of its 1994 genocide in the foreseeable future.
Because of the genocidal atrocities to which Rwanda’s Tutsis were subjected by the radical Hutu militias, Kagame (a Tutsi) and his government have visceral reactions to any opposition parties that resemble the Hutu Power party of 1994. This fear is evident in Rwanda’s lack of a proper opposition party. In the aforementioned interview with the HPR, Kagame defended the lack of opposition parties by highlighting his country’s progress, arguing that “the administration we [have today] is not the administration we had ten years ago … it’s not the same we will have ten years from now.”
But while it is true that Rwanda has changed since 1994, its ruling party has not, and the RPF continually invokes the genocide as justification for one-party rule. The country’s primary opposition party would be the Democratic Green Party, registered in 2014. But Kagame’s government often uses memory of the genocide as a tool to undermine dissent, and repeated reports have exposed the intimidation and oppression of potential opposition parties. Victoire Ingabire and Bernard Ntaganda, two opposition party leaders, have been arrested and imprisoned for creating divisionism.
These intimidation tactics extend beyond just opposition parties to people in the administration as well. In a testimony before the Congressional Subcommittee on Africa, David Himbara, who was the principal private secretary to Kagame, head of strategy, and chairman of the Rwandan Development Board, reported on the state of Kagame’s rule. He suggested that before 2012, the targets for human rights abuses were political opponents and journalists; but afterwards, these attacks broadened to people such as Patrick Karegeya, a former intelligence chief; Assinapol Rwigara, a leading businessman; and Dr. Emmanuel Gasakure, the personal physician to Kagame—in other words, former Kagame allies. Increasingly few people, it seems, are outside the reach of the president’s iron fist.This intimidation and violence, propelled by genocidal fear, is allowed through the2008 genocide law, which outlaws all “genocide ideology” terms and any speech that involves:
1. threatening, intimidating, degrading through defamatory speeches, documents or actions which aim at propounding wickedness or inciting hatred; 2. marginalizing, laughing at one’s misfortune, defaming, mocking, boasting, despising, degrading creating confusion aiming at negating the genocide which occurred, stirring up ill feelings, taking revenge, altering testimony or evidence for the genocide which occurred; 3. killing, planning to kill or attempting to kill someone for purposes of furthering genocide ideology.
The broad language of the law leaves the Rwandan government excessive room for punishing citizens. Kagame asserted in 2014 “Anyone who betrays our cause or wishes our people ill will fall victim. What remains to be seen is how you fall victim.” Kagame reinforced the fact that the 2008 genocide law is used for punitive purposes, and is likely related to recent deaths and disappearances of dissenters and journalists.
But to justify censorship and one-party rule on the unlikely renewal of ethnic violence is to doom Rwanda to remain a competitive authoritarian nation—a dictatorship hiding behind a democratic façade.
With the ghosts of the 20th century constantly following Kagame, his motivations—and justifications—for restricting free speech and civil liberties are clear. Even though the genocide is over, Kagame is ruling as if he were still in a war and the people of his country were still in need of martial law.
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Thursday, April 14, 2016
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus)and mass arrests of Hutus by the RPF criminal organization =>AS International]
African voices or Dictators voices in accordance with
Sponsorships policy ???
Col MARCHAL écrit à Hérvé Féron sur la commémoration du génocide rwandais
Monsieur le Député-Maire,
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| Col Luc Marchal commandant du Secteur Kigali Mission des Nations unies Pour le Rwanda |
Dans le contexte de la commémoration annuelle du génocide de 1994, vous avez récemment effectué une visite au Rwanda. Soyons clair, par votre présence vous avez cautionné le système de pensée unique que le pouvoir en place à Kigali tente, depuis 1994, d’imposer à la communauté internationale et à sa propre population, en excluant du devoir de mémoire collectif les innombrables victimes n’appartenant pas à la communauté des Tutsis.
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| M. Hervé Féron Député-Maire |
C’est, précisément, pour avoir rappelé cette réalité que Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, candidate à l’élection présidentielle en 2010, a été condamnée à 15 ans de réclusion et ce, à l’issue d’une parodie de justice, ce que n’a pas manqué de dénoncer la Fondation Jean Jaurès.Je tiens à préciser, sans la moindre ambiguïté, que je considère le génocide des Tutsis comme un fait incontestable. Cette matérialité ne peut, toutefois, servir d’épouvantail et occulter les massacres à grande échelle perpétrés par le Front patriotique rwandais, au Rwanda et dans le Congo voisin, à l’égard des Hutus et des Congolais.Je prends l’initiative de vous exprimer mon sentiment parce que si certains ont pu être abusés en toute bonne foi au début, quant à la nature exacte du régime de Paul Kagame, par contre, ensuite et depuis de nombreuses années, les preuves objectives se sont à ce point accumulées que toute compromission avec ce régime liberticide et mortifère ne peut être considérée que comme un appui, si pas un encouragement, à ses multiples dérives totalitaires.Je citerai comme éléments objectifs : les rapports Hourigan, Gersony, Garreton, Pillay, ceux relatifs au pillage des richesses de la République démocratique du Congo. Cette liste est malheureusement loin d’être exhaustive. Je suis convaincu que vous en connaissez la teneur.Tout comme vous n’ignorez sans doute pas les diverses résolutions prises par le Parlement européens au sujet du Rwanda. Notamment celle du 23 mai 2013, prise en session plénière à Strasbourg. Celle-ci était présentée par cinq groupes parlementaires européens dont deux groupes de gauche : les Socialistes et démocrates au PE et la Gauche unitaire européenne/Gauche verte nordique.
Tout lecteur du texte de la résolution notera que son contenu et les termes utilisés sont sans la moindre ambiguïté à l’égard de Paul Kagame et de son total mépris pour la démocratie et les droits de l’homme. Nous sommes très loin du politiquement correct, style généralement adopté par ce genre d’assemblée.En guise d’illustration, voici quelques-unes des formulations utilisées dans la résolution :
Tout lecteur du texte de la résolution notera que son contenu et les termes utilisés sont sans la moindre ambiguïté à l’égard de Paul Kagame et de son total mépris pour la démocratie et les droits de l’homme. Nous sommes très loin du politiquement correct, style généralement adopté par ce genre d’assemblée.En guise d’illustration, voici quelques-unes des formulations utilisées dans la résolution :
(…) le FPR demeure le parti politique dominant au Rwanda sous le président Kagame et contrôle la vie publique dans le contexte d’un système de parti unique où les personnes formulant des critiques à l’encontre des autorités rwandaises font l’objet de harcèlements, d’intimidations et sont mises en prisons.
(…) le droit et le système judiciaire rwandais enfreignent les conventions internationales auxquelles le Rwanda est partie (…) notamment ses dispositions sur la liberté d’expression et de pensée.
(…) le respect des droits de l’homme fondamentaux, y compris le pluralisme politique et la liberté d’expression et d’association, sont gravement restreints au Rwanda (…).
(…) le procès en première instance de Victoire Ingabire qui ne respectait pas les normes internationales, en premier lieu en ce qui concerne son droit à la présomption d’innocence, et était basé sur des preuves fabriquées et des aveux de co-accusés qui ont été placés en détention militaire au Camp Kami où on aurait eu recours à la torture pour leur extorquer lesdits aveux.
(…) la nature politiquement motivée du procès, la poursuite d’opposants politiques et l’issue décidée à l’avance du procès.
(…) les libertés de réunion, d’association et d’expression sont des composantes essentielles de toute démocratie, et estime que ces principes font l’objet de graves restrictions au Rwanda.
(…) condamne toute forme de répression, d’intimidation et de détention à l’égard de militants politiques, de journalistes et de défenseurs des droits de l’homme ; demande instamment aux autorités rwandaises de libérer immédiatement toutes les personnes et tous les militants emprisonnés ou condamnés pour le seul exercice de leurs droits à la liberté d’expression, d’association et de réunion pacifique.
(…) rappelle que les déclarations obtenues en employant la torture et autres formes de mauvais traitements ne sont admissible dans aucune procédure.
(…) rappelle aux autorités rwandaises que la démocratie se fonde sur un gouvernement pluraliste, une opposition effective, des médias et un système judiciaire indépendants, le respect des droits de l’homme et des droits de réunion et d’expression (…).
Monsieur le Député-Maire, je suis intiment convaincu que vous ne partagez en aucune façon les principes de gouvernance stigmatisés par le Parlement européen. Pourtant par votre récente démarche au Rwanda, vous vous faites complice d’un régime qui n’a de cesse de reléguer la grosse majorité de sa population à l’état de citoyens de seconde zone et ce, au mépris le plus total des droits les plus élémentaires de la personne humaine.Je me permets, au nom des millions de victimes rwandaises et congolaises pour lesquelles justice n’a toujours pas été rendue, de vous présenter mes salutations distinguées.
(…) le procès en première instance de Victoire Ingabire qui ne respectait pas les normes internationales, en premier lieu en ce qui concerne son droit à la présomption d’innocence, et était basé sur des preuves fabriquées et des aveux de co-accusés qui ont été placés en détention militaire au Camp Kami où on aurait eu recours à la torture pour leur extorquer lesdits aveux.
(…) la nature politiquement motivée du procès, la poursuite d’opposants politiques et l’issue décidée à l’avance du procès.
(…) les libertés de réunion, d’association et d’expression sont des composantes essentielles de toute démocratie, et estime que ces principes font l’objet de graves restrictions au Rwanda.
(…) condamne toute forme de répression, d’intimidation et de détention à l’égard de militants politiques, de journalistes et de défenseurs des droits de l’homme ; demande instamment aux autorités rwandaises de libérer immédiatement toutes les personnes et tous les militants emprisonnés ou condamnés pour le seul exercice de leurs droits à la liberté d’expression, d’association et de réunion pacifique.
(…) rappelle que les déclarations obtenues en employant la torture et autres formes de mauvais traitements ne sont admissible dans aucune procédure.
(…) rappelle aux autorités rwandaises que la démocratie se fonde sur un gouvernement pluraliste, une opposition effective, des médias et un système judiciaire indépendants, le respect des droits de l’homme et des droits de réunion et d’expression (…).
Monsieur le Député-Maire, je suis intiment convaincu que vous ne partagez en aucune façon les principes de gouvernance stigmatisés par le Parlement européen. Pourtant par votre récente démarche au Rwanda, vous vous faites complice d’un régime qui n’a de cesse de reléguer la grosse majorité de sa population à l’état de citoyens de seconde zone et ce, au mépris le plus total des droits les plus élémentaires de la personne humaine.Je me permets, au nom des millions de victimes rwandaises et congolaises pour lesquelles justice n’a toujours pas été rendue, de vous présenter mes salutations distinguées.
Source: http://www.musabyimana.net
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
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