Behind the Presidential curtains

 

Editor’s Note: As I was reading and editing this week’s entry of ‘Behind the Presidential Curtain’ the outrage inside me was over whelming. Just a few weeks ago a man from Canada was justifiably returned to Rwanda to face the charges of inciting the 1994 genocide with his recorded messages but as one reads this piece they should wonder how many other murderers or those who called for the senseless killings of innocent lives still roaming free? Why does the international community continue to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed in Rwanda? Do the regional mineral resources gained really justify the cost of lives of thousands and thousands of innocent men, women and children? If you are not outraged then you did not read correctly…

 

The long reach of President Paul Kagame

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has repeatedly denied killing his own people, today I will focus on some of the killings he ordered and some that were ordered by his spies. President Kagame has portrayed himself a God figure in Rwanda and according to him no one can judge him or question any of his decisions.

 

I often ask myself, why do people kill each other? Because mankind is too sensitive for their own good, we have too much emotion and difference in thought. Jealousy, hatred, revenge, money, religion, status… ALL of these are simple reasons for some people to just go ahead and pull the trigger. Not everyone has the same mindset that killing is bad, and certainly people that do kill are not afraid of the consequences themselves otherwise they wouldn’t commit such an act in the first place.

 

The killings I will talk about today were committed by Kagame and his RPA, which appear to have gone largely unreported, and took place in north-eastern Rwanda in mid-April 1994. Others have occurred in southern and western Rwanda once the RPA took control of these areas in May and June 1994. There are also reports that the RPA, as well as RPF supporters, were responsible for numerous killings of unarmed civilians in August and September 1994 in south-eastern Rwanda. Some corpses of the victims were dumped in the Akagera River which flows along the border between Rwanda and Tanzania.

 

During peace talks in 1992 President Juvenal Habyalimana claimed that Rwanda was a small country and there was not enough space for the Rwandan refugees who were in neighbouring countries to return home. He encouraged the Hutus to relocate and gave them the land surrounding the Uganda/ Rwanda boarder, just to prove that Rwanda was full and that there was no space for any more people. The relocated Hutu’s started farming as a way of monitoring our (RPA/RPF) movement in the area; these were areas of Kagitumba, Nyabwesongweizi and all the surroundings. It was a large community and when we captured the area there were thousands people in those villages. Major Karangwa, who is now the head of Kami military detention, which is well known for hosting people with serious cases, and where the torture, killings and many horrific acts are inflicted on people suspected of collaborating with any opponent of Kagame’s Government. Major Karangwa was a Sergeant in 1994, he was the head of a small detach of 50 soldiers; Major Karangwa ordered the killing of the entire community of Nyabweshongweizi. The RPA arrived in Kagitumba on 12 April 1994. At first our fighters were told to be very friendly to the local population in order to create the trust so that even those who were in hiding would come out, and convince the community that the RPA was determined to protect the local people who were then summoned to a public meeting at Gishara. On 13 April unarmed men, women and children gathered at Gishara in Kagitumba where RPA soldiers were addressing the crowd when suddenly, without provocation or warning, the soldiers opened fire on the crowd and threw grenades at them. It is unclear how many people were killed.
It was President Kagame himself who briefed his senior intelligence commanders to use the tactic of being friendly to those they were planning to kill, at some point they gave out sugar and salt, cooking oil and soap to the locals that our soldiers had looted from shops just to make them come out of the hiding only to be killed in the end. Our soldiers were taught to be friendly at first then open fire without warning or provocation. All of these plans of how and where to kill were all done by Major Karangwa. Other inhabitants of Nyabwishongwezi were Rwandese nationals who had recently been expelled from Tanzania where they had been living for many years. Government soldiers had withdrawn from the area several weeks earlier. When RPA forces occupied the area in February 1994 the local population first fled but was convinced by the RPA to return.

In March theRPA called the first public meetings during which RPF officials told people that they had nothing to fear. At one such meeting in April the RPA fired a rocket and threw grenades into the crowd. Others were shot and killed while others sustained severe injuries. The RPF denied that any killings had occurred in Kagitumba. Despite this position the people did not believe them and they continued to flee from Nyabwishongwezi. RPA fighters reportedly started a man-hunt for the Hutu, killing many using bayonets and guns. I arrived in Nyabweshongweizi with Major Ruhetamacumu and Lt, who is now Lt Col Happy Ruvusha in April 1994 on a special mission and I looked in Karangwa’s eyes as he was explaining the job he has been doing as if it was something interesting to talk about. They had dug a mass grave in which he was saying that the plan was to keep it open until it was full. He had more than 300 bodies in the grave and the hunt was on-going in the whole village. The village smelled strongly of death and I could not wait to leave that place. Finally we left and headed to Kaborogota, the guys we left behind looked like butchers as they would kill people easily and toss them into the grave like they were trash.

 

Most of the killings of civilians were ordered by President Kagame himself. Kagame is a very dangerous person and most people are still unaware of what President Kagame is capable of doing. He had an unspoken motto that,  ‘as long as you can bury a person there is no problem in killing them but if you left them alive you would also be killed.’  In each village there were two civilians who would be made to dig the grave and then when it was time to bury the bodies over two different civilians would be brought up to complete the task. Then in the next village those two men, who had buried the bodies, would be the first to be killed and thrown in the mass grave as the village was being slaughtered.

 

When the 7th Battalion was deployed in the areas of Rushashi, Tare, Mbogo, and Rurindo in 1998 the director of schools at Rwankuba, the Bourgmestre of commune Rushashi  as well as the agriculture officer of that commune were murdered over the same night. RPF hurriedly blamed their death on Interahamwe insurgents, yet they had been killed by its own elements.

 

The same year of 1998 Kagame planned to kill all the civilians who were watching the world cup tournament in a Hotel called Pensez-Y and blame their death on insurgents. Fortunately, the operations officer of 7th Battalion, Capt. Kwizera who had been assigned the task, got drunk and failed to properly coordinate the operation.

Indeed, when the soldiers, who were to disguised as Interahamwe insurgents, reached the Hotel they found many RPF soldiers mixed with the civilian crowd which was watching the world cup tournament. They contacted the commanding officer, Major Eugène Nkubito, who angrily told them to tell all the soldiers present to report to their respective positions. When some civilians noticed this movement, they suspected foul play and also left the hotel. A few moments later, the Hotel was burnt to ashes and the civilians who remained watching the TV were killed in the fire. After the operation, Radio Rwanda announced that the Interahamwe had burned that hotel and killed many people.

 

Despite the number of casualties, Kagame was not happy because the plan did not go the way it had been hatched. He summoned to himself Capt. Kwizera in the officers’ mess, sent his own presidential jeep to collect sticks and beat Captain Kwizera. I was on Kagame’s convoy had seen with my eyes, Kagame was chasing us to bring sticks; he ordered SGT Aimee Claude and LT Joseph Nkubito to beat Kwizera. The captain was given 100 strokes, demoted to the rank of private and put behind bars until he was dismissed from the army. This was done in public and many people watched the scene.

 

Another glaring example of President Kagame’s murderous ways were the killing of western tourists in Bwindi National Park, which was prominently featured in western media. The RPF immediately blamed it on the Interahamwe and so did the western media. Yet, they had been killed by RPF soldiers disguised as Interahamwe. The decision to kill western tourists venturing in that area had been taken mainly for two reasons:

1.       The issue of Interahmwe would be more internationalized if they were accused of killing innocent western tourists. As a result, RPF would be given a free hand in fighting them the way it wants and wherever they are suspected to be.

 

2.       RPF suspected some of the Europeans of sympathizing with Interahamwe by disclosing to them the positions of the RPF. Moreover, the presence of foreigners near an insurgent area was hindering RPF atrocities perpetrated under the guise of counter insurgents operations.

 

I was astonished when I heard the Rwandan leaders then endeavouring to explain how the Interahamwe killed the tourists. I don’t think that they knew anything about the plan apart from being told what to say. When the late Andre Kisasu Ngandu, the vice-chairman of the late President Laurent Kabila was killed, the Government of Rwanda, which was fighting alongside Kabila to overthrow the Government of Mobutu, announced that Kisasu Ngandu was killed in an ambush by the Interahamwe and the ex-FAZ (ex-Force Armées Zairoises). Yet, he was killed by the RPA officers and men who are up-to-date serving in the RPF army. His assassination was planned by James Kabalebe and Jack Nziza under the orders of Paul Kagame because Ngandu was opposed to the killing of refugees.

 

By: Noble Marara.