The South African Court yesterday found four men guilty of trying to murder Rwanda’s former army chief, Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, in South Africa in June 2010.

According to the South African Magistrate the main culprit is still at large. Magistrate Mkhari said that the assassination attemptof Gen Nyamwasa was politically motivated and emanated “from a certain group of people from Rwanda”.

Paul Kagame  told Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa and all Rwandans that Its a matter of time not when or how but it looks like that threat is turning against him.

The magistrate’s remarks were echoed by the General himself who categorically stated that none other than President Kagame would have any political motivation or interest to assassinate him. “The magistrate has correctly observed that the conspiracy to kill me was politically motivated,” he said afterwards.

Main Culprit Paul Kagame when his time comes

However, the big fish and the middleman who paid the cash for this assassination plot Mr. Pascal Kanyandekwe was cleared because the prosecution did not satisfy the court that Mr. Kanyandekwe committed the alleged offence beyond reasonable doubt. Despite the lack of evidence by the prosecution, Pascal Kanyandekwe, a Rwandan business man is one of the Kagame’s agents of death who tried to bribe South African police as they tried to arrest him near Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo airport in July 2010.

Accordingly he was satisfied, that Hemedi Dendengo Sefu, a Tanzanian national, was the gunman and that Amani Uriwane, a Rwandan, Hassann Mohammedi Nduli and Sady Abdou – both Tanzanians – were his accomplices. As the Magistrate said, the architects are still at large and it is an open secret that KAGAME the man who has on many occasions said that he will not tolerate any dissents is behind this assassination attempt.

Why then the magistrate was reluctant to mention Kagame in his judgment?

The answers are not hard to find, although South Africa is a democratic country with an independent judiciary it would be prudent not to embarrass a head of state of another country which would be politically detrimental to their own country. Rwanda hosts some of the big companies of South Africa like MTN and until recently the two countries enjoyed cordial relationship.

Again under international law heads of state enjoy immunity from prosecution, it would be a waste of time for the magistrate to pronounce a case that would not be legally enforceable. Having said that, constructively the case is not yet disposed of, instead it is shelved and at an opportunity time if Kagame is still alive, he will be brought to account for this crime and many more. Indeed, we can constructively, conclusively and legally say that president Kagame was sentenced in absentia.

The South African government in defiance against the Kigali murderous regime has hinted on allowing the former Rwandan Military Chief to go to France to testify against his former Boss president Kagame on the shooting of the presidential jet of president Habyarimana which many believe to have ignited Genocide of Tutsis and Hutus in 1994.

History has shown us that you can delay justice but you will never evade it, the former Argentina Military leader Jorge Rafael Videla the main architect of what became known as Argentina’s “Dirty War” was found guilty of crimes against humanityanddiedaged 87 while serving a life sentence.The general was jailed in 2010 for the deaths of 31 dissidents during the 1976-83 military dictatorship, of which he was overall leader until 1981.

Up to 30,000 people were tortured and killed during this period, in a campaign known as the “Dirty War”.

Gen Videla had been sentenced to life in prison for torture, murder and other crimes in 1985, but was pardoned in 1990 under an amnesty given by the president at the time, Carlos Menem. Irrespective of his age, in April 2010, the Supreme Court upheld a 2007 federal court move to overturn his pardon.

Eight months later he was found “criminally responsible” for the torture and deaths of 31 prisoners and jailed for life. How many people have died in the hands of president Kagame? In fact president Kagame has made it easy for the prosecution, because he has publicly said that he will shoot at sight or kill flies with a hammer or anyone who betrays Rwanda will suffer consequences.

The former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail in December 2007 on charges of abuse of power, over the removal of sensitive video and audio tapes from his former intelligence chief Mr Montesinos’s home who was involved in bribe scandals. In April 2009, judges found former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori guilty of authorising death-squad killings in two incidents known as La Cantuta and Barrios Altos, and the kidnapping of a journalist and a businessman

The arrest and detention of the former Chilean leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet on 16 October 1998 in London is a warning to president Kagame and his supporters that crimes against humanity are committed against the human race and any country has jurisdiction for such crimes. As Amnesty International worked had denouncing the atrocities carried out by Pinochet’s regime, which was responsible for the disappearance of more than 3,000 people and the torture of thousands more in a 17-year reign, the UN mapping report and Report of Experts have both reported that over six million people have been killed by Kagame in Rwanda and Congo.

Does any professional judge need more evidence from the prosecution? As president Kagame tells those he plans to kill that it’s a matter of time, we can confidently tell him that it’s a matter of time that he stands trial for all these crimes against humanity.

Jacqueline Umurungi.