Behind the Presidential Curtains series:

Like many RPA innocent service men and women who suffered similar rewards, by the end of the year 2000, I was incarcerated in Camp GP (Presidential Guard) in Kimihurura. This was President Habyalimana’s protection Barracks that Kagame had inherited with all its notoriety, well known for its torture chambers that then laid in the hands of the infamous Capt/now Lt col Silas Udahemuka the so called Intelligence Officer (I/O) camp GP.

I had lived in that Barracks since we took over power in 1994 but had not been in a position to spend a night in a notorious detention cell for any wrong doing let alone being maliciously accused.

My detention was either silly or malicious due to the way it was handled. I was the Military transport officer (MTO) of the presidential protection unit (camp GP), the President had travelled abroad and I was not briefed on when he was expected back to the country only until he had landed at the then Gregory Kayibanda International Airport.

This was contrary to the norms of the VIP protection rules whereby I should have been notified at least a few hours before he touched down so that I held all the presidential drivers and vehicles on standby.

I with the presidential motorcade arrived at the airport five minutes late and luckily enough the president was still speaking to the journalists and so it was not recognised by himself and the protocol.  This was evident that either my senior commanders lacked information about the president’s return or they lacked the professionalism or skills in VIP protection or even were malicious and just wanted me to get into trouble which would have cost me my life.

I was very sensitive about the situation right from the time we had reached the airport. On arrival at the president’s office I was sent to the famous Camp GP cell where I was asked to sign a statement which was already written without my consent or knowledge. In the statement, I was being accused of three main allegations:

Talking to unknown people who are trying to overthrow the government,

Planning to kill his excellence by not maintaining time, and

Supporting and sympathising with the king’s forces,

All this came as a dream to me, and it was so embarrassing that none of my fellow comrades would be broad enough to denounce these baseless allegations, but on the other hand I have come to understand them since none wouldn’t risk their skin for my sake however how innocent I seemed to have been to them.

What I learnt from that system was that, when the so called intelligence department investigated any allegation, they only expected to attain the negatives out of any case but not the positives. They had already started discussing what my punishment should be, while one of them had already gossiped about the suggestion.

It was obvious that I find way to escape before I faced my fate under this merciless so called intelligence department. During my time, I came to realise that the un-known people were the Canadian friend of mine who they thought that I was feeding information of what we experienced during the war.

During that time, it came to my understanding that when any one of us had a (muzugu) white friend especially those who worked for non government organisations (NGO), they would be under intelligence scrutiny and surveillance.

After my escape to a nearby country, news reached the French embassy and secret service about my presence. The French seemed hungry for any news and testimony about president Kagame. They promised me a safe heaven in exchange for the so called top secrets about Kagame. I mentioned to them that I wasn’t safe around the East Africa due to Kagame’s intelligence network and the fact that I have deserted his close protection unit.

The French were so eager to offer me a travel permit and air ticket to fly to Paris and they promised to offer me the much desired asylum in their country or anywhere far from my motherland.

On arrival in France, the game changed the rules;

First of all they instructed me that I should not mention to anyone that I flew to their country on their travel documents, on looking back now, this is due to the fact that I would already have been qualified as a refugee in their land according to the Geneva convention 1951 just by landing on the French land with a French travelling document.

That I should not communicate to anyone that I was already in France, they threatened that they would be in conflict with the Rwandan government in case the Rwandan government found out.

The only communication I was allowed was when I was persuaded or ordered to call individuals that they wanted information from or spy from my comrades back home.

What surprised me the most was that the French government knew and revealed to me that Kagame’s rebels had shot down President Habyalimana’s aircraft a few years back and they were still angered about the incident.

Like Kagame himself at that time most of us viewed Habyarimana’s death as a necessity not a death to moan about but to celebrate. Habyarimana’s was the president of the government that we had fought with arms for about 4 years then most of us young and inexperienced, his government had kept us refuges for a few decades most of us born in exile, and he was our number one enemy.

It was common sense that if Habyarimana’s troops had a chance of killing our leaders Alexis Kanyarengwe or Kagame then, they would have celebrated. They had managed to kill Gen Fred Rwigema, Maj Chris Bunyenyezi and Maj Dr Peter Bayingana and hence brought to us the misery of Maj Kagame to start with.

On airing out my individual views, the French seemed rather disturbed, I had mentioned to them how we lost all the above mentioned senior officers and more officers and men under the supreme command of the French officers both at the battle fields and at the  Habyarimana’s  army headquarters in Kigali during the whole war.

This reminds me the fact that the French had been involved in the actual training of the Interahamwe militias and arming them let alone the ExFAR that they fought alongside in all battles right from day one in 1990.

It is evident that they flew in the French commandos with the task of not rescuing the ethnic Tutsi who were targeted for extermination at the time but also protected the government that carried out the massacres creating a shield all the way to the Congo.

They created zone turquoise which shielded and slowed our advance to Gikongoro and Kibuye (western region) while the militia carried out the cleansing of the Tutsis of Bisesero and other areas under the French occupancy.

I was later handed over to a French judge Mr Jean-Louis Bruguière continued with the questionings. He was most interested in the downing of president Habyarimana’s plane and when I repeated the same feelings I had for the incident he got more furious, he was actually spitting feathers.

I have now grown not to condone violence or terrorism, but if the insurgents we fought all the years before I left Kigali had to be lucky to ambush our motorcade and killed President Kagame for sure it would have been a victory to them, and fact is that everyone involved with his regime would be saddened by the loss. Same applies to the downing of president Habyarimana’s plane while dictator Kagame has remained unapologetic.

There was an indication that the politicians and families of the French pilots who were shot down with the former Rwandan dictator Habyarimana demanded that Kagame Generals are indicted and the judge did a moment after.

Bruguière said to me that I will not get asylum in their country, that I will leave for another country but only if I cooperate and work with the French police in order to gain more contacts in order to finalise their investigations. They needed more connections to the primary soldiers who knew more than I did.

But what caused distress to me was asking me to go back to the Congo and to join the rebel groups fighting the government that I had just fled after fighting for all my teenage life.  This added insults to the already injuries they had inflicted on me by treating me on the contrary to what we had agreed upon before we left Africa. They had promised me a safer place to live, far from Kagame and now they wanted me to engage him military in the bushes of the Congo.

They stated that because I had the background of the RPA, that I should be able in position to know vital information like our military strength, ammunition, command structures and capabilities. I declined to discuss all this information with them, since I thought it was very sensitive information that I wasn’t ready to discuss with individuals that now wanted to send me to the Congo jungle.

Commander Pierre Payebien of the French Foreign Intelligence Service said to me that, I was arrogant like my boss President Paul Kagame for not respecting their leaders I told him that I was a deserter who was looking for asylum and not in a position to discuss such issues. Their language was discriminating. I remember one officer asking if i was a Hutu or Tutsi I was fuming deep inside me and kept wondering why he didn’t mention Twa being the other part of the Rwandan population.

Looking back on the two governments (France and Rwanda), they both need each other by all means they need mutual collaboration in hiding each other’s crimes. France has dug out to evidence of crimes committed by Kagame including the downing of his predecessor’s aircraft killing of innocent Hutus in the Congo. Kagame on the other hand has uncovered crimes committed by the French which includes training arming of the Interahamwe and supervision of the killings of Tutsis by the French troops.

A few days ago Kagame realised that he will lose the whole of the European support, the Francophone world if he didn’t maintain his status with France. This has ended up with Kagame giving up on the VALUE he had always preached his countrymen.

It was a surprise to hear Kagame saying while at his visit in France that he has had to move on and forget the past. However it was evidence that the forgetting of the past seemed single sided or if I may say it was only an individual Mr. Paul Kagame let alone his entire country. I was therefore left to wonder if the Rwandan people were ready to move on and forget what role the French has had in the killing of thousands of innocent Tutsis.

What is evident though is that France has failed to move on. The French foreign minister Mr. Alain Juppe made sure that he boycotted meeting with president Kagame and being the foreign mister meant that the whole cabinet didn’t welcome our president to their country which again voided the status of Kagame’s visit personal visit rather than the planned visit.

France has remained adamant in recognising their role in the genocide let alone apologising.

France again being a developed country, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy could not force his cabinet in receiving Mr. Kagame against their will as it is the case in Rwanda and other developing countries.

I urge the people of Rwanda to come together and not to be separated by the individuals like it has been before.

Mr. Kagame’s friendship with Sarkozy’s and the rest of the European community has raised loads of suspicion. It is evident again that France will not just turn the page and forgets about Kagame’s role in the killing of innocent Hutus in the Congo and the pilots of Habyarimana’s jet.

We have had enough of this nonsense most of us understand when we talk of reconciliation we need to talk of conflict and the causes of it. Most Rwandan know that in order to move on as a country, and have a well founded reconciliation, we have to build a stronger and proper justice system, embrace  honesty, truth but most of all democracy.

We all know that we do not have democracy and that is why we have innocent Prisoners and killings of those thought to oppose the government. My fellow citizens let’s not jeopardise our reconciliation process by allowing these politicians to confuse us, the case behind what happened in Rwanda will be sorted by you and me.

 

Noble Marara.