Présenté par le régime de Kigali et par les médias comme le « cerveau du génocide » du Rwanda, le colonel Théoneste Bagosora vient de mourir à l’âge de 81 ans dans la prison du Mali où il purgeait une peine de 35 années de détention.
Arrêté au Cameroun au mois de mars 1996, défendu par Maître Raphaël Constant, avocat réputé du barreau de la Martinique, son procès (TPIR-98-41-T) débuta au mois d’avril 2002. Ce ne fut cependant qu’au mois d’octobre 2004, après un délai surréaliste de neuf années de détention préventive, que le Procureur fut en mesure de soutenir son acte d’accusation. Construit sur le postulat qui était que le colonel Bagosora fut le maître d’œuvre du génocide, cet acte d’accusation reposait sur un « trou » de quelques heures dans son emploi du temps, entre 01h 30 et 06 heures du matin dans la nuit du 6 au 7 avril 1994, durant lequel l’accusé aurait « allumé la mèche du génocide » !!!
N’ayant fait aucune vérification, ni aucune enquête sérieuse, sous la pression constante du régime du général Kagamé et de ses porte-voix médiatiques, le Procureur ancra son acte d’accusation sur cette abstraite construction intellectuelle.
Expert assermenté devant le TPIR (Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda), j’ai travaillé durant plusieurs années sur ce dossier et, dans le volumineux rapport d’expertise que j’ai défendu devant la Cour (Lugan, TPIR-98-41-T), j’ai notamment minutieusement reconstitué l’emploi du temps du colonel (voir l’intégralité de mon rapport publié dans Dix ans d’expertises devant le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda), faisant effondrer comme un château de cartes l’artificielle construction idéologique du Procureur.
Dans leur jugement, les juges rejetèrent donc tout naturellement les éléments de « preuve » avancés par le Procureur, infligeant ainsi un camouflet d’une rare puissance à l’Accusation et à la thèse officielle. Au terme d’un procès fleuve rythmé par 409 jours d’audience, par les déclarations de 242 témoins à charge et à décharge remplissant 30 000 pages de compte rendus d’audience, par 1 600 pièces à conviction, par 4 500 pages de conclusions et par 300 décisions écrites, la Cour, dans son jugement en date du 18 décembre 2008, déclara en effet le colonel Bagosora non coupable « d’entente en vue de commettre un génocide ».
Ce jugement faisait donc voler en éclats les bases de l’histoire officielle postulant que le génocide avait été programmé puisque les 40 éléments présentés par le Procureur pour tenter de prouver sa planification ne furent pas considérés comme probants par les juges (Résumé du jugement rendu en l’affaire Bagosora et consorts, TPIR-98-41-T, jugement 18 décembre 2008, page 1) :
« Plusieurs éléments qui ont servi de base à la thèse développée par le Procureur sur l’entente (en vue de commettre le génocide) n’ont pas été étayés par des témoignages suffisamment fiables (…) En conséquence, la Chambre n’est pas convaincue que le Procureur a établi au-delà du doute raisonnable que la seule conclusion raisonnable qui se puisse tirer des éléments de preuve produits est que les quatre accusés se sont entendus entre eux, ou avec d’autres, pour commettre le génocide (…) » (Résumé du jugement rendu en l’affaire Bagosora et consorts,TPIR-98-41-T, jugement 18 décembre 2008, pages 16-18).
Le colonel Bagosora fut néanmoins condamné à l’emprisonnement à perpétuité pour des crimes commis par des hommes supposés avoir été ses subordonnés, entre le 6 et le 9 avril 1994. Le colonel Bagosora interjeta appel de ce jugement.
Le 14 décembre 2011, la Chambre d’Appel du Tribunal Pénal International pour le Rwanda réduisit à 35 ans la peine de perpétuité infligée en première instance au colonel Théoneste Bagosora, les juges d’appel n’estimant pas qu’il avait ordonné les crimes pour lesquels il avait été condamné en première instance, et ils le condamnèrent uniquement parce que, en tant que supérieur hiérarchique postulé, alors qu’il était à la retraite, il n’aurait rien fait pour les prévenir ou en punir les auteurs. Compte tenu des pressions exercées par le régime de Kigali, par les Etats-Unis et par la Grande-Bretagne, il n’était en effet politiquement pas possible aux juges d’acquitter purement et simplement l’accusé-phare du TPIR, celui qui, durant des années, avait été présenté comme le « cerveau » d’un génocide programmé, mais qui ne l’avait pas été puisque son déclencheur fut l’attentat du 6 avril 1994 qui coûta la vie au président Habyarimana. Voir à ce sujet les articles extrêmement détaillés publiés dans la revue « Le Fana de l’aviation » n° 619, 620 et 621 (2021), qui expliquent avec une grande minutie et une rare précision le déroulé de cet attentat, et dans lesquels le FPR du général Kagamé est clairement accusé d’en être l’auteur. Pour l’état des connaissances scientifiques concernant ce génocide, ses origines et son déroulé, on se reportera à mon livre « Rwanda, un génocide en questions », éditions du Rocher, nouvelle édition 2021.
Controlling the historical narrative in Rwanda is key to the regime’s power
By Tom ZoellnerTom Zoellner is professor of English at Chapman University and the author of “Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire.”July 12, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT2
Tucker Carlson recently went on an attention-grabbing screed about how America’s history of racism gets taught. He garnered headlines by calling Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs Staff, “stupid” and “a pig” for defending a class on the subject taught at the U.S. Military Academy. Carlson then made a comparison of America to another country that managed to be both absurd — and surprisingly apt:
“The question is, and this is the question we should be meditating on, day in and day out, is how do we get out of this vortex, the cycle, before it’s too late? How do we save this country before we become Rwanda?”
The absurd part is what Carlson was trying to say: that the teaching of critical race theory in schools and universities would lead to oppressed people of color picking up machetes to slaughter White people, an ethnic cleansing that would resemble the 1994 genocide in the small East African nation of Rwanda, in which 800,000 people were slaughtered at the urging of a government made up of the majority Hutu ethnicity.
Rwanda holds an important lesson for America’s culture wars today, but not in the way Carlson thinks. Rather, in Rwanda, political leaders have rewritten the country’s history to gain political power, just as the right wing is now attempting to do in the United States. In fact, the greatest asset of the dictatorship in today’s Rwanda is its mastery of the past. “Within Rwanda today, hegemonic power relies for much of its justification on a certain reading of history,” the Smith College scholar David Newbury has concluded.
Hari abantu babaye kuri iyi si bakagira ibyo bayisigaho nk’urwibutso, ku buryo umuntu wese uzabaho nyuma yabo azajya abibuka, akabafataho urugero, cyangwa akishimira ko akomoka mu muryango wamenyanye na bo. Bamwe muri abo bantu bagize amahirwe yo gusiga amafoto ku buryo uwo ari we wese yabibuka, bagira imva zizwi bashyinguwemo, ubishoboye akaba yashyiraho ururabyo. Hakizimana Appolos ni umwe mu bantu benshi ushobora gushakira ifoto ukazarinda urangiza ubuzima bwawe utarusa ikivi watangiye. Impamvu? Yishwe na FPR-Inkotanyi muri jenoside yakorewe abahutu. Abasigaye bo mu muryango avukamo bahorana ubwoba bwinshi bwo kumuvuga ngo batabizira.
Hakizimana Appolos ni muntu ki?
Ni mwene Hakizimana Déogratias na Léonilla akaba umwana wa kabiri mu muryango w’abana umunani. Yavukiye i Mushubati ahahoze hari ikigo kizwi nka Foyer. Aha niho habaye Komine ya mbere mu gihe Repubuika yasimburaga ubwami, mu bwitange bukomeye bw’abakurambere ba Parmehutu. Se umubyara wo mu bwoko bw’abahutu yari umukozi wa Leta (Umunyamabanga wa Komine) nyuma yo kurangiza imirimo nk’umusirikare mu ngabo z’igihugu zahanganye n’ibitero by’Inyenzi. Mu gihe cy’intambara yatangijwe na FPR – Inkotanyi mu mwaka wa 1990, Bwana Hakizimana Déogratias yari umunyamabanga wa Komine Mabanza. Umufasha we, Leonilla (nyina wa Appolos) akomoka mu bwoko bw’abatutsi. Appolos yize mashuri yisumbuye i Nyamasheke arangiza mu mwaka wa 1991 ahita atangira kwigisha mu mashuri abanza. Yari azwiho kuba umusore mwiza, ugendera amafiyeri, agakundwa n’abakobwa bose, akamenya gukina neza umupira w’amaguru, ndetse yakinaga mu ikipe ya Segiteri Mushubati.
Kuri njye, Appolos yari nka mukuru wanjye. Ababyeyi be n’abanjye bari inshuti cyane, ndetse mushiki we witwaga Ingabire Immaculée ( atari inshinzi y’i Bwami ariko) mama yari yaramubyaye muri batisimu. Undi mushiki we mutoya witwaga Kaneza Rosine, twari mu kigero kimwe, tukanuzura by’abana.
Nyuma y’ihanurwa ry’indege ya Habyarimana, Hakizimana Déogratias yakoze uko ashoboye ngo arwane ku mugore we ( nk’uko twabivuze haruguru, ni umututsikazi). Yanahishe kandi arokora abatutsi benshi cyane bamuhungiyeho, abandi akajya kubakura mu mibyuko y’amasaka akabacumbikishiriza. Igihe abasirikare b’Abafaransa bageraga i Goma, Hakizimana Déo, yatangiye kujya aherekeza abatutsi yari yarahishe hirya no hino akabageza mu Bafaransa. Nk’umuntu wari warabaye umusirikare akaba kandi umunyamabanga wa Komine, yari yarasabye gutunga imbunda arayihabwa, akaba ari nayo yamufashije mu kurinda umuryango we, no kurokora abatutsi benshi. Muri Nyakanga 1994, Déogratias Hakizimana n’umuryango we wose bahungiye muri Zayire, batura mu nkambi ya Kashusha. Ababaye muri quartier ya 6 baramwibuka. Icyo gihe njye nari ntuye muri quartier ya 12 mbere y’uko njya mu zindi nkambi. Nyuma yaje gucyurwa ku ngufu mu gihe inkambi zasenywaga mu mwaka wa 1996, ageze mu Rwanda ahita afungwa, aza gucibwa urubanza rwa munyangire akatirwa burundu, n’ubu aracyafunzwe.
Hakizimana Appolos yishwe ate? yazize iki?
Appolos akigera kuri Collège Alfajiri muri Zayire, yasezeye ku babyeyi be avuga ko we atashye mu Rwanda, ko akeka ko FPR ntacyo izamutwara. Yageze i Mabanza ntiyatinda i Mushubati, ahita ajya gutura i Kigali hamwe na bashiki be bo kwa se wabo. Ni bwo yaje gutangira umwuga w’ubunyamakuru, ndetse aza gushinga ikinyamakuru akita Umuravumba. Abazi uburyo umuravumba urura ariko ugakiza indwara nyinshi, bahita bumva icyerekezo uyu musore ari yihaye.
Muri icyo gihe Komine Mabanza yategekwaga na Bwana ABIMANA Mathias, umututsi warokotse jenoside. Ababaye i Mabanza muri ibyo bihe baribuka umubare utagira ingano w’abahutu bishwe ku itegeko ry’Abimana muri jenoside yakorewe abahutu. Muri aba , sinabura kuvuga abo mu muryango wanjye bishwe urw’agashinyaguro, n’abaturanyi bishwe gusa bazira ko ari abahutu. Bayahore Benoit yari data wacu, yari umucuruzi kuri centre ya Mushubati hepfo y’ikigo nderabuzima. Yishwe atwikishijwe amapine hamwe n’abantu barenga ijana. Biciwe mu nsi ya Paruwasi Mushubati, hepfo ya centre “Mubyiruke” imbere y’ishuri ryari CERAI ryaje kuba iryisumbuye ryayoborwaga n’ababikira ba Mutagatifu Faransisiko w’Asizi. Abandi bishwe ni, Boasi Gakombe, Ndindabahizi Stefano, Ukunzwenabake, Hitimana Gaspard, n’abandi benshi cyane.
Abandi bagiye bicirwa muri kasho ya Komine, n’ikigo cya IGA (Ikigo Gihugura Abaturage) cya Rubengera. Burugumesitiri Abimana Mathias, yoherezaga abasore b’abatutsi kujya mu byo bitaga “gukora”, akabaha imbunda, bakajyana n’abari mu gisirikare cy’Inkotanyi na ba Kadogo. Baragendaga bagafata umusore wese n’umugabo bagahondagura bakabohera amaboko mu mugongo, bakagenda babakubita kugeza kuri Komine Mabanza, Abimana agahita aza kureba abaje uko bangana agategeka ko bashyirwa muri kasho. Iyo bwamaraga kwira, ba basore baragarukaga, bakajya barobamo abo bajyana kwica urubozo kugeza banogotse. Iyo bwacyaga mu gitondo, abagore bazaga gusura abagabo babo bazanye ibyo kurya. Uwasangaga uwe yapfuye, yasabwaga gusubirayo gushaka amafaranga kugira ngo bamuhe umurambo we. Bakakwicira no kuguha umurambo ukawugura. Ntikica kagira mubi!
Appolos akimara kumenya ibiri kubera iwabo ku ivuko, yanyarukiyeyo ajya kubaza abaturanyi bamuha amakuru yose. Icyo gihe yasohoye nimero yavugaga kuri ubwo bwicanyi abasirikare ba FPR Inkotanyi bafatanyagamo n’abasivili b’abatutsi. Iyo nimero ikimara gusohoka, Appolos yahise ashyirwa ku rutonde rw’abantu bagombaga kwicwa vuba. Mbere y’uko yicwa, Appolos yari yanditse indi nimero yavugaga amazina y’abantu bari bafite uruhare mu iyicwa ry’abahutu bo muri Komine Mabanza. Abimana yakoze uko ashoboye abifashwamo n’abasirikare iyo nimero yose ifatirwa itarakwira ahantu hose. Nuko tariki ya 10 Mata 1997, ahagana mu ma saa mbiri z’umugoroba, abantu batatu bambaye ibikote birebire batangira Appolo atashye i Nyamirambo, umwe muri bo aramurasa ahita apfa. Icyo gihe abo mu muryango we bose bari bakiri muri Zayire, baje kumenya iyo nkuru batashye.
Hakizimana Appolos yishwe na nde?
“Ndi uburozi Gasirabo yasize buzamara abahutu”, iki ni icyivugo cy’umwe mu bahitanye Appolos HAKIZIMANA. Azwi nka Bitemeri, akazina yari yarahawe akiri mutoya kubera iminwa ye yari iteye nk’umutemeri w’inkangara, maze ababyeyi be bakamubyinirira bati ni Bitemeri, rimufata rityo. Ubusanzwe amazina ye ni Karenzi Théoneste mwene Gasirabo Boniface (RIP) na Mukankwiro Véronique ( RIP), ubu ni umugabo. Yari umwe mu bana Abimana yari yarahaye uruhushya rwo kwica abahutu. Mu kubica, Karenzi yabashinjaga ko ngo aribo bamwiciye umuryango nyamara bizwi neza ko muryango we wiciwe muri stade ku Kibuye. Aho muri stadeya Kibuye izwi ku izina rya Gatwaro ni ho yarokokeye, aza guherekezwa na Hakizimana Déogratias amugeza mu Bafaransa aho yagumye kugeza yinjiye muri Kadogo za FPR. We ubwe yaje kwigamba uburyo yishe Appolos HAKIZIMANA. Yishe n’abandi benshi tuzagarukaho ubutaha. Muri iki gihe akora mu biro bikuru by’ubushinjacyaha akaba ashinzwe guhimba amadosiye no gutoza abajya gushinja abahutu ngo bakoze jenoside. Akenshi nawe ajyana n’abajya gushinja ibinyoma ndetse we na Abimana bari mu itsinda ryagiye gushinja Bagirishema Ignace wabaye Burugumesitiri mbere ya 1994, bageze mu rukiko rwa Arusha, abunganira Bagirishema babahata ibibazo bata umutwe, uwaregwaga aba umwere, dore ko nta n’ikibi uwo mugabo w’inyangamugayo azwiho muri Mabanza yose, ngo kuba umuhutu ni cyo cyaha cye.
Karenzi Théoneste yarokowe na Hakizimana Déogratias, amwitura kumwicira ikirondamfura no kumufungisha burundu y’umwihariko. Koko uwiturwa ineza n’uwo yayigiriye aba agira Imana.
Abimana Mathias, ni we kizigenza muri ubu bwicanyi. Koko rero, yari amaze imyaka itatu ariwe uha amabwiriza abasore b’abatutsi ngo bajye kwica abahutu. Nawe ubwe bivugwa ko hari abo yiyiciye harimo umugabo wari waramurokoye akamutwara mu bwato akamwambutsa ikiyaga cya Kivu. Uwo mugabo yatahutse avuye muri Zayire yumvise ko Abimana ari we Burugumesitiri arishima ati ninjye wamurokoye azamvuganira. Nyamara si ko byagenze. Nyuma yo kuva ku butegetsi bwa Komini, Abimana afite ijambo rikomeye ahahoze ari muri Komine ye, kandi FPR yamugororeye kuyobora amashyirahamwe y’abahinzi ba Kawa , umuhungu we agabirwa kuyobora ikigo cya RBC (Rwanda Biomedical Centre) nyamara bizwi ko ari umuswa cyane.
Abimana Mathias yishe abahutu batagira umubare muri Mabanza na Rutsiro.
Muri iyi minsi abatutsi bahoze mu Rwanda mbere y’umwaduko wa FPR Inkotanyi bakomeje kwitandukanya na yo, ndetse bakayamagana ku bwicanyi bwa jenoside yakorewe abahutu. Binubira uburyo abahutu bagirirwa nabi kandi wareba ugasanga ahubwo abahutu bakoze ubwicanyi aribo bakorana neza na FPR. Kizito yaririmbye igisobanuro cy’urupfu aricwa, Idamange Iryamugwiza yamaganye ubucuruzi bukorerwa amagufa y’abazize jenoside y’abatutsi none arafunzwe, Aimable Karasira yamaganye FPR yamwiciye ababyeyi none nawe arafunzwe. Aho bukera, nimubona umuntu warokotse jenoside yakorewe batutsi wanze kwitandukanya nayo, mujye mugira amakenga: aba yaragize uruhare muri jenoside yakorewe abahutu, akaba afite ubwoba ko FPR niva ku butegetsi agahuru k’imbwa kazaba gahiye. Abantu nka ba Abimana Mathias, umuhungu we Nsanzimana Sabin, Karenzi Théoneste alias Bitemeri, n’abandi bafite amaraso y’abahutu ajejeta ku biganza byabo, ni bo bazasigara ari abayoboke ba FPR. Koko babivuze ukuri ngo ibisa birasabirana.
Belgium supports the fight against impunity in the DRC
Along with the European Union, Belgium strongly condemns the violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly in Ituri and North Kivu, where attacks have increased in recent days, causing numerous civilians casualties, including women and children. Eastern DRC has been marked for many years by mass violence perpetrated by armed groups accused of war crimes and serious human rights violations. These violations primarily affect the civilian population and contribute to the worsening humanitarian situation and instability in the region. It is crucial to put an end to the activity of these armed groups and to bring those responsible for these grave violations to justice. Human rights and the fight against impunity are at the heart of Belgian foreign policy and development cooperation priorities. This is why Belgium has just provided support for a project on transitional justice, the fight against impunity and protection developed by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the DRC, of which Belgium is one of the main donors. This involves support for the process of setting up a transitional justice commission and strengthening the judicial system at the national level, along with support for provincial processes in seven provinces particularly affected by conflict, including North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Meryame Kitir, Minister of Development Cooperation: “In several Congolese provinces, people have suffered from persistent violence for years. Without punishing the perpetrators, it will be impossible to achieve reconciliation and silence the guns. This is why I have decided to support this project of the UN Human Rights Office, as it will facilitate the access of victims to justice and contribute to the fight against impunity”. The project is based on 4 main priorities:The promotion of sustainable peace and reconciliation through transitional justice and the fight against impunitySupport to victims of violence and serious crimesThe participation and protection of civiliansSupport for the reintegration process of ex-combatants and militiamen and their participation in the transitional justice process The gender dimension will play a central role within this project, with a specific focus on victims of sexual violence (legal, medical, psycho-social and economic support) and on the participation of women in the activities set up. A collaboration with UN Women is planned in this framework. This support from Belgium is part of the efforts of the national authorities and regional and international partners to address the root causes of instability and insecurity in the eastern DRC, which is an essential condition for restoring lasting peace in the region. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmès states: “The violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has destroyed too many innocent lives. That is why we continue to work for peace. During its mandate in the UN Security Council and still today, Belgium advocates for a more operational UN mission (MONUSCO) that is more attentive to the protection of civilians. We also contributed to the recent UN strategy for the Great Lakes to cut off the resources of armed groups. The Congolese authorities can count on our support in their efforts to bring stability to the region and protect the population”.
Le 22 avril 1995 : Le jour où Paul Kagame ordonna le massacre gratuit de 8000 civils Hutus rwandais
Au Rwanda, le génocide ne s’est pas arrêté en juillet 1994. L’extermination des Hutus s’est poursuivie les mois et les années qui ont suivi. Le 22 avril 1995, l’Armée patriotique rwandaise (APR) a massacré des milliers d’hommes, de femmes et d’enfants se trouvant dans le camp des réfugiés de Kibeho. Le carnage s’est déroulé sous le regard ahuri d’une demi-douzaine d’agences de l’ONU et des casques bleus de la MINUAR ayant reçu l’ordre de ne pas intervenir. Selon plusieurs sources, plus de 8000 civils Hutus ont été tués durant cette opération de nettoyage. Les rescapés au nombre de 60 000, selon l’Integrated Operation Center (IOC), la centrale humanitaire de l’ONU, ont plus tard été interceptés sur leur chemin de retour puis achevés par les hommes du lieutenant-colonel Fred Ibingira, officier de l’APR.
Fred IBINGIRA qui a massacré les Hutus à Kibeho est aujourd’hui promu au grade de Général dans l’armée du FPR. Il est aussi l’auteur du génocide de Gakurazo où trois évêques catholiques ont péri avec une centaine de membres du clergé.
Thierry Pickard, un militaire australien de la MINUAR ayant assisté au massacre, a détaillé dans un livre ce qu’il a vu ce jour-là. Son témoignage est effrayant : « Les militaires de l’APR tuaient les rescapés des bombardements avec des baïonnettes pour épargner leurs balles. Dans ce massacre, personne n’était épargné. Même des bébés sur le dos de leurs mères étaient tués. D’autres avaient la gorge coupée. C’est la première fois où je voyais, dans ma vie de militaire, des hommes devenir des cibles de tir à l’arme lourde comme dans les exercices militaires ».
Troublé par le comportement de l’APR, Thierry Pickard se tourna vers un soldat zambien de la MINUAR et lui demanda ce qu’il pensait, en tant qu’Africain, de cette barbarie. Le Zambien lui rétorqua : « Les soldats du FPR ne sont pas des hommes, mais des animaux qui savent se servir des armes à feu ».
Certains observateurs estiment que si les casques bleus de la MINUAR n’étaient pas présents, l’APR aurait certainement fait un plus grand nombre de victimes. Un commandant australien devait déclarer à ses hommes : « Il n’y a absolument aucun doute que si nous n’avions pas été à Kibeho, tout le camp, soit environ 100 000 personnes, aurait probablement été massacré et le monde n’en aurait rien su ».
Inutile de vous dire que l’ONU a couvert ce crime contre l’humanité.
Dans cette rocambolesque histoire qui a mis en évidence toute l’animosité que voue le FPR à l’égard des Hutus, le meilleur avocat du gouvernement rwandais a été l’ambassadeur du Canada au Kenya, Bernard Dussault, dont la juridiction couvrait toute l’Afrique centrale. C’est lui qui a eu la « merveilleuse » idée de proposer une commission d’enquête internationale entièrement dirigée par le pouvoir rwandais pour faire non pas la lumière, mais l’obscurité sur les évènements de Kibeho. Un rapport bidon a été produit et l’affaire a été enterrée. Après tout, que vaut la vie d’un Hutu ?
Patrick MBEKO
Archives Facebook.
Le génocide des Hutus commenté par la télévision française au lendemain du carnage.
Ikibazo hagati y’abahutu n’abatutsi bo mu Rwanda nta kugica ku ruhande.
Ndashimira Bwana NKULIYINGOMA Jean Baptiste watanze igitekerezo ku nyandiko ya Amiel NKULIZA (Ibihe turimo: Gupfukirana ukuri kw’amateka yacu bimariye iki abayobozi ba «Rwanda Bridge Bulders-RBB»?). Mu gisubizo cye, (Nunganire Amiel Nkuliza ku kibazo cy’imibanire y’abahutu n’abatutsi mu masezerano ya ARUSHA) Bwana NKULIYINGOMA avuga ko abona ikibazo hagati y’abahutu n’abatutsi kitirengagijwe mu masezerano y’Arusha. Ibi akabishingira ko mbere y’uko amasezerano ashyirwaho umukono, impande zombi zari zihanganye (FPR-Inkotanyi na Leta y’u Rwanda) zabanje kwemeranywa ku mahame y’igihugu kigendera ku mategeko (Etat de droit /Rule of Law). Ikinzinduye uyu munsi, ni ukwerekana ko kubaka igihugu kigendera ku mategeko byonyine bidahagije ngo bikemure ikibazo hagati y’ibyo bice bibiri by’abanyarwanda ari byo abahutu n’abatutsi.
Icyo kibazo giteye gite ?
Mu by’ukuri iyo witegereje usanga ikibazo hagati y’abahutu n’abatutsi gishingiye ku butegetsi. Mu myaka yose Abatutsi bategetse igihugu, byiswe ko nta kibazo cyari kiriho kugeza igihe abahutu nabo basabye kwinjira mu myanya y’ubuyobozi/ubutegetsi. Aha ni ho abigiza nkana bahera bashima ubutegetsi bwa cyami mbere y’umwaduko w’abazungu, bakagira bati mu gihugu nta bibazo by’amoko byari bihari. N’uyu munsi wa none, abahutu baramutse bicecekeye ntibasabe uburinganire n’abatutsi hari abavuga bati nta kibazo Hutu -Tutsi kiriho ! Gusa rero aho ibihe bigeze abahutu bamenye ko nabo bafite uburenganzira bwo kujya mu myanya y’ubutegetsi kandi ntibazahwema gusaba ko ubwo burenganzira bwubahirizwa. Iki kibazo rero gishingiye ku buringanire bw’amoko imbere y’amategeko, uburinganire mu gusaranganya ibyiza by’igihugu byose.
Mu gushaka gupfukirana ibyo abahutu basabaga mbere ya revolisiyo ya rubanda (1959-1962), abagaragu b’ibwami babanje kuvuga ko ntacyo bapfana n’abahutu, ko bo ari ibimanuka byaje gutegeka, abahutu bakaba abasangwabutaka bagomba gutegekwa, ko abagabana ari abava inda imwe. Ibi ariko ntibyaciye intege abaharaniraga uburenganzira bw’abahutu, bigeza aho umwami azanye andi mayeri, avuga ko nta moko ahari ko u Rwanda rutuwe n’inyabutatu nyarwanda. Yibagirwa ko ubwabyo iyi nyito yamutamazaga : kuki ari inyabutatu ntibe inyabutanu cyangwa butandatu ? (ubutatu ni Hutu, Tutsi na Twa). Kuri we, gukemura ikibazo kwari ukuvuga ko kitariho bikaba birarangiye. N’uyu munsi wa none FPR-Inkotanyi ni wo muvuno ikoresha. Ivuga ko nta moko ariho, yayavanye mu Itegekonshinga, iyasimbuza utundi tubyiniriro. Abacitse ku icumu, interahamwe, abasigajwe inyuma n’amateka, ni ibice abanyarwanda bumva bakamenya niba uri umuhutu, umutwa cyangwa umututsi.
Iyo witegereje uko ubutegetsi bw’u Rwanda bumeze muri iki gihe, uhita ubona ikibazo gikomeye : Abatutsi ni bo bonyine bari mu myanya yose ifatirwamo ibyemezo, ibigo by’imari n’ubucuruzi, inzego z’ubuyobozi bw’ingabo, ….mu gihe abahutu bakomeje kwigizwayo no gukeneshwa, kwamburwa amasambu n’ibindi. Yemwe no mu buyobozi bw’amadini, ubuyobozi ni ubw’abatutsi !
Uku kwikubira ibyiza by’igihugu ni ikibazo gikomeye cyane gikwiye kwitonderwa.
Arusha yarakirengagije : kubaka igihugu kigendera ku mategeko byonyine ntibihagije
Bwana NKULIYINGOMA yemeza ko ubwo Arusha yemeraga ko hajyaho igihugu gishingiye ku mahame yubahiriza amategeko (Etat de droit/ Rule of law) ubwo yari ikemuye ikibazo hagati y’abahutu n’abatutsi ndetse agasoza agira ati : « Muri make, umuti wari wavugutiwe Arusha ntabwo ari uwo gusuzugura. Njyewe nkeka wenda amaherezo ariwo tuzagarukaho ».
Kubaka igihugu kigendera ku mategeko ntibihagije ngo ikibazo hagati y’abahutu n’abatutsi gikemuke. Hakwiye ingamba zikakaye kandi zidaca ku ruhande ikibazo ubwacyo. Ntushobora gukemura ikibazo udashatse no kukivuga. “Ushaka gukira indwara arayirata”. FPR ntiyashakaga ko ikibazo Hutu -Tutsi kivugwa ni nayo mpamvu Kanyarengwe w’umuhutu yashyirwaga imbere ngo asinyane amasezerano na Habyarimana w’umuhutu, bityo bigaragare ko nta kibazo Hutu -Tutsi. Ntabwo FPR-Inkotanyi itandukanye na Lunari (UNAR) ishyaka ry’umwami, wa mwami wabonaga ko abahutu badakwiye gusaba kujya mu butegetsi. Iyi UNAR (RANU mu cyongereza) niyo yahindutse FPR-Inkotanyi mu mwaka wa 1987. Utaziga amateka azasigara !
Arusha yaravugaga ngo ikibazo Hutu-Tutsi ni kimwe mu bibazo byari biriho, kandi koko byari ukuri. Ariko si ikibazo gishobora kubonerwa umuti ngo ni uko ibindi byakemutse, kuko aho ibihe byari bigeze ndetse kugeza n’uyu munsi ibyo bibazo bindi si byo bituma abahutu n’abatutsi bashyamirana. Muti gute? Buriya n’iyo wafata u Rwanda ukarushyiramo demokarasi, buri wese agahabwa uburenganzira bwe, agakora umurimo yatsinze ibizamini kurusha abandi (méritocracie), ubukungu ukabufungura ( libéralisation), ubutegetsi bugatandukana ( séparation des pouvoirs), ubutabera bukigenga, amategeko yose akubahirizwa, ntiwaba utanze igisubizo gikwiye. Kubera ko kuva abahutu basaba uburenganzira bwabo mu myaka ya za 1950, abatutsi bashyizwemo ibitekerezo ko abahutu babanga. Intambara y’inyenzi, iya FPR, ubwicanyi bwibasiye abahutu, ubwibasiye abatutsi, ibi byose byatumye intera itandukanya abahutu n’abatutsi iba ndende. Ubashyize mu matora asesuye, abahutu batora umuhutu, abatutsi bagatora umututsi, bityo kubera ko abatutsi ari ba nyamuke, ntibazagera ku butegetsi. Aha niho ruzingiye. Abatutsi babangukirwa no gutegekesha imbunda kurusha demokarasi kuko ibakandamiza kabone n’iyo igihugu cyaba kigendera ku mategeko. Hari n’abatekereza bati ubwo abahutu ari benshi uwagenda abica gahoro gahoro tukazagera aho basigara aribo bakeya. Simbona ko kwica abantu ari ugukemura ikibazo mu buryo bwiza.
Ku kibazo kimaze kuba nk’igiti cy’inganzamarumbo hakenewe igihe kirekire ngo gikemuke tugere aho kugendera ku mategeko byonyine biba bihagije. Ihame rya “démocratie consensuelle” (demokarasi irimo ibirungo) hagati y’abahutu n’abatutsi nemera ko ryadufasha mu gihe cyo kubaka icyizere hagati y’abanyarwanda nibura mu gihe cy’imyaka 30. U Rwanda si rwo rwonyine rufite ba nyamuke bakwiye kurindwa, twakwigira ku bandi. Ubutaha nzabagezaho umushinga wa demokarasi y’impanga ishyaka ISHEMA rigeza ku Banyarwanda ngo bawutangeho ibitekerezo.
RBB nikora nka Arusha tuzaba dusubiye inyuma ho imyaka 30 kandi bizatugora. Kwicara mu Gacaca ni ngombwa mbere y’uko abantu bagira icyo bafatanya.
For years, UN investigators secretly compiled evidence that implicated Rwandan President Paul Kagame and other high-level officials in mass killings before, during and after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The explosive evidence came from Tutsi soldiers who broke with the regime and risked their lives to expose what they knew. Their sworn testimony to a UN court contradicted the dominant story about the country’s brutal descent into violence, which depicted Kagame and his RPF as the country’s saviours.
Despite the testimonies, a UN war crimes tribunal — on the recommendation of the United States — never prosecuted Kagame and his commanders. Now, for the first time, a significant portion of the UN evidence is revealed, in redacted form.
In early July 1994, as the genocide in Rwanda was nearing its end, Christophe, whose real name and location are being withheld for safety reasons, was recruited by the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Christophe, a medical student before the war, was assigned to care for wounded RPF soldiers in Masaka, a neighborhood in the southeast of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
The RPF was on the brink of winning the war. It was the culmination of a bloody campaign that began in 1990 when its forces invaded Rwanda from their base in Uganda, where their Tutsi families had been forced into exile for three decades.
Their struggle for political power in Rwanda took a drastic turn on 6 April 1994, when a plane carrying Rwanda’s then president Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down in Kigali, killing everyone aboard, and abruptly ending a power-sharing deal that was supposed to end three-and-a-half years of violence. The plane attack set off a killing spree that left hundreds of thousands of Tutsis dead, mostly at the hands of their Hutu countrymen. By mid-July, the RPF had routed the former Hutu government, and purportedly put an end to the massacres.
Blame game: RPF soldiers investigate the site of the plane crash that killed then Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994. One theory suggests that Hutu hardliners shot down the plane, but RPF informants have told the ICTR that the RPF planned and executed the attack. (Photo: Scott Peterson/Liaison)
From his battle clinic in Masaka, though, Christophe saw that the killings were continuing. “People were disappearing,” he recently told the Mail & Guardian. Many of the new recruits Christophe treated began to share sobering details about what they were being ordered to do to Hutu civilians — men, women and children who had no apparent connection to the killing of Tutsis. These Hutus were being arrested in different areas of the capital by RPF officials, they said, and brought to a nearby orphanage called Sainte Agathe, where they were summarily executed.
The young recruits told Christophe that they were being forced by their RPF superiors to tie up civilians and kill them with hammers and hoes, before burning the victims on site and burying their ashes. It was grisly, traumatising work conducted daily, they told him.
Many of the soldiers asked Christophe to provide them with a sick leave note to avoid taking part in the killings. “They didn’t want to kill anybody,” he said. One of the recruits told Christophe that over a mere five days, more than 6 000 people were slaughtered at the orphanage.
In late July, the RPF sent Christophe and thousands of other recruits to Gabiro, a military training camp located in eastern Rwanda, on the edge of the vast wilderness that made up Akagera National Park. The rebel army had established a base there earlier in the war, and it was off limits to international nongovernmental organisations, United Nations personnel, and journalists.
The RPF had begun to recruit Hutu men, promising them safety if they joined the RPF cause. Many heeded the call. But at Gabiro, Christophe saw that these new Hutu recruits had been deceived. Instead of receiving training, on arrival they were screened by military intelligence agents, taken to a field and shot.
Even Tutsi recruits from Congo, Burundi and Uganda, whom military intelligence considered disloyal or suspect, were disappearing, he said.
Even more chilling, though, were the truckloads of Hutu civilians Christophe witnessed arriving in another part of the camp, in an area he could see from a distance. Every day, for months on end, he said, RPF soldiers killed these Hutus and then burned the bodies. Backhoes — which Christophe referred to by their brand name, Caterpillar — worked day and night burying their remains. “You could see the trucks, you could see the smoke. You could smell burning flesh,” Christophe told M&G. “All those lorries were bringing people to be killed. I saw the Caterpillar and could hear it. They were doing it in a very professional way.”
As the massacres continued, Christophe became worried that as a witness he, too, could be a target. Some soldiers, traumatised by what they were forced to do, tried to escape Gabiro. But they were caught and executed, he said. To his relief, in April 1995, he was transferred out of Gabiro, and a week later, he fled Rwanda and never returned.
Several years after leaving, Christophe began speaking to investigators from the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The tribunal, set up in the aftermath of the genocide, was tasked with prosecuting the most serious crimes committed in 1994. Publicly, the tribunal focused exclusively on prosecuting high-level Hutu figures suspected of organising and committing genocide against Tutsis. But privately, a clandestine entity within the ICTR, known as the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), gathered evidence of crimes committed by the RPF. By 2003, investigators at the SIU had recruited hundreds of sources, with dozens giving sworn statements.
According to a summary report submitted to the ICTR’s chief prosecutor in 2003, the SIU’s investigative team had gathered explosive evidence against the RPF. Numerous witnesses corroborated Christophe’s testimony that the RPF had engaged in massacres of Hutu civilians in Gabiro and elsewhere before, during, and after the genocide. Sources testified to the SIU that the RPF was behind the 6 April 1994 attack on Habyarimana’s plane.
Former soldiers even told investigators that RPF commandos undertook false flag operations. Some commandos, operating in civilian clothes, had allegedly infiltrated Hutu militias, known as Interahamwe, to incite even more killings of Tutsis in a bid to further demonise the Hutu regime and bolster the RPF’s moral authority in the eyes of the international community.
In the report, UN investigators listed potential RPF targets for indictment, including President Paul Kagame himself. But when the tribunal officially wound down in 2015, the more than 60 individuals who were convicted and jailed for genocide and other war crimes were all linked to the former Hutu-led regime. Not a single indictment of the RPF was ever issued by the UN; all evidence of RPF wrongdoing was effectively buried.
Christophe met with investigators three times, and provided a written, sworn testimony to the tribunal, but for nearly two decades, his testimony, together with that of dozens of other RPF soldiers who witnessed RPF crimes, have remained sealed in the tribunal’s archive.
Behind bars: A crowd of prisoners stand at mealtime in the Giterama prison in Rwanda. The prison, 50km outside Kigali, was built to house 1 000 people, but in 1995 held 6 000 men and women accused by the RPF of complicity in the 1994 genocide. (Photo: Malcolm Linton/Liaison)
In this exclusive report, the Mail & Guardianis publishing 31 documents based on testimonies the witnesses provided to UN investigators. The documents were leaked to M&G by various sources with extensive experience at the tribunal. The witness statements, which contain identifying information, have been redacted by the tribunal and by the M&G to protect the informants’ privacy and safety.
The informants who testified against the RPF to the tribunal faced serious risks, and some were kidnapped, according to the investigators. However, it is widely believed by our sources that the unredacted witness statements are already in the possession of the RPF. One statement is unredacted because the witness died in 2010.
Since 1994, many human rights researchers, journalists, academics and legal experts at the ICTR have contended that the crimes committed by the RPF were not comparable in nature, scope, or organisation to the Hutu-led atrocities against Tutsis.
The Rwandan government has asserted that any crimes committed by members of the RPF were only acts of revenge that have already been tried by the competent Rwandan authorities.
These testimonies, which include gruesome details about RPF massacres — often from soldiers who directly participated in the killings — challenge that understanding. Although these accounts do not in any way prove culpability, they may constitute prima facie evidence needed for indictments.
Taken as a whole, the evidence collected by the SIU suggests that RPF killings were not a reaction to the killing of Tutsis but instead were highly organised and strategic in nature. If proven by a court, the RPF not only played a seminal role in triggering the genocide by shooting down Habyarimana’s plane; its senior members also engaged in widespread, targeted massacres of civilians before, during and after the genocide.
Many of the RPF commanders implicated in the crimes documented by the SIU have held, or continue to hold, important positions in the Rwandan government and military. Kagame, who was the leader of the RPF at the time of the 1994 genocide, has been the president of Rwanda since 2000 and remains a close ally of the United States.
General Patrick Nyamvumba, who was head of the Gabiro training camp, served as the head of the Rwandan military from 2013 until 2019, and before that, from 2009 until 2013, as commander of Unamid, the joint UN-Africa Union peacekeeping force in Sudan. He was also minister of internal security until April 2020.
Lieutenant Colonel James Kabarebe, whom witnesses cited for his leading role in massacres in northern Rwanda and in planning the assassination of Habyarimana, was Rwanda’s minister of defence from 2010 until 2018 and remains a senior adviser to Kagame. General Kayumba Nyamwasa, who was head of the RPF’s military intelligence during the genocide, is alleged to have conceived and organised the RPF infiltration of Hutu militia and the mass killings of Hutu civilians throughout Rwanda. Nyamwasa fled the country in 2010 and is a major figure in the Rwandan opposition in exile.
Neither the RPF, the Rwandan president’s office, the Rwandan Media High Council, nor Nyamwasa responded when asked for comment on the documents. On Twitter, Yolande Makolo, an adviser to Kagame, dismissed an M&G query about the documents and called the questions “ridiculous”.
Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian political scientist who has spent decades studying Rwanda and provided expert testimony to the ICTR, said the RPF’s legitimacy is based on saving Tutsis and stopping the genocide, and that any critical examination of its real record would undermine that official narrative.
“The legitimacy of the RPF is in large part based on its image as representing and defending the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. They are the ‘good guys.’ Any evidence that points to the RPF committing massive crimes or having a role in shooting down the presidential plane, an act that sparked the genocide, challenges that legitimacy, which is why they have to fight it tooth and nail,” Reyntjens told the M&G.
Christophe, whose statements and interviews with the M&G are corroborated by other witnesses who offered similar testimony, said he believed the killings that he witnessed at Gabiro could not have been carried out as revenge for the crimes individual Hutus committed during the genocide.
The killings by the RPF went on “for too long [ and] were too programmed and well organised,” to amount to retaliation, he said.
The Gabiro massacres
Other witnesses bolstered Christopher’s account, providing testimony that the RPF began killing at Gabiro in April 1994, shortly after Habyarimana was assassinated. Speaking to investigators in French, one witness, a former soldier who joined the RPF in 1992, told investigators that displaced Hutu civilians from villages in northern Rwanda were brought to Gabiro aboard tractor-trailer trucks, and left at a residential complex called the House of Habyarimana, 3km from the military camp.
The intelligence officer selected the intelligence staff and instructors to execute the people brought by trucks … The soldiers tied their elbows behind their backs, and one by one, made them walk to a ‘grave site’ above the House of Habyarimana, where they were shot … These summary executions were done day and night between four and five weeks that I was there … By the end of April, early May, after two weeks of summary executions, the smell of corpses reached the Gabiro camp. Two bulldozers were used to bury the bodies.
The witness said he participated in burning bodies using a mixture of oil and gasoline to turn the corpses into ash in a forest near another training camp called Gako. The soldier in question said a lieutenant called Silas Gasana who was in charge of security for a man referred to as “PC-Afandi”, oversaw the killings at Gabiro. “PC-Afandi” is a military moniker for Kagame, according to former members of the RPF who were separately interviewed on the topic.
The witness told investigators that Gasana was in communication with Nyamvumba, who at the time was the operations commander and chief instructor at Gabiro.
Another former RPF soldier who was sent to Gabiro in mid-April 1994 told the tribunal:
Many trucks came from different regions around the camp. Recruits who went to get firewood could see these trucks pass. In two instances, while I was about a kilometre from our camp looking for wood, I personally observed these trucks. They were tractor-trailers, or semi-trailers. The vehicles had 18 or 24 wheels with no licence plates. They drove past me, very close. They were full of men, women, children and old people. They were brought to an area near the houses of the former head of state, near the Gabiro airstrip, and massacred.
The witness said the victims were from northern areas of Rwanda and were killed so that Tutsi refugees living in Uganda could acquire their land. The testimony highlighted the RPF’s alleged practice of falsely blaming Hutus for atrocities they didn’t commit.
The main objective of these massacres … was to prepare the land and pastures for the people who had been [Tutsi] refugees in Uganda and who were repatriated. Until today, anyone [that is Hutus] who might think of living there without having returned from Uganda, would run the risk of being accused of being an Interahamwe.
Other witnesses spoke of killings at the military camp on the edge of the park. A former intelligence officer described Gabiro as a main “killing hub”.
The officer took part in operations in Giti, in northern Rwanda, from April 1994, in an area where no Tutsis had been killed during the genocide. Despite the commune being safe for Tutsis, RPF special forces killed up to 3 000 Hutus there, he testified.
Between two and three thousand [civilians] were executed in the commune of Giti, and were buried in mass graves and latrines. Thousands of other victims were brought to Gabiro. It was a killing hub, above all isolated and near Akagera Park … At one point, victims from areas surrounding Giti began to arrive in military trucks, on their way to Gabiro, where they were simply eliminated.
Massacres in northern Rwanda before the Genocide
Anumber of former RPF soldiers testified that Hutu civilians were attacked prior to the genocide, in particular in northern Rwanda.
One soldier said that as soon as the RPF seized an area — which he referred to as a “liberated zone” — Hutus living there were systematically slaughtered.
The [RPF] was convinced that Hutus were uncontrollable, so it was better to get rid of them. That’s why a systematic ethnic cleansing was organised in these ‘liberated zones’. Two methods were used to achieve this goal. The RPF would organise murderous attacks, where hundreds of Hutu peasants were killed. The survivors would then flee and empty the zone. The RPF would also spread rumours about imminent attacks, a tactic that would cause peasants to flee.
A RPF soldier who served in the northwestern region near Ruhengeri testified that in 1993, the purpose of his unit was to “kill the enemy and bury or burn their corpses.” The soldier said he was part of this unit until August 1994.
The goal of our group was to kill Hutus. That included women and children. We killed many people, maybe 100 000. Our unit killed on average between 150 and 200 people a day. People were killed with a cord [around their neck], a plastic bag [over their head], a hammer, a knife, or with traditional weapons [machete, panga]. The bodies were then put into mass graves or sometimes burned.
In their summary report, SIU investigators cited a host of methods used by the RPF to kill victims, including strangling them with cords, smothering them with bags, pouring burning plastic on their skin, and hacking Rwandans with hoes and bayonets.
The RPF infiltration of Interahamwe
According to three testimonies, RPF soldiers wore uniforms seized from the [Hutu government] Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and used government-issued weapons to commit crimes in false flag operations. One former RPF soldier described the logic behind RPF attacks against civilians in a demilitarised zone before the genocide:
The most important task was to destabilise the regime by killing civilians. Once they [the RPF] withdrew, they spread the rumour that the [Habyarimana] regime was incapable of protecting civilians.
These RPF commandos, known as “technicians”, embedded within the Interahamwe, were stationed in zones controlled by the Interahamwe and participated in killing civilians at road blocks during the genocide, according to the witness. “They even killed Tutsis,” said one former RPF soldier.
Coalition: Then Rwandan president Pasteur Bizimungu and his deputy, Paul Kagame, in July 1994. Photo: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images
Another former RPF soldier, who was based in Kigali from April to July 1994, witnessed similar events. He told investigators that RPF commandos dressed up as government soldiers or disguised themselves as members of the Interahamwe, and used machetes to kill Tutsi civilians at roadblocks. The witness claimed the RPF deployed more than two battalions of these commandos in the capital alone.
They checked IDs [and] killed people by machete exactly like the Interahamwe, so no one would be suspicious.
False flag operations continued until well after the end of the genocide, according to various testimonies.
Triggering the bloodbath
Early on in the genocide, it was widely believed that Hutu hardliners were responsible for shooting down the president’s plane in a bid to hold on to power. The belief in this hypothesis remains widespread. However, RPF informants told the tribunal that the RPF planned and executed the attack on Habyarimana’s plane.
A number of former RPF soldiers said the RPF unearthed secret weapons caches immediately preceding the 6 April attack to prepare for battle. Sources told the SIU that Kagame and his senior commanders held three meetings to prepare the attack. In the summary report, UN investigators “confirmed” the existence of a RPF team in charge of surface-to-air missiles, which were allegedly transported to Kigali from the RPF’s military headquarters in northern Rwanda, near the Ugandan border. SIU documents named the individuals who allegedly brought the missiles into the capital, hid them and fired them on April 6, 1994, and included Kagame and Nyamwasa as potential targets for indictment.
One witness testified that before the attack on the plane, on the night of 6 April, RPF soldiers were told to get ready:
On 6 April 1994 at 19:00 hours, the order was received from Kayonga to be on ‘stand-by one’. This meant to be in full battle dress and ready for an attack. All the companies moved outside the camp into the trenches … At approximately 20:30 hours, I saw the president’s plane crash.
Another witness was later told by an intelligence agent that the RPF was indeed behind the plane attack:
He told me that it was the RPF who shot down Habyarimana’s plane. When he realised his indiscretion, he threatened me with reprisals if I didn’t keep it to myself.
The testimonies support the work of an earlier investigation undertaken in 1997 by the ICTR, by a lawyer called Michael Hourigan, who collected evidence indicating that the RPF was behind the plane attack. Louise Arbour, the UN tribunal’s chief prosecutor at the time, shut down the probe and told Hourigan that she did not have the mandate to investigate acts of terror, according to a number of interviews Hourigan gave after he quit his job in frustration with her decision. In later years, Arbour told The Globe and Mail newspaper that Kagame’s government blocked efforts to investigate RPF crimes and the tribunal did not have the resources to carry out such an inquiry safely.
In 2000, Carla Del Ponte, who took over after Arbour, made it clear she intended to indict the RPF. “For me, a victim is a victim, a crime falling within my mandate as the [Rwanda tribunal’s] prosecutor is a crime, irrespective of the identity or ethnicity or the political ideas of the person who committed the said crimes,” she said in a speech in 2002. “If it was Kagame who had shot down the plane, then Kagame would have been the person most responsible for the genocide,” she later said at a symposium organised by the French Senate.https://www.youtube.com/embed/mzSGKIF2rYs?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1
But in 2003, the US government warned Del Ponte that if she went ahead with her plans to indict the RPF, she would be fired, according to her memoir. Within a few months of a tense meeting she had with Pierre-Richard Prosper — then US Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, who had served as a prosecutor for the ICTR from 1996 to 1998 — Del Ponte was removed from the ICTR.
According to this leaked memo, dated 2003, Prosper struck a deal with the court to transfer jurisdiction for prosecuting RPF crimes — and evidence of RPF crimes collected by UN investigators — from the UN tribunal to the Rwandan government.
Prosper is currently a partner at Arent Fox, where he advises and represents the Rwandan government in international arbitration and litigation, according to the firm’s website . Prosper did not respond to our request for comment.
Hassan Jallow, Del Ponte’s successor, who oversaw the court’s prosecution until it closed in 2015, was ultimately unwilling to indict the RPF. In 2005, he defended the ICTR’s decision not to prosecute the RPF, writing that Kagame’s army had “waged a war of liberation and defeated the Hutu government of the day, putting an end to genocide.”
Since 1994, several other UN agencies have investigated RPF attacks on Hutu civilians, both inside Rwanda and in neighbouring countries. These reports were also suppressed, or became the focus of vigorous denials from Kigali. Although they address other alleged crimes of the RPF, they corroborate the SIU’s general findings that the RPF committed widespread, targeted crimes against Hutus.
Robert Gersony, a US consultant, was hired by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the summer of 1994 to assess whether it was safe for Hutu refugees who had fled Rwanda to neighbouring countries to return home. Gersony’s 1994 report was never officially made public, but according a version that was leaked in 2010, investigators concluded that the RPF killing of Hutus during the genocide was “systematic” and resulted in the death of tens of thousands of civilians.
Taking the capital: RPF soldiers gather on a road on 26 May 1994 to prepare to march into Kigali. Photo: Scott Peterson/Liaison
A senior official of the UN’s peacekeeping force in Rwanda said Gersony gave a verbal briefing in which he put forward evidence that the RPF had carried out a “calculated, pre-planned and systematic genocide against the Hutus.”
The UN Mapping Report, which investigated abuses committed by pro-Rwandan forces in the DRC between March 1993 and June 2003, concluded that attacks against Hutu civilians in that country, “if proven before a competent court, could be characterised as crimes of genocide.”
Efforts by France to investigate the shooting down of Habyarimana’s plane have similarly failed to establish any accountability. In 2006, after a lengthy investigation, a French judge issued arrest warrants for several RPF officials in connection with the assassination of the Rwandan president, a move that triggered a diplomatic row between Kigali and Paris.
Supporters of incumbent President Paul Kagame carry a large photograph of him during the campaign’s closing rally in Kigali, on August 2, 2017. (Marco Longari/AFP)
In December 2018, a court dismissed the case against the RPF, citing insufficient evidence to proceed to a trial and, on 3 July this year, an appeals court in Paris confirmed the decision and agreed not to reopen an investigation.
Researchers have recently attempted to estimate the number of victims of violence, both Tutsi and Hutu. In January, the Journal of Genocide Researchpublished several studies that estimated between 500 000 to 600 000 Tutsis were killed during the genocide, and between 400 000 and 550 000 Hutus lost their lives in the 1990s.
Marijke Verpoorten, an academic at the University of Antwerp, says it remains impossible to establish a reliable death toll of the killings of Hutus. Instead, she attempts to estimate how many Hutu lives were lost in the 1990s, either as a direct result of violence, or indirectly, after the rapid spread of contagious diseases in refugee camps, and the dire war conditions. She arrives at a “guesstimate” of 542 000, although admits there is a very large uncertainty interval.
Yet only one ethnic group has been internationally recognised as victims. Inside Rwanda, community-based gacaca courts tried more than 1.2-million alleged perpetrators of the Tutsi genocide. An official genocide survivor fund does not recognise Hutus who were killed, even if they lost their lives trying to protect Tutsis. Hutus are not allowed to publicly grieve their loved ones or request justice for RPF crimes in Rwanda.
After formally closing, the ICTR became a residual tribunal — now called the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) — and continues to search for high-profile, alleged Hutu génocidaires. In May, French police arrested 87-year-old Félicien Kabuga, who had lived in hiding for 26 years. He stands accused of financing the genocide against Tutsis by funding an extremist radio station. Kabuga has denied the allegations and is currently in the Hague awaiting a trial.
The MICT did not respond when asked for comment on prosecuting RPF officials.
Never indicted: Rwandan President Paul Kagame greets a crowd after addressing supporters at the closing rally of his presidential campaign in Kigali in August 2017. (Photo: Marco Longari/AFP)
1:Gusura bariya baturage ba Kangondo bagiye kumara umwaka mumatongo y’amazu yabo basenyewe n’abayobozi b’igihugu.Bakaba barimwe ingurane.Dore ko kuva basenyerwa ntamuyobozi n’umwe wigeze uhagera ngo abahumurize,yumve ibibazo byabo, abanyamakuru bagerageje kuhagera bose barafunzwe.Bariya baturage bari muri diyoseze ayoboye.kuba yabasura akanabatabariza munzego z’ibishinzwe biri munshingano ze. Kandi byashimisha Nyirubutungane Papa udahwema kubasaba kwegera imbabare, kuvugira abarengana. 2: Gushyingura mucyubahiro abihaye Imana biciwe i Gakurazo.
Ngibyo ibyo nifuzaga kugeza kuri Cardinal wacu. Ntabwo ari byinshi rwose kandi ndumva bitamugora. Ahari ubushake haboneka inzira .
Mgr Antoine Kambanda
Nyiricyubahiro Cardinal Antoni Kambanda, niba ntagihindutse nanyuma yo kuva i Roma mwambitswe ingofero y’ubu Cardinal, nzakoresha ubundi buryo mbahamagare mbagezeho ibi bibazo kimwe n’ibindi Abanyarwanda bakomeje guhura nabyo bitewe na leta y’a FPR.
Nshobora no kuzaza i Roma k’umunsi w’iyimikwa ryanyu mfite pancarte iriho amashusho y’Abasenyeri bishwe n’abasirikare ba Kagame bakaba barundiye mucyobo rusange i Gakurazo mwarananiwe kubashyingura mu cyubahiro. Nshobora no kuzitwaza ishusho nini cyane y’abaturage ba Kangondo basenyewe na leta ya Kagame bakaba barimwe ingurane, bari muri diyoseze muyoboye, ntimwigeze mubasura cg ngo mubatabarize. Ndacyari gusaba roho mutagatifu kunyobora no kumpa amagambo y’igitaliyani n’ikilatini nzandika kuri pancartes zanjye.kuri 28/11 mubo muzifotozanya nanjye ndimo mfite pancartes zanjye. Turikumwe.
GAHUNDE 