Washington DC, 10th January 2012 – On the 1st October 2011, I published a confession in which I stated that Paul Kagame, then overall commander of the Rwandese Patriotic Army, the armed wing of the Rwandese Patriotic Front, was personally responsible for the shooting down of the plane on April 6, 1994, in which President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda, President Cyprian Ntaryamira of Burundi, Deogratias Nsabimana, Elie Sagatwa, Thaddee Bagaragaza, Emmanuel Akingeneye, Bernard Ciza, Cyriaque Simbizi, Jacky Heraud, Jean-Pierre Minaberry and Jean-Michel were killed. I stated that Paul Kagame himself had told me, in July 1994, that he was responsible for the shooting down of the plane. I stated that Paul Kagame has to be brought to account for his role in this terrorist crime that provided a trigger for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I have also stated that myself and other witnesses are willing, able, and ready to provide further evidence to national or/and international jurisdictions interested in contributing to truth, justice, reconciliation and healing in Rwanda.

Neither myself nor other new, willing, and able witnesses have yet been able to meet Judge Marc Trevidic, or any other international tribunal/court. to give the true account of the events surrounding the shooting down of the plane.

Today, 10th January, 2012, the French Judge, Marc Trevidic, investigating the 1994 terrorist crime, made public the findings of the Technical Report by ballistic experts. Among other things, the technical report stated that a) the experts were leaning more towards the version of the events that the missile that shot down the plane originated from several areas, especially around the Kanombe area in Kigali; b) the missiles were made and supplied from the former Soviet Union and, c) lawyers and other interested parties have up to three months to contest any matters arising from the report.

In this regard, I would like to state the following:

1. That the missile was fired from a number of areas in the Kanombe area does not exonerate Paul Kagame from having committed the crime;

2. That the missiles were of Soviet Union origin will prove to be of substantive help in establishing who the real culprit is, and;

3. That there is time for us ( myself and other interested and new witnesses) to respond fully to the technical report and provide credible testimony to Judge Marc Trevidic, or any other in the international jurisdiction, to pin down Paul Kagame as the culprit in this terrorist crime.

I stand fully behind the letter and spirit of my October 1st, 2011 confession. Judge Marc Trevidic’s technical report has not proved me wrong. Nor has it exonerated Paul Kagame from this crime, and yet Kigali is spinning the story out of context to celebrate what it calls “victory”. In the coming months and years, myself, other witnesses, Rwandans and others in the international community who heed the call, will continue to endeavor to have Paul Kagame account for his role in this and other crimes.

I would like to remind all Rwandans and the international community that this is not Judge Marc Trevidic’s final judgement on the matter. Furthermore, matters of truth and justice for Rwandans will primarily be decided by us Rwandans. Even when the international community and foreigners in general have had the reputation of disappointing Rwandans, we must have faith in our struggle for truth, justice, healing, and reconciliation.

Let us mobilize and organize, for truth and justice shall ultimately prevail.

We shall win.

Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa

E-mail: ngombwa@gmail.com

Mr  Vincent Karega the would be Rwandan Ambassador to South Africa, you are our Buffoon of the week.

This buffoon of the week has been sitting in South Africa for months without accreditation as an Ambassador.

Now this buffoon says that Rwanda and South Africa has good relations because the Rwandan Butcher was invited to ANC 100th year celebrations.

The buffoon says that “small issues” that led to tensions between the two countries are the thing of the past.

Mr Buffoon, let us put things into a proper perspective before you get carried away with lies:

• All African heads of state and world leaders were invited to this event! Unfortunately, Butcher Kagame happens to be one of them.
• Desperate Kagame seized the opportunity to show up! He no doubt saw this as an opportunity to make a bit of cash by renting out Bombardier Global Express to himself.
• But unlike his daddy/uncle Museveni who was invited to speak at the event, Butcher Kagame was part of decoration for the occasion.
• Further, President Jacob Zuma “has not yet found time” to receive the Butcher’s ambassador who is still in limbo, a diplomatic way of saying that the would-be ambassador is indeed a buffoon.
• Furthermore, South African Ambassador to Rwanda is still recalled.

Mr Buffoon and your Butcher boss, in case you forgot, you attempted twice to assassinate an exiled Rwandan General in SA during the 2010.

For trying to lie your way out of Kagame global terrorism, you are a buffoon of the week.

African Dictator

President Paul Kagame opening the ‘Umushyikirano 2011′

President Paul Kagame has said that only Rwandans can have the right to define who they want to be and work towards that and only them have that freedom to make such choices but not foreigners, intruders, the press or rights groups.

Speaking at the opening of the 9th National Dialogue (Umushyikirano) at the Parliamentary buildings today, President Kagame called on Rwandans to stand up and defend themselves against intruders who assume the responsibility of defining who they should be and what should define their country.

In a powerful speech, President Kagame came out strongly against the critics who usually say that despite economic progress, there are no rights and freedoms of expressions and democracy in Rwanda, observing that it is a responsibility of Rwandans to say whether such rights exist or not.

Addressing a full house of central government leaders, local government leaders, private sector and civil society representatives, religious leaders and diplomatic corps, President Kagame said that it is disturbing when foreigners, who sometimes don’t fulfill the lessons they teach others, ignore the progress made and instead start pointing accusing fingers, calling upon Rwandans to reject this patronizing attitude.

Amidst applause, the Head of State pointed out that Rwandans should find it offensive for such critics to undermine the home grown solutions such as the National Dialogue to instead accuse countries of stamping on freedoms.

He said that the objective of initiatives such as the Dialogue is to ensure that all Rwandans have a platform to participate and play a central role in the development and decision making processes of their country but such are never recognised.

“This meeting is a symbol of nation building through a process where all Rwandans have a right to contribute to the process and play an active role in deciding the path of their country,”

“They will talk about the many things Rwandans have achieved but then they say ’but’….why the but?They say Rwandans don’t have freedoms of expressions. I see three things involved, we are either dumb, even if we have what we want to say, we can’t because we are dumb. Secondly, maybe Rwandans can’t say anything because there is someone silencing them,”
“Thirdly, probably you might not be dumb or no one is silencing you but you have nothing to say. Today, I want us to find an answer to this question, to assess what other people think we are and then come up with a stand of who we want to be, regardless of what other people think of us. Whoever considers us to be whatever, that’s their burden,” President Kagame said.

The Head of State wondered why people talk of the economy growing but cannot put in perspective other aspects such as democratic processes, freedoms of speech and other rights which Rwandans have defined and put in place themselves along with the economic development that is visible but continue to complain about space.

“Which space is bigger than this one?” President Kagame said in reference to the dialogue itself.

“In fact the space that is lacking is that space which is constantly being occupied by those intruders. This nonsense from outsiders is the one occupying our freedom. These so called teachers of freedom, space, the same people getting stuck with genocidaires murderers and criminals,” he said, pointing out the case of Theoneste Bagosora, the genocide mastermind whose sentence was on Wednesday reduced from life to 35 years by the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR).

“It has taken them 17 years to try him and try him so badly and they are the same people coming here to give us press freedoms? You are a joker. Some of us you come to teach about freedoms have been freedom fighters for their and other peoples rights since childhood. We have interest in our own freedoms and rights than anyone else has. We have that responsibility more that anyone else,” President Kagame said.

President Kagame said such people can do it, just because they can but not becuase they are right.

“They can do it to Africans, they want to do it to Rwandans but I want to assure you that we are different people. You Rwandans sitting here should not accept this nonsense. Accepting it is unthinkable, but accepting it is worse off for you, stand up and defend that right, they should not speak for you,” he said.

The Head of State took a swipe at rights groups and the media, saying that the two should not be the ones to be seen to have the right to define or choose what Rwandans want and also make freedoms appear like a myth where only a few have the power and previlege to define them and know what suits others.

“My question is, who are you? Who are you speaking for? Are these millions of Rwandans here waiting for you to come and tell them what their interests should be and what their rights are?
You Rwandans should reject that. We cannot make this progress and then at the same time fail in other areas, it doesn’t just add up,” he said.

The Head of State said that he was recently reading a foreign newspaper where a certain person wrote that they cannot be governed by a minority several years after the country failed to form a government, observing that such a statement comes out wishful thinking because Rwanda is not governed by a minority but rather Rwandans.

“They wish to be governed like Rwanda, these are people who havent been governed for two years, they failed to put in place a government.
Who is minority? I am not from a minority, I am from these Rwandans you see here. We cannot be a minority in our own country. These are people who need lessons about Rwanda, lessons in freedoms, you cannot teach us about our own freedom,” he said

“The main problem is just one and thats what brings us here, they can afford to call us all sorts of names, they can do whatever they want— and they can do anything, ask where Mutara Rudahigwa went, they will do that because you depend on them, they give you remains, when you depend on them, anything will happen. Even passersby will poke at you, that’s the position we are in, that’s the position we want to live far behind us and that’s why we are here,” he added.

He called on Rwandans to be more determined than ever to be in the position they want to be and end being in the position of being beggars and that will be the only way Rwandans will be independent of such negative references.

Source: Rwandan governement website www.umushyikirano.gov.rw

In memory of the millions of victims of the Rwandan army in D.R. Congo. This is the ceremony of lighting candles during the memorial event held in Oxford House in London on Saturday 26th November 2011.

Jean Pierre experienced the killing of his parents in Congo jungle by the Rwandan army when he was a young boy. He said that his life has changed forever since that day.
He presented his testimony during a memorial event held in London on 26th November 2011.

Here is a testimony of a survivor of RPF atrocities Gerturde Uwamariya, read during the Commemoration of 15th Anniversary of Rwandan refugees massacres in Congo held in Oxford House in London on Saturday 26th November 2011.
Uwamariya said that what she saw and experienced in Congo was the most horrible experiences that anyone can experience and no one should experience that. She reminded the audience that those who committed those atrocities have not been persecuted despite all available evidences of their actions

London 26/11/2011 — Remembering Victims of RPF atrocities in Congo (ex-Zaire): Presentation of Olivier Harerimana. In 1996, the Rwandan army of General Paul Kagame attacked refugee camps in D.R. Congo and started systematic and widespread killings of Rwandan (Hutu) and Congolese populations in what the United Nations’ Mapping Report described in October 2010 as possible genocide against Hutus. Olivier describes briefly the horrible hutu hunting in the Congolese jungle.

Related:

● Remembering the Victims of Rwandan army in D.R. Congo

● Commemoration of 15th Anniversary of Rwandan refugees massacres in Congo

Former RPF officer and Former Rwandan Ambassador to US, Dr Theogene Rudasingwa, talks about truth and reconciliation in Rwanda.
This was done during the “Rwanda Truth and Reconciliation: The Process Begins” conference organised by the William Mitchell College of Law on 28 November 2011.

Paul Rusesabagina, president of the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation and author of “An Ordinary Man,” talks briefly about some important issues in Rwanda.

In this video, you watch and listen to Mark Pursey, head of public relations BTP Advisers, saying that they created an internet “attack site” for the government of Rwanda over accusations it had been involved in genocide.
Here is what James Cusick ‘The Independent‘ writes about it:

Mark Pursey, head of BTP Advisers, was secretly recorded saying that the site was targeted at people who “over-criticised” over “who did what in the genocide”. A 2009 report from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said Rwanda’s “excellent public relations machinery” had succeeded in hiding “the exclusionary and repressive nature of the regime”.

Mr Pursey, who was the voluntary head of the Liberal Democrats’ National Media Intelligence Unit during the 2010 election, suggested his firm could create a similar site for the Uzbeks – who were in fact undercover reporters working for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Such a site, he added, could be “aggressive” in terms of putting across figures showing that things were “moving in the right direction”. Also at the meeting was Edward Lord, a member of the City of London Corporation, who attended at Mr Pursey’s request.

As part of its investigation into lobbying for The Independent, reporters from the BIJ posed as agents for the government of Uzbekistan and representatives of the country’s cotton industry, to discover what promises British lobbying and PR firms were prepared to make when pitching to clients. Mr Pursey said his firm was working for the government of Azerbaijan, which he described as having “its own set of very complex issues” and appeared to revel in the controversial nature of his accounts. “We already work for other governments as well … Azerbaijan, Rwanda, we also do work for the Ivory Coast – the new one, not the old one . We also do work for – just started, in fact – the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe.

“The issues of what’s happening for instance in Ivory Coast is very controversial with accusations of genocide on both sides. The government of Rwanda is itself enormously controversial, it’s very uncertain what their role was in the deaths that occurred around the time of the genocide.”

He later added: “If I wanted an easy life I’d do PR for housing associations.”

Mr Pursey suggested setting up an internet site “like an Uzbek fact-check about the industry”, adding that he could also create attack sites aimed at critics. He said: “I think articles saying how marvellous everything is [is] jumping the gun because it’s not true and they [people] won’t accept it. So I think that things such as working through the internet, setting up things like an Uzbek fact-check about the industry, could be a resource for people online that could render better articles.

“Then a separate site, this is a similar sort of work we’ve done with the Rwandans, for instance. We had a very controversial issue over who did what in the genocide. So the second site being much more a kind of attack site on people who over-criticise.”

Mr Pursey suggested recruiting Uzbek students to comment on articles critical of the regime. “What we would need to do is find a group of people who have an interest in this subject that would include us, that would include Uzbek students living in London … who, when an article comes up that’s wrong, could be alerted about it. We could suggest to them what they might want to say in response to an article through a post, a suggestion.” He added that this could affect newspaper coverage. “Once we’ve started to nudge up some of the stories to become not so damning, more positive, then we can start looking at addressing issues such as going to the newspapers and saying that people are saying rather different things about this issue than they were six months ago.”

Contacted by the Bureau yesterday, Mr Pursey said: “We helped create a site that outlined facts about the government of Rwanda, and most governments have them. This [sic] UN published a report that many academics and commentators agreed was extremely poorly researched yet made very alarming allegations … its accusations towards others should be scrutinised.”

On the company’s work in Azerbaijan, he said: “An issue such as the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh that cost 80,000 lives and the internal displacement of over 1 million refugees is one of these very complexities, yet rarely reported. Rebuilding the lives and families of the survivors has been a massive financial and social challenge, and one that should be given the understanding and support it deserves.”

Mr Lord said in a statement: “No payment or preferment of any kind was received by me, or any organisation I have involvement with, as a result of participating in the meeting, nor was any expected.

“I am not now, nor have I ever been, a partner or a non-executive director in BTP Advisers. This can be confirmed by reference to records held at Companies House. I attended the meeting as a personal favour to Mr Pursey.’”

No thanks: Firms that rejected the job

During the undercover investigation into lobbying, 10 firms were contacted. Two of these, Morris International Associates and Ogilvy, immediately refused to accept the business from the Uzbek regime, which is responsible for grave human rights abuses.

An hour-long meeting with Ann Morris, director of Morris International, where the undercover reporters tried to convince the company it should represent Uzbekistan, ended in a formal rejection.

No official response to The Independent’s exposé yesterday was made by Morris International. But an account of the meeting by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that it took less than 10 minutes for the firm to make it clear that they were unwilling to take on the regime as their client.

It was explained during the hour-long meeting that one ofthe requirements was online “reputational management” – to which Bell Pottinger agreed in its own meetings with the reporters. Morris International made itclear this was something theywere not prepared to engage in.

The approach to a second firm, Ogilvy PR, never turned into an actual meeting. An initial connection was made by email and subsequently followed up with a telephone call. This lasted less than two minutes and the rejection of the request was quick and clear.

The BIJ said that at no point did either of the two companies make it known that they felt a “sting” was in operation. Their rejection was based on what they were being asked to do.