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Former RPF Officer and Kagame’s Ambassador responds to the French Judge Marc Trevidic’s Report

Theogene Rudasingwa

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: [email protected]

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3 comments

1 hategeka { 01.20.12 at 1:00 pm }

But fellow Rwandans when shall we sit and build together our lovely nation! Now the country is developing at a very rapid pace, the whole world is admiring the miracles that are taking place in the country but as I can see, we are the very people who have taken the lead in a fight to bring all we have achieved so far to ashes! We should know that the moment we decide to destroy our country, there are so many hands outside there ready to help us. We have seen so many occasions where Africans have destroyed their own countries and I’d not like to see this happen in my country too. We have had enough bloodshed in our country and we’d not like to see the same happening again. If someone has failed to fulfil his duties as a leader not need of putting the whole country into chaos! Please nshuti nimutubere imfura muturekere amahoro mu gahugu kacu. Ibyo wapfuye na Kagame reka kubishyira ku gihugu cyose ushaka kucyoreka. Abo bazungu mwirukankira mujye mumenya ko nta rukundo bafitiye abanyafurika.

2 Julius Kalisa Rwakarema { 03.26.12 at 11:25 am }

SHAME ON YOU! Unfortunately, I could not respond to this message (article) timely because it appered to me that the writer is totally insain. I however find it proper to tell him right to his face on this very note that he is trying to regain popularity on negative grounds. poor mind of his type will not stop Rwanda from moving a head, President Kagame has the Confidence of people he leads, and this lessened person– must know that this country is able to take care of herself. He must undress his relationship with those planned and perfomed genocide against millions of Tutsi people. Being one of former Kagame’s people will not hep him. uyu muntu tumututse ntacyaha twaba dukoze ariko infura ntidutuka abadutuka ahubwo turabasuzugura bakamwarwa. Arakoze Hategeka kutubera Umunyarwanda nyakuri ureke abongabo birirwa babungana imitima yabo irwaye mubaganga batavura.

3 Gerry { 04.23.12 at 9:09 am }

Dear Mr Rudasingwa
I have read your statement and followed your intervention during RNC-FDU meeting back in March. The candour in both is for everyone to see but I’m still quite disturbed about your intentions, but also the consequences your attitude might bring to our country if not handled with care. Exposing Kagame’s misdeeds is absolutely right and is a laudable exploit. But remember Kagame is just one inadequate individual, limited in time and space. Your obsession against his person rather that the whole system betrays your resolve to cover up yet more information, which won�t solve our problems even if you manage to bring him down. Rwanda�s problems didn�t start with him and won�t stop with his fall unless leaders like you decide to dig deep below the surface and honestly eradicate the ethnic disease that has plagued our society for decades.
We are hungry about the truth concerning the causes of all misery that has befallen our country for many years, and nobody better than you can lighten us on the matter. However, I can’t quite get around a few crucial questions about what you are trying to achieve; whether this is the whole truth and what will be your next move after bringing down the Kagame regime.
You seem too eager to please Hutus at any cost, including genocide perpetrators by rendering Kagame the alfa and omega of all Rwanda�s sufferings, but do you realise they are not in hurry to return the favour? All those Hutus during your RNC-FDU meeting were applauding you but none of them had the same �courage� to denounce, let alone apologise on behalf of fellow Hutus for the torments they piled up on Tutsis since the fifties. How could you not notice!? What do you predict will be their attitude once Kagame is out of the way? The only answer I find to this is you are either suffering from the �Rubanda Nyamucye complex� or you are kidding yourself that you will manage once again to outsmart Hutus, the way you did with the likes of Kanyarengwe and Bizimungu.
You apologise for selling, for 18 years, a lie about a crime that cost around 1 million lives, and you expect people to just say thank you and move on, although you do not seem keen to tell the whole truth? That�s called perverting the course of justice Mr Rudasingwa, because in order to conceal the secret, you fabricated false evidence and intentionally laid the blame on innocent people. Kagame told you he ordered the shooting down of the plane, yes, but is that all? In your role as a close adviser, what were your discussions about the fate of Tutsis and moderate Hutus inside Rwanda, the same people you tricked into supporting your movement, financially but also by sending thousands of their children to the front? What was your role as RPF Executive Secretary in the draft of the “Declaration of the Political Bureau of the Rwandan Patriotic Front on the planned deployment of a force of UN intervention in Rwanda”, submitted to the UN Security Council on April 30, 1994? In this declaration, for those who don�t know, the RPF unconditionally opposed any kind of UN military intervention allegedly because there were no more Tutsis left to rescue in Rwanda. Do you know how many of our families perished in May, June and early July, just because not only you refused them the help they needed, but also thwarted plans of those who were willing to come to their rescue? Do you realise we know you were at the centre of all that perfidy?
It�s strange that you apologise to everyone from Habyarimana�s family to Burundian and French pilots� families, but omit the very victims of your misdemeanours! It�s disturbing to think that you might have wilfully chosen this omission to please Hutu extremists, ignoring the fact that yourself and your family were once victims of this scourge of extremism. How can you sleep at night Mr Rudasingwa? You betrayed everyone on your path, from fellow Tutsis and moderate Hutus who were massacred in Rwanda, through former Tutsi refugees, to the RPF you helped capture and hold onto power through crime and treachery. If needed, will you hesitate to deceive those same fellow politicians you�re tricking into believing you�re a reformed man?
I had long discussions with many Rwandans on this issue, Hutus and Tutsis alike. We came to the same conclusion that as long as your coalition is just trying to brush under the carpet the problem of ethnicities by blaming all evil on Kagame, we are heading towards the same dreadful results as achieved by MRND or RPF. If you are a man of dialogue, I openly challenge you to respond to our worries, and there will be many of us to join your fight against tyranny in our Rwanda.

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