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.

PR firm ‘attacked’ critics of Rwandan government

December 6th, 2011 | by Melanie Newman

A public relations firm whose senior management have close links to the Liberal Democrats said it had created an internet ‘attack site’ for the government of Rwanda to counter accusations that it had been involved in genocide.

Mark Pursey, head of BTP Advisers, was secretly recorded as part of the Bureau’s investigation into lobbying and PR, saying that the site was targeted at those 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 head of the Lib Dems’ National Media Intelligence Unit during the 2010 election, suggested his firm could create a similar site for the government of Uzbekistan.

Such a site, he added, could be ‘aggressive in terms of putting across facts and figures showing that things were moving in the right direction’.

He said: ‘If people are using child labour in Uzbekistan to pick cotton, and it’s true, then there’s no point in denying it. We have to look to show, as you said yourself, how the government is changing the law, is trying to crack down on it, is moving in the right direction and show real, tangible results about that.’

Reporters from the Bureau posed as agents for the government of Uzbekistan and representatives of the country’s cotton industry. In Uzbekistan, child labour is used in cotton fields to fulfil state quotas and the country also has a terrible human rights record.

Mr Pursey said his company was working for the government of Azerbaijan, which he described as having ‘its own set of very complex issues’.

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

An ‘attack site’

As well as setting up an internet site ‘like an Uzbek factcheck about the industry’, Mr Pursey suggested the firm could also create an ‘attack site’ aimed at critics.

‘We haven’t written you a proposal or anything else but I think there are several things that we would want to do to start,’ he said.

‘I think articles saying how marvelous everything is, is jumping the gun because it’s not true and [people] won’t accept it. So I think that things such as working through the internet, setting up things like an Uzbek factcheck 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 also suggested recruiting Uzbek students, ‘a team of people who are genuinely, really blogging. It’s not fictional. It’s real.’ This group would be used to comment on an online article critical of the regime.

He added that this could affect newspaper coverage.

A positive spin

‘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 “Look, you can now see, can’t you, that things are – that people are saying rather different things about this issue than they were six months ago”.’

Mr Pursey told the Bureau yesterday: ‘We helped create a site that outlined facts about the government of Rwanda and most governments have them.’

On the company’s work in Azerbaijan, Mr Pursey said: ‘An issue such as the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakhk, 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, including in the media.’

During the meeting Edward Lord OBE, a member of the City of London Corporation and Lord Kilclooney’s staff, was introduced by Mr Pursey as another partner in the business. Both men subsequently clarified that Mr Lord was not a BTP Partner and had no financial relationship with the firm, but had been invited by Mr Pursey to support him in making his pitch.  Mr Lord has since said, with hindsight, he should not have attended the meeting.

Ugandan Government Should Ensure Safety of Rwandan Exiles

December 6, 2011 – The persecution of government critics can reach beyond Rwanda’s borders. We fear for the safety of other exiled journalists and government opponents in the aftermath of Ingabire’s murder.

Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

(New York) – The Ugandan authorities should open an effective and transparent investigation into the murder of a Rwandan journalist on November 30, 2011, and identify and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said today. The Ugandan government should also provide protection for Rwandan journalists and other critics of the Rwandan government who are living in Uganda, Human Rights Watch said.

Charles Ingabire, editor of the online publication Inyenyeri News and a vocal critic of the Rwandan government, was shot twice in the chest as he was leaving a bar in the Bukesa-Kikoni Makerere area of Kampala late at night. Friends told Human Rights Watch that he frequently went to that bar and had gone there that evening to meet some friends.

A spokesman for the Ugandan police told the media that the police had opened an investigation into Ingabire’s death and that two people were being held for questioning.

“The persecution of government critics can reach beyond Rwanda’s borders,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “We fear for the safety of other exiled journalists and government opponents in the aftermath of Ingabire’s murder.”

The Ugandan police should explore every lead in the search for Ingabire’s killers and intensify protective measures for other Rwandan refugees, Human Rights Watch said.

Ingabire, who was 31 years old, was a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He had worked as a journalist in Rwanda, but left in 2007 and obtained refugee status in Uganda. While in Uganda, he contributed to Umuvugizi newspaper, one of Rwanda’s most outspoken publications.

Umuvugiziwas suspended in 2010 by the Media High Council, a Rwandan government-controlled institution. Jean-Léonard Rugambage, another Umuvugizi journalist, was murdered in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in June 2010. Its editor, Jean-Bosco Gasasira, fled Rwanda in 2010 after numerous threats to his safety.

After the suspension of Umuvugizi, Ingabire became the editor of an online newspaper, Inyenyeri News, which often published articles critical of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and of the Rwandan government and army. Within a short time, the website appeared to have been infiltrated, and its contents suddenly changed, portraying the government in a favorable light. Ingabire’s friends said they suspected it had been taken over by elements close to the government. Ingabire and his colleagues moved Inyenyeri News to a new web location and it resumed its critical reporting.

Ingabire confided to friends that he had been threatened several times in the months leading up to his death, they told Human Rights Watch. About two months before his murder, he was attacked and beaten in Kampala, and his computer stolen. The assailants – whom he did not recognize – told him they wanted him to close down his website. He also received anonymous telephone death threats warning him to stop writing articles critical of the government.

While it is too early to draw conclusions about the motive for Ingabire’s murder, his death takes place in the context of a well documented pattern of repression of independent journalists, opposition party members, and civil society activists in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch said. Several journalists, critics, and opponents of the government in Rwanda have been arrested and detained or prosecuted in 2010 and 2011, and others outside the country have been threatened repeatedly.

Rwandans living in Uganda are at particular risk, given the geographical proximity and close links between the two countries, Human Rights Watch said. Rwandan refugees in Kampala frequently report being threatened and followed by people they believe are Rwandan intelligence agents.

Attacks on opponents and critics have also taken place further afield. In June 2010, General Kayumba Nyamwasa narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in South Africa. Nyamwasa is a former chief-of-staff of the Rwandan army and was once a close ally of Kagame, but is now an outspoken government opponent in exile. In May, two Rwandans living in the UK were warned by the London Metropolitan Police that there were threats to their safety emanating from the Rwandan government.

“The Rwandan government frequently states its commitment to democracy and free speech,” Bekele said, “but such statements are hollow when critics are threatened and attacked. The Rwandan judicial authorities should cooperate fully with their Ugandan counterparts in unearthing the truth about Ingabire’s murder.”

Mourners at Ingabire’s funeral hiding their faces from Kagame

AD and readers, look at this photo in Uganda’s Monitor Newspaper of the mourners at the assassinated Rwandan journalist Charles Ingabire. This is what Rwandans have become under the regime of Paul Kagame, our so called president. We all live in fear. Rwandan people cannot even bury their dead in peace because the fear of Kagame followed them across the border into Uganda.

Dear Lord, how can this be? How can one human being spread terror through fear of this magnitude?

The overwhelming sense in Kigali and elsewhere in the country is a profound fear of the powerful Kagame regime, and of his fearful RPF heavyweights especially the minister of local government James Musoni known as Rajabu. The culture of impunity, the real threat to be at the receiving end of ever more reckless acts by Kagame goons is beyond belief. Just look at the photo of Ingabire funeral above.

In today’s Rwanda the ambiguity about the identity of the goons who may report or attack you causes great uncertainty and alarm – ask the Gitarama bicycle taxi owners how they managed to tame their anxiety and even fought back their attackers recently in a story recently shown at AD. The regime now does not allow the more that 10,000 bicycle owners in our country to ride on main roads. My God, where are they to ride and how are they make a living if they don’t have cars?

Kagame police, local defence forces and the military are now determined to controlling every aspect of life. They use interrogation and torture to extract information – all of us Rwandans now have become the enemies of the Kagame state. It is as if we are back in Soviet Union or Nazi Germany when loyalties divided even families. It is now common for wives or husbands to report their partners to the regime informers.

Rajabu James Musoni’s local government methods are ruthless. No citizen has a right in this country anymore. We as a nation of trapped rats, or frogs and mosquitoes as Kagame himself likes to put it. Look at the photo of Charles Ingabire funeral again – you immediately see a sense of hopelessness which is prevailing with complete anonymity and even isolation. Loot at the real signs in this picture of generalised fear of unexpected arrest by unidentified agents for “crimes” that have not been committed.

Yet, like elsewhere in history, when a regime reaches such a paranoia stage, you know that it is losing its grip. The words of Pastor Yeremiya at Ingabire funeral may come to haunt Kagame: “If you shoot someone dead, you are only killing the flesh not the spirit. We should not fear those who kill the flesh.”

Thank you Monitor Newspaper for showing the world the Kagame fear factor in your powerful photograph and story. You know of course that no single news outlet in Rwanda covered the Charles Ingabire story. Hardly surprising of course!

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1283664/-/view/printVersion/-/14j59h3/-/index.html

Candida Mukamusinga, Kampala

African Dictator

1,000 Brave Rwandans Standup to Butcher Kagame

The unrest sweeping the Middle East is reaching the Central African region – Rwanda may be next in line.

One year on after the Tunisia’s jasmine revolution, a 26-year old Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight on 17 December 2010 unleashing a tsunami against dictatorship. The rest is history.

Another young African, known as Donatien, has ignited an uprising in  Kagame’s totalitarian state of Rwanda.

Reports from the central town of Gitarama (Muhanga) say that about 1,000 young men took up the streets to defend Donatien, a bicycle taxi-owner who makes a living by transporting passengers. His bicycle was being forcibly taken by Local Defense Forces. These are the goons the Kagame sycophants use to intimidate and kill his own population.

The Rwandan butcher recently decided that bicycle taxi-owners around the country – they are more than 10,000 people- should stop cycling on the roads they contribute to build.

The arrest of Donatien triggered clashes between LDF and civilians in Nyabisindu. Eventually the road Kigali -Gitarama-Kibuye was closed for almost 2 hours following the spontaneous demonstration.

Protesters chanted slogans like: “We are feed up with the dictatorship.” “We stand up for our rights”.

Dozens of policemen, heavily armed were later deployed as the crowed refused to let Donatien be arrested by police. Similar scenes of uprising have been reported various parts of Rwanda, in Kayonza and Mushubati where young people reacted angrily when Kagame decided once again they should stop making a living by mining on their own land.

Meanwhile, another brave young man, Charles Ingabire, has been robbed of his young life. Like his fellow Rwandan Donatien, Ingabire had refused to be silenced by Kagame’s oppressive regime. He had instead went into exile in Uganda where continued to publish his investigative writing on Kagame vampire state. As tension grows inside the country, the Rwandan dictator has once again brutally taken a life of a journalist, Charles Ingabire.

The words of Gitarama protesters are most appropriate: “We are feed up with the dictatorship.” “We stand up for our rights”.

Ndoli, Kigali, Rwanda

Related articles

• Charles Ingabire: A Rwandan Brave Who Did Not Need Weapons (africandictator.org)
• Exiled Kagame Critic Is Shot Dead In Uganda (africandictator.org)

African Dictator

By Olivier Harerimana

London 26/11/2011 – Remembering Victims of RPF atrocities in Congo (ex-Zaire)

After the horrific atrocities that shock my loved country Rwanda, from April 1994 and in the midst of a war that had just restarted, more than 2.5 millions of Rwandan population fled to neighbouring countries.

They fled to Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo which was called at the time Zaire. It is estimated that Zaire took around 2 million refugees, Tanzania 480,000, Burundi 200,000 and Uganda 10,000. (2005 by Institute for Environmental Security)

In these countries refugees settled in camps that were supported by international and national humanitarian agencies.

Today we are here to commemorate many among those refugees who can be put in 2 categories:

1. Those who were systematically massacred by Rwandan troops
2.  and those who died as result of hard lives, malnutrition, starvation and diseases.

Up to date it is estimated that around 500,000 Rwandan refugees died in Congo from October 1996. (MSF)

What happened to these refugees is now well documented and backed by a tremendous amount of evidence collected from witnesses who survived, from humanitarian agencies that operated in that region, from local residents and also from investigations led by the UN itself.

You would ask me, what happened?

In October 1996, the Rwandan government troops( APR) with a newly established Congolese rebel movement, attacked refugees camps in eastern Congo forcing many of them back to Rwanda but at the same time killing others. There were survivors who managed to flee inside the Congolese forest but they were pursued and killed.

Some of most known massacres occurred:

• On the 20th October 1996 around a region called Katale, refugees leaving camps and those going to look for food in the camps were killed . (1998 UNHCR)
• On the 24 October 1996 – Refugees were killed in Uvira. (Congo Wars myth & reality – African Studies – Commonwealth University)
• Between the 25th and the 27th October 1996 refugee camps in Katale and Kibumba were attacked and more than 10,000 refugees were massacred. Survivors fled to Mugunga Camps and others were repatriated to Rwanda by force.   (MSF)
• On the 15th November 1996 – Mugunga camps which was the world largest refugee camp at that time was attacked and over 50,000 refugees were killed, others forced to return to Rwanda but some fled in the forest. Those who arrived in Tingi-Tingi area fleeing massacres in east were attacked and killed between 28 February and 13 March 1997. (UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs: 21 Nov 1996)
• Shabunda camps in South Kivu  which had seen a big increase of its inhabitant as result of refugees fleeing killings in Refugee camps of Kashusha and INERA, was attacked on the 5th February 1997 and around 10,000 refugees were massacred.  (The Massacre of Refugees in Congo: A Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law – The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 38, No. 2. (Jul., 2000), pp. 163-202)
• On the 1st April 1997 – after WFP announced that 100,000 refugees were at 150Km from Kisangani, they were attacked and massacred.  Some of survivors were airlifted to Rwanda by humanitarian agencies.
• On the 13th May 1997 massacres were committed by Rwandan troops in Mbandaka and Wendji. (UN Mapping report)

Survivors continued their fleeing journey until the end May 1997 when they arrived Congo-Brazzaville after a trip of 1,500 kilometres. (Forced Migration & Mortality 2001)

According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 340,000 refugees fled  hiding in the forests of Kivu,  fleeing west ahead of the advancing front line. Few thousands survivors are still in Congolese forest. (Forced Migration & Mortality 2001)

There are also the refugees who died as result of diseases.

Memorial for victims of Rwandan (RPF) army in D.R. Congo

Cholera was the main disease that killed so many.

The first case of cholera in Goma was diagnosed on 20^th July 1994. This led to a major cholera outbreak of 58,000 to 80,000 cases within a month. The cholera outbreak was still active when an outbreak of bloody diarrhea, due to Shigella dysenteriae type 1, erupted in the first days of August and persisted in all the camps until November 1994. (Forced Migration & Mortality 2001)

These successive outbreaks contributed greatly to the unprecedented mortality rates observed during the first weeks of the emergency. A total of 48,347 dead bodies were buried between July 14 and August 14). (Forced Migration & Mortality 2001)

Although this might be an underestimation of the true figures (because of private burials), the estimate of 50,000 deaths occurring during the first month of the emergency has been generally accepted.

Later on, and except during a short period in the south of Kisangani, the humanitarian agencies had almost no access to these populations until they reached Congo-Brazzaville.

The population of Tingi Tingi was estimated at 80,000 persons, of which 12,000 (15 percent) were children under five years old (Nabeth, 1997). From December 18, 1996 to February 26, 1997, a total of 1,703 deaths were recorded by the surveillance system, of which 831 (48.8 percent) occurred among children under five. (Forced Migration & Mortality 2001)

By mid-May 1997, several hundred Rwandan refugees were identified in Congo-Brazzaville in a swampy area located 600 kilometres north of Brazzaville along the Oubangui River. They had settled in camps located in three villages: Loukoléla, Liranga, and Ndjoundou. It is estimated that in the first few month of their arrival the death rate caused by diseases and wounds was 5%.(Forced Migration & Mortality 2001)

Reports on massacres in Congo
Some of the above killings and massacres have been documented in a report called  DRC Mapping Exercise Report that has been released by The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR).

The Report documents “the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003”.

The report contains a detailed accounting of the breakup of Rwandan refugee camps in eastern Congo at the start of the First Congo war in October 1996, followed by the pursuit of hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees and Hutu population across the country’s vast hinterland by teams of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda soldiers and their Congolese rebel collaborate, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo.

The apparently systematic nature of these violations suggests that the numerous deaths cannot be attributed to the hazards of both first and second Congo wars or seen as equating to collateral damage. The majority of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick, who posed no threat to the attacking forces.

Numerous serious attacks on the physical or psychological integrity of members of the group were also committed, with a very high number of Hutus shot, raped, burnt or beaten.Very large numbers of victims were forced to flee and travel long distances to escape their pursuers, who were trying to kill them.

The hunt lasted for months, resulting in the deaths of an unknown number of people subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading living conditions, without access to food or medication. On several occasions, the humanitarian aid intended for them was deliberately blocked, in particular in Orientale Province, depriving them of assistance essential to their survival.

The mapping report team noted that “The question of whether the numerous serious acts of violence committed against the Hutus (refugees and others) constitute crimes of genocide has attracted a significant degree of comment and to date remains unresolved. The report repeatedly stresses that this question can “only be decided by a court decision on the basis of evidence beyond all reasonable doubt. However, “the apparent systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of inculpatory elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be characterised as crimes of genocide.”

Some think that certain elements could cause a court to hesitate to decide on the existence of a genocidal plan, such as the fact that as of 15 November 1996, several tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees, many of whom had survived previous attacks, were repatriated to Rwanda with the help of the AFDL/APR authorities and that hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees were able to return to Rwanda with the consent of the Rwandan authorities prior to the start of the first war.

Whilst, in general, the killings did not spare women and children, it should be noted that in some places, at the beginning of the first war, Hutu women and children were in fact separated from the men, and only the men were subsequently killed.

Rwandan refugee killings had previously been recognised in The “Gersony Report“, name given to the 1994 findings made by a team under Robert Gersony, which was under contract to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and identified a pattern of massacres by the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels after their military victory in the civil war in post-genocide Rwanda. The findings were suppressed by the United Nations and involved governments for political reasons, and its existence was denied. No final written report was ever completed, though purported early written documentation has been leaked.

Call for Justice

Let us today remember all those ones who lost their lives in circumstances I described above, let us keep their memory alive by honouring them and more importantly let us promote peace, reconciliation, justice so that events like this never ever happen again.

Olivier Harerimana

Related:

Commemoration of 15th Anniversary of Rwandan refugees massacres in Congo

James Musoni, commonly known as Rajabu in Rwanda is again embroiled in another scam, but as usual hiding his head in the sand like an ostrich and busy whispering to his boss and mentor’s ears the names of those to be thrown in jail or fired.

For starters, James Musoni is the current Minister of Local government and a senior member of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, the ruling party. Also he is considered as the second most powerful man in Rwanda after his boss and mentor, President Kagame. However, his closeness and proximity to Kagame is much more linked to working together in corrupt related deals. It is common knowledge that Musoni’s knows much about Kagame’s wealth than even Kagame’s wife.  Rajabu is very active in stabbing others from their back by whispering lies to Kagame’s ears.

According to our source close to the President’s office, Rajabu was upset by The New Times stories about the Rukarara hydro power dam. Needless to mention here that The New Times like Contact FM radio stations are both media outlets owned by Kagame or his wife and financed largely by the family. To protect his interests, Kagame appointed (read deployed) Col Ndahiro Emmanuel as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The New Times.

Both Ndahiro and Musoni are at logger-heads, and Musoni worked hard to have Ndahiro fired from his juicy job at NSSS. The two gentlemen are known to be behind major political and security decision (including killings in the country and out of the country) in the country.  After successful uprooting Ndahiro, Musoni does not want to see Bideri Joseph at the helm of The New Times, and he was incensed by the recent true and well investigated publications about Rukarara hydro dam project.

As usual, Musoni made an attempted to get a kick back from the project but in vain. Miss Linda Bihire and Engineer Albert Butare, former Minister of Infrastructure and State Minister of Energy respectively resisted his corrupt tendencies, and were hence fired from their positions.  Ndahiro’s attempt to save Ms Linda Bihire, his mistress with whom he has a son from an axe did not yield to anything. Eventually, Musoni celebrated when Kagame fired Bihire and Butare! And few months later, Kagame listened to Musoni’s pleas to have Ndahiro fired, and now wants Bideri out of Kagame’s Newspaper to have his own man there. Will Kagame yield to Musoni’s pleas? Probably yes!

Shortly before his arrest and detention, Musoni called a meeting at his office that was attended by Emmanuel Gasana and Brig General Jack Nziza, the Commissioner General of Rwanda National Police and Secretary General in the Minister of Defense respectively to lay a strategy of halting Bideri from running the truth about Rukarara hydro dam. The trio agreed to use the Criminal Investigation department and bring corrupt related allegations against him, and lock him up under the fabricated charges. Knowing that Ndahiro has been weakened and can’t deter them from achieving their mission, Emmanuel Gasana (aka Rurayi) summoned Bideri to his office. On arrival to his office, Bideri was grilled by Gasana and Bizimungu, the CID boss. Gasana is a relative to Musoni, and is known to be receiving directives from him to terrorize Rwandans who he (Musoni) perceives to be his critics or enemies.

Upon being shackled in chains, Bideri sweated profusely, but managed to make a quick phone call to Ndahiro Emmanuel, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Times about his plotted arrest and eventual detention. Still recovering from his sack, Ndahiro called and pleaded with Kagame to spare Bideri from jail, pleading that such move dent the leadership’s credibility, especially from the international media watchdogs. The source confirms that Kagame was not aware of Musoni and his company’s attempts to lock up Bideri because of Rukarara hydro power dam. He then called Bizimungu, the CID boss and questioned him about Bideri’s case. Our source reveals that Bizimungu painstakingly revealed that he was only invited by Gasana to be part of the interrogation session, and that his efforts to advise Gasana from pursuing this case was out rightly objected by the later.

Kagame furiously called Gasana, and questioned him about Bideri’s case. The President lambasted Gasana for acting in an insane manner, and ordered him to immediately release Bideri from jail. However, Gasana did not reveal to the President the real person who was behind the move, namely Rajabu. The next day Kagame ordered a meeting at his office, and mandated Major General Karake Karenzi, the NSSS boss to chair it. In attendance were at Gasana, Bizimungu and Nziza. In this meeting, Karake Karenzi strongly condemned Gasana for the arrest and detention of the TNT boss. He cautioned him against acting irrationally in matters of arrest of citizens, especially people working in the media.

Again in this meeting, Gasana decided not to reveal Rajabu, as being behind his decision to arrest Bideri. At the end of the meeting, Gasana and Nziza briefed Rajabu about it. Rajabu vowed to punish and bring down Karake from his NSSS job and hand it over to Nziza. Indeed, he approached Kagame with wild allegations against Karake. As usual, Kagame rubbished Karake’s report of that meeting.

According to our source close to the President’s office, In a recent security meeting, Kagame condemned Karake Karenzi for being a moll of enemies of the State and undermining the security. In rather an outburst manner, Kagame reminded him of how he had helped him by appointing him at a NSSS boss. He reminded him of his past and present ‘sins’; and warned him to keep off from interfering in other people’s business. For those known to Kagame, he plays the double standard game! In short, Karake’s days at NSSS are numbered because Rajabu is working hard to undermine him from there and expose him to Kagame’s wrath.

In a related development, we carried an investigation of other people who have been victimized of Musoni’s malicious witch hunt. For example, he categorically refused to register Ingabire’s FDU-Inkingi party, and together with Kagame preferred to lock her up in jail under fabricated charges. Mandated by Kagame, Musoni and Nziza worked tirelessly with DMI, and are behind Ingabire’s woes as well as other politicians and journalists who are rotting in Kagame’s controlled jails. The same source also revealed that the ban of Umuvugizi and Umuseso was Musoni’s project, because both papers were critical of his machinations and corruption. And families of Agnes and Saidati, the two journalists in jail also confirmed that the police and prosecutors revealed that they were acting on orders of Musoni, the powerful Minister to lock up the two journalist in jail. According to some Green party member, Musoni using Kambanda, the former Green Party General Secretary planned and executed the assassination of Andrew Rusereka, the party’s Vice President. The Directorate of Immigration and Prosecutor’s General office received instructions from Rajabu to fabricate charges against the human rights watch lady Calina; who was later ordered to leave Kigali with immediate effect. Similarly, Ngoga, the Prosecutor General confessed to some people that USA respected scholar and lawyer Peter Erlinder was arrested and pronounced a persona non grata in Rwanda much more under Musoni’s order than Kagame.

Musoni’s notorious actions have become a real threat to human life in Rwanda. John Rwagombwa, the current Minister of Finance and Economic planning has confided to some close RPF members that Musoni is working hard to tarnish his credibility. Having studied together at Makerere University, where John Rwagombwa and Emmanuel Hategeka the Permanent Secretary in the Minister of Commerce outshined him in studies, Musoni has never forgiven the two gentlemen, yet both are widely respected and intelligent gentlemen by all standards. Actually, accordingly to the Makerere Univesity records, Musoni obtained a pass degree, and many of his former students wonder why Kagame has elevated him and continue to value his (Rajabu) irrational advice.

Musoni’s other target is Ms Kampeta Sayizonga, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning. This learned lady, like John Rwagombwa the Minister of Finance have vehemently refused Musoni’s move to make them his instruments of corruption and other malicious-hate related missions. The young intelligent man called Francios, former OTE was fired from the Ministry of Finance because he rejected to clear Musoni’s requisition of millions of dollars. Another resourceful person from the same ministry who lost his job (not because of his incompetence) was Kamili Karamaga former director of budget. Before she left Rwanda Revenue Authority, Mary Baine, the former Commission General too was a tormented by Musoni because of the later’s numerous attempts to use her to evade taxes of his building materials. Later, Musoni managed to have her removed from her juicy position and posted into the Ministry of Foreign affairs. Before Baine, Henry Gaperi Kanyesigye her predecessor and later Director General of Caisse Socialle suffered the same fate. In fact, we’ve been told that Gaperi who is now the IMF regional director with offices in Mozambique has been refused to cover Rwanda because of Musoni’s orders. Others, like Claudine Nyinawagaga, the former Mayor of Gasabo district were easily fired by Musoni for her refusal to allocate him government land. Then you have this learned accountant in Kigali and proprietor of Kigali Institute of Management called Peter Rutaremara who too was fired from the Chairmanship of Tender Board again for refusal to grant Musoni government tenders.

The vital question among Rwandan citizens is; for who long shall Rajabu, ordained by Kagame, continue to live in their country under such constant fear of persecution from James Musoni? Though Musoni James is Kagame close confident, one wonders whether he does not take advantage of Kagame personal weakness to quench his thirst of terrorizing citizens perceived to be his critics and enemies. Musoni, like Kagame, will always be remembered in the history of Rwanda for their political mismanagement and history will judge them harshly. As for those who have taken a vow of standing with Musoni and his mentor Kagame to bring down others, either you should chose to act rationally by abandoning the two or  you risk sinking with Kagame-Musoni-Nziza-Nyiramongi titanic ship soon than later!

Benedicto Kimenyi

Email: bkkimanyi@gmail.com

Related articles

• Kagame Turns Real Ugly: Arrests New Times’ Editor-In-Chief Bideri (africandictator.org)
• Rwandan Diaspora: Are We Really ‘Dogs’ As Kagame Famously Called Us? (africandictator.org)

African Dictator

AD and readers, I pay tribute to our fallen but not to be forgotten Rwandan Brave Charles Ingabire, founder and editor of Inyenyeri, who was murdered by Kagame after Ingabire chose exile rather than be silenced by the Rwandan butcher. Ingabire, may your passing rally Rwandans to free ourselves of the Kagames. Ingabire, you kept telling us that:

Today, it is now or never…
The battle has just begun
All I have in my mind is…

Never give up!
Never give up!

Never give up even if…
If I fall, I will rise
I am brave because in my mind…

Never give up!
Never give up!

I will never stop, I’ll walk hard
No one can stop me even my greatest nightmare
For all I know, the lord always guide me.

Never give up!
Never give up!

The wound would never be my weakness
Even my greatest enemies
For I know all this time…

Never give up!
Never give up!

I promised myself
I will pass this greatest battle
So whatever happens

I will never…
Never ever give up!

Rey Benipayo, whoever you are who wrote these words, thanks for lending us these poetic lines through which to sing songs to our departed Rwandan brave Charles Ingabire. Rest in peace dear brother.

Gakuba Theodore, Kigali.

African Dictator

Leon Magyeshi, suspect in journalist Charles Ingabire’s assassination

The District Police Commander Wandegeya police station Richard Ecega confirms the assassination of Charles Ingabire. “It’s true Ingabire has been killed. Investigations are underway. I will give more information later,” Ecega tells chimpreports.com news desk.

According to a highly placed security source investigating the matter, one Leon Magyeshi, who is now detained at the headquarters of Chieftaincy of military intelligence in Kampala, is believed to have coordinated the assassination.

Magyeshi, a Rwandese military veteran, has been coordinating espionage activities for Kagame’s government from Kampala. He was picked by CMI from his home in Mengo, a Kampala suburb.

Related:

Rwandan Journalist Charles Ingabire of Inyenyeri News Killed In Kampala

[ChimpReports]