The six-month deadline given to �Forces d�mocratiques de lib�ration du Rwanda� (FDLR) to voluntarily surrender and disarm has expired.

The Government of Rwanda reiterates its call to the Government of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the United Nations Mission in Congo (Monusco) to abide by their regional and international obligations, notably UNSC Resolutions 2147 (2014) Resolution 2098 (2013) both of which authorize: �[…] Offensive operations through the FIB either unilaterally or with FARDC [�]�

As predicted, the FDLR has taken full advantage of this period to expand and consolidate its military and political organization with the aim to further destabilize Rwanda and the region.

Regional and international stakeholders are presented, once again, with a critical opportunity to demonstrate their genuine commitment to neutralizing negative forces and ensure lasting peace in the Great Lakes Region.

Having consistently objected to all maneuvers used to protect or legitimize the FDLR, the Government of Rwanda urges the international community to ensure that hidden agendas are not allowed to stand, any longer, in the way of sustainable peace, progress and security for the citizens of this region.

The delaying tactics and excuses that have allowed the FDLR to perpetuate their crimes and genocidal ideology should no longer be tolerated.

via The Government of Rwanda’s statement on need for urgent military action against FDLR – The New Times | Rwanda.

Former UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali said of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that it was 100 percent the responsibility of the Americans. Many agree that president Paul Kagame and the like of president Joweri Museveni were only actors in a � Continue reading ?
Rising Continent

Museveni�s speech during the 20th Rwanda Genocide commemoration – 07/04/2014.

H.E. President Kagame,
H.E. the First Lady
Y.E’s the Head of States and Government,
Leaders of delegations,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

I greet you and convey to Your Excellencies and the People of Rwanda the greetings of the People of Uganda.
Rwanda, along with Burundi, Uganda, parts of North Western Tanzania, Eastern Congo, Western Kenya, is part of the Great Lakes area that has, since several millennia, been occupied by the inter-lacustrine Bantus, Nilotics, Nilo-Hamitic and the Sudanic peoples. The Rwanda people themselves are Bantu, part of the inter-lacustrine Bantus.
This area of the Great Lakes is unique because it had a quite advanced level of centralisation, civilisation and state formation (kingdoms and chiefdoms); advanced agriculture and livestock industry; unique industrial practices such as the processing of bananas into alcohol and juice, the milk industry, the cereals of sorghum and millet and their derivatives, etc., etc.; the science of converting iron-ore (obutare) into iron was also advanced ? totally vertically integrated ? as was the workings on other metals such as brass (emiringa), copper (ekikomo), etc., etc. �There was also the unique technology of making textiles out of the ficus trees (emitooma).
In the socio-economic spheres, a feudal system was sitting atop symbiotic societies of agriculturalists (abahinzi), cattle keepers (aborozi), craftsmen such as blacksmiths (abaheesi), Wood workers (ababaizi), pottery workers (ababumbyi), textile workers for bark cloth (embugu, ebitooma) known as abakomagyi, leather workers (abaremi), etc. and professionals such as medicine men, magicians, musicians, etc.
At the top, the system could be parasitic where the kings and other rulers could expropriate property from citizens (kunyaga), do partial expropriation (kunogora), practice obuhakye � a form of serfdom, Kibooko etc.
The rulers could also take tribute (emitoijo, amatuuro in Kinyarwanda) from the ordinary people. �At the base of the society, however, the system was symbiotic with the different groups specialising in crops, livestock, fishing (abajubi), seamen (abarimbi), craftsmen (as already narrated), medicine men (abampfumu, abaraguzi) and, then, exchanging products (okuchurika) ? barter trade ? with one another.
It is, therefore, a historic crime that external forces, working with local traitors, could turn a symbiotic society into the theatre of the most fiendish reactionary crimes � genocide.
To the credit of one of the Kings, Rudahigwa, he had abolished ubuhake and Kibooko. He also enforced sharing of economic resources (cows and land) between chiefs and ordinary people, both Hutu and Tutsi.
Unfortunately, he was assassinated as was Prince Louis Rwagasore of Burundi. Rudahigwa and Rwagasore were patriots and Pan-Africanists. That is why the parasitic forces grew desperate and started using sectarianism, assassinations and genocide. All that did not save those traitors. �Where they still exist, it is on account of the mistakes of the International community.
Trade, within the Great Lakes and between the Great Lakes and the Coast of the Indian Ocean, was booming although inconvenienced by the greed of the egotistical chiefs on the trade routes. �Ruswaruura of Bujinja distinguished himself in that skill of extorting �hongo� � tax from travelers. �The benevolent Kings like Rumanyika, Oruguundu, of Karagwe, on the other hand, encouraged the travelers and traders and assisted them. �The fatal weakness of the Chiefs and Kings of that time was the failure to see the wisdom of political integration.
Although the Europeans spent about 400 years at the coast of the Indian Ocean before they had the capacity (automatic weapons, the steam engine and quinine) to penetrate in the interior of the continent, the myopic kings and chiefs, engrossed in self glorification and, sometimes, tyranny, could not see the wisdom of political integration in order to defend themselves against the strangers (the Bazungu) that were frequenting the coast of East Africa ever since 1498 when Vasco Da Gama went around the Cape of Good Hope.
Eventually, that ego-centrism of our kings and chiefs proved fatal. Once the Europeans had used the 4 centuries to advance themselves in technology, they called the Congress of Berlin in 1884 to partition Africa among the British, the French, the Germans, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Dutch in South Africa. �Except for Ethiopia, the whole of Africa was conquered. This was a big shame for Africa.
That interaction with Europe came with the slave trade, mass killings, imported epidemics of small pox and other diseases, colonialism and the looting of our natural resources. �When Africa joined the worldwide anti-colonial struggle, along with India, Indonesia, Indo-China, China, parts of Latin America and some parts of the Middle East, assisted by the socialist countries (the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc.), also assisted by the wars among the imperialist countries (1st and 2nd World Wars), we regained our freedom. �This made certain circles among the imperialists very desperate. �That is how they launched the criminal schemes of genocide, mass killings, assassinations of prominent political leaders, the secession schemes of Katanga and Biafra, etc., etc.
Rwanda, one of the most highly centralised indigenous states, fell a victim to these schemes. �A bankrupt pseudo-ideology of dividing the People of Rwanda, who have got a common language and culture, was hatched and promoted in the form of sectarianism. �While there could have been antagonistic relations between the rulers (Abanyiginya and other nobles) and the people, there could be no antagonistic relations between ordinary Batutsi and Bahutu.
Those groups had a symbiotic relationship that I have talked about above. �Specialisation in production and, then, exchange of products. You could not have an ordinary Mututsi extorting tribute from an ordinary Muhutu. It is only the rulers that would take tribute (amatuuro) from both the Tutsis and Hutus. Using their military force (e.g. Kakomankongyi � helicopters), the Colonialists supported a criminal sectarian group of Gregoire Kayibanda whom they had trained in their Seminaries in Europe, to take power and launch the first genocide of 1959 to 1963. That genocide, apart from killing hundreds of thousands, produced a Tutsi diaspora that, eventually, numbered one million. �The reactionary regime told these people that they could not go back to their Country because it was over-crowded. �When that bankrupt group was challenged by the RPF, their answer was genocide. �In spite of killing one million people, the traitor criminal regime could not defeat the revolutionary forces. �They fled to link up with their ideological colleague � Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo � Kinshasa.
That is the tragic story of Rwanda, of Burundi, of Congo, of Uganda, of Sudan etc. � where local reactionaries link up with the foreign parasitic interests to cause haemmorhage of life, on an unimaginable scale in Africa and do so with impunity.
I want to congratulate the People of Rwanda and the RPF for defeating these traitors and ensuring that they will never come back to kill the People of Rwanda again. �We all can witness the economic growth in Rwanda and its stabilisation. �As a veteran patriot of this area, I would like to warn those who hobnob with the genocidaires to know that they will have to contend with the patriotic forces that defeated the traitors with their external backers when they were still much weaker. �We are now much stronger in every sense of the word: politically, militarily, socially and economically. �The People of Rwanda should know that they can always count on the People of Uganda. �Uganda is steadfast in the support for African emancipation.
Again, I congratulate the RPF for defeating the traitors. �I call them traitors because they created unprincipled and pseudo contradictions among the Banyarwanda. �It is good that you have transcended that phase by relying on patriotism to defeat sectarianism.
I wish you continued prosperity.
I thank you.

Speech by President Paul Kagame
20th Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi
Kigali, 7 April 2014
� Excellencies Heads of State and Government;
� Excellency Secretary-General of the United Nations;
� Excellency Chairperson of the African Union Commission;
� Former Heads of State and Government;
� Distinguished Government Officials from around the world;
� Esteemed Guests;
� My Fellow Rwandans:
I don�t have enough words to express my appreciation to all our friends, who have come from near and far to be with us, on a day as important as this. I also thank all of those who have stood with us in Rwanda�s incredible journey of rebuilding.
We are gathered here to remember those who lost their lives in the Genocide and comfort those who survived.
As we pay tribute to the victims, both the living and those who have passed, we also salute the unbreakable Rwandan spirit, to which we owe the survival and renewal of our country.
To our parents, children, brothers, and sisters who survived � to Rwandans who defied the call to genocide and to those who give voice to their remorse � it is you who bear the burden of our history.
We have pursued justice and reconciliation as best we could. But it does not restore what we lost.
Time and again these past twenty years, Rwandans have given of themselves. You have stood before the community to bear witness and listened to others do the same. You have taken responsibility and you have forgiven.
Your sacrifices are a gift to the nation. They are the seed from which the new Rwanda grows. Thank you for allowing your humanity and patriotism to prevail over your grief and loss. Thank you very much.
Historical clarity is a duty of memory that we cannot escape. Behind the words �Never Again�, there is a story whose truth must be told in full, no matter how uncomfortable.
The people who planned and carried out the Genocide were Rwandans, but the history and root causes go beyond this country. This is why Rwandans continue to seek the most complete explanation possible for what happened.
We do so with humility as a nation that nearly destroyed itself. But we are nevertheless determined to recover our dignity as a people.
Twenty years is short or long depending on where you stand but there is no justification for false moral equivalence. The passage of time should not obscure the facts, lessen responsibility, or turn victims into villains.
People cannot be bribed into changing their history. And no country is powerful enough, even when they think that they are, to change the facts. After all, les faits sont t�tus.
Therefore, when we speak out about the roles and responsibilities of external actors and institutions, it is because genocide prevention demands historical clarity of all of us, not because we wish to shift blame onto others.
All genocides begin with an ideology � a system of ideas that says: This group of people here, they are less than human and they deserve to be exterminated.
The most devastating legacy of European control of Rwanda was the transformation of social distinctions into so-called �races�. We were classified and dissected, and whatever differences existed were magnified according to a framework invented elsewhere.
The purpose was neither scientific nor benign, but ideological: to justify colonial claims to rule over and �civilise� supposedly �lesser� peoples. We are not.
This ideology was already in place in the 19th century, and was then entrenched by the French missionaries who settled here. Rwanda�s two thousand years of history were reduced to a series of caricatures based on Bible passages and on myths told to explorers.
The colonial theory of Rwandan society claimed that hostility between something called �Hutu�, �Tutsi�, and �Twa� was permanent and necessary.
This was the beginning of the genocide against the Tutsi, as we saw it twenty years ago.
With the full participation of Belgian officials and Catholic institutions, this invented history was made the only basis of political organisation, as if there was no other way to govern and develop society.
The result was a country perpetually on the verge of genocide.
However, Africans are no longer resigned to being hostage to the world�s low expectations. We listen to and respect the views of others. But ultimately, we have got to be responsible for ourselves.
In Rwanda, we are relying on universal human values, which include our culture and traditions, to find modern solutions to our unique challenges.
Managing the diversity in our society should not be seen as denying the uniqueness of every Rwandan. If we succeed in forging a new, more inclusive national identity, would it be a bad thing?
We did not need to experience genocide to become a better people. It simply should never have happened.
No country, in Africa or anywhere else, ever needs to become �another Rwanda�. But if a people�s choices are not informed by historical clarity, the danger is ever present.
This is why I say to Rwandans � let�s not get diverted. Our approach is as radical and unprecedented as the situation we faced.
The insistence on finding our own way sometimes comes with a price. Nonetheless, let�s stick to the course.
To our friends from abroad � I believe you value national unity in your own countries, where it exists. Where it doesn�t, you are working to build it, just as we are.
We ask that you engage Rwanda and Africa with an open mind, accepting that our efforts are carried out in good faith for the benefit of all of us.
We want you to know that we appreciate your contributions, precisely because we do not feel you owe us anything.
Rwanda was supposed to be a failed state.
Watching the news today, it is not hard to imagine how we could have ended up.
We could have become a permanent U.N. protectorate, with little hope of ever recovering our nationhood.
We could have allowed the country to be physically divided, with groups deemed incompatible assigned to different corners.
We could have been engulfed in a never-ending civil war with endless streams of refugees and our children sick and uneducated.
But we did not end up like that. What prevented these alternative scenarios was the choices of the people of Rwanda.
After 1994, everything was a priority and our people were completely broken.
But we made three fundamental choices that guide us to this day.
One � we chose to stay together.
When the refugees came home � we were choosing to be together.
When we released genocide suspects in anticipation of Gacaca � we were choosing to be together.
When we passed an inclusive constitution that transcends politics based on division and entrenched the rights of women as full partners in nation-building, for the first time � we were choosing to be together.
When we extended comprehensive new education and health benefits to all our citizens � we were choosing to be together.
Two � we chose to be accountable to ourselves.
When we decentralise power and decision-making into the towns and hills across the country � we are being accountable.
When we work with development partners to ensure that their support benefits all our citizens � we are being accountable.
When we award scholarships and appoint public servants based on merit, without discrimination � we are being accountable.
When we sanction an official, no matter how high-ranking, who abuses their power or engages in corruption � we are being accountable.
As a result, our citizens expect more from government, and they deserve it.
Three � we chose to think big.
When Rwandans liberated our country � we were thinking big.
When we created Rwanda�s Vision 2020 and committed to meeting our development goals � we were thinking big.
When we decided to make Rwanda attractive for business � we were thinking big.
When we invested in a broadband network that reaches all our 30 districts � we were thinking big.
When we became a regular contributor to United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions � we were thinking big.
We may make mistakes, like every country does. We own up and learn and move forward.
There is more hard work ahead of us than behind us. But Rwandans are ready.
A few years ago, at a commemoration event, I met a young man who was one of the twelve people pulled alive from under 3,000 bodies in a mass grave at Murambi.
He still lived nearby, totally alone. When the perpetrators he recognised came home from prison, he was understandably terrified.
When I asked him how he managed, he told me: �I could not do it unless I was convinced that these impossible choices are leading us somewhere better.�
Twenty years ago, Rwanda had no future, only a past.
Yet as Fidel told us just now, today we have a reason to celebrate the normal moments of life that are easy for others to take for granted.
If the Genocide reveals humanity�s shocking capacity for cruelty, Rwanda�s choices show its capacity for renewal.
Today, half of all Rwandans are under 20. Nearly three-quarters are under 30. They are the new Rwanda. Seeing these young people carry the Flame of Remembrance, to all corners of the country over the last three months, gives us enormous hope.
We are all here to remember what happened and to give each other strength.
As we do so, we must also remember the future to which we have committed ourselves.
I thank you.

By Henry D Gombya

Col Patrick Karegeya who was found strangled in a Johannesburg Hotel on New year�s Day

Dead Men Tell No Tales is a saying that has existed for a long time, and which American actor Clint Eastwood often used in many of his spaghetti westerns. But it wasn�t extremely popular until it became famous through the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, in which a pirate-ish skull and crossed bones on the wall utters this very phrase, among other things. Basically, what it means is that to keep something quiet, kill anyone who knows about it and, since that person is dead, it would be pretty much impossible for them to tell your secret.

But former Rwandan intelligence chief, Patrick Karegeya seems to have once and for all buried this myth and may now have relegated it to history by proving that, you know what, dead men after all, do actually tell tales these days. Having been mercilessly silenced allegedly by a group of assassins from Rwanda who enticed him to meet them at a Johannesburg upmarket Hotel on Christmas Eve and left after strangling him, the former Director General of Rwanda�s military intelligence seems to be speaking from the dead as his thoughts shortly before he died exposes one of the West�s most admired African leader as a cruel, murderous and calculating killer who has used the West�s failure to stop the Rwanda genocide in 1994 to his own advantage.

In a letter that he wrote to a friend in the United States, a copy of which The London Evening Post has obtained, Col Karegeya, a Makerere University law graduate who, together with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, joined a band of fighters that helped Uganda�s Yoweri Museveni come to power in 1986, is today laying bare the inner working of the Kagame regime in Rwanda and how the �darling of the West� has used repression to stay in power.

Writing clearly with passion for his country which is tinged with Christian values, and verging on the need for reconciliation by all, and also showing a great command of the English language, Col Karegeya says: �The RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) government relies on a wide range of laws, administrative practises and terror to restrict citizens� enjoyment of political freedoms.� He adds: �Institutions of the State continue to subject real and imagined critics of government to a wide range of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, detentions and involuntary disappearances and extrajudicial killings.�

Mad with power? Rwandan President Kagame who the late Col Karegeya accused of having become a terrifying killer
No Rwandan today can stand up to President Kagame and utter these words, Karegeya�s widow Leah yesterday told The London Evening Post that Rwandans are so scared of their leader that it took a while for those who knew before her that her husband had been killed, to have the courage to pass on the message to her for fear someone might hear them say what had happened. Turning on the very department he led for ten years from 1994, Col |Karegeya accuses the country�s security services, �all exclusively controlled by Tutsi military officers� of enjoying �absolute impunity for grave human rights abuses� and being responsible for keeping President Kagame in power. �Many members of opposition parties, civil society groups, independent media outlets and individuals suspected of being opponents of the regime, have been hunted down, arrested, tortured, imprisoned or killed by agents of the State,� he wrote.

The dead man then tells the tale of those he said had become �victims of state-sponsored terror� in the recent past. These included Andre Kagwa Rwisereka � Vice President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda who was found murdered and his body dumped in Butare on 13 July 2010; Jean Leonard Rugambagye � deputy Editor of Umuvugizi newspaper who was shot dead in front of his home in Kigali on 24 June, 2010 after writing an article criticizing President Kagame in his online newspaper and John Rutayisire, a relative of Col Karegeya. Another journalist that Col Karegeya doesn�t mention in his letter is Charles Ingabire who edited the Kinyarwanda newspaper Inyenyeri News as well as the Kigali-based newspaper Umuco. He fled Kigali in 2007 and was given asylum in neighbouring Uganda. An outspoken critic of the Kagame regime, on 30 November 2011 he was shot dead while having a drink at a pub in the Ugandan capital Kampala. No one has ever been arrested for his killing.

Others that have been allegedly killed for opposing President Kagame that Col Karegeya did not mention include Theogene Turatsinza, a Rwandan businessman who during his time as Managing Director of the Rwanda Development Bank (RDP) refused �orders from above� in Rwanda to declare RDP bankrupt. There had been rumours that senior members of the RPF had been helping themselves to the bank�s funds. He went missing on the 12th of October 2012 and three days later, his body was later found tied and floating in a river in Maputo, capital of Mozambique. Not knowing that within two days of writing the letter he would himself become yet another victim of the Rwanda terror group, Col Karegeya adds: �The Rwanda Government has deployed a very large number of intelligence operatives in countries across Africa, Europe and North America, to hunt down and kill opponents of the regime.� He couldn�t have been more prophetic.

What Col Karegeya says about the Rwandan leader resonates well with what others have said and written about President Kagame. Writing in the London Daily Telegraph of 22 July 2010, the newspaper�s Richard Grant wrote thus about President Kagame: ��the president of Rwanda is widely considered to be the most dynamic and effective leader in Africa today, and also ruthless, repressive and intolerant of criticism.� In his letter, Col Karegeya explains that what the outside world has seen about President Kagame is not what Rwandans living under his leadership have experienced.

He writes further: �President Kagame�s absolute control of the entire machinery of the state affords him protection from being held accountable for his many serious crimes, some of which have led to horrendous consequences for innocent civilians both inside and outside Rwanda.� The assassinated Rwandan dissident continues to tell his tale of a dead man by disclosing the source of President Kagame�s wealth. He revealed: �The business conglomerate � Crystal Ventures formerly Tri-Star Investments, and the military-led Horizon Group � owned by his political party, which for all practical purposes is his personal property, has extensive corrupt business relations with the state. RPF business entities have priority when government is issuing licenses for the most lucrative sectors of the country�s resources. Business entities owned by the RPF and close family and friends of the President receive the bulk of the government�s procurement contracts. Domestic and foreign investors seeking business opportunities in Rwanda are often compelled to go into partnership with the RPF as a condition for being allowed to do business in Rwanda.�

He accuses President Kagame and the RPF of promoting �social inequality� and undermining �national stability� by controlling businesses that benefit only a small group of people. He says: �The involvement of the RPF compromises the integrity of very many of its members, including President Kagame, because of the conflict of interest that they are involved in day to day in making official decisions affecting the party�s business interests.� Having died as the longest serving Rwandan director of intelligence, Col Karegeya surely knew quite well the inner workings of Kagame and the RPF.

As a lawyer, Col Karegeya does not mince his words when he accuses Kagame of bearing the responsibility for some �extremely serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, that have been committed against innocent civilians in both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo�. He says: �President Kagame will not shrink from committing any crime in order to stay in power. He does not have respect for the sanctity of human life and that is why he is always prepared to resort to murder of political opponents (and Heads of State) [Col Karegeya�s brackets] to deal with peaceful challenges to his rule. President Kagame bears responsibility for Rwanda�s failed transition to democracy and the political impasse that his attempts to cling to unaccountable power has given rise to.�

While Rwanda remains 22nd in the 30 poorest countries of the world (only two countries on the list are non-African), its leader, according to the man who knew him so well, yes; Col Karegeya, its leader travels in style. While most leaders in the West travel by public transport with the exception of the President of the United States, a country that is far richer and bigger than Rwanda which perhaps justifies its insistence, among other security details, that the leader of the so-called developed world must always travel exclusively on aircraft or cars made and provided by the USA, like many other African dictators whose countries are among the 30 poorest nations on earth, Col Karegeya tells us that President Kagame has the exclusive use of two private jets that transport him anywhere in the world or for any of his private businesses or official duties. �One example that demonstrates the depravity of Kagame�s corruption is the case of luxury jets that [he] uses for his personal and official trips. The planes, Global Expresses made by Canadian Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, cost more than US 60 million dollars each.� He also stays only at the most exclusive hotels of the world. According to a Washington DC insider, last year Kagame spent over $10,000 a night on hotel accommodation for himself alone when he attended the UN General Assembly.

While Rwanda is perceived by many as being peaceful, Col Karegeya warns that the human rights situation in the country remains of grave concern and that one cannot rule out the recurrence of yet another very violent conflict like the one the world witnessed in 1994. �Can Rwanda continue to be peaceful while the government continues to be repressive and the majority of the people consider the government illegitimate? How do we balance individual freedoms and the requirement for a stable community?� he asks.

The world has gone out of its way to try and apologise for failing to stop the 1994 genocide. The assassinated Rwanda dissident was of the view just a week ago that this failure by the West has been exploited by the Rwandan ruler who has used it �to silence critics of his opposition to democratic change and the human rights practices of his security services�. This intolerance, Karegeya charges, �continues to fuel impunity and is an obstacle to lasting peace and sustainable development in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo�. �Western indifference to President Kagame�s human rights record and stand on popular political participation, is incomprehensible to the majority of Rwandans and it alienates them,� he said.

Source:�thelondoneveningpost.com/

Rwanda President Paul Kagame is not dead as alleged on social media platforms, a senior government official said Friday morning.
Yolande Makolo, the President�s publicist, described the rumours as �utter rubbish.�

�For some, twitter rumour train is a full time job,� she charged.

Hundreds of residents of Goma, DRC, today stormed the streets in a wild celebration of Kagame�s death rumours.

Some were photographed carrying a coffin on the streets.

The DRC government recently accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, a charge Kigali vehemently denies.

Makolo�s remarks came against the backdrop of finely tuned rumours on Twitter about sensitive developments in the Great Lakes region.

Early this week, a journalist alleged that suspects in the murder of Patrick Karegeya in South Africa had been detained in Mozambique.
South Africa Police would later describe the reports as a �big lie.�

A few days later, another journalist claimed that Rwanda�s head of intelligence services, Karenzi Karake, had been put under house arrest over alleged links with Karegeya.

The journalist later retracted the story with an apology to Karake.

Officials told Chimpreports that the Twitter rumours are aimed at creating a climate of tension in the Great Lakes region.

It also emerged that Kagame was on Friday meeting a delegation of 31 students from Wharton School of the University, U.S at his Village Urugwiro office in Kigali.

Source: Chimpreports.com-Uganda News.

Benedict Llewellyn-Jones who has been serving as the United Kingdom�s High Commissioner to Rwanda for the last three year�s today called on President Kagame on Tuesday to bid him farewell after his tour of duty came to an end.

Chimpreports.com-Uganda News

January 5, 2014
LAGOS, Nigeria � The killing of Rwanda’s former spy chief in South Africa has critics revisiting serious allegations against Western-backed President Paul Kagame that go back to the Central African nation’s 1994 genocide.

Former Col. Patrick Karegeya, a wartime ally from Kagame’s days as a rebel leader, was found dead last week in a bed in Johannesburg’s prestigious Michelangelo Towers hotel. Police said he was possibly strangled.

Karegeya’s friends and fellow dissidents accused Kagame of ordering the assassination, pointing to a pattern of alleged killings of his opponents at home and abroad. Karegeya fled to South Africa in 2007.

Officials in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, have not responded to requests for comment. But the Rwandan high commissioner in South Africa, Vincent Karega, told local broadcaster eNCA that talk of assassination is an “emotional reaction and opportunistic way of playing politics.”

South African police say they are investigating the case but no arrests have been made.

The killing comes five months after Karegeya claimed to have incriminating evidence that would prove Kagame, who is lauded by Western leaders for ending Rwanda’s genocide, actually provided the catalyst for the mass killings.

In a July interview with Radio France International, Karegeya charged that Kagame ordered the downing of a jet that killed the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and neighboring Burundi, the event that triggered the genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were killed over three months.

Karegeya said on RFI that he was willing to hand his evidence to a court in France that is investigating because the plane’s pilots were French.

A long-suppressed U.N. report published in 2010 noted that Kagame in 1994 refused to have peace talks as thousands of mainly Tutsi Rwandans were being killed, buying the time that allowed his forces to reach Kigali and take control.

It accused Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front of then going on to massacre Hutus in Rwanda, including at Kibeho refugee camp in April 1995 before the eyes of Australian and Zambian U.N. peacekeepers, an attack allegedly led by Karegeya.

The same report, which carried a lengthy denial from Kagame’s government, accused the Rwandan-led forces of “a possible genocide” of Rwandan and Congolese Hutus in eastern Congo in the mid-1990s.

Rwandan experts have said the U.N. failure to publish an earlier 1994 report on RPF massacres gave Kagame a blank check to continue the killings.

Defense lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the court for perpetrators of the genocide based in Tanzania, long have contended that the court has provided “victor’s justice” by ignoring massacres by Kagame’s forces.

Kagame is feted by current and former U.S. and British leaders who point to how he has transformed an impoverished and war-ravaged nation into an efficient technology hub with some of the highest rates for literacy and health in Africa. That has come at the cost of a dictatorship that ruthlessly suppresses opposition and routinely jails, disappears and kills opponents, according to critics.

Analysts say the West panders to Kagame because of its great guilt over not ending the Rwandan genocide. And Kagame, who blames French troops that allowed perpetrators of the genocide to escape into Congo, played to British and American interests in diluting French influence in Central Africa when he changed Rwanda’s official language from French to English. That put Tutsi exiles who grew up in English-speaking Tanzania and Uganda at a great advantage over French-speaking Hutus. Rwanda’s other official language is Kinyarwanda.

Initial opposition to Kagame came, predictably, from members of the Hutu tribe, but in recent years it has come increasingly from former Tutsi allies like Karegeya and others who fear the brutal suppression of Rwanda’s majority people, the Hutu, might lead to another genocide.

About 85 percent of Rwandans are Hutu who were held in serfdom by Tutsi royalty in the 18th century. After World War I Rwanda fell to Belgian colonizers who entrenched divisions by ruling through the Tutsi monarch and educating only Tutsi males. Hutus who revolted had limbs amputated by Tutsis, on the order of the Belgians.

When independence and free elections came in 1961, they were won by Hutus. The first Tutsi attempt to regain power came a year later, with an invasion from Burundi. The Hutu government responded with brutal reprisals against Tutsi civilians.

Under Kagame, Hutu politicians have been killed or jailed in Rwanda. Journalists and judges also have been killed and imprisoned with the most fatal year being 2010, when Kagame was re-elected in polls that human rights activists called greatly flawed.

Kagame, who says many of his enemies deny the genocide, recently has taken to demanding that the children of Hutus apologize for the genocide that occurred before they were born.

“Kagame is actually blowing the country in the path of another genocide,” said former Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa. He was Kagame’s army chief of staff until 2010 and has survived two assassination attempts that are the subject of a South African court case and that left him with a bullet lodged in the base of his spine.

Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mr. Douglas E. Coe
Washington Avenue San Leandro,CA 94577
USA

28th December, 2013

Dear Mr. Coe,

Re: Ending the Crisis in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region through Dialogue On behalf of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC)

I am writing to inform you that the current situation in Rwanda is one of those that ought to be of the greatest and urgent concern to those in the international community who have genuine concern about international peace and security in general and in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa in particular. The majority of the people of Rwanda, we believe, share a common perception that policies of the international community have not reflected principled support for the development of democratic and inclusive institutions, respect for the fundamental rights of citizens and accountability of public officials for gross violations of human rights.

I write this letter to share our views on the political situation in Rwanda and on the role that you can play in advancing freedom and promoting long term stability and peace in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region.

The status of governance in Rwanda

The people of Rwanda have for a very long time been exposed to repressive government, leading to recurrent violent conflict. This violence reached its peak with the genocide of 1994. I have no doubt that you are well aware of the deprivation and immense suffering that recurrent conflict has occasioned to millions of Rwandans. I also acknowledge that the Government of Rwanda has, with the assistance of the international community, made significant progress in restoring public order, re-establishing effective state institutions, and rebuilding the country�s economy during the period since 1994. Unfortunately, the reconstruction efforts that Rwanda has undertaken since the genocide are not rooted in democratic values, respect for human rights and broad inclusion. As stated in the Rwanda Briefing document that four former colleagues of Rwandan President Kagame ( including myself) published in August 2010, �there is more to Rwanda and Paul Kagame than new buildings, clean streets, and efficient government than President Kagame�s famous friends in high places in Europe and America care to admit.

Rwanda is essentially a hard-line, one-party, secretive police state with a fa�ade of democracy �� The ruling party, the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), has closed space for political participation. The RPF does not tolerate political opposition or open competition for power. President Kagame does not allow opposition parties to be registered, let alone operate freely. Media outlets that are critical of the government are either shut down by the government or forced to close operations as a result of attacks against their journalists.

The Government of Rwanda has now closed down all the independent media outlets the country once had. Civil society organizations independent of the government operate under draconian restrictions that make the exercise of their role as watchdogs over government impossible. The people of Rwanda have no liberty to discuss, nor decide, how they should be governed. The Rwanda Government is controlled by a small group of Tutsi military officers and civilians from behind the scenes.

The political system marginalizes the majority of the population from political participation.The Government of Rwanda relies on severe repression to stay in power. The RPF government relies on a wide range of laws, administrative practices and terror to restrict citizens� enjoyment of political freedoms. Institutions of the state continue to subject real and imagined critics of the government to a wide range of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and detentions and involuntary disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The security services, all exclusively controlled by Tutsi military officers, that are responsible for keeping President Kagame in power enjoy absolute impunity for grave human rights abuses. Many members of opposition parties, civil society groups, independent media outlets and individuals suspected of being opponents of the regime have been hunted down, arrested, tortured, imprisoned or killed by agents of the state. Victims of state sponsored terror who have lost their lives over the recent past include Andre Kagwa Rwisereka (Vice-President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda), Jean Leonard Rugambagye (Deputy Editor of Umuvugizi Newspaper) and John Rutayisire.

The Rwanda Government has deployed a very large number of intelligence operatives in countries across Africa, Europe and North America to hunt down and kill opponents of the regime. Many members and leaders of opposition parties including ; Bernard Ntaganda, President of the Social Imberakuli Party; Victoire Ingabire President of the FDU-Inkingi Party ( recently sentenced to 15 years in jail; and, Deo Mushayindi of PPD Imanzi Party, remain in detention and so do some innocent relatives of opposition leaders.�The Rwanda Government continues its relentless persecution of government critics. The most recent victims of this persecution include independents journalists and opposition leaders, all of whom have been sentenced to long prison terms, some after trials in absentia that did not meet international standards of fair trial.

The climate of repression that prevails in Rwanda has forced many government officials including two former Prime Ministers, two former Speakers of Parliament, and a host of former Ministers, former Judges, senior government officials, Military officers, journalists and Human rights activists to join hundreds of thousands of their compatriots in exile. As a result of the repression that security services helping President Kagame are responsible for, Rwanda is a country engulfed by fear.

Not since the days of Idi Amin have the security services of a state terrorized a nation to the extent to which Rwanda�s security services have visited fear and terror upon the country�s citizens. The climate of fear and terror that prevails in Rwanda does not permit Rwandan society to freely discuss the very grave problems facing the country and to find solutions to those problems.

President Paul Kagame�s leadership

The grave political crisis that Rwanda is facing is largely a result of President Kagame�s relentless pursuit of absolute power. Rwanda�s first post-genocide government included a range of other political groups that had campaigned for democratic reform during the early 1990s. Rwanda�s experience with broad-based multi-party government came to an end after only a year. Then Vice President Kagame drove the opposition leaders who were part of that government from office on account of their criticism of human rights abuses by members of the Rwandese Patriotic Army. From then on, President Kagame embarked on a mission to emasculate all party and state institutions and to craft a state controlled in every aspect by a single person who wields absolute and unaccountable power.�Rwanda is not only a one party state; it is also a state governed by one man. President Paul Kagame exerts absolute control over both the ruling party (RPF) and the government.

All institutions of the state are controlled by the President. The country�s political system lacks checks and balances. The judiciary and the legislature do not have any independence. State institutions, especially law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and security services, serve to protect President Paul Kagame�s political monopoly instead of protecting the fundamental human rights of citizens and executing their constitutional mandates.�President Kagame�s absolute control of the entire machinery of the state affords him protection from being held accountable for his many serious crimes, some of which have led to horrendous consequences for innocent civilians both inside and outside Rwanda.

President Kagame is one of Africa�s most ruthless dictators. He is a corrupt leader who lives a lavish lifestyle that is out of step with the abject poverty of the majority of the people of Rwanda. President Kagame has used his time in office to amass personal wealth of unprecedented proportions in the Eastern and Southern African region. The business conglomerate (Crystal Ventures formerly Tri-Star Investments, and the military-led Horizon Group) owned by his political party, which for all practical purposes is his personal property, has extensive corrupt business relations with the state. RPF business entities have priority when government is issuing licenses for the most lucrative sectors of the country�s resources. Business entities owned by the RPF and close family and friends of the President receive the bulk of the government�s procurement contracts.�Domestic and foreign investors seeking business opportunities in Rwanda are often compelled to go into partnership with the RPF as a condition for being allowed to do business in Rwanda. The RPF finances its various businesses with preferential financial backing from state-owned banks, insurances companies, and the national social security fund. Because they benefit only a small group of people, the business activities of the RPF promote social inequality and undermine national stability. The involvement of the RPF compromises the integrity of very many of its members, including President Kagame, because of the conflict of interest that they are involved in day to day in making official decisions affecting the party�s business interests.

The RPF�s business arm already controls a big part of the country�s economy, about 80% by some credible estimates. One example that demonstrates the depravity of Kagame�s corruption is the case of luxury jets that President Kagame uses for his personal and official trips. The planes, Global Expresses made by Canadian Aircraft manufacturer Bombadier, cost more than US 60 million dollars each.

President Kagame also bears personal responsibility for some extremely serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, that have been committed against innocent civilians in both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.�President Kagame will not shrink from committing any crime in order to stay in power. He does not have respect for the sanctity of human life and that is why he is always prepared to resort to murder of political opponents ( and Heads of State ) to deal with peaceful challenges to his rule.

President Kagame bears responsibility for Rwanda�s failed transition to democracy and the political impasse that his attempts to cling to unaccountable power has given rise to. President Kagame�s manipulation and abuse of institutions of state to harass political opponents and stifle dissenting opinions continues to be condemned by virtually every reputable international human rights organisation, and many major media outlets and prominent scholars and journalists, including some who have previously been supportive of President Kagame.

Potential consequences of the policies of the Rwanda Government Rwanda, as demonstrated, still face many difficult challenges in its experience of nation building in the aftermath of violent conflict. It is generally acknowledged that Rwandan society remains deeply divided along ethnic lines. The country�s transition to democracy has been unsuccessful.

The human rights situation in the country remains a matter of grave concern. Citizens lack access to fundamental human rights. State security agencies commit grave human rights abuses with impunity. The country is peaceful, but many observers are of the view that recurrence of very violent conflict may be inevitable, at least in the medium to long term. President Kagame claims to have made progress in developing Rwanda, and argues that human rights, including rights relating to political participation, are not a priority for the development process. Nevertheless, concerns over the country�s progress in engendering reconciliation and creating a democratic system of government raise questions about the sustainability of Rwanda�s social and economic advances and the potential for renewed conflict.

The situation that prevails raises serious questions about the country�s future. Are the country�s development achievements sustainable? Can Rwanda continue to be peaceful while the government continues to be repressive and the majority of the people consider the government illegitimate? How do we balance individual freedoms and the requirement for a stable community? How should citizens respond when rulers mistake the state to be their personal estate and deprive their subjects of their inalienable rights?

We firmly believe that the violent conflicts that Rwanda has experienced over the past half century are rooted in issues revolving around governance.

The RPF government, we assert, has failed to effectively address the root causes of conflict in Rwandan society.�As a result, Rwanda is in a situation of serious crisis. The only path to sustainable peace and development in Rwanda is a system of government that has popular legitimacy, includes all communities of Rwanda and is committed to the respect of fundamental human rights, especially the integrity of the person and the right to political participation.�Economic development in post conflict societies that is not rooted in democratic values, respect for human rights, and broad inclusion is not sustainable.

We are convinced that violent conflict is virtually certain to return to Rwanda if the present government does not heed calls for dialogue and agree to a process of peaceful political reform leading to democracy. The results of the substantial development assistance that the international community has extended to Rwanda since the end of the genocide could be very swiftly undone in the event of such conflict, with grave implications for the whole Great Lakes region and international peace and security.

The role of the international community in supporting democratic change and building sustainable peace in Rwanda

President Kagame has exploited the failure of the West to stop or prevent the 1994 genocide to silence critics of his opposition to democratic change and the human rights practices of his security services. The tolerance that the international community has exhibited towards Paul Kagame�s excesses continues to fuel impunity and is an obstacle to lasting peace and sustainable development in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Western indifference to President Kagame�s human rights record and stand on popular political participation is incomprehensible to the majority of Rwandans, and it alienates them. Stability and development do not substitute for liberty and freedom.

In view of the grave consequences that a return to violent conflict in Rwanda would entail, the RNC and its partners hold the view that peace and security in Rwanda should be a matter of international concern.

The people of Rwanda count on Rwanda�s neighbors, and development partners, to support the promotion of respect for human rights and advancement of democracy. We believe, that Rwanda�s development partners, especially those who have close relations with the current government (the United States and the United Kingdom) have a unique role, if not responsibility, to advance the cause of peaceful change in Rwanda by engaging President Kagame on the need for progress in guaranteeing fundamental human rights and for national dialogue to resolve the country�s crisis.

The international community ought to support the seeking of democratic change, inclusive government and respect for human right in Rwanda on account of several reasons, including the following:

a) Empowering the people of Rwanda to realize the full range of their human rights: The people of Rwanda continue to be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy some of the most fundamental human rights, including rights relating to integrity of the person, freedom of expression and political participation. The Kagame regime relies on repression to maintain this status quo. The people of Rwanda are much entitled to be relieved of this tyranny as citizens of Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya whom the international community is supporting to make the realization of their human rights a reality.

b) Promoting international peace and security: In the absence of democratic reforms, the policies of the present government of Rwanda are likely to lead to a return to violence in the country. A system of government that deprives citizens of fundamental human rights, especially the right to political participation and the integrity of the person, cannot last indefinitely. Change in Rwanda is inevitable; the issue is whether change will be negotiated and peaceful, or violent and imposed, again, by the victors of a bloody armed conflict. Political change is necessary to avert violent conflict that repressive government in Rwanda has made almost inevitable. A return to violent conflict in Rwanda would further destabilize the Great Lakes region of Central Africa.

c) Humanitarian considerations: Rwanda is on the precipice of a very serious political and humanitarian crisis. A return to violent conflict in Rwanda is likely to take an ethnic dimension. As was demonstrated after 1994, violent conflict in Rwanda has capacity to lead to massive loss of human life, as well as immense suffering for millions, both inside Rwanda and in other countries in the region. The international community needs to act today in order to prevent the suffering and horrendous loss of life that is likely to result from the outbreak of new violence in Rwanda.

What you can do to help all Rwandans

There are even more important reasons why we, as Christians, are invited to radical inclusion, in truth, that leads to freedom, peace and reconciliation. I have read with a lot of interest the vision and mission of The Fellowship that is inspired from the scriptures: �Once you were not a people, but now are God�s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. �- I Peter 2:10 For a society like ours that has witnessed past and ongoing trauma, with all communities becoming victims and perpetrators, the question of forgiveness and mercy cannot be overemphasized. As brothers and sisters who are otherwise united by one nation and one language, we have sinned against each other.

The alienation from God and from each other has consequently inflicted untold suffering on our society as a whole, and to our neighbors in the region. We can face the future with hope if we talk to each other truthfully and learn to forgive each other. In the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: �If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.� � Matthew 18:15-17.

Equally inspired by these words of wisdom from the One we serve, our organization is planning to organize an international conference on Rwanda this coming year, around March, 2014. The idea is to invite stakeholders in Rwandan society (Government, Church, Civil Society and Opposition organizations, including those that are armed, etc..) to talk candidly about the state of affairs in our beloved country and how we can build the future together. Understandably, this is a very difficult proposition, given the fact that such a culture of dialogue, give and take is evidently lacking in our society. Yet, we can only imagine the dangerous alternatives to the dialogue and peace.�We have informed the United States Government, and the Governments of France, Belgium, Tanzania and South Africa about this idea. While they all note how difficult this will be, they appreciate how timely, important and urgent it is.

Could you help us in this important endeavor to get Rwandans talk to each other? As we look forward to the coming year, we are reminded of the prophetic words of the Prophet Isaiah, echoed many centuries later by our Lord and King, Jesus Christ: �The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.� -Luke :18-19.

The hands of the millions of Rwandans who enter 2014 afflicted, brokenhearted, captive in fear, and prisoners beckon all of us to action. It is an invitation we cannot ignore.

I wish you and your family a Happy New Year.

In Christ, Colonel Patrick Karegeya

Co-founder and Member of the Executive Rwanda National Congress (RNC)

E-mail: � � Tel:

Encl: Founding Declaration of the Rwanda National Congress

Edited and formatted by Jennifer Fierberg

Source: inyenyerinews.org/

Patrick Karegeya has died. Even before an investigation, many are already convicting the government of Rwanda generally and president Kagame personally.

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