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Kigali: The three former FDLR militia members to be paraded in court as accomplices to opposition politician Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza deserted the FDLR rebels before the period they are alleged to have been in contact with her, new information suggests.

These are Lt. Col No�l Habiyaremye, Lt. Col Tharcisse Mbiturende and Lt. Jean Marie Karuta.

According to Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga, these men were arrested in Burundi as they prepared to implement the plans of causing instability in Rwanda.

The FDU-Inkingi chair Victoire Ingabire was allegedly in contact with the three FDLR men with plans to launch a rebel group called CDF to topple government.

According to prosecution, Ms. Ingabire met Lt. Col Tharcisse Mbiturende in Kinshasa over the details of the proposed rebel force, which would include remnants of FDLR ranks.

Prosecution also claims the Colonel received money through Western Union from Victoire Ingabire from the Netherlands, and that they kept in touch through email.

However, the FDLR rebels revealed that the three government prisoners and informants are not members of the rebel force.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Paris-based FDLR Secretary General Callixte Mbarushimana said Lt. Col Habiyaremye deserted in October 2007, while Lt. Col Mbiturende and Lt. Karuta abandoned the rebel ranks in May 2008.

The FDLR Secretary General also said in the press statement that the group does not have any connections with the FDU-Inkingi party, nor Ms. Ingabire.

Related story:
Rwanda: Three �FDLR Ingabire accomplices� arrested

FDLR irahakana ko ikorana na Victoire Ingabire n�ishyaka ayoboye FDU-Inkingi

Frank Habineza – Chair of Democratic Green Party of Rwanda

Kigali: More drama continues to rock the yet-to-be registered Democratic Green Party as the party leader Frank Habineza says the controversial comments attributed to him were actually made by one of the officials who defected last week.

Founding Secretary General Mr. Charles Kabanda and two other officials Mr. Vincent Nshimirimana and Ms. Jean Marie Vianney Kantengwa told an impromptu press conference on Friday that they had dissociated themselves from party chief Mr. Frank Habineza.

The three accused Mr. Habineza of making statements at a conference in Uganda the previous week which they said were not approved by the party. According to the three defectors, Mr. Habineza misrepresented the views of the Green Party.
It is during that conference in Kampala that Frank Habineza has been elected as President of the Executive Committee of the Federation of African Greens on April 18th.

Mr. Habineza allegedly told the Kampala conference that Rwanda still had troops in DR Congo; that Rwanda was conniving with the United States and Britain to plunder DR Congo�s timber; and that the Green Party had two million members.

The three defectors said none of these assertions was true, and that they were not party to those comments.

Now, just back from a European tour, Mr. Habineza says the allegations against him are a �total lie�.

�It was actually Mr. Charles Kabanda who presented the report on Rwanda and not Frank Habineza,� says Mr. Habineza in a statement, in reference to one of the three defectors.

The elderly Mr. Kabanda was the first president of the now ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) back in the 1980s. He left the RPF, along with Habineza to found the Green Party in 2008 where he has since been Secretary General.

In the two-page rebuke of the defectors, Mr. Habineza says the �party leadership� has been having �serious concerns on� Mr. Kabanda and Mr. Nshimirimana.

��ever since he became a member of the party, he has never publically condemned the harassment and intimidation done to the Green Party, yet as a Secretary General it was in his capacity and duties to do so, but rather he was always giving excuses of not wanting to talk to the media and also discouraging the Leadership from doing so,� says Habineza of Kabanda.

As for Mr. Nshimirimana, who has been in charge of media at the troubled party, Mr. Habineza accuses him of disclosing party secrets to unnamed outsiders.

�Some of our internal discussions and decisions in party meetings used to be heard outside the office and we would wonder who it was, taking the party secrets and internal information outside the party, even some party documents used to get lost and be seen somewhere else,� claims Habineza.

However, as for the soft-spoken lady member, Ms. Jean Marie Vianney Kantengwa, the party chief says she was �probably mislead by these two men�. Apparently, the two men could have �exerted a lot of pressure on her, that her life was in danger, if she remained in the party.�

Describing the defection of three top members as a �big blessing�, Mr. Habineza claims they have actually been �heavy burden� to the party.

by Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD)

Those who preferred repatriation were safely brought into the country, but those who chose otherwise were shot “That�s what we did“.

Our organization would like to denounce and condemn in strongest terms possible recent public remarks made by Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, relative to Rwandan refugees and his fellow citizens.
What President Kagame has just stated is not only irresponsible, it is immoral.
In any democratic society, such statements would be indicative of his inability to be fit for any political office; therefore, he should immediately and unconditionally step down.

In his recent speeches, Paul Kagame has admitted to have ordered the killing of Rwandan refugees in Eastern DRC during the manhunt that was perpetrated by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in 1996-97 and in subsequent military campaigns.

He went on to compare Rwandan refugees to human waste. Based on such insertion one may conclude that they do deserve nothing more than being eliminated.
As a reminder, these crimes that were perpetrated against refugees and Congolese people have been qualified by independent observers and in UN reports as acts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

It is shocking and appalling of seeing a so-called national leader especially someone occupying the highest position of the land treating his fellow citizens of human waste.

Such characterization that may be compared to what was prevalent in other jurisdictions and leadership in the early days of the last century does not and shall not have any place in any modern society.

Few days back, he had compared other presidential candidates who have vied to challenge him in the upcoming bogus election to political hooligans.

These uncontrolled Kagames�s outbursts are symptomatic and/or indicative of a dysfunctional system that is about to disintegrate due to its own internal contradictions.

Meanwhile, Kagame has ordered the suspension of the free media outlets because the latter had the courage to report and question his regime deeds while informing truthfully the Rwandan people and the international community.

In a country where lawful dissent is criminalized, prohibited, and/or repressed forcefully, there is no place of democratic debate.

This has been one of the significant traits of the Rwandan regime since its inception.

The continuous flow of refugees including former RPF officials who have been flocking in neighboring countries is a blatant evidence of such brutality.

Once again, the Kigali�s regime has shown that it is neither interested in organizing free and fair elections nor in finding genuine solutions to underlying problems of our homeland.

Kagame�s interests solely reside in perpetuating the RPF hegemony as it has transpired in his recent public addresses.

After all these years of unparalleled tragedy and bad governance, the Rwandan people deserve better.

As our organization has always pointed out, the Rwandan problem is political in nature and requires political solutions.

To find lasting solutions to the overall problem of the Rwandan refugees in the region, it is important that the root causes of the political instability be addressed.

It is our firm conviction that as long as the underlying causes of the rwandan political problems would not genuinely be addressed, the populations of the region will neither enjoy lasting peace nor sustainable development and prosperity.

In order to foster a reconciliatory Justice system, the only foundation of genuine Reconciliation, the coalition RUD-Urunana and RPR will continue to call for the organization, under the auspices of the International Community, of an Inter-Rwandan Dialogue.

In addition, such process would set up a “Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation” Commission that would help heal a traumatized society.

We remain convinced that only this Dialogue would lead to lasting peace, stability, and the establishment of new political, judiciary, and security institutions that would meet the legitimate aspirations of all the constitutive groups of the Rwandan society.

DR. Augustin Dukuze – PRESS RELEASE PP NO. 02/APR/10
RUD Spokesperson

RUD-URUNANA
Urunana rw’Abaharanira Ubumwe na Demokarasi.
Ralliement pour l’Unit� et la D�mocratie
Rally for Unity and Democracy
Tel: 001-201-794- 6542 / 001-506-461- 3919
Email: [email protected]
Url: www.rud-urunana. org