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Rwanda dresses list of Rwandans deserving Osama Bin Laden fate

After the execution of Osama bin Laden by the US Special Forces who made an incursion in Pakistan last week, people around the world have expressed different views on that milestone event. Some have unreservedly rejoiced, others have asked more questions about the legality of what happened.

America has succeeded in eliminating the person they consider as the number 1 terrorist leader. Who would dare to blame them, knowing the suffering and anxiety caused by Osama bin Laden’s activities?

For the Rwandan regime of course, the legality of this execution operation in Pakistan can not be questioned. After all, although the recent execution operation against the ‘evil’ Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa failed, Rwanda has also recorded such successes in the past: ‘evil’ people (including Seth Sendashonga, Theoneste Lizinde, Pasteur Musabe, Uwilingiyimana…) have been successfully executed by Kagame special forces in Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, Congo and Belgium.

Now, comforted by this recent american “success” story, Rwanda has issued an unequivocal warning saying that the Osama bin Laden fate is awaiting Rwandan ‘evil people’.
The pro government newspaper ‘The New Times’ published on Tuesday a non exhaustive list of Rwandans who the Kagame governement considers as deserving the Osama bin Laden fate: Felicien Kabuga, FDLR members, Ignace Murwanashyaka, Callixte Mbarushimana, Victoire Ingabire, Deo Mushayidi, Kayumba Nyamwasa, Patrick Karegeya, Gerald Gahima and Theogene Rudasingwa.

What to think about that?

May 6, 2011   1 Comment

Kagame regime claims its opponents are terrorists and deserve Osama bin Laden fate

The governement-sponsored newspaper “The New Times” enthusiastically compares opponents to Kagame regime with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
Here is the content of their article titled “Osama Bin Laden’s Lesson for Local Terrorists”.

You can run. You can hide. But you won’t escape. Osama Bin Laden learnt the lesson of this simple truth, Sunday night. The world’s most famous terrorist was killed in his hideout in Pakistan last night after a decade on the run.

Osama bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda, became the face, brain and soul of international terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in which about three thousand people were killed.

Following that attack, the United States government mounted a hunt for bin Laden. He took to his heels, hid in the hills and caves of Afghanistan and behaved like all outlaws do. That run has now ended in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Huge crowds came out in Washington and New York in the middle of the night to celebrate the death of a notorious terrorist. They came to express their delight that the author of one of the darkest chapters in American, and indeed, world history was no more.

And in that sense their euphoria is understandable. Equally understandable is the significance of his death.

However, as President Barrack Obama cautioned, people must not relax their vigilance because of the sense of accomplishment now felt in the United States. The death of bin Laden may have been a heavy blow to international terrorism, but it is not a knock-out punch.

There are many other smaller terrorist groups scattered across the world that are independent from Al Qaeda which will continue to pose a threat.

And we can expect some sort of response from Al Qaeda, if only to prove that it is still a potent force even without its head.

Still, Osama bin Laden’s death is very important and has lessons for other terrorists and criminals on the run or in hiding around the globe that their end will also come. Sure, they can run. And yes, they can hide.

But eventually they will be found and made to account.

In Rwanda we have our own criminals and terrorists sheltering in foreign countries. What has happened to Osama bin Laden should serve as notice to them that they cannot hide forever. Justice, in whatever form, will catch up with them.

Felicien Kabuga is one such criminal known to be hiding in the region. He went on the run after his role in the genocide in Rwanda – as planner and financier. He has a price on his head following his role in the murder of tourists in the Volcanoes Park.

Like Bin Laden, he has evaded capture because he has protectors in powerful places, whose protection he buys and renews constantly with his wealth.

Lest he forget, Osama bin Laden was also protected by powerful elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan, some with whom he shared the same ideology and others who wanted to use him in a power game with the Americans.

He had immense wealth. But all that did not stop his being eventually located and killed.

Then there is the FDLR terrorist group that continues to cause havoc in the D R Congo. They have virtually taken over part of that huge country.

They, too, have for the last seventeen years lived a lawless existence and thought they were out of reach of justice.

The FDLR have been led to this belief by a genocide ideology, their apologists in powerful places in foreign countries and international organisations. That support, as they must be finding out now, has its limits.

Their leaders like Ignace Murwanashyaka and Callixte Mbarushimana, who thought they enjoyed immunity from arrest and prosecution, face trial in European courts. Military commanders and ordinary fighters of the FDLR continue to lay down their arms and return home.

Soon it will be only the diehard genocidaire left to roam the forests of Congo.

Other politicians, like Victoire Ingabire and Deo Mushayidi, who have tried to use terrorism to get to power now know the perils of that route and, unless they are idiots, are unlikely to advise anyone to go the same way.

But there will always be idiots for whom history has no lessons. The group that is now known as the Gang of Four, all of whom have committed crimes ranging from abuse of office to treason are trying to reinvent themselves as political saviours of Rwandans.

Messrs Kayumba Nyamwasa, Patrick Karegeya, Gerald Gahima and Theogene Rudasingwa want to wipe away their sins and present themselves to Rwandans as impeccably clean, although what they really need most is confession and forgiveness.

The indication that they have learnt nothing is that they have chosen the terrorist route to political power. They think they have powerful godfathers who will protect them and lead them to their desired goal.

Some of the godfathers, however, do not appear to be so powerful. They are beginning to show signs of vulnerability and may soon have to be more preoccupied with watching their own backs and fending off opponents than sticking out their necks for opportunists and imposters.

The criminal quartet and other unsavoury characters to whom they are allied in a terrorist enterprise will soon find out that the jungles of foreign countries and villas in upmarket areas of foreign capitals are not very safe.

They can run and hide, but will run out of options and then their actions will catch up with them.

If Osama bin Laden could speak now, he would tell them that.

[The New Times] 03/05/2011

May 6, 2011   4 Comments

Rwandan Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga vows to summon American Lawyer Erlinder at all costs

Lawyer Peter Erlinder jailed in Rwanda while trying to defend Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire
Peter Erlinder – the American lawyer and Professor of Law who was jailed by Kagame regime last year for genocide denial when he went to Rwanda to defend opposition politician Victoire Ingabire – still bears the scars of his traumatic experience in Rwanda jail. He has been so scared and traumatised that he didn’t even dare to go back to Tanzania (Rwanda’s neighbour hosting the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) to the defend his client Aloys Ntabakuze. This prompted the ICTR last month to sanction him and bar him from the tribunal as defense counsel.

Now, Rwanda Prosecutor fuels Erlinder’s anxiety further by announcing that he still intends to summon him to Rwandan court. He warns him not to try to ‘jump bail’ !

Kigali � Rwanda will issue summons to the controversial American lawyer, Peter Erlinder, to face charges related to Genocide denial and revisionism, when the appropriate time comes.

Addressing a news conference on Monday the Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, said that the America lawyer, who was last month banned by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), will some day have his day in court to answer the charges.

Ngoga emphasised that nothing will deter the Prosecution from pursuing Erlinder and that his case will not end anywhere else or by any other means but rather in the courtroom because there are no plans to abandon the case or drop the charges.

“He was released on bail and he remains on bail. We have since continued our investigations to strengthen our case and get ourselves ready to institute a substantive case against him,” Ngoga said.

“The fact that we haven’t filed or the fact that we haven’t summoned him to come back here is one that depends mainly on our priorities and not on our readiness. We are ready and we are just looking at the appropriate time,” he added

The Prosecutor General pointed out that whether Erlinder responds or not, was a matter within his reach, but warned that mechanisms that deal with people who jump bail do exist and will be applied on him, including issuing Interpol with an alert.

Ngoga said that in the “near future” when prosecution is ready with the case, Erlinder will be issued with a notice and the public will be informed as well.

The Prosecutor General further said that even with his recent downfall with the ICTR, Erlinder continues to peddle allegations about Rwanda, referring to him as an “attention seeker” who has failed to score credit in his profession as a lawyer.

“We are not party of the decision against him by ICTR. He just remains to be an attention seeker. Somebody who having failed to gain professional credits in the court where he was supposed to practice,” Ngoga said.

“He is instead continuing to make up stories to remain in the headlines. We rather think professionalism could be acquired in lecture rooms where he teaches and in the courtroom where he practices, not through blogs and other avenues in the media,” he added.

Ngoga said that the falsehoods created by Erlinder constitute his lack of professionalism which the ICTR sanctioned him for, noting that his conduct will, however, not stop the case from proceeding.

Erlinder, who was arrested in May last year and later released on bail, is facing charges of Genocide denial and minimising the 1994 Genocide. He was granted bail on “medical and humanitarian grounds.”

In a related case, Ngoga announced that the case involving Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the leader of the yet-to-be-registered party FDU-Inkingi, will go into substance beginning May 16.

Ngoga said that despite some countries failing to cooperate or acting slowly in submitting the evidence Rwanda requested for, there is quite enough evidence collected by the prosecution to allow the case to proceed.

He noted that among the countries that cooperated include Holland, where her house was searched and one witness who gave “very critical” information to the case was interviewed. Others include Burundi and D.R Congo.

Ngoga noted that the evidence obtained from foreign jurisdiction, including Holland, where Ingabire and her family have lived for 16 years, makes the allegations that her case is a political, baseless.

[AllAfrica]

May 6, 2011   1 Comment