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Lt Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, now in exile in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG � South African authorities say a Rwandan general accused of terrorism in Rwanda is in South Africa.

The spokesman for a special crime-fighting unit called the Hawks says Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa arrived in South Africa on Feb. 27. The Rwandan government has accused him of involvement in three Feb. 19 grenade attacks in Rwanda’s capital. The attacks in central Kigali killed one person and injured 30.

Hawks spokesman Musa Zondi says South Africa has not arrested him because they do not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda. Nyamwasa’s arrest and extradition will require a formal request from Rwanda’s attorney general, which would then need to be signed by South African President Jacob Zuma.
Source: The Associated Press.

On March 4, after the near-simultaneous grenade explosions which left at least 16 people wounded in Kigali, the U.S. Embassy issued the following message to U.S. citizens:

The U.S. Embassy in Kigali confirms there were two grenade attacks in Kigali at approximately 8:00 p.m. local time. The first occurred in the Kimironko neighborhood near the Printemps Hotel. The second was in the Kinamba neighborhood near the Gisozi Genocide Memorial. Injuries and/or casualties are unknown at this time.

U.S. citizens living or traveling in Rwanda are encouraged to register with the Embassy through the Department of State’s travel registration website, so they can obtain updated information on travel and security within Rwanda. U.S. citizens without Internet access may register directly with the Embassy. By registering, U.S. citizens make it easier for the Embassy to contact them in case of emergency.

The Embassy is located at 2657 Avenue de la Gendarmerie; the mailing address is B.P. 28, Kigali, Rwanda; tel. [250] (252) 596-400; fax: [250] (252) 596-591. The consular section�s email address is [email protected]. American Citizens Services hours are Tuesdays from 09:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Fridays from 09:00 a.m. until noon, except for U.S. and Rwandan holidays. For after-hours emergencies, please call [250] (078) 830-0345. For additional information on consular services, please visit the Embassy’s website.

Lt Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, now in exile in South Africa

Note that one person was killed in similar attacks last month in Kigali, blamed initially on Interahamwe militia and later on two high-ranking RPF officers now in exile.

One of them – Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former chief of staff and ambassador to India – has fled to South Africa earlier this week.

Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa, with other high-ranking officers in the RPF army, has been indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and arrest warrants have been issued against him by courts in France and Spain.

Rwandan Criminals Wanted

The now fugitive Rwandan General Kayumba Nyamwasa dismissed the indictment issued by the French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere saying:
- The indictment document is “rubbish”.
- �How can it happen? It is not an international court. He (Brugiere) is not an international judge.�
- Bruguiere is an “obscure juge”.
- “Those times are gone when they can indict and deport sovereign nationals.”
This was reported by V. Sudarshan of Outlook India. The indicted criminal Nyamwasa was then Rwandan Ambassador to India.
Here is the full article from Outlook India:

When he turned on the radio last Thursday, some unlikely news greeted the Rwandan Ambassador to India, Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa. A French court had indicted him for war crimes. The court, presided over by France�s top anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Brugiere, named Amb. Nyamwasa as having a direct role in the assassination that killed Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana in April �94 and triggered the Rwandan genocide.

Judge Brugiere, nicknamed the �Sheriff� for his erstwhile penchant to carry a Magnum pistol, is famous for rounding up a number of terrorist suspects. He played a crucial role in bringing to book Carlos the Jackal and Libyan officials convicted of blowing up planes in the �80s. This time he wants Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his military aides, including (then) Col. Nyamwasa, brought before a UN court to be tried for war crimes and genocide. He is convinced that President Kagame instructed his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to destroy the plane in which President Habyarimana and the President of Burundi were travelling.

�The investigations undertaken have clearly shown that, for the RPF, the physical elimination of President Juvenal Habyarimana was the necessary precondition for seizing power by force, and was inscribed in a vast plan worked out to this end,� reads the indictment. �The final order�was given by Paul Kagame himself in a meeting held in Mulindi on March 31, 1994.�

�It is like a judge in Haryana indicting (President) Chirac to appear in court somewhere in Haryana for an alleged crime without proof,�

Amb. Nyamwasa told Outlook India, in response.

�How can it happen? It is not an international court. He (Brugiere) is not an international judge.�

Brugiere is trying the case because the family members of the French-national pilot and crew members approached the French court in 1998 to ask for an investigation to determine who was responsible for the attack.

According to a report by international agency Human Rights Watch (HRW), President Habyarimana died on April 6, 1994, when the plane bringing him home from Dar-es-Salaam was shot down. He had been attending a meeting of heads of state where he had consented to put in place a broad-based transitional government. The president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, who also attended the meeting, decided to fly home in President Habyarimana�s plane rather than in his own. He too died in the attack as did General Deogratias Nsabimana, Chief of Staff of the Rwandan army, along with several others. The plane was shot twice as it was coming in for a landing by surface to air missiles fired from a location on top of a hill near the Kigali airport. The Rwandan army later stated it recovered two missile launchers. The registration numbers on the launchers identified them as SAM-16s, sophisticated weapons that require some training to use.

Judge Brugiere�s indictment, released last week, plunged already strained relations between Paris and Kigali into a diplomatic impasse. Rwanda has since shut down its diplomatic mission in Paris and ordered all French diplomats out of the country. When contacted, the French embassy in India declined to be drawn into the issue, merely stating that the judiciary in France was independent.

How the arrest warrants will be implemented remains to be seen. Rwanda�s Ministry of Justice has already called upon Interpol member states not to give weight to the warrants. At the time of writing, it wasn�t clear what views the mea had on the subject. When asked if he thought the Indian government would act on the warrant, Amb. Nyamwasa said,

�India is a democracy with a functioning government and an independent Parliament and judiciary. It won�t take orders from an obscure French judge. Colonialism is over. Those times are gone when they can indict and deport sovereign nationals. We are independent nations.�

In fact, claims Amb. Nyamwasa, �those named did not commit this crime at all. They weren�t part of the army guarding him (the late president). On the contrary, he (President Habyarimana) was being guarded by French troops. The judge should be indicting them instead.�
…
Amb. Nyamwasa is still reportedly reading through the document (in French)�which a friend sent him. He�s yet to read all of it, but prima facie he finds it rubbish. �This judge has even got my name wrong,� he says. �I�m identified as Faustin Nyamwasa-Kayumba. I�m not Faustin. Were the Interpol to come inquiring, I�d have to tell them I�m not Faustin.�

As for the actual charges, the ambassador claims,

�The day it happened, I was about 100 km away, in Mulindi, Byumba. This judge alleges that one time I attended a meeting when we planned to kill the president. The source of this information is about fifth-hand. He has not asked us to substantiate it. Not one of his witnesses is first-hand. How do you rely on this sort of information as a basis of indictment? There was no such meeting. There was no such plan anyway.�

Amb. Nyamwasa claims the French government is behind all this. �It�s what they wanted him (the judge) to do,� he says.

�Rwanda is an African republic where the French have repeatedly carried out coup d�etats year in and year out. If they had wanted it, they could have sent whatever evidence they had to Arusha (where a separate inquiry into the genocide is under way). France is causing problems in Cote d�Ivoire. Can Cote d�Ivoire now indict President Chirac?�

Ambassador Nyamwasa, who became a colonel in the Rwandan Patriotic Army in 1993, was Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Gendarmerie in 1994 and has been accredited with the Indian government since April of last year. Ironically, he has been to France�Normandy to be precise�for military exercises as part of a joint training team. This was back in 2001, even as the investigation was under way. But he�s not going back there in any hurry, at least not in the near future.

Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?233375

Paul Kagame

Kigali: President Paul Kagame hinted on Wednesday that the way the security apparatus handled the fugitive General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa could have contributed to his fleeing, a criticism likely to lead to some heads rolling, RNA reports. The exiled journalist Mr. Charles Kabonero also came under the President’s radar.

Gen. Kayumba was summoned by security officials on Thursday night � a day before he fled the country over serious criminal charges, the President revealed. However, the officials who handled his case could have been influenced by �family relations�, according to Mr. Kagame.

�In Rwandan society, there are still so much family relations and friendship,� said Mr. Kagame. �They even gave him the time to go and think about the accusations so that they can start from there the next day.�

He added: ��there was overwhelming evidence backing the charges that he was not able to respond to some. If those interrogating him had followed this lead, he could not have left.�

Mr. Kagame said Gen. Kayumba could have fled the country because his plans had been revealed to him by security officials who indicated to him that they were aware of whatever he was planning.

�Never� a coup in Rwanda, �not like Niger�

The President also dismissed suggestions that General Kayumba and Col. Karegeya were close to him. �Those were not my colleagues. Am above these people and what they stand for,� he said.

�Kayumba, Karegeya�NO,� the President said. �I don�t drink with them, I never did.�

�It will be an insult to me to reduce myself to their level,� he added in gestures which indicated he was becoming angry with the whole situation.

Responding to another question that there have been rumours of a coup plot in which Gen. Kayumba and Karegeya have been named, President Kagame said �never�, �nobody can�, describing such a suggestion as �wishful thinking� for anybody to imagine that happening here.

�Maybe in Habyarimana�s period or before�,� he added spreading his hands in vigorous gestures.

The President also said Rwanda is �not like Niger where soldiers� do whatever they link with the country. He said Rwanda has established solid institutions for the last 16 years that cannot be possible for coup.

Regional dimension

He said people �should sleep and wake up� without any worries. �Don�t waste your time. Go to bars and drink you will wake up to find Rwanda is still going on.�

The President said his responsibility is ensuring stability. �If you are tired, you go out and leave us in our country,� he said. Mr. Kagame also revealed that Col. Karegeya has been �transacting� his activities in the region, adding that the exiled former head of the External Security Organisation (ESO) has been moving from one country to another in this region.

He said government is employing all mechanisms available �including extradition� with the countries concerned, but did not name any to have the two officers face justice. The President said just like Rwanda would not want to have destabilizing forces in neighbouring countries, Rwanda considers the same principle.

Kabonero in spotlight

The controversial tabloid UMUSESO also came under the spotlight in the President�s press conference. In the first reaction to allegations which arose several years ago suggesting that exiled publisher Mr. Charles Kabonero was in contact with exile ex-junior Abdul Ruzibiza, with plans to cause chaos in Kigali, Mr. Kagame did not mince any words.

Mr. Kagame said some journalists also have some cases to answer for in relation Gen. Kayumba and Col. Karegeya. �There are those who found Karegeya in South Africa to speak to him. There are even those who went there but have not returned,� he said, in reference to Mr. Kabonero, who is said to be in South Africa seeking asylum to North America or Europe.

Without categorically naming Mr. Kabonero, the President said there are some journalists who were found with documents detailing a plan to cause state insecurity.

��which I think is still being investigated,� he revealed.

Possible FDLR link to Kayumba

When three grenades exploded in Kigali two weeks ago and other in Huye district a week before, Police Spokesman Superintendent Eric Kayiranga said investigations had shown that Rwandan FDLR rebels were behind.

The link has not been raised again. On Tuesday, the National Prosecuting Authority revealed that Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa and Col Patrick Karegeya were behind the grenade blasts. On Wednesday, President Kagame said the link between the two scenarios can also be possible.

Without being categorical, the President said the security apparatus is looking at all leads including a possibility that the ex-officers could be working with the rebels.
Source: RNAnews.