Re: [rwanda_revolution] Kayumba Nyamwasa: Kagame government days are numbered.

 

Kagame government days are numbered – Gen Nyamwasa

Interview
Thursday, 28 November 2013 22:39
Written by Robert Mukombozi

Three years after an assassination attempt on him in South Africa,
the former Rwandan army Chief of Staff, Gen Kayumba Nyamaswa, has
finally broken his silence has spoken about his assassination ordeal,
bush war memories, and how President Paul Kagame has betrayed the
purpose for Rwanda's liberation struggle.

He spoke to Robert Mukombozi in Johannesburg.

Gen Nyamwasa, the world was shocked by news of your shooting during
the last world cup. What exactly happened on that day?

I was coming from a shopping mall and when we were entering the gate I
saw somebody with a gun and the driver opened the window on his side
and quickly the person cocked the pistol and shot me in the stomach
and thereafter there was a scuffle between him and me and I was able
to survive the assassination because during the scuffle the gun was
dislocated.

Thereafter, I was taken to hospital and the rest is history.

From the court proceedings, it would appear that some of the staff in
your household were carefully involved. Had you suspected them?

Not at all. I really had full trust in all my staff members especially
accused number four, who was my driver. On the day I fled Rwanda, he
is the one who drove me across the border into Uganda and I trusted
him. He stayed in Uganda while I proceeded to South Africa.

Eventually when he told me that his life was in danger in Kampala like
many other Rwandan refugees who have been abducted from Uganda, indeed
I facilitated him to come over (to South Africa).

Thereafter he stayed with us and I trusted him entirely. We treated
him as part of our family but it turned out that he had been bought by
the government of Rwanda. In the government of Rwanda nobody could
have picked money from his/her own pocket to finance an operation like
that. These people did not know me and I did not know them either.

So, for them to have carried out that operation against someone they
did not know then they must have acted on behalf of someone else and
that must be the government from which I run away.

But most important now is that these people are using very expensive
lawyers in this country. Who meets the bill? Before their involvement
in this assassination attempt against my life, they cannot show that
they had any business or had a job and yet they are able to meet very
expensive legal fees.

After the attempt on your life, do you feel safe here?

I am not the only one who is under threat from Rwanda all the time. If
you read newspapers in Uganda, and if you can talk to my compatriots
there, some of them have been abducted, others have been executed
while others are hidden in safe houses. It is really a fight for most
Rwandese in exile; so, mine is not an exception.

Do you hope to fight back?

Well, we are already fighting back, only that we are not using the
means that our adversary is using. For us, we are using peaceful means
of change and we believe that Rwandans will come together and fight a
dictatorship and it is not a peculiar or unique situation.

It has happened everywhere else in the world where people have come up
to fight the regime that is dictatorial in nature and killing people.
We also formed an organisation called the Rwanda National Congress and
together with others we formed an alliance with the United Democratic
Forces of Rwanda (FDU-Inkingi) and Amahoro and we believe together we
will be able to galvanise efforts of Rwandese and remove the regime.

So, you are not looking at military plans...

No. But that will be a result of probably a situation that would
degenerate into a kind of situation that has happened in other
countries where peaceful means have been employed but the dictatorship
pushes people in a different direction. We have not come to that.

There is an increasing spate of kidnappings of Rwandan refugees
especially students and former soldiers exiled especially in East
Africa on accusations that they are working for you to destabilise
Rwanda...

The accusations are not true. I would first of all begin with my own
brother who has been in prison for the last three years. If I was
working with anybody in Rwanda, the first person probably I would have
worked with would have been my own brother but when I fled I did not
take him along with me and I would have gone to his house and picked
him even when I left, it took them about six months after which he was
arrested and incarcerated.

So all these people, they can't say that they are working for me. But
there is no doubt that there could be some people in Rwanda who
support the Rwanda National Congress, not necessarily [working for]
Kayumba.

According to sources in the Rwanda Defence Forces, President Kagame is
paranoid about you controlling some factions of the army. Is this fear
legitimate?

Well, I commanded the army, there is no doubt about that. I was a very
influential member within the Rwanda Patriotic Front. I had very good
friends and the plight that visited me is also a plight that also
other people in Rwanda are meeting today.

Essentially it is not about me, it is about the cause for which I am
fighting and I know essentially within the Rwanda Patriotic Front, and
within the army, there are people who support what I do not because of
me but because of what I stand for. What we want is liberation; if it
comes from me, well and good but even if it comes from a different
side, I am sure they will be able to embrace it.

Talking about liberation, you had a cordial relationship with Kagame
during the RPF bush war and subsequent years in his government. Kagame
now says you were terrorising his country and lacked accountability.
What exactly broke this rapport?

President Paul Kagame knows that we did a lot of things together and a
lot of my colleagues but between me and him, yes there was a deep
relationship. At one point in time I think I helped him when everybody
else would not have wanted to and that is a fact. I wrote about it
twice.

He is aware of the situation and that is probably why we had a strong
relationship. I saved him out of a situation where people would have
probably wanted him to perish.

He [Kagame] is aware of the situation, that was the beginning of the
closeness. But as far as I am concerned, the relationship kept
deteriorating [and] it was about the ideological thinking of the RPF.

At one time it came to a point where the RPF ceased to market and
publicise and promote itself as an organisation and had to be
substituted by popularising and campaigning for an individual who is
Paul Kagame and that was something I never believed in.

Secondly, there was the issue of Dr Joseph Sebarenzi (former Secretary
General of RPF) who was persecuted using fabricated charges. I refused
to support that trend and Paul Kagame was not happy about it. Then
there were extrajudicial killings, which were being carried out around
Rwanda using the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the
Republican Guard and Kagame would be in the know and I was not aware
about what was going on.

After committing those extrajudicial killings, they would come out and
falsely implicate other people. Thirdly, there was the issue of
Pasteur Bizimungu. Mr Bizimungu [when he was still president] was
persecuted and lots of charges were fabricated against him.

The Directorate of Military Intelligence, which was under Jack Nziza
and others that time, they thought they should have him imprisoned and
I challenged them until I went to the United Kingdom for a course and
eventually the man was taken to prison. Basically the relationship
between me and Kagame started souring from 1997 and by 2003 it
completely broke down.

You say you saved Mr Kagame's life several times during the bush war
struggle; how?

At one point in time we were at one place called Nkana [northern
Rwanda] in current Byumba district and I think it was in December 1990
and we had lost a battle. When we lost the battle, the forces
withdrew, Kagame did not know that the forces had actually withdrawn
to Uganda. I went there to collect casualties [and] I found Kagame
hiding in a banana plantation.

I convinced some of our friends that we should go and rescue him and
get him from there. But because of his nature and after the death of
Maj Gen Fred Rwigema, people did not like and they were saying 'just
ignore [him]'. I thought that was not the right thing to do and I took
it upon myself to go back.

I went back and collected him. He was there confused; he did not know
where the forces were and he did not know where to go himself. Then
the next day in another place called Nkanyantanga [also in northern
Rwanda]. In the night the enemy was surrounding us. He was sleeping in
the tent and he did not know what was going on.

I had information and intelligence and we were able to fight our way
out and the next day we lost the battle. I came back and picked him
from the tent and hid him in Uganda in someone's home.

Some of the officers we had in Nkanyantanga subjected him to a lot of
open ridicule; that they do not want him. And some of the officers who
ridiculed him that time are still serving in the Rwandan army as
senior officers today but I will not mention their names for their
security but they know themselves.

Had it not been for me and late Col William Bagire, they would have
beaten him thoroughly.

Are you saying his subsequent leadership of the Rwandan Patriotic
Army/Front was an accident?

Definitely it was an accident. The legitimate leader was late Maj Gen
Fred Rwigema. We lost a person, we lost a leader, and we lost a
charismatic person. Obviously if Kagame was so crucial in the planning
and execution of the Rwandan liberation, Maj Gen Rwigema would not
have allowed [him] to go for the course in the United States of
America.

Are there officers you think would have been in a better position to
steer Rwanda to real liberation? And is there a possibility they
could take the wheel of power in Rwanda and change the country's
course?

There are very many of them but they are completely marginalised. You
can never find them now in the political establishment of Rwanda. It
is a tragedy.

But Kagame has maintained that the bitterness between both of you is
based entirely on your undermining of his government and lack of
accountability.

What else can he say? He has said that about everybody who has fled
the country. He uses mainly charges against people who are opposed to
his dictatorial leadership. Either you are a genocidaire, terrorist or
corrupt. That is standard procedure and I happen to be part of that
victimisation.

When you look at the sentencing that was meted to the four of us;
sentencing me for 24 years in prison in absentia, it is not a charge
of corruption. There is nothing because I was not corrupt and in any
case if I had been corrupt, they would have charged me in a court of
law when I was still in government. It is obviously a lie and Kagame
has always lived by deceit but time is running out.

Talking about time running out for the Kigali establishment. You have
commanded Rwandan troops in DR Congo before. Do you think Rwanda is
involved in DR Congo (M23 war)?

True, I was involved in the DR Congo war in 1997-2002 and yes the
Rwandan troops were and are still heavily involved in the war there.
Even today, Rwandan soldiers are still in DR Congo. And the other
thing that is very important is that there is nothing like M23. M23
does not exist; it is the concoction of the government of Rwanda.

Are you optimistic the stabilisation force in DR Congo now boosted by
Tanzania and South Africa could eventually bring Rwanda to account for
her atrocities committed there?

You can never lie to the world forever. Kagame's lies have now come to
the fore. He can no longer hide so the international community;
Southern African Development Community (SADC) and everybody else have
come to the realisation that Paul Kagame has always used genocide as
pretext.

Instead of using it [genocide] as a tragedy that befell Rwandese, it
has become a political and diplomatic weapon. He has used it to invade
DR Congo and is also using it against his neighbours. The lie is now
over and it is time to call a spade a spade and I applaud the
international community to have come to the realisation. It may be
late but as the adage says better late than never.

Some of the assets of South Africa-based Rwandan multimillionaire,
Tribert Rujugiro, such as the $20 million Union Trade Centre, are
being frozen by the Rwandan government on allegations he could be
supporting your cause.

Nyamwasa is being used as a pretext for eliminating all those people
whom Paul Kagame does not want. In the 1990s it was Mr Sebarenzi; they
would kill anybody who is associated with him. Later on it became
Pasteur Bizimungu and then Tribert Rujugiro. Actually Rujugiro ran
away from Rwanda before me and then later on it is me.

Anything else you would like to add?

Yes. I would like to inform Rwandans and friends of Rwanda across
Africa and the international community that we will be driving real
liberation to the country soon. Institutions of government in Rwanda
have been hijacked.

The judiciary does not function; it has been compromised. The
Parliament is owned and serves the interests of only one man and that
is Paul Kagame. The government in Rwanda is an institution that is
completely owned by one man and he does what he wants.

Now dictatorship has its own expiry date and I think the Rwandan
people are now disgusted, they are disgruntled and they are
disappointed. I would like to assure Rwandans and friends of our
cause that dictatorship is going to be removed in Rwanda soon.

Robert Mukombozi is an international investigative journalist based in
Australia. He can be reached on email: rmukombozi@gmail.com.


Comments⁠ ⁠

#1 Betty Long Cap ⁠2013-11-28 23:58

Is what Kayumba Nyamaswa says about Rwanda also true about Uganda?

The judiciary does not function; it has been compromised. The
Parliament is owned and serves the interests of only one man and that
is [Museveni]. The government in [Uganda] is an institution that is
completely owned by one man and he does what he wants.

Now dictatorship has its own expiry date and I think the [Ugandan]
people are now disgusted, they are disgruntled and they are
disappointed. I would like to assure [Ugandans] and friends of our
cause that dictatorship is going to be removed in [Uganda] soon.

http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28866:kagame-government-days-are-numbered--gen-nyamwasa&catid=53:interview&Itemid=67

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Rwanda: Kagame government days are numbered – Gen Nyamwasa

http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28866:kagame-government-days-are-numbered-gen-nyamwasa&catid=53:interview&Itemid=67#comments

Kagame government days are numbered – Gen Nyamwasa

Interview

THURSDAY, 28 NOVEMBER 2013 22:39

WRITTEN BY ROBERT MUKOMBOZI

1 COMMENTS

Three years after an assassination attempt on him in South Africa, the former Rwandan army Chief of Staff,Gen Kayumba Nyamaswa, has finally broken his silence has spoken about his assassination ordeal, bush war memories, and how President Paul Kagame has betrayed the purpose for Rwanda's liberation struggle.

He spoke to Robert Mukombozi in Johannesburg.

Gen Nyamwasa, the world was shocked by news of your shooting during the last world cup. What exactly happened on that day?

I was coming from a shopping mall and when we were entering the gate I saw somebody with a gun and the driver opened the window on his side and quickly the person cocked the pistol and shot me in the stomach and thereafter there was a scuffle between him and me and I was able to survive the assassination because during the scuffle the gun was dislocated.

Thereafter, I was taken to hospital and the rest is history. 

From the court proceedings, it would appear that some of the staff in your household were carefully involved. Had you suspected them?

Not at all. I really had full trust in all my staff members especially accused number four, who was my driver. On the day I fled Rwanda, he is the one who drove me across the border into Uganda and I trusted him. He stayed in Uganda while I proceeded to South Africa.

Eventually when he told me that his life was in danger in Kampala like many other Rwandan refugees who have been abducted from Uganda, indeed I facilitated him to come over (to South Africa).

Thereafter he stayed with us and I trusted him entirely. We treated him as part of our family but it turned out that he had been bought by the government of Rwanda.   In the government of Rwanda nobody could have picked money from his/her own pocket to finance an operation like that. These people did not know me and I did not know them either.

So, for them to have carried out that operation against someone they did not know then they must have acted on behalf of someone else and that must be the government from which I run away.

But most important now is that these people are using very expensive lawyers in this country. Who meets the bill? Before their involvement in this assassination attempt against my life, they cannot show that they had any business or had a job and yet they are able to meet very expensive legal fees. 

After the attempt on your life, do you feel safe here?

I am not the only one who is under threat from Rwanda all the time. If you read newspapers in Uganda, and if you can talk to my compatriots there, some of them have been abducted, others have been executed while others are hidden in safe houses. It is really a fight for most Rwandese in exile; so, mine is not an exception.    

Do you hope to fight back?

Well, we are already fighting back, only that we are not using the means that our adversary is using. For us, we are using peaceful means of change and we believe that Rwandans will come together and fight a dictatorship and it is not a peculiar or unique situation.

It has happened everywhere else in the world where people have come up to fight the regime that is dictatorial in nature and killing people. We also formed an organisation called the Rwanda National Congress and together with others we formed an alliance with the United Democratic Forces of Rwanda (FDU-Inkingi) and Amahoro and we believe together we will be able to galvanise efforts of Rwandese and remove the regime.

So, you are not looking at military plans...

No. But that will be a result of probably a situation that would degenerate into a kind of situation that has happened in other countries where peaceful means have been employed but the dictatorship pushes people in a different direction. We have not come to that. 

There is an increasing spate of kidnappings of Rwandan refugees especially students and former soldiers exiled especially in East Africa on accusations that they are working for you to destabilise Rwanda...

The accusations are not true. I would first of all begin with my own brother who has been in prison for the last three years. If I was working with anybody in Rwanda, the first person probably I would have worked with would have been my own brother but when I fled I did not take him along with me and I would have gone to his house and picked him even when I left, it took them about six months after which he was arrested and incarcerated.

So all these people, they can't say that they are working for me. But there is no doubt that there could be some people in Rwanda who support the Rwanda National Congress, not necessarily [working for] Kayumba. 

According to sources in the Rwanda Defence Forces, President Kagame is paranoid about you controlling some factions of the army. Is this fear legitimate?

Well, I commanded the army, there is no doubt about that. I was a very influential member within the Rwanda Patriotic Front. I had very good friends and the plight that visited me is also a plight that also other people in Rwanda are meeting today.

Essentially it is not about me, it is about the cause for which I am fighting and I know essentially within the Rwanda Patriotic Front, and within the army, there are people who support what I do not because of me but because of what I stand for. What we want is liberation; if it comes from me, well and good but even if it comes from a different side, I am sure they will be able to embrace it. 

Talking about liberation, you had a cordial relationship with Kagame during the RPF bush war and subsequent years in his government. Kagame now says you were terrorising his country and lacked accountability. What exactly broke this rapport?

President Paul Kagame knows that we did a lot of things together and a lot of my colleagues but between me and him, yes there was a deep relationship. At one point in time I think I helped him when everybody else would not have wanted to and that is a fact. I wrote about it twice.

He is aware of the situation and that is probably why we had a strong relationship. I saved him out of a situation where people would have probably wanted him to perish. 

He [Kagame] is aware of the situation, that was the beginning of the closeness. But as far as I am concerned, the relationship kept deteriorating [and] it was about the ideological thinking of the RPF.

At one time it came to a point where the RPF ceased to market and publicise and promote itself as an organisation and had to be substituted by popularising and campaigning for an individual who is Paul Kagame and that was something I never believed in.

Secondly, there was the issue of Dr Joseph Sebarenzi (former Secretary General of RPF) who was persecuted using fabricated charges. I refused to support that trend and Paul Kagame was not happy about it. Then there were extrajudicial killings, which were being carried out around Rwanda using the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Republican Guard and Kagame would be in the know and I was not aware about what was going on.

After committing those extrajudicial killings, they would come out and falsely implicate other people. Thirdly, there was the issue of Pasteur Bizimungu. Mr Bizimungu [when he was still president] was persecuted and lots of charges were fabricated against him.

The Directorate of Military Intelligence, which was under Jack Nziza and others that time, they thought they should have him imprisoned and I challenged them until I went to the United Kingdom for a course and eventually the man was taken to prison. Basically the relationship between me and Kagame started souring from 1997 and by 2003 it completely broke down. 

You say you saved Mr Kagame's life several times during the bush war struggle; how?

At one point in time we were at one place called Nkana [northern Rwanda] in current Byumba district and I think it was in December 1990 and we had lost a battle. When we lost the battle, the forces withdrew, Kagame did not know that the forces had actually withdrawn to Uganda. I went there to collect casualties [and] I found Kagame hiding in a banana plantation.

I convinced some of our friends that we should go and rescue him and get him from there. But because of his nature and after the death of Maj Gen Fred Rwigema, people did not like and they were saying 'just ignore [him]'. I thought that was not the right thing to do and I took it upon myself to go back.

I went back and collected him. He was there confused; he did not know where the forces were and he did not know where to go himself. Then the next day in another place called Nkanyantanga [also in northern Rwanda]. In the night the enemy was surrounding us. He was sleeping in the tent and he did not know what was going on.

I had information and intelligence and we were able to fight our way out and the next day we lost the battle. I came back and picked him from the tent and hid him in Uganda in someone's home.

Some of the officers we had in Nkanyantanga subjected him to a lot of open ridicule; that they do not want him. And some of the officers who ridiculed him that time are still serving in the Rwandan army as senior officers today but I will not mention their names for their security but they know themselves.

Had it not been for me and late Col William Bagire, they would have beaten him thoroughly. 

Are you saying his subsequent leadership of the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front was an accident?

Definitely it was an accident. The legitimate leader was late Maj Gen Fred Rwigema. We lost a person, we lost a leader, and we lost a charismatic person. Obviously if Kagame was so crucial in the planning and execution of the Rwandan liberation, Maj Gen Rwigema would not have allowed [him] to go for the course in the United States of America.

Are there officers you think would have been in a better position to steer Rwanda to real liberation?  And is there a possibility they could take the wheel of power in Rwanda and change the country's course?

There are very many of them but they are completely marginalised. You can never find them now in the political establishment of Rwanda. It is a tragedy. 

But Kagame has maintained that the bitterness between both of you is based entirely on your undermining of his government and lack of accountability.

What else can he say? He has said that about everybody who has fled the country. He uses mainly charges against people who are opposed to his dictatorial leadership. Either you are a genocidaire, terrorist or corrupt. That is standard procedure and I happen to be part of that victimisation.

When you look at the sentencing that was meted to the four of us; sentencing me for 24 years in prison in absentia, it is not a charge of corruption. There is nothing because I was not corrupt and in any case if I had been corrupt, they would have charged me in a court of law when I was still in government. It is obviously a lie and Kagame has always lived by deceit but time is running out. 

Talking about time running out for the Kigali establishment. You have commanded Rwandan troops in DR Congo before. Do you think Rwanda is involved in DR Congo (M23 war)?

True, I was involved in the DR Congo war in 1997-2002 and yes the Rwandan troops were and are still heavily involved in the war there. Even today, Rwandan soldiers are still in DR Congo. And the other thing that is very important is that there is nothing like M23. M23 does not exist; it is the concoction of the government of Rwanda. 

Are you optimistic the stabilisation force in DR Congo now boosted by Tanzania and South Africa could eventually bring Rwanda to account for her atrocities committed there?

You can never lie to the world forever. Kagame's lies have now come to the fore. He can no longer hide so the international community; Southern African Development Community (SADC) and everybody else have come to the realisation that Paul Kagame has always used genocide as pretext.

Instead of using it [genocide] as a tragedy that befell Rwandese, it has become a political and diplomatic weapon. He has used it to invade DR Congo and is also using it against his neighbours. The lie is now over and it is time to call a spade a spade and I applaud the international community to have come to the realisation. It may be late but as the adage says better late than never. 

Some of the assets of South Africa-based Rwandan multimillionaire, Tribert Rujugiro, such as the $20 million Union Trade Centre, are being frozen by the Rwandan government on allegations he could be supporting your cause.

Nyamwasa is being used as a pretext for eliminating all those people whom Paul Kagame does not want. In the 1990s it was Mr Sebarenzi; they would kill anybody who is associated with him. Later on it became Pasteur Bizimungu and then Tribert Rujugiro. Actually Rujugiro ran away from Rwanda before me and then later on it is me.

Anything else you would like to add?

Yes. I would like to inform Rwandans and friends of Rwanda across Africa and the international community that we will be driving real liberation to the country soon. Institutions of government in Rwanda have been hijacked.

The judiciary does not function; it has been compromised. The Parliament is owned and serves the interests of only one man and that is Paul Kagame. The government in Rwanda is an institution that is completely owned by one man and he does what he wants.

Now dictatorship has its own expiry date and I think the Rwandan people are now disgusted, they are disgruntled and they are disappointed.  I would like to assure Rwandans and friends of our cause that dictatorship is going to be removed in Rwanda soon. 

Robert Mukombozi is an international investigative journalist based in Australia. He can be reached on email: rmukombozi@gmail.com.   

Uganda: High Court nullifies Lukwago censure

http://www.independent.co.ug/ugandatalks/2013/11/high-court-nullifies-lukwago-censure/

← Africa News Round Up, November, Thursday 28, 2013

High Court nullifies Lukwago censure

POSTED ON NOVEMBER 28, 2013 BY ADMINISTRATOR

The High Court in Kampala has ordered the Minister for Kampala, Mr. Frank Tumwebaze to halt any proceedings following the tribunal report that led to the censure of the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

Justice Yasin Nyanzi on Thursday ruled that any implementations being carried out should be stopped until an application by Lukwago challenging the tribunal findings by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire are heard.

Justice Nyanzi earlier on Monday ruled that the interim order issued by the acting registrar Fred Waninda to stop a vote by Kampala Capital City Authority councilors, was to be in force until Thursday at 11am when he will give his substantive verdict.

Police was heavily deployed at the High Court and limited entry to the premises but that did not stop Lukwago's supporters from celebrating throughout the City as they cheered the ruling of the court.

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PDR-IHUMURE URGES CAUTION AND WISDOM IN DEALING WITH FDLR

http://hungryoftruth.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

LETTER TO MONUSCO LEADERS: PDR-IHUMURE URGES CAUTION AND WISDOM IN DEALING WITH FDLR

November 25, 2013

Paul Rusesabagina
315 Pleasant Knoll
San Antonio, TX 78260 
E-mail:paulrusesabagina@yahoo.fr; info@pdrihumure.org

H.E. Mary Robinson,

U.N. Special Envoy to the Great LakesRegion of Africa 
United Nations, New York, NY USA

H.E. Martin Kobler,

U.N. Special Representative and Head of MONUSCO 
United Nations,New York, NY USA

Hon. Russ Feingold,

U.S. Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region ofAfrica Washington, DC USA 

RE: PDR-IHUMURE URGES CAUTION AND WISDOM IN DEALING WITH FDLR

Your Excellencies: 

1. I am coming before you as the President of the Party for Democracy in Rwanda (PDR-Ihumure), a political party that fights for truth, peace, justice and genuine reconciliation among Rwandans, and aims to return Rwanda from more than 2 decades of a permanent state of war and an implacable reign of terror to a time of appeasement and the rule of law.

2. On behalf of our membership inside and outside of Rwanda and the Rwandan refugee community across the globe, the leadership of the PDR-Ihumure has taken note of the recent developments regarding the defeat of M23 in eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) by the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) with the assistance of the MONUSCO Force Intervention Brigade, and urges you to seize the opportunity offered by the removal of M23 to exercise maximum caution and wisdom in dealing with the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) issue in your quest for comprehensive peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and in Rwanda in particular.

3. The issues underlying the crisis in eastern DRC and the entire Great Lakes Region are much more complex than the often-used pretext of the FDLR presence in DRC, which alone cannot account for over 2 decades of war crimes, crimes against humanity and even genocide by the Rwandan government army, including rapes of women and young girls, forced recruitment of child soldiers, the massive plunder of RDC mineral resources, and the killing of thousands of Rwandans and more than 7 million innocent Congolese, as fully documented by the U.N. Mapping Report, the Gersony Report, the U.N. Report of Experts on M23, and other reports.

4. In addition to being an armed group, the FDLR is also a Rwandan political party in exile among many others, and it has publicly stated its preference for direct negotiations with the Rwandan government over armed confrontation. Many of its members are said to be young men and women who were toddlers in 1994 or were born and raised in DRC over the last two decades. Therefore, FDLR members are bona fide refugees like all of us who have scattered in many parts of Africa, Europe and America, and who have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins living in Rwanda or as exiled refugees across the globe. Yet, over the last several years, the FDLR has been collectively demonized by the Rwandan government as a group of genocidaires, and whipped up repeatedly as the poster child for

the entire Rwandan political opposition. Available estimates put the total number of Rwandan refugees in DRC alone at around 50,000, and labeling FDLR as genocidaires is tantamount to categorizing all these refugees as genocidaires. That's wrong.

5. Either in our party bylaws, at our Party Assessment Convention on December 15, 2012 in Brussels, or in our different publications and on many other occasions, we have unequivocally stated our opposition to any possible impunity for crimes of war, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide for anyone. If anyone within the FDRL is guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, they must be prosecuted. Likewise, those guilty of the same crimes within the RPF government must equally be prosecuted.

6. A careful examination of both FDLR and M23 clearly suggests that these are two different groups in terms of origin, history, cause, nature and composition, and consequently the two groups should not be equated or handled in similar fashion. On one hand, there is FDLR, a group of Rwandan refugees who include women, children and the elderly, and who, like all of us refugees, demand to be granted their full rights to return to their motherland without being threatened, and to enjoy their basic freedoms as citizens of their country, Rwanda. In many ways, today's FDLR is an exact replica of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) rebel group that invaded Rwanda from Uganda in 1990, waged war with the Rwandan government over 4 years before taking power in July 1994. The only difference is that the RPF was a Tutsi rebel group, while the FDLR is a Hutu rebel group. On the other hand, there is M23, a mixed group of Congolese and Rwandan outlaws and criminals, run by warlords from within the upper echelons of the RDF (Rwanda Defense Forces) and fully funded logistically, militarily, and financially by Rwanda to occupy and exploit the resources of eastern DRC, as documented by the U.N. Group of Experts on DRC's Interim Report (S/2012/348) (Addendum_ (26_June_2012)FINAL.pdf). A majority of these M23 outlaws and criminals have been granted a safe haven by Rwanda almost a month after their defeat by the FARDC. That is why recent public statements by multiple U.N. officials that FDLR will be attacked, disarmed and dismantled like M23 appear misguided, because the two groups are simply not the same. A different approach would seem best indicated in dealing with the fundamental issues at the root of the FDLR rebellion, a primarily Hutu organization being targeted for elimination by a predominantly Tutsi minority military dictatorship in Rwanda. There is a real ethnic component to this issue that cannot be ignored or over-simplified.

7. As MONUSCO's Force Intervention Brigade, in collaboration with all countries and partner organizations involved, prepares to disarm and dismantle the FDLR in the broader context of the peace process in eastern DRC, the Great Lakes Region of Africa and in Rwanda in particular, we think it would be wise to look carefully at the contours of the evolving political realities inside Rwanda today. Since recently, there appears to be a growing radicalization of the RPF regime in Kigali against Hutus in a possible desperate effort to rally all Tutsi faithful around the regime and ward off a potential internal cracking of the ruling Tutsi coalition. In a speech at a Youth Konnect event June 30, 2013, President Kagame openly asked Hutu youths nationwide to apologize for all killings committed "in their name" by Hutus against Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, despite the fact that criminal responsibility is personal rather than collective. Similarly, following a recent two-day cabinet retreat on the theme "I am Rwandan" (Ndi Umunyarwanda) that ended Saturday November 8, 2013 in Kigali under the leadership of President Kagame, members of government made the resolution that "The genocide against Tutsis was carried out in the name of Hutus, and so, for the sake of healing the Rwandan society, it's necessary for those in whose name genocide took place to apologize to those against whom it was carried out", according to a press release issued by ORINFOR (Rwanda Information Office). Unfortunately, these do not appear to be edicts that can speed up reconciliation and encourage the average Hutu refugee to go back to Rwanda, let alone FDLR members whom the Rwandan government regularly accuses of "harboring the ideology of genocide" and of wanting to "finish the job of genocide". Rather, the general fear is that there is a re-engineering of Rwandan society underway, with a very troubling unconfessed goal of creating a generation of second-class subservient citizens bound down by the eternal shame and guilt of genocide. All this is in addition to a well-documented situation of gross human rights violations that include persecution of political opponents whether real or perceived, arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, torture, disappearances, the stifling of the press, the hunting down of opponents in their countries of exile using death squads, etc. Clearly, this is not the kind of positive political vision that can heal scarred hearts and lead to a new united Rwanda.

8. Our PDR-Ihumure leadership -and the Rwandan political opposition in general -is fully aware of the possibilities of peace, justice, and democratic change ahead of us because of the Intervention Brigade. The idea of "direct" Peace Talks between the government of Rwanda and the Rwandan opposition (armed and non-armed), which was first proposed by Senator Russ Feingold in the summer of 2009 in a letter to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then echoed forcefully by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in May this year, before being endorsed by Belgian Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, remains the best option in averting unnecessary bloodshed while putting an end to the Rwandan refugee problem and settling the Rwandan political crisis. This idea of peace talks has been called for many times by the FDLR and by the many political organizations in the opposition. It ought to be given utmost consideration.

9. Your Excellencies, because of its overwhelming success, we cannot tell you the immense admiration that the Force Intervention Brigade currently enjoys within not only Rwandan refugee communities across the globe but also within different communities from countries of the Great Lakes region ofAfrica. You should be very proud of the job you are doing. We hope MONUSCO/FIB will not mar this success or reverse its gains by making ill-advised decisions based on an incorrect reading of the exact causes of the conflict and the proper way to address them. We want to take a moment here to salute the bravery, self-less sacrifice and outstanding service of the Tanzania, South Africa, and Malawi contingents of the Intervention Brigade. We are particularly beholden to the 3 Tanzanian officers who paid the ultimate price so that peace, justice and the rule of law may reign in our region.

10. Should you need our expertise, please know that the PDR-Ihumure is more than ready to contribute our ideas and technical experts, and help define priorities in bringing to an end the long-running conflict of the Great Lakes Region of Africa in a way that guarantees the security of all ethnic groups while fostering peaceful coexistence and economic prosperity.

Sincerely,

Paul Rusesabagina (Signed)
President,
PDR-Ihumure

CC:

-H.E. Ban Ki-moon Secretary General, United Nations New York, New York

-H.E. Jacob Zuma President of the Republic of South Africa President Pretoria, South Africa -H.E. Jakaya Kikwete President of the Republic of Tanzania Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

-H.E. Joyce Banda President of the Republic of Malawi Lilongwe, Malawi

-H.E. Joseph Kabila President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa, DRC

-H.E. Dr. Nkosozana Dlamini Zuma Chairperson, African Union Commission Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

-H.E. Manuel Barroso President, European CommissionBrussels, Belgium

-Hon. John Kerry Secretary of State, USA Washington, DC

-Hon. Didier Reynders Deputy PM and Foreign Minister,Belgium Brussels, Belgium

-Hon. William Hague Foreign Secretary, UK London, UK

-Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax Executive Secretary, SADC Gaborone, Botswana

-Prof. Ntumba Luaba Executive Secretary, ICGLR Bujumbura, Burundi 

Related Letter:
Rwandan Opposition Calls for Peace Talks with Kigali