Death Knell for Rwanda's Kagame Regime?

Rwanda's ties to war crimes in DRC and M23 are too much for international community; investigators must look at other crimes related to Kagame as well.

Rwanda Pres. Paul Kagame is in big trouble over war crimes in the Congo. Photo by Jennifer Fierberg Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - It was clear that the case against Rwanda was taking a new course when Parliament issued a statement in June with a total of 33 signatures, recommending the suspension of aid to this African nation.

The political statement holds dire consequences for Rwanda and dramatically affects the future of this nation that has largely remained in good standing with western governments in recent years- in the wake of the 1994 Genocide. In fact Rwanda's President Paul Kagame was lauded and celebrated by western leaders like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. As the Guardian wrote Wednesday:

The UK and US have staked their pride, reputations and ability to judge character, not to mention hundreds of millions of pounds in aid, on Kagame's powers of post-genocide healing and reconciliation matching those of Mandela after apartheid.

That is why the US decision to cut aid, and now to warn Kagame that he could even face criminal prosecution over meddling in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, is a humiliating but long overdue reversal.
- The end of the west's humiliating affair with Paul Kagame

Parliament is objecting to the use of Rwandan political clout in the pillaging of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is one of many political moves against Rwanda currently underway. Lean on natural resources, Rwanda has been crossing this border in a belligerent fashion for many years to exploit the resources and people of the Congo.

The simple fact is that too many dead bodies have been left in the wreckage and Kagame has made the wrong moves. The wrath of these actions may have finally caught up and it looks as though Kagame's bag of magical tricks is empty.

Journalist Jennifer Fierberg

The legal maneuvering of the United Nations and The International Criminal Court (ICC) are quickly changing the picture for the future of the Kagame regime.

Investigative Reporter Jennifer Fierberg has been covering developments in Rwanda consistently for Salem-News.com.

Along with her contacts all over the world, Jennifer has been exposing the real story of Kagame and the Genocide of the 1990's; a terrible chapter in human history where people who had coexisted for a long time, turned on each other brutally.

They have revealed the story here in these pages and it has been fascinating; this is one of the very few news organizations in the United States that has endeavored to add so much light to the real story that the public has not been allowed to see in mainstream channels, until now.

You can see all of our reports simply by hitting the 'Rwanda' tag, or go straight to all of our Rwanda stories in chronological order: Salem-News.com Rwanda articles Page 1.

Here is the statement from Parliament:

“

That this House is gravely concerned by the UN report that the recent rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being fuelled by recruits and support from neighbouring Rwanda; recalls that in December 2008 Sweden and the Netherlands revoked aid to Rwanda because of its support to militia gangs killing and raping in Congo; acknowledges that without foreign aid Rwanda cannot continue to finance its deadly but highly profitable wars in Congo; supports Save the Congo's call on the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to unilaterally adopt tough measures against any government, individual or corporation supporting militia gangs in Congo; and urges the Government to fully examine Britain's military and financial support to Rwanda and report to the House on this matter on the earliest possible occasion. - http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/149

”

Background

It is a sordid tale of a power struggle and a plane crash that led to the death of Rwanda's previous President, Juvenal Habyarimana, and the ascension of U.S.-backed Paul Kagame to the country's top post.

Indeed, the bottom line is that this national leader heralded for ending the Rwandan Genocide, is actually responsible for it's having taken place; according to witnesses very close to Kagame at the time. That places the blame for the murderous deaths of hundreds of thousands of Hutu people, mostly women and children, squarely on his shoulders. Large numbers of Tutsi people also died and really few were isolated from the violence.

On 30 August 2010, our writer Ralph Stone wrote:

Ralph Stone in San Francisco

What actually happened? Kagame was trained at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas. Major-General Kagame returned from Leavenworth to lead the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) shortly after the October 1990 invasion of Rwanda by Ugandan forces, which has been misrepresented as a "war of liberation" by a Tutsi-led guerilla army.

The "civil war" or "war of liberation" was in reality a brutal struggle for political power between the Hutu-led Juvénal Habyarimana government supported by France and the RPF-backed Tutsi forces backed financially and militarily by the United States. The Hutu-Tutsi rivalry was used deliberately in the pursuit of U.S. strategic and geopolitical objectives by establishing a U.S. sphere of influence in Central Africa, a region historically dominated by France and Belgium. What was at stake? The region's vast geostrategic mineral wealth, i.e., cobalt, oil, natural gas, copper, uranium, tin, coltan, cassiterite, gold, and diamonds.
- General Roméo Dallaire: Time to Set the Record Straight

This review from our writer who is a retired Federal Trade Commission attorney in San Francisco, allows the reader to grasp why the U.S. has catered to Kagame and afforded his administration political legitimacy consistently until now.

Eyewitnesses to Kagame's Crimes

Noble Marara in the the early 1980's

Every story involving a large government coverup has loose ends, and there is no question that information in this case could lead to very serious convictions for war crimes and long prison sentences.

While the current problems in the DRC are landing Kagame in hot water, there is so much more to the story, and our writers and contributors have performed a real service to the world by piecing the undisclosed parts of this saga together.

It has been a daunting and sometimes gut wrenching task, but Jennifer Fierberg's tireless efforts have secured the credible help of different key people who worked closely during the early 1990's with Paul Kagame; people like Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, whom we explain more about below, and Noble Marara, former Presidential Guard to Paul Kagame in Rwanda, who was a sergeant when he served as Kagame's personal bodyguard.

The tragic loss of those covering Rwanda touches on a subject that is raw to many journalists; sadly a large number have been killed and disappeared. Noble and others bring to light the reasons that the Kagame regime is fearful of writers who refuse to bury the truth along with those 800,000 human beings lost in the Genocide.

In an article from 24 April 2012 comparing the actions of Paul Kagame to another influential leader he personally lived under as a youth while growing up in Uganda, the notorious Idi Amin; Noble discusses the impact media has had on this regime.

Noble Marara today

In recent months, Kagame has advised his henchman Jack Nziza to start up an online newspaper to suppress his much-feared “gang of four” as he termed them (Kayumba, Karegeya, Gahima and Rudasingwa). It is important to mention that as a person who spent most of my youth with Kagame as his body guard and driver, have noticed a wide change of behaviour since he lost these four individuals. I all along knew Kagame’s slyness and callousness just after a few incidents with him, which involved loss of our comrades while on duty to protect his life. On reading one General Jack Nziza and Kagame’s new online website (http://www.theexposer.net ), I had to recall the same sort of words Kagame used on any individual he did not feel comfortable with. This so called exposer or voice of Kagame is so callous that leaves you wonder if we Rwandans really deserve to be ruled by such a wild man. This all reminds me of General Idi Amin Dada, the dictator of our lives and for sure “History could be repeating itself”.
- Behind The Presidential Curtains: Does History Really Repeat Itself?

In fact 'The Exposer' has penned fictitious articles and operated clearly as a political arm, even going so far as to create cartoon art depicting its media enemies in compromising sexual situations.

Damning Revelation for Kagame

Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa

Another excellent source of first-hand information is Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa with Rwanda National Congress (RNC), who was part of the RPF in the 1990's- during the key early years of Kagame's rise to power.

The wreckage of President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane

Although Dr. Rudasingwa began his career as a medical practitioner, he subsequently became involved in politics, serving as the Secretary General of the Rwandese Patriotic Front from 1993 through 1996. This allowed a level of insight into political affairs that was vivid.

He would live with the knowledge that Kagame was guilty of many undisclosed crimes, for years before coming forward and when he did, he did so with the clear understanding that he had been one of the officials at the time, who ensured that no such information emerged.

Dr. Rudawingwa's admission of Kagame's role in the downing of a former Rwandan President's airplane may have been the beginning of the end for the current Rwanda President.

In the 01 October 2011 article, Rudasingwa Confession! Paul Kagame Killed President Juvenal Habyarimana, Jennifer Fierberg revealed through the eyes and words of Dr. Rudasingwa, the details of the doomed flight that claimed the life of President Habayarimana and other dignitaries aboard, and how this crash happened just after the signing of a peace agreement to save Rwanda. The Arusha Peace Agreement apparently did not fit with the plans of Kagame.

Deceiving the World

Rwanda Pres. Juvenal Habyarimana

On April 6, 1994, at 8:25 p.m., the Falcon 50 jet of the President of the Republic of Rwanda, registration number “9XR-NN”, on its return from a summit meeting in DAR-ES-SALAAM, Tanzania, as it was on approach to Kanombe International Airport in KIGALI, Rwanda, was shot down. All on board, including President Juvenal Habyarimana, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, their entire entourage and flight crew died.

The death of President Juvenal Habyarimana triggered the start of genocide that targeted Tutsi and Hutu moderates, and the resumption of civil war between RPF and the Government of Rwanda. The RPF’s sad and false narrative from that time on has been that Hutu extremists within President Habyarimana’s camp shot down the plane to derail the implementation of the Arusha Peace Agreement, and to find a pretext to start the genocide in which over 800,000 Rwandans died in just 100 days. This narrative has become a predominant one in some international circles, among scholars, and in some human rights organizations.

The truth must now be told. Paul Kagame, then overall commander of the Rwandese Patriotic Army, the armed wing of the Rwandese Patriotic Front, was personally responsible for the shooting down of the plane. In July, 1994, Paul Kagame himself, with characteristic callousness and much glee, told me that he was responsible for shooting down the plane. Despite public denials, the fact of Kagame’s culpability in this crime is also a public “secret” within RPF and RDF circles. Like many others in the RPF leadership, I enthusiastically sold this deceptive story line, especially to foreigners who by and large came to believe it, even when I knew that Kagame was the culprit in this crime.
- Rudasingwa Confession! Paul Kagame Killed President Juvenal Habyarimana

As recently as 16 July 2012, the UN reiterated its commitment to end all violence on the Congo:

MONUSCO troops provide security for civilians in Goma, DR of Congo against M23 attacks. Photo: MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti

The Security Council today strongly condemned the attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the group of renegade soldiers known as M23, and demanded that all forms of support to armed groups in the country cease immediately.

In a statement issued to the press, Council members reiterated their demands that the M23 and all armed groups, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), cease immediately any further advances and all forms of violence in eastern DRC.

“The members of the Security Council reiterate their condemnation of all outside support to all armed groups in the DRC and their demand that all forms of support to them cease immediately,” the Council members said in the statement. “They further call upon all countries in the region to cooperate actively with the Congolese authorities in demobilizing the M23.”

Peacekeepers serving with the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) have been aiding national army soldiers in recent weeks, supporting the latter’s efforts to halt the M23, which is composed of renegade soldiers who mutinied in April and are reportedly led by Bosco Ntaganda, an army general wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.
- DR Congo: Security Council condemns attacks by rebel soldiers in country’s east

The Council members urged that the commanders of M23, including Mr. Ntaganda, be apprehended and brought to justice.

The Rapp on the Door War Criminals Fear Most

Those of us who work in the Human Rights field are some of the most frustrated reporters you may ever encounter, because we know things about mankind that no person should know. Things that should not happen in the darkest of nightmares... things that happen to people every day in this unregulated world where state terrorism all too often is allowed to chew human beings into pieces while the general public looks the other way. International Prosecutor Stephen Rapp is not doing this. He isn't looking the other way.

This is not a religious subject, nor is it expressly political; it is a human matter with criminal implications. Stephen Rapp is a name we have heard many times over the years; he took the Sri Lanka government to war crimes court, raising the ire of this nation of Sinhala Buddhists who believe no international body should insert itself into its affairs.

Yet Sri Lanka has proven conclusively that it is a terror state incapable of governing itself.

Stephen Repp in 2010

Now Rapp is pulling back the shade from the window to expose the war crimes carried out under the regime of Rwanda's Paul Kagame.

Rapp, who has spent time as a lawyer in private practice, has also served as a Democratic member of the Iowa House of Representatives, and a Staff Director and Counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Rapp was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. In 2001, he joined the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where he led the prosecution in the "Media Trial" against the leaders of the RTLM radio station and Kangura newspaper for inciting the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

Rapp was appointed Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 8, 2009. Rapp leads the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice. In that position, he advises the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights and works to formulate U.S. policy on prevention and accountability for mass atrocities.

The office coordinates U.S. government support for ad hoc and international courts currently trying persons accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed (among other places) in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, and helps bolster the capacity of domestic judicial systems to try atrocity crimes.
- Stephen Rapp - Wikipedia

As Rapp and his office have pursued the DRC killings, we have carried the aforementioned reports from two of Kagame's former staffers under the direction of our Investigative Reporter Jennifer Fierberg; they are damning, and in fact there are other contributors connected to this period in Rwanda also, you will find all of these articles again, by using the Rwanda tag on Salem-News.com. (Salem-News.com Rwanda articles Page 1)

Human Rights reporters feel a little better today with the progress the International Criminal Court (ICC) is making against the Rwandan government's war crime suspects, we are reminded that there are people in the U.S. government carrying out the virtues of the American spirit, which is not without its share of mistakes, but is still one of the best representations of what a nation can aspire to be.

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tense of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)