General Paul Kagame Assassinated President Juvenal Habyarimana, Former RPF Secretary General and Kagame’s Chief of Staff Says

On October 1, 2011, Major Dr Theogene Rudasingwa, former Secretary General of the Rwandan ruling party, Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Ambassador of Rwanda to the United States, and Chief of Staff for President Paul Kagame has revealed, in a press release to the media obtained by AfroAmerica Network, that the current Rwandan President is directly and peronnaly responsible of assassinating the former Rwandan and Burundian presidents Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira along with their staff and crew.
In his statement dated October 1, 2011, Theogene Rudasingwa says: “The truth must now be told. Paul Kagame, then overall commander 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[NDLR: Rwandan Defense Forces} circles.”
Theogene Rudasingwa, although denying being part of the conspiracy to commit the crime, admits being in a small circle charged of propagating a false story about the assassination around the world, in diplomatic circles, and in the media. 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.
He then asks for forgiveness: I believe the majority of members of RPF and RPA civilians and combatants, like me, were not party to this murderous conspiracy that was hatched and organized by Paul Kagame and executed on his orders. Nevertheless, I was a Secretary General of the RPF, and a Major in the rebel army, RPA. It is in this regard, within the context of collective responsibility, and a spirit of truth-telling in search of forgiveness and healing, that I would like to say I am deeply sorry about this loss of life, and to ask for forgiveness from the families of Juvenal Habyarimana, Cyprien Ntaryamira, Deogratias Nsabimana, Elie Sagatwa, Thaddee Bagaragaza, Emmanuel Akingeneye, Bernard Ciza, Cyriaque Simbizi, Jacky Heraud, Jean-Pierre Minaberry, and Jean-Michel Perrine. I also ask for forgiveness from all Rwandan people, in the hope that we must unanimously and categorically reject murder, treachery, lies and conspiracy as political weapons, eradicate impunity once and for all, and work together to build a culture of truth-telling, forgiveness, healing, and the rule of law. I ask for forgiveness from the people of Burundi and France whose leaders and citizens were killed in this crime. Above all, I ask for forgiveness from God for having lied and concealed evil for too long.
He ends his statement by alluding to the risks he is taking for his life: In freely telling the truth before God and the Rwandan people, I fully understand the risk I have undertaken, given Paul Kagame’s legendary vindictiveness and unquenchable thirst for spilling the blood of Rwandans. It is a shared risk that Rwandans bear daily in their quest for freedom and justice for all.
The public admission by Major Theogene Rudasingwa of General Paul Kagame’s responsibility in the assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian presidents is a major event. So far the most of the accusations came from opposition leaders or foreign governments.
In 1997, one opposition leader, Dr Felicien Kanyamibwa, published a widely circulated memo titled: “Memorandum on the Assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana (click here for the article in our Archives: Who Assassinated Habyarimana)“. It was the first well researched documents on the persons or organizations potentially responsible for the assassinations. Dr. Felicien Kanyamibwa showed that the most probable criminal was the Rwandan Patriotic Army and General Paul Kagame.
Then, French court Judge Bruguiere, investigating the sames crimes, got to the same conclusion and indicted 40 of General Kagame’s closest aides. Spanish courts reached the same conclusions. Several French authors did independent researches that led to similar findings.
Theogene Rudasingwa’s statement will certainly be a watershed for the French and Spanish on-going cases and a turning point in the Rwandan tragic history.
That is maybe why he concludes: Neither power and fame, nor gold and silver, are the motivation for me in these matters of death that have defined our nation for too long. Truth cannot wait for tomorrow, because the Rwandan nation is very sick and divided, and cannot rebuild and heal on lies. All Rwandans urgently need truth today. Our individual and collective search for truth will set us free. When we are free, we can freely forgive each other and begin to live fully and heal at last.
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