He is known as “the butcher of Kiwandja”, the man who led the military operations conducted by CNDP in November 2008 and who ordered the systematic massacre of Hutu Congolese and Rwandan refugees in Rutshuru area.
Photo: Tombs of Nuns and Priests Killed by Rwandan Patriotic Army in Kasika in 1998.
He is also known as the “Serial mass murderer of Shalio “, the man who has been hunting down Rwandan Hutu refugees in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 1996. For close to two decades, he has given himself the mission of the executioner
of the Rwandan Hutu refugees. According to the United Nations Security Council, “as one of the commanders of the FARDC 231st Brigade, he gave orders that resulted in the massacre of over 100 Rwandan refugees, mostly women and children, during an April 2009 military operation in the Shalio area.” He was then with his partner in war crimes, Colonel Baudouin Ngaruye.
A year later, he was once again spilling the blood of Rwandan refugees and Congolese Hutus. According to a May 21, 2010 statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, the man supervised and personally executed children during operation Kimia II.
The man is Colonel Innocent Zimurinda, one of the worst mass murderers and war criminals that Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Colonel Innocent Zimurinda was born in Ngungu, Masisi, North Kivu Province and was among the Congolese youth that joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front in 1990′s. He was then with … no other than… General Bosco Ntaganda. It is within the RPA that he developed his thirst for murdering innocent civilians, especially from the Hutu ethnic. When the Rwandan Patriotic Army attacked refugee camps in 1996-1997, he was among the first to lead the hunt, pursuing fleeing women, children, and elderly to the heart of the jungles and systematically massacring them. According to some Rwandan refugees who survived Colonel Innocent Zimurinda’s killing orgies, he was known for his sadistic ways of torturing and then killing the refugees, especially women, and more savagely pregnant women.
He is believed to be one of the main murderers in Kasika, also known as “the Congolese Kosovo”, in 1998 along with Colonel Shetani. In Kasika, not only ethnic Nyindu and Rwandan Hutu refugees who had been welcomed by the Nyindu Mwami Francois Mubeza III were massacred in cold blood, but also nuns and priests from other ethnic groups who had been working in the areas. Mwami Francosi Mubeza III, along with the entire royal court, was also murdered by a horde of Rwandan Patriotic Army killers led by Innocent Zimurinda and Shetani. The nuns and priests were inopportune witnesses that Innocent Zimulinda’s and Shetani’s men did not want to leave behind.
Colonel Innocent Zimurinda never missed wherever there were innocent Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese from other ethnic groups than his, to be killed. Hence, he was in Ituri with General Bosco Ntaganda.
Colonel Zimurinda’s Trail of Blood
Wherever Colonel Innocent Zimurinda has been, he left a trail of blood of innocent civilians. He massacred civilians for one reason: the victims were guilty of being from other ethnic groups that his.
Well, according to sources within the Rwandan Defense Forces, the trail of blood has overtaken Colonel Zimurinda. Before crossing the border to Rwanda on March 16, 2013 (see our article here), he was shot. For outside observers, who shot him and why remains a mystery. The fact is that he received 8 bullets and was the only one shot during the crossing. The reality is that, he and General Bosco Ntaganda, were the targets. They crimes made them candidates for the International Criminal Court and Rwandan leaders did not like it.
According to the sources contacted by AfroAmerica Network, when the Rwandan Defense Forces DMI Commando soldiers who were looking for General Bosco Ntaganda could not find him (see our article General Bosco Ntaganda Evades Rwandan DMI Killing Squad of March 19, 2013) they approached Colonel Innocent Zimurinda. The commando asked Zimurinda where General Ntaganda was. He simply said that he did not know. They then asked him how that was possible when he was the top commander.
He answered them that he had no lessons to receive from anyone and ordered the commando to leave, and if not to face his personal guards. When they saw Colonel Innocent Zimurinda’s soldiers on the edge, the Rwandan Defense Forces DMI commando adopted a conciliatory tone and gave the impression to back down and pulled away. Then RDF Colonel Emmanuel Ruvusha gave the order to shoot into the air with heavy and light weapons and then cross the border to Rwanda.
It is within that confusion that an unidentified shooter or shooters shot Colonel Zimurinda. Initially no one paid attention because they were busy getting ready to cross the border. It is when they saw Colonel Zimurinda on the ground that his bodyguards realized what was happening. They went to look to the Rwandan DMI commando, but the commando had disappeared.
Colonel Zimurinda was bleeding and there was no time to waste. Hid bodyguards loaded him into the first car across the border. A trail of blood dripped from the car: this time it was his. The Rwandan DMI then took over and led him to the Gisenyi hospital. From there, he was put on a helicopter and led to the Military Hospital in Kanombe, Kigali. According to some sources, he has been in comma since. But other sources within Rwandan Military told AfroAmerica Network that he may be already dead.
Whether he is dead or alive, he may not be seen in the public for a while. In any case, like General Bosco Ntaganda, if he is still alive, he may also soon face the International Criminal Tribunal for the trail of blood of innocent people he has left behind for over more than two decades.
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