AfroAmerica Network

The widow of the assassinated late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, Ms Agathe Habyarimana, has been cleared by French courts and may no longer face extradition to Rwanda. The Rwandan government, whose leader General Paul Kagame is accused of assassinating his predecessor, has been lobbying the French government and judicial system to have the widow extradited and prosecuted in Rwanda. The lobbying and intense media campaign financed by the Rwandan government is led by a niece of the current Rwandan Minister of Defense General James Kabarebe and her French husband.

On September 12, 2011, american attorneys John P. Zelbst, Prof Peter Erlinder, and Kurt P. Kerns representing the plaintiffs Mrs Agathes Habyarimana, the widow of the assassinated Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Mrs Ntaryamira, the widow of the assassinated Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira filed an Objection against the claim of immunity from prosecution by United States States Department for the current Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame.
The objection follows the request by the U.S. State Department for a civil immunity from persecution for the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame, claiming that because he is a foreign head of state, the U.S. courts should not prosecute him. He is accused of assassinating the two presidents and their staff, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Some of these accusations are also contained in UN reports and Spanish and French courts indictments against Paul Kagaame’s top aides. Spain and France have not indicted the Rwandan Dictator because of the provisions of immunity for foreign heads of states. [click to continue…]

AfroAmerica Network correspondents in North-Kivu province of Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) report that the Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces of Liberation of Rwanda, FDLR, have killed, after violent combats, several Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) soldiers who are part of several companies that have been infiltrating the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo within the last month.
The soldiers were killed in the area of Murukoro,
[click to continue…]

General Paul Kagame, the Rwandan dictator now visiting France escaped a botched assassination attempt on July 4, 2011. According to information gathered by one of AfroAmerica Network correspondents in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, the attempt, coupled with the discontent within the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) has created a toxic atmosphere in the Rwandan capital Kigali. The RDF, the notoriously brutal Rwandan army, is mostly composed of soldiers from the minority Tutsi ethnic group that rules Rwanda with an iron fist, leaving no political or administrative space to the Hutu ethnic majority (see our article: US Embassy in Rwanda: Power in Hands of a Powerful Tutsi Minority With A Few Incompetent Hutu Figureheads).

The events in the last two months, that the government sought, somewhat successfully until now,  to sweep under the rug have raised tensions with the ruling elite and risk to undermine a regime apparently already on shaky  grounds.  AfroAmerica Network has learned of the two major events that have shaken [click to continue…]

According to sources close to the Rwandan Intelligence Services, Major Gerard Ntashamaje has been housed in a safe house where he has been briefed on daily basis following his return to Rwanda(see our article RPR Leader Major Gerard Ntashamaje Defects to Rwanda).  The interrogations have focused on the inner working of the organizations he had been associated with, especially the Rwandan Nation Democratic Congress, NDC, which is a coalition between two armed opposition groups, the mostly Hutu Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD-Urunana) and the mostly Tutsi Rally of the Rwandan People (RPR – Inkeragutabara).

The RPR was formed by Tutsis military officers and politicians who defected from the Rwandan ruling party, Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Major Gerard Ntashamaje, also a former RPF military officer, although not a founding member of the RPR, was eventually selected to lead the organization when most of the founding members were captured by Ugandan security services and handed over to the Rwandan government in a swap exchange of  Ugandan opposition figures. Other RPR high ranking politicians fled  Uganda and joined the military branch  based in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) along with the RUD-Urunana’s military branch, the National Army – Imboneza.

According to AfroAmerica Network  sources within the Rwandan Intelligence services, during the interrogation Major Gerard Ntashamaje said [click to continue…]

According to the US Embassy in Rwanda, the major Rwandan newspaper, magazine, and electronic media, The New Times, is a Rwandan Government (GOR) mouthpiece, directly run by the office of the Rwandan dictator, General Paul Kagame.

The analysis was made by the US Embassy in Rwanda, citing a US citizen who had been working as an editor of the New Times and had just ended her term. From the Wikileaks cables and according to the US Embassy, that former New Times Editor “described a culture in which members of the news room struggled against the dictates of the New Times management, which included editorial meetings focused on ways to promote the dominant Rwandan Patriotic Front in the upcoming legislative elections.”

In rather unequivocal and damning terms, the New Times editor confirms that the office of the Rwandan president Paul Kagame determines the editorial line of the magazine and all related publications. The New Times editor adds that the Rwandan President’s office is practically involved in all the managerial details, including selecting and editing articles to be published and choosing the pictures of the Rwandan dictator to be featured in the Magazine and electronic publications.
[click to continue…]

Fresh sources confirm to AfroAmerica Network that despite recent denials by the Rwandan Government, several military leaders from the Tutsi ethnic minority leading Rwanda are on a secret INTERPOL list of wanted criminals.

They were indicted by the Spanish Judiciary system for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide committed in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The arrest warrants issued by Interpol target key military officials including the current Minister of Defense, General James Kabarebe, the retired General Sam Kanyemera Kaka, Lt General Caesar Kayizari, the current Rwandan Army Chief of Staff, Colonel Dan Gapfizi, General Rubagumya Gacinya and several other military officers.

Some of these individuals were on the list of those to accompany the
[click to continue…]

According the Wikileaks cables, the United States Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda expressed,  in a deep objective analysis of  the ethnic make up of the leadership of Rwandan political and military institutions,  its serious concerns about Rwandan stability by observing that Rwanda is  tightly led by a clique of individuals, mostly English speakers, from the Tutsi minority ethnic group,  who recruits a few  figureheads from the ethnic Hutu majority.

According to the cables,   US Embassy’s” analysis of the ethnic breakdown of the current Rwandan government shows Tutsis hold a preponderant percentage of senior positions. Hutus in very senior positions often hold relatively little real authority, and are commonly “twinned” with senior Tutsis who exercise real power. The military and security agencies are controlled by Tutsis, generally English speakers who grew up as refugees with President Kagame in Uganda.
[click to continue…]