Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

On The Dark Shadow That Stains UNAMID Force Commander

Photo:
Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba, current UNAMID Force Commander, Darfur, Sudan.

In an interview in September 2008, Colette Braeckman asked Paul Kagame the following question:

"Rwanda has 2000 soldiers in Darfur, they participate in the mixed ONU-African Union Force. The Rwandan General Karake Karenzi, who is at the head of this Force, is a controversial figure, his name is quoted in the accusations of a Spanish Judge. if he leaves Darfour, how would you react?"

To which Paul Kagame answered:

"I know that the Rwandan soldiers are necessair and appreciated, but we can't win on two tables: Or the commander of the Force is attacked, then also Rwanda itself will feel attacked and will react accordingly. For me, it is clear: If Karenzi has to leave, all the Rwandan soldiers will leave Darfour"

Beginning of June 2009, we learned that Karake Karenzi has been replaced by Major General Patrick Nyamvumba who does not figure on the list of arrest warents by the Spanish judge Fernando Merelles against Rwandan high military.

Apparently Rwanda has agreed to replacing Karake Karenzi and got in return the highest ranking position in the joint ONU-African Union Force. Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba is the new commander of this operation in Darfur.

The South African General Mbutyana Duma Dumisani get's Karake Karenzi's position as deputy commander.

Isn't it ironic that Rwanda is now leading the military force in Darfour while, as George Katito points out
"Kagame's administration has been leading the African Union's opposition to the arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and genocide."?

The ethnic composition of the Rwandan army

It's instructive to read about the ethnic composition among high ranking military inside Rwanda on the website of the Belgium French Christian Democrats. Patrick Nyamvumba was a soldier in the Ugandan army in the past. He also was at the head of Rwandan's operation inside the DRC in 1999, as you can read here.

On his website, Musabyimana however writes about Patrick Nyamvumba (no 29) as one of the 17 top criminals inside the RPF:

"He has been named Major General for unsavoury services, alone or in complicty with others he is presumed guilty of crimes of war and crimes against humanity: Lieutenant Colonel at the head of the Unit Simba Mobile, he is responsable during April 1994 of acts of genocides committed by ethnic cleansing of Hutu's in the communities of MURAMBI, RUKARA, MUHURA, MUHAZI and GITI with the goal of creating a Tutsiland and aiming to repatriate Tutsi refugees from Uganda. Estimates attribute him as responsable of the killing of 82.000 innocent civilians."

A report "RPF criminals" has been put together by Musabyimana on the basis of different sources.

Patrick Nyamvumba was also president of the military court in 2006 that condemend Major General Laurent Munyakazi to life imprisonment for his presumed role in the 1994 Genocide. Major General Laurent Munyakazi, one of the few Hutu commanders inside the Rwandan army, had been slowly rising within the ranks of the Rwandan army until 2005. This shows that Patrick Nyamvumba has been active in executing Rwandan's strategy to make sure the army does not mix as has been the case in Burundi.

Olivier Nyirubugara, journalist and PhD Student at the University of Amsterdam, quotes Lieutenant Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza in an extensive report on crimes committed by RPF. Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza claims that Patrick Nyamvumba was appointed by Paul Kagame to systematically exterminate Hutu's in several districts of Rwanda. Calling unarmed civlians to a certain place to subsequently exterminate them.

The question of course remains on whether Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza also denies this part of his book "Rwanda: The Secret History".

Source

Related Materials:
Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba Appointed UNAMID Force Commander

Rwanda: Rwanda Army General Gets Darful Top Job

UNAMID pays tribute to its outgoing Deputy Force Commander

Rwanda: RPF's Paranoia Over UDF-Inkingi

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 1:48 AM