Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Rwanda: Kagame's hand in shooting down of Habyarimana plane

By Radio Katwe
04 July 2007
Kampala

Shortly after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) had reluctantly agreed to the Arusha Peace Accord in 1993, they met in Rwakitura to find how to help the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) to take power in Kigali. They agreed that the quickest way was to assasinate President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda. Hit squads and other ways were discused but the one we want to report on was to shoot down the presidential jet. Rwakitura for those who don't know is Museveni's village home.

Some of the people who attended that meeting were then Uganda's powerful Director General of ISO Brig. Jim Muhwezi, Col Samson Mande the military attache to Uganda's High Commission in Dar es Salaam (who by the way is indicated on the certificate of purchase of the Russian made missiles that were used), Gen. Paul Kagame, Lt. Col. James Kabarebe of the RPA, Col. Theoneste Lizinde and a host of other RPF top dogs. (Col. Lizinde had defected to the RPA after serving as Pres. Habyarimana's director of intelligence).

But in order to shoot down the plane, the problem was how to trap President Habyarimana into flying in such that his schedule and movements could be tracked. So they did it by calling a meeting where heads of state would come.There were good excuses for this. At that time the Arusha peace agreement between the RPF/RPA and Rwandan government was stuck. There were also problems in Burundi.

So Museveni convinced President Mwinyi of Tanzania to call a summit meeting to discuss these problems. The meeting finally took place on April 6 1994 in Dar es Salaam. Among the topics was the progress of integrating RPF in the so called interim government in Kigali, which had been agreed on in the Arusha accords.

At Dar es Salaam, first, this man Museveni arrived extremely late. Then also during the meeting he kept talking and talking about irrelevant things which had nothing to do with agreed agenda and the meeting couldn't end on time. Ugandans know that this is typical Museveni backward manners, where he delays for hours thinking the whole world should wait for him and then enjoy the sound of his voice for more hours.

But looking back, it seems Museveni made sure Habyarimana was delayed in Tanzania until dusk so that by the time they would arrive in Kigali, it would be dark (insecure). Darkness would be the best time in terms of visibility (planes lights, and noise as the city is quieter) and the shooters not being detected under cover of darkness.

You shall recall, that after their meeting M7 was on the tarmac to see off Habyarimana. It is said that the late Habyarimana offered to travel with the Ugandan ambassador to Rwanda, Ignatius Katetegirwe but the ambassador declined saying he had unfinished business in Tanzania.

However the plot (to down the plane) had leaked to Tanzanian intelligence. Some people say the director of Tanzania's Intelligence and Security service, Major General Imrani Kombe did warn Habyarimana not to travel that evening.

But as was characteristic of Habyarimana, he did not take the advice, reasoning that since he had agreed to step down from power and hand over to an interim government, then there was no need to eliminate him.

Habyarimana left Dar-es-Salaam Airport about 6:30pm East African Time and approached Kanombe International Airport in Kigali at approximately 8.20pm Central African Time. The RPA had taken positions under the flight path which planes used to approach Kanombe airport to Land. As the presidential Falcon jet came in to land, two surface-to-air (SAM) missiles were fired, one of which hit the presidential plane hence bringing it down and killing everyone on board. The plane was confirmed downed at about 8:30pm. Incidentally April 6 1994, the day Habyarimana was assassinated, was his 58th birthday.

The claim that the Rwandese "Akazu" or kitchen cabinet composed of his wife Agathe Habyarimana and her brothers plotted to kill Habyarimana is untenable because Col. Elly Segatwa (Director of Intelligence) who was his brother-in-law and other relatives of the first lady Agathe were on the same plane and met the same fate.

You shall recall the RPA had sent about 600 troops to Kigali after the Arusha accord, and in fact also continued to secretly infiltrate many more soldiers into Kigali using contacts in Habyarimana's government like Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi. Immediately after downing the plane, that very night the RPA attacked Kigali including the La Presidence, the seat of the President but were repulsed.

On morning of the following day April 7, among the first victims of the chaos that overhwelmed Rwanda for months to come were former Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. Units of the ex Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) attacked the Prime Minister's residence and killed both Agathe and her husband. Ten Belgian soldiers under the UN force United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR) who were guarding her were arrested and later also murdered.

The bringing down of the plane was well a hatched plan. Col. Lizinde who had been Habyarimana's Intelligence Chief was instrumental in providing secret details about the Rwandan government and of the best coordinates to hit Habyarimana's plane when it was approaching Kanombe airport. However much as there were efforts to absolve Uganda and RPF including the elimination of potential witnesses like Col. Lizinde, the evidence would finally emerge.

In January 1996, Gen. Kombe the Tanzanian Military Intelligence chief was shot dead mysteriously at a fake road block. In 1998 Lizinde was assassinated by suspected RPA agents in Nairobi but the tubes used to shoot the misiles which the French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere used to pin Kagame were never to be 'assassinated'. On them the serial numbers were found which were traced to the arms factory in Russia and the purchaser is also well indicated.

Well, we as Radio Katwe have asked our dear readers that why is it that Uganda's ambassador Ignatius Katetegirwe closed down the Uganda embassy a few days before the plane was shot down and why was the Uganda embassy not looted or destroyed during the "genocide"? Why did senior RPF officers in Kigali (as part of the Arusha accords) rush to bring their relatives back to Uganda shortly before that fateful day April 6 1994?

There are still many questions but we are getting info from Rwandans at home and abroad and soon we shall have the whole story complete.

We are also interested to know what the late Lt. Col. Reuben Ikondere was doing in Kigali leading a Ugandan battalion round about the time of the shooting of the plane.

Related Materials:
Testimony of Abdul Ruzibiza about how mistakes by both the Rwandan Government and the RPF led to the Rwandan genocide of 1994

Major General Paul Kagame behind the shooting down of late Habyarimana's plane: An eye witness testimony

Rwanda: Declaration on the shooting down of Habyarimana's aircraft on April 6, 1994

Habyarimana's alleged assassins slowly and surely eliminated

The alleged mystery surrounding the black box of the Rwandan genocide

UN and Canada Complicit in Rwanda Cover-Up: Americans and Rwanda Patrotic Front (RPF) Planned and Launched Aircraft Attack

The Mutsinzi Report: A Video Analysis of Habyarimana Plane Crash

Rwanda: Will the new report on Rwandan genocide close the book on who started it?

A Rebuttal of the Mutsinzi Report on the Rwandan genocide

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 7:31 PM