Rwanda: Alleged ‘Ingabire accomplices’ accused of desertion

By Rwanda News Agency
Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Kigali: The three men to be paraded in court as accomplices to opposition politician Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza deserted the FDLR rebels before the period they are alleged to have been in contact with her, new information suggests.

The former militia members are Lt. Col Noël Habiyaremye, Lt. Col Tharcisse Mbiturende and Lt. Jean Marie Karuta. The men were arrested in Burundi, according to Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga, as they prepared to implement the plans of causing instability in Rwanda.

The FDU-Inkingi chief Ingabire was allegedly in contact with the three FDLR men with plans to launch a rebel group called FDU-CDF to topple government as far back as 2008.

According to prosecution, Ms. Ingabire met Lt. Col Tharcisse Mbiturende in Kinshasa over the details of the proposed rebel force, which would include remnants of FDLR ranks. Part of the deal, prosecutors claim, was the eventual end of the FDLR for a new force.

However, the rebels are now also accusing the three government suspects as not members of the rebel force, refuting any association with it. In a statement Wednesday, the Paris-based Genocide indicted FDLR Secretary General Calixte Mbarushimana said Lt. Col Habiyaremye deserted in October 2007.

While Lt. Col Mbiturende and Lt. Karuta abandoned the rebel ranks in May 2008.

Prosecution claims Ms. Ingabire met Lt. Col Tharcisse Mutwende in 2008 to convince him to leave the rebel group, but no specific dates have been provided. The state also alleges that the Colonel received money through Western Union from Ms. Ingabire from Netherlands, and that they kept in touch through email.

In response during her appearance in Thursday last week, Ms. Ingabire denied meeting anybody by those names. As for the emails, the firry politician requested that her defense be given the entire emails which would be addressed during the trail.

The FDLR executive secretary said in the press statement that the group does not have any connections with the FDU-Inkingi party, nor Ms. Ingabire.

Meanwhile, the rebels seem to have gone offline completely. Following a UN investigation which uncovered the web host of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in German in September last year, the site was shut down.

A week later, the site resurfaced through Aman, a London-based web host. Now an extensive web search indicates that the site www.fdlr.org does no longer exist.