Rwanda: Ex-FDLR commander named to Reserve Force

By Rwanda News Agency
Friday, 23 April 2010

Kigali: Barely a week after the Reserve Force Commander Lt. Gen. Charles Muhire was suspended and arrested, the new Force has new commanders including an ex-senior FDLR officer who surrendered in 2003, RNA reports.

The Commander-in-Chief has promoted Brig. Gen. Jerome Ngendahimana to the rank of Major General and appointed him the Deputy Reserve Force Commander.

Maj. Gen. Ngendahimana has been a senior aide to former army chief, now Defense Minister Gen. James Kabarebe. He is said to have been instrumental in army operations in January last year in DR Congo against his former solders, the FDLR militia.

Gen. Ngendahimana and ex-FDLR chief Maj Gen. Paul Rwarakabije, along with dozens of soldiers surrendered to Rwandan forces in 2003. Rwarakabije is now vice president of the demobilization and reintegration commission – which has helped tens of thousands of combatants to put down their arms.

Gen. Ngendahimana, for his part, was the vice chair of the so called Mucyo Commission which carried out a damning probe into France’s role in the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. The two year investigation and subsequent report ended into Kigali and Paris reconciling last November.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Force will be headed by Major General Fred Ibingira who the Commander-in-Chief promoted to Lieutenant General.

Gen. Ibingira has been 1st Division commander based in the eastern province.