Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

HOW THE LATEST TESTIMONY BY THEOGENE RUDASINGWA WILL HELP THE FRENCH INVESTIGATIONS

By Amiel Nkuliza
Umuvugizi
October 2, 2011

Theogene Rudasingwa has just released his testimony of which our newspaper Umuvugizi has a copy, on who shot the plane carrying the former president Juvenal Habyarimana, on the eve of the 21st anniversary of the RPF struggle, October 1st.

This has come as a pleasant surprise as we think it will help guide the on-going French investigations especially since Theogene Rudasingwa at that time was the secretary general of the RPF and a senior officer with the rank of major in the RPA.

There is no doubt that this testimony will ruffle President Kagame’s feathers because he has passionately denied any responsibility of President Habyarimana’s death in the foreign press.
One especially remembers his interview on BBC’s “HARD TALK” when he was pointedly asked if he truly had a hand in shooting down Habyarimanas plane and President Kagame avoided the question, instead, he went on to reason that he had a right to fight the regime of Habyarimana because it had made him a refugee for 30 years.

Rudasingwa is not the first to give testimony. In 1998 a journalist by the name of Jean pierre Mugabe, editor of “le tribun de people” wrote a long article revealing some uncomfortable truths to the chagrin of the Party. Mugabe had worked as a journalist in the propaganda department of the RPF hierarchy and his testimony is supposed to be the earliest recorded.

Others who have testified about President Kagame’s role in the death of President Habyarimana have been a former bodyguard to Kagame, Lt Ruyenzi and Lt Abdoul Ruzibiza who documented his testimony into a book called “Secret History”. After the release of this book, Lt Abdul Ruzibiza was harassed by agents of Govt of Rwanda into changing and retracting his testimony. He briefly did. But as time went on Ruzibiza, later went on to say that he could no longer live with himself by hiding the truth.
Before he died a mysterious death, Ruzibiza gave a detailed testimony to the French investigative commission of the plain and honest truth as he knew it.

With the latest testimony from Theogene Rudasingwa, one can conclude that his can be considered the more credible of the lot given his position in the RPF and proximity to Paul Kagame. Some RPF members have been known to say that Mr Rudasingwa was one of those people who convinced RPF intellectuals in the army to accept Kagame as its leader as his candidature had polarized the organization.

Dr Theogene Rudasingwa was one of President Kagame’s close confidants during the RPF’s negotiations in Arusha, he was the first secretary general of the RPF, ambassador to the United states and later director of cabinet in the President’s office. His testimony should be considered seriously as it is without doubt that he was knowledgeable about many secrets.

One excerpt quotes as follows “The RPF’s sad and false narrative from that time on has been that Hutu extremists within President Habyarimana’s camp shot down the plane to derail the implementation of the Arusha Peace Agreement, and to find a pretext to start the genocide in which over 800,000 Rwandans died in just 100 days. This narrative has become a predominant one in some international circles, among scholars, and in some human rights organizations. The truth must now be told. Paul Kagame, then overall commander of the Rwandese Patriotic Army, the armed wing of the Rwandese Patriotic Front, was personally responsible for the shooting down of the plane. In July, 1994, Paul Kagame himself, with characteristic callousness and much glee, told me that he was responsible for shooting down the plane. Despite public denials, the fact of Kagame’s culpability in this crime is also a public “secret” within RPF and RDF circles. Like many others in the RPF leadership, I enthusiastically sold this deceptive story line, especially to foreigners who by and large came to believe it, even when I knew that Kagame was the culprit in this crime.”

Theogene proceeds to call for President Kagame’s arrest by an International Court.
“First, there is absolutely nothing honorable or heroic in reaching an agreement for peace with a partner, and then stabbing him in the back. Kagame and Habyarimana did not meet on the battlefield on April 6, 1994. If they had, and one of them or both had died, it would have been tragic, but understandable, as a product of the logic of war. President Habyarimana was returning from a peace summit, and by killing him, Kagame demonstrated the highest form of treachery. Second, Kagame, a Tutsi himself, callously gambled away the lives of innocent Tutsi and moderate Hutu who perished in the genocide. While the killing of President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was not a direct cause of the genocide, it provided a powerful motivation and trigger to those who organized, mobilized and executed the genocide against Tutsi and Hutu moderates. Third, by killing President Habyarimana, Kagame permanently derailed the already fragile Arusha peace process in a dangerous pursuit of absolute power in Rwanda. Kagame feared the letter and spirit of the Arusha Peace Agreement. As the subsequent turn of events has now shown, Kagame does not believe in the unity of Rwandans, democracy, respect of human rights and other fundamental freedoms, the rule of law, power sharing, integrated and accountable security institutions with a national character, and resolving the problem of refugees once and for all. This is what the Arusha Peace Agreement was all about.”

Even if Theogene was a senior officer in the army and Secretary General of the RPF, he affirms his innocence against taking part in planning or executing the assassination of President juvenal Habyarimana and for this reason asks Rwandans for their forgiveness in hiding the truth all these years.

“I was never party to the conspiracy to commit this heinous crime. In fact, I first heard about it on BBC around 1:00 am on April 7, 1994, while I was in Kampala where I had been attending the Pan African Movement conference.

I believe the majority of members of RPF and RPA civilians and combatants, like me, were not party to this murderous conspiracy that was hatched and organized by Paul Kagame and executed on his orders. Nevertheless, I was a Secretary General of the RPF, and a Major in the rebel army, RPA. It is in this regard, within the context of collective responsibility, and a spirit of truth-telling in search of forgiveness and healing, that I would like to say I am deeply sorry about this loss of life, and to ask for forgiveness from the families of Juvenal Habyarimana, Cyprien Ntaryamira, Deogratias Nsabimana, Elie Sagatwa, Thaddee Bagaragaza, Emmanuel Akingeneye, Bernard Ciza, Cyriaque Simbizi, Jacky Heraud, Jean-Pierre Minaberry, and Jean-Michel Perrine. I also ask for forgiveness from all Rwandan people, in the hope that we must unanimously and categorically reject murder, treachery, lies and conspiracy as political weapons, eradicate impunity once and for all, and work together to build a culture of truth-telling, forgiveness, healing, and the rule of law. I ask for forgiveness from the people of Burundi and France whose leaders and citizens were killed in this crime. Above all, I ask for forgiveness from God for having lied and concealed evil for too long.”

The cat is out of the bag and the beans spilt. This is the result of mistreating and maligning comrades who fought in the trenches with Paul Kagame.

The jet carrying the fallen dignitaries was a «Jet Falcon 50, no 9XR-NN», carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6 1994 had been given to him as a gift from France. Others who perished on that flight were PRESIDENT CYPRIEN NTARYAMIRA OF BURUNDI, DEOGRATIAS NSABIMANA (Army chief of staff), ELIE SAGATWA (chief of staff presidents office), THADDEE BAGARAGAZA (head of presidential protection unit), JUVENAL RENZAHO (advisor on foreign affairs to the president), EMMANUEL AKINGENEYE (Presidents Physician), BERNARD CIZA (Minister of works in Burundian Government), CYRIAQUE SIMBIZI (Burundian Information minister), JACKY HERAUD (chief pilot), JEAN PIERRE MINABERRY (assistant Pilot) AND JEAN-MICHEL PERRINE (Engineer).

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 11:14 PM