Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Photo: Catholic pilgrims carry a statue of the Virgin Mary in Kibeho, Rwanda, AFP/Archives.

Below is a letter addressed to Reverend Monseigneur Robert G. Amey, Pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, by the Government of the Republic of Rwanda operating from Exile (GREX).

The letter raises concerns of the Rwandan people opposed to a tyrannical regime and a mafia system put in place by Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) regime, especially because Cardinal Antoine Kambanda and Bishop Anaclet Mwumvaneza are touring the US.

Indeed, Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, the current Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kigali, Rwanda, is scheduled to celebrate a special Mass for the Rwandan community the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area on Sunday, September 3, 2023, at Saint Mary's Catholic Church, 520 Veirs Mill Road, Rockville, MD 20852, at 1:30PM.

Bishop Anaclet Mwumvaneza, the current Bishop of Nyundo Diocese, Rwanda, also celebrated a special Mass for the same community, last Friday, August 25, 2023, at Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, 8428 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, MD 21702, at 7:00PM.

RWANDAN PEOPLE’S GOVERNMENT IN EXILE 

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

E-mail : minaffet@gouvrwandaexil.org 

Tél. +1 413-977-2455

Ref. 027/MINAFFET/23

August 28, 2023

RE:

*VISIT OF CARDINAL ANTOINE KAMBANDA & BISHOP ANACLET MWUMVANEZA.

*RAISING CONCERNS OF RWANDAN PEOPLE OPPOSED TO A TYRANNICAL REGIME AND A MAFIA SYSTEM PUT IN PLACE BY PAUL KAGAME AND HIS RWANDAN PATRIOTIC FRONT-INKOTANYI (RPF-INKOTANYI) REGIME.

Dear Reverend Father Keith Boisvert,

1. We, the Government of the Republic of Rwanda operating from Exile (GREX), are writing this letter not only to present our sincerest greetings to you and to the faith community of Saint Katharine Drexel Parish but also to bring to your attention and denounce the silence of the Rwandan Catholic Church and of its authorities led by Cardinal Antoine Kambanda and Bishop Anaclet Mwumvaneza who are currently visiting Saint Katharine Drexel Parish, in the face of killings, injustices, abuses, and harassment committed by current regime in Kigali against Rwandans. The most telling example, especially because it is still going on even now as we write this letter, is the illegal destructions - because it is not accompanied by any expropriation prescribed by the law - of the houses of the inhabitants of the Diocese of Nyundo where the Most Reverend Anaclet Mwumvaneza is the bishop and resides. In fact, the current illegal destruction of houses of inhabitants of Mahoko market in the Nyundo Diocese is a copy paste of the illegal destruction of the houses of the inhabitants that happened in Kigali City, precisely in Kangondo and Bannyahe neighborhoods in the Archdiocese of Kigali where Cardinal Antoine Kambanda is the archbishop and resides. In both cases, the two leaders of the Rwandan Catholic Church remain(ed) silent, and do nothing to defend the vulnerable Rwandans, let alone their Catholic Christians. Instead of pleading for their followers, Churches in Rwanda - including the Rwandan Catholic Church - demand offerings and tithes to build cathedrals or other types of church buildings; but even worse, in collusion with the political authorities, they force their followers to give monetary contributions to the Rwandan Patriotic Front-Inkotanyi (RPF- Inkotanyi), the ruling party of the president Paul Kagame.

2. We also seize this opportunity to inform you that, due to the persisting closure and monopolization of the political space by the RPF-Inkotanyi’s regime in Rwanda, since February 20, 2017, there exists a Government of the Republic of Rwanda operating from Exile (GREX). This Government represents not only Rwandans who still live in exile but also those who are in Rwanda and cannot express themselves freely.

3. The Government of the Republic of Rwanda operating from Exile (GREX) is widely supported by internal and external Rwandan opinion and it is listened to by most Rwandans because they find themselves in its ideals of peace, national harmony and a policy of peace and good understanding with neighboring countries.

4. The Government of the Republic of Rwanda in Exile (GREX) is headed by His Excellency, President Padiri Thomas Nahimana, Prime Minister Mrs. Marine Uwimana, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Mr. Innocent Niringiyimana, with twenty (20) Ministers living in various countries, on different continents.

5. It is to be noted that the Government of the Republic of Rwanda operating from Exile (GREX) was created on February 20th, 2017 in the aftermath of the facts that, on November 23, 2016 and January 23, 2017, our leader, Padiri Thomas Nahimana, and his team were unjustly denied entry to Rwanda by the tyrant President Paul Kagame and his RPF-Inkotanyi's regime, which prevented him from participating in the 2017 Rwandan presidential election.

6. Rwanda is led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which is in fact a small group of criminals who usurped power by force and who maintain themselves in power using arms and intimidation of citizens. Even though theoretically there is a so-called multi-party system in Rwanda, any Rwandan who has not taken an oath of loyalty to the RPF-Inkotanyi is considered not only an enemy of the country but also a criminal as established by the loyalty oath which is available at the following links:

< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZpGDEvwbm0 > , 

< https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54801979 >.

7. Furthermore, the current regime in Rwanda carries out a clear policy to ensure that those who dare to denounce its violation of human rights and its oppression, do not benefit from peace or stability on the one hand and are prevented from fleeing the country on the other hand. It is to be mentioned that even those who manage to flee the country, the RPF-Inkotanyi regime in Rwanda, through false accusations, has continuously used the Rwandan genocide of 1994 as a tool to prosecute, repress even kill Rwandan opponents in exile. To carry out such harassments and killings, the regime of Kigali spends foreign aid which is supposed to help Rwandans inside the country.

8. It is indeed a reality that the Rwandan genocide has been used as a weapon by the RPF- Inkotanyi regime in Rwanda to prosecute Rwandans of Hutu and Tutsi ethnicity who dare to show their disagreement with the way it mistreats Rwandans of Hutu ethnicity, claiming false allegations. Such practices have been confirmed by the leader of IBUKA, a non-governmental organization whose "mission is to preserve the memory of the genocide and to defend the rights and interests of survivors", in particular in his speech available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIlGmCrzClM.

9. It should be noted that, since October 1996, the RPF-Inkotanyi regime, under the pretext of chasing against Hutu genocidaires, invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it not only killed Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese but also plundered the natural resources of the DR Congo (wood, coffee, and minerals). We deplore more than 10 million deaths caused by the invasion of Rwanda in the DRC. For this reason, His Excellency, President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi has recently sworn to end the current bloody leadership in Rwanda as heard in the following video available at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWnOBK60RJA

10. We assume that you are aware of the situation of insecurity and massacres of innocent people that has prevailed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for more than 25 years and of its link to the RPF-Inkotanyi regime in Rwanda.

11. These killings perpetrated by the leaders of the RPF-Inkotanyi on in the DRC are not different from the killings committed by the RPF-Inkotanyi against the Rwandan people who resided in Rwanda before the war unleashed on October 1, 1990, by RPF rebels with the military, logistical, diplomatic, and financial support of neighboring Uganda.

12. The most recent example among many murders of the RPF-Inkotanyi regime is the murder of John Williams NTWALI, a freelance journalist who was killed on January 17, 2023, in Kigali; the RPF regime falsely qualified this murder as a road accident.

13. On this occasion of the visit of two great personalities of the Rwandan clergy, it is important to bring to your attention, the murder of Kizito MIHIGO, a Tutsi Catholic Christian, famous singer of gospel music and survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. His murder took place on February 17, 2020, just some days after his arrest by the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB). To conceal this murder, Mrs. Marie-Michelle Umuhoza, the then spokesperson of RIB, declared that Kizito Mihigo committed suicide by hanging himself with sheets in his detention cell, a statement which was far from the truth. According to the report of Dieudonné Niyonsenga alias Cyuma Hassan, one of the independent journalists who saw his mortal remains, Kizito Mihigo had wounds in the face and his eyes had been removed.

14. In retaliation for such a reporting, journalist Cyuma Hassan is currently languishing in Kigali maximum security prison where he is undergoing unheard-of torture. Many other Rwandans who dared to point out the violation of human rights by President Paul Kagame and his RPF-Inkotanyi regime were killed or disappeared both in Rwanda and abroad, such as in Belgium and Mozambique, and so far, no justice has been rendered. There are also many more Rwandans still languishing in Rwandan prisons on false charges.

15. The Catholic Church has done or said nothing to speak up against those killings, and the oppression faced by many Rwandans. In Fact, Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, the current Archbishop of Kigali, publicly said that President Paul Kagame was a blessing, a gift that God gave not only to Rwanda but also to the African Continent, and yet millions of people in Rwanda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been killed, thousands of women and girls raped under the orders and control of President Paul Kagame.

16. The Government of the Republic of Rwanda in exile (GREX) was formed, among other things, to denounce these barbaric killings which have characterized President Paul Kagame, since his entry into the Ugandan army which trained him, and his RPF-Inkotanyi regime. These killings and so many other human rights abuses have been ignored for so long. GREX is also concerned with the welfare of all Rwandans wherever they are.

17. Recently, revelations were made regarding the true nature of the current RPF- Intotanyi’s leadership in Rwanda, which is a “Killing Machine” as the Senior Presidential Advisor on security, and former Minister of Defense, General James Kabarebe revealed and explained it on November 3rd, 2022, in his own words, when he addressed university students, as evidenced by this video on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onhwYDlzuek

18. General Kabarebe explained very well that General Paul Kagame, then Commander in Chief of Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) which later became Rwanda Defense Force (RDF), told them that he wanted them to be trained to become a true “Killing Machine” so that they would not leave anything breathing wherever they passed since the invasion of Rwanda by the RPF through a razzia war. General Kabarebe even concluded that such a command given by General Paul Kagame was taken as a law and taught to the young generations of RDF, adding that the latter are trained to be better Killing machines than the Kabarebe’s generation.

19. We, the Government of the Republic of Rwanda in Exile (GREX), are concerned by the fact that a government that sets itself the objective of forming an army that kills its own citizens, gets endorsed by the Rwandan Catholic Church headed by Cardinal Antoine Kambanda who is currently visiting your faith community. Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic Parish faith community loves peace, believes in core values of fundamental freedom, and respects human life; therefore, we encourage you to dissociate yourself from those who condone injustices and killings against their followers.

20. Therefore, the Government of the Republic of Rwanda in Exile (GREX) appeals to Churches in the United States of America in general and to the faith community of Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic Parish in particular,  to join us and His Excellency, Felix Antoine Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has sworn to put an end to the misdeeds of the terrorist group ruling Rwanda under the leadership of Paul Kagame, whom the Ugandan people had rightly nicknamed, « Pilato » when he was in the high functions in the Ugandan army. This nickname was given to him because of his cruelty towards the Ugandan people and yet Cardinal Kambanda considers him as a « gift » given to Rwandans and to Africa! This group of criminals currently ruling Rwanda has disturbed not only the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, but also the entire Great Lakes region of Africa.

21. Finally, it is appropriate to draw your attention to the fact that the Government of the Republic of Rwanda in Exile (GREX) has received credible evidence that President Paul Kagame died more than two (2) years ago. Since then, the RPF-Inkotanyi, which has been the only party in power in Rwanda since July 1994, has violated the Rwandan Constitution by refusing not only to announce the death of the elected president but also and above all by resorting to the use of a mask to create a lookalike of Paul Kagame who does not dare to show himself in front of the Rwandan people but is presented to foreigners.

22. This means that the current political leaders in Rwanda are just usurpers of power and not legitimate elected representatives representing the Rwandan people.

23. We would like to conclude by asking you to join the Government of the Republic of Rwanda in Exile (GREX) to speak up against injustice and abuses of all kinds committed against the Rwandan people, not only inside Rwanda, but also outside Rwanda.

24. We also advise you to ask your country, the United States of America, to stop all negotiations with the current illegitimate political regime of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)-Inkotanyi based in Kigali. There is no doubt that your country knows the truth; it has stopped from receiving on its territory the false President Paul Kagame because the real one died a long time ago.

For the Government of the Republic of Rwanda in Exile (GREX).

The Minister of Foreign Affairs

/s/ Prudence Kantengwa

Maître Prudence Kantengwa

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