Rwanda's president Paul Kagame 'wishes' he had ordered death of exiled spy chief

Paul Kagame refuses to rule out ordering political assassinations but says that Patrick Karegeya's strangling in Johannesburg hotel was not done on his instruction

"Rwanda did not kill this person – and it's a big no," Mr Kagame said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Photo: GETTY IMAGES

By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg

2:32PM GMT 24 Jan 2014

Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president, has said he "wishes" he had ordered the assassination of Patrick Karegeya, the country's former spy chief who was found dead in Johannesburg last month.

"Rwanda did not kill this person – and it's a big no," Mr Kagame said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "But I add that, I actually wish Rwanda did it. I really wish it." Mr Kagame refused to rule out that he would in principle order an assassination: "Well, that's a different issue I have said what I said."

His blunt comments will fuel concerns about his style of government among the international community, which recently pulled direct aid amid reports that his regime was funding insurgency in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The security forces of several countries have now linked his regime to a string of threats to the lives of his exiled opponents.

Mr Karegeya, who served as the Rwandan intelligence chief for 10 years under Mr Kagame before the two men fell out, had accused his government of ordering the shooting down of the former president Juvenal Habyarimana's plane in 1994 – an incident that sparked the genocide in which as many as one million people died.

The 53-year-old married father of three was found strangled in a hotel room in Sandton, Johannesburg, on January 1. A bloodied towel and a curtain tieback were discovered in the safe.

Earlier this month, four Rwandans including a serving Lieutenant Colonel in the Rwandan armed forces, were arrested in Mozambique in connection with his death.

Mr Kagame and his regime have accused Mr Karegeya of orchestrating grenade attacks on the capital Kigali.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he compared Mr Karegeya's death to the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

"The president and everybody in the United States were celebrating," he said.

In a separate interview with Kenya's Nation newspaper during a visit to Nairobi earlier this week, Mr Kagame said that he had no knowledge of any political assassinations carried out by his security forces, but conceded that exiled opponents of his regime "tend to die".

"When you betray the government, you betray the people of Rwanda. The fact that these people live in exile has consequences. They are not at peace," he said.

"Many of them tend to die. People die but these same people who die, die from different causes."

Asked whether Rwandan agents were behind such deaths, he replied: "Not that I know of. But I have evidence that they have been involved in activities that have killed Rwandans. That's what I have proof for."

Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, Rwanda's former army chief who is also living in South Africa where he had formed the opposition movement Rwandan National Congress with Mr Karegeya, said Mr Kagame's latest comments should ring alarm bills among his financial backers abroad which, until November, included Britain.

"These comments show that this man is a serial killer," he said. "How can someone who is the leader of a country say he wishes that someone had been murdered?"

Gen Nyamwasa, who has himself survived two assassination attempts in Johannesburg, denounced as "lies" Mr Kagame's allegations that the RNC had been plotting violence.

"Other than criticising Mr Kagame's regime and exposing his anti-democratic behaviour, what has RNC done?" he said. "The grenade attacks in Kigali had nothing to do with me, Karegeya or the RNC. They were carried out by his security forces simply so he had an excuse to crack down on the opposition."

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