U.S. blasts ally Kagame over former spy chief murder
Staff Reporter 2014-01-17 18:45:00
JOHANNESBURG/KIGALI - The United States says it is deeply worried
about threats made by Rwandan President Paul Kagame against political
opponents after one of his exiled critics was found murdered in a
hotel room in South Africa.
The rebuke by Rwanda's biggest national donor comes as the tiny state
- which punches well above its weight in Africa's turbulent politics -
is winning Western plaudits by contributing peacekeepers to yet
another conflict zone on the continent, Central African Republic.
"We are troubled by the succession of what appear to be politically
motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles," State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Thursday, condemning the recent killing
in Johannesburg of Rwanda's former Director of External Intelligence,
Patrick Karegeya.
Relatives of the former spy chief and other exiled opponents of Kagame
blame the Rwandan president for Karegeya's murder, saying this the
latest in a systematic policy of assassination of foes and defectors
by the Kigali government.
Kagame and his administration flatly deny any involvement in the death
of Karegeya, whose body, apparently strangled after a meeting with a
mysterious business associate, was found in a posh Johannesburg hotel
on New Year's Eve.
South African police have said they are investigating but have not yet
announced any arrests, despite confused reports of a group of Rwandan
suspects being detained in Mozambique.
Last weekend, Kagame, who has won Western praise for rebuilding Rwanda
after the 1994 genocide there, defended his nation's right to
self-defense against those who "betray".
"We didn't do it, but my question is; shouldn't we have done it?"
Kagame said at a January 12 prayer breakfast, clearly referring to the
Karegeya case but without naming him.
"No one will betray Rwanda and get away with it. Regardless of who you
are, there will be consequences," he added.
State Department spokeswoman Psaki said these comments by Kagame were
viewed with "deep concern" by the United States.
She delivered the diplomatic reprimand as the U.S. military started
flying 850 Rwandan troops into Central African Republic, helping to
shore up a struggling French and African peacekeeping operation that
is trying to halt a wave of killings in the former French colony.
Over the past two decades, several foes of Kagame have been murdered
by assassins in Africa and elsewhere, casting a pall of suspicion over
his government even as it won lavish praise from Western leaders for
being a model aid recipient and a staunch ally in trying to secure
peace across restive Africa.
RWANDAN PEACEKEEPING DEFLECTS CRITICISM
Analysts say Kagame bolsters Rwanda's standing with the West by
providing peacekeeping troops for hotspots such as Darfur, South Sudan
and more recently, Central African Republic. The United States and
most of Europe are loath to send their own troops to such zones, wary
of domestic pushback.
"By doing these kind of jobs the Rwandans do sort of defend themselves
against accusations of them being naughty in the DRC, or of being less
than democratic at home," South African defense and military analyst
Helmoed Romer Heitman, who is an expert on African peacekeeping, told
Reuters.
Opponents of Kagame at home and in exile say he runs an authoritarian
state that does not flinch from silencing foes.
Kagame's government has brushed off repeated accusations by U.N.
experts that it backed last year's insurgency by Tutsi-led M23 rebels
in neighboring Democratic Republic ofCongo, where Kigali has
intervened militarily before on national security grounds.
Western officials say Rwanda's denials are not credible, and U.S. and
European governments imposed punitive measures on Kigali to pressure
it to halt its support for M23.
While no direct evidence has emerged to link Rwanda's government to
Karegeya's killing, Kagame's own comments indicate he is not troubled
about angering donors or putting at risk foreign aid when he feels
national security is at stake.
"I really don't feel the necessity for politeness on this issue, no
need for being diplomatic, of being politically correct," Kagame said
last weekend.
"They feel they can operate with a degree of impunity," a Western
security source who knew Karegeya well told Reuters, asking not to be
named. "They have gone from hunting genocidaires to hunting their own
people," the source added.
Karegeya fled to South Africa in 2007 after allegedly plotting a coup
against Kagame with former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba
Nyamwasa, also exiled there.
In 2010, Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach as he drove into his
Johannesburg home, surviving what his family said was an assassination
attempt ordered by Kagame. Kigali denied this.
In 1998, another exiled Kagame opponent, former interior minister Seth
Sendashonga, was shot dead in Nairobi. Here too, Rwanda's government
denied allegations it was responsible.
Theogene Rudasingwa, Rwanda's former ambassador to Washington who
along with Karegeya, Nyamwasa and others formed the opposition Rwanda
National Congress (RNC), told Reuters Western governments shared the
blame for Kagame's policies, because they "protected (him) and have
not helped Africa to bring him to account for the crimes he commits".
- Reuters
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/world/20352-u-s-blasts-ally-kagame-over-former-rwandan-spy-chief-murder.html
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