Nyamwasa: Museveni wrong on Kagame
The Observer (blog) - 28 minutes ago
WEDNESDAY, 02 JULY 2014 00:30 WRITTEN BY ROBERT MUKOMBOZI
After the third attempt on the life of former Chief of the Rwanda
Defence Forces, Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, exiled in South Africa, Robert
Mukombozi talked to him recently in an exclusive interview.
The exiled general discusses what he calls the dictatorship in Rwanda
and compares President Museveni and his own Paul Kagame. Below are
excerpts:
Let me take you back to the events on the eve of March 4, 2014, when
assassins stormed your Johannesburg home. Can you tell us what really
happened?
What happened is that a group of gunmen stormed our home and held the
security guards of the residence hostage. They then proceeded to break
the doors, enter the house and searched for the occupants.
I did not see the men, obviously. However, it is clear that these men
were not common thieves; they came with orders, a calculated plan,
looking for nothing, but the occupants of the house. No items were
stolen, even items that society's stereotype thief would yearn for,
[such as] laptops, a television; they were untouched. The house, with
all wardrobes and doors open wide, was not the scene of a robbery but,
rather, some sort of sadistic game of assassins.
Surely the gunmen had "overpowered" the South African police officers
guarding your resident. Do you think you would have survived the
attack?
I do not know, but somehow we survived. You would not expect them to
guard a refugee with rocket launchers. I also suspect they believed
there was some sense of respect and decency from those whose diplomats
were expelled.
However, I learnt that the gunmen were armed with rifles against
modestly-armed police guards. In that kind of scenario, the odds were
against us. As cliché as it may sound, I believe that when it is your
time, it is, and one cannot change that.
The Kigali establishment has vehemently denied involvement in the
recent attempt...
Rwandan opposition leaders have a similar, but strange way of dying
which does not occur to refugees from other countries living in a
similar environment. Rwanda will always deny the assassinations
abroad and at home. If they were not involved, how do they know it was
a robbery?
Are they insinuating that they ordered a robbery not an assassination?
Denials by the Rwandan government are what inform its international
relations. Look at what has been happening in DRC. For the last
eighteen years, Rwanda has been denying its involvement in that
country despite credible reports from reputable researchers, human
rights organisations and United Nations experts.
Why does the government of Rwanda behave in that manner?
The Kagame regime is similar to Russia under Stalin, where show trials
were a common occurrence, extra-judicial executions were blamed on the
victims and assassinations formed part of foreign policy. The Rwandan
population lives under fear and self-denial. Some people say Rwanda is
an open prison.
Are you suggesting that Rwanda is a dictatorship?
Rwanda is not only led by a dictator; the country is governed in a
totalitarian manner...
Civil liberties are suppressed in Rwanda than in any other country in
Africa. Independent journalists have been forced to flee and critical
media houses closed. Civil society organisations have been co-opted,
including 'opposition' parties lumped into what is known as the forum.
Each one has to be a photocopy of the other to think the same and
compete only in supporting the RPF.
Rwanda under Kagame has had problems [with too many countries]. There
were political assassinations of Rwandans in Kenya, Uganda, South
Africa and abductions in Uganda. Uganda twice threw out Rwandan
diplomats because of misconduct. The American government demanded the
recall of the Rwandan defence advisor. Rwanda did not retaliate out of
fear.
Sweden threw out a Rwandan diplomat because of harassing refugees.
South Africa recalled its High Commissioner from Kigali in 2010.
Rwanda closed its embassies in France and Germany and abolished the
teaching of French language in Rwanda. With this litany of events, are
all these countries and their leaders wrong and Kagame is right?
But President Kagame calls you a traitor.
What else would you expect him to say? He thought we were his slaves
and he is annoyed because we broke the bondage. This is the most
unfortunate outcome of our struggle because President Paul Kagame
imagined and believes that we went to war for four years, lost
countless colleagues for the sole purpose of putting him in power.
Let me remind him that we went to war to fight for democracy, liberty
and freedom, an independent judiciary, a representative parliament,
free media and end the question of refugees, among other things.
It must also be understood that we disagreed with him, not with the
country. Look, if we demand liberty and freedom, does that make us
traitors? If we refused to be personalised, how does that affect the
country/people? True, Kigali is clean but peoples' hearts are bruised
and sour. Rwandans are told to be eternally grateful for a clean city
and keep quiet when their compatriots disappear, [get] imprisoned or
killed.
South Africa kicked out three Rwandan diplomats and one from Burundi
after the botched assassination. Do you think that was an impulsive
decision?
On the contrary they have been too patient and tolerant. They are not
the only ones enduring the Rwandan belligerent foreign policy. The
British warned Rwandan residents in Britain that the Rwandan
government was planning to assassinate some of them and Paul Kagame
was accordingly warned to desist from trying those actions on British
territory.
Like earlier stated, expulsion of Rwandan diplomats has also taken
place in Kenya, Uganda, DRC, France, USA and Germany. No other African
country has a similar turnover of expelled diplomats. This should not
surprise anybody because that is the nature of the regime in Kigali.
South Africa's Justice Minister Jeff Radebe talked of sending "a very
stern warning to anybody anywhere in the world that our country will
not be used as a springboard to do illegal activities." Have they
produced any evidence to back these allegations?
He was quite unequivocal when he stated: "They were involved in a
murder and an attempted murder." South Africa would not take a rush
decision because all relevant institutions have to scrutinise and
agree on such important decisions.
They can only take that decision when they are sure and have shared
the information with all stakeholders. It is not a simple matter that
a government wakes up one morning and expels diplomats.
President Museveni said he was a witness to the economic growth in
Rwanda and its stability. As a veteran patriot of the region, he also
warned those who hobnob with the genocidaires to know that they will
have to contend with the patriotic forces that defeated the traitors.
Do such comments from a sitting president of Museveni's calibre worry you?
This world operates in very many strange ways. At one time, President
Museveni was asked about the development in Rwanda and cleanliness in
Kigali and he responded that 'you cannot wash plates if you have not
eaten.'
He was just being cunning, he knows Kigali is clean because all those
involved in the informal sector business are rounded up and hidden in
the villages or interned on Iwawa island. He is also aware that Uganda
was stable under Idi Amin, but it was not peaceful.
Let me remind him that after the Kisangani clashes between Ugandan and
Rwandan armed forces, President Museveni described President Kagame as
treacherous and later in a letter to Clare Short, President Museveni
categorised Kagame as politically bankrupt. In the same vein, during
his recent visit to the UK, he described Boko Haram as bankrupt.
President Museveni knows that President Kagame has no capacity to see
through the irony of his speech. The Rwandan problem will not be
resolved by war, but through dialogue. President Museveni talked to
his adversaries in the 1980s. I had the opportunity to take part in
the organisation and discussion between the NRA and the UPDA in Gulu.
President Museveni had been in power for less than two years. At that
time, skulls of those who had died in Luweero were all over the place,
but were swiftly buried. In Rwanda, bodies of mothers, fathers and
children are all over for public display and commemoration takes half
a year.
People are ever traumatised by these sights and yet we could bury our
loved ones, write their names on a huge memento at the memorial site,
use a week for remembrance and give our people a chance to heal and
reconcile.
Hobnobbing with the genocidaires! We must find a solution through
dialogue even if it involves the genocidaires because that does not
absolve them of any culpability, but it is important that we listen to
everyone. President Museveni has been calling for dialogue and
tolerance in Kenya in the wake of the 2007 massacres and in Rwanda he
is praising extra-judicial killings and war!
What do you think is influencing/motivating the Ugandan government's
softening stance on Rwanda, despite the kidnappings of Rwandan
refugees from Kampala, among other territorial violations?
I wish I knew. Dr Kizza Besigye stayed in exile in South Africa for
five years and when he returned to Uganda, the FDC branch in South
Africa is still operational and the government of Uganda does not call
them terrorists.
Whatever the case, kidnappings and assassinations of Rwandans in
Uganda – the actions you describe – have vindicated President
Museveni's description of the Rwandan regime as bankrupt. It appears
President Museveni has given them chance and space to prove him right
and they have not disappointed.
President Museveni has not killed Col Kizza Besigye and Gen Mugisha
Muntu who were his minister and army commander respectively. He has
not killed Olara Otunnu, who was previously accused of having called
for negotiations with Joseph Kony. Compare [that] with President
Kagame – incarceration of President Pasteur Bizimungu and the
jubilation about the assassination of Col Patrick Karegeya.
The family of late Col Ogole has been promised assistance to
repatriate his body for a decent burial in his home in Lango. Isn't it
strange that one exudes kindness and empathy at home and preaches
mayhem in the neighbourhood!
There is also an element of capitulation when Col Patrick Karegeya was
assassinated, the actions of the government of Uganda culminated in
many of his Ugandan friends fearing to attend his memorial in Uganda
and his funeral in South Africa because of fear of retaliation from
Kigali.
The Ugandan media was reluctant to report about the assassination also
because of fear. I find it strange that citizens of another country
are terrorised by leadership in the neighbourhood. Well, the British
tried appeasement and the Americans went into isolation after the
First World War, but that did not stop Adolf Hitler from attacking
them.
Let's talk about the killing of former Rwandan spy chief Col Patrick
Karegeya here in South Africa. As a former intelligence officer, what
do think happened?
Col Karegeya was a generous and fair person. These excellent qualities
were his undoing. He helped and trusted, and someone abused his trust.
All I know, those who planned his assassination were motivated by
jealousy and envy. Beyond that, they have gained nothing.
We cannot forget his intelligence nor can we replace his humour. He
was an independent-minded thinker and this did not sit well with
President Kagame. In 2005, he was held incommunicado for six months
with an intention to break his spirit.
When Kagame realised that the incarceration had not changed his
character, he immediately ordered his arrest and arraigned him in a
kangaroo court that sentenced him to two years in prison. In 2011,
while in exile, President Kagame again ordered another trial in
absentia and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
After his assassination, the insensitive officials in Kigali
celebrated his death and mocked his children. Why all the
spitefulness? How does a leadership become so vindictive? The good
thing is that they identified themselves and Rwandans cannot
second-guess who is responsible for the crime.
How are you coping with the loss of such a great friend?
The shared adversities formed a galvanising bond between our families.
Ours had become one big family and we would share a meal every week.
What I find more challenging is to see Leah as a widow, Portia, Elvis
and Richard, can no longer share the many jokes they used to share
with their father.
However, Rwandans in exile and other foreign supporters clearly
understood the nature of the regime in Rwanda and appreciated his
plight and that of his compatriots. Col Patrick [Karegeya] was a man
of the people and his loss is shared by many across the globe.
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SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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