Your source for credible news Issue no 017
November, 2020
Six Rwandans dumped by Uganda at Kagitumba following illegal detention and torture
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Rusesabagina’s bloodthirsty group forcibly recruited and raped child soldiers; they want him held accountable for ruining their lives Page 4
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FDLR murderous purges: “Gen.” Ntawunguka’s hit list leaks Page 4
OP - ED
Ugandan authorities on Friday 30, dumped six Rwandans at the Kagitumba Border Post after subjecting them to months of illegal, incommunicado detention, and torture. The Ugandans just transported them to the border, left them there and drove off with nothing like an official handover. Page 2 RNC recruits and how they are made to feel at home in Uganda
Will Kampala ever respect agreements or laws? Only the good Lord knows
One of the six Rwandans dumped at the Kagitumba border on Friday has confirmed that Kayumba Nyamwasa’s terrorist militia, Rwanda National Congress (RNC), is re-organizing and re-grouping with the help of the authorities in Uganda. Page 3
At this stage, only the good Lord knows whether the Ugandan regime will ever take steps to respect the Luanda MoU, signed by the heads of state of Rwanda and Uganda as part of mediation efforts to re-normalize relations. Page 6
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Rwanda’s “Think Big” plan is not delusional; Himbara is Page 8
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A tool of Ugandan regime misinformation appropriates the name of an AU commissioner for its dirty propaganda Page 9
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Six Rwandans dumped by Uganda at Kagitumba following illegal detention and torture By Jean Gatera Ugandan authorities on Friday 30, dumped six Rwandans at the Kagitumba Border Post after subjecting them to months of illegal, incommunicado detention, and torture. The Ugandans just transported them to the border, left them there and drove off with nothing like an official handover. The six Rwandans – who were arbitrarily arrested before being subjected to their ordeal – are Olivier Bikino, Steven Mugwaneza, Ronald Rutayisire, Jean Claude Nkurikiyimana, Francois Ntamuturano, and Claude Mugwaneza. When they arrived they were visibly distressed, with one of them exhibiting signs of mental breakdown. The men had been detained in the dungeons of Uganda’s dreaded Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI. When its agents abducted the men, in each case they accused them of “espionage.” Each of the Rwandans says they were shocked to be accused of something they knew completely nothing about. All six cases fit the pattern observed for the past close to four years of CMI persecuting Rwandans either travelling, or living in Uganda. On 24th last month for instance, men of CMI in civilian attire abruptly accosted Olivier Bikino from his workplace in the Entebbe area. They dragged him away, neither identifying themselves, nor telling him why they accused him of espionage. They first took him to CMI Kireka Police Station, but when members of his family went to search for him there, it was only to be told he had been taken to an unknown location. It turns out they had taken him to Mbuya torture dungeon. One of today’s arrivals, Claude Mugwaneza, described the CMI dungeons as “a prison for Rwandans”, given the many Rwandans he found languishing there,
The six Rwandans dumped at Kagitumba. They, like so many other Rwandan victims of CMI under Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho suffered arbitrary arrest followed by illegal detention and torture.
and whom they have left there – all illegally incarcerated, all incommunicado, with none of them ever afforded a court appearance to defend themselves against whatever accusations CMI hurls at them. Mugwaneza’s words at the border corroborated what has been said by so many other Rwandan victims about CMI’s main torture dungeon, located in its headquarters at Mbuya Military Barracks: “It is full of Rwandans, tortured but with no idea why! He says he was beaten by someone that stepped on his shoulders and clobbered him around the back. He says hunger was another torture method whereby sometimes one went a whole day with no food.
Kampala’s main proxy in its plot to destabilize Rwanda. In the past, especially before Rwanda on the first of March last year decided to issue a strong advisory against her citizens crossing to Uganda because their safety and security could not be guaranteed, kidnappings and abductions of CMI operatives working with RNC agents had become very rampant. The incidents went down after the
This is the CMI method under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho who is executing the Kampala regime’s policy of hostility against Rwanda, and Rwandan nationals. One of the policies is to recruit, through torture, fighters for Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC –
measure Rwanda took. However, the Rwandan nationals remaining in Uganda have never been safe, especially now when reports have emerged of efforts by the Kampala regime to re-organize and rebuild RNC in Uganda. This follows the terror group’s getting smoked out of its DRC jungle strongholds – something that happened mid last year. “One thing to keep in mind is that because of the criminal complicity of CMI, which with RNC agents is setting up cells all over Uganda, setting up training camps, and running cadreship courses for RNC recruits, they now are ‘seeing Rwandan spies’ everywhere, even under their bed!” said a Kigali security analyst. “They are breaking international law. They are violating the Luanda MoU, and they are guilty. So they resort to arbitrary abductions of Rwandans. Because of their guilt, to them every Rwandan looks like a spy!”
Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho
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RNC recruits and how they are made to feel at home in Uganda By Jean Gatera One of the six Rwandans dumped at the Kagitumba border on Friday has confirmed that Kayumba Nyamwasa’s terrorist militia, Rwanda National Congress (RNC), is re-organizing and re-grouping with the help of the authorities in Uganda. Recently, this website published an investigative report showing how Kampala, through the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), has stepped up efforts to build up its anti-Rwanda proxy militia. According to Steven Mugwaneza, one of the six Rwandans recently dumped at the Kagitumba Border Post, Rwandans in the Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC terrorist group are very much at home in Uganda. “Members of RNC have such a welcome in Uganda that makes them feel right at home, and it is not a secret!” Mugwaneza says. He was abducted on 17 October, last month, and detained without trial. He tells how it was individuals in military attire that kidnapped him. They bundled him into a vehicle that looks like a Kampala taxi, handcuffed, and blindfolded him. He says they first took him to a “safe house”, and then to CMI’s Headquarter in Mbuya. They hounded him with accusations of “espionage”, accompanied by torture. He says he told the interrogators he had no idea what they were talking about. At Mbuya, Mugwaneza says, he was in close company with RNC recruits (whom CMI had released from Uganda police). He disclosed that there is still a lot of activity by CMI together with RNC agents that continue to actively recruit for Kayumba Nyamwasa’s group, Kampala’s main proxy in plots to destabilize Rwanda. He says he saw evidence of this in CMI’s Mbuya headquarters where he saw several RNC members undergoing what he says was “a verification exercise.” “If a ‘real’ RNC member is accidentally arrested for instance,
CMI torture victim Steven Mugwaneza, left, discloses how members of Nyamwasa’s RNC are made to feel at home in Uganda. But innocent Rwandans kidnapped by CMI face harrowing torture
this person calls his superiors to secure his release”, Mugwaneza narrated, “Kayumba’s people have a phone number to call in case of any trouble.” Recently for instance this website exposed how CMI secured the release of cadres and recruiters for RNC when police, which wasn’t aware their operations were abetted by CMI and its bosses, arrested them. Mugwaneza says he also learnt that Frank Ntwali, a South Africa-based senior RNC official and Nyamwasa’s brother in law, is in constant communication with CMI, and RNC in Uganda.
that these then “are photographed by their recruiters.” Soon, he disclosed, RNC is to begin to issue ID cards to its members. Mugwaneza was uncertain whether “Fred” was trying to recruit him or not. For self-proclaimed RNC militia members, life in the CMI facility was easy, Mugwaneza notes. “They had mobile phones and someone to bring them food, and they are not threatened or tortured”, he
revealed. “But for others, it is hell on earth! We were tortured, and not allowed to talk to anyone from outside.” Mugwaneza says they starved him for days. The RNC members are then released after Ntwali’s intervention. Mugwaneza’s revelations confirmed several publications that that showed how RNC operates freely in Uganda. RNC has stepped up its activities under the tutorship of CMI, and a new approach is to train cadres and to issue them ID cards proves it.
“Whenever there is a problem, Frank sends money to solve it,” one Fred – an RNC recruiter undergoing CMI ‘vetting’ – told Mugwaneza. The recruiter showed off his message exchanges with Ntwali. “They [CMI] arrested us”, this Fred wrote. To which Ntwali responded, “contact Ayub”. Mugwaneza says he also learnt that most of the RNC recruits are from the Nakivale Refugee camp, “in small groups of ten.” He adds
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Issue no 017 November 2020
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Rusesabagina’s bloodthirsty group forcibly recruited and raped child soldiers; they want him held accountable for ruining their lives By Fred Gashema Dozens of former child soldiers that are currently undergoing rehabilitation and reintegration courses at the Mutobo Reintegration and Demobilization Centre have petitioned Rwandan courts to hold accountable their commander-in-chief, Paul Rusesabagina, because he ruined their lives. The former child soldiers are 85, with the majority of them, 56 percent, being girls. They all have said they were forcibly conscripted into Rusesabagina’s MRCD-FLN terror outfit from refugee camps in DR Congo. The terror group told them they were “tasked with liberating Rwanda.” The children, with their parents, were taken hostage by CNRD-Ubwiyunge, one of the terror outfits that contribute troops to Rusesabagina’s MRCD-FLN. They revealed that in mid 2018 when MRCD-FLN intensified attacks on Rwanda, the order went out across the refugee camps that “all children aged 15 and above should join the terror movement, regardless their gender, to back adult fighters.” These (adult fighters) were said to be launching numerous hit-and-run attacks on Rwanda. “We were told that Rusesabagina who was living abroad was our overall commander. That he sent money,” recalled one of the child soldiers. “After being recruited and trained some of us were sent
Rusesabagina’s terror outfit recruited child soldiers in Rwanda. Victims demand justice for the abuses they suffered in this rebel group.
to Nyungwe Forest to attack Rwanda, but it ended in tears,” recalled one of the former child soldiers. In that attack many of the FLN terrorists lost their lives, according to reports from the scene. Girls child recruits, it is disclosed, were specifically trained to spy, by particularly entering Rwanda and masquerading as domestic workers while collecting information to be shared with their commanders in the MRCD-FLN. Joselyne Mukanoheli, 18, is one of the girls who vividly remembers when she was abducted into the terror outfit. “I was taken into the FLN when I was 15 and we were trained in various military disciplines, including how to use Kalashnikov guns,” she said, adding, “those that abducted us had promised that we would get military ranks after we made it to Rwanda.” However, the children were quick
to realize that they were only duped, and they were exposed to death for no good reason. The ordeals they went through while in FLN included, for the girls, rape or getting turned into sex slaves. “Some of us can’t find sleep. We can’t eat properly because of the things we have suffered. We are sick,” said one of the girls. It is a trauma she has in common with many others. The evil deeds the children suffered, or inflicted have traumatized them. Many were injured and can barely talk without crying. In a videotaped statement dubbed “2019 new year message” that Rusesabagina and MRCD-FLN shared at the end of 2018, Rusesabagina pledged his “unreserved support to the young women and men” who were launching terror attacks on Rwanda that claimed lives of unarmed and innocents civilians.
However, according to a petition by the former child soldiers, Rusesabagina has to be held accountable for ruining their lives and destroying their future. “The court should consider our suffering as we were taken into the terror group against our wishes,” one of the children said. According to officials of the
Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission (RDRC), these
children have a wide range of problems, Post Traumatic Stress and Depression, among them. “They carried heavy weapons and were sent on errand to buy ammunition like bullets. Obviously subjecting a child to such things is ruining their mental health,” Valerie Nyirahabineza, the RDRC chairperson, told Rwanda Television. “To make matters worse, they were raped by the men that recruited them; boys too were being raped,” Nyirahabineza disclosed.
FDLR murderous purges: “Gen.” Ntawunguka’s hit list leaks By Moses Gisa The purges in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda- FDLR – have reached boiling point as the terror group’s army wing, Abacunguzi Fighting Forces-FOCA, Chief of Staff Gen
Pacifique Ntawunguka alias ‘Omega’ continues to eliminate rivals. According to impeccable sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, many senior officers have been placed on Gen Ntawungu-
ka’s radar for assassination. The leaked hit list consists of eleven senior officers: “Brig. Gen.” Jean Baptiste, alias Stany, “Brig. Gen.” Karume, “Brig. Gen.” Mutunzi Manzi, “Col.” Nyembo Kimenyi, “Col.” Ndekwe, “Maj.” Bizabishaka, and “Capt.” Kabasha, among
others, our source disclosed. All the targeted men were loyalists of Omega’s deceased predecessor Ex FAR Gen. Sylvestre Ntawunguka who was killed in a
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Issue no 017 November 2020
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>> From page 4
hail of gunfire in DRC in September last year. According to reliable sources within the FDR camp in Rutshuru, the ongoing killing spree in the genocidal outfit is part of a purge by “Gen.” Ntawunguka of high-ranking FDLR officials hailing from Southern Province, also known as ‘Nduga’. It is understood that Ntawunguka mounted the purge after learning of an impending coup against him that was hatched by FDLR president, “Lt. Gen.” Iyamuremye Gaston, alias Rumuri. In light of the ongoing purge, “Col.” Blaise Asifiwe recently survived an assassination attempt, and his whereabouts remain unknown to date. Asifiwe has also been on Ntawunguka’s radar together with “Gen.” Venuste Nsengiyunva, alias Gabral Secyugu, who had just been appointed head of military operations (G3), and “Gen” Vedaste Hatanguramye aka ‘Kalebu’, who served FDLR’s
L-R: FDLR/FOCA’s Chief of Staff Gen Pacifique Ntawunguka ‘Omega’, FDLR ‘President’ Lt. Gen.” Iyamuremye Gaston alias Rumuri’s feud has reached boiling point, with more targetted for purges. The dead include Gen Venuste Nsengiyunva ‘Secyugu’ (right).
head of military court. The duo was killed on orders sanctioned by Gen Ntawunguka in his agenda to eliminate the top contenders for his position. This website understands that Rumuri “is not satisfied” with Omega’s performance given the recent routs the terror group has suffered. “Our leader thinks Ntawunguka, ‘Omega’, has failed to lead the army; he wants to reshuffle the chief of staff position and believes appointing another chief of staff will sort out the differences and bring unity amongst the fighters, hence delivering better than Ntawungu-
ka’s leadership”, an FDLR terrorist was heard to remark. The power struggles and internal wrangles roiling the genocidal group signal its impending demise, according to analysts. According to security observers, the factional infighting is not a new thing in the FDRL. “After being defeated by the RPF, the terror group fled and regrouped in the DRC. But sectarianism in the group took center stage. The northerners, the Ruhengeri-Gisenyi axis consolidated power at the expense of the southerners”. The disagree-
ments culminated into breakaway factions like FLN of Paul Rusesabagina and RUD-Urunana of “Col.” Emmanuel Rugema who was recently killed in DRC. There have always been antagonisms in the leadership of the FDLR.” The latest news coming from Rutshuru indicates that fear has gripped the entire FDLR camp. None feels safe, be it the leaders or the fighters. “Everyone feels they are on a death list!” said our source.
Pardoned convict Ingabire talks falsely about regional instability; she is one of its main causes By Joan Karera In a recent interaction with Canadian journalist Robin Philpot, Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza was heard blaming Rwanda “for regional instability and other security issues in the region.” Ingabire – who was in 2012 convicted by the High Court in Kigali and sent to prison on terrorism charges, endangering state security, and denying the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi – has been most known either for her participation, and leadership role in the founding of extremist groups committed to a genocidal agenda. These have included FDU-inkingi of which she was the head before she changed it to DALFA-Umurinzi. “This leader of terrorist groups likes to blame Rwanda for ‘causing instability’, though she actually has been one of the biggest factors of instability in the region,” commented a social media account.
active heads of terrorist groups that since the mid 90s when their forebears of FDLR and Interahamwe militias were defeated after perpetrating the genocide,” said an observer. “In fact she should be thankful that the rights of all are respected in Rwanda, but she is a very dangerous criminal!”
Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza who for long has been one of the major factors of regional instability
Speaking recently with Philpot, who has been described as one of a legion of genocide negationists, in an interview uploaded on SoundCloud, Ingabire made claims that “there is no democracy in Rwanda”, and that it is “the reason why people join rebel groups operating in different parts of the region with the aim of overthrowing Rwanda’s leadership.” “But everyone knows that Ingabire has been one of the most
Ingabire Victoire benefited from a Presidential pardon in August 2018 that cut her sentence by a half following pleas from her in a number of letters to President Kagame. According to more commentators that followed her interview with Philpot, Ingabire whose groups were part of those that for years wreaked terror in DRC, thrives on falsehoods and propaganda which is amplified by overseas-based individuals and groups, such as Philpot and others like him who for their reasons are invested in genocide revisionists of denialism.
To the people of Rwanda, however, many have observed Ingabire has zero legitimacy to make utterances about anything to do with leadership. “She should just be thankful that she isn’t still in prison!” said a resident of Kigali. “By trying to justify joining rebel groups she is just reminding everyone how she has been luring Rwandans to go to DRC to join rebel groups that she heads.” Philpot, according to observers, has shown he has committed his life to revising the history of the Genocide Against the Tutsi. He is the author of a book, “Rwanda and the new scramble for Africa: From tragedy to useful imperial fiction”, that was strongly criticized by readers “for its gross distortions and revisionism.” The book engages in the long debunked “double-genocide” theory, a favourite form of denialism that attempts to accuse the RPF of genocide.
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Issue no 017 November 2020
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Will Kampala ever respect agreements or laws? Only the good Lord knows
6 Rwandans recently dumped by Ugandan authorities. They suffered torture and were deprived of property, just because of being Rwandan
By Robert Rutoma At this stage, only the good Lord knows whether the Ugandan regime will ever take steps to respect the Luanda MoU, signed by the heads of state of Rwanda and Uganda as part of mediation efforts to re-normalize relations. One of the main issues agreed upon was to stop the harassment, torture, or mistreatment in any way of each other’s nationals. But in the first place this was just polite, diplomatic language that struck a middle ground. Rwanda has never harassed, physically abused, or deprived a single Ugandan of his or her rights. It is Uganda, and it’s security agents that have been hunting Rwandan nationals to throw them into dungeons with accusations – never substantiated – of “espionage”, “illegal weapons possession” and others that are mere, false justifications to inflict
torture on innocent Rwandans. This kind of thing was supposed to have come to an end by now. It hasn’t. The story of the six Rwandans recently dumped at Kagitumba by Ugandan authorities shows its security organs aren’t about to stop arbitrary arrests, detention, and torture Rwandans that they accuse of things like “espionage” for which they never show evidence. These are always concocted accusations. For instance, Olivier Bikino, one of the six was abducted in Entebbe while only going about his work. On 24th September CMI agents in civilian attire abducted him in the Entebbe area, and forcefully dragged him away without producing any arrest warrant. They dumped him at the border without any charges. They have ruined his life, just like they’ve done to all the others. He has lost his job, and has to start anew. Others have lost businesses and property.
It says a lot about Kampala’s unbending intentions to destabilize the security of Rwanda that it continues to violate international law in such a manner. The six dumped men, like hundreds of Rwandans before them that have seen the inside of those dungeons, recount horrific tales of the torture taking place there. According to the testimonies of the group, once abducted one’s freedom depends mainly on acceptance to join RNC. Resistance to be recruited attracts automatic torture that includes electrocutions, water boarding, and emersion in ice baths. The lucky ones will be released, then dumped at the border. The Quadripartite Summit at Gatuna/Katuna in February this year among other things resolved to release the national citizens of each country duly identified and included in the lists exchanged. Also both parties were to refrain
from all factors that may create the perception of supporting, financing, training, and infiltration of destabilizing forces in their neighbour’s territory. The president of Angola was there. As was DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi. It is testimony to Kampala’s commitment to instability in the region that since then, it instead has gone ahead to re-organize and revitalize Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, despite progress eradicating this terror group from its jungle bases in DRC by mid last year. Only the good Lord indeed knows whether Kampala will ever commit to peace, and cooperation in the region! But as long as the Ugandan president still has his pipe dreams of destabilizing Rwanda, Kampala will keep violating international agreements, laws, and norms.
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Issue no 017 November 2020
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Robbed of property and money, tortured, and dumped by Ugandan security – the harrowing tale of a Rwandan dumped at the border By Patience Kirabo
his house upside down. “I don’t know what they were looking for!”
When Stephen Umugwaneza, 34, set out to invest in Uganda a couple of years ago, he says, he could not have imagined that one day that country’s authorities, CMI, would abduct, detain and torture him in its dungeons.
After the long search without finding whatever it was they were looking for, they dragged Umugwaneza away, to Mityana Police Station, handcuffed and blindfolded.
Umugwaneza is one of the six Rwandan nationals most recently to escape the jaws of CMI alive, following arbitrary arrests, illegal detention, and torture. He, together with the five others, Olivier Bikino, Ronald Rutayisire, Jean Claude Nkurikiyimana, Francois Ntamuturano and Claude Mugwaneza were last Friday dumped at Kagitumba Border Post by Ugandan authorities. The men are in despair after leaving all they had worked for back in Uganda. “It is so inhuman what Uganda has done to us. I don’t understand how these people can decide to take away one’s life! They torture you physically, emotionally, and financially,” said an exhausted-looking Umugwaneza. “Everything has been taken away from me, and I am on the verge of losing my mind!”
He left all his betting branches unattended to following his brutal arrest. He, like hundreds of Rwandans before him arrested in this manner, was detained incommunicado, with no access to family, or friends, or business partners. They did not produce him in court to charge him with anything. From Mityana they transferred him to Mbuya Military Barracks and all that time, according to him, he never saw the light of day. Until his release and subsequent dumping at Kagitumba Border Post with only the clothes in which he was when he was arrested. Umugwaneza had bought properties including plots of land, a house, and had invested his
savings and business profits into opening more branches to grow and boost the business.
trary arrests after they refused CMI and RNC extortion to contribute funds to RNC.
He fears he will never see his property again.
“It reached the extent that to refuse to give monetary contributions to RNC was to be declared an enemy in Uganda!” a former CMI victim of illegal detention said.
Umugwaneza’s fate – and that of others like Bikino who too lost a job and property in Uganda – closely mirrors what has happened to victims of Ugandan security agencies in the past three to four years. That is when Kampala’s policy of anti-Rwandan hostility broke out into the open, and they began abducting Rwandan nationals. Ugandan Military Intelligence (CMI) in particular has been working hand in hand with Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, facilitating the terrorist organization in recruitment activities. According to many testimonies by Rwandan victims of CMI, torture has been one of the strategies by which they attempt to recruit, especially able bodied Rwandans. Other Rwandans, mostly businesspeople resident in Uganda, have suffered arbi-
Over time, however, senior CMI operatives have been using Kampala’s anti-Rwanda hostility to rob Rwandans of their money and property. It happened to businessmen Emmanuel Rwamucyo and Augustine Rutayisire who in May 2018 were robbed of US$ 40,000 while in the custody of Maj. Mushambo, head of UPDF 2nd Division Counterintelligence in Mbarara. That followed arbitrary arrest by Mukama Moses Kandiho, younger brother to CMI head Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho. The men would suffer torture while in custody that almost killed them. Many Rwandans that suffered similar fates wonder if they will ever get justice.
Umugwaneza went to Uganda at the end of 2017 to pursue a business partnership with a Chinese in a sports betting venture. He invested 30 percent in the enterprise (worth 40 million Ugandan shillings cash), and things were going smoothly. “We had started with three locations, and were opening up several branches in Kampala. Things were going great because I would at a minimum bank one and a half million shillings a day after all expenses and overhead, ”Stephen says. “I wasn’t complaining at all!” Then in the wee hours of the 2nd last month Umugwaneza was ambushed by Ugandan soldiers who handcuffed him. “They arrested me, but I wasn’t told why,” he says. The 14 soldiers, according to the victim, turned
Stephen Umugwaneza was recently dumped at Kagitumba. He was abducted by CMI agents, tortured and robbed of his property and money.
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Rwanda’s “Think Big” plan is not delusional; Himbara is Rwanda’s economy is showing signs of recovery. Additionally, the government’s ability to collect more taxes than expected, and doing so in a challenging environment, is one among many reasons why Rwanda is trusted to meet her financial obligations. Himbara, out of frustration, ignores all these facts because they are inconvenient to his mission and his predictions of doom. Undeniably, this is a man frustrated that his past predictions of doom have not materialized and that anyone who still takes them seriously is equally deranged. Himbara’s frustration is noticed in his in a follow-up article. In it he laments that “the funds received from overseas Rwandans by far outstrips the money earned by MICE activities.” But what do remittances have to do with MICE?
RNC fugitive David Himbara always distorts facts about the Rwandan economy. The reality constantly contradicts him.
By Jason Muhire In the current difficult context where many countries around the world are struggling to re-launch their economies, trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating effects on people’s livelihoods, David Himbara is busy with his usual prophecies of doom for Rwanda’s economy; a country whose government he, undoubtedly, despises and for which he holds vengeance. Obviously, Himbara is on a mission who doesn’t mind contradicting himself in pursuit of his goals. In this article, Himbara contradicts his own predictions by the choice of institutions he cites, unconvincingly, as evidence of his doomsday prophesy. He knowingly omits crucial information by Moody’s, when he suggests that Rwanda may fail to repay its loans. On the contrary, the rating agency, when justifying its recent rating action, notes that despite the difficult conditions created by the corona virus pandemic, “Rwanda has a track record of effective policy implementation and reform, leveraging support from international finan-
cial institutions, which support the formulation and implementation of sound macroeconomic policies.” In other words, if Himbara wasn’t on a mission to destroy Rwanda’s image and if he was an honest person, he would have written that unlike other countries that may default on their loans, Moody’s has declared that Rwanda’s is expected to remain on course on its payment due to its sound macroeconomic environment. Moody’s only underscored the widely recognized effectiveness of the government that allows Rwanda to retain the trust of financial institutions with regard to her capability to enact corrective measures and preserve debt service capacity. This in turn, allows Rwanda to secure future loans if necessary, thereby avoiding a liquidity crisis. Additionally, according to Moody’s, “immediate risks to the economy are limited by ample foreign exchange reserves, which remain adequate to cover upcoming external debt servicing need”. But Himbara would rather choke himself than acknowledge these
undeniable facts. Moreover, one would wonder how a man who portrays himself as a seasoned economist fails to make sense of numbers. For example, Himbara notes that “According to the ministry of finance, servicing Rwanda’s external debt costs the country $72.3 million annually. This is about the same amount of money Rwanda earned from MICE in 2019 at $88 million.” Himbara, the “seasoned economist” believes that Rwanda’s external debt is serviced only by MICE investments. Even a first-year university student in economics would know that MICE earnings are hardly the only source of government’s revenues. Even if one were to consider tourism alone, Rwanda earned $498 million from the sector in 2019 and Gorilla trekking alone earned approximately $68m in revenues. Himbara misrepresents Moody’s the same way he does for the IMF. He omits to mention that IMF’s remarks highlighting the fact that Rwanda’s tax revenues have been stronger than expected, which is another indicator that
One would expect Himbara, a self-styled expert in economics, to be informed about the new trends in his area of expertise. Everyone knows that remittances have already overtaken Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) as the biggest source of external financing and foreign exchange earnings in low- and middle-income countries. Real economists predict that in a few years, remittances will overtake development assistance and FDI, combined. Does Himbara not know this or is it wilful ignorance at play, and If Himbara doesn’t know this, why is he commenting on things he is ignorant about? Himbara needs to be able to think small before criticising Rwanda’s Think Big approach to development that he calls “delusional.” But only a deluded failed economist would fail to make the basic connection between Rwanda’s approach and the vote of confidence from investors regarding them. For instance, why doesn’t he ask himself why a successful operator like Quatar Airways has signed a huge investment deal to take 60% stake in the Bugesera airport and a 49% stake in RwandAir. Between a failed economist and a successful airline, who should sensible people listen to?
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Issue no 017 November 2020
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A tool of Ugandan regime misinformation appropriates the name of an AU commissioner for its dirty propaganda By Alex Muhumuza A Ugandan regime propaganda website, Commandonepost has published a bizarre article which quotes “a letter” to the African Union (AU) Commissioner of Peace and Security, Smail Chergui, by “a coalition of about 37 Rwandan organizations operating from abroad.” The “letter”, says Commandonepost, “appeals to the AU Security Commissioner to help and intervene in addressing the deteriorating cases of human rights abuses and security in Rwanda.” The first noticeable anomaly about the article, published last Friday, is that it looks like a copy-and-paste job full of assertions found in politically motivated “reports” by organizations such as Human Rights Watch. In fact Commandonepost gives itself away, at one point forgetting it supposedly is quoting a letter by “Rwandan organizations”, and directly quotes from HRW. The article also extensively echoes the writings of genocide revisionist groups like the Belgian-based Jambo asbl whose purpose is, on the one hand, to whitewash the real perpetrators of crimes in Rwanda, while on the other they constantly try to tarnish Rwanda’s government with none-existent crimes. This brings us to the second major anomaly in this Commandonepost article. It purports to quote this supposed letter by “Rwandan organizations”, but does not name a single one of them. Commandonepost – a tool of misinformation whose chief editor is one Bob Atwine; one of the several propagandists on the payroll of Ugandan Military Intelligence, CMI – also fails to tell what date the letter supposedly was written. All this, going by the habits of CMI propaganda, points to one
CMI head Maj Gen Abel Kandiho, runs an anti-Rwanda propaganda machine as part of President Museveni’s policy of hostility.
explanation: the “letter” is non-existent. CMI propagandists in their usual shamelessness are using the name of the AU Commissioner in fictions whose aim is to tarnish the administration of Rwanda. Commandonepost has copied and pasted gross distortions and falsehoods by groups whose overriding goal is to tarnish and discredit the Kigali administration, packaged them into this fictitious “letter”, and used the name of the AU to hoodwink readers that it’s genuine. This is standard stuff from CMI, which the Kampala regime, in its policy of anti-Rwanda hostility, has given the additional task of directing, and running the anti-Rwanda propaganda campaign. Going through the Commandonepost piece, one is struck by how laughable it is for a Ugandan tool of misinformation to accuse any country of “human rights abuses”, however much it is “copy and paste.”
Basically everyone knows CMI is a criminal organization, but in the name of a “state security agency.” Its goons abduct people with no due process. They lock people up for as long as they want with impunity. They torture, maim, and execute extra-judiciary. Let’s point to just one high-profile example of gross, CMI human rights abuses. Security operatives attached to CMI set upon Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake in April this year and abducted him. They dragged him away and brutally beat him. The torture was so bad that CMI, seeing he was about to die, dumped him at Kiruddu Hospital. There, medical staff worked around the clock to save his life. His colleague in parliament, and in the opposition, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine tweeted: “Hon. Zaake’s health condition has worsened. He has now been placed on oxygen. The doctors are contemplating taking him into the ICU. A member of parliament is tortured to near death by
regime enforcers!” Wine confirmed that the “regime enforcers” were none other than CMI (with police attached to CMI having conducted the abduction). Zaake is known to be an outspoken critic of Museveni, which is his right as an MP and a Ugandan. What was his crime? He was giving food to some needy neighbors in these difficult times of Covid-19. For that he was kidnapped and subjected to torture. Zaake is lucky to be alive. He is a prominent person. Very many not-so-prominent regime critics have entered the gates of Mbuya, never to be heard of again. CMI’s torture dungeon at Mbuya Barracks is so feared that even boda boda transporters never agree to drop off anyone near there. So, if Commandonepost wants to write about human rights abuses, Continue to page 10 >>
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REGIONAL
Issue no 017 November 2020
Mbarara, or SFC. Countless of those innocent Rwandans – people that would be travelling for any number of innocent reasons: children visiting parents; pregnant women going to visit their husbands; old men visiting their children in Ugandan schools – have suffered harrowing human rights abuses at the hands of Ugandan security agencies. Many (of the lucky ones to be released) have described to Rwandan media abductions followed by accusations of “espionage”, or “illegal armed weapons” and other things they had zero idea about. “Really, how can an old man of seventy be ‘a spy’?” exclaimed one of the lawyer’s victims last year.
>> From page 9 what’s worse than this? Or what’s worse than Museveni’s security agencies brutally rounding up people power supporters, like they did on 14 the preceding month, dumping them onto trucks, and taking them away? They did this after breaking into the offices of the People Power leader, Kyagulanyi, and confiscating papers with signatures endorsing his candidacy for president. Another question to ask of Commandonepost is: what about the daily abuses Ugandan security agencies inflict upon hapless Ugandans but which it says nothing about? Shamelessness is the very definition of the minions of President Museveni’s regime. “If one were cataloguing the human rights abuses of CMI, or other Ugandan security organs for that matter, SFC, UPDF, even the local criminals called LDUs that President Museveni arms to wreak havoc on civilians that do not support him, the Museveni government is the foremost rights-abusing regime,” political observers in the Ugandan capital assert. On the other hand the rights record of Rwanda speaks for itself, and the Ugandan regime knows the truth.
Every member of all terrorist organization backed by President Museveni’s regime – RNC, FLN, RUD-Urunana and others – that Rwanda apprehends end up facing fair, lawful trials. LaForge Fils Bazeye and Theophile Abega of FDLR were apprehended by Congolese authorities on 14 December 2018, coming from a meeting in Kampala how to optimize terror activities against Rwanda, through closer cooperation with Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC – Kampala’s main anti-Rwanda proxy. But when Congolese authorities extradited the two to Rwanda, no one tortured them. Their rights were respected. They were issued proper court papers, read the accusations against them, and granted legal representation. Everything in contradiction of the HRW or Jambo asbl propaganda that Commandonepost parrots.
The fact Uganda has arbitrarily arrested so many, detained so many incommunicado, deprived them of consular visits, and even killed others; these crimes show the biggest offender against human rights is the Kampala regime. The smears by their propaganda media as usual are projection; they accuse Rwanda of the crimes their bosses are guilty of. And CMI propaganda always appoints itself spokesperson of any, and all negative forces attempting to tarnish the image of Rwanda. “Ultimately they will fail of course,” remarked a Rwandan official. very member of all terrorist organization backed by President Museveni’s regime – RNC, FLN, RUD-Urunana and others – that Rwanda apprehends end up facing fair, lawful trials.
Other suspect criminals working with Uganda-sponsored groups such as RNC’s Maj. (rtd) Habib Mudathir and the band of three-dozen fighters captured with him have all received fair trials. They have lawyers, are granted their rights to family visits, and their medical issues are taken care of.
LaForge Fils Bazeye and Theophile Abega of FDLR were apprehended by Congolese authorities on 14 December 2018, coming from a meeting in Kampala how to optimize terror activities against Rwanda, through closer cooperation with Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC – Kampala’s main anti-Rwanda proxy.
One can compare with the fate of hundreds upon hundreds of Rwandans that have fallen into the clutches of CMI, or UPDF 2nd Division Counterintelligence
But when Congolese authorities extradited the two to Rwanda, no one tortured them. Their rights were respected. They were issued proper court papers, read
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the accusations against them, and granted legal representation. Everything in contradiction of the HRW or Jambo asbl propaganda that Commandonepost parrots. Other suspect criminals working with Uganda-sponsored groups such as RNC’s Maj. (rtd) Habib Mudathir and the band of three-dozen fighters captured with him have all received fair trials. They have lawyers, are granted their rights to family visits, and their medical issues are taken care of. One can compare with the fate of hundreds upon hundreds of Rwandans that have fallen into the clutches of CMI, or UPDF 2nd Division Counterintelligence Mbarara, or SFC. Countless of those innocent Rwandans – people that would be travelling for any number of innocent reasons: children visiting parents; pregnant women going to visit their husbands; old men visiting their children in Ugandan schools – have suffered harrowing human rights abuses at the hands of Ugandan security agencies. Many (of the lucky ones to be released) have described to Rwandan media abductions followed by accusations of “espionage”, or “illegal armed weapons” and other things they had zero idea about. “Really, how can an old man of seventy be ‘a spy’?” exclaimed one of the lawyer’s victims last year. The fact Uganda has arbitrarily arrested so many, detained so many incommunicado, deprived them of consular visits, and even killed others; these crimes show the biggest offender against human rights is the Kampala regime. The smears by their propaganda media as usual are projection; they accuse Rwanda of the crimes their bosses are guilty of. And CMI propaganda always appoints itself spokesperson of any, and all negative forces attempting to tarnish the image of Rwanda. “Ultimately they will fail of course,” remarked a Rwandan official.
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