Your source for credible news Issue no 014
October, 2020
Analysis: for those that would steal liberation from Rwandans, a bleak path awaits
NEWS
FLDR suffers another rout, loses fighters as terror group’s future looks more bleak Page 2
OP - ED
Museveni’s axing of ISO’s Bagyenda the result of a whispering campaign by CMI’s Kandiho Page 7
PROFILE
RPF fighters in the days of the liberation struggle
We are in week three of the month of October. A patriot remembers the sacrifices of the young fighters that 30 years ago put their very lives on the line to end the injustices that defined Rwanda’s post-colonial years which the likes of Mbonyumutwa, Kayibanda and Habyarimana turned into years of a terrible Rwandan version of Apartheid. Page 5 “Substitute” heads of anti-Rwanda terrorist groups talk big about “attacking Rwanda”
Profile: Zaneza cavorts with Jambo asbl, but justice casts a shadow on her father Sebatware
On one of the obscure YouTube channels, the CNRD and FLN terrorist groups have made pronouncements that show they are as committed as ever in the goal of destabilizing the security of Rwandans.
When it comes to advancing the ideology of genocide that formed the family environment in which she grew up, Denise Zaneza of the Belgium-based Jambo asbl is second to none.
Page 4
Page 9
Profile: Christine Coleman, a false prophet that joined the revisionist bandwagon from the US Page 8
REGIONAL
Ugandan merchant of misinformation tries to blame Rwanda for Burundi’s no show during regional summit Page 10
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NEWS
Issue no 014 October 2020
2
FLDR suffers another rout, loses fighters as terror group’s future looks more bleak By Moses Gisa In another defeat for Congo-based terror groups, a military operation has gunned down four fighters of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, FDLR, and captured one of its officers, a lieutenant. According to Rwanda Tribune – an online news outlet, the firefight took place last Friday in the Bukombo region of Rutshuru Territory, North Kivu Province. The terrorists were killed in what’s described as a fierce battle between FARDC, the Congolese military, and the FDLR that was also backed up by Mai Mai CMC, another illegal armed group in the vast country. Reports are that the intention of the two terror outfits was to dislodge the government forces from Bukombo. According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, FDLR joined ranks with a breakaway faction of Mai Mai CMC, an illegal armed group headed by one “Gen.” Dominiko, to capture the territories under control of Mai Mai NDC Nduma of Col.
Guido Shimirayi who recently deserted the national army. “The fight lasted a few hours, the army managed to kill four FDLR combatants and captured its officer. The militias fled fire and the territory remained under the control of the national army,” the source said. The new developments come amidst President Félix Tshisekedi’s tour of duty in the city of Goma where he held a virtual regional security summit with Rwanda, Uganda, and Angola Heads of state. The Congolese leader announced his decision to relocate his office to Goma and setting up a military base within the city to address the insecurity concerns caused by FDLR and other armed groups. The normalizations of diplomatic relations between the government of Rwanda and its DR Congo counterpart, which has among other things committed to enhance security across both countries’ territories and borders, is already bearing fruit, analysts say. “The disbanding of terrorist groups that are a major factor of regional instability is well on course,” an eastern Congo-based
media analyst said. For years FDLR rode rough shod over civilians in eastern DRC. This group, best known as an offshoot of the genocidal ex-FAR and Interahamwe militias born in the jungles of DRC mainly as a force for continuation of the ideology of genocide thrived under past regimes that did nothing to disband it from Congolese soil. Its specific mission when it started as “ALIR”, undergoing a few other name changes before it became “FDLR” was to overthrow the current Rwandan administration and then proceed with the “unfinished business” of exterminating Tutsis. But with the coming of a new administration in Kinshasa, since January last year, has seen a very bad spell not only for FDLR but all other terrorist groups in the east. Kinshasa has stepped up efforts to get rid of all of them and ensure total peace for long-suffering citizens. President Felix Tshisekedi sanctioned military operations, dubbed “Sokola II”, to dismantle and disarm all the rebel groups, many of them anti-Rwanda terrorist groups.
Following that it isn’t only FDLR that has lost most of its commanders, fighters and territories where they held sway in the mineral rich country. Other groups most notably Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, or RUD, an offshoot of FDLR too have been routed. Many of the captured suspected war criminals have been transferred to Kigali for trial. “If current events are anything to go by, FDLR’s end is very near. It’s been seriously weakened; the funds it used to raise out of mineral smuggling deals to sustain its terror activities – buying arms and ammunitions and recruiting fighters – everything is lost,” said the analyst. The Congolese army is yet to decide on the fate of the captured FDLR militia. If repatriated, the terrorist would face terrorism related charges as the terror outfit’s former spokesperson Ignace Nkaka alias La Forge Fils Bazeye and its former head of intelligence Lt Col Nsekanabo Jean Pierre aka Abega currently undergoing trial on similar offences in Rwanda.
Fighters of the FDLR terror group. Their days in DRC are numbered.
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NEWS
Issue no 014 October 2020
3
Undeterred by shame, Kampala protects, maintains safe haven for Rwandan genocide suspects By Patience Kirabo
drawal to Uganda.
Uganda, which ranks second among African countries that host genocide fugitives, has maintained its stance on shielding the suspects even when other countries worldwide are arresting and extraditing top Rwandan suspects of high crimes. For reasons best known to Kampala, it has declined to act to hand over even one suspects – of the estimated 260 on Ugandan soil – to face justice for their crimes 26 years ago.
Rwandan authorities have persistently urged countries still hosted genocide perpetrators to arrest, charge or extradite them to Rwanda to face justice. With Belgium recently arrested three genocidaires – Pierre Basabose, Christophe Ndangali, and Séraphin Twahirwa. France has apprehended Felicien Kabuga and launched an investigation into another major suspect, Aloys Ntiwiragabo for his crimes. Western, and European countries are showing significant support in Rwanda’s pursuit of justice.
What are we to make of the fact that even France has arrested Kabuga, but Uganda provides safe heaven for terrorists that are also suspected mass murderers like “Gavana”, commander of RUD?, people ask. The Ugandan regime instead preferred to work closely with genocide perpetrators, like the deceased Ignace Murwanashyaka, former president of the genocidal FDLR. At one time it was exposed that in fact he used to travel on a Ugandan passport on FDLR missions. “That Uganda could do things like these shows what a bad neighbor Kampala was determined to be, from a long time back,” commentators say. The country’s history of supporting Rwandan fugitives evading the law dates way back to the early 2000s. Other than Murwanashyaka, Uganda has facilitated top genocidaires and FDLR commanders like Hyacinth Rafiki, and Maj. Wallace Nsengiyumva. All have enjoyed safe haven, and were issued passports to ease their mobility, while they go about their anti-Rwanda business, eluding justice for the crimes against humanity they are implicated in. Murwanashyaka oftentimes traveled through Uganda to Germany and other countries. When in 2004 the UN put a travel ban on him, forbidding him from traveling back to Germany he was able to travel back there in 2006 with a newly issued Ugandan passport under false names. That was just one instance of
Ugandan ruler Museveni – his administration has been an ally even of Rwandan genodaires.
Kampala acting to divert international justice on behalf of its genocidal allies. As if to add insult to injury, in July 2019, when Uganda officials arrested genocide suspect Anastase Munyandekwe acting on an Interpol Red Notice Kampala authorities ensured the suspect was swiftly released and aided to travel back to Belgium, instead of handing him over to Rwanda.
National Congress (RNC) and the FDLR. Observing these things, commentators say, it is hardly surprising that Uganda has gone radio silent on the extradition of captain Nshimiye aka Gavana, who commanded the terror attack in Kinigi in October 2019 that killed 14 and maimed 18. He is still under the protection of Uganda’s security organs following with-
But from a neighbor like Uganda? Genocide survivors are shocked that the murderers of their relatives, torturers and perpetrators of other unspeakable crimes only enjoy safe haven. Uganda has not extradited a single genocide suspect since the establishment of the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit in 2008. On the contrary, its authorities have shown far more willingness to deploy them as proxies in plots to sow instability in Rwanda.
As if to further prove Uganda’s stance, when Rwanda diplomatically reached out to it through a note verbale on 137 suspects residing in various parts of the country, Kampala only made a show of arresting three of them, including Augustin Rwiririza, Jean Baptiste Bizimungu, and Bizimana Bernard. However, these were later released. All of them remain in different parts of Uganda going about their lives, some engaged in lucrative businesses. Even more astounding to observers is how Uganda’s State Minister of Regional Cooperation Philemon Mateke, is publically flaunts his credentials as a great ally of Rwanda’s genocidaires, reveling in his role as the focal point of the anti-Rwanda groups, such as with plans “to forge a united front” between the Rwanda
Ugandan Regional Cooperation Minister Mateke
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NEWS
Issue no 014 October 2020
4
“Substitute” heads of anti-Rwanda terrorist groups talk big about “attacking Rwanda” By Joan Karera On one of the obscure YouTube channels, the CNRD and FLN terrorist groups have made pronouncements that show they are as committed as ever in the goal of destabilizing the security of Rwandans. That is even after last year’s arrest of close to 300 of their fighters after a crippling defeat in eastern DRC. Declaring their intentions earlier last week on the National Council for Renewal and Democracy’s (CNRD-Ubwiyunge) YouTube channel, they announced “intentions to attack” Rwanda. On the YouTube channel the speakers were Francine Umubyeyi, CNRD’s interim president, “Lt. Gen.” Hamada Habimana, FLN’s “chief of defence staff”, and “Brig. Gen.” Antoine Hakizimana, alias Jeva, FLN’s chief of operations.
attacks on Rwandan territory. Realities like that did not deter Umubyeyi from uttering words amounting to incitement. “Rwandans must stand up and fight for their lives and those of their fellow Rwandans,” she said. She then went on to claim that CNRD and FLN are “not afraid of justice, since we believe that our army in Rwanda committed no crimes”. A listener would think perhaps self-delusion is another mechanism for coping with tough realities. FLN terrorists Nsabimana “Sankara” has already confessed to terrorist attacks the group inflicted on Rwandans. His boss and overall leader, who also was their main funder, Rusesabagina, has been arrested for those very crimes. Many of their accomplices have been arrested and are facing trial. “But these people like Umubyeyi,
Jeva and the others think they can create their alternative reality,” laughed a listener. “They should worry more about when they themselves will be in court answering for their crimes!”
obvious that they are left with nothing; they have now started laughably asking RDF soldiers to defect to them. These are people left with nothing but words,” said our source.
They say things like “we want to liberate our people” and “overthrow the (Rwandan) leadership” to lie to their members, trying to create the impression that they have not been shaken by the capture of fighters and arrest of their leaders, said a Kigali commentator on security issues. “But the fact remains many of their crimes include killing innocent civilians. They too definitely will face justice or their crimes,” he added.
“Lt Gen” Habimana, who is an ex-FAR soldier, joined CNRD in 2016 when the latter parted ways with FDLR, the notorious genocidal offshoot of the ex-FAR and Interahamwe militias.
“Lt. Gen.” Habimana too incited violence. He made utterances calling upon Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) soldiers to join FLN. “With Habimana’s futile words it’s
According to reliable sources, Habimana sometimes travels to Uganda to meet Kayumba Nyamwasa’s agents, including Prossy Bonabaana and Sula Nuwamanya, underscoring Uganda’s outsized role in plots to destabilize Rwanda. Whatever alliances they’ve had with Uganda, however, have not prevented the crushing defeats, and setbacks they are suffering.
According to experts, the arrests of Paul Rusesabagina, and so many of his accomplices as well as the heavy military defeats of Congo-based terrorist groups over the past year and a half have left people like these “scared of even their shadows!” But they are still talking the big talk, something that, according to the security experts, “has more to do with projecting a false sense of invincibility than anything tangible that they can do.” Umubyeyi, who was previously the deputy commissioner for political affairs and diplomacy in CNRD, and held the same position in the MRCD coalition of Rusesabagina, said “President Kagame has refused to negotiate with CNRD and FLN, and the only option remaining is to use force.” This prompted an observer to wonder whether the dying kicks of terrorism are always like this. “These people obviously have mental issues after what has happened to their groups,” commented an observer. They should instead be contemplating the justice that awaits them for their crimes, including the 2018
L-R: heads of anti-Rwanda terrorist outfit FLN, Lt. Gen.” Hamada Habimana (“chief of defence staff”), and “Brig. Gen.” Antoine Hakizimana, alias Jeva, “chief of operations”
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OP-ED
Issue no 014 October 2020
35
Analysis: for those that would steal liberation from Rwandans, a bleak path awaits
RPF fighters in the days of the liberation struggle
By Robert Rutoma We are in week three of the month of October. A patriot remembers the sacrifices of the young fighters that 30 years ago put their very lives on the line to end the injustices that defined Rwanda’s post-colonial years which the likes of Mbonyumutwa, Kayibanda and Habyarimana turned into years of a terrible Rwandan version of Apartheid. Those young fighters of the RPF have been vindicated by history; a vindication seen in what Rwanda is today: a country where every Rwandan regardless of background, religious belief, and everything else is equal before the law; enjoys the same opportunities; and has freedom to do, or be anything. What they fought, that the country somehow “belongs” to one ethnicity, moreover from a small sub-region of the country, is long defeated. The ideology that enforced that apartheid is long gone. One almost cries tears of joy. As Rwandans celebrate they can only look back and feel gratified. Yet the heirs of the ideology of
divisionism, ethnic slaughter are busy. They have been given voice abroad and overseas. They are very active and have allies very skilled in the use of propaganda. The perpetrators of the genocide and their offspring where they live in exile are very adept at blaming the victim for the crimes they themselves (or their parents in the case of the offspring) committed. Their allies in the revisionist game – the likes of Human Rights Watch, or “journalists” like Judi Rever and those of her ilk the likes of Ann Garrison, or infamous names like Filip Reyntjens and Peter Verlinden– have done their best to sanitize the real criminals while fighting tooth and nail to actually blame. The efforts of these groups indicate clearly that much as the struggle for liberation was won on the battlefield, another war is ongoing. It is one waged with outright lies, distortions and falsehoods. But the hate behind it is very much the same as that of MRND, of the regime of Kambanda, Sindikubwabo. One can be sure an idea based on the ideology of ethnic hate can never defeat an idea based on inclusiveness.
Which is why the RPF keeps winning long after the guns of liberation fell silent. LaForge Fils Bazeye, Theophile Abega and others like them waged violent conflict in furtherance of the genocidal ideology. They were captured. These FDLR bigwigs are in prison, paying for their crimes. Their FDLR colleagues like Mudacumura have met their demise in neighboring DRC whose territory they had long used as a base for their criminal enterprise. “Gen.” Juvenal Musabimana died, after engaging for years in the same crimes. Many others have perished for sticking to this terrible ideology of genocide. Those that are alive and persist in plots to destabilize the security of Rwandans have more often than not ended up facing the courts in Kigali – like Bazeye, Abega, Nsabimana “Sankara”, Mudathir and his accomplices of RNC have. Groups like Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC have put themselves in the untenable position of being reactionaries who, through their
naked greed for power, would turn the clock on liberation back. These are individuals that have gone as far as allying themselves with genocidal outfits in the forlorn hope that such moves will advance their ambitions. Liberation has left them behind. Just like it has left many others that have turned themselves into reactionaries against the very idea that those young revolutionaries embarked to fight, and die for those thirty years ago in October 1990. These are the likes of Gerald Gahima, David Himbara, Theogene Rudasingwa, to name but only a few. They surely regret the path they chose. Those that embarked on the route of deception, like Paul Rusesabagina, resting their hopes of taking power through waging violent conflict against Rwandan society too have been proven wrong. The wrongness of their idea ultimately is what has undone them. Liberation is here to stay.
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OP-ED
Issue no 014 October 2020
6
From Sabalwanyi to “peacemaker,” Himbara unwittingly exposes Museveni as the root of two decades of violence in region By Alain Mucyo On October 11, Chimp Reports published a piece titled “Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni Makes Roads Not War.” The author of the article is David Himbara, a propagandist of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and publicist of Tribert Rujugiro, the chief financier of the terror organisation who has substantial joint investments in Uganda with Museveni and his brother Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, aka Salim Saleh. It’s unsurprising that in the article Himbara tries to resuscitate President Museveni’s image in the international arena where he is largely forgotten. The entire article is nothing short of a cloying image-laundering. It starts with the claim that “President Museveni surprised his admirers and critics alike in his speech celebrating his country’s 58th independence anniversary on Oct. 9, 2020. Museveni announced that his government signed an agreement with neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to build three road networks that connect the two countries.” The surprise apparently is due to the fact that “Previously, Uganda [in fact, Museveni] had acquired a reputation of making wars and plundering the DRC’s natural wealth.” Moreover, for this “remarkable mindset shift,” Himbara argues, Museveni “ought to be congratulated” for his “personal road to Damascus moment.” it is as if Himbara is meeting Museveni for the first time. No one is surprised by the fact that Museveni is yet again saying things that he has no intention of ever fulfilling in his faux pan-African affectation. If Museveni was really serious about fixing roads, he would start with the potholes in Kampala that make Uganda’s capital a bone-jarring obstacle-course at the best of times and a series of impassably overflooded lakes during the rainy seasons; he would do this instead of patronising the Congolese about building roads for them. Moreover, if he had any goodwill towards the DRC, he would promptly pay up the 2005 US$10bn International
David Himbara in a recent article seeks to brainwash readers about Ugandan president Museveni whom he showers with praises about his supposed benevolence in DRC.
Court of Justice (ICJ) reparations award against his plunder of that country, an amount that must have accrued compound interest well into US$30bn by now – enough to allow the DRC build its own infrastructure across their entire country. “The DRC government subsequently took Uganda to the International Court of Justice for acts of armed aggression and for stealing the country’s natural wealth. The Court concluded, firstly, that Uganda was an occupying power in parts of DRC. Secondly, the Court determined that the troops of Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) had committed human rights abuses in DRC. Thirdly, the Court concluded that officers and soldiers of the UPDF, including the most high-ranking officers, had plundered DRC’s natural wealth. Uganda was ordered to pay $10 billion reparations to DRC, which has yet to be settled,” as Himbara acknowledges Museveni’s monumental damage to the DRC while parroting the latter’s patronising attitude towards that country.
Imagine the audacity of urging the Congolese to “congratulate” Museveni for “this effort [that] signals a departure from war mentality that has bedevilled this region for far too long.” Himbara has no clue about the cause of the “war mentality” in the region. Although he is partly right regarding the problem of “mindeset” and “mentality” he would rather dance around this toxic mentality by wasting time on its consequences when its cause is obvious to any thinking person who isn’t motivated by image laundering of someone whose reputation at the global stage is no better than that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1990s. To imagine that Museveni can change course at his late age of 75 (some say 85) is to think that Mobutu should have been urged to reform rather than to smoke him out of what was then Zaire. I have a free lesson for “Professor” Himbara regarding the main cause of war and violence in the great lakes region of Africa over the past two decades: The “war-mentality” that different
leaders in the region have adopted is a natural response (a consequence) to Museveni’s patronising and bellicist mindset (a cause) that seeks to subordinate those leaders to himself and to dictate to them how to run their respective countries; Museveni’s mentality makes the choice of war inevitable, as a suitable alternative to accepting his overbearing urge to dominate others. This is something he has achieved to different degrees of success. For instance, in South Sudan he has managed to inciting both sides of the conflict and then inviting them to Kampala to dictate to them how to get out of the conflict he has helped to fuel. Similarly, as he claims to want to build roads for the DRC he is busy fueling violence in the ituri region by, again, supporting both sides of the conflict as a means of plundering the area of natural resources, gold and timber. For some countries that Museveni has tried this approach on, it has been a road to nowhere. Maybe that should have prompted the road to Damascus. But he never learns, which explains why “a departure from war mentality that has bedeviled this region for far too long.” For a man who brags about being “The Ssabalwanyi ” (the Supreme War-maker; usually the chest-thumping of cowards), it is unlikely he enjoyed Himbara’s strained attempt to convert him into a meek “peacemaker.”
Ugandan president Museveni
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OP-ED
Issue no 014 October 2020
7
Museveni’s axing of ISO’s Bagyenda the result of a whispering campaign by CMI’s Kandiho
CMI head Abel Kandiho
Col. Kaka Bagyenda, has been kicked out at ISO. One of the things that sealed his fate is that Museveni thought he wasn’t sufficiently brutal to innocent Rwandans
By Jean Gatera Col. Kaka Bagyenda, the Director General of the Internal Security Organization (ISO) in Uganda has just been fired by President Museveni and is replaced by Charles Oluka, who will be deputized by one Emmy Katabazi. Museveni has sacked the long-serving Bagyenda ostensibly “due to crimes committed by ISO agents under his watch.” This announcement, however, prompted derision by watchers of Ugandan intelligence agencies who pointed out that if this was the stated reason then Bagyenda only is a victim of a witch hunt.” “If Museveni wants to fire real criminals he should start with Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho, the director of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence; this is the worst killer, torturer, and abductor of innocent people in Uganda!” said a Kampala-based commentator on security matters that preferred not to be named so as
not to endanger himself. Reliable information is that, in fact, Kaka Bagyenda has been thrown out because Museveni has deemed it that ISO wasn’t arbitrarily arresting enough Rwandan nationals, or Ugandans of Rwandan origin. The organ that has outdone any other in that is Kandiho’s CMI. Over the past three years Rwandan media has chronicled the stories of countless Rwandans that were abducted by CMI agents who detained them, incommunicado, subjecting them to physical abuses and torture that left many traumatized and carrying scars for life, while an unknown number died. “This is the kind of thing that Museveni expected Bagyenda to replicate and though ISO did its share of perpetrating wrongs against innocent Rwandan nationals, it could never match CMI!” remarked our source. The Uganda regime is backing a
number of anti-Rwanda groups, mainly Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, in a proxy campaign of hostility against Rwanda, and the harassment, persecution, and torture of Rwandans on different concocted charges is part of that campaign. Torture of Rwandans, for instance, is part of a policy of recruitment for RNC whereby young, or able-bodied Rwandans arbitrarily arrested and tortured will accept to join Nyamwasa’s group. Bagyenda on the other hand has been a victim of a whispering campaign by Kandiho, who wanted his ISO rival out of the way as a competitor for classified intelligence budgets. Kandiho, said to be the protégé of Museveni’s brother Gen. Salim Saleh and who as a result has the ears of the two most powerful men in Uganda, finally has prevailed in his war with ISO. Recently Maj. Gen. Kandiho has initiated a series of vicious social
media attacks against Kaka Bagyenda on Facebook using among others one Titus Seruga – based described as a troll on CMI’s payroll. The attacks were vicious, “Bagyenda is a traitor against Uganda!” Seruga wrote one time. “Kaka and ISO’s days are numbered!” He wrote another time. It was a well-targetted media harassment campaign orchestrated by CMI, our Kampala source comments. Finally, in July, CMI agents raided one of ISO’s safe houses, signaling the imminent fall of Kaka Bagyenda. It was the clearest signal how far out of favor this “historical” had fallen out with Museveni who had sanctioned the raid. An anonymous source within Uganda intelligence circles revealed that CMI’s labeling of Bagyenda as “soft” in the persecution of Rwandans in Uganda was what pushed Museveni to wield the axe. The same sources indicate that CMI’s ulterior motives lied in sharing the coveted intelligence budget, and wanted the illegal minerals export businesses all to itself.
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PROFILE
Issue no 014 October 2020
8
Profile: Christine Coleman, a false prophet that joined the revisionist bandwagon from the US and why Habyarimana didn’t want to do anything about the problem,” said a reader.
By Mary Cyusa Christine Uwizera Coleman has been a hot topic for years now, not because of her prayers or sermons, but because of her false “prophecy” on the Government of Rwanda, and President Kagame in particular.
Another favorite falsehood that the pseudo-prophet likes to tell is that “Rwanda has torture chambers” and that “Rwanda has been killing everyone, even Genocide survivors!”
Our sources say she has rebranded into a pastor and prophet to make a living by lying to people about visions of the future. However, everyone has learnt that she is either making money or pushing a political agenda. In an interview about Rusesabagina’s arrest on SABC, Coleman accused Rwanda of having “abducted” the man, but then put a false prophesy spin on her particular take. Coleman claims that the terrorism suspect (who in actual fact was lawfully arrested) “was abducted because it was prophesied in 2014 by a mighty man of God that Paul Rusesabagina was going to be the next president, following Kagame.” Sane people that heard her were astonished that a media house like SABC would offer a platform for such rantings. Figures like these ones are normally confined to the fringes of the Internet where no sane people listen to them. Those that are familiar with the preachings of this woman in the US are certain she is just one of multitudes of false prophets that make a living deceiving their flock. Coleman who lives in Colorado was born in Gakenke District to Dominique Dirimasi, a former head of education in then Kibungo Prefecture and Marie Akimanizanye – both parents who died when she was still very young, due to natural causes, according to sources familiar with her background. This is the kind of traumatic background that sometimes shapes very “funny beliefs”, as psychology may indicate. Christine went to the US in 1997, formed, and become pastor of the Blazing Holy Fire Church based in Denver, Colorado. She
Such hateful propaganda can deceive only the most uninformed. Rwanda is today acknowledged as a country of the rule of law with a state that does things by the book, and where extra-judicial acts have no place.
Christine Uwizera Coleman, a US-based false prophet and genocide revisionist that specializes in anti-Rwanda smears
has been described as someone “making money under the pretext of prayers”, and as “an activist anointed by the Lord to pray and minister to heads of state and world influencers.” This is an attribute she has given herself. In her new book “SOS-Rwanda’s 30-Year Apocalypse” she says she was 18 years old in 1990. During the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, she was obviously old enough to observe what was happening, and goes about claiming she is a genocide survivor. But that has been shown to be a façade of deception. Her brother Jean Dirimasi is a genocide fugitive residing in Uganda. That is one proven fact. She keeps telling the world she is a survivor of “Rwanda and DR Congo genocides”, yet her family member was perpetrating genocide. “For Christine Uwizera to claim she is a genocide survivor is a pure con,” laughed a Diaspora source. Christine claims that “before President Kagame came to Rwanda, the country never had a
problem with refugees or displaced persons.” But this is such an obvious lie one wonders what must be going through the mind of this woman. “Maybe hate just distorts the mind,” a social media user that heard her remark said. Perhaps in addition to being a revisionist of the 94 Genocide against Tutsi, Coleman now wants to distort the history that shows how Parmehutu ideology began in 1959 and caused hundreds of thousands of Tutsis to flee, starting that year up to the 90s. “In fact it was the RPF, led by Kagame, that put an end to genocide, and put an end to the refugee problem. But trust these genocide apologists to keep spinning lies about RPF all the time,” our source said. Christine has published a book that distorts Rwandan history in this, and many other ways. “If Coleman thinks Rwanda was safe before 1990, she should explain why so many refugees were scattered all over the world,
When one looks at the facts, a false prophet like Coleman will never manage to explain why Rwanda has afforded LaForge Fils Bazeye, Theophile Abega, Deo Mushayidi, Callixte “Sankara”, Herman Nsengimana, Victoire Ingabire, Maj (Rtd.) Habib Mudathir, and now Rusesabagina a fair trial, yet she is busy attempting to paint a picture of Rwanda as “a killer” state. All the 19 accomplices of Rusesabagina in FLN, people that were captured even after they killed innocent Rwandans, are in safe detention, receiving a fair trial. Just like the several dozen RNC accomplices of Habib Mudathir. She has no answer, only allegations that never stand scrutiny. Under Christine Coleman’s self-given title ‘reverend’ she has manipulated her audience, spreading her anti-Rwanda propaganda. She has repeatedly insulted President Kagame on her YouTube channels. “Everyone who wants to tarnish Rwanda’s image knows Coleman is the woman for the job, little does she know that we know this is another game of genocidaires,” our Diaspora source said. She is wasting her time, just like the Rusesabaginas that she defends. The truth will smoke her out, laughed a source knowledgeable with her activities in the US.
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PROFILE
Issue no 014 October 2020
39
Profile: Zaneza cavorts with Jambo asbl, but justice casts a shadow on her father Sebatware “This woman has never called out her father who is responsible for the deaths of so many people but instead plays victim even as she slanders the liberators of Rwandans!” a social media commentator said. One will constantly hear her on some fringe YouTube radio channels claiming that life is ‘hell’ in Rwanda, a country she’s been away from for a quarter century. The psychology behind such utterances is known as “projection”. The genocidaires made Rwanda hell, and this daughter of theirs must assert it is “hell”, perhaps to disguise even to herself that reality is the complete opposite.
Denise Zaneza’s background as the daughter of a major genocide suspect, Marcel Sebatware, has shaped her hateful views of the Rwanda of now
By Mary Cyusa When it comes to advancing the ideology of genocide that formed the family environment in which she grew up, Denise Zaneza of the Belgium-based Jambo asbl is second to none. This daughter of Marcel Sebatware, one of a major fugitives from justice, sentenced in absentia by the Gacaca courts, stands out in Jambo ASBL, a genocide negationist platform whose members are offspring of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi fugitives and suspects. Jambo ASBL aims to whitewash the crimes of the parents or relatives of its members while engaging in acts to advance denialism, or negationism of the genocide. They actively promote “the double genocide theory” – a long debunked attempt at creating false equivalences that “RPF too committed genocide.” Denise is one of those individuals that must have seen the crimes their parents committed. Those of a certain age know how feared her father was. The name Marcel Sebatware has always been known in Rwanda as an
influential genocide ideologue and member of the extremist Coalition for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), a group that was feared as few others CDR. “Imagine being born and raised in such a household, eventually something wrong must happen to you!” a source familiar with Zaneza’s background told us. “This person no doubt is a trained hater,” the source told us. In the years preceding the genocide, and during it, her father was the general manager of the Cimerwa cement plant located in the former Bugarama Commune, currently Rusizi District. Tutsis that sought refuge at the factory were killed at Sebatware’s command. Some of his former employees say more than 70 employees of the company were killed in this way. In 1996, a former employee of CIMERWA told the New York Times, Sebatware invited 27 senior managers of the company in July 1994, and told them to loot everything they could and destroy what they couldn’t take. This was so that the next government would not have anything to begin
with. Afterwards Sebatware fled the country with his family to the former Zaire, and later to Belgium. Young Denise saw everything. But through some bizarre logic she and her fellows in Jambo asbl devote their time to blaming the genocide on the very people that stopped it – knowing first hand what their perpetrator parents did. Zaneza is also known to be an “advocate” for something they have dubbed “the Hutu genocide” campaign. She does this in yet another Genocide negationist group, this one called “Global Campaign for Rwandan’s Human Rights” that she heads. She is very zealous, Diaspora sources testify. Sebatware’s daughter has initiated this campaign whereby they accuse the Rwandese Patriotic Army, RPA, of “having killed Hutus in Rwanda and DR Congo,” as part of her contribution in advancing the hoax double genocide theory.
“Rwandans are being killed for years now by the reigning clique, RPF, in broad daylight, and no one talks about it,” she has said on her YouTube channel. “Perhaps the Rwanda she is imagining is the one of Habyarimana and her parent, who knows?” a commentator wondered. In another act of grotesque deception characteristic of Europe-based anti-Rwanda groups, Zaneza long ago claimed the mantle of “human rights advocate”. One can just imagine what a victim of genocide, or of illegal Rwandan armed groups that have been perpetrating terror from DRC, feels to hear someone like Zaneza – a person that is an ardent supporter of groups like FDLR or RUD, as are all her Jambo asbl colleagues – call herself a human rights advocate. But that’s the world we live in, victims of these people’s parents, i.e. genocide survivors, tend to comment. “These people go to Europe, get receptive ears for their tales, get support, and do whatever they want,” one said bitterly. In the future, however, trends show, people like Zaneza may find themselves contemplating another kind of situation when their parents are finally made to answer for their crimes.
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REGIONAL
Issue no 014 October 2020
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Ugandan merchant of misinformation tries to blame Rwanda for Burundi’s no show during regional summit By Jean Gatera In continuation of a bizarre pattern whereby Kampala media of misinformation seem to have arrogated themselves the role of speaking for Burundi, Chimpreports, a website that takes its marching orders from Ugandan Military intelligence (CMI), last Saturday published an article purporting to explain Burundi’s absence from a recent regional heads of state summit. Burundi’s no show during the summit, at the invitation of the Congolese head of state and held by virtual conference, was not surprising. “It is not the first time that Bujumbura fails to participate in summits,” observers commented. Yet Kampala propaganda, to no one’s surprise, is finding away to blame Kigali for Burundi’s own decision. An important factor to consider when reading Kampala misinformation is that peace and security in the region, one of the major topics to be addressed, have never been in the interest of the Museveni government. The opposite applies: its interest is to see to it that insecurity and instability in DRC are never ending. One of the ways they have long hit upon to achieve this is to incessantly try to whip up anti-Rwanda hostility. With Burundi, however, Museveni has a willing partner in his project to destabilize Rwanda, something that has long been exposed by UN reports, and the testimonies of arrested officials of FLN, like Callixte Nsabimana, or Maj. (Rtd) Habib Mudathir of RNC. The fact of Uganda’s freedom to use Burundi in its anti-Rwanda smears explains how Chimpreports – in its article titled “Exclusive: Wary of Rwanda’s plans, Burundi pushes for infrastructure development in DRC’s South Kivu” – can claim that “Burundi is wary of Rwanda.” (Therefore, by insinuation, Rwanda is the bad party!) In the same vein, they publish the fiction that “Kigali is supporting RED-Tabara rebels”, a group
said to be fighting the Burundian government. They just publish things like this with nothing to back them up. In fact in the face of evidence to the contrary – such as when Rwanda recently apprehended RED fighters that had try to cross into Rwanda, notified Burundi, and presented them to regional mechanisms for processing. The claim that “Burundi did not trust Rwanda enough to answer a video call invitation” makes one wonder again: why didn’t we hear this from any official channels?
Burundian president Evaritse Ndayishimiye whose no show at the recent virtual regional security meet is being blamed on Rwanda by CMI-run propaganda
That aside, given it is no secret that terrorists of Paul Rusesabagina’s MRCD/FLN have attacked Rwanda from Burundian territory, Rwanda might have been the one to decline meeting Burundi in a summit. Even when it is no secret that RNC, Kampala’s favorite anti-Rwanda proxy, has found safe passage in Burundi. All that aggression hasn’t kept Kigali from any diplomatic initiatives. Because diplomacy doesn’t work like that. On the other hand, for reasons already mentioned, the Kampala regime has a deep vested interest in Burundi skipping any regional summit on security and cooperation and an article like that of Chimpreports is one indication of this. Uganda is desperate since its proxy groups like RNC, FDLR, RUD and others have for the past year and a half
suffered crushing defeats in eastern DRC, with some completely annihilated. Kampala has seen its anti-Rwanda plots crumble into the dust with these defeats. Citizens of the DRC have, by all accounts, been overjoyed. But the Kampala regime seemingly never rests when it comes to fomenting instability in the region. In Ituri Province of Congo, Uganda is already sponsoring a very dangerous conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives, and displaced thousands of others. To cover up its culpability in the insecurity in Ituri, it wasn’t long before Kampala manufactured misinformation, accusing Rwanda of fomenting it. CMI funded websites have gone as far as accusing Kigali of “attempting to balkanize the Congo.” This propaganda would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous, and tragic. How would Rwanda “balkanize” Congo? Under what scenario would such a situation arise? The propagandists supply no answers. On the other hand, it is Ugandan forces causing instability in Ituri to facilitate looting, or dealing in conflict minerals, as a report by the International Crisis Group showed earlier this year. Uganda’s meddling is visible in the militias it sponsors. Kampala authorities are known to pit Congolese militias against each other, fanning the never-ending conflict from which they gain – through illegal trades in timber and gold. Kampala has been named as backing actors commanding the Ituri region, including former members of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, the Kisangani Liberation Movement, as well as the Lendu militias of Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) and others. In Ituri, Kampala pits Hema tribesmen against Lendu militias. According to reliable sources, such was the case recently when
CMI head Abel Kandiho
leaders of the Hema community were lured to Kampala on the orders of CMI’s director, Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho with promises that the Ugandan leadership would help them form a militia “for the protection of the Hema from the Lendu.” Sources say three Hema leaders – Ibrahim Bamaraki, Kisembo Bitamara, and Kiswara Pele – showed no doubts about this invitation, and set off with their driver, headed to Kampala. “The trust they showed in Kandiho’s invitation indicates this isn’t the first time he they have been doing this,” said our source. Further down the article, Chimpreports claims that, “the Banyamulenge community serves as Burundi’s buffer against armed groups linked to Rwanda.” But no reputable organization has ever said this. “The idea is to just throw any mud at Rwanda, and if some sticks, well and good!” commented a social media analyst. One noticeable thing about the piece is how it sweet-talks the supposed “bilateral excellent relations Uganda has with Burundi”, and talks in flowery terms of “building infrastructure”, “finding solutions to rebel groups,” and so on. They are pushing the idea that somehow Burundi has “managed to isolate Rwanda” so as to carry out these good acts with DRC. There is no limit to the fictions Chimpreports and others can come up with.
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