Your source for credible news Issue no 006
August, 2020
Rwanda-Zambia relations not affected by terror suspect’s utterances, Biruta
NEWS
‘Hypocrisy’ of Ingabire exposed as her daughter and grandchildren fly to Rwanda Page 3 OP - ED
Latest Kampala diatribes against Rwanda fit classic mold of the guilty culprit that cries louder than the wronged – Part 1 Page 6 PROFILE
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta says relations with Zambia not affected despite utterances by terror suspect Callixte Nsabimana (right).
Putting any lingering rumors about supposed Rwanda-Zambia “tensions”, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta has reiterated: Rwanda maintains good relations with the Republic of Zambia. Page 2 As criticism of Brussels decision to add Genocide negationist to parliamentary committee mounts, Jambo asbl issues threats to Rwandan community
UK-based Mugenzi claims there is starvation in Rwanda, ‘but the starvation is in Mugenzi’s head’
A Brussels-based organisation composed of offspring of the some of the principle suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is trying new tactics of intimidation, with intention to silence criticism of the decision to put a well-known denier of the Genocide on a Belgian “special parliamentary commission to probe the European nation’s colonial past.” Page 4
A UK-based genocide apologist, René Mugenzi, has this month published a book claiming that a hidden famine crisis is shattering lives in Rwanda. This is Mugenzi’s latest effort in his life that is dedicated to negative propaganda against the current Rwandan administration. Page 5
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Jambo asbl’s Placide Kayumba, taking the genocide ideology baton Page 8 REGIONAL
LDU re-deployment strikes fear in Uganda Page 9 CARTOON
Issue no 006 August 2020
NEWS
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Rwanda-Zambia relations not affected by terror suspect’s utterances, Biruta
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta says relations with Zambia not affected despite utterances by terror suspect Callixte Nsabimana (right).
By Moses Gisa Putting any lingering rumors about supposed Rwanda-Zambia “tensions”, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta has reiterated: Rwanda maintains good relations with the Republic of Zambia despite recent allegations stemming from utterances in court by Callixte Nsabimana, the jailed former spokesperson of FLN terrorist group. In a press conference on Wednesday, Minister Biruta said that the allegations by Callixte Nsabimana “were the very first time the Rwandan Government had heard such, and it was from the court process.” According to the minister, that’s when Rwanda invited its Zambian counterparts, “to engage with the terror suspect since they were also interested to find out the motive behind implicating their President’s name in the terror suspect’s trial. But the allegations have not affected our relations
with Zambia,” Biruta asserted. Nsabimana is being prosecuted on 16 counts including formation of an irregular armed group, terrorism, murder, kidnap, genocide denial, arson, armed robbery, forgery, and causing bodily harm, among others. Callixte Nsabimana has pleaded guilty to the crimes, denounced both FLN, as well as MRCD-Ubumwe, a Brussels based coalition of terrorist groups led by Paul Rusesabagina and Faustin Twagiramungu. When Nsabimana was arrested last year, under interrogation he revealed that FLN worked with both Ugandan and Burundian intelligence agencies. “In March 2019, I met Major Bertin aka Moses, an agent of Burundian External Intelligence,” Nsabimana said. He disclosed that in the same month he also met one Captain Sunday Charles who facilitated him to meet the head of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) Brig (now Maj.
Gen.) Abel Kandiho. “In that meeting the Ugandan officials pledged both diplomatic and military support to FLN in the aim to overthrow the Kigali Government,” said the terror suspect said in court. According to evidence, revealed by prosecution last year when the trial commenced, Burundi gave the FLN militias leeway to enter the Rwandan territory through the Kibira Forest – which becomes Nyungwe in Rwanda – whilst Kampala provided arms and training to FLN fighters in South Kivu, DRC. It also came to light that FLN recruited members and solicited financial support from Rwandan refugees in southern Africa, and beyond. FLN claimed responsibility for armed terror attacks in June, and in December 2018 in Rwanda’s Southern, and Western Provinces which claimed 6 innocent civilians and injured several
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others. During the attacks, FLN terrorists set ablaze a vehicle, looted civilian belongings, and held some hostage before Rwandan security forces rescued them. FLN has been one of the factors causing instability in the Great Lakes region, having been present in Kalehe, South Kivu, and Kibira Forest in the Cibitoke Province of Burundi. Unlike Nsabimbana’s accusations against Zambia, and the swift reaction from the Zambian authorities by their visit to Kigali to meet the terror suspect, the accusations against Uganda and Burundi have been corroborated by different sources of evidence, including the December 2018 United Nations Report of Experts on the DRC that showed the two countries are part of a “network” that provides logistical support to anti-Rwanda terrorists of the “P5” umbrella.
NEWS
Issue no 006 August 2020
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CARTOON OF THE WEEK
Ingabire has hypocritically kept claiming “Rwanda is unsafe” but her Europe-based daughter and grandchildren have come visiting
‘Hypocrisy’ of Ingabire exposed as her daughter and grandchildren fly to Rwanda By Fred Gashema Together with her two toddlers, Raissa Ujeneza, a daughter of Victoire Ingabire jetted into the country last Sunday from the Netherlands to visit her mother. This is despite the latter’s incessant claims that “Rwanda is an unsafe country” (though it has been revealed repeatedly that she is the one whose goal is to destabilize the country through her work as a leader of subversive groups). “You always say that Rwanda is
unsafe, and that people are even killed,” Rwandans on Twitter were quick to point out. “If Rwanda is that unsafe, why then do you allow your daughter and grandchildren to come in!” asked dozens of Twitter accounts.
has issued press statements claiming “there is no security in Rwanda”. On several occasions, Ingabire has issued press statements claiming “there is no security in Rwanda”.
Rwandans have been roasting Ingabire on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Adding, “Will you send your daughter and her children to FDLR and RUD-Urunana just like you sent children of others?”
Ingabire’s daughter obviously feels safe enough to visit Rwanda, something that according to commentators has exposed the hypocrisy of all the propaganda by Ingabire and groups that support her. “Family is the last thing that anyone would risk; so if Ingabire meant
On several occasions, Ingabire
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that Rwanda is ‘so insecure’ how then would she permit her daughter and grandchildren to fly all the way from the Netherlands?” a commentator asked. In 2012 Victoire Ingabire was sentenced to 15 years for forming armed groups aimed at destabilizing Rwanda’s security, and of minimizing the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. In August 2018 she walked out of prison after her sentence was commuted by the Presidential prerogative of mercy following her numerous applications for clemency.
Issue no 006 August 2020
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As criticism of Brussels decision to add Genocide negationist to parliamentary committee mounts, Jambo asbl issues threats to Rwandan community By John Karera A Brussels-based organisation composed of offspring of the some of the principle suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is trying new tactics of intimidation, with intention, according to Diaspora observers, to silence criticism of the decision to put a well-known denier of the Genocide on a Belgian “special parliamentary commission to probe the European nation’s colonial past.” Earlier this week, on Monday, Jambo asbl – a group that came into being as an association of Europe based sons and daughters of major Rwandan genocidaires, and which has become infamous for denying, trivializing
or revising the Genocide – issued what it called “a notice” to the Rwandan Community (people not affiliated to genocidaires or criminal groups) in Belgium. Jambo’s notice amounted to threats to the Rwandan Community “to rectify” a joint press communiqué it had released (jointly) with an association, Ibuka Memoire et Justice-Belgium. Jambo then went ahead to issue an ultimatum that “the rectification should take place not later than three working days.” The Rwandan Community in Belgium (many of whom either were victims of the Genocide, or that fled there as refugees) as well as Ibuka Memoire wrote their communiqué last Friday, 7 August
vehemently opposing the nomination of Laure Uwase in a 10-person team expected to work on Belgium’s colonial past. Uwase, a former secretary general of Jambo asbl and editor-in-chief at Jambo news, is a daughter to Anastase Nkundakozera who was convicted of crimes of genocide by a Gacaca court, and Agnes Mukarugomwa, a virulent and active genocide denier with her own online radio and YouTube channel, ‘Ikondera’. According to the revelations against Uwase, six years ago, on July 11, 2014 – as part of a “Jambo News-net” team – they were guests of FDLR, the terrorist offshoot of Interahamwe and x-FAR – in its bases in the
jungles of eastern Congo. Through Jambo news net, a platform known to spread negationist propaganda, Uwase has interviewed different known genocidaires, and other anti-Rwanda groups like Victoire Ingabire’s FDU-Inkingi as well as Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC. She has also been part of organizers of genocide denialist conferences with the aim to sabotage commemoration of 94 Genocide Against the Tutsi while promoting the double genocide theory. “How can someone that is part of such an organization that has acted as a propagandist group for genocidaires, terrorists and perpetrators of genocide be included in a committee to examine the Belgian colonial past?” members of the Rwandan Community in Belgium asked. “The Rwandan Community’s communiqué strikes fear in the heart of Jambo asbl because it is yet another document that could lead to closer examination of what exactly the group is about,” a Diaspora source told this website. “They have been deceiving Belgian society that they are ‘an activist group’ for ‘democracy’ or human rights’, and fear further exposure.” Uwase herself being a prominent member of Jambo asbl, “one can also see that the threats of Jambo asbl also are an attempt to protect her,” our source added. The Jambo asbl “notice” reads in part: “We give you notice to rectify your comments to public, within three days of receipt of this document, by publishing a new press release under the same conditions as your previous communiqué…”
The allies of Uwase (pictured) a Brussels-based genocide denier have taken to threatening Rwandans that criticize her inclusion in a Belgian Government commission
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Maybe these people imagine they can rule in Belgium the way their parents ruled in Rwanda, with their “power” ultimatums,” a social media commentator said, asking: “otherwise how can such utterances be explained?”
Issue no 006 August 2020
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UK-based Mugenzi claims there is starvation in Rwanda, ‘but the starvation is in Mugenzi’s head’ By John Karera A UK-based genocide apologist, René Mugenzi, has this month published a book claiming that a hidden famine crisis is shattering lives in Rwanda. This is Mugenzi’s latest effort in his life that is dedicated to negative propaganda against the current Rwandan administration. Mugenzi, in complete disregard to facts, claims in the book, “Starvation in Shadow of Stardom”, that “3 million Rwandans are on the edge of starvation.” But this is just another “propaganda hit job by Europe-based genocidaires – and their allies everywhere – whose goal in life is to find ways to discredit the
Rwandan Government,” said an observer. Mugenzi’s book alleges that “millions of Rwandans “are starving”, but, observers wonder, whom did he ask? There is no credible source in Mugenzi’s book: no Rwanda Government source, of course! But also, the man cites no non-government source, such as Food and Agricultural Organization, or WFP, or other international organizations with offices in Rwanda to support his assertions. “The fact is, the starvation is all in Mugenzi’s head!” a Rwandan official commented. Facts show how unreliable Mugenzi’s book is. In 2015, the government of Rwanda, through
Rwanda Agricultural Board, increased irrigated farmland by 15,000 hectares in Eastern Province, adding to 45,000 hectares that already was under irrigation – about 30,000 of which was in Eastern Province to deal with drought that was affecting the region. Mugenzi’s claims of starvation single out Eastern and Southern provinces allegedly as “the most affected with starvation”. According to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda figures, in 2016 the agricultural sector was the second biggest contributor to GDP. “In regard to all this, anyone that claims there is starvation in Rwanda only has an agenda, with zero interest in the truth,” said analyst of agricultural production in Rwanda.
UK-based genocide apologist, René Mugenzi.
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This is not the first time Mugenzi – whose father, Joseph Mugenzi, is a Netherlands based genocide suspect who was tried and convicted by a Gacaca court in absentia – has published something that has turned out to be misinformation against Kigali. Surprising no one, Mugenzi has attacked the Rwandan President with the usual propaganda that ‘he brought down Habyarimana’s plane’, which has long been discredited by international investigators, including French jurists like Marc Trevidic and Nathalie Poux, observers have pointed out. “It’s not surprising to see Mugenzi publishing fictitious books based on non-existent “investigations”, a reader remarked.
Issue no 006 August 2020
OP-ED
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Latest Kampala diatribes against Rwanda fit classic mold of the guilty culprit that cries louder than the wronged – Part 1
Despite Kampala propaganda claims, the source of problems between Uganda and Rwanda is the regime of President Museveni: including problems at the borders, and others
By Alex Muhumuza An article full of self-serving diatribes against Rwanda by unnamed Kampala security sources has appeared on the Softpower website – a propaganda outlet run by Sarah Kagingo, one of the Museveni regime’s most ardent minions. Softpower is one of the several actors in an ongoing anti-Rwanda campaign of misinformation and propaganda directed and paid for by Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). In this article, Virunga Post brings you the first part of a dissection of the misinformation therein. The article – which appeared in Softpower yesterday, Thursday 13, under the title “Biruta’s false
claims against Uganda diversionary from Kigali’s criminal acts” – however, takes the cake when it comes to murdering truth, facts, or the journalistic principle that when one makes a claim they back it with facts. The first provable lie appears in the very first sentence. “Uganda maintains focus on improving relations,” says part of the sentence. It is like reading a parody. The Ugandan regime is doing the exact opposite of “focusing on improving relations.” Kampala has stepped up its acts of anti-Rwanda hostility, which hark back to the mid 90s – when the Ugandan regime ran Kayumba Nyamwasa as a double agent, back when Museveni hit upon his plan to destabilize Rwanda. “Because of course Museveni was very annoyed that Kigali
refused to be controlled from Kampala,” a long time commentator on Rwanda-Uganda issues said. That hostility – which the Ugandan regime would escalate by among other things enabling Nyamwasa evade the law to escape to South Africa from where he set up the terrorist RNC, and jumping into bed with the genocidal FDLR whose officials the Ugandan state became a benefactor, providing travel documents and other facilitation – has not ended. It only intensifies. “How can Uganda claim it is ‘maintaining focus on improving relations’ yet RNC agents like Sulah Nuwamanya and Prossy Boonabana work with CMI in acts of anti-Rwanda subversion: setting up RNC cells all over
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Uganda, recruiting, and mobilizing support?” asked a Kigali official. “These are things for which Kigali has shown proof, in forums like the Quadripartite meetings on implementation of the Luanda MoU,” he added. “How can Uganda claim it is focusing on improving relations even after it has come to light that CMI has been instructed to set up cadreship courses for agents and members of Nyamwasa’s RNC?” another reader of the Softpower piece asked. Bur even as it peddles bald-faced falsehoods, the writer pivots to blaming Rwanda on issues like “border closure” – a favorite canard of the Ugandan regime’s. continue to page 7 >>
Issue no 006 August 2020
From page 6 >>
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territory, and each of them – on separate occasions – were moving with smuggled goods in the night through porous crossings. Also, when one turns to non-propaganda news sources it will be learnt each of these smugglers turned violent when asked to stop.
It came about when the Ugandan ruler and his security agents realized their blunder in targeting hundreds of innocent Rwandans for persecution, harassment, illegal incarceration, torture and other abuses in their campaign of anti-Rwanda hostility. Matters reached the extent whereby Ugandan security forces victimized Rwandans that even included old men, teenagers going back to school, pregnant women and others like that, always with accusations of “spying”, “illegal entry” and other trumped up charges.
“What else is a member of security teams to do when attacked by someone resisting a lawful order to stop, but instead attacks with a machete or spear?” wondered a Rwandan border official. “What one does is shoot to defend himself!”
Kampala seemed to think Kigali would just keep looking on and do nothing.
In fact that is the point Rwandan Foreign Minister was making, which Softpower distorts.
That was why, when on the First of March last year Rwanda took action to save her citizens from the criminal abuses of Ugandan security organs by issuing a travel advisory against Rwandans crossing to Uganda, Kampala was shocked. Realizing that Ugandans, who were about to incur serious losses in business and trade opportunities, would demand explanations, the regime trotted out the lie that “Rwanda has closed the border.”
Our border source continued: “Rwandan security patrols only shot those Ugandan smugglers, each that also was transporting marijuana, kanyanga (crude waragi), or other illegal substances, who turned violent. Otherwise smugglers that comply with orders to stop are arrested, sentenced, and after jail are taken back to Uganda.”
But this categorically is the fault of Museveni and his security organs, and no one else, several observers have pointed out. Observers note that it is Uganda that’s answerable for that problem, and lies such as Softpower’s that ‘Rwanda’s closure of the border was meant to stop the influx of Rwandans into Uganda’ won’t change that fact. Blithely moving to the next falsehood, Softpower tries to insinuate that Kampala is abiding by the Luanda MoU even as the writer accuses Rwanda of “wantonly kidnapping and killing Ugandans that live in border areas.” The main problem with the first of these two claims is that Museveni has not fulfilled a single requirement of the MoU. The Luanda Memorandum of Understanding – which Museveni himself signed alongside his Rwandan counterpart – among other things commits the parties “to refrain from actions conducive to destabilization or subversion in
President Museveni
the territory of the other party and neighboring countries, thereby eliminating all factors that may create such perceptions…” Museveni, as indicated by the activities of RNC that he backs in Uganda (together with harboring other anti-Rwanda terrorist groups like RUD-Urunana), has violated the terms of the MoU. “Openly moreover!” commentators add. Not only is Uganda free territory for RNC to roam, to set up cells, to mobilize and recruit from Kinyarwanda-speaking communities all over the country, even factions recently broken away from RNC, such as a group called RAC, have been welcomed into the fold of Museveni’s anti-Rwanda proxies. But his propagandists think people somehow are blind to all these, and other ways Kampala has violated the agreement. It leaves one shaking their head. Just as do the claims that “Rwandans are kidnapping and killing Ugandans from border areas.” It prompted a reader in Kigali to point out: “this is the classic propaganda strategy where the belief is that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth!” No Rwandan has kidnapped a
Ugandan. It is a lie manufactured to smear Rwanda, and it it is backed by nothing. No Ugandan has stepped forward to claim a relative is missing in Rwanda. As for the individuals who Uganda claims were “killed”, Softpower offers only half-truths about them. Those that have been shot were violent smugglers that entered Rwanda through illegal paths (panyas) in the middle of the night. That’s against the law, and the record shows Rwandans border authorities repeatedly told Ugandan counterparts to warn their citizens to desist such law breaking. And to use recognized, legal border crossings – during daylight hours. But Ugandan smugglers – perhaps heeding Museveni’s encouragement last year in May when he said, “if the border is closed people will smuggle because you can’t stop trade!” – failed to listen to the warnings of the Rwandan authorities. Softpower names four individuals that died as: Teo Ndagijimana from Kisoro, Byarushanga Job, Tuhirirwe Bosco and Alex Nyesiga (though it claims “Rwandan security has been shooting dead many Ugandans in Rwanda”). Anyone that cares about the truth will learn that each of these individuals was inside Rwandan
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Softpower also fails to report that porous routes between the two countries have been used by terrorist groups such as RUD-Urunana who last year attacked Kinigi, northern Rwanda, killing 14 civilians and injuring many. After Rwandan security forces foiled the attack, killing 19 and capturing five, the four that managed to escape fled to Uganda. They went to Kisoro where their commander, Gavana, is a frequent guest of Uganda’s Minister for Regional Cooperation, Philemon Mateke. Determined to repeat the most discredited falsehoods, Softpower then descends into outright fictions.
Don't miss out the Part 2 of this great piece in the Virunga e-Paper Issue No 007
Issue no 006 August 2020
PROFILE
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Profile: Jambo asbl’s Placide Kayumba, taking the genocide ideology baton By Mary Cyusa A top member of the Belgium-based Jambo asbl association, Placide Kayumba is the son of a man that committed unspeakable crimes in Kabuye Hill, present day Gisagara District, as the Genocide against the Tutsi erupted. Kayumba – who like all members of Jambo asbl which fronts itself as “a human rights and democracy activist group for Rwanda”, but which in fact is part of an ideology dedicated to denying, trivializing, or negating the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi – is the offspring of Dominique Ntawukuriryayo. The latter is a major genocide suspect that in 2010 was convicted on crimes of genocide and sentenced to a 25-year prison sentence. Placide Kayumba’s membership in Jambo asbl (of which in fact he is a co-founder) hinges on the history of his father. In 1994 Dominique Ntawukuriryayo was a sub-prefect in the former Butare prefecture (in charge of the communes of Ndora, Muyaga, Kibayi, Muganza and Nyaruhengeri where he oversaw the killings. At the time, between 21 and 25 April 1994, more than 30,000 Tutsis had tried to flee to Burundi. But ex-FAR soldiers, and Interahamwe militias on the orders of Ntawukuriryayo stopped them each time. The refugees were then herded back, to the Gisagara Market where Ntawukuriryayo ordered for them to be taken to Kabuye hill, “with false promises that they would be protected by armed men,” according to eyewitness account. Instead Ntawukuriryayo was sending them to their deaths. Around April 23, gendarmes and communal militias surrounded the hill and started shooting indiscriminately into the masse of helpless Tutsi refugees. By April 25, more than 30,000 – all who had a few days before being hindered from fleeing – had been killed.
Placide Kayumba, a son of a notorious Genocidaire, is amongst the campaigners of Genocide Denialism affiliated with the Belgium-based Jambo asbl association.
Yet today Ntawukuriryayo’s son is one of the most dedicated genocide deniers as part of an organization that disseminates the most negationist messages and ideologies. On his Twitter account, Kayumba claims that his genocide convict father, a man that faced trial over several years, “is innocent!” Right after his father’s arrest, in France, Kayumba co-founded ‘Jambo ASBL’, together with the offspring of other Genocidaires, and others that share the ideology like Ruhumuza Mbonyumutwa, Natacha Abingeneye and others. One of their main missions is to try to sanitize their parents. They also claim that “they too are “genocide survivors” in what is a calculated move to add salt to injuries of the real victims of their parents. For Kayumba, creating such a group was not a surprise to many that know him. When Kayumba was a child, he was called a “know it all” – a “najuwa” – by fellow kids. Also, “he was taught to hate
Tutsis at a very young age,” a source told this website, “and throughout his student days at Petit Seminaire Virgo Fidelis de Butare.” Our source went on that Kayumba’s father must have been a very good teacher, because his son turned out to be a “very good hater!” Some of Kayumba’s former classmates can never forget the time he threatened a fellow student that he would take him to Camp Ngoma, a military camp where they tortured people said to be in the opposition. The student had merely said that “the Inkotanyi looked smart.” Apparently Kayumba “knew how to distinguish who a Hutu or Tutsi was”, just by sight. It was part of his hate routine. But it was said his own mother was a Tutsi. Even as just a teenager he already was notorious for supporting the violence committed against Tutsi in the early 90’s. Little is known of how Kayumba
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went to Belgium, but his parents arrived in France in 2001, requesting the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons for accommodation. In 2014, when Kayumba was president of Jambo ASBL, he travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo representing the organization, to meet officials of FDLR. “He wasn’t there to tell them to stop their terrorism against Rwanda, but to ask what could be done by Jambo to help in their terror activities,” according to different Diaspora sources. “He, and Jambo asbl were in DRC to boost anti-Rwanda terrorism!” Kayumba also has been a member of Victoire Ingabire FDU Inkingi group that has been working with terrorist armed groups that aim to destabilize Rwanda. “These are the kinds of individual that stand in Belgium to claim they are fighting for democracy and human rights,” commented a social media account.
Issue no 006 August 2020
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LDU re-deployment strikes fear in Uganda By Jean Gatera Human rights activists and organizations are alarmed following reports that LDUs (Local Defense Units) will be redeployed, according to the authorities, to combat Covid-19 in Uganda. People still sleep in fear of the LDUs following highly violent incidents when their members have shot people in broad daylight; chased people down; or raped. “They really caused havoc in their first deployment,” Kampala-based rights activists say. But now they have been re-announced. Brig. Flavia Byekwaso, spokesperson of the UPDF (the Ugandan military) has issued a press statement this Tuesday announcing the return of LDUs with the claim that “they have undergone and completed training.” She continued that, “owing to the
withdrawal of the LDUs crime rates had spiked, hence the need for their redevelopment.” But these LDUs were recalled for training after a catastrophic deployment to combat Covid-19, a human rights activists in Kampala reacted. “LDUs killed at least 20 innocent Ugandans,” the activist went on. “They stole from hundreds, they raped and committed many atrocities!” Her observations validate a recent BBC article that counted at least 12 killed by the LDU in Uganda last month. The BBC wrote on its website: “In Uganda people have allegedly been killed by security officers enforcing measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus. The killings are believed to have been at the hands of policemen, soldiers, and at least 12 at the hands of members of an armed civilian force called Local Defense Unit.” The LDU has been classified by several local and international
organizations as a “militia” group. Officially, it is a Para-Military group of trained locals, but most legal experts say that the group lacks constitutional justification. Such was their obvious enthusiasm for violence however that the LDUs faced calls for their disbandment after their initial deployment ostensibly in the fight against Covid-19. On the 16th of July human rights lawyers under the Legal Aid Service Providers Network (LASPNET) called for the immediate disbandment of the LDUs, terming them as “unruly”. In response to the public outcry, according to observers, the Uganda army recalled the LDUs off the streets for “refresher” training three weeks ago. “But how can you say you have trained a group of iliterate, but violence-addicted armed men in only three weeks?” wondered a resident of Kampala.
Kampala, violent LDUs manhandle a Ugandan on excuses of enforcing Covid-19 measures.
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The UPDF spokesperson only claims that the LDU is “a strategic auxiliary force” and that it can never be disbanded however loud the public’s cries are. With imminent re-deployment of the government militia, residents of the Ugandan capital are bracing themselves for some really bad times. “LDUs are really bad!” said Kawooya, a man that only gave us one name. “It is during night time that they kill, rape and loot,” added the highly worried Kawooya. Media reports of the 27th June, this year described how security operatives battered to death one Emmanuel Tegu, a student of Kampala’s Makerere University. Also, last year, in October army men gang raped university students that were protesting hikes in school fees. “The situation only gets from bad to worse,” our interviewee said.