Your source for credible news Issue no 029
March, 2021
American witness blows Rusesabagina right out of the water for his terrorist activities
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Pastor Twagirimana of the ADEPR Church in Uganda languishes in Ugandan Military Intelligence (CMI) dungeons Page 2
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Kampala CMI men exploit anti-Rwanda hostility, harass Rwandans for criminal self-enrichment Page 4
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When Dr. Michelle Martin, a witness in the ongoing trial of terror suspect Paul Rusesabagina took the stand yesterday, Wednesday 24, one could imagine the palpable fear of his apologists, supporters, and collaborators Page 3 in the region and all over the world. Get a free copy of our e-paper
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Museveni’s politics of the stomach are not the right foundation to build the East African Federation Page 5
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Issue no 029 March 2021
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Pastor Twagirimana of the ADEPR Church in Uganda languishes in Ugandan Military Intelligence (CMI) dungeons
CMI head Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho. Unknown numbers of innocent Rwandans languish in the dungeons of his agency at Mbuya.
By Jean Gatera Another Rwandan national, Pastor Antoine Twagirimana is suffering the Ugandan Chieftaincy for Military Intelligence (CMI) kidnap and torture ordeal. For the last 3 years, CMI has deliberately targeted Rwandans living in Uganda – part of the Museveni government’s anti-Rwanda hostility. Pastor Twagirimana was arrested on 6 March 2021 as he had gone to follow up the case of his son Ntwari Derrick who had also been arrested by CMI. The unbearable pain of his son suffering in CMI torture dungeons, detained arbitrarily and incommunicado, led him to travel from Kiboga District in Uganda – where he is the head of the local
chapter of ADEPR Church to go to the dreaded Mbuya Barracks headquarters of CMI, inquiring about his son. He himself risked kidnap and detention, and that’s what happened to him. Despite his official designation as a pastor, he was not spared. CMI – working in conjunction with Kampala-based agents of Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, Prossy Bonabaana and Sulah Nuwamanya – kidnapped Twagirimana, as they have done thousands other Rwandan nationals either visiting Uganda, or resident there. As a pastor of a church with a significant number of Rwandan nationals, Twagirimana was bound to be on their radar, sources in Kampala comment. The same sources indicate the pastor has already been tortured,
seriously, at Mbuya. “He could even lose his life,” remarked our source who requested not to be named. Other pastors have been targeted, like Rev. Jean de Dieu Singirankabo whom CMI operatives in 2019 arbitrarily arrested and detained with a dozen co-religionists, and tortured. CMI agent torturers almost cut off his manhood, leaving him in unbearable pain. Silas Hategekimana, part of those tortured with Singirankabo and dumped at the border, sadly died of torture related complications on the 31st of August 2019. In a bid to concoct charges of “spying” against Pastor Twagirimana, CMI and RNC asked him why he had visited the Rwanda High Commission. Yet, as every-
one knows, it is perfectly normal for a citizen to get in touch with his embassy abroad for different services. But as Sulah Nuwamanya and Bonabaana always do, the real motive for the harassment and persecution of Twagirimana is that he refused to work with the RNC terrorist group. Usually that causes all kinds of grief for Rwandans who refuse to join in acts to destabilize their country. There are hundreds of Rwandan nationals still rotting in CMI dungeons that are there because Nuwamanya and Bonabaana have set CMI on them. Yet multitudes of others are there because crooked senior CMI operatives frame them with such charges as “working for Rwanda”, so as to rob them of their property.
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American witness blows Rusesabagina right out of the water for his terrorist activities By Jean Gatera When Dr. Michelle Martin, a witness in the ongoing trial of terror suspect Paul Rusesabagina took the stand yesterday, Wednesday 24, one could imagine the palpable fear of his apologists, supporters, and collaborators in the region and all over the world. Dr. Martin is a foreigner, an American that has worked with Rusesabagina in the past. She has seen his plotting and scheming to cause havoc in Rwanda, up close and personal. She was a volunteer in the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation and among other things was privy to highly personal, secret communications by people like Providence Rubingisa, who was a high-ranking co-conspirator of Rusesabagina’s in plots to violently overthrow the Rwandan government. Dr. Martin is a respected academic with DePaul University of Chicago where she is a professor in Social Work. “So, even though Rusesabagina’s partners and apologists will surely try to tarnish her as ‘an agent of Kigali’ it will be very hard for them. It is their credibility that will be in question, not Dr. Martin’s,” said an observer that’s been following the trial.
Dr. Martin is a high-value witness having worked as a volunteer with Rusesabagina’s Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF). She was introduced to Rusesabagina in 2010 by one Providence Rubingisa, a suspect in the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi who was masquerading as a survivor. Rubingisa already was part of Rusesabagina’s plans of bringing violent upheaval back to Rwanda. Rubingisa, just like Rusesabagina, ran a charity, Global Family Rescue, in the USA, that turned out to be as fake as his partners. Both had the dual purpose of raising funds while hiding their true, subversive activities against Rwanda. In 2009, Dr. Martin volunteered with Rubingisa’s Global Family Rescue (GFR). Rubingisa gave her access to, and management of, his emails. He needed her English skills to write to potential donors. In 2010, Rubingisa introduced Dr. Martin to Rusesabagina who offered her the position of Policy Advisor with HRRF, on a voluntary basis. With time, however, the University professor grew suspicious of the exact nature of these “humanitarian” organizations. Their stories contradicted the facts of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. In court she narrated how members of the subversive
network presented themselves with survivor identities, but noted that they would always defend those accused of perpetrating the Genocide. She also noticed that both HRRF and GFR were very active in anti-Rwanda propaganda. They would tell these stories about how “Rwanda was like Russia in the days of the Soviet Union when fear ruled everywhere”, or that “there was discrimination against the Hutu ethnicity”, and other stories that portrayed Rwanda like some fearful place. But to Michelle’s shock, travelers would come back and describe a very different country from what Rusesabagina and Rubingisa made it out to be. She described how the two would aggressively lobby against Rwanda and how they always mounted a defense for anyone accused of Genocide. Her access to Rubingisa’s communications eventually made her realize that these charities were covers for subversive political activities. Under US laws, charities are forbidden to carry out political activities and lobbying. The American academic told the court that even some of her students, volunteering as interns, raised concerns about the blatant viola-
Giving her testimony in an organized, detailed way, Dr. Martin blew apart all Rusesabagina’s denials, “which in any case were already in tatters, with evidence such as video of Rusesabagina’s self-incrimination when he called for war and violent uprising against the Rwandan administration having been presented long ago,” said the observer.
For over three hours she recounted her work in documenting the elaborate network of genocidaires, and genocide deniers that she encountered working with Rusesabagina and Rubingisa. She presented to the court evidence of how they were supporting the genocidaire FDLR. She referred to conversations about arms purchases, militia training and alliances with other known terrorist organizations such as the RNC. She observed that two men ran operations in DRC, South Africa, Uganda, and elsewhere collecting and sending funds to buy weapons and finance militias, but maintained their humanitarian façade. Dr. Martin then decided to do something about it, and shared her evidence with law enforcement. A chorus of Rusesabagina’s supporters, beginning with his adopted daughter Carine Kanimba, and others anti-Rwanda terrorism circles were already trying to discredit Dr. Martin with slanders that she “is a Rwandan agent.” But that was expected, laughed a Twitter account. One notable exception was Rusesabagina’s Western friends – those who have been most vocal in pushing claims that “he is completely innocent”, with false assertions that Rusesabagina only was “a heroic humanitarian who is only in trouble because he fell afoul of Kagame.”
The FLN trial of 21 had gone ahead despite the principle suspect Rusesabagina, the MRCD-FLN leader, having refused to attend trial. This was after several attempts to stall the trial with various motions described as frivolous by the lawyer of Callixte Nsabimana “Sankara”, one of his co-defendants.
tions of US laws. As Dr. Martin began to research what these fake charities were really up to, she discovered that they went beyond breaking political neutrality requirements, and actually delved into terrorism.
None of them, the likes of Jeffrey Smith, Kitty Kurth, and others have said a thing, as of writing this article.
Dr. Michelle Thompson, an American academic. Her testimony against Rusesabagina yesterday, Wednesday 17, blew out of the water Rusesabagina’s denials of terrorism.
Court was presented with more evidence of Rusesabagina’s efforts setting up his terrorist enterprise.
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Kampala CMI men exploit anti-Rwanda hostility, harass Rwandans for criminal self-enrichment By Alex Muhumuza The story of the five Rwandan nationals dumped late last week at Kagitumba Border by Ugandan authorities highlights how tight the link is between the criminality of the Ugandan state security apparatus, and the regime’s policy of anti-Rwandan hostility. When Ugandan Military Intelligence (CMI), whose agents had abducted and detained the five, was through with them they found themselves dumped at Kagitumba with nothing. They had lost everything. Two of them: businessmen Renatus Murindangabo and
Shadrack Mugisha lost their lucrative bar in the Kampala neighborhood of Kansanga. Before the two fell in trouble one Maj. Nelson Kyatuka, head of the Rwanda Desk at Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), had been demanding that they give him shares in their business, though he had never invested a single coin in it. It was extortion, they say, and refusal to submit to extortion caused them grief. The Rwandans, three men, and two teenagers – one of them a seventeen-year old schoolgirl – were taken at different times. They all ended up in the torture dungeons of CMI at Mbuya Military Barracks.
The way in which they were taken is standard CMI abduction methodology.
cuffed, and whisked off at high speed. The next thing they knew they were at Mbuya.
Each of the victims says they were never read any charges, and never shown any arrest warrants.
Kyatuka, they say, had been harassing them in his efforts to forcefully take shares in their businessmen. “One of the stories he had concocted against us was that ‘we supported Bobi Wine during the presidential campaigns and that we were agents of Rwanda!” Murindangabo told this website when we caught up with them. “This was very strange because we have never involved ourselves in Ugandan politics,” he asserts.
The two businessmen, Renatus Murindangabo (39) and Shadrack Mugisha (29) who ran Pyramid Bar, a booming nightspot in Kansanga, found themselves surrounded, by about six men in the evening of the Fourth last month. They were at their place of work, the bar full of patrons. Before either man could say anything, they were shoved into a van of the “drone” type outside the premises, blindfolded, hand-
In the case of Napoleon Rebero (47) they found him at his wholesale vending business in the Kikuubo Trading Center of Kampala, and similarly forced him into a van. They accused him of “working for Rwanda.” That is how he lost his business. “As a trader, and someone that talks to no government official anywhere, I was very shocked at the accusation,” Rebero said. In the same fashion last year on 10 December, CMI agents abducted Eliel Ishimwe (19), a student at Hope Secondary School, drove with him to Seeta beyond the outskirts of Kampala, to also abduct his sister Celine Ishimwe (17) while she was attending class at Seeta Boarding. In the case of these children, one analyst thinks CMI wanted to recruit them for Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, a group that’s very active in Uganda with cadreship and recruitment cells all over the country working hand in hand with CMI – at the instruction, and with the full blessing of Museveni. Forceful recruitment, through imprisonment and torture, is one method they use. What probably saved Eliel and Celine, knowledgeable sources say, is that their abduction attracted the attention of the Rwandan diplomatic mission, according to what we learnt. The embassy tirelessly worked to
Maj. Nelson Kyatuka of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI. He’s behind several incidents of harassment, physical abuse, and dispossession of Rwandan nationals in Uganda.
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Issue no 029 March 2021
>> From page 4 have them released and taken back home. The stories of the abductions of the five are the same as hundreds upon hundreds of fellow Rwandan victims before them. Upon getting to Mbuya – in handcuffs and blindfolds – they would be ordered to remove footwear, belts, and leave everything at the counter. While in detention, each of the victims testifies, they suffered torture. Mugisha tells of how they chained one of his arms, and one of his legs upon the railing in the corridor. “It was such that I could neither sit nor sleep on the floor. I was suspended just above the cement floor and had to spend whole nights in that position!” The teenagers say they were beaten several times around the body, and starved of food. Everyone had a harrowing tale of physical abuse. Of the five, the story of businessmen Murindangabo and Mugisha
best illustrates how CMI officers have taken advantage of President Museveni’s anti-Rwanda hostility to enrich themselves through harassment, persecution of Rwandans whom they then rob of their money and property. According to the two, Maj. Kyatuka learnt of their bar when Kayumba Rugema, a notorious RNC agent and nephew of Kayumba Nyamwasa, last year began a smear campaign against business establishments owned or run by Rwandans in Uganda. “Rugema defamed us in posts on his Facebook page, and articles on some online publications. He claimed that ‘he was exposing Rwandan-run businesses in Kampala that were ‘Kigali frontline operations!” said Mugisha. “It was the most malicious lying you are ever likely to see! That person is just full of hate in his life!” They add that they are certain Rugema works directly with CMI. They tell how Rugema targeted Pyramid Bar with words such as “a den of Rwandan spies”, and “full of Rwandan bar women
trained in entrapment and other spying techniques from Russia and North Korea. It was the most malicious lying one is ever likely to see!” After Rugema’s articles Maj. Kyatuka began frequenting their bar. “He would drink but not pay. When he was drunk, he would begin accusing us of ‘working for Rwanda’,” Murindangabo narrates. “I would tell him he was very mistaken. He would go away, but come back some days later with the same accusations.” Around then, Kyatuka began demanding shares (in forced backroom discussions). The two businessmen then knew the end of their venture was near. When the abduction happened (on 4 last month) Kyatuka’s men dragged the two away even without allowing them to call their families. They were detained illegally for over two weeks. Then somehow a civilian court ordered them released. But scarcely had they stepped out, thinking they were free, when CMI men pounced on them again. They dragged the Rwandans away, put
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red berets on their head, and photographed them, “to claim that we were NUP supporters!” they say. But after some time in CMI detention, their abductors changed their story, to claims that “Renatus Murindangabo and Shadrack Mugisha had put on military attire (hats) contrary to the law!” That was supposed to be the charge until, thankfully for them, Ugandan authorities decided to release them and dump them at the border. All these acts against innocent Rwandans just show that Uganda is not interested in acting lawfully, even when agreements like the Luanda MoU have been signed to stop such acts, an observer of security trends said. “The fact Ugandan security organs continue to work with RNC, though by agreement Uganda should dismantle it and all other anti-Rwanda negative forces on its territory tells everything about Kampala’s attitude,” he concluded.
Museveni’s politics of the stomach are not the right foundation to build the East African Federation By Alex Muhumuza Much has been said about the EAC integration but President Museveni’s address to the nation on the 14th of March highlighted again his lack of ideological clarity which has been impending Nyerere’s dream of an East African Federation. There is clearly an ideological divide between those who consider that prosperous trade is only a logical consequence of good neighbourliness and those, like Museveni, who consider that “trade” takes precedence over any other consideration, including good neighbourliness and the safety of the people of East Africa. Those who favour good neighbourliness think that State relations should be built upon the solid foundation of African values of Ubuntu; those who think trade comes before people are trying to promote inhumane capitalistic values that purport that business
Ugandan President Museveni has shown very little interest in good neighborliness with Rwanda.
should go as usual at all times, even in the midst of terror. To prove his credentials as a
visionary leader, Museveni invoked history during his speech. “In 1986, Kenya was exporting to Uganda $ 200M
worth of goods. Uganda exports were worth only $ 12M and
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Issue no 029 March 2021
>> From page 5 people were telling me to close the border,” he said. Museveni added that he decided, at the time, not to interfere with trade despite tensions with Arap Moi’s Kenya. Then, unsurprisingly, Museveni proceeded to disparage those who were advocating for closing borders as lacking “ideological clarity,” a veiled jab at Rwanda’s decision to take economic sanctions in response to his destabilization schemes, including the Uganda’s open support of the RNC and its harassment of Rwandans in Uganda. But Museveni’s anger over Uganda’s financial woes is misplaced and his memory is failing him. If he wasn’t selective with history, often distorting it, he would know some things. For instance, his alliance with Rwanda’s negative forces date back to 1998 when he recruited Seth Sendashonga before leading him to death in Nairobi following his meeting with Salim Saleh aimed at forming an armed rebellion against Rwanda, as the French historian, Gerald Prunier, revealed. More recently, in a twitter exchange, the current Executive Director of UNAIDS Winnie Byanima reasserted the accusations she made in 2001 that Museveni was supporting FDRL terror group in its bid to destabi-
lize the Rwandan government. Back then, Byanyima’s allegations led her to prison. But Byanyima’s allegations were later confirmed in 2006 showing that that FDLR commanders such as Ignace Murwanashyaka, Hyacinth Rafiki and Major Wallace Nsengiyumva were mysteriously in possession of Ugandan travel documents. Despite these revelations, Museveni stubbornly continued to undermine the government of Rwanda by facilitating the exfiltration through Uganda of his recruited agents who were then facing treason charges in Rwanda, like Patrick Karegeya and Kayumba Nyamwasa, in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
say these borders are nonsense. What is more nonsense is what you do to your neighbour that creates that barrier,” President Kagame said, in January 2020, as he addressed the “boarder issue”.
For more than 20 years, Rwanda displayed patience in handling this hostile attitude from Uganda and refrained from any retaliatory measures because good neighbourliness was paramount. But if trading with a hostile neighbour is President Museveni’s standard for “ideological clarity”, then Rwanda’s leadership went beyond any expectations that Museveni could have had on that measure, which might be the reason he abused Rwanda’s patience. Ultimately, Rwanda’s values of Ubuntu were always meant to clash with Museveni’s capitalistic preoccupations that also don’t seem to make much sense.
“If my neighbour tells me: ‘If I find you in my home compound, I will do something to you,’ what that results into is you are now creating a border, a line between your home and mine by just that statement” President Kagame added, alluding to the inhumane treatment faced by Rwandan nationals in Uganda.
“You can’t hunt down your neighbours and then you go back and
For President Kagame, and certainly for the families of Rwandan victims of abduction and torture at the hands of Ugandan intelligence services, opening borders is not just an administrative act, but one whose profound meaning is shown by how neighbours treat each other. Whether humanly in the tradition of Ubuntu or inhumanly, the CMI way.
In other words, Uganda effectively closed borders with Rwanda long before Rwanda responded to the hostile measure. And since Museveni’s only concern was to “work for the stomach and the pocket” as he reminded his audience during his speech, Rwanda rightly prescribed a diet as a treatment for the politics of the stomach: It’s attempting to revive the politics of Ubuntu. This
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is the ideological clarity that is eluding President Museveni. Indeed, if he still had clarity, he would know these facts. First, good neighborliness is a prerequisite to the East African Federation project that he seems so preoccupied with while at the same time sabotaging it with poor neighborliness of destabilization. As such Museveni should grant protection to citizens of neighboring countries and stop “accidentally” meeting with members of terror groups to offer his support for the regime change dreams he entertains. Second, trade as a consequence of good neighborliness must be beneficial to all parties involved, not just Museveni and his close associates and family members. Third, Rwandans would be thankful if the next time President Museveni refers to the issue of the genocide against the Tutsi, it would be to order the extradition the 277 genocide fugitives roaming free in Uganda. Fourth, if the politics of the stomach leads people into associating themselves with remnants of genocidal forces, it should be a wake-up call for Uganda and the region as a whole that we need a better foundation – of values – to achieve Nyerere’s dream. This is, in part, what ideological clarity means to Rwandans for whom the stomach isn’t enough aspiration.
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