Virunga Post e-Paper —Issue 031

Your source for credible news Issue no 031

SPECIAL EDITION

THE ROLE OF

MUSEVENI

IN DESTABILISING RWANDA

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Part 11: : Museveni, a recurring theme in Part trials of captured Rwandan terrorists On page 366 of that book, one reads: “While Tanzania had agreed to provide training camps, he hoped to get support from the only decisive and progressive force in the region, Museveni’s Uganda.

He requested me to help him enter discussions with Kampala and I arranged the necessary contacts. On Sunday, 3 May 1998, there was a meeting in Nairobi between him and Salim Saleh, President Museveni’s brother. The climate between Kampala and Kigali was not at its best, and Salim was sufficiently open to the idea of supporting a new moderate force for it to have a chance of seeing the light of day.”

Seth Sendashonga the partner of Ugandan President Museveni and his brother Saleh in “regime-change”schemes against the legitimate Rwandan administration.

This is part one in a series of eight stories around Museveni’s scheme to destabilize Rwanda that began with the recruitment of Seth Sendashonga in 1998 and has continued to this day as official policy of his government.

The stories revolve around the key actors who have appeared in Rwandan courts, after being captured and tried, and whose testimonies have Museveni’s as the common denominator in efforts to destabilize Rwanda.

“About 600 men and 40 officers of the ex-FAR (former Habyarimana Rwandese armed forces) were united behind him (Seth Sendashonga). They were ready to follow him as they could no longer stand neither the Kagame regime in Kigali nor their competitors in ALIR (Army for the Liberation of Rwanda; French: Armée pour la Libération du Rwanda), both representing in their eyes the opposing but symmetrical forms of violent racism.”

Part1: Museveni sends Saleh to meet with Sendashonga to plan rebellion

Prunier didn’t bother to explain how these supposedly moderate elements within the ex-FAR who didn’t oppose their colleagues in the army as the genocide against the Tutsi was being executed and never attempted to join RPA ranks to mark their opposition to the genocide but instead chose to fight the new government had suddenly become the moderate choice. Clearly, he didn’t bother to explain because he couldn’t make it make sense and his main concern was to defend the choice he made to facilitate Sendashonga in his criminal endeavours.

When Rwanda’s former interior minister, Seth Sendashonga, embarked on rebellion after his dismissal from Cabinet in August 1995, he promoted himself as a moderate fighting an extremist Tutsi-led government. Museveni and his brother, Salim Saleh, jumped at the opportunity to support this regime-change project led by genocidal forces.

As recalled by Gerard Prunier (a well-known French intelligence agent) himself a self-declared key co-sponsor of the project, Sendashonga chose his fighters from among the forces based in Zaire refugee camps.

On page 366 of Prunier’s book, “Africa’s World War, one reads:

In the same “Africa’s World War”, Prunier confessed to having organized the necessary contacts to facilitate a meeting between Seth Sendashonga and Museveni’s brother, Salim Saleh.

As noted above, the ridiculousness of claiming that Sendashonga and his group of fighters, recruited among the genocidal forces, represented the moderate force that was supposed to take over power in Kigali under the patronage of Museveni seems to have completely escaped Prunier. The apparent naivety of Prunier and Sendashonga is even more risible. The “progressive force in the region” has been condemned by the International

Court of Justice to pay 10 billion US dollars for looting its neighbour, the DRC. Museveni’s hostility to Rwanda stems from the fact that his greed was met with a fierce resistance by the current leadership, hence the reason as to why “the climate between Kampala and Kigali was not at its best.”

Indeed, reliable sources have disclosed that “when the RPF came to power in 1994, Museveni and his inner circle thought that they had won another play-ground to add to the one that was already in their possession. Museveni wanted to dictate who should be in Rwanda’s cabinet and his relatives descended on Kigali to take up procurement tenders in the same way they had done and continue to do in Uganda.”

If this is the progressive government in the region then it’s no wonder that the region is struggling to enjoy peace and development, at least, to the standards it ought to aspire. Neither is it surprising that in this upside-down worldview, genocidal forces have been used by the “progressive force in the region” to attempt to deliver a “moderate” government in Rwanda.

Salim Saleh

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Part 2 : FDLR Trial – Court told of MusevePart2: ni’s efforts to form anti-Rwanda alliances The trial of the two high-ranking former officials of the FDLR terror organisation, Ignace Nkaka, best known as La Forge Fils Bazeyi, and Lt Col Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo alias Theophile Kamara Abega, the outfit’s head of military intelligence, brought to light damning details implicating the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, in bringing together all anti-Rwanda elements in a bid to create a force that could attack Rwanda.

The duo was arrested on 15 December 2018 at Bunagana border post as they returned to DR Congo from a meeting in Kampala. They were later handed over to Rwanda and their trial is underway in the High Court Chamber for International and Cross-Border Crimes.

Although the trial is continuing, the two former militia leaders have already revealed to court details of their meeting in Kampala and Museveni’s involvement.

Testimonies While appearing before court, Bazeye and Abega told judges how the whole journey from DR Congo jungles to Kampala Serena Hotel went, what the mission was, and the Ugandan government officials who attended, representing Museveni.

Abega told the court that he was instructed by his commanders to travel to Kampala in December 2018 and that their mission was to agree to any arrangement that Kampala proposed to them.

to collaborate and launch a joint attack to topple the Rwandan government.

“When the meeting ended, Mateke told us that he was going to communicate the outcome of the meeting to Museveni and from there bigger meetings would be arranged,” Bazeye testified.

After the meeting, Bazeye and Abega immediately proceeded back to Congo via Bunagana and upon reaching the border, they were arrested by the Congolese army.

Ugandan regional cooperation minister Philemon Mateke and Museveni’s schemes to coordinate the activities of anti-Rwanda terrorist groups were thoroughly exposed by captured FDLR big fish Abega Kamara and LaForge Fils Bazeye

proposals they would give us.

The following morning, we travelled to Kisoro and we were received by a man called Tito Gisesa who is an FDLR liaison person in Kampala. He drove us to Umubano Hotel in Kisoro town.

We were later informed that the hotel belongs to Minister Mateke,” Abega testified.

That same night, they drove straight to Kampala with Gisesa, arriving there in the morning of 15th December 2018. In Kampala, they were picked up by Minis-

ter Mateke who took them to the meeting venue – Serena Hotel.

In his testimony, Bazeye specified that as they drove to Serena hotel, Mateke asked them, “Are you ready and willing to work with Tutsis?” Their answer was “yes”.

The Minister then said, “Good, I have a message for you from President Museveni.”

Bazeye and Abega testified that during the meeting, Mateke seemed excited by the fact that both FDLR and RNC had agreed

It is not the first time Museveni has openly worked with the FDLR terror outfit that committed genocide in Rwanda in 1994 before escaping to DRC forests.

Back in 2006, then FDLR president, Ignace Murwanashyaka travelled to Kampala with a six-man delegation, using Ugandan passports and held several meetings with top Ugandan military and intelligence officials.

Museveni’s name has been invoked in several court trials including that of FLN, RUD Urunana, and the RNC suspects.

In fact, the final report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, submitted to the President of United Nations Security Council on 7 June 2019 under a reference number, S/2019/469 pinned the Ugandan government for supporting the FDLR and RNC as subversive groups destabilizing Rwanda.

The Kampala meeting, according to Abega, was chaired by Uganda’s regional cooperation minister, Philemon Mateke, who informed them that he was representing Museveni. The meeting was attended by Frank Ntwari and one Rashid who represented Kayumba Nyamwasa of the RNC terror organisation.

“On 13th December 2018, Maj Gen Omega summoned us and told us that we were going to travel to Kampala to meet with RNC officials. He told us that we must listen and agree to all

The duo is currently facing several court charges, including terrorism, formation of a terrorist group, treason, belonging to an illegal armed group, killing people, and looting among others.

Captured FDLR big fish Abega Kamara and LaForge Fils Bazeye

The experts, including David Zounmenou, Nelson Alusala, Jane Lewis, Virginie Monchy and Bart Vanthomme, confirmed having met with FDLR leaders who received support and facilitation from Museveni’s government to meet RNC to agree on joint action against Rwanda.

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Part 3:3 : Callixte Nsabimana, alias Sankara, exposes Part Museveni’s hand in Nyungwe, Nyabimata, terror attacks several Youtube-based outlets was indeed his.

In the ongoing MRCD-FLN trial involving 21 defendants, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been named among those that supported the 2018 and 2019 terrorist attacks in Nyungwe and Nyabimata, which killed at least eight people and injured several others. Among those defendants is Callixte Nsabimana, aka Sankara, who was the spokesperson of MRCD-FNL and has since exposed before court the role of Ugandan intelligence, acting under Museveni’s direct orders, in facilitating, financing and supporting anti-Rwanda armed elements.

The FLN is the armed wing of MRCD, a coalition led by Paul Rusesabagina (also on trial alongside Nsabimana) and financed through deceitful fundraising on behalf of the Rusesabagina Foundation. Links between Rusesabagina’s Foun dation and Museveni were further exposed in a propaganda campaign that failed to yield any fruit.

In his initial testimony before Gasabo Primary Court in May 2019, Nsabimana told judges how UPDF’s Capt Sunday Charles set up a meeting between FLN and the head of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military

The intelligence services of Ugandan president Museveni were exposed to be working with Rusesabagina’s FLN when the latter group’s Callixte Nsabimana (pictured) spilled the beans after arrest in 2019.

Intelligence (CMI), Maj Gen Abel Kandiho.

“When the meeting was confirmed, a decision was made to send one of FLN members Barnabe Sinayobye and another officer. When they got to Uganda, Kandiho was not available due to other commitments but he sent a Colonel who I learnt works in external intelligence to represent him,” Nsabimana told the court.

The meeting between his team and Uganda’s CMI, according to Nsabimana, centered on FLN’s appeal for Uganda’s military and diplomatic support.

“In our meeting, we asked for their military and diplomatic support and we received a positive answer. By the time of my arrest last month (April 2019), we were planning to go back to Uganda to finalise the deal,” he said.

Terror mastermind Paul Rusesabagina in one of his court appearances.

Both CMI’s Maj.Gen Kandiho and Capt Sunday are also implicated in the report by the UN Group of Experts, which showed that Uganda was facilitating Rwandan dissidents to destabilise the country. The UN report also said the rebel outfits were actively recruiting from Uganda.

Nsabimana’s court testimony indicates that Uganda had promised to provide more powerful weapons to support the FLN to overthrow the government in Rwanda.

Nsabimana’s confessions have been consistent throughout the trial and confirms Museveni’s continued efforts to destabilise Rwanda, including bankrolling genocidal and other terror groups such as the FDLR and the RNC. Nsabimana himself recruited 30 people from Uganda and sent them to DR Congo for military training. This is also further corroborated by the report of UN Group of Experts, which cited Uganda for facilitating the recruitment drive for anti-Rwanda terror outfits.

In his trial, Nsabimana faces 16 counts including terrorism, murder, kidnapping, genocide denial, arson, armed robbery, forgery, and causing bodily harm.

Prior to his arrest, he had since 2018 been promoting the activities of his terror outfit through international media such as the VOA and BBC in his capacity as the FLN terrorist group spokesperson. In court, he admitted that the voice heard on radio and in

His revelations about Uganda’s support to armed groups hostile to Rwanda corroborate the accounts of two former senior commanders of the FDLR, a genocidal terrorist armed group many of whose members were involved in perpetrating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, as noted by a UN Group of Expert report released in December last year. The two FDLR officers – Ignace Nkaka, the outfit’s chief spokesperson, and Lt Col Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo, its head of the military intelligence – were arrested at the DR Congo border on their way from Kampala where they had gone to attend a meeting of armed groups with a view to form a common front to destabilise Rwanda.

According to the two men, the meeting in Kampala was chaired by the Ugandan State Minister for Regional Affairs Philemon Mateke. They said it was also attended by a delegation of another anti-Kigali outfit, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), among others.

With the support of Uganda and Burundi, FLN conducted attacks on Rwandan territory in Nyabimata, Nyaruguru District, in June 2018 and in Nyungwe, Nyamagabe District, in December 2018 claiming eight civilian lives, looted property, and burnt cars.

Nsabimana claimed responsibility for the attacks on behalf of FLN. The public learnt much of the details of the terror group’s activities during the trial of Nsabimana, who has pleaded guilty.

He told court that; “We had ordered the FLN to blow up bridges, raid police installations and military bases and both sector and district offices in their vicinity.”

The FLN trial involving Nsabimana is still underway at the High Court Special Chamber for International and Cross-border Crimes.

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Part 4: 4 : RNC Trial – Suspects implicate MuPart seveni in anti-Rwanda rebel recruitment The trial of rtd Major Habib Mudathiru unearthed damning revelations of how Ugandan President Museveni, working through dissident Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro and renegade cashiered Lt Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, has been facilitating recruitment and arming anti-Rwanda militia and terrorist groups, including RNC.

High Court.

In his court testimony Mudathiru revealed how he was recruited in Uganda, the role of Museveni in his recruitment and the facilitation he got. Mudathiru. who stood trial along with 30 other RNC combatants, has since pleaded guilty to the charges of terrorism, joining a criminal group, conspiracy against an established government or the President of the Republic, as well as maintaining relations with a foreign government with the intention of waging war on Rwanda. He was in March this year handed a 25-year sentence by Military

During the hearing, prosecutors presented evidence based on statements by the suspects who spoke openly about the role of the Ugandan authorities in supporting the P5 umbrella terror organisation whose mission is to overthrow the Rwandan government.

The convicts were captured in the DR Congo jungles by FARDC in December 2019 and handed over to Rwanda. A majority of them were recruited from Uganda and transported to DRC where they were given military training with a view to launch an attack on Rwanda.

The P5 umbrella group is a coalition of anti-Rwanda terror groups, including Nyamwasa’s RNC to which Mudathiru belonged before his capture in the DRC jungles.

The military prosecutor Maj Denis

Dissident Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro

Ruyonza told court that it is important to take note of the role of the government of Uganda and its leader which the suspects had firmly said supported their activities by facilitating their recruitment efforts, movement, military training and arming them. “When you read the suspects’ written statements, one thing keeps coming up, the support by the Ugandan government. The court must carefully examine the active role of Ugandan authorities and security agencies in supporting this group. From facilitating their recruitment to protecting people under the guise of protecting refugees and facilitating their smooth movement from one location to another, as was the case of Mudathiru and late Capt Sibo Charles,” the prosecutors said.

Maj (Rtd) Habib Mudathir

Military prosecutors said Uganda’s military intelligence agency,

the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), working on the direct orders of President Museveni, had facilitated the movement of Mudathiru and the late Sibo, first from a protection camp in the north-western district of Arua, to Mbarara from CMI were facilitated them to cross over to Tanzania and then Burundi.

Court heard that a one Capt Johnson of CMI oversaw the transfer of the two men from Arua where they were allegedly living in a refugee protection camp to the western town of Mbarara from where they connected to Tanzania and using fake documents provided by Capt Johnson, crossed into Burundi in 2017. Also mentioned was Richard Mateeka, son of Ugandan retired General Mateeka.

Continue to Page 5 >>

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>> from page 4 During the court hearing, prosecutors said that the involvement of Ugandan top authorities and security agencies in the creation and facilitating of P5, whose activities and presence in DRC was documented by the United Nations Group of Experts, is in no doubt.

“It did not stop at facilitating recruitment. As we heard, this group contains three Ugandans, namely Sulaiman Lubwama, Joseph Katwerere and Deziderio Fred, who have confessed to joining the group with the promise that they would overthrow the government of Rwanda,” prosecutors told the court.

“They all agree on one thing, that the Government of Uganda and Rwandans living in Uganda who are members of P5 had promised them support to overthrow the Rwandan government through an armed struggle,” the prosecutor added.

Mudathiru speaks out In his submission to the court, Mudathiru admitted that the content of the prosecution’s court submission was indeed from him.

He provided further details on how he was assisted by Ugandan security personnel to acquire refugee status, which then allowed him to travel freely in Uganda recruiting would-be combatants before they eventually crossed into DR Congo for combat.

He detailed how top Ugandan generals used refugee camps, mainly in Arua where Mudathiru was harboured, and Nakivale – a major recruitment area, as places for offering protection to anti-Rwanda elements.

In 2014, Mudathiru further testified, he met with another Rwandan dissident, a one Major Robert Higiro, who showcased to him how he could be useful in the RNC military wing. Higiro asked Mudathiru to assist them in finding other retired RDF soldiers for the RNC military wing.

Mudathiru testified that in 2016 he met Ben Rutabana (a senior RNC civilian official who has since disappeared in Uganda in a suspected RNC purge of its

Kayumba Nyamwasa

dissident members), who gave him more details about the RNC. Rutabana told Mudathiru that the RNC military wing would be established in DR Congo in a place called Bijabo. He added that some people that were part of the group had already reached the place. Among these were a one staff sergeant Kanyerera aka Kanyankore, one private Jean Bosco Ruhinda (a deserter from the RDF), a one sgt Alex Karemera, and a one sgt Butera.

Later in 2017, Mudathiru and captain Charles Sibo left Arua camp and went to Kampala where they met with one Felix Mwizerwa and Richard Mateeka – son of General Mateeka of the Ugandan army. They were later linked to CMI for facilitation.

Mudathiru was facilitated to talk with Nyamwasa on Skype, and the latter shared a number of RNCA plans.

After that, with the help of CMI acting on Museveni’s orders, Mudathiru managed to get Ugandan documents under the name of Patrick Mugume. The late Sibo also got similar documents under the name of “Sam.” It is with these documents that they left Uganda heading to the Minembwe forests in South Kivu where the RNC operated.

Rujugiro-Museveni’s alliance In his court appearance, Mudathiru further spoke at length on what goes on in the Arua Refugee Camp – in Uganda’s West Nile Region that also hosts RNC chief financier Tribert Rujugiro’s tobacco businesses.

As mentioned earlier, in Mudathiru’s testimony, his recruiter, one “Gerald” asked him to register as a refugee in Arua, and he settled in the refugee camp close to Rujugiro’s Meridian Tabaco Company. From there, Mudathiru received funding support from Rujugiro’s company to run recruitment errands around Uganda. It is worth to note that Rujugiro’s companies in Uganda are co-owned by Museveni’s brother Salim Saleh and operate under the protection of President Museveni.

A recent report by Counter Extremism Project, entitled, ‘An Unholy Alliance: Links between Extremism and Illicit Trade in East Africa’ pinned Rujugiro on terrorism financing. According to the report, in the East Africa region, illicit tobacco trade is an especially important source of funding for extremist groups, with Rujugiro at the centre of this.

ing regions, illicit tobacco has been found to fund extremist groups in DR Congo, while also financing corrupt practices throughout the region,” the report reads in part. The report is consistent with Rwanda’s stance that Rujugiro has been using illicit proceeds from his company – Pan African Tobacco Group – to fund Rwanda National Congress (RNC), a terror group that has bases in DR Congo and has vowed to violently overthrow the Rwandan government. It is also consistent with a UN Group of Experts report which revealed that the RNC was responsible for terror attempts and threats in Rwanda and DR Congo. These illegal activities included the creation of an outfit called P5, which for the past couple of years has maintained militia bases in eastern DR Congo.

The UN Group of Experts on DRC report laid out in detail the recruitment, arming and training activities of RNC, one of the terror groups under the P5 umbrella, from bases in parts of eastern DRC. It quoted several “P5” deserters that provided inside information implicating, among others, the governments of Burundi and Uganda in the anti-Rwanda activities.

“In East Africa and its surround-

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Part 55:: Herman Nsengimana’s testimoPart ny highlights Museveni’s support to FLN Nsabimana who later told them to travel to Nakivale refugee camp and recruit more fighters.

Among those who abandoned their quiet lives in Rwanda and fell for Museveni-orchestrated anti-Rwanda schemes is Herman Nsengimana who, prior to his radicalization, was a teacher at GS Rwanamizo in Nyanza District, Rwanda’s Southern Province.

According to the prosecution, Nsengimana confessed that after he had recruited fighters, Nsabimana told him to travel to their DR Congo jungle bases where they would receive military training and from where they would later attack Rwanda. Nsengimana was appointed the terrorist outfit’s mouthpiece earlier last year after his predecessor, Callixte Nsabimana (the very one who asked him to desert his teaching position and travel to Uganda), was apprehended. It is from the DR Congo jungles that Nsengimana was captured and handed over to Rwanda along with 300 other armed fighters.

In one of his appearance before the judges of the High Court’s Special Chamber for International and Cross-border Crimes, Nsengimana revealed how he left Rwanda in 2014 on the request of his co-accused, Callixte Nsabimana who told him to travel to Uganda for further coordination.

Upon arriving in Uganda, Nsengimana was linked to FLN cell members who were already in touch with Museveni’s intelligence. Together, they were receiving direct instructions from

Herman Nsengimana, the former spokesperson of FLN, a terror outfit

Several armed group members who were captured in fighting by the DR Congo army, the FARDC,

and subsequently handed over to Rwanda have attested to Uganda’s involvement in destabilizing Rwanda. Uganda’s destabilization campaign which is instigated by Museveni, involves recruiting, arming, financial support and training. In 2019, the most senior among those brought home was Gatabazi, alias Gatos Avemaria, who was the FLN’s head of military operations.

Callixte Nsabimana alias Sankara.

Part 6: 6 : Court testimony – Museveni behind Part RUD-Urunana terror operations In the ongoing trial of thirty-seven people, including suspected assailants who attacked villages in Kinigi, Musanze District, in October 2019, killing 14 people and injuring many more, the name of the Ugandan ruler Yoweri Museveni is cited in testimonies the suspects gave to military prosecutors.

The substantive trial which opened in the Military High Court on 29th March 2021, has, among the suspects, Kabayija Seleman and Nzabonimpa Fidel, who took part in the attack. Uganda has so far refused to hand over two other suspects who fled on its territory after the murderous attack, namely Gavana (Nshimiye, the commander of the RUD-Urunana attack) and another identified as Mugwaneza Eric.

According to military prosecution, some of the defendants were captured during the attack in Musanze while others were captured by MONUSCO and FARDC in DR Congo during

subsequent military operations against armed groups operating in the country. Congolese authorities later handed them to Rwanda.

Part of their testimonies to the prosecution is Uganda’s involvement in the creation of RUD-Urunana and in the prepa-

ration of attacks on Rwanda, all of which were sanctioned by Museveni.

Exhibits the prosecution is submitting to the judges of the Military High Court include items found at the scene of attack.

These include Gavana’s phone with call records indicating that

RUD Urunana – one of the terrorist proxies of Kampala with intent to destabilize Rwanda.

the attack was coordinated by Philemon Mateke, Uganda’s Minister of State for Regional Affairs who was also acting on Museveni’s orders. Kabayija also testified to Mateke’s involvement and the testimonies will be presented to the court as the trial proceeds.

Among charges the 37 RUD Urunana assaillants face are creating an irregular armed group, terrorism, murder, conspiring with a foreign government to overthrow an elected government, among other charges.

RUD-Urunana, an FDLR-splinter group and the armed wing of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza’s FDU Inkingi, is part of P5, a group composed of militia outfits that jointly operate from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As mentioned before, the P5 is facilitated by some countries, mainly Uganda, whose aim is to destabilise Rwanda and overthrow its elected leadership.

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Part 7: 7 : In the Rusesabagina trial, key witness underlines MusevePart ni’s facilitation of FLN money laundering and recruitment schemes The trial of Paul Rusesabagina, et al, has exposed Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s relentless efforts to destabilize Rwanda through offering a wide range of facilitation to armed groups bent on wreaking terror on Rwanda, including Rusesabagina’s FLN terrorist group.

Rusesabagina is currently on trial alongside 20 other co-accused, all of whom are charged with terrorism, murder as a means of terrorism, financing terrorism, conscription of child soldiers, kidnapping, arson, and forming terror groups, among others. The defendants are accused of committing the crimes under the ambit of MRCD and its military wing, FLN. Rusesabagina was the founding president of MRCD, a coalition of different political groups. It was under his leadership that the group formed a militia group, FLN, which is responsible for making incursions in Rwanda in which several people were killed and properties destroyed. At least nine people were killed during these 2018 incursions.

Among the co-accused is Callixte Nsabimana who served as one of Rusesabagina’s deputy and testified before court how, acting under Rusesabagina’s directives, he reached out to Uganda’s head of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Maj Gen. Abel Kandiho to facilitate them with ammunition and other military resources to use in attacking Rwanda. Nsabimana further testified that Kandiho, who receives his orders directly from Museveni or his brother Gen Salim Saleh, agreed to give them all the necessary facilitation.

them to its DR Congo jungle bases for training. Among those recruited was Herman Nsengimana who replaced Nsabimana as FLN spokesperson after the latter’s arrest.

Rusesabagina’s ties to Museveni Rusesabagina’s lieutenants’ criminal activities in Uganda were facilitated by Museveni and his top military and intelligence brass. In her testimony before the judges, Dr Michelle Martin, an American witness who had volunteered with Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation, revealed how Rusesabagina along with his partner, Providance Rubingisa, ran a pseudo NGO in Uganda called Global Family Rescue which provided a “humanitarian” cover to fund FLN terrorist activities. Dr Martin provided extensive evidence of financial transactions between Rusesabagina’s foundation and the pseudo humanitarian NGO Global Family Rescue.

Moreover, while testifying on 3 April 2008 before the District Judge in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court–as a defence witness for four genocide suspects – Vincent Brown aka Vincent Bajinya, Charles Munya-

neza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Celestin Ugirashebuja – Rusesabagina had himself confirmed his involvement in Global Family Rescue.

Part of the evidence that Dr Martin gave court is Rusesabagina’s recruitment of fighters from Uganda. She also revealed that she has messages detailing how the group wanted to recruit rebels from Rwandan universities to help them start social movements in Rwanda by building cells inside the country, but they were concerned because of they believed there were ‘many spies’ working for the Rwandan government at universities. When this attempt failed, Rusesabagina and Rubingisa tried recruiting from refugee camps, particularly ‘Hutu’ youth in Nakivale camp in Uganda, which they saw as a much safer option. The recruiters included Callixte Nsabimana, Alexis Bakunzibake of PS Imberakuri (the Bernard Ntaganda faction).

This is further corroborated by Nsabimana’s testimony admitting to have recruited 30 people from Uganda and sent them to DRC on Rusesabagina’s orders. Further corroboration has been

provided by a UN Group of Experts report, which cited Uganda for facilitating the recruitment drive for the outfit.

Southern Province attacks led the FLN The attacks by FLN in Southern Province occurred on at least three occasions, the first occasion taking place in Nyabimata Sector, Nyaruguru District, in April 2018, during which people were killed, property burnt and people’s harvest looted. The other attack occurred in Cyitabi Sector in Nyamagabe District and it targeted public passenger service vehicles. The third attack was on three passenger buses where they killed, among others, a 13-year-old child. Overall, the attacks claimed nine lives and resulted in huge material theft or destruction. Rusesabagina appeared in recorded videos, claiming responsibility for the attacks, inciting Rwandans to join the terror outfit and calling for more attacks to “speed up” what he termed the “liberation struggle”. He made similar statements in interviews with BBC Gahuza, Voice of America (VOA) in their Kinyarwanda programs.

Nsabimana further revealed before court how Uganda had backed FLN terror attacks ordered by Rusesabagina in the Southern Province. Those attacks had claimed nine lives, and accounted for many more injured and lots of destroyed property.

However, prior to the terror events that claimed those lives, the FLN had been recruiting fighters in Uganda and taking

Terror suspect Paul Rusesabagina and his FLN were further exposed by witnesses as having links with the Ugandan regime, with Museveni facilitating the group’s money laundering and recruitment schemes.

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Part 8: 8: Part Allying with genocidal forces; a recurrent feature in Museveni’s schemes As the series 1-7 have shown, Museveni’s abiding entanglements with genocidaires and terrorists might have started with the pact Salim Saleh made with Seth Sendashonga in Nairobi, but they have since been institutionalized as part of Museveni’s policy towards Rwanda that has lasted for more than 20 years.

splinter group – RUD Urunana (the armed wing of the same FDU Inkingi of Victoire Ingabire Umihoza) that led a terror attack on Kinigi in Musanze district, northwestern Rwanda, and retreated to Uganda into the welcoming arms of a UPDF detach across the border were under the coordination of Uganda’s state minister for regional cooperation Philemon Mateke.

Mateke also chaired the meeting at Kampala Serena Hotel from which LaForge Fils Bazeye and Nsekanabo were returning when they were nabbed at Bunagana by the DRC army.

In 2001, Winnie Byanyima, the current Executive Director of UNAIDS, accused Museveni of supporting the FDRL terror group in its bid to destabilize the Rwandan government. Byanyima’s allegations were later confirmed in 2006 when news broke out that FDLR commanders such as Ignace Murwanashyaka, Hyacinth Rafiki and Major Wallace Nsengiyumva were mysteriously in possession of Ugandan travel documents.

Furthermore, Rusesagabina’s terror grouping FLN – to which Museveni promised support and which was conducting recruitment in Uganda under CMI’s guidance – was mainly formed

by CNRD fighters. CNRD is another splinter group of the FDRL genocidal militias that had regrouped in former Zaire refugee camps.

Later, Museveni facilitated the exfiltration through Uganda of his recruited agents, Patrick Karegeya and Kayumba Nyamwasa, who were facing treason charges at home. The two renegades formed the RNC which was later pinned by a UN group of experts for running illegal armed groups in DRC bent on destabilizing Rwanda. Lacking in experienced combatants, the RNC recruited from among the remnants of many FDLR splinter groups roaming eastern DRC. The RNC also operates alongside four ‘political’ movements under the P5 umbrella. The P5 itself comprises Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza’s FDU-Inkingi, an organization formed and led by genocide fugitives who have found safe haven in various European countries.

The constant in all these schemes is the use of remnants of genocidal terror groups in the furtherance of Museveni’s agenda for regime-change in Rwanda. Museveni’s inability to achieve his goal of stoking instability within Rwanda, leaves him no other choice than to rely on these dark forces whose achievements in the region, for the past decades, are mass killings, rape and looting.

But for Sendashonga and his partner in the attempt to organise a rebellion against Rwanda, the Museveni government was apparently “the most progressive force” in the region. However, the evidence shows that Museveni has been the most destabilizing force with clear policies of interference through proxies.

In December 2018, FDLR chief spokesperson Ignace Nkaka better known as LaForge Fils Bazeye and Lt Col Jean Pierre Nsekanabo, the terror group’s head of military intelligence, were arrested by the DRC army at the Bunagana border which links Uganda to DRC as they returned from meetings in Kampala with representatives of Museveni who had promised them support.

In March 2020, it was revealed that members of another FDLR

END From top: Museveni, Gen. Saleh, Seth Sendashonga, Kayumba Nyamwasa.

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