FDLR, UPDF officials to meet in Kampala

By James Munyaneza
Thursday, 06 April 2006

The leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDRL) Ignace Murwanashyaka has arrived in Kampala, Uganda from his base in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a meeting with top Ugandan military officials, intelligence sources have said. Impeccable intelligence sources in Rwanda told The New Times on Thursday, April 6, that Murwanashyaka who holds a Ugandan passport,
FDLR CHIEF: Ignace Murwanashyaka

last week started his journey from Rubero through Masisi in Northern Kivu province in the DRC before crossing to Uganda through the border post of Buramba on April 4.
The military intelligence source said the meeting is to take place sometime between April 8 and 14.
The source said Murwanashyaka, whose travel to Kampala constitutes a violation of last year’s travel ban slapped on him by the UN Security Council, was escorted to the border by FLDR’s 1st Division Second in Command, one Lieutenant Colonel Karume in the company of 60 rebels.
The source added that Murwanashyaka’s movements started from Rubero, through Masisi, Kirama forest, Buramba in Binja collectivity and to Kihihi, Kanungu in Uganda on the night of April 4.
Kihihi falls in the constituency of Uganda’s Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi.
Intelligence reports further indicate that upon arriving at Buramba, Murwanashyaka was received by one, Pastor Hirwa, a Congolese who took him to his residence in Kihihi where he spent the night.
An FDLR activist, Pastor Nshamihigo, who lives in Europe, is said to have connected Murwanashyaka to Pastor Hirwa.
According to intelligence reports, Murwanashyaka left for Kampala from Kihihi on April 5, where he arrived on the same day and was received by senior Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officials.
The source said the FDLR chief joined other rebel officials staying in Kampala like Colonel Ntibiragaba alias Omar Ba and Major Mpiranyi alias James Kakure. Mpiranyi was the commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion during late Juvenal Habyarimana’s regime.
Mpiranyi and Ntibiragaba are both wanted by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, to answer charges related to the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
Other FDLR officials the source cited include Major Wellars Nsengiyumva, also known as Peter Kabasha and Hyacinth Rafiki. Rafiki uses the names of John Muhire in his Ugandan passport while Nsengiyumva identifies himself as Patrick Bahati, the name that is inscribed in his Ugandan passport.
However, the source was reluctant to mention the Ugandan military officials that received Murwanashyaka upon his arrival in Kampala, and the scheduled venue of the upcoming FDLR-UPDF meeting.
News of the meet comes at the time when the shaky Rwanda-Uganda relations are being threatened by Saturday’s arrest and humiliation of Rwanda’s First Secretary at the Kampala embassy, John Ngarambe, by Ugandan security operatives.
Earlier this year, Rwandan intelligence officials said Murwanashyaka was using Uganda as his base to coordinate rebel activities in the DRC.
When contacted however, President Paul Kagame’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region, Ambassador Richard Sezibera, denied having knowledge of the intelligence reports.
“I have not heard such information; I wouldn’t want to speculate,” he told The New Times on Thursday.
It was not impossible to talk to UPDF Spokesman Major Felix Kulaigye, as his phone was unaccesible by press time.
But Ugandan Ambassador to Rwanda Richard Tumusime Kabonero refuted the allegations saying: “There is no way Ugandan military officials can meet Rwanda’s rebels.”
Kabonero said if the information is true, Rwanda should seek redress through the existing intelligence fusion centre based in Kisangani, DRC. “Have they brought the issue to the attention of the centre members?” he asked of the centre that is reportedly comprised of Rwandans, Ugandans, Congolese and Americans.
Murwanashyaka is alleged to have masterminded FDLR’s rejection of its own declaration on March 30, 2005 to drop an armed struggle against Kigali.
FDLR is a rebel group led mostly by Hutu extremists who are accused of participating in the 1994 Genocide, which claimed an estimated one million ethnic Tutsi and Hutu moderates.
The reports of a planned FDLR meeting in Kampala come as Rwandans are commemorating the twelveth anniversary of the Genocide.


TOP: Major Werralse Nsengiyumva aka Patrick bahati


BELOW: Major Mpiranyi aka James kakure