Unidentified assailants have killed three Rwandan peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.
Monday's attack is the latest assault on members of Unamid, a joint peacekeeping mission by the UN and the African Union.
More than 20 camouflaged attackers opened fire on the soldiers as they guarded civilian engineers building a Unamid base in the mountainous Jabel Mara area, the peacekeeping force said in a statement.
A Unamid official said on condition of anonymity that three attackers were also killed in the hour-long gun battle that ensued.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has called on Khartoum to arrest the attackers.
Surge in fighting
Aid workers say they have been unable to get access to large parts of eastern Jabel Mara since February, when there was a surge in fighting between Sudanese army forces and rebels.
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The Unamid force, made up of mostly African soldiers and police, took over from a African Union mission. It is still short of its expected strength of 26,000 and is supposed to keep the peace in an area the size of Spain.
A total of 27 Unamid police officers and soldiers have been killed in attacks since the force came to Darfur in 2008, Unamid said.
A Unamid patrol travelling towards Jabel Mara in March was ambushed and held overnight. Five Rwandan peacekeepers were killed in two attacks in Darfur in December.
Violence flared in the mostly desert region in 2003 when rebels demanding more autonomy for the territory launched a revolt against Sudan's government.
Sudanese government troops and allied fighters launched a counter-insurgency campaign which Washington and some activists called genocide.
Khartoum dismisses the accusation and accuses the Western media of exaggerating the conflict.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Toll rises in Congo train crash
Railway staff have worked to lift overturned train carriages in the Republic of Congo in a search for more bodies two days after a train accident killed at least 76 people.
Denis Sassou Nguesso, the Congolese president, travelled to oil hub of Pointe Noire on Wednesday to meet some of those affected by the disaster as a crisis unit reported 700 people injured.
"This morning, the new toll is 76 dead. The bodies are all at the morgue in Pointe Noire," a crisis unit official said.
Amid the stench of rotting bodies and of fish that was being transported on the train that derailed Monday evening, about 100 railway employees cleared the way for a crane to lift eight overturned carriages.
The government issued a provisional toll on Tuesday of 48 dead, with a final tally only possible after all the carriages have been cleared, and announced three days of national mourning starting on Friday.
'Overloaded train'
Witnesses said the crowded train flew off the tracks after hurtling into a bend at full speed near Yanga, about 60km east of the southern coastal city of Pointe Noire.
"First we heard what we thought was a big explosion," Fabrice Malonga, a local on the scene, said.
grim history
Congo-Ocean Railway
Built between 1921 and 1934 by French
At least 17,000 people died building the railway
The line was closed in the late 1990s during the country's civil war
At least 50 people were killed in a 2001 accident
10 died in 2003 accident when a train derailed
In 2007, about 100 people died in an accident
"I saw bodies of children, older people. The carriages were full. We took the wounded to the road to wait for help."
Some of the injured had left Point Noire hospitals by Wednesday but about 160 people remained, Simon Edika, the area's public-relations director, said.
The government has blamed the accident on the colonial-era track on excessive speed.
Joseph Sauveur El Bez, managing director of Chemin de fer Congo-Ocean (CFCO), the railway operator that runs the train, put the crash down to driver error.
But he acknowledged that the high death toll was "because the train was overloaded. There were too many passengers."
"The train was fine. The track was in good condition," he said.
Non-governmental organisation activists demanded an inquiry and accused the government of neglecting the country's infrastructure.
Past deaths
The 510km CFCO line, also known as the Congo-Ocean Railway, is the main link between the capital Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire on the Atlantic and mainly follows the Congo river.
It was built between 1921 and 1934 during French colonial rule and thousands of Africans are said to have died making the railway.
At least 50 people were killed on the same line in 2001, many of them burned to death, when two trains collided at Mvougounti, about 75km east of Pointe Noire.
In August 2007, about 100 people died when a passenger train crashed into a freight train, also at Mvougounti.
The lack of roads and the dysfunctional railway system between the main towns make travel difficult and contribute to the high cost of food and imported goods in Brazzaville and throughout neighbouring land-locked nations.
Chinese engineers started work late last year on a $500m road linking Pointe Noire with Brazzaville, a project that will involve crossing equatorial forests and steep mountains.
Congo, which has long exported millions of barrels of oil but remains mostly poor and suffers from poor infrastructure, is seeking to diversify its economy as oil reserves wind down.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
ATTENTAT CONTRE LE GÉNÉRAL KAYUMBA : 6 SUSPECTS ARRÊTÉS EN AFRIQUE DU SUD
Par RFI
La police sud-africaine a arrêté 6 suspects après la tentative de meurtre contre l'ancien chef d'état-major rwandais, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, devenu critique virulent du régime de son pays. Selon la femme de cet ancien général, il s'agit d'une tentative d'assassinat de la part des autorités rwandaises.
Six suspects ont été arrêtés ces dernières 24 heures dans différents lieux de Johannesburg. Tous sont inculpés pour tentative de meurtre. Ils devraient bientôt comparaître devant un tribunal sud-africain.
La police assure poursuivre maintenant son travail d'enquête. Pour l'instant, les inspecteurs ne souhaitent pas communiquer sur l'origine des suspects ou leurs motifs. D'autres arrestations pourraient survenir dans les prochains jours.
En attendant, le général Kayumba, toujours hospitalisé, a été placé sous protection des forces de l'ordre. Selon ses proches, le président Kagamé souhaite la mort de son ancien chef d'état-major et le gouvernement rwandais pourrait à nouveau tenter de l'éliminer.
A Kigali, la ministre des Affaires étrangères a réagi dimanche en rejetant toute implication dans cette affaire. Le général Kayumba a fui en Afrique du Sud en février dernier, après avoir été accusé d'actes terroristes par les autorités. La police, à Johannesburg, avait alors précisé ne pas avoir arrêté l'ex-militaire, actuellement demandeur d'asile, puisqu'il n'existe pas de traité d'extradition entre l'Afrique du Sud et le Rwanda.
***************************************************
Police have arrested six suspects after an exiled Rwandan general accused of grenade attacks in his homeland was shot in South Africa over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
By LESEGO MOTSHEGWA
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Police have arrested six suspects after an exiled Rwandan general accused of grenade attacks in his homeland was shot in South Africa over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa and his wife were returning to the upscale gated community where they live in northern Johannesburg when a lone gunman fired on him Saturday. Rosette Nyamwasa said her husband was shot in the stomach and would recover.
Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo would not say whether the suspects arrested were Rwandan, nor would he discuss possible motives in what he described as a murder attempt.
Nyamwasa's wife has accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of being behind the shooting, a charge the Rwandan government denies.
"The Government of Rwanda does not condone violence, and we wish the family strength and serenity," said government spokeswoman Louise Mushikiwabo. "We trust in the ability of South African authorities to investigate the incident thoroughly."
Nyamwasa and Kagame were once allied but have fallen out, reportedly because Kagame sees his former military chief as a political rival. Nyamwasa came to South Africa earlier this year.
Rwandan officials have accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilize their government. The Rwandan government says it has linked Nyamwasa to three grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital Feb. 19 that killed one person and wounded 30 others.
South African police said earlier this year they had not arrested Nyamwasa because they do not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda.
Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who wants to challenge Kagame in the Aug. 9 presidential election, said Saturday's shooting was a "planned assassination attempt."
"This incident is a nefarious conspiracy for disruption of peace in Rwanda, a country sinking deeply into a political and military crisis," Ingabire said in a statement. "The lack of political space, the arrest of opposition leaders, lawyers and senior military officers, the use of violence and all kind of intimidation of dissenting voices are obvious signs of a country on the brink of chaos."
Ingabire was arrested in April and charged with promoting a genocidal ideology. She was freed on bail but her passport was seized and she cannot leave Kigali. Critics of Kagame's government argue the ruling party has used the concept of genocide ideology to discredit detractors and defeat political opponents.
Hutu militias killed more than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, ended the killing when he led a Tutsi-dominated force into the country. Critics say his rule since then has been authoritarian but Kagame argues strict measures are necessary to prevent a repeat of the violence.
The U.S. State Department said in a March report on Rwanda that citizens' rights to change their government are "effectively restricted" and cited limits on freedoms of speech, press and judicial independence.
Nyamwasa's shooting is not the first time Rwanda has been accused of attempting to kill or killing a prominent Rwandan exile.
Former Rwandan Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga was killed in May 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya. His widow later testified that she believed Rwanda was behind her husband's killing. She claimed he had been set to testify before the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is trying the suspected masterminds of the genocide.
A Kenyan judge acquitted the three suspects in Sendashonga' s killing, saying the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the crime. The judge went further to say that the Rwandan government's refusal to waive diplomatic immunity for some of its embassy officials suggested that there was a political motive behind the killing.
La police sud-africaine a arrêté 6 suspects après la tentative de meurtre contre l'ancien chef d'état-major rwandais, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, devenu critique virulent du régime de son pays. Selon la femme de cet ancien général, il s'agit d'une tentative d'assassinat de la part des autorités rwandaises.Six suspects ont été arrêtés ces dernières 24 heures dans différents lieux de Johannesburg. Tous sont inculpés pour tentative de meurtre. Ils devraient bientôt comparaître devant un tribunal sud-africain.
La police assure poursuivre maintenant son travail d'enquête. Pour l'instant, les inspecteurs ne souhaitent pas communiquer sur l'origine des suspects ou leurs motifs. D'autres arrestations pourraient survenir dans les prochains jours.
En attendant, le général Kayumba, toujours hospitalisé, a été placé sous protection des forces de l'ordre. Selon ses proches, le président Kagamé souhaite la mort de son ancien chef d'état-major et le gouvernement rwandais pourrait à nouveau tenter de l'éliminer.
A Kigali, la ministre des Affaires étrangères a réagi dimanche en rejetant toute implication dans cette affaire. Le général Kayumba a fui en Afrique du Sud en février dernier, après avoir été accusé d'actes terroristes par les autorités. La police, à Johannesburg, avait alors précisé ne pas avoir arrêté l'ex-militaire, actuellement demandeur d'asile, puisqu'il n'existe pas de traité d'extradition entre l'Afrique du Sud et le Rwanda.
***************************************************
Police have arrested six suspects after an exiled Rwandan general accused of grenade attacks in his homeland was shot in South Africa over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
By LESEGO MOTSHEGWA
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Police have arrested six suspects after an exiled Rwandan general accused of grenade attacks in his homeland was shot in South Africa over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
Lt. General Kayumba Nyamwasa and his wife were returning to the upscale gated community where they live in northern Johannesburg when a lone gunman fired on him Saturday. Rosette Nyamwasa said her husband was shot in the stomach and would recover.
Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo would not say whether the suspects arrested were Rwandan, nor would he discuss possible motives in what he described as a murder attempt.
Nyamwasa's wife has accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of being behind the shooting, a charge the Rwandan government denies.
"The Government of Rwanda does not condone violence, and we wish the family strength and serenity," said government spokeswoman Louise Mushikiwabo. "We trust in the ability of South African authorities to investigate the incident thoroughly."
Nyamwasa and Kagame were once allied but have fallen out, reportedly because Kagame sees his former military chief as a political rival. Nyamwasa came to South Africa earlier this year.
Rwandan officials have accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilize their government. The Rwandan government says it has linked Nyamwasa to three grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital Feb. 19 that killed one person and wounded 30 others.
South African police said earlier this year they had not arrested Nyamwasa because they do not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda.
Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who wants to challenge Kagame in the Aug. 9 presidential election, said Saturday's shooting was a "planned assassination attempt."
"This incident is a nefarious conspiracy for disruption of peace in Rwanda, a country sinking deeply into a political and military crisis," Ingabire said in a statement. "The lack of political space, the arrest of opposition leaders, lawyers and senior military officers, the use of violence and all kind of intimidation of dissenting voices are obvious signs of a country on the brink of chaos."
Ingabire was arrested in April and charged with promoting a genocidal ideology. She was freed on bail but her passport was seized and she cannot leave Kigali. Critics of Kagame's government argue the ruling party has used the concept of genocide ideology to discredit detractors and defeat political opponents.
Hutu militias killed more than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, ended the killing when he led a Tutsi-dominated force into the country. Critics say his rule since then has been authoritarian but Kagame argues strict measures are necessary to prevent a repeat of the violence.
The U.S. State Department said in a March report on Rwanda that citizens' rights to change their government are "effectively restricted" and cited limits on freedoms of speech, press and judicial independence.
Nyamwasa's shooting is not the first time Rwanda has been accused of attempting to kill or killing a prominent Rwandan exile.
Former Rwandan Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga was killed in May 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya. His widow later testified that she believed Rwanda was behind her husband's killing. She claimed he had been set to testify before the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is trying the suspected masterminds of the genocide.
A Kenyan judge acquitted the three suspects in Sendashonga' s killing, saying the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the crime. The judge went further to say that the Rwandan government's refusal to waive diplomatic immunity for some of its embassy officials suggested that there was a political motive behind the killing.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Kagame said he will kill Kayumba, wife alleges
By Emmanuel Mungwarakarama
Posted Monday
Kigali
Ms Rosette Kayumba, wife to renegade military general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, has accused the Rwandan government of trying to assassinate her husband in South Africa, an allegation Kigali vehemently denied yesterday.
Speaking to the BBC hours after Gen. Nyamwasa was shot at their exile home in Johannesburg, Ms Kayumba said: “[Rwandan President Paul Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him.”
She said she believed the lone gunman who waylaid them on returning from a shopping errand at around 1p.m. (midday South African time) was a hired hit man since he never demanded for cash or any valuables and shot until the pistol jammed firing.
Yesterday, Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs minister and government spokesperson, said by phone from Kigali that the allegations are “preposterous”. “This [assassination of opponents] is not something President Kagame does. He’s a man of integrity,” she said.
Mr Kagame, she said, is a leader who “demands accountability from all persons”, Gen. Nyamwasa inclusive - although he chose to flee. “If you want accountability from someone, you don’t kill them; you allow them an opportunity for explanation or to justify their case,” Ms Mushikiwabo said. Gen. Nyamwasa, who until his escape in late February was Rwanda’s ambassador to India, fled to exile, alleging he was being hounded by the government on fabricated charges.
Investigations on
Authorities in Kigali have in the past been guarded about Gen. Nyamwasa’s alleged crime, but minister Mushikiwabo yesterday said the general is being investigated for his “involvement with elements that were involved with the insecurity - throwing of grenades - in Kigali.”
Sixteen people were, in March this year, injured in two almost-simultaneous grenade explosions, one at a car-washing bay and the other at a bus station in a wealthy Kigali suburb.
Earlier, two people died and several others were wounded when a grenade exploded on them on February 19. President Kagame told Daily Monitor in an interview published in May, that Gen. Nyamwasa, a former Chief of Staff of Rwanda’s Defence Forces, had promoted divisions in the army and fled to avoid “accountability”. He said: “People like Kayumba or [ex-Intelligence chief Patrick] Karegeya or others who flee the country will always say whatever they want to say in an attempt to absolve themselves from any responsibility.” “I think for them to escape - already there is a responsibility they are escaping or fleeing from.”
In a rejoinder emailed to this newspaper a week later, Gen. Kayumba denied the accusations levelled against him and instead made several allegations of his own against President Kagame and the Rwanda Patriotic Front government. “President Kagame is not honest when he alleges that we ran away from accountability. [Our] disagreements [are] centred on governance, tolerance, insensitivity, intrigue and betrayal of our colleagues,” he wrote.
Uganda sympathises
And he added: “Accountability should begin from the top; beginning with the President before he demands accountability from his subordinates.” Gen. Nyamwasa, an alumnus of Makerere University and Mbarara High School in Uganda, first enlisted, in 1984, as a member of the then Yoweri Museveni-led successful National Resistance Army military campaign.
He later joined the RPF, led by Mr Kagame, serving it as the military intelligence chief – but all the while maintained close working relation with the UPDF and headed investigations into the Kisangani clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan armies during the 1997-2003 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ugandan military yesterday joined sympathisers from around the world to commiserate with the Nyamwasa family. “Humanly speaking, his shooting is unfortunate,” said Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, the defence and military spokesman. “I believe any person deserves [to enjoy] the right to life unless deprived of it by a court of law. We hope the criminals will be apprehended.”
It is understood that after serving in various senior positions, Gen. Nyamwasa’s relation with President Kagame soured over accusations and counter-accusations of unexplained riches, insubordination and dictatorship.
In 2001, Gen. Kagame fired the general as the military chief and replaced him with his counterpart James Kabarebe. The President, in November 2002, however, warmed up to Gen. Nyamwasa re-deploying him as Head of Security Services and later Rwanda’s ambassador to India until he escaped four months ago, citing threats to his life. The renegade reportedly fled through Uganda and Kenya, stirring diplomatic nightmare among the East African neighbours, before settling in South Africa where he is seeking asylum - that appears likely.
In accounts offered to the British public broadcaster, the BBC, about the Saturday shooting incident, Ms Rosette Nyamwasa said a man they did not know approached as if to speak to them just as they drove in their Johannesburg suburban home.
The account
“[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband,” she said. “Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head... My husband got out immediately... And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn’t cock the gun.”
The Rwandan Foreign Ministry says the charges are “ridiculous and far-fetched” but the general’s wife could have made them either because she is “distraught or upset”. “We feel for the Nyamwasa family,” Ms Mushikiwabo said, “Anyone interested in [knowing the cause and motive of the gun attack] should allow the South African government to investigate and report.”
The minister said Rwandan prosecutors have offered incriminating evidence and she has engaged her South African counterpart to persuade authorities there to arrest and extradite Gen. Nyamwasa. “We hope he recovers soon so that we can pursue that line,” said Ms Mushikiwabo.
By midday yesterday, Rwanda said the only information they had about the shooting of Gen. Nyamwasa was through the media and the South African government was yet to formally notify them.
Posted Monday
Kigali
Ms Rosette Kayumba, wife to renegade military general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, has accused the Rwandan government of trying to assassinate her husband in South Africa, an allegation Kigali vehemently denied yesterday.
Speaking to the BBC hours after Gen. Nyamwasa was shot at their exile home in Johannesburg, Ms Kayumba said: “[Rwandan President Paul Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him.”
She said she believed the lone gunman who waylaid them on returning from a shopping errand at around 1p.m. (midday South African time) was a hired hit man since he never demanded for cash or any valuables and shot until the pistol jammed firing.
Yesterday, Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs minister and government spokesperson, said by phone from Kigali that the allegations are “preposterous”. “This [assassination of opponents] is not something President Kagame does. He’s a man of integrity,” she said.
Mr Kagame, she said, is a leader who “demands accountability from all persons”, Gen. Nyamwasa inclusive - although he chose to flee. “If you want accountability from someone, you don’t kill them; you allow them an opportunity for explanation or to justify their case,” Ms Mushikiwabo said. Gen. Nyamwasa, who until his escape in late February was Rwanda’s ambassador to India, fled to exile, alleging he was being hounded by the government on fabricated charges.
Investigations on
Authorities in Kigali have in the past been guarded about Gen. Nyamwasa’s alleged crime, but minister Mushikiwabo yesterday said the general is being investigated for his “involvement with elements that were involved with the insecurity - throwing of grenades - in Kigali.”
Sixteen people were, in March this year, injured in two almost-simultaneous grenade explosions, one at a car-washing bay and the other at a bus station in a wealthy Kigali suburb.
Earlier, two people died and several others were wounded when a grenade exploded on them on February 19. President Kagame told Daily Monitor in an interview published in May, that Gen. Nyamwasa, a former Chief of Staff of Rwanda’s Defence Forces, had promoted divisions in the army and fled to avoid “accountability”. He said: “People like Kayumba or [ex-Intelligence chief Patrick] Karegeya or others who flee the country will always say whatever they want to say in an attempt to absolve themselves from any responsibility.” “I think for them to escape - already there is a responsibility they are escaping or fleeing from.”
In a rejoinder emailed to this newspaper a week later, Gen. Kayumba denied the accusations levelled against him and instead made several allegations of his own against President Kagame and the Rwanda Patriotic Front government. “President Kagame is not honest when he alleges that we ran away from accountability. [Our] disagreements [are] centred on governance, tolerance, insensitivity, intrigue and betrayal of our colleagues,” he wrote.
Uganda sympathises
And he added: “Accountability should begin from the top; beginning with the President before he demands accountability from his subordinates.” Gen. Nyamwasa, an alumnus of Makerere University and Mbarara High School in Uganda, first enlisted, in 1984, as a member of the then Yoweri Museveni-led successful National Resistance Army military campaign.
He later joined the RPF, led by Mr Kagame, serving it as the military intelligence chief – but all the while maintained close working relation with the UPDF and headed investigations into the Kisangani clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan armies during the 1997-2003 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ugandan military yesterday joined sympathisers from around the world to commiserate with the Nyamwasa family. “Humanly speaking, his shooting is unfortunate,” said Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, the defence and military spokesman. “I believe any person deserves [to enjoy] the right to life unless deprived of it by a court of law. We hope the criminals will be apprehended.”
It is understood that after serving in various senior positions, Gen. Nyamwasa’s relation with President Kagame soured over accusations and counter-accusations of unexplained riches, insubordination and dictatorship.
In 2001, Gen. Kagame fired the general as the military chief and replaced him with his counterpart James Kabarebe. The President, in November 2002, however, warmed up to Gen. Nyamwasa re-deploying him as Head of Security Services and later Rwanda’s ambassador to India until he escaped four months ago, citing threats to his life. The renegade reportedly fled through Uganda and Kenya, stirring diplomatic nightmare among the East African neighbours, before settling in South Africa where he is seeking asylum - that appears likely.
In accounts offered to the British public broadcaster, the BBC, about the Saturday shooting incident, Ms Rosette Nyamwasa said a man they did not know approached as if to speak to them just as they drove in their Johannesburg suburban home.
The account
“[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband,” she said. “Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head... My husband got out immediately... And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn’t cock the gun.”
The Rwandan Foreign Ministry says the charges are “ridiculous and far-fetched” but the general’s wife could have made them either because she is “distraught or upset”. “We feel for the Nyamwasa family,” Ms Mushikiwabo said, “Anyone interested in [knowing the cause and motive of the gun attack] should allow the South African government to investigate and report.”
The minister said Rwandan prosecutors have offered incriminating evidence and she has engaged her South African counterpart to persuade authorities there to arrest and extradite Gen. Nyamwasa. “We hope he recovers soon so that we can pursue that line,” said Ms Mushikiwabo.
By midday yesterday, Rwanda said the only information they had about the shooting of Gen. Nyamwasa was through the media and the South African government was yet to formally notify them.
Kayumba shooting - the inside story
By Emmanuel Mungwarakarama
Posted Monday, June 21 2010 at 00:00
Daily Monitor’s Managing Editor, Daniel K. Kalinaki, who is on holiday in South Africa, was the first journalist to see Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa after he was shot in Johannesburg on Saturday. He chronicles the events before, during, and after the shooting as told to him by eyewitnesses.
Johannesburg
Saturday, June 19 was an ordinary day in the Kayumba household but it would turn out to be a day to remember for the family. Gen. Nyamwasa and his wife Rosette had gone out shopping with their driver. At around midday, they drove back to the apartment block in Melrose Arch, a posh neighbourhood in Johannesburg that has been home for the family since fleeing into exile a couple of months ago.
As in most residential areas in Johannesburg, the apartment block, which has at least 12 other families, has a fence, a gate, and 24-hour guards. When the Kayumbas arrived at the house in their black BMW X3 the guards, who are at the house 24 hours, opened the gate.
Stranger appears
As they drove in, an unidentified man ran behind the car and knocked on the driver’s window. Surprised, the driver stopped and rolled down the window. When the window was halfway down, the man suddenly drew a pistol and fired at Gen. Kayumba, who was in the front passenger seat. The bullet struck Gen. Kayumba in the stomach, just below the lungs.
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Kagame said he will kill Kayumba, wife alleges
The gunman then went round the car to the passenger side where Gen. Kayumba was. As the gunman came around the car, Gen. Kayumba opened the door to confront him and try to disarm him. The general reached for the pistol and tried to wrestle it out of the gunman’s grip. As they fought for the gun, the gunman fired another shot, which glazed Gen. Kayumba’s finger.
With Kayumba rapidly losing strength, the gunman then pulled the trigger again but the pistol jammed. He tried again without success. Gen. Kayumba’s legs gave away and he collapsed in a pool of blood. By this time the driver had come around and also tried to wrestle the gun from the gunman.
An eyewitness who spoke to Daily Monitor said the gunman, speaking in Kiswahili, told the driver to leave him alone, warning that he would kill him if he did not let him be. Seeing that the gun had jammed and the fracas was attracting attention in the area, the gunman then ran back outside, jumped into a waiting car, which then sped off. Throughout all this time, the guards at the apartment block were nowhere to be seen. They would later reappear and claim that they had ducked for their own safety.
Kayumba rushed to hospital
Upstairs in the Kayumba household, the general’s two teenage children were watching television. They were shocked out of their fantasy world when they heard screaming – probably from their mother – and dashed outside to find their father lying in a pool of blood.
With the help of a couple of neighbours, Rosette and her children helped Gen. Kayumba into the car and sped him off to Morningside Clinic, about 10 minutes away, in Sandton, where he was immediately put on a respirator while doctors worked furiously to stop the bleeding.
When this newspaper arrived at the hospital, Gen. Kayumba’s son, Mark, his jacket covered in blood, stood protectively over his father. Moments earlier he’d smashed a glass door in a combination of anger, frustration and, quite possibly, teenage adrenaline. His sister stood next to him, her big eyes starring ahead blankly, as if asking for answers.
Robber or assassin?
As relatives, friends and other Rwandans living in Johannesburg started trickling into the hospital, so did the rumours and the speculation of who might have done it. Johannesburg has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Carjacking and robbery are widespread, as is murder.
Yet the gunman who shot Kayumba did not ask for the keys to the Beemer neither did he take anything. His decision to go round the car and try to shoot Gen. Kayumba again suggests that he was a man with a license – or call it mission – to kill. As expected, many eyes have turned to Rwanda.
In an interview with the BBC, Rosette Nyamwasa accused President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who her husband fell out with, of having a hand in the shooting. “[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him,” she told the BBC. But Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign minister, issued a statement in which she said Mr Kagame’s government “does not condone violence”.
Sources in the South African police, who spoke anonymously in order not to jeopardise an on-going investigation, told Daily Monitor that they are “keeping all options open” on whether it was “an assassination attempt”. By press time yesterday, doctors in Morningside said Gen. Kayumba was in a stable condition, despite the bullet that struck him still being lodged in his body. Doctors will decide later on whether to remove it or not.
It will be several weeks, even months, before an official report is issued over the shooting but according to many visitors to the Morningside Clinic, the bullet that struck Gen. Kayumba was not fired by a robber but by a would-be assassin.
Who is Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa?
•Born in 1960s.
•Obtained a Bachelor’s degree from Makerere University (in 1980s) after taking A-level examinations at Mbarara High School in western Uganda.
He was a resident of Lumumba Hall while at the university.
•In 1984, he joined the National Resistance Army rebel group, then headed by President Museveni, and later the Rwanda Patriotic Army/Front that took over government after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
•Gen. Nyamwasa headed RPF’s military intelligence during its bush days and was later named the army Chief of Staff.
•In 2001, he was sacked as the military chief and replaced with Gen. James Kabarebe. The general was, in November 2002, re-deployed as Head of Security Services.
•A couple of years later, Gen. Nyamwasa was appointed Rwanda’s High Commissioner to India. Early this year, he fled from Kigali during a government retreat in Rubavu.
The Rwandan government immediately stripped him of diplomatic immunity after the defection that stirred suspicion with neighbours.
Compiled by Tabu Butagira from online sources
Posted Monday, June 21 2010 at 00:00
Daily Monitor’s Managing Editor, Daniel K. Kalinaki, who is on holiday in South Africa, was the first journalist to see Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa after he was shot in Johannesburg on Saturday. He chronicles the events before, during, and after the shooting as told to him by eyewitnesses.
Johannesburg
Saturday, June 19 was an ordinary day in the Kayumba household but it would turn out to be a day to remember for the family. Gen. Nyamwasa and his wife Rosette had gone out shopping with their driver. At around midday, they drove back to the apartment block in Melrose Arch, a posh neighbourhood in Johannesburg that has been home for the family since fleeing into exile a couple of months ago.
As in most residential areas in Johannesburg, the apartment block, which has at least 12 other families, has a fence, a gate, and 24-hour guards. When the Kayumbas arrived at the house in their black BMW X3 the guards, who are at the house 24 hours, opened the gate.
Stranger appears
As they drove in, an unidentified man ran behind the car and knocked on the driver’s window. Surprised, the driver stopped and rolled down the window. When the window was halfway down, the man suddenly drew a pistol and fired at Gen. Kayumba, who was in the front passenger seat. The bullet struck Gen. Kayumba in the stomach, just below the lungs.
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Kagame said he will kill Kayumba, wife alleges
The gunman then went round the car to the passenger side where Gen. Kayumba was. As the gunman came around the car, Gen. Kayumba opened the door to confront him and try to disarm him. The general reached for the pistol and tried to wrestle it out of the gunman’s grip. As they fought for the gun, the gunman fired another shot, which glazed Gen. Kayumba’s finger.
With Kayumba rapidly losing strength, the gunman then pulled the trigger again but the pistol jammed. He tried again without success. Gen. Kayumba’s legs gave away and he collapsed in a pool of blood. By this time the driver had come around and also tried to wrestle the gun from the gunman.
An eyewitness who spoke to Daily Monitor said the gunman, speaking in Kiswahili, told the driver to leave him alone, warning that he would kill him if he did not let him be. Seeing that the gun had jammed and the fracas was attracting attention in the area, the gunman then ran back outside, jumped into a waiting car, which then sped off. Throughout all this time, the guards at the apartment block were nowhere to be seen. They would later reappear and claim that they had ducked for their own safety.
Kayumba rushed to hospital
Upstairs in the Kayumba household, the general’s two teenage children were watching television. They were shocked out of their fantasy world when they heard screaming – probably from their mother – and dashed outside to find their father lying in a pool of blood.
With the help of a couple of neighbours, Rosette and her children helped Gen. Kayumba into the car and sped him off to Morningside Clinic, about 10 minutes away, in Sandton, where he was immediately put on a respirator while doctors worked furiously to stop the bleeding.
When this newspaper arrived at the hospital, Gen. Kayumba’s son, Mark, his jacket covered in blood, stood protectively over his father. Moments earlier he’d smashed a glass door in a combination of anger, frustration and, quite possibly, teenage adrenaline. His sister stood next to him, her big eyes starring ahead blankly, as if asking for answers.
Robber or assassin?
As relatives, friends and other Rwandans living in Johannesburg started trickling into the hospital, so did the rumours and the speculation of who might have done it. Johannesburg has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Carjacking and robbery are widespread, as is murder.
Yet the gunman who shot Kayumba did not ask for the keys to the Beemer neither did he take anything. His decision to go round the car and try to shoot Gen. Kayumba again suggests that he was a man with a license – or call it mission – to kill. As expected, many eyes have turned to Rwanda.
In an interview with the BBC, Rosette Nyamwasa accused President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who her husband fell out with, of having a hand in the shooting. “[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him,” she told the BBC. But Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign minister, issued a statement in which she said Mr Kagame’s government “does not condone violence”.
Sources in the South African police, who spoke anonymously in order not to jeopardise an on-going investigation, told Daily Monitor that they are “keeping all options open” on whether it was “an assassination attempt”. By press time yesterday, doctors in Morningside said Gen. Kayumba was in a stable condition, despite the bullet that struck him still being lodged in his body. Doctors will decide later on whether to remove it or not.
It will be several weeks, even months, before an official report is issued over the shooting but according to many visitors to the Morningside Clinic, the bullet that struck Gen. Kayumba was not fired by a robber but by a would-be assassin.
Who is Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa?
•Born in 1960s.
•Obtained a Bachelor’s degree from Makerere University (in 1980s) after taking A-level examinations at Mbarara High School in western Uganda.
He was a resident of Lumumba Hall while at the university.
•In 1984, he joined the National Resistance Army rebel group, then headed by President Museveni, and later the Rwanda Patriotic Army/Front that took over government after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
•Gen. Nyamwasa headed RPF’s military intelligence during its bush days and was later named the army Chief of Staff.
•In 2001, he was sacked as the military chief and replaced with Gen. James Kabarebe. The general was, in November 2002, re-deployed as Head of Security Services.
•A couple of years later, Gen. Nyamwasa was appointed Rwanda’s High Commissioner to India. Early this year, he fled from Kigali during a government retreat in Rubavu.
The Rwandan government immediately stripped him of diplomatic immunity after the defection that stirred suspicion with neighbours.
Compiled by Tabu Butagira from online sources
Rwanda denies shooting exiled army chief in S Africa
By Emmanuel Mungwarakarama
Rwanda has said it was not behind the shooting of an exiled former military chief of staff in South Africa.
Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a critic of Rwanda's president, is recovering in hospital after being shot outside his Johannesburg home.
His wife said it was an assassination attempt as the lone gunman had made no demand for money or goods.
But Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told the BBC the government did not condone violence.
Sources close to Lt Gen Nyamwasa told the BBC on Sunday that he was recovering and should be able to leave hospital in a few days.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says that since leaving Kigali in February, Lt Gen Nyamwasa had been a thorn in the flesh of President Paul Kagame, whom he accuses of corruption.
Official denial
The Nyamwasas had been returning from a shopping trip at around midday on Saturday (1000 GMT) when the gunman approached their car.
Continue reading the main story
[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband
Rosette Nyamwasa
Division in Rwanda's military ranks
"[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband," Rosette Nyamwasa told the BBC.
"Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head.
"My husband got out immediately.
"And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn't cock the gun."
She added that Mr Kagame wanted her husband dead.
"[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him," she said.
But Rwanda's foreign minister told the BBC in statement that Mr Kagame's government "does not condone violence" and said she trusted South Africa to investigate the shooting thoroughly.
Later in an interview with the BBC, Ms Mushikiwabo said there was evidence that Lt Gen Nyamwasa was responsible for a campaign of violence in Rwanda.
"I'll not speculate much more, as this is a case that has yet to be prosecuted, but there are very serious charges against him on his links with networks that have been planting grenades in the country since the beginning of the year," she told the BBC's Newshour programme.
Lt Gen Nyamwasa has denied the allegations.
Military reshuffle
Our analyst Martin Plaut says Lt Gen Nyamwasa was one of President Kagame's closest confidants, until they fell out.
Lt Gen Nyamwasa is a critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame
Since arriving in South Africa, the former army chief has accused the president of corruption, accusations the Rwandan authorities have denied.
He also claimed the judiciary was compromised and told the BBC in a recent interview that the judges were now "President Paul Kagame's property".
A couple of months after Lt Gen Nyamwasa went into exile, along with another top military officer, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership ahead of elections due in August.
At the time, two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.
The elections will be the second presidential poll held since the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Arrest warrants
Lt Gen Nyamwasa played an important role in the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame, which put a stop to the killing and which is now in power.
But France and Spain have issued arrest warrants against Mr Nyamwasa for his alleged role in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior RPF figures.
Mr Kagame, in power for the last 16 years, is viewed by many in the West as one of Africa's more dynamic leaders.
However critics have raised concerns about his more authoritarian tendencies and the government has recently been accused of harassing the opposition ahead of the elections.
Rwanda has said it was not behind the shooting of an exiled former military chief of staff in South Africa.
Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a critic of Rwanda's president, is recovering in hospital after being shot outside his Johannesburg home.
His wife said it was an assassination attempt as the lone gunman had made no demand for money or goods.
But Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told the BBC the government did not condone violence.
Sources close to Lt Gen Nyamwasa told the BBC on Sunday that he was recovering and should be able to leave hospital in a few days.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says that since leaving Kigali in February, Lt Gen Nyamwasa had been a thorn in the flesh of President Paul Kagame, whom he accuses of corruption.
Official denial
The Nyamwasas had been returning from a shopping trip at around midday on Saturday (1000 GMT) when the gunman approached their car.
Continue reading the main story
[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband
Rosette Nyamwasa
Division in Rwanda's military ranks
"[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband," Rosette Nyamwasa told the BBC.
"Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head.
"My husband got out immediately.
"And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn't cock the gun."
She added that Mr Kagame wanted her husband dead.
"[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him," she said.
But Rwanda's foreign minister told the BBC in statement that Mr Kagame's government "does not condone violence" and said she trusted South Africa to investigate the shooting thoroughly.
Later in an interview with the BBC, Ms Mushikiwabo said there was evidence that Lt Gen Nyamwasa was responsible for a campaign of violence in Rwanda.
"I'll not speculate much more, as this is a case that has yet to be prosecuted, but there are very serious charges against him on his links with networks that have been planting grenades in the country since the beginning of the year," she told the BBC's Newshour programme.
Lt Gen Nyamwasa has denied the allegations.
Military reshuffle
Our analyst Martin Plaut says Lt Gen Nyamwasa was one of President Kagame's closest confidants, until they fell out.
Lt Gen Nyamwasa is a critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame
Since arriving in South Africa, the former army chief has accused the president of corruption, accusations the Rwandan authorities have denied.
He also claimed the judiciary was compromised and told the BBC in a recent interview that the judges were now "President Paul Kagame's property".
A couple of months after Lt Gen Nyamwasa went into exile, along with another top military officer, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership ahead of elections due in August.
At the time, two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.
The elections will be the second presidential poll held since the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Arrest warrants
Lt Gen Nyamwasa played an important role in the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame, which put a stop to the killing and which is now in power.
But France and Spain have issued arrest warrants against Mr Nyamwasa for his alleged role in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior RPF figures.
Mr Kagame, in power for the last 16 years, is viewed by many in the West as one of Africa's more dynamic leaders.
However critics have raised concerns about his more authoritarian tendencies and the government has recently been accused of harassing the opposition ahead of the elections.
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