Investigation into the shooting of the President Habyarimana’s official Jet

The African Great Lakes Movement for Human Rights (AGLMHR)

Letter to the United Nations Human Rights Commission

Re: Investigation into the shooting of the President Habyarimana’s official Jet

Your Excellency,

The Great Lakes Human Rights Link remains deeply concerned by the recent BBC TWO Documentary in which the current Rwandan leader is not only implicated in the shooting of the presidential jet of the former Rwandan president including his Burundian counterpart but also the killings that followed after.

Besides, the Rwandan President has continued serious human rights violations in Rwanda and in the neighboring Congo. Indeed, the Rwandan Head of State has carried out politically motivated killings both in Rwanda and outside Rwanda. Imprisonment of high-profile opposition politicians, activists and human rights defenders after grossly unfair trials, continued reports of torture, excessive use of force, regular denial of freedom of association and assembly, and a persistent failure to hold government actors to account for rights violations.

For the First time in the political and legal history a foreign court found President Kagame of violating international law when he attacked Rwandan dissents in South Africa. In the attempted assassination case of Gen. Nyamwasa, the judge said it was clear the four other accused had met on a number of occasions to discuss plans to kill Gen Nyamwasa and that they were paid in cash by Rwandan officials.

Magistrate Mkhari said the plot was politically motivated and emanated "from a certain group of people from Rwanda". Indeed, no one would have politically motivated interest in Gen. Nyamwasa other than President Kagame.

President Kagame has been described as a serial killer by some international human rights law experts and Psychology because no sooner had the ink of attempting to kill Gen. Nyamwasa dried than he strangled Col Karegeya in a hotel room in Johannesburg in January this year and no-one has yet been charged with his murder, although president Kagame confessed that no one will ever betray his cause and does not get consequences. "Anyone who betrays our cause or wishes our people ill will fall victim. What remains to be seen is how you fall victim," Mr Kagame said.

Several other Kagame opponents were killed in 1998, including the former Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga, who was gunned down in Nairobi, Kenya, and Col. Theoneste Lizinde who many believe was instrumental in providing useful information in shooting the President Habyarimana’s official jet because of his previous skills in the Rwandan intelligence.

The UN Mapping report exposed the grave crimes committed by the Rwandan troops and their Congolese allies. These massive crimes include war crimes and crimes against humanity in which large numbers of civilians were killed with total impunity. The UN Mapping report suggests that closer to 5 million people both Rwandan refugees and Congolese people were killed by Kagame’s troops. That is what we must remember, and that is what demands concerted action for justice.

The above mapping exercise has its origins in the UN's earlier investigations into crimes committed in Congo from 1993 to 1997. In September 2005, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, discovered three mass graves in Rutshuru, in North Kivu province of eastern Congo, relating to crimes committed in 1996 and 1997 when Rwanda invaded the former Zaire and destroyed Rwandan refugee camps in the Eastern DRC. 

The international community should therefore be encouraged by the recent BBC Documentary entitled “Rwanda’s Untold Story” that details crimes committed in Rwanda during RPF military campaign and during the Rwandan genocide. It is a trigger to re-open independent investigations to establish who was behind the shooting of the Presidential Jet of the former Rwandan President that was carrying both the late Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi from peace negotiation in Arusha, Tanzania.  This act of terrorism is believed by many to have been the trigger to the Rwandan genocide that killed millions of Rwandans both Tutsis and Hutus.

The time has come to identify and prosecute the people responsible for carrying out and ordering the shooting of the Rwandan former President and massive atrocities committed during genocide and after, going right up the chain of command.
The International community and many foreign Governments around the world who are committed to human rights and security of all the people remained silent during genocide and are still doing so now when hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians were and are being slaughtered in Rwanda and Congo. The international community has responsibility now to ensure that justice is served to all victims.

Yours  Sincerely,

The African Great Lakes Movement for Human Rights (AGLMHR)

Canada, Qbc