Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
29 July 2008
Kigali — Rwandan rebels in DR Congo have dismissed accusations of civilian abuse made by Human Rights Watch instead inviting the campaign group to their jungle hideouts for a 'verification mission', RNA reports.
Human Right Watch said last week in a damning report that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda - FDLR - were being aided by the Congolese army. The campaign body also claimed the rebel outfit - with members blamed in Kigali for Genocide, was abusing civilians.
The rebels - for the first time - have hit back dismissing the categorization by Human Rights Watch that the top hierarchy are Genocide suspects. The FDLR was founded March 1 2000 and has nothing to do with the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, says the German-based rebel boss Dr. Ignace Murwanashyaka.
However, the DR Congo government is in possession of a list of up to 6900 individuals in the ranks of the FDLR that Rwanda says have Tutsi blood on their hands. A deal reached in Kenya by the two neighbours - commonly known as the Nairobi Communiqué - lays out a plan under which the rebels will either surrender or are forced out.
The rebels also dismiss the suggestion that they have working alliances with other Congolese militias - the mai mai and Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO).
Contrary to confirmed reports by FDLR combatants that have laid down their arms that the Congo army units had provided them with arms, the Dr. Murwanashyaka says the group has 'never received help of any nature' from the Congolese. Dr Murwanashyaka however, told the BBC great lakes service last year that former President Joseph Kabila provided them with arms.
Using the usual rhetoric of blaming all sorts of information accusing them on the authorities in Kigali, the rebels say Human Rights Watch is just acting out as member of the international 'lobby' group on behalf of Rwanda.
Meanwhile Rwanda for its part is up in arms singling out Human Rights Watch Africa Division expert Alison Des Forges as using the organization for her 'own ends'.
Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said on state radio yesterday that Ms. Des Forges, - the lead research of the length report last week was using her selfish ends against government. Apparently on her recent trip in Kigali, as Minister Karugarama put it, she was not able to defend her positions on Rwanda instead saying she gets the information from other people.
The FDLR rebels also repeat the long held view that an independent investigation is conducted in the Kivu region of eastern DRC to determine the 'real authors' of the crimes that area.
The United Nations has documented some 200 ceasefire violations since January 23, the majority between the forces General Laurent Nkunda and a loose coalition of combatants from the Mai Mai Mongol, the PARECO, and the FDLR. This is contrary to a standing agreement to end hostilities - to which the Rwandan militias are not party.
Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that FDLR and PARECO combatants have attacked camps -more recently after United Nations' departure, killing at least one civilian and causing further displacement of the population.
The rights group documented fighting involving the Rwandan militias in Bukombo of the Rutshuru area as well as the localities of Kirumbu, Busoro and Busiye - all in Masisi. The rebels say they were not in anyway involved. (End)
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Museveni aide ‘bought chemical, bio weapons’ Monitor correspondent
London
A Danish national appeared before a London court on Monday on charges of transferring chemical and biological weapons to Mr Ananias Tumukunde, an aide to President Museveni who has been in the custody of British authorities for several weeks on charges of money laundering.
Mr Niels Jørgen Tobiasen, 55, who appeared before the Southwark Crown Court for a pre-trial hearing, is a director in a Copenhagen-based firm that supplies sophisticated software and hardware to armed forces in the United States, Great Britain, Nato, and to more than 20 other countries. He is suspected of having dealings with Mr Tumukunde, a Ugandan diplomatic passport holder, who was arrested in the UK on April 3, charged with five money laundering-related offences, and remanded at Hamondsworth Prison. Mr Tobiasen was arrested on July 17 in London after a two-month investigation, and three months after Mr Tumukunde first appeared in court. Mr Tumukunde was not in court on Monday when Mr Tobiasen appeared before Southwark Crown Court but prosecutor David Levy asked Justice Martin Beddoe to have the two suspects appear in court together when trial starts on August 22.
According to the indictment seen by Daily Monitor, it is alleged that between April 1, 2007 and April 4, 2008, Mr Tobiasen “conspired together with Ananias Tumukunde and Lt. Col. Rusoke Tagaswire to transfer, acquire, use or have possession of criminal property” in contravention of Britain’s Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Prosecution says Mr Tobiasen “on the 15th day of January 2008 transferred criminal property, namely Chemical and Biological weapons”. Lt. Col. Tagaswire, a Uganda People’s Defence Force officer, is still at large. A bio-chemist with a degree in toxicology, Lt. Col. Tagaswire was part of the team appointed by President Museveni last year to investigate the suspicious death of Brig. Noble Mayombo who died after a sudden and intense illness that aroused suspicion of poisoning. The report of their findings has not been made public.
During Mr Tumukunde’s last appearance at Southwark Crown Court, the prosecutor, Mr David Whitaker, alleged that Uganda’s diplomatic mission in London was not cooperating in the case against President Museveni’s adviser. Uganda’s High Commissioner to London Joan Rwabyomere denied the claim in an interview with Daily Monitor.
“Yes, we received the questionnaire from [the Crown Prosecution Service]. I forwarded the questionnaire to the Attorney General in Kampala but we haven’t received the response,” Ms Rwabyomere said.
Deputy Attorney General Freddie Ruhindi claimed the office had not received the questionnaire and referred inquiries about the two Ugandan officials back to the high commission in London. The High Commissioner and her deputy, Ms Mumtaz Kassam, were not available for comment.
The army and the government yesterday denied any wrongdoing but pledged to cooperate with the investigators. The Presidential Guard Brigade Spokesman, Capt. Edson Kwesiga, said; “It’s true Lt. Tagaswire is one of us but it’s not right to say he has connections with Mr Tumukunde. We are more than willing to help the investigators in this case with any information they may require.”
The Minister of Information, Mr Kirunda Kivejinja, said yesterday: “We want to identify the actual mission he (Tumukunde) had gone for, but as government we don’t do clandestine work. We will assist in giving any information they (investigators) want….”
Ms Kassam and President Museveni’s legal aide Fox Odoi have been seen outside the London courthouse where Mr Tumukunde is being tried. Lawyers working for the Kampala government have separately asked court to either drop the charges against Mr Tumukunde or have him released on bail but on both occasions, the judges have concurred with prosecutors; Mr David Levy and Mr David Whitaker that Mr Tumukunde should remain in custody as investigations continue. Each count against Mr Tumukunde carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.
Chemical and biological weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction. The release of nerve agent sarin in a Tokyo subway in 1995 was a rare terrorist chemical attack while the mailing of anthrax bacteria to government and news media offices in the United States in 2001 is one of the most recent examples. Uganda is a signatory to both the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention which prohibit the use of these types of weapons due, in part, to the indiscriminate nature of their lethal effects.