Your source for credible news Issue no 019
November, 2020
Ugandan suspected of serious crimes against state security declared prohibited immigrant
NEWS
RNC’s Frank Ntwari in Kampala to review Ugandan-facilitated RNC cadreship training Page 2
NEWS
Attacks and counterattacks as anti-Rwanda terrorist groups take each other on Page 5
OP - ED
A Ugandan national, Charles Tusubira has, on 14 November been deported, and declared a prohibited immigrant by the Rwandan Directorate GenPage 3 eral of Immigration and Emigration.
Rusesabagina’s propagandists confuse Hollywood with courtrooms Page 7
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Issue no 019 November 2020
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RNC’s Frank Ntwari in Kampala to review Ugandan-facilitated RNC cadreship training By Alex Muhumuza News reaching our desk is that Frank Ntwari, the Rwanda National Congress “commissioner of youth” currently is in Uganda where he has been meeting Prossy Bonabaana and Sulah Nuwamanya – two of the most prominent Kampala-based agents of the terrorist group. According to reliable sources, the South Africa-based Ntwari – who is a brother in law to RNC head Kayumba Nyamwasa – is in Kampala to evaluate progress on cadreship training of RNC recruits in Uganda. He is also meeting RNC cadres that have been recruited from several parts of the country. In recent months, Virunga Post has reported details about recruitment activities for RNC going on all over Uganda and facilitated by the country’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, but also with the participation of the Special Forces Command. Reliable sources have revealed that Bonabaana and Nuwamanya, who were operating a shell NGO, Self Worth Initiative, have been using this cover to set up cells in places like Hoima, Fort Portal, Kakumiro, Namutamba, Mubende, Kiboga Nakivale refugee settlement, and other places in addition to Kampala. The focus has mainly been on those places with sizable Kinyarwanda-speaking communities. After the RNC agents have recruited its cadres with the help or facilitation of CMI, they are then taken to the RNC “cadreship training center” located in the Bugolobi suburb of Kampala, on Street 21, Mpanga Close. The cadreship training, it has been revealed, is part of a recently hatched, two-part plan by which the regime of Uganda’s President, Museveni, plots to overthrow the Rwandan government. It has long been an open secret that Museveni, in his long-term plan to destabilize Rwanda, adopted Nyamwasa’s Rwanda National Congress as his main
RNC’s Frank Ntwari. He’s been in Uganda to meet RNC agents and cadres.
proxy, and assisted and facilitated the group openly. With CMI in charge, RNC has in the past recruited fighters, and CMI has provided them fake travel papers to training camps in the DRC. CMI has been facilitating the movements of officials and senior commanders of RNC throughout the region in their arms-purchasing operations, or to attend strategy meetings to destabilize Rwanda. However, in mid 2019 RNC and other DR Congo-based illegal armed groups suffered heavy military routs that saw many of the terrorist top commanders and fighters either killed, or captured and repatriated to Rwanda to answer for their crimes. Museveni and Nyamwasa were reported to have become desperate at the near total collapse of RNC. Their plans to destabilize Rwanda looked to have gone up in smoke.
It was then that they came up with their fresh, two-part plan – the first phase being “to build a movement of cadres with the right ideology.” It is for this reason that the likes of Bonabaana and Nuwamanya have been setting up cells and recruiting in several places, and apparently this is part of what they will be reviewing with Ntwari. Reliable sources have revealed that the trainers of the cadreship center, who offer online courses include people like: Gervais Condo, the US-based RNC secretary general; Epimaque Ntamashobora, the UK-based RNC commissioner in charge of mobilization, among others. Local-based instructors include Robert Higiro, Epimaque Runanira, and Rusagara. “Museveni and Nyamwasa realized that they miserably failed the first time, and they seem to be determined to move ahead,
instead of acknowledging they will never get anywhere,” said a Kigali-based security observer. According to reliable information, “phase two” of the plan is supposed to begin when a sizable enough body of cadres has been trained, “and understand the ideology well.” These are then supposed to be sent back to communities with significant numbers of Kinyarwanda-speakers, either Rwandan nationals or Ugandans of Rwandan origin. The idea is to further mobilize and recruit enough young men for war against Kigali. A security observer in Kigali, hearing of these things, remarked: “no matter their changes in strategy, their efforts will be futile. They will be just as decimated in the future as they were in the past!”
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Issue no 019 November 2020
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Ugandan suspected of serious crimes against state security declared prohibited immigrant he was taken in to help with investigations.” However, even Ugandan mainstream media tried to drum up alarmism on the case, with the state-owned New Vision this Wednesday claiming: “Tusubira was picked by men who identified themselves as immigration, and Rwanda police officers who came to his house early in the morning. He was pushed into one of the cars and has since never been seen.” The paper further says the Ugandan High Commission in Rwanda had written to Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but that it was “waiting for a response.” More sources familiar with the matter, however, indicate that the Rwandan authorities indeed had written a Note Verbale to the Ugandan embassy confirming that Tusubira was detained and the reasons: serious crimes against state security. Commentators reading Commandonepost’s allegations that Tusubira was in trouble because “Rwandan officials wanted to grab Tusubira’s company”, or that “he was targetted because he never took Rwandan nationality” laughed at what they called ludicrous fictions.
Ugandan Charles Tusubira (pictured) has been declared a prohibited immigrant in Rwanda following deportation. He was suspected of serious crimes against state security.
By Alex Muhumuza A Ugandan national, Charles Tusubira has, on 14 November been deported, and declared a prohibited immigrant by the Rwandan Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration. According to reliable sources, Tusubira who has been running an advertising and branding company, Kleenville Media Ltd., was arrested in Kicukiro on 27 last month on suspicion of serious crimes against state security. Our sources did not further elaborate. But the Ugandan, according to eyewitnesses, was taken after being shown a proper
arrest warrant that stated the reasons of his arrest. Sections of Ugandan media including Chimpreports broke the story and peppered it with false claims. Outlets like Commandonepost – which like Chimpreports work with Ugandan intelligence services to disseminate anti-Rwanda propaganda – were quick to allege that “Rwandan officials wanted to grab Tusubira’s company.” Commandonepost, a website run by one Bob Atwine, who is on the payroll of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) as part of a long-running propaganda
campaign to tarnish or discredit Rwanda, claimed “Tusubira had been arrested and taken to an unknown place” and that he was being questioned “why he had not naturalized himself as a Rwandan citizen.” A cursory inquiry will expose these claims to be completely false. “First of all there is nothing like Tusubira being taken to an unknown place,” an informed source told Virunga Post. “Even the man’s wife was accorded her request to visit him; she found him well, and they talked. He was in as good a condition as when
“If Commandonepost’s journalists wanted the truth they would step into Rwanda and see for themselves all the Ugandans running successful businesses here, in different sectors. There are Ugandans running big beer distribution businesses, others in IT, and many in informal sector,” remarked a social media commentator. An official that requested not to be named said: “any law-abiding Ugandan, like all other nationalities, will never be in trouble in Rwanda.” Tusubira was deported lawfully, and handed over to Ugandan authorities with proper paperwork.
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NEWS
Issue no 019 November 2020
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Himbara’s tendentious claims on the high value of Rwanda’s gold exports busted By Jean Gatera Anti-Rwanda groups, composed of groups analysts usually identify as genocide ideologues and terrorist militia activists, have been made furious by a recent report that Rwanda’s gold export increased. The Central Bank of Rwanda announced that gold exports grew from US$ 21.7 million in 2019 to US$ 244.3 million in 2020. Since November 2019, Rwanda began to refine gold before exportation, “a game changer in terms of export value addition,” analysts at Rwanda’s Central Bank say. This progress, however, has angered hostile forces that immediately expressed their discontent.
ridiculous”, said the economist.
“They spend a lot of time trying to tarnish Rwanda and positive news is just bad news for them”
Rwanda’s central bank (BNR) was clear: the high receipt from the mineral sector was mainly due to the factory that adds value to gold which started operations in Rwanda in 2019. “Obviously, such an added value will not please groups with an anti-Rwanda agenda,” said a Kigali-based observer. “They spend a lot of time trying to tarnish Rwanda and positive news is just bad news for them. “With a commodity transformation infrastructure that gets Africa to stop exporting raw materials and gets better value for its
products, anti-Rwanda groups know this is a game changer!” One of our sources said that casting doubt on the Rwandan figures is just propagandistic if other examples are taken into account. “For instance, there is no gold mined in Belgium, but gold is its fourth biggest export commodity, representing an income of US$ 1.67 billion per year!” So, our source points out, “Himbara’s claims, supported by the likes of Verlinden, that Rwanda cannot justify US$ 244.3 million earning from gold are pure nonsense.”
The outcry began with David Himbara, the notorious Rwanda National Congress (RNC) terrorist militia propagandist; Filip Reyntjens, Peter Verlinden and others followed suite. As it is usually the case they just delved into an oversimplified analysis, and drew the conclusion that Rwanda could not be making such positive economic strides. Their tactic was to question the source of the gold that led to the positive export results. This, analysts say, exposes a lack of understanding of basic gold business. According to goldprice.org, the price difference between refined gold and unrefined was about US$ 30,000 per Kilo on 1 January, this year. Furthermore, the price of refined gold increased, from us$ 48,000 to US$ 65,000 per kilo. “The combination of better prices per kilo, the price increase of the commodity and the increase in volume explain to increase in revenue,” an economist pointed out. Also, certificates of origins of exported gold along with various mechanisms are used to control official gold records. “The idea that the central bank of any country would include illicit minerals in its account is simply
Miners working in Rwanda. Locally based smelters have added much value to the Rwandan industry.
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NEWS
Issue no 019 November 2020
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Attacks and counterattacks as anti-Rwanda terrorist groups take each other on
RNC agent Kayumba Rugema has been on a tear recently, hitting out at erstwhile FDLR allies, and others.
By Fred Gashema Things continue to fall apart within overseas-based anti-Rwanda terrorist groups. Last Sunday social media was awash with accusations and counter-accusations between the Norway-based Kayumba Rugema, a cousin of Uganda backed RNC terror outfit leader Kayumba Nyamwasa, and a number of anti-Rwanda terrorist groups whom the former accuses of being “extremists that hide behind opposing the Rwanda’s Government to assassinate their compatriots.” Through Facebook posts and a talk show on his online radio “Inda y’Ingoma” on November 15, Rugema attacked members of the FDLR and RUD-Urunana – the offshoots of ex-FAR and Interahamwe militia perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi- warning them against “portraying RPF as a party of murderers,” noting that RPF and some other political parties joined hands towards rebuilding Rwanda after stopping the genocide. This was “an interesting admis-
sion by a member of a virulent anti-Rwanda terrorist groups,” social media commentators laughed. “Was Rugema about to see the light?” many asked. “For you who believe that RPF and its allies in the liberation struggle are murderers or traitors, you are wrong, you are rather the real murderers as you were trained on how to kill and subsequently implemented by exterminating the Tutsis during the genocide. Stop the contempt and humiliating people – RPF and its allies are not killers!” Rugema said Rugema brought it out that the majority within the so-called “Rwanda’s opposition” from abroad served the regime that prepared and executed the genocide as well as the then interim government ‘Abatabazi’ that also committed mass crimes against humanity while fleeing the country to the former Zaire. “You killed people for being Tutsi, if you are to attribute the killings to RPF-Inkotanyi remember the crimes of those regimes you served!” Rugema charged. A number of members of the anti-Rwanda terror groups were
quick to retaliate against Rugema’s assertions accusing him and Kayumba Nyamwasa of being “responsible for RNC terrorist Benjamin Rutabana’s disappearance.” They then hit out at Rugema that he might have boycotted the terror groups “to be a troll of the current Government of Rwanda!” That was insinuated by Andre Kazigaba who serves in the top leadership of the Mozambique-based armchair terror organization- CFCR-Invejuru. Rugema’s comments come in the wake of the current disarray within the so-called “Rwanda Bridge Builders” – a coalition that brought together various terrorist groups such as RNC, MRCD-FLN, FDLR and FDU-Inkingi, among others. Members of this coalition now are accusing each other of greed and embezzlement of member funds. One of the prominent figures in the anti-Rwanda terrorists’ camp, Noble Marara normally known as “a very noisy anti-Rwanda agitator” was recently heard averring that something called “Rwanda’s opposition from abroad is no more! It has been militarily and diplomatically neutralized.”
According to observers, “disarray within anti-Rwanda terrorist groups is undoubtedly a sign of failure despite unreserved support such as training and logistics among others that they get from some neighboring countries. “But now it looks like some members of the terrorist groups are realizing the game is over and they remain with nothing to promise beside openly going for each other’s throat!” commented a Facebook social media page. The Congolese army, FARDC, have been on course in flushing out the terrorist groups from its territory, and as a result hundreds of terrorist fighters have been killed, many others were captured and repatriated to Rwanda to face justice for their terrorism-related crimes. Meantime, Rwandans are enjoying the whole spectacle of Rugema Kayumba turning against his FDLR friends and other terror groups, and the others in turn tearing him down. “It is just so funny!” said a tweet.
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Issue no 019 November 2020
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Ntamuturano, a Rwandan that Ugandan CMI tortured to falsely confess “working for Kagame” By Joan Karera Ntamuturano Francois, 44, one of the six Rwandans who were deported and dumped at Kagitumba border post by Uganda’s officials on October 30, 2020, following the time he was brutally abducted, held incommunicado, and illegally detained in a torture dungeon is appalled at the behavior of Ugandan security agencies. He is also demanding justice as he undergoes treatment for his back that has been severely damaged due to the torture he suffered at the hands of Ugandan Military Intelligence, CMI. Ntamuturano’s anguishbegan on Easter Day this year when he was abducted where he had gone for shopping in his neighbourhood in the town of Hoima in Uganda. “Two men came asking if I had pigs to sell, since every-
one knew I was a successful farmer,” he narrates. He says the men then pushed him aside, where there were no people passing by, and proceeded to abduct him. To his shock they brutally forced his arms behind his back and fastened on handcuffs as he screamed for help. Then the men, who were in civilian attire, told him whether he screamed or not, that wouldn’t help them. Ntamuturano says it turned out that these people were CMI operatives “with UPDF identification.” They took him in a CMI trademark abduction: they did not produce any arrest warrants and they didn’t give him an opportunity to call a lawyer. They just slapped a hood over his head and drove him away. They first whisked him off to an unknown location in Kabale, which he only
got to know when they took the hood off. It was smelly and scary, Ntamuturano says. “The first kicked me around, then went away.” Afterwards the men took him to Mbuya Military Barracks, the headquarters of CMI, which also houses its notorious torture dungeons. There, many Rwandan nationals arrested and held incommunicado suffer the worst torture, according to information by many that have been there but were lucky to leave the place alive. Shortly before taking him away (from Hoima) Ntamuturano says, “the men had called the person who deployed them and said ‘we have arrested the other Rwandan General!’” Ntamuturano says he was very shocked to hear that. It was
obviously something they had concocted to frame him, he is certain. Ntamuturano had been living legally in Uganda since November 2014. He never did anything else other than his business as an investor in farming, and as a trader. Yet here were these CMI people framing him with accusations of espionage, claiming that he was sent to Uganda by President Kagame. “They threatened to kill me if I do not tell what Kagame sent me to Uganda to do, but I have never even been near him in my life. “The only people in Rwanda I used to call from Uganda are my wife, my sister and my Godfather,” he adds. When Ntamuturano refused to confess that he had been sent by Rwanda’s president “to spy on Uganda”, he was subjected to intense torture. “The man who was interrogating me first laid me down on the floor and continued to ask the same question, while stepping on me. When he saw that I wasn’t confessing what he wanted, he then cuffed my legs and hands together, bent me, put me in a sack and then hang me upside down from the ceiling. It was very painful!” he narrates, chocking up. “In that place, I suffered the worst days of my life!”. According to him, he was abducted because he had refused to join Kayumba Nyamwasa’s terrorist RNC. Kampala-based RNC agents approached him twice asking him to join RNC and work for Kayumba Nyamwasa against the Rwandan government, “but I refused completely!”
Francois Ntamuturano, another Rwandan victim of Uganda’s CMI recounts the ordeal he went through in Mbuya torture dungeons. To refuse to join RNC was his “crime”, he says.
He was finding out the hard truth about Uganda ever since the government of President Museveni adopted its policy of hostility against Rwanda. It is very unsafe in Uganda to be a Rwandan national that refuses to work to destabilize Rwanda. Many will suffer illegal arrests on concocted charges, followed by torture, and afterwards, loss of property.
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OP-ED
Issue no 019 November 2020
37
Rusesabagina’s propagandists confuse Hollywood with courtrooms By Jean Gatera Arrested terror suspect Paul Rusesabagina’s propaganda organization, “the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation” has released a press statement to say that he has changed his legal team. This was announced in a press statement, signed by the foundation propagandist Kitty Kurth, this Wednesday. Before that, Rusesabagina had said he now had a new lawyer, Gatera Gashabana, to replace the pro-bono attorneys offered by the Rwanda Bar Association when he needed legal assistance. Paul Rusesabagina who is facing trial on 13 terrorism related charges along with 16 co-defenders of the FLN militia of which he is president, faces an uphill battle in court. There is overwhelming evidence pointing to his guilt, including audio, and paper proof. Some of the co-defenders like the former FLN spokesperson Nsabimana Callixte already have pleaded guilty to all charges, and seem determined to further implicate their boss Rusesabagina.
Since his arrest on 31 this August, Rusesabagina has since almost pleaded guilty too. He apologized to victims of the terror attacks by the MRCD-FLN, recognized that he founded the terrorist militia and that he sent it money to carry out terror activities. “His new lawyer, whoever he is, needs magical powers!” a legal analyst remarked. “That’s why his propagandists like Kitty Kurth have opted for media charades like the recent press release.” In the statement Kurth in part claims that, “Paul did not have a real choice on using these (Rwanda Bar Association) lawyers.” This directly contradicts Rusesabagina’s own comment on the matter. In an interview with the EastAfrican, he said that he had been offered an option to choose a defense team. Furthermore, Rusesabagina repeats at every single occasion that he is treated well and humanely. “There can be no doubt that Rwanda’s courts have been fair in relation to Rusesabagina’s rights,” the legal
commentator added. When the man announced his new lawyer, proceedings were adjourned to give him time to prepare and face his pre-trial hearing with Gashabana. His wish was granted. But now his US-based propagandists are falsely claiming they had no prior knowledge of proceedings against Rusesabagina. “Maybe they were too busy with propaganda, for instance, since it has been announced the next hearing is set for 20 this month,” a social media commentator said. Evidently Rusesabagina’s people, including Kurth, and his family member are desperate to muddy the waters so as to obscure the truth. This is also seen in their continued attempts to play an “international card” as a means to intimidate the Rwandan Government, with hopes that the suspect is let go without accounting for his crimes. Kurth’s statement mentions “international law” and
“International lawyer” numerously and intermittently, yet Rusesabagina is facing a national court for crimes he committed in Rwanda. “Terrorism cases are handled differently in different jurisdictions,” a legal expert observed. “Rwanda gives terror suspects all their defense rights. In some countries, terror suspects face secret trials. For example Al-Qaeda cases were never held publicly, in most countries.” Yet Rusesabagina’s people have been raising a hue and cry because an unaccredited lawyer, flouting immigration rules and committing a crime on his way to ‘defend’ him has been turned away. This is none other than Belgian Vincent Lurquin. The latter, one of “the Foundation’s” foreign lawyers flew to Kigali on a tourist visa. But once in Rwanda he demanded access to Rusesabagina, claiming that he was the family’s appointed lawyer. “Lurquin cannot was just an imposter that sneaked into the country. He was lucky he wasn’t detained at Kigali International Airport for attempting to violate migration and employment statutes in the country,” wrote a renowned legal expert in Kigali said. Kurth’s press statement shows more disconnect when it blames Rusesabagina’s previous lawyers for not submitting to court that their client allegedly was “kidnapped.” In reality, Rusesabagina knows that his arrest was lawful, and did not want any false “kidnap” issue raised. In a media interview, Rusesabagina explained that he boarded a private jet thinking he was traveling to Bujumbura but instead found himself in Kigali.
Rusesabagina has never lacked good legal representation in Rwanda, regardless what his propagandists claim
It is perfectly legal to deceive a criminal or a fugitive when carrying out an arrest. It’s called sting operations in law enforcement, security analysts anywhere will point out. For instance, a drug dealer can be lured to a drop off location, just like Rusesabagina
was lured to Rwanda, and arrested.
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