Rwanda General Romeo Dallaire Agathe Uwilingiyimana Assassinations
Who Killed Agathe? The Death of a Prime Minister
2006
The night of April 6, 1994 the Hutu presidents of
Rwanda and Burundi, Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, respectively, as
well as General Nsabimana, the Rwandan Army Chief of Staff and several other
dignitaries and [the three-man French civilian flight] crew were assassinated
when the plane they were on was shot down over Kigali airport by anti-aircraft
missiles fired by members of the so-called, Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Front,
with the assistance of the governments of several countries. The current leader
of the RPF junta now in control of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, gave the final order for
the shoot down (1), but he did so with the assistance or
complicity of the governments of the United States of America, Britain, Belgium,
Canada, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania. The UN itself was also complicit (2).
The United States and Britain, hoping to gain total control of the resources of
Central Africa through their proxies in the Tutsi RPF provided the military
support for the RPF invasion of Rwanda from Uganda beginning in
1990, flowing that support through Uganda. Britain
also supplied the technical means and funding for the RPF propaganda radio
station Muhabura as well as the training of RPF soldiers at their base at Jinja,
Uganda.(3) Uganda was a direct aggressor against Rwanda, and
all the soldiers and officers involved in the RPF invasion of Rwanda carried
Ugandan army identity cards.
It is now known that the missiles used to shoot down the aircraft came from
stockpiles the Americans had seized in their first war against Iraq. It was in a
warehouse at Kigali airport, rented by a CIA Swiss front company, that the
missiles were assembled (4). In fact, the French anti-terrorist
judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who has spent several years investigating the shoot
down on behalf of the families of the French flight-crew, told Boutros-Boutros
Ghali, the Secretary-General of the UN in 1994, that the CIA was involved in the
shoot down, adding strength to Boutros-Ghali's earlier statement that the
Americans are 100% responsible for what happened in Rwanda.(5)
There is strong direct and circumstantial evidence that the Belgian and Canadian
contingents of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1993-94, known as UNAMIR,
were involved in the shoot down and assisted the RPF in their final offensive
launched with the decapitation strike on the President and the Army Chief of
Staff.(6) It was the Canadian, General Romeo Dallaire, Force
Commander of UNAMIR, who arranged for one axis of the runway at the airport to
be closed at the request of the RPF, making it easier to shoot down the plane as
it tried to land. Dallaire also consistently sided with the RPF during his
mandate, gave continuous military intelligence to the RPF about government army
positions, took his orders from the American and Belgian ambassadors and another
Canadian general, Maurice Baril, in the Dept of Peace-Keeping Operations in New
York, lied to his boss, Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, about his knowledge of a
build-up for a final Ugandan Army-RPF offensive(7), and turned
a blind eye to the infiltration into Kigali of at least 10 battalions and
possibly 13,000 RPF combatants when they were
permitted only 600 under the Arusha Accords.(8) It was another
Canadian, General Guy Tousignant, who took over from Dallaire after the RPF took
power when UNAMIR II helped the RPF consolidate the rewards of its aggression.
Burundi was involved both by permitting 600 US Army Rangers to be situated in
Burundi in case they were needed by the RPF and by invading Rwanda from the
south in May, 1994 to link up with the RPF forces. Tanzania was involved in both
the planning of the shoot down and, itself, invaded Rwanda from the east and
south blocking escape routes for the Hutu refugees fleeing the atrocities of the
RPF in their sweep towards Kigali.
This was all part of the long-term strategy of the RPF and its allies before
their renewal of hostilities on April 6th, 1994. They had conspired to use the
facilities provided by the power sharing agreements, to take over the
institutions of the country and seize power militarily whatever the cost. A
military solution was the sole option developed by the RPF and its allies. In a
pamphlet provided to its supporters in Kigali in January 1994, the RPF defined
four scenarios for taking full control of power before the projected general
elections, initially planned by the Arusha Accords to end the 22 months
transition period. The fourth scenario(9) and the only one
pursued provided for a military takeover within nine months from the date of the
signature of the Arusha peace Accords and then the rescheduling of the elections
to the most convenient time for the RPF, which, in essence, meant never.
As a matter of fact, President Habyarimana’s assassination and the final RPF
offensive that followed occurred exactly eight months from the date of the
Arusha Agreement 4 august 1993 and there has never been a legitimate transition
government formed since the RPF’s seizure of power.
For reasons it continues to refuse to provide, the UN has never investigated the
shoot down of the Presidential plane. The French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière's
report of his investigation into the shoot down was leaked to Le Monde in 2004
and states that the RPF was responsible and that the CIA was also involved. The
Chief Prosecutor for the International War Crimes Tribunal For Rwanda, Canadian
judge Louise Arbour had begun an investigation soon after she accepted the
position and was told by her lead investigator, Australian lawyer Michael
Hourigan, that it was the RPF group known as the "Network", with the assistance
of a foreign power and including the involvement of the CIA, that was
responsible for the shoot down.
At that point Arbour ordered the investigation closed, making her an accessory
to a war crime. She then completely reversed herself and took the position that
the shoot down was not within the ICTR mandate. This policy of protecting war
criminals, in fact those who started the Rwanda war, has continued at the ICTR
to this day with the full support of the US selected judges.
To add salt to the wound, the murder of the two Hutu presidents was preceded a
few months before, on 21 October, 1993, by the murder
of President Melchior Ndadaye of Burundi, also a Hutu, murdered by Tutsi
officers of the Burundian Army. It is strongly suspected that the RPF was also
involved in that assassination and it is known that Paul Kagame was in Bujumbura
a few days before the Hutu president was murdered. This complicity of the RPF in
the murder of the President of Burundi was a principal factor in creating
extreme fear in the Hutu majority population of Rwanda that the RPF intended to
kill as many Hutus as possible and that no political solution was ever possible
with an organization whose methods were worthy of Murder Incorporated of the US
Mafia.
The Prime Minister
But there was another important Hutu political figure killed within hours of the
president's death, the Rwandan prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, known by
the population simply as Agathe. She was killed the morning of April 7th, 1994,
by persons unknown. As with the death of the president, there has never been an
investigation into who was responsible for her death or why she was killed. And
there, as the say, hangs a tale.
Agathe was a member of the pro-RPF, Movement for a Democratic Republic, or MDR
party. The RPF and Tribunal propaganda has always been that the government of
Rwanda was under the thumb of a dictatorial Hutu president. However, since the
implementation of the internal political parties agreement signed in April 1992,
and the Arusha Accords in 1993, the president had lost all real governmental
power and, according to Dallaire, "was little more than a figurehead.(10)
Agathe, herself, who was in practical control of all the government ministries
including the civilian intelligence service, was in reality little more than a
puppet of Faustin Twagiramungu, the prime minister designate under the Arusha
designed Broad-Based Transitional Government that was to be sworn in to conduct
national elections. He in turn was a close ally of the RPF.
The real role of Agathe was revealed on January 5th, 1994, at the ceremonies for
the swearing in of the Transitional Government. The RPF has always blamed
President Habyarimana for the failure to install the new government on that day.
However, the facts tell a different story. It had been agreed that each party
would send a list of designated deputies to be sworn in after the president, as
head of state, had been sworn in. A problem arose when the Liberal Party or PL
split into two factions, one pro-majority Hutu rule and one pro-RPF minority
rule.
The day the Transitional National Assembly was to be installed, the PL had not
yet come to an agreement within its two factions as to who should occupy the
seats allocated to the party. Two conflicting lists of candidates stood. Because
of that problem, neither of the two factions was invited to represent the PL and
to take the oath as PL parliamentarians. However, with the complicity of UNAMIR,
the pro-RPF faction was brought by the Belgian UN soldiers to the place of the
ceremony and tried to enter the premises during the ceremony, but the UN
Bangladeshi security force on guard refused to allow them entry without the
proper accreditation.
There was some scuffling at the entrance which was turned by the RPF
propagandists into a beating of its allies. To further ensure that the
ceremonies never succeeded the RPF never even turned up at the event, even
though they were billeted in the same building complex, and General Dallaire
snubbed the ceremonies as well by refusing to attend them even though he was an
important invited guest. However, the swearing in of the president at least took
place that morning and then the president announced that the swearing in of the
deputies would take place that afternoon, despite the refusal of the RPF to take
part. But the afternoon ceremonies never took place. Instead, Agathe sabotaged
them by sending out a letter to all parties and officials canceling the
ceremonies with no reason given.(11)
It was clear the RPF and its allies did not want the ceremonies to go ahead and
thereby give the Hutu majority the balance of power in the National Assembly.
The ceremonies were suspended with no date fixed for their resumption. However,
on 8 January 1994, taking advantage of the absence of the President from the
country, Agathe, the pro-RPF President of the Constitutional Court and Faustin
Twagiramungu, together with the RPF, tried to persuade Jacques Roger Booh-Booh,
the special representative of the UN Secretary-General and political head of
UNAMIR, to support holding a ceremony swearing in the deputies in the absence of
the president and in their favour. Since only the president could officially
preside at such a ceremony, the attempt "could be considered an attempted coup
d'etat," according to the testimony of Colonel Claeys of the Belgian Army before
the ICTR in the Military II trial in late 2005. However, Booh-Booh refused to
play their game and to be drawn into their plot, and nothing ever took place on
the 8th.(12)
Rumours of another coup attempt by Agathe on behalf of the RPF were circulated
on April 4th, I994, when a meeting was held between Agathe and some officers
from the south of the country, for the most part gendarme junior officers. It
was apparently an occasion for drinks. Whatever the reality, someone leaked the
meeting to the RTLM radio station, noted for its opposition to all things RPF,
and leaked information that she had discussed the planning of a coup against the
president along with the RPF and southern officers sympathetic to the RPF. From
that point she was seen by the population as suspect if not an outright traitor.
One can only wonder who provided RTLM with the information and why. But it
served to set her up for a fall two days later. It also provided a convenient
reason to blame the Rwandan Army for her death.
What is little known is that in the night of the 6th of April, at a crisis
meeting of the Rwandan Army and Gendarmerie after the murder of the president
and Army Chief of Staff, the senior Army and Gendarme officers had agreed with
Booh-Booh and Dallaire that Agathe would continue as prime minister even though
some officers were suspicious of her loyalties and of her involvement in the
murder of the president. They were intent on keeping the peace process going at
almost any cost. However she completely failed that night to undertake any of
her responsibilities or functions.(13) Instead of immediately
contacting the Army and Gendarmerie and the various ministers of the government
to coordinate a response to the murder of the president, she did nothing in that
regard and allowed herself to be manipulated by the RPF, Faustin Twagiramungu
and General Dallaire.
After the shoot down of the presidential plane, senior army and gendarme
commanders took steps to maintain security and manage the crisis. They
immediately sought the assistance and advice of the UN. As early as only half an
hour after the announcement of the crash, they invited General Dallaire to the
first meetings they held in the Chief of staff’s office and sought his advice as
well as that of Booh-Booh. But at the same time they were getting advice from
Booh-Booh, Faustin Twagiramungu was calling the prime minister by telephone and
asking her to commit to making a radio address to the nation that the president
had been killed in an "accident". According to the French investigative
journalist Pierre Péan she was also to tell the nation not to obey any army
communiqués, only hers. It was no doubt expected by the RPF that the Army would
reject her as prime minister thereby giving the RPF the opportunity to openly
support this "moderate" Hutu against the Army and through her seize power. They
did not expect the Army to agree to her continuing as prime minister. Once she
had the support of the Army, however reluctant that support was, the RPF could
no longer come out in her support in opposition to the Army.
The speech that never was
The speech Twagiramungu wanted Agathe to make was never made. But why?
For reasons unknown, General Dallaire, who was aware from the start of her
intention to make a radio address to the nation, never mentioned the speech at
the senior officers meeting the night of the 6th.(14) The
senior officers were completely unaware of it. For some reason she and Dallaire
saw fit to keep it a secret. Instead of fulfilling her duties as prime minister
in a time of national crisis, she took instructions from others. Twagiramungu
states, "I called her to ask her to prepare a statement to the nation..." (15)
The senior officers only became aware of the radio address after General
Dallaire had left the meeting with Colonel Bagosora to meet Booh-Booh at his
residence. A Belgian officer, Colonel Luc Marchal, the Kigali UN commander,
arrived later to inform them. There was surprise but no expressed opposition to
the idea.(16) When they came back from the meeting with
Booh-Booh, neither Bagosora nor Dallaire spoke of any problem concerning Prime
Minister Agathe. General Dallaire partially confirms this in his book. He states
that Agathe called him seeking his assistance. Dallaire also states in his book
that General Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff of the Gendarmerie, wanted to post
guards at key points in the city, including Radio Rwanda, the government station
on which Agathe was to make her address, to prevent sabotage. Dallaire states
that it seemed a good idea but that it had to be done in coordination with
UNAMIR, and Ndindiliyimana agreed.(17) It was decided to
organize joint patrols by UNAMIR troops and the Gendarmerie.
Dallaire then says that about 2:00 am on the 7th he told Colonel Marchal not to
go ahead with the plans for the joint patrols worked out with the Gendarmerie.
He says he thought the presence of Belgian troops on the streets would be a
provocation, though he does not say why. So he instructed Marchal to cut back
those patrols(18) , and the Belgian UN troops did not show up
at the stations designated to be the bases for those night patrols. The real
reason remains obscure but the effect of the withdrawal of the joint UN-Gendarme
patrols was to contribute to the break down in the security situation and give
the RPF a free hand to activate the 10-13,000 soldiers they had infiltrated into
the city and to gather the arms they had secreted in weapons caches all over the
city under the deliberately blind eye of Dallaire and in continuous violation of
the Arusha Accords.(19)
However, Dallaire says that he did order Colonel Marchal to send an escort to
Agathe's house to take her to the radio station. He says also that sometime
after 3:00 am Agathe called him about the radio address, but he does not
disclose the contents of that conversation. Dallaire then says that the Radio
Rwanda station-manager telephoned to say that he refused to give her air time
unless his family was protected and then, in a second conversation, that nothing
could be done, as soldiers were around the station. Dallaire states that he
suggested a telephone interview but the station manager said it was not
possible.
In complete contradiction to Dallaire, the station manager, Jean-Marie Vianney
Higiro, states(20) that Agathe called him at 2:20 am stating
she would make an address at 5:00 am. "She asked me to send journalists to her
house to record her statement. Towards 4:20 am I called her to be prepared to do
the interview by telephone because sending personnel to her was impossible as
the roads around Radio Rwanda had been cut (referring to the gendarmes trying to
protect Radio Rwanda from saboteurs). I then asked the technicians to record the
prime minister's message by telephone and to broadcast it."
Higiro then telephoned his Chief of Services to advise him of developments and
was told that he had just received an anonymous telephone call that no messages
should be broadcast without the approval of the Army. He had assumed the call
came from someone in the Army or Ministry of Defense, but if it had it would
have been an official call from a named officer or official. It would have been
normal under the circumstances for the army to consider such a precaution, so
there was no need to make an anonymous call. Further no official or officer has
ever stated that they made such a call. So who made it and why? Was it someone
who did not want Agathe's message to get out?
The Army had already agreed to the broadcast when Colonel Marchal announced it.
The only ones who could want to prevent her from making the address were those
who had first proposed the idea. But why? Had the contents of her address
changed?
Why does Dallaire state in his book that a telephone interview was not possible
when Higiro states it had all been set up?
Why does Dallaire say nothing in his book of the anonymous telephone call Higiro
states was the reason the address was not made.
Did Dallaire or someone in his service make that anonymous call?
Higiro says he telephoned Agathe at about 4:30 am to tell her the broadcast was
no longer possible. She seemed resigned. He then states that between 6:00 am and
6:30 am, Dallaire telephoned to ask why the prime minister had not made the
address and was told why. But, strangely, in his book, Dallaire states that it
was he who phoned Agathe to tell her the broadcast was off. So Dallaire’s
phoning the station at 6:00 am to ask why she had not been on the radio makes no
sense. He already knew why. Agathe knew at 4:30 am the broadcast was off. She
must have spoken to Dallaire about the same time about the matter. Was his 6:00
am call a diversion to draw suspicion away from himself?
It is clear that Agathe could have made the radio address to the nation. Even if
Dallaire had wanted to take her physically to the station it could easily have
been arranged. All he had to do was contact his partners in the Army and
Gendarmerie to ensure her arrival as they had already agreed to the address. The
radio station was guarded by gendarmes, with Dallaire's approval. So why did
Dallaire not mention the speech to the Gendarmerie commander? Why did he fail to
mention it to Booh-Booh as to enlist his support?
The night of the 6th at the meeting between Dallaire, Booh-Booh and Colonel
Bagasora, Booh-Booh suggested that a meeting be held at the America ambassador's
residence the next morning at 9:00 am with various ambassadors, Agathe, senior
officers of the Army and Gendarmerie and UNAMIR to discuss the situation.
However, at the appointed time only Bagasora, another army colonel and General
Ndindiliyimana of the Gendarmerie showed up. The American ambassador, Mr. David
Rawson, not only failed to express any condolences on the death of the president
and the others, he told them that he did not know why none of the others had
come and stated he could not make contact with anyone. But he was aware that
Agathe had planned to make a radio address as he asked why she had not done so.
So he must have been advised of the matter by Dallaire the night before.(21)
It is likely that the others never showed up at the meeting with Ambassador
Rawson because they already knew that Agathe had left her house some hours
before and was no longer playing their game, and so the meeting had no point.
Rawson must have been aware that Agathe had left her house and was now in the
UNDP complex, but inexplicably he failed to mention this fact to the Rwandan
officers. Rawson had to know this as Dallaire states that he was in contact with
New York about Agathe's situation around the time of the meeting and that he and
"various ambassadors" maintained close communication.(22)
Colonel Bavagumenshi, the officer in charge of the Gendarme VIP security detail
states that at 21:00 hours, the night of the 6th, he received orders to
reinforce the VIP’s protection and that of Agathe in particular. When he
testified in the court martial trial of Colonel Marchal, Bavugamenshi said that
during that night, he telephoned the office of Colonel Marchal at least five
times to inform him of the degrading VIP’s security situation.
Bavagumenshi stated that he discussed the VIP’s security with Colonel Marchal
again in the morning of the 7th April. Colonel Marchal promised him that he
would act but nothing was done by UNAMIR in favor of those Ministers. At 7:00 am
he again telephoned Marchal and this time was told by Colonel Marchal that he
could join an escort mission at 8:30 am to take her to the radio station.
Inexplicably, Marchal kept secret the fact that a team of 13 Belgian soldiers
had already arrived at Agathe's residence between 4:30 am and 5:OO am.(23)
Bavagumenshi showed up at 8:30 am only to be told the mission was scrubbed
because Agathe had fled her house. Marchal must have been aware that the Prime
Minister had fled her house and sought refuge in the UNDP compound by that time,
but again, inexplicably, Marchal never told Bavagumenshi that he knew where she
was, that she was in UN hands, and that the escort mission could have been
redirected to the UNDP compound where she was then located.
Also, inexplicably, General Dallaire took part in a meeting with senior Rwandan
officers at 11:00 am the morning of the 7th at the Officers Military School or
ESM and said nothing to those there that he knew where the prime minister was
and had known for over three hours. This is the same meeting at which Dallaire
fails to tell them that he was aware his men were under attack by mutinous
soldiers.
Agathe’s Final Hours
What happened to Agathe after the station manager told her at 4:30 am that the
telephone interview was not possible? It is important to recall that this was
just after the placing of the anonymous telephone call supposedly preventing any
radio addresses. And that anonymous call was made shortly after Dallaire talked
to Agathe by telephone some time after 3:00 am. Had she told him that she now
refused to go on air and say it was an "accident"? Did she threaten to tell the
world that she knew who was responsible for the shoot down of the plane? In
other words, had she become a liability and signed her own death warrant?
The Ghanaian UN soldiers on guard at her house the night of the 6th and 7th of
April have provided statements to Belgian investigative judge Vandermeersch,
investigating the deaths of the Belgian soldiers who had gone to Agathe’s house
at 4:30 am. Sgt. George Aboye, who commanded the unit of 5 men, states that at
about 4:30 am to 5:00 am, that is, shortly after Dallaire's conversation with
Agathe and the placing of the anonymous call to the radio station, four Belgian
jeeps arrived at her house. It is important to note here that both Dallaire and
his Deputy Force Commander state in their respective books that they had asked
Agathe in the early morning of the 7th if she wanted to be taken out of her
house but that she had refused.(24)
These Belgians were the same men who had gone out to the area east of Kigali
airport area from which the missiles were fired, earlier on the 6th on a mission
only Dallaire is aware of, and it is these same men who had been intercepted and
detained, coming out of the area from which the missiles were fired, by the
Rwanda Army, just after the plane was shot down.(25)
The Ghanaian commander approached the Belgian officer in charge and asked him
what their mission was. The Ghanaians, also inexplicably, had no prior notice
that the Belgians were coming there even though they were in radio contact with
the UN command. The Belgian officer, Lt. Lotin, refused to answer, stating
simply, "We are coming to see the Prime Minister." The Sgt, then accompanied the
Belgians to the door of Agathe's residence. They knocked on the door but Agathe
refused to answer the knock or open the door. Did she know these men had been
involved in the murder of the president? Why had they been sent to her house
secretly? Were they there, or did she think they were there, to kill her also? A
clue may be found in a cryptic entry in the official Belgian Army history of the
events known as the KIBAT (for Kigali Battalion) Report. On page 13, at
paragraph k, the report states that the Belgian officer radios to his superior
that the "Rwandans believe that the Belgians want the skin of Agathe."(26)
The Ghanaian Sgt. then states that shooting in the area got very close and
everyone took cover; the 4 or 5 gendarmes and 5 Ghanaians who made up her
security detail, and the 13 Belgians who had just arrived. They stayed in firing
positions until, at about 7:00 am, the gendarmes suddenly cut a hole in the
barbed wire fence at the back of her house and then took her and her family out
of the compound. The Ghanaians and Belgians stayed in their positions. At about
7:15 am Rwandan soldiers entered the residence compound and detained the UN
soldiers. They were disarmed but then allowed to board a bus without armed guard
to take them to Camp Kigali, the nearest UN post. The officer was allowed to
keep his pistol. This is confirmed by the UN military observer stationed at Camp
Kigali, Capt. Apedo, who states that Ghanaians and Belgians arrived there at
7:00 am.(27)
We must pick up the story from the only seemingly reliable witness to her death.
The witness is a UN functionary. Despite this, his testimony has been suppressed
by the Prosecutor at the ICTR, thereby emphasizing its importance. His name is
Willy Mpoye and he lived at the UNDP complex to which the gendarmes took Agathe
and her family. The gendarmes state that they took her there and then, so as not
to attract attention to her whereabouts, left the scene, believing her to be
safe in UN hands.(28)
He says(29) that she arrived in the compound about 7:30 am and
went to the house of a Mr. Daff, while her husband and children were put in the
house of Bampieng Maxime. Around 8:30 am, the witness contacted a man named Yvon
LeMoal, Chief UN Security Coordinator, somewhere in Kigali, who promised to
contact New York and UNAMIR regarding her presence at the UNDP complex. Indeed,
Dallaire confirms he knew where she was at about that time as does the Deputy
Force Commander, Brigadier Anyidoho.(30) At 9:30 am, that is,
over two hours after the Rwandan soldiers had entered her house nearby, the
witness re-contacted LeMoal by radio and telephone to say soldiers were near the
house.
He then says that at 10:04 am four soldiers speaking Kinyarwanda, entered the
compound, first searched the house in which the witness was located, failed to
find her, searched another house, found her, shot her and left. He says that at
12:30 pm General Dallaire arrived at the compound with a Belgian officer, asked
questions, looked around and then left leaving the Belgian officer on the site.
At 2:30 pm Dallaire returned this time with a Senegalese officer, left him at
the site and departed with the Belgian officer. The witness does not say what
became of the body of the prime minister. Since the witness was in contact with
LeMoal who was in contact with New York and UNAMIR, Dallaire must have been
aware by at least 10:30 am that Agathe had been killed. Only this explains the
complete failure by Dallaire to mention Agathe's name at the meeting with senior
Army and Gendarme officers at 11:00 am that morning, which surprised them in
light of the heavy pressure he had put on them to continue supporting her just a
few hours before. Now it was as if she did not exist.
Why did Dallaire not tell them she was dead? Why does he say in his book that it
was only around 1:00 pm that he learned of her death when Mpoye says he was at
the UNDP compound at I2:30 pm? Why does he state in his book that he and another
officer named Robert walked without any trouble whatsoever from Camp Kigali to
the UNDP compound to see Agathe at about I:00 pm only to be met by a Senegalese
UN officer who informed him Agathe was dead, whereas the UNDP witness states it
was Dallaire who brought the Senegalese officer and that not until 2:30 pm?
Dallaire goes to great lengths in his book to make it appear that he did not
know of Agathe's death when everything indicates he did know. Who were the four
men who came in, quickly shot her and left? Why does the prosecutor of the ICTR
deliberately keep this evidence buried, all the while alleging, without credible
proof, that Agathe was killed at her house by the Rwandan Army?
It is certain that Agathe knew many things. It is clear that she was counted on
by the RPF and its allies to be their puppet and to calm the nation by telling
them about an "accident". It is clear that the RPF hoped to use her as a front
for their seizure of power. But things went wrong.
Unexpectedly the Army accepted her as prime minister instead of rejecting her.
Her utility decreased. Then between 2:20 am and 4:30 am something happened with
the speech. In that time she talked to Dallaire. But he fails to state what they
talked about.
Did she threaten to tell the world what really had happened and who was
responsible?
Did she realize that she had been set up, made a patsy, by the RTLM rumours that
she was plotting against the president just two days before, and that she would
be labeled as a prime suspect in his assassination?
Did she want to clear herself in the eyes of the public?
Was that why the anonymous call was made, so that she could not make such an
address?
Was that why the 13 Belgians were secretly sent to her house, men implicated in
the assassination of the president?
Is that why she refused Dallaire's "offer" to take her out of her house, or to
answer the knock of the Belgian officer?
Was she fleeing the Rwandan soldiers or the Belgians and the RPF?
She may have thought she was safe at the UNDP compound. But New York and
Dallaire were alerted to her presence and for several hours did nothing to
ensure her safety. Why did General Dallaire and Colonel Marchal do nothing to
protect the prime minister, the most important political figure in Rwanda,
though they easily protected the prime minister designate, and her controller,
Faustin Twagiramungu? Just like men, dead women tell no tales. Agathe cannot
tell us who killed her. Her children, still alive, are silent. There are many
disturbing questions to be asked of General Dallaire, Colonel Marchal, Faustin
Twagiramungu, Paul Kagame and others regarding the death of the prime minister.
It is time an international investigation was conducted into the affair to learn
the answers, something the prosecutor at the ICTR singularly refuses to do.
(1) Bruguiere Report as published by Stephen Smith, Le Monde,
2004. Abdul Ruzibiza,Testimony before the ICTR, March 2006, Military I trial,
Jean Pierre Mugabe, Hourigan Report of the UN, I997
(2) Testimony of Francois-Xavier Nsanzuwera, ICTR, before the
Belgian Senate, May 22, I997.
(3) Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa,
1993-1999, and testimony before US Congressional Subcommittee on International
Operations and the Human Rights Committee on International Relations, Chaired by
Cynthia McKinney
(4) Bruguiere,supra, Madsen, ibid
(5) Interview with Robin Philpot, Feb. 26/27 2005. Counterpunch,
"Second Thoughts on Hotel Rwanda, Boutros-Ghali: A CIA Role in the I994
Assassination of Rwanda President Habyarimana
(6) Radio intercept night of April 6, I994, Statement of James
Gasana, testimony before French National Assembly, 1998
(7) Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, Dallaire's Boss Speaks, Editions
Duboiris, Paris, 2005
(8) Abdul Ruzibiza, Rwanda, A Secret History, Duboiris, Paris,
2005, Outgoing Code Cable Dallaire to Baril, April 7, I994
(9) Guichaoua : « LES CRISES POLITIQUES AU BURUNDI ET AU RWANDA
» p 656-658 :
L'environnement actuel et l'avenir de l'organisation (document confidentiel non
signé ni daté, attribué au FPR, Kigali, février 1994, 13 p. :
Scénario IV: Rupture des accords par la chute du gouvernement de transition à
base élargie de Twagiramungu et reprise des hostilités au détriment de
Habyarimana…………. - rupture des accords d'Arusha et recomposition d'un
gouvernement en écartant par la force militaire et populaire Habyarimana et ses
satellites, dans un délai ne dépassant pas neuf mois à partir de la date de la
signature des accords de paix ; - redéfinition de la Transition ; - organisation
des élections au moment jugé opportun par le FPR.
(10) Dallaire, Shake Hands With The Devil, Random House,
Toronto, 2003, p193
(11) Letter, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, January 50th, I994, made a
defence exhibit in the Military II trial, ICTR.
(12) Jacques Roger Booh-Booh, supra
(13) General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff, Rwanda
Gendarmerie, Testimony, Belgian Senate, I997
(14) Ndindiliyimana Testimony, ICTR, April 3, 2000ana,supra
(15) Testimony, ICTR, April 3, 2000ana,supra
(16) Ndindiliyimana, To the author
(17) Dallaire, supra, p 224
(18) Dallaire, ibi, p 228
(19) Confidential Inter-office Memo,15th April, I994, Mil
Observer to Dallaire. "RPA is conducting massive but concealed infiltrations in
Kigali. It has assured that about 10 battalions are
already in the city...It also seems that the RPA had begun infiltrations before
the current hostilities.
(20) Letter dated November 29th', 1994, from Higiro to Herve
Deguine, Reporter Without Borders
(21) Ndindiliyimana, testimony before the Belgian Senate, 1997
(22) Dallaire, UNAMIR Code Cable to Baril, April 7th, 1994
(23) Statements of 5 Ghanian UN soldiers on guard duty at
Agathe's, provided to the Belgian investigative authorities in I995
(24) Brigadier Anyidoho, Guns Over Kigali, Waeli, Accra, 1999
(25) This is the Belgian blue helmets who had disappeared from
their duty the whole day of 6th, it has been alleged in the Belgian
Parliamentary Commission that they had accompanied a VIP RPF team to the
national part of Akagera, to the east of the Capital city. Colonel Marchal
alleges that no one knew about that mission. It is from that area that the
lethal missiles were fired in the evening.
(26) Kibat Report, Col. Dewez, Belgian Army, Sept. 20, 1995
(27) Statement of Capt. Apedo, UN Military Observer, Camp
Kigali, in the Dounkov Report, UNAMIR, made April 7th', I994
(28) Testimony of prosecution witness OOX, ICTR
(29) Appendix, Rapport sur l'evacuation du personnel
international du système des nations Unis au Rwanda, 7-I2 April. I994
(30) Anyidoho, supra, Dallaire, Code Cable April 7th' to Baril
supra
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