AfroAmerica Network
Butare, Rwanda
03.12.01
Without Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) soldiers, Bujumbura would have fallen into the hands of Burundian Hutu rebels.
About ten thousand Rwandan soldiers are fighting in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura along Burundian soldiers. Some of these soldiers arrived in Burundi recently to reinforce an existing military contingent. Witnesses in Gatumba, Burundi, saw five military trucks, carrying Rwandan and Banyamulenge troops, crossing the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi on Wednesday night, March 7, 2001. The trucks were heading to Bujumbura.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame sent some of these soldiers when he was Vice President. When former President Pasteur Bizimungu asked him whether it was true that he had sent soldiers to Burundi, Kagame refused to answer his question.
Rwanda is a member of a group of countries involved in the peace process in Burundi. Whenever there is a summit, Rwandan President Kagame attends it as one of the mediators but only Hutu rebels know that Kagame's army is involved in fighting. Some of these Hutu rebels have already questioned the neutrality of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwandan President Kagame.
Meanwhile Kagame withdrew one battalion from Pueto. Many Rwandan soldiers removed their hats and put on the hats of Banyamulenge fighters. Kagame also appointed Major Ngirabatware, a former officer of the Forces Armees Rwandaises (FAR) as commander of a battalion stationed in Masisi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ngirabatware hails from Kigali-Ngali. Until 1994 Ngirabatware belonged to the Rwandan Gendarmerie. After the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), he was reintegrated into the APR. Shortly after he was accused of collaboration with Hutu rebels and jailed for two years, then released. He spent one year without a job. Now he has been taken back by the APR, given back all his salary even for years spent in jail, and sent to Masisi.
Ngirabatware is part of a process to replace Tutsi officers who have defected to Uganda. One of those Tutsi officers is Major Furuma who has received a military escort in Uganda from General Salim Saleh Museveni's brother. Furuma has joined a group of deserters who are preparing to launch a military attack against Kagame's regime from Uganda.
(c)AfroAmerica Network, March, 2001.
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