AfroAmerica Network
Washington D.C.
01.25.01
Rwandan President General Paul Kagame will visit the United States at the beginning of next month to ask the Bush Administration for military and diplomatic support for Rwandan continued military occupation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Rwandan diplomatic sources in the U. S. said Kagame will visit Washington at the invitation of the U. S. Institute for Peace to give a public lecture on "The Challenge of Reconciliation, Justice and Renewal in Rwanda" on Friday, February 02, 2001. He will also have contacts with World Bank and International Monetary Fund officials. The visit follows a visit in Rwanda by an International Monetary Fund delegation. Kagame would like to capitalize on the contacts he had with the delegation.
However, the success of his visit may be undermined by recent events in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Some political analysts believe that Kagame would like to make his points before anyone does, in order to shortcircuit potential negative effects.
Reliable sources told AfroAmerica Network Kagame is going to Washington to meet Bush Administration officials to ask them to renew military programs the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) received during the Clinton Administration. These programs included military training in counter insurgency operations and psychological warfare. The U.S. also provided ammunition and up to date communications equipment to the APR. Kagame is expected to argue that these programs are necessary to defeat genocide forces with bases in the DRC.
According to these sources former Under-Secretary of State Suzanne Rice will introduce Kagame to her successor at the State Department. Kagame is going to Washington for lobbying, these sources said.
A policy analyst familiar with U. S. laws told AfroAmerica Network that U. S. law forbids former officials to conduct lobbying business shortly after leaving office.
RPF Secretary General Muligande and Kagame's Chief of Staff Theogene Rudasingwa are already in the U. S. to prepare Kagame's visit. They have joined Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) Colonel Jacques Nziza and Director of External Intelligence Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Karegeya who arrived one week ago.
Rwandan exiles have accused both individuals of building a hit squad network to silence Kagame's political opponents who live in the U. S. These opponents are former King of Rwanda Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, former National Transitional Assembly (NTA) Speaker Joseph Sebarenzi Kabuye, former Prime Minister Pierre Celestin Rwigema, former BP FINA Director General Jean-Bosco Rutagengwa, former AVEGA-AGAHOZO President Chantal Kayitesi, and former Kigali Prosecutor Edward Kayihura who failed to convict Bishop Augustin Misago using concocted evidence.
Informed sources in Kigali said Karegeya coordinates business activities regarding minerals in the DRC and frequently travels to Europe to sign contracts with companies involved in diamond trade and other minerals Rwandan forces are looting. They added that both Nziza and Karegeya committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the RPF military campaign to conquer power in Rwanda and to topple Mobutu's regime and Kabila's.
Kagame goes to Washington at a critical time. There are reports suggesting growing dissent within his army. Many Rwandan army officers and soldiers have defected to Uganda. Captain Frank Tega is the last officer to seek asylum in Uganda. During the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) guerrilla war against late President Habyarimana's regime, Tega was political commissar in charge of political cadres known in Rwanda as abakada.
Tega's relatives who talked to AfroAmerica Network said after 1994, the RPF sidelined him because he was one of the very few Tutsi army officers born in Uganda who had some education and who did not approve of RPF authoritarian practices and numerous massacres.
(c)AfroAmerica Network, January, 2001.
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