Genocide against Hutus in Congo

On 4 February 2002, a Rwandese delegation comprising General James Kabarebe, Deputy Chief of Staff and now acting Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), Major Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, special adviser to the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame and Mr. Jean de Dieu Mucyo, Rwandan Minister of Justice, and other officials arrived in Washington on an official visit. General James Kabarebe, along with General Paul Kagame and other members of their inner circle are responsible of numerous and still unpunished acts of genocide against Hutus, war crimes, crimes against peace and humanity committed by the RPA in Rwanda since October 1990 and Democratic Republic of Congo since August 1996. They are also allegedly linked to international criminal networks active in the black market in arms, diamonds, gold and other forms of wealth which continue to fuel wars in Africa.  These international criminal syndicates supply them with all kinds of weaponry used in their massacres of civilians and they pay back with looted gems and other natural resources and wealth from territories illegally occupied by the RPA in eastern Congo. In a letter to the Bush administration dated 9 February 2002, the RDR urges the US government to impose an arms embargo on Rwanda, refuse entry visas to war crimes suspects on power in Rwanda, cut financial and diplomatic support to the dictatorial regime of Gen. Paul Kagame and extend the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to crimes committed in Rwanda and Congo after 1994 or create an International Criminal Tribunal for the DR Congo. In fact, apart from concluding to the genocide of Tutsis in territories under governmental control after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994, the U.N. Commission of Experts also clearly concluded in its preliminary and final reports that individuals from both sides to the armed conflict in Rwanda had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the period from 6 April 1994 to 15 July 1994. For the perpetrators of those crimes, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights clearly identified the then "Rwandese State authorities", overthrown by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in July 1994, and "RPF organs, particularly those in charge of military operations." At the time these horrendous crimes were being committed, Major Theogene Rudasingwa was RPF Secretary General and Gen. James Kabarebe was the Commanding Officer of the Republican Guard of Gen. Paul Kagame, RPF's military leader. Impunity still enjoyed by General James Kabarebe, Major Dr, Theoneste Rudasingwa, General Paul Kagame and other RPF/RPA members of their inner circle has encouraged them to extend their crimes to DR Congo. During the first Congolese war in 1996-1997 which ended by the overthrow of the dictatorial regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, the RPA was allied with Laurent Desire Kabila's rebellion and Commander James Kabarebe, then Colonel, was the Chief of RPA's military operations in Congo. More than 200 000 Rwandan civilian Hutu refugees, mostly women, children and elderly, had been massacred in eastern Congo by RPA units under his direct control and command. In its Presidential Statement of 13 July 1998, the UN Security Council condemned these crimes and urged the governments of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo to prosecute those responsible. Until now, no lone military or political leader has been prosecuted for these massacres. The second war erupted in DR Congo in August 1998 when President Laurent Desire Kabila ordered Rwandan military advisers out of Congo. Considering Congo as their Ali Baba's cave, Rwandan troops refused to leave Congo when ordered to do so. Colonel James Kabarebe hijacked planes he used to airlift troops from eastern Congo to western Congo in order to take Kinshasa. This objective failed because of the intervention of the Angolan, Zimbabwean and Namibian armies on Kabila's side. Defeated Rwandan and Ugandan troops retreated then in eastern Congo where they created various surrogate Congolese "rebel movements". According to the results of a mortality survey conducted by the International Rescue Committee (http://www.theirc.org) released in May 2001, 2,5 million Congolese civilians have died in illegally occupied territories as a result of war imposed upon the Congolese people by aggressor countries. A country at war against terrorism has a moral responsibility to sever its relations with the Kigali government controlled by RPF/RPA war crimes suspects linked to international merchants of war. On Sunday, December 30, 2001, the Washington Post published on page A01 an article with the title "Digging up Congo's Dirty Germs. Officials Say Diamond Trade Funds Radical Islamic Groups ". According to the article, "authorities in Antwerp - where more than 90 percent of the world diamonds are bought, sold, polished or cut - estimate that about $600 million in diamonds are exported annually from Congo but that only about $180 million worth of the stones are exported legally." On Monday, February 11, 2002, the Belgian daily Le Soir published an article in french with the title "Les talibans armés au départ d'Ostende". The article reveals the existence of a file in the Belgian Military Intelligence Service (SGR) on the arms dealer Mr. Victor Anatolievitsh Bout, former member of the Russian Special Forces. According to the file and the article, Mr. Victor Bout had supplied around 40 tons of arms worth $ 50 millions to talibans in 1996. Four Bulgarians linked to him had already been arrested in Belgium on Friday, February 8, 2002. Mr. Victor Bout is alleged to be hiding in Kigali, Rwanda. Mr. Victor Bout is cited in United Nations reports among the main sanctions busters who supplied arms to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone in violation of UN arms and gems embargoes on the two rebel groups. The weapons are paid back with diamonds, gold, timber and other natural resources. The Rwandan General James Kabarebe and other other RPF/RPA leaders in the inner circle of the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame are associated with Victor Bout in the plundering of Congolese natural resources and other forms of wealth. This is particularly corroborated by many witnesses and confirmed by the "UN Report on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo", New York, 12 Aprill 2001, § 91: "First, Ali Hussein, who plays a major role in diamond and gold deals in Bukavu and Kisangani. Those who have dealt with him in the past have mentioned the presence of a Rwandan national during commercial negotiations. There are indications that the Rwandan citizen attending the meetings is a civil servant working in the President's office in Kigali. Second is Colonel James Kabarebe, who is the RPA facilitator for some deals. According to some sources he has been in contact with Victor Butt [or Bout] for the lease of an Ilyushin 76 that served to carry coltan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kigali. He is said to be a partner to Mohamed Ali Salem, manager of the company Global Mineral. This company is involved in coltan purchasing in Bukavu and Goma. Third, Tibere Rujigiro, member of RPF, who is considered to be one of the main money providers to the party during the 1990-1994 war. He is a major shareholder in Tristar Investment, a company equally close to RPF. He is said to be also involved in the tobacco business." Territories held by the Rwandan-backed "rebels" in eastern Congo are free-trade zones for the financing of various international criminal cartels believed linked to terrorist organisations. To dry funds from illicit trade of arms, conflict diamonds, etc., the RDR urges the US government and other democratic countries to sever relations with Gen. Paul Kagame, use their influence and power to end the illegal occupation of eastern Congo and the exploitation of its natural resources and other forms of wealth by Rwanda and Uganda.