|
‘Lt
Nziza downed Habyarimana’s jet’
2004-03-23 08:15:03
By Peter Tindwa
The presidential jet, in which the late Rwandan leader, Juvenal
Habyarimana was boarding, on April 6, 1994, was hit by lieutenant
Frank Nziza.
According to an inquiry report of a French Judge, Jean-Loius
Brugiere, Nziza hit the presidential plane, which carried
Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira, when
they were on their way back to Kigali from Dar es Salaam in 1994.
The first missile shot by a Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) soldier,
Eric Hakizimana, missed its target to the presidential plane.
RPF gunmen were stationed 50 kilometers from the Kigali
International Airport, awaiting the arrival of the late President
Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, from Dar es Salaam where he was
taking part in the Great Lakes regional summit on Rwandan peace.
According to Judge Bruguiere’s report, an alleged accomplice in
the presidential jet attack on April 6, 1994, which killed
Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart Ntaryamira, was
stationed in Dar es Salaam for alerting jet attackers in Kigali.
The report by the French Judge, whose copy was availed to The
Guardian last week, states that the accomplice had informed
attackers who were manning the so-called Commando Network in
Kigali, that Habyarimana had left Dar es Salaam for Kigali in the
evening of the fateful day.
The Great Lakes regional summit on Rwandan peace held in Dar es
Salaam, which had involved representatives from Habyarimana’s
government and those from the then armed group of Rwandan
Patriotic Front (RPF) was deliberately delayed to ensure that
Habyarimana’s departure from Dar es Salaam was at late evening
hours, the report said.
An anti-jet missile hit the late Habyarimana’s Falcon 50 make
presidential plane on April 6, 1994, around 8:30pm, according to
the report.
It, however, did not mention the name of the said accomplice who
was stationed in Dar es Salaam as an informer to advancing armed
rebels from RPF in Kigali, Rwanda.
“Some leaders from RPF who belonged to Habyarimana’s army had
advised on positions of stationing missiles and signs regarding
the arrival of the plane,” reads part of the report.
It names RPF leaders who were infiltrated into the late
Habyarimana’s army as Alex Kanyarengwe and Theoneste Lizinde.
Others include Abdul Ruzibiza and their top leader who is the
current Rwandan Brigadier General-cum- Presidential Advisor on
National Defense, Charles Kayonga.
The report adds that at least 3,000 RPF gunmen had infiltrated
Kigali to organise chaos just after the hitting of the
presidential jet.
Colonel James Kabarere led a monitoring team on the hitting of
Habyarimana’s presidential plane by a missile, according to the
report, which quoted an exiled former RPF army officer,
Jean-Pierre Mugabe.
Mugabe is currently in self-exile in the United States of America
after fleeing Rwanda some years back.
In 20 minutes, an estimated 1,000 persons were already slaughtered
in the start of genocide in Rwanda on April 6, 1994, the report
said.
The 1994 Rwanda genocide termed by France the first genocide on
the African Land, left an estimated 800,000 people mainly of
minority Tutsi origin and moderate Hutu slaughtered.
The ruling RPF leader and Rwandan President Major General Paul
Kagame has denounced the report as baseless and without a single
iota of truth.
He was further quoted as saying he wouldn’t give a damn about
Habyarimana’s assassination and that there would be no reason to
investigate its cause.
|