When mass killers are turned into good men: The case of Charles Ndereyehe

They say that no matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it is still a pig. The analogy in this porcine proverb goes for genocide fugitives on the run all over the world who stand accused of participating in the Genocide against the Tutsi where more than one million died in Rwanda, in 1994.

Foreign media, governments and friends of evil, sometimes engage in defending Rwandan genocide suspects on the run because they have impressed them as good academics or intellectuals whom they defend in spite of the alarming evidence and court judgments. Many of the fugitives were found guilty of genocide and sentenced in absentia.

One shameful attempt at rebranding an ignominious section of criminals whose hands ooze with the blood of innocent Rwandans is that of a notorious genocide suspect, Charles Ndereyehe Ntahontuye. He is holed up in The Netherlands and is fighting against his extradition to Rwanda.

A futile exercise to rebrand this genocide suspect has surfaced in the foreign media for a while. The aim of an article titled “Who is Ndereyehe?” published by an online publication called ‘The Rwandan,’  and republished by an online website in Uganda did its best to gloss over Ndereyehe’s hideous past and paint him as a dedicated political activist, a human rights hero, national reconciliation figure, and a man who is in the crosshairs of the Rwandan government for his noble activities. But none of this is true. It is a charade. A calculated ploy to play victim.

For someone who knows this man for many years, the article praising Ndereyehe is hogwash. Ndereyehe is an extremist who played a major role in executing the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. 

Who is the real Ndereyehe?

Genocide fugitive Ndereyehe Karoli

Yes, Ndereye may have a shiny CV in terms of education and political career. However, he used his high profile to engage in activities aimed at killing thousands of innocent Tutsi.

Those who know him in his early years as director of a government project, the agricultural project then known as OVAPAM (Organisation pour la Valorisation du Projet Agricole du Mutara), still remember an ethnic extremist who bullied the Tutsi relentlessly.

“Whenever a Tutsi boy was born, they would snipe at them alleging that a new ‘Inyenzi’ (cockroach) was born. It was not surprising that in the wake of the October 1, 1990 launch of the liberation struggle, many Tutsi targeted by Ndereyehe and his gang of Hutu extremists were rounded up as ‘ibyitso’ (accomplices), detained, beaten up, and murdered,” a Rwandan who had a close relationship with Ndereyehe said.

But Ndereyehe continued to be promoted as Director of different agricultural projects around the country, including Project Crete Zaire- Nil in Musebeya, in the former Gikongoro Prefecture, and later as head of ACEPAG, another big project in the Prefecture.

Like all his fellow directors of such national projects, the only qualification required so as to be nominated and appointed to such much sought-after posts was being a Hutu extremist. Most of these directors became genocide perpetrators and ring leaders. In the same league were names such as Alfred Musema (Gosovu Tea Factory) who was tried by the ICTR for his role in the Genocide, Denis Kamodoka (Kitabi Tea Factory), and Marcel Sebatware (CIMERWA Factory). Whenever the names of these men are mentioned, they send shivers down the spine for many genocide survivors. They were at the helm; planning and executing mass-killings wherever they posted.

There is well documented evidence showing how Ndereye, as Director of ISAR Songa in Southern Rwanda, pledged to pay millions of Rwandan francs to any Interahamwe militia man who killed many Tutsi who had taken refuge at this research centre. The victims  were Tutsi from the area and survivors of killings in neighbouring Gikongoro. Ndereyehe was known for giving orders to kill, and rewarding the murderers. Most Tutsi were slaughtered under his orders and very few survived to tell the story. He pledged Rwf10,000, as a reward to every Interahamwe who would kill as many Tutsi as possible.

He instructed a 20% deduction from the May 1994 salary of every ISAR employee to finance the Genocide. This instruction was taken as a good example to finance the genocide and was also applied in his home prefecture (Ruhengeri) and country wide. In all meetings held in Bisesero and Ruhengeri, Ndereyehe was thanked and congratulated for having set a good example in easing the work (Killing Tutsi).

When the genocidal government was defeated, in July 1994, its entire structure – civil and military – fled to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and henchmen like Ndereyehe were among the exodus.

What those branding him as a good man also want to hide is the fact that he was co-founder of the CDR Party, a Hutu extremist party that spearheaded the genocide. Due to his proven record as a Hutu extremist, Ndereyehe was part of another entity, the Rally for Democracy in Rwanda (RDR). The latter was an extension of the genocidal government which called itself “Abatabazi.” It was created on March 29, 1995, during a meeting – chaired by Gen Augustin Bizimungu at Mugunga (DRC) – that created the Rally for the Return of the Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR).

Along with Ndereyehe, high ranking military officers attended the meeting. They included; Lt Col BEM Juvenal Bahufite, Col Joseph Murasampongo, Major Aloys Ntabakuze and Gen Augustin Bizimungu. The last two were the secretary and chair of the meeting, respectively. How come a civilian like Ndereyehe associated with these senior army officers of the genocidal army? Answer is; they shared the same agenda – continuing to propagate Genocide ideology, and to prepare a return to Rwanda to finish what they started – Genocide against the Tutsi.

Other known high-profile people who were part of this enterprise included Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who later became the chairperson of RDR. She was chosen because the rest had been involved in the Genocide and were tainted. But Ingabire was also a hard-core Hutu extremist. Worse still, her mother, Theresa Dusabe, was convicted of committing Genocide in the former Butamwa Commune. Horrifying stories are told of how Ingabire’s mother used her profession as a midwife to kill new-born Tutsi babies and cut open expectant mothers’ bellies to remove and kill their foetuses! Dusabe was tried in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement by Butamwa Gacaca courts.

To cover their traces, the former government army (ex-FAR) officers surrendered the RDR leadership to civilians led by Ingabire and Ndereyehe. In a bid to hide the truth and cover up their past, the RDR later morphed into what they called the Forces Democratiques Unifiées-Inkingi (FDU-Inkingi) party. It is not only misleading, but criminal, to brand Ndereyehe as a simple political activist. He has a dark, genocidal, past.

The FDU-Inkingi is an offshoot of the RDR – both being outfits built and premised on a Genocide ideology and identified with Ingabire and Ndereyehe. 

In recent years, FDU- Inkingi has become a haven for genocide suspects on the run. They are trying to shed off their horrible past, and present themselves as the political opposition to the current Rwandan government which is, unlike them, striving for restoration of human rights, peace, and reconciliation among Rwandans. 

Ndereyehe’s friend, Joseph Mugenzi, is one FDU-Inkingi mastermind and genocide fugitive living in the Netherlands. Mugenzi was recently arrested and is awaiting extradition to Rwanda.

The FDU is also part of the terrorist P5 group led by Kayumba Nyamwasa, a fugitive living in South Africa. Kayumba’s group or coalition is responsible for carrying out terror activities inside Rwanda and in eastern DRC. Dozens of its members are currently before the anti-terrorism court in Rwanda. 

FDU-Inkingi also collaborates with other terrorist organizations including RUD-Urunana.

In November 2019, during an attack in Kininigi Sector, Northern Province, in which a dozen civilians were killed, its top Commander, Col Emmanuel Rwigema, was killed together with others. But those captured confessed that their organisation – which is a splinter group from the FDLR – works with FDU-Inkingi.

Maj. Faustin Ntirikina, one of the advisors of FDU-Inkingi, who collaborates with Ndereyehe and Ingabire, was one of the financiers and masterminds of the Kinigi attack.

It is preposterous to suggest that the Rwandan government is after Ndereyehe because he turned down an offer for a senior post in its institutions. This is self-delusion. The government cannot waste time trying to recruit or employ a mass murderer, the butcher of ISAR-Rubona, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by Rubona Gacaca courts (Huye District) for his direct role in the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rubona.

The foreign media that is trying to whitewash a mass-murderer should understand his background before branding him as a politician, opposition and human rights defender. Ndereyehe is a genocide suspect on the run because of genocide crimes.

No matter how many facelifts they may try to do of fugitives on the run like this monster, their crimes will never fade. Ndereyehe and other genocide fugitives around the world can run but they cannot hide forever.  Genocide architect Felicien Kabuga was on the run for 26 years. Today he is in the dock.

Foreign media and governments should know that there are hundreds of voices crying for justice, and widows and orphans who will never get back their loved ones who were killed by the likes of Ndereyehe.