Opinion
Origins of Ingabire’s FDU-Inkingi show why it’s fortress for genocide fugitives, deniers
When
Victoire Ingabire came to Rwanda in 2010 to run in the presidential election
after touring Europe and meeting Hutu Power extremists, especially in Rouen,
France, she came with Joseph Ntawangundi as personnel Assistant. That was the
most innocent man among FDU Inkingi members who could accompany the president
of the party to Rwanda.
Upon
arrival, the photo of Ingabire with Ntawangundi started to circulate and the
man was recognized and arrested on a pending Gacaca courts warrant.
Ingabire
cried foul and issued a statement to the international media claiming that her
adviser was not in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Ntawangundi was convicted of killing and
causing the death of students and a teacher under his care while serving as the
Headmaster of EAV/Gitwe Agriculture School located in Ngoma District, Eastern
Province.
Ingabire
said that Ntawangundi never worked in the education sector, in the statement
she distributed in international media outlets, citing political reasons as
being behind his arrest. In her statement, she argued that Ntawangundi never
worked in the education sector, meaning that he never served as a headmaster at
the school in question. She lied that the accused left the country in 1992 to
work with the International Confederation of Free Trade Union in Nairobi, Kenya
and was not in Rwanda in 1994.
Ntawangundi
pleaded guilty for his role during the genocide against the Tutsi and he is
serving his 17-year sentence at Nyarugenge Prison where he is an active member
of the Unity and Reconciliation Club. If
Ntawangundi was the innocent man in the eyes of Ingabire when she was still in
Europe, how about the rest of the members of her party?
Ingabire
was not in the country when the genocide against Tutsi happened. As such, she
was seen as a clean representative of the association of members of the
genocidal government. She assumed that her political masquerading would protect
them under FDU-Inkingi. But where are FDU-Inkingi origins?
The
FDU-Inkingi is a coalition of Rwandan opposition groups established on April
29, 2006 as an alliance of the Republican Rally for Democracy in Rwanda (RDR),
Action for Impartial International Justice in Rwanda, the Democratic Forces for
Resistance and the Rwandan Democratic Alliance, with RDR leader Victoire
Ingabire Umuhoza elected President of UDF.
In her foreword in the “Rwanda Rwacu” magazine
of November 2000, Ingabire acknowledged that RDR was founded in Mugunga refugee
camp, in the DRC, and pledged to preserve its ideals and objectives.
The
RDR was created on March 29, 1995, in a meeting chaired by Gen Augustin
Bizimungu.
Bizimungu,
the chief of staff of the army that backed the 1994 Genocide, in June 2014
failed to overturn a 2011 jail sentence of 30 years by a UN court. The ICTR
ruled that Bizimungu, who was arrested in Angola in 2002, had complete control
over the government troops during the 100 days the Genocide lasted.
Participants
in the March 1995 meeting included Charles Ndereyehe, Lt Col BEM Juvenal
Bahufite, and Col Joseph Murasampongo. Maj Aloys Ntabakuze and Gen Bizimungu
were secretary and chair of the meeting, respectively. The RDR replaced the Abatabazi genocidal
government and had the same agenda.
To
avoid appearance in the media of the names of genocide fugitives, a choice of
those who share the same ideology but were not on the list of wanted ones was
advanced. That is how the name of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was put on the
table.
In
2009, when RDR and FDU Inkingi became active in the Netherlands, genocide
fugitives of the first category who were members of FDU Inkingi were uncovered.
They include Ndereyehe Ntahontuye – ex-director of the agricultural institute
of ISAR-Rubona; Venant Rutunga – also from the same institute, Jean Baptiste
Nyabusore – ex-head of ISAE-Busogo, another agriculture school and Maj.
Pierre-Claver Karangwa.
Today,
Ndereyehe is still fighting his deportation case while Rutunga together with
another FDU Inkingi member, Jean Claude Iyamuremye, were deported in July
2021. Dutch police arrested Jean
Baptiste Nyabusore in August 2021.
On
October 26, 2020, A special Dutch Police team arrested genocide fugitive Joseph
Mugenzi, who served as President of FDU Inkingi in Netherlands.
Currently the President of the FDU Inkingi is
Placide Kayumba, the son of Dominique Ntawukuliryayo who was sentenced to 25
years imprisonment on August 3, 2010, a sentence reduced on appeal to 20 years'
imprisonment, on December 14, 2011, by the ICTR.
Kayumba who inherited the genocide ideology
founded a club known as Jambo Sabl, with descendants of genocide fugitives with
a mission to cover up their parents criminal past while turning the victims of
the genocide into villains.
As
the senior members of FDU Inkingi are genocide fugitives like Marcel Sebatware
in Belgium, and Stanislas Niyibizi in The Netherlands. Ingabire who is the de facto
leader of the FDU Inkingi is focusing on the young people born, after the
genocide, from genocide perpetrators.
Today,
Ingabire’s FDU Inkingi is part of the so-called P5 Coalition. It brings
together FDU-Inkingi (of Ingabire), MRCD-FLN of Paul Rusesabagina and Faustin
Twagiramungu, RNC of Kayumba Nyamwasa, PDP-Imanzi, a PS-Imberakuri faction,
FDLR, RUD-Urunana and CNRD, a splinter from FDLR. This coalition is nothing but
a terrorist group that has carried out deadly attacks on innocent civilians.
Following
the Kinigi attacks which took place during the night of October 5, 2019, where
at least 15 people lost their lives, 14 others injured, and property looted or
destroyed, Ingabire rushed in the next few days and created another party,
DALFA Umurinzi. This was her plot to distance herself from the attacks which
killed innocent civilians as the perpetrators were being held to account.
Ingabire
would have ended her so-called political and activist career the day she denied
knowledge about Ntawangundi’s role during the genocide against the Tutsi. But
we live in a very cynical world that has set high standards for holders of
political office in their own world only.
To
date, members of FDU-Inkingi continue their monthly fundraisings to support
Ingabire’s political activities in Rwanda. In May those in Belgium gathered
Euros 730, 66.
Once
contributions from others in European countries are gathered, they are sent to
a man called Issa Nshimiyimana, also senior member of FDU-Inkingi, through his
bank account. However, transfer to Ingabire is done by another FDU-Inkingi
cadre called, Michel Niyibizi. This shows that Ingabire Victoire is representing
FDU-Inkingi under the shadow called DALFA-Umurinzi.