‘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.