C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000237
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/24/2019
TAGS: PREL, PINR, MOPS, KPKO, RW
SUBJECT: SUPPORTING DARFUR CANDIDACY OF RWANDAN GENERAL
PATRICK NYAMVUMBA
REF: A. 08 KIGALI 292
B. 07 STATE 22976
Classified By: Ambassador Symington for reasons 1.4 (b) (d)
1. (C) Summary/Introduction: The Rwandan government (GOR)
has nominated Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba to be the
Commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNAMID)
in Darfur, replacing current Commander, Nigerian General
Martin Agwai. Nyamvumba is currently the J4 (Logistics
Chief) of the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), as well as the
President of the Military High Court. He is a hardworking,
effective and combat-experienced officer well-suited to lead
UN troops in Sudan. General Nyamvumba is a valued Embassy
and DAO contact; we have worked most closely with him on
logistics issues pertaining to the USG's training, equipping
and transport of Rwandan infantry battalions for service in
Darfur under the ACOTA program. Rwanda now self-trains under
ACOTA mentoring, and it is building extensive logistics
capability with Nyamvumba's close participation. In his
current capacity, Nyamvumba has gained extensive experience
dealing with the DPKO bureaucracy. He also is fully
conversant on Sudanese efforts to limit UNAMID's
effectiveness.
2. (C) Based on the number of RDF forces (3,200) and their
stellar performance in Darfur, the GOR believes Rwanda has a
stronger case for a qualified RDF officer to hold the
commander position than other troop contributing countries.
Rwanda is generally considered to be the most effective
peace-keeping participant in Darfur, its troop contingent
setting a high standard for other nations to meet. We expect
the GOR to press heavily for Nyamvumba's selection.
Ambassador strongly urges the USG to support Nyamvumba's
appointment to this critical position. End
summary/introduction.
3. (C) Unlike many of his RDF contemporaries, Nyamvumba does
not appear on either the French or Spanish indictments.
There is passing reference to Nyamvumba in the Spanish
indictment of 40 senior Rwandan military officers. The
citation notes an anonymous witness "made reference" to
Nyamvumba in regard to alleged massacres in April 1994 (see
below). The Spanish judge makes no accusation against
Nyamvumba, which given the judge's extensive series of
alleged crimes by virtually the entire RDF leadership,
indicates the judge found nothing against Nyamvumba that
could stand up to serious scrutiny. (Note: see ref B for the
full measure of the judge's outlandish charges -- including
the specious claim that, under close U.S. direction, the RPA
conducted its own genocidal campaign to establish a regional
Tutsi overlordship. End note). The GOR is concerned that
once the nomination becomes public, Hutu extremist
organizations/supporters and other GOR critics will attempt
to block his appointment by asserting false and defamatory
information that Nyamvumba is guilty of war crimes. They are
also concerned that other nations, less deserving of the
command slot, will out-maneuver Rwanda's candidate.
4. (C) We have reviewed available materials on Nyamvumba's
service in the RDF (and its predecessor, the Rwandan
Patriotic Army - the RPA), particularly his service before
and during the 1994 genocide, and later in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo during Rwanda's second intervention in
the late 1990s. We have found three incidents that critics
will likely try to use to scuttle the appointment. First, an
Qwill likely try to use to scuttle the appointment. First, an
accusation, traceable to a single and now entirely
discredited source, of war crimes committed in the beginning
month of the 1994 genocide, in eastern Rwanda. Secondly, his
service as local commander of Rwandan troops in and around
the Congolese city of Kisangani in August of 1999, when
artillery and small arms exchanges between warring Rwandan
and Ugandan troops allegedly resulted in civilian deaths.
Third, some historical speculation that Nyamvumba was somehow
involved in the death of two senior RPA commanders at the
very start of the war against the Habyarimana regime in 1990,
when the RPA took up arms to win for hundreds of thousands of
refugees the right to return to Rwanda.
5. (C) Alleged war crimes in April of 1994: In his 2005 book
"Rwanda, l'Histoire Secrete," Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza, formerly
a lieutenant in the RPA, alleges that then Lieutenant Colonel
Nyamvumba "supervised" a military unit called "Mobile Simba,"
which under the direct command of two captains organized mass
killings, burning of cadavers and their burial in common
graves in several locations near Lake Muhazi in eastern
Rwanda. These charges were republished word-for-word in 2007
on a Hutu supremacist website, Iwacu.com, and again in 2008
on a separate extremist website set up by Gaspar Musabyimana
(at musabyimana.be). Musabyimana, a former intelligence
officer in the Habyarimana regime and bitter critic of the
present government, asserts 82,000 persons were killed by
"Mobile Simba." He claims this was done in an effort to
create a "Tutsiland" Rwanda devoid of ethnic Hutus -- a
particularly obnoxious slander of the efforts by the RPA to
defeat the genocidal rump-government of Hutu extremists and
end the genocide.
6. (C) Ruzibiza was a principal witness for French judge
Jean Louis Bruguiere's indictment of nine senior Rwandans for
allegedly shooting down Habyarimana's plane in April 1994.
Ruzibiza has now several times publicly repudiated his entire
testimony, saying he was misled and manipulated by French
intelligence officers who crafted his book and testimony.
The Department has previously questioned Ruzibuza's
credibility as an information source (ref B); this public
repudiation of his own testimony should end any citation of
his book as a credible source of information. Ruzibiza and
the Hutu supremacist websites are the only sources of these
accusations. We found no press reports or NGO reports
substantiating these charges. To our knowledge no human
rights organizations have taken them up or have information
regarding them. Under the circumstances, there is no
credible information linking Nyamvumba to these alleged acts.
7. (C) Fighting Between Rwandan and Ugandan troops in August
1999: Nyamvumba commanded Rwandan troops in Kisangani in
August 1999, when Rwandan and Ugandan troops fought for
control of sections of the city, and artillery and small arms
fire in the urban area allegedly resulted in civilian deaths,
by most estimates several dozen. There is no evidence that
civilians were targeted by either Rwanda or Uganda. Of the
three rounds of fighting between Rwandan and Ugandan troops
in Kisangani in August 1999 and in May and June 2000, the
August exchanges apparently resulted in the least loss of
civilian lives and destruction of the city. In October 1999,
Nyamvumba was reassigned to other duties outside the Congo.
8. (C) Deaths of Senior RPA commanders in 1990: Finally, we
found using search engines a regional website,
radiokatwe.com, a well-known rumor-mongering site based in
Uganda, that has one or two items insinuating that Nyamvumba
was somehow involved in the deaths of RPA Majors Bayingana
and Bunyenyezi who were killed at the very beginning of the
1990 war, a short time after the battlefield death of the RPA
commander-in-chief Fred Rwigyema. One excerpted "letter" on
the site suggests that Nyamvumba must have been involved in
the two majors' deaths, as he supposedly traveled with the
men that day, and allegedly emerged unscathed from the armed
attack on their vehicle. Much speculation has swirled for
years around these deaths, and many unfounded accusations
have been made against various individuals.
9. (C) Comment: By all accounts and our own observations
General Nyamvumba is a gifted, experienced, and hard-working
officer, perfectly suited for the senior command slot at
UNAMID. He has acquitted himself well as the RDF J4
logistics chief, and has served honorably as President of the
Qlogistics chief, and has served honorably as President of the
Military High Court. He is largely untouched by the
mountains of unsubstantiated and often scurrilous accusations
that attach to other senior Rwandan commanders. His
acceptance by the UN would mean an experienced and
knowledgeable combat officer would lead a peacekeeping
mission facing very serious security challenges. Finally,
derailment of his candidacy could generate a serious reaction
on the part of President Kagame, the GOR and the Rwandan
public. All Rwandans are rightfully proud of the RDF's
performance in Darfur. The RDF believe in the mission of
safeguarding the lives of innocent Darfuris. RDF does this
through its disciplined approach and commitment to the
mission. I strongly urge the Department to support
Nyamvumba's appointment as UNAMID Force Commander. It would
be good for that force, for our cooperation with Rwanda, and,
I am convinced, for U.S. efforts to strengthen UN
peacekeeping. End comment.
SYMINGTON
fgtquery v.1.9, 9 février 2024
