Now that the arrest warrant of the French government against the Chief of Protocol in the Rwandan government has taken effect, may a fair and impartial arm of the law begin its work.

The prosecution may want to look look into the following areas of human rights abuses which we think involve Rose Kabuye directly:

1. When the Rwandese refugees were still in Uganda after the NRA took power under President Yoweri Museveni, Kabuye was a junior officer in the National Resistance Army (NRA) and she did some work for Military Intelligence at that time based at Basiima House in Kampala. She worked under the direct supervision of Major Paul Kagame who was a senior officer in Military Intelligence.

Can the French prosecutors investigate the number of people murdered at Basiima House by Kabuye?

2. When the RPF had just taken power in Kigali in 1994, Kabuye was an active officer and she became involved in the RPF purge of the recently overthrown Hutu ruling class.

Kabuye together with another RPF officer by the names of Lt. Col. Jackson Rwahama had the mission of looking for prominent Hutu businessmen, academics, civil servants and others of high standing in Rwandese society.

Kabuye and Rwahama then used to take these people to a container that had been abandoned by the UN near the Amahoro stadium just outside Kigali. They were locked up in the container.

Later, they were clubbed to death or hit on the head with small blunt hoes. Rose Kabuye personally supervised these extrajudicial murders.

If the French are serious, they can use intelligence services to dig up this information because it is available in Rwanda and Uganda.

Radio Katwe is also opening a file on Kabuye and if anybody has information on her, you are invited to send us that information. We shall forward it to the Prosecutor's Office in Paris.

Please note that false testimonies are counter-productive. Kabuye must get an accurate trial, it is to no one's advantage to send in information with the intention of maliciously exaggerating her record.

  Nov 21 2008

Lt. Kabuye is a Rwandese Tutsi by tribe which means she belongs to an ethnic group called Bantu that covers most of central and southern Africa. The Baganda, Rwandese (Tutsi, Hutu, Twa), Shona, Zulu etc are tribes that fall into this group. Their languages are closely related so you won't have trouble asking for water, fire or other common items among the Ndebele of Zimbabwe even if you've never been there.

The close linguistic relationship of course extends to names. So it is not correct to say Kabuye is used by only Baganda. If you ever get a chance to travel in this region, you will find other 'Kiganda' names being used in places you thought were completely unrelated.

The Editor also wishes to thank those who have sent in pieces of information. If the prosecutor is diligent and does his work well, this case has the potential to mark a major turning point in our understanding of recent Rwandan history and to some extent Uganda's. Whether it will really happen is still not clear but it is a chance to turn some things you have been hearing as vague rumours and dark suspicions into reality in an open court. We urge all those concerned to keep a close eye.

  Nov 22 2008