[allAfrica.com]  [Africa_2005]


Bagosora Says America Asked Rwandan Armed Forces to Surrender

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
NEWS
November 15, 2005
Posted to the web November 17, 2005
Arusha
A former Rwandan army officer labelled by the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as the "mastermind" of the 1994 genocide,
Tuesday said that the American government had requested the Rwandan army to
surrender in April 1994.
Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, 64, made the allegations when being cross-examined
by a member of the Prosecution, Drew White from Canada.
Bagosora, a former Directeur de cabinet in the Rwandan ministry of defence said
that the request was made by telephone by Prudence Bushnell, former US deputy
assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
"She told me that the Rwandan armed forces did not have any chance of winning
the war and that it would be better to surrender", he said.
The Rwandan armed forces were at that time at war with rebels of the Rwandese
Patriotic Front (RPF) who are now in power in Kigali.
"I knew after that conversation that the American government was supporting the
RPF in the war", stated the Colonel.
"Did she (Bushnell) not in fact tell you that if the massacres did not stop you
would be held personally responsible"? queried White.
"No", answered the accused who demanded the Prosecutor to produce a recording
of the telephone conversation.
Bagosora lead counsel, Raphael Constant from France, came to his client's
rescue saying that Bushnell had been on the prosecutor's list of witnesses and
that she should have come and testified on the issue of the telephone call.
The accused stated that he had requested Bushnell to use "America's power to
order the RPF to stop the war".
Colonel Bagosora is of the view that if hostilities had not broken down
immediately after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, the
government army would have had enough time and personnel to put to a halt the
massacres.
Ever since he began testifying on October 24, Bagosora has made several
allegations against the United States.
He alleged last Friday that the Americans had contributed to the defeat of his
army by supporting the RPF.
"We had always defeated the RPF before the Americans began supporting them", he
said without mentioning what kind of support the Americans provided.
He continued that countries like France which supported the government side
withdrew their support once the Americans became involved.
Bagosora is jointly tried with three other senior officers of the Rwandan army;
Brigadier Gratien Kabiligi, former head of military operations of the Rwanda
army, the former commander of Gisenyi military region (North-West), Lieutenant-
Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, and Major Aloys Ntabakuze, former commander of the
elite Para-commando battalion.
All have pleaded not guilty to genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity.
The trial opened in April 2002.

   

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