Kagame’s stern warning to dissidents

“If someone feels no shame in destroying what we have built over a period of time, I for my part will not feel shy of protecting what we have built...treason brings consequences...all those fellows would have been nothing if it wasn’t for Rwanda...anyone who betrays our cause or wishes our people ill will fall victim. What remains to be seen is how you fall victims” RWANDAN PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME

By The Citizen Reporters and Agencies

IN SUMMARY

Comments by Rwanda’s top leadership send signals that Kigali knows what transpired

Kigali. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has warned that “treason brings consequences” in an apparent reference to the country’s former spy chief, who was recently killed in South Africa.

President Kagame’s remarks are seen as confirmation of Kigali’s hidden hand in the death of the former head of external security, Patrick Karegeya, and could heighten tensions, particularly in relations between his country and South Africa.

It is unusual for a head of state and or his top lieutenants to issue such explicit comments amid accusations that his government may have been involved in the killing of his opponents.

For instance, when the United Kingdom accused Russia of the murder of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium in a London hotel, Moscow vehemently denied the allegations.

Likewise, when Mossad spies infiltrated the United Arab Emirates using forged passports and assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel on January 20, 2010, Israel strongly denied any involvement despite damning evidence from CCTV footage.

But strong comments made in Rwanda, first by the Prime Minister, then Foreign Affairs minister, Defence minister and finally by the country’s strongman appear to confirm claims that Kigali planned and carried out the assassination of the former spymaster.

The body of Karegeya – a fierce Kagame critic – was found on New Year’s Day in a luxury hotel room in Johannesburg, where he had spent several years of exile. Police, who found a bloodied towel and a rope in the room’s safe, said a preliminary investigation indicated he might have been strangled.

Karegeya’s supporters immediately accused the Rwandan government of being behind his killing.

Now President Kagame’s remarks only served to lend credence to this allegation.

“If someone feels no shame in destroying what we have built over a period of time, I for my part will not feel shy of protecting what we have built,” he said at a prayer breakfast in Kigali.

“Treason brings consequences,” he warned Karegeya’s fellow dissidents and other former allies who have gone into exile.

“All those fellows would have been nothing if it wasn’t for Rwanda.