(Reuters) – South
Africa expelled three Rwandan diplomats it linked to a raid on an
exiled Rwandan general’s Johannesburg home, and Rwanda has retaliated by
ordering out six South African envoys, officials said on Friday.
The row strained ties
between two African states involved in efforts to bring peace to eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, where South Africa has troops in a U.N.
brigade that fought last year against rebels whom U.N. experts said
received support from Rwanda. Kigali denied backing the Congolese
rebels.
Late on Monday,
armed men broke into the Johannesburg home of former Rwandan army chief
General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, an exiled critic of Rwandan President
Paul Kagame.
Nyamwasa, who survived an assassination attempt in Johannesburg in 2010, was not in the house at the time.
Adiplomatic source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that South
African security services had tracked the attackers. “It was very clear
that they were intelligence personnel attached to the Rwandan embassy,”
the source added.
Three
diplomats from the Rwandan mission in Pretoria were ordered out of the
country in 48 hours this week. Kigali’s tit-for-tat expulsions followed
on Friday.
“We have
expelled six S. African diplomats in reciprocity & concern at SA
harboring of dissidents responsible for terrorist attacks in Rwanda,”
Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a comment on her
Twitter account.
South African police have also been investigating the New
Year’s Eve murder in a posh Johannesburg hotel of another exiled Kagame opponent, former Rwandan spy chief Patrick Karegeya.Exiled
Rwandan opposition members have accused Kagame and his government of
being responsible for Karegeya’s death and for attacks on Nyamwasa and
other overseas-based critics.
They deny Kigali’s charges that they are behind “terrorist” attacks in Rwanda.
“LONG OVERDUE”
Kagame
and senior Rwandan officials have denied any involvement in the attacks
on exiled opponents, but have called them traitors who should not
expect forgiveness or pity.
Brian
Dube, spokesman for South Africa’s State Security Agency, would not
comment on the expulsions but confirmed the country’s security services
had been looking into the attacks against the exiled Rwandans.
The United States in January expressed concern over what it called “politically motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles”.
David Batenga, a nephew of the slain Rwandan spy chief Karegeya, called for the closure of the Rwandan embassy in South Africa.
“It’s not an embassy, it’s an operation center for planning missions to kill innocent civilians,” he told Reuters.
Etienne
Mutabazi, deputy chairman in South Africa of the opposition Rwanda
National Congress, of which Karegeya and Nyamwasa were founding members,
said the expulsion of the Rwandan diplomats was “long overdue” and
called their activities “criminal”.
“Diplomats are here to represent their country, they have immunity, but they should not abuse that immunity,” he said.
In
January, Kagame, who has won Western praise for rebuilding Rwanda after
the 1994 genocide there, defended his nation’s right to self-defense
against those who “betray” it.
“We
didn’t do it, but my question is – shouldn’t we have done it?” Kagame
said at a January 12 prayer breakfast, clearly referring to Karegeya’s
death but without naming him.
“No one will betray Rwanda and get away with it. Regardless of who you are, there will be consequences,” Kagame said.
Karegeya fled to South Africa in 2007 after allegedly plotting a coup against Kagame with Nyamwasa.
(Additional reporting by Jenny Clover in Kigali; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Ed Cropley and Tom Heneghan)
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a “time”, yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a time, yet It cannot be destroyed => Wolverine
