By Ben Barugahare
Me Bukuru Ntwari died after having fallen from the fourth floor of the building Inkundamahoro of Nyabugogo. Various pro-government media interpreted this death as suicide and their version were contradictory inventing the reason that pushed him to suicide as if they were already aware of that while other independent media attributed the incident to a planned assassination to punish him for his political position which was disliked by the Rwandan regime accused of supporting armed groups who daily persecuted Banyamulenge in DRC and continue to kill them in a perfect impunity. Did he really decide to fall by himself or was he pushed by someone? The present article analyses the different factors underlying this unexpected death.
The family of Bukuru Ntwari, a campaigner against threats to Banyamulenge people located in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has said that the activist had fallen from a commercial building situated in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and died.
The local media widely reported his death on Wednesday suggesting that it was a suicide. But BBC was told by the family members that they suspected a planned murder. A close family relative to Me Bukuru Ntwari said “we suspect a pre-planned murder of our lead voice.” A probe has been launched into his death, Rwanda’s investigation bureau disclosed.
Me Bukuru Ntwari who is a lawyer was known for being outspoken especially against the killing of Banyamulenge in their home region of DR Congo’s South Kivu province. As an advocate against the violence in the area, he described it as a “genocide.”
The groups that live in the mountainous region are allegedly been attacked by numerous ethnically linked armed groups fighting each other in that region.
There were allegations that some of the armed groups are backed by the government of Burundi or Rwanda, but the countries’ authorities have denied the allegation.
The family of Me Bukuru Ntwari has alleged that he was killed and an investigation has been ordered into the cause of his death.
Their real murder of Me Bukuru Ntwari
Me Bukuru Ntwari was manifestly pushed by a hit man. Indeed, the different statements which took the position of suicide were intended purportedly to muzzle the opposite view and this attempt failed because the reasons of the alleged suicide was not justified and the late Bukuru did not disclose such a reason to any witness to confirm such an alibi.
Involvements of Rwanda in the persecution of Banyamulenge in DRC
Further to the various violations of human rights deliberately committed against the community of Banyamulenge residing in Minembwe by other ethnics such as Bafulero; Babembe and others and especially by the rebellion named Red Tabara operating in the area allegedly fighting Burundian government and which is a Rwandan creation and including some Rwanda Defence Forces elements, MeBukuru Ntwari dared denouncing the role of Rwanda in the killings of which his community is being victim through different media and this was not appreciated by the Rwandan regime.
The pretext of adultery reportedly committed by her wife in the building is a pure invention given that the building Inkundamahoro is not a hotel and the spouse of the late Bukuru Ntwari stated that this is a cynic intention to exacerbate her pain. At the most ‚in terms of proof‚ as they claim that the cuckolded husband had complained of being cheated on they should have flushed out his wife and her lover whose facts caused the so-called suicide.
To continue to entertain such a lie, the Rwandan regime decided to eliminate this opinion leader and goes on intimidating other intellectuals who are working in the public function. Thus, Dr Shyaka Mugabe Aggee, director the center of conflict management at the University of Rwanda, asked about the violence exercised against his brothers and sisters in Mulenge attributed the factors to interethnic disputes between them and the neighboring ethnics putting aside the fact that those criminals together with Red Tabara rebellion are backed by Rwanda government and that some Rwandan soldiers can be identified among them.
Besides, Rwanda does not wish for people who sought asylum to return in Congo, their native land because it hides behind them to institute rebellions allegedly claiming their rights but his very intention is to be always facilitated to access the DRC soil to extract its natural minerals.
Worse, when the Rwandan government decides to repress the strike often carried out by those refugees either in Gihembe camp located at Gicumbi in northern province or in Kiziba in Karongi in Western Provnce, it uses their children who are enrolled in the police and the army and who will help it to organize rebellions in DRC.As illustration general Laurent Nkunda was an RPA soldier; likewise, general Ntaganda Bosco; Mutebutsi and other leaders were trained in RPA and this opportunity permitted the Rwandan regime to fool them sending them to claim their rights while it deployed its army to conquer regions with rich basement in terms of natural resources.
Those uprisings of Bagogwe and Banyamulenge are not promising for Rwandan authorities who will face their refusal to participate in future military expeditions on the DRC territory.
Are Banyamulenge and Bagogwe Rwandan or Congolese
The confusion of citizenship is entertained by Rwanda on two levels. On one side, they are Rwandan citizens who fled the country due to political persecutions and were hosted in DRC as refugees; the reason why they massively joined the RPF rebellion to return to their native land Rwanda. On the other side, the territories they were occupying belonged to Rwanda especially acquired with the conquests of Ruganzu Ndoli and Rwabugiri Kigeri IV who organized wars in the region of eastern DRC; south-east and south-west Uganda; to insinuate that they settled there afterwards.
However, most of Bagogwe and Banyamulenge believe that they are Congolese and this patriotic feeling push them to disapprove the plans of Rwanda to rise them against their compatriots of DRC, fact which angers the RPF regime and seeks strategies to stop this patriotism which may disturb its plan by assassinating their influential leaders.
The Rwandan regime had a very interest in the elimination of Me Bukuru Ntwari given his political position which was overtly hostile to its regional political plans. It had skillfully planned it and intelligently implemented it but unfortunately for the criminals the precautionary analysis of the circumstances surrounding the alibi of suicide leads to a series of doubts. Moreover‚ any observer aware of the regional policies of Rwanda in the great lakes were live the Banyamulenge and Bagogwe easily finds out the ins and outs of the prevailing persecution of this tribes by the Kigali regime. The recent shooting of the refugees of Kiziba camp is a crying example.
