Ex-FDLR spokesman cooperating with RDF

KIGALI - The recently captured FDLR spokesperson, Lt. Col. Michel Habimana, alias Edmond Ngarambe, is now providing strategic information to the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), army spokesman has disclosed. Major Jill Rutaremara told The New Times in an interview yesterday that RDF is interested in getting as much information as possible from the former rebel since he was captured. “He is in our hands and what we are doing now is getting information from him…that is what we are more interested in than anything else,” he said as he confirmed that Edmond Ngarambe is now held by the RDF. Ngarambe is a former propagandist for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) that is now being hunted down in Congolese jungles by the ongoing joint Rwanda-DR Congo military operations. Despite having been quoted in the media preaching genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda and having been a manager of an FDLR network in the region and Europe, his next destination after capture does not seem to be in a Rwandan court. “We don’t have a dossier (an indictment file) for him. You can’t have indictments for 6,000 people,” said Rwanda’s Prosecution spokesperson, Augustin Nkusi, last Sunday. He added that welcoming FDLR captives with trials could not be the best option since it would discourage the rebels’ repatriation efforts. His views are not different from those of Jill Rutaremara’s who also said that prosecution actions against Ngarambe can create fear among other fugitives while the joint military operations want them back home. The country’s military prosecution is yet to reveal whether it has a case against Edmond Ngarambe. But some sources have so far linked him to the slaughter of the former Rwandan Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, in April 1994. There are also allegations that he may have played a role in other killings during the 1994 genocide against Tutsis. The Gacaca Executive Secretary, Domitille Mukantaganzwa, told The New Times last Sunday that the jurisdictions were investigating whether Ngarambe had a case to answer in Gacaca courts in his district of origin, Huye. Ends

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Ex-FDLR spokesman cooperating with RDF