Rwanda: New UN Report Pins Tanzania On FDLR Militia

January 21, 2015

By James Karuhanga* [caption id="attachment_15718" align="alignleft" width="285"] Photo: Radio Okapi
Rwandan FDLR rebels (file photo).[/caption] The leaders of the genocidal FDLR militia and its political supporters in Europe have held several meetings in Tanzania since at least 2013, a new UN report has said. The final report of the UN Group of Experts on the DR Congo, dated January 12, a copy of which he New Times has seen, indicates that a staffer of the UN Mission in DR Congo (Monusco) reported how a senior FDLR commander and a Rwandan opposition politician, "Colonel" Hamada Habimana, FDLR's sector commander for South Kivu, travelled to Tanzania at the end of December 2013. "Paulin Murayi arrived in Dar es Salaam on December 31, 2013, and returned again on March 23, 2014. Twagiramungu told the Group he visited the United Republic of Tanzania in January 2014 and met with two FDLR commanders," the report reads in part in apparent reference to the self-exiled former Rwandan premier Faustin Twagiramungu. Murayi is a son-in-law of Felicien Kabuga, the most wanted African fugitive, who infamously bankrolled the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which claimed more than a million lives. The authors of the new report say that they "met with a senior FDLR commander that same day" in Tanzania and they are concerned that the Government of that country is "not investigating activities by and in support of FDLR on its territory." "Ahead of the issuance of the report, the Group shared with the Government some of the evidence it had obtained and asked for further details, but did not receive an answer as of late November." FDLR is a blacklisted terrorist organisation whose leaders are wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity, with some of them already on trial in a German court for leading an outlawed and criminal group.

According to the report, when, in a meeting with Tanzanian authorities on October 31, the UN Group of Experts asked about these visits and meetings in the neighbouring country, Tanzanian authorities said, "there is no hosting of any rebels and our military has no communication with any rebels." The UN experts documented money transfers from Tanzania to a woman who the investigators believe to be the wife of FDLR "Colonel" Hamada. In January and February 2014, the woman, "Marie Furaha" received $1,594 in Kampala (Ugandan capital) from "Hamisi Hasani Kajembe", who sent the money from Dar es Salaam while Hamada was in Tanzania. "The Government of Rwanda told the Group that Hamada's wife is named Marie and that she lives in Kampala. The phone number provided to the Group by Rwandan authorities for Marie also matches the phone number listed in data on the money transfers provided to the Group by Western Union. The Group further notes that Paulin Murayi sent money in February to Kajembe, who received it in Dar es Salaam," the report explains. The UN Group of Experts says it continues to investigate money transfers to and from known and suspected FDLR agents and supporters in Tanzania. *Source Allafrica/The New Times]]>