Blood-thirsty African-leaders? First it was Idi Amin of Uganda; Charles Taylor of Liberia; Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Basher of Sudan and now a former senior defence official of Rwanda has been convicted of instigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide and sentenced to life in prison. His name, Theoneste Bagosora! The African bloody-beast, Mr. Theoneste Bagosora masked in a suit left, led a very maniacal committee that plotted the massacre of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the genocidal Rwandan war that claimed the lives of more than 800,000 Tutsis. Bagosora, 67, and the two senior military officers were found to have organised, trained and armed the Interahamwe militia, which was responsible for most of the killing. His committee was also responsible for drawing up a list of Tutsis and moderate Hutus who opposed their vision of an ethnically pure Rwanda. Mr. Thoeneste Bagorosa was so maniacal that the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda at the time, described him as a "known extremist" and the "kingpin" behind the genocide! Bagosora assumed control of military and political affairs in Rwanda when the former President Habyarimana died when his plane was shot down in 1994 - the catalyst for the genocide. On the morning of 7 April, Bagosora in person is said to have given the order to a group of Interahamwe in Rennera to begin the extermination of the Tutsi civilian population. On this same day, he reportedly ordered Major Ntabakuze (Commander of the “Batallion Para-Commando”) Major Nzuwonemeye (Commander of the “Batallion de reconnaissance” - see "related cases"), and Lieutenant-Colonel Nkundiye ( former Commander of the Presidential Guard) to start the massacres. In addition he was said to have given the order to military groups, including units of the Presidential Guard and the “Bataillon Para-Commando”, to go ahead with selective killing of people whose names were on a list. Still on the same day, radio channels broadcast a communiqué from Bagosora inviting the population to stay home and await further instructions. This communiqué was said to have simplified the task of the military and the militias in eliminating the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. On 11 April 1994, the military (which included units of the Presidential Guard and the Interahamwe) surrounded the Official Technical School to force out numerous Tutsis who had sought refuge there. Bagosora was reportedly at this location at the same time. After a forced march of two kilometres, the refugees were slaughtered by these military and militia units. From April until July 1994, Bagosora participated, with officers of the General Staff of the army, in daily meetings at which they were kept informed of massacres perpetrated against the Tutsi civilian population. They took no measures whatsoever to put a stop to these massacres, refusing categorically to intervene. In April 1994, Bagosora is said to have given the order to transfer funds from the National Bank of Kigali to Gitarama by the “Bataillon de reconnaissance”. Furthermore, he is reported to have negotiated arms purchases (from South Africa amongst others) in the name and for the account of the government. He is said to have continued, after he fled Rwanda (in summer 1994) to travel throughout Africa in order to purchase arms to fuel the Rwandan genocide. Considered to be the “mastermind of the genocide”, Bagosora was above all accused of having participated in the planning, preparation and execution of a plan which permitted a great number of atrocities to be perpetrated during the genocide. These crimes were committed by himself, by persons to whom he gave assistance or by his subordinates, either through his awareness of them or his acquiescence in them. Bagosora lived in Yaoundé from July 1995 until his arrest on 9 March 1996. Icheoku says Mr. Theoneste Bagosora is another example of a black-eye for Africa! Gladly enough he has been put away for the rest of his natural life and in the solitary environment of the prison, he will pine away, tormented by the spirits of those he sent to their untimely gruesome end. Theoneste Badosora will be haunted by all the dead of Rwanda which he heralded. That hatred of another will so boil over as evidenced by this monster Theoneste Bagosora, to exterminate the lives of others is unfathomable. Our gratitude goes to the men of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), sitting in Tanzania, who convicted Theoneste Bagorosa and pray that their decision will discourage other lunatics of Africa from embarking on such blood-letting orgy in the future. Icheoku hopes also that the other African mad-man at Khartoum Omar Bashir, has been placed on notice by this decision as his genocidal action in Darfour has since been taken judicial notice of. Profile: Col Theoneste Bagosora
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