{UAH} Ex-Rwandan spy 'was on hit list', Drink could have been spiked then strangled

Ex-Rwandan spy 'was on hit list'

©The Daily Telegraph | 06 January, 2014 00:00

Colonel Patrick Karegeya, former head of Rwanda's external intelligence service, was found after being murdered in the "Michelangelo Towers Suites", where he has lived in exile for the past several years. File photo
Image by: ALEXANDER JOE / AFP

The Kigali regime is to blame, friends of the ex-Rwandan intelligence chief found dead in South Africa on Wednesday have claimed.

Patrick Karegeya, who served as the Rwandan intelligence chief for 10 years under President Paul Kagame before the two men fell out, had accused his government of ordering the shooting down of the former president Juvenal Habyarimana's plane in 1994 - an incident which sparked the genocide in which as many as 1 million people died.

The 53-year-old married father of three was found dead in a hotel room in Sandton, Johannesburg. A bloodied towel and a curtain tie-back were discovered in the safe, and his neck was swollen.

Police were due to conduct an autopsy on the body on Friday. They believe Karegeya's drink was spiked and he was strangled.

Friends say he was due to meet an old friend from Rwanda to discuss a possible business deal, and claim the friend may have been turned by the Rwandan government using large amounts of money. Police say they are "keeping an open mind" about who might be responsible for the death but say they have seen no evidence to suggest Kigali's involvement.

Several prominent Rwandan dissidents have claimed that their lives are at risk from the authoritarian Kagame, who is widely praised by the West for turning the country around after its darkest chapter but has proved intolerant of criticism. British police have warned Rwandans living in London that there may be contracts out on their lives.

General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, Rwanda's former army chief who is also living in South Africa and has himself survived two assassination attempts in Johannesburg, said that there was "no doubt" that Karegeya's death was ordered by Kagame's regime.

"We are not surprised by this, even though it's very tragic. People went to his house to try to kill him before."

Karegeya fled to South Africa in 2006 after serving 18 months in prison for insubordination and being stripped of his rank of colonel.

Nyamwasa said Karegeya knew of several plots to have him killed .

He claimed that the Rwanda Patriotic Front, the opposition party he and Karegeya had formed, had in its possession recordings of senior Rwandan security officials giving instructions for him to be killed and promising money in return.

___________________________________

Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower