Kayumba shooting: Rwanda summons SA Envoy
By Timothy Nsubuga – 12th-18th July 2010
Gen. Kayumba
The New Times, a Rwandese daily English newspaper reported on 7th July 2010 that the Rwandan government had summoned South Africa’s High Commissioner to Rwanda Gladstone Dumisani Gwadiso to express what the paper said were the Rwanda government’s concerns over the manner in which investigations into the shooting of renegade Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa are being conducted. “I summoned the Ambassador to express serious concerns in terms of how the investigations are being conducted. We have been seeing in the media, South African officials implicating Rwanda in the shooting, which is totally wrong and untrue”; said Rwandese Minister of Foreign Affair Louise Mushikiwabo. General Nyamwasa, Rwanda’s former Ambassador to India, was shot by a gunman last month in South Africa. Since then, there have been several controversial reports on the shooting. Foreign Minister Mushikiwabo added that, “…officials are not supposed to speculate whatsoever. They are giving signals implicating the government of Rwanda yet they are supposed to let the investigation take its course”.
Mushikiwabo is also reported to have tabled before the South African Envoy Rwanda’s protest about how some of its citizens were being treated in South Africa in relation to the Nyamwasa incident. “We are protesting the manner in which our citizen, Francis Gakwerere is being treated. He was arrested as a suspect but later released. Since then, the South African authorities have confiscated his property with no genuine explanation”; the Minister said.
According the New Times, other concerns raised by the minister included the delayed arrest and questioning of Nyamwasa’s driver; a key witness in the investigations into Nyamwasa’s shooting. “We are interested in this case since Nyamwasa is a Rwandan wanted by the Rwandan judicial authorities on serious crimes and that why we want absolute transparency in his shooting. We also want our citizens to be treated duly until proved guilty”; said Mushikiwabo.
