Gen. James Kabarebe who now serves as President Paul Kagame’s Advisor on Security Matters has held several positions in the Rwandan army where he served as Rwanda’s Minister of Defence and Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) Chief of Defense Staff among other duties.
During the liberation struggle by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) that later changed name to current Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), Kabarebe served as the Private Secretary of Maj. Gen Paul Kagame who was Head of RPF military wing (RPA) and later became the Commander of the High Command Unit at Mulindi.
In October 1990, RPF Inkotanyi launched an armed war to liberate Rwanda after several peaceful attempts to let Rwandan refugees repatriate that had ended in vain.
RPF Inkotanyi has been at different times accused of having carried out the attack on a plane that carried President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, a plane crash that was followed by the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi that left over a million lives lost.
Speaking to 500 youths who gathered at Kimisagara Youth Development Centre on a theme entitled ‘Rubyiruko Menya Amateka yawe loosely translating as “Youth, Know your history’’, Kabarebe said RPA soldiers were very much disciplined and had a great and genuine reason to fight which helped them win the struggle.
“RPF Inkotanyi armed forces were so disciplined that you would not imagine they were a rebel movement. You would have thought FAR [Rwanda Armed Force) which was the national army of Rwanda until 1994] was instead a rebel group due to its indiscipline and disorganization,” General Kabarebe said.
Kabarebe explained that RPF recognized the enemy of the country as the bad, corrupt and exclusive governance while Habyarimana’s regime said Rwanda’s enemy was all Tutsi.
“You can’t win a war against a force that fights to liberate Rwandans and develop the country while you fight to kill part of its citizens. Whatever ammunition you may have, whatever knowledge your army may have, you can’t win that struggle,” Kabarebe emphasized.
“RPF never fought to seize power. Some people say we won the war just because Habyarimana had died. This is false because if we wanted to take power first, we would have conquered the nation and take Habyarimana by hands. We were so strong that FAR could not stand our way,” he said.
Habyarimana was not a threat to RPF
Gen James Kabarebe told the youth RPF saw no interest in killing President Habyarimana as he was not a threat to their struggle.
“Habyarimana would come in CND [Parliamentary premises] where many RPF soldiers lived but they never shot at him despite the fact that he was guarded by his junior guards. If RPF soldiers had wanted to kill him, they would have done it at CND,” Kabarebe explained.
Kabarebe urged the youths to keep a watchful eye and fight any kind of divisionism that can take Rwanda back to dark moments it went through.
Despite allegations that the plane that carried President Habyarimana was shot down by RPF, the French intelligence document recently revealed that Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, who was Chief in Defence Ministry and Laurent Serubuga, a former Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces were instigators of the April 1994 plane attack.
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