Prosecution has dismissed claims by Felicien Nsanzubukire and Anastase Munyaneza, former ‘Major Generals’ in the CNRD-Ubwiyunge outfit who told court that they should be given amnesty just like many other ‘rebels’ that were captured from the DRC. CNRD-Ubwiyunge is one of the groups that came together to establish the MRCD, a coalition that gave birth to the FLN militia, a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based outfit that carried out a series of attacks on Rwandan soil in 2018 and 2019, claiming 9 civilian lives, injuring many more, in addition to destroying lots of property. The two ‘Major Generals’, are part of a group of 21 persons that are being currently tried by the High Court Specialised Chamber for International and Cross Border Crimes in connection to the FLN militia. While presenting their defence during earlier stages of the trial, they told court that the 1999 Lusaka Accords and the 2007 Nairobi Communique in which Rwanda and its neighbouring countries committed to a process of disarming, demobilizing, repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration of members of DRC-based armed groups, as long as they did not take part in inhumane or genocidal crimes. Citing examples of other former soldiers of such armed groups that were reintegrated in Rwanda, Nsanzubukire and Munyaneza said the same should be done for them, since all people are equal before the law. However, on Friday, June 18, prosecution rubbished their claims, saying they are not true, since there is no law that binds Rwanda to give amnesty to each and every rebel from the DRC, or restraining them from bringing them to justice. Prosecutor Bonaventure Ruberwa went further to show court that the duo didn’t have any intentions of laying down their weapons and cooperating with the government of Rwanda in its goodwill of granting them amnesty, otherwise, they should have returned to Rwanda many years ago. “If they were really interested in abandoning these activities, they should have left DRC a long time ago, but on the contrary, they stayed there since 1994 until when they were arrested about 26 years later, having even switched from the FDLR to join CNRD-Ubwiyunge,” he said. On a special note, Nsanzubukire features on a sanctions list by the UN Security Council over atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the time he was part of the FDLR which he left to be part of CNRD-Ubwiyunge. Prosecution asked the court to hand each one of them a 20-year jail term.
