[Rwanda Forum] The order to search and capture of a Rwandan general for genocide and killing four Spaniards.
The order to search and capture of a Rwandan general for genocide and killing four Spaniards.
The National Court magistrate José Luis Calama has ordered the search and capture of Kayumba Nyamwasa, a general and former head of Rwanda's secret services, who is under investigation for terrorism, torture, genocide and crimes against humanity.
In the court order, which El Confidencial has seen, the judge places him among the top responsible for mass killings of civilians in Rwanda during the 1990s, and asserts that he ordered the assassination of four Spaniards: the priest Joaquim Vallmajó; the nurse María Flors Sirera Fortuny; the photographer Luis Valtueña Gallego; and the doctor Manuel Madrazo Osuna.
Calama links Nyamwasa to various war crimes and notes that "he coordinated the military operation in the Byumba stadium," a town in northern Rwanda. That event took place in April 1994, when 2,500 Hutu refugees were gathered "to be massacred by throwing grenades and then opening indiscriminate automatic-rifle fire," according to the judge.
The magistrate suspects that Nyamwasa has been residing in South Africa since 2010, after being granted political refugee status despite ongoing investigations by France, Spain and Rwanda. In May 2024, Spain's National Court issued a request to South Africa to interrogate him by video conference, but the South African authorities never responded.
Nyamwasa's lawyers, who are formally part of the case, committed to arranging a date for the interrogation, but later stated that he "is in an unknown location." That led Calama, last July, to issue the search and capture order to ensure his provisional, unconditional detention. A copy of the order was sent to the Ministry of Justice, and in August the Criminal Chamber of the National Court rejected the defence's appeal against it.
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The general Nyamwasa
The judge links Nyamwasa to the events in Rwanda since 1990, when "a political-military structure, heavily armed and organized, began a series of criminal activities" aimed at seizing power. Its armed wing was the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) and its political arm the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
These groups were founded in Uganda by exiled Tutsis and launched "terrorist-style attacks on northern Rwanda," as well as military operations against both the Rwandan army and civilian populations. That offensive culminated in the assassination of the country's Hutu president in 1994.
"From that moment until June 1994, extremist Hutus responded, and 800,000 people were killed, mostly of the Tutsi ethnicity, along with moderate Hutus," Calama explains. "After that, the RPF/APR took power in Rwanda, and began persecuting and exterminating Hutus."
The magistrate asserts that Nyamwasa, then holding the rank of major general, played a decisive role. "Horrendous crimes against humanity were committed, which are the subject of this procedure, and Kayumba Nyamwasa appears as a direct responsible party," he notes. "These massacres were carried out by direct order of Kayumba Nyamwasa and his subordinates."
Calama emphasises that Nyamwasa eventually acted as head of Rwanda's secret services. He also served as Chief of Staff of the army from 1998 to 2002.
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The killing of the four Spaniards
The National Court began investigating the Rwandan genocide in 2008. A reform of universal jurisdiction in 2014 forced the case to be shelved, but in 2017 it was partially reopened after South Africa withdrew protection for Nyamwasa and the Spanish prosecution sought his extradition.
"Under his orders, the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the Spanish priest Joaquim Vallmajó and other Hutu Rwandan clergy in the Byumba zone in late April 1994" were carried out, the judge recalls. "He ordered and oversaw the killing of the three Médicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) Spaniards: María Flors Sirera Fortuny, Manuel Madrazo Osuna and Luis Valtueña Gallego," he adds.
Father Vallmajó was kidnapped on 26 April 1994 by a group of RPF soldiers in the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Kageyo, northern Rwanda. According to accounts from the convent, the last time the sisters saw him he was climbing into a truck of soldiers while making "a large, visible sign of the cross," as they recorded in the convent's diary.
The three Spanish aid workers from Médicos del Mundo were murdered on 18 January 1997 at the NGO's office in Gatonde, northwest Rwanda. Reporting at the time suggested they were shot in the head, and early testimonies pointed to Hutu militias as responsible. But now the Audiencia's investigation places this general of the RPF behind those crimes.
⸻
The other "massacres" of Nyamwasa
Beyond the murders of the Spaniards, Calama argues that Nyamwasa "was the top commander of operations carried out by the APR from late 1996 to early 1997 in northwest Rwanda," including massacres in the Ruhengeri region and in Gisenyi, Cyangugu, Nyakinama, and Mukingo.
Amnesty International detailed these killings in a 1997 report, warning that Ruhengeri and Gisenyi were zones where APR soldiers committed many extrajudicial executions. The report noted that, in January 1997, accounts of massacres began to surface in increasing frequency. In one case in Ruhengeri, the APR surrounded a group of unarmed civilians on 23 January and killed 28 of them. In another case, 24 were herded into a building and grenades were thrown inside. 
Calama also highlights that, as head of military secret services, Nyamwasa "organised and executed terror attacks against enemies of the regime." He planned military missions such as hiding weapons and ammunition in underground caches ahead of the final assault for power.
These operations included "systematic, planned attacks on predetermined or gathered populations, disappearances, summary extrajudicial executions and other similar actions." Apart from the massacres already referenced in northwest Rwanda, the judge draws attention to "the particularly cruel massacre carried out in the Nyacyonga camp." That mass killing occurred in a displaced persons' camp in mid-April 1994.
When the National Court first opened the investigation in 2008, it summarised what happened in Nyacyonga thus: "This camp was strategically surrounded, with APR soldiers firing in all directions to force displaced persons to congregate in the centre. Anyone who tried to flee was bound and killed with machetes. When a portion of that group attempted to break out, automatic weapons were fired indiscriminately. Survivors were funnelled toward Byumba and ambushed by APR soldiers and massacred." 
Source: Noble Marara's Fb Page
The National Court magistrate José Luis Calama has ordered the search and capture of Kayumba Nyamwasa, a general and former head of Rwanda's secret services, who is under investigation for terrorism, torture, genocide and crimes against humanity.
In the court order, which El Confidencial has seen, the judge places him among the top responsible for mass killings of civilians in Rwanda during the 1990s, and asserts that he ordered the assassination of four Spaniards: the priest Joaquim Vallmajó; the nurse María Flors Sirera Fortuny; the photographer Luis Valtueña Gallego; and the doctor Manuel Madrazo Osuna.
Calama links Nyamwasa to various war crimes and notes that "he coordinated the military operation in the Byumba stadium," a town in northern Rwanda. That event took place in April 1994, when 2,500 Hutu refugees were gathered "to be massacred by throwing grenades and then opening indiscriminate automatic-rifle fire," according to the judge.
The magistrate suspects that Nyamwasa has been residing in South Africa since 2010, after being granted political refugee status despite ongoing investigations by France, Spain and Rwanda. In May 2024, Spain's National Court issued a request to South Africa to interrogate him by video conference, but the South African authorities never responded.
Nyamwasa's lawyers, who are formally part of the case, committed to arranging a date for the interrogation, but later stated that he "is in an unknown location." That led Calama, last July, to issue the search and capture order to ensure his provisional, unconditional detention. A copy of the order was sent to the Ministry of Justice, and in August the Criminal Chamber of the National Court rejected the defence's appeal against it.
⸻
The general Nyamwasa
The judge links Nyamwasa to the events in Rwanda since 1990, when "a political-military structure, heavily armed and organized, began a series of criminal activities" aimed at seizing power. Its armed wing was the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) and its political arm the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
These groups were founded in Uganda by exiled Tutsis and launched "terrorist-style attacks on northern Rwanda," as well as military operations against both the Rwandan army and civilian populations. That offensive culminated in the assassination of the country's Hutu president in 1994.
"From that moment until June 1994, extremist Hutus responded, and 800,000 people were killed, mostly of the Tutsi ethnicity, along with moderate Hutus," Calama explains. "After that, the RPF/APR took power in Rwanda, and began persecuting and exterminating Hutus."
The magistrate asserts that Nyamwasa, then holding the rank of major general, played a decisive role. "Horrendous crimes against humanity were committed, which are the subject of this procedure, and Kayumba Nyamwasa appears as a direct responsible party," he notes. "These massacres were carried out by direct order of Kayumba Nyamwasa and his subordinates."
Calama emphasises that Nyamwasa eventually acted as head of Rwanda's secret services. He also served as Chief of Staff of the army from 1998 to 2002.
⸻
The killing of the four Spaniards
The National Court began investigating the Rwandan genocide in 2008. A reform of universal jurisdiction in 2014 forced the case to be shelved, but in 2017 it was partially reopened after South Africa withdrew protection for Nyamwasa and the Spanish prosecution sought his extradition.
"Under his orders, the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the Spanish priest Joaquim Vallmajó and other Hutu Rwandan clergy in the Byumba zone in late April 1994" were carried out, the judge recalls. "He ordered and oversaw the killing of the three Médicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) Spaniards: María Flors Sirera Fortuny, Manuel Madrazo Osuna and Luis Valtueña Gallego," he adds.
Father Vallmajó was kidnapped on 26 April 1994 by a group of RPF soldiers in the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Kageyo, northern Rwanda. According to accounts from the convent, the last time the sisters saw him he was climbing into a truck of soldiers while making "a large, visible sign of the cross," as they recorded in the convent's diary.
The three Spanish aid workers from Médicos del Mundo were murdered on 18 January 1997 at the NGO's office in Gatonde, northwest Rwanda. Reporting at the time suggested they were shot in the head, and early testimonies pointed to Hutu militias as responsible. But now the Audiencia's investigation places this general of the RPF behind those crimes.
⸻
The other "massacres" of Nyamwasa
Beyond the murders of the Spaniards, Calama argues that Nyamwasa "was the top commander of operations carried out by the APR from late 1996 to early 1997 in northwest Rwanda," including massacres in the Ruhengeri region and in Gisenyi, Cyangugu, Nyakinama, and Mukingo.
Amnesty International detailed these killings in a 1997 report, warning that Ruhengeri and Gisenyi were zones where APR soldiers committed many extrajudicial executions. The report noted that, in January 1997, accounts of massacres began to surface in increasing frequency. In one case in Ruhengeri, the APR surrounded a group of unarmed civilians on 23 January and killed 28 of them. In another case, 24 were herded into a building and grenades were thrown inside. 
Calama also highlights that, as head of military secret services, Nyamwasa "organised and executed terror attacks against enemies of the regime." He planned military missions such as hiding weapons and ammunition in underground caches ahead of the final assault for power.
These operations included "systematic, planned attacks on predetermined or gathered populations, disappearances, summary extrajudicial executions and other similar actions." Apart from the massacres already referenced in northwest Rwanda, the judge draws attention to "the particularly cruel massacre carried out in the Nyacyonga camp." That mass killing occurred in a displaced persons' camp in mid-April 1994.
When the National Court first opened the investigation in 2008, it summarised what happened in Nyacyonga thus: "This camp was strategically surrounded, with APR soldiers firing in all directions to force displaced persons to congregate in the centre. Anyone who tried to flee was bound and killed with machetes. When a portion of that group attempted to break out, automatic weapons were fired indiscriminately. Survivors were funnelled toward Byumba and ambushed by APR soldiers and massacred." 
Source: Noble Marara's Fb Page
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