Paul Rwarakabije

Paul Rwarakabije (born 1952) is a Rwandan military officer and former rebel who served as the military leader of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALiR) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). He surrendered to Rwanda in 2003 and joined the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF), achieving the rank of major general.

Rwarakabije was a lieutenant colonel in the gendarmerie staff when the Rwandan Civil War broke out, with his unit participating in operations near the Ugandan border. He was repositioned to Kigali in 1992, where he would witness the opening hours of the Rwandan genocide. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front won the war, Rwarakabije and his fighters fled to Zaire, where they would be armed by the government and launch operations against Rwanda. He would go on to serve as the operational chief of the ALiR, and then the FDLR in 2000. He began losing faith in his cause as support from within Rwanda dwindled, and after months of secret negotiations with Rwandan military chief James Kabarebe, surrendered in November 2003. He was reintegrated into the RDF the following year, and served as Commissioner General of Rwanda Correctional Service after retiring in 2011.

Early life and education Rwarakabije was born in Gisenyi in 1952. A Hutu, he graduated from the École Supérieure Militaire in Kigali before pursuing advanced training courses in Zaire, France, and Belgium throughout the 1970s and 1980s. His training included Special Forces training by Belgian officers at the Kota-Koli camp in Zaire.

Career Rwandan Civil War After completing his studies, Rwarakabije was assigned to the gendarmerie staff. From 1990 to 1992, he served as commander of the Kigali mobile group, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In October 1990, while he held this command, the Rwandan Civil War broke out between the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR). Rwarakabije's unit participated in operations on the Ugandan border, between Ruhengeri and Akagera National Park. In July 1992, he was repositioned to Kigali and put in charge of the G3 of the National Gendarmerie Headquarters, responsible for training, operations, and organization. On 6 April 1994, he witnessed the assassination of president Juvénal Habyarimana on live television and the opening hours of the Rwandan genocide. In the second week of July 1994, Rwarakabije's superior, Augustin Bizimungu, determined in a meeting that the war was lost to the RPF, and ordered his forces to flee.

Rwarakabije had already been retreating since 3 July, when the RPF entered the suburbs of Kigali. He led his gendarmerie toward Ginseyi, where they would cross the border into Zaire on 17 July and settle at a Hutu refugee camp near Goma. There, he remained under the command of Bizimungu, who unified the ex-FAR fighters into a single force, with the goal of returning to power in Rwanda. and the operational commander in the insurgency against Rwanda, however his leadership was contested by hardliner Sylvestre Mudacumura, commander of the ALiR II. Upon his arrival at Kigali International Airport, Rwarakabije said: "We have decided to put down guns. War is not the best solution."

Most FDLR rebels, numbering between 13,000 and 20,000, remained in the DRC after his surrender. However, his surrender was a blow to the organization's structure. At the time, its leadership was already fractured when FDLR president Ignace Murwanashyaka was excluded from a September 2003 meeting of its Congress in Amsterdam, which he alleged was intentional. Rwarakabije's surrender was seen as evidence of the incumbent leadership's incompetence, and Murwanashyaka was deposed by the FDLR executive council and replaced by his vice president, Jean-Marie Higiro. As a result, the organization split into separate blocs centered around the two. He was accused of killing several people taking refuge at his home and others at the Gendarmerie headquarters in Kacyiru, but was acquitted on 25 July 2009 by the Gacaca court in Kacyiru due to a lack of evidence provided by the witnesses.

Reintegration into the military He was reintegrated into the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) in July 2004 alongside three other former rebel leaders as a major general, and later served on the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission. After retiring from the RDF, he was appointed Commissioner General of Rwanda Correctional Service in 2011.