'Operatives' blamed for shooting Rwanda general

Foreign “security operatives” were involved in the shooting of a Rwanda general who was living in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

General Faustin Nyamwasa was shot and wounded outside his Johannesburg home on June 19, four months after he came to South Africa seeking asylum.

Four people have been arrested, but police have declined to comment on their motive.

“This matter involves security operatives, and an attack on a person who has gone through the correct legal channels to seek asylum in South Africa,” said Ayanda Ntsaluba, the foreign ministry’s director general.

“It also involves a country with which we have good and strong diplomatic relations,” he said. “This why we will not make a determination about where the suspected attackers of General Nyamwasa come from.”

Nyamwasa’s wife Rosette, who was in the car with him during the shooting, believes the attack was a political assassination attempt.

Nothing was stolen during the incident, she said.

Rwanda has denied any role in the shooting.

“We want to be cautious and we are not pointing an accusing finger at any country,” Ntsaluba said.

“It is accepted practice that the foreign missions of any country has fully declared intelligence and security operatives,” he said. “If people from another country operate clandestinely, that is an entirely different dimension.”

“They must not get caught because that compounds relations between countries,” he added. “It cannot be taken lightly because that is subverting the stability of a country.”

The Rwanda government has accused Nyamwasa, and former army colonel Patrick Karegeya, of masterminding grenade attacks earlier this year in the run-up to presidential elections in August. - AFP