Four held for general's shooting in Joburg

21 June 2010, 09:38

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Four people have been arrested in connection with the shooting of an exiled Rwandan general in Johannesburg over the weekend, police said on Monday.

They were expected to face charges of attempted murder in a Johannesburg court soon, spokesman Brigadier Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said.

He declined to give further details of the arrests as he did not want to jeopardise ongoing investigations.

General Kayumba Nyamwasa, who is accused of terrorism in his homeland, was hospitalised after he was shot in the stomach in the driveway of his Melrose Arch home around noon on Saturday.

In a statement from Rwanda on Sunday, foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said her government was not involved in the crime and that they heard of it through the media.

Nyamwasa's wife, Rosette, when interviewed at a hospital in Johannesburg on Saturday, said she and her husband were returning from shopping to their upmarket gated community in Athol Oaklands Drive when a lone gunman shot at him.

Doctors told her he would make a full recovery. The shooter escaped.

Nyamwasa suspected politics was the motive because the gunman did not try to rob them. She said Rwandan President Paul Kagame had publicly threatened her family.

"He must be behind it. He wants us dead."

Nyamwasa and Kagame were once allied, but have fallen out, reportedly because Kagame sees his former military chief as a political rival.

The Associated Press reported on Sunday that the Rwandan government has linked Nyamwasa, who came to South Africa earlier this year, to three grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital in February. The attacks in central Kigali killed one person and injured 30.

The Rwandan government has accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilise Rwanda while he was in the country and while he was in India, where he recently served as Rwanda's ambassador.

South African police said earlier this year they had not arrested Nyamwasa because they do not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda. - Sapa

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