The Seychelles Column - By Christopher Gill

The Seychelles Link to the Genocide in Rwanda

On Saturday, 23 November, 1996, the Chief Reporter of The Independent, Steve Boggan, stumbled upon an issue concerning the Rwanda Genocide, that missed the culpability of numerous members of the Seychelles Government.

Had Mr. Boggan gotten a few facts correct, the International Courts of Justice, would have sent investigators to Seychelles before the dawn of the Millennium. Mr. Boggan came very close indeed but missed the mark, just a little.

80 Tons of Weapons in Seychelles
In the first paragraph of the article, he says,” For once, it appeared a UN arms embargo had worked. A Ship, the Malo, carrying 80 tons of weapons bound for troubled Somalia, had been seized by the Government of the Seychelles”. The error of fact, in this article is this: The “Malo” was not seized by the Government of Seychelles per se.

The Maria or the Malo at the time, the Constitution of the Third Republic was being drafted. The Port Authority called in to James Michel who sat directly across me, his driver interrupted the proceedings, and gave him the news of a boat in distress. The Maria’s engine had broken down and the boat was adrift. The Harbour Master later confirmed that the name of the boat was the “Maria”. This was highlighted when the SBC film crew filmed the ship coming into port. The name “Maria” had been painted over quickly with undercoat, and “Malo” name next to it.

The duplicity of names was visible to the eye of even the television viewers. This issue was never explained by either James Michel or Albert Rene, and it was the beginning of a cover up that would end up in massacre of over One Million (1,000,000,000) Tutsi’s in Rwanda in April and May of 1994, one year after the Constitutional Commission convened the second time to draft a new constitution for Seychelles.

No Seizure on High Seas of Malo Ever Took Place
There was no effort by the Government of Seychelles to seize a ship with arms. Once the broken engine ship was brought to Port Victoria, the ship was bordered and inspected by Port officials. With the first crate being opened, the Customs officials called in the Army.

Then the 80 tons of arms was discovered and seized by the Government of Seychelles. Booty worth its weight in gold. Mr. Boggan says in his article, “It was 1993 and the UN had banned sales of weapons to Somalia as warring clansmen reduced the country to chaos. “In impounding this ship, “James Michel, the Seychelles Defence Minister, said, “We did the international community a service.” Mr. Michel obviously was covering up the accident of stumbling upon the ship called the Maria then called the Malo. He neglected to say that the Port Authority of Seychelles simply were responding to a distress call and stumbled upon the 80 ton cargo of arms.

At the time, the arms consignment upon being seized by Government of Seychelles, was off loaded from the ship, and made its way to bunkers at Grand Police Bay Army base for storage. Under James Michel command as Minister of Defence, Seychelles Government had taken full uncontested control of all the Malo ship 80 tons of weapons.

As the death toll in Somalia had been mounted, Mr. Michel claimed that a great service had been done to the People of Somalia, in Mr. Boggan’s article. Within the year, according to Mr Boggan and two (2) months according to me, the weapons had been targeted by unscrupulous operatives of a new arms procurement network....set up to devise ways of circumventing another embargo of sale of arms to Rwanda.”(Boggan Article).

The deception of calling the ship the “Malo”, allowed everyone, including the Government of Seychelles leadership, to infer that the arms were destined for Somalia. The question that the International Courts of Justice Committee on Rwanda Genocide need to answer, is what did the Manifest for the “Maria” list as its final destination? With that question answered, we will know if the new suitors for these arms were indeed new suitors, unbeknown to Mr. James Michel and Mr. Albert Rene, or were the suitors, just calling in to collect their goods, after a short delay and payment of handling fees.

Mr. Boggan writes inferring that Mr. Michel was too stupid to realize that the suitors for the 80 tons of weapons were indeed innocent purchasers. A brilliant publicity stunt by the reporter, if Mr. Michel was paying for the article he could not ask for a better escape valve.
I quote:”Mr. Michel and his colleagues did not know it, but they were about to fall victim to Colonel Theoneste Bagosora. Colonel Bagosora , a former Rwanda government defence official, had become the master arms buyer for the Rwandan government in exile as it regrouped for what, had it happened, would surely, have been one of the bloodiest wars in African history. The planned returned to Rwanda was codenamed Operation Insecticide by Hutu militias.”

Now Mr. Boggan wants us to believe that James Michel controlled 80 tons of arms and he did not know who he was selling it to? Now that is incredible. Even Bollywood could not think of that one.

UN Unpublished Report on Arms Sale to Rwanda
According to the UN unpublished report on the Arms sale to Rwanda, the Malo arms were sold using Zaire government End User Certificates (EUC’s).
Mr. Michel exercised no due diligence to verify that the end user certificates were valid. They usually are not. But he just accepted what was shown to him. No phone calls, no faxes, no investigation conducted by not even a lawyer in Zaire. No call to the government of Zaire. Check the Cable and Wireless records.

South African Apartheid Government Contact Makes Deal with Michel
The person that approached the Government of Seychelles in June 1994, to buy the 80 tons of weapons was a man named Wilhelm Terius Ehlers, known as Ters Ehlers, a former senior official in the apartheid government- and Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, a senior official of the Rwandan Ministry of Defence of the Hutu government in exile, in Zaire. These two men arrived in Seychelles to negotiate the purchase of the arms. It has been said, but not confirmed, that Glenny Savy did some of the negotiations on behalf of Mr. Michel and Mr. Rene.
When interviewed in Goma in February 1995 by the Human Rights Watch researcher, Colonel Bagosora said he had met with South African officials at the end of May (likely Teruis Ehlers) and June 1994 to arrange weapons shipments to the former Rwandan military. The officials (presumably Terius Ehlers) has refused to consider direct South African arms shipment but had offered to help to arrange shipments by other parties (presumably the 1994 Seychelles Government, headed by Rene and Michel).

The Shipment to Rwanda through Goma
The UN unpublished report says, on the nights of 16-17 and 18-19 June 1994, two planes of Air Zaire flew the weapons from the Seychelles government –controlled stockpile, to Goma airport. The weapons were then transferred to the ex FAR military forces in Gisenyi just across the border inside Rwanda.
The weapons included, anti tank and fragmentation grenades and high calibre ammunition. According to Human Rights Watch, an Air Zaire DC-8 aircraft with the call sign 9Q-CLV had transported the arms from the Seychelles to the Zairian town of Goma in two separate flights.

UN International Commission of Inquiry (March 1996)
The Commission found that a “highly probable” violation of arms embargo had taken place in June 1994 involving more than 80 tons of weapons purchased in Seychelles by Colonel Bagosoro ( Rwanda citizen), former high ranking officer of the former Rwanda-ese government forces.
The UN International Commission of Inquiry, now needs to ask whether Mr. Rene’s Government and Mr. Michel should have known that Colonel Bagosoro entering Seychelles with a Rwanda passport, would be legitimate grounds to question the authenticity of the Zaire sealed end user certificate?

A little hint to the UN International Commission of Inquiry on Rwanda Genocide: Colonel Bagosoro went through the VIP Lounge, at night under the cover of darkness. His entry into Seychelles, as a businessman will not be found at the Department of Immigration, nor will Mr. Teruis Elhers entry be found.

Finally, you can check with the ANC Government of South Africa, and you will confirm that Government of Seychelles, in 1994, made no attempt to clear Terius Elhers as a credible businessman in the purchase and sale of arms, carrying a South African passport.

The Statute of Limitations on “Genocide” never ceases to run, especially for 1,000,000,000 people
We Seselwa Rasin condemn acts whether direct or indirect that aid and abet genocide anywhere in the World. We call on the UN International Commission on Inquiry to get to work on the Rwanda Genocide and bring to justice all those that aided and abetted in the realization of Genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
The time ticks, but it does not run out.

One little detail UN Commission of Inquiry, if anything happens to me, you know who did it and prosecute that as well.

Sesel Pou Seselwa! May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois and Our Beloved Seychelles!

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