Mpiranya’s remains were exhumed last month and his identity
was then confirmed by DNA analysis on Tuesday.
According to reports, the UN investigators had tracked down
and identified Mpiranya’s grave with the help of a critical lead found on a
confiscated computer: the hand-drawn design of Mpiranya’s tombstone.
Mpiranya died in Harare in October 2006 of a heart attack
brought on by tuberculosis, at the age of 50 and was reported to have been
living in Zimbabwe for four years before his demise.
The French inscription on the tombstone read: “Here rests
forever one who loved his fatherland, his people and his family, more than his
own life.”
Below that, a crude depiction of a warrior with bow and
arrow was carved with the message: “Dad RIP”.
Mpiranya was head of the Rwandan Presidential Guard in 1994
before he moved on to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fighting with
Hutu forces and Zimbabwean troops on behalf of the then country’s president
Laurent Kabila, against the Rwandan army, in what became known as the second
Congo war.
It is reported that Zimbabwean officers saw the former
commander as a cut above most of the Congolese troops they were fighting
alongside.
“He developed a lot of relationships with these guys during
the war,” a senior official in the UN prosecutor’s office was quoted saying.
“They respected him. He was a good commander, a
professional, someone who listened, asked questions and took decisions. He was
very security conscious. So he impressed the Zimbabweans when others they were
working with did not.”
In September 2002, Mpiranya flew from Mbuji-Mayi in central
DRC to Harare before he died in 2006, according to reports. When the UN
officials visited the country, the Zimbabwean authorities agreed to allow
Mpiranya’s body to be dug up on April 27
for a DNA test.
At the grave site there were UN officials, a UN
pathologist, and three local detectives, among other ZRP officers. The
pathologist only took a sample, without disturbing the rest of the remains.
Herald
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