20100620
bbc

Rwanda has said it was not behind the shooting of an exiled former military chief of staff in South Africa.

Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a critic of Rwanda's president, remains in a critical condition after being shot outside his Johannesburg home.

Rosette Nyamwasa said it was an assassination attempt as the lone gunman had made no demand for money or goods before shooting her husband.

Rwanda's government denies the claim, saying it does not condone violence.

Lt Gen Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach and has been undergoing surgery in a Johannesburg clinic.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says that since leaving Kigali in February, Lt Gen Nyamwasa had been a thorn in the flesh of President Paul Kagame, whom he accuses of corruption.
Official denial

The Nyamwasas had been returning from a shopping trip at around midday on Saturday when the gunman approached their car.

Official denial

The Nyamwasas had been returning from a shopping trip at around midday on Saturday when the gunman approached their car.
"[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband," Mrs Nyamwasa told the BBC.

"Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head... My husband got out immediately... And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn't cock the gun."

She added that Mr Kagame wanted her husband dead.

"[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him," she said.

But Rwanda's government told the BBC that it "does not condone violence" and "trusts the South African authorities' ability to investigate the incident thoroughly".

"We learned the news through the media, we have no confirmation of the incident," Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement.

"We wish the family strength and serenity."
Military reshuffle

Our analyst says Lt Gen Nyamwasa was one of President Kagame's closest confidants, until they fell out.

Since arriving in South Africa, the former army chief has accused the president of corruption, accusations the Rwandan authorities have denied.

He also claimed the judiciary were compromised and told the BBC in a recent interview that the judges were now "President Paul Kagame's property".

A couple of months after he went into exile, along with another top military officer, President Kagame reshuffled the military leadership ahead of elections due in August.

At the time, two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.

The elections will be the second presidential poll held since the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Arrest warrants

Lt Gen Nyamwasa played an important role in the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame, which put a stop to the killing and which is now in power.

But France and Spain have issued arrest warrants against Mr Nyamwasa for his alleged role in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior RPF figures.

He has also been blamed for a series of grenade attacks in Kigali in recent months, something he denies.

Mr Kagame, in power for the last 16 years, is viewed by many in the West as one of Africa's more dynamic leaders.

However critics have raised concerns about his more authoritarian tendencies and the government has recently been accused of harassing the opposition ahead of the elections.