Green Party banner over Rwanda: Founding meeting of Democratic Green Party of Rwanda results in broken bones and arrests
By Frank Habineza
Interim Rwandan Green Party leader
October 31, 2009
Source: Green Party of The United States
The Rwandan Democratic Greens tried on October 30th, for the fourth time, to hold their founding convention in Kigali, but this time the police came instead.
Dear Greens,
Its indeed been a terrible day, the man who started the shouting and threw chairs, we have established that he is an Ex-Soldier and a former employee of Military Intelligence, the other three people who joined him, one of them had something like a gun-pistol, it was also seen by the US Envoy and Netherlands Envoy and many others.
This was a well planned sabotage done by security operatives. Another guy was also from the Local Defense Forces. The police was not helpful at all. It looked like they were compromising us.
What is surprising though is that the police has released the guys who caused trouble and rather arrested our members one of them a mother. Thankfully our members have been released but made statements at the police. They were asked why they decided to be members of our party.
Several people are injured, one Lady is in intensive care. Her Back is having a problem. Am still finding out how many are injured.
Dear Greens,
Its indeed been a terrible day, the man who started the shouting and threw chairs, we have established that he is an Ex-Soldier and a former employee of Military Intelligence, the other three people who joined him, one of them had something like a gun-pistol, it was also seen by the US Envoy and Netherlands Envoy and many others.
This was a well planned sabotage done by security operatives. Another guy was also from the Local Defense Forces. The police was not helpful at all. It looked like they were compromising us.
What is surprising though is that the police has released the guys who caused trouble and rather arrested our members one of them a mother. Thankfully our members have been released but made statements at the police. They were asked why they decided to be members of our party.
Several people are injured, one Lady is in intensive care. Her Back is having a problem. Am still finding out how many are injured.
Keep us in prayers,
Frank Habineza
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“The Effects of the (End of the) Cold War on Central African Politics: How a Cold War turned into a very Hot One” (Kris BERWOUTS, Director EurAc)
By Kris BERWOUTS
Director, EurAc
October 26, 2009
Introduction
Central Africa has been shaped by complex regional dynamics, through which local disputes and national conflicts have spilled over national borders. Each country in the region has a complex internal situation and a violent recent history, where local antagonisms have become polarized and entangled with those of neighbouring countries. Following the end of the Cold War and throughout the 1990s these regional dynamics have developed into an avalanche of killing and destruction. During the two wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), (1996-1997 and 1998-2002) which followed the genocide in Rwanda, the Congo and particularly its eastern provinces became the battlefield of “Africa’s First World War”. The DRC’s wealth of natural resources has been an important factor in fuelling conflict as warring factions competed for control of parallel networks for the illegal flow of resources from the DRC into international markets. The result is a collapsed state, a crisis of impunity and, most of all, a martyred population. Approximately 6 million people have died as a direct or indirect consequence of the conflict, making this the bloodiest war since the Second World War. Neither the transition nor the elections have been successful in bringing peace and security to the eastern Congo.
A.Conflict, which conflict? Conflict with many layers or several conflicts?
People often ask me: what is the central point in the conflict in Central Africa. The question is extremely hard to answer. There is not one conflict. In eastern Congo, there are at least three layers of conflict that come together in a context which is already in itself very complicated. The three layers overlap and mutually reinforce each other, but none of them can be reduced to one of the other ones.
a.First, there is the struggle for the power in Kinshasa after the dismantling of the Congolese state. Within weeks after independence, Congo fell into a constitutional and institutional crisis, the country became a pawn on the chess board of the Cold War, the state was taken care of with such a degree of bad governance that we had to invent the word kleptocracy for it; state institutions and public mandates were (and to a large extend still are) considered as tools for personal enrichment. The result is a crisis of legitimacy, a ruined state that needs to be rehabilitated from nearly zero and the total absence of the normal instruments of a state to impose the rule of law. The rehabilitation of the Congolese state is a condition for sustainable peace in Central Africab.The Rwandese war and genocide which has been exported to Congo after the flight of two million Rwandese Hutu. Rwanda’s involvement in Mobutu’s fall, the war of 1998-2002. The permanent presence on Congolese soil of Rwandese armed opposition who, until today are responsible for much of the suffering of the population of eastern Congo and remain a threat for Rwanda. The maintained presence of Rwanda-supported armed groups lead by Congolese Tutsi. c.The rat race for the natural resources of Congo, whose exploitation has long escaped the control of the state because the mining and commercialisation were organised through parallel and illegal networks. The nineties did not create the illegal exploitation of natural resources but changed its direction: Kampala and Kigali became the main axes for minerals, coming from Congo and sold on the world market, often passing through East African harbours, the Arab countries or the Indian subcontinent.
These three layers come on top of a complex local situation, with complicated relationships between communities and a land problem with a lot of population pressure.
B.International politics after the Cold War: a more complex game with more players
At the end of the eighties, the classical bipolar scheme that had dominated international politics since the Second World War disappeared. Perestroika and the Soviet Union’s economic failure led to its disappearance. In the Autumn of 1989, one after the other of the Eastern European states went through some form of velvet or more violent revolution. The Soviet Union took more time to disintegrate and was dissolved in 1991. That was the formal end of a world where two superpowers dominated the global agenda.
A wave of optimism was palpable in international politics. Finally the arms race could end and enormous amounts of money which were previously used for building up military power could now be invested in sustainable development and the struggle against poverty. The one remaining superpower started to behave as if it could safeguard a new world order. The United States saw itself as the global policeman with a mission to spread and protect peace and democracy in the world. Its intellectuals predicted the end of ideology and the end of history, and very soon even the end of national states.
But as had been the case of the Pax Romana and the Pax Britannica before, the Pax Americana was very soon perceived by the rest of the world as a unilateral domination of a superpower to safeguard its own geo-strategic interests. It was not going to last.
Of course there were a number of worrying events and tendencies. Extreme right wing parties re-emerged on the political scene in Europe for instance, as part of a more general rise of nationalism which would lead in the early nineties to the wars in former Yugoslavia, and the rise of orthodox Islam. We all were fully aware of those tendencies and events, but we saw them as phenomena linked to the end of the Cold War, and were not aware enough of the signs that the new world order was soon to turn into disorder.
In Africa, civil wars resulted in the implosion of states in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia, and those of Central Africa. The old demons of nationalism, extremism and ethnic cleansing were not dead, they were only sleeping, and they woke up with a lot of noise. The international community lacked the operational power and/ or the political will to stop massive crimes against humanity, stop humanitarian disasters, stop genocides. The United Nations lost an important part of its credibility and its moral authority.
The Pax Americana turned out not to exist. The United States probably still is the biggest power on the planet , but apparently that is not enough to impose its will, not to mention a world order. The campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq after Sept. 11. 2001 gave clear evidence of this.
Europe also has been through a lot of changes in these twenty years. The European Union has become an important player in terms of economics and development even though it turned out to be difficult to translate this economic importance into a coherent political voice on the scene of world politics.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, we are living in a multi-polar world. Some countries until recently considered as developing countries are growing fast and have become the engine of world economics. Russia is coming back on the world scene. China, Brazil, India, Egypt and Russia have economies that grow much faster then the western industries. Ambitious multinationals from these countries are climbing fast in the rank order of world companies, and soon these nations will claim more space in international politics.
C.Dramatic events as the immediate consequence of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Central Africa
Congo went through thirty years of neo-colonial dictatorship under Mobutu, supported by the West for two reasons: (a) to safeguard western economic interests in the mining sector; and (b) as a bastion against communism in Africa on the geo-strategic chess board of the Cold War.
a.He committed a coup d’état and consolidated his power in a period where a number of African heads of states declared themselves adepts of African socialism, such as Kwameh Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Milton Obote, Muammar el Ghadaffi and even such people as Léopold Senghor, Jomo Kenyatta, or Gafar Nimeiry. In the early seventies, more radical, armed movements inspired by Marxism such as Frelimo, MPLA, PAIGC organised themselves successfully in Lusophone Africa, later followed by ZANU/ ZAPU in Zimbabwe and Swapo in Namibia. Mobutu received western support because he was considered as a barrier against such developments.b.He tried to give his regime its own content through the zairification, which was supposed to be a kind of cultural upgrading of the African identity as an attractive alternative to African socialism. But its main impact was economic, in a very negative way: the expropriation of expatriate owned industries and other enterprises in the medium run was the economic suicide of Mobutism, because the means of production were divided among the elite of the regime, often people without the vision, the competence or the will to manage what had been entrusted to them in a responsible or sustainable way.
After the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War, Mobutu and many of his fellow presidents in Africa lost their relevance for the west, and all of a sudden (with the speech of President Mitterand on the Summit of the French-speaking countries in La Baule, in June 1990 as an important milestone) the western countries pressurised their African allies to democratise and to respect fundamental human rights.
This is neither the time nor the venue to go into the details of the history of Central Africa during the nineties, but, as in some other countries on the continent, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo faced a situation where the accelerated democratisation processes led to the implosion of the state and conflicts which were different from those that had existed earlier. The tensions in the different countries polarised and started to overlap, which gave space to a lot of ad hoc alliances, often very irrational and most of the time based on the adage “the enemy of my enemy should be my friend”, even if today’s enemy sometimes turns out to be tomorrow’s friend. The result was a network of unstable coalitions between armed groups and political players that interlinked geographically every African country between Angola and the Horn.
At the end of the nineties, all these antagonisms, conflicts and alliances crystallised around Congo, which thus became the battlefield of what soon came to be called the First African World War, opposing an alliance Kabila/ Mugabe/ Dos Santos/ to an alliance Museveni/ Kagame/ Buyoya/ Congolese rebels.
D.Profound changes in Central Africa since the mid-nineties
From a culture of violence towards total impunity
In the night of the 21st to the 22nd of October 1993, the democratisation process that should have brought peace and stability in Burundi after decades of ethnic exclusion and cyclic violence came to an end with the assassination of the newly elected President Melchior Ndadaye. It was the start of an open civil war which continued for more then a decade where hundreds of thousands of people were killed, and many more injured, raped, dispossessed or displaced.. In April 1994, the political, ethnic and social tensions in Rwanda came together in four months of extreme violence and a genocide causing the death of between 700,000 and a million people, mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutu, and ending in the military victory of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) and the exodus of two million Hutu to the neighbouring countries, especially Congo (then Zaire). In 1997, rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power in Kinshasa after an eight month insurrection against Mobutu, with the support of Rwanda and Uganda, and changed the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fifteen months after taking over the country, Kabila fell into disgrace with his former allies: Rwanda and Uganda started a new military campaign against their neighbour on August 2nd 1998. The expected fall of Kinshasa did not take place, and the war continued for many years, formally until the withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwandese armed forces in 2002.
The entire region entered into a very violent decade, the existing tensions within and between countries of the region polarised and led to huge, orchestrated outbursts of extreme violence, characterised by the enormous numbers of civilians among the victims as well as among those who committed the violence. The violence was not in the first place committed by regular armies but by armed groups which were sometimes very difficult to identify precisely, often combining a very vague political agenda with an ethnic profile which had much clearer economic interests. The violence caused not only massive waves of displaced people and refugees, but also the total destruction of the state and its instruments, thus leaving the population in total disarray, with the disintegration of social and institutional networks. The living conditions of a huge part of the population dropped to a previously unseen low level.
As far as the DRC is concerned, very early in the war, mortality rate surveys were carried out, in the first place by the American NGO International Rescue Committee. Different subsequent studies have revealed the conflict to be the deadliest since the Second World War. Although the Congolese war officially ended in December 2002 with the signing of a peace accord, fighting and insecurity have continued in large areas of the east of the country. Up to January 2008, a total of 5.6 million deaths had been attributed directly or indirectly to the conflict. This figure dwarfs the death tolls of all the high-profile natural disasters and acts of terrorism of the past decade – in fact, it is more than four times the total number of deaths from all such disasters combined over the past ten years.
The events in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo changed a culture of violence in these countries into a state of lawlessness and total impunity, where justice ceased to exist, where militias are organised, disintegrate and escape from any form of control, where regular armies become the major source of insecurity and where rape is commonly used as a weapon of war. Living for years under extreme violence and total impunity changes an individual, a community, a nation, a region from within. It affects the culture, it affects the values.
From an informal economy towards a militarised economy
During the second war in Congo, from 1998 until its official end in 2002, natural resources became more and more the stake of the conflict, for the countries supporting the rebels as well as for the allies mobilised by the government in Kinshasa. In both cases the plundering of Congo was systematically organised with the help of the Congolese elites. Between April 2000 and October 2002, a Panel of Experts with a mandate from the Security Council produced three reports on the illegal exploitation of natural resources. They worked in the first place on the exploitation of the resources in the eastern part of the country by Rwanda and Uganda (gold, diamonds, cassiterite, coltan and timber) but also on the plundering by Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, thus paying back their support of the Congolese government by helping themselves through mining concessions..
The eastern provinces were formally under control by the RCD rebels, who were too weak and too small to govern. In practice, control was carried out by the Rwandese army (with more and better trained soldiers) and civil servants. In Rwanda itself, a Congo Bureau was set up to deal with the exportation of the Congolese natural resources which in reality was a channel for military and political leaders to commercialise a part of the Congolese minerals without passing through the official accounts of the Rwandese state. Thus, the Congolese natural resources generated not only the funds to cover the military expenses, they also were the main source of personal enrichment of the Rwandese elite. As the Report of the Expert Panel of October 2002 stated, the activities around the Congo Bureau contributed 320 million dollars to the military expenses of Rwanda, and had a huge impact on Rwanda’s foreign affairs policy and other official decisions. The panel estimated that 60% to 70% of the coltan that left from Eastern Congo was exported under the direct supervision of APR commanders, from small airports in the immediate surroundings of mines to Kigali or Cyangugu.
Within the mining areas, Congolese civilians were forced to work without payment, or forced to sell the minerals to Rwandese officers at a very “preferential” rate. High quality surveys and reports have been produced by specialised international NGOs such as Global Witness, Raid and Ipis, on top of course of the excellent work done by the Panel of Experts.
The consequence was that the informal economy in Eastern Congo, as the result of decades of kleptocracy and dismantling of the state, was militarised to the point that the continuation of the state of lawlessness, with all its consequences in terms of security and human rights, became a condition for the continued and systematic plundering of the natural resources.
Maintaining a war economy after the war
After the official withdrawal of the Rwandese troops in September 2002, Rwanda installed a series of mechanisms to control the economy in Eastern Congo without the open presence of the Rwandese army. Rwandese businessmen have replaced Congolese directors in charge of parastatal enterprises; a number of soldiers have stayed behind to continue to work in the mining sector, changing their uniforms into suits. Different sources reported to the experts of the UN Panel that RCD officers, now formally part of the regular Congolese army but still loyal to Rwanda used the security sector reforms and the integration of the army to bring Rwandese soldiers into the FARDC and into the local defence forces.
But the most important instrument for Rwanda to maintain, during the transition in Congo and after the elections of 2006, a climate of impunity was the CNDP (Conseil National pour la Démocratie et la Paix) of Laurent Nkunda. The last report of the Expert Panel of the United Nations (December 2008) described in great detail how this rebellion received support from commercial networks in Rwanda, and from political and military authorities within the Rwandese state. The joint operation carried out by the Rwandese and Congolese national armies after January 20th 2009, was supposed to dismantle the FDLR as a rebellion and integrate its soldiers into the national army on the one hand, and to dismantle the FDLR as a military threat to Rwanda.
How successful this and following military campaigns have been is not something everybody agrees on. We don’t see any sustainable solutions as a result of these campaigns. On the contrary, we find them counter-productive. I will come back to it in my final remarks.
E.Towards new power balances and new mechanisms of non-violent regulation of conflicting interests?
Opportunities for multilateralism – the regional level
So where were we? International politics have changed, and Central Africa has changed. The events since the fall of the Berlin wall changed a culture of violence into a state of impunity, and militarised an informal economy.
What are the possibilities for a non-violent, negotiated multilateral arrangement? The problems in the region are so interlinked that it is difficult to imagine a sustainable solution for one of the countries if it is not part of a larger, coherent regional approach. On the stability of Congo will depend the stability of its nine neighbours, some of whom are held to be very strategic countries too. Angola for instance, is classified by the Pentagon as an area of national interest because it provides 8% of the oil imported by the United States.
Since Kabila took over power from Mobutu, southern Africa has become a major player in the DRC. South Africa had already replaced Belgium as the main provider of consumer goods in Congo in the nineties. President Mandela tried to mediate between Kabila and Mobutu, who was already suffering from the disease that would kill him a few months later. Only four months after Kabila took office, Congo joined SADC, the Southern African Development Community, which covers areas of cooperation such as energy, trade, transport and water. Mining and construction firms based in South Africa are present in different places in Congo but especially Katanga. Exports of mining products from Katanga and Kasai go through South African ports. Twelve years after Mobutu’s death, South Africa is a major partner or Congo.
Angola is a major partner too. Angola provided support to Kabila during the war of 1996-1997, and responded to Kabila’s invitation in 1998 by sending troops, together with Zimbabwe and Namibia, to help Congo to stop the Rwandese/ Ugandan intervention. Angola was very heavily present and visible in the days after the assassination of President Kabila in January 2001, in maintaining security in the capital. Since the transition, Angola has been, like South Africa, an important partner in the security sector reforms, contributing to the training and integration of the Congolese army.
Congo will always be important to its three eastern neighbours in the Great Lakes region, who have a problem of overpopulation. Because of its water, Congo will be important for the countries of Southern Africa who struggle with a chronic drought problem and a serious energy deficit. Congo will be important for all its neighbours because of its natural resources.
Different structures for multilateral economic partnership exist in Central Africa and at this point, there is some competition for influence. Rwanda and Burundi are now part of the East African Community; Congo is, as we have seen, part of SADC. The three of them, together with other countries, were member of the CEEAC, the Economic Community of Central African States, but Rwanda recently left. Some countries, especially Belgium, are promoting the idea of the CEPGL, the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Region, with Rwanda, Burundi and Congo as members.
The idea of these structures is very similar to the ideas that inspired the founding fathers of the European Union, to create a common interest through economic integration, and a network of agreements, relationships, procedures and protocols that make war virtually impossible. Will this work? We shall see. What we already see is a lot of expectations. A lot of bilateral and multilateral donors are committed to invest in it. We cannot be against it.
Nevertheless we regret that the enthusiasm about the regional economic networks seems to go hand in had with a withdrawal of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, which was meant as a political framework for conflict regulation between its 11 members (Kenya, Congo and the nine neighbours of Congo). The European NGOs always supported the idea of an International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) as a viable framework to address the fundamental issues regarding the conflicts in and between the countries. The Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam of November 2004 and the Nairobi Pact on security, stability and development of 15 December 2006 remain major tools for the creation of conditions of security, stability and sustainable development between the member states. We regret the hesitancy we see among some of the donors in confirming or renewing their commitment. We continue to consider the ICGLR as a very relevant structure with a unique mission and a clear added value; we do not believe that economic networks can replace the multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary perspective of the ICGLR, which links in a unique way the dimensions of peace, security, good governance, human rights and economic development. We do not see any other structure taking up the issues which are important for us, such as the struggle against sexual and gender based violence, the illegal exploitation of natural resources, and trans-border insecurity.
Opportunities for multilateralism – the international level
Also the international partners around Congo have changed.
The European Union was extremely active during the transition in the DRC. Along with its Member States, it held an important place in the CIAT during the transition. It was the most important of the election’s financial backers and it had an enormous cooperation budget. EUFOR’s deployment, in its function as a deterrent force, contributed to security during the two rounds of elections. At the promulgation of the new constitution, the EU acted as the proud godfather beside the Third Republic’s crib. During 2007, this godfather gradually disappeared into the wings. Other parents have made a grand entrance into the chambers of the new Congolese democracy. China, for example, has signed massive agreements with the DRC. Also the United States have been very active on Congo. First at the end of 2007, just before the Joint Declaration of Nairobi of November 2007 and the Agreements of Goma of January 2008 and more recently again with their role in Umoja wetu. Hillary Clinton’s visit to Eastern Congo and the nomination of Ambassador Howard Wolpe as a Special Envoy are remarkable facts. There are a lot of expectations about Peace Nobel Price Winner Obama. Of course, the changes that his presidency will bring remain to be seen. Obama’s presidency is happening at a time when the balance of power is shifting between nations. The United States has dominated international politics for decades, in a bipolar world during the Cold War and the mono-polar environment afterwards. For the immediate future, countries that are undergoing rapid growth will become more powerful. Soon, they will require more weight to their voice on the stage of international politics.
For those of us interested in developments in Central Africa, the realignment of international relationships causes us to question what the implications will be for the region. We are also waiting for change, but we are aware that many of the new president’s circle originate from Bill Clinton’s entourage whose term in power signalled a particularly disastrous period for the Great Lakes region. Not only did the region’s states break down, but the international community’s efforts to manage the consequences of this collapse also failed. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether Obama will treat Central Africa from a regional perspective, rather than favouring the visions and actions of a single country, as his predecessors did. The true momentum of Obama’s election in relation to Central Africa could be in the fact that it could contribute to revitalise the multilateral approach. Pax Americana and the Bush doctrine made the planet more dangerous and less stable, but the new president seems to favour a diplomatic and multilateral route. In the multi-polar world which is currently being forged, Europe is still an important force in the international arena and it can maintain this position with clear and immediate action to protect the population and the peace process in the Congo, provided that it succeeds in finding internal coherence and the will to play a proactive role in its foreign policy.
In the mean time: the military operations:
One year ago, Congo was world news, because of Laurent Nkunda. Now, a succession of diplomatic and military events has greatly altered relationships in the region. Of course we are happy that Congo and Rwanda have come closer to each other: unless these two countries resume normal relations there will never be durable peace in Central Africa. Conceptually, we did not have difficulties with military action: we have always maintained that there could not be a purely military solution, but that a diplomatic approach would never be respected without real pressure from the military. Now, however, we have problems with the triumphalism of the Rwanda and Congo governments. The joint operation has only partially succeeded in attaining its two objectives. It is true that Laurent Nkunda is no longer present but until now the CNDP has not been fully integrated into the FARDC. Part of the CNDP was never integrated, and the other part only underwent “ultra light” and superficial integration, similar to the mixage from the beginning of 2007 which was meant to neutralise Nkunda but only made him stronger. In fact, the obvious question on the integration of CNPD forces into FARDC is: “In the end, who integrated who?” On the ground, not only are the CNDP’s chains of command still intact, but the CNDP has also kept its hold over the zones which it previously controlled, maintaining barriers and parallel administration in several places.
As far as the FDLR is concerned, the military operations have solved nothing. The FDLR made a strategic withdrawal to avoid conflict, then afterwards took back most of their positions, taking revenge on the population with more violence than they had used for several years. Hundreds of thousands of people displaced during the successive waves of fighting have fled to escape from actual or potential violence. In the mean time, we see that the FARDC continues to disintegrate, and that deserters are recruited by FDLR and militias other than the regular forces.
We started this lecture with different layers of conflict. One was the dismantling of the Congolese state for nearly half a century. Are we any closer to a solution? Not really. The Third Republic is ill. Nothing much happened since the historic elections of 2006, we continue to plead for local elections and progress in decentralization. The army is not in a better position than before to play its role, and remains much more a part of the problem then a part of the solution. Performance of national and provincial governments and assemblies are not impressive, to say the least.
We talked about the Rwandese conflict. Do we believe that Rwanda is making progress in solving its main contradictions? I’m afraid we don’t. There is hunger and famine in parts of the country - caused by export-driven agricultural modernisation policy, excluding the small scale farmers who remain the large majority of the population. People often mention the Rwandese ‘miracle’ in economic growth, at a time when living standards and buying power (including those of middle class Rwandan professionals) are being eroded. Justice deals with genocide and with the crimes against humanity of one side, but on the crimes against humanity of the other side there still remains an immense taboo. The democratic space is still under the tight control of a government that leaves no space for dissident opinions. De facto, the country is run as a one party state.
I said we are strongly in favour of the CIRGL and associated projects such as the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL). Such structures must not become a framework which would legitimize the dominance of the regions stronger states over the weaker ones, for example by appropriating natural resources to themselves. The Congolese population can only take advantage of these structures if the Congo participates as a strong state, which it is not. Therefore, it is very important to continue building the institutional and constitutional framework of the Congolese state, and that means that local elections need to be organized and the decentralization process carried forward.
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The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region: A regional approach on security, stability and development Memorandum for the Czech Presidency of the EU
Brussels, 31 March 2009 - EurAc, the network of European NGOs for Central Africa, has always taken the position that any sustainable solution to the problems of Rwanda, Burundi or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must be based on a regional approach. The states in the sub-region are in a very complex regional process with divisions and conflicts at national level taking on a cross-border dimension. These three countries each have a complex internal situation and a violent recent past where differences have become polarised and interconnected with those of neighbouring countries. At the end of the Cold War this situation degenerated into an avalanche of killing and destruction in the 1990s, resulting in large scale organised violence.
The idea of an International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) was born in the mid-1990s as a result of the effects of the Rwanda genocide on the wider region. The Conference was eventually established in 2003 by the UN in collaboration with the African Union (AU) with the aim of formulating a regional approach to resolve the conflicts and instability in each of the countries. The Conference includes eleven member states , of which eight have experienced or are still involved in internal armed conflicts with international repercussions. At the present time there are processes in place to consolidate peace in all these countries.
The objective of the ICGLRL is to « initiate a process within which the leaders of the countries of the Great Lakes region will try to come to a common agreement on a number of principles – good neighbourly relations, stability, peace, development etc. – and will specify and implement a number of action programmes with a view to ending the cycle of conflict and leading the region towards lasting peace, stability, security, democracy and development. »?
Since its creation, the ICGLRL, bringing together the leaders of eleven countries who support the same principles, has brought about several key developments, notably the signature of the Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam (2004) and the Nairobi Pact (2006).
Before the conferences
The ICGLR went through a long preparation period, with complex consultation processes in which the different participating bodies (especially youth, women and civil society groups) drew up their terms of reference as a basis for discussion at the two heads of state meetings. Several EurAc member associations, through their partners in the region, supported this process. However, bureaucracy and politicization caused discouraging delay and prevented meaningful participation by civil society.
Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam
In November 2004 the Summit of Heads of State in Tanzania lead to the signature of the declaration of Dar-es-Salaam. This was the first official result of the ICGLR process. In this declaration the heads of state confirmed their political will to resolve the conflicts in the Great Lakes region. They also laid down four priority lines of action: (1) peace and security, (2) democracy and good governance, (3) economic development and regional integration and (4) humanitarian and social matters. The Declaration also provided for the creation of a special fund for reconstruction and development in the Great Lakes region.
Dar-es-Salaam showed a strong commitment to peace in the region. Unfortunately the events that followed illustrated the gap between official commitments and action on the ground, notably Rwanda's involvement in fighting in Kanyabayonga less than a month later, and its support to the Congrès National pour la defense du People (CNDP) faction, both in the DRC, as described in the final report of the UN group of experts on the Congo.
Nairobi Pact
The Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam established the framework for the ICGLR's second big event, the Summit of Heads of State in Nairobi (Kenya) where a Pact on security, stability and development in the Great Lakes region was signed on 15 December 2006. The Pact came into effect on 21 June 2008, after its ratification by 8 out of the 11 member states' parliaments, and embodies the desire of the heads of state to solve the region's problems. The objectives of the Pact are: (1) carrying out the proposals in the Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam, the agreements, the action programmes, the regional follow-up mechanism and the special fund for reconstruction and development and (2) creation of conditions of security, stability and sustainable development between the member states. The Pact also includes an action plan adopted on 16 December 2006 by the 11 heads of state.
The Nairobi Pact proposed a regional follow up mechanism for the ICGLR. This mechanism includes the Summit of Heads of State and of government, the Inter-ministerial Regional Committee, the Secretariat, and national mechanisms for coordination and cooperation. At the time of its creation, the CIRGL was chaired by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the GLR and coordinated by a UN/AU joint secretariat based in Nairobi. Since the signing of the Nairobi Pact, the heads of state and government have taken turns to chair the Conference. The current chairman is President Kibaki of Kenya. The Summit of Heads of State meets every second year and oversees the implementation of the Pact.
The Inter-ministerial Regional Committee is the executive organ of the Conference and meets twice a year. It lays down strategies and control mechanisms for the implementation of the Pact. The Secretariat is the technical and coordination organ of the CIRGL. It began its work in March 2007 and officially opened in May 2007 in Bujumbura. It is directed by an Executive Secretary, the ambassador Liberata Mula Mula, whose mandate lasts for four years and is not renewable. The Secretariat is responsible for: (1) carrying out the decisions of the Summit and of the Inter-ministerial Regional Committee, (2) promoting the Pact and carrying out the programmes of action, projects, agreements and activities, and (3) coordinating the implementation of Conference's activities.
Each member state has a national coordination mechanism for implementing the Pact with the regional economic communities and regional institutions, called the Inter-ministerial Regional Committee.
Observers at the CIRGL are neighbouring countries, African regional and international organisations and technical and financial partners. The Group of Friends of the GLR (countries and international organisations) partly funds the Conference. Member states are expected to make annual contributions.
The Pact contains many protocols, action programmes and projects. It puts special emphasis on non-aggression and mutual defence in the GLR (Protocol 5). According to this protocol, the member states commit themselves to maintain peace and security and in particular: (1) not to resort to force to resolve their differences, (2) not to support (directly or indirectly) armed groups based in the territory of another state nor to allow on their territory armed groups engaged in armed conflicts against the government of another state and (3) to cooperate to disarm and break up existing rebel groups. Illegal exploitation of natural resources is recognised as a violation of sovereignty and a serious cause of conflict and insecurity in the region. Under Protocol 9, member states commit to establish regional regulations and mechanisms to prevent such exploitation.
Following the recommendations of the Nairobi summit, a third Summit of Heads of State should have taken place in Kinshasa in December 2008 but in view of the security crisis in North Kivu province the meeting was postponed.
Another big public show or the expression of a genuine desire to cooperate?
EurAc has followed the process with great interest. Clearly the weak participation of civil society, the bureaucracy and politicization have resulted in a distancing from the reality on the ground. Poor coordination with other regional processes carries the risk of creating parallel structures. Nevertheless, EurAc has always found that, as an inclusive framework, the CIRGL could make a difference, not only through good intentions expressed in grand declarations but above all through the different instruments it contains such as the special fund for reconstruction and development and the various Protocols.
In order for the ICGLR not to remain merely a big show without any impact on the ground, EurAc encourages the states of the region to put the fine words spoken in Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi into action and to implement the wishes, ambitions and objectives which were formulated there. This could be done for example by normalising economic relations between the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, by agreeing on and implementing measures to regulate cross border movement of persons and goods (including both arms and minerals) and by applying the Protocol on non-aggression and mutual defence. Such measures will serve to put an end to impunity.
Recommendations
EurAc considers the establishment of the ICGLR to be an important process. It may be imperfect but there is nothing else like it, as it involves heads of state, governments, national parliaments and local civil society. This initiative must serve as a blueprint for a regional approach to the problems of the different countries of Central Africa.
It is important for the international community to support the CIRGL and in particular the implementation of the Nairobi Pact. EurAc asks the European Union and its member states to:
- Respect and strengthen the ICGLR in its role, make it better known and help build a stronger leadership that is better able to resolve conflicts. In the past, the ICGLR has been to an extent ignored by "peace builders" at the international level. We have seen for example the birth of a parallel ad hoc structure, set up by the United Nations to facilitate the work of UN Special Envoy Olusegun Obasanjo as mediator in the conflict in the east of the Congo because the ICGLR did not have the necessary human and material resources. A reinforcement of the ICGLR to facilitate the work of Obasanjo would have assigned this responsibility to the region and made the approach more coherent;
- Contribute financially, diplomatically and with expertise to the immediate implementation of the « Protocol on non-aggression and mutual defence» and the « Protocol on illegal exploitation of natural resources», which we believe to be the priority tools for reestablishing sustainable peace in eastern Congo;
- Encourage the ICGLR to develop its « added value » and make it more complementary to other regional organisations. The Great Lakes region is at the heart of five major regional processes: continental, eastern, central, southern and that of the GLR itself. There is a multitude of inter-governmental regional organisations, of which most have similar objectives of economic integration and overlap geographically. In the economic sector the ICGLR should capitalise on initiatives that are already in place rather than investing heavily in its own projects. The ICGLR should also avoid that structures as the CEPGL become an instrument for stronger states of the region to exploit the natural resources of more fragile states.
- Raise awareness about the ICGLR and the Nairobi Pact at local level. A better connection between the Secretariat in Bujumbura, the various national committees, and the field could further strengthen this.
- Support initiatives to create a network of civil society in the 11 member countries so that it can play a key role in the implementation of the agreements. EurAc believes that civil society has a crucial role to play in promoting the ICGLR and making it more participatory.
- Contribute to the ICGLR's budget so that it has the means to fulfill its mandate. EurAc considers that any support for the organs or activities of the Conference should be channeled directly to the ICGLR itself now that it has its own facilities for financial management.
- Help make the ICGLR visible to the public by means of several key projects without allowing it to transform into a « super NGO ». Avoid any strategy based just on support of projects to the exclusion of its wider political goals.
For further details:
Kris Berwouts
Rue des Tanneurs, 165 B - 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 213 04 000
@: kris.berwouts@eurac-network.org
www.eurac-network.org
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By Source: European Network for Central Africa (EURAC)
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New Rwandan Party Petitions Kagame over Harassment
By 256News Reporter
October 31, 2009
The Leader of the Democratic Green party of Rwanda, (DGPR), Mr. Frank Habineza has been described by many as the “iron man” of Rwanda.
Habineza launched a new political party on 14th August 2009 in Kigali-Rwanda, in presence of Rwandans, the national and international media and representatives from different diplomatic missions in Rwanda.
DGPR main aim is to change the political and social economic history of Rwanda. DGPR is an organization that deeply values and strongly cherishes the noble values of democracy and the international green principles.
However, the fate of, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda seems to be hanging in balance as it seems there are forces lining up against it and would make it difficult for DGPR to reach achieve its objectives.
The sad day for Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) was on 02/10/09, when the Kigali authorities refused the party delegates to hold their congress which was attended by more than 900 people.
According to this reporter Green Party delegates moved hundreds of kilometers, some for the first time to the capital, Kigali, Others braved the trouble of having to move with babies. Some abandoned their jobs to be in Kigali for the event that did not happen.
The newly formed party was on Friday told it could not hold a scheduled delegates’ conference.
These delegates had come all the way to give their nomination signatures to the new party. It is these signatures which party officials hoped would form part of the registration dossier with the Ministry of Local Government.
Looking at the crowd, many were youths. Notable among the delegates were also a few older men and women. There are about a dozen mothers. Since all have now been informed the conference is taking place anymore, they all stand outside looking like people who have lost their jobs.
The genesis of the chaos that these people were witnessing first hand started at 8:30am when an official from Nyarugenge district arrived at the event venue with a letter from the Nyarugenge district mayor Rutayisire Origène.
The mayor writes in response to another letter sent September 29 from the Green party which had informed him of the intension to have their meeting on Friday. Party officials were letting him know that they already had a place booked.
“I here by first inform you that you write a letter requesting permission to hold this meeting on this date October 02”, writes mayor Rutayisire, in a four-sentence official letter.
However Green party officials had also informed him in their letter that since the Nyarugenge notary was not available; they would secure another notary – which they indeed effected.
The mayor’s response meant that the even with a new notary, the Green party would not be allowed to hold the meeting – only after seeking new permission. This will now be the forth time the conference has been forced to postpone. The party has had to incur expenses to transport the delegates.
“From what I have witnessed today, I do not think there is there democracy in Rwanda,” retorted some delegates. “To me, this means that the government is not yet ready for multiparty democracy. If they say parties do exist, then what is this?” one journalist, Kalisa said.
For interim party president Mr. Frank Habineza: “Someone is sabotaging us”.
“Imagine all the expenses we have incurred. I really cannot explain who is behind all this,” he furiously shouts as he speaks to reporters. “This really is a sad day for democracy in this country.”
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NO Green Party banner over Rwanda; Broken bones and arrests instead
By Ann Garrison
Green Party Watch
October 30, 2009
This should tell the world what Rwanda, the U.S.A.'s closest ally in Africa, and its President Paul Kagame are:
The Rwandan Democratic Greens tried, for the fourth time, to hold their founding convention in Kigali, but this time the police came instead.
I just spoke to Frank Habineza, interim Rwandan Green Party leader, who is in a Kigali hospital trying to arrange an X-ray for a Rwandan Green, a woman with a broken leg.
Another would be Rwandan Green woman has a broken back.
More are injured, and I believe he said some are in jail. He was on a cell in a hospital and I always have to work to understand his sweet French/Kinyarwanda English accent as well.
He wasn't able to give me any more details now. He had to hurry off to help his friend with the broken leg.
No news on the Web yet. Frank said to watch the BBC and the Rwandan News Agency websites. I told him the state run Rwandan News Agency website won't let me on their damn website. He himself had to pay them $250 to get on to pick up the articles he sends me, which are almost always yanked off the site as soon as they're posted.
I didn't have a chance to urge Frank to Twitter, but I'm going to try calling again to urge him to do so on my way to San Francisco Superior Court in an hour. http://twitter. com/habinef
I have to run and I'll be gone all morning, but we obviously we need to get on the phones to the White House, the Rwandan Embassies, and the press.
Greens of course, and I addressed this mostly to Greens, but this isn't just about Greens, obviously. No one should wind up in a hospital with broken bones, or in jail, for attempting to convene a legal, nonviolent political party.
This is the Rwanda that Bill and Hillary Clinton and Reverend Rick Warren point to as Africa's future, "a shining beacon of hope for Africa." Bill Clinton hung a Global Citizenship Award around Rwandan President Paul Kagame's neck a week before Reverend Rick Warren presented him with the same International Medal of Peace he presented George Bush with last year.
This is the Rwanda that the U.S.A. uses to control the vast geostrategic mineral wealth of its neighbor D.R. Congo.
Note:
Anyone feel free to post this note to Green Party lists and websites, and wherever else, ASAP.
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Rwandan man sentenced to life in prison for role in genocide
By Levon Sevunts
Monsters and Critics
Africa News
October 30, 2009
Montreal - A Rwandan man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years by a Canadian court for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Desire Munyaneza, 42, was the first person to be convicted under a law that allows Canadian residents to be tried for of war crimes committed abroad. He was found guilty in May of seven charges, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for rape and slaughter of countless Tutsis in Butare, the second largest city in Rwanda.
About 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered during the 1994 genocide.
'The evidence shows that many Rwandans, from all ethnic backgrounds, were courageous during the genocide some of them paying for it with their lives,' Quebec Superior Court Justice Andre Denis told a packed courtroom in Montreal on Thursday.
'The accused, an educated and privileged man, chose to kill, rape and pillage, vaunting the superiority of his ethnic group reminding us again that every time a man claims to be part of a superior race, a chosen people, humanity is in danger.'
With time already served in pre-trial detention, Munyaneza will be eligible for release in 21 years.
The precedent setting sentence is the toughest possible under Canadian law and was welcomed by members of Canada's Rwandan community.
Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya, a Montreal-based Rwandan community organizer who lost his father during the 1994 genocide, said the sentence sends a message to war criminals trying to hide in Canada.
'It's not just the people who committed the genocide in Rwanda. Everybody who has committed a war crime or a crime against humanity anywhere in the world knows now that Canada is not a safe haven for them,' Nyilinkwaya said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The son of a wealthy Hutu businessman, Munyaneza fled to Canada in 1997, but was denied refugee status. He remained in Toronto until he was arrested in 2005 after being recognized by members of the local Rwandan community who reported him to police.
The multi-million-dollar trial took more than two years to complete and involved hearings in Montreal, as well as depositions in Rwanda, Kenya and France. Sixty-six witnesses testified at the trial, including Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, who commanded UN peacekeepers in Rwanda in 1994. Many of the witnesses testified behind closed doors for fear of reprisals.
Judge Denis said that he believed the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses more than those presented by the defence.
Munyaneza's attorney Richard Perras told reporters outside the courtroom that he is going to appeal both the verdict and the sentence.
Because Munyaneza's case is the first of its kind, legal experts believe the appeal could eventually end up before the Supreme Court.
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Green Party banner over Rwanda
By Ann Garrison
OpEdNews.com
October 12, 2009
The international network of Green Parties may achieve something far larger, in Africa, than anything they've achieved locally, anywhere.
The Rwandan Democratic Greens have rallied round the internationally recognizable Green Party banner, and thus kicked a hole in the huge IMF/World Bank/U.S.-U.K. State Department/Clinton/Rev. Rick Warren lie about Paul Kagame's Rwanda, the U.S.-sponsored dictatorship they all point to as a beacon of hope for Africa. And, in the lies wrapped around the covert U.S. War in Central Africa---the most lethal, but least understood, conflict in the world.
The Rwandan News Agency took its website offline, after removing news of state suppression of the Rwandan Democratic Greens. Reuters is, on October 12, 2009, on its way to Kigali to speak to interim party leader Frank Habineza and other members of the fledgling party, including defectors from Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front.
May the international LGBT flag now fly over Rwanda as well, because Kagame's Rwanda, suppresses, and persecutes Rwanda's LGBT community even more severely than the Rwandan Democratic Greens. According to official policy, reinforced by de facto U.S. Ambassador Reverend Rick Warren, homosexuality is not a problem in Rwanda because it does not exist.
The Green Party doesn't even have an official international banner--or, at least none that I know of-- but it's flying over Rwanda right now anyway---figuratively. And, unlike the long list of obscure Central African parties, militias, and armies---RDF, RPF, CNDP, FARDC, FDLR, LRA, RCD, UPDF, and MONUC---it's understood, internationally.
See: Rwandan Green Party cries foul over possible sabotage
Rwanda's Democratic Greens shut down, for the third time
Rwanda president petitioned over registration of opposition party
Rwandan President Paul Kagame questions Euro justice
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Write to Rwandan President Paul Kagame to protest suppression of the Rwandan Democratic Greens: president@presidency.gov.rw, and, copy to: fhabineza@africangreens.org,info@rwandagreendemocrats.org
Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers
Notes:
I grew up around a radioactive toxic mess called the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, in a gorgeous place, Washington's Olympic Peninsula, by way of Western Oklahoma, another gorgeous place. I'm a compulsive writer and sometimes I sign as AnnieGetYourGang.
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The situation of human rights in Rwanda
By Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
President, FDU-INKINGI
Madrid, October 21, 2009
Also available in French.
According to an investigative report released by Agence France Press ( AFP ) in Kinshasa last week, soldiers within the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), who were recently integrated into the army from the armed rebel group National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) allied to Rwanda, have killed 50 Rwandan Hutu refugees and kidnapped some forty women who were victims of “rape” during the attack against an internally displaced refugee camp in North Kivu (Eastern DRC ) on April 26, 2009. A UN special reporter had already been appointed to carry out such an investigation following continued reports of widespread massacres of Rwandan refugees.
The Kinshasa government has acknowledged that it was aware of such killings, but decided not to arrest the CNDP officer who was responsible for these abuses alleging that such an arrest would have caused problems of dramatic consequences than the death of the refugees!
Last week, a 22-year old student from the National University of Rwanda, Butare campus, was murdered outside the campus along with a 58-year old man, all killed by the local defense force. A lifeless body of a woman who had refused to let her banana plantation be destroyed was recovered in Lake Kivu.
A few days earlier, according to a local radio in neighboring Burundi , more than 400 Rwandans fleeing the massacres were taking refuge in Burundi . The radio revealed that lifeless bodies floating down the Akanyaru River , which separates Rwanda and Burundi , have been seen by people who live near this river.
One should also recall that Rwandan refugees in Uganda are stubbornly refusing to be forcibly repatriated for fear of being arbitrarily brought before the infamous Gacaca courts. Similarly, Rwandan refugees in DRC continue to be massacred in order to force them to return to Rwanda.
The Gacaca courts, which are culturally intended to resolve disputes related to social relationships but never to try bloody crimes, still pose numerous problems by sentencing people, without any substantial evidence, to life imprisonment penalties with outlandish damages and interests. All of this while ignoring the foundations of the Rwandan culture and the minimum standards of law-abiding justice.
As if the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior were to tighten the repressive machinery and restrict the exercise of the fundamental rights, it recently presented to the parliament a new law aimed at hardly restricting the freedom of expression and association of non- governmental organizations (NGOs). There is a great danger that this law may serve as an excuse for a new wave of persecution of NGOs.
Meanwhile, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the ruling party, continues to resist any attempt to judge its own elements, suspected to have played a role in crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Rwanda and DRC . The recent criticism leveled by the Rwandan government at the Spanish government and the detention of a Spanish citizen on obscure charges, are irrefutable proof of its lack of consideration for both national and international justices.
As this has very well been outlined by Human Rights Watch, we are convinced, that “The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)’s failure to address the war crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front risks leaving the impression that it is delivering only victor's justice”. “That is a poor legacy for this historic effort at international justice”. This is why we urge the French and Spanish justices to not succumb into the political manipulation of justice in which the Rwandan regime is tirelessly making every effort to take them.
Such a sudden reinvigoration of the human rights violations and political violence by the Rwandan government is taking place in a context of preparation for presidential elections in August 2010 to which our political organization in exile, the United Democratic Forces UDF-INKINGI, decided to participate and present a candidate for the presidency. It is feared that these crackdown on the civil society and exactions against the population are simply aimed at intimidating and terrorizing the latter specifically in order to destabilize an electorate that is increasingly open to political competition and changes.
The United Democratic Forces, UDF-INKINGI, contemplate with some satisfaction the awakening of the Rwandan population, which is eager to regain control of its destiny. They strongly appeal to all countries enamored with peace and freedom, Friends of Rwanda, especially Spain, which we are visiting today to support the Rwandan people in this democratic process and help them establish a climate of peaceful political dialogue, the only guarantor of the advent of a genuine multiparty democracy and an equitable and reconciliatory justice.
Rwanda misses out on global gender equality report
By Rwanda News Agency
October 29, 2009
Kigali: Only two African states -- South Africa and Lesotho – appear among top 10 ranking of countries where women face the least discrimination, but Rwanda with 56 percent women parliamentarians is not featured in the World Economic Forum study, RNA reports.
Rwanda has a constitutional requirement that all administrative levels must have at least 30 percent women representation. The newly registered political party PS Imberakuri was initially refused because it did not have the stipulated female numbers.
However, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo do not appear in the latest World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index which measured economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health and survival of women in 134 countries.
A detailed review of the 205-page report gives some details on Rwanda. The study shows that among employed people of age group of 35-44 years, there are more Rwandan women than men. Rwanda is also among seven countries including UK and China where married women work more than single females.
The gap between woman and men participation in the labour force is smallest globally only in Rwanda, and largest in Arab countries, according to the report. Women less than 25 years in Rwanda, China, Kenya and Palestine are said to have a higher chance of leaving school compared to males.
Since 2003, Rwanda has been at the top of countries with the highest female parliamentarians, which peaked after last year’s elections that brought the figure to 56.5 percent – topping globally.
President Paul Kagame is not a stranger at this high profile global platform for business and political leaders. He attended the 2009 World Economic Forum at its usual home in Davos, Switzerland in January. He was also invited to another WEF on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa in June.
However, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania – which are members of the five-block East African Community, are in the large report. Uganda ranks 40, while Tanzania comes at 73 - losing 35 places compared to last year, “mainly due to the latest data revealing a worsening gap on economic participation”, the WEF said.
Kenya (98) loses 10 places in the rankings this year “due several changes, but primarily the result of lower participation of women in the labour force, among other factors”.
"The latest data reveal that South Africa makes significant improvements in female labour force participation in addition to gains for women in parliament and in ministerial positions in the new government," said the WEF.
Lesotho also climbed into the top 10 "driven by large gains in the labour force participation of women and narrowing wage gaps", it added.
At the other end of the scale was Yemen, while Chad and Pakistan were ranked second and third worst in terms of equal opportunities for women.
Overall, Nordic countries continue to offer women the most equal treatment compared to men, with Iceland ranking number one, followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden.
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Inside Rwanda's Gender Revolution
Explaining how men shortage has led to women's prominence and parity in Rwanda's governance
RWANDA: Credit for Women's Development
Rwanda: FDLR Will Soon Be History
By James Karuhanga
The New Times-Kigali
28 October 2009
Urugwiro Villiage — The United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has said that the problem of FDLR is being resolved by the European Union.
Speaking to the press after his meeting with President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro Village yesterday, Obasanjo, disagreed with the notion that Europe is dragging its feet when it comes to reining in on FDLR leaders currently residing in European capitals.
"I don't believe so, because when I was in Europe, one of the things I said to them is that - you (EU) cannot be saying to us that the issue of security in the region should be dealt with, yet you are accommodating and supporting those who are fueling the conflict," Obasanjo said.
"And now they have - they promised they would take corrective measures."
"Both in the field and outside in the region where there are supporters and those who are underwriting their finances."
The Council of Europe, EU's principal decision-making body, Tuesday revealed that European countries are considering concrete measures within the bloc to tackle FDLR, in addition to fully implementing previous Security Council's resolutions against the FDLR, especially its Europe-based leaders
A statement from the Office of the President reported that President Kagame praised Obasanjo and his work as special envoy in the region, which he carried out in conjunction with the AU Special Envoy, former President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa saying that they had been the right people for the task is set to benefit the citizens of the two countries.
"President Kagame pointed out that the lingering problems in Eastern DRC were not insurmountable, as these were symptoms of underlying problems, and that past experience showed that dealing with the root causes would lead to real solutions. President Kagame also underscored the importance of good governance and building national institutions in achieving long-term stability and prosperity," the statement reads in part.
Obasanjo acknowledged the improved relations between Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo saying that even the development partners are happy about the developments in the region, but quickly acknowledged that much remains to be done.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rosemary Museminali also reiterated the government's stand on the issue of the FDLR.
"We don't see any reasons why the leadership of FDLR in Europe cannot be indicted, there is no need to just get one or two," Museminali said while calling for a "push" against FDLR elements worldwide.
"I don't want to speculate about what they will do and what they will not do, but I want to urge each and every country that is harboring any of these FDLR members today to come out and support peace and help fight impunity".
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Rwanda’s policy vacuum could mean trouble for broadband
By Emmanuel Habumuremyi
and Alan Finlay
APCNews
October 26, 2009
Photo: The Rwandatel ADSL wires that power Kigali Wire. It's a miracle anything gets out when you think about it. Photo by kigaliwire.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Whatever else it is, information and communications technologies (ICTs) policy-making can often be symbolic, especially in poor countries. The vision is one of social upliftment, and a new golden age of possibilities brought on by technological roll-out.
Sometimes these promises can feel like fantasy in contrast to the real spadework of laying cables, orbiting satellites, and securing billion-dollar investment deals that don’t exploit the poor.
However, policies, especially when they are under-pinned by practical considerations, are necessary guidelines for the development of clear-headed legislation and regulation. Particularly when it comes the modern communications, driven forward by the inertia of rapid change and invention, a firm hand on the policy rudder is needed to keep a country on the track of sustainable and equitable development, so that all can benefit fairly from the advantages of ICTs. When there is money to be made, it is worth emphasising, the person in the street sometimes has much to lose.
Rwanda at the centre of broadband fever
Rwanda – a poverty-stricken landlocked shadow of a country in East Africa, still bearing the scars of the 1994 genocide – is hailed in the region as having a high level of commitment and a unified approach to ICT development and roll-out. Its Vision 2020, for instance, emphasises the potential of ICTs for socio-economic development in urban and rural areas and the country has developed an economic development and poverty reduction strategy (EDPRS) with this as the guiding principle. As if in recognition of this commitment, Rwanda was also chosen amongst its peers to house the headquarters of the multi-million dollar Eastern Africa Submarine Cable Project (EASSy). And as the potential for viable businesses in the ICT sector grows, new entrants are rapidly moving into the market.
The opportunities and expectations that are the result of broadband fever in Africa are mounting. Several new undersea fibre-optic cables are planned or near completion on the continent – and Rwanda will not miss out on the boom. Reflecting broader trends on the continent, the government itself has been rolling out optical fibre along all of the country’s main roads. The first phase, covering 134km, was already underway last year. From the main fibre-optic trunk, internet will be carried to the countryside via wireless technologies. It is said that the combination of fibre-optic backbone and 3.5 gigabytes per second WiMAX will cover the country and make, as the marketing copy would have it, Rwanda the most ‘wired up’ country in East Africa. The power utility company Electrogaz has also decided to establish a private fibre-optic network alongside its grid.
Until 1994, telecommunications service in Rwanda had mainly been utilised by the government; but the period after the 1994 genocide marked the moment of fundamental change in Rwandan communications, with the government embarking on its strategy that aimed to increase connectivity as a spur to development. This entailed treating the sole state-owned telecommunication company at the time, Rwandatel, differently, and altering the ICT market structure. An independent regulatory body, known as the Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA), was also set up, usurping the regulatory role played by the incumbent up until then. Starting with a 1998 national ICT workshop, the Rwandan government worked on a national framework for the development of the sector. This resulted in the ICT-led Integrated Socio-economic Policy for Rwanda adopted by the Cabinet in early 2000 and the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Plan. The plan was to be implemented in five-year phases, with a different focus for each phase.
Laying fibre brings new entrants to market
Terracom, a company that won the bid for Rwandatel during the government’s privatisation process, was licensed to provide telecommunication services including mobile, fixed lines, voice over internet protocol and data services. The company was the first to put pick to earth to lay broadband cables. It deployed over 140km of backbone fibre network, including a Kigali-ring, and a national backbone link connecting Kigali, Gitarama and Butare. By the end of the NICI 2005 Plan time frame, the company had planned to roll out a total of 256km of fibre nationally.
Before June 2004, internet service providers were using international operators to carry their local as well as international traffic. The high cost of the satellite links and delays in connection made the situation unbearable, and limited the growth of the internet in Rwanda. However, despite the relatively embryonic state of Rwanda’s ICT sector, new entrants are rapidly moving into the broadband market, with the whiff of potentially lucrative business opportunities in the air.
The main beneficiaries of broadband services are the private sector, particularly banks and insurance companies that have established branches across the country. The public sector is still under-served due to the high cost of access as well as the low level of usage. Development organisations, such as United Nations agencies, among others, are also important broadband customers, as they have various programme partners around the country and need to share information efficiently.
But a lack of policy stands in the way of growth
The growth of broadband faces several challenges. These include the high cost of access, and the low level of ICT usage for business transactions. But, arguably, one of the main challenges remains the lack of a clear broadband policy in Rwanda that can guide its development and provide regulatory guidelines for RURA to take appropriate measures to support its take up.
NICI is a plan, but it is not a policy – and is certainly not a broadband policy. A broadband policy would not only create a framework for mechanisms and incentives to increase the number of customers, but would also ensure that as many people as possible benefit from the new information economy in as equitable way as possible. So far, RURA has drafted service quality guidelines for broadband internet service and a consultation paper has been drafted.
Who will benefit from broadband?
Establishing a framework that allows free and fair competition in the market is important. One solution punted by civil society and other stakeholders is a community-driven network based on open access principles. This is in line with the government’s policy on decentralisation, which aims at creating community-ownership and proactive participation in decision-making. This would essentially allow all operators fair access to the broadband networks, rather than market monopolies to be formed by cable ownership, forcing the competition to be at the level of services.
The disastrous effects of cable monopolies have already been seen in countries like South Africa, which for years has struggled to bring down the cost of Telkom-controlled internet access. In an open access network prices would be cost-based and all providers subscribed to common interconnection tariffs.
How the Rwandan government orientates the growing potential that is high-speed broadband, and negotiates sometimes competing interests, will be a test of its mettle, and commitment to its own progressive goals. Like all underdeveloped countries, it faces tough choices between economic investment by multinationals, and restrictions on open markets that will see universal targets being met and a level playing field prepared after the laying of fibre. It is, in some respects, the hour of truth: without a clear business model that involves the community in ICT roll-out and services, who will have benefited most when the dust has settled?
This article was written as a part of APC’s Communication for influence in Central, East and West Africa (CICEWA) project, which is meant to promote advocacy for the affordable access to ICTs for all. CICEWA seeks to identify the political obstacles to extending affordable access to ICT infrastructure in Africa and to advocate for their removal in order to create a sound platform for sub-regional connectivity in East, West and Central Africa.
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A hero, not a war criminal: Rwandan man linked to genocide fights to stay in Canada
By Adrian Humphreys
National Post
October 13, 2009
A man fighting to stay in Canada after being found complicit in the Rwandan genocide says he is a hero -- not a war criminal -- and secretly worked to save civilians.
"I was among the infinitesimal minority in the army who used their position not to kill, but rather to save Tutsi civilians," claims Henri Jean-Claude Seyoboka, 43, of Gatineau, Quebec.
The government dismisses his story, however, characterizing it as more lies from a desperate war criminal.
Further, his claims come as a report from Rwanda suggests Mr. Seyoboka has been hiding his family's exalted position within the former government and involvement in ethnic extremism.
Mr. Seyoboka is the son-in-law of Colonel Elie Sagatwa, who was a relative of the former first lady of Rwanda who was appointed head of presidential security and as the president's personal secretary.
Col. Sagatwa was as an early advocate of Hutu extremism. He is named as an organizer of a commando squad to kill political opponents and as an advisor to the Interahamwe, the militia responsible for much of the ensuing bloodshed.
Col. Sagatwa was also said to have issued orders in 1991 to kill all 1,500 prisoners inside a facility that was about to be overrun by rebel forces. The order was disobeyed.
When an airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994 -- seen as the catalyst for the genocide -- Col. Sagatwa was also on board and died in the crash.
The death of the president started the massacre of an estimated 800,000 people in 100 days, mainly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority by Hutu soldiers and militia.
None of that rich family history, however, is included in Mr. Seyoboka's detailed appeal to remain in Canada.
He is asking the Federal Court to intervene after being told at least six times he is not eligible for refugee protection because of Rwandan atrocities.
In 2006, the Immigration and Refugee Board found Mr. Seyoboka was complicit, if not directly involved, in the slaughter.
Mr. Seyoboka was also found to have been personally involved in the killing of a neighbour named Francine and her two children because she refused to have sex with him.
He maintains his innocence.
"Although it is true that I served in the Rwandan military, I was never involved in any way in the commission of any crimes against humanity. During all of my service I sought to protect persons who were at risk. On many occasions this placed me in jeopardy," he says in a sworn statement filed in court.
"I maintain that I was not involved in Francine's death," he says.
New documents reveal gruesome testimony as well as personal details on Mr. Seyoboka, one of several Rwandan men involved in the genocide who later sought refuge in Canada.
Mr. Seyoboka said he is from a well-connected family but did not offer any reference to his notorious in-law.
"My family had always been in the military or politics. Because of this family tradition, I attended the Ecole Superieur Militaire in Kigali and remained in the reserves when I went on to the National University of Rwanda," Mr. Seyoboka says.
During periods of fighting, he was called to active duty.
He was watching a soccer game when the president's plane was shot down and he quickly reported for duty, he says, not mentioning the death of his father-in-law.
"The situation in Rwanda was and is much more complicated than ethnic violence between Hutus and Tutsis," he says.
"My mother and stepmother were both Tutsis, and to me the conflict was political, a fight between loyal Rwandans [Hutu and Tutsi] protecting the country from the invading Rwandan Patriotic Front [Hutu and Tutsi].
"In that time and at that place I had no reason to believe I was fighting anything other than a legitimate war of self-defence."
His wife was studying in Canada at the time so he did not need to fear for her life but he drove other family members and household staff to the safety of the countryside in his Mercedes-Benz before he was assigned to an artillery unit, he says.
"Because I had helped my father and his Tutsi wife Eugenie leave Kigali, I was seen as disloyal by the Interahamwe paramilitaries who manned the roadblocks. I realized that I was in danger, just like many other moderate Hutus.
"Fearing for my safety, I deserted the army and fled."
After buying a fake passport on the black market in Nairobi he flew to Canada in 1996 to join his wife and son. He made a refugee claim but says he was too afraid to be honest.
"I saw a photo in a newspaper that showed a member of the [Rwandan Patriotic Front] working shoulder-to-shoulder with a soldier wearing a Canadian flag badge," he says. "If Canada was allied with the RPF, it would not be safe to tell the Canadians about any past involvement with the Rwandan military.
"I regret hiding my military past, but at the time I truly thought I had no choice."
Mr. Seyoboka was granted refugee status in 1996 but his military activity was uncovered in 1998 and he was investigated by the RCMP's War Crimes Unit and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
In 2006, the Immigration and Refugee Board stripped him of his refugee status for crimes against humanity and lying about his military service. He has since lost each of his many appeals.
Despite Mr. Seyoboka's most recent claims, the government is not backing down.
"Simply because time has passed and [he] has come up with a new theory of his past, namely that he was one of the infinitesimal members of the [army] that did not participate in the genocide, does not establish a breach of natural justice," Jamie Todd, lawyer for the government, wrote in a response filed in court.
The government wants his appeal dismissed.
Submitted as evidence in the case is gruesome testimony heard at the ICTR about the death of Francine.
A witness testified that on April 10, 1994, he saw Mr. Seyoboka speak with his commanding officer. He was told that Mr. Seyoboka was asking for help burying a woman who was about to be killed.
The witness said he later heard screams and when he went to investigate saw Mr. Seyoboka standing over four dead bodies lying on the clay road.
"I recognized Francine's body," and those of her children, he testified.
"One was about six years old and the other was about eight years old."
"They had smashed her head ... I think that they used a club.... The two shoulders had been broken, and both arms also had been broken."
All of the victims had similar injuries, he said.
Lorne Waldman, Mr. Seyoboka's lawyer, earlier said the testimony was discredited in ICTR proceedings and should not be relied on but he did not return recent calls from the National Post.
Mr. Todd declined to discuss the case outside court.
The case does not yet have a hearing date.
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