Political repression in Rwanda, as August 2010 elections approach
By Ann Garrison
Digital Journal
December 30, 2009
Harsh anti-gay legislation proposed in both Uganda and Rwanda has turned more Western attention to East Africa than anything since the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, though Westerners drink coffee and tea grown in Rwanda every day, while Rwandans go hungry.
On December 24, 2009, the
Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, released a
detailed account of how Rwandan President Paul Kagame's government, dominated by the
Rwandan Patriotic Front Party, continues to harass its members as they attempt to register, as a party, and register voters, prior to Rwanda's August 2010 national election.
"We are nonviolent, in keeping with the 10 key values of Green Parties all over the world, and we have members from all over Rwanda," said Frank Habineza, Interim Rwanda Green Party Chair, "but they continue to threaten and harass us and block our party registration with one bureaucratic excuse after another. If they want to keep us out, hold a fake election, and get 99% of the vote in 2010, then they have to say so."
The region and its politics are obscure to most Westerners, especially Americans. Harsh anti-gay legislation now proposed in both Uganda and Rwanda, with the backing of the Christian Right, has turned more attention to this part of the world than anything since the 1994 tragedy known as the Rwanda Genocide, though every day, many Westerners drink
Starbuck's coffee and tea, grown on Rwanda's rich agricultural land while most Rwandans are visibly malnourished, surviving on one meal a day, and Walnut Creek, California-based
Eco Fuels Global plants jatropha to make bio fuels on more Rwandan agricultural land.
Western electronics and military industries make much use of
the mineral wealth smuggled out of neighboring D.R. Congo for export from Rwanda, the U.S.A.'s closest ally in Africa.
Amidst all the political parties, tendencies, armies, militias, natural resources, foreign involvements, and human rights abuse in this part of the world, the goal of a free and fair election in Rwanda, in August 2010, is basic and comprehensible.
The Rwanda Greens are not the only party being systematically excluded, harassed, even arrested and injured. The
Parti Social Imberakuri, and the
United Democratic Forces of Rwanda, are as well.
Many Rwandans and African investigators believe that these three opposing parties, in coalition, could win if allowed to register, now, and participate in a free and fair election in Rwanda, in August 2010.
The Parti Social Imberakuri has been allowed to register, as a party, but is now in danger of losing their party status and ballot line, and the Rwandan government has stopped exiled leaders of the United Democratic Forces from returning to Rwanda to enter the election.
The Rwanda New Times recently reported that Kagame's RPF government had accused the Parti Social Imberakuri, for "
the politics of divisionism," in "Senate may take PS Imberakuri to court."
Political repression is equally harsh in neighboring Uganda, where the
Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009, a.k.a., the Hang the Gays Bill threatens any and everyone, gay or straight, with selective, politically motivated incarceration, for "aiding and abetting homosexuality," and/or for failing to report homosexuals and other aiders and abetters.
Uganda's elections are scheduled for July 2011, as are neighboring Congo's, and the issues and outcomes of these three elections are closely intertwined by:
1) foreign intervention, including that of the anti-gay Christian Right, and
AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command,
2) violent conflict, largely manipulated by foreign powers, over the enormous mineral wealth of Eastern Congo, and,
3) the vast oil reserves on the Uganda/Congo border and vast natural gas reserves on the Rwanda/Congo border.
Human Rights Watch has issued a detailed report,
Preparing for the Polls, Improving Accountability for Electoral Violence in Uganda, regarding Uganda's election, and both Human Rights Watch, the
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative have argued for human rights and electoral reform in Rwanda.
Green Parties around the world continue to call for political inclusion of the Rwanda's Democratic Greens and other parties, but, to no avail.
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New book chronicles Rwanda recovery
By The Record
December 31, 2009
STOCKTON - A University of the Pacific dean co-wrote a book about Rwanda that was published Monday, detailing the recovery of a country that suffered from genocide in 1994.
"Rwanda: History and Hope," was written by Margee Ensign, dean of Pacific's School of International Studies and a regular contributor to The Record's Opinion pages, and William E. Bertrand, a professor at Tulane University who has worked in Africa for about 30 years.
In 1994, a civil conflict resulted in the death of nearly 1 million people.
Ensign and Bertrand's 174-page book focuses on its transition from a place in ruins to a country that has embraced innovative approaches in governance, reconciliation, gender equity, education, health and economic growth.
"Rwandans and those who follow developments in our country should find this work invaluable," Rwandan President Paul Kagame wrote in the book's foreword.
"It should not only set new standards in academia but also provide powerful tools for improving informed policymaking in our country through its insights and ideas," he added.
The book was published by University Press of America and is being reviewed by PBS for a documentary, the authors said.
Reader Reactions
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PRESS RELEASE FROM DEMOCRATIC GREEN PARTY OF RWANDA
By Frank HABINEZA
Founding President,
Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
December 24, 2009
DEMOCRATIC GREEN PARTY OF RWANDA PRESS RELEASE No.3
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda would like to inform the media, international community, representatives of foreign diplomatic missions, Embassies in Rwanda, and the general public that the government of Rwanda has continued to commit actions against democratic principles and human rights.
According to what happened on 30th October 2009 in Kigali at St Paul at our party Congress aimed at approving the party constitution, we faced extraordinary circumstances where our members were beaten by people who entered the conference room by force and clandestinely and started the chaos, shouting, “RPF Oyeee, RPF Oyeee!”. We would like to say something about what has been happening to us and our members since that time.
After the Congress, some of the people who caused the riot were caught by the police and taken for interrogation, but sadly, none of them stayed in police custody for more than an hour. They were immediately released and continued on with their normal life even though some of our members were wounded, hospitalized, and others lost their valuables.
Something else which is strange is that nobody summoned us-as Party representatives- to give explanations on the people who caused the chaos. We were again surprised to hear the explanations of the Police Spokesman on Radio Rwanda and Contact FM during the evening of that same day, confirming that what happened at St Paul was caused by Green Party members themselves.
We would like to emphasize the following three issues:
1. Our members have continued to be threatened and harassed by local government authorities.
2. Party members are oppressed by the National Police who deny us permission to hold a peaceful congress.
3. Newspaper articles in UMUVUGIZI Vol. 66 and UMUSESO No. 386, showing a list of people alleged to be Green Party members.
1. About our members who have continued to be threatened and harassed:
After the sabotaged Party Congress of 30th October 2009, many of our members have continued to be threatened and harassed in different ways. Below are some examples:
Ø After the Congress of 30th October 2009, a member, named Isaac KARANGWA, a resident of Nyagatovu cell, Kimironko Sector, was interrogated by village authorities (Umudugudu) and was advised not to join the Green Party when it is his right as a Rwandese to belong to any political party.
Ø On 2nd November 2009, Melisiyana NZAMUKOSHA, also from Nyagatovu, was threatened by her neighbor and when she went to village authorities, who refused to receive her complaint because she is in the Green Party.
Ø On 4th November 2009, Daphrose MUSABYIMANA was suddenly called to Kimironko Sector by Mr. HABIMANA Robert, the Executive Secretary, where she was asked why she became a Green party member;
Ø On 15th November 2009, BIHIBINDI, Gaston who is a former soldier in the R.D.F. (now demobilized) and resident of Nonko cell, Nyarugunga Sector, Kicukiro District, was kidnapped by unknown people and later imprisoned in the basement of the Ministry of Defense. He was detained for three days without food and asked why he joined the Green Party. He was also accused of recruiting fellow demobilized soldiers for the Green Party. He was severely beaten and threatened not to tell anyone what happened to him.
Ø On 21st November 2009, in a meeting that took place after public activities commonly known as “umuganda”, Innocent BAYITO, the President of GOBOKA Coperative in collaboration with the Executive Secretary of Kimironko Sector, and General RUTATINA questioned the husband of Daphrose MUSABYIMANA (Green Party member). He was accused of having a Green Party member as his wife.
We have so many other cases from different provinces where people have been threatened by local authorities for being party members. We have always advised them to be patient, remain calm, and inform us so that we can make a peaceful follow up.
Ø The Green Party 1st Vice-President, Mr. RWISEREKA André, resident of Huye District in South province, has been threatened by different and unknown people claiming his commercial activities in the NEW SOMBORERO CLUB are going to be stopped without any reason apart from being in the Party's administration.
2. Oppression from the Rwanda National Police
On 5th November 2009, we respectfully wrote to the mayor of Gasabo District, requesting her permission to hold another congress. This was the fifth time we were trying to hold a congress in the process of registering our Party. We recieved the response within two days. In this response, we started being accused -in writing- of having caused the chaos in our own congress held at St Paul.
The Mayor requested us to look for the clearance certificate from the National Police certifying that what happened at St. Paul will not happen again in Gasabo District and also showing how the ‘so-called conflicts’ were resolved by the police.
On 11th November 2009, we wrote to the Commissioner General of Police requesting the certificate. We informed him that the people who caused chaos in our meeting were caught by the National Police and are not our members. We reminded him that, if they were our members, the police would have called us to give some clarifications and nobody called us. Unfortunately, all those who were in police custody were released in only an hour.
The Commissioner General responded to us after twelve days. He said that he couldn’t give us the requested permission because the police are not yet sure what caused the chaos/conflicts was resolved. He informed us that they are still carrying out investigations and requested us to provide any information about the people who caused the chaos.
What was surprising is that the National police requested us to make investigations when it is one of their responsibilities and yet they released those they caught in action on short notice.
The same day we received that response, 23 November 2009, we wrote another letter to the Commissioner General of the National Police. In that letter we presented him two names: KAYISIRE Emmanuel, resident of Kimironko Sector, Gasabo District who works as a business broker at Gicement, in Remera, and KIMENYI, Jean-Claude, a resident of Nyamirambo who works as money changer in Kigali.
From that time we wrote the letter naming those two people, none of them have been arrested because they have been seen doing their business as usual. We have patiently waited for a response.
On 22nd December 2009, we phoned the secretariat of National Police headquarters in order to see if there was any response. They recommended us to be patient because the response was not yet ready. A whole month has passed and still no reply.
There appears to be no other purpose than delaying to complicate our situation.
3. Newspaper articles in UMUVUGIZI Vol. 66 and UMUSESO No. 386, showing a list of people alleged to be party members
UMUSESO Newspaper, No. 386 of 14th to 21st December 2009, pg.2 has an article saying that there exists an intelligence report written by Gen. Jack NZIZA (Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense) showing that Colonel and Senator Joseph KAREMERA and Patrick MAZIMPAKA are behind the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, a Party still seeking legal registration. UMUSESO says that the report is aimed at ‘chopping off the heads’ of both Col. Joseph KAREMERA and Patrick MAZIMPAKA.
UMUVUGIZI Newspaper, Vol.66 of December 18th – 27th. 2009, also writes on the existence of the Report and it claims that RPF-Inkotanyi historicals have the sole objective of overthrowing H.E. President Paul Kagame’s regime. It is alleged that these historical/senior members are the ones behind the new political parties being born in Rwanda. It goes on to say that the report has linked all of them to be behind the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR).
Details of those mentioned:
1. MAZIMPAKA Patrick (Former vice-chairman of the African Union Commission, and former Minister)
2. Ambassador RWAMASIRABO (former Rwandan Ambassador to Japan, and former Rector of National University of Rwanda)
3. Senator Joseph Karemera (former ambassador and minister)
4. Colonel Mudenge (current Director General of Rwandan Regulatory Agency)
5. Sam NKUSI (Former Minister of state for Energy in MINIFRA).
6. Commissioner General of Police Brigadier General Emmanuel Gasana (current Police Chief)
7. Commissioner General RWIGAMBA Andrew (former Police chief)
8. Ambassador NGOGA Pascal (former Rwandan ambassador to Ethiopia)
9. Dr. Maj. Ben KARENZI (Former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health)
10. General and Ambassador FAUSTIN KAYUMBA NYAMWASA (former Rwandan Army Chief of staff, now Ambassador to India)
11. Senator INYUMBA Aloysie (former minister and Treasurer of the RPF party)
12. Brigadier General Richard RUTATINA (Presidential Advisor on security)
13. Colonel Zigira (who was a commissioner in the commission for the demobilization of soldiers.)
14. Dr. BIHOZAGARA (former Rwandan Ambassador to Brussells, former minister as well)
15. NKONGORI John (former Director General of Civil Aviation Authority)
We would like to respond to these articles. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda seriously refutes all the allegations stated in these newspapers. There is nobody in the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda who wants to overthrow the RPF government.
UMUVUGIZI newspaper says that the report contains the names of people whose objective is to overthrow H.E. President Paul Kagame’s government. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has absolutely no intentions of destroying and overthrowing the Rwandan government.
UMUVUGIZI newspaper continues on to say that in the leaked intelligence report some of those people mentioned in connection to the allegations stated in the above paragraph have close relational ties with, or are friends to, KABANDA, Charles and HABINEZA, Frank two of the eleven people in the Executive Committee that governs the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
The leadership of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, wishes to inform all people living in and outside of Rwanda that those people listed in the report do not belong to our party. Those people allegedly mentioned to be hiding behind the Green Party, cannot do so, because our party members do not hide behind anyone or anything else.
Our party members are very well-known, attend party meetings regularly and make contributions openly. If someone wishes to join our party, the door is open. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has a clear strategy and program to welcome all Rwandans, both inside and outside of the country, to join the Green Party.
Writing a report of this nature, which contains lies, such as claiming we plan on overthrowing a government, is something we condemn vigorously. We are making it categorically clear, in no unmistakable terms, that these actions (such as overthrowing the government) are in stark contrast to Green Party principles all over the world.
We know very well that the people mentioned in the report are high-profile personalities, experienced and not cowards. If they belonged to the Green Party, we would say it openly without fear. Nobody should be allowed to make them say something they are not. We would like to confirm they are not members of our party.
The news in Umuseso and Umuvugizi indicate that the report lists names of relatives and friends who have connections to HABINEZA, Frank and KABANDA, Charles.
Being a relative or friend of someone does not make them share the same political opinions or be a member in the same political party. Even if they were in the same political party this would not mean that it results from a friendship or close relationship. It could just as easily be agreement with the good political program of the party.
Our political party does not harbor any nepotistic tendencies. Anyone who would like to know more about us should come and examine the composition of our members in the current Executive Committee.
The newspaper UMUVUGIZI states that the report says there is a connection between the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and Mr. John NAGENDA, a Senior Advisor to President Yoweri MUSEVENI of Uganda. This is a lie.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda does not have any intentions of destroying or overthrowing the present government. Our party has a peaceful political program which will represent all Rwandans. It will be up to the Rwandan people to choose for themselves what type of political program they want through democratic means.
All such things are being done in order to make people hate us. These tactics are well known to the Rwandan people and we shall continue to speak the truth.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, would like to request international organizations promoting human rights and democracy, the international community, representatives of foreign diplomatic missions and embassies in Rwanda and member states of the Commonwealth to closely follow our problems and carry out an investigation on the violence unleashed against us on 30th October 2009 at St.Paul.
We would like to request the friendly nations/countries of Rwanda to make an appeal to H.E. President KAGAME and the ruling RPF party to let the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda be accorded legal status in Rwanda.
We also would like to conclude by requesting all religious leaders in Rwanda and all over the world, to request H.E President Kagame and the ruling RPF party to accept the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and let democracy take root in Rwanda.
CONCLUSION
After all this, and other things that may be planned against us, we shall continue to project the truth, among the Democratic Green Party Principles, we have that of non – violence, we shall continue to use it as one of the main pillars guiding us.
We have the faith that RPF will come to a point, when it will realize the truth, and stop basing on false reports; we shall continue expressing our grievances and the call to address our plight, be it in Rwanda and among the international community.
Having different views/ideas from that of the current Government does not automatically turn one into an enemy of the country.
Our objective is to build a country free from oppression of any kind, nepotism, corruption, and all other evils, so that our children will live in a good country, where everyone will have an equal say and can exercise his/her democratic rights freely.
Done in Kigali on 24th December 2009
Frank HABINEZA,
Founding President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda/
President, African Greens Movement ( AfGM)/
Co-Africa Representative to Global Greens Coordination (GGC)
Mob: + 250 78 85 630 39
Email:
fhabineza@africangreens.org
http://www.rwandagreendemocrats.org/
http://www.africangreens.org/
http://www.globalgreens.org/
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Rwanda:Tutu to Address Kigali Rights Forum
By Ivan R Mugisha
The New Times-Kigali
December 29, 2009
Kigali -Renowned South African cleric and peace activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is expected in Kigali to attend the first regional global UNESCO Intergenerational Human Rights Forum slated for January 1, 2010.
The nine-day conference is expected to attract over 40 African and 50 youth leaders from all over the world to discuss various human rights issues and lay the groundwork for an international movement for change.
Tutu rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid culminating into a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
The forum which will also be addressed by President Paul Kagame is organized by the University of Connecticut UNESCO Institute of Comparative Human Rights, in partnership with the Rwandan Human Rights Commission.
"We are bringing the young leaders to witness the many accomplishments that Rwanda has made within such a short period of time; from a human rights basket case, to a leader in Africa in such a short time. Rwanda has a lot to teach the rest of the world," the institute's chair, Amii Omara-Otunnu said in a statement.
Omara-Otunnu further said that the forum will enable the young participants to dissect and understand their similarities and differences so as to cultivate a global solidarity that aspires to change the world for the better.
Forum participants will discuss human rights issues affecting Africa such as conflict resolution, disability, women's rights, education, sustainability, democracy and peace-building.
"A principle reason why the Intergenerational Forum focuses on young leaders is because, more than any other group in society, their training will most likely have a great and ripple impact on society" Omara-Otunnu noted.
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Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda
By Leslie Cohen
Women Writers
November 24, 1999
By Rosamond Halsey Carr with Ann Howard Halsey (Viking)
From Shakespearean sonnets to Hallmark greeting cards, poets have traditionally used images of flowers to represent the beauty and innocence of children. Therefore, it is fitting that a former flower-grower has founded an orphanage.
Rosamond Halsey Carr's memoir, Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda, chronicles her love affair with the Kivu -- the area in which she settled as a mature woman -- and its native tribes. It describes a panorama of exotica, with milk sold by the calabash, beer made from bananas, and transportation for the privileged via tipoy. In addition, the book provides cameos of Sembagare, Carr's native assistant, who became her full partner in business, and Dian Fossey, who was her close friend. Most significantly, it explains the background to the genocide in Rwanda.
Carr came to Rwanda with her husband, Kenneth, a big game hunter and photographer. While their marriage faltered, Carr's attachment to Rwanda and its people grew. When she divorced, Carr became the plantation manager of Mugungo, where she grew pyrethrum - a type of chrysanthemum containing a strong natural pesticide. Carr has remained at Mugungo for almost fifty years.
In simple terms, Carr explains the complex relations between the Banyarwanda - Rwanda's native Tutsi, Hutu and Batwa (pygmies) - and how Rwanda's independence ( from the European colonists) in 1962 led to a resurgence of tribal conflicts.
Happily, independence was followed by a wonderful era of reconciliation, during which both democracy and business flourished. During the 1980's, Carr's pyrethrum business started becoming profitable, and she began to grow other flowers commercially, as well. She recycled the money that she earned into a scholarship fund for Banyarwanda children, so that they could receive a much-needed secondary education.
Sorrowfully, tribal conflicts were renewed in the 1990's, culminating in the mass slaughter of 1994. One official remarked,
"Eighteen years of extraordinary reconciliation have been undone in three days." Carr was forced to leave Rwanda in April, 1994, and viewed the nightmare from America, feeling like a stranger there. She returned to "the most dangerous place on earth" in August, to find the country and her plantation a shambles. At the age of 82, she converted her former pyrethrum drying house into a dormitory and opened an orphanage named "
Imbabazi z'i Mugungo," meaning "Mugungo is a place where you will receive all the love and care a mother would give."
While Rosamond Halsey Carr has made neither headlines nor history, her work has improved the lives of thousands of people. With the burgeoning of the memoir as a literary form,
Land of a Thousand Hills exemplifies the value of that genre.
Note:
This review originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News. Leslie Cohen is a member of a kibbutz, a freelance writer, and she teaches at two teacher education colleges in Israel. She can be contacted at
leslie_c@ein-hashofet.co.il
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The truth about Rwanda
By Christopher Black
December 29, 2009
The reaction of some readers to the publication of the open letter to Paul Kagame written by the Hutu political prisoners held by the US controlled Rwanda tribunal is a tragic manifestation of the deliberate disinformation fed to the world’s public, especially the English language public, since Kagame and his gangsters destroyed democracy in Rwanda and annihilated millions of people, both Hutu and Tutsi, in his four year campaign of terror to install a fascist Tutsi minority junta in Rwanda.
The public should be aware of the facts before expressing an opinion. The fact is that Rwanda before 1990 was considered the Switzerland of Africa, a model of social development. The result of the 1959 social revolution that threw off the Tutsi monarchy and aristocracy and freed the majority Hutu population from serfdom and a lifetime of humiliation was the establishment of a collective society in which both Hutus, and Tutsis as well as Twas lived together in relative harmony. Tutsis were members of the government, its administration, present in large numbers in the education system, the judiciary and controlled most of the large private commercial companies in Rwanda. The Rwandan army was a multiethnic army composed of both Hutus and Tutsis and it stayed a multiethnic force even when the Rwandan Army was forced to retreat into the Congo forest in July 1994 because it ran out of ammunition due to the western embargo on arms and supplies.
Rwanda descended into chaos in 1990 when the self-described Rwanda Patriotic Front, or RPF, forces launched a surprise attack on October 1, 1990 from Uganda. In fact, every one of the men and officers of that invasion force were members of the Ugandan Army.
The invasion was really an invasion by Uganda disguised as an independent force of “liberation”. Liberation from what has never been stated. Initially the justification put out by the RPF was to attain the return of Tutsi “refugees” from Uganda to Rwanda. However, that problem had been solved by an agreement between the RPF, Uganda, Rwanda, the UNHCR and the OAU a few weeks earlier in which the Rwandan government agreed to the return of all those Tutsis in Uganda who wanted to return to Rwanda. That accord required that Tutsi representatives of the refugees travel to Kigali for a meeting to determine the mechanics of that population movement, and how to accommodate all those people in a small country. They were expected at the end of September 1990. They never arrived. Instead of civilians returning in peace, Rwandan was viciously attacked on October 1, 1990 by a force that unleashed unbridled savagery. During that invasion the RPF forces of the Ugandan Army slaughtered everyone in their path, Hutu or Tutsi. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians, the majority Hutu, were butchered. The RPF’s favourite method was the bayonet or knife with which they disembowelled men and women or to tied their hands behind their backs and smashed their skulls with hoes, the farm tool iconic of the Hutu peasantry. After several weeks of intense fighting, the RPF forces were destroyed by the small Rwandan Army and the remnants fled, on US instructions, back into Uganda to regroup and reorganise. The RPF still never justified this aggression and the needless slaughter of civilians in a peaceful country. Individual Tutsis had always been allowed to return to Rwanda from the early 1960’s and several times the Rwandan government invited them all to return. However the Tutsi aristocracy, jealous of its lost power and which viewed the Hutus as nothing but subhuman, refused to return unless their absolute power was restored. This the people of Rwanda, even the Tutsis who remained in the country, refused.
In the 1960s and early 1970s various Tutsi groups in Uganda and elsewhere had organised terrorist raids into Rwanda in which they murdered without pity anyone they caught. These raids were repelled by Rwanda’s tiny armed forces. The years that followed were a period of development and peace for Rwandans. Even though one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world it had the best road system, health care, and education systems in Africa. Until the late 1980’s it prospered and received help from both the socialist countries of the USSR, North Korea and China and West Germany, France and Israel and others.
The Tutsis in Uganda became involved in the civil wars between the socialist Milton Obote and the US-UK puppets like Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni who were supported by the west to get rid of socialism in Uganda. By 1990 the Tutsis composed a large section of the Ugandan Army and all the senior officers of the RPF were high officers in the Ugandan Army, the NRA. Kagame himself was one of the highest-ranking officers in the intelligence service and was notorious for enjoying the torture of prisoners.
Rwanda until 1990 was a one party socialist state. The ruling party the MRND (roughly the National Movement For revolutionary Development) was not considered a party as such but rather a social movement in which everyone in society took part through local elections and the mechanism of consensus much like the system in Cuba. The fall of the Soviet Union led to pressure from the west, notably the United States and France to dismantle the one party state system and permit multiparty democracy. The President, Juvenal Habyarimana, instead of resisting, agreed to a change in the constitution and in 1991 Rwanda became a multiparty democracy. The fact the Rwandan government did this in the middle of a war is more than remarkable. It was also an offer of peace. The RPF, since its abject failure in 1990, had changed its strategy from a frontal assault to the tactics of terrorism. The RPF likes to refer to this phase as the guerrilla. However, it was not the guerrilla of a liberation struggle like the FLMN in Vietnam or the FARC in Colombia. It was instead a mirror image of the Contras campaign of terrorism conducted against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Its purpose was not to make revolution. Its purpose was over throw the revolution. And, like the contras, the RPF was supported by the United States.
This was clear from the beginning of the war. When the RPF launched their attack, President Habyarimana was in Washington, lured out of the way, by the State Department. The evidence that the US was aware of and supported the October surprise attack was US administration’s offer to Habyarimana of asylum in the US if he surrendered power to the RPF. Habyarimana refused and immediately flew home. There was no condemnation of the Ugandan-RPF aggression by the US or any of its allies despite the big noise they made at the same time about the advance of Iraqi forces into Kuwait. Further, the Rwanda ambassador to the UN, then on the Security Council, filed a protest in the Security Council but the US had it taken off the agenda.
In fact the US and its allies supported the aggression against Rwanda from the beginning and US special forces operated with the RPF from the beginning. On Friday, in Toronto, Bill Clinton denied any involvement in Rwanda but this is one of the big lies of the century. He and Bush are up to their necks in the blood of the Rwandan and Congolese people.
With the arrival of multiparty democracy in 1991, the RPF took full advantage and created several front parties to take away support from the popular MRND. These parties though claiming to represent different political views in fact were, in the main front parties for the RPF. The press was expanded and many of the new papers were financed by and acted as mouthpieces for the RPF. At the same time as these parties sprang up, criticising the government, the RPF continued its terror campaign, planting mines on roads that killed Hutu and Tutsi alike, assassinating politicians and officials, blaming it, with the help of various ngos funded by western intelligence agencies, on the government. In 1992 a coalition government was formed with the RPF or its front parties seizing control of key ministries and appointing the prime minister. Through these agents they also controlled the civilian intelligence services that they then began to dismantle. The RPF engaged in a talk and fight strategy. Always agreeing to a ceasefire, pressing for more power, then launching new attacks on civilians. The most egregious was their breaking of the ceasefire and their major offensive in February 1993 in which they seized the major town of Nyaruhengeri in the process murdering 40,000 civilians most of them Hutu. The Rwandan Army, even though hamstrung by the civilian ministries that were controlled by the RPF, managed to drive the RPF back. Finally in August 1993 the Arusha Accords were signed under pressure from the US and its allies in which the RPF obtained major concessions in return to the formation of a broad based transition government to be followed by general elections.
However, they knew they could not win such elections as the RPF was not only unpopular with the majority Hutu population it did not even enjoy the support of many internal Tutsis whose lives and businesses had been destroyed by the war they did not see a need for. Instead of preparing for elections the RPF prepared for their final offensive. As far back as December 1993, UN reports document the massive build-up of men and weapons coming in from Uganda. The UN force that was deployed supposedly to ensure a peaceful transition, in fact, was a cover for the US and its allies to assist in this build up. General Dallaire, the Canadian general in charge of the UN force hid this build up from the Rwandan army and the President. The build-up was accompanied by death threats against the president. The US representative, Herman Cohen, according to an account of the President’s last conversation with president Mobutu of Zaire just two days before he was murdered, had, in October 1993, told President Habyarimana, that unless he ceded all power to the RPF they were going to kill him and drag his body through the streets. He received the same threat from the Belgians and the Canadians through General Dallaire. These threats were punctuated by the murder of the Hutu president of Burundi by Tutsi officers in October 1993 in which Kagame and the RPF also had a hand. In the aftermath of that murder 250,000 Hutus were massacred by the Tutsi army of Burundi and hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled to Rwanda.
The result of the 1993 offensive in February 1993 was that one million Hutus fled the terror of the RPF in northern Rwanda towards the capital so that by April 1994 over a million refugees were encamped close to the capital and hundreds thousands more in camps in the south all fleeing RPF terror.
The RPF did all it could in 1994 to paralyse the functioning of the government, to exacerbate racial tensions, and prepare for war. Then on April 6, 1994 they launched their final surprise attack by shooting down the presidential plane returning from a meeting in Tanzania that Museveni had arranged. In fact it is known that his half-brother Salim Saleh was at the final meeting at which the date for the shoot down was agreed. The attack on the plane killed the Rwandan president, a Hutu, the Burundian president, a Hutu, the Rwandan Army chief of staff, a Hutu and others on board. It was the first massacre of 1994 and it was a massacre of Hutus by the RPF. The RPF then immediately launched attacks across Kigali and the north of the country. In the sector of Kigali known as Remera they killed everyone living on the night if the 6th/7th, wiped out the Gendarme camp there, wiped out the military police camp at Kami and launched a major attack against Camp Kanombe, Camp Kigali and the main gendarme camp at Kacyriu. They slaughtered everyone in their path.
The Rwandan government and army called for a ceasefire the same night and next day. The RPF refused. The Rwandan government asked for more UN help to control the situation. The US arranged that instead the main UN force was pulled out all the while flying in men and supplies to the RPF by C130 Hercules aircraft. The Rwandan Army, short of ammunition and unable to contain the RPF advances even offered an unconditional surrender on the 12th of April. Incredibly the RPF even refused that. Instead they shelled the Nyacyonga refugee camp where the one million Hutu refugees were located provoking their flight into the capital. The effect of one million people flooding into a small city that itself was under bombardment cannot be described. The RPF used this flood of people to infiltrate its men behind army lines. This created panic among the Hutu population that began killing anyone they did not recognise fearing that everyone was an RPF soldier out to cut their throats. It was clear that the RPF was not interested in saving lives, even Tutsis, but in seizing total power and did not want to negotiate at all.
Dr. Alison Desforges, in her testimony in the Military II trial at the ICTR in 2006 testified that the RPF claim that they attacked to stop a “genocide” was a myth; just propaganda to justify their attempt to seize power by force of arms. She also testified that the Rwandan government did not plan and execute genocide. This accords with the testimony of General Dallaire who also confirmed an earlier statement that there was no planned genocide by the government as did the deputy head of Belgian Army intelligence, Colonel Vincent, who also testified at the ICTR that the idea of a genocide was a fantasy.
The fighting in Kigali was intense. UN officers, confirming Rwandan and RPF officers who have testified, state that the RPF was launching hundreds of Katyusha rockets every hour round the clock while the Rwandan Army ran out of hand grenades in the first few days and was reduced to fighting the RPF with hand made explosives. Even so, the vaunted RPF could not take Kigali. The siege of Kigali lasted three months and only ended when the Rwandan Army literally ran out of ammunition and ordered a general retreat into the Congo forest. During that fighting the RPF killed anyone in their path. RPF officers have stated that the RPF killed up to 2 million Hutus in those 12 weeks in a deliberate campaign to eliminate the Hutu population. The Akagera River, the length of which was under RPF control throughout, ran red with the blood of the Hutus massacred on its banks. The RPF claimed these were Tutsis but there were no Tutsis in that area and only they had access to that area. Robert Gersony, of USAID in a report to the UNHCR in October 1994, filed as an exhibit at the ICTR, stated that the RFP carried out a systematic and planned massacre of the Hutu population.
As the Rwandan Army, including its Tutsi officers and men retreated into the Congo forest, the Hutu population, in fear for their lives fled with them in their millions. In local villages, Hutu neighbours attacked Tutsis in revenge for the murder of Hutus or fearing death at their hands. Tutsis attacked Hutus. It was total war just as the RPF wished. The RPF later pursued the Hutus through the Congo forest in 1996-8 and killed hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions. They were shelled, machine gunned, raped, cut to pieces with knives. Accounts of that trek are difficult to bear.
The RPF was assisted in the offensive by the US that set up the UN Rwanda Emergency office in Nairobi that in fact was manned by US Army officers and which acted as the operational headquarters of the RPF and gave them intelligence on Rwandan Army movements and actions and directions. Prudence Bushnell telephoned the Rwandan Army chief of staff in May 1994 and told him that unless he surrendered he must know that he is fighting the United States of America and will be defeated. US special forces fought with the RPF. There is also evidence that Belgian forces of the UN were involved as an intercepted radio message from Kagame to his forces in the field refers to the help they had received from the Belgians.
There is also evidence that Canadian forces were also involved and Atoine Nyetera a Tutsi prince, who was in Kigali in that period testified for the defence in the Military II trial and stated not only were there no massacres committed against Tutsis by the Rwandan Army but that it was the RPF that began the massacres after they took Kigali and began killing Hutus. He also testified that despite the claim by the RPF of being a Tutsi liberation group, when he saw their long columns enter the capital he saw that most of them were Sudanese, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Tanzanians and others speaking Swahili or Sudanese languages, in other words, mercenaries.
Several RPF officers have testified at the ICTR and stated that they fled the Kagame regime as they had been promised that they fought for liberation of the Tutsis. However, when they wanted to take over the streets of Kigali to stop reprisals against Tutsis by Hutu civilians the junior officers, were forbidden to do so, putting the lie to Kagame’s claim that he attacked to save Tutsis. These officers testified that Kagame wanted deaths to justify his war. The RPF could have controlled large parts of Kigali as they had at least 15,000 men in or near the capital opposed to 5,000 Rwandan Army forces. Instead he used his men to ethnically cleanse the rest of the country of the Hutu population.
The Rwanda War was a total war. All means were used to destroy that country and the Hutu people. The ultimate objective, the resources of the Congo. The US agreed to support the RPF in return for the RPF acting as a US proxy force to invade the Congo and seize its resources. The US now has several military bases in Rwanda and Rwanda is now nothing more than a US-UK colony run by thugs who keep control of the majority of the people by intimidation, murder and disinformation. None of this could have happened if those in the UN such as Kofi Anan then in charge of the Department of peacekeeping operations had done his job. None of this could have happened without the connivance of the Nato countries and Uganda. But the prime responsibility rests with the United States of America and in particular the regimes of Bill Clinton and George Bush and now Mr. Obama. As Boutros-Ghali, the UN Secretary General at the time stated to Canadian historian Robin Philpot in 2004, “The United States is one hundred percent responsible for what happened in Rwanda.”
Christopher Black
Barrister, International Criminal Lawyer
Lead Counsel, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana
Chief of Staff, Rwandan Gendarmerie
International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda
Toronto, Canada
Source:
Save Rwanda
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Millersville biology grad heads to Africa to be a volunteer teacher and start an HIV program
By JON RUTTER
Lancaster online
December 27, 2009
Emma Eck is taking a couple of ambitious New Year's resolutions with her today when she leaves the United States for Rwanda.
The 31-year-old Lancaster woman said last week that she plans to establish a science lab at L'ecole des Sciences de Musanze, the boarding school where she'll volunteer as a biology and chemistry teacher throughout 2010.
She also wants to launch an HIV education program.
Eck, who will be working with some of the children of 1990s genocide victims, is traveling under the aegis of WorldTeach, a 23-year-old nonprofit service project based at Harvard University.
Her destination is Musanze, a northern Rwandan town in the mountains about two hours away from the capital city of Kigali.
She'll undergo about three weeks of orientation. Then, said Eck, "I'll be on my own" at the school.
She speaks not a word of Kinyarwanda, a main Rwandan tongue. She started to study Swahili, another one of the country's common languages, but is still in the beginning stages. "I can say 'The car is pink,' " she joked.
Fortunately, added Eck, there's a move in the country to teach all science courses in English. Too, the school headmaster, a priest, speaks excellent English.
She learned last week that she'll live in an apartment at the school and have access to a toilet and running water, almost unimaginable luxuries in a developing country.
"I'm very, very lucky" to have those amenities and also get a shot at bettering people's quality of life, the aspiring doctor said.
"A perfect world," she mused, "would be everyone taking care of their neighbors."
Teaching the world
WorldTeach, which operates in 19 countries, launched its Rwanda program in 2008.
The organization sent 18 teachers there last year. It's dispatching 18, including Eck, in 2010, said Becky Davis, the group's program manager for Rwanda.
"The Rwanda program is special" because many of the students are genocide orphans, Davis said.
The secondary school where Eck will be stationed has about 700 students, ages 12 to 25. She said she expects some of her charges to be HIV positive.
The disease is rampant in Africa, where cultural traditions hinder the fight against it, Eck added. "Some people think that it's not sexually transmitted or that a healer can get rid of it."
Gender inequality and discrimination against gays are among the social injustices still gripping Rwanda, Eck said, but the country has evolved light-years since mid-1990s Hutu/Tutsi tribal war stamped a violent image on the world.
"They're all Rwandans, now," she said. "There's been a really amazing policy of forgiveness."
Eck, a 1996 graduate of Penn Manor High School, said she's yearned to return to Africa since visiting Egypt with her mother as a girl and dreaming of becoming a scientist who studies apes and monkeys.
She earned a biology degree from Millersville University in 2006. Her interests were parasites, insects and infectious diseases –– all of which plague Africa.
Eck, who has tutored and taught English as a second language for the Lancaster Literacy Council, said she left her biochemist's job at Lancaster Laboratories last spring to plan the next stage of her life.
That turned out to be WorldTeach.
Eck will maintain a photo blog about her experience,
emmateachrwanda@blogspot.com.
She expects to spend about $10,000 "pretty much out of pocket" while pursuing the program, she said.
But she has the support of her partner of 14 years, Ben Kreider, among others, she added. "My boyfriend is staying here to pay the mortgage."
MU faculty members are also backing her in the project.
Ryan Wagner, an assistant professor of biology who formerly taught Eck, worked with the school to donate a dozen microscopes left from Millersville State College days.
The microscopes, though old, are perfectly functional, Wagner wrote in an e-mail. Six of them magnify cells and tissues 430 times lifesize while the others are dissecting microscopes used to view larger structures, such as the surface of leaves.
Eck will lug some of the equipment herself and ship the rest, 150 pounds, in all.
She suspects she might have to build much of the science lab from scratch. "If I have to make an overhead projector" to show slides, she said, "I'll make it."
Otherwise, she said last week, she's prepped and curious.
She had her long hair cropped close. She swallowed malaria pills, bought a water purification device and packed some dressy outfits in which to teach, as befits Rwandan custom.
She plans to hike and study for her medical school exams in her free time and attend medical school when she returns.
She's excited about exploring mountain gorilla terrain with Kreider when he visits, she added.
She's prepared to give up ice cream for a year and subsist on goat meat, bananas, milk and potatoes.
She'll pick up a cell phone overseas- Rwanda is technologically advanced in that respect –– but do without computer, TV or Internet.
Leaving behind the modern "sensory barrage" for a while is not unwelcome, Eck added.
"They just move at a slower pace" in Rwanda. "It'll be a change of pace that I'm really looking forward to."
Donations to Eck's project should specify her name and be made through
WorldTeach.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is
jrutter@lnpnews.com.
For 2010, it’s more tourists and millions in revenue to Rwanda
By KEZIO-MUSOKE
The East African
December 28 2009
Photo: Bird watching is one of the attractions at the Akagera National Park Picture: Photo/ROSETTE RUGAMBA
Rwanda’s revenue from tourism is projected to hit $203 million next year.
Rwanda Development Board also said that the country expects another $200 million from foreign direct investment in the next year.
According to the deputy chief executive in charge of tourism and conservation at the Rwanda Development Board Chantal Rosette Rugamba, at least 820,000 visitors are expected by the end of 2010.
Ms Rugamba said this while unveiling John Gara as the new RDB boss.
Mr Gara replaces Joe Ritchie who is now an adviser to President Paul Kagame.
Figures presented indicate that during the first semester of this year the country attracted some 440,000 visitors, a 7 per cent rise over the same period last year.
The visitors generated over $92 million.
Officials also said that the country expects to attract some $11 million from bird tourism by 2012.
Bird tourism
There are about 700 species of birds in Rwanda of which 44 are indigenous to the country.
RDB anticipates that birding will contribute 10 per cent of Rwanda’s tourism receipts by 2010.
“In the first half of 2009, 43 per cent or 189,857 of the visitors who came to Rwanda came for business purposes. We anticipate that conference tourism will continue to generate considerable revenue in 2010,” Ms Rugamba said.
At the same ceremony, deputy chief executive in charge of business operations at RDB Clare Akamanzi said projected investments for 2010 were recorded at $200m for foreign direct investments.
According to RDB, nine investment projects worth $52.4 million (Rwf 26.2 billion) and able to generate 240 jobs were registered in November.
This represents an increase of 297 per cent from the $13.2 million (Rwf6.6 billion) registered in October 2009.
Ms Akamanzi termed delays in implementation of the planned investments as the biggest challenge this year.
Information availed indicates that in the first six months of this year, investments faced a decline of 10 per cent in the number of projects registered though there was a 50 per cent increase in value of investment projects registered.
According to the World Investment Report 2009, Rwanda registered a dramatic rise in investment inflows this year.
The report said the country attracted $16 million in 2006, $67 million in 2007 and $103 million last year.
For the third year running, Uganda led the East African region in attracting FDIs fetching $787 million in foreign investments in 2008, up from $733 million in 2007 and $644 million in 2006.
Despite the rise in foreign investments, some of Rwanda’s biggest investment attractions were badly hit by the global financial crisis.
For instance, Dubai World, a major holding company owned by the United Arab Emirates earlier this year scaled down its investments in the country, preferring to concentrate on two projects out of a handful it had picked.
Almost two years ago, the Middle-East giant had announced that it was to line up an investment worth $230 million (Rwf130 billion) mainly in the hospitality industry with the building of a new 150-room hotel in Kigali on the Kigali Golf Course.
It also promised to re-develop the 18 hole golf course and the golf and country club, as well as building townhouses and villas.
Construction on the developments was meant to commence in late 2007 according to a statement quoting the Dubai World Chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.
However despite “prioritising” particular areas of investment there has not been any mention of commencement of construction since then.
However, two weeks ago RDB said it had not yet received any indication of change of strategy from the previous report that Dubai World had submitted.
RDB is currently being restructured. Mr Gara said the process will lead to a creation of clusters that will focus on policy advocacy in areas that promote the private sector and agriculture as a business industry.
RDB was created by a government’s Organic Law to fast-track development and catalyse economic growth.
It is a merger of a number of agencies, including the investment, tourism and information and technology authorities.
Rwanda: PS-Imberakuri fails to get office building in Northern Province
By RNA Reporter
December 26, 2009
Musanze: There was drama in Musanze district Saturday as the Social Party Imberakuri officials found themselves at the centre of an unexpected controversy. They found the house they had planned to make the party´s office occupied by other tenants, RNA reports.
By around 10am, PS Imberakuri head Mr. Bernard Ntaganda and other officials arrived in Musanze at a house on the outskirt of the town. However, the house was occupied by a family. The party´s top brass was scheduled to launch its activities in Northern Province in the same house.
Amid the chaos that arose in the presence of district officials, the owner of the house accused PS Imberakuri officials of "coming with just saliva last week when they were looking for a house". He said that he seriously wanted money at that time which somebody else was on hand to pay in cash and immediately signed a contract.
Apparently, party officials contacted him last week with a proposal to rent his house, but they only promised to return with the money and that a contract would be signed. However, the owner says PS Imberakuri officials did not give him any specifics about when they would take up the house.
For party head Mr. Ntaganda, the house owner had been intimidated and forced to give away his house. Talking to about three journalists and surrounded by curious on-lookers, Mr. Ntaganda did not name who he believes was behind the move to block him from launching the party´s activities in upcountry places.
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Rwanda: Land husbandry, water harvesting and hillside irrigation - Project information document (PID) appraisal stage
By Relief Web
The World Bank Group
August 31, 2009
Full_Report
1. Country and Sector Background
Both the economic growth and the poverty-reduction objectives for Rwanda rely critically on agricultural growth. Rwanda appears to have fully exhausted the growth effects of its postconflict reconstruction. Rwanda's recent CAS (FY09-FY12), thus highlights the need to activate new drivers to sustain rapid and inclusive growth, raise incomes and reduce income poverty. Agriculture is identified by the Government as one of the key sectors its poverty reduction strategy, the EDPRS. Despite the country's potential for growth, at the present time, Rwanda remains one of the world's poorest countries, with an average annual income of US$320 per capita. Poverty remains largely a rural—and agricultural—phenomenon with rural poverty at 67 percent. Poverty incidence among families whose main source of income is agricultural wage labor is extremely high at 91 percent. Therefore, it is not only the growth agenda, but also the country's MDG on poverty which depend critically on improving agricultural productivity, given that 80 percent of the country's labor force is engaged in agriculture.
Agriculture is the backbone of Rwanda's economy, accounting for about 39 percent of GDP and 63 percent of foreign exchange earnings. It also provides 90 percent of the country's food needs. Total arable land in Rwanda is slightly above 1.5 million ha, 90% of which is found on hillsides. The sector faces several challenges: (i) a binding land constraint that rules out extensification (bringing more and more land under cultivation); (ii) small average land holdings (0.3 ha); (iii) poor water management (uneven rainfall and ensuing variability in production) resulting from very low levels of irrigation (15,000 ha in the whole country); (iv) the need for greater (public and private) capacity from the district to the national levels and the lack of extension services for farmers; and (v) limited commercial orientation constrained by poor access to output and financial markets. Without the option of extensification, agricultural intensification must take place in the context of a potentially fertile, but challenging, physical environment. Steep terrains and the highest population density in sub-Saharan Africa (355 inhabitants per km²) make good land husbandry a strict necessity (to curtail erosion and otherwise maintain the quality of the soil), as well as an environmental prerogative. Arable land on hillsides constitutes the vast majority of the total agricultural land in the country, but erosion costs the country 1.4 million tons of fertile soils per year. Given its high dependence on rain fed agriculture, irrigation is critical to reducing the sector's vulnerability to climatic variation and to aligning the right incentives for intensification.
2. Objectives
The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to increase the productivity and commercialization of hillside agriculture targeted for development under the Project. Specifically, the key outcome indicators for the project objective are proposed as follows: (i) increased productivity of targeted irrigated command areas ($/ha); (ii) increased productivity of targeted non-irrigated command areas ($/ha); and (iii) increased share in commercialized products from the targeted areas.
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We must be taught to tolerate and respect all other people
By Naple News
Pam Shapiro / Naples / Senior, Barron Collier High School
December 26, 2006
Editor’s note:
This essay won Pam Shapiro a first-place prize in the 2009 Laws of Life essay contest. Her father shares it with readers in the wake of the public discussion of the kicking incident at North Naples Middle School.
Armenia. Nazi Germany. Tibet. Rwanda. Bosnia. Darfur.
These are just the scenes of several of hundreds of genocides and hate crimes that have occurred in recent history. What contributes to these atrocities? What makes a person want to kill a fellow human being? When a group of people feel that another group is inferior to themselves “classification” occurs. Then the propaganda starts. The lies begin to spread, and violence breaks out to suppress the inferior group; no longer a group of humans, but enemies.
It was a rainy and bleak day in Poland, appropriate for my first visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The mood was somber and everyone was quiet; we were paying respect to the dead. As I walked through the museum-like barracks of Auschwitz and the remnants of gas chambers in Birkenau, the phrase “never again” dominated my thoughts. I thought to myself, “Never again?” What about Rwanda? What about Darfur? How can we disrespect the lives of the nearly 4 million victims who died here at Birkenau? And the 7 million others who suffered under the Nazi rule? Standing on the train tracks leading into Birkenau, silent tears slipped down my face. How many people had ridden these tracks to their death? Thousands? Millions?
As I made my way through the torture chamber that was the sorting room, I felt chills run down my spine. Walking through the doors to be sorted, your humanity was left behind. Men and women were forced to strip, their heads shaved. The weak, the old and the young were the lucky ones, sent to a quick death. The strong men and women were left to the humiliation, starvation and torture of the sadistic Nazis. I tried to imagine myself in their position, no longer a person but a number. A number that had to be counted every morning — rain or shine, hot or cold. A number with no privacy. A number that longed for an extra piece of bread. I could not imagine such a life. I value the respect I give and receive; I cannot begin to imagine a life where respect is not even considered.
Driving away from Auschwitz, I couldn’t help but continue my haunting thoughts. Seeing a place of such organized death had made me cringe. How could people have done this? Why did people do this? The Hebrew name for the Holocaust, the Shoah, which means catastrophe, seems utterly appropriate. The Nazis systematically killed millions of people without batting an eye. How can a human being have absolutely no respect for another human being’s life?
What can be done about this utter lack of respect and tolerance that drives people to commit hate crimes and segregate fellow human beings? Whether it is a person’s religion, race or beliefs, we must be taught to tolerate and respect all other people. Having witnessed what a lack of these qualities can do, I feel obligated to make sure these values are not forgotten. If we as a society begin to place a higher emphasis on respect and tolerance, perhaps we will see a change in the amount of violence in the world. But we won’t know until we try.
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USA-Rwanda: Ohio man finds his calling in Rwandan orphanage
By Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
December 26, 2009
Jeff Ramsey grew up on a dairy farm and didn't travel much beyond his family's home in Richmond, near Steubenville in eastern Ohio.
He helped with the farm, played saxophone in the high-school band, showed animals at the county fair and hung out with his three brothers.
He dreamed of being a veterinarian but instead majored in computer science at Ohio State University and then spent the next 22 years working at Nationwide in Columbus.
So his family was understandably shocked this fall when the 46-year-old rented out his home, quit his job and moved 7,500 miles away to run an orphanage on a remote mountain in Rwanda.
"It was a big decision in an otherwise very orderly life," said his friend Charlene Jendry. "It took so much courage to leave everything that was familiar."
Yet Jendry understands what pulled Ramsey to the lush but troubled African country near the equator. Jendry and Ramsey helped found Partners in Conservation in 1991 at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, where Ramsey was a volunteer and Jendry was on the staff. The group's goal was to support conservation and humanitarian programs in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Eventually, the group began supporting the
Imbabazi Orphanage in the northwest corner of Rwanda near Volcanoes National Park, home to the endangered mountain gorilla. In 1999, Ramsey began traveling each summer to the orphanage and other programs the group supported.
The orphanage, with more than 100 children who lost their families during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, kept drawing him back. He became friends with the children who live there and with its founder, Roz Carr, who died in September 2006 at age 94.
When the foundation running the orphanage decided to hire its first executive director, Jendry and others persuaded Ramsey to apply.
"He's kind, compassionate, a really good listener, and he's fair and not judgmental," Jendry said. "He takes all sides into consideration, and he has a great, great respect for the people of Rwanda. Once he decided, he knew that this was what he was supposed to do right now, and he hasn't looked back."
Now, Ramsey boils water for a bath and shave each morning on a two-burner cookstove and depends on a fireplace to keep his house warm. He longs for hot showers and junk food but loves listening to the rain lull him to sleep as it falls on his tin roof at night.
In an e-mail interview, he said his biggest surprise is the scope of his job. Not only does he oversee the orphanage, but also the acres of land surrounding it, farming plots of flowers and vegetables, a tract of eucalyptus trees and a herd of cows.
He also counts out the pay, in Rwandan francs, for more than 30 employees; drives bouquets of flowers to a bus for transport into the city, where they are sold to raise money for the orphanage; teaches children how to shuffle decks of cards; sells bulls to local butchers; and reviews report cards with the children.
He's finding, through trial and error, that he can't make changes at the pace he'd like.
"Rwandanese culture requires a personal relationship as part of conducting business," he wrote. "My biggest hurdle is my own impatience and lack of understanding of the process that must be followed to complete a task. I'm getting better at discussing what I want to get done prior to giving orders."
Ramsey's niece Sarah Matheny of Lancaster said his family misses the uncle who was so devoted that he'd travel an hour each way several times a week to watch a niece or nephew play basketball.
But Matheny, 30, said she knows that Uncle Jeff is putting his heart and soul into his new job.
"He believes wholeheartedly in the orphanage, the gorillas, all of that," she said. "If anyone's going to be good for that job, it's going to be him."
Note: Kathy Lynn Gray can be contacted at "
kgray@dispatch.com"
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Congo Smuggling: U.N. Blames Uganda, Rwanda and United Arab Emirates
By The Black Star News
December 1, 2009
A new United Nations report says Uganda, Rwanda and the United Arab Emirates are behind a gold smuggling operation that fuels violence in war-torn Congo.
The Security Council separately on Monday renewed sanctions against the rebel groups operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Wall Street Journal reported today that while yesterday's Security Council resolution renewing sanctions didn't mention countries or companies by name, the U.N. report "blames Uganda, Rwanda and the United Arab Emirates for running a trading network of smuggled gold and other minerals."
"A Ugandan diplomat protested the report in a closed-door Security Council meeting last week, saying it was based on assumptions, according to a diplomat present at the meeting," The Wall Street Journal reported today.
The Journal said the U.N. report lists Malaysia Smelting Corp. and Thailand Smelting & Refining Co., a unit of Amalgamated Metal Corp. of the United Kingdom as participants in the operation. What's more the CBS Television national program "60 Minutes" reported Sunday that while Uganda produced only $500 worth of gold in 2007 its exports amounted to $75 million of the commodity that year. "Almost all of that is coming from the war zone," in Congo, "60 Minutes" reported.
Without elaboration, Susan Rice, United States ambassador to the United Nations told The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. would work with the U.N. to "prevent the continued illegal exploitation of Congo's minerals, including its gold, which is funding the rebels and the fighting in Congo."
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I wish I was not born an African: Disappointment following the recent conference on the environment in Copenhagen
By Edward Mulindwa
Rwanda-All Group
December 25, 2009
As many take this day to celebrate the birth of Christ, I am going to take a moment and question myself a very important reason, why I was put into a situation of being born an African, a decision I had no option about. And this disappointment raises from the behavior we all as Africans have held during the very last environmental conference that has taken place in Copenhagen, Denmark. We all sat down and failed to utilize it at all. And here is where my anger comes from. There is no question that we as society must take care and respect the environment, there is no question that we as a society must use earth respectfully for we know that our actions affect the climate so if we are to save it for our coming generations, it must be repaired but used sensibly. But there is no question as well that climate has the ability to repair its self so its health is directly affected by the trees we have as the forests. And all this information is readily available to all of us out here, and in Africa as well.
But when we as Africans reached in Copenhagen we jumped on the band wagon of the Western countries that have decided to jump on the emissions as the only destroyers of the environment, when we know down in our lovely hearts that the best emitters are Western countries and not Africans. We as Africans are affecting the environment through cutting down trees in a disorganized manner, and I submit to you that the main destroyer of forests in Africa and environment are Western countries. Western countries forget to understand that the storms that hit North America for example, start in Africa all way through the oceans to North America. When you destroy the environment in Africa you directly affect the environment in North America. So the story of Africans in Copenhagen would have been to demand a respect of Africa resources as a part of solution to the environment.
The Denmark conference should have been directly addressing the tragedy we have today in The Democratic Republic of Congo, for the West decided to mine from this country until it dries up. The mining of DRC was planned way back when Americans and British wanted to remove the French and Belgians from its control, thus the creation of the Rwandese genocide. The Americans and British knew well that if they control Rwanda and Uganda they can have an access into DRC and thus can mine without being destructed by the French. Using Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, the French and Belgians were removed from Great Lakes, and the Rwandese genocide was created. Rwanda moved very fast to even change its national language from French to English, Tony Blair got an immediate job in Rwanda to be Paul Kagame’s advisor, Linda Chalker got a job in both Kenya and Uganda, Brian Mulroney became a member of board on one of the mining companies in DRC, and many other prominent names that are watching the destruction of DRC as you read this writing. Massive mining started as reliable sources today tell us that Emirates is flying the minerals of DRC through Uganda to London via Dubai. United Kingdom tripled the small arms supply to the region in 2009 and small territories became created in DRC to protect the miners and at the end of the day, we have today lost a whooping 5 million Congolese. Almost all women especially in Eastern DRC have been raped, even girls as young as 9.
And my argument here is very basic. As these Western countries are mining DRC to death, who does the environmental studies for DRC? As Western Countries are destroying the forests of DRC, forests we all know controls the repairing of the environment, who does the environmental studies in DRC as the forests of this country are getting cut down day in day out? For this is a very good argument, when you destroy the environment in Africa you directly destroy the environment in North America. Why didn’t African leaders make The Democratic Republic of Congo the main topic of this conference? About 3000 Americans died in New York, and these deaths have changed all of our lives, our life styles has been changed from the way we fly to what we take on board, to two wars raging on today 8 or so years down the road, how can all African leaders keep quite when we have 5 million dead Congolese, murdered as we create a single massive environmental disaster on the planet in Congo? What would have happened in Copenhagen if we had 5 million Westerners dead of a man- made disaster? Would we have held a conference to discuss emissions? We as Africans had a very good chance to use this conference in defense of the environment but in stopping the carnage that is happening in DRC under a direct watch of the United Nations.
But we did not. Instead, we stood up with our usual little cup in hand begging Western countries for a donation, and we allowed those very nations to murder our fellow Africans in DRC, get the minerals out and hand us a percentage in a God damn fucking cup. And we flew back to our capitals claiming victory to the environment disaster as we stamp visas to Western expatriates flying into Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda to access DRC, as we burry 5 million human beings.
You tell me why I should not be very disappointed to identify myself as an African today.
Edward Mulindwa
Kayunga, Uganda
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"Avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
DRC: UN peacekeepers to use ‘all necessary means’ to protect civilians
By UN News Centre
December 23, 2009
Faced with widespread reports of massacres and other serious humanrights abuses by Government soldiers and rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Security Council today again called on United Nations peacekeepers to “use all necessary means” to protect civilians from threats from any party.
In a unanimous resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter authorizing the use of force, the 15-member body stressed that ensuring effective protection of civilians is the first priority of the UN mission in the DRC (
MONUC), which has been aiding the national army (known as FARDC) with logistics and firepower to keep rebels from reclaiming areas previously under their control.
Extending the 10-year-old mission’s mandate at a strength of some 22,000 military and police personnel until 31 May, with the intention of renewing it then for a further 12 months, the Council called on MONUC to work “in close cooperation with the Government” to continue its coordination of operations with FARDC brigades in the strife-torn east “premised on the protection of civilians as a priority.”
Such operations are aimed at disarming foreign and Congolese rebel groups to ensure their participation in previously signed agreements for their demobilization and reintegration into the national army or civilian society, holding cleared territory to ensure civilian protection, helping the Government restore its authority, and enhancing efforts to end smuggling of the country’s vast natural resources, such as gold and tin, that fund the illegal armed groups.
MONUC has been aiding the so-called Kimia II offensive launched in eastern DRC by Congolese and Rwandan troops against the mainly Rwandan Hutu rebel group know as FDLR with helicopter lifts, medical evacuation, fuel and rations, as well as firepower support to FARDC, but the operation has been seriously tarnished by allegations of widespread human rights violations.
Noting the “dilemma” of MONUC’s mandate to protect civilians while at the same time working with FARDC, which includes elements responsible for killings, widespread rape and the recruitment of child soldiers, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative in DRC Alan Doss last week asked the Council for “clear guidance in this respect.”
At the same time UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston, citing two FARDC commanders, Innocent Zimurinda and Bosco Ntaganda, said it was “a contradiction of basic UN principles for UN peacekeepers to cooperate with a military operation led by individuals who stand accused of war crimes and grave human rights abuses.”
Today’s resolution stressed that MONUC support for FARDC-led operations against rebels “is strictly conditioned on FARDC’s compliance with international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law,” and that the mission must withdraw support from any suspect units.
It “demands that the Government… immediately take appropriate measures to protect civilians, includinng women and children, from violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses, including all forms of sexual violence,” and calls for full implementation of its proclaimed “zero-tolerance policy” on FARDC abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence.
The Council called on MONUC to help the Government with security sector reform based on setting up “a core, well-vetted, multi-ethnic force.”
It demanded that the FDLR, the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) blamed for massacres and other abuses in eastern DRC, and other armed groups “immediately cease all forms of violence and human rights abuse against the civilian population,” stop recruiting child soldiers, and lay down their arms pending reintegration under a MONUC-backed process.
“MONUC shall deter any attempt at the use of force to threaten the Goma and Nairobi processes [signed by some rebels for their reintegration] from any armed group… and undertake all necessary operations to prevent attacks on civilians and disrupt the military capability of armed groups that continue to use violence in that area,” it added.
Since its inception MONUC has seen a return to relative stability in much of the vast country, culminating in the first democratic elections in more than 40 years, but fierce fighting has persisted in the east, particularly in North and South Kivu, where Hutu militants blamed for the Rwandan genocide of 1994 have fled, compounding hostilities in a region already beset by ethnic tensions.
Related Materials:
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Rwandan leader concerned by dominance of DR Congo radios
By Andy Sennitt
Media Network
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
December 10, 2009
President Paul Kagame demanded Thursday that the national broadcaster deploys any appropriate technology to stop the dominance of DR Congo state radio and other FM stations which relay to western Rwanda, RNA reports.
Most areas bordering the large neighbour have for years not been able to capture Radio Rwanda or even state TV. Instead, they watch several Congolese television channels as well as radio stations including Congolese State Radio.
Local officials from there and parliamentarians petitioned the government arguing that their people were not closely following government programmes because there is no communications medium. The Ministry of Information was directed to take up the issue. At the ongoing National Dialogue, a person raised the issue by SMS and President Kagame was on hand - putting whoever is responsible to task.
Former Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said that in addition to new relay antennas that are being installed, her office was engaging the Congolese government to reduce the strength of radio signals which come from there.
President Kagame was not convinced, wondering whether Congo needs to reduce the strength of its signal or Rwanda had to increase the capacity of its own broadcaster. He also wondered how a signal from such a large country can reach some parts of Rwanda - dominating the signal from Kigali
“Do you ask your neighbour to reduce the volume of their radio when yours has a low volume or you simply increase the volume?” he demanded amid loud cheers, as Ms Mushikiwabo struggled to explain.
The former minister, now Foreign Affairs Minister, said her office had also preferred to engage with DRC officials to have the signal from Kinshasa regulated.
“No, that is not how things are done,” Kagame said. “The solution is increasing the volume of your radio.”
He also complained that it had been too long but this problem of Radio Rwanda and TV Rwanda remains unsolved. It should not be simply that something is going or is being done, he said adding “we want time lines for when the problem will be over”.
The minister said in a period of six months, the problem will be no more. The state broadcaster ORINFOR has injected some 13m dollars into upgrading its transmission equipment.
American firm Harris Corporation - a broadcast communications technology provider will install new antennas, put up new studio equipment, buy new long-distance relay vans and train technical staff.
The areas bordering Uganda also [more] easily capture FM stations from there than Rwanda state radio.
(Source: RNA news agency, Kigali, in English, via BBC Monitoring)
