African Great Lakes Observer

The power of horror in Rwanda Fifteen years ago, efforts at genocide killed about 800,000 Rwandans. Now that tragedy is providing the government with a cover for repression. by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch April 11, 2009 Rwanda has a long way to go. Despite the facade of occasional elections, the government essentially runs a one-party state. And ironically, it is the genocide that has provided the government with a cover for repression. During a gruesome three months in 1994, about 800,000 Rwandans were murdered as part of a calculated effort by a group of Hutu extremists to eradicate the country's Tutsi population. The genocide ended only with the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel group founded by Rwandan exiles who ousted the Hutu extremists. The front's austere and savvy commander, Paul Kagame, now serves as Rwanda's president. In the 15 years since the extremist government was ousted, Rwanda has become an island of stab...

Growing Media Restrictions Cast Doubt on Nation’s Commitment to Free Speech April 27, 2009 This suspension of the BBC reflects the Rwandan government's growing crackdown on free speech. If Rwanda is truly committed to the fundamental right of free expression, it should allow differing viewpoints on genocide issues and related government policies. Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch (New York) - The Rwandan government should immediately reverse its suspension of the Kinyarwanda radio service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Human Rights Watch said today. The Rwandan minister of information, Louise Mushikiwabo, justified the suspension on the grounds that the program amounted to a "blatant denial of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda" and called it "unacceptable speech." Up to 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed by the extremist elements in the majority Hutu population during the genocide. It ended with the mil...

Wednesday, 29th April 2009 Source: The New Times Joseph Habineza the Minister of Sports and Culture in parliament yesterday. BY EDWIN MUSONI The Minister of Sports and Culture has said that the government is in its final stages of putting up an International Memorial Site of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in London, United Kingdom. Addressing Parliament yesterday, Minister Joseph Habineza said, “we have acquired a big piece of land and we are now in talks with experts who will put up the memorial.” He added that the government is yet to decide what will be put in the memorial and that the information will be about Rwanda’s history and the 1994 Genocide. “Experts have wished to have some art crafts made in the form of human limbs while others have thought of airlifting some remains from here to the London memorial but we intend to maintain the originality,” said Habineza. He also told lawmakers that the memorial will not only serve as a symbol of remembrance of the 1994 Genocide ag...

Accessed: 28-April-2009 APA-Kigali (Rwanda) The Rwandan government should immediately reverse its suspension of the Kinyarwanda radio service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Human Rights Watch said Tuesday in a protest statement, expressing growing media repression and casting doubts on the country´s commitment to free speech. The Rwandan Minister of Information and government spokesperson, Louise Mushikiwabo, last Saturday order the suspension of BBC programmes in Rwanda, justifying that the United Kingdom government´s mouth-piece programs especially those in Kinyarwanda, amounted to a "blatant denial of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda" and called it "unacceptable. " The UK government is the major single donor to the Rwandan government with more than 60 million pounds sterling injected annually as direct budget support. Over one million people were killed during the 1994 genocide in just 100 days targeting mainly the minority Tutsis. It...

U.S./U.K. Allies Grab Congo Riches and Millions Die 2001-03 UN Expert Reports By Prof. Peter Erlinder Global Research, November 4, 2008 Once again, the suffering of African people caught up in a war that makes little sense to non-Africans has made the front pages in western media, as more than a million people have been displaced in the past week by renewed fighting in the Eastern Congo.2 For most Americans who don’t pay much attention to the details of African history and politics, the humanitarian disaster in the Congo has exploded into public consciousness, as if the 25-year war to control Central Africa began only yesterday. The “ Congo story” Behind the Headlines But, in fact, the human rights disaster that the people of the world are watching on our TV screens is just the most recent human tragedy in a 25 year struggle for economic and political dominance in Central Africa that has been raging since the decline and eventual collapse of the Soviet influence in Africa in the...

Four men freed after court rules they would not get fair trial Four men accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide have been freed by a British court after their lawyers said they would not face a fair trial if they were extradited to Africa. Their release coincided with commemorations in Rwanda to mark the 15th anniversary of the atrocity, which began on 6 April. Judges in the High Court in London ruled there was "a real risk [the men] would suffer a flagrant denial of justice" if returned to Rwanda for trial. Under UK law, genocide and war crime offences commited before 2001 cannot be prosecuted here. Vincent Bajinya, who had changed his name to Brown, Celestin Ugirashebuja, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Charles Munyaneza were arrested in London, Essex, Manchester and Bedford and had been held in custody since December 2006 under a memorandum of understanding in which Rwanda waived the death penalty. All four are accused of killing, or conspiring with or aiding and abett...

'I was a doctor in Rwanda, not a mass killer' Dr Vincent Brown, who won a battle last week to stop his extradition on genocide charges, speaks exclusively about his two-year ordeal By Andrew Johnson MARCO LONGARI /AFP/ GETTY Reign of terror: The remains of nearly 30,000 people are uncovered near Kigali Vincent Bajinya had already left one nightmare behind. He had seen first hand the horrors of the civil war in Rwanda as a doctor in the capital, Kigali, and was forced to flee when the genocidal madness that overtook the country in 1994 looked like it would catch up with him. Twelve years later, however, after rebuilding his life in Britain and changing his name to Vincent Brown, out of nowhere his second nightmare began. As he parked his car outside the refugee charity where he worked, Dr Brown was "ambushed" by a BBC camera team. What, they asked, did he say to allegations that he helped organise some of the horrendous murders that took place when an estimated one mil...

Four men have won a High Court battle to halt extradition to Rwanda where they face mass murder charges. Senior judges ruled that there was "a real risk" they would suffer "a flagrant denial of justice". All four are wanted in connection with the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. The men deny involvement in the genocide and say they would not receive a fair trial if they were forced to return to Rwanda. Anti-genocide campaigners condemned the court's decision, saying that it sent a message to the Rwandan people that the suspected killers of their families could "walk free with impunity". The court ordered the four men, who have been held in custody since December 2006, be released. They are: Dr Vincent Bajinya, from north London; Charles Munyaneza, from Bedford; Celestin Ugirashebuja from Essex; and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, of Manchester. “ This decision demonstrates to the Rwandan people that the suspected killers of their fam...

KIGALI - The government has removed British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) local language (Kinyarwanda) programmes from the airwaves. This was confirmed by Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo by phone late Saturday because, as she put it, the BBC programmes despite repeated written and verbal protests from Government, consistently showed total disregard for Rwanda’s unity and reconciliation efforts. “This action by Government was prompted by one of their programme called Imvo n’Imvano this morning which was previewed last night,” Mushikiwabo said. Alarmed by what she had heard in the preview, the Minister stressed that she immediately contacted BBC on the issue expecting them to reconsider “after hearing from us” but, the latter took no heed. “In the programme, you have some of the most outrageous statements,” Mushikiwabo noted, pointing to what she said were suggestions that there was a double Genocide and, that the bodies of Rwandans found floating in the waters of Lake Victoria,...

UN-backed court fails to prove Rwanda genocide planned: analysts http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3wGtJlVTHqTwkBxwE5d_hUqur0g NAIROBI (AFP) — The acquittal of Rwanda's ex-army colonel Theoneste Bagosora by the UN war crimes tribunal of conspiracy to commit genocide marks the court's failure to prove the massacre was planned, analysts said Friday. Bagosora, jailed for life by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Thursday, had been accused by prosecutors of being the "brains" behind the 1994 genocide when some 800,000 people were killed in a 100-day spree. The former Rwandan defence ministry chief of staff was sentenced alongside two co-defendants of "genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," but acquitted of conspiring to commit genocide before April 7, 1994. Nonetheless, the court upheld that Bagosora, 67, was the Rwanda's de facto army chief after the April 6, 1994 downing of a plane carrying then president J...

His Excellence Mr. Sheikh Mussa Fazil HARERIMANA January 2, 2009 Minister of Internal Security N : 001H/PK/019 Republic of Rwanda P.O Box 446 Kigali – RWANDA His Excellence, I am writing on behalf of the Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR), Inc. based in the United States, to express our concern about the Human Rights abuses by the Rwanda National Police (RNP) following the selectively mass arrests after the grenade attacks in Kigali on December 28, 2008. Following the attacks on grenades by unknown assailants last Sunday night of December 28, 2008 around 8:30 pm, at Kinamba-II junction and at “Six Heures à Six Heures” bar successively, and left at least sixteen people with minor injuries, among them seven were still admitted at Kigali University Hospital by next day, OPJDR is deeply concerned by the way the Rwanda government is handling the situation. According to the “New Times”, a pro-government news paper, as appeared at http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index...

Your Excellency President Barack H. Obama February 3, 2009 President of The United States of America Nº: 003/PPK/029 The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Ref.: Instability in the Great Lakes Region of Africa Your Excellency President, We, the Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR), a nonpolitical and not for profit organization based in Delaware, US, congratulates you in this historic presidency that comes with a sense of unprecedented optimism and hope that you have inspired in all of us as well as around the world. Since October 1990, the population in the Great Lakes region of Africa, which is our area of focus with a particular emphasis on Rwanda, lives in an endemic situation of insecurity, misery and hopelessness. Your message of change and optimism gives the population in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, a reason to hope and deeply believe in your goodwill to bring a brighter future not only to America but also to other cou...

Statement on the UK High Court Judgement against the extradition of genocide suspects to Rwanda by: Action Group for Peace and Justice in Rwanda A Community Interest Company PO Box 49993, London SE5 5DJ Email: agpjr6@yahoo.co.uk Web: www.agpjr.org PRESS RELEASE 4/AGPJR/April 2009 London 11 April 2009 Action Group for Peace and justice in Rwanda (AGPJR) has welcomed the judgement of the High Court of 8 April 2009 which dismissed the request of the Rwandan Government to extradite Messrs Vincent Brown, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Celestin Ugirashebuja to Rwanda on allegations that they were involved in the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. The judges of the High Court, after consideration of the argument and evidences from the defence lawyers of the defendants and statements from the prosecutors representing the Rwandan Government and the UK Home Office, concluded that the accused would not have a fair trial if they were returned to Rwanda. The judges ruled that “if the...

Letter to the Rwandan Minister of Internal Security His Excellence Mr. Sheikh Mussa Fazil HARERIMANA April 20, 2009 Minister of Internal Security Nº:008/HJ/PK/2009 P.O. BOX 446 Kigali-Rwanda His Excellency, I am writing on behalf of the Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR), Inc. to express concern about the arrests and lack of due process regarding the following people: Augustin Buzizi, Protais Dusabimana, and Lucien Nyangwabona. Augustin Buzizi, 63 years old and a retired teacher was arrested on April 12, 2009 for harboring genocide ideology accusations. On the eve of the commemoration of the genocide, a number of Rwandan citizens residing in the cell of Gatsilima of the sector of Kiyombe, district of Nyagatare, Northern Province were arrested for unspecified charges. Buzizi wrote a letter to Rwandan authorities including Domitille Mukantaganzwa, the Executive Secretary of Gacaca Courts to inform them of the abuses committed by local authorities against t...

Rwanda 1994: Colonialism dies hard The Taylor Report is pleased to bring you Rwanda 1994: Colonialism dies hard, the english translation of Robin Philpot's book Ça ne s’est pas passé comme ça à Kigali Text from the back cover: Right thinking people would have us blindly believe the Official Story that the Rwandan tragedy was simply the work of horrible Hutu génocidaires who planned and executed a satanic scheme to eliminate nearly a million Tutsis after a plane crashed in the heart of dark Africa on April 6, 1994. On the other hand, former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared to the author that the “Rwandan genocide was 100 percent American responsibility. How can such contradictory interpretations coexist? Robin Philpot’s vast and methodical research, extensive interviews, and close analysis of events and popular writings on the subject shows not only that the Official Story is false, but that it was edified in an aim to cover-up the causes of the tragedy and to pro...

The Taylor Report is pleased to bring you Rwanda 1994: Colonialism dies hard, the english translation of Robin Philpot's book Ça ne s’est pas passé comme ça à Kigali Text from the back cover: Right thinking people would have us blindly believe the Official Story that the Rwandan tragedy was simply the work of horrible Hutu génocidaires who planned and executed a satanic scheme to eliminate nearly a million Tutsis after a plane crashed in the heart of dark Africa on April 6, 1994. On the other hand, former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared to the author that the “Rwandan genocide was 100 percent American responsibility. How can such contradictory interpretations coexist? Robin Philpot’s vast and methodical research, extensive interviews, and close analysis of events and popular writings on the subject shows not only that the Official Story is false, but that it was edified in an aim to cover-up the causes of the tragedy and to protect the criminals responsible for ...

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/rwanda/2008/0813rwanda.htm By Barrie Collins Spiked August 13, 2008 Last week, the Rwandan government published the findings of its commission of inquiry into the role France played in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It found French diplomats, military leaders and politicians – including former president François Mitterand – complicit in the genocide. Considering that the current Rwandan leadership has vilified France ever since it launched its bid to seize power in Rwanda in October 1990, eventually winning power in July 1994, it is not surprising that it should now up the stakes against its long-time enemy. The new strongman of Rwanda, President Paul Kagame, is fortunate that he has unswerving support from the United States, Britain and Belgium, and a cheerleading media in these countries which can be counted upon to give his report into France’s role in the genocide maximum impact. But the truth is that France’s major mistake was to find its...