Inkingi
Forces Démocratiques Unifiées
United Democratic Forces
Tel: +250785836000
Fax: +31847450374
fdu.inkingi.rwa@gmail.com www.fdu-udf.org
Chief Executive Officer
Editor-in-Chief
The New Times Publications SARL
Immeuble Aigle Blanc
P. O. Box 4953
Kigali - Rwanda
Subject: Right of rectification and reply to libels published in Sunday Times on 17th January 2010 and The New Times of 18th January 2010:
- The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010 - Editorial – “FDU’s Ingabire desecrates memory with Double Genocide theory”
- The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010- Front page: News - Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory
- The New Times of 18th January 2010 - Editorial – “Genocide deniers: the law should take its course”
- The New Times 18th January 2010 - Front page: news – “Govt won't stand violation of the laws-interior Minister”
- The New Times 18th January 2010 - Front page: news – “Political Parties, CNLG slam Ingabire 'divisionist' politics
Dear Sir,
As chairperson of FDU-Inkingi, I have been subject to a deliberate and continuously heinous and/defamatory campaign in your newspapers accusing the FDU-Inkingi’s public intervention at the Gisozi memorial site. I have been falsely accused of being a Genocide denier, believer of the double Genocide Theory, of desecrating the memorial, harboring divisionist politics, making inflammatory statements, and many other shameless insults. The worst was to voluntarily spread terrible and false accusations related to genocide, the greatest crime against humanity in the entire world.
I would strongly like to set the record straight regarding the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. My position is still and has always been that the genocide of Tutsi took place in Rwanda and all criminals should be brought to book.
I am disappointed by such hateful propaganda containing violent and offensive language injurious to my reputation. It is unfortunate that my words were intentionally twisted. Readers are obviously under the false impressions given by those offensive articles based on untrue facts.
On 16th January 2010, after my visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in Gisozi, I said the following words: "It is still clear that any move to democracy in Rwanda including liberty is still long enough, seeing the number of genocide victims accounted and the immediate solution must be found urgently. No political and tangible solution helping Rwandans to reach their unity was drawn up. Because this memorial site ends on the victims of the genocide of Tutsi, but we are still have another part of trauma missing in which crimes against humanity committed for Hutu are omitted. Every Rwandan has had somebody killed in his family. Many of them ask themselves when their suffering will be considered. In order to reach the reconciliation and the unity of all Rwandans, their suffering and trauma must be healed. All killers must be brought to court and judged. It is advised that all Rwandans from their respective ethnic groups, hands in hands, build a peaceful country in mutual respect and unity. What brought FDU Inkingi leadership to Rwanda is to join other Rwandan politicians in finding an urgent solution by destroying the roots of injustice and impunity bringing all to democracy and respect of human rights.”
Based on my declarations, all these false accusations and the subsequent
hate propaganda are baseless and ill-intentioned. It is unfortunate that the reporters did not contact me to get my side of the story prior to publishing those inflammatory accusations. I also draw your attention to the stories aired by other independent media in this respect.
It's hard to believe that Rwandan journalists write on such tragic issues with bias and lack of objectivity. One of the FDU-INKINGI's policy principles is not to entertain any discrimination or injustice among Rwandans, living or dead.
I would be most grateful if you could find some space in your next editorial in your newspapers and on the front pages for the relevant clarifications and corrections.
Sincerely yours,
Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire
FDU-Inkingi Chairperson
23 January, 2010
Press Release of FDU-Inkingi on the Allegations Made in Rwandan Press.
FDU-Inkingi
Forces Démocratiques Unifiées
United Democratic Forces
Te.+250785836000
info@fdu-udf.org
www.fdu-udf.org
PRESS RELEASE
Kigali – 21/1/10
CYNICAL MEDIA LYNCHING AND CALLS FOR ARRESTING AND SILENCING THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION ORCHESTRATED BY PARTISAN GROUPS REVEAL THE FAILURE OF POLITICAL EDUCATION IN RWANDA.
My return home to register our political party FDU-INKINGI and participate in the upcoming presidential elections has triggered, despite a positive reception by the population, a rise of shield, a media hate campaign, calls to arbitrary arrests and the muzzling of our non-violent action. This vicious propaganda orchestrated by a twisting media ,with clear intention to bludgeon opponents into silence, has mobilized politically motivated associations, some political parties participating in the current government, some devious politicians to call for the crucifixion of the candidate in the upcoming presidential election and the banishment of our political organization only setting foot in Rwanda at this time.
Those threats are echoed by some authorities, including the Minister of Interior who, without the slightest evidence of the facts, did not hide their political partisanship.
From well-informed sources, some extremists are currently mobilizing associations of genocide survivors, widows, and others for demonstrations appealing to the Government to suspend our work and put me in jail.
I call upon the Rwandan people and the international community to witness this outrageous mendacity. Powered by non-violent values, we seized the opportunity of thet democratic process believing that the higher authorities of the country, the guarantor of institutions and security were seriously ready for a multiparty system and the opening of political space. The fact that some devious and partisan press relentlessly sustains a defamatory and malicious campaign to trigger a machine of repression reveals the utter failure in political education, lack of respect for others, and a visceral fear of an open political space.
What are they afraid of? If indeed, the performance of the political system they are fighting for meets the aspirations of Rwandans and is truely democratic, the candidates will be acclaimed in the upcoming elections. On the contrary, if they like our political program, they will vote for us. All they need is a free, fair and transparent election.
They are exploiting intentionally, for deceptive purposes, my visit to the genocide memorial, my compassion for the bloodshed in our country, my commitment to ensure that the perpetrators of genocide and other crimes against humanity and war crimes are accountable;
Disregarding my visits to the sick, prisoners and widows;
Mocking my visit to the monument in ruins, of Democracy and the Republic, treated by those as a symbol of genocide ideology;
Extremists are using this press to conduct a venomous propaganda that recalls moments leading up to the genocide, accusing me invariably of genocide denier, negationist or descending from “ancestors with a genocide ideology”.
They don’t yet understand that silencing my voice won’t stop this growing movement of claims as long as many Rwandans aspire to more democracy, more freedom and genuine reconciliation based on mutual respect and the respect of the pain endured by all the victims of the Rwandan tragedy. Rwandans need to move beyond this deep-seated fear of ethnic annihilation by setting up political institutions guaranteeing everyone and everybody’s security and lasting peace.
Extremists and fanatics are themselves victims of a deep inner fear until they believe that national reconciliation is just a game while their malicious words and actions are another display of disdain, stigmatization, and demonizing even the most sane voices with their tricks and calls for lynching.
Our motto has always been peace and we will always raise our voices against those responsible for the genocide, crimes against humanity and other crimes committed in Rwanda. We will fight for the rehabilitation of all the victims.
Together, let’s all work to build a better Rwanda for everyone and where our children will be happy to live.
Victoire UMUHOZA INGABIRE
UDF-INKINGI
Chairperson and Presidential Candidate.
Forces Démocratiques Unifiées
United Democratic Forces
Te.+250785836000
info@fdu-udf.org
www.fdu-udf.org
PRESS RELEASE
Kigali – 21/1/10
CYNICAL MEDIA LYNCHING AND CALLS FOR ARRESTING AND SILENCING THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION ORCHESTRATED BY PARTISAN GROUPS REVEAL THE FAILURE OF POLITICAL EDUCATION IN RWANDA.
My return home to register our political party FDU-INKINGI and participate in the upcoming presidential elections has triggered, despite a positive reception by the population, a rise of shield, a media hate campaign, calls to arbitrary arrests and the muzzling of our non-violent action. This vicious propaganda orchestrated by a twisting media ,with clear intention to bludgeon opponents into silence, has mobilized politically motivated associations, some political parties participating in the current government, some devious politicians to call for the crucifixion of the candidate in the upcoming presidential election and the banishment of our political organization only setting foot in Rwanda at this time.
Those threats are echoed by some authorities, including the Minister of Interior who, without the slightest evidence of the facts, did not hide their political partisanship.
From well-informed sources, some extremists are currently mobilizing associations of genocide survivors, widows, and others for demonstrations appealing to the Government to suspend our work and put me in jail.
I call upon the Rwandan people and the international community to witness this outrageous mendacity. Powered by non-violent values, we seized the opportunity of thet democratic process believing that the higher authorities of the country, the guarantor of institutions and security were seriously ready for a multiparty system and the opening of political space. The fact that some devious and partisan press relentlessly sustains a defamatory and malicious campaign to trigger a machine of repression reveals the utter failure in political education, lack of respect for others, and a visceral fear of an open political space.
What are they afraid of? If indeed, the performance of the political system they are fighting for meets the aspirations of Rwandans and is truely democratic, the candidates will be acclaimed in the upcoming elections. On the contrary, if they like our political program, they will vote for us. All they need is a free, fair and transparent election.
They are exploiting intentionally, for deceptive purposes, my visit to the genocide memorial, my compassion for the bloodshed in our country, my commitment to ensure that the perpetrators of genocide and other crimes against humanity and war crimes are accountable;
Disregarding my visits to the sick, prisoners and widows;
Mocking my visit to the monument in ruins, of Democracy and the Republic, treated by those as a symbol of genocide ideology;
Extremists are using this press to conduct a venomous propaganda that recalls moments leading up to the genocide, accusing me invariably of genocide denier, negationist or descending from “ancestors with a genocide ideology”.
They don’t yet understand that silencing my voice won’t stop this growing movement of claims as long as many Rwandans aspire to more democracy, more freedom and genuine reconciliation based on mutual respect and the respect of the pain endured by all the victims of the Rwandan tragedy. Rwandans need to move beyond this deep-seated fear of ethnic annihilation by setting up political institutions guaranteeing everyone and everybody’s security and lasting peace.
Extremists and fanatics are themselves victims of a deep inner fear until they believe that national reconciliation is just a game while their malicious words and actions are another display of disdain, stigmatization, and demonizing even the most sane voices with their tricks and calls for lynching.
Our motto has always been peace and we will always raise our voices against those responsible for the genocide, crimes against humanity and other crimes committed in Rwanda. We will fight for the rehabilitation of all the victims.
Together, let’s all work to build a better Rwanda for everyone and where our children will be happy to live.
Victoire UMUHOZA INGABIRE
UDF-INKINGI
Chairperson and Presidential Candidate.
22 January, 2010
Eni Consortium to Redevelop Zubair Field in Iraq.
Occidental Petroleum Corp.
Press Release
1/22/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86237
Eni, Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) have signed a technical service contract with Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company (SOC) and Missan Oil Company as State Partner, to redevelop the Zubair field, near Basra in southern Iraq. The signing follows the initializing ceremony held in Baghdad on November 2, 2009.
The consortium, led by Eni (32.81%) with partners Oxy (23.44%), KOGAS (18.75%) and the Missan Oil Company (25%), plans to increase production from the Zubair field to 1.2 million barrels of oil a day, representing an increase of more than 1 million barrels of oil per day. Target production is expected to be progressively reached within the next six years and maintained for seven years thereafter.
The consortium will earn $2 per barrel on the incremental oil production once production has been raised by 10 percent from its current level of approximately 200,000 barrels of oil per day and will recover its expenditures through a cost recovery mechanism.
The redevelopment of the Zubair field, one of the largest discovered fields in the world, will materially contribute to support Iraq in becoming a major player in global oil markets. It will also foster the social and economic development at a regional and national level, not only by providing training and development opportunities for the many thousands of Iraqi workers of Zubair, but also by promoting much-needed economic stimulus.
The Zubair Field Operating Division will manage the rehabilitation and expansion project, which will be staffed mainly by employees from South Oil Company and expert support from the consortium, with the intent to progressively develop a self-sustained organization.
"The signing of the Zubair contract comes as a result of Eni's commitment to becoming a long-term partner for the development of Iraq's hydrocarbon industry. Our experience in similar environments, the financial and technological strength of our consortium and the deep knowledge of our partner SOC undoubtedly constitute the building blocks of a successful venture," said Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer of Eni.
"Oxy is a very active and cooperative partner in many successful projects across the Middle East, and we expect similar success in Iraq," said Dr. Ray R. Irani, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Petroleum. "We are pleased to join with the Iraqi government, the Iraqi people and our consortium partners in developing one of the world's great oilfields."
"KOGAS is pleased to participate in the development of the super-giant oil field in Iraq. Through the development of Zubair project, KOGAS hopes to contribute more to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq and expects to play a bridge role in enhancing bilateral economic relationship between Iraq and Korea," said Choo Kangsoo, President & CEO of Korea Gas Corporation.
Press Release
1/22/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86237
Eni, Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) have signed a technical service contract with Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company (SOC) and Missan Oil Company as State Partner, to redevelop the Zubair field, near Basra in southern Iraq. The signing follows the initializing ceremony held in Baghdad on November 2, 2009.
The consortium, led by Eni (32.81%) with partners Oxy (23.44%), KOGAS (18.75%) and the Missan Oil Company (25%), plans to increase production from the Zubair field to 1.2 million barrels of oil a day, representing an increase of more than 1 million barrels of oil per day. Target production is expected to be progressively reached within the next six years and maintained for seven years thereafter.
The consortium will earn $2 per barrel on the incremental oil production once production has been raised by 10 percent from its current level of approximately 200,000 barrels of oil per day and will recover its expenditures through a cost recovery mechanism.
The redevelopment of the Zubair field, one of the largest discovered fields in the world, will materially contribute to support Iraq in becoming a major player in global oil markets. It will also foster the social and economic development at a regional and national level, not only by providing training and development opportunities for the many thousands of Iraqi workers of Zubair, but also by promoting much-needed economic stimulus.
The Zubair Field Operating Division will manage the rehabilitation and expansion project, which will be staffed mainly by employees from South Oil Company and expert support from the consortium, with the intent to progressively develop a self-sustained organization.
"The signing of the Zubair contract comes as a result of Eni's commitment to becoming a long-term partner for the development of Iraq's hydrocarbon industry. Our experience in similar environments, the financial and technological strength of our consortium and the deep knowledge of our partner SOC undoubtedly constitute the building blocks of a successful venture," said Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer of Eni.
"Oxy is a very active and cooperative partner in many successful projects across the Middle East, and we expect similar success in Iraq," said Dr. Ray R. Irani, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Petroleum. "We are pleased to join with the Iraqi government, the Iraqi people and our consortium partners in developing one of the world's great oilfields."
"KOGAS is pleased to participate in the development of the super-giant oil field in Iraq. Through the development of Zubair project, KOGAS hopes to contribute more to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq and expects to play a bridge role in enhancing bilateral economic relationship between Iraq and Korea," said Choo Kangsoo, President & CEO of Korea Gas Corporation.
Tweneboa Confirmed as Major Field Offshore Ghana.
Tullow Oil plc
Press Release
1/21/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86136
The Tweneboa-2 exploratory appraisal well, being drilled some 6 km southeast of the Tweneboa-1 discovery, has intersected a significant combined hydrocarbon column. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids establish that Tweneboa is a major oil and gas-condensate field.
The well has encountered a gross reservoir interval of 153 meters containing 32 meters of net hydrocarbon pay in stacked reservoir sandstones, comprising a 17 meter oil bearing zone below a 15 meter gas-condensate bearing zone.
A combined hydrocarbon column of at least 350 meters has been established between the lowest known oil in Tweneboa-2 and the top of the gas-condensate at Tweneboa-1, demonstrating this is a highly prospective and extensive turbidite fan system that will be evaluated with additional drilling.
Following completion of logging operations the well will be deepened to test further exploration potential beneath the Tweneboa field. The well will then be suspended for future use in appraisal and development.
The Atwood Hunter semisubmersible drilled Tweneboa-2 in the Deepwater Tano block to an interim depth of 3,860 meters in water depths of 1,321 meters. On completion of operations on Tweneboa-2, the rig will move to drill an exploration well in the West Cape Three Points block east of the Jubilee field.
Tullow (49.95%) operates the Deepwater Tano license and is partnered by Kosmos Energy (18%), Anadarko Petroleum (18%), Sabre Oil & Gas (4.05%) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10% carried interest).
Commenting today, Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, said, "Tweneboa-2 was a bold step-out which has successfully proven the significant extent of a major new oil and gas-condensate field offshore Ghana. Such an achievement provides a very good start to our exciting 2010 Equatorial Atlantic campaign. We look forward to further appraising this discovery later in the year."
Press Release
1/21/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86136
The Tweneboa-2 exploratory appraisal well, being drilled some 6 km southeast of the Tweneboa-1 discovery, has intersected a significant combined hydrocarbon column. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids establish that Tweneboa is a major oil and gas-condensate field.
The well has encountered a gross reservoir interval of 153 meters containing 32 meters of net hydrocarbon pay in stacked reservoir sandstones, comprising a 17 meter oil bearing zone below a 15 meter gas-condensate bearing zone.
A combined hydrocarbon column of at least 350 meters has been established between the lowest known oil in Tweneboa-2 and the top of the gas-condensate at Tweneboa-1, demonstrating this is a highly prospective and extensive turbidite fan system that will be evaluated with additional drilling.
Following completion of logging operations the well will be deepened to test further exploration potential beneath the Tweneboa field. The well will then be suspended for future use in appraisal and development.
The Atwood Hunter semisubmersible drilled Tweneboa-2 in the Deepwater Tano block to an interim depth of 3,860 meters in water depths of 1,321 meters. On completion of operations on Tweneboa-2, the rig will move to drill an exploration well in the West Cape Three Points block east of the Jubilee field.
Tullow (49.95%) operates the Deepwater Tano license and is partnered by Kosmos Energy (18%), Anadarko Petroleum (18%), Sabre Oil & Gas (4.05%) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10% carried interest).
Commenting today, Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, said, "Tweneboa-2 was a bold step-out which has successfully proven the significant extent of a major new oil and gas-condensate field offshore Ghana. Such an achievement provides a very good start to our exciting 2010 Equatorial Atlantic campaign. We look forward to further appraising this discovery later in the year."
Ugandan Army said to have killed 30 civilians.
AFP
22 January 2010
A Ugandan lawmaker alleged on Friday that the military killed 30 civilians in an air attack on suspected cattle rustlers, and demanded a UN probe into the incident.
The army disputed Peter Abrahams Lokii's account of the January 4 incident, which he said he personally witnessed, and accused him of "wasting time and playing politics".
Eastern region military spokesperson Henry Obbo said that the Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) dispatched a helicopter gunship in pursuit of armed men accused of raiding cattle in Karamoja, a remote, chronically troubled area that borders Kenya and Sudan.
Lokii, who represents Kotido district in parliament, said on Friday that an estimated 30 people who were not involved in the cattle raid were killed during the UPDF operation.
"I personally saw it. I was in the district. People were killed, but we have not been able to establish the exact numbers," he said. "The people who went for the (cattle) raid are different from the people who were bombed."
"We have estimated the casualties at around 30 people," said the MP, a member of President Yoweri Museveni's ruling party.
He called for the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs to investigate the incident.
"We need an investigation into this matter, but you cannot trust the UPDF to investigate itself. UNOCHA needs to come in," he added.
Obbo claimed the gunship never fired any weapons and was simply used to intimidate cattle raiders before they could allegedly distribute the stolen animals among their tribesmen.
"There is no cause for investigation because nothing happened," he said.
22 January 2010
A Ugandan lawmaker alleged on Friday that the military killed 30 civilians in an air attack on suspected cattle rustlers, and demanded a UN probe into the incident.
The army disputed Peter Abrahams Lokii's account of the January 4 incident, which he said he personally witnessed, and accused him of "wasting time and playing politics".
Eastern region military spokesperson Henry Obbo said that the Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) dispatched a helicopter gunship in pursuit of armed men accused of raiding cattle in Karamoja, a remote, chronically troubled area that borders Kenya and Sudan.
Lokii, who represents Kotido district in parliament, said on Friday that an estimated 30 people who were not involved in the cattle raid were killed during the UPDF operation.
"I personally saw it. I was in the district. People were killed, but we have not been able to establish the exact numbers," he said. "The people who went for the (cattle) raid are different from the people who were bombed."
"We have estimated the casualties at around 30 people," said the MP, a member of President Yoweri Museveni's ruling party.
He called for the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs to investigate the incident.
"We need an investigation into this matter, but you cannot trust the UPDF to investigate itself. UNOCHA needs to come in," he added.
Obbo claimed the gunship never fired any weapons and was simply used to intimidate cattle raiders before they could allegedly distribute the stolen animals among their tribesmen.
"There is no cause for investigation because nothing happened," he said.
Rapport de l'ONU sur les FDRL: la justice norvégienne conclut à un non-lieu pour Munyaruguru.
Emmanuel Munyaruguru
Tromsø – Norway
e-munerrampacis.com
Tromsø den 20.01.2010
Votre Excellence, Mr le Secrétaire Général de l’ONU,
CONCLUSION À UN NON LIEU DES FAITS QUI ME SONT REPROCHÉS PAR L’ONU DANS SON RAPPORT D’OCTOBRE 2009 SUR LES GROUPES ARMES OPERANT EN RDC.
J'ai l'honneur de signaler que les enquêtes et auditions sur mon éventuelle implication dans l'appui des groupes armés qui se battent en RDC ont conclu à mon innocence, fermant ainsi le chapitre des allégations malencontreuses à mon égard.
Certains détails sur lesdites allégations et leurs conséquences sérieuses à l’endroit de ma famille et de moi-même ont été présentés dans ma lettre de protestation contre le rapport des experts des Nations Unies, dans le journal Bistandsaktuelt du Service Norvégien de Coopération au Développement, du journal Nordlys et à mon interview avec les journalistes de NRK, la télévision nationale norvégienne.
Ils faisaient suite à un carrousel d'attaques de toutes sortes que j'ai subi depuis ma participation dans la négociation des Accords d’Arusha en 1993 jusqu'à ce jour à savoir:
•L’enlèvement et séquestration de certains membres de ma famille en Janvier - Février 1993 suivis de tentatives d’intimidation et d’assassinat qui m’ont poursuivi par après jusque dans mon premier pays d’asile , Afrique du Sud, où le HCR, soucieux de ma sécurité, a décidé en 1999 de transférer d’urgence ma famille et moi-même en Norvège après avoir perdu de trace mon petit-frère qui alors vivait avec moi dans des circonstances inexplicables.
•Les injures, calomnies, intimidations et harcèlements subis quotidiennement de la part d’une partie de la diaspora rwandaise proche du régime de Kigali, et ceci depuis le passage d’une délégation rwandaise à la conférence sur l’Education à la Culture de la Paix en Juin 2000.
•Des déclarations agressives du Général James Kabarebe à l'encontre de ma personne, m'accusant d’être ennemi du Rwanda et des Rwandais, mon légitime pays et mon peuple. Ces déclarations ont eu lieu en novembre 2005 à l’aéroport de Kanombe devant devant les militaires qui partaient pour le Darfour et les journalistes de "The New Times ". Et depuis je suis qu’une cible ambulant.
•Des allégations de l'organisation African Rights de Rakiya Omaar surtout dans ses rapports du December 2007, et celui December 2008 dans lesquels je suis cité comme membre et/ou financier soit des FDLR ou des RUD.
•Des diffamations qui ont été proférées contre ma personne par une personne anonyme identifiée seulement par son pseudonyme Yohani Ruzibiza qui s'est servi d’ordinateur de vos services - PNUD au Tchad ainsi que ceux de l’Etat Norvégien-UDI. Laquelle personne se retrouve dans plusieurs correspondances internet avec les agents des services/ forces de police, de sécurité et de défense rwandaises.
•Des motifs tendancieux sinon subtiles qui auraient emmené le Rwanda à me mettre sur la liste des 15 personnes les plus recherchées dans la Région des Grands Lacs.
•Le contenu très controversé du rapport des experts de l’ONU sur le financement des groupes armés en RDC.
C’est dans cette atmosphère morose que la justice de mon pays d’accueil, la Norvège, a diligenté les enquêtes suivies des auditions pour connaître la vérité sur le rapport de l’ONU. Ce dossier m’a collé sur la peau pendant toute l’année de 2009.Une année qui a été pour moi et pour toute ma famille une véritable période de cauchemars. Fort heureusement pour moi, ce tragique feuilleton judiciaire vient de prendre fin avec l’annonce du procureur de Norvège concluant à un non lieu de tous les faits qui m’étaient reprochés. Certes mon innocence et ma bonne foie sont reconnues par la justice d’un Etat de droit - la Norvège, mais ma vie reste traumatisée par ces acharnements des gens qui visent à broyer ma vie privée et professionnelle. Faut-il croire que je serai un jour indemnisé pour les dommages subis ?
Excellence, je reste convaincu qu’un grand nombre de mes compatriotes réfugiés subissent le même type de traitement sans qu’ils aient la même chance que moi de pouvoir s’expliquer devant une justice impartiale. Eux aussi demandent une vraie justice, de temps plus que la plupart d’entre eux sont des apatrides, sans même le droit d’être appelés réfugiés.
Excellence les membres de ma famille qu’il soit au Rwanda ou ailleurs vivent dans la hantise permanente d’être molestés sinon assassinés. C’est pourquoi j’en appelle à votre sagesse pour empêcher formellement vos experts et même des experts de tous bords, de ne plus cataloguer les membres de famille de qui que ce soit qualifié à tord ou à raison d’opposant à un régime dictatorial quelconque. Le rapport de Dec 2008 de Rakiya Omaar, pour ne citer que celui-ci ,est allé très loin –même en citant les morts dont mon défunt père, fait des victimes innocents au sein de la population rwandaise déjà traumatisée par les forces de police et de sécurité rwandaise, les tribunaux nationaux rwandais et ceux d’ailleurs, les prisons rwandaises ainsi que les fameux tribunaux traditionnels Gacaca. On a des raisons de craindre que tous ceux qui sont cités dans ce genre de rapports sont sujets de curiosité, de haine et d’exclusion sociale sans fondement comme c’est bien le cas pour moi.
Les ressortissants de la Région des Grands Lacs dont moi-même encouragent la démocratie, la justice, la paix et le développement dans la région. Nous espérons sincèrement que les Nations Unies avec ses ressources humaines actuelles identifient l'origine sinon la source et les causes du Conflit des Grands Lacs en vue d’en trouver un remède approprié outre que l’utilisation excessive de force. La sagesse vaut mieux que les instruments de guerre... (Ecclésiate 9 :18).
C’est sans rancune aucune que je demande à mes accusateurs de m’accorder un peu de répit et c’est avec un profond respect que je remercie toutes les personnes et toutes les organisations qui ont réagi positivement ou négativement sur mes diverses interventions. C’est l’essence même de la démocratie et de la justice.
Bonne réception.
(se)
Emmanuel Munyaruguru
Terram Pacis
www.terrampacis.com
CPI:
•Le Secrétariat de l'ONU
•Excellence Monsieur le Secrétaire Général de l’Union Africaine
•Excellence Monsieur le Général de l’Union Européenne
•Excellence Madame la Secrétaire Générale de l’ ICGLR
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République du Burundi
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la RDC
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République Rwandaise
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la Tanzania
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République de l’Uganda
Tromsø – Norway
e-munerrampacis.com
Tromsø den 20.01.2010
Votre Excellence, Mr le Secrétaire Général de l’ONU,
CONCLUSION À UN NON LIEU DES FAITS QUI ME SONT REPROCHÉS PAR L’ONU DANS SON RAPPORT D’OCTOBRE 2009 SUR LES GROUPES ARMES OPERANT EN RDC.
J'ai l'honneur de signaler que les enquêtes et auditions sur mon éventuelle implication dans l'appui des groupes armés qui se battent en RDC ont conclu à mon innocence, fermant ainsi le chapitre des allégations malencontreuses à mon égard.
Certains détails sur lesdites allégations et leurs conséquences sérieuses à l’endroit de ma famille et de moi-même ont été présentés dans ma lettre de protestation contre le rapport des experts des Nations Unies, dans le journal Bistandsaktuelt du Service Norvégien de Coopération au Développement, du journal Nordlys et à mon interview avec les journalistes de NRK, la télévision nationale norvégienne.
Ils faisaient suite à un carrousel d'attaques de toutes sortes que j'ai subi depuis ma participation dans la négociation des Accords d’Arusha en 1993 jusqu'à ce jour à savoir:
•L’enlèvement et séquestration de certains membres de ma famille en Janvier - Février 1993 suivis de tentatives d’intimidation et d’assassinat qui m’ont poursuivi par après jusque dans mon premier pays d’asile , Afrique du Sud, où le HCR, soucieux de ma sécurité, a décidé en 1999 de transférer d’urgence ma famille et moi-même en Norvège après avoir perdu de trace mon petit-frère qui alors vivait avec moi dans des circonstances inexplicables.
•Les injures, calomnies, intimidations et harcèlements subis quotidiennement de la part d’une partie de la diaspora rwandaise proche du régime de Kigali, et ceci depuis le passage d’une délégation rwandaise à la conférence sur l’Education à la Culture de la Paix en Juin 2000.
•Des déclarations agressives du Général James Kabarebe à l'encontre de ma personne, m'accusant d’être ennemi du Rwanda et des Rwandais, mon légitime pays et mon peuple. Ces déclarations ont eu lieu en novembre 2005 à l’aéroport de Kanombe devant devant les militaires qui partaient pour le Darfour et les journalistes de "The New Times ". Et depuis je suis qu’une cible ambulant.
•Des allégations de l'organisation African Rights de Rakiya Omaar surtout dans ses rapports du December 2007, et celui December 2008 dans lesquels je suis cité comme membre et/ou financier soit des FDLR ou des RUD.
•Des diffamations qui ont été proférées contre ma personne par une personne anonyme identifiée seulement par son pseudonyme Yohani Ruzibiza qui s'est servi d’ordinateur de vos services - PNUD au Tchad ainsi que ceux de l’Etat Norvégien-UDI. Laquelle personne se retrouve dans plusieurs correspondances internet avec les agents des services/ forces de police, de sécurité et de défense rwandaises.
•Des motifs tendancieux sinon subtiles qui auraient emmené le Rwanda à me mettre sur la liste des 15 personnes les plus recherchées dans la Région des Grands Lacs.
•Le contenu très controversé du rapport des experts de l’ONU sur le financement des groupes armés en RDC.
C’est dans cette atmosphère morose que la justice de mon pays d’accueil, la Norvège, a diligenté les enquêtes suivies des auditions pour connaître la vérité sur le rapport de l’ONU. Ce dossier m’a collé sur la peau pendant toute l’année de 2009.Une année qui a été pour moi et pour toute ma famille une véritable période de cauchemars. Fort heureusement pour moi, ce tragique feuilleton judiciaire vient de prendre fin avec l’annonce du procureur de Norvège concluant à un non lieu de tous les faits qui m’étaient reprochés. Certes mon innocence et ma bonne foie sont reconnues par la justice d’un Etat de droit - la Norvège, mais ma vie reste traumatisée par ces acharnements des gens qui visent à broyer ma vie privée et professionnelle. Faut-il croire que je serai un jour indemnisé pour les dommages subis ?
Excellence, je reste convaincu qu’un grand nombre de mes compatriotes réfugiés subissent le même type de traitement sans qu’ils aient la même chance que moi de pouvoir s’expliquer devant une justice impartiale. Eux aussi demandent une vraie justice, de temps plus que la plupart d’entre eux sont des apatrides, sans même le droit d’être appelés réfugiés.
Excellence les membres de ma famille qu’il soit au Rwanda ou ailleurs vivent dans la hantise permanente d’être molestés sinon assassinés. C’est pourquoi j’en appelle à votre sagesse pour empêcher formellement vos experts et même des experts de tous bords, de ne plus cataloguer les membres de famille de qui que ce soit qualifié à tord ou à raison d’opposant à un régime dictatorial quelconque. Le rapport de Dec 2008 de Rakiya Omaar, pour ne citer que celui-ci ,est allé très loin –même en citant les morts dont mon défunt père, fait des victimes innocents au sein de la population rwandaise déjà traumatisée par les forces de police et de sécurité rwandaise, les tribunaux nationaux rwandais et ceux d’ailleurs, les prisons rwandaises ainsi que les fameux tribunaux traditionnels Gacaca. On a des raisons de craindre que tous ceux qui sont cités dans ce genre de rapports sont sujets de curiosité, de haine et d’exclusion sociale sans fondement comme c’est bien le cas pour moi.
Les ressortissants de la Région des Grands Lacs dont moi-même encouragent la démocratie, la justice, la paix et le développement dans la région. Nous espérons sincèrement que les Nations Unies avec ses ressources humaines actuelles identifient l'origine sinon la source et les causes du Conflit des Grands Lacs en vue d’en trouver un remède approprié outre que l’utilisation excessive de force. La sagesse vaut mieux que les instruments de guerre... (Ecclésiate 9 :18).
C’est sans rancune aucune que je demande à mes accusateurs de m’accorder un peu de répit et c’est avec un profond respect que je remercie toutes les personnes et toutes les organisations qui ont réagi positivement ou négativement sur mes diverses interventions. C’est l’essence même de la démocratie et de la justice.
Bonne réception.
(se)
Emmanuel Munyaruguru
Terram Pacis
www.terrampacis.com
CPI:
•Le Secrétariat de l'ONU
•Excellence Monsieur le Secrétaire Général de l’Union Africaine
•Excellence Monsieur le Général de l’Union Européenne
•Excellence Madame la Secrétaire Générale de l’ ICGLR
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République du Burundi
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la RDC
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République Rwandaise
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la Tanzania
•Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République de l’Uganda
Rwanda - President Paul Kagame is implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
By Maj. Alphonse Furuma, former member of the RPF/RPA.
29 May 2009
The following is a non-exhaustive list of cases in which President Paul Kagame and his collaborators are directly implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 1991.
1. Systematic execution of the Hutu who attempted to join the RPA Military Training Wings, for example in Nakivale, Gishuro, Karama and Gabiro from 1990 up to 1994.
2. Systematic massacres, laying of mines, looting of properties, demolition of homes and other building as well as destruction crops so as to displace the population and create an RPF/RPA controlled territory free of the Hutu. These crimes were carried out for example in the Districts of Muvumba, Ngarama, Bwisigye, Kiyombe, Mukarangye, Cyumba, Kibali, Kivuye, Cyungo, as well as in Kinigi, Butaro, Cyeru and Nyamugari from 1990 to 1992. Military operations were carried out against known civilian targets, in most cases peasants. Known Refugee Camps and densely populated villages and Towns were routinely shelled with 120 mm motors, 107 mm rocked launchers and 122 mm guns mounted on hill tops overlooking such locations. Examples of these incidents include the shelling of Rwibare Refugee Camp in Muvumba, Kisaro Refugee Camp in Buyoga as well as Byumba and Ruhengeri Towns in 1991 and 1992.
3. When the Arusha Peace Talks for Rwanda started in 1992, Paul Kagame launched a deliberate policy to create a Tutsi Land through Hutu massacres, massive population displacement, property appropriation and land grabbing in the North East, East, South East and in Central Rwanda. This is the policy we saw at work in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
4. Routine execution of Hutu prisoners of war between 1991 and 1994. The only exceptions being the ones kept alive for the purpose of show off to Journalists and for the exchange of prisoners of war with the Government side in the framework of the Arusha Peace Agreement.
5. Assassination of Hutu elites including members of the RPF/RPA like Member of High Command Muvunanyambo who was killed in 1992 as well as many civilian cadres recruited in the entire demilitarized zone in Northern Rwanda between 1992 and 1994. Once again, the districts most affected include Muvumba, Ngarama, Bwisigye, Kiyombe, Mukarangye, Cyumba, Kibali, Kivuye, Cyungo, Kinigi, Butaro, Cyeru and Nyamugari.
6. Periodic Revenge massacres against the Hutu population whenever the Regime in Kigali massacred the Tutsi. For example such revenge massacres were carried out in the RPA Offensive of February 1993 covering the entire North of the Country. The offensive was launched over night, by morning several districts had been taken over by the RPA and in the hours and days that followed the Hutu were hunted and short at on sight. In one location in the District of Ngarama, at least 134 people were massacred and buried in shallow graves.
7. From 1992 up to 1994, politico-military cadres were infiltrated behind government lines to carry out terrorist activities especially in urban areas. From 28th December 1993 to 6th April 1994, this time using the RPA Unit in Kigali, more people were trained, arms distributed and an urban terrorist campaign launched against civilian targets in Kigali City. These terrorist groups, among others, targeted high profile politicians including the late President Juvenal Habyalimana, former Minister Gatabazi, Gapyisi and Martin Bucyana. For example President Habyalimana had been a target for assassination between January and April 1994 at a swearing ceremony of the Broad Based Transition Government scheduled to have taken place at the Parliamentary Buildings in Kigali.
8. Counter genocide massacres covering the entire Country from boarder to boarder were launched immediately the genocide started. All RPA Units were under orders to kill any Hutu on sight and for several months, many soldiers did kill as many Hutu as they could.
9. The massacre at Rwesero Seminary on 21 April 1994, which included seven priest who had taken refugee there.
10. The massacres at Kabgayi on 5th June 1994, which included three Catholic Bishops and other Church leaders.
11. The massacres by the RPA Kigali Battalion in the hours and days immediately following the launching of the genocide; for example the killing of Hutu families in locations north of Kigali City like Kimihurura and Remera.
12. The killing of Hutu families evacuated from Kigali in April 1994 when a safe corridor had been created between Kigali and RPF/RPA Headquarters in Byumba Town.
13. The massacres in the Province of Gitarama especially in the Districts of Masango, Mukingi, Mushubati and Tabwe. In the District of Masango alone, at least 500 peasants are estimated to have been massacred and buried in mass graves between July and August 1994.
14. The massacres carried out in Butale Province where the largest number of people killed was at a locality known as Kucya-Semakamba.
15. The massacres of internally displaced people in camps or in transit to their homes. The most widely known case is the Kibeho massacre at a UN protected Camp in which between 4,000-8,000 people lost their lives at the hands of an RPA Unit.
16. The Directorate of Military Intelligence from 1990 up to 1994 operated Hutu detention, torture, assassination and burial centers in different locations of the country. One of the most notorious locations was at Kinyami District Headquarters where at least hundreds of civilian Hutus were arrested, detained, tortured, killed and buried between April and July 1994.Bodies were exhumed in 1997 by the military, the remains were burnt with diesel and acid and disposed of in the Akagera National Park. Member of Parliament Evalist Burakari was assassinated because he was a witness. The victims, who were mostly Hutu elites, were picked especially from the Districts of Kibali, Buyoga, Kinyami, Rutare, Muhura and Giti.
17. Gabiro Barracks has since 1994 served as a Hutu killing ground. Every time there is a security crisis, the Hutu especially in urban areas and the Eastern parts of the Country, are rounded up, blindfolded, packed on lorries, transported to Gabiro Barracks and killed. The Barracks has specialized killers and tools including iron bars, acid, diesel and a caterpillar.
18. Counter Insurgency massacres carried out in the North West from 1995 up to 2001. Tens of thousands and may be hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives at the hands of RPA Mobile Forces. Specific examples include the massacres carried out in Kanama District on 12th September 1995 in which 110 Hutu peasants were massacred in revenge for one Tutsi Officer killed by Hutu rebels. Many more massacres took place in the same locality especially between October and November 1997.
19. The massacre of a large number of people hiding in caves in the Ruhengeri-Gisenyi region during the counter insurgency operations of 1998. RPA Units sealed off the caves and massacred the refugees with explosives. Examples include the massacres in the caves of Bugoyi.
20. Massacres in containers. During routine security operations or counter insurgency operations, the Hutu are rounded up, their hands tied and the heads covered with air tight plastic materials. They are then loaded on to containers which are locked, driven to the Akagera National Park where they are parked under the direct sun and the victims left to die slowly due to congestion, heat, thirst and suffocation. Some of the supported of Former President Pasteur Bizimungu’s Party rounded up in various locations of Gisenyi Province following his arrest were massacred in this manner.
21. The indirect massacres of genocidaires suspects in detention centers. Thousands of genocidaires suspects were deliberately allowed to die off slowly due to inhuman detention condition. In mid 1995, it was estimated that 13 % of over 100.000 detainees were dying due to terrible detention conditions. In Gitarama Prison alone, about 1.000 out of about 10.000 detainees died in the year 1995.
22. The routine execution of genocidaires suspects in detention centers especially in 1997. RPA Units disguised as Hutu rebels attacked detention centers to kill detainees. Examples of such massacres include Bugarama Prison in Cyangugu on 14th April 1997, Muyira in Butare on the 14th of January 1997, Gisovu in Kibuye on the 23rd of January 1997, Runda in Gitarama on the 14th February 1997, Maraba in Butare on 7th May 1997, Gatonde in Ruhengeri in May 1997, Ndusu in Ruhengeri on 10th May 1997, and at Rubavu as well as at Kanama in the same year.
23. Execution of thousands of members of the Ex-FAR since 1994, having surrendered or returned from exile and sometimes with their entire families.
24. Assassination of foreign nationals suspected of monitoring RPA massacres. Examples include a Briton and a Cambodian, both of them UNHCHR Observers killed on 4th January 1997, Fr Vallmajo of Spain killed at Nyinawimana in April 1994, Fr Claude Simard from Canada killed on 17th October 1994, 3 Spanish employees of MEDICOS del MUNDO on 18th January 1997, Fr Guy Pinard from Canada on 2nd February 1997, Fr Curick Vjechoslav of Croatia and Fr Duchamp from Canada in Kigali in 1998.
25. The massacre of Hutu refugees in the DRC between 1996 and 1997 including; about 8,000 by early December 1996 as the refugee camps in the Kivu region were destroyed; 250 in a forest at Musenge next to the Rwanda border at about the same time; 22,500 by the time some of the refugees reached Walikale, Masisi, Shabunda, the South Kivu Mountains and Kalemie in late December; 300 at Mboko and several hundred others at Moba at about the same time; 135, 000 from Walikale and Masisi in transit to Amisi and Tingi-Tingi in mid January; 24,500 in the Shabarabe-Kalima-Tshimanga-Shabunda area on their way to Kalemie in early February; 55,000 from Amisi and Tingi-Tingi to Ubundu by late February, 40,000 in the camps of Kisesa and Biaro near Kisangani between 21st and 26th April and 2,500 at Mbandaka and Wendji on 13th May 1997.
26. The massive looting of movable property, systematic demolition of buildings and appropriation of Hutu properties between 1990 and 1995. Since 1992, the RPF/RPA had a fully fledged department responsible for looting all movable property for immediate use or for sell. These properties ranged from food, medical supplies, to Computers and vehicles. Homes, Shops, MAGERWA National Warehouse, Ministries, NGOs and the UN were all massively looted. Collections centers for the loot included RPF General Headquarters at Rubaya in Commune Cyumba, Mulindi Tea Factory, Byumba Town, Rwagitima Trading Center in District Gituza and Gabiro Barracks. In the case of buildings belonging to prominent Hutu, RPA Field Engineers were under instructions to demolition them. This was done in Kibungo Town, Remera in Kigali City and in Gitarama Town.
27. Assassinations, disappearances and detention of high profile politicians and Army Officers. For example former Minister Seth Sendashonga and Colonel Lizinde Mugabushaka were assassinated in exile in Nairobi; Member of Parliament Evalist Burakari, Asiel Kabera, Major Alex Ruzindana, Gratien Munyarubuga were assassinated in Kigali; Colonel Agustin Cyiza and Member of Parliament Dr Leonidas Hitimana have been disappeared, while former President Pasteur Bizimungu, former Minister Charles Ntakirutinka, Colonel S. Biseruka and others have been detained for several years without a fair trial.
28. Paul Kagame has pursued a long term agenda to occupy East DRC and encourage its secession by creating so called Congolese rebels with a view to realizing perpetual control of the region so as to prevent independent investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Hutu Refugees in 1996/1997, for economic exploitation and for containing Paul Kagame’s perceived Hutu military threats. This is precisely why Paul Kagame re-invaded the DRC in 1998 and indeed the very reason he has twice invaded that Country this year alone. This is the reason why Paul Kagame has just invaded the DRC again. We need to mention that complementary technical, political and economic measures aimed at informal integration of the economies of Rwanda and East DRC have been introduced since 1996.
29. Paul Kagame and his collaborators have since 1994, been deeply involved in fueling the conflict in Burundi through direct incursions to fight alongside Tutsi soldiers and indirectly through the clandestine delivery of military supplies via Kanombe International Airport and by road to Bujumbura.
WB Boss, American Robert Zoellick, to Visit Three Africa Nations Soon
The Citizen
22 January 2010
The World Bank group President Robert Zoellick is set to start an eight-day, three-nation Africa visit next Tuesday to help focus the attention of African governments, development partners and private investors on seizing the opportunity for renewed momentum in economic growth and overcoming poverty.
A statement released in Dar es Salaam yesterday said Mr Zoellick will first head to Sierra Leone before travelling to Cote d'Ivoire and then Ethiopia for the African Union (AU) summit.
Ahead of the trip, Zoellick noted that many sub-Saharan African countries had enjoyed a decade of solid growth before the crisis and it was important to preserve and expand on these gains by drawing investment to high growth areas.
He said although hit by the global food, fuel and financial crises, African governments have persisted in strengthening their economic policies as they pursue development, or rebuild after conflict.
"I am visiting Africa to learn about how its people have coped with the global economic crisis and to see how the World Bank Group can work with them to improve prospects for economic growth and expanded opportunity.
Much of Africa has a solid record of economic growth, including in some of Africa's fragile states, and it has the potential to be another pole of growth for the world economy," Mr Zoellick was quoted by the statement as saying.
In Addis Ababa Mr Zoellick will co-host, together with African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka, a working breakfast forum on the sidelines of the AU summit where several African leaders will discuss the transformative impact that information and communications technologies (ICTs) can have on the continent.
"The skeptics wondered whether Africa was ready for a revolution in telecommunications. But African entrepreneurs, with the help of supportive government policies, changed the facts on the ground," said Zoellick.
Mr Zoellick said that a combination of policy and institutional reforms and external resources are urgently needed to help build capacity, generate economic opportunities in fragile states, and lay the foundation for stability and overcoming poverty.
He also called for policies and investments that would expand Africa's share of global and intra-African trade by fostering regional integration and building crucial infrastructure in energy, transport and irrigation needed to promote agriculture, manufacturing and industrialization on the continent and for helping countries adapt to climate change.
Acknowledging that private sector participation will continue to be key to take Africa to the next level of high-speed connectivity and to create jobs, the breakfast forum is expected to urge African leaders to further lift barriers to private investment in the sector.
It is also expected to encourage African leaders and the private sector to take advantage of ICTs to advance agriculture, education and health sectors, and to similarly realize the considerable promise of other sectors.
During his trip, Zoellick will visit energy, agriculture and fishery projects that have benefited from WB support.
He will hold working sessions with representatives of other donor agencies; discuss ways of boosting World Bank support to governmental and civil society organizations promoting peace, transparency, accountability, and good governance, the statement said.
22 January 2010
The World Bank group President Robert Zoellick is set to start an eight-day, three-nation Africa visit next Tuesday to help focus the attention of African governments, development partners and private investors on seizing the opportunity for renewed momentum in economic growth and overcoming poverty.
A statement released in Dar es Salaam yesterday said Mr Zoellick will first head to Sierra Leone before travelling to Cote d'Ivoire and then Ethiopia for the African Union (AU) summit.
Ahead of the trip, Zoellick noted that many sub-Saharan African countries had enjoyed a decade of solid growth before the crisis and it was important to preserve and expand on these gains by drawing investment to high growth areas.
He said although hit by the global food, fuel and financial crises, African governments have persisted in strengthening their economic policies as they pursue development, or rebuild after conflict.
"I am visiting Africa to learn about how its people have coped with the global economic crisis and to see how the World Bank Group can work with them to improve prospects for economic growth and expanded opportunity.
Much of Africa has a solid record of economic growth, including in some of Africa's fragile states, and it has the potential to be another pole of growth for the world economy," Mr Zoellick was quoted by the statement as saying.
In Addis Ababa Mr Zoellick will co-host, together with African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka, a working breakfast forum on the sidelines of the AU summit where several African leaders will discuss the transformative impact that information and communications technologies (ICTs) can have on the continent.
"The skeptics wondered whether Africa was ready for a revolution in telecommunications. But African entrepreneurs, with the help of supportive government policies, changed the facts on the ground," said Zoellick.
Mr Zoellick said that a combination of policy and institutional reforms and external resources are urgently needed to help build capacity, generate economic opportunities in fragile states, and lay the foundation for stability and overcoming poverty.
He also called for policies and investments that would expand Africa's share of global and intra-African trade by fostering regional integration and building crucial infrastructure in energy, transport and irrigation needed to promote agriculture, manufacturing and industrialization on the continent and for helping countries adapt to climate change.
Acknowledging that private sector participation will continue to be key to take Africa to the next level of high-speed connectivity and to create jobs, the breakfast forum is expected to urge African leaders to further lift barriers to private investment in the sector.
It is also expected to encourage African leaders and the private sector to take advantage of ICTs to advance agriculture, education and health sectors, and to similarly realize the considerable promise of other sectors.
During his trip, Zoellick will visit energy, agriculture and fishery projects that have benefited from WB support.
He will hold working sessions with representatives of other donor agencies; discuss ways of boosting World Bank support to governmental and civil society organizations promoting peace, transparency, accountability, and good governance, the statement said.
Darfur: 80% of conflict deaths due to disease, says study.
Mail & Guardian
22 January 2010
Nearly 80% of the 300 000 conflict-related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases like diarrhoea, not violence, Belgian scientists said on Friday.
An analysis of deaths dating from 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government of Sudan, showed that after an initial peak of violent deaths in the still-ongoing conflict, diseases associated with diarrhoea became the major killers.
The researchers said their results showed that any reduction in humanitarian aid can cause deaths rates to increase sharply, raising "serious concerns" about the consequences of last year's expulsion of aid workers from Sudan by the country's president.
"We should fear the worst," they wrote in a study in the Lancet medical journal.
Since the armed rebellion started in early 2003, the United Nations estimates 300 000 people have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes after a counter-insurgency campaign by Khartoum.
"More than 80% of excess deaths were not a result of the violence," said Olivier Degomme and Debarati Guha-Sapir of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Brussels.
They said a violent peak in early 2004 was followed by "protracted phase of increased disease-related" deaths caused by people living in unsanitary conditions with little or no healthcare infrastructure.
Diarrhoea kills about 1,5-million children each year around the world -- more than Aids, malaria and measles combined.
There are three main forms -- acute, bloody and persistent -- all of which are potentially life-threatening.
22 January 2010
Nearly 80% of the 300 000 conflict-related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases like diarrhoea, not violence, Belgian scientists said on Friday.
An analysis of deaths dating from 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government of Sudan, showed that after an initial peak of violent deaths in the still-ongoing conflict, diseases associated with diarrhoea became the major killers.
The researchers said their results showed that any reduction in humanitarian aid can cause deaths rates to increase sharply, raising "serious concerns" about the consequences of last year's expulsion of aid workers from Sudan by the country's president.
"We should fear the worst," they wrote in a study in the Lancet medical journal.
Since the armed rebellion started in early 2003, the United Nations estimates 300 000 people have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes after a counter-insurgency campaign by Khartoum.
"More than 80% of excess deaths were not a result of the violence," said Olivier Degomme and Debarati Guha-Sapir of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Brussels.
They said a violent peak in early 2004 was followed by "protracted phase of increased disease-related" deaths caused by people living in unsanitary conditions with little or no healthcare infrastructure.
Diarrhoea kills about 1,5-million children each year around the world -- more than Aids, malaria and measles combined.
There are three main forms -- acute, bloody and persistent -- all of which are potentially life-threatening.
Press Release of the Rwandan Green Party - Press Freedom Further Restricted in Rwanda.
Press Release on Rwanda Media Elections Violation
On 19th January 2010, Rwandan journalists representing private media convened in order to elect two members amongst themselves to represent them to the National High Media Council-a government agency that has taken over most duties of the Ministry of Information. The Media Council answers to the Ministry of Information, with the job of monitoring and regulating the media sector. The council is composed of nine members. The government appoints the Executive Secretary plus other three council members. Two members are nominated by the private media through their professional association, one is nominated by the state/public media, one by the media training institutions and one by Rwandan citizens.
According to a Rwanda News Agency (RNA) story of 20th January 2010, the Director General of the Ministry of Information, Mr. Ignatius Kabagambe, sent out an invitation letter which indicated each media house would have one vote. To the surprise of the present electorate, The New Times Newspaper and the radio station Contact FM mobilized and brought in all their entire staff, including support-staff, to participate in the elections and far exceeded the number allowed as stipulated by the Ministry of Information.
Several representatives of private media organizations present contested this action, but elections went forward and the controversial vote saw Mr. Arthur Asiimwe, The New Times Managing Editor, and Radio Contact FM’s Managing Director, Mr. Albert Rudatsimburwa, elected to the nine-member media council.
Both The New Times and Contact FM are officially private companies but other media houses consider them as government-owned, according to RNA. The other media houses dismissed the results of the election as a sham and walked out in protest. They argued that the process was sabotaged to bring in people close to government.
They replaced the two outgoing members, Mr. Bahati Prince of Radio UMUCO and Father Pierre Nkusi, Editor of Kinyamateka Newspaper. These two also did not attend the elections.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, in its efforts to fight for press/media freedom in Rwanda would like to make the following remarks:
1. We do not doubt the ability and competence of the two gentlemen elected. Indeed they are seasoned journalists, but we strongly condemn the manner in which the election process was conducted. Any election process to any office must be free, fair, transparent, democratic, and devoid of any form of manipulation, coercion or rigging.
2. The media houses in Rwanda are part and parcel of society’s fourth estate (arm of government). Therefore, they stand as a beacon of hope in a country that is trying to build democratic institutions. Any type of election in which they are involved must be exemplary and above reproach, lest they loose the moral high-ground they enjoy in the day-to-day life of society and fail to properly report the upcoming August 2010 Presidential elections.
3. By refusing to adhere to the Ministerial instructions and doing it their own way, those implicated in this scandal are indirectly bringing back and perpetuating the culture of impunity which has characterized Rwanda for so long.
4. We therefore strongly condemn the election process and call upon all peace loving journalists to challenge it with legally acceptable, legitimate, and non-violent means.
Done in Kigali, 22nd January 2010
Frank HABINEZA
Chairman, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
On 19th January 2010, Rwandan journalists representing private media convened in order to elect two members amongst themselves to represent them to the National High Media Council-a government agency that has taken over most duties of the Ministry of Information. The Media Council answers to the Ministry of Information, with the job of monitoring and regulating the media sector. The council is composed of nine members. The government appoints the Executive Secretary plus other three council members. Two members are nominated by the private media through their professional association, one is nominated by the state/public media, one by the media training institutions and one by Rwandan citizens.
According to a Rwanda News Agency (RNA) story of 20th January 2010, the Director General of the Ministry of Information, Mr. Ignatius Kabagambe, sent out an invitation letter which indicated each media house would have one vote. To the surprise of the present electorate, The New Times Newspaper and the radio station Contact FM mobilized and brought in all their entire staff, including support-staff, to participate in the elections and far exceeded the number allowed as stipulated by the Ministry of Information.
Several representatives of private media organizations present contested this action, but elections went forward and the controversial vote saw Mr. Arthur Asiimwe, The New Times Managing Editor, and Radio Contact FM’s Managing Director, Mr. Albert Rudatsimburwa, elected to the nine-member media council.
Both The New Times and Contact FM are officially private companies but other media houses consider them as government-owned, according to RNA. The other media houses dismissed the results of the election as a sham and walked out in protest. They argued that the process was sabotaged to bring in people close to government.
They replaced the two outgoing members, Mr. Bahati Prince of Radio UMUCO and Father Pierre Nkusi, Editor of Kinyamateka Newspaper. These two also did not attend the elections.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, in its efforts to fight for press/media freedom in Rwanda would like to make the following remarks:
1. We do not doubt the ability and competence of the two gentlemen elected. Indeed they are seasoned journalists, but we strongly condemn the manner in which the election process was conducted. Any election process to any office must be free, fair, transparent, democratic, and devoid of any form of manipulation, coercion or rigging.
2. The media houses in Rwanda are part and parcel of society’s fourth estate (arm of government). Therefore, they stand as a beacon of hope in a country that is trying to build democratic institutions. Any type of election in which they are involved must be exemplary and above reproach, lest they loose the moral high-ground they enjoy in the day-to-day life of society and fail to properly report the upcoming August 2010 Presidential elections.
3. By refusing to adhere to the Ministerial instructions and doing it their own way, those implicated in this scandal are indirectly bringing back and perpetuating the culture of impunity which has characterized Rwanda for so long.
4. We therefore strongly condemn the election process and call upon all peace loving journalists to challenge it with legally acceptable, legitimate, and non-violent means.
Done in Kigali, 22nd January 2010
Frank HABINEZA
Chairman, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
Ambassador: PKK have U.S. arms.
UPI
11 July 2007
Kurdish terrorists in northern Iraq are using U.S.-made arms and explosives to attack Turkish forces and citizens, the Turkish ambassador said Wednesday.
"From terrorists captured within Turkey we know that certain weapons are of foreign origins. The explosive are sophisticated enough for us to suggest forces in the north are getting them from certain foreign groups," Ambassador Nabi Sensoy told defense reporters in Washington. "We know there have been a number of weapons of American origins.
"It doesn't mean the United States has supplied them, not necessarily. ... We know the USA is shipping arms to the northern Iraq administration. It is just possible they are ending up in the hands of terrorist organizations."
Fighters with the PKK -- the Kurdish Workers Party -- have killed 30,000 Turks since 1984, he said. He estimates the group, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations but not the Iraqi government's list, is 5,000 strong, with 3,800 to 4,000 of them living in camps in the border areas. Their numbers swelled, he said, during the 10-year enforcement of the no-fly zone, in which U.S. forces prevented Saddam Hussein's regime from entering the Kurdish area in northern Iraq.
Snesoy said the Kurdish regional government led by Massoud Barzani is actively supporting the KPP with food, ammunition, weapons and logistics support.
With Turkey's national elections looming, Ankara is talking tough about KPP and has warned that Turkish troops are massing along the border.
"We've come to the point where everyone feels patience in Turkey is running out.
"If the U.S. government and administration feels itself to have the right to intervene in Iraq ... then Turkey should be able to protect its people and country from the threat and actual acts of terrorist organization at our doorstep," he said.
11 July 2007
Kurdish terrorists in northern Iraq are using U.S.-made arms and explosives to attack Turkish forces and citizens, the Turkish ambassador said Wednesday.
"From terrorists captured within Turkey we know that certain weapons are of foreign origins. The explosive are sophisticated enough for us to suggest forces in the north are getting them from certain foreign groups," Ambassador Nabi Sensoy told defense reporters in Washington. "We know there have been a number of weapons of American origins.
"It doesn't mean the United States has supplied them, not necessarily. ... We know the USA is shipping arms to the northern Iraq administration. It is just possible they are ending up in the hands of terrorist organizations."
Fighters with the PKK -- the Kurdish Workers Party -- have killed 30,000 Turks since 1984, he said. He estimates the group, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations but not the Iraqi government's list, is 5,000 strong, with 3,800 to 4,000 of them living in camps in the border areas. Their numbers swelled, he said, during the 10-year enforcement of the no-fly zone, in which U.S. forces prevented Saddam Hussein's regime from entering the Kurdish area in northern Iraq.
Snesoy said the Kurdish regional government led by Massoud Barzani is actively supporting the KPP with food, ammunition, weapons and logistics support.
With Turkey's national elections looming, Ankara is talking tough about KPP and has warned that Turkish troops are massing along the border.
"We've come to the point where everyone feels patience in Turkey is running out.
"If the U.S. government and administration feels itself to have the right to intervene in Iraq ... then Turkey should be able to protect its people and country from the threat and actual acts of terrorist organization at our doorstep," he said.
Filipino militant killed in Jan 14 drone attack in Waziristan.
Daily Times
22 January 2010
A Filipino militant wanted by the US is believed to have been killed in a drone strike in the Tribal Areas close to the Afghan border earlier this month, intelligence officials said on Thursday.
If confirmed, the death of Abdul Basit Usman would represent another success for the covert programme of missile strikes that the US has carried out since 2008. There have been an unprecedented number of attacks in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas this month following a deadly December 30 attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan.
Two military intelligence officers in the NWFP said Usman was believed killed on January 14. Another 11 militants were also killed in the strike on a militant compound. Authorities have previously said the attack had targeted Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud. It was not possible to confirm the reports, and there had been no previous indication Usman was in Pakistan.
The US State Department has put a bounty of US $1 million for information leading to his conviction.
22 January 2010
A Filipino militant wanted by the US is believed to have been killed in a drone strike in the Tribal Areas close to the Afghan border earlier this month, intelligence officials said on Thursday.
If confirmed, the death of Abdul Basit Usman would represent another success for the covert programme of missile strikes that the US has carried out since 2008. There have been an unprecedented number of attacks in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas this month following a deadly December 30 attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan.
Two military intelligence officers in the NWFP said Usman was believed killed on January 14. Another 11 militants were also killed in the strike on a militant compound. Authorities have previously said the attack had targeted Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud. It was not possible to confirm the reports, and there had been no previous indication Usman was in Pakistan.
The US State Department has put a bounty of US $1 million for information leading to his conviction.
Blackwater, DynCorp working in Pakistan’: US considering giving Pakistan drones: Sec. Gates.
Daily Times
22 January 2010
Visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the US is considering giving Pakistan drones for intelligence and reconnaissance purposes, a private TV channel reported on Thursday.
In an interview with the channel, Gates said he was expanding the programme by buying more aircraft – a reference to, according to US officials, a proposed deal for 12 unarmed Shadow aircraft.
Gates said drone attacks had been successful in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. He said the US was considering ways to share intelligence with the Pakistani military.
Blackwater: Gates conceded that US security companies Blackwater and DynCorp are operating in Pakistan in private capacities. He said the companies would comply with Pakistani laws.
He said a proposal was not under consideration for Afghan forces’ training by India.
About Indo-Pak relations, he said the countries should deal with issues bilaterally. “I have raised [with India] Pakistani concerns over Indian involvement in Pakistan’s internal affairs.” He made it clear that the US had “no military relationship with India”.
Separately, Gates warned that Taliban safe havens along the Pak-Afghan border must be tackled or both nations would suffer “more lethal and more brazen” attacks.
Gates also called on President Asif Ali Zardari – who said drone attacks undermined national consensus against militancy.
A statement by the US embassy said Gates praised the army’s recent successes. It said Gates was in Pakistan to consult leaders on broader strategic dialogue.
Also, Gates met Army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Tariq Majid and ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha separately.
22 January 2010
Visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the US is considering giving Pakistan drones for intelligence and reconnaissance purposes, a private TV channel reported on Thursday.
In an interview with the channel, Gates said he was expanding the programme by buying more aircraft – a reference to, according to US officials, a proposed deal for 12 unarmed Shadow aircraft.
Gates said drone attacks had been successful in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. He said the US was considering ways to share intelligence with the Pakistani military.
Blackwater: Gates conceded that US security companies Blackwater and DynCorp are operating in Pakistan in private capacities. He said the companies would comply with Pakistani laws.
He said a proposal was not under consideration for Afghan forces’ training by India.
About Indo-Pak relations, he said the countries should deal with issues bilaterally. “I have raised [with India] Pakistani concerns over Indian involvement in Pakistan’s internal affairs.” He made it clear that the US had “no military relationship with India”.
Separately, Gates warned that Taliban safe havens along the Pak-Afghan border must be tackled or both nations would suffer “more lethal and more brazen” attacks.
Gates also called on President Asif Ali Zardari – who said drone attacks undermined national consensus against militancy.
A statement by the US embassy said Gates praised the army’s recent successes. It said Gates was in Pakistan to consult leaders on broader strategic dialogue.
Also, Gates met Army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Tariq Majid and ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha separately.
India to Invest U.S.$359 Million in 2 Nigerian Oil Blocks.
Vanguard
21 January 2010
Editor's Note: The US has been working with India to develop its civilian nuclear technology and supporting its efforts to utilize green energy sources to reduce its reliance on oil and thus try and avoid a key allied state from becoming an energy competitor in other areas of the world. Oil imports to India are expected to increase very dramatically by 2020 to as high as 91% by some estimates. India currently seeks overseas oil in high-risk areas of political instability (Sudan, Nigeria [they are already present there], Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen) and is facing a difficult balance between utilizing their own oil deposits or privatizing them. India is currently engaged in numerous domestic exploration endeavors. India, like China, has soaring energy needs as a rapidly-developing economy spearheaded by its service, industrial, and agricultural sectors. With Russia, the UK, and the US already in hot competition for Nigerian oil amidst widespread insecurity in the state, including the Niger Delta, the region around Jos, a longstanding fight against corruption, ethnic nationalism, religious divides, a relatively weak state, and the current political crisis regarding President Yar'Adua's health, things may only get more politically complicated as India seeks to expand its stakes in Nigerian oil.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
India is to invest $359 million dollars in two Nigerian oil blocs, Mr Mahesh Sachdev, the country's High Commissioner to Nigeria, has said. The two blocks, OPL 279 and OPL 285, are being jointly explored by Indian joint venture company of ONGC Videsh and Lakshmi Mittal's Mittal Investments Sarl (MIS), known as ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd, incorporated in Cyprus.
The exploration for the blocs, which are located in the Gulf of Guinea, is for five years, from 2007 to 2012.
He said that funding of 359 million dollars to ONGC Videsh Ltd, overseas arm, for the execution of the first exploration phase in the two Nigerian deepwater blocks, had been endorsed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). He added that the budgeted estimates for the first phase of exploration included signature bonus and acquisition cost.
Also, the envoy said that a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, had been signed between a Mumbai-based consulting and human resources specialist, Acubes Solutions (ACPL), to offer skills development and enhancement programmes to graduate students in Nigeria. He said the MoU was signed recently in New Delhi by Nigeria's Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr Adetokunbo kayode, and his Indian counterpart, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge.
Sachdev explained further that the programme had been launched under the employment generation pilot scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity with the objective of training more than 12,000 students in 2011.
"Based on the success of the pilot project, ASPL will suggest short courses to the Ministry to be offered to graduate students in Nigeria so that their employment potential would be enhanced considerably, primarily in the IT and telecom domains," the envoy said.
21 January 2010
Editor's Note: The US has been working with India to develop its civilian nuclear technology and supporting its efforts to utilize green energy sources to reduce its reliance on oil and thus try and avoid a key allied state from becoming an energy competitor in other areas of the world. Oil imports to India are expected to increase very dramatically by 2020 to as high as 91% by some estimates. India currently seeks overseas oil in high-risk areas of political instability (Sudan, Nigeria [they are already present there], Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen) and is facing a difficult balance between utilizing their own oil deposits or privatizing them. India is currently engaged in numerous domestic exploration endeavors. India, like China, has soaring energy needs as a rapidly-developing economy spearheaded by its service, industrial, and agricultural sectors. With Russia, the UK, and the US already in hot competition for Nigerian oil amidst widespread insecurity in the state, including the Niger Delta, the region around Jos, a longstanding fight against corruption, ethnic nationalism, religious divides, a relatively weak state, and the current political crisis regarding President Yar'Adua's health, things may only get more politically complicated as India seeks to expand its stakes in Nigerian oil.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
India is to invest $359 million dollars in two Nigerian oil blocs, Mr Mahesh Sachdev, the country's High Commissioner to Nigeria, has said. The two blocks, OPL 279 and OPL 285, are being jointly explored by Indian joint venture company of ONGC Videsh and Lakshmi Mittal's Mittal Investments Sarl (MIS), known as ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd, incorporated in Cyprus.
The exploration for the blocs, which are located in the Gulf of Guinea, is for five years, from 2007 to 2012.
He said that funding of 359 million dollars to ONGC Videsh Ltd, overseas arm, for the execution of the first exploration phase in the two Nigerian deepwater blocks, had been endorsed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). He added that the budgeted estimates for the first phase of exploration included signature bonus and acquisition cost.
Also, the envoy said that a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, had been signed between a Mumbai-based consulting and human resources specialist, Acubes Solutions (ACPL), to offer skills development and enhancement programmes to graduate students in Nigeria. He said the MoU was signed recently in New Delhi by Nigeria's Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr Adetokunbo kayode, and his Indian counterpart, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge.
Sachdev explained further that the programme had been launched under the employment generation pilot scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity with the objective of training more than 12,000 students in 2011.
"Based on the success of the pilot project, ASPL will suggest short courses to the Ministry to be offered to graduate students in Nigeria so that their employment potential would be enhanced considerably, primarily in the IT and telecom domains," the envoy said.
21 January, 2010
French aid group MSF accuses US over Haiti delays.
Reuters
20 January 2010
By Morade Azzouz
One of France's main humanitarian organisations accused the United States on Wednesday of mishandling aid operations in Haiti and causing severe delays to doctors trying to bring vital help to victims of the earthquake.
Francoise Saulnier, head of the legal department of aid group Medicins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) said days had been lost because the main airport in Port-au-Prince, now under U.S. control, had been blocked by military traffic.
"We lost three days," she told Reuters Television in an interview. "And these three days have created a massive problem with infection, with gangrene, with amputations that are needed now, while we could have really spared this to those people."
The aid group, set up in 1971 by a group of journalists and doctors including France's current foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has complained that 5 aeroplanes carrying 85 tonnes of drugs and surgical supplies have been turned away from Port-au-Prince since Sunday night.
France's junior overseas cooperation minister, Alain Joyandet, protested to U.S. authorities at the weekend when a French plane carrying humanitarian aid was prevented from landing at the U.S.-controlled airport in the Haitian capital.
But President Nicolas Sarkozy's office has played down talk of a rift in the aid operation, saying Paris was very satisfied with the level of cooperation with U.S. authorities.
Thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed to secure supplies in Haiti days after the devastating quake on Jan. 12 which killed and injured tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands dependent on emergency aid. [ID:nN1997937]
Saulnier said the situation for surgeons working on the ground was extremely difficult and relief teams had been forced to buy equipment on the local market to cut bones.
"So it's just apocalyptic at the moment with people in a very, very bad and deteriorating condition," she said, adding that there had been "real mismanagement of vital issues".
"You have the three first days to get people out of the buildings, then three others to give them medical and surgical attention and then all the rest, emergencies, food, shelter, water -- all this comes after," she said, speaking in English.
"And now everything has been mixed together and the urgent and vital attention to the people has been delayed (for) military logistics, which is useful but not on day three, not on day four, but maybe on day eight. This military logistic has really jammed the airport and led to this mismanagment.
(Additional reporting by Yann Tessier) (Writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Crispian Balmer)
20 January 2010
By Morade Azzouz
One of France's main humanitarian organisations accused the United States on Wednesday of mishandling aid operations in Haiti and causing severe delays to doctors trying to bring vital help to victims of the earthquake.
Francoise Saulnier, head of the legal department of aid group Medicins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) said days had been lost because the main airport in Port-au-Prince, now under U.S. control, had been blocked by military traffic.
"We lost three days," she told Reuters Television in an interview. "And these three days have created a massive problem with infection, with gangrene, with amputations that are needed now, while we could have really spared this to those people."
The aid group, set up in 1971 by a group of journalists and doctors including France's current foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has complained that 5 aeroplanes carrying 85 tonnes of drugs and surgical supplies have been turned away from Port-au-Prince since Sunday night.
France's junior overseas cooperation minister, Alain Joyandet, protested to U.S. authorities at the weekend when a French plane carrying humanitarian aid was prevented from landing at the U.S.-controlled airport in the Haitian capital.
But President Nicolas Sarkozy's office has played down talk of a rift in the aid operation, saying Paris was very satisfied with the level of cooperation with U.S. authorities.
Thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed to secure supplies in Haiti days after the devastating quake on Jan. 12 which killed and injured tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands dependent on emergency aid. [ID:nN1997937]
Saulnier said the situation for surgeons working on the ground was extremely difficult and relief teams had been forced to buy equipment on the local market to cut bones.
"So it's just apocalyptic at the moment with people in a very, very bad and deteriorating condition," she said, adding that there had been "real mismanagement of vital issues".
"You have the three first days to get people out of the buildings, then three others to give them medical and surgical attention and then all the rest, emergencies, food, shelter, water -- all this comes after," she said, speaking in English.
"And now everything has been mixed together and the urgent and vital attention to the people has been delayed (for) military logistics, which is useful but not on day three, not on day four, but maybe on day eight. This military logistic has really jammed the airport and led to this mismanagment.
(Additional reporting by Yann Tessier) (Writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Crispian Balmer)
Uganda Backs Eni for Heritage Fields, Rejects Tullow.
Bloomberg News
21 January 2010
By Fred Ojambo
Uganda’s government supported Eni SpA’s $1.5 billion offer for assets owned by Heritage Oil Plc in the East African country, dismissing a last-minute attempt by Tullow Oil Plc to block the sale.
Uganda won’t allow any one company to monopolize exploration, Energy Minister Hillary Onek told a press conference in the capital city of Kampala today.
Ugandan ministers met yesterday to review competing offers from Eni, Italy’s biggest oil company, and Tullow for Heritage Oil’s 50 percent share in Blocks 1 and 3A in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. The dispute arose as Tullow partner Kosmos Energy LLC’s planned sale of its stake in Ghana’s Jubilee field to Exxon Mobil Corp. was thrown into doubt by Ghana’s government.
“It’s positive for Eni, which has the know-how to develop the fields,” said Emanuele Vizzini, who helps manage about $1.3 billion at Investitori SGR in Milan, including Eni stock. Given the deal will take some time to complete, he didn’t rule out the possibility of Eni and Tullow reaching a compromise.
Eni is “very pleased” with the Ugandan government’s support for its offer, an Eni spokeswoman said by phone today.
Tullow’s Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey and Chief Operating Officer Paul McDade plan to fly to Uganda later this week to meet government officials, George Cazenove, a company spokesman, said. The U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa has drawn up a shortlist of partners to help with the estimated $5 billion cost of developing its Ugandan assets.
‘No Monopoly’
“The company made it clear there was no monopoly suggested and that they are looking to bring in a credible and serious partner,” Cazenove said.
Tullow erased gains after earlier rising to a record in London trading following news of a “significant” discovery in Ghana. The stock closed down 47 pence, or 3.6 percent, at 1,278 pence, valuing the London-based company at 10.3 billion pounds ($17 billion). Eni fell 1.3 percent in Milan to 17.74 euros.
Eni is seeking to expand reserves with fields in Africa, central Asia and the Gulf of Mexico after output cuts from disruptions in Nigeria. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had pressed Eni’s case during a visit to Uganda last week.
The Italian producer said Nov. 23 it signed a letter of intent with Heritage to buy its share of the fields for as much as $1.5 billion. Tullow, which co-owns the assets with Heritage, said this week it would exercise pre-emption rights.
“There is no reason to obstruct Eni when Tullow wasn’t obstructed by the government from coming in,” Onek said at today’s press conference.
Revoke License
The minister advised Tullow not to seek legal redress, saying the government would not hesitate to revoke the license of any company that challenged its decisions in court.
About 1.5 billion barrels of oil are still to be discovered in the Lake Albert region, according to Tullow estimates.
Tullow, Heritage, Tower Resources Plc and Dominion Petroleum Ltd. have been exploring Ugandan fields along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tullow had wanted to sell as much as 50 percent of three combined blocks in the Lake Albert region, Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey said Jan. 18.
Detailed plans regarding field exploration, a refinery, power generation and a possible pipeline across Tanzania or Kenya to export oil will be presented to Uganda’s government in the first week of February, Heavey said.
The company plans to produce its first oil at Uganda’s Kasamene field this year.
Shareholder Vote
A higher bid for Heritage’s assets can be made until Jan. 25, when its shareholders meet to vote on the sale.
Kosmos said Oct. 12 that it agreed to sell its Ghana assets, including a 23.49 percent stake in Jubilee, to Exxon Mobil, in a deal that may be valued at $4 billion. Ghana National Petroleum Corp., the state-owned energy company, has threatened to block the sale, asserting its “absolute” approval rights and saying it may buy the stake itself and then bring in partners.
Tullow also reported today the discovery of a “significant” oil and gas-condensate field off the coast of Ghana after drilling the Tweneboa-2 well.
21 January 2010
By Fred Ojambo
Uganda’s government supported Eni SpA’s $1.5 billion offer for assets owned by Heritage Oil Plc in the East African country, dismissing a last-minute attempt by Tullow Oil Plc to block the sale.
Uganda won’t allow any one company to monopolize exploration, Energy Minister Hillary Onek told a press conference in the capital city of Kampala today.
Ugandan ministers met yesterday to review competing offers from Eni, Italy’s biggest oil company, and Tullow for Heritage Oil’s 50 percent share in Blocks 1 and 3A in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. The dispute arose as Tullow partner Kosmos Energy LLC’s planned sale of its stake in Ghana’s Jubilee field to Exxon Mobil Corp. was thrown into doubt by Ghana’s government.
“It’s positive for Eni, which has the know-how to develop the fields,” said Emanuele Vizzini, who helps manage about $1.3 billion at Investitori SGR in Milan, including Eni stock. Given the deal will take some time to complete, he didn’t rule out the possibility of Eni and Tullow reaching a compromise.
Eni is “very pleased” with the Ugandan government’s support for its offer, an Eni spokeswoman said by phone today.
Tullow’s Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey and Chief Operating Officer Paul McDade plan to fly to Uganda later this week to meet government officials, George Cazenove, a company spokesman, said. The U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa has drawn up a shortlist of partners to help with the estimated $5 billion cost of developing its Ugandan assets.
‘No Monopoly’
“The company made it clear there was no monopoly suggested and that they are looking to bring in a credible and serious partner,” Cazenove said.
Tullow erased gains after earlier rising to a record in London trading following news of a “significant” discovery in Ghana. The stock closed down 47 pence, or 3.6 percent, at 1,278 pence, valuing the London-based company at 10.3 billion pounds ($17 billion). Eni fell 1.3 percent in Milan to 17.74 euros.
Eni is seeking to expand reserves with fields in Africa, central Asia and the Gulf of Mexico after output cuts from disruptions in Nigeria. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had pressed Eni’s case during a visit to Uganda last week.
The Italian producer said Nov. 23 it signed a letter of intent with Heritage to buy its share of the fields for as much as $1.5 billion. Tullow, which co-owns the assets with Heritage, said this week it would exercise pre-emption rights.
“There is no reason to obstruct Eni when Tullow wasn’t obstructed by the government from coming in,” Onek said at today’s press conference.
Revoke License
The minister advised Tullow not to seek legal redress, saying the government would not hesitate to revoke the license of any company that challenged its decisions in court.
About 1.5 billion barrels of oil are still to be discovered in the Lake Albert region, according to Tullow estimates.
Tullow, Heritage, Tower Resources Plc and Dominion Petroleum Ltd. have been exploring Ugandan fields along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tullow had wanted to sell as much as 50 percent of three combined blocks in the Lake Albert region, Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey said Jan. 18.
Detailed plans regarding field exploration, a refinery, power generation and a possible pipeline across Tanzania or Kenya to export oil will be presented to Uganda’s government in the first week of February, Heavey said.
The company plans to produce its first oil at Uganda’s Kasamene field this year.
Shareholder Vote
A higher bid for Heritage’s assets can be made until Jan. 25, when its shareholders meet to vote on the sale.
Kosmos said Oct. 12 that it agreed to sell its Ghana assets, including a 23.49 percent stake in Jubilee, to Exxon Mobil, in a deal that may be valued at $4 billion. Ghana National Petroleum Corp., the state-owned energy company, has threatened to block the sale, asserting its “absolute” approval rights and saying it may buy the stake itself and then bring in partners.
Tullow also reported today the discovery of a “significant” oil and gas-condensate field off the coast of Ghana after drilling the Tweneboa-2 well.
Democrats To Seek Stunning $1.9 Trillion Increase In Debt Ceiling To $14.3 Trillion.
Zero Hedge
Posted 20 January 2010
Editor's Note: What politicians are doing while Haiti dominates the news as a convenient cover to slip through some unpopular legislation.
From Dow Jones:
Senate Democrats are to seek an increase to the federal government's borrowing limit by $1.9 trillion lifting the total amount the U.S. government can owe to $14.294 trillion, several congressional aides said Wednesday.
The increase is forecast to support the federal government's borrowing needs only to the end of 2010, one Senate Democratic aide said.
The borrowing hike comes fast on the heels of a $290 billion increase to the debt ceiling agreed to by lawmakers at the end of 2009.
Update: Reader Steak points out the following piece of debt ceiling management insight from Politico:
President Barack Obama is expected to appoint a special deficit reduction commission as part of a tentative agreement between Democrats and the White House—each trying to find the votes to raise the federal debt ceiling in the coming weeks.
With the Massachusetts loss facing them, Senate leaders appeared to back-pedal Tuesday from a pre-Christmas agreement that anticipated a rapid-fire set of roll calls beginning Wednesday on a debt ceiling bill and accompanying amendments. Instead, Democrats signaled that key votes could be postponed until next week, as the administration tries to get a final sign-off from two of the major players, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D—Cal) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D—N.D.)
Pres. Obama’s problem is that one person’s process can be another’s poison. In this case, Chairman Conrad’s scheme usurps the power of the two top Democrats in Congress, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and even more, Speaker Pelosi.
The challenge for the White House has been to find an alternative path that offends fewer people but still holds some promise of forcing action in the future.
Posted 20 January 2010
Editor's Note: What politicians are doing while Haiti dominates the news as a convenient cover to slip through some unpopular legislation.
From Dow Jones:
Senate Democrats are to seek an increase to the federal government's borrowing limit by $1.9 trillion lifting the total amount the U.S. government can owe to $14.294 trillion, several congressional aides said Wednesday.
The increase is forecast to support the federal government's borrowing needs only to the end of 2010, one Senate Democratic aide said.
The borrowing hike comes fast on the heels of a $290 billion increase to the debt ceiling agreed to by lawmakers at the end of 2009.
Update: Reader Steak points out the following piece of debt ceiling management insight from Politico:
President Barack Obama is expected to appoint a special deficit reduction commission as part of a tentative agreement between Democrats and the White House—each trying to find the votes to raise the federal debt ceiling in the coming weeks.
With the Massachusetts loss facing them, Senate leaders appeared to back-pedal Tuesday from a pre-Christmas agreement that anticipated a rapid-fire set of roll calls beginning Wednesday on a debt ceiling bill and accompanying amendments. Instead, Democrats signaled that key votes could be postponed until next week, as the administration tries to get a final sign-off from two of the major players, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D—Cal) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D—N.D.)
Pres. Obama’s problem is that one person’s process can be another’s poison. In this case, Chairman Conrad’s scheme usurps the power of the two top Democrats in Congress, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and even more, Speaker Pelosi.
The challenge for the White House has been to find an alternative path that offends fewer people but still holds some promise of forcing action in the future.
Uganda's Oil and Gas to Attract U.S.$10 Billion.
The New Vision
20 January 2010
By Ibrahim Kasita
Uganda's oil and gas industry is poised to attract $10b as the sector moves from the exploration to development stage. Two billion barrels of crude oil have been confirmed in Lake Albert basin.
Tullow and Heritage have invested over $700m in the basin in drilling 27 oil wells of which 25 have confirmed commercially-viable hydrocarbons. This success story is turning the area into a new oil hotspot and attracting considerable interest from oil giants that are short of exploration opportunities elsewhere.
In a bid to recoup its investment in anticipation of a much higher return on investment, Heritage in December entered into a deal to sell its stake to Italian oil giant Eni for $1.5b.
Eni would pay $1.35b upfront and a further $150m in cash or a stake in a producing oil field of a similar value within two years, subject to approval by the Ugandan Government. But Tullow, which jointly owns block 1 and 3A in a 50-50% joint venture with Heritage, offered to buy out its partner, since it had the first option to buy in case Heritage wants to sell - what is called pre-emptive right.
The firm secured the money to match Eni's offer and will enter into a sale and purchase agreement with Heritage for the proposed oil fields, awaiting government's approval.
The decision to pre-empt the sale of Heritage Oil's Ugandan deposit assets to Eni is intended to secure the firm's position among the giants of the oil world, having grown up from its humble beginnings a quarter of a century ago.
Aidan Heavey, the Tullow chief executive officer, in telephone interview said the firm intends to spend $10b in the next five years.
"Since we have pre-empted the Heritage-Eni deal, we are in position to work with the Government of Uganda in the next three weeks in a transparent manner to deliver a refinery, pipelines and power generation facilities and various infrastructure," he said.
"We commenced a transparent and auditable partnering process six months ago and have attracted major oil companies who could bring significant benefits to Uganda to meet their ambitious plans for the sector."
Heavey said Tullow is committed to retaining a material stake in Uganda and to continue to invest for the long term. As we enter the development phase, we are working closely with the Ugandan government to introduce mutually beneficial partner with downstream expertise who is aligned with this long term approach.
"The process will enable two or more like-minded partners to deliver a faster, more comprehensive upstream and downstream (pipelines and refinery) development," he said.
"We have made it clear that we intend to farmdown our assets swiftly to an experienced and credible partner. The commitment is that we will have a number of different companies and we expect at least two different companies."
The energy ministry awarded Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd, a UK-based firm, a contract to carryout a feasibility study for the construction and development of an oil refinery in Uganda.
The refinery development programme will go through five stages; feasibility study, project promotion and attracting developers and the front-end engineering design. Other stages are engineering procurement and construction and commission and operation of the refinery.
The Tullow boss said: "We are not anti-refinery. Refining oil in Uganda is a good thing and that is why we needed some company with the experience."
"Once the government has decided, we shall deliver the refinery because we have a strong and long-standing relationship with the government and we will always work with them to achieve the best outcome for Uganda," he said.
But the agreement will allow the firm to retain control of Uganda's precious oil assets and put itself into a position to strike up a lucrative partnership with an international oil major, very probably Exxon-Mobil.
"Government is very supportive because it sees that this is an opportunity to pick and choose an operator in a transparent manner."
He pointed out that next year will attract a lot of activities as the development stage of Uganda's oil industry kick-starts.
"Before you even start seeing the oil itself, there will be investments in the infrastructure like railways, roads, piplelines and refinery," Heavey said.
"This will require a huge service industry. This will generate jobs in the oil fields, jobs in shipping, maintenance and all support, construction industries."
The sale dwarfs the other landmark deals in the company's history - namely buying Hardman Resources for £581m in 2007; acquiring Africa Energy for $570m in 2004; and taking over a package of BP's North Sea gas fields for £200m in 2000. All these deals and an aggressive programme of exploration have contributed to the firm reporting record profits in the past few years.
Since Tullow was founded in 1985 by chief executive Aiden Heavey, now aged 56, it has grown exponentially; the company now employs over 540 people in 23 countries, is in the FTSE 100 and has a market cap of £10.8bn.
Analysts say that The fields are a good buy. Although there are just 800m barrels in the easy-to-extract "discoverable cash" category, the true potential of the Ugandan side of Lake Albert is nearer 2bn barrels, making it one of the top 50 oil producers in the world.
When running at full capacity, the site could add as much as $2bn a year to Tullow's top line for as long as three decades, although it will have to share this with a partner, probably ExxonMobil. Tullow is playing a clever political game by offering to list shares in the oil field in Uganda.
However, both Heritage and Tullow make their names by finding new oil patches, selling them on to bigger oil companies when their development gets costly and complex, and using the cash to find new oil patches.
In Uganda, where the two companies are the biggest operators, they have come to the point when they need to sell all or part of their stakes as their ventures on the shores of Lake Albert move from exploration to development.
Neither has the money, expertise or the interest to build a refinery to satisfy the small local market, rehabilitate the railway that will transport oil initially, or build the pipeline that will become the more permanent export route out of Uganda.
Tullow in the past five years has been one of the industry's most successful oil explorers, and yet it cannot develop its big discoveries in Ghana and Uganda. Therefore, finding a buyer for its Ugandan assets will be critical.
Uganda's oil and gas has attracted a significant amount of interest from major international and national oil companies. Sources indicate that some of the big companies eying for the hydrocarbon include France's Total, American giant ExxonMobil and the state-owned China National Oil Company.
Also the Libyans through their investment arm, Libya Africa Investments Portfolio (LAP) have expressed interest in financing the refinery upto a tune of about $1b should Uganda decide to go with this decision. The Iranians last year, at the visit of President Museveni to Iran, indicated their willingness to finance the whole chain. Government officials have visited countries to study and gain skills in oil management.
20 January 2010
By Ibrahim Kasita
Uganda's oil and gas industry is poised to attract $10b as the sector moves from the exploration to development stage. Two billion barrels of crude oil have been confirmed in Lake Albert basin.
Tullow and Heritage have invested over $700m in the basin in drilling 27 oil wells of which 25 have confirmed commercially-viable hydrocarbons. This success story is turning the area into a new oil hotspot and attracting considerable interest from oil giants that are short of exploration opportunities elsewhere.
In a bid to recoup its investment in anticipation of a much higher return on investment, Heritage in December entered into a deal to sell its stake to Italian oil giant Eni for $1.5b.
Eni would pay $1.35b upfront and a further $150m in cash or a stake in a producing oil field of a similar value within two years, subject to approval by the Ugandan Government. But Tullow, which jointly owns block 1 and 3A in a 50-50% joint venture with Heritage, offered to buy out its partner, since it had the first option to buy in case Heritage wants to sell - what is called pre-emptive right.
The firm secured the money to match Eni's offer and will enter into a sale and purchase agreement with Heritage for the proposed oil fields, awaiting government's approval.
The decision to pre-empt the sale of Heritage Oil's Ugandan deposit assets to Eni is intended to secure the firm's position among the giants of the oil world, having grown up from its humble beginnings a quarter of a century ago.
Aidan Heavey, the Tullow chief executive officer, in telephone interview said the firm intends to spend $10b in the next five years.
"Since we have pre-empted the Heritage-Eni deal, we are in position to work with the Government of Uganda in the next three weeks in a transparent manner to deliver a refinery, pipelines and power generation facilities and various infrastructure," he said.
"We commenced a transparent and auditable partnering process six months ago and have attracted major oil companies who could bring significant benefits to Uganda to meet their ambitious plans for the sector."
Heavey said Tullow is committed to retaining a material stake in Uganda and to continue to invest for the long term. As we enter the development phase, we are working closely with the Ugandan government to introduce mutually beneficial partner with downstream expertise who is aligned with this long term approach.
"The process will enable two or more like-minded partners to deliver a faster, more comprehensive upstream and downstream (pipelines and refinery) development," he said.
"We have made it clear that we intend to farmdown our assets swiftly to an experienced and credible partner. The commitment is that we will have a number of different companies and we expect at least two different companies."
The energy ministry awarded Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd, a UK-based firm, a contract to carryout a feasibility study for the construction and development of an oil refinery in Uganda.
The refinery development programme will go through five stages; feasibility study, project promotion and attracting developers and the front-end engineering design. Other stages are engineering procurement and construction and commission and operation of the refinery.
The Tullow boss said: "We are not anti-refinery. Refining oil in Uganda is a good thing and that is why we needed some company with the experience."
"Once the government has decided, we shall deliver the refinery because we have a strong and long-standing relationship with the government and we will always work with them to achieve the best outcome for Uganda," he said.
But the agreement will allow the firm to retain control of Uganda's precious oil assets and put itself into a position to strike up a lucrative partnership with an international oil major, very probably Exxon-Mobil.
"Government is very supportive because it sees that this is an opportunity to pick and choose an operator in a transparent manner."
He pointed out that next year will attract a lot of activities as the development stage of Uganda's oil industry kick-starts.
"Before you even start seeing the oil itself, there will be investments in the infrastructure like railways, roads, piplelines and refinery," Heavey said.
"This will require a huge service industry. This will generate jobs in the oil fields, jobs in shipping, maintenance and all support, construction industries."
The sale dwarfs the other landmark deals in the company's history - namely buying Hardman Resources for £581m in 2007; acquiring Africa Energy for $570m in 2004; and taking over a package of BP's North Sea gas fields for £200m in 2000. All these deals and an aggressive programme of exploration have contributed to the firm reporting record profits in the past few years.
Since Tullow was founded in 1985 by chief executive Aiden Heavey, now aged 56, it has grown exponentially; the company now employs over 540 people in 23 countries, is in the FTSE 100 and has a market cap of £10.8bn.
Analysts say that The fields are a good buy. Although there are just 800m barrels in the easy-to-extract "discoverable cash" category, the true potential of the Ugandan side of Lake Albert is nearer 2bn barrels, making it one of the top 50 oil producers in the world.
When running at full capacity, the site could add as much as $2bn a year to Tullow's top line for as long as three decades, although it will have to share this with a partner, probably ExxonMobil. Tullow is playing a clever political game by offering to list shares in the oil field in Uganda.
However, both Heritage and Tullow make their names by finding new oil patches, selling them on to bigger oil companies when their development gets costly and complex, and using the cash to find new oil patches.
In Uganda, where the two companies are the biggest operators, they have come to the point when they need to sell all or part of their stakes as their ventures on the shores of Lake Albert move from exploration to development.
Neither has the money, expertise or the interest to build a refinery to satisfy the small local market, rehabilitate the railway that will transport oil initially, or build the pipeline that will become the more permanent export route out of Uganda.
Tullow in the past five years has been one of the industry's most successful oil explorers, and yet it cannot develop its big discoveries in Ghana and Uganda. Therefore, finding a buyer for its Ugandan assets will be critical.
Uganda's oil and gas has attracted a significant amount of interest from major international and national oil companies. Sources indicate that some of the big companies eying for the hydrocarbon include France's Total, American giant ExxonMobil and the state-owned China National Oil Company.
Also the Libyans through their investment arm, Libya Africa Investments Portfolio (LAP) have expressed interest in financing the refinery upto a tune of about $1b should Uganda decide to go with this decision. The Iranians last year, at the visit of President Museveni to Iran, indicated their willingness to finance the whole chain. Government officials have visited countries to study and gain skills in oil management.
20 January, 2010
Rwandan Green Party Reaction to New Times Article.
PARTI DEMOCRATIQUE VERT DU RWANDA
20th January 2009
To:
The Editor-in-Chief of the New Times newspaper
Kigali, Rwanda
Re: Reaction to an Article titled: Green Party should not use cheap tactics
to advance its course - Senator Karemera.
Dear Sir,
Our attention has been drawn to an interview in the New Times of Wednesday, 20th
January 2010, carrying the above mentioned title, where Senator Joseph Karemera makes
interesting remarks about his duties in the Senate, his dedicated service as a senior RPF cadre and then on the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
It is not our concern to comment on his duties, roles as a Senator, or in other capacities he has so far served. Our reaction is therefore, limited to the remarks he made on the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
It will be recalled that UMUVUGIZI Newspaper Vol.66 and UMUSESO Newspaper No.
386, carried articles that alleged the existence of an Intelligence Report that reported the defection of Senior RPF cadres to the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda. Among the people alleged to have defected, was Senator Joseph Karemera.
We in the Green Party, said and still say that the report was factually incorrect. We would have easily treated the report with the contempt it deserved, but upon reflection, we decided to deal with it in a more clearer manner. On 24th December 2009, we held a Press Conference, during which we categorically denied that Senator Karemera and others listed are not our members.
The contents of the Press Conference were circulated in a form of a Press Release No.3 of 24th December 2009, and were given to different media houses including the New
Times. They were later reproduced by some Newspapers and aired out on different Radio
Stations in the Country. We clearly stated that Senator Karemera and others are not our members.
In doing so, we were convinced that Sen. Karemera and the rest mentioned in the report would read the newspapers and listen to the radios. If he had done so, he would have realized that we were very clear about his non-membership in the Green Party.
In light of what we have mentioned above, why should the Honorable Senator make
unkind remarks on the Green Party?. He is simply taking a swipe at us.
We would therefore like to state categorically the following:
- That Senator Karemera is not and has never been a party member.
- That this allegation was denied as far back as 24th December 2009. The New Times
and Senator Karemera can verify this by reading some of the newspapers
circulating in the country which covered the issue.
- That we are clear in our recruitment policy. We do not use any name of any
person, including those Sen. Karemera calls seasoned politicians. We are Strong
enough and seasoned enough to front our own names.
- That we have not conducted any fundraising for the forthcoming elections and if
we are to do so, we would not use anyone's names but our own.
- That the source of the information was from the alleged Intelligence Report and
not us.
- Our Secretary General, Mr. Charles Kabanda does not even remember meeting
Dr. Karemera Mudaheranwa in the last 15 years. He remembers last meeting
him over 20 years ago, when he was a medical officer in the N.R.A based in
Eastern Uganda.
- If it serves any purpose, Sen. Karemera should know that the Green Party does not
peddle lies. He should rest assured that we do not need his name to raise funds or
for any other purpose. Therefore, he is raising an issue that we gave rest to on 24th December 2009.
- That the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has a clearer vision, better policies
and better plans than his party-RPF.
Yours Sincerely,
Frank HABINEZA
Chairman, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
B.P. 6334 KIGALI-RWANDA
Tel : + 250 788 563 039
E-mail : info@rwandagreendemocrats.org
Website : www.rwandagreendemocrats.org
20th January 2009
To:
The Editor-in-Chief of the New Times newspaper
Kigali, Rwanda
Re: Reaction to an Article titled: Green Party should not use cheap tactics
to advance its course - Senator Karemera.
Dear Sir,
Our attention has been drawn to an interview in the New Times of Wednesday, 20th
January 2010, carrying the above mentioned title, where Senator Joseph Karemera makes
interesting remarks about his duties in the Senate, his dedicated service as a senior RPF cadre and then on the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
It is not our concern to comment on his duties, roles as a Senator, or in other capacities he has so far served. Our reaction is therefore, limited to the remarks he made on the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
It will be recalled that UMUVUGIZI Newspaper Vol.66 and UMUSESO Newspaper No.
386, carried articles that alleged the existence of an Intelligence Report that reported the defection of Senior RPF cadres to the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda. Among the people alleged to have defected, was Senator Joseph Karemera.
We in the Green Party, said and still say that the report was factually incorrect. We would have easily treated the report with the contempt it deserved, but upon reflection, we decided to deal with it in a more clearer manner. On 24th December 2009, we held a Press Conference, during which we categorically denied that Senator Karemera and others listed are not our members.
The contents of the Press Conference were circulated in a form of a Press Release No.3 of 24th December 2009, and were given to different media houses including the New
Times. They were later reproduced by some Newspapers and aired out on different Radio
Stations in the Country. We clearly stated that Senator Karemera and others are not our members.
In doing so, we were convinced that Sen. Karemera and the rest mentioned in the report would read the newspapers and listen to the radios. If he had done so, he would have realized that we were very clear about his non-membership in the Green Party.
In light of what we have mentioned above, why should the Honorable Senator make
unkind remarks on the Green Party?. He is simply taking a swipe at us.
We would therefore like to state categorically the following:
- That Senator Karemera is not and has never been a party member.
- That this allegation was denied as far back as 24th December 2009. The New Times
and Senator Karemera can verify this by reading some of the newspapers
circulating in the country which covered the issue.
- That we are clear in our recruitment policy. We do not use any name of any
person, including those Sen. Karemera calls seasoned politicians. We are Strong
enough and seasoned enough to front our own names.
- That we have not conducted any fundraising for the forthcoming elections and if
we are to do so, we would not use anyone's names but our own.
- That the source of the information was from the alleged Intelligence Report and
not us.
- Our Secretary General, Mr. Charles Kabanda does not even remember meeting
Dr. Karemera Mudaheranwa in the last 15 years. He remembers last meeting
him over 20 years ago, when he was a medical officer in the N.R.A based in
Eastern Uganda.
- If it serves any purpose, Sen. Karemera should know that the Green Party does not
peddle lies. He should rest assured that we do not need his name to raise funds or
for any other purpose. Therefore, he is raising an issue that we gave rest to on 24th December 2009.
- That the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has a clearer vision, better policies
and better plans than his party-RPF.
Yours Sincerely,
Frank HABINEZA
Chairman, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
B.P. 6334 KIGALI-RWANDA
Tel : + 250 788 563 039
E-mail : info@rwandagreendemocrats.org
Website : www.rwandagreendemocrats.org
CIA Contractor Evergreen Now Flying Drones Over Haiti.
Wired DangerRoom Blog
19 January 2010
By Noah Shachtman
A controversial CIA contractor has found new work in Haiti, flying drones on disaster recovery duty.
When last we heard from Evergreen International Aviation, the Oregon-based firm was offering to post sentries at local voting centers during the 2008 election, ”detaining troublemakers” and making sure voters “do not get out of control.”
Now, company vice president Sam White tells Aviation Week that the firm is flying at least one ScanEagle surveillance drone over Haiti. ”The company has a fleet of 747s and a fleet of large and small choppers, and has begun ferrying in supplies to Port au Prince,” the magazine’s Paul McLeary notes. “White wouldn’t say who the company is moving cargo for, saying only that ‘we’re working with different agencies, and we have one plane coming in tomorrow full of humanitarian supplies.’”
Over the years, Evergreen has had all sorts of interesting clients over its five-plus decades in operation. Back in the late ’80s, the company “acknowledged one agreement under which his companies provide occasional jobs and cover to foreign nationals the CIA wants taken out of other countries or brought into the United States.” In 2006, Evergreen’s parent company flew Bill O’Reilly into Kuwait in 2006, according toSourceWatch. Last April, the company won a $158 million contract to supply the Air Force with helicopters in Afghanistan.
Haiti wouldn’t be Evergreen’s first disaster-response mission, however. In September, the State of California chartered Evergreen’s 747 supertanker, to help put out forest fires there.
UPDATE: Brian Whiteside, executive vice president of Evergreen Unmanned Systems, denied that his company is flying drones for the earthquake recovery operation. “We have no UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] in Haiti — nothing currently in Haiti, and nothing in the region,”he tells Danger Room. Whiteside acknowledged that “we do have teams over there that are trying to help.” But Whiteside isn’t sure what, exactly, they’ve been able to accomplish. “We don’t have very good comms with them.” And when I asked him which government agency or charity Evergreen was trying to support, he ducked the question, and referred me to his spokesperson.
19 January 2010
By Noah Shachtman
A controversial CIA contractor has found new work in Haiti, flying drones on disaster recovery duty.
When last we heard from Evergreen International Aviation, the Oregon-based firm was offering to post sentries at local voting centers during the 2008 election, ”detaining troublemakers” and making sure voters “do not get out of control.”
Now, company vice president Sam White tells Aviation Week that the firm is flying at least one ScanEagle surveillance drone over Haiti. ”The company has a fleet of 747s and a fleet of large and small choppers, and has begun ferrying in supplies to Port au Prince,” the magazine’s Paul McLeary notes. “White wouldn’t say who the company is moving cargo for, saying only that ‘we’re working with different agencies, and we have one plane coming in tomorrow full of humanitarian supplies.’”
Over the years, Evergreen has had all sorts of interesting clients over its five-plus decades in operation. Back in the late ’80s, the company “acknowledged one agreement under which his companies provide occasional jobs and cover to foreign nationals the CIA wants taken out of other countries or brought into the United States.” In 2006, Evergreen’s parent company flew Bill O’Reilly into Kuwait in 2006, according toSourceWatch. Last April, the company won a $158 million contract to supply the Air Force with helicopters in Afghanistan.
Haiti wouldn’t be Evergreen’s first disaster-response mission, however. In September, the State of California chartered Evergreen’s 747 supertanker, to help put out forest fires there.
UPDATE: Brian Whiteside, executive vice president of Evergreen Unmanned Systems, denied that his company is flying drones for the earthquake recovery operation. “We have no UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] in Haiti — nothing currently in Haiti, and nothing in the region,”he tells Danger Room. Whiteside acknowledged that “we do have teams over there that are trying to help.” But Whiteside isn’t sure what, exactly, they’ve been able to accomplish. “We don’t have very good comms with them.” And when I asked him which government agency or charity Evergreen was trying to support, he ducked the question, and referred me to his spokesperson.
Nigeria in Negotiations with Shell, Chevron.
Dow Jones Newswires
1/20/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86066
The Nigerian government is in talks with Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) over the renewal of their shallow-water oil licenses, an official statement said Tuesday.
"Chevron and Shell are still in negotiations with the Federal Government...over the renewal of their expired licenses," a statement by the ministry of petroleum resources quoted Junior Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia as saying.
The statement countered media reports that the renewal of the licenses was stalled due to the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
Yar'Adua left Nigeria Nov. 23, and has since been receiving treatment in a Saudi Arabia hospital for a heart ailment.
"The minister of petroleum resources has the full authority under extant laws to renew leases and licenses," the statement said. It said no specific authorization from the presidency was required.
In May 2008, the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation signed an oil-financing deal worth $2 billion with Mobil Producing Nigeria, a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM).
The same month, the Nigerian state-run company signed a similar deal worth $1 billion with Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited.
1/20/2010
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86066
The Nigerian government is in talks with Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) over the renewal of their shallow-water oil licenses, an official statement said Tuesday.
"Chevron and Shell are still in negotiations with the Federal Government...over the renewal of their expired licenses," a statement by the ministry of petroleum resources quoted Junior Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia as saying.
The statement countered media reports that the renewal of the licenses was stalled due to the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
Yar'Adua left Nigeria Nov. 23, and has since been receiving treatment in a Saudi Arabia hospital for a heart ailment.
"The minister of petroleum resources has the full authority under extant laws to renew leases and licenses," the statement said. It said no specific authorization from the presidency was required.
In May 2008, the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation signed an oil-financing deal worth $2 billion with Mobil Producing Nigeria, a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM).
The same month, the Nigerian state-run company signed a similar deal worth $1 billion with Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited.
Victoire Ingabire does not have any lessons to learn from her accusors.
par Gaspard Musabyimana
19 janvier 2010
Dans l’édition du 18/01/2010, le journal pro-FPR "The New Times" a diffusé des propos d’un groupe constitué du Ministre de l’intérieur et de la sécurité Musa Fazil Harelimana, du Sécrétaire Exécutif de la Commission de Lutte contre le génocide Jean de Dieu Mucyo, du Secrétaire Général du Parti Social Démocrate Dr Jean Damascène Ntawukuriryayo et du président du Parti Libéral Protais Mitali. Ils se sont donnés rendez-vous pour discréditer Victoire Ingabire, candidate aux élections présidentielles, en lui prêtant des propos qu’elle n’a pas tenus.
Le 16/01/2010, alors qu’elle venait d'effectuer une visite au mémorial de Gisozi dédié au génocide des Tutsi , Victoire Ingabire a rappelé qu’elle était profondément touchée et que pour une véritable réconciliation du peuple rwandais, les Hutu tués par centaines de milliers devraient eux aussi être reconnus. Ce discours lui a attiré des foudres des membres de l’équipe ci-haut cité. Mais ont-ils vraiment des leçons à donner à cette dame?
Jean de Dieu Mucyo est à la limite un criminel de guerre qui doit répondre de ses actes devant la justice tôt ou tard. Il a peur des changements incarnés par Victoire Ingabire et d’être ainsi un jour rattrapé par la justice. Dans son livre "Rwanda 1994. Les politiques de génocide à Butare", (Paris, Editions Karthala, 2005, pp.306-307), le professeur André Guichaoua le dépeint comme suit :
"Le 30 juin 1994, l’APR avait pris le contrôle de Shyanda et le 1er juillet, ses éléments avancés entraient dans la commune de Mbazi via Save. Personne ne les attendait si vite. A la hauteur du secteur Mwulire, cellule Murambi, des soldats de l’APR se rendirent sur la colline de résidence de l’un d’eux à quelque 300 mètres de la route macadamisée et tombèrent entre 15 et 16 heures en pleine réception de mariage de la famille Mussa Kabwana (hutu, Butare, Mbazi). Ils ne supportèrent pas le spectacle des réjouissances et sans aucune sommation, abattirent plus d’une vingtaine de convives avant de regagner leur unité. A Mbazi, comme dans toute la préfecture, une autre période, marquée par une sévère répression et d’innombrables actes de vengeance, s’ouvrait. Le soldat originaire de cette colline s’appelait Jean de Dieu Mucyo (tutsi, FPR, Butare, Mbazi). [...] Ayant rejoint " les rangs du FPR au cours de la guerre, il subit une formation accélérée […] A partir de Gitarama, le soldat Mucyo, devenu sergent, conduisit ensuite de nombreuses enquêtes. Sans cadre hiérarchique formel, toujours en mouvement et sans cesse sollicité en tant que rescapé originaire de Butare, il disposa de larges marges de manœuvre pour mener des opérations de « maintien de l’ordre » dans le cadre de ses fonctions ou à titre personnel. Il fit rapidement l’objet d’accusations pour ses méthodes expéditives, et participa, selon plusieurs témoins, à des massacres collectifs de civils hutu organisés alors par l’actuel général Fred Ibingira, (commandant de la division centre Kigali-Gitarama). Pour mettre fin à ces accusations, il fut rapidement nommé au ministère de la justice comme chargé des enquêtes et instructeur à l’EGENA de Ruhengeri. En 2005, […], il occupait les fonctions de Procureur général de la République Rwandaise, poste auquel il accéda après avoir été Ministre de la Justice de Février 1999 à Septembre 2004".
D’autres témoignages rendent Jean de Dieu Mucyo responsable de l’enlèvement suivi d’assassinat d’Élodie Nkundabagenzi, tutsi veuve de feu Bonaventure Nkundabagenzi, hutu, ancien directeur de la Banque commerciale du Rwanda à Butare.
S’agissant de Protais Mitali, il est tout sauf un démocrate. Il est normal qu’il s’attaque à quiconque veut s’avancer dans cette voie. Il était cadre politique de l’armée du FPR et le voilà à la tête du Parti Libéral. Ce parti a donc à sa tête un infiltré. Ainsi dans le Forum des partis politiques, le FPR n’a pas de la peine à y imposer ses vues car il y a des pions de taille.
C’est entre autres Mitali qui sortit son arme préférée et passe-partout d’"idéologie génocidaire" pour en faire un prétexte de suspendre le parti MDR (Mouvement Démocratique Républicain). Mitali fut Vice-Président de la Commission qui a produit un rapport concluant à la radiation de ce parti. Le MDR était un parti populaire et risquait de damer le pion au FPR lors des élections. Il fallait l’éloigner à tout prix.
Le Dr Jean Damascène Ntawukuriryayo, pharmacien de son état, est secrétaire général du Parti Social Démocrate. Or il faut se rappeler que ce parti a été le premier à déclarer qu’il allait soutenir le candidat Paul Kagame lors des élections présidentielles de 2003. Les cadres de ce parti en reçurent évidemment des dividendes après la "victoire".
Alors qu’il était ministre de la santé, le Dr Ntawukuriryayo initia un projet d'"eugénisme" soumis au Parlement en juillet 2009. Fort heureusement ce projet n'aboutit pas suite à la vigilance des ONG des Droits de l’homme dont Human Rights Watch qui avait rappelé au gouvernement rwandais que la stérilisation obligatoire va à l'encontre des objectifs d'amélioration de la santé reproductive qu’il s’était fixés et que les "dispositions dévalorisantes, coercitives ou qui refusent à l'être humain ses droits en matière de santé reproductive doivent être retirées de l'actuel projet de loi".
Le Dr Ntawukuriryayo est donc à la limite un adepte des théories du nazisme. Qu’il s’élève contre des visées démocratiques prônées par Victoire Ingabire, c’est normal pour une personne de cet acabit.
Le Ministre Musa Fazil Harelimana peine à se maintenir dans les faveurs du FPR car il ne cesse de lui rappeler qu’il est à la base des tueries des Tutsi de Nyamirambo en 1994. Le journal Umuseso en a fait mention dans une de ses récentes éditions en posant la question de savoir pourquoi Paul Kagame s’entoure de "génocidaires" tel ce ministre ayant la sécurité dans ses attributions. Musa Fazil qui est dans une situation délicate, doit de ce fait multiplier des excès de zèle par des déclarations intempestives pour sauver son poste .
Les politiciens rwandais qui s’ingénient à vouloir barrer la route à Victoire Ingabire vers les élections présidentielles devraient d’abord balayer devant leurs propres portes.
19 janvier 2010
Dans l’édition du 18/01/2010, le journal pro-FPR "The New Times" a diffusé des propos d’un groupe constitué du Ministre de l’intérieur et de la sécurité Musa Fazil Harelimana, du Sécrétaire Exécutif de la Commission de Lutte contre le génocide Jean de Dieu Mucyo, du Secrétaire Général du Parti Social Démocrate Dr Jean Damascène Ntawukuriryayo et du président du Parti Libéral Protais Mitali. Ils se sont donnés rendez-vous pour discréditer Victoire Ingabire, candidate aux élections présidentielles, en lui prêtant des propos qu’elle n’a pas tenus.
Le 16/01/2010, alors qu’elle venait d'effectuer une visite au mémorial de Gisozi dédié au génocide des Tutsi , Victoire Ingabire a rappelé qu’elle était profondément touchée et que pour une véritable réconciliation du peuple rwandais, les Hutu tués par centaines de milliers devraient eux aussi être reconnus. Ce discours lui a attiré des foudres des membres de l’équipe ci-haut cité. Mais ont-ils vraiment des leçons à donner à cette dame?
Jean de Dieu Mucyo est à la limite un criminel de guerre qui doit répondre de ses actes devant la justice tôt ou tard. Il a peur des changements incarnés par Victoire Ingabire et d’être ainsi un jour rattrapé par la justice. Dans son livre "Rwanda 1994. Les politiques de génocide à Butare", (Paris, Editions Karthala, 2005, pp.306-307), le professeur André Guichaoua le dépeint comme suit :
"Le 30 juin 1994, l’APR avait pris le contrôle de Shyanda et le 1er juillet, ses éléments avancés entraient dans la commune de Mbazi via Save. Personne ne les attendait si vite. A la hauteur du secteur Mwulire, cellule Murambi, des soldats de l’APR se rendirent sur la colline de résidence de l’un d’eux à quelque 300 mètres de la route macadamisée et tombèrent entre 15 et 16 heures en pleine réception de mariage de la famille Mussa Kabwana (hutu, Butare, Mbazi). Ils ne supportèrent pas le spectacle des réjouissances et sans aucune sommation, abattirent plus d’une vingtaine de convives avant de regagner leur unité. A Mbazi, comme dans toute la préfecture, une autre période, marquée par une sévère répression et d’innombrables actes de vengeance, s’ouvrait. Le soldat originaire de cette colline s’appelait Jean de Dieu Mucyo (tutsi, FPR, Butare, Mbazi). [...] Ayant rejoint " les rangs du FPR au cours de la guerre, il subit une formation accélérée […] A partir de Gitarama, le soldat Mucyo, devenu sergent, conduisit ensuite de nombreuses enquêtes. Sans cadre hiérarchique formel, toujours en mouvement et sans cesse sollicité en tant que rescapé originaire de Butare, il disposa de larges marges de manœuvre pour mener des opérations de « maintien de l’ordre » dans le cadre de ses fonctions ou à titre personnel. Il fit rapidement l’objet d’accusations pour ses méthodes expéditives, et participa, selon plusieurs témoins, à des massacres collectifs de civils hutu organisés alors par l’actuel général Fred Ibingira, (commandant de la division centre Kigali-Gitarama). Pour mettre fin à ces accusations, il fut rapidement nommé au ministère de la justice comme chargé des enquêtes et instructeur à l’EGENA de Ruhengeri. En 2005, […], il occupait les fonctions de Procureur général de la République Rwandaise, poste auquel il accéda après avoir été Ministre de la Justice de Février 1999 à Septembre 2004".
D’autres témoignages rendent Jean de Dieu Mucyo responsable de l’enlèvement suivi d’assassinat d’Élodie Nkundabagenzi, tutsi veuve de feu Bonaventure Nkundabagenzi, hutu, ancien directeur de la Banque commerciale du Rwanda à Butare.
S’agissant de Protais Mitali, il est tout sauf un démocrate. Il est normal qu’il s’attaque à quiconque veut s’avancer dans cette voie. Il était cadre politique de l’armée du FPR et le voilà à la tête du Parti Libéral. Ce parti a donc à sa tête un infiltré. Ainsi dans le Forum des partis politiques, le FPR n’a pas de la peine à y imposer ses vues car il y a des pions de taille.
C’est entre autres Mitali qui sortit son arme préférée et passe-partout d’"idéologie génocidaire" pour en faire un prétexte de suspendre le parti MDR (Mouvement Démocratique Républicain). Mitali fut Vice-Président de la Commission qui a produit un rapport concluant à la radiation de ce parti. Le MDR était un parti populaire et risquait de damer le pion au FPR lors des élections. Il fallait l’éloigner à tout prix.
Le Dr Jean Damascène Ntawukuriryayo, pharmacien de son état, est secrétaire général du Parti Social Démocrate. Or il faut se rappeler que ce parti a été le premier à déclarer qu’il allait soutenir le candidat Paul Kagame lors des élections présidentielles de 2003. Les cadres de ce parti en reçurent évidemment des dividendes après la "victoire".
Alors qu’il était ministre de la santé, le Dr Ntawukuriryayo initia un projet d'"eugénisme" soumis au Parlement en juillet 2009. Fort heureusement ce projet n'aboutit pas suite à la vigilance des ONG des Droits de l’homme dont Human Rights Watch qui avait rappelé au gouvernement rwandais que la stérilisation obligatoire va à l'encontre des objectifs d'amélioration de la santé reproductive qu’il s’était fixés et que les "dispositions dévalorisantes, coercitives ou qui refusent à l'être humain ses droits en matière de santé reproductive doivent être retirées de l'actuel projet de loi".
Le Dr Ntawukuriryayo est donc à la limite un adepte des théories du nazisme. Qu’il s’élève contre des visées démocratiques prônées par Victoire Ingabire, c’est normal pour une personne de cet acabit.
Le Ministre Musa Fazil Harelimana peine à se maintenir dans les faveurs du FPR car il ne cesse de lui rappeler qu’il est à la base des tueries des Tutsi de Nyamirambo en 1994. Le journal Umuseso en a fait mention dans une de ses récentes éditions en posant la question de savoir pourquoi Paul Kagame s’entoure de "génocidaires" tel ce ministre ayant la sécurité dans ses attributions. Musa Fazil qui est dans une situation délicate, doit de ce fait multiplier des excès de zèle par des déclarations intempestives pour sauver son poste .
Les politiciens rwandais qui s’ingénient à vouloir barrer la route à Victoire Ingabire vers les élections présidentielles devraient d’abord balayer devant leurs propres portes.
PDR-Ihumure Supports FDUʼs Ingabire in the Fight for Democracy and Freedom in Rwanda.
By Jérôme Nayigiziki
General Secretary,
PDR-Uhumure
Washington, DC - USA
January 20, 2010
The Party for Democracy in Rwanda (PDR-Ihumure) is deeply concerned by accusatory statements by Rwandan Minister of Internal Security Sheikh Mussa Fazil Harerimana that Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who as FDU-Inkingiʼs President arrived in Kigali this past January 16 from Europe to launch her campaign for presidential elections in August this year, is engaging in “revisionist and genocide denial pronouncements”.
Ms. Ingabireʼs statement that not only Tutsis but also Hutus died in the 1994 genocide and all must be memorialized without discrimination is not only the truth, it is the right thing to say and do if Rwanda is serious about one day achieving genuine reconciliation. We need to remind the world that the RPF now in power in Rwanda was busy killing thousands of Hutus for 4 years as a rebel group from October 1, 1990 to March 1994 before the genocide started in April 1994, and kept on killing thousands more Hutus in the years after 1994 in Rwanda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, until today. It would be irresponsible to overlook this sad reality of our recent history.
The on-going practice by the Rwandan government to automatically label political opponents as revisionists or genocide deniers as they recently attempted to do against Bernard Ntaganda of PS-Imberakuri and are now attempting to re-edit against Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, is a shameful and unacceptable smear campaign and criminalization of good citizens and must be vigorously condemned and resisted by the democratic and free world.
It is a disgrace for the RPF in power in Kigali to pretend to organize free and fair elections while at the same time mounting road blocks designed to disrupt the democratic process and a free-flowing election campaign by all political parties involved. The PDR-Ihumure will not join in this electoral masquerade because we know Rwanda is under a brutal military dictatorship that will not even play by its own rules. This will not be a democratic election when millions of our innocent brothers and sisters wonʼt be able to vote as they are being hunted down like animals deep in the DRCongo forest. This cannot be a democratic election when thousands of our innocent brothers and sisters are locked up in jails and wonʼt be able to vote, and those who are not in jail are under siege by the notorious witch-hunt Gacaca courts, and so cannot freely vote their mind. If Rwandans could vote freely this coming August and their votes counted fairly and accurately, there is no doubt the RPF would go down in a never-seen-before tsunami-like electoral defeat.
The FDU-Inkingi political party has decided to participate in this election, just as the PS-Imberakuri and the Green Party have, and it is their full right to do so. It is, therefore, only logical and appropriate for these partiesʼ candidates to have free reign to compete for votes throughout the country, explain their agenda to the population, and expose and denounce all the excesses, lies and abuses by the current RPF government so that Rwanda can heal and be whole again.
We will stand in unity with our brothers and sisters in the opposition, whether armed or non-armed, against the current brutal RPF military dictatorship in Rwanda, and once again we call upon President Paul Kagame to prove that he is democratic by letting all political parties to sit together and jointly put in place favorable conditions for truly democratic elections, including a jointly drafted electoral code and a fully inclusive electoral commission.
January 20, 2010
Washington, DC - USA
Jérôme Nayigiziki (signed)
General Secretary,
PDR-Uhumure
Contact: jnayigizik@aol. com
General Secretary,
PDR-Uhumure
Washington, DC - USA
January 20, 2010
The Party for Democracy in Rwanda (PDR-Ihumure) is deeply concerned by accusatory statements by Rwandan Minister of Internal Security Sheikh Mussa Fazil Harerimana that Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who as FDU-Inkingiʼs President arrived in Kigali this past January 16 from Europe to launch her campaign for presidential elections in August this year, is engaging in “revisionist and genocide denial pronouncements”.
Ms. Ingabireʼs statement that not only Tutsis but also Hutus died in the 1994 genocide and all must be memorialized without discrimination is not only the truth, it is the right thing to say and do if Rwanda is serious about one day achieving genuine reconciliation. We need to remind the world that the RPF now in power in Rwanda was busy killing thousands of Hutus for 4 years as a rebel group from October 1, 1990 to March 1994 before the genocide started in April 1994, and kept on killing thousands more Hutus in the years after 1994 in Rwanda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, until today. It would be irresponsible to overlook this sad reality of our recent history.
The on-going practice by the Rwandan government to automatically label political opponents as revisionists or genocide deniers as they recently attempted to do against Bernard Ntaganda of PS-Imberakuri and are now attempting to re-edit against Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, is a shameful and unacceptable smear campaign and criminalization of good citizens and must be vigorously condemned and resisted by the democratic and free world.
It is a disgrace for the RPF in power in Kigali to pretend to organize free and fair elections while at the same time mounting road blocks designed to disrupt the democratic process and a free-flowing election campaign by all political parties involved. The PDR-Ihumure will not join in this electoral masquerade because we know Rwanda is under a brutal military dictatorship that will not even play by its own rules. This will not be a democratic election when millions of our innocent brothers and sisters wonʼt be able to vote as they are being hunted down like animals deep in the DRCongo forest. This cannot be a democratic election when thousands of our innocent brothers and sisters are locked up in jails and wonʼt be able to vote, and those who are not in jail are under siege by the notorious witch-hunt Gacaca courts, and so cannot freely vote their mind. If Rwandans could vote freely this coming August and their votes counted fairly and accurately, there is no doubt the RPF would go down in a never-seen-before tsunami-like electoral defeat.
The FDU-Inkingi political party has decided to participate in this election, just as the PS-Imberakuri and the Green Party have, and it is their full right to do so. It is, therefore, only logical and appropriate for these partiesʼ candidates to have free reign to compete for votes throughout the country, explain their agenda to the population, and expose and denounce all the excesses, lies and abuses by the current RPF government so that Rwanda can heal and be whole again.
We will stand in unity with our brothers and sisters in the opposition, whether armed or non-armed, against the current brutal RPF military dictatorship in Rwanda, and once again we call upon President Paul Kagame to prove that he is democratic by letting all political parties to sit together and jointly put in place favorable conditions for truly democratic elections, including a jointly drafted electoral code and a fully inclusive electoral commission.
January 20, 2010
Washington, DC - USA
Jérôme Nayigiziki (signed)
General Secretary,
PDR-Uhumure
Contact: jnayigizik@aol. com
FDU Chairperson Claims The New Times Speads Utterly False Accusations.
By Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
UDF-Inkingi Chairperson
January 19, 2010
Chief Executive Officer
Editor-in-Chief
The New Times Publications SARL
Immeuble Aigle Blanc
P. O. Box 4953
Kigali - Rwanda
Subject: Right of rectification and reply to libels published in Sunday Times on 17th January 2010 and The New Times of 18th January 2010:
◦The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010 - Editorial – “FDU’s Ingabire desecrates memory with Double Genocide theory”.
◦The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010- Front page: News - Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory.
◦The New Times of 18th January 2010 - Editorial – “Genocide deniers: the law should take its course”
◦The New Times 18th January 2010 - Front page: news – “Govt won't stand violation of the laws-interior Minister”.
◦The New Times 18th January 2010 - Front page: news – “Political Parties, CNLG slam Ingabire 'divisionist' politics.
Dear Sir,
As the chairperson of FDU Inkingi, I have been subject of a deliberate and continuous heinous and/defamatory campaign in your newspapers accusing FDU Inkingi’ public intervention at the Gisozi memorial site of Genocide denier, double Genocide Theory, desecrating memorial, divisionist’ politics, inflammatory statements, and many other shameless insults. The worst was to maliciously spread serious accusations related to the genocide, the most severe crime against humanity historically
I would strongly like to set the record straight regarding the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. My position is still and has always been that the genocide against Tutsi took place in Rwanda and all criminals should be brought to book.
I am disappointed by the hatred propaganda, violent, offensive and injurious language towards my person and the FDU Inkingi I represent. It is unfortunate that my words were intentionally twisted. Readers of your papers are purposely made to believe in the content of those offending articles based on untrue facts.
On 16th January 2010, after my visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center at Gisozi, I made the following announcement in Kinyarwanda, which was also recorded and is here translated in English, the language of your media: "It is clear that achieving reconciliation has a long way to go; it is far away and this is understandable considered the number of people who were massacred in our country, because such tragedy is not something to move on from easily on the one hand. On the other, when you analyse the situation objectively, you don’t find any serious strategy intentionally developed and implemented to help Rwandans to achieve that reconciliation. For example, we are here honouring at this Memorial the Tutsi victims of the Genocide; there are also Hutu who were victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, not remembered or honoured here. Hutus are also suffering. They are wondering when their time will come to remember their people. In order for us to get to that desirable reconciliation, we must be fair and compassionate towards every Rwandan’s suffering. It is imperative that for Tutsi survivors, Hutu who killed their relatives understand the crimes they committed and accept the legal consequences. It is also crucial that those who may have killed Hutus understand that they must be equally punished by the laws. It is finally very important for all of us Rwandans with our different ethnic backgrounds to understand that we need to come together in unity and with mutual respect in order to develop our country peacefully. The reason we came back is therefore to find ways collectively of starting off on that roadmap towards unity, working jointly to remove injustices from our country, addressing as one issues of getting Rwandans to live freely in their country. Thank you."
Based on my declarations, all those false accusations and the subsequent
hate propaganda are baseless and ill-intentioned. It would’ve been better that the reporters contacted me to get my side of the story prior to publishing those inflammatory allegations. I would like also to draw your attention to similar stories aired by other independent media in this respect.
It's hard to believe that Rwandan journalists write on tragic issues with so much bias and
lack of objectivity. One of the FDU INKINGI policy principles is not to entertain any discrimination or injustice among the Rwandan living and the dead.
I shall be most grateful if you could find some space in your next editorials of your newspapers' and on front pages for the relevant clarifications.
Sincerely yours,
Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire
FDU Inkingi Chairperson
CC:
-The Minister of internal affairs,
-Press house
UDF-Inkingi Chairperson
January 19, 2010
Chief Executive Officer
Editor-in-Chief
The New Times Publications SARL
Immeuble Aigle Blanc
P. O. Box 4953
Kigali - Rwanda
Subject: Right of rectification and reply to libels published in Sunday Times on 17th January 2010 and The New Times of 18th January 2010:
◦The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010 - Editorial – “FDU’s Ingabire desecrates memory with Double Genocide theory”.
◦The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010- Front page: News - Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory.
◦The New Times of 18th January 2010 - Editorial – “Genocide deniers: the law should take its course”
◦The New Times 18th January 2010 - Front page: news – “Govt won't stand violation of the laws-interior Minister”.
◦The New Times 18th January 2010 - Front page: news – “Political Parties, CNLG slam Ingabire 'divisionist' politics.
Dear Sir,
As the chairperson of FDU Inkingi, I have been subject of a deliberate and continuous heinous and/defamatory campaign in your newspapers accusing FDU Inkingi’ public intervention at the Gisozi memorial site of Genocide denier, double Genocide Theory, desecrating memorial, divisionist’ politics, inflammatory statements, and many other shameless insults. The worst was to maliciously spread serious accusations related to the genocide, the most severe crime against humanity historically
I would strongly like to set the record straight regarding the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. My position is still and has always been that the genocide against Tutsi took place in Rwanda and all criminals should be brought to book.
I am disappointed by the hatred propaganda, violent, offensive and injurious language towards my person and the FDU Inkingi I represent. It is unfortunate that my words were intentionally twisted. Readers of your papers are purposely made to believe in the content of those offending articles based on untrue facts.
On 16th January 2010, after my visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center at Gisozi, I made the following announcement in Kinyarwanda, which was also recorded and is here translated in English, the language of your media: "It is clear that achieving reconciliation has a long way to go; it is far away and this is understandable considered the number of people who were massacred in our country, because such tragedy is not something to move on from easily on the one hand. On the other, when you analyse the situation objectively, you don’t find any serious strategy intentionally developed and implemented to help Rwandans to achieve that reconciliation. For example, we are here honouring at this Memorial the Tutsi victims of the Genocide; there are also Hutu who were victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, not remembered or honoured here. Hutus are also suffering. They are wondering when their time will come to remember their people. In order for us to get to that desirable reconciliation, we must be fair and compassionate towards every Rwandan’s suffering. It is imperative that for Tutsi survivors, Hutu who killed their relatives understand the crimes they committed and accept the legal consequences. It is also crucial that those who may have killed Hutus understand that they must be equally punished by the laws. It is finally very important for all of us Rwandans with our different ethnic backgrounds to understand that we need to come together in unity and with mutual respect in order to develop our country peacefully. The reason we came back is therefore to find ways collectively of starting off on that roadmap towards unity, working jointly to remove injustices from our country, addressing as one issues of getting Rwandans to live freely in their country. Thank you."
Based on my declarations, all those false accusations and the subsequent
hate propaganda are baseless and ill-intentioned. It would’ve been better that the reporters contacted me to get my side of the story prior to publishing those inflammatory allegations. I would like also to draw your attention to similar stories aired by other independent media in this respect.
It's hard to believe that Rwandan journalists write on tragic issues with so much bias and
lack of objectivity. One of the FDU INKINGI policy principles is not to entertain any discrimination or injustice among the Rwandan living and the dead.
I shall be most grateful if you could find some space in your next editorials of your newspapers' and on front pages for the relevant clarifications.
Sincerely yours,
Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire
FDU Inkingi Chairperson
CC:
-The Minister of internal affairs,
-Press house
19 January, 2010
Nigeria: China May Dominate Oil Sector, Analyst Predicts.
Daily Independent
By Adeola Yusuf
18 January 2010
The next ten years in Nigeria will be the years of China's dominance in Nigeria's multi-billion dollar oil industry, analyst Mark Dominic predicted at the weekend.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Nigeria's biggest oil company no longer looks to its Nigerian operations to drive growth in its oil and gas output, said Chief Executive Peter Voser in comments posted on the company's website.
"Nigeria is still a heartland for Shell, but we no longer depend on it for our growth aspirations," said Voser. "This gives us more flexibility in deciding when and how to develop oil and gas resources in Nigeria."
Shell, which has been the dominant force in Nigeria's oil industry for decades, may be looking to dramatically reduce its presence in the country.
It is seeking buyers for 10 of its Nigerian onshore oil producing assets worth between $4 billion and $5 billion in total, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal last month.
Meanwhile, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has been reported as a possible buyer.
For crude oil that seemed to be from the beginning of the decade until mid 2004 when the Chinese oil demand shocked the industry, for it only to be whip-sawed by a recovery that took oil prices back to near $80 a barrel by the end of 2009.
Chinese economy's need for oil not only escalated but it became a central focus for both that government's economic planning efforts and the global media's attention.
As global oil consumption climbed during the decade, the world's ability to satisfy that growth was continually under pressure.
As in all free markets, the rationing mechanism of price is how we balanced demand and supply.
As the oil supply/demand balance tightened in the middle of the decade, and forecasts called for continued growth in demand, oil prices slowly started on an upward course that would eventually take them to an all-time peak of $147 per barrel in mid 2008 just before the collapse of global economies.
The subsequent fall to lows last seen before the emergence of Violence, kidnapping and sabotage attacks on infrastructure in Nigeria's oil producing areas have hampered Shell's operations for years.
Despite a recent amnesty and a continuing truce between government forces and Niger Delta militants, violence continues.
Four expatriate Shell contractors were kidnapped in the Niger Delta Tuesday after their bus was ambushed by gunmen. Two Nigerians were killed in the attack. A Chevron Corp. oil pipeline was shut down following sabotage over the weekend.
"Shell staff in Nigeria are doing a great job in this very difficult environment," Voser said. "During 2009 sabotage and attacks on installations of the Shell Petroleum Development Corporation of Nigeria have again reduced production levels," and delayed a scheme to reduce gas flaring, he said.
Voser said in October that Shell's Nigerian oil output was down to 120,000 barrels per day from 300,000 barrels per day before the violence started.
Following the amnesty, oil production levels did improve toward the end of the year and its liquefied natural gas business is performing well, Voser noted.
Shell's output growth in the coming years will be driven by more unconventional energy projects, notably large LNG and gas-to-liquids developments approaching completion in Qatar. Shell has new developments with a combined output of around one million barrels equivalent of oil and gas per day under construction, although much of this will offset natural output decline in other assets.
These technology driven projects require massive capital expenditure and Voser warned of a looming oil supply crunch if investment in the wider industry does not rebound from a big drop in 2009.
"We've seen a worldwide drop in upstream oil and gas investment of some 20%. And for alternative energies the drop is even steeper, around 40%," he said. "Governments and industry must work together to get back to higher investment levels. Otherwise, we run a risk of a supply-demand imbalance in a few years time."
By Adeola Yusuf
18 January 2010
The next ten years in Nigeria will be the years of China's dominance in Nigeria's multi-billion dollar oil industry, analyst Mark Dominic predicted at the weekend.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Nigeria's biggest oil company no longer looks to its Nigerian operations to drive growth in its oil and gas output, said Chief Executive Peter Voser in comments posted on the company's website.
"Nigeria is still a heartland for Shell, but we no longer depend on it for our growth aspirations," said Voser. "This gives us more flexibility in deciding when and how to develop oil and gas resources in Nigeria."
Shell, which has been the dominant force in Nigeria's oil industry for decades, may be looking to dramatically reduce its presence in the country.
It is seeking buyers for 10 of its Nigerian onshore oil producing assets worth between $4 billion and $5 billion in total, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal last month.
Meanwhile, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has been reported as a possible buyer.
For crude oil that seemed to be from the beginning of the decade until mid 2004 when the Chinese oil demand shocked the industry, for it only to be whip-sawed by a recovery that took oil prices back to near $80 a barrel by the end of 2009.
Chinese economy's need for oil not only escalated but it became a central focus for both that government's economic planning efforts and the global media's attention.
As global oil consumption climbed during the decade, the world's ability to satisfy that growth was continually under pressure.
As in all free markets, the rationing mechanism of price is how we balanced demand and supply.
As the oil supply/demand balance tightened in the middle of the decade, and forecasts called for continued growth in demand, oil prices slowly started on an upward course that would eventually take them to an all-time peak of $147 per barrel in mid 2008 just before the collapse of global economies.
The subsequent fall to lows last seen before the emergence of Violence, kidnapping and sabotage attacks on infrastructure in Nigeria's oil producing areas have hampered Shell's operations for years.
Despite a recent amnesty and a continuing truce between government forces and Niger Delta militants, violence continues.
Four expatriate Shell contractors were kidnapped in the Niger Delta Tuesday after their bus was ambushed by gunmen. Two Nigerians were killed in the attack. A Chevron Corp. oil pipeline was shut down following sabotage over the weekend.
"Shell staff in Nigeria are doing a great job in this very difficult environment," Voser said. "During 2009 sabotage and attacks on installations of the Shell Petroleum Development Corporation of Nigeria have again reduced production levels," and delayed a scheme to reduce gas flaring, he said.
Voser said in October that Shell's Nigerian oil output was down to 120,000 barrels per day from 300,000 barrels per day before the violence started.
Following the amnesty, oil production levels did improve toward the end of the year and its liquefied natural gas business is performing well, Voser noted.
Shell's output growth in the coming years will be driven by more unconventional energy projects, notably large LNG and gas-to-liquids developments approaching completion in Qatar. Shell has new developments with a combined output of around one million barrels equivalent of oil and gas per day under construction, although much of this will offset natural output decline in other assets.
These technology driven projects require massive capital expenditure and Voser warned of a looming oil supply crunch if investment in the wider industry does not rebound from a big drop in 2009.
"We've seen a worldwide drop in upstream oil and gas investment of some 20%. And for alternative energies the drop is even steeper, around 40%," he said. "Governments and industry must work together to get back to higher investment levels. Otherwise, we run a risk of a supply-demand imbalance in a few years time."
FDU's Ingabire preaches “Never Again” to Genocide.
By RNA Reporter
19 January 2010
Under fire from all sides in Rwanda, politician Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is reaffirming her support for the position widely accepted here and internationally, RNA reports.
Upon arrival on Saturday, Ms. Ingabire stunned the local RPF political scene with comments that have never been spoken publicly on Rwandan territory. Tutsis, as well as Hutus, were massacred in 1994 but only Tutsis are remembered she charged at the Kigali Memorial center in Gisozi.
The comments are commonly fronted by exiled politicians but have not been heard here.
The stance provoked a fire-storm of attacks against her. By evening, Interior Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana, himself head of a small ruling RPF party coalition partner, warmed that Ms. Ingabire could have to answer for the hard-hitting comments.
On Sunday, Genocide survivors’ group IBUKA and several other small political parties heavily criticized Ms. Ingabire for her stance – saying the comments do not have any place in Rwanda. However, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) – the biggest political party whose comments can be taken seriously, has not spoken out yet.
Though in interviews with international media like the BBC and VOA, Ms. Ingabire has stood by her position which IBUKA has already labeled as negationism, she is now also emphasizing the position believed by many.
“We agree totally and are conscious that there has been a genocide against Tutsis and we seriously and continuously advocate that all those who were responsible be brought before the courts of justice,” Ingabire says in her latest statement over the matter.
“Because of the many lives we lost in our country, let’s all of us together advocate for NEVER AGAIN,”
She adds: “Politicians, those aiming for political leadership, and any other person should stress NEVER AGAIN as their main motto for action.”
However, Ms. Ingabire is also tactfully separating how she describes the Tutsi massacres and those she claims were directed at Hutus. She refers to the latter as “serious crimes against humanity and war crimes”, and wants “those who committed them have to bear the legal consequences” but does not specify who carried out these alleged crimes.
“We must all the time remember those tragedies, make sure they don’t get ever repeated,” she adds.
Without making specific reference to negationism, the mother of four who has lived in Europe since 1993 points out: “It is also disgraceful to see some referring to that painful period in our history to lend others ideologies aimed at reducing the seriousness of crimes committed.”
Ms. Ingabire arrived with three-man team to layout the foundation for the registration of the Unified Democratic Forces Inkingi (FDU-Inkingi) party. Already, locally she was received by the PS Imberakuri group and the yet-to-be-registered Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
19 January 2010
Under fire from all sides in Rwanda, politician Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is reaffirming her support for the position widely accepted here and internationally, RNA reports.
Upon arrival on Saturday, Ms. Ingabire stunned the local RPF political scene with comments that have never been spoken publicly on Rwandan territory. Tutsis, as well as Hutus, were massacred in 1994 but only Tutsis are remembered she charged at the Kigali Memorial center in Gisozi.
The comments are commonly fronted by exiled politicians but have not been heard here.
The stance provoked a fire-storm of attacks against her. By evening, Interior Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana, himself head of a small ruling RPF party coalition partner, warmed that Ms. Ingabire could have to answer for the hard-hitting comments.
On Sunday, Genocide survivors’ group IBUKA and several other small political parties heavily criticized Ms. Ingabire for her stance – saying the comments do not have any place in Rwanda. However, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) – the biggest political party whose comments can be taken seriously, has not spoken out yet.
Though in interviews with international media like the BBC and VOA, Ms. Ingabire has stood by her position which IBUKA has already labeled as negationism, she is now also emphasizing the position believed by many.
“We agree totally and are conscious that there has been a genocide against Tutsis and we seriously and continuously advocate that all those who were responsible be brought before the courts of justice,” Ingabire says in her latest statement over the matter.
“Because of the many lives we lost in our country, let’s all of us together advocate for NEVER AGAIN,”
She adds: “Politicians, those aiming for political leadership, and any other person should stress NEVER AGAIN as their main motto for action.”
However, Ms. Ingabire is also tactfully separating how she describes the Tutsi massacres and those she claims were directed at Hutus. She refers to the latter as “serious crimes against humanity and war crimes”, and wants “those who committed them have to bear the legal consequences” but does not specify who carried out these alleged crimes.
“We must all the time remember those tragedies, make sure they don’t get ever repeated,” she adds.
Without making specific reference to negationism, the mother of four who has lived in Europe since 1993 points out: “It is also disgraceful to see some referring to that painful period in our history to lend others ideologies aimed at reducing the seriousness of crimes committed.”
Ms. Ingabire arrived with three-man team to layout the foundation for the registration of the Unified Democratic Forces Inkingi (FDU-Inkingi) party. Already, locally she was received by the PS Imberakuri group and the yet-to-be-registered Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
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