Afrol News
7 July 2010
Researchers hold that the threat of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb and Sahel regions is willingly exaggerated by governments to legitimise strong armies, limited democracy and US military presence.
Researcher Muhammad Darif, in an interview with the UK-based 'Quds Press' this week, confirms what many analysts have held earlier. The so-called Al Qaeda in the Maghreb terrorist group is basically defined to Algeria and not a real threat to the region at large.
While Mr Darif confirms the existence of the terrorist group, he reminds that it is rooted in the Algerian civil war in the 1990s. The Algerian Islamist terror group "Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat" in 2006 allegedly sought contact with Al Qaeda and in 2007 was admitted as a regional member group.
Rather than questioning the groups existence, Mr Darif told 'Quds Press' the real question concerned "its size and whether it presents a threat to the existing regimes in the Arab Maghreb states or not."
The Moroccan researcher rather downplayed the terrorist group's regional size and presence, saying it was still mainly engaged in Algeria's vast territory. Only the strength of the Algerian army had led it to occasional border crossings.
Mr Darif told 'Quds Press' that Algeria's Al Qaeda group's "forced presence" abroad further had benefited from "existing tribal contradictions. Many cases of kidnapping of foreign nationals happened through tribal militias, which handed them over to Al Qaeda in return for huge amounts of money." Also, the talk about Al Qaeda establishing camps in several Sahel countries was a mere rumour, he said.
He further questioned who was benefiting from the exaggerations of the terrorist group's size and impact. Both regional governments and the US had an interest in this rumour, Mr Darif held.
"We know that many influential security and political agencies in the Arab Maghreb states utilise the card of terrorism, represented by Al Qaeda, for their own purposes," he said, pointing to the external pressure for democratisation.
"The scattered terrorist operations in a number of countries" had been used to explain that security needed to have a higher priority than democratisation and human rights, he told 'Quds Press'. Al Qaeda in reality however not was threatening the balance of power in any Maghreb or Sahelian state, he emphasised.
Finally, also the US government had an interest in the Al Qaeda rumours, Mr Darif held. In its ongoing efforts to re-establish a strong military presence in Africa, the perceived Al Qaeda threat strongly served to legitimise the establishment of new military bases in Africa among governments and the population.
Mr Darif is far from the first researcher to question the Maghrebi Al Qaeda group's importance. Earlier speculations have pointed towards Algerian authorities exaggerating Al Qaeda's impact in their quest for US and international support. More and more of the terrorist group's alleged operations outside Algeria have been called into question during the last few years.
07 July, 2010
France seeks extradition of dissident ex-Rwandan General.
Zee News
7 July 2010
France has requested South Africa to extradite a Rwandan general, who was once a high commissioner to India, to face charges related to his alleged role in the 1994 assassination of the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi.
Lieutenant-General Kayumba Nyamwasa was the chief of the Rwandan Army until 2010, when he fled to South Africa after falling out with Rwandan president Paul Kagame and is seeking asylum in South Africa.
Justice ministry spokesman Tlali Tlali confirmed that France had requested South Africa to extradite lieutenant-general Kayumba Nyamwasa, adding to a similar request by Rwanda to do the same.
Nyamwasa is wanted in Rwanda to address allegations of his involvement in mortar attacks in the country in February this year before he fled to South Africa, where his application for refugee status is still pending.
The former military head was also found guilty in 2006 France for his involvement in shooting down an aircraft in 1994, killing the former presidents of Rwanda and Burundi and sparking a civil war in Rwanda which left hundreds of thousands dead.
In 2008, Nyamwasa was found guilty in Spain for complicity in the murder of nine Spanish nuns and emergency workers.
Meanwhile, experts have said that the South African government would have to first consider the extradition requests from Rwanda before that of France.
"He will have to provide evidence that his life would be in danger if he is extradited. The recent attempt on his life will probably be part thereof," said Prof Andre Thomashausen of the Centre for International Studies at the University of South Africa.
Nyamwasa survived an alleged assassination attempt recently outside his house in Johannesburg, for which four men are currently facing charges.
He served as Rwanda's High Commissioner to India from 2004-2010.
7 July 2010
France has requested South Africa to extradite a Rwandan general, who was once a high commissioner to India, to face charges related to his alleged role in the 1994 assassination of the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi.
Lieutenant-General Kayumba Nyamwasa was the chief of the Rwandan Army until 2010, when he fled to South Africa after falling out with Rwandan president Paul Kagame and is seeking asylum in South Africa.
Justice ministry spokesman Tlali Tlali confirmed that France had requested South Africa to extradite lieutenant-general Kayumba Nyamwasa, adding to a similar request by Rwanda to do the same.
Nyamwasa is wanted in Rwanda to address allegations of his involvement in mortar attacks in the country in February this year before he fled to South Africa, where his application for refugee status is still pending.
The former military head was also found guilty in 2006 France for his involvement in shooting down an aircraft in 1994, killing the former presidents of Rwanda and Burundi and sparking a civil war in Rwanda which left hundreds of thousands dead.
In 2008, Nyamwasa was found guilty in Spain for complicity in the murder of nine Spanish nuns and emergency workers.
Meanwhile, experts have said that the South African government would have to first consider the extradition requests from Rwanda before that of France.
"He will have to provide evidence that his life would be in danger if he is extradited. The recent attempt on his life will probably be part thereof," said Prof Andre Thomashausen of the Centre for International Studies at the University of South Africa.
Nyamwasa survived an alleged assassination attempt recently outside his house in Johannesburg, for which four men are currently facing charges.
He served as Rwanda's High Commissioner to India from 2004-2010.
Another Rwandan colonel arrested.
AFP
7 July 2010
Editor's Note: Col. Mudenge is married to the sister of Minister of Defense James Kabarebe, who is one of several military officers who have fallen out with President Kagame.
The Rwandan army has arrested a colonel and senior civil servant for allegedly threatening a civilian with a gun, the latest in a string of arrests of Rwandan top brass, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Colonel Diogene Mudenge, who also heads the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency, is being held at Kanombe military prison in Kigali, army spokesperson Jill Ruteramara told Radio Rwanda.
The senior officer is accused of "using his gun to threaten a citizen with whom he is involved in a land dispute", the spokesperson said.
In June, Genereal Jean-Bosco Kazura, in charge of training for the Rwandan army and heads the country's amateur football federation, was detained for travelling to South Africa without permission from his bosses.
In April, two other senior army officers were detained, including Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, the former deputy commander of the international Unamid mission in Darfur, the world's largest peacekeeping deployment.
Rwanda has accused two former top military officials of masterminding a string of grenade attacks in the capital. One of them, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamasa, was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg last month.
Nyamasa's wife and opposition media have charged Rwandan President Paul Kagame's regime was behind the failed assassination attempt, an allegation denied by the government.
7 July 2010
Editor's Note: Col. Mudenge is married to the sister of Minister of Defense James Kabarebe, who is one of several military officers who have fallen out with President Kagame.
The Rwandan army has arrested a colonel and senior civil servant for allegedly threatening a civilian with a gun, the latest in a string of arrests of Rwandan top brass, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Colonel Diogene Mudenge, who also heads the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency, is being held at Kanombe military prison in Kigali, army spokesperson Jill Ruteramara told Radio Rwanda.
The senior officer is accused of "using his gun to threaten a citizen with whom he is involved in a land dispute", the spokesperson said.
In June, Genereal Jean-Bosco Kazura, in charge of training for the Rwandan army and heads the country's amateur football federation, was detained for travelling to South Africa without permission from his bosses.
In April, two other senior army officers were detained, including Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, the former deputy commander of the international Unamid mission in Darfur, the world's largest peacekeeping deployment.
Rwanda has accused two former top military officials of masterminding a string of grenade attacks in the capital. One of them, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamasa, was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg last month.
Nyamasa's wife and opposition media have charged Rwandan President Paul Kagame's regime was behind the failed assassination attempt, an allegation denied by the government.
Sarkozy 'campaign donation' probe opened.
BBC News
7 July 2010
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into claims of illegal campaign funding for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, officials say.
The move follows allegations by a former accountant for France's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt.
The accountant reportedly told police she was involved in channelling 150,000 euros (£124,000) to Mr Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007.
Mr Sarkozy dismissed claims surrounding the case as a "smear".
The money was to be handed over to Eric Woerth, who ran Mr Sarkozy's campaign, according to Mrs Bettencourt's former accountant, Claire Thibout.
Her allegations were reported by the French website Mediapart after she made a statement to police on Monday.
The limit for donations to political parties is set at 7,500 euros in France.
'Political plot'
Mr Sarkozy has been facing growing pressure over the affair, which is linked to a trial over the 87-year-old Mrs Bettencourt's estimated 17bn euro fortune. The trial opened briefly last week before being adjourned.
So far President Sarkozy has tried to dismiss the allegations he is facing as a political smear. But every day there is a new revelation and suddenly he is facing some very difficult questions.
The allegations are serious given that Mrs Bettencourt is facing investigation into claims she was hiding money from the tax man in a Swiss bank account.
The president has denounced "libel without the slightest basis in reality".
Politically this is wreaking enormous damage. The president's approval ratings are now at 26% - rock bottom - and the allegations keep on coming.
Mr Woerth, who has denied the allegations, is currently minister for labour in Mr Sarkozy's government and is leading efforts to push through a major pension reform.
He has rejected calls for his resignation.
In a television interview on Tuesday he dismissed what he called "a political plot orchestrated by the Socialist Party".
Earlier that day, opposition MPs had walked out of the French parliament after a minister accused them of extreme-right tactics for repeatedly asking about the allegations.
The comments were a reference to extreme-right newspapers that denounced the French political class in the 1930s.
Mr Woerth, who is treasurer for Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, has also come under scrutiny because his wife worked for the company that managed Mrs Bettencourt's fortune, and their names emerged in tapes secretly recorded by Mrs Bettencourt's butler.
The tapes suggest that Mrs Bettencourt had been making cash donations to members of the UMP including Mr Woerth, and that she had been avoiding taxes.
Mrs Woerth recently resigned from her position, and the couple have denied any conflict of interests.
Withdrawal 'confirmed'
The recordings have been offered as evidence in the trial that opened last week.
In the trial, Mrs Bettencourt's daughter Francoise is suing celebrity photographer Francois-Marie Banier, a close friend of her mother's, for allegedly exploiting her mental fragility to gain access to her fortune.
In her allegations, Ms Thibout told Mediapart that she had been ordered to withdraw the 150,000 euros in March 2007 but only withdrew 50,000 euros, her authorised limit.
Police said on Wednesday they had confiscated records from the BNP Paribas Bank where Mrs Bettencourt's account is held and confirmed the withdrawal, Le Monde newspaper reported.
Ms Thibout has said another employee then went to Switzerland to collect the rest of the money.
She also claimed that Mr Sarkozy was one of a number of centre-right politicians who received regular envelopes of cash after dinners at a house where Mrs Bettencourt and her husband lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Mr Sarkozy used to be mayor.
An aide to Mr Sarkozy dismissed the claim as "totally false".
7 July 2010
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into claims of illegal campaign funding for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, officials say.
The move follows allegations by a former accountant for France's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt.
The accountant reportedly told police she was involved in channelling 150,000 euros (£124,000) to Mr Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007.
Mr Sarkozy dismissed claims surrounding the case as a "smear".
The money was to be handed over to Eric Woerth, who ran Mr Sarkozy's campaign, according to Mrs Bettencourt's former accountant, Claire Thibout.
Her allegations were reported by the French website Mediapart after she made a statement to police on Monday.
The limit for donations to political parties is set at 7,500 euros in France.
'Political plot'
Mr Sarkozy has been facing growing pressure over the affair, which is linked to a trial over the 87-year-old Mrs Bettencourt's estimated 17bn euro fortune. The trial opened briefly last week before being adjourned.
So far President Sarkozy has tried to dismiss the allegations he is facing as a political smear. But every day there is a new revelation and suddenly he is facing some very difficult questions.
The allegations are serious given that Mrs Bettencourt is facing investigation into claims she was hiding money from the tax man in a Swiss bank account.
The president has denounced "libel without the slightest basis in reality".
Politically this is wreaking enormous damage. The president's approval ratings are now at 26% - rock bottom - and the allegations keep on coming.
Mr Woerth, who has denied the allegations, is currently minister for labour in Mr Sarkozy's government and is leading efforts to push through a major pension reform.
He has rejected calls for his resignation.
In a television interview on Tuesday he dismissed what he called "a political plot orchestrated by the Socialist Party".
Earlier that day, opposition MPs had walked out of the French parliament after a minister accused them of extreme-right tactics for repeatedly asking about the allegations.
The comments were a reference to extreme-right newspapers that denounced the French political class in the 1930s.
Mr Woerth, who is treasurer for Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, has also come under scrutiny because his wife worked for the company that managed Mrs Bettencourt's fortune, and their names emerged in tapes secretly recorded by Mrs Bettencourt's butler.
The tapes suggest that Mrs Bettencourt had been making cash donations to members of the UMP including Mr Woerth, and that she had been avoiding taxes.
Mrs Woerth recently resigned from her position, and the couple have denied any conflict of interests.
Withdrawal 'confirmed'
The recordings have been offered as evidence in the trial that opened last week.
In the trial, Mrs Bettencourt's daughter Francoise is suing celebrity photographer Francois-Marie Banier, a close friend of her mother's, for allegedly exploiting her mental fragility to gain access to her fortune.
In her allegations, Ms Thibout told Mediapart that she had been ordered to withdraw the 150,000 euros in March 2007 but only withdrew 50,000 euros, her authorised limit.
Police said on Wednesday they had confiscated records from the BNP Paribas Bank where Mrs Bettencourt's account is held and confirmed the withdrawal, Le Monde newspaper reported.
Ms Thibout has said another employee then went to Switzerland to collect the rest of the money.
She also claimed that Mr Sarkozy was one of a number of centre-right politicians who received regular envelopes of cash after dinners at a house where Mrs Bettencourt and her husband lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Mr Sarkozy used to be mayor.
An aide to Mr Sarkozy dismissed the claim as "totally false".
Noriega given seven-year sentence.
Al-Jazeera
7 July 2010
A French court has sentenced Manuel Noriega, the former military leader of Panama, to seven years in jail for laundering drug money.
The court also ordered on Wednesday the seizing of $2.9m in frozen French accounts held in the 76-year-old general's name.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum 10-year jail sentence for Noriega, who was extradited from the United States to France in April to face trial on charges of laundering money from Colombian drug lords through French banks.
A lawyer for Noriega told reporters after the sentencing that he judged the seven-year sentence "extremely severe".
7 July 2010
A French court has sentenced Manuel Noriega, the former military leader of Panama, to seven years in jail for laundering drug money.
The court also ordered on Wednesday the seizing of $2.9m in frozen French accounts held in the 76-year-old general's name.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum 10-year jail sentence for Noriega, who was extradited from the United States to France in April to face trial on charges of laundering money from Colombian drug lords through French banks.
A lawyer for Noriega told reporters after the sentencing that he judged the seven-year sentence "extremely severe".
Great Britain Presses Rwanda Government on Human Rights.
6 July 2010
By David O'Brien
In a tense exchange today Tuesday July 6, 2010, the British House of the Commons has quizzed officials of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (British Ministry of Foreign Affairs) regarding the on-going repression and assassinations in Rwanda and the role the British Government has played or is expected to play. The FCO officials included the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr William Hague, The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr Jeremy Browne, The Minister for Europe, Mr David Lidington, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr Henry Bellingham.
Henry Belligham said during the hearing: “We have already made our views clear to the Rwandan Government, and we will continue with that dialogue, putting pressure on them. As I said a moment ago, it is essential that there should be not only a free election, but one with proper opposition and open and transparent media reporting it.”
Following is the entire hearing about Rwanda’s human rights and ongoing repression against and assassination of opposition figures and journalists (Photo: Mary Helen Creagh, Labor Party):
Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab): What recent discussions he has had with the Rwandan National Election Commission on the forthcoming presidential elections in that country.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Henry Bellingham): We are working with the National Election Commission, encouraging it to implement recommendations of previous EU election observer missions. The recent electoral code addresses most recommendations, but it is important that the presidential elections in August comply with international norms.
Ann McKechin: I am sure that the Minister will share my concerns about the increasing reports of incidents of harassment and intimidation of opposition leaders, including the arrest of one of the leaders of the opposition party just less than two weeks ago. Will he impress it on the National Election Commission and the Rwandan Government that such continued reports will stain Rwandan’s reputation, which has made much progress in the past decade, and that it is vital that they show real signs of ensuring that democracy is fully protected?
Mr Bellingham: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that constructive question. I share her concern about the arrest of Victoire Ingabire, who is a prominent opposition leader, and about the fact that her American lawyer, Professor Erlinder, was also arrested on what were basically trumped-up charges. We are also concerned that so far just one party outside the ruling coalition has been registered, and we are applying as much pressure as we can.
Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con) rose—
Mr Speaker: I call Andrew Stephenson—[Interruption.] He is not Andrew Stephenson, but he is very welcome. Let us hear from him.
Stuart Andrew: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Given that top military officials have also been arrested, does my hon. Friend the Minister see any danger of interference in the elections by the Rwandan army?
Mr Bellingham: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. To say that Rwanda has come back from the abyss would be an understatement. We should pay tribute to the extraordinary progress that Rwanda has made. What we want to do the day after the election is call the new President of Rwanda, congratulate him on his election and say that he has enhanced credibility and trust with the world community by winning a completely free and fair election against proper opposition.
Mr Speaker: My apologies to Stuart Andrew.
Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab): Does the Minister share my concern about the murder of Jean-Léonard Rugambage, a journalist on the Umuvugizi newspaper—I will pass that name up to Hansard afterwards—who was shot on Friday 25 June? Does he agree that having free, fair and open newspapers is an essential part of ensuring a civil space where democracy can work, and will he do everything he can to press the Rwandan Government to bring that man’s murderers to justice?
Mr Bellingham: We have already made our views clear to the Rwandan Government, and we will continue with that dialogue, putting pressure on them. As I said a moment ago, it is essential that there should be not only a free election, but one with proper opposition and open and transparent media reporting it.
By David O'Brien
In a tense exchange today Tuesday July 6, 2010, the British House of the Commons has quizzed officials of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (British Ministry of Foreign Affairs) regarding the on-going repression and assassinations in Rwanda and the role the British Government has played or is expected to play. The FCO officials included the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr William Hague, The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr Jeremy Browne, The Minister for Europe, Mr David Lidington, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr Henry Bellingham.
Henry Belligham said during the hearing: “We have already made our views clear to the Rwandan Government, and we will continue with that dialogue, putting pressure on them. As I said a moment ago, it is essential that there should be not only a free election, but one with proper opposition and open and transparent media reporting it.”
Following is the entire hearing about Rwanda’s human rights and ongoing repression against and assassination of opposition figures and journalists (Photo: Mary Helen Creagh, Labor Party):
Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab): What recent discussions he has had with the Rwandan National Election Commission on the forthcoming presidential elections in that country.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Henry Bellingham): We are working with the National Election Commission, encouraging it to implement recommendations of previous EU election observer missions. The recent electoral code addresses most recommendations, but it is important that the presidential elections in August comply with international norms.
Ann McKechin: I am sure that the Minister will share my concerns about the increasing reports of incidents of harassment and intimidation of opposition leaders, including the arrest of one of the leaders of the opposition party just less than two weeks ago. Will he impress it on the National Election Commission and the Rwandan Government that such continued reports will stain Rwandan’s reputation, which has made much progress in the past decade, and that it is vital that they show real signs of ensuring that democracy is fully protected?
Mr Bellingham: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that constructive question. I share her concern about the arrest of Victoire Ingabire, who is a prominent opposition leader, and about the fact that her American lawyer, Professor Erlinder, was also arrested on what were basically trumped-up charges. We are also concerned that so far just one party outside the ruling coalition has been registered, and we are applying as much pressure as we can.
Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con) rose—
Mr Speaker: I call Andrew Stephenson—[Interruption.] He is not Andrew Stephenson, but he is very welcome. Let us hear from him.
Stuart Andrew: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Given that top military officials have also been arrested, does my hon. Friend the Minister see any danger of interference in the elections by the Rwandan army?
Mr Bellingham: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. To say that Rwanda has come back from the abyss would be an understatement. We should pay tribute to the extraordinary progress that Rwanda has made. What we want to do the day after the election is call the new President of Rwanda, congratulate him on his election and say that he has enhanced credibility and trust with the world community by winning a completely free and fair election against proper opposition.
Mr Speaker: My apologies to Stuart Andrew.
Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab): Does the Minister share my concern about the murder of Jean-Léonard Rugambage, a journalist on the Umuvugizi newspaper—I will pass that name up to Hansard afterwards—who was shot on Friday 25 June? Does he agree that having free, fair and open newspapers is an essential part of ensuring a civil space where democracy can work, and will he do everything he can to press the Rwandan Government to bring that man’s murderers to justice?
Mr Bellingham: We have already made our views clear to the Rwandan Government, and we will continue with that dialogue, putting pressure on them. As I said a moment ago, it is essential that there should be not only a free election, but one with proper opposition and open and transparent media reporting it.
VICTIMS OF “THE WAR ON THE OPPOSITION” WAGED BY THE RWANDAN GOVERNMENT ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS.
UDF/FDU-Inkingi
PRESS RELEASE
Opposition leaders arrested on 24th June 2010, in an operation called the “war on the opposition” were paraded in a Rwandan court today. It was an opportunity for both their families and the population to know the official charges leveled by the RPF regime’s judiciary: criminal association by responding to calls for protest against the government; and allegedly being a threat to national security because of participation in this allegedly illegal protest. The reality is that Rwandans don’t have the right to peacefully demonstration thanks to anti-democracy and anti-protest laws tailored by the regime in order to remain in power with an iron fist. The government has just confirmed that these victims are nothing less than prisoners of conscience.
They have been locked up for speaking out using non-violent means against the dictatorship of the RPF. The schism between the government and the population has pushed the country to the brink of chaos through arbitrary arrests, torture, summary executions, and a set of oppressive laws are commonly used against those branded as enemies who are opposed to the diktat of the ruling party. Rwandans have only one choice: follow or suffer.
A de facto definition of a political prisoner is provided by the human rights organization Amnesty International, "Any prisoner whose case has a significant political element: whether the motivation of the prisoner's acts, the acts themselves, or the motivation of the authorities." The repression and torture of members of the opposition parties is justified by anti-protest laws protecting the ruling party and its leader, current President Paul Kagame. According to the incumbent (press conference, Kigali, 29th June 2010), critics are only “a barking dog while the worryless train is speeding up”. The arrest of peaceful demonstrators is not only an infringement of the Rwandan Constitution but an open violation of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified by every country in 1948, meaning that political, religious and cultural freedoms are supposed to be upheld by every country’s laws. However, political prisoners continue to be taken every day, with alarmingly large numbers of these arrests being legalized by various anti-terrorism, anti-protest, anti-genocide, divisionism and political party laws.
We call upon the government of President Paul Kagame not to disregard the political status of these prisoners of conscience i.e. opposition party leaders Sylvain Sibomana (FDU Secretary-General), Ms. Alice Muhirwa (FDU Treasurer), Theoneste Sibomana (FDU Kigali), Martin Ntavuka (FDU Nyarugenge) and Bernard Ntaganda (PSI Chair), Jean Baptiste Icyitonderwa, Theobald Mutarambirwa, and Sylvere Mwizerwa of the PS-Imberakuri. The scandalous incarceration of lawyer Theogene Muhayeyezu shows the true face of a leadership that oppresses lawyers because of the non-violent political views of their clients. All these innocent people should be allowed to go back home without further delay.
Done in Kigali,
6 July 2010
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
FDU-Inkingi
Chairperson
PRESS RELEASE
Opposition leaders arrested on 24th June 2010, in an operation called the “war on the opposition” were paraded in a Rwandan court today. It was an opportunity for both their families and the population to know the official charges leveled by the RPF regime’s judiciary: criminal association by responding to calls for protest against the government; and allegedly being a threat to national security because of participation in this allegedly illegal protest. The reality is that Rwandans don’t have the right to peacefully demonstration thanks to anti-democracy and anti-protest laws tailored by the regime in order to remain in power with an iron fist. The government has just confirmed that these victims are nothing less than prisoners of conscience.
They have been locked up for speaking out using non-violent means against the dictatorship of the RPF. The schism between the government and the population has pushed the country to the brink of chaos through arbitrary arrests, torture, summary executions, and a set of oppressive laws are commonly used against those branded as enemies who are opposed to the diktat of the ruling party. Rwandans have only one choice: follow or suffer.
A de facto definition of a political prisoner is provided by the human rights organization Amnesty International, "Any prisoner whose case has a significant political element: whether the motivation of the prisoner's acts, the acts themselves, or the motivation of the authorities." The repression and torture of members of the opposition parties is justified by anti-protest laws protecting the ruling party and its leader, current President Paul Kagame. According to the incumbent (press conference, Kigali, 29th June 2010), critics are only “a barking dog while the worryless train is speeding up”. The arrest of peaceful demonstrators is not only an infringement of the Rwandan Constitution but an open violation of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified by every country in 1948, meaning that political, religious and cultural freedoms are supposed to be upheld by every country’s laws. However, political prisoners continue to be taken every day, with alarmingly large numbers of these arrests being legalized by various anti-terrorism, anti-protest, anti-genocide, divisionism and political party laws.
We call upon the government of President Paul Kagame not to disregard the political status of these prisoners of conscience i.e. opposition party leaders Sylvain Sibomana (FDU Secretary-General), Ms. Alice Muhirwa (FDU Treasurer), Theoneste Sibomana (FDU Kigali), Martin Ntavuka (FDU Nyarugenge) and Bernard Ntaganda (PSI Chair), Jean Baptiste Icyitonderwa, Theobald Mutarambirwa, and Sylvere Mwizerwa of the PS-Imberakuri. The scandalous incarceration of lawyer Theogene Muhayeyezu shows the true face of a leadership that oppresses lawyers because of the non-violent political views of their clients. All these innocent people should be allowed to go back home without further delay.
Done in Kigali,
6 July 2010
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
FDU-Inkingi
Chairperson
06 July, 2010
Bernard Ntaganda charged but he dismisses the court's competence to hear the trial.
Rwandan News Agency
6 July 2010
Opposition politician Bernard Ntaganda, along with other opposition party members, were charged on Tuesday with four counts, including terrorism, after 10 days in custody without an initial court hearing, RNA reports.
Appearing before the Nyamirambo court of first instance, Ntaganda and eight others are charged among other cases trying to cause instability in the country. In his defense, Mr. Ntaganda instead says this court in incompetent to handle his case as a senior political figure in the country.
The prosecution claims the PS-Imberakuri founder – now controlling a specific PS faction-is a threat to national security because of the protests he allegedly organised on June 24. The state also charged him with allegedly forming a "terrorist organisation."
The state claims Mr. Ntaganda tried to hold an illegal gathering without the permission of the authorities.
Carrying boxes of documents including protest posters and crude weapons allegedly which were to be used to cause chaos in the June protests, prosecution claims Ntaganda has been trying to destabilize the harmony in the country.
However, court was forced to adjourn after it was challenged that it was not the appropriate place to try him because he is the leader of a registered political party. The court over-ruled him later and claimed that he was being tried as an individual for crimes committed personally.
For these cases, prosecution wants Ntaganda to stay in custody for the next month as investigations continue.
In lengthy submissions, Mr. Ntaganda, himself a lawyer, denied all the charges and dismissed all the prosecution's claims as politically motivated. He said it is only the high court which can handle his case as an opposition party leader.
The other co-accused, including the FDU-Inkingi's vice president and other top members, are charged with two counts including allegedly forming a terrorist group and organizing unlawful gatherings.
Some 30 people were arrested on June 24 at the US embassy as they prepared to demonstrate against the National Electoral Commission. Incidentally, the protests happened as President Kagame was submitting his papers at the commission to vie for the August 09 polls.
Court adjourned the case for Wednesday morning. 8 other detained opposition party members will plead their case tomorrow and all will seek bail.
6 July 2010
Opposition politician Bernard Ntaganda, along with other opposition party members, were charged on Tuesday with four counts, including terrorism, after 10 days in custody without an initial court hearing, RNA reports.
Appearing before the Nyamirambo court of first instance, Ntaganda and eight others are charged among other cases trying to cause instability in the country. In his defense, Mr. Ntaganda instead says this court in incompetent to handle his case as a senior political figure in the country.
The prosecution claims the PS-Imberakuri founder – now controlling a specific PS faction-is a threat to national security because of the protests he allegedly organised on June 24. The state also charged him with allegedly forming a "terrorist organisation."
The state claims Mr. Ntaganda tried to hold an illegal gathering without the permission of the authorities.
Carrying boxes of documents including protest posters and crude weapons allegedly which were to be used to cause chaos in the June protests, prosecution claims Ntaganda has been trying to destabilize the harmony in the country.
However, court was forced to adjourn after it was challenged that it was not the appropriate place to try him because he is the leader of a registered political party. The court over-ruled him later and claimed that he was being tried as an individual for crimes committed personally.
For these cases, prosecution wants Ntaganda to stay in custody for the next month as investigations continue.
In lengthy submissions, Mr. Ntaganda, himself a lawyer, denied all the charges and dismissed all the prosecution's claims as politically motivated. He said it is only the high court which can handle his case as an opposition party leader.
The other co-accused, including the FDU-Inkingi's vice president and other top members, are charged with two counts including allegedly forming a terrorist group and organizing unlawful gatherings.
Some 30 people were arrested on June 24 at the US embassy as they prepared to demonstrate against the National Electoral Commission. Incidentally, the protests happened as President Kagame was submitting his papers at the commission to vie for the August 09 polls.
Court adjourned the case for Wednesday morning. 8 other detained opposition party members will plead their case tomorrow and all will seek bail.
Correction: South Africa-Rwandan General story.
AP
6 July 2010
In a story July 2 about an investigation into the shooting of an exiled Rwandan general in South Africa, The Associated Press, relying on a South Africa Press Association report, erroneously reported that South Africa's foreign ministry said foreign "security operatives" were involved. The foreign ministry now says it never made such an allegation. SAPA has filed a corrected version of the story.
6 July 2010
In a story July 2 about an investigation into the shooting of an exiled Rwandan general in South Africa, The Associated Press, relying on a South Africa Press Association report, erroneously reported that South Africa's foreign ministry said foreign "security operatives" were involved. The foreign ministry now says it never made such an allegation. SAPA has filed a corrected version of the story.
Northrop Grumman wins shameful contract to continue training Rwandan soldiers.
Rwandan News Agency
6 July 2010
Defense firm Northrop Grumman Corporation on Tuesday won the extension of its contract to continue training Rwandan soldiers, the U.S. Department of State announced.
6 July 2010
Defense firm Northrop Grumman Corporation on Tuesday won the extension of its contract to continue training Rwandan soldiers, the U.S. Department of State announced.
U.S. Department of State Awards Northrop Grumman African (ACOTA) Military "Training" Contract.
Global Newswire
6 July 2010
The U.S. Department of State has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC - News) to continue providing staff to conduct peacekeeping operations and humanitarianism assistance training for the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program.
The contract has a potential value of $150 million over five years.
"The ACOTA program is to arguably the most successful engagement program that the U.S. State Department has had in Africa. The objective is to enable participating nations' militaries to develop their own trained unit capacity to provide peacekeeping support operations where required," said Mike Devlin, Northrop Grumman Technical Services International Program Director. "We are most pleased that we have been again selected to continue successfully supporting the ACOTA mission."
"International collaboration is a crucial component to peacekeeping efforts," said Tom Vice, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Technical Services. "We've been supporting the ACOTA program for more than 11 years in 22 countries, and we embrace the opportunity to spend another 5 years supporting these African nations."
Northrop Grumman provides the staff and training to select African Nations through seminars, instruction, simulation-supported exercises and field training. Nations currently participating in the ACOTA program include Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia. Northrop Grumman has supported the African Crisis Response Initiative/African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACRI/ACOTA) program since its inception in 1998 and designed the initial training materials and conducted computer-assisted peacekeeping exercises for African Partner Nations.
Work on the ACOTA program will be performed on site in the participating African nations and from Northrop Grumman's Leavenworth, Kan., facility, where Northrop Grumman supports several other military training contracts.
6 July 2010
The U.S. Department of State has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC - News) to continue providing staff to conduct peacekeeping operations and humanitarianism assistance training for the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program.
The contract has a potential value of $150 million over five years.
"The ACOTA program is to arguably the most successful engagement program that the U.S. State Department has had in Africa. The objective is to enable participating nations' militaries to develop their own trained unit capacity to provide peacekeeping support operations where required," said Mike Devlin, Northrop Grumman Technical Services International Program Director. "We are most pleased that we have been again selected to continue successfully supporting the ACOTA mission."
"International collaboration is a crucial component to peacekeeping efforts," said Tom Vice, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Technical Services. "We've been supporting the ACOTA program for more than 11 years in 22 countries, and we embrace the opportunity to spend another 5 years supporting these African nations."
Northrop Grumman provides the staff and training to select African Nations through seminars, instruction, simulation-supported exercises and field training. Nations currently participating in the ACOTA program include Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia. Northrop Grumman has supported the African Crisis Response Initiative/African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACRI/ACOTA) program since its inception in 1998 and designed the initial training materials and conducted computer-assisted peacekeeping exercises for African Partner Nations.
Work on the ACOTA program will be performed on site in the participating African nations and from Northrop Grumman's Leavenworth, Kan., facility, where Northrop Grumman supports several other military training contracts.
05 July, 2010
Kosovo Serb MP shot in flashpoint town.
Reuters
5 July 2010
An unidentified gunman shot and slightly hurt an ethnic Serb member of the Kosovo parliament in a fresh incident in the divided northern town of Mitrovica, police said on Monday.
It was the second act of political violence in Mitrovica in the past week, highlighting continuing tensions in the former Serb province, whose Albanian majority declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.
"The incident occurred at 8.20 (0620 GMT) when Petar Miletic was leaving his home in northern Mitrovica to go to work in Pristina," said Ergin Medic, deputy regional police chief.
He said Miletic, one of 10 Serb deputies in the 120-seat Kosovo parliament, was shot in the leg and his injuries were not life-threatening.
Mitrovica remains divided along the Ibar river between Albanians in the south and Serbs in north.
Half of Kosovo's 120,000 Serbs, including 20,000 in Mitrovica, live north of the Ibar, which is linked with Serbia by roads. They refuse to deal with Kosovon institutions and regard Belgrade as their capital.
Serbia's President Boris Tadic will attend a United Nations Security Council session in New York this week to discuss the security situation in Mitrovica, after one person was killed in a blast during a Serb protest rally on Friday. [IDnLDE6611K2].
Belgrade lost control of Kosovo in 1999 when NATO bombing of against Serbia ended the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serbs during a two-year counter-insurgency war.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia asked the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the move. The ruling is expected later in July.
In May, NATO peacekeepers and police had to intervene to separate thousands of Serbs and Albanians who clashed over the Belgrade-organised local election in the north. [IDnLDE64T06W]
Some 10,000 NATO peacekeepers along with European Union police and justice missions keep the fragile peace in Kosovo.
(Reporting by Branislav Krstic. Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina. Writing by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Matthew Jones)
5 July 2010
An unidentified gunman shot and slightly hurt an ethnic Serb member of the Kosovo parliament in a fresh incident in the divided northern town of Mitrovica, police said on Monday.
It was the second act of political violence in Mitrovica in the past week, highlighting continuing tensions in the former Serb province, whose Albanian majority declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.
"The incident occurred at 8.20 (0620 GMT) when Petar Miletic was leaving his home in northern Mitrovica to go to work in Pristina," said Ergin Medic, deputy regional police chief.
He said Miletic, one of 10 Serb deputies in the 120-seat Kosovo parliament, was shot in the leg and his injuries were not life-threatening.
Mitrovica remains divided along the Ibar river between Albanians in the south and Serbs in north.
Half of Kosovo's 120,000 Serbs, including 20,000 in Mitrovica, live north of the Ibar, which is linked with Serbia by roads. They refuse to deal with Kosovon institutions and regard Belgrade as their capital.
Serbia's President Boris Tadic will attend a United Nations Security Council session in New York this week to discuss the security situation in Mitrovica, after one person was killed in a blast during a Serb protest rally on Friday. [IDnLDE6611K2].
Belgrade lost control of Kosovo in 1999 when NATO bombing of against Serbia ended the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serbs during a two-year counter-insurgency war.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia asked the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the move. The ruling is expected later in July.
In May, NATO peacekeepers and police had to intervene to separate thousands of Serbs and Albanians who clashed over the Belgrade-organised local election in the north. [IDnLDE64T06W]
Some 10,000 NATO peacekeepers along with European Union police and justice missions keep the fragile peace in Kosovo.
(Reporting by Branislav Krstic. Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina. Writing by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Matthew Jones)
04 July, 2010
Rwanda is Nearing a Political Precipice.
By Deo Lukyamuzi
July 4, 2010
Between February and April, 198 I met the late Seth Sendashonga on two occasions both, in Nairobi, Kenya. On my first visit, we met at the Regency Hotel. I have a vivid memory of that occasion. I remember the Hotel had a pellish pink paint –at least the terrace where we sat. Seth was wearing a golden suite, red necktie white shirt and black shoes, and he had a somewhat oversized moustache. I on the other hand, had a light blue shirt, black trousers and shoes. I also had on a bleu jean jacket and a Rastafarian hat–evidently, la mode has never been my forté. As a by-the-way, I later lost my jean jacket to a comrade in Havana and gave as souvenir, my rasta hat to an Eritrean lady friend at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
The second time we met with Seth Sendashonga, we drove around town talking in the car, the same in which he was later assassinated, a beige Toyota Corolla with red UN number plate, and we ended at his home for lunch where I met his wife and a teenage girl, I believe, his daughter.
There was a scheduled third meeting on the 24th of May, 1998. He was assassinated on the 22nd of May while I was in Zanzibar where I had gone to do some work concerning preparatory meetings the Pan African Movement Secretariat was organizing across Africa to create awareness of the campaign for the creation of the African Union. These meetings were being sponsored by the Libyan government and being implemented by the Pan African Movement Secretariat. As his Assistant on the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions, the General Secretary, the late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Rahim had entrusted me with the duty of being the point person on conducting these meetings.
I was to proceed to Nairobi from Zanzibar, again, on instructions from Dr. Tajudeen to carry his message to his friend Seth Sendashonga.
At that time, there was an effort (basing on the information I had, I am not sure whose initiative it was) to patch the ruptured relationship between Seth and his former colleagues in the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). I know for a fact, that Dr. Tajudeen and PAM was not the only line by which information was being passed to and from RPF and Seth. There was another initiative that involved Maj. Gen. Salim Saleh. We talked about it with Seth but I also heard it through other avenues.
When Sendashonga was assassinated, I was heart- broken. I had developed a certain appreciation of him as a decent person, genuinely honest and inspiring. We may not have shared the same political philosophy, him being a liberal democrat and I leaning towards social democratic but there was more that we shared than we did not.
Sendashonga was killed because of his political stand and nothing else. All those phony constructs that he was involved in a business deal which went bad are irritating to say the least. As it so happened, he became a bona fide poster boy for the countless political figures Rwanda has lost over these past two decades. There are never any investigations, no public inquiries to shed light as to what may or may not have happened, only the usual casual who cares explanation of ‘it was an accident’, ‘suicide’, ‘business deal gone bad’, and so on.
Among the many topics we discussed was Kagame’s personality because even as Vice President, it was always known and rightly so, that he was more important than the actual President Bizimungu. The later was more of a unity symbol to comfort the Hutu population and show the rest of the world that it was not all about Tutsi victors and Hutu vanquished. Sendashonga’s opinion of Kagame was mixed and shifting. He told me that during the earlier days the two men met and started working together, he saw Kagame as a disciplined person and a listener. He saw him as some he could ‘work with’. However, in Sendashonga’s words, ‘Kagame overnight developed an almost ready-made mistrust of his Hutu colleagues in government and the rest was a matter of time that the rupture occurred”. He recounted to me how in the earlier days of RPF taking power, the used to have frank meetings and discuss openly and criticize each other where need was. He said however, as grave errors started to be committed by RPA soldiers killing civilians at any flimsy excuse, Kagame started to be defensive along fellow RPA officers and he and others in the army side started skipping the consultation meetings and eventually they ceased taking place.
I sat in President Pasteur Bizimungu’s press briefing on 22nd April, 1995 at Hotel Meridien Umubano at Kacyiru across the New times Offices. He had come to explain the massacre or tell if u will, the International Community what happened at the Kibeho camp of internally displaced people (IDP). The President came to that meeting with an air of self-importance that I had not seen about him before. He asked the international community to accept the official figure of 300 people as being the victims of that massacre. This was after, he and Vice President Kagame, had flown over the destroyed camps in a helicopter to see for themselves the extent of the catastrophe. It is worth noting that before the President and Vice President, the Minister of Internal Affairs had been denied entry into the camps by the RPF soldiers guarding the camps.
UNAMIR, on the same night of the massacre gave an estimate of the dead to be about 4000 which it later revised to between 1500-2000 people. Even considering the UNAMIR’s lower figure of 1500 and compare it with that of the government of 300, leads to the conclusion that either both sides were not referring to the same incident or one of them is not being sincere. It is u and I to tell in our opinion who was telling the truth and who was not and who had the motive to lie.
It is my opinion, I may be wrong, that the then Vice President and Minister of Defense Kagame was not aware of all the details of what went on in the Kibeho camp, especially the days leading to the massacre, but still I find him, together with the then President Bizimungu, responsible for their conduct after the massacre where no efforts were spared in covering up the extent of the tragedy.
Rutayisire’s Death and General Kayumba’s Presence
In his recent interviews, exiled General Kayumba talks about the loneliness he felt when he lost his parent and none of his comrades showed up at the burial nor call him to offer condolences. I am sure this came as no surprise to the good General since it was not the first time it was happening. When Lt. Col. Wilson Rutayisire (Shaban) was murdered in Congo, in June, 2000, I was in Kigali. I say murdered in spite of the official version that he killed himself, because I have very good reasons to counter the official story:
For those who knew Shaban as a friend knew that one of his daughters, Hope or Charity, I cannot recall her exact name, was to undergo a medical procedure in a week’s time. We had met at the Meridien Hotel where I was staying doing preparatory work for a Justice Africa project, the Peoples Panel. He told me he was leaving for DRC but that he would be back to be present when his daughter underwent the procedure;
Having seen him less than one week before his death, having talked to him on phone from DRC two days before his death, not having seen, sensed, felt, heard of any indicator of fore-bearance, I have no choice but to conclude that Shaban did not take his own life but those who were quick to concoct a suicide story, know better of who killed Shaban.
It is only Gen. Kayumba, who represented the government and army at the burial. Those who were present can attest to the anger or fury on Kayumba’s face at the unceremonious ceremony. The interpretation we all had was that nobody should dare question the government version of events since shortly after his death and at burial it was a known secret that it was not suicide but murder. Any doubts were quickly removed by the way his wife and children were treated thereafter. Perhaps Kayumba is in a better position to explain his posture at his Comrade’s burial.
In Rwanda, since the coming into power by RPF, once you are perceived to be on Kagame’s watch list, you are treated like a leper even your close friends cannot get distance themselves as much as they can the best you can expect from them are warning messages through third or fourth parties advising you to run for dear life. That explains why there is not a single person, former RPF or not, having disagreed with President Kagame, is still living in Rwanda. They are all dead, in prison, under house arrest or in exile.
President Kagame, during an interview with Daniel Kalinaki of the Daily Monitor, posed a rhetorical question as to why all people who don’t agree with him decide to run into exile. I am not sure he did not know the answer to his question but if indeed he did not, the only possible answer is in the immediate above paragraph.
President Kagame’s government is allergic to opposition even if some two years ago he declared that it is not him to do the job of the opposition but the opposition itself. It is an impossible mission to be an opposition in Rwanda and not be called a genocidaire, negationist, revisionist, genocide denier. You are lucky if you are a Tutsi because you cannot fit into these categories. You are instead a thief, corrupt, terrorist and or treacherous. You can be all those depending on the mood of your accuser since prosecution is at the pleasure of the powers that be. Genocide is less of a national tragedy than it is a political tool used to ensnare genuine opposition in the Country.
Politics in Africa is dangerous business but it is also more dangerous in some countries that in others. Rwanda is an extreme case. Having gone through genocide, you would think that the leaders would do whatever it is in their powers to avoid war ever happening again in that country. What the RPF government is doing to its political opponents leaves no room even to the ultra-pacifist to conclude that the only avenue left to oppose President Kagame, is through violent means. War is not an avenue that any responsible right thinking person should encourage but, there are circumstances that dictate there to be war in order to have peace –paradoxical as it sounds.
Why is it a crime to have a different opinion, differ politically, opt out of a political formation or even dislike your political leader, yet all the above constitute a grave misconduct in the eyes of RPF regime and endangers anyone who habours or is perceived to have such sentiments . This is not limited to politicians but even to civil society like non-governmental organisations and journalists and newspapers. Rwanda is cleaned of any independent minded opinion leaders and all we have today is an array of government NGOs, and government newspapers and journalists –talk about nationalization engineering, this is futuristic in style only if we were dealing with comedy.
In economics there is what we call the ‘law of diminishing returns’. Simply stated, the law of diminishing returns refers to how the marginal production of a factor of production starts to progressively decrease as the factor is increased, in contrast to the increase that would otherwise be normally expected. This law is as true in economics as is in realpolitik.
The RPF government made a strategic choice that being feared than being loved will keep them in power and in my opinion, they were right, if one considers being in power as an end in itself –in which case you factor out transformation of society as not having been part of their ‘patriotic’ agenda. Rwanda under President Kagame, is a classic police state where intelligence is more important than defense. The enemy of the state is defined as more internal than external and the regime has crafted an atmosphere where nobody can trust anybody therefore organizing dissent within and/or without the system is a challenge for those who would want to see change.
The result of the above policy choice has been sledge-hammering of whoever does not worship the General of Generals, Kagame.
But as with all policy choices, there are limitations and so has RPF’s. Going after the regimes opponents with all fury, leaving nothing to chance, in the end leaving a trail of murders, arrests and imprisonment, herding others in exile, has its own limitations. This is where the law of diminishing returns comes in. State terrorism is gradually falling short of its desired effects. It has instead awakened up the regimes’ friends from their slumber of denial to realize the regime in Kigali is not the victim but a villain when it comes to human rights violations.
Many cold-blooded actions can no longer be explained or spinned or denied, not all and certainly, not for ever. The guilt-tripping of the west has come become stereo-typical and its weight has lessened, due to time and the regimes own crimes.
Since at least 1997, opposition to RPF regime has been growing in different forms and shape but most importantly, this opposition internal or external, has been democratic and pacifist (save for FDLR which never accepted RPF from the onset). The experience of this political opposition can be compared to tilling a rock –you certainly do not get anywhere. As much undesired as it is, violent opposition is going to be the next phase of opposing RPF regime. It is simply a law of natural progression. Contesting RPF’s monopoly of the means of violence is a very tempting thought.
July 4, 2010
Between February and April, 198 I met the late Seth Sendashonga on two occasions both, in Nairobi, Kenya. On my first visit, we met at the Regency Hotel. I have a vivid memory of that occasion. I remember the Hotel had a pellish pink paint –at least the terrace where we sat. Seth was wearing a golden suite, red necktie white shirt and black shoes, and he had a somewhat oversized moustache. I on the other hand, had a light blue shirt, black trousers and shoes. I also had on a bleu jean jacket and a Rastafarian hat–evidently, la mode has never been my forté. As a by-the-way, I later lost my jean jacket to a comrade in Havana and gave as souvenir, my rasta hat to an Eritrean lady friend at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
The second time we met with Seth Sendashonga, we drove around town talking in the car, the same in which he was later assassinated, a beige Toyota Corolla with red UN number plate, and we ended at his home for lunch where I met his wife and a teenage girl, I believe, his daughter.
There was a scheduled third meeting on the 24th of May, 1998. He was assassinated on the 22nd of May while I was in Zanzibar where I had gone to do some work concerning preparatory meetings the Pan African Movement Secretariat was organizing across Africa to create awareness of the campaign for the creation of the African Union. These meetings were being sponsored by the Libyan government and being implemented by the Pan African Movement Secretariat. As his Assistant on the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions, the General Secretary, the late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Rahim had entrusted me with the duty of being the point person on conducting these meetings.
I was to proceed to Nairobi from Zanzibar, again, on instructions from Dr. Tajudeen to carry his message to his friend Seth Sendashonga.
At that time, there was an effort (basing on the information I had, I am not sure whose initiative it was) to patch the ruptured relationship between Seth and his former colleagues in the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). I know for a fact, that Dr. Tajudeen and PAM was not the only line by which information was being passed to and from RPF and Seth. There was another initiative that involved Maj. Gen. Salim Saleh. We talked about it with Seth but I also heard it through other avenues.
When Sendashonga was assassinated, I was heart- broken. I had developed a certain appreciation of him as a decent person, genuinely honest and inspiring. We may not have shared the same political philosophy, him being a liberal democrat and I leaning towards social democratic but there was more that we shared than we did not.
Sendashonga was killed because of his political stand and nothing else. All those phony constructs that he was involved in a business deal which went bad are irritating to say the least. As it so happened, he became a bona fide poster boy for the countless political figures Rwanda has lost over these past two decades. There are never any investigations, no public inquiries to shed light as to what may or may not have happened, only the usual casual who cares explanation of ‘it was an accident’, ‘suicide’, ‘business deal gone bad’, and so on.
Among the many topics we discussed was Kagame’s personality because even as Vice President, it was always known and rightly so, that he was more important than the actual President Bizimungu. The later was more of a unity symbol to comfort the Hutu population and show the rest of the world that it was not all about Tutsi victors and Hutu vanquished. Sendashonga’s opinion of Kagame was mixed and shifting. He told me that during the earlier days the two men met and started working together, he saw Kagame as a disciplined person and a listener. He saw him as some he could ‘work with’. However, in Sendashonga’s words, ‘Kagame overnight developed an almost ready-made mistrust of his Hutu colleagues in government and the rest was a matter of time that the rupture occurred”. He recounted to me how in the earlier days of RPF taking power, the used to have frank meetings and discuss openly and criticize each other where need was. He said however, as grave errors started to be committed by RPA soldiers killing civilians at any flimsy excuse, Kagame started to be defensive along fellow RPA officers and he and others in the army side started skipping the consultation meetings and eventually they ceased taking place.
I sat in President Pasteur Bizimungu’s press briefing on 22nd April, 1995 at Hotel Meridien Umubano at Kacyiru across the New times Offices. He had come to explain the massacre or tell if u will, the International Community what happened at the Kibeho camp of internally displaced people (IDP). The President came to that meeting with an air of self-importance that I had not seen about him before. He asked the international community to accept the official figure of 300 people as being the victims of that massacre. This was after, he and Vice President Kagame, had flown over the destroyed camps in a helicopter to see for themselves the extent of the catastrophe. It is worth noting that before the President and Vice President, the Minister of Internal Affairs had been denied entry into the camps by the RPF soldiers guarding the camps.
UNAMIR, on the same night of the massacre gave an estimate of the dead to be about 4000 which it later revised to between 1500-2000 people. Even considering the UNAMIR’s lower figure of 1500 and compare it with that of the government of 300, leads to the conclusion that either both sides were not referring to the same incident or one of them is not being sincere. It is u and I to tell in our opinion who was telling the truth and who was not and who had the motive to lie.
It is my opinion, I may be wrong, that the then Vice President and Minister of Defense Kagame was not aware of all the details of what went on in the Kibeho camp, especially the days leading to the massacre, but still I find him, together with the then President Bizimungu, responsible for their conduct after the massacre where no efforts were spared in covering up the extent of the tragedy.
Rutayisire’s Death and General Kayumba’s Presence
In his recent interviews, exiled General Kayumba talks about the loneliness he felt when he lost his parent and none of his comrades showed up at the burial nor call him to offer condolences. I am sure this came as no surprise to the good General since it was not the first time it was happening. When Lt. Col. Wilson Rutayisire (Shaban) was murdered in Congo, in June, 2000, I was in Kigali. I say murdered in spite of the official version that he killed himself, because I have very good reasons to counter the official story:
For those who knew Shaban as a friend knew that one of his daughters, Hope or Charity, I cannot recall her exact name, was to undergo a medical procedure in a week’s time. We had met at the Meridien Hotel where I was staying doing preparatory work for a Justice Africa project, the Peoples Panel. He told me he was leaving for DRC but that he would be back to be present when his daughter underwent the procedure;
Having seen him less than one week before his death, having talked to him on phone from DRC two days before his death, not having seen, sensed, felt, heard of any indicator of fore-bearance, I have no choice but to conclude that Shaban did not take his own life but those who were quick to concoct a suicide story, know better of who killed Shaban.
It is only Gen. Kayumba, who represented the government and army at the burial. Those who were present can attest to the anger or fury on Kayumba’s face at the unceremonious ceremony. The interpretation we all had was that nobody should dare question the government version of events since shortly after his death and at burial it was a known secret that it was not suicide but murder. Any doubts were quickly removed by the way his wife and children were treated thereafter. Perhaps Kayumba is in a better position to explain his posture at his Comrade’s burial.
In Rwanda, since the coming into power by RPF, once you are perceived to be on Kagame’s watch list, you are treated like a leper even your close friends cannot get distance themselves as much as they can the best you can expect from them are warning messages through third or fourth parties advising you to run for dear life. That explains why there is not a single person, former RPF or not, having disagreed with President Kagame, is still living in Rwanda. They are all dead, in prison, under house arrest or in exile.
President Kagame, during an interview with Daniel Kalinaki of the Daily Monitor, posed a rhetorical question as to why all people who don’t agree with him decide to run into exile. I am not sure he did not know the answer to his question but if indeed he did not, the only possible answer is in the immediate above paragraph.
President Kagame’s government is allergic to opposition even if some two years ago he declared that it is not him to do the job of the opposition but the opposition itself. It is an impossible mission to be an opposition in Rwanda and not be called a genocidaire, negationist, revisionist, genocide denier. You are lucky if you are a Tutsi because you cannot fit into these categories. You are instead a thief, corrupt, terrorist and or treacherous. You can be all those depending on the mood of your accuser since prosecution is at the pleasure of the powers that be. Genocide is less of a national tragedy than it is a political tool used to ensnare genuine opposition in the Country.
Politics in Africa is dangerous business but it is also more dangerous in some countries that in others. Rwanda is an extreme case. Having gone through genocide, you would think that the leaders would do whatever it is in their powers to avoid war ever happening again in that country. What the RPF government is doing to its political opponents leaves no room even to the ultra-pacifist to conclude that the only avenue left to oppose President Kagame, is through violent means. War is not an avenue that any responsible right thinking person should encourage but, there are circumstances that dictate there to be war in order to have peace –paradoxical as it sounds.
Why is it a crime to have a different opinion, differ politically, opt out of a political formation or even dislike your political leader, yet all the above constitute a grave misconduct in the eyes of RPF regime and endangers anyone who habours or is perceived to have such sentiments . This is not limited to politicians but even to civil society like non-governmental organisations and journalists and newspapers. Rwanda is cleaned of any independent minded opinion leaders and all we have today is an array of government NGOs, and government newspapers and journalists –talk about nationalization engineering, this is futuristic in style only if we were dealing with comedy.
In economics there is what we call the ‘law of diminishing returns’. Simply stated, the law of diminishing returns refers to how the marginal production of a factor of production starts to progressively decrease as the factor is increased, in contrast to the increase that would otherwise be normally expected. This law is as true in economics as is in realpolitik.
The RPF government made a strategic choice that being feared than being loved will keep them in power and in my opinion, they were right, if one considers being in power as an end in itself –in which case you factor out transformation of society as not having been part of their ‘patriotic’ agenda. Rwanda under President Kagame, is a classic police state where intelligence is more important than defense. The enemy of the state is defined as more internal than external and the regime has crafted an atmosphere where nobody can trust anybody therefore organizing dissent within and/or without the system is a challenge for those who would want to see change.
The result of the above policy choice has been sledge-hammering of whoever does not worship the General of Generals, Kagame.
But as with all policy choices, there are limitations and so has RPF’s. Going after the regimes opponents with all fury, leaving nothing to chance, in the end leaving a trail of murders, arrests and imprisonment, herding others in exile, has its own limitations. This is where the law of diminishing returns comes in. State terrorism is gradually falling short of its desired effects. It has instead awakened up the regimes’ friends from their slumber of denial to realize the regime in Kigali is not the victim but a villain when it comes to human rights violations.
Many cold-blooded actions can no longer be explained or spinned or denied, not all and certainly, not for ever. The guilt-tripping of the west has come become stereo-typical and its weight has lessened, due to time and the regimes own crimes.
Since at least 1997, opposition to RPF regime has been growing in different forms and shape but most importantly, this opposition internal or external, has been democratic and pacifist (save for FDLR which never accepted RPF from the onset). The experience of this political opposition can be compared to tilling a rock –you certainly do not get anywhere. As much undesired as it is, violent opposition is going to be the next phase of opposing RPF regime. It is simply a law of natural progression. Contesting RPF’s monopoly of the means of violence is a very tempting thought.
EurAc is concerned about the violence and the democratic deficit in the run up to presidential elections in Rwanda.
Eurac
Press Release
3 July 2010
EurAc, the network of European NGOs that lobby for Central Africa, has since the beginning of 2010 been following which great attention and concern the preparations for the presidential elections in Rwanda, planned to be held on 9 August.
We have seen how the opposition parties that were getting ready for the campaign have been excluded of the process and how the political playing field has been closed off by:
• the régime’s monopoly of the media which have never stopped demonising the opposition parties and their leaders;
• verbal and physical intimidation of opposition parties, their leaders, officials and activists;
• the creation of a legal framework which enables the régime very quickly to start legal proceedings which are very difficult for the opposition to counter (based on accusations of spreading “genocidal ideology and divisionism”, very vague notions which have deliberately been left imprecise in law). This framework paralyses the opposition leaders when they try to carry out their daily activities and is used to prevent them from exercising their political rights;
• an administrative policy aimed at preventing opposition parties from registering, taking root, organising meetings or making themselves known to the general public;
• the infiltration of opposition parties to destabilise them from inside.
In addition we have noticed a considerable degree of nervousness in the inner cicles of power in Rwanda, not least in the army. The flight of General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa to South Africa and the arrest of Generals Emmanuel Karenzi Karake and Charles Muhire have demonstrated that by attempting to keep society under complete control in this pre-electoral period the Rwandan régime has begun to lose its cool and its cohesion.
In recent weeks EurAc has noted increasing insecurity and more acts of violence as shown in these examples:
• the attempt to assassinate General Kayumba Nyamwasa on 19 June 2010 in Johannesburg. Since his arrival in South Africa at the end of February the General has expressed very explicit public criticism on President Kagame and his government;
• the assassination on 24 June at Nyamirambo (Kigali) of the journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage. He worked for the independent newspaper. Umuvugizi, publication of which was suspended in April 2010. Umuvugizi had reported that the government had a hand in the attempt to kill Nyamwasa and that Jean-Léonard Rugambare was leading the investigations;
• the intimidation, arrest and ill-treatment on 24 and 25 June of officials, activists and leaders of two opposition parties, PS-Imberakuri and FDU-Inkingini.
EurAc is especially concerned about the actual and potential violence in the run-up to the Rwandan elections. EurAc recommends that the European Union, in the framework of its political dialogue with Rwanda, should give a strong and clear signal to the Rwanda government and recommend that it should take steps to ensure political stability and the holding of free and transparent elections. It should:
• respect democratic principles prior to the elections, allow opposition parties to register and to carry out their work at grass root level, and finally stop dismantling them;
• stop political and police harassment of leaders and members of the opposition;
• not use the media to demonise its opponents;
• respect and protect the space for free expression and diversity of opinion by civil society and an independent press.
EurAc hopes that the European Union will express its worries about the current situation and that it will react to the killing of Jean-Léopold Rugambare with as much indignation and consternation as it did to the announcement of the death of Floribert Chebeya.
Kris Berwouts,
Director of EurAc
Press Release
3 July 2010
EurAc, the network of European NGOs that lobby for Central Africa, has since the beginning of 2010 been following which great attention and concern the preparations for the presidential elections in Rwanda, planned to be held on 9 August.
We have seen how the opposition parties that were getting ready for the campaign have been excluded of the process and how the political playing field has been closed off by:
• the régime’s monopoly of the media which have never stopped demonising the opposition parties and their leaders;
• verbal and physical intimidation of opposition parties, their leaders, officials and activists;
• the creation of a legal framework which enables the régime very quickly to start legal proceedings which are very difficult for the opposition to counter (based on accusations of spreading “genocidal ideology and divisionism”, very vague notions which have deliberately been left imprecise in law). This framework paralyses the opposition leaders when they try to carry out their daily activities and is used to prevent them from exercising their political rights;
• an administrative policy aimed at preventing opposition parties from registering, taking root, organising meetings or making themselves known to the general public;
• the infiltration of opposition parties to destabilise them from inside.
In addition we have noticed a considerable degree of nervousness in the inner cicles of power in Rwanda, not least in the army. The flight of General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa to South Africa and the arrest of Generals Emmanuel Karenzi Karake and Charles Muhire have demonstrated that by attempting to keep society under complete control in this pre-electoral period the Rwandan régime has begun to lose its cool and its cohesion.
In recent weeks EurAc has noted increasing insecurity and more acts of violence as shown in these examples:
• the attempt to assassinate General Kayumba Nyamwasa on 19 June 2010 in Johannesburg. Since his arrival in South Africa at the end of February the General has expressed very explicit public criticism on President Kagame and his government;
• the assassination on 24 June at Nyamirambo (Kigali) of the journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage. He worked for the independent newspaper. Umuvugizi, publication of which was suspended in April 2010. Umuvugizi had reported that the government had a hand in the attempt to kill Nyamwasa and that Jean-Léonard Rugambare was leading the investigations;
• the intimidation, arrest and ill-treatment on 24 and 25 June of officials, activists and leaders of two opposition parties, PS-Imberakuri and FDU-Inkingini.
EurAc is especially concerned about the actual and potential violence in the run-up to the Rwandan elections. EurAc recommends that the European Union, in the framework of its political dialogue with Rwanda, should give a strong and clear signal to the Rwanda government and recommend that it should take steps to ensure political stability and the holding of free and transparent elections. It should:
• respect democratic principles prior to the elections, allow opposition parties to register and to carry out their work at grass root level, and finally stop dismantling them;
• stop political and police harassment of leaders and members of the opposition;
• not use the media to demonise its opponents;
• respect and protect the space for free expression and diversity of opinion by civil society and an independent press.
EurAc hopes that the European Union will express its worries about the current situation and that it will react to the killing of Jean-Léopold Rugambare with as much indignation and consternation as it did to the announcement of the death of Floribert Chebeya.
Kris Berwouts,
Director of EurAc
03 July, 2010
Guinea 2nd round candidates announced.
Afrol News
3 July 2010
Former PM Cellou Dalein Diallo and "eternal opposition leader" Alpha Condé received most votes in Guinea's 27 June presidential elections, it was confirmed today. The two will run in a second round on 18 July.
There were great expectations to Guinea's Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), which had organised the country's first-ever democratic polls and was to release provisional results two days ago. But "logistical, transport and security difficulties" led to a 48 hours delay, keeping Guineans to hold their breath in tension.
This night at 2 o'clock, the provisional results were finally presented by the Commission. None of the 24 candidates competing for president won a clean 50 percent victory. Rather, a second polling round will have to be organised on 18 July between the two candidates gathering most votes.
Surprisingly, Mr Diallo of the UFDG received most votes, reaching 39.72 percent according to the CENI. Mr Diallo was Prime Minister in Guinea 2004-06 and now leads the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG). He was renowned for trying to fight corruption while heading government. As an opposition leader, he was central to the mass protests in Conakry in September 2009, ending in a bloodbath.
Mr Diallo (58) thus gained more votes than Mr Condé (72), who had been widely seen as favourite to win the presidential election. Mr Condé however came second in the first round, receiving 20.67 percent of the votes.
Mr Condé is the leader of the Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG) opposition party, which for decades has stood up to Guinea's authoritarian regimes. He is widely be
Alpha Condé at rally in Conakry during Guinea's 2010 presidential election campaign
© RPG/afrol News
lieved to have won the stolen 1993 presidential elections and was seen to have led the most visited, popular and best financed electoral campaign.
Guinea is being congratulated from the international community for its organisation of the country's first free and fair polls despite enormous infrastructure challenges and a tight schedule. While some irregularities due to logistical problems were registered, observers have so far hailed the poll as fair. No serious security problems occurred.
A second poll round now will be organised on 18 July between the two candidates. This round is still very open, although Mr Diallo's good results seem to favour him.
Mr Condé, although only having less than 21 percent of the votes cast in the first round supporting him, is considered the most antiestablishment candidate in the race, possibly able to gather much of the votes given to other opposition candidates. The "establishment" in Guinea is by far credited by decades of poor government,
However, the age of Mr Condé - 72 years - is speaking against him as Guineans are tired of having an ailing President unable to run the country. Late President Lansana Conté for years was suffering from various diseases making him unable to participate in giving Guinea a steady course at times.
The race, to be decided later this month, still is open. But Mr Diallo has indeed taken a surprising lead.
3 July 2010
Former PM Cellou Dalein Diallo and "eternal opposition leader" Alpha Condé received most votes in Guinea's 27 June presidential elections, it was confirmed today. The two will run in a second round on 18 July.
There were great expectations to Guinea's Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), which had organised the country's first-ever democratic polls and was to release provisional results two days ago. But "logistical, transport and security difficulties" led to a 48 hours delay, keeping Guineans to hold their breath in tension.
This night at 2 o'clock, the provisional results were finally presented by the Commission. None of the 24 candidates competing for president won a clean 50 percent victory. Rather, a second polling round will have to be organised on 18 July between the two candidates gathering most votes.
Surprisingly, Mr Diallo of the UFDG received most votes, reaching 39.72 percent according to the CENI. Mr Diallo was Prime Minister in Guinea 2004-06 and now leads the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG). He was renowned for trying to fight corruption while heading government. As an opposition leader, he was central to the mass protests in Conakry in September 2009, ending in a bloodbath.
Mr Diallo (58) thus gained more votes than Mr Condé (72), who had been widely seen as favourite to win the presidential election. Mr Condé however came second in the first round, receiving 20.67 percent of the votes.
Mr Condé is the leader of the Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG) opposition party, which for decades has stood up to Guinea's authoritarian regimes. He is widely be
Alpha Condé at rally in Conakry during Guinea's 2010 presidential election campaign
© RPG/afrol News
lieved to have won the stolen 1993 presidential elections and was seen to have led the most visited, popular and best financed electoral campaign.
Guinea is being congratulated from the international community for its organisation of the country's first free and fair polls despite enormous infrastructure challenges and a tight schedule. While some irregularities due to logistical problems were registered, observers have so far hailed the poll as fair. No serious security problems occurred.
A second poll round now will be organised on 18 July between the two candidates. This round is still very open, although Mr Diallo's good results seem to favour him.
Mr Condé, although only having less than 21 percent of the votes cast in the first round supporting him, is considered the most antiestablishment candidate in the race, possibly able to gather much of the votes given to other opposition candidates. The "establishment" in Guinea is by far credited by decades of poor government,
However, the age of Mr Condé - 72 years - is speaking against him as Guineans are tired of having an ailing President unable to run the country. Late President Lansana Conté for years was suffering from various diseases making him unable to participate in giving Guinea a steady course at times.
The race, to be decided later this month, still is open. But Mr Diallo has indeed taken a surprising lead.
02 July, 2010
FDU-Inkingi alleges torture of detained opposition party members.
UDF/FDU-Inkingi
Press Release
On 24th June 2010, a police crackdown arraigned hundreds of opposition members in Kigali. This is the tone of the upcoming presidential election as the mass arrests coincide with the opening of nominations of presidential candidates.
Since then, the victims are in handcuffs day and night in their jail cells.
Critical cases of torture have been recorded:
1. Ms. Alice MUHIRWA, the party's Treasurer, is still bleeding due to kicks to her stomach. She has been denied access to a medical doctor.
2. Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the party's Secretary-General, needs an urgent x-ray as he was beaten several times while his legs and arms were tied behind his back.
3.Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA (Party leader in Kigali) needs a concussion evaluation after sustaining a head injury from being banged against a wall many times during a torture session.
4.Maitre Theogene MUHAYEYEZU, the new defence lawyer of Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, has been tortured after arrest and detained incommunicado. Me Theogene is a lawyer who goes by "Barreau" in Kigali. He was by High Court at the time he was arrested to monitor the proceedings of a client. When the police arrested members of FDU who demonstrated in the courtyard of the Ministry of Justice, which is at the same place as the High Court, a police officer told his colleague this gentleman was working on the case of Mrs. Ingabire, which resulted in his arrest. Me Theogene is not to be confused with his clients. Under these conditions, the illegal nature of his detention is obvious.
5.The medical condition of party member Martin NTAVUKA is not known.
6.Other opposition leaders from the Parti Social-Imberakuri were arrested on the same day. All have symptoms of torture and cruel and degrading treatments as well. This includes Bernard NTAGANDA, his Secretary-General and other executive party members.
We call upon President Paul KAGAME and his government to immediately stop torturing and ensure that the opposition members are released and treated in public hospitals without delay. We also call upon the government to open impartial and effective investigations into the allegations of torture and ill-treatment. The victims should be awarded full reparation.
Done in Kigali,
2 July 2010
Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson,
FDU-Inkingi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note: The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda found out that their political prisoners made complaints to the prosecution and it is now included in their legal dossier. Both the prosecution and the detainees signed their respective dossiers. The lawyers would not have told anyone about these events if it was not in their dossiers. Said Green Party President Frank Habineza, "So the police spokesman should start solving the mentioned problems rather than harrasing us."
Press Release
On 24th June 2010, a police crackdown arraigned hundreds of opposition members in Kigali. This is the tone of the upcoming presidential election as the mass arrests coincide with the opening of nominations of presidential candidates.
Since then, the victims are in handcuffs day and night in their jail cells.
Critical cases of torture have been recorded:
1. Ms. Alice MUHIRWA, the party's Treasurer, is still bleeding due to kicks to her stomach. She has been denied access to a medical doctor.
2. Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the party's Secretary-General, needs an urgent x-ray as he was beaten several times while his legs and arms were tied behind his back.
3.Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA (Party leader in Kigali) needs a concussion evaluation after sustaining a head injury from being banged against a wall many times during a torture session.
4.Maitre Theogene MUHAYEYEZU, the new defence lawyer of Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, has been tortured after arrest and detained incommunicado. Me Theogene is a lawyer who goes by "Barreau" in Kigali. He was by High Court at the time he was arrested to monitor the proceedings of a client. When the police arrested members of FDU who demonstrated in the courtyard of the Ministry of Justice, which is at the same place as the High Court, a police officer told his colleague this gentleman was working on the case of Mrs. Ingabire, which resulted in his arrest. Me Theogene is not to be confused with his clients. Under these conditions, the illegal nature of his detention is obvious.
5.The medical condition of party member Martin NTAVUKA is not known.
6.Other opposition leaders from the Parti Social-Imberakuri were arrested on the same day. All have symptoms of torture and cruel and degrading treatments as well. This includes Bernard NTAGANDA, his Secretary-General and other executive party members.
We call upon President Paul KAGAME and his government to immediately stop torturing and ensure that the opposition members are released and treated in public hospitals without delay. We also call upon the government to open impartial and effective investigations into the allegations of torture and ill-treatment. The victims should be awarded full reparation.
Done in Kigali,
2 July 2010
Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson,
FDU-Inkingi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note: The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda found out that their political prisoners made complaints to the prosecution and it is now included in their legal dossier. Both the prosecution and the detainees signed their respective dossiers. The lawyers would not have told anyone about these events if it was not in their dossiers. Said Green Party President Frank Habineza, "So the police spokesman should start solving the mentioned problems rather than harrasing us."
RWANDA ASSURES IMMUNITY TO ICTR DEFENCE COUNSELS.
Hirondelle News Agency
30 June 2010
Rwandan Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga has assured the defence counsels working with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that no lawyer would be prosecuted in Rwanda for performing official duties as defence counsel before the Tribunal.
He was addressing the question surrounding the arraignment in Kigali of American Professor Peter Erlinder recently on genocide denial charges, the event which attracted criticism from defence counsels at ICTR, alleging fears of being prosecuted like their colleague.
"We understand that there is no fair trial where there is no representation," he said, comforting defence counsels at ICTR that their immunity in that respect was guaranteed.
In a press conference Wednesday, Ngoga said, "the relationship between Rwanda and ICTR is still intact. We are mindful of our obligations in that we have to facilitate activities of ICTR. We stick to provisions of Memorandum of Understanding we had signed."
"Rest assured that the case of Erlinder is an isolated event. It is a case of Erlinder alone. Erlinder has been provoking the history of our country by making several statements saying there was no genocide in Rwanda. This is a criminal offence and is against our law. As a country, Rwanda has the obligation to punish those who breach our laws," he said.
ICTR sent to Rwanda a note, asking immediate release of Erlinder after observing that there was a link between the nature of accusations and his mandate with Tribunal. The American Professor was released on bail on medical and humanitarian grounds. Mr. Erlinder is lead counsel for Major Aloys Ntabakuze, who is currently waiting for the hearing on his appeal against his conviction.
The ICTR Spokesperson Roland Amoussouga took the opportunity to dispel any misunderstanding on the matter, particularly from the defence counsels, saying Rwanda and Tribunal would continue to respect their mutual relationship signed by the parties.
30 June 2010
Rwandan Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga has assured the defence counsels working with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that no lawyer would be prosecuted in Rwanda for performing official duties as defence counsel before the Tribunal.
He was addressing the question surrounding the arraignment in Kigali of American Professor Peter Erlinder recently on genocide denial charges, the event which attracted criticism from defence counsels at ICTR, alleging fears of being prosecuted like their colleague.
"We understand that there is no fair trial where there is no representation," he said, comforting defence counsels at ICTR that their immunity in that respect was guaranteed.
In a press conference Wednesday, Ngoga said, "the relationship between Rwanda and ICTR is still intact. We are mindful of our obligations in that we have to facilitate activities of ICTR. We stick to provisions of Memorandum of Understanding we had signed."
"Rest assured that the case of Erlinder is an isolated event. It is a case of Erlinder alone. Erlinder has been provoking the history of our country by making several statements saying there was no genocide in Rwanda. This is a criminal offence and is against our law. As a country, Rwanda has the obligation to punish those who breach our laws," he said.
ICTR sent to Rwanda a note, asking immediate release of Erlinder after observing that there was a link between the nature of accusations and his mandate with Tribunal. The American Professor was released on bail on medical and humanitarian grounds. Mr. Erlinder is lead counsel for Major Aloys Ntabakuze, who is currently waiting for the hearing on his appeal against his conviction.
The ICTR Spokesperson Roland Amoussouga took the opportunity to dispel any misunderstanding on the matter, particularly from the defence counsels, saying Rwanda and Tribunal would continue to respect their mutual relationship signed by the parties.
ICTR CLEARS AMERICAN LAWYER OF CONTEMPT OF COURT.
Hirondelle News Agency
1 July 2010
Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Wednesday cleared of contempt proceedings it had initiated against American lawyer Peter Robinson, counsel for genocide-accused Joseph Nzirorera, for refusing to conduct examination of defence witnesses.
Robinson had refused to lead witnesses called to defend Nzirorera for fear of being subjected to prosecution like his colleague, American Professor Peter Erlinder, who was arrested in Rwanda recently and subsequently charged with genocide denial.
"The Chamber has been satisfied that there are no conducts of obstructing court proceedings. Since there are no further actions of possible contempt that will be taken against Robinson, the matter is closed," Presiding Judge Dennis Byron said.
Asked about his comments on the ruling, Peter Robison said; ‘' I am relieved that I will not be tried for contempt. It was a big distraction from my work of representing my client, Joseph Nzirorera.''
However, Joseph Nzirorera died a few hours later "from sudden complication of a long illness", according to an ICTR press release.
1 July 2010
Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Wednesday cleared of contempt proceedings it had initiated against American lawyer Peter Robinson, counsel for genocide-accused Joseph Nzirorera, for refusing to conduct examination of defence witnesses.
Robinson had refused to lead witnesses called to defend Nzirorera for fear of being subjected to prosecution like his colleague, American Professor Peter Erlinder, who was arrested in Rwanda recently and subsequently charged with genocide denial.
"The Chamber has been satisfied that there are no conducts of obstructing court proceedings. Since there are no further actions of possible contempt that will be taken against Robinson, the matter is closed," Presiding Judge Dennis Byron said.
Asked about his comments on the ruling, Peter Robison said; ‘' I am relieved that I will not be tried for contempt. It was a big distraction from my work of representing my client, Joseph Nzirorera.''
However, Joseph Nzirorera died a few hours later "from sudden complication of a long illness", according to an ICTR press release.
Joseph Nzirorera Dies.
ICTR News
1 July 2010
ICTR/INFO-9-2-646.EN
Joseph Nzirorera, age 59, an accused in the ongoing trial of former leaders of the Mouvement Républicain pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MRND), passed away in Arusha on 1 July 2010, following sudden complications of a longstanding illness. The case of Mr. Nzirorera was before Trial Chamber III. His Defence was at the final stage of the presentation of its case, with his last witness undergoing cross-examination. His lead counsel was American lawyer Peter Robinson.
Mr. Nzirorera was former President of the National Assembly and Secretary-General of the MRND. He was jointly tried with Edouard Karemera, former Minister of Interior and Vice-President of the MRND and Mathieu Ngirumpatse former Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Karemera et al. case.
The three were jointly charged with seven counts of conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide (as an alternative to genocide), crimes against humanity (rape, extermination) and serious violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II.
The family and his lawyers have been informed and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda extends its condolences to the family of Joseph Nzirorera.
1 July 2010
ICTR/INFO-9-2-646.EN
Joseph Nzirorera, age 59, an accused in the ongoing trial of former leaders of the Mouvement Républicain pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MRND), passed away in Arusha on 1 July 2010, following sudden complications of a longstanding illness. The case of Mr. Nzirorera was before Trial Chamber III. His Defence was at the final stage of the presentation of its case, with his last witness undergoing cross-examination. His lead counsel was American lawyer Peter Robinson.
Mr. Nzirorera was former President of the National Assembly and Secretary-General of the MRND. He was jointly tried with Edouard Karemera, former Minister of Interior and Vice-President of the MRND and Mathieu Ngirumpatse former Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Karemera et al. case.
The three were jointly charged with seven counts of conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide (as an alternative to genocide), crimes against humanity (rape, extermination) and serious violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II.
The family and his lawyers have been informed and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda extends its condolences to the family of Joseph Nzirorera.
GUATAMALAN GOVERNMENT DENOUNCES “CONSPIRACY."
MISNA
2 July 2010
In a statement released by the media, Guatemala’s government denounced “groups of businessmen, politicians, mafias and criminals that have joined in a common strategy to erode and wear down the government” and destabilise the country. “The string of events of the past weeks, such as attacks against civil security forces and reportage and reports with partial analyses constitute a grave threat to state institutions”, says the statement issued by the administration of President Alvaro Colom. According to the government, “the recent practices are common to those of the times of the civil war”, which tore Guatemala between 1960 and 1996, “by groups that aim to perpetuate corruption and impunity that for years characterised the institutions”. Since he took office in January 2008, Colom has drawn strong criticism of various sectors for not doing enough to combat insecurity. The President has over the years repeatedly spoken of conspiracy plots against his government, but had never denounced them formally. The ruling ‘Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza’ (UNE) party called on the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to conduct a thorough investigation: “Some radical sectors and political parties promoted a break in institutional order, as occurred in Honduras (with the ousting of president Manuel Zelaya on 28 June 2009), using a media campaign to influence the public opinion”, said the UNE in a separate statement. The CICIG, created in 2007 under UN aegis, was once again called to investigate illegal security bodies and groups in the country. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday named as the new head of CICIG the attorney general of Costa Rica Francisco Dall’Anese Ruiz, in place of the Spanish jurist Carlos Castresana who resigned over the alleged lack of collaboration of the state in the fight against impunity.
2 July 2010
In a statement released by the media, Guatemala’s government denounced “groups of businessmen, politicians, mafias and criminals that have joined in a common strategy to erode and wear down the government” and destabilise the country. “The string of events of the past weeks, such as attacks against civil security forces and reportage and reports with partial analyses constitute a grave threat to state institutions”, says the statement issued by the administration of President Alvaro Colom. According to the government, “the recent practices are common to those of the times of the civil war”, which tore Guatemala between 1960 and 1996, “by groups that aim to perpetuate corruption and impunity that for years characterised the institutions”. Since he took office in January 2008, Colom has drawn strong criticism of various sectors for not doing enough to combat insecurity. The President has over the years repeatedly spoken of conspiracy plots against his government, but had never denounced them formally. The ruling ‘Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza’ (UNE) party called on the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to conduct a thorough investigation: “Some radical sectors and political parties promoted a break in institutional order, as occurred in Honduras (with the ousting of president Manuel Zelaya on 28 June 2009), using a media campaign to influence the public opinion”, said the UNE in a separate statement. The CICIG, created in 2007 under UN aegis, was once again called to investigate illegal security bodies and groups in the country. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday named as the new head of CICIG the attorney general of Costa Rica Francisco Dall’Anese Ruiz, in place of the Spanish jurist Carlos Castresana who resigned over the alleged lack of collaboration of the state in the fight against impunity.
South Africa 'Unlikely' to Repatriate General.
Business Day
By Wilson Johwa
2 July 2010
The fugitive Rwandan general granted refugee status in SA was unlikely to be repatriated unless there were special circumstances requiring the government to override protections contained in the Refugees Act, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said yesterday.
Rights groups in SA questioned the government's decision to give refuge to Lt-Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa - who is accused of war crimes - saying the move could compromise the integrity of the country's asylum system.
Mr Gigaba said SA was a sovereign country with its own policies and would implement provisions of the law guaranteeing that a refugee should not be sent back from where he had fled.
"We will implement the Refugees Act until such time as either the Presidency or the Department of International Relations and Co-operation advise us on whether the Rwandan general needs to be handed back to Rwanda," said Mr Gigaba at a media briefing in Pretoria.
Lt-Gen Nyamwasa's presence in SA came to light last month after he was shot and injured in an apparent assassination attempt while he was returning home to an upmarket Johannesburg suburb after a shopping trip.
Rwanda has requested that he be sent home to face charges over alleged grenade attacks this year. But SA does not have an extradition agreement with Rwanda.
Spain, along with France, sought Lt-Gen Nyamwasa's extradition to face prosecution for war crimes. But deputy head of the Spanish mission in Pretoria Juan Saenz de Heredia yesterday could not say if Spain would push SA for the extradition. A Spanish judge issued an arrest warrant against the former Rwandan army chief and 40 others in 2008.
"The Spanish government respects judicial decisions ... this is a decision taken by a judicial power," Mr de Heredia said.
By Wilson Johwa
2 July 2010
The fugitive Rwandan general granted refugee status in SA was unlikely to be repatriated unless there were special circumstances requiring the government to override protections contained in the Refugees Act, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said yesterday.
Rights groups in SA questioned the government's decision to give refuge to Lt-Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa - who is accused of war crimes - saying the move could compromise the integrity of the country's asylum system.
Mr Gigaba said SA was a sovereign country with its own policies and would implement provisions of the law guaranteeing that a refugee should not be sent back from where he had fled.
"We will implement the Refugees Act until such time as either the Presidency or the Department of International Relations and Co-operation advise us on whether the Rwandan general needs to be handed back to Rwanda," said Mr Gigaba at a media briefing in Pretoria.
Lt-Gen Nyamwasa's presence in SA came to light last month after he was shot and injured in an apparent assassination attempt while he was returning home to an upmarket Johannesburg suburb after a shopping trip.
Rwanda has requested that he be sent home to face charges over alleged grenade attacks this year. But SA does not have an extradition agreement with Rwanda.
Spain, along with France, sought Lt-Gen Nyamwasa's extradition to face prosecution for war crimes. But deputy head of the Spanish mission in Pretoria Juan Saenz de Heredia yesterday could not say if Spain would push SA for the extradition. A Spanish judge issued an arrest warrant against the former Rwandan army chief and 40 others in 2008.
"The Spanish government respects judicial decisions ... this is a decision taken by a judicial power," Mr de Heredia said.
Detained victims of the last police crackdown of opposition members are in agony and need urgent medical care.
The Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties in Rwanda (PCC)
C/O. B.P. 6334
Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: +250 788563039, +250 728636000, +250 788307145
Press Release
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) is wrapping up collecting nominations for Presidential Candidates today while opposition politicians arrested last week when it started receiving nominations are still imprisoned, enduring torture and suffering inhumane torment. The victims are in agony and have been denied medical care.
The Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties in Rwanda (PCC) is deeply concerned with this inhumane treatment from state institutions. They are persecuted because they peacefully oppose the ruling party and were demonstrating for their civil and constitutional rights since the NEC, in complicity with other government institutions, have blocked all genuine opposition from participating in the upcoming August presidential elections.
The planned demonstration on 24th June 2010, was sabotaged by the government when Maitre Bernard NTAGANDA, founding president of PS-Imberakuri, was violently grabbed from his home by agents of the National Police. Since then, he has been in in different prisons. The party's Secretary-General, Theobald MUTARAMBIRWA, and several other PS-Imberakuri members are still held up.
The same day several members of FDU-Inkingi were arrested. Though some have been released, others are submitted to severe tortures and denied medical attention. Ms. Alice MUHIRWA, the party treasurer, is still bleeding from kicks to her stomach. Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the party secretary-general, needs an urgent x-ray as he was beaten several times while his legs and arms were tied behind his back. Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA (party leader in Kigali) needs a concussion evaluation after a head injury he sustained when his head was smashed against a wall many times while being torture. The full medical condition of the following prisoners is not known, including party lawyer Maitre Theogene MUHAYEYEZU and party member Martin NTAVUKA. However, they all have symptoms of torture and degrading treatment.
How can the incumbent President Paul KAGAME, his regime and the state police explain the arbitrary arrests, torture, inhuman and cruel treatment of opposition leaders?
We call upon the Rwandan Government to immediately release these political prisoners without any further delay and investigate the reported cases of torture and barbaric martyrdom.
Issued in Kigali,
2nd July 2010
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson, United Democratic Forces
Mr. Frank Habineza
Chairman, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
C/O. B.P. 6334
Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: +250 788563039, +250 728636000, +250 788307145
Press Release
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) is wrapping up collecting nominations for Presidential Candidates today while opposition politicians arrested last week when it started receiving nominations are still imprisoned, enduring torture and suffering inhumane torment. The victims are in agony and have been denied medical care.
The Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties in Rwanda (PCC) is deeply concerned with this inhumane treatment from state institutions. They are persecuted because they peacefully oppose the ruling party and were demonstrating for their civil and constitutional rights since the NEC, in complicity with other government institutions, have blocked all genuine opposition from participating in the upcoming August presidential elections.
The planned demonstration on 24th June 2010, was sabotaged by the government when Maitre Bernard NTAGANDA, founding president of PS-Imberakuri, was violently grabbed from his home by agents of the National Police. Since then, he has been in in different prisons. The party's Secretary-General, Theobald MUTARAMBIRWA, and several other PS-Imberakuri members are still held up.
The same day several members of FDU-Inkingi were arrested. Though some have been released, others are submitted to severe tortures and denied medical attention. Ms. Alice MUHIRWA, the party treasurer, is still bleeding from kicks to her stomach. Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, the party secretary-general, needs an urgent x-ray as he was beaten several times while his legs and arms were tied behind his back. Mr. Theoneste SIBOMANA (party leader in Kigali) needs a concussion evaluation after a head injury he sustained when his head was smashed against a wall many times while being torture. The full medical condition of the following prisoners is not known, including party lawyer Maitre Theogene MUHAYEYEZU and party member Martin NTAVUKA. However, they all have symptoms of torture and degrading treatment.
How can the incumbent President Paul KAGAME, his regime and the state police explain the arbitrary arrests, torture, inhuman and cruel treatment of opposition leaders?
We call upon the Rwandan Government to immediately release these political prisoners without any further delay and investigate the reported cases of torture and barbaric martyrdom.
Issued in Kigali,
2nd July 2010
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chairperson, United Democratic Forces
Mr. Frank Habineza
Chairman, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda
Iran leader to visit Nigeria as it takes UN post.
JON GAMBRELL
AP News
July 01, 2010
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Nigeria this weekend as the West African nation assumes the rotating presidency of the United Nations' security council, an Iranian diplomat said Thursday.
Ahmadinejad's visit to Nigeria comes after the leader made similar visits to Uganda and Zimbabwe in April, as the pariah Middle Eastern nation tries to build alliances against stronger U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program.
Khosrow Rezazadeh, Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, on Thursday confirmed Ahmadinejad's planned visit, but declined to offer further details. Nigeria's foreign ministry also declined to tell reporters about Ahmadinejad's plans, though his arrival comes as Nigeria's capital, Abuja, is scheduled to host a conference for a group of developing countries known as the D-8.
Nigeria took over the presidency of the U.N. security council on Thursday. As president, Nigeria's U.N. Ambassador Joy Ogwu will serve as the ceremonial head of the 15-member body. She also will be able to set the council's schedule and lead mediation on any crisis during Nigeria's monthlong tenure.
Nigeria last served on the security council in 1994-95.
The U.N. put new sanctions in place against Iran in June over its nuclear program. Among the new restrictions, the sanctions freeze assets of new organizations linked to Iran's government, bans the nation from pursuing "any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons" and bars it from investing in uranium mining.
Ahmadinejad responded by vowing retaliation if Iran's ships are searched over suspicions that the cargo may violate the new sanctions. responded by vowing Iranian retaliation if its ships are searched over suspicions that the cargo may violate the new sanctions.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized Nigeria on Thursday for taking over the security council presidency while religious violence continues to plague the nation. Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between the Christian-dominated south and Muslim north. Hundreds have died in central Nigeria this year alone in sectarian fighting.
The bipartisan U.S. government commission asked other members of the security council to pressure Nigeria into addressing the violence.
"Nigeria's own security and stability is put at risk by a culture of unchecked and unpunished sectarian violence that gives rise to divisiveness along religious lines and repeated reprisal attacks," commission chairman Leonard Leo said in a statement. "Nigeria has the ability to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian violence, but so far lacks political will and determination to actually do so."
AP News
July 01, 2010
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Nigeria this weekend as the West African nation assumes the rotating presidency of the United Nations' security council, an Iranian diplomat said Thursday.
Ahmadinejad's visit to Nigeria comes after the leader made similar visits to Uganda and Zimbabwe in April, as the pariah Middle Eastern nation tries to build alliances against stronger U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program.
Khosrow Rezazadeh, Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, on Thursday confirmed Ahmadinejad's planned visit, but declined to offer further details. Nigeria's foreign ministry also declined to tell reporters about Ahmadinejad's plans, though his arrival comes as Nigeria's capital, Abuja, is scheduled to host a conference for a group of developing countries known as the D-8.
Nigeria took over the presidency of the U.N. security council on Thursday. As president, Nigeria's U.N. Ambassador Joy Ogwu will serve as the ceremonial head of the 15-member body. She also will be able to set the council's schedule and lead mediation on any crisis during Nigeria's monthlong tenure.
Nigeria last served on the security council in 1994-95.
The U.N. put new sanctions in place against Iran in June over its nuclear program. Among the new restrictions, the sanctions freeze assets of new organizations linked to Iran's government, bans the nation from pursuing "any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons" and bars it from investing in uranium mining.
Ahmadinejad responded by vowing retaliation if Iran's ships are searched over suspicions that the cargo may violate the new sanctions. responded by vowing Iranian retaliation if its ships are searched over suspicions that the cargo may violate the new sanctions.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized Nigeria on Thursday for taking over the security council presidency while religious violence continues to plague the nation. Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between the Christian-dominated south and Muslim north. Hundreds have died in central Nigeria this year alone in sectarian fighting.
The bipartisan U.S. government commission asked other members of the security council to pressure Nigeria into addressing the violence.
"Nigeria's own security and stability is put at risk by a culture of unchecked and unpunished sectarian violence that gives rise to divisiveness along religious lines and repeated reprisal attacks," commission chairman Leonard Leo said in a statement. "Nigeria has the ability to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian violence, but so far lacks political will and determination to actually do so."
PS-Imberakuri Splinter Party Will Not Run in Elections.
The New Times
2 July 2010
By Charles Kwizera
PS–Imberakuri, an opposition political party, has announced that it will not field a candidate in the August presidential polls.
The move was announced yesterday by party president Christine Mukabunani, during a meeting that brought together all national committee members of the party at its headquarters in Kimironko, Gasabo District.
According to Mukabunani, the party took the decision due to internal problems, which they want to solve before thinking of fielding a candidate to contest in the August polls.
“Our party is still undergoing a re-building process after being nearly destroyed by its former president. We therefore want to concentrate on revamping it and bringing back the confidence among the members,” said Mukabunani.
The party’s general assembly in March announced that Bernard Ntaganda the founding president had been relieved of his duties on grounds of spreading the Genocide ideology and divisionism.
He however, continued claiming to be the official president, hence forming a break-away faction.
“PS – Imberakuri is an opposition political party which openly speaks out on what is not going well in the country, but we insist that this has to be done through the right channels contrary to how Ntaganda was doing it,” Mukabunani explained.
Mukabunani, however, did not declare which candidate they were going to support during elections.
“We shall have to wait and see those who will be approved by the electoral commission, read their manifestos before choosing the one with good ideas that we can support.”
So far, four candidates have declared their intentions to vie for the presidency in August.
They include incumbent Paul Kagame (RPF), Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo (PSD), Prosper Higiro (PL) and Alivera Mukabaramba (PPC).
2 July 2010
By Charles Kwizera
PS–Imberakuri, an opposition political party, has announced that it will not field a candidate in the August presidential polls.
The move was announced yesterday by party president Christine Mukabunani, during a meeting that brought together all national committee members of the party at its headquarters in Kimironko, Gasabo District.
According to Mukabunani, the party took the decision due to internal problems, which they want to solve before thinking of fielding a candidate to contest in the August polls.
“Our party is still undergoing a re-building process after being nearly destroyed by its former president. We therefore want to concentrate on revamping it and bringing back the confidence among the members,” said Mukabunani.
The party’s general assembly in March announced that Bernard Ntaganda the founding president had been relieved of his duties on grounds of spreading the Genocide ideology and divisionism.
He however, continued claiming to be the official president, hence forming a break-away faction.
“PS – Imberakuri is an opposition political party which openly speaks out on what is not going well in the country, but we insist that this has to be done through the right channels contrary to how Ntaganda was doing it,” Mukabunani explained.
Mukabunani, however, did not declare which candidate they were going to support during elections.
“We shall have to wait and see those who will be approved by the electoral commission, read their manifestos before choosing the one with good ideas that we can support.”
So far, four candidates have declared their intentions to vie for the presidency in August.
They include incumbent Paul Kagame (RPF), Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo (PSD), Prosper Higiro (PL) and Alivera Mukabaramba (PPC).
Rwandan deputy editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President.'
The Independent
2 July 2010
Jean Bosco Gasasira is in hiding. Instead of running a newspaper in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, reporting on the political assassinations that have plagued the country of late, he spends his time moving between safe houses in neighbouring Uganda, trying to avoid the same fate himself.
According to police in Kampala he was the victim of an attempted assassination last week; in the same week, his friend and co-editor of the banned newspaper, Umuvugizi, Jean Leonard Rugambage, was shot dead in Kigali.
Now Mr Gasasira believes that agents working for Rwanda's government are trying to kill him. Speaking from a safe house near Kampala, Mr Gasasira told The Independent that Rwandan intelligence services were on a killing spree, and alleged it was with the knowledge of President Paul Kagame himself. "I know it, I don't doubt it. The explanations are just Kagame's excuses," he said. Speaking of the recent attempt to abduct him in Uganda, he added: "I know it was his people."
"He owns the opposition and now he wants his own media," Mr Gasasira said of the president. He says the president is using "the sword and the gun" against his opponents in the media and elsewhere and that Rwanda was on its way to becoming a "one man state". Rwanda's ambassador in Kampala said the allegations were "nonsense" and Rwandan officials described accusations that the government had ordered the killing as "baseless".
Before his death, Mr Rugambage was investigating the shooting of a dissident Rwandan general in Johannesburg. On 19 June Lieutenant General Kayumba Nyamwasa was targeted by a gunman in the South African city, but survived the attack. Rwandan officials described allegations that they had commissioned the killer as "preposterous". But someone is out to kill Rwandan dissidents.
Events as far apart as Johannesburg, Kampala and Kigali have revealed increasing political tensions within one of Africa's most enigmatic emerging democracies. To many outsiders, Rwanda, under Mr Kagame's presidency, has become one of the more dynamic and hopeful countries in the region.
Sixteen years on from the genocide that seared the landlocked central African nation into the world's collective consciousness, Kigali is talked of as a future IT hub for Africa, economic growth is strong, and peace, for the most part, is holding. As reward for this, Rwanda was welcomed into the Commonwealth of nations this year despite its Francophone background.
To its critics, though, Rwanda has become an "army with a state" – an authoritarian government led by a cabal of soldiers from the former rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front. With little more than a month to go before the second elections are held since the end of the 1994 genocide, the calm surface of Rwanda's stability and progress has been broken and a violent struggle for control of the country has been revealed.
A number of former ministers have been forced into asylum, while many other former colleagues of Mr Kagame were now under official and unofficial house arrest inside Rwanda, Mr Gasasira claims. "He has ministers in jail, the former speaker from parliament has gone into asylum," he said.
Rosette Kayumba, the dissident general's wife, has described how a lone gunman approached their car in broad daylight in Johannesburg 12 days ago and fired at her husband. She says she is certain that the killer was sent by Paul Kagame's government. Formerly a close aide to the Rwandan leader, Lt-Gen Kayumba fled into exile in February after falling out with him.
The Rwandan government has strongly denied any role in the attack. Umuvugizi, an opposition newspaper in Rwanda, was investigating possible government links to the killing when its editor in exile was tracked down in neigbouring Uganda.
On 22 June Mr Gasasira was confronted by six men in Kampala. He managed to flee to his house, from where he called police. Ugandan authorities described their response as a rescue. Two days later his co-editor, Mr Rugambage, was shot dead in Kigali by two men who then fled the scene in a car.
Speaking this week, Mr Kagame said he had ordered his police, intelligence services and army to find the journalist's killers. "We will not rest until we get to the bottom of this and make it clear to everyone," he said. Two arrests have since been made and police said they believed the suspects' motive had been connected to genocide charges against Mr Rugambage. He was tried and acquitted and authorities said the killing was likely a revenge attack.
But the murder is being investigated by its perpetrators, according to Mr Gasasira. "I'm 100 per cent certain this was done by the Rwandan intelligence service," he said.
In South Africa, three men appeared in court this week charged with the attempted murder of Lt-Gen Kayumba. None of the accused is Rwandan and they each have previous records for handling stolen goods. Two more men, one of them thought to be Rwandan, have been released and there are fears that the incident, which created tension between South Africa and Rwanda, may be written off as an attempted robbery. The dissident general was a long-time confidante who served as the army chief of staff.
Mr Gasasira says that conflicts within Rwanda's all powerful army are behind the dissident attacks. With Mr Kagame in absolute control of the democratic process, the only threat would come from the military, he states.
The relationship between Lt-Gen Kayumba and the president deteriorated as Mr Kagame became more autocratic. Mr Gasasira decided to leave Rwanda after his newspaper was banned in April as part of a crackdown on dissent. In February 2007 he was brutally assaulted in Kigali by three men armed with iron bars. The attack, which put him in a coma and left him with permanent health problems, followed articles in Umuvugizi critical of the ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
2 July 2010
Jean Bosco Gasasira is in hiding. Instead of running a newspaper in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, reporting on the political assassinations that have plagued the country of late, he spends his time moving between safe houses in neighbouring Uganda, trying to avoid the same fate himself.
According to police in Kampala he was the victim of an attempted assassination last week; in the same week, his friend and co-editor of the banned newspaper, Umuvugizi, Jean Leonard Rugambage, was shot dead in Kigali.
Now Mr Gasasira believes that agents working for Rwanda's government are trying to kill him. Speaking from a safe house near Kampala, Mr Gasasira told The Independent that Rwandan intelligence services were on a killing spree, and alleged it was with the knowledge of President Paul Kagame himself. "I know it, I don't doubt it. The explanations are just Kagame's excuses," he said. Speaking of the recent attempt to abduct him in Uganda, he added: "I know it was his people."
"He owns the opposition and now he wants his own media," Mr Gasasira said of the president. He says the president is using "the sword and the gun" against his opponents in the media and elsewhere and that Rwanda was on its way to becoming a "one man state". Rwanda's ambassador in Kampala said the allegations were "nonsense" and Rwandan officials described accusations that the government had ordered the killing as "baseless".
Before his death, Mr Rugambage was investigating the shooting of a dissident Rwandan general in Johannesburg. On 19 June Lieutenant General Kayumba Nyamwasa was targeted by a gunman in the South African city, but survived the attack. Rwandan officials described allegations that they had commissioned the killer as "preposterous". But someone is out to kill Rwandan dissidents.
Events as far apart as Johannesburg, Kampala and Kigali have revealed increasing political tensions within one of Africa's most enigmatic emerging democracies. To many outsiders, Rwanda, under Mr Kagame's presidency, has become one of the more dynamic and hopeful countries in the region.
Sixteen years on from the genocide that seared the landlocked central African nation into the world's collective consciousness, Kigali is talked of as a future IT hub for Africa, economic growth is strong, and peace, for the most part, is holding. As reward for this, Rwanda was welcomed into the Commonwealth of nations this year despite its Francophone background.
To its critics, though, Rwanda has become an "army with a state" – an authoritarian government led by a cabal of soldiers from the former rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front. With little more than a month to go before the second elections are held since the end of the 1994 genocide, the calm surface of Rwanda's stability and progress has been broken and a violent struggle for control of the country has been revealed.
A number of former ministers have been forced into asylum, while many other former colleagues of Mr Kagame were now under official and unofficial house arrest inside Rwanda, Mr Gasasira claims. "He has ministers in jail, the former speaker from parliament has gone into asylum," he said.
Rosette Kayumba, the dissident general's wife, has described how a lone gunman approached their car in broad daylight in Johannesburg 12 days ago and fired at her husband. She says she is certain that the killer was sent by Paul Kagame's government. Formerly a close aide to the Rwandan leader, Lt-Gen Kayumba fled into exile in February after falling out with him.
The Rwandan government has strongly denied any role in the attack. Umuvugizi, an opposition newspaper in Rwanda, was investigating possible government links to the killing when its editor in exile was tracked down in neigbouring Uganda.
On 22 June Mr Gasasira was confronted by six men in Kampala. He managed to flee to his house, from where he called police. Ugandan authorities described their response as a rescue. Two days later his co-editor, Mr Rugambage, was shot dead in Kigali by two men who then fled the scene in a car.
Speaking this week, Mr Kagame said he had ordered his police, intelligence services and army to find the journalist's killers. "We will not rest until we get to the bottom of this and make it clear to everyone," he said. Two arrests have since been made and police said they believed the suspects' motive had been connected to genocide charges against Mr Rugambage. He was tried and acquitted and authorities said the killing was likely a revenge attack.
But the murder is being investigated by its perpetrators, according to Mr Gasasira. "I'm 100 per cent certain this was done by the Rwandan intelligence service," he said.
In South Africa, three men appeared in court this week charged with the attempted murder of Lt-Gen Kayumba. None of the accused is Rwandan and they each have previous records for handling stolen goods. Two more men, one of them thought to be Rwandan, have been released and there are fears that the incident, which created tension between South Africa and Rwanda, may be written off as an attempted robbery. The dissident general was a long-time confidante who served as the army chief of staff.
Mr Gasasira says that conflicts within Rwanda's all powerful army are behind the dissident attacks. With Mr Kagame in absolute control of the democratic process, the only threat would come from the military, he states.
The relationship between Lt-Gen Kayumba and the president deteriorated as Mr Kagame became more autocratic. Mr Gasasira decided to leave Rwanda after his newspaper was banned in April as part of a crackdown on dissent. In February 2007 he was brutally assaulted in Kigali by three men armed with iron bars. The attack, which put him in a coma and left him with permanent health problems, followed articles in Umuvugizi critical of the ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
Opposition wins Somaliland election.
SAPA
1 July 2010
By Mohamed Olad Hassan
Election officials say an opposition candidate won the presidential vote held in the self-declared republic of Somaliland last weekend.
The winner, Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo, has said he hopes the presidential election will help win Somaliland international recognition. The National Electoral Commission declared Silanyo the winner with 49.6 percent of the vote.
The region's outgoing president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, came in second out of three candidates. Kahin said he would honor a pre-vote pledge to accept the results even if he lost.
1 July 2010
By Mohamed Olad Hassan
Election officials say an opposition candidate won the presidential vote held in the self-declared republic of Somaliland last weekend.
The winner, Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo, has said he hopes the presidential election will help win Somaliland international recognition. The National Electoral Commission declared Silanyo the winner with 49.6 percent of the vote.
The region's outgoing president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, came in second out of three candidates. Kahin said he would honor a pre-vote pledge to accept the results even if he lost.
01 July, 2010
US aid to Rwanda not transparent– says Oxfam.
Rwandan News Agency
1 July 2010
Government, recipient organizations and individuals which get US aid do not always have enough information about it to plan ahead and make the most of the assistance, says advocacy group Oxfam.
1 July 2010
Government, recipient organizations and individuals which get US aid do not always have enough information about it to plan ahead and make the most of the assistance, says advocacy group Oxfam.
South Africa Admits Professional Foreign Operatives Tried to Kill Nyamwasa.
AFP
1 July 2010
Foreign "security operatives" were involved in the shooting of a Rwanda general who was living in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
General Faustin Nyamwasa was shot and wounded outside his Johannesburg home on June 19, four months after he came to South Africa seeking asylum.
Four people have been arrested, but police have declined to comment on their motive.
"This matter involves security operatives, and an attack on a person who has gone through the correct legal channels to seek asylum in South Africa," said Ayanda Ntsaluba, the foreign ministry's director general.
"It also involves a country with which we have good and strong diplomatic relations," he said. "This why we will not make a determination about where the suspected attackers of General Nyamwasa come from."
Nyamwasa's wife Rosette, who was in the car with him during the shooting, believes the attack was a political assassination attempt. Nothing was stolen during the incident, she said.
Rwanda has denied any role in the shooting.
"We want to be cautious and we are not pointing an accusing finger at any country," Ntsaluba said.
"It is accepted practice that the foreign missions of any country has fully declared intelligence and security operatives," he said. "If people from another country operate clandestinely, that is an entirely different dimension."
"They must not get caught because that compounds relations between countries," he added. "It cannot be taken lightly because that is subverting the stability of a country."
1 July 2010
Foreign "security operatives" were involved in the shooting of a Rwanda general who was living in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
General Faustin Nyamwasa was shot and wounded outside his Johannesburg home on June 19, four months after he came to South Africa seeking asylum.
Four people have been arrested, but police have declined to comment on their motive.
"This matter involves security operatives, and an attack on a person who has gone through the correct legal channels to seek asylum in South Africa," said Ayanda Ntsaluba, the foreign ministry's director general.
"It also involves a country with which we have good and strong diplomatic relations," he said. "This why we will not make a determination about where the suspected attackers of General Nyamwasa come from."
Nyamwasa's wife Rosette, who was in the car with him during the shooting, believes the attack was a political assassination attempt. Nothing was stolen during the incident, she said.
Rwanda has denied any role in the shooting.
"We want to be cautious and we are not pointing an accusing finger at any country," Ntsaluba said.
"It is accepted practice that the foreign missions of any country has fully declared intelligence and security operatives," he said. "If people from another country operate clandestinely, that is an entirely different dimension."
"They must not get caught because that compounds relations between countries," he added. "It cannot be taken lightly because that is subverting the stability of a country."
What are Colombian DAS agents doing in the EU?
Press Europ
28 June 2010
EUobserver has revealed details of an alleged covert operation by Colombia’s secret service (DAS) to undermine the EU. According to documents seized by the Colombian Attorney General’s office, a DAS mission known as “Operation Europe” sought “to neutralise the influence of the European judicial system, the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights”. News of the operation, which included wire-taps and email intercepts, first broke in Colombia in 2009, after which the then president Alvaro Uribe introduced legislation to investigate and overhaul the agency. While the European Commission has expressed faith in the current inquiry, several MEPs, NGOs and Brussels insiders critical of Colombia’s human rights record are concerned that the campaign to thwart Bogota’s critics in Europe is far from over. Paul Emile Dupret, a Belgian political advisor to the European Parliament’s United European Left group, aims to take a case against the Colombian agency this July along with victims of DAS wire taps and intimidation.
28 June 2010
EUobserver has revealed details of an alleged covert operation by Colombia’s secret service (DAS) to undermine the EU. According to documents seized by the Colombian Attorney General’s office, a DAS mission known as “Operation Europe” sought “to neutralise the influence of the European judicial system, the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights”. News of the operation, which included wire-taps and email intercepts, first broke in Colombia in 2009, after which the then president Alvaro Uribe introduced legislation to investigate and overhaul the agency. While the European Commission has expressed faith in the current inquiry, several MEPs, NGOs and Brussels insiders critical of Colombia’s human rights record are concerned that the campaign to thwart Bogota’s critics in Europe is far from over. Paul Emile Dupret, a Belgian political advisor to the European Parliament’s United European Left group, aims to take a case against the Colombian agency this July along with victims of DAS wire taps and intimidation.
New Evidence Discredits Hutton Inquiry into Kelly Death.
The New American
by Alex Newman
30 June 2010
New revelations in the alleged “suicide” of whistle-blower Dr. David Kelly point even more strongly to the possibility of murder and a subsequent cover-up, according to an explosive investigation by the British newspaper Daily Mail.
Dr. David Kelly served as a United Nations weapons-of-mass-destruction inspector in Iraq and as a scientist for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense. He was widely considered the world’s foremost expert in chemical and biological weapons, even serving as a proof reader on the British government’s intelligence report about Iraqi WMDs. He disagreed with some of the claims and told his superiors, but was ignored.
Seven years ago, a strange saga began when Kelly sparked a massive scandal. He leaked details of the government’s WMD lies — used to justify invading Iraq — to various journalists. His identity was eventually revealed as the source, and Parliament called him to testify for an investigation it was conducting into the explosive allegations. Then, before he could reveal even more devastating secrets, he turned up dead.
The government, led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, immediately quashed the regular coroner’s inquest — a legal requirement in cases like this. Instead, it set up a much weaker “inquiry,” headed by Lord Hutton, into the untimely death.
But as soon as the "investigation" concluded that Kelly’s demise was a “suicide” caused by a self-inflicted knife wound, the media began picking the story apart, pointing out inconsistencies and asking tough questions that still have not been answered satisfactorily — if they were addressed at all. The inquiry has been labeled a “whitewash” and a “cover-up” by numerous media outlets, investigators, doctors, and researchers.
The two paramedics who were at the scene of Kelly’s body went public with their belief that a severed artery was not the cause of death, as the official report had claimed. "I just think it is incredibly unlikely that he died from the wrist wound we saw," paramedic Vanessa Hunt told the British press. “There just wasn't a lot of blood. When someone cuts an artery, whether accidentally or intentionally, the blood pumps everywhere." The other paramedic offered a similar analysis.
A team of concerned scientists and doctors also banded together to form the “Kelly Investigation Group.” They, too, believed there were serious deficiencies in the inquiry, saying the official conclusion was “highly improbable.”
“Arteries in the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing them does not lead to life-threatening blood loss,” three members of the group, all medical specialists, wrote in a letter to the Guardian newspaper calling for the inquest to be re-opened. “To have died from haemorrhage [sic], Dr Kelly would have had to lose about five pints of blood — it is unlikely that he would have lost more than a pint.”
The team also noted that the alleged amount of pain pills Kelly was said to have ingested would not have contributed to his death. Only a part of one tablet was actually found in his stomach.
Adding more doubt to the official story, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed there were no finger prints on the knife Kelly supposedly used to kill himself.
"Someone who wanted to kill themselves wouldn't go to the lengths of wiping the knife clean of fingerprints,” said British Minister of Parliament and current Transportation Secretary Norman Baker, who wrote a book about Kelly claiming he was killed because he might reveal more about the lies used in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. "It is just very suspicious. It is one of the things that makes me think Dr. Kelly was murdered. The case should be re-opened."
A police spokesperson acknowledged the lack of fingerprints, but said it “does not change the official explanation.”
Suspicions in the case grew even more after it was revealed earlier this year that documents in the official investigation had been secretly classified by the British government for an astonishing 70 years, an unprecedented move that fanned the flames of skepticism. All medical, scientific, and photographic records were totally sealed by Lord Hutton, including the post mortem.
“This inexplicable secrecy can excite only suspicion that the authorities have something very bad indeed to hide,” noted Melanie Phillips in a report for the Daily Mail. “I myself have met people familiar with the shadowy world in which Dr Kelly moved who are certain he was murdered.” Another Daily Mail article reported that the legal basis for the gag order “has baffled experts accustomed to such matters.”
Researchers have raised countless problems with the “official” story — too many to go over in detail in one article. But some of the new information collected by the Daily Mail in a more recent article entitled “Dr David Kelly: The damning new evidence that points to a cover-up by Tony Blair's government” is worth recounting.
“Our new revelations include the ambiguous nature of the wording on Dr Kelly’s death certificate; the existence of an anonymous letter which says his colleagues were warned to stay away from his funeral; and an extraordinary claim that the wallpaper at Dr Kelly’s home was stripped by police in the hours after he was reported missing - but before his body was found,” the paper reported, noting that its “rigorous and thorough investigation” had “turned up evidence which raises still more disturbing questions.”
The death certificate, only recently obtained, used peculiar wording in the box meant for entering the place of death. Instead of naming it, the certificate said Kelly was “found dead” at Harrowdown Hill. Experts say the wording alone is enough to open another investigation, especially since there are numerous other irregularities involving the location of Kelly’s body (like heat-sensing helicopters that, based on the official story, should have found the body when flying over).
The death certificate also states that a coroner’s inquest was performed. But it wasn’t. It also lacks a doctor’s or coroner’s signature, something all death certificates in the U.K. are required to have.
"This death certificate is evidence of a failure properly to examine the cause of Dr Kelly’s death. It is evidence of a pre-judgment of the issue. In a coroner’s inquest the cause of death would not be registered until the whole inquiry had been completed. As we see here, the cause of death was registered before the Hutton Inquiry had finished,” said former coroner and law expert Dr. Michael Powers QC, who aims to have a thorough investigation conducted.
“This is remarkable,” he told the paper. “To my mind it is evidence that the inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death was window-dressing because the conclusion had already been determined.”
On top of the Hutton Inquiry’s many obvious shortcomings, a letter received last month by one of the doctors involved in the Kelly Investigation Group claims Kelly’s colleagues were warned not to attend his funeral. Kelly’s widow also said police came to the house and tore off wallpaper, possibly searching for listening devices, shortly after Kelly was reported missing, but prior to the discovery of his body. Authorities refuse to comment on the allegation.
The doctors investigating the suspicious death said “concern about Dr Kelly’s death will continue to deepen until a full coroner’s inquest is heard,” the Daily Mail reported, adding that if such an inquest is performed, Tony Blair might well be expected to testify about why he “went to such lengths to avoid the normal, rigorous and respected course of this country’s law.”
Concluding, the paper noted that Blair’s reputation, as well as the reputation of the British legal system, will continue to suffer until a proper investigation is conducted, which “is the only way the whole truth about the Kelly affair, however uncomfortable, will emerge.”
Now, after all these years, there are hints that the truth may finally come out. The new British Attorney General announced earlier this month that he is considering re-opening the investigation. Meanwhile, the new Justice Secretary is reportedly contemplating releasing some of the records in the case that currently remain classified. Whether it will happen has been a matter of intense speculation in the British press, but if these crucial questions are ever to be resolved, a proper investigation is a must.
by Alex Newman
30 June 2010
New revelations in the alleged “suicide” of whistle-blower Dr. David Kelly point even more strongly to the possibility of murder and a subsequent cover-up, according to an explosive investigation by the British newspaper Daily Mail.
Dr. David Kelly served as a United Nations weapons-of-mass-destruction inspector in Iraq and as a scientist for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense. He was widely considered the world’s foremost expert in chemical and biological weapons, even serving as a proof reader on the British government’s intelligence report about Iraqi WMDs. He disagreed with some of the claims and told his superiors, but was ignored.
Seven years ago, a strange saga began when Kelly sparked a massive scandal. He leaked details of the government’s WMD lies — used to justify invading Iraq — to various journalists. His identity was eventually revealed as the source, and Parliament called him to testify for an investigation it was conducting into the explosive allegations. Then, before he could reveal even more devastating secrets, he turned up dead.
The government, led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, immediately quashed the regular coroner’s inquest — a legal requirement in cases like this. Instead, it set up a much weaker “inquiry,” headed by Lord Hutton, into the untimely death.
But as soon as the "investigation" concluded that Kelly’s demise was a “suicide” caused by a self-inflicted knife wound, the media began picking the story apart, pointing out inconsistencies and asking tough questions that still have not been answered satisfactorily — if they were addressed at all. The inquiry has been labeled a “whitewash” and a “cover-up” by numerous media outlets, investigators, doctors, and researchers.
The two paramedics who were at the scene of Kelly’s body went public with their belief that a severed artery was not the cause of death, as the official report had claimed. "I just think it is incredibly unlikely that he died from the wrist wound we saw," paramedic Vanessa Hunt told the British press. “There just wasn't a lot of blood. When someone cuts an artery, whether accidentally or intentionally, the blood pumps everywhere." The other paramedic offered a similar analysis.
A team of concerned scientists and doctors also banded together to form the “Kelly Investigation Group.” They, too, believed there were serious deficiencies in the inquiry, saying the official conclusion was “highly improbable.”
“Arteries in the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing them does not lead to life-threatening blood loss,” three members of the group, all medical specialists, wrote in a letter to the Guardian newspaper calling for the inquest to be re-opened. “To have died from haemorrhage [sic], Dr Kelly would have had to lose about five pints of blood — it is unlikely that he would have lost more than a pint.”
The team also noted that the alleged amount of pain pills Kelly was said to have ingested would not have contributed to his death. Only a part of one tablet was actually found in his stomach.
Adding more doubt to the official story, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed there were no finger prints on the knife Kelly supposedly used to kill himself.
"Someone who wanted to kill themselves wouldn't go to the lengths of wiping the knife clean of fingerprints,” said British Minister of Parliament and current Transportation Secretary Norman Baker, who wrote a book about Kelly claiming he was killed because he might reveal more about the lies used in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. "It is just very suspicious. It is one of the things that makes me think Dr. Kelly was murdered. The case should be re-opened."
A police spokesperson acknowledged the lack of fingerprints, but said it “does not change the official explanation.”
Suspicions in the case grew even more after it was revealed earlier this year that documents in the official investigation had been secretly classified by the British government for an astonishing 70 years, an unprecedented move that fanned the flames of skepticism. All medical, scientific, and photographic records were totally sealed by Lord Hutton, including the post mortem.
“This inexplicable secrecy can excite only suspicion that the authorities have something very bad indeed to hide,” noted Melanie Phillips in a report for the Daily Mail. “I myself have met people familiar with the shadowy world in which Dr Kelly moved who are certain he was murdered.” Another Daily Mail article reported that the legal basis for the gag order “has baffled experts accustomed to such matters.”
Researchers have raised countless problems with the “official” story — too many to go over in detail in one article. But some of the new information collected by the Daily Mail in a more recent article entitled “Dr David Kelly: The damning new evidence that points to a cover-up by Tony Blair's government” is worth recounting.
“Our new revelations include the ambiguous nature of the wording on Dr Kelly’s death certificate; the existence of an anonymous letter which says his colleagues were warned to stay away from his funeral; and an extraordinary claim that the wallpaper at Dr Kelly’s home was stripped by police in the hours after he was reported missing - but before his body was found,” the paper reported, noting that its “rigorous and thorough investigation” had “turned up evidence which raises still more disturbing questions.”
The death certificate, only recently obtained, used peculiar wording in the box meant for entering the place of death. Instead of naming it, the certificate said Kelly was “found dead” at Harrowdown Hill. Experts say the wording alone is enough to open another investigation, especially since there are numerous other irregularities involving the location of Kelly’s body (like heat-sensing helicopters that, based on the official story, should have found the body when flying over).
The death certificate also states that a coroner’s inquest was performed. But it wasn’t. It also lacks a doctor’s or coroner’s signature, something all death certificates in the U.K. are required to have.
"This death certificate is evidence of a failure properly to examine the cause of Dr Kelly’s death. It is evidence of a pre-judgment of the issue. In a coroner’s inquest the cause of death would not be registered until the whole inquiry had been completed. As we see here, the cause of death was registered before the Hutton Inquiry had finished,” said former coroner and law expert Dr. Michael Powers QC, who aims to have a thorough investigation conducted.
“This is remarkable,” he told the paper. “To my mind it is evidence that the inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death was window-dressing because the conclusion had already been determined.”
On top of the Hutton Inquiry’s many obvious shortcomings, a letter received last month by one of the doctors involved in the Kelly Investigation Group claims Kelly’s colleagues were warned not to attend his funeral. Kelly’s widow also said police came to the house and tore off wallpaper, possibly searching for listening devices, shortly after Kelly was reported missing, but prior to the discovery of his body. Authorities refuse to comment on the allegation.
The doctors investigating the suspicious death said “concern about Dr Kelly’s death will continue to deepen until a full coroner’s inquest is heard,” the Daily Mail reported, adding that if such an inquest is performed, Tony Blair might well be expected to testify about why he “went to such lengths to avoid the normal, rigorous and respected course of this country’s law.”
Concluding, the paper noted that Blair’s reputation, as well as the reputation of the British legal system, will continue to suffer until a proper investigation is conducted, which “is the only way the whole truth about the Kelly affair, however uncomfortable, will emerge.”
Now, after all these years, there are hints that the truth may finally come out. The new British Attorney General announced earlier this month that he is considering re-opening the investigation. Meanwhile, the new Justice Secretary is reportedly contemplating releasing some of the records in the case that currently remain classified. Whether it will happen has been a matter of intense speculation in the British press, but if these crucial questions are ever to be resolved, a proper investigation is a must.
Turabi Released From Prison.
BBC News
30 June 2010
Sudan has released Islamist fundamentalist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, his secretary has said.
Mr Turabi has spent a month and a half in detention after authorities arrested him in May and closed his party's newspaper.
His wife alleged he had been apprehended after he repeated an allegation that the country's elections had been rigged.
President Omar al-Bashir was re-elected in April.
"Turabi has arrived at his home... We do not know why he has been released," secretary Awad Babiker told Reuters.
Mr Turabi, a former ally of the president, has been detained on numerous occasions since he began his Popular Congress Party. He is alleged to have ties to a Darfur militia that has refused to join peace talks.
30 June 2010
Sudan has released Islamist fundamentalist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, his secretary has said.
Mr Turabi has spent a month and a half in detention after authorities arrested him in May and closed his party's newspaper.
His wife alleged he had been apprehended after he repeated an allegation that the country's elections had been rigged.
President Omar al-Bashir was re-elected in April.
"Turabi has arrived at his home... We do not know why he has been released," secretary Awad Babiker told Reuters.
Mr Turabi, a former ally of the president, has been detained on numerous occasions since he began his Popular Congress Party. He is alleged to have ties to a Darfur militia that has refused to join peace talks.
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