Rwanda: Public Protest in London at UK Department for International Development

Public Protest in London In front of the Department for International Development To request Immediate Release of Victoire Ingabire and other Rwandan Political Prisoners, or otherwise stop UK aid to Paul Kagame's regime   Friday 26/11/10 from 12.00 am to 3.00 pm Department for International Development DfID 1 Palace Street London SW1E 5HE The objectives of the protest are: · to request from UK, EU, US to put pressure on Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, to open up Rwandan political space, to free all political prisoners including Victoire Ingabire, Chair of FDU-Inkingi, to form a Transitional Government of National Unity including the real political opposition which would aim at preparing Free and Fair Elections, to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission ·to request justice from the UN by setting up an International Criminal Tribunal for Congo (ICTC) to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and Alliance des Forces Democratiques de Liberation (AFDL) between 1993 and 2003 in the Democratic Republic of Congo The memory of a relative or a compatriot Rwandan or Congolese or Burundian who were victim of war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide is calling you to come out and claim justice. We are highly indebted to the millions of men, women and children from all ethnic groups who died in the Democratic Republic of Congo because of war from 1993 up today. It is also our shared humanity we promote by speaking out for the millions of voiceless men, women and children all ethnic groups inclusively who are continuously being oppressed in Rwanda. You are cordially invited to join us. Please also tell friends and other people you know.  Coordination Ambrose Nzeyimana Organising for Africa Mobile: 07982114446 Email: organisingforafrica@gmail.com

Genocide against Hutus in Congo

On 4 February 2002, a Rwandese delegation comprising General James Kabarebe, Deputy Chief of Staff and now acting Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), Major Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, special adviser to the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame and Mr. Jean de Dieu Mucyo, Rwandan Minister of Justice, and other officials arrived in Washington on an official visit. General James Kabarebe, along with General Paul Kagame and other members of their inner circle are responsible of numerous and still unpunished acts of genocide against Hutus, war crimes, crimes against peace and humanity committed by the RPA in Rwanda since October 1990 and Democratic Republic of Congo since August 1996. They are also allegedly linked to international criminal networks active in the black market in arms, diamonds, gold and other forms of wealth which continue to fuel wars in Africa.  These international criminal syndicates supply them with all kinds of weaponry used in their massacres of civilians and they pay back with looted gems and other natural resources and wealth from territories illegally occupied by the RPA in eastern Congo. In a letter to the Bush administration dated 9 February 2002, the RDR urges the US government to impose an arms embargo on Rwanda, refuse entry visas to war crimes suspects on power in Rwanda, cut financial and diplomatic support to the dictatorial regime of Gen. Paul Kagame and extend the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to crimes committed in Rwanda and Congo after 1994 or create an International Criminal Tribunal for the DR Congo. In fact, apart from concluding to the genocide of Tutsis in territories under governmental control after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994, the U.N. Commission of Experts also clearly concluded in its preliminary and final reports that individuals from both sides to the armed conflict in Rwanda had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the period from 6 April 1994 to 15 July 1994. For the perpetrators of those crimes, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights clearly identified the then "Rwandese State authorities", overthrown by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in July 1994, and "RPF organs, particularly those in charge of military operations." At the time these horrendous crimes were being committed, Major Theogene Rudasingwa was RPF Secretary General and Gen. James Kabarebe was the Commanding Officer of the Republican Guard of Gen. Paul Kagame, RPF's military leader. Impunity still enjoyed by General James Kabarebe, Major Dr, Theoneste Rudasingwa, General Paul Kagame and other RPF/RPA members of their inner circle has encouraged them to extend their crimes to DR Congo. During the first Congolese war in 1996-1997 which ended by the overthrow of the dictatorial regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, the RPA was allied with Laurent Desire Kabila's rebellion and Commander James Kabarebe, then Colonel, was the Chief of RPA's military operations in Congo. More than 200 000 Rwandan civilian Hutu refugees, mostly women, children and elderly, had been massacred in eastern Congo by RPA units under his direct control and command. In its Presidential Statement of 13 July 1998, the UN Security Council condemned these crimes and urged the governments of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo to prosecute those responsible. Until now, no lone military or political leader has been prosecuted for these massacres. The second war erupted in DR Congo in August 1998 when President Laurent Desire Kabila ordered Rwandan military advisers out of Congo. Considering Congo as their Ali Baba's cave, Rwandan troops refused to leave Congo when ordered to do so. Colonel James Kabarebe hijacked planes he used to airlift troops from eastern Congo to western Congo in order to take Kinshasa. This objective failed because of the intervention of the Angolan, Zimbabwean and Namibian armies on Kabila's side. Defeated Rwandan and Ugandan troops retreated then in eastern Congo where they created various surrogate Congolese "rebel movements". According to the results of a mortality survey conducted by the International Rescue Committee (http://www.theirc.org) released in May 2001, 2,5 million Congolese civilians have died in illegally occupied territories as a result of war imposed upon the Congolese people by aggressor countries. A country at war against terrorism has a moral responsibility to sever its relations with the Kigali government controlled by RPF/RPA war crimes suspects linked to international merchants of war. On Sunday, December 30, 2001, the Washington Post published on page A01 an article with the title "Digging up Congo's Dirty Germs. Officials Say Diamond Trade Funds Radical Islamic Groups ". According to the article, "authorities in Antwerp - where more than 90 percent of the world diamonds are bought, sold, polished or cut - estimate that about $600 million in diamonds are exported annually from Congo but that only about $180 million worth of the stones are exported legally." On Monday, February 11, 2002, the Belgian daily Le Soir published an article in french with the title "Les talibans armés au départ d'Ostende". The article reveals the existence of a file in the Belgian Military Intelligence Service (SGR) on the arms dealer Mr. Victor Anatolievitsh Bout, former member of the Russian Special Forces. According to the file and the article, Mr. Victor Bout had supplied around 40 tons of arms worth $ 50 millions to talibans in 1996. Four Bulgarians linked to him had already been arrested in Belgium on Friday, February 8, 2002. Mr. Victor Bout is alleged to be hiding in Kigali, Rwanda. Mr. Victor Bout is cited in United Nations reports among the main sanctions busters who supplied arms to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone in violation of UN arms and gems embargoes on the two rebel groups. The weapons are paid back with diamonds, gold, timber and other natural resources. The Rwandan General James Kabarebe and other other RPF/RPA leaders in the inner circle of the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame are associated with Victor Bout in the plundering of Congolese natural resources and other forms of wealth. This is particularly corroborated by many witnesses and confirmed by the "UN Report on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo", New York, 12 Aprill 2001, § 91: "First, Ali Hussein, who plays a major role in diamond and gold deals in Bukavu and Kisangani. Those who have dealt with him in the past have mentioned the presence of a Rwandan national during commercial negotiations. There are indications that the Rwandan citizen attending the meetings is a civil servant working in the President's office in Kigali. Second is Colonel James Kabarebe, who is the RPA facilitator for some deals. According to some sources he has been in contact with Victor Butt [or Bout] for the lease of an Ilyushin 76 that served to carry coltan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kigali. He is said to be a partner to Mohamed Ali Salem, manager of the company Global Mineral. This company is involved in coltan purchasing in Bukavu and Goma. Third, Tibere Rujigiro, member of RPF, who is considered to be one of the main money providers to the party during the 1990-1994 war. He is a major shareholder in Tristar Investment, a company equally close to RPF. He is said to be also involved in the tobacco business." Territories held by the Rwandan-backed "rebels" in eastern Congo are free-trade zones for the financing of various international criminal cartels believed linked to terrorist organisations. To dry funds from illicit trade of arms, conflict diamonds, etc., the RDR urges the US government and other democratic countries to sever relations with Gen. Paul Kagame, use their influence and power to end the illegal occupation of eastern Congo and the exploitation of its natural resources and other forms of wealth by Rwanda and Uganda.

Rwanda: Ingabire Refused Bail

By Ruben Koops
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
12 November 2010

Victoire Ingabire was refused bail on Friday by the Rwandan High Court in Kigali on the grounds of being a security threat to the Rwandan state. After a heated debate between public prosecutor Bonavanture Ruberwa and Ingabire’s legal team, led by lawyer Gatera Gashabana, Judge Johnston Busingye ruled that she had to stay in prison.

According to the public prosecutor, there are new factors in her case that demand Victoire Ingabire to stay in custody. “We are very happy with this verdict, because there are new developments in the case.” Ruberwa said. “We are preparing the final file on her case. I expect that we can send it to the court on Sunday”. The prosecutor would not say what the new evidence is.

Devastated

Ingabire’s husband Lin Muyizere is devastated by the ruling: “I expected that she would be released today, this is an enormous blow.” According to Muyizere, today’s ruling is another episode in a political trial that Ingabire has to go through. “It is so harsh on us, I don’t know what to do. I have to stay close to my children now.”

Victoire Ingabire was transported back to prison following the verdict, Muyizere did not have a chance to talk to his wife. “I try to communicate with her through her lawyer”, he told Radio Netherlands.

Budget Support

Meanwhile the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal is not yet willing to cut development aid to Rwanda because of the Victoire Ingabire trial. An additional factor may well be the assertions made in the UN report on Rwandan involvement in the violation of human rights in East Congo. According to a departmental statement obtained by Radio Netherlands, Rosenthal is willing to debate specific types of direct budget support, meaning money that is received directly by the Rwandan government. A final decision on whether the Netherlands will continue funding the Rwandan government is expected before the foreign affairs budget hearings in mid-December.

After Radio Netherlands reported the arrest of Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, MP’s Dijkhoff (VVD) and El Fassed (GroenLinks) requested clarification from Rosenthal on the Dutch stand in the Ingabire trial. They are concerned about her right to a fair hearing. Both MPs have asked if Dutch embassy staff in Kigali could assist Ingabire with the case against her. But according to Rosenthal, since Victoire Ingabire is not a Dutch citizen, consular aid is limited to physical presence in the court room.

“The Rwandan rule of law fulfils most international standards and is fully independent” Rosenthal states. However, he regards the repeated commentary on the case by Rwandan government officials as "worrisome". Rosenthal confirmed he will express his concern to the Rwandan government, together with other donor countries. Since the publication of the UN Report about war crimes committed against Hutus in East Congo, there has been more international pressure on the Rwandan government to reform.

Lobby

In a private meeting in The Hague on Tuesday, a Rwandan delegation of diplomats and politicians tried to convince several Dutch MP’s that a budget support reduction is not advisable. But according to sources who attended the meeting, the delegation did not succeed in changing their minds. “The Ingabire trial was the final straw for me”, a source says. “We should stop handing the Kagame government any more aid money.” MP Joël Voordewind, who was also present at the meeting, didn’t change his opinion either: “I didn’t hear any new reason to throw my support behind the renewal of this direct budget aid.”

Related Materials:
Against all odds, the High Court denies bail to Ms.Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza

DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003

Ingabire's High Court Hearing: The prosecutor’s evidence was fake

Foreign aid for dictators

Rwanda May See Dutch Aid Cuts

09.11.10 - ICTR/KAREMERA - PRESIDENT OF MRND MILITIA WORKED FOR RPF, ACCORDING TO WITNESS

09.11.10 - ICTR/KAREMERA - PRESIDENT OF MRND MILITIA WORKED FOR RPF,

ACCORDING TO WITNESS Arusha, November 09, 2010 (FH) - Former close Protection Officer for Rwandan President Paul Kagame alleged before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Tuesday that President of Interahamwe militia of the ruling MRND party in 1994, Robert Kajuga worked for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) now in power in Kigali.


‘'It is not only Kajuga who worked for the RPF but there were many others from the government.'' Aloys Ruyenzi, former close protection officer to President Kagame told the court in the defence case of the former MRND President, Mathieu Ngirumpatse.



When asked by Don Webster, the Prosecuting counsel to say more about Kajuga, Ruyenzi responded ‘'he was Tutsi working for the RPF to kill members of the population.''

Earlier during examination in chief by defence co-counsel, Frédéric Weyl, the witness explained ‘'RPF did not care to kill members of the population when they infiltrated Kigali town.''

He told the court that members of the RPF were sent to Kigali town to infiltrate into the population, at roadblocks and in the public transport where they carried out killings against the population in a bid to hold power by force.

‘'All the crimes perpetrated by RPF were attributed to the Rwanda government. They were people who lived and worked with me and when they come back from missions they would tell me about the killings they committed,'' Ruyenzi explained.

The trial continues Wednesday.

Ngirumpatse and his co-accused, former MRND vice-president Edouard Karemera, are charged mainly with crimes allegedly committed by members of their party and Interahamwe militiamen of their youth wing.

NI/FK/ER/GF

© Hirondelle News Agency

http://www.hirondellenews.com/content/view/13828/333/

Kagame, Bashir: Birds of the same feather…

Kagame, Bashir: Birds of the same feather… "In fact it is too late. I don't know why I didn't invite him for my inauguration…" Those were the words Kagame used, while responding to a question as to why he didn't invite Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir for his inauguration ceremony last month. For those who know a thing about African politics, it was a real surprise to see Gen. Bashir missing, as all other African despots especially from west and central Africa were in Kigali, albeit for an MDG meeting at the time. Apparently, Kagame and Bashir have a lot in common that I think the latter should have been the chief guest in Kigali when Kagame was crowned. The two are army generals who seized power through the gun, established ruthless military governments in their respective countries and are among the world's worst dictators; they both feature on 'Foreign Policy's list detailing the 23 'worst of the worst dictators' released recently. Simply put, both enjoy a comfortable rating on the list of African dictators. But that's not all; the two are targets of international criminal justice, carrying indictments, with Bashir's immunity even lifted for his human rights excesses in the western Darfur region of the Sudan. Kagame is still 'safe', but that has not deterred peace and human rights activists from pointing out his excesses including leading an army that murdered civilians both in Rwanda and DRC. Not surprising therefore, the two are 'enemies' of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other international justice instruments and, as the investigations about genocide committed against the Hutu in DRC continue, it is likely that Kagame may find himself in Bashir's situation (immunity lifted), thereby sealing their commonalities. It is important to note that much as the ICC may not be independent, it remains the best choice of for seeking redress for international crimes committed by thoughtless leaders that are responsible for the human rights violations in Rwanda, the DRC and the Sudan. So, for Kagame to deny in a recent interview that Rwanda's policy on the Hague-based court was not informed by the indictments against President Bashir and his officers, but by the 'whole background and concept of ICC', is preposterous. And only a handful if any can believe his words! As a matter of fact, even when Kagame's officers were indicted, he was never heard criticizing the ICC or any other international justice instrument, so why the sudden change of heart? It is the inevitable realization that just like Bashir, the noose befitting those who abuse human rights is also tightening around Kagame's neck. And fast! Interestingly, despite all allegations against the two, Kagame still has the audacity to hoodwink the world with the 'never again' slogan against genocide, claiming that that is what African leaders stand for today. But his hobnobbing with Bashir, an indicted genocidaire is all but telling. So, his apparent recalcitrance when asked why he didn't invite Bashir should not be taken as a joke; the two are now good bedfellows, share ideals, and are 'true African leaders'. On the contrary however, his apparent sarcasm while responding to the invitation question should not bluff anyone because it is common knowledge that Kagame depends on the US for political survival, which means he didn't want to infuriate Uncle Sam by extending an invitation to al-Bashir, a figure of questionable popularity in the corridors of power in Washington. But, knowing African leaders and God willing if both men are still alive, come 2017 Kagame will certainly invite Bashir because they will still be in power, afraid of stepping down for fear of the attendant repercussions, administered by global instruments of justice and executed by organizations like the ICC. Indeed, Kagame and Bashir represent pure impunity, which makes them birds of a feather… The writer is the Managing Editor, The Newsline E-mail: charlesk@newslineea.com Tel: (+256) 788 053249 Featured News Rwanda and Syria joined a list... Read more... Copyright © 2008 - 2010 Newsline Ea. All rights reserved. It doesn't depent on you whether or not I exist. If you don't like me, don't accept my invitation and don't invite me to come and see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on my side, I will bury you. Jean-Christophe, Utrecht,April 3rd, 2004. Nothing but Human rights. 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