The dictator Kagame at UN

The dictator Kagame at UN
Dictators like Kagame who have changed their national constitutions to remain indefinitely on power should not be involved in UN high level and global activities including chairing UN meetings

Why has the UN ignored its own report about the massacres of Hutu refugees in DRC ?

The UN has ignored its own reports, NGOs and media reports about the massacres of hundreds of thousands of Hutu in DRC Congo (estimated to be more than 400,000) by Kagame when he attacked Hutu refugee camps in Eastern DRC in 1996. This barbaric killings and human rights violations were perpetrated by Kagame’s RPF with the approval of UK and USA and with sympathetic understanding and knowledge of UNHCR and international NGOs which were operating in the refugees camps. According to the UN, NGO and media reports between 1993 and 2003 women and girls were raped. Men slaughtered. Refugees killed with machetes and sticks. The attacks of refugees also prevented humanitarian organisations to help many other refugees and were forced to die from cholera and other diseases. Other refugees who tried to return to Rwanda where killed on their way by RFI and did not reach their homes. No media, no UNHCR, no NGO were there to witness these massacres. When Kagame plans to kill, he makes sure no NGO and no media are prevent. Kagame always kills at night.

31 May 2011

Rwanda: The Sinister Offensive of a Regime in Decline

By Emmanuel Hakizimana, Ph.D.

President of the Rwandan Congress of Canada
May 20, 2011

Also available in: Français.

On May 13, 2011, BBC Radio broadcast information according to which two Rwandan nationals living in London had just been warned by British police that their lives were in danger. In a warning notice sent to each of them, police wrote: “Reliable intelligence states that the Rwandan Government poses an imminent threat to your life. The threat could come in any form.Two weeks earlier, the London newspaper The Independent published an article stating that the British intelligence service MI5 had issued an advisory notice to the Ambassador of Rwanda to the United Kingdom, Ernest Rwamucyo, warning him that British aid to Rwanda would be cut if he did not cease to threaten and intimidate Rwandan nationals living in Great Britain. That aid amounts to more than CAN$130 million.

The reports have caused considerable concern among members of the Rwandan community living in the West and more particularly those residing in Commonwealth countries including Canada. Indeed, they never imagined that the Kigali regime would dare to export insecurity to countries that are its biggest supporters. It will be remembered that those countries disregarded the recommendations put forward in a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and agreed to allow Rwanda to join the Commonwealth a little over a year ago.

The campaign of terror further illustrated by the events in London seems to be part of a strategy that was initiated by General Paul Kagame a few months before the presidential elections of August 2010 and was escalated following the release in October 2010 of the United Nations mapping report on crimes committed in Congo between 1993 and 2003. According to the report, the army of President General Paul Kagame committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly crimes of genocide against Hutu refugees in Congo and Congolese citizens.

The strategy basically has two concomitant areas of focus. The first is a vast diplomatic campaign in Western countries primarily intended to demonize opponents of the current Rwandan regime and denounce the UN mapping report. The second is the assassination of opponents, real or imagined, as well as independent journalists who reveal the criminal activities of the Kigali regime.

As part of the diplomatic offensive, a large Rwandan delegation led by Senator Aloysie Inyumba (recently appointed Minister of Gender and Family) toured Europe in November 2010. Another arrived in Canada in the second half of May 2011 for a series of conferences organized in conjunction with the Embassy of Rwanda in Ottawa. At the same time, Paul Kagame is scheduled to personally visit Chicago in the United States from June 10 to 12, 2011.

The recent events in Great Britain fall within the political assassinations component of the strategy, which was revived a few months before the presidential elections of August 2010 and continues to this day. It began with the decapitation of Green Party Vice-President André Kagwa Rwisereka, the assassination of independent journalist Léonard Rugambage and the assassination attempt in South Africa on General Kayumba Nyamwasa. It has now spread to Western countries.

Rwandan nationals who fled General Paul Kagame’s regime and settled in Canada take the recent events in London very seriously. They now know that the Rwandan regime can also carry out a campaign of terror in Canada and elements abound to indicate that their fear is not unfounded. First, there are precedents on Canadian soil. In 1998, a former Red Cross employee was the victim of an attempted murder because he had witnessed massacres perpetrated against Rwandan Hutu refugees by Paul Kagame's army. The incident was made public in an article published in La Presse on January 29, 1998. Next, the fact that Canada is the only Western country not to take legal action against the killers of Canadian citizens living in Rwanda (including Father Claude Simard and Father Guy Pinard) is not likely to deter Paul Kagame from sowing terror on Canadian soil. Finally, the initiative by Rwandan authorities to carry out a campaign of terror in Great Britain when that country ranks first among providers of aid to Rwanda shows that no country, not even Canada, can delude itself into believing that the Kigali regime will not dare to carry out terrorist attacks on its territory.

Many members of the Rwandan community in Canada fled Paul Kagame’s regime for different reasons. Some are survivors of his crimes against humanity, as revealed by the UN mapping report referred to above. Others, including journalists, jurists and human rights activists, were singled out because they denounced human rights violations and other abuses. All arrived broken-hearted and wanted nothing more than to live in peace and thrive in their host countries. The campaign of terror waged today by the Kigali regime is plunging them back into the world of terror they fled. Canada should take action immediately and warn Rwandan authorities against organizing terrorist activities on Canadian territory. At stake are the safety and security of all Canadians.


Related Stories:
Rwanda sending death squads to Britain: why is this news? By Nkunda

Rwandan exiles warned of assassination threat by London police

Rwandan assassin 'sent to kill dissidents in UK

British Police Warn Rwandan Dissidents of Threat

Rwanda: State terrorism tolerated for long by the international community

DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003

BBC Newsnight - Claims that the Rwandan government is plotting assassinations in the UK

Update on the Kagame Killing Machine in the UK & BBC Expose

10 May 2011

Rwanda: Who's denying genocide?

May 9, 2011


http://sfbayview.com/2011/rwanda-whos-denying-genocide/

by the International Humanitarian Law Institute (IHLI)


The 2010 U.N. Mapping Exercise Report, U.N. Prosecutor Del Ponte's 2009 exposé of Rwandan Patriotic Front crimes, and the 2008 Spanish genocide indictment of President Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front tell the real story
Rwandan Chief Prosecutor Martin Ngoga – Photo: AFP
St. Paul, Minn. – In a May 2 statement reported by the Associated Press, Rwandan Prosecutor Martin Ngoga renewed the false "genocide denial" charges against International Humanitarian Law Institute Director and William Mitchell College of Law Professor Peter Erlinder for his U.S.-authored academic writings, reporting evidence and documents in the record at the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, or ICTR.


Rwanda declared Erlinder "suicidal" while he was incarcerated in Rwanda, in May and June 2010, after he traveled there to consult with opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, facing "genocide ideology" charges brought against her for challenging the official history of the Rwanda Genocide, which has been re-characterized as a "Tutsi genocide." Upon her return to Rwanda in January 2010, Ingabire had gone to the genocide memorial in Kigali and asked why the Hutu people who died during the genocide were not commemorated as well as the Tutsis.
Erlinder was released for medical reasons after an international campaign to free him and intervention by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The International Humanitarian Law Institute (IHLI) is authorized to issue the following statement on Professor Erlinder's behalf:
Professor Erlinder has publicly stated, on numerous occasions, that he does not deny that tens of thousands of Rwandan Tutsis perished between April and July 1994, in circumstances that fit the definition of the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Nor does he deny U.N. reports that tens of thousands of Hutus were also victims, during and after April-July 1994. IHLI research notes this evidence in the public record:


• Former ICTR prosecution expert witnesses, Professor Allan Stam of the University of Michigan and Professor Christian Davenport of Notre Dame, analyzed all reports from the Rwandan government, NGOs and the U.N. and found twice as many Hutus were killed as Tutsis between April and July 1994, http://www.genodynamics.com/;


• The ICTR Military-1 Judgment (full version: Feb. 8, 2009) found insufficient evidence to convict the former military leadership of a long-planned conspiracy to commit genocide against the Tutsis or a long-planned conspiracy to commit any other crimes;


• The U.S. ambassador to Rwanda and declassified U.S. documents from 1994 establish that: (a) the assassination of the President of Burundi in October 1993 triggered a "genocide of 150,000 Burundian Hutus;" (b) hundreds of thousands of Burundian Hutu refugees then poured into Rwanda; (c) Rwandan Patriotic Front military aggression displaced 1.5 million Rwandans in early 1993; and (d) the Rwandan Patriotic Front assassinated the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi in April 1994. And that these were the actual causes of the Rwanda Genocide. The U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda personally warned Kagame in November 1993 that, if he resumed the war, he would be responsible for mass violence in Rwanda in 1994 like that in Burundi in 1993. This was confirmed by cables from the State Department on April 7, 1994;


• U.N. documents show that the RPF was militarily dominant as of February 1993 and, according to U.N. Gen. Dallaire's cables to the U.N. in April-June 1994, Kagame refused to stop the violence because he was winning;


• Former ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's 2009 memoirs document then-Gen. Kagame's culpability for the assassination of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi of April 6, 1994, that began the Rwandan Genocide, as does the 2008 indictment issued by Spanish Judge Fernando Abreu Merelles and the 2006 indictment of French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière;


• The Spanish indictment also describes, prefecture-by-prefecture, 325,000 murders of Hutus and Tutsis for which Kagame and the RPF are responsible, not including the massive killing after 1994, in both Rwanda and neighboring Congo;


• Shortly after Erlinder's release, the U.N. issued the 600-page "Mapping Report" documenting the Rwandan Patriotic Army's genocidal massacres, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2003. U.N. Security Council Reports document RPF resource rape of the Congo in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2008 of at least $250 million per year, resulting in millions of deaths.
In October 2010, President Kagame issued orders to RPF leaders for Professor Erlinder's return to Rwanda "dead or alive." Given the hundreds if not thousands of assassinations and disappearances of his opponents, there is little doubt Kagame would add his name to that list if he could.


Professor Erlinder has been under medical treatment for post-traumatic stress syndrome since he returned from detention, and this is a matter of record in the ICTR, although the Appeal Chamber chose to ignore his medical condition. His doctors and lawyers will determine the proper response, should he be summoned to return as Ngoga threatened.


Click here to download Professor Peter Erlinder's analysis and documentation published in the DePaul University Law School Journal of Justice: "The United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR-TPIR): International justice or judicially-constructed victors' impunity?"


You may also like -


Rwanda Genocide: Erlinder v. Kagame in the court of public opinionRwanda Genocide: Excuse for predator drones over Africa?Kagame's prisons, courts and killing spots: Ingabire, the Netherlands and the West


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Rwanda Genocide: Erlinder v. Kagame in the court of public opinion


Kagame court again denies bail to Victoire Ingabire


Law Professor Jwani Mwaikusa: Martyr for truth at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)?


Ingabire's appeal: Stand with Rwanda as with Prof. Erlinder










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“Remaking Rwanda”: essential contribution to the study of transitional justice and post-conflict recovery



 

"Remaking Rwanda": essential contribution to the study of transitional justice and post-conflict recovery

"Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights After Mass Violence," an edited volume by Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf, has recently been published by the University of Wisconsin Press. The book is dedicated to the memory of Alison des Forges, the former senior advisor to Human Rights Watch's Africa Division and renowned Rwanda expert.
The editors set out to accomplish three objectives:
  • fill the gap on scholarly literature on post-genocide Rwanda
  • challenge the prevailing positive reviews of Rwanda's recovery (emanating primarily from donors and media)
  • highlight Rwanda's importance for post-conflict recovery (in the theoretical framework of James Scott's "Seeking Like a State.")
In their introductory chapter, the editors state that "in challenging what has been the prevailing view of post-genocide Rwanda and complicating existing theories of post-conflict reconstruction, this volume intends to contribute – in whatever way outsiders can – to a robust social and political system that will avoid the terrible violence of Rwanda's past." The volume includes contributions from notable veteran and new scholars whose research on Rwanda is nuanced, provocative, and above reproach.
Not surprisingly, the book and its authors have come under attack by proxy spokespersons of the Government of Rwanda. But the hyperbolic response of the RPF regime merely underscores the credibility of the authors' claims. Namely, the claims that that the RPF has used the created a veneer with the internationally lauded benchmarks of democracy, macro economic progress, and rule of law to entrench and centralize its power through "deft authoritarianism" – and thus paradoxically suppressing dissent, deepening inequality, and furthering a culture of impunity. Some have challenged that "only Rwandans can remake Rwanda." No one denies that Rwandans, from elites to peasants, should have agency in their country's political discourse. But as Straus remarks to the Chronicle of Higher Ed, "it is left to outsiders to make critical comments if the domestic political space is largely closed."
There are several chapters in the volume that address transitional justice and reconciliation issues – ranging from crimes committed in the Congo, Gacaca, ICTR, memorials, ingando, and the laws on "genocide ideology." I'll provide a thorough review of these chapters in a future post, but for now here are the authors and titles:
  • Lars Waldorf. "Instrumentalizing Genocide: The RPF's Campaign against 'Genocide Ideology."
  • Jason Stearns and Federico Borello. "Bad Karma: Accountability for Rwandan Crimes in the Congo."
  • Victor Peskin. "Victor's Justice Revisited: Rwandan Patriotic Front Crimes and the Prosecutorial Endgame at the ICTR."
  • Don Webster. "The Uneasy Relationship between the ICTR and Gacaca."
  • Max Rettig. "The Sov
    __._,_.___
    u Trials: The Impact of Genocide Justice on One Community."
  • Carina Tertsakian. "'All Rwandans Are Afraid of Being Arrested One Day': Prisoners Past, Present, and Future."
  • Jens Meierhenrich. "Topographies of Remembering and Forgetting: The Transformation of Lieux de Memoire in Rwanda."
  • Susan Thomson. "Reeducation for Reconciliation: Participant Observations on Ingando."

War Criminals Spared As ICC Prosecutor Plays Blind

War Criminals Spared As ICC Prosecutor Plays Blind

[Black Star News Editorial]

Is the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo who has announced that he seeks arrest warrants against three Libyan officials a compromised agent of U.S. foreign policy?
Has Ocampo corrupted the lofty ideals of the court when it was created in furtherance of Western, especially U.S., foreign policy? Does he deserve to resign from his post?
Well why not let the evidence of his actions --or lack thereof-- answer these questions.
In 1997, Uganda and Rwanda invaded what was then Zaire to occupy parts of the resource-rich country and to assist Lauren Kabila's rebels in ousting U.S.-backed dictator Mobuttu.
When Kabila, installed as president, wanted to exercise autonomy, Uganda and Rwanda invaded again in 1998 and this time occupied territory and supported insurgent administrations in their respective domains.

The occupation was characterized by massive crimes of war and crimes against humanity: Congolese were massacred; there was mass rape of both men and women --in Uganda Yoweri Museveni's army had earlier been accused of mass rapes of men in militarily contested areas by soldiers known to be HIV-positive-- Congolese were burned alive in their homes; and, there was massive looting of Congo's mineral and natural wealth.
Eventually, Congo referred the alleged crimes to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). After a trial the court found Uganda liable for the crimes outlined and awarded Congo $10 billion in compensation.

Joseph Kabila, who had succeeded his father, referred the crimes to the ICC for criminal investigation. Most observers believed that using the same set of facts reviewed by the ICJ, the ICC would arrive at the same conclusion: and that arrest warrants would eventually be sought by Ocampo for Uganda's military leadership, including commander in chief Gen. Yoweri K. Museveni.

In fact, Gen. Museveni himself knew the dangers he faced. According to an article published on June 8, 2006 in The Wall Street Journal, Gen. Museveni contacted then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and urged him to block the investigation. Annan, according to the article, said he had no such powers.

Ocampo, as far as is known, has not sought warrants against Uganda's top military leadership.

He basked in media light in a joint press conference with Gen. Museveni to announce the indictment of the leaders of the vicious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who do deserve to be brought to justice. Possibly anticipating that the ICC would eventually indict Gen. Museveni, Ocampo's colleagues at the court had objected to his appearance side by side with the Ugandan president.

The natural question is, given the closeness of Ocampo to Museveni, has the ICC prosecutor stymied the investigation The Wall Street Journal reported on?

The crimes committed in the Congo --an estimated seven million people have perished as a result of the Uganda and Rwanda occupations which spawned perpetual conflict there-- make the LRA's pale by comparison.

The United Nations "mapping report" has also documented these and earlier crimes committed in the Congo by Uganda's and Rwanda's forces.

Also in the Congo, Rwanda's viceroy was the pathological mass murderer of Congolese, "general" Laurent Nkunda -- his forces killed so many Congolese that even his sponsor Rwanda's Paul Kagame became concerned and eventually disarmed him and placed him under "house" arrest.

Ocampo has not sought the indictment and arrest of Nkunda who remains protected by Rwanda in relative luxury.

Ocampo did aggressively and successfully seek the indictment of the Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Ocampo's "indictments" are clearly selective. They spare alleged criminals such as leaders supported by the United States, and only target alleged criminals that are in conflict with the United States.

There will be no justice for the victims of alleged criminals such as Museveni, Kagame and Nkunda under Ocampo's watch.

The news last week that Ocampo will target Libya's leaders therefore fits the pattern even as leaders in nearby Syria mow down people in a popular uprising. Ocampo won't act unless the U.S. designates leaders of Syria as "bad guys."

We pose the questions again:

Has Ocampo profaned the ICC's initial lofty ideals to protect ordinary people around the world against crimes of war and crimes against humanity committed with impunity? Is the ICC now merely an instrument of and enforcer of Western foreign policy? Should Ocampo resign?

The reader can draw her or his own conclusion.

"Speaking Truth To Empower."

http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/7336/2011-05-07.html

6 May 2011

Predators of Press Freedom: Rwanda - Paul Kagame

Predators of Press Freedom: Rwanda - Paul Kagame



Paul Kagame, President, Rwanda


Thanks to a thin face, slight build, intellectual's glasses and conservative suits, Paul Kagame looks more like a modern, Internet-savvy politician than a former guerrilla chief and war lord, who seized power in the wake of the 1994 genocide has since used a reconciliation process to bolster his authority and neutralize the opposition. President since 2000 and reelected in 2010, Kagame does not tolerate embarrassing questions at news conferences, often denigrates journalists and brands outspoken media as "Radio Mille Collines." Every year several Rwandan journalists decide to go into exile because they find the atmosphere unbearable in their home country. This does not worry President Kagame, who refers to these journalists as "mercenaries" and "bums."


Two women journalists were given sentences of 7 and 17 years in prison in early 2011 for criticizing the president. Umuvugizi deputy editor Jean-Léonard Rugambage was murdered in Kigali in June 2010, probably for investigating the intelligence services and, in particular, their attempt to murder an exiled general. Umuvugizi and another newspaper, Umuseso, have long been two of the regime's biggest bugbears.


Defamation, invasion of privacy and insulting the president are the charges preferred by the information ministry and the High Media Council, its (not very independent) regulatory authority. To cap it all, anyone thinking of launching a new newspaper, radio station or TV station is now required to show an exorbitant amount of start-up capital (41,000 euros for a newspaper, for example) in order to obtain a permit. It is a good way of discouraging media diversity.


http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4dc2b52710.html

5 May 2011

Rwandan told to stop harassing dissidents in UK

Rwandan dictatorial regime is using British taxpayer’s money to pay Rwanda’s intelligence agents to persecute Rwandan nationals living in the UK.



Rwandan told to stop harassing dissidents in UK


By Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter


MI5 has warned the Rwandan high commissioner to Britain to halt an alleged campaign of harassment against suspected critics of his country's government based in the UK.


Ernest Rwamucyo, who is due to attend today's royal wedding as Rwanda's envoy to London, was told by the Security Service that the UK's £83m aid to Rwanda could be cut unless the secret activities against members of the diaspora were halted. Expatriates claim that they have been threatened and intimidated by diplomatic officials.


Rwanda's top envoy is the latest among the 200 diplomatic invitees to this morning's ceremony at Westminster Abbey whose attendance is controversial. Several of them have since been uninvited by the Foreign Office and Clarence House


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rwandan-wedding-guest-told-to-stop-harassing-dissidents-in-uk-2276425.html


State Department War Crimes Chief Stephen Rapp’s cover-up of U.S. War Crimes in Rwanda Genocide

State Department War Crimes Chief Stephen Rapp’s cover-up of U.S. War Crimes in Rwanda Genocide
Sun, 2011-05-01 02:53 — editor

Daya Gamage – Foreign News Desk Asian Tribune

Washington, DC. 29April (Asiantribune.com):
The April 28 report in The New York Times captioned ‘American Lawyer is Barred from Rwanda Tribunal Work’ caught the eye of this Online Daily’s Foreign News Desk which informed the readers that Peter Erlinder, a law professor in an American university, has been barred by the UN from working at the international tribunal for Rwanda based in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. He refused to travel to Arusa for fear of his life.
He said that he is a target of the Rwandan government and has even received threats while on lecture tours in the U.S.
Prof. Erlinder charges the current Paul Kahame regime of Rwanda of targeted assassinations of those who were accusing the Rwandan leader of genocide - 1990 through 1994 - in which one million people were killed. He and others who have given a long list of victims in many worldwide cities attributed those assassinations to the current Rwandan leadership of Paul Kagame.

One of the mysterious deaths known to the Asian Tribune network was a UN professional who worked to unearth the evidence of the Rwandan genocide – a Sri Lankan Shyamlal Rajapaksa who happened to be a first cousin of the present president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa. His killing in August 2009 in the Tanzanian city of Arusha where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was headquartered is still a mystery.

Professor Peter Erlinder has come out with an array of evidence and interpretations of the direct culpability of the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame in the Rwandan genocide, how he and his colleagues were given military training in the U.S., how Kagame as the head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a proxy force of the Pentagon according to Erlinder, invaded Rwanda to unleash a genocide with tacit approval of the United States, and in the following years how the United States took covert and overt steps to cover up its involvement in the Rwandan mass massacre.

It is here that Ambassador-at Large Stephen Rapp’s name emerge. Mr. Rapp is currently the head of the Office of War Crimes Issues of the U.S. Department of State, and in his previous position as the chief prosecutor of the Rwandan genocide, according to Peter Elinder, and many other investigators, Mr. Rapp was one of the main who was involved in the cover up of US involvement in the Rwandan Genocide.

The Asian Tribune readers may recall that Stephen Rapp in his capacity as the State Department’s War Crimes Issues chief who prepared and released a document in October 2009 with ambiguous evidence which accused Sri Lanka of violating international humanitarian laws during the final (Jan-May 2009) stage of the battle with separatist/terrorist Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

In October 1990, the Ugandan army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF) led by Major General Paul Kagame invaded Rwanda. The guerrillas who violated international laws and committed massive war crimes were backed by Britain, Belgium, the United States and Israel, according to many investigators and researchers. By July 1994, the RPF completed its coup d'etat and consolidated its power in Rwanda.

On April 6, 1994, the governments of Rwanda and Burundi were decapitated when the plane carrying the two presidents and top military staff was shot down over Kigali, Rwanda's capital. The well-planned assassinations of Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira sparked a massive escalation of warfare that is falsely portrayed as the result of meaningless tribal savagery. These assassinations were major war crimes, and the RPF and UPDF were responsible, but almost every attempt to honestly investigate the double presidential assassinations has been blocked by the U.S. and its allies.

A frequent contributor to a think tank called Global Research, Prof. Elinder outlined the United States endeavor in the cover up of its own culpability in the Rwandan genocide.

He wrote: “The July 9, 2009 New York Times reported that the Obama administration had selected Stephen Rapp to replace the Bush administration Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Pierre Prosper. Rapp began his international career at the UN Security Council Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001, while Carla Del Ponte was Chief Rwanda Prosecutor. Rapp’s nomination just a few months after Del Ponte’s of her memoir of her years as Chief UN Prosecutor, Madam Prosecutor: Confronting Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity was published in English.

“Del Ponte’s book describes in detail the systematic U.S.-initiated cover-up of crimes by the current Rwandan government, a U.S. ally, committed during the Rwanda Genocide, and how she was removed from her ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) position in 2003 by U.S. Ambassador Prosper, himself, when she refused to cooperate with the U.S.-initiated “cover-up.”

According to Del Ponte, her ICTR Office had the evidence to prosecute Kagame for “touching-off” the Rwanda Genocide by ordering the assassination of Rwanda’s former President Juvenal, Habyarimana, long before 2003. She also details the dozens of massacre sites, involving thousands of victims, for which the current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame and his military, should be prosecuted. The well-publicized canard, that “the identity of the assassins of Habyarimana is unknown” is a bald-faced lie, well -known by ICTR Prosecutors, according to Ms. Del Ponte, writes Prof. Elinder in Global Research.
Two years after Del Ponte was removed from office, Stephen Rapp became “Chief” of ICTR Prosecutions with access to all of the evidence known to Ms. Del Ponte, and more that has been made public in the past few years. During his four years at the ICTR, Rapp like Del Ponte, also was in a position to prosecute Kagame and members of the current government of Rwanda but, not ONE member of Kagame’s military has been prosecuted at the ICTR, to date…and the “cover-up” revealed by Del Ponte, continues today. And, unlike, Ms. Del Ponte, who was fired by the U.S., Mr. Rapp was first rewarded with an appointment as Chief Prosecutor at the U.S.-funded Sierra Leone Tribunal and now, a coveted ambassadorship by the Obama administration as the chief of the Office of War Crimes Issues at the State Department.

Mr. Rapp, for reasons known and unknown to the Asian Tribune, used ambiguous and conflicting information and data to accuse Sri Lanka of violating International Humanitarian Laws (IHL) in a report released to the US Congress in October 2009.

Former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Del Ponte Details War Crimes “Cover-up”

According to Del Ponte, in May 2003 she was called to Washington D.C. by Prosper (ironically, also a former ICTR prosecutor with knowledge of Kagame’s crimes) who informed her that the U.S. would remove her UN post, if she carried through with her publicly announced plans to indict Kagame and members of his government and military. According to Del Ponte, when she refused to knuckle-under because “she worked for the UN, - not for the U.S” Prosper told her ICTR career was over. In October Del Ponte was replaced by a US-approved ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Abubacar Jallow, who elevated Rapp to “Chief of Prosecution” two years later.

ICTR Trials: More Evidence of Rwanda Crimes Cover-Up

Del Ponte’s revelations are not the only evidence that a U.S.-initiated “war crimes cover-up” at the ICTR is creating impunity for crimes committed by the Kagame and his military. On September 10, 1994 memo in evidence in the ICTR Military-1 Trial confirms that U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher was informed that Kagame’s troops were killing “10,000 civilians a month” in military-style, according to an investigation funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID). And, as early as January 1997, a team made up of Chief ICTR Investigative Prosecutor and former Australian Crown Prosecutor Michael Hourigan; former FBI Agent James Lyons; and former UN-Chief of Military Intelligence in Rwanda, Amadou Deme; reported Louise Arbour, Ms. Del Ponte’s predecessor, that Kagame should be prosecuted for assassinating the previous president. Arbour scuttled the investigation, suppressed the report and disbanded the investigative team.

Shortly, thereafter, Arbour was elevated to Canada’s Supreme Court and has sunsequently been chosen to head the International Crisis Group.
Louise Arbour as the head of the International Crisis Group released a report in May 2010 accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes said: “Evidence gathered by the International Crisis Group suggests that these months saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilian men, women, children and the elderly killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths. This evidence also provides reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes with top government and military leaders potentially responsible.”
Former ICTR Prosecutor Rapp Complicit in Cover-up

But, even though Arbour suppressed the “Hourigan Report,” Del Ponte, Rapp and other ICTR prosecutors certainly knew about it, because ICTR judges had ordered Del Ponte’s Office to release the “Hourigan report” to a defense team as early as the year 2000, a year before Rapp began his ICTR work, and three years before Del Ponte was fired by Prosper.

Prof. Peter Elinder says “But….to date, not one indictment has been issued against Kagame by the ICTR Prosecutor.”
Consequences of the ICTR Cover-up of Kagame’s Crimes

The tragic consequence of the failure to prosecute Kagame at the ICTR, from 1994 to date, is that Kagame has been free to invade the Congo in 1996 and 1998, and to occupy part of the eastern Congo many-times larger than Rwanda, to this day. No less than four UN Security Council-commissioned Panel of Experts Report(s) on the Illegal Exploitation of the DR Congo (2001, 2002, 2003 and December 2008) have detailed the massive rape of the Congo’s resources that has brought vast riches to Kagame and his inner circle.

While Rapp was ICTR Senior Trial Attorney in 2003, Kagame was effectively elected President-for-Life with 95% of the vote, after banning opposition parties and jailing opponents, in “a climate of intimidation” according to EU observers.

“Chief of Prosecutions” Rapp Withheld Exculpatory Evidence
In February 2009, the ICTR issued its Judgment the Military-1 case, that main case at the ICTR, in which Mr. Rapp personally appeared for the Prosecution. Although massive violence did occur in Rwanda, the court certainly recognized that blaming only one side WAS a falsehood, when it acquitted all of the “architects of the killing machine” (as Mr. Rapp called the defendants in court) of conspiracy or planning to kill civilians. The highest ranking military-officer was acquitted of all charges.

And, although it is now clear from Ms. Del Ponte’s memoirs that Mr. Rapp had the evidence to clear the ICTR defendants of the assassination charges and only the losing side has been blamed for all crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994. Simply put, Mr. Rapp and other ICTR prosecutors have withheld evidence that would be beneficial to the defense, contrary to Tribunal Rules; have prosecuted defendants for crimes they knew were committed by Kagame’s forces; and, have created a system of “judicial impunity” that has permitted Kagame to kill millions in the eastern Congo.

It is in this context that Prof. Peter Elinder writing to Global Security questioned President Obama’s wisdom in appointing Stephen Rapp as the head of the Office of War Crimes Issue at the State Department in this manner: “This “inconvenient-African-truth,” raises an uncomfortable question regarding President Obama’s nomination of Mr. Rapp, in the first place: Are Obama and his advisors ignorant of the public record regarding Rapp’s complicity in the ICTR Cover-up….or do they just not give a damn?”

The U.S. Culpability in Rwanda Genocide

Aimable Mugara in a piece to OpEdNews put it this way: “In 1990, General Kagame who was the Chief of Military Intelligence of Uganda and head of the Rwandan Patriotic Forces (RPF) led a violent invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, with the approval and support (financial, military and political) of the United States government. This violent war changed the landscape of that region forever. By landscape, I also mean the number of mass graves that dot every of inch of that region now. The two final years of President Bush the father, during which his American government supported the murderous gang of General Kagame and Yoweri Museveni resulted in the deaths of many innocent Rwandan and Ugandan civilians. During those two years, there are thousands who lost their lives at the hands of General Kagame's soldiers and Yoweri Museveni's soldiers. But this was nothing compared to the more than 6 millions of civilians that would later die under Bill Clinton's 8 year reign, with American money, American weapons and American political support.”

In a September 30, 2010 New York Times article titled ‘Dispute Over U.N. Report Evokes Rwandan Déjà Vu’, it is mentioned how in the fall of 1994, a United Nations investigation discovered that General Kagame's forces had killed tens of thousand of innocent civilians that year. That under pressure from Bill Clinton's government, the United Nations was forced not to publish that report. In that New York Times article, they talk about how the 1994 UN report describes General Kagame's soldiers "rounding up civilians and methodically killing unarmed men, women and children."

“Kagame received his military education under the Pentagon’s Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) at the Command and General Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, beginning in 1990,” wrote John E. Peck of the Association of African Scholars (2002). “His sidekick, Lt. Col. Frank Rusagara, got his JCET schooling at the U.S. Naval Academy in Monterey, California. Both were dispatched to Rwanda in time to oversee the RPF’s takeover in 1994. Far from being an innocent bystander, the Washington Post revealed on July 12, 1998 that the United States not only gave Kagame $75 million in military assistance, but also sent Green Berets to train Kagame’s forces (as well as their Ugandan rebel allies) in low intensity conflict (LIC) tactics. Pentagon subcontractor Ronco, masquerading as a de-mining company, also smuggled more weapons to RPF fighters in flagrant violation of UN sanctions. All of this U.S. largesse was put to lethal effect in the ethnic bloodbath that is still going on.”

In 2009 published Edward S. Herman and David Peterson's investigative/research book The Politics of Genocide said: “The United States and its allies worked hard in the early 1990s to weaken the Rwandan government, forcing the abandonment of many of the economic and social gains from the social revolution of 1959, thereby making the Habyarimana government less popular, and helping to reinforce the Tutsi minority’s economic power.9 Eventually, the RPF was able to achieve a legal military presence inside Rwanda, thanks to a series of ceasefires and other agreements. These agreements led to the Arusha Peace Accords of August 1993, pressed upon the Rwandan government by the United States and its allies, called for the “integration” of the armed forces of Rwanda and the RPF, and for a “transitional,” power-sharing government until national elections could be held in 1995.10 These Peace Accords positioned the RPF for its bloody overthrow of a relatively democratic coalition government, and the takeover of the Rwandan state by a minority dictatorship.”

The U.S. State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues chief Stephen Rapp knew this entire Rwandan episode, the U.S. interests in Paul Kagame, the UN concealment of the 1994 report at the behest of the Clinton administration, the U.S. military assistance to Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front and the entire exercise of the ‘Rwandan cover up’ to conceal the U.S. culpability in the Rwandan genocide when he focused his attention elsewhere; Sri Lanka.



2 May 2011

Fw: *DHR* Rwandan Official In UK Warned Against Harassment- MI5


 

Rwandan Official In UK Warned Against Harassment- MI5

April 30, 2011 | Filed under: Features | Posted by: Herman
The Kagame dictatorship continues to show its true colours not only at home but abroad as well.
The British government security service MI5 has reportedly warned the Rwandan High Commissioner to stop harassing Rwandan residents living in various parts of the UK.
According to the London newspaper The Independent, Ernest Rwamucyo, the Rwandan High Commissioner to Britain has been told by M15 that Britain's aid to Rwanda that amounts to ₤83 million annually may be cut unless the near criminal activities by him and his subordinates stop.
This is not the first time that foreign governments have warned Rwanda about its aggressive behavour towards Rwandans that reside in their countries. Evidently any member of the Rwandan Diaspora that does not worship Kagame is automatically considered an enemy of the state.
Rwandans in the UK have previously held demonstrations against such heavy-handedness.
The good thing is that governments in Europe are no longer deceived by Kagame's public relations machinery that brands him "visionary" leader while his officials terrorise those with a different viewpoint. Governments are increasingly seeing him as a ruthless dictator they rather not associate with. Prime Ministers of Spain and Belgium shunned him when he recently set foot in the two countries. Kagame would think twice before visiting South Africa where he stands accused of attempting to assassinate his former army chief of staff. South Africa has since pulled its Ambassador from Rwanda.
In a desperate need to satisfy his personality cult in a shrinking pool of admirers, Kagame nowadays settles for visits to fellow dictators such as Nguesso in Congo; or goes to lecture students about competitiveness at Harvard, or as he did this week to hang out in New York City with what he imagines to be fellow celebrities in Time's top 100 influential people!
But as is indicated in the Independent newspaper article, the UK government,too may be waking up, finally, to who Kagame really is if they needed further evidence. Countries such as Belgium, France, South Africa are only too aware of what Rwanda embassies pre-occupy themselves with – spying on and harrassing Rwandans.

Related posts:

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-“The enemies of Freedom do not argue ; they shout and they shoot.”

The principal key root causes that lead to the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that affected all Rwandan ethnic groups were:

1)The majority Hutu community’s fear of the return of the discriminatory monarchy system that was practiced by the minority Tutsi community against the enslaved majority Hutu community for about 500 years

2)The Hutu community’s fear of Kagame’s guerrilla that committed massacres in the North of the country and other parts of the countries including assassinations of Rwandan politicians.

3) The Rwandan people felt abandoned by the international community ( who was believed to support Kagame’s guerrilla) and then decided to defend themselves with whatever means they had against the advance of Kagame’ guerrilla supported by Ugandan, Tanzanian and Ethiopian armies and other Western powers.

-“The enemies of Freedom do not argue ; they shout and they shoot.”

-“The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

-“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

-“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.”

The Rwanda war of 1990-1994 had multiple dimensions.

The Rwanda war of 1990-1994 had multiple dimensions. Among Kagame’s rebels who were fighting against the Rwandan government, there were foreigners, mainly Ugandan fighters who were hired to kill and rape innocent Rwandan people in Rwanda and refugees in DRC.

READ MORE RECENT NEWS AND OPINIONS

SUMMARY : THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE BRITISH BUDGET SUPPORT AND GEO-STRATEGIC AMBITIONS

United Kingdom's Proxy Wars in Africa: The Case of Rwanda and DR Congo:

The Rwandan genocide and 6,000,000 Congolese and Hutu refugees killed are the culminating point of a long UK’s battle to expand their influence to the African Great Lakes Region. UK supported Kagame’s guerrilla war by providing military support and money. The UK refused to intervene in Rwanda during the genocide to allow Kagame to take power by military means that triggered the genocide. Kagame’s fighters and their families were on the Ugandan payroll paid by UK budget support.


· 4 Heads of State assassinated in the francophone African Great Lakes Region.
· 2,000,000 people died in Hutu and Tutsi genocides in Rwanda, Burundi and RD.Congo.
· 600,000 Hutu refugees killed in R.D.Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic and Rep of Congo.
· 6,000,000 Congolese dead.
· 8,000,000 internal displaced people in Rwanda, Burundi and DR. Congo.
· 500,000 permanent Rwandan and Burundian Hutu refugees, and Congolese refugees around the world.
· English language expansion to Rwanda to replace the French language.
· 20,000 Kagame’s fighters paid salaries from the British Budget Support from 1986 to present.
· £500,000 of British taxpayer’s money paid, so far, to Kagame and his cronies through the budget support, SWAPs, Tutsi-dominated parliament, consultancy, British and Tutsi-owned NGOs.
· Kagame has paid back the British aid received to invade Rwanda and to strengthen his political power by joining the East African Community together with Burundi, joining the Commonwealth, imposing the English Language to Rwandans to replace the French language; helping the British to establish businesses and to access to jobs in Rwanda, and to exploit minerals in D.R.Congo.



Thousands of Hutu murdered by Kagame inside Rwanda, e.g. Kibeho massacres

Thousands of Hutu murdered by Kagame inside Rwanda, e.g. Kibeho massacres
Kagame killed 200,000 Hutus from all regions of the country, the elderly and children who were left by their relatives, the disabled were burned alive. Other thousands of people were killed in several camps of displaced persons including Kibeho camp. All these war crimes remain unpunished.The British news reporters were accompanying Kagame’s fighters on day-by-day basis and witnessed these massacres, but they never reported on this.

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25,000 Hutu bodies floated down River Akagera into Lake Victoria in Uganda.

25,000  Hutu bodies  floated down River Akagera into Lake Victoria in Uganda.
The British irrational, extremist, partisan,biased, one-sided media and politicians have disregarded Kagame war crimes e.g. the Kibeho camp massacres, massacres of innocents Hutu refugees in DR. Congo. The British media have been supporting Kagame since he invaded Rwanda by organising the propaganda against the French over the Rwandan genocide, suppressing the truth about the genocide and promoting the impunity of Kagame and his cronies in the African Great Lakes Region. For the British, Rwanda does not need democracy, Rwanda is the African Israel; and Kagame and his guerilla fighters are heroes.The extremist British news reporters including Fergal Keane, Chris Simpson, Chris McGreal, Mark Doyle, etc. continue to hate the Hutus communities and to polarise the Rwandan society.

Kagame political ambitions triggered the genocide.

Kagame  political  ambitions triggered the genocide.
Kagame’s guerrilla war was aimed at accessing to power at any cost. He rejected all attempts and advice that could stop his military adventures including the cease-fire, political negotiations and cohabitation, and UN peacekeeping interventions. He ignored all warnings that could have helped him to manage the war without tragic consequences. Either you supported Kagame’ s wars and you are now his friend, or you were against his wars and you are his enemy. Therefore, Kagame as the Rwandan strong man now, you have to apologise to him for having been against his war and condemned his war crimes, or accept to be labelled as having been involved in the genocide. All key Kagame’s fighters who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity are the ones who hold key positions in Rwandan army and government for the last 15 years. They continue to be supported and advised by the British including Tony Blair, Andrew Mitchell MP, and the British army senior officials.

Aid that kills: The British Budget Support financed Museveni and Kagame’s wars in Rwanda and DRC.

Aid that kills: The British Budget Support  financed Museveni and Kagame’s wars in Rwanda and DRC.
Genocide propaganda and fabrications are used by the so-called British scholars, news reporters and investigative journalists to promote their CVs and to get income out of the genocide through the selling of their books, providing testimonies against the French, access to consultancy contracts from the UN and Kagame, and participation in conferences and lectures in Rwanda, UK and internationally about genocide. Genocide propaganda has become a lucrative business for Kagame and the British. Anyone who condemned or did not support Kagame’s war is now in jail in Rwanda under the gacaca courts system suuported by British tax payer's money, or his/she is on arrest warrant if he/she managed to flee the Kagame’s regime. Others have fled the country and are still fleeing now. Many others Rwandans are being persecuted in their own country. Kagame is waiting indefinitely for the apologies from other players who warn him or who wanted to help to ensure that political negotiations take place between Kagame and the former government he was fighting against. Britain continues to supply foreign aid to Kagame and his cronies with media reports highlighting economic successes of Rwanda. Such reports are flawed and are aimed at misleading the British public to justify the use of British taxpayers’ money. Kagame and his cronies continue to milk British taxpayers’ money under the British budget support. This started from 1986 through the British budget support to Uganda until now.

Dictator Kagame: No remorse for his unwise actions and ambitions that led to the Rwandan genocide.

Dictator Kagame: No remorse for his unwise actions and ambitions that led to the  Rwandan genocide.
No apologies yet to the Rwandan people. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana by Kagame was the only gateway for Kagame to access power in Rwanda. The British media, politicians, and the so-called British scholars took the role of obstructing the search for the truth and justice; and of denying this assassination on behalf of General Kagame. General Paul Kagame has been obliging the whole world to apologise for his mistakes and war crimes. The UK’s way to apologise has been pumping massive aid into Rwanda's crony government and parliement; and supporting Kagame though media campaigns.

Fanatical, partisan, suspicious, childish and fawning relations between UK and Kagame

Fanatical, partisan, suspicious, childish and fawning relations between UK and Kagame
Kagame receives the British massive aid through the budget support, British excessive consultancy, sector wide programmes, the Tutsi-dominated parliament, British and Tutsi-owned NGOs; for political, economic and English language expansion to Rwanda. The British aid to Rwanda is not for all Rwandans. It is for Kagame himself and his Tutsi cronies.

Paul Kagame' actvities as former rebel

Africa

UN News Centre - Africa

The Africa Report - Latest

IRIN - Great Lakes

This blog reports the crimes that remain unpunished and the impunity that has generated a continuous cycle of massacres in many parts of Africa. In many cases, the perpetrators of the crimes seem to have acted in the knowledge that they would not be held to account for their actions.

The need to fight this impunity has become even clearer with the massacres and genocide in many parts of Africa and beyond.

The blog also addresses issues such as Rwanda War Crimes, Rwandan Refugee massacres in Dr Congo, genocide, African leaders’ war crimes and crimes against humanity, Africa war criminals, Africa crimes against humanity, Africa Justice.

-The British relentless and long running battle to become the sole player and gain new grounds of influence in the francophone African Great Lakes Region has led to the expulsion of other traditional players from the region, or strained diplomatic relations between the countries of the region and their traditional friends. These new tensions are even encouraged by the British using a variety of political and economic manoeuvres.

-General Kagame has been echoing the British advice that Rwanda does not need any loan or aid from Rwandan traditional development partners, meaning that British aid is enough to solve all Rwandan problems.

-The British obsession for the English Language expansion has become a tyranny that has led to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, dictatorial regimes, human rights violations, mass killings, destruction of families, communities and cultures, permanent refugees and displaced persons in the African Great Lakes region.


- Rwanda, a country that is run by a corrupt clique of minority-tutsi is governed with institutional discrmination, human rights violations, dictatorship, authoritarianism and autocracy, as everybody would expect.