“A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time”:Portia Karegeya | The Rwandan

http://www.therwandan.com/blog/a-man-who-lives-fully-is-prepared-to-die-at-any-timeportia-karegeya/

"A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time":Portia Karegeya

February 27, 2014 07:45   News, Rwanda

Interview with Portia Karegeya on the death of her father Patrick Karegeya

By: Jennifer Fierberg

In the wake of extreme tragedy is one rarely able to articulate their emotions let alone answer questions about the loss that has torn through their family. Patrick Karegeya, former head spy chief for President Paul Kagame and founding member of the Rwandan opposition group the Rwanda National Congress was found strangled in a hotel room in South Africa on New Year's Day 2014. A tie back from the hotel curtains and a bloody towel were found in the hotel safe. His murder remains under investigation by the South African police and the family states that the police are making strides in solving the case. It is a complicated manner because Karegeya's close friend and political comrade also faced a similar situation but survived the attempt on his life and his case remains before the court.

Portia Karegeya, only daughter to Patrick Karegeya, agreed to sit down for an interview with this writer about her father, and how the family is coping with this devastating loss. Miss Karegeya is an extremely intelligent young woman who is highly educated and well spoken. This interview was not easy for her due to the subject matter but she agreed to it and stated that she found the process cathartic. Her mother also read through and approved of the final draft.

JF: First, let me please express my deepest condolences to you and your family for the tragic loss of your father. His death affected so many people the world over and he is greatly missed. Where were you when you heard about the murder of your father and who contacted you?

PK:  I was in Montreal in my apartment. I called my cousin at around 13:35/45 because he had started a chat group with the WhatsApp app with all the family members except dad and it was entitled "Loss." I think he was just trying to tell us all at the same time but I didn't wait I immediately phoned and forced him to say the words. So in answer to your question technically no one contacted me, I called my cousin.

JF: When was your last contact with your father and, if you wish, what did you discuss?

PK: My last contact with him was on the 30th of December at 15:35 and the call lasted exactly 18 minutes and 42 seconds, I know this because Skype keeps very specific call logs. We talked about nothing and everything. We laughed about mini-skirt banning in Uganda and the Irony of Schumacher being in a coma because of a Ski accident of all things. Then we made big plans for 2014. We actually said, this year will be the year of the Karegeya's and that we would be reunited again at some point and he said he was going to work hard and I said I would get a good job and our goal was to be there for my brother Richard's High School Graduation. Also, and in retrospect quite hauntingly, I had asked him what he had been up to and he said he had come from diner with a guy from Kigali, whom I now know was Apollo Kirisisi. I made a joke in Kinyarwanda asking, "You really still trust those guys" meaning random Rwandans in general and he just said, "argh…I know…but sometime you have to." I really wish he hadn't but that's who he was, if you were his friend that was it, he didn't question it until given a reason to do so. It's unfortunate that the reason not to trust this guy came in the form of murder.

JF: Losing your father at such a young age, or any age, is horrible. What gets you through your darkest hours?

PK: In a word – gratitude. I almost wish I could invent a new word, a new adjective that could somehow describe the depth and the quiet and subtle almost secret yet visibly enormous love that my father and I shared. I know for a fact that that kind of love between father and daughter is rare. He just loved me so much, and we were so so close and we just shared that special kind of father daughter bond that can be seen but can't really be explained. I shone so brightly in his eyes and he in mine. So what gets me through it is reminding myself as often as I can, even though it breaks my heart that  he is no longer here, that I'm so lucky I got to have him at all, and not just in a peripheral way but as my father. I didn't even really have to share him I got to be his onlydaughter. He was so many things, to so many people, but before anything, he was my dad, and man was he good at his job! 24 years I got to have him, that is so much more that a lot of girls get, and sometimes they get that and more but it's a relationship full of strife and all sorts of issues. It can be a relationship that's burdensome but it was never this for me. It's probably the most successful relationship I'll ever have with any man ever. This has to be the most longwinded answer to a simple question…

JF: The last time you hit the public radar of Rwandan issues was when you were stranded in Uganda after President Kagame cancelled your passport. How were you able to finally leave the country and how long did it take?

PK: It took just under 3 months. A lot of politicking when into it from very high up offices. I don't want to name the good people that helped me as I wouldn't want them to be in trouble because of me as the final leg of my exit was shrouded in much secrecy. In the end, it was decided that a passport for me could be issued and I was able to apply for my Canadian study visa and leave.

However, I have no problem saying that after I had been detained at the airport for over 10 hours I was taken to see the Chief of Police Major General Kale Kayihura (a former colleague and 'friend' of my father's actually) in the hope that he might be able to help. I sat in front of him my face swollen from all the crying and when I asked why this was happening he looked me right in the eye and said  "I'm told you travel around doing your father's work, and what is more I'm also told that you abuse the president on Facebook." At that point, it was all I could do not to laugh, I asked if he was sincerely telling me that my big crime and the reason that Uganda (whom neither I nor my father have any issues with) was confiscating my passport was because I wrote a 'facebookstatus' about Kagame?  Then he told me "You know these things, are complicated and circumstances are difficult" I honestly didn't even know what to think after that. Later another government official who really helped me told me he was sorry, that this was all politics and that I had been 'collateral damage.' I'm telling you this just to give you some context about what it's like to be on the RPF hit list, no slight against Kagame is too small to go unnoticed and whatever means are available to hurt his 'enemies' – torture of innocent 'enemy' children included – will be used. (I just want to add a disclaimer, I'm not actually comparing what happened to me to actual physical torture that many people go through, it's just an imagery thing)

JF: There has been some talk about you going into politics to follow in the footsteps of your father. Is this accurate and what do you hope to accomplish in the political arena? What role do you see yourself playing?

PK: I don't know where all this talk is coming from. I am 100% not an aspiring politician at all. I'm an aspiring human rights advocate, I'm happy to be outspoken at some point in the future about that, maybe even specifically about human rights abuses in Rwanda but I do not aspire to be the future former head of external intelligence.

JF: There are many differing narratives about what your father did and did not do when he worked for Kagame in Rwanda. What is your understanding about his time in the RPF and did he ever discuss it? 

PK: He did not discuss his job day to day with us; we were all under the age of 15 the first time he was arrested and suffice it to say we knew little to nothing about the goings on in government. After he got of out of his first detainment, he opened up about his differences with the regime, or more specifically Kagame. What I know is that he tendered his resignation and ask to return to civilian life in 2000 just after a little under five years of service because he disagreed with the way things were going, (I can go into detail about specific issues he had  but I don't know how appropriate it is for me to discuss such things) he was refused leave to resign initially under the guise of the fact that there were no suitable replacements and that he would need to spend sometime training another person. He was then effectively relieved of his job as the head of external security in 2003. He was sent to study some military classes in the Ruhengeri province, which he once described to me as effectively asking a PhD Student to attend high school for a refresher course. Then in 2004, he was officially demoted to army spokesperson until his eventual detainment in early 2005. I also know that he found out that he would be detained before it happened and he could have fled but he chose not to. He said that he didn't leave because he didn't want to leave room for the accusations against him to be legitimized in anyway, he wanted them to be seen for the falsities that they were and still are I suppose.

JF: What are you doing now? Are you in college and if so what are you studying? Do you also work and if so what do you do?

PK: I just completed my Masters in Law and I am planning to write to the New York bar and look for employment. In the meantime I have a part-time job as an English teacher.

JF: I know you are one of three siblings. How are your brothers coping with the loss of your father? Do you see each other often?

PK: My brothers, to my surprise (older sibling superiority complex) have been astoundingly strong and of good spirit in spite of it all. I dare say they've grown into inspiring young men. Unfortunately, under the circumstances we had not seen each other in 3 years until the funeral. Hopefully, things will change for the better in the coming years and we can reunite more often. However, Skype has been a wonderful tool in helping us still feel close so although it sounds terrible not to have seen each other in so long, it has been only a physical distance, we are constantly in each others' lives.

JF: At the funeral for your father, your mother had strong words for any of Kagame's spies that might be attending. What did she say and how is she coping with this loss?

PK: She said, 'shame on you, you should be embarrassed' because they have failed in their endeavour to break our spirit, and they will continue to fail because they perpetrate only evil. My mother, at least to me, is miraculous, she is just inexplicably strong, she has been through so much but her faith carries her through and all this has done is make her more determined to prosper and continue the fight for freedom in my father's stead.

JF: What is your belief about what happened to your father on that fateful night and has there been any new information in the investigation from South Africa? Have they kept you and your family updated?

PK: I don't have any 'belief' per se, I just believe in the objective facts, he was lured to a hotel room by someone he believed to be a friend – Apollo Kirisisi – and there he was trapped and set upon by what has been confirmed as multiple and not just one individual, and those individuals then proceeded to strangle him to death.

JF: Many believe President Kagame is behind your father's murder. Is that your belief as well?

PK: This isn't my belief; this is something I have to say that I know to be profoundly true. I am well aware that for my safety and for the sake of political correctness I should probably be more ambivalent about this and equivocate quite a bit but my conscious won't allow me to do it. Before Apollo, there were others who were sent to do the same and fortunately, they defected and opted not to do so. The truth of the matter is, in no uncertain terms, Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda is the person who sought after, orchestrated (along with his henchmen) and ordered the murder of my father.  Furthermore, President Kagame, in subsequent comments on my father's murder, has all but offered a tacit admission. My father isn't even the first, he is just the most publicized so far, but there are a string of political killings that came before him, if anything as my mother likes to say by the grace of God he was given some 'bonus' years. However, should it make the pill harder for all to swallow, I'll say that all the about is simply my 'belief' that I'm choosing to take as fact.

JF: What is the legacy that your father left you with, and what was his greatest piece of advice to you and your family?

PK: The legacy he has left us I would say is a good name, a name that will forever be synonymous with courage (isn't it funny that the name almost sounds like it has the word courage in it), fearlessness in the face of adversity, generosity of spirit and a great love for people and especially family. The greatest advice he ever gave me was to be a useful human being, to never let anyone have dominion over my person and to make all my own decisions.

JF: How do you want the world to remember Patrick Karegeya?

PK: As a good man, a kind man, a man who was never intimidated by anyone or anything and who believed ferociously in everybody's freedom to live the life that they want to live without hindrance or interference from any other person. Someone who was generous to a fault. He was the type of man that if someone came to rob him they would leave with his wallet and a friend.

Source:  AFRICA GLOBAL VILLAGE 

 

 

Nadine Claire Kasinge: “Dictatorship is out of place in Rwanda”(Includes audio)

http://therisingcontinent.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/nadine-claire-kasinge-dictatorship-is-out-of-place-in-rwanda/

Nadine Claire Kasinge: "Dictatorship is out of place in Rwanda".

On Saturday February 22nd, 2014, while intervening in Kinyarwanda on Radio Itahuka, one of the many online broadcasters of the Rwandan opposition, Nadine Claire Kasinge explains that Rwandans don't need a dictator to rule over their country. This statement was made following a panel discussion held between opponents and supporters of the Rwandan Patriotic Front regime.

Who is Nadine Claire Kasinge?

She is part of the new generation of Rwandan politicians. With the role of Deputy Secretary General, her political formation is Ishema Party led by Father Thomas Nahimana. On a personal level, her parents and other siblings have been massacred by RPF during the 1994 genocide, which killed more Hutus than Tutsis, but the tragedy is controversially called by certain circles the genocide against Tutsis. Kasinge only accidently survived because the killing of her family took place while she had been sent to visit relatives in the countryside.

Helped by friends of her family she followed the masses of Hutu refugees in the then Zaire [called today Democratic Republic of Congo]. This was during the general outbreak of total war in 1994 when RPF went on the offensive, advanced, defeated government forces and finally took over power in the country, and left behind more than half a million of casualties that its Interahamwe accomplices in those crimes contributed to. From the refugee camps and after many other unfortunate adventures, Kasinge ended up in Italy and grew up in an adoptive family. She was very young at the time. When I first heard her story on radio Ijwi Rya Rubanda some years ago, hers is similar to that of millions of other Rwandans that will be never told. She lives presently in Canada.
Back to the main focus of the post: Kansinge's view saying that "Dictatorship is out of place in Rwanda". Despite adversity of her personal circumstances she stood up and she is today involved in contributing to change the unsustainable political path that Paul Kagame has put her country on for 20 years now.
At the beginning of her intervention on the radio she expresses her utter surprise and sadness that there are today the so called Rwandan intellectuals who dare to claim that Rwanda as a country is better of with a dictatorship of the Kagame type. The woman politician highlights a number of points worth considering.
1. There are out there highly educated Rwandans who consciously [on a political mission for the regime in Kigali] or unconsciously, advocating for the status quo in Rwanda in terms of governance.
2. These propagandists of the regime are telling Rwandans that they don't need to think about politics because this is being taken care of by the system in place. If on an individual level, one finds that there is something to complain about, structures are there to report to and deal with issues. People don't need to think! There are specialised thinkers for the country: RPF.
3. Suppose that one expresses an issue which goes against RPF interests, understandably RPF will not do anything about it to avoid jeopardizing its own political comfort and policies. As a consequence, nothing will be done to solve the problem.
4. Through these active RPF propagandists, [intervening more and more on opposition platforms of communication – my emphasis], the regime is trying to dictate or determine how Rwandans should exercise any of their fundamental rights, in the framework fixed for Kigali's interests.
5. According to Kasinge, Rwandan citizens should be the main thinkers/decision-makers of what should be done or undone in their general interests and this cannot be achieved outside a democratic system.
6. Rwandans are not stupid people. RPF wants to define how politics should be played in the country. But who gave it such mandate to claim that it can decide on their behalf? There are national serious issues that RPF has proven incompetent to solve. And it's not its regime which today can pretend to provide how they could be addressed if during the last 20 years in power, it has failed doing so.
7. It is only through democratic procedures that those who have better solutions to prevailing critical issues can propose them to the Rwandan population. Presently Rwandans know what their problems are and RPF cannot solve them. RPF is even fundamentally the major problem. Logically if the regime wanted those problems to be addressed, it should open up the political space to let alternative paths to its own be proposed, instead of doing the opposite.
8. Kasinge pointed as well at the hurting caused to the victims of RPF system by the statement brought up by the propagandists saying that Rwandans were lucky to have the dictatorial regime of Paul Kagame, ignoring the unspeakable atrocities against Rwandans and even more Congolese it has committed again and again and is far from stopping.
9. There is a tiny minority around Kagame's regime enormously benefiting from the RPF system. But the reality is that the majority of Rwandans are its persistent victims. How could for example thousands of Rwandan orphans and widows living miserably in the forests of DRC, who cannot go back to their country, feel about such statement?
10. Countries today considered as developed chose the democratic model of governance and did not privilege dictatorship for rational strong reasons.
Nadine Claire Kansinge concluded her intervention calling Rwandans not to listen to Kigali propagandists, but asked them to hold in both their hands all their courage to vigorously claim their total rights and appropriate solutions to their existential problems in their country unfortunately led by President Paul Kagame.

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February 28, 2014Leave a reply

[AfricaWatch] Swedish Finance minister Anders Borg warns Rwanda and Uganda on poor human rights record

 

http://www.umuvugizi.com/?p=9803&lang=en

 

Swedish Finance minister Anders Borg warns Rwanda and Uganda on poor human rights record

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg warns Presidents Yoweli Kaguta Museveni that harsh penalties for gay could represent a financial risk for Uganda

 

By Gasasira,Sweden

 

February 27, 2014

 

The Swedish Finance minister Anders Borg was yesterday visited Uganda where he warned the Ugandan president Yoweli Kaguta Museveni on poor human rights record most especially that of  the recent signed law punishing Guys and deteriorating human rights record in Uganda.

 

Anders Borg, Sweden's Finance Minister warned Uganda on Tuesday in Kampala, that a new bill imposing harsh penalties for homosexuality could represent a financial risk for the east African economy.

He also said this while commenting on  poor human rights record in Uganda  "It represents a financial risk for Uganda to get this type of reputation," he said.

 

It's in that regard that Minister Anders Borg continued in Rwanda where he met president Kagame and warned him on worst human rights record the Rwandan president has continued to dwell in , including arbitrary arrests ,assassinations and reaching to an extent of using power as president to abduct Rwandan refugees with UNHCR Refugee status  in Uganda where they fled too .

 

Rwanda's Security and intelligence have continued to enjoy impunity and shield of there Ugandan counterpart where it's killing squad has continued to disguise under diplomacy .

 

Sweden is among Rwanda and Uganda's main donors and contribute in development of Human rights, Democracy and

poverty eradication where projects worthy Rwf37.6bn where signed on side of Rwandan government .

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[AfricaWatch] As Rwanda Piles Up Yet More Debt, Paul Kagame Is Still Not Telling Full Truth To Investors

 

http://therisingcontinent.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/as-rwanda-piles-up-yet-more-debt-paul-kagame-is-still-not-telling-full-truth-to-investors/

 

As Rwanda Piles Up Yet More Debt, Paul Kagame Is Still Not Telling Full Truth To Investors.

Posted on February 27, 2014 | Leave a comment

By Bosco Mutarambirwa, MBA

 

Due to understandable fear that his dictatorial regime is coming to an end, Paul Kagame is rapidly mortgaging the country to ensure that he's not the only loser. He wants to force the people of Rwanda to support his ill-conceived plans, or else risk losing their lifetime savings in case the regime collapses.

The Rwandan president inaugurating EAGI

 

The highly publicized Agaciro development fund was unable to raise enough free money to shore up RPF failing regime. Consequently, Kagame is now resorting to issuing yet more debt, in domestic currency this time. It is widely known that RPF had to do a lot of arm twisting in order to fundraise for Agaciro development fund. Today, there are reports that they are also coercing citizens to buy into the new debt issuance, in addition to maliciously making empty "get rich" promises to potential bondholders as you can read in the title of the article below:

 

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/views/article_print.php?13459&a=555&week=10&icon=Print

 

What are the implications?

 

It's important to notice that foreign investors will not be interested in a Rwandan government debt denominated in the local currency, the Rwandan Franc (RWF). The main reason is that the currency is already very weak, and Rwanda's high political risk makes it likely that the currency will depreciate even further. Rwanda therefore has no choice but to borrow from its own domestic institutional and individual investors.

 

It is also crucial to keep in mind that any government debt is always indirectly a taxpayers debt. By accumulating more debt, the government of Rwanda is tragically resorting to financing its operations with more leveraging, which is no different than an individual financing a lavish lifestyle with credit card debt, rather than trying to live within their means. Similarly, what Rwanda ought to rather be doing today is imposing economic structural adjustments on itself – say – by cutting spending on some unnecessarily expensive labor costs etc. But it is not. Like many other troubled economies, Rwanda will wait until IMF comes in and impose austerity. These measures imposed from outside will always ensure two things: that the local population suffers, and that international creditors collect payments on their debt instruments which are usually denominated in foreign currency. Simply put, foreign debt holders are the end winners, while taxpayers are the end losers.

 

Rwandan taxpayers can see the political risk as well as foreigners can. But in quasi-totalitarian state like Rwanda, the government has enormous power over its population, so enormous that it can tell them what to do without simple resistance. That is because nobody is allowed to protest against the dictatorial regime in the first place.

 

Rwanda government is therefore likely to take dramatic measures to ensure it collects enough cash on this debt issuance. The first is for RPF to use the usual disguised forceful means. They stare at you and you know what to do, or else you know in the back of your mind that your business is in jeopardy. The second is through malicious trickeries such as telling the ordinary non-sophisticated investors that they are going to get rich quick if they lend money to the government.

 

Once the above techniques are put to work and the government gets its borrowed cash, then the clock starts ticking. The good news is that investors are likely to get their money back. Indeed, any monetarily sovereign currency government can pay any debt of any size, so long as that debt is denominated in its sovereign currency. It neither needs to borrow nor to tax, to service debts in its sovereign currency. The bad news, though, is that it has to impose taxes. Firstly, to create a demand for the currency and underpin its value. Secondly, to allow it to spend without inflating the currency. In Rwanda's case, given its political risk, an inflation is going to be inevitable. Investors who hold RWF denominated debt will be left holding an quasi empty bag. Their coupon rate will not be adjusted for inflation. This is the advantage that holders of the euro bonds have over RWF public debt holders. Eurobond holders will get paid in dollars no matter what, whether there's a regime change or otherwise.

 

Notice the timing of issuance of this treasury bond. It comes at a time when Rwanda has started running low on other sources of funding, such as foreign aid and DRC minerals once looted through M23. As a result, the government has started piling up a huge amount of debt as its last resort. These are relatively new developments that mainly started with 2013, a year for which Rwanda's economic results have not been published yet. Potential buyers of the new bond are therefore lacking key information on Rwanda's economic performance which would facilitate their decision making process. Nonetheless, this whole bond issuance has to be wrapped up in a month from now. I urge caution to those who are considering buying into this massive scam RPF government. If you have alternative ideas to invest your money, it would be better for you to focus on those and let Paul Kagame drown alone in his sinking yacht.

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[AfricaWatch] Rwanda: PDR-Ihumure refutes genocide allegations leveled against its Vice-President

 

http://hungryoftruth.blogspot.com/

 

Rwanda: PDR-Ihumure refutes genocide allegations leveled against its Vice-President

By Pio Ngilik
Executive Secretary
PDR-Ihumure 

February 23, 2014

 

1. "News of Rwanda", an on-line news publication channeling pro-RPF propaganda, a few weeks ago put out a slanderous article alleging genocide involvement by our Vice President, Djumatatu Nzeyimana. There is nothing factually accurate in this muckraking article, except a nauseous pile of lies and misrepresentations that are only good for the sewer. It is available at http://www.newsofrwanda.com/featured1/22046/tracing-president-kikwetes-fdlr-links-back-to-rwanda/.

 

2. The PDR-Ihumure initially felt responding to these baseless accusations was a complete waste of our time. In the end, we have decided we cannot let them go unchallenged and must set our record straight as a political organization. We are proud of our 8-year record as an opposition political party fighting for genuine democracy in Rwanda. Our organization enjoys a unified team of hard-working men and women fully dedicated to the cause of democracy, especially in our leadership positions. For the record, our Vice President, Djumatatu Nzeyimana, who has been attacked, is a law school graduate who worked for the Rwandan government as a civil servant until 1994, and never worked for the Rwandan government beyond that. He has never been in hiding in unknown locations between France and the Netherlands as alleged in the article, and his current address is publicly known in official records. He has never traveled on a fake passport, never lived in refugee camps in DRC, nor has he ever resided in Dodoma, Tanzania. His wife has never had any name changes since they have known each other. He was duly employed by the United Nations at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 1997 to 2003, and assertions to the contrary are a reckless attempt to tamper with U.N. personnel records or discredit U.N. officials staked out as the source of this defamatory news article.  The claim that our Vice President has lived in Europe for 18 years is simply an egregious lie. We find it incredibly irresponsible that Mr. Innocent Gahiji would level allegations of genocide so carelessly against our Vice President simply for political expediency. Back in 2003, Djumatatu Nzeyimana became a victim of similar character assassination attacks, to no avail. Therefore, we challenge anyone, first and foremost Mr. Innocent Gahiji, to produce evidence in support of the serious allegations of genocide he has so callously brought up against our Vice President, absent which we reserve the right to pursue charges of defamation and seek damages and reparation for the harm unduly done. It is highly regrettable how a regime once feted - albeit erroneously - as the savior group that ended genocide in Rwanda has now stooped to a level so execrable as to drag families in gutter politics and embark on gruesome assassinations of former comrades in arms.

 

3. Buckling under intense pressure following a disastrous year 2013 during which its frontman in DRC gen. Bosco Ntaganda surrendered to the ICC,  its proxy M23 rebel group was soundly defeated in DRC, and its involvement in the plunder and humanitarian tragedy of eastern DRC was laid bare for everyone to see, it seems the Kigali RPF regime has decided this year to go out for broke by mounting an all-out suicidal offensive against its political opponents, whether national or foreign, not with creative ideas on how to advance Rwanda but with brutal assassinations, smear campaigns, threatening statements, and a wave of arrests of supposed genocidaires living in exile. This kind of thug, violent, cut-throat politics is what's ordinarily known as state-sponsored terrorism. Other strongmen such as Idi Amin in Uganda, Saddam Hussein in Irak, Kadhafi in Libya tried it in the past. It didn't work for them, and it won't work for Kagame. For twenty long years there has been this super- potent twin scarecrow - FDLR and genocide - which the RPF regime has dangled each time it has faced problems, and they have all gone away as if magically. Those days may be coming to an end.

 

4. The biggest outrage of this whole campaign is the shameless attempt to savage the reputation of a neighboring and friendly nation, Tanzania, along with its President, Jakaya Kikwete. This is the country that, through exemplary active support to the ANC, has helped to end Apartheid in South Africa, and countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia to be born as independent states. Tanzania also helped get rid of dictator Idi Amin in Uganda, and may have been one of the many countries cheering the RPF's rise to power in Rwanda in 1994, misled by a prevalent myth at the time that President Kagame was part of a "new breed of African leaders". In hindsight, everyone knows today it was the lie of the century. Currently, just as it did in the past, Tanzania is wisely, courageously and steadfastly spearheading a painstaking SADC effort to midwife a regional peace in a Great Lakes Region of Africa torn apart by two decades of the world's deadliest conflict since World War II. At the opposite side stands Rwanda, which is neck-deep involved in this conflict, and which has become synonymous with impunity by providing a safe haven for the Laurent Nkundas, Jules Mutebutsis, Jean Marie Runigas, and scores of other war lords of the region, all of whom are wanted by justice for their crimes of war and crimes against humanity.

 

5. When President Jakaya Kikwete first brought up this issue of peace talks with armed groups, it was during a regional summit on Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo on May 26, 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Understandably, this was the right diplomatic manner and venue for raising this issue and eliciting a workable way forward on this intractable matter. Other Heads of State were present when President Kikwete tabled this issue. It follows simple logic, therefore, that if President Kagame has a problem with the issue of peace talks with armed opposition as was raised, he can simply bring it up for discussion by his peers in the same diplomatic manner and venue, if only for the sake of minimum decorum. Instead, he has chosen to throw dirt and settle the matter individually like a bully in a school yard. He has personally ranted about it repeatedly and has enlisted an army of internet journalists to try and sling as much muck on President Kikwete as possible. It's sad that advisors are not counseling President Kagame right.

 

6. Regarding FDLR, we want to reiterate our position which was clearly explained by our President in his speech (http://pdrihumure.com/documents/alllocution15122012.pdf) during our Party Assessment Conference in Brussels 15 December 2012, and in our Party's recent letter (http://pdrihumure.com/documents/pdrlettertomonusco.pdf) to their Excellencies Mary Robinson, Martin Kobler and Russ Feingold, namely that if there are crime suspects within FDLR, they must be fully prosecuted, just as suspected criminals within the RPF in power in Rwanda must be brought to justice. This position has not changed. Just as importantly, however, we find it a matter of public outrage that the RPF regime continues to reject direct peace talks with FDLR alleging "they are a group of genocidaires" even as it has welcomed former FDLR commanders (such as gen. Paul Rwarakabije, gen. Jerome Ngendahimana and others) within its ranks with nary a qualm about their "genocidaire" status. This is a long- recycled ploy by Kigali to have it both ways on this FDLR issue, a kind of political duplicity that has now gone rancid.

 

7. Clearly, the attack against our party is part of the RPF's grand scheme of counter-attacks and diversion tactics for a regime besieged by a battery of daunting challenges from all fronts as 2014 unfolds with a vengeance. For the last few weeks, Kigali has had to deal with a  damning report on Rwanda's Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association (http://freeassembly.net/rapporteurpressnews/rwanda-visit-statement/) by the U.N. Special Rapporteur, Mr. Maïna Kiai,  an equally damaging report by Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/28/rwanda-repression-across-borders) about Rwanda's attacks and threats against opponents and critics abroad, and a stinging defeat at the U.N. Security Counsel in a failed attempt to block a U.N. Sanctions Committee report (http:// www.enca.com/africa/un-sanctions-sparks-row-between-drc-and-rwanda-0) which states the M23 rebel group is busy recruiting and regrouping inside Rwanda. The international community must not relent in holding the RPF regime's feet to the fire of accountability for its crimes and gross human rights violations in Rwanda and in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Source: RAYA-Network 

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