Ivan Cyomoro Kagame: President’s son on to military training (07.09.09)

Kigali: Ivan Cyomoro Kagame, President Paul Kagame’s son is to join the prestigious American military academy West Point – rated by Forbes magazine as the best US college even top to Harvard University, reports say.
Cyomoro Kagame successfully passed his entry exam at the same New York-based Academy, the New Times reported Saturday in an unassigned article.
Mr. Kagame’s son has just completed his high school at another prestigious school in the US graduating on May 31 this year.
Another Rwandan national Roland Kalisa is now in his last year in electronic engineering at the West Point academy, rated in the latest Forbes magazine issue at the top of American colleges. Princeton University where Michelle Obama studied is second, and Harvard University – where President Obama went is on fifth position.
Until about a few years ago, no foreigners were allowed at this institution officially called the United States Military Academy.
Source

Congo troops 'massacred refugees'

troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo shot and beat to death about 50 Rwandans in April and burnt their refugee camp, a UN investigator says.
Philip Alston said about 40 women were also abducted and it prompted a revenge massacre by Rwandan Hutu militia.
His report said military operations this year carried out by the army supported by UN peacekeepers in the east had produced catastrophic results.
They have been pursuing Hutu rebels who have been based in DR Congo for years. The BBC's Thomas Fessy in the capital, Kinshasa, says Mr Alston gave horrifying details of his investigation.
He said the attack on the makeshift refugee camp of Shalio in North Kivu happened on 27 April.
"Some 40 women were abducted from the camp. A small group of 10 who escaped described being gang-raped, and had severe injuries - some had chunks of their breasts hacked off," AFP news agency quotes him as saying.
Repercussion fears
The government troops involved were the newly integrated rebels from the Tutsi-led movement which threatened to take over the provincial capital Goma a year ago.

At least 96 civilians were massacred in a neighbouring village by Rwandan-Hutu militia in revenge for the Shalio killings.
DR Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende said the authorities were aware of the massacre.
But he said they feared repercussions if they arrested former Tutsi rebel commander - Colonel Zimulinda - who Mr Alston alleges orchestrated the Shalio massacre.
"Zimulinda's arrest would have had worse consequences than the crimes of which he is accused," Mr Mende said, according to the Reuters news agency.
In his report, the UN expert said the UN Security Council had transformed the peacekeeping force into a party to the conflict.
Earlier this week a joint report by several international aid agencies said the offensive against the Hutu FDLR rebels in the east had had "disastrous" humanitarian consequences.
Instability has been rife in eastern DR Congo since ethnic Hutus accused of taking part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide fled to the area.
Their presence inflamed ethnic tensions with the local Tutsi community, with rival militias battling one another.

Congolese troops killed 50 Rwandans in April rampage: UN

AFP - Congolese soldiers killed 50 Rwandan Hutu refugees and abducted and raped around 40 women during an attack on refugee camps in eastern DR Congo last April, a UN special rapporteur said Thursday.
"At Shalio in Nord-Kivu province, it seems that the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) attacked a makeshift Rwandan refugee camp on April 26, 2009," UN rapporteur Philip Alston told reporters in Kinshasa.
"The FARDC surrounded the place, shot and beat at least 50 refugees and then entirely burned the camp."
Alston, who is special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, said that at least 40 women were kidnapped from this camp. A small group of about 10 who escaped gave evidence of mass rapes. The women showed severe wounds and some had had their breasts cut, he said.
The fate of the 30 other women was not known, added Alston, who spent 12 days in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Rwanda president lauds China's role in Africa, slams West

Rwandan President Paul Kagame Sunday defended China's programme of investment in developing African countries, while slamming Western nations and firms for polluting the continent.
"The Chinese bring what Africa needs: investment and money for governments and companies. China is investing in infrastructure and building roads," said Kagame in an interview with German daily Handelsblatt to appear on Monday.
In contrast, the West's involvement "has not brought Africa forward," the president was quoted as saying.
"Western firms have to a large extent polluted Africa and they are still doing it. Think of the dumping of nuclear waste in the Ivory Coast or the fact that Somalia is being used as a rubbish bin by European firms," he added.
Kagame called for a reorientation of development aid towards investment.
"I would prefer the Western world to invest in Africa rather than handing out development aid.
"There is a need for help -- but it should be implemented in such a way as to enable trade and build up companies," he added.
"In addition, it would help Africa much more if industrialised countries allowed us the same trade rights as they give to each other," he said.
In May, China announced it was boosting its state-run Africa investment fund by two billion dollars (1.36 billion euros).
Since its launch in 2006, the China-Africa Development Fund has invested some 400 million dollars in the continent.

Hutu rebels deny kidnapping Catholic officials

Hutu rebels deny kidnapping Catholic officials
(AFP) – 1 day ago
KINSHASA — Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo denied on Monday that they kidnapped two Catholic officials and held them for a 5,000-dollar (3,400-euro) ransom.
The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) "have always condemned and continue to strongly condemn all kidnappings of civilians and demands for ransoms that have taken place in the east of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), including the abduction of the two religious officials," Callixte Mbarushimana, the group's executive secretary, said in a statement.
The Catholic priest and a seminarian were kidnapped late Friday when rebels attacked their parish in the town of Ciherano, in the eastern province of Sud-Kivu.
Both were released early Saturday morning after the ransom was paid.
Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, commander of military operations in the province, told AFP on Saturday that the FDLR were behind the pair's abduction, a claim which the FDLR's Mbarushimana described as "lies" in the group's statement.
Sud-Kivu is one of the country's most unstable regions due to the presence of various Congolese armed groups and exiled Rwandan Hutu rebels.
Since July, the military, with logistics help from United Nations peacekeepers, has intensified its operations to track down FDLR members accused of committing abuses against civilians

FDLR PRESS RELEASE NR. 01/SE/CD/OCTOBER/2009

FDLR PRESS RELEASE NR. 01/SE/CD/OCTOBER/2009
The coalition of the RPA (RDF) and the FARDC should abandon the use of permanent falsehood and
demonization of the FDLR as a weapon of war.
The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) refute the false statements propagated on 3 and 4 October
2009 in the international press by Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, Commander of operation Kimia II in eastern DRC
by which elements of the FDLR would be involved in kidnappings for ransom.
The FDLR have always condemned and still condemn strongly all acts of abduction of civilians and demands of
ransom that occurred in eastern DRC including the abduction of two Catholic clerics in the territory of Walungu.
The FDLR remind the public that they do not need to engage in criminal activities of this kind to reach their
objective which is and remains the liberation of the Rwandan people from the yoke of the fascist regime of RPFInkotanyi.
Before blaming the FDLR in cases of kidnapping, officials of the coalition of the RPA (RDF) and the FARDC
should first ask themselves why the FDLR would kidnap innocent civilians who have nothing to do with the
ongoing war in eastern DRC when they voluntarily free and hand over to the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) soldiers of the coalition of the RPA(RDF) and the FARDC captured on the battlefield without
demanding ransom or consideration of any kind (see Press Release Nr. 05/SE/CD/SEPTEMBER/2009 of
September 21, 2009).
The FDLR request the media and the public not to be distracted by stories fabricated by Kigali officials in order
to smear the FDLR and its leadership.
The FDLR remind Colonel Delphin Kahimbi and his colleagues that the FDLR have always shown exemplary
discipline which is far incomparable to that of elements of the coalition of the RPA (RDF) and the FARDC and
even of those of MONUC.
The FDLR call upon Colonel Delphin Kahimbi and MONUC officials to be cautious and urge them to look for
the perpetrators of all crimes committed in eastern DRC elsewhere rather than continuing to spread lies in the
media with the only criminal intent to tarnish the good reputation of the FDLR and its leadership.
The FDLR remain convinced that lies and demonization campaign orchestrated by the Kigali regime and its
agents against the FDLR will not solve the political problem of Rwanda but rather through a frank and direct
dialogue between the Kigali regime and the FDLR.
Done in Paris on October 5, 2009
.
Callixte Mbarushimana
Executive Secretary of the FDLR
(Sé)

What they don’t tell you about Rwanda

Published on 04/10/2009

By Yash Ghai
Rwanda enjoys a positive reputation internationally and its President Paul Kagame is regularly praised by the World Bank, the US, and UK administrations for his integrity, efforts at reconciliation, and economic policies. I was impressed by his advice to Kenyans at the national prayer breakfast last May to follow his government’s example of commitment to ethnic diversity, consensus building on the common good, national values, and inclusion of all political views in national life and development agenda.
When I visited Rwanda at the request of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative to do a report on the state of human rights and democracy in Rwanda (in connection with Rwanda’s application to join the Commonwealth) my first impressions, despite some critical reports I had read, were favourable: Very efficient and courteous processing of incoming passengers, a safe, clean and well organised Kigali, and bright and suave officials.
However, I was put on guard when every non-official person I interviewed, diplomats, journalists, professionals, and local and international civil society officers, would not speak to me except on assurances of anonymity.
When I read the constitution, I found no mention of ethnic or religious groups, and came across legislation, which banned discussion of ethnicity (yet huge government posters reminded people of the "genocide against the Tutsi", although of course many Hutus had also been massacred). Those who imply that Kagame’s Rwanda Patriotic Front had killed Hutus unnecessarily are heavily penalised, as are those who question official accounts of the genocide. This hardly fits with Kagame’s advocacy of reconciliation, inclusion or coming to terms with the past.
Exiled hutus
Rwanda President Paul KagameReading numerous reports of the UN Security Council, UNHCR or international NGOs, memoirs of some key Rwandan politicians and of the commander of the UN forces Romeo Dallaire, and scholarly literature, I learnt that, though of course the Tutsi had suffered greatly at the hands of a large number of Hutus, the RPF had also killed thousands of Hutus, and driven many to exile (and then pursued them in their countries of exile). Incoming Tutsi have appropriated Hutu owned land. When considered strategic, the RPF allowed the killing of Tutsis. Dallaire writes that their deaths can also be laid "at the door of the military genius, Kagame, who did not speed up his campaign when the scale of genocide became clear and even talked candidly with me at several points about the price his fellow Tutsi might have to pay for the cause". Kagame refused Dallaire’s proposal to accept ceasefire to stop the massacre, because it did not suit Kagame’s grand design of Tutsi hegemony. He has been quoted as criticising people who see the war in terms of human rights. He has said that some conflicts are good, "a sort of purification" which "erupt in order to make a real transformation possible".
The Rwanda regime relies on power structures that sometimes run parallel to, and sometimes crosscut, the formal government; and in which the army plays a central role. The country has relied heavily for its revenue (to fund its institutions and elite) on plunder of the mineral resources of the DRC.
Mode of extraction
It bears the primary responsibility for the political and economic instability in the Great Lakes Region (including the overthrow of the Congolese government), which is functional to its mode of extraction of wealth and its regional dominance.
It practises, and has contributed to, a complex, regional regime of illegal economic transactions, evasion of UN sanctions, arming of militias, criminal business organisations, and disregard of neighbours’ borders and fiscal systems, which has greatly impoverished the region.
The RPF has used an extraordinary amount of violence, domestically and internationally. It has killed several thousands Hutus, citizens and others, and is responsible for the deaths of even more through displacement, malnutrition and hunger. It has denied hundreds of thousands of children the opportunity of education, and deprived millions of family and community life. It has conscripted child soldiers. The UN has voluminously documented these practices and repeatedly chastised Rwanda for its irresponsible behaviour in the DRC. Beneath the gentility of RPF leaders, the tidiness of Kigali, and its gleaming high rise buildings, I found a country deeply fragmented, operating under the hegemony of a small Tutsi political elite, which rules through oppression and fear.
Effective Public Relations
I discovered that these leaders are extraordinarily effective at public relations, especially as directed at the West, and make the most of the guilt in the West for doing so little to prevent the terrible genocide in 1994, directed largely but not exclusively at the Tutsi.
[The report of the CHRI can be found at http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/hradvocacy/rwanda’s_application_for_membership_of_the_commonwealth.pdf]
Prof Ghai is a former CKRC Chaiman
Read all about: Rwanda Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative genocide Hutu Tutsi