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Rwandan Government Blamed for Kigali Bombings

Rwanda: 256.com correspondent Godwin Agaba blames government for Kigali bombings and seeks asylum. Watch this.

March 13, 2010   No Comments

FDU-Inkingi Blocked From Meeting In Nyarugenge

Kigali: The new administration at Nyarugenge district says opposition politician Victoire Ingabire is a wanted suspect and therefore cannot be allowed to hold a party conference on its territory.

The lady mayor of Nyarugenge, here in Kigali, Ms. Theophila Nyirahonora, on Friday wrote to the yet-to-be registered United Democratic Forces Inkingi (FDU Inkingi) that since its leader Ms. Ingabire is under Police investigation over several grave cases, they are not welcome in her district.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is currently building charges on Ms. Ingabire which could result into a major suit on links to a terrorist group due to her alleged dealings with the Rwandan FDLR rebels. Ms. Ingabire has also been interrogated on Genocide negationism.

The allegations are serious and could lead to lengthy jail.

Nyarugenge district says Ms. Ingabire is free to hold the party conference at anytime after she has been cleared by the authorities.

The group was scheduled to converge a major conference for March 12 � which now becomes the second time it has been postponed.

The latest Nyarugenge decision was delivered to Ingabire following a closed-door meeting with her personally on Friday. Apparently, the district has no assurance that Ms. Ingabire is an individual of integrity as such serious charges continue to haunt her.

Ms. Ingabire is furious.
According to FDU Inkingi, the conference was to set up party structures in Rwanda, as the group prepares to register ahead of the August presidential polls.

For Ingabire and her party colleagues, the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) is clearly behind the latest developments, in what she described as a government orchestrated plan to delay the FDU from registration.

Its coalition partner the Green Party abandoned Nyarugenge district for neighbouring Gasabo, but it has also refused to allow it to meet unless they have police clearance. The Green Party has petitioned the Minister of Local Government accusing the Police and Gasabo district.

For a party to be registered, it needs several government issued documents as well as notified signatures of at least 600 delegates equally distributed across the 30 districts of the country. All parties must be registered by June.

ARI-RNA – rnanews.com


March 13, 2010   No Comments

Victoire Ingabire Denied Right To Hold Constitutional Conference

Kigali – A planned delegates� conference of the yet-to-be registered United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), was put on hold yesterday by Nyarugenge District because the head of the group, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, is under police investigations.

This was revealed by the Mayor of Nyarugenge District, Theophila Nyirahonora, saying that Ingabire had to fulfil certain conditions before her party could be allowed to hold the conference.
�We asked her to first clear her case with the Criminal Investigations Department, and if she is cleared, she will be allowed to go on with her activities,� Nyirahonora told The New Times.

�Under normal circumstances we cannot allow someone who is being investigated for serious cases to convene a public gathering. One should meet certain levels of integrity to call such a gathering, but for her case, she has no authority to convene a public gathering�.

She added that Ingabire submitted the request as if she was the leader of a recognised party, ignoring normal procedures that other political parties have fulfilled before registration. This prompted the district authorities to deny her permission.

�She stated that she wanted permission to convene a delegates� conference of her party FDU-Inkingi, but we also informed her that her party is not yet registered and she needs to follow the correct procedures�.

The Mayor also revealed that by joining forces with registered parties like PS-Imberakuri, Ingabire was acting as if her party is already registered and thereby deliberately contravening the law.

When contacted, police spokesperson, Eric Kayiranga, confirmed that Ingabire was the subject of investigations for serious crimes.

�Yes, she has a case, but it is not for the police to grant authorisations to hold meetings. It is purely an administrative matter regarding the district,� he said.

Under the current Rwandan law, holding the first constitutional congress is the first step in the daunting process of registering an opposition political party in Rwanda.

March 13, 2010   No Comments

Shame to France of Sarkozy � Rusesabagina Pleads for Habyarimana’s Widow

Letter from Paul Rusesabagina to Pres. Sarkozy on Mrs. Habyarimana’s Detention.

From: Paul Rusesabagina

Chicago, 09 March 2010

Paul Rusesabagina, President Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF).

Paul Rusesabagina, President Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF).

Hotel Rwanda Foundation Rusesabagina Foundation
P. O. Box 11001
Chicago, IL 60611-0001

To: His Excellency Nicolas Sarkozy
President of the French Republic

Subject: The arrest of Mrs. Agathe Habyarimana

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of the organization Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation and on my own behalf, allow me to express my deep dismay following the arrest of Mrs. Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of former President Juv�nal Habyarimana of Rwanda, the Prosecutor General in Paris Tuesday, March 2, 2010.
Let me also clarify at the outset, it is as a humanitarian and a victim of the tragedy of 1994 that I inform you of my deep concerns that affect both the pattern and extent of this inquiry, and the period during which it occurs.
One thing is certain: it is imperative that there be trial, the court record by Mrs Habyarimana should be decided by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and not by the Kigali regime unable to deliver justice fairly and impartially.

Mr. President,
The public and I have learned that Ms. Agathe Habyarimana was interpel�e based on an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda and the ground that it participated in planning the 1994 genocide.
This inquiry, which came a day after your visit to Kigali, where there is not very long regime grinding of black against France at the point of breaking off diplomatic relations with your country following the arrest warrants of incriminating French dignitaries RPF in the deadly attack against the plane of former Rwandan President Juv�nal Habyarimana April 6, 1994, feels hints of retaliation.
Indeed, a complaint filed by Mrs Habyarimana and other plaintiffs had been the source of the French investigation.
This question is even more absurd that Mrs Habyarimana has not once been sought for prosecution by the ICTR, for 16 years that the court exists.
The widow of the former head of the Rwandan Government was therefore suspect until last week, only to view the Rwandan regime and today she is also in the eyes of French justice.
In other words, Paris and Kigali want to make the world believe that Mrs Habyarimana, who has never chaired or attended any council or government of the General Staff of the Rwandan army, would have had the authority to use military and governmental structures in place to plan and execute the removal of her own husband, President Juv�nal Habyarimana, and his brother, Colonel Elijah Sagatwa, both died in the plane April 6, 1994 to carry out his plan of genocide.

Mr. President,
This indictment in France for the former first lady of Rwanda is a serious focused both detrimental to the image of France and the victims of the Rwandan genocide.
First, Mr. President, make sure that for 16 years, Rwandans know perfectly well, unfortunately unable to do anything, that is the source of their misfortune in 1994, before 1994, and of after 1994, and the suspect is not that the French judiciary has put on the dock.
But curiously, the lawsuit last week seems to say aloud that France gleefully mocks the intelligence of the Rwandans, of our national tragedy which claimed over one million of our brothers and sisters, and pain of the relatives of those who perished in the plane, without forgetting that French citizens and Burundi.

Then, until last week, it was unthinkable that France, a great member of the Security Council United Nations at the forefront of defending human rights, can abdicate its image in the battle, proudly, morally and historically, should be his own: that of justice and truth, the fight against the inhumanity of man to man.

Photo op Nicolas Sarkozy with Gen. Kagame et his generals, all indicted by French Justice for crimes against humanity (feb. 2010)

Photo op Nicolas Sarkozy with Gen. Kagame et his generals, all indicted by French Justice for crimes against humanity (feb. 2010)

When you see in Kigali box right by General Paul Kagame and behind by the Chief of Staff of the Army and the national commissioner of police in Rwanda, two of which are responsible for the greatest number of deaths since the Second World War are also covered by the French arrest warrants, we measure the shaking of the authority of the French judiciary and the embarrassment of the French nation. Is it not shameful that France, sung daily by the current regime in Kigali as having actively participated in the Rwandan tragedy, do not even try to bleach before the world and history by requiring the placing on foot of a neutral international investigation on the tragedy of Rwanda, failing to enforce the provisions of the judicial inquiry report of the French justice?

It is unacceptable that we want today for political purposes and without forensic evidence, monster into a woman who has herself been overshadowed by those that triggered the genocide by shooting down the plane with her husband.
To attack the dignity of Mrs Habyarimana based solely on allegations of frivolous Kigali regime comes not only add to her grief but also to undermine the dignity of the people of Rwanda itself.
If France wants to play the game libelous practiced excessively by the Kigali regime against its political enemies, or when one of the great marketing without feelings of the Rwandan genocide to the chagrin of the victims is his right but the wrong choice,
If France is not morally offended by the cynical commercial exposure throughout Rwanda for the human bones of victims of humble social origin when relatives of dignitaries were buried in the respect that they deserve,
If the France is not outraged by the sham annual national mourning, as is the case next month,
it is his right but the wrong choice to history.

The fact that this arrest occurs immediately after your visit to Rwanda is also far from reassuring regarding the benefits that the Rwandan people had every reason to expect the restoration of relations between your country and Rwanda.
It shows both that Mrs Habyarimana may be a bargaining chip for the return of France in favor of General Paul Kagame and the fear remains, on the other hand, the resignation of France in defense of rights against the Kigali regime.
This impression is reinforced by the fact that, paradoxically, your government is making no effort, nor to defend the honor of French soldiers who participated in Operation Turquoise, which are unfairly soiled by the Kigali regime, or to execute warrants of arrest of Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere against the Rwandan officers suspected of having shot down the plane of President Habyarimana.

Mr. President,
My statement above does not force your government to line up behind one or another component of the Rwandan population.
It is intended to take France to encourage and support the people of Rwanda in its struggle for democracy and respect for human rights. It also aims to France to avoid the repetition of serious errors of appreciation that you yourself have complained in Kigali.
Unfortunately, despite this laudable effort of recognition of past mistakes, your decision to resume diplomatic with Rwanda seems to be another miscalculation, since it comes at a time when popular support to the RPF regime is the lowest, as evidenced by events in Kigali in recent weeks.

So let me conclude by asking you again to make every effort to ensure that France does not commit the serious mistake to put Mrs Habyarimana in the hands of the Rwandan justice system, but rather between those of the ICTR in Arusha where there is enough evidence to get there.
I would also ask you to reassure us that France wants to remain on the side of the values that made his reputation as a country of human rights and prevent the restoration of relations with Rwanda might result in loss of life.
One of the best approaches for achieving this is to assure that your government believes in the judicial action of French magistrates who identified the perpetrators of the attack on April 6, 1994 that plunged our country into the disaster to allow the ‘arrival in Rwanda just justice.
Another important contribution of France would probably bring General Paul Kagame to sit down with all his political opposition, as is constantly claimed by the majority of Rwandans to make all the arrangements for political management and economic future of our country. The Rwandan people would greatly appreciate it and the French people would be highly magnified.

Paul Rusesabagina

President,

Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation

Copy:

- Mr Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of UN
- Members of the Security Council of United Nations (all)
- Mr. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Union
- Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union

French version (original): Honte � la France de Sarkozy � Rusesabagina plaide pour Veuve Habyarimana


March 13, 2010   2 Comments