On April 7th, 2010, in his address at the Kigali Memorial Center, Rwandan President Paul Kagame blamed “you,” a conveniently flexible and expandable category, and all those calling for political space and press freedom, for the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, in which a million Rwandans died.
This is the English language section of his English and Kinyarwanda address particularly concerned with press freedom.

One week after this address, on April 14, 2010, Kagame’s “High Media Council” shut down the independent African language newspapers that most Rwandans depend on. See: Rwanda shuts down independent press ahead of presidential elections .

The Rwanda Investment Forum to be held in Kigali on 10-11 May 2010, will be the first large scale investor event organised in the country since Rwanda became the 54th Member of the Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad last November.

The Forum will be organised by the Commonwealth Business Council in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board and with the collaboration of the International Private Sector.

Two years ago the East African International Business Forum, the first event CBC had organised in the country, drew over 500 leaders from business and government, including 250 delegates from over 30 countries outside the East African region.

This year�s Forum aims to build on Rwanda’s expanding network of relationships created by joining the Commonwealth, and its reputation for stability and good economic management.

Its purpose is to enhance foreign direct investment by communicating national development goals and by bringing international investors and operators face-to-face with Rwandan project holders and entrepreneurs to discuss new economic and investment opportunities.

The forum will focus on business opportunities in the following sectors:

� Agriculture and Food Security
� Banking and Financial Services
� Investment in Energy and Power
� Tourism
� Mining and Natural Resources
� ICT
� Manufacturing

In addition there will be One to One meetings and a Project Centre for discussing actual projects; as well as possible Site Visits for those with an interest on the final day of the conference.

Contacts
- Delegate Enquiries
Vasundhara Puri, T: +44(0) 20 7024 8200

- Speaker Enquiries
John Pemberton-Pigott, T: +44(0) 20 7024 8212

- Sponsorship Enquiries
Coralie Castel, T: +44 (0) 2070248227

- Press Enquiries
Sean Leno, T: +44 (0) 20 7024 8209

Arusha, April 12, 2010 (FH) – Genocide convict George Rutaganda Monday disassociated Joseph Nzirorera, then Secretary General of MRND, in any activities of the Interahamwe militia group.

“Nzirorera never participated at any point in time with activities of Interahamwe,” Rutaganda, who was the second vice president of MRND militia Interahamwe, told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Rutaganda, who is currently serving a life imprisonment sentence in Benin, was defending Nzirorera, also facing a genocide case before the ICTR Chamber presided over by Justice Dennis Byron, as his 32nd defence witness.

Examined by leading counsel Peter Robinson, the witness said he knew Nzirorera before July 1993 on capacity as minister and not otherwise and never met with him in any other place than at a wedding party of his sister-in-law.

The prosecution alleges in the indictment that, among others, Nzirorera and authorities held several meetings to plan and organize genocide against ethnic-Tutsis at various locations in Kigali and other area.

The defence witness told the Chamber further that the Interahamwe Group never propagated the extermination of the Tutsis. He denied that the Interahamwe group was formed for attacking Tutsis.

“This is a paradoxical question. The president -Robert Kajuga- was a Tutsi. How could they exterminate them ? That would not be possible because of the composition of the group,” he testified.

According to him, they could not organize the killings because there were Tutsis within the group and they had no intention of hating whomsoever.

He admitted that the MNRD organized several meetings, but refuted the evidence of Ahmed Haramyumukiza, a prosecution witness, that such meetings like the one he attended early 1992 had the objective of organizing the killing of Tutsis.

In this trial, Nzirorera is charged jointly with the party’s former president Mathieu Ngirumpatse and his former vice president Edouard Karemera. The trio is charged with crimes committed by members of their party.

The prosecution has indicted them for their superior responsibility as top officials of the party then in power in 1994 under President Habyarimana.

[Hirondelle News Agency]

Kigali: Visiting Swedish parliamentarians have urged government to review the suspension this week of two tabloid newspapers, saying it could undermine the country�s democratic credentials, RNA reports.

At a meeting Thursday with Lower Chamber of Deputies Speaker Ms. Rose Mukantabana and other lawmakers including Senator Dr. Joseph Karemera, the ten Swedish MPs said they consider the suspensions problematic.

On Wednesday, the High Council of the Media (HCM) ruled that weekly UMUSESO and UMUVUGIZI had since January published content which was insulting to the Head of State, inciting to the armed forces into insubordination and a threat to state security as they caused panic in the population.

Swedish Moderate Party lawmaker Christian Holm said it was paramount that as the country prepares for elections, divergent views are allowed free passage. On the delegation includes Linda Nordin Gabelic from UN Association of Sweden.

However, Speaker Ms. Rose Mukantabana came to the defense of the suspension saying the papers had defied various warnings to review their content. She said the two publications have the option to petition the courts for redress.

Speaking for the Rwandan side, Senator Karemera also demanded why European countries continue to drag their feet on Genocide suspects living in their countries.

Linda Nordin Gabelic responded that the issue of suspects was being handled by the UN, adding that Europe does not want the fugitives to live there.

The two sides also discussed the Rwandan FDLR rebels in eastern DRC. The Swedish delegation had also just returned touring receptions camps for the rebels in Northern Rwanda.

Sweden is among the countries which are financing the repatriation program.

Kigali: The French government is eager to take part in the exploitation of methane gas in Lake Kivu, its new Envoy in Kigali announced Thursday, as Kigali and Paris continue to restore their relations.

Already, there are American, Canadian and Israeli companies tapping from the gas to be turned into electricity.

Ambassador Laurent Contini also said the French parliament wants to start cooperation with Rwanda�s Parliament.

Mr. Contini was meeting Lower Chamber Speaker Mr. Rose Mukantabana. The diplomat delivered a request from French lawmakers to start work on a cooperation framework.

About Kivu Lake resources: read also Rwanda and Canadian Firm Vangold To Sign Definitive Deal On Lake Kivu Oil.

Joseph Ntawangundi, convicted of genocide charges

Mr. Ntawangundi stunned an appeals Gacaca court on Thursday when he knelt down saying he was �sorry�. He also pinned his exiled opposition colleagues.

Kigali: New details coming from the controversial Genocide case of opposition politician Joseph Ntawangundi indicate that contrary to the previous trial where he denied a personal role in the killings, he now affirms he took part, RNA reports. He even knelt before the Gacaca court.

In the appeals hearing in Ngoma district (eastern Rwanda) which started Thursday, Gacaca judges pressed Mr. Ntawangundi not to speak in general terms where he has maintained that he only watched as his staff killed Tutsis. The judges demanded that he speaks about his role � saying they wanted to know the specific people he saved or which ones he saw being killed, and what he did exactly.

The aide of the leader of the yet-to-be registered United Democratic Forces Inkingi, Ms Ingabire Victoire was jailed for 17 years last month for his role in the Tutsi mass slaughter at the Agro-Veterinary school of Gitwe. Despite pleading guilt and saying sorry to the previous Gacaca hearing, Mr. Ntawangundi stood ground that he just had a passive role.

Now in his appeal at Rukira sector, Mr. Ntawangundi confirms that he personally ordered for the hunting and killing of eight people. Among them includes the school�s teacher and his young brother who he apparently ordered guards to kill. Mr. Ntawangundi also revealed that he ordered the militia to search for six other people for death.

In the appeal, he was seeking to be given a reduced sentence, which was dismissed and the 17-year term upheld. Before the appeals proceedings started, he promised to tell the �truth�.

However, a new twist to the appeals trial came when Mr. Ntawangundi repeatedly knelt down before judges and prosecution witnesses. �I am sorry for trying to hide my role and even denying my own child,� Ntawangundi said, but the judges also kept reminding him not to kneel.

When judges asked why he had not revealed the same �truth� to the previous Gacaca court, Mr. Ntawangundi dropped what became the bombshell of the entire case. He narrated that he and the other exiled opposition politicians had decided never to accept the Gacaca courts.

He said that it was the same spirit he brought when he returned to Rwanda and into his trail � to deny everything because he did not consider the Gacaca courts as credible. But that after watching witnesses including his own partner with whom they had a son, Mr. Ntawangundi said he realized he had no other place to hide, but ask for forgiveness.

�From this moment, I completely disassociate myself from that view which does not accept the Gacaca courts from the people who oppose the RPF government,� said Ntawangundi.

According to Article 58 of the Gacaca court, a person�s guilty plea can only be given credence during the first trail. The appeals judges simply upheld the sentence, refusing to even listen to him as he constantly said he was �sorry�.

As the court ended its session, in his prison�s uniform, Mr. Ntawangundi could be heard saying: �I wish I had said during the start of the trail what I said today. It would have been helpful to my case and maybe got a less sentence.�

Joseph Ntawangundi was arrested upon his return on the grounds of a judgment delivered in absentia by a Gacaca court in 2007. The tribunal had then sentenced him to 19 years in jail for his “complicity” in the 1994 genocide. Back in the country, he was entitled to a rehearing trial.

At the retrial, the defendant claimed that he had never been the school’s principal and that he was in Sweden during the Genocide. However, he finally admitted that he had been running the school for three months when the Tutsi Genocide started.

Speaking to witnesses who pinned Mr. Ntawangundi, they say there are still many issues that remain unresolved. Some wonder why he at first said he was not the person mentioned in the case, then turned around accepting. Some witnesses are also saying they are beginning to have a problem trusting anything Mr. Ntawangundi has said.

Witnesses also say they cannot forgive him because he did not detail how their people were killed. The Gacaca court usually at the end of a trail encourage the guilt party and victims to reconcile, but those of Mr. Ntawangundi say he has not been fully truthful � making him not to deserve to be forgiven.

Mr. Ntawangundi still has chances for appeal but it will be more difficult because he will be required to come up with specific aspects of the case he thinks were disregarded.

[ARI-RNA]

The most recent covers of Umuseso and Umuvugizi (source: KigaliWire1, http://bit.ly/aTu5sN)

On April 13, 2010, President Paul Kagame and Rwanda’s High Media Council suspended independent Kinyarwanda language newspapers Umuseso and Umuvugizi at a press conference attended only by state broadcasters and the pro-government radio station Contact FM.

The High Media Council accused Umuseso of insulting Rwandan President Paul Kagame, inciting the police and army to insubordination, and frightening the public. The council is a nominally independent body heavily influenced by the government.

The six-month suspension will ensure that neither of the independent papers can cover this year’s presidential election with polls scheduled August 9th. Both criticize Kagame’s ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front Party.

Umuvugizi Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira said, “Almost 70% of Rwandans speak only Kinyarwanda, not English or French, and only 3% have internet access, so without these tabloid newspapers, they will have no independent news for the next six months. All they will know of the election is what the government newspapers tell them.”

�By silencing these two local-language newspapers the Media High Council is robbing Rwandan voters of crucial alternative voices during the presidential election campaign,� said Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes.. �The ruling is a thinly disguised attempt at censorship. If the election is to be seen as free and fair, the council must reverse this ruling and ensure that all media are able to cover the campaign.�

The council can legally suspend a weekly publication for a maximum of two weeks unless the paper is seen as a repeat offender, but this is a six-month suspension.

Several hours after the High Media Council announced the suspension of Umuseso and Umuvugizi, President Kagame said, at a speech in Rwanda’s Parliament:

“These newspapers have to stop, WILLINGLY or ELSE! That�s a promise I�m making you and it will happen. They have no right here, regardless of how the international community sees it or understands it. Let them believe whatever they want. And if they don�t like it, let them take those journalists in. They have no place here.”

(Translated from the BBC-Rwanda’s Kinyarwanda language broadcast, by Robert Karenzi.)

However, in his commemoration address at the Genocide Memorial Center in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on April 7th, President Kagame said he didn’t give a damn about critics, whom he said were abusing him by calling for political space and press freedom, even calling him “Hitler.”

On Wednesday, April 14th, AFP reported that the telephones at both newspapers had been switched off.

CPJ’s Tom Rhoades said that, �CPJ is also worried that the editors of these papers are under intense surveillance and are at risk. Umuvugizi Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira was brutally beaten with iron bars in 2007, and had to be rushed into intensive care.�

Umuseso Editor Didas Gasana contacted Digital Journal on April 13th, with the news that his paper had been suspended. Gasana traveled to Kampala, Uganda on the 14th, but said that he planned to return to Kigali next week. Umuseso Editor Charles Kabonero is living in exile in South Africa.

D�o Mushayidi, former President of the Rwanda Journalists’ Association, and co-author of Les Secrets du Genocide Rwandais, remains in a Rwandan prison, charged with terrorism, after his arrest in Burundi on March 6th, 2010.

[Annie Garrison - digitaljournal]

KIGALI (Reuters) – Rwanda Wednesday said this week’s suspension of two newspapers was not politically motivated ahead of August’s presidential election but a media watchdog fiercely criticized the move.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) slammed the 6-month suspension, saying it was designed to silence media critics.

“This decision clearly aims to gag Rwanda’s main sources of independent news in the run-up to the August 2010 presidential election,” RSF said in a statement Wednesday.

“It suppresses all critical journalism and deprives Rwandans of an alternative to the state newspapers,” RSF added.

Freedom of speech remains a delicate issue in a country where corruption of the media and the political endorsement of ethnic hatred during the early 1990s led to genocide, following years of dictatorship.

Rwanda’s Media High Council said the decision to suspend the Umuseso and Umuvugizi newspapers was based on their erroneous content.

“We are acting on the basis of the content of the publications. Elections are months away,” said Patrice Mulama, Executive Secretary of Media High Council.

“This is not the first time we are suspending Umuseso for inciting the public. We suspended this paper in 2004 and 2009,” he said. “We are challenging the professionalism of these papers and we have a firm ground to explain the case at hand to court.”

[Reuters]
(Editing by Richard Lough and Simon Cameron-Moore)

Jean Bosco Gasasira says the suspension of Umuvugizi for six months is intended to silence him from covering Rwanda’s presidential election due in August.

Kigali – The editor of Rwanda�s Umuvugizi independent newspaper said the suspension of his paper is politically motivated.

Rwanda�s Media High Council earlier this week suspended Umuvugizi and Umuseso for six months on the grounds the two weeklies violated Rwanda�s media laws and incited public order.

Umuvugizi editor Jean Bosco Gasasira said the six-month suspension is intended to silence the two papers from covering Rwanda�s presidential elections scheduled for August this year.

�As you know we are entering into election period; the election period is going to be in August, but campaign starts in May. The Media High Council suspended our newspapers before getting orders from the Ministry of Justice. Secondly, just hours before that, the president (Paul Kagame) said in parliament that he�s tired of the criticizing newspapers. He�s going to close it in good faith or by force,� he said.

The Chairman of the Rwanda Media High Council, Arthur Asiimwe, in announcing the suspension accused Umuvugizi and Umuseso of mixing news and opinions in their reporting.

Asiimwe reportedly said most of the articles written by the two newspapers since January this year were full of fabrications and were provocative.

Editor Gasasira described Asiimwe�s comments as false political allegations and propaganda.

He said the Media High Council is a tool of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front party.

�In the constitution, the Media High Council is supposed to be independent. But it�s not independent of the ruling party; it�s not independent of the government; they are just a political tool,� Gasasira said.

Gasasira rejected assertions by Media High Council Executive Secretary Patrice Mulama that Umuvugizi and Umuseso failed to respond to warnings from the council about their reporting.

�When a newspaper in Rwanda, according to the new media law, writes anything inciting or anything bad, the Media High Council summons them and forces them to make correction of that. When they refused, they are at least suspended for two months. Then if they repeat that, you suspend them for six months. Neither Umuseso nor Umuvugizi have never been summoned by the Media High Council officially nor suspended for two months which shows that this was politically motivated. They just want to eliminate us before the election campaign,� Gasasira said.

Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said the Media High Council acted within Rwandan laws when it suspended the two papers.

�As far as I know from the legal point of view, the law on the media empowers the Media High Council to do that. The law provides both disciplinary and criminal proceedings. The penal code does indeed punish. Some of the utterances, some of the publications that the two papers were engaged in, I don�t think any criminal proceedings had been invoked at all. I think what has happened is that the Media High Council took disciplinary actions against the two papers,� Karugarama said.

Gasasira said President Paul Kagame had warned journalists critical of his government to leave Rwanda or face their papers being shut down.

But he said he�s not a coward and would not be driven into exile.

�Right now when I�m talking to you, I�m a lamed person. My left hand side has a stroke when they tried to assassinate me in 2007. I�m living on medication; I�m a living person who has a lot of health problems because of my line of duty. So I�ve become a sacrifice of my work. So I don�t believe in escaping the country; I don�t believe being a coward. I will remain here,� Gasasira said.

Gasasira described as untrue allegations by Media High Council Executive Secretary Patrice Mulama that media criticism of the Kagame government could lead to decline in foreign investment in Rwanda.

He said most foreign embassies in Rwanda subscribe to Umuvugizi and Umuseso.

�Umuvugizi and Umuseso are the best selling newspapers in the country. They are the only independent newspapers in the country. All embassies subscribe, all investors subscribe. So let them say the true that they are tired of our criticizing, of our independent view and analysis,� Gasasira said.

Umuvugizi and Umuseso are known for their critical coverage of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front party.

Both Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists have condemned the suspensions.

[James Butty - VOA News]

Kigali – Government has suspended two of Rwanda’s most outspoken newspapers for six months as the country gears up for presidential elections in August. The two weeklies are critical of the ruling party.

Rwanda’s Media High Council yesterday decided to suspend two independent weeklies in the run-up to presidential elections. At a press conference attended only by state broadcasters and the pro-government radio station ‘Contact FM’, the Media High Council announced an immediate six-month suspension of the private Kinyarwandan-language weeklies ‘Umuseso’ and ‘Umuvugizi’.

The council accused ‘Umuseso’ of insulting the head of state, inciting the police and army to insubordination, and creating fear among the public, council official Wilson Karamaga told the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The council, a nominally independent body heavily influenced by the government, did not link these accusations to any particular article in ‘Umuseso’ and did not specify the reasons for the suspension of ‘Umuvugizi’, local journalists said. ‘Umuseso’ and ‘Umuvugizi’ may challenge the council’s suspensions in court, Mr Karamaga said.

The six-month suspension will ensure both independent newspapers are unable to cover the presidential elections scheduled for August. Both weeklies are known for critical coverage of the ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, and its leader, President Paul Kagame.

CPJ today strongly condemned the suspension of the two Rwandan newspapers. “By silencing these two local-language newspapers the Media High Council is robbing Rwanda voters of crucial alternative voices during the presidential election campaign,” Tom Rhodes of the media watchdog group said.

“The ruling is a thinly disguised attempt at censorship. If the election is to be seen as free and fair, the council must reverse this ruling and ensure that all media are able to cover the campaign,” Mr Rhodes added.

The duration of the suspension raises questions as well, CPJ commented. The council can legally suspend a weekly publication for a maximum of two weeks unless the paper is seen as a repeat offender. ‘Umuseso’ Deputy Editor Didas Gasana said the paper has never been suspended before and should not face a six-month suspension under the law.

[Afrol News - April 14, 2010]