Rwanda Information Portal

Posts from — May 2010

Rwanda: Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire has confessed, says President Kagame

Here is an article from Daily Monitor in which Kagame claims Victoire Ingabire confessed seven out of ten counts.

Kagame speaks exclusively to Daily Monitor

Kampala – President Paul Kagame has defended the arrest of opposition politician Victoire Ingabire over allegations that she supported and funded groups linked to the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
In an exclusive interview with Monitor Managing Editor Daniel Kalinaki in Kigali last week, President Kagame denied criticism that Ms Ingabire�s arrest was a ploy to keep the opposition politician from running in presidential elections in August.
�First Ingabire isn�t accused of having been involved in the genocide because she was not here. She was abroad. She�s actually been out of the country for 17 years but that�s not the problem,� he said.

�But before she came to contest in these elections she had been doing things that, in the end, would put her into trouble and she knew that.

We have evidence, which has been brought to her attention and about 10 things she has been denying. Now she�s saying that seven of them are actually true and this has come as a result of the overwhelming evidence that was put in front of her.�

Ms Ingabire denies the allegations and officials close to her, as well as international human rights groups and observers say her prosecution is politically motivated. However, President Kagame, who was nominated as the ruling RPF party candidate for the elections, said Ms Ingabire�s trial would go ahead.

In the wide-ranging interview, President Kagame also spoke about falling out with senior officials in his government, his relationship with France, Uganda and DR Congo but also takes some personal questions about his family and his own life.
Full interview on Monitor online on Sunday and Monday.

Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/923224/-/x061xv/-/index.html

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May 24, 2010   1 Comment

Rwanda: Victoire Ingabire to Paul Kagame: “Do not hold in contempt your own justice system”

by Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.

Victoire Ingabire - Chair FDU-Inkingi

Victoire Ingabire - Chair FDU-Inkingi

As the United States defence legal team led by Professor Peter Erlinder set foot in Rwanda today, a presidential exclusive interview justifying why his government will freeze in jail Ms. Victoire Ingabire, FDU INKINGI presidential candidate, is making headlines. Though the threat is clear crystal, the saddest is that it�s full of sheer lies and an obvious contempt of the Rwandan justice. I was honoured by the incumbent�s calumniation alleging that I confessed to 7 charges out of ten things the prosecution came up with, and that his regime has overwhelming evidence for my trial.

The exclusive interview granted in Kigali last week by President Paul Kagame to Monitor Managing Editor Daniel Kalinaki (online since 22nd May 2010) is disturbing.
Either the Monitor is spreading forgery, fiction or falsification, either the President is overtaking and derailing the justice system he tailored from scratch. In either case, he needs to clear this situation.

He stated:

“�Now she�s saying that seven of them are actually true (�). Initially she had denied that she only used to just give supportive comments. Then the evidence of these FDLR colonels who are here with us and when they confronted her they said �you were with us� and she said �yeah, I�m sorry I visited you so many times�. This is in court of law”.

He continued:

“When we confronted her afterwards she almost collapsed. This is in broad daylight, in courts of law. This is somebody, a candidate, a so-praised opposition leader, yes, but waits a minute; if there are cases to answer, you answer them� This woman will certainly be where she belongs. She was charged in the court of law �”

I am seriously wondering if the President is talking about my case or another story.
Of course everybody knows he can arbitrary order my arrest anytime he wants, but if he needs a court of justice to do that job for him he should respect some legal rules as well.
The separation of powers and the rule of law are guaranteed by the constitution.

The President should avoid putting pressure on courts and judges. Most judges in Rwanda are nominated but under the current regime only a super-judge can resist such injunction. Nevertheless it�s in nobody�s interest to challenge a presidential command. This is a blatant violation of the independence of a judge.
The colour of the court ruling in my case will be a result of this unrelenting presidential pressure on the system. We all know that this politically motivated case was initiated by the President who, visibly and closely is still pulling the strings all the steps around.

The current justice system built on scratch in the last decades is still very fragile and politicians, especially the President or any of his cronies should not meddle into pending court affairs and deliberations.
How Rwandans and the world will know the truth in case of an expeditive justice? As the case is still pending with the court, there is such thing as sub judice and he can not just publicly comment on a case, interfere with judicial proceeding or put pressure on magistrates and still make people believe there is independent justice.

Many Rwandans are victim of similar practices under the mercy of those in power.
Justice appeared to be served, but the scars would never heal for the victims, their families and our people.
This might be one of the reasons why the regime has sealed off the political space, and is instead yelling out the pretext to avoid backsliding to genocide.

As far as I am concerned, the court hearings on the so-called overwhelming evidence or ghost proofs have not yet started.
I was arbitrarily arrested on 21st April 2010, and released on bail the second day. Until now the prosecutor is not yet in order with his papers.
I have never met the much publicised FDLR renegades in the hands of the regime. There has never been any confrontation.
The non-violence is and will always be my motto.

Many questions remain unanswered: how is the President planning to extract forced confessions? Considering the fact that only 3 counts were levelled against my person, while the President is talking about 10, when his services will release and substantiate the remaining charges? Will it happen after the presidential campaign is closed?

Since my return to Rwanda in January 2010, I have been trying to get my political party, FDU INKINGI, registered and by 6 times, the government derailed our constitutional congress. The official reason is the criminal charges levelled and the subsequent never-happening trial.

Don�t shy away free and fair competition and to stop using justice for your own purposes. There will be no democracy and justice for all without truth and healing.

Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
Chair FDU INKINGI

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May 24, 2010   5 Comments

Criminal defense lawyers dispute Rwanda�s genocide history

Here is an interesting article written by Ann Garrison and published in Sfbayview


Rwandan Chief Prosecutor Martin Ngoga threatened Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza with arrest if she keeps talking to the press and accused the international criminal lawyers at the Second International Criminal Defense Conference in Brussels of genocide denial.

The ad hoc organizing committee of the Second International Criminal Defense Conference being held in Brussels on May 21-23 thanked Rwandan Chief Prosecutor Martin Ngoga and Kigali�s New Times for publicizing their efforts.

This week, as the conference dates approached, The New Times published several articles condemning it and quoting Ngoga saying, �For a few years now, some defense lawyers at the ICTR have badly deviated from their professional duties and turned into activists and advocates of genocide denial.�

Ngoga and The New Times thus drew international attention to the significance of the conference to the ongoing struggle over disputed histories of Rwanda�s 1994 tragedy and related violence in Central Africa, both before and since.

Last week Ngoga warned leading opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire that she might be jailed once again if she continues speaking to the press. The election is scheduled for Aug. 9. Ingabire has not been allowed to register to formally run against Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

The ad hoc conference organizing committee also said that they are defending the right to freedom of speech and thought and expect the conference to be a non-disruptive exchange of ideas that would be subjected to public critique and historical and scientific evaluation, as the ideas exchanged at the November 2009 Hague Conference on the Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda were.


Cover of the Human Rights Watch publication, “Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: A Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,” issued in January 2010.

They said that Rwanda Chief Prosecutor Ngoga had mischaracterized the historic Military-1 Trial Judgment of February 2009 in the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, which completely rejects the theory that what the world has come to know as the Rwanda Genocide was the result of a longstanding conspiracy planned well in advance of April 1994, as the Nazi death camps were planned by the Third Reich.

They reaffirmed that the judgment had:

  • Acquitted all four defendants of �planning or conspiracy� to commit genocide or other crimes, either before or after April 6, 1994;
  • Acquitted the highest ranking officer to be tried at the ICTR, Gen. Gratien Kabiligi, of all charges; and
  • Acquitted Col. Bagosora (who is represented by Rafael Constant of Paris, not Professor Erlinder) of all charges that occurred before April 6 and after April 8, 1994.

The committee also said, �Rwandan President Paul Kagame�s regime habitually calls its political opponents �criminals� as has been demonstrated in the arrest and prosecution of Madame Victoire Inagabire and others in the run-up to the August presidential elections,� and �Kagame used the same tactic to virtually eliminate political opposition in the 2003 sham presidential election that formalized his monolithic regime.�

The conference organizing committee rejected the Kagame government�s efforts to make it illegal to question the role of Kagame�s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front Party (RPF) in crimes that the RPF instead accuses its opponents of.

They said that Kagame and the RPF�s responsibility for the assassinations of the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda is the subject of French and Spanish indictments and of a wrongful death civil case in U.S. federal court and that RPF responsibility for these crimes has been confirmed by former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and others from ICTR Prosecutor�s Office.

Members of the ad hoc organizing committee of this week�s International Criminal Defense Conference in Brussels were Professor Peter Erlinder, Beth Lyons, Ken Ogetto, John Philpot and Andre Tremblay.

Kagame threatens challenger with prison for talking to press

President Kagame�s chief opponent in the Aug. 9 election, Victoire Ingabire, is now facing criminal charges brought against her for challenging Kagame and his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front Party government. According to Ngoga:

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, presidential candidate of Rwanda�s FDU-Inkingi Party, has been warned that she will be arrested again if she continues to speak to the international press. � Photo: FDU-Inkingi Party

�The prosecution is more specifically concerned with the continued posting of declarations and newspaper interviews she has been doing. The case against her is not one of robbery in which restraining physical movement would be enough to contain further damage. It is a case of destructive and divisive ideology whose damage does not require physical proximity of the offender.�

Law Professor Peter Erlinder, the U.S. attorney and lead defense counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, who has been retained to defend Ingabire, said:

�Ngoga�s threats reveal that the real purpose of the criminal charges against Madame Ingabire is to serve notice that no political opposition will be tolerated in Rwanda. And that the 2003 �sham elections,� as reported by EU election monitors and other outside human rights observers, will be repeated in 2010, unless the Rwandan government completely changes its policies to permit a functioning democracy.�

Ingabire is charged with associating with terrorists and violations of the �genocide ideology� statutes creating speech and thought crimes unique to Rwanda, which Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and even the U.S. State Department have denounced.

Professor Erlinder will appear at Ingabire�s next hearing, on May 24 in Kigali, to insist on her continued release on bail, return of her computers and property, an end to the state�s interference with her presidential campaign and the full disclosure of prosecution evidence and witnesses.

Erlinder has said he intends to argue that Ingabire�s internationally recognized rights to free speech have been violated and that she is being denied due process.

He has also submitted letters to his Minnesota senators and congressional representative and to the U.S. State Department to request protection, stating that he has reason to believe that his own life could be in danger while he is in Rwanda because of leaked memos identifying him as a foreign enemy of the government and target for assassination.

The Human Rights Committee of the EU Parliament has written to Rwanda�s Ambassador to Belgium G�rard Ntwari objecting to Ingabire�s arrest and to ongoing repression of political and civil rights, including the right to free speech.

Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in San Francisco, a regular contributor to the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, Global Research and Digital Journal and a news producer forKPFA Radio, Berkeley. This story combines two stories that first appeared on Digital Journal, at http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/292310 and http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/292033.


Preventing the Falsification of History from TPIR heritage on Vimeo.

Plus d� information sur: www.tpirheritagedefense.org

May 24, 2010   No Comments

Rwanda: Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo elected as presidential candidate by PSD congress

Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, PSD Flag BearerDr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, PSD Flag Bearer

The fourth congress of the Social Democratic Party (Parti Social D�mocrate) PSD has this Saturday May 22nd met in Kicukiro and elected Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo as the party�s flag bearer in the forthcoming presidential polls.
The party members have also once again elected Dr. Vincent Biruta to remain as the party�s chairman.
Soon after his endorsement as the party�s proposed presidential candidate, Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo thanked his fellow party members for trusting with the responsibility to represent his party during the august presidential elections.

Addressing the members, Ntawukuriryayo explained that in the 2003 elections PSD supported RPF�s candidate Paul Kagame because at the time, the country was still emerging from a bad regime with a lot of problems that needed to be addressed. He added that PSD has endorsed its party�s flag bearer as an indication of the major strides it has made politically over the years adding that the principles of justice, solidarity and development will continue to be upheld.

Dr. Ntawukuriryayo was Health Minister for several years until two years ago just before the August 2008 Parliamentary elections. He was on the PSD list of candidates for parliament. In the House, he was elected as Vice President.

As Health Minister, Dr. Ntawukuriryayo was the brain behind the health insurance scheme Mutuelle de Sante � which is now said to be covering more than 80% of the population.

Meanwhile in the same event the Social Democratic Party elected the executive committee for the next five years:
President: Dr. Vincent Biruta
First Vice-President: Marc Rugenera
Second Vice-President: Jacqueline Mukakanamugenge
Secretary General: Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo
Treasurer: Penelope Kantarama.

Present at PSD�s fourth congress was an RPF representative Aloyisia Inyumba, PL�s chairman Protais Mitali and the permanent secretary of the forum of political parties in Rwanda Anicet Kayigema.

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May 24, 2010   2 Comments

Rwanda: Defiant suspended newspaper UMUVUGIZI will be �blocked� on the internet

Kigali: The High Media Council has said the suspended UMUVUGIZI newspaper which is now publishing on the internet could be �blocked� from relaying into Rwanda, RNA reports.

The latest threat to UMUVUGIZI comes after RNA revealed on May 18th that the paper�s exiled editor had refused to abide by the April 13 six-month suspension � instead moving to the internet. Mr. Jean Bosco Gasasira is now publishing www.umuvugizi.com where the laid-out Issues of the paper will be posted as well as other news stories.

The High Media Council has also stepped in. Executive Secretary Mr. Patrice Mulama has warned that should the paper continue to defy the suspension, the Council could engage with other relevant institutions to have UMUVUGIZI not allowed to relay into Rwanda.

�We can work with other departments to have [UMUVUGIZI] blocked on the internet or any other modes,� Mr. Mulama told the BBC great lakes service Wednesday evening.

He said blocking websites has not been easy even in other countries but added that it was indeed �feasible�. The Council has not decided on the next course of action, he said, adding that there is already a case in court seeking a complete ban on UMUVUGIZI and UMUSESO.

According to Mr. Mulama, should UMUVUGIZI go online, it will give the Council more evidence to convince the courts of the need to ban the paper.

There have not been any known previous cases where a website has been blocked from Rwanda, but it has happened in Uganda. The site www.radiokatwe.com which often publishes heavily critical content on President Yoweri Museveni is not accessible in Uganda. It was reachable there until February 2006.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported on February 22, 2006 that the Ugandan government had blocked internal access to the critical Web site, Radio Katwe � just days before the presidential elections.

The state-owned daily The New Vision and the private daily The Monitor reported the same week that the government-controlled Uganda Communications Commission had directed Uganda’s leading telecommunications company, MTN, to block the site.

An MTN statement, quoted by The Monitor, defended the decision to block the site, saying that Ugandan law “empowers the commission to direct any telecoms operator to operate networks in such a manner that is appropriate to national and public interest.”

Source: ARI-RNA.

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May 22, 2010   No Comments

Rwanda: Case of suspended newspapers UMUSESO and UMUVUGIZI opens in Kigali court

Kigali: The case in which the High Media Council has petitioned court to ban the two tabloids completely off the market opened on May 18th with the prosecution asking for more time to study the lengthy submissions of the defense, RNA reports.

The Media Council suspended the weekly tabloids UMUSESO and UMUVUGIZI on April 13 over accusations of insulting President Kagame, provoking possible insubordination in the army and causing panic in the population. The Council followed the suspension with a suit for a complete ban on the papers.

On Tuesday, the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court heard separate submissions from the prosecution against the two papers. First it was detailing the allegations on UMUSESO, which the lawyer representing the Media Council said had repeatedly and deliberately undermined summons from the Council.

The prosecution attorney argues that the despite warnings, UMUSESO had continued to publish content which was defamatory, abusive and slanderous to the Person of the Head of State and other officials. The charge sheet also claims the paper deliberately publishes content which undermines the harmony in the country � causing panic.

Basing on the grounds of the suspension, prosecution claims the paper has since January been publishing alarming articles containing rumours of arrests in the army which had not happened. Prosecution argues that these articles undermine national security.

The defense dismissed all the accusations, instead saying the Media Council had over-stepped its powers with the six-month suspension. Defense attorney Jean Bosco Kazungu pleaded with court to dismiss the suit.

He said the suit contravenes article 83 of the press law which came into force in August last year. The article details the crimes that can be committed in the media and which punishments are prescribed. The defense says none applies to the case before court.

Mr. Kazungu told court that the Media Council suit also contravenes section 2 of article 22 which underlines that a media cannot be suspended and at the same time dragged to court. Instead, the Media Council was supposed to have used the courts as the first avenue, according to the defense attorney.

Mr. Kazungu also argued that the Media Council suit contradicts article 84 of the same media law. According to him, the Council rushed to court before the six-month suspension had ended.

The defense also informed court that UMUSESO had petitioned court against the suspension, which as the law prescribes means no other action can be taken by any party in the case. However, Mr. Kazungu said the Media Council has done exactly that � thereby going against this principle which is mentioned in article 18 of the media law.

In a final submission, the defense pleaded that the Media Council suit does not merit a hearing in court because it was filed by an incompetent instance.

In response, the prosecuting attorney asked court to grant him more time to look through the evidence advanced by the defense, to which the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court concurred. Hearing of the UMUSESO case returns on Tuesday June 01.

In another separate case in which the Media Council wants the same court to ban UMUVUGIZI completely in addition to the six-month suspension, the defense attorney Celestin Buhura also demanded court throw the suit out.

The UMUVUGIZI editor and publisher Jean Bosco Gasasira has already fled the country.

Mr. Buhura told court that the Media Council has bundled UMUVUGIZI together with UMUSESO when the two are different newspapers. The Council does not give specific crimes committed by UMUVUGIZI, according to the defense.

Following heated exchanges between prosecution and defense, court ruled that the UMUVUGIZI case will continue on June 01.

Source: ARI-RNA.

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May 22, 2010   No Comments

Rwanda: “No case against governement” about Iwawa detention camp, says Kagame (incl audio)

Rwandan teenagers detained in remote Iwawa Island prison campRwandan teenagers detained in remote Iwawa Island prison camp

During the press conference of May 11th, reporter Nelson Gatsimbazi raised the question of the detention centre on the Island of Shame (Iwawa), revealed to the world by New York times.
He reminded President Kagame that kidnapping and detaining youths on a remote island against their will and without informing families is against the article 23 of the Constitution. He stressed that the method in which the Iwawa group is taken there was contravening the constitution, saying the victims are �kidnapped� and forced there and the governement could face a court case from parents.

Listen to the question about Iwawa detention camp and to the answers given by President Paul Kagame and Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana

The question which was of great interest for the non-English speaking Rwandan population, was asked in Kinyarwanda but President Kagame refused to answer in the same language, saying he wanted to respond to an article published in English.

Kagame dismissed the reporter Gatsimbazi as confused and told him that he himself was �misleading or misinterpreting the constitution�. He said that most of those youths detained on the Island are transferred from other detention centers and that no case against the governement was possible.

He took the opportunity to dismiss the New York Times article which he described as “pathetic”.

Kagame then directed that one of the Ministers present at the press conference respond to the issue. Internal Security Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana was on hand to respond.

According to him, the 1923 law edicted by the Belgian King for Ruanda-Urundi gives the authorities the power to hold homeless and beggars on such a program for as long as seven years. Sheikh Harelimana said those youths are not being imprisoned as reported. It is a way of taking care of them instead until they learn some profession.

Related:
Iwawa, the Island of Shame in Rwanda

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May 21, 2010   No Comments

Rwanda: About Iwawa prison island, President Kagame describes The New York Times as �pathetic�

Teenager detained on Iwawa prison campTeenager detained on Iwawa prison camp

During the press conference on Tuesday May 11th, President Kagame came out strongly against a damning article by The New York Times in which it revealed that youths are imprisoned in harsh conditions on Iwawa island in Lake Kivu.

Kagame talking about New York Times article

President Kagame said that Mr. Jeffrey Gentlemen, the author of the New York Times article, is a �person very fond of writing negatively against Rwanda�.

According to Kagame, the journalist wrote the story �as if he carried out some daring operation to go and discover an island where secret activities are taking place that suggest repression ��, when in fact he had been invited by the line minister.

Mr. Kagame described the article as �pathetic� and accused The New York Times of hiding behind �professionalism� to consistently �tarnishing the image� of the country.
�This is how manipulative some people can be,� Mr. Kagame told the press conference.

Indicative of the seriousness of The New York Times allegations, the question was asked in Kinyarwanda but President Kagame refused to answer in the same language, saying he wanted to respond to an article published in English.

The question of the Iwawa island detention centre (the Rwandan Island of Shame) was raised by reporter Nelson Gatsimbazi who had visited the island and had also discovered damning evidence against Rwandan governement.
Read further and listen to President’s and Minister explanations: Rwanda: No case against governement about Iwawa detention camp.

Related:

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May 20, 2010   No Comments

Rwanda: EU funds the August presidential polls, but rules out sending elections observers� team

Kigali – The European Union which has recently injected millions of Euros into the August presidential elections has announced that it will not send observers.

According to the Rwanda News Agency, the reason put forward by the European Commission Delegation in Kigali for not sending observers from Brussels to monitor the presidential poll is lack of money.

�This is due to a large number of other observation missions in other countries this year in Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, etc.) on a limited budget,� said Ms. Esther Tidjani, a spokesperson of the Kigali Delegation, in an email.

However, in mid June, the EU will send election experts to help the block�s embassies and missions with organizing for their own observation plans.

The team of experts could support the National Electoral Commission �if it so desires�, according to the Kigali Delegation.

�In addition, we will train local observers, and coordinate with the Commonwealth observer mission,� said Tidjani.

The announcement comes just a week after the EU and Rwanda signed a 73.8million Euro grant agreement � a package which includes 5.3 million euro for the Electoral Commission.

Just after the end of the 2003 presidential polls where President Kagame scooped more than 95 percent, the 34 EU observers severely criticized the poll.

The block did not also give government any single cent for the poll � prompting a campaign in which the population was encouraged to make individual contributions. Over the past years, the EU has turned out to be the biggest money-purse for the authorities.

The EU did observe the 2008 parliamentary polls which they gave mixed approval.

In the recent months, President Paul Kagame�s party Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has shut down outspoken newspapers, sent opposition leaders to jail, split the opposition parties and erected all kind of administrative obstacles to bar opposition parties from registering and preparing for the elections. Observers, opposition parties and human rights groups predict that the August presidential elections can not be free and fair. This situation has prompted opposition leaders Ms Victoire Ingabire and Me Bernard Ntaganda, respectively from FDU-Inkingi and PS Imberakuri, to call for election�s postponement.
The European Union did not finance the 2003 elections but sent observers who fiercely criticized the poll. Now, knowing the conditions prevailing in Rwandan current social and political landscape, they are funding Paul Kagame to organize the controversial presidential elections and do not dare sending observers. A question to ask at this stage would be: �what game is playing the European Union?�

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May 20, 2010   No Comments

Rwanda: Heavy rains claim lives and hundreds homeless in Northern and Western Provinces

floods-in-western-province-sm

At least eleven people have died while hundreds of others were over the weekend left homeless as landslides caused by water gushing from the Virunga Mountains hit the Northern and Western Provinces.

Many people in Nyabihu and Rubavu districts in the Western Province have been left homeless and lack food, shelter and other basic needs.

Several sectors in Musanze District in Northern Province have also been seriously affected.

In the Western Province, the rains reportedly left five dead while one died in Nyabihu, according to reports. Five others died in Musanze.

�It started the day before yesterday (Friday), when residents started complaining of the waters that started invading their houses� now my children have spent a day without food,� said Patricia Nyirasavena in Musanze.

She added that she is being asked to pay Rwf 50,000 for accommodation which she maintains she cannot afford.

More than 600 people�s homes were completely destroyed in Muko sector of Musanze, including eight business structures and an estimated 30 hectares of food crops destroyed in the five sectors close to the Virunga Mountains.

The Mayor of Musanze, Winifrida Mpembyemungu, said that there was urgent need for humanitarian assistance, especially food and tents, and called on stakeholders and the general public to intervene.

��The district has offered to raise Rwf600,000 to buy food stuffs. We are now monitoring the situation to see if there will be no health hazards especially, to those displaced by the floods,� Mpembyemungu said.

Gen Marcel Gatsinzi, the Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugee Affairs, who was at the scene in the areas most affected in Musanze, Nyabihu and Rubavu, said that after assessing the magnitude of the damage, a quick humanitarian relief will be provided to rescue the affected residents.

He said that a Disaster Management Task Force will liaise with the Ministry of Finance, and other partners to provide a quick intervention.

Sectors of Kinigi, Gataraga, Muko, Musanze and Shingiro, were littered with debris of stones and parts from a broken bridges.

Source: New Times.

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May 20, 2010   No Comments