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Gen. Kagame has the right and duty to clear his name before courts!

Rwandan government and some misinformed media outlets should stop bragging that RPF soldiers should not be touched because they stopped genocide.

It is well documented that RPF leadership was interested in taking power and not in stopping genocide.

Here are some few facts:

● During the Arusha Peace negotiations, RPF opposed a large contingent of UN troops to oversee the implementation of the agreement. Faced with the intransigence of RPF, the government delegation, agreed on a contingent of 2,500 people, half of what it wanted. It dragged on negotiations on this issue Jan –June 1993 to prepare for war.

● The RPF opposed international military intervention for fear that it would prevent it from taking total power while the security council was discussing the matter. Refer to the letter written to the security council on the 30th of April 1994 (3 weeks after the massacres started).

● When war resumed and  massacres started after the assassination of late President Habyarimana (by whom???), RPF rejected an offer for a meeting on the 8th April 1994, by the then FAR military crisis committee set up on the 7th April to examine how to manage the new crisis.

● On 8th April 1994, the RPF asked all foreign troops to quit within 48 hours declaring they would be considered as enemy combatant if they stayed longer.

● On 12th April 1994 the RPF rejected a truce offered by the governmental forces in order to fight those who were carrying out massacres of civilian populations.

● I challenge anybody to show evidence of any RPF declaration where RPF was asking for international intervention to stop massacres. Or where RPF was pleading that if the UN left, there would be more Tutsi victims.

● On the 30th of April, RPF made a statement opposing UN initiatives for a deployment of international forces in order to help curb the massacres of civilians. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and to many observers, an intervention would have saved tens of thousands lives. The RPF declared that the genocide was over and that there was nobody to save; yet it claims to have stopped genocide. HRW confirms that thousands of Tutsi were still alive and calling for help.

● Gen. Dallaire, commander of the UN forces in Rwandan (UNAMIR), testified under oath before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, that Gen. Paul Kagame told him those civilian killings were to be considered as “collateral damage” for his war plan. In fact, genocide became an excuse and the Interahamwe and those behind them became unknowingly RPF’s strategic allies by helping to turn the international community against the government in power. Soon we shall get testimonies of Tutsi survivors accusing RPF of having sacrificed Tutsis inside Rwanda for the sake of getting to power.

● The former U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, Robert Flatten, testified in June 2005 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that he personally warned Gen. Kagame and President Habyarimana that if either of them resumed war by breaking the Arusha Accords cease fire, they would be responsible for thousands of civilian casualties from retaliatory killings that U.S. State Department documents predicted should the war resume…

● In the testimony of Col. Marshall (former Deputy UN troops commander in Rwanda) at the Criminal International Tribunal for Rwanda on 2/12/2006 “From my experience, my conclusion is that the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) had one goal, seizing power by force and keeping it to themselves”, “For me, it is the Rwandan Patriotic Front which has perpetrated the attack (shooting the presidential aircraft). Not once, never have I sensed the desire to make concessions, to smooth rough edges, to reach a consensus”. The assassination triggered genocide.

These are some of the facts people should consider before giving Kagame and his movement RPF any credit for stopping the genocide. It is sickening when people, on purpose or confusedly, distort the truth and brag on how RPF stopped genocide.

Not only do we have evidence that RPF didn’t seek to stop the genocide, but soon or later, people will have the right to know who started the genocide in first place. If anything, we need another UN commission of enquiry to establish the RPF role in deliberately creating conditions that led the country and the region into a catastrophe of such magnitude. Kagame and his men have still to answer the accusations of the French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu and the Oklahoma Lawsuit and many more to come.

The facts described in the many damning reports, including the Gersony report, Carla del Ponte, documents at the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) and many others, do not go away because RPF is in a denial state and exercises heavy-handed and large-scale political hooliganism. Time to face the truth is long overdue.

* Rwanda asked for response on UN “Genocide” report.
* UN hopes Rwanda’s contribution to peacekeeping will continue for the peace and security of the region.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir shakes hands with Rwandan UNAMID Commander Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba on arrival at the El Fasher International Airport, north Darfur, February 24, 2010. (Photo: Reuters)

The UN report which claims that Rwanda forces may have committed genocide on Hutu populations in DR Congo over a 10-year period will be released in October with comments from the named countries, its authors said Thursday.

U.N. High Commission for Human Rights announced in Geneva that it will publish the already leaked draft on October 01. The release of the 600-page document will include responses of all the countries named, according to the commission chief Navi Pillay.

She said in a statement that following requests from the affected countries, “we have decided to give concerned states a further month to comment on the draft”.

The document largely attacks Rwanda, but also names Burundi, Uganda, Angola, and Zimbabwe. Their armies invaded DR Congo with different motives, and the report also includes information on minerals plundering.

Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo angrily slammed the report on Tuesday blaming the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights and ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan of deliberately ‘diminishing’ the Tutsi Genocide by accepting to fund this report in first place. According to Rwanda governement, Kofi Annan showed his incompetence by accepting to fund such report before leaving office.
However, the former UN Secretary-General and 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace winner says in a statement that “ he has had no involvement in the findings of this draft report.”

Minister Mushikiwabo said Rwandan soldiers and police in five different countries on UN peacekeeping missions will be withdrawn immediately the report is published. The pullout will apparently start with the 3560 troops in Sudan.

There have been no comments from any countries on Rwanda’s decision, but on Thursday, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon broke his silence – asking Rwanda to reconsider its decision.

Noting Rwanda’s contribution to two UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Ban told journalists in Vienna (Austria): “I hope that this contribution will continue for the peace and security of the region.”

“Peace and security in Darfur and Sudan has very big implications for peace in the wider region,” he added, according to the AFP news agency.

On the delay to release the damning report, a spokesman of the UN rights commission which commissioned it declined to say whether Rwanda was among the states seeking to comment on the report, Reuters news agency reported.

The United Nations is delaying publication of its report on genocide against Hutus in DR Congo until Oct. 1 to give concerned states a chance to comment, the U.N. said on Thursday.

The report had been expected to be published this week. A leaked draft said Rwandan troops may have committed genocide in Congo, a charge rejected by the government of President Paul Kagame.

“Following requests, we have decided to give concerned states a further month to comment on the draft and I have offered to publish any comments alongside the report itself on 1 October, if they so wish,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement.

Her spokesman Rupert Colville declined to say whether Rwanda was among the states seeking to comment on the report. The draft of the report covers some 600 serious crimes committed by various forces in the former Zaire during the period 1993-2003.

Rwanda said on Tuesday that it was considering pulling out all its troops from U.N. peacekeeping missions, starting with Darfur, following the leaked report.

Kofi Annan
Seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations and
Nobel Prize in Peace 2001.

Rwandan Government on Tuesday agressively attacked the ex-UN chief Kofi Annan for funding the report which alleges Rwandan forces killed Hutus in DRC. Psychologists will hopefully tell us what they think!

Kigali: Ex-UN Secretary General, Nobel Prize in Peace 2001 Kofi Annan, and the UN Human Rights Commission came under fierce scrutiny Tuesday as government claimed they have deliberately continued to “diminish” the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis.

“As we know from the UN Human Rights Commission, this report started under [Kofi Annan],” said Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.

“I would have a lot to say about the former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan… Both as Secretary General, as an African and responsible human being…I want to say that his record as far as Rwanda and the Genocide [is concerned] is pitiful,” charged Mushikiwabo at a press conference.

Describing the ex-UN chief as a “man who has never taken his responsibility”, Mushikiwabo said Kofi Annan who was head of peacekeeping at the UN headquarters in 1994, “failed miserably”.

“I am not surprised and my Government is not surprised that he would be the one making sure that there is funding for this kind of report to ensure that it was an important gesture he would pose before he leave office,” said Mushikiwabo.

She said the involvement of Kofi Annan in the “making of this report is there. There is no question about it.”

Turning her guns on the UN Human Rights Commission which commissioned the controversial document, the Foreign Minister said it has also deliberately continued since 1994 to undermine the Tutsi mass slaughter.

“The report reminds us of the climate and the approach that was taken especially by the United Nations Human Rights Commission which instead of dealing with the then extremely grave situation of the Genocide, it was interested in elections,” said Mushikiwabo.

She accused the Commission of asking for elections for purposes of “cleaning up, sanitizing [and] providing legitimacy to individuals and groups” which had committed the Genocide in Rwanda.

“Before the bodies were even buried in this country this UN human rights commission was calling for elections,” said Mushikiwabo.

“Therefore, the diminishing and the lack of decency in front of the Genocide, is what we see today in this report. For us the Government of Rwanda, this report is nothing new. It’s a manifestation of a state of mind.”

Government also fired at the methodology used in compiling the 600-page document branding its methodology as “malicious” because Rwanda was consulted.

The Foreign Minister admitted however that government had received the draft document from the UN Human Rights Commission, but did not say when government got it.

Speaking about the licking of her letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warning him about the release of the document, Minister Mushikiwabo was bitter.

“It is an irresponsible gesture,” said Mushikiwabo. “We don’t like it.”

She said release of the letter to the media shows a conduct that is problematic” to the UN.

The Minister denied that Rwandan forces killed any civilians because of their ethnic orientations.

The Minister also said Rwandan army and police on peacekeeping missions in five countries around the will be ordered back home immediately the report is published by the UN.

[ARI-RNA]

by Eleneus Akanga.

Some things, you just can’t buy. You either have them in abundance or they are scarce and rare. Their abundance often scams recipients into comfort zones where everything is assumed constant until that time when supply becomes skewed.

Then, we start reacting differently. Some people blame their handlers while others choose to place all the blame on others. Yes, others because it is easier to blame someone else than take full responsibility ourselves.

Most Rwandese of my age have grown up to the story that 16 years ago, their countrymen took to the streets and villages killing fellow countrymen on a scale never witnessed anywhere in the world. In what we have known as the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Rwanda is said to have lost close to 1,000,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus when the Interahamwe militia went on rampage. And that it was the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPF) under current president Paul Kagame who brought this sad chapter to an end by taking over Kigali in July 1994.

President Paul Kagame has built his reputation on this very fact and his government has been systematic as they have been consistent, in pressing forward this version of the story. With ending the genocide under his belt, President Kagame has seen his image soar and has rightfully won a host of accolades for his overall performance as Rwanda’s head of state.

Many around the world including former US president Bill Clinton were not shy to refer to him as one of the best leaders Africa has seen. He was on all accounts, a man of great integrity, so highly regarded across the globe that 8 months ago, any criticism of his style of leadership or version of events –as happened in 1994 – was bound to be viewed as nothing but a disgruntled naysayer.

Just last month, President Kagame’s government came under heavy criticism for stifling free speech when it suspended two local newspapers Umuvugizi and Umuseso in the run-up to presidential elections. Then as the world opened their eyes up for the apparent lack of democracy in a country that had a couple of months earlier suspended and refused a visa to a Human Rights Watch researcher for a discrepancy in visa documents, Rwanda refused to register the country’s only genuine opposition parties in FDU-Inkingi and Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.

The coincidental shooting of Jean Leonard Rugambage the Umuvugizi editor whose publication happened at the time to be investigating the suspected assassination of Lt. Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former army Chief of Staff in a foreign country and the murder of Andrew Kagwa Rwisereka, the vice chairman of the Greens did not help matters. Kigali and Kagame came under the spotlight.

But as bad press (or the truth) depending on how you look at it continued to come in, Kagame and his men tirelessly worked on his re-election. He pulled crowds each day on campaign rallies and as expected won comfortably with over 93 percent of the vote, giving him another seven year term.

For some time, the Rwandan story as told by the RPF and Kagame has stood unchallenged as we know it. Those who have dared question the official story have either been charged under the genocide law for negationism and genocide denial as with Victoire Ingabire, Bernard Ntaganda and a host of opposition party supporters arrested during a demonstration. American law Prof. Peter Erlinder had to endure a spell in a Kigali jail for expressing his opinions on what he thinks the Rwandan story should be.

But if the events in Rwanda in the run up to, during and after the elections have not provided the current government with something to really think about, the revelation that the national army may have committed crimes tantamount to genocide against Hutus in Congo will surely give everyone in government something to help argue.

A leaked report from the UN high commissioner for human rights says that after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Tutsi-led Rwandan troops and their rebel allies killed tens of thousands of members of the Hutu ethnic group inside the Congo.

If this is true, it brings into fore a hitherto untold version of the Rwandan story. It would appear that a government whose image has been created on bringing an end to the Rwandan genocide is the same government whose forces committed yet another.

According to the leaked report, “The majority of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick, who were often undernourished and posed no threat to the attacking forces.” The report goes on to say the crimes committed by Rwandan forces amount to “crimes against humanity, war crimes, or even genocide.”

It is the heaviest ever statement ever written against the Rwandan government. We all remember how Kigali reacted three years ago when French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued arrest warrants for members of the Rwandan government; we remember too how the same government reacted when a Spanish judge accused Kagame and his men of atrocities. To think that Rwanda will let this go without a proper fight is akin to forgetting so easily, for if there is anything Kagame is so afraid of at this moment in time, it is a damning report showing or even suggesting complicity in an atrocity he has so effectively used against his enemies both real and purported.

Honey Moon Over?

Rwanda has long claimed it attacked Hutu camps in eastern Congo to pursue those responsible for the killings of over 800,000 Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide. But the report marks the first time the UN has accused Rwandan forces of deliberately attacking the tens of thousands of Hutu civilians who also had fled. For some time, Rwanda has received good coverage and good press from most western countries partly because Kagame was seen as a good chap to work with. Secondly the guilt of forsaking Rwanda in 1994 when she needed the international community’s help has curtailed the West’s moral ability to criticise the guy who is known largely for stopping the genocide.

No wonder Kigali was quick to dismiss the report. The country has threatened too, to withdraw any of its servicemen from UN peacekeeping missions if the report is published. Why threaten if you know you have nothing to do with what is alleged in the report?
Either way, withdrawing troops would serve as testament that Rwanda is doing the right thing; there obviously would be no moral right for a country whose forces are genocide perpetrators to then go ahead keeping peace. Maintaining deployed troops in their designated locations will also bring into question whether accused troops should really continue in positions where they are paid for by an organisation in whose report they stand accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Way Out

I was speaking to one of the officials in Kigali yesterday and he seemed to agree that this is a very damning report. He however contends that it might help bring to into line, the possibility if there ever was, of the ruling RPF (majority of which are Tutsis) to sit down with Hutu representatives for an open debate that will seek to establish what actually happened.

He did not want to add any more voices to this assertion just like he asked me not to even think of quoting him. But even with such an open debate, the atrocities committed in Congo if proven to be true and linked to the Rwandan forces would call not only for open debates but successful convictions at the Hague.

I have even had my old friends in Kigali trash the report and instead heap the blame on the UN for in the first place; failing to pass UN Resolution 1706 that would have seen the organisation send more troops to Rwanda. It is one of those very old classic colonial thoughts where we Africans tend to easily refuse to accept responsibility and instead shift the blame to others. For, the question is not why the UN failed to send more troops but whether as a nation whose people had lived together and spoke the same language, we should have been involved in the kind of savagery that we found ourselves into before, during and now, after the genocide?

Over to you my little monsters…

Eleneus Akanga is editor of the London Despatch.

Geneva: UN chief Ban Ki-moon never asked for claims of “genocide” by Rwandan forces to be removed from a report on violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN human rights spokesman said on Tuesday.

Rejecting media reports of interference by Ban on the final wording of a report on the atrocities committed from 1993 to 2003 in the country, Rupert Colville, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “I want to make this crystal clear, this is absolutely untrue.

“Up to this point the Secretary General has never put pressure on the High Commissioner (for Human Rights) to alter the text,” he added.

The 600-page UN report was leaked to French newspaper Le Monde, which in an article last Friday quoted unnamed UN sources claiming that Ban had warned Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, against using the word “genocide” in reference to Rwandan forces.

The newspaper’s sources said that Rwanda, one of the biggest contributors of peacekeeping forces in the region, had threatened to withdraw its support to the United Nations if the damning report were to be published or leaked.

The UN probe underlined that Rwandan Tutsi troops and their rebel allies targeted, chased, hacked, shot and burned Hutus in the DRC, from 1996 to 1997, after the outbreak of a cross-border Central African war.

The probe did not list a death toll but found evidence suggesting tens of thousands of Hutus had been killed. UN and other aid agencies said in the 1990s that 200 000 Hutus were unaccounted for.

Following the leak of the report, Rwanda has threatened to curtail its cooperation with the United Nations.

“We reiterate here what we have already told the high commissioner; namely that attempts to take action on this report – will force us to withdraw from Rwanda’s various commitments to the United Nations, especially in the area of peacekeeping,” Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo wrote to the UN’s Ban.

[ARI-RNA]

by Eugene Ndahayo.

Genocide and crimes against humanity committed against Rwandan Hutu Refugees.

The Support Committee for United Democratic Forces (UDF-Inkingi) received a draft of the forthcoming report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) entitled “Report of the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003”.

The report is very detailed and extremely well documented. It covers 617 incidents encompassing the most serious violations of humanitarian law including more than 100 cases with emphasis on large-scale massacres of Hutu refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This report has been made possible due to the cooperation of 1280 crucial witnesses including more than 200 NGOs representatives and a compilation and analysis of more than 1,500 documents.

Even though the report accuses other national armies and/or irregular armed groups, it is very damning with regard to the current Rwandan regime and its army, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), which are accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Hutu refugees.

With regard to crimes against humanity, the report Mapping Exercise says: “The information gathered to date makes it possible to confirm quite clearly that these were indeed crimes against humanity: the very high number of serious crimes listed, committed by the AFDL/APR against Hutu refugees, indicates the widespread nature of these attacks. The systematic, planned and widespread nature of these attacks is also demonstrated by the hunting-down of refugees that took place from east to west throughout the whole of the DRC…” Paragraph 494.

The report also reinforces the conclusions from previous reports of both the United Nations and the joint mission mandated by the Commission on Human Rights which in 1997 investigated whether or not crimes of genocide against the Hutu refugees or others have been committed in the DRC. It had been reported to the United Nations General Assembly that: “One cannot deny that massacres of ethnic character were committed, whose victims are mainly Hutus, Rwandans, Burundians and Zairians. According to the preliminary view of the joint mission, some of these allegations [some of these alleged massacres] could constitute acts of genocide. However, it remains that the information currently available to the joint mission does not allow drawing a precise and definitive statement. A thorough investigation on the territory of the DRC could clarify this situation”.

The Report Mapping Exercise clearly attests the perpetration of the crime of genocide by the Rwandan army in these words: “The systematic and widespread attacks described in this report, which targeted very large numbers of Rwandan Hutu refugees and members of the Hutu civilian population, resulting in their death, reveal a number of damning elements that, if they were proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide. The behavior of certain elements of the AFDL/APR in respect of the Hutu refugees and Hutu populations settled in Zaire at this time seems to equate to “a manifest pattern of similar conduct directed against that group”, from which a court could even deduce the existence of a genocidal plan.” Paragraph 517.

The report continues: “Nonetheless, neither the fact that only men were targeted during the massacres, nor the fact that part of the group were allowed to leave the country or that their movement was facilitated for various reasons, are sufficient in themselves to entirely remove the intention of certain people to partially destroy an ethnic group as such. In this respect, it seems possible to infer a specific intention on the part of certain AFDL/APR commanders to partially destroy the Hutus in the DRC, and therefore to commit a crime of genocide, based on their conduct, words and the damning circumstances of the acts of violence committed by the men under their command. It will be for a court with proper jurisdiction to rule on this question.” Paragraph 518.

The Support Committee for UDF-Inkingi unreservedly condemns the grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by national armies and irregular armed groups on the Congolese territory between 1993 and 2003. It specifically condemns the crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide perpetrated by the Rwandan army led by the President of the Republic, Paul Kagame.

Given the seriousness and magnitude of the crimes, the Support Committee for UDF-Inkingi believes that President Paul Kagame does no longer qualify to lead the country and that he should face international justice for the crimes committed. This is especially relevant that the advertisement of such crimes is taking place following the presidential elections which were marked by terror, imprisonment and murder of political opponents and independent journalists as well as total exclusion of the political opposition from the electoral process.

The Support Committee for UDF-Inkingi urges the international community, particularly the members of the Security Council, to take their responsibilities, namely the obligation to prosecute the crime of genocide, now that such a crime is well established and that it has been committed.

Done in Lyon, on August 28, 2010

For the Support Committee for UDF-Inkingi
Eugene Ndahayo
President

by Eugene Ndahayo.

Here is the letter addressed to the UN Secretary General on behalf of the Rwandan people:

Brussels, August 30, 2010

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
UN Secretary General
Plaza, P. O. Box 20
New York, NY 10017, USA

Subject: DRC Mapping Exercise

Mr. Secretary General,

The Support Committee for UDF-Inkingi just read excerpts from the draft of the UN report on serious crimes including genocide, committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), against the Hutu refugees.

The French newspaper Le Monde (edition of August 26, 2010) and the International News organization based in the USA, The Christian Science Monitor, stated that the Kigali regime might be pressuring the United Nations so that the report can be dismissed or at least be watered down. Specifically, the Kigali regime would like that you simply erase the word “genocide” from the report. The Rwandan government has even threatened to withdraw from the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan, if its demands were not met.
The official statement released by the Rwandan government, dated August 27, 2010, confirmed this information to the press. Indeed, the deliberately aggressive tone used by the Rwandan government betrays its intention to do anything to intimidate and blackmail the United Nations. This is a usual RPF practice since its accession to power in 1994.

Mr. Secretary General,

In October 1994, the American Robert Gersony, then consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), accused the new RPF regime of having killed at least 30,000 Hutus since coming to power, following investigations conducted during three weeks in eastern Rwanda and one week in refugee camps in Tanzania .

As soon as the first elements of the draft report were published in the press, the Kigali regime threatened to terminate the operations of the UNAMIR, if the report was validated. The UN then succumbed to the combined pressures of Kigali and its lobbies and demanded that the UNHCR seal the report, while promising a counter expertise investigation. A joint committee composed of representatives of UNAMIR and the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior completed the investigation in one day following a visit to Rwamagana. The representative of the secretary of the UN, Shaharyar Khan, refused to validate the report of the UNHCR. Since then, the “Gersony report” has simply disappeared from the archives of the United Nations, according to a communication made to the defense counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In October 1994, in the wake of the controversy around the “Gersony report”, the Irish Karen Kenny, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Rwanda, resigned. She believed that “in four months without a car, without a budget and, most importantly, without observers to deploy, she had just served as an alibi” .

On April 22, 1995, in the presence of Australian and Zambian peacekeepers from UNAMIR, the Rwandan Patriotic Army massacred Hutus that were internally displaced in Kibeho. The UN did nothing to make sure that the guilty were punished. Instead, it just asked the Rwandan government, which was the prime suspect, to investigate and prosecute.

In 1997, the Special Reporter of the UN commission in charge of human rights in DRC, the Chilean Roberto Garreton, released a damning report on crimes committed by the RPA against the Hutu refugees in DRC. The Kigali regime immediately began an intensive pressure to suppress the report and block a UN mission that was requested by President Laurent Desire Kabila with the mandate to confirm the results of the Garreton mission. The UN mission had to pack their bags following obstruction by the authorities who were under hostage of Kigali.

Mr. Secretary General,

At the end of your recent meeting with Spanish Prime Minister, you requested the Kigali regime to shade the light on recent assassinations, including the assassination of journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage, deputy editor of the newspaper Umuvugizi, and the first vice-president of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka. To our knowledge, nothing has been done so far.

If it were proved that the UN is about to succumb once again to pressure of a regime accused of serious offenses in order to suppress or tone down the report, the Rwandan people would hold you responsible for their plight, because you would have breached your mission as the guarantor of peace and respect for human rights for all.

The fact that the Kigali regime threatens to withdraw its troops from Darfur does not seem to be a reason to succumb. The presence of troops that are under pressure to serious suspicion of genocide is also not good news for a mission that has been deployed following acts of genocide and for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been seized. It would be an honor for the UN to have troops with a blank criminal record and free from all suspicions.

Mr. Secretary General,

Rwanda is at a crossroads. Not to take this opportunity to send a strong message to the Rwandan authorities to finally comply with human rights would be a bad omen for the credibility of the UN and a disservice to the people of Rwanda.

We hope that wisdom will prevail; that the report will be released without any external interference. Moreover, in view of the international obligations of repression of genocide, it will be up to the UN to establish a judicial mechanism to ensure that perpetrators do not go unpunished.

Please accept, Mr. Secretary General, the assurances of my highest consideration.

For the Support Committee for UDF-Inkingi

Eugene NDAHAYO
President

The London-based human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI), has said in a new report released here on Monday that Rwanda’s new government must urgently review its vague ‘genocide ideology’ and ‘sectarianism’ laws that are being used to suppress political dissent and stifle freedom of speech.

The report titled “Safer to Stay Silent : The Chilling Effect of Rwanda’s Laws on Genocide Ideology and Sectarianism” details how the vague wording of these laws is misused to criminalize criticism of the government and legitimate dissent by opposition politicians, human rights activists and journalists.

“The ambiguity of the ‘genocide ideology’ and ‘sectarianism’ law means Rwandans live in fear of being punished for saying the wrong thing,” said Erwin van der Borght, Africa Program director at Amnesty International. “Most take the safe option of staying silent.”

Amnesty found that many Rwandans, even those with specialist knowledge of Rwandan law including lawyers and human rights workers, were unable to precisely define ‘genocide ideology’. Even judges, the professionals charged with applying the law, noted that the law was broad and abstract.

In the lead-up to the August 9 presidential elections in Rwanda, two opposition candidates were arrested and charged, among other things, with ‘genocide ideology’. A newspaper editor was also arrested on the same charge.

The BBC and VOA have both been accused of disseminating ‘genocide ideology’ by the government. These accusations led to the suspension of the BBC Kinyarwanda service for two months from April 2009.

At a local level, individuals appear to use ‘genocide ideology’ accusations to settle personal disputes. These laws allow for the criminal punishment even of young children under 12, as well as parents, guardians or teachers convicted of “inoculating” a child with “genocide ideology”. Sentences for convicted adults range from 10 to 25 years imprisonment.

The report says that ‘genocide ideology’ and ‘sectarianism’ laws were introduced to restrict speech that could promote hatred in the decade following the 1994 genocide. Up to 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the genocide. Prohibiting hate speech is a legitimate aim, but the approach used by the Rwandan government has violated international law.

The Rwandan government announced a review of the ‘genocide ideology’ law in April 2010. The report however called on the government to also launch a review of the ‘sectarianism’ law and demonstrate a new approach to freedom of expression in order to stem the chilling effect of past legislation.

“The Rwandan government must significantly amend the laws, publicly express a commitment to freedom of expression, review past convictions and train police and prosecutors on how to investigate accusations.

“We hope that the government review will result in a meaningful revision of the ‘genocide ideology’ and ‘sectarianism’ laws so that freedom of expression is protected both on paper and in practice,” said Erwin van der Borght.

[APA-Moscow (Russia)]

Rwanda threatened to withdraw peacekeepers over UN report
Rwanda has threatened to withdraw its troops from United Nations peacekeeping operations if the world body publishes a report accusing the Rwandan army of committing possible genocide in Congo in the 1990s, Rwanda’s foreign minister says in a letter sent to the UN

Addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the letter from Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo describes the report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as “fatally flawed” and “incredibly irresponsible.” The letter is dated Aug. 3 and was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.

A draft of the report leaked this week accuses Rwandan troops and rebel allies tied to the current Congolese president of slaughtering tens of thousands of Hutus in Congo. The attacks allegedly came two years after those same troops stopped Rwanda’s 1994 genocide that killed more than half a million Tutsis and some moderate Hutus.

“The report’s allegations — of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity — are extremely serious. However, the methodology, sourcing and standard of proof used to arrive at them most certainly are not,” Ms. Mushikiwabo’s letter says.

The letter asks why the investigators spent six weeks in Congo but never came to Rwanda or asked for meetings with Rwandan officials, who were given the 545-page draft two months ago.

Investigators say they required two independent sources for each of the 600 incidents documented.

The draft says the systematic and widespread attacks “could be classified as crimes of genocide” by a competent court.

In the letter, Ms. Mushikiwabo criticizes investigators for not seeking evidence that would stand up in court. She says the report’s weakness is that its goal was “not of being satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that a violation was committed but rather having reasonable suspicion that the incident did occur.”

This, her letter says means “UN investigators employed the lowest evidentiary standard” in making such serious allegations.

She suggests that the timing of the report is being driven by people within the UN who seek to damage recently renewed diplomatic ties between Congo and Rwanda. The rapprochement between the neighboring countries has contributed to greater stability in Central Africa.

“The timing of the report only heightens these suspicions as it is being circulated on the eve of Rwanda’s presidential election and at a time when Congolese officials are calling for (the UN Mission in Congo) to close up shop,” the letter says.

Congo, which also has denied the allegations, also questioned the timing of the report, but suggested it was being used to deflect attention from UN peacekeepers’ failure to protect civilians in a recent mass gang-rape atrocity.

The Rwandan letter says “attempts to take action on this report — either through its release or leaks to the media — will force us to withdraw from Rwanda’s various commitments to the United Nations, especially in the area of peacekeeping.”

Rwanda contributes thousands of troops to peacekeeping missions in Chad, Haiti, Liberia and Sudan.

Ms. Mushikiwabo’s letter was written before the report’s leak this week. She could not be reached for comment despite numerous calls to her cell phone on Friday and Saturday and an e-mail message.

The draft report says the Rwandan troops and their Congolese rebel allies targeted Hutus and killed tens of thousands over months, the majority of whom were women, children, the sick and the elderly who posed no threat. Most were bludgeoned to death with hoes, axes and hammers.

“Upon entering a locality, they ordered the people to gather together … Once they were assembled, the civilians were bound and killed by blows of hammers or hoes to the head,” it says.

Rwanda invaded Congo in 1996, saying it was going after those who committed the genocide. Many were in refugee camps in Congo, which they used as a base for attacks on Tutsis in Congo and for cross-border raids into Rwanda. Rwandan rebels remain in Congo and have been terrorizing the population ever since.

[The Globe And Mail]