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Victoire Ingabire consults with her lawyer Edwards during the appeal hearing

Prosecution has prayed to the Supreme Court to hand a 25-year prison sentence to Victoire Ingabire on charges related to spreading rumors with an intention to incite the public to rise up against the State and supporting armed groups.

In October, last year, the High Court sentenced Ingabire to eight years in jail on two counts of Genocide denial and conspiracy and planning to cause state insecurity. She was, however, acquitted of four other charges that included genocide ideology, promoting ethnic divisionism and supporting armed groups.

While Ingabire appealed the sentence before the Supreme Court, the prosecution also lodged its appeal on grounds that the High Court sentence was lenient.

�As we had highlighted earlier, the judge in the High Court ignored important clauses in several laws. We, therefore, pray to this court to rectify this by sentencing her to 25 years in jail,� prosecutor Alphonse Hitiyaremye appealed to the court.

Hitiyaremye, who is also the Deputy Prosecutor-General, heads the prosecuting team of the woman who is accused of terrorism.

He further told the three-man panel of judges that �the High Court deliberately decided not to convict Ingabire on the crime of spreading rumors intended to incite the public to rise up against the State.�

Ingabire, the head of a non-registered political FDU-Inkingi, was arrested after testimonies from various arrested insurgents linked her to subversive activities in the country.

In April 2012, the prosecution had asked the High Court to hand Ingabire a life sentence but, according to Hitiyaremye, Rwanda promulgated a new Penal Code in May 2012, which contains lighter sentences and the prosecution based on the former to ask the Supreme Court to hand Ingabire 25 years.

Ingabire�s defence counsel, made of British lawyer Iain Edwards and Gatera Gashabana, will begin their appeal submissions today.

Source: The New Times

According to a former witness in a case of the Rwandan genocide treated in Belgium, the witnesses from Rwanda are “trained” and “prepared” by the current Rwandan regime and the association of Tutsi victims�Ibuka�to give false testimony about the events that took place in 1994.

The witness, whose identity was hidden for security reasons, said his experience in an episode of the television show FlemishTerzake�which was broadcast on the television channel�Canvas�last Friday, April 5.�He reported the “preparation” of the Rwandan witnesses to testify at hearings before the Belgian courts and claims to have been commissioned by the Rwandan authorities to lie in his accusations against the defendant.

”��The Rwandan authorities are involved [in the preparation of witnesses].�The Prosecutor has led me himself at the airport [Kigali] to fly to Belgium (…) The Rwandan authorities do not want to lose genocide trials abroad (…) If all indicators were prepared in the same way as I was, then maybe all those who were convicted were actually innocent�“, he said, adding that he did not want the Rwandan government know who he is, because he knew�“they could nuir to his still in Rwanda�“.

In the same issue, Filip Reyntjes, a professor at the University of Antwerp, says witness preparation by Rwanda and confirms the existence of a close cooperation between�Ibuka�and local prosecutors that aims to ”��prepare witnesses and provide scenarios and scripts to memorize before sending in court proceedings�“.�He also added that the witnesses who refuse to tell the story as they received instruction in the plan may “sanctions and vengeance,” not only for themselves but also for their families.

For its part, the Cameroonian journalist Charles Ako, is quoted as saying that the instigation of witnesses is a ”��well-organized system��“that uses the real victims of genocide to testify against the accused innocent is as though the defendant was the actual perpetrator of the crimes committed against them.�He concluded by noting that the system ”��will continue to exist as the RPF remains in power��“and said he was”��absolutely sure that the witnesses will give false testimony in the upcoming trial of Rwanda in Belgium�“.

Belgium has about 30,000 Rwandans on its soil and, like many other European countries, found several Rwandans for their role in the Rwandan genocide.�So far twelve cases were treated by the Belgian courts, most of them led to a conviction of the accused.�Witness statements have played a key role in all cases.

Source: Jambo News

Rwandan Civil Society and Political Organizations (CSPOR) in the Diaspora organize an International Conference on Rwandan refugees in Brussels ( Belgium ) from 19 to 20 April 2013.

As you probably learned, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), under constant pressure from the Rwandan government has decided to implement the cessation clause on Rwandan refugees effective June 30, 2013

The objective of the conference is to draw international opinion in general, UNHCR and host countries of refugees in particular to reflect the seriousness of the decision for the persons concerned that, after almost twenty of wandering will be left without any protection.

The conference organizers believe that nobody should remain refugee forever but the sociopolitical situation in Rwanda today does not guarantee a minimum of security for returning refugees.

The two-day conference will be an opportunity for human rights activists, diplomats, journalists, lawyers, government officials to discuss the problematic of Rwandan refugees and to draw recommendations for an acceptable and sustainable solution in the near future.
Your presence at this important event will be highly appreciated.

Contacts: Alexis RUDASINGWA, 0032 497536697; [email protected]
Michel NIYIBIZI, 0032496646995, [email protected]

By Habimana Rukundo

Protegee, carrying her sibling on her back, cries as she looks for her parents through the village of Kiwanja, 90 kms north of Goma, eastern Congo, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008

The persecution of Hutu Rwandans did not begin yesterday or today. It is rooted in the Tutsi monarchy XVI th century and the period of African independence in the 1950s through the European colonization.

Indeed, the Hutu Rwandans have been subjected, abused, persecuted and massacred without thank you, the so-called civilized countries of the planet Earth and the so-called international community playing the role of interested observers. If one starts from the earliest period when the RPF and Inyenzi-INKOTANYI attacked RWANDA Monday, October 1, 1990 from Uganda, the report is damning. They called themselves inyenzi INKOTANYI RWANDA invaded from the customs in Kagitumba Prefecture BYUMBA giving border with Uganda. In three and a half years, the RPF-INKOTANYI had killed 650,000 innocent ethnic Hutu BYUMBA Prefecture alone without including others that were killed elsewhere in the prefectures of Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Kibungo and Kigali . This carnage was perpetrated under the complacent eye of the so-called international community and the perpetrators of this grisly task were not worried to date!

In 1994, 6 April, the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi MM. Juvenal HABYALIMANA and Cyprien Ntaryamira, attendants, pilots and those who followed them were killed by the RPF of Kagame supported by certain powers of this world. The book group of international experts, ” SILENT ON ATTACK “on page .67 stresses that” foreign power “that helped the RPF shoot down the plane was actually Uganda …. The first and second meeting was used to plan the attack took place in Uganda, respectively, in the towns of Kabale and MBARARA.Une third meeting in which Kagame was present took place in March 1994 in Bobo-Dioulasso in BURKINA FASO. “Until to date the major powers involved have not yet leaked about the RPF-Inkotanyi of Kagame.

With the takeover of Kigali 19 July 1994 by the RPF-INKOTANYI, it has used the genocide to kill over 250,000 innocent Hutu Rwandans still under the complacent eye of the International Community (cfr YOUNG AMERICA No. 1822 07-13 December 1995 – Edition Black Africa ). A week later, then Prime Minister Faustin TWAGIRAMUNGU the RPF government-INKOTANYI himself said in BRUSSELS have “irrefutable evidence that more than 250,000 people had been killed since the RPF took power-Inkotanyi.”

In 1995, April 22, at Kibeho in Gikongoro in southern RWANDA, five thousand (5000) war displaced Hutus were massacred in cold blood in broad daylight the soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) under the Kagame eyes of UN observers. (Cfr the book by Maurice NIWESE “THE PEOPLE OF RWANDA ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE” (p.206). These Hutus were from the prefectures of Butare, Kigali, BYUMBA, Kibungo and GITARAMA. They are grouped in Kibeho from IDP camps Kaduha Musange Mbaza (Rukondo) Cyanika (KARAMA) KAMANA and Munin (Mubuga).

They were killed by RPF soldiers under the command of Col. FRED Ibinga, Commander of the axis Butare-Gikongoro CYANGUGU-then-by shooting, and nobody ever cared about the fate which was reserved, even the President of the Republic of the time Mr. Shepherd spoke BIZIMUNGU some three hundred (300) individuals! In 1995, KANAME (MAHOKO in the prefecture of Gisenyi), many thousands of Rwandan Hutus were massacred by the RPF-Inkotanyi of Kagame in the presence of the great of this world (cf. YOUNG AMERICA No.1811 21-27 September 1995 (p.11).

In 1996, the camps of Rwandan Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire (now DRC) contained more than two million (2,000,000) people. The RPF-INKOTANYI destroyed them with heavy weapons and many of these refugees have been massacred, others were forcibly repatriated in RWANDA. The 653,000 survivors were scattered in the jungles of Zaire as stipulated in newspaper ” WORLD “of February 26, 1997.

There are more than ten years a Western witness said in a report to the Security Council of the United Nations that the Tutsi rebels have carried out killings. Among these refugees escaped between 200,000 and 250,000 have reached TING TINGS and their fate remains unclear Hutu refugees, while 400,000 have failed to call for all had been massacred by the RPF-Kagame INKOTANYI of which boast the world and pretending be powerless. The Worse is that the RPF-Inkotanyi, Paul Kagame and his lieutenants who have committed these crimes in Rwanda where the Hutu were not prosecuted. By cons, Ignace Murwanashyaka and STRATON MUSONI, respectively President and Vice-President of the FDLR who were trying to speak for the voiceless survivors of the massacres of Hutu RPF-Inkotanyi is breaking with their families and eventually arrested by the great of this world. As referenced in the book HONORS Ngbanda Nzambo ” ORGANIZED CRIME IN CENTRAL AFRICA “(p.130), I quote:” If you do not join the RPF today, tomorrow will be too late when the body is in HABYALIMANA the streets of Kigali and his staff dragged before the courts told them Americans . Other people moving Goodwill understand the cause of the Rwandan Hutu are being hunted by the lobbying groups in the pay of the regime of Kagame.

In 1997, May 13, M’bandaka to many thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees were slaughtered like cattle into the slaughterhouse by soldiers of the RPF-INKOTANYI of Kagame commanded by Commander the one who loved DAVID is called < > (Cf. the journal “LIFE” No.2722 of 30 October 1997 (p. Gilbert Perrin.

In 1998, in January-February, in the caves of Kaname and Mukingo, respectively in the provinces of West and North of RWANDA. More than 5,000 (five miles) Rwandan Hutus have been grouped, locked up and massacred by the RPF of Kagame. Until now no power in this world only wants someone mentions the plight of these innocent Hutus in Rwanda.

What to say Hutu languishing in jails Rwandan death houses since 1994 to date and without criminal records established?? Many people have lost their lives. Do not forget the Arusha tribunal (ICTR), which condemns the innocent on the basis of false testimony prefabricated and / or assembled from scratch by the RPF-Inkotanyi and its network of informers as Ibuka! Furthermore, those trying to flee the continued RWANDA, abused if not killed by death squads of DMI Paul Kagame in the country of refuge in BURUNDI, in UGANDA, KENYA, Belgium, etc … . Recall that these bully poor countries Hutu refugees once there, otherwise reject them forcefully in the face of their tormentors in RWANDA Oh! Great people of this world, international community and humanitarian organizations who take pleasure in such crimes of Kagame and his regime continue to let you destroy the Hutu Rwandan across the globe and is an open secret for now!

We urge you to reconsider your strategies if the history and God Almighty, the Great Judge, you will condemn leaders bloodshed of innocent Hutus.

Conclude with these words of Albert Einstein: ” The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who look and refuse to act . “!

To all the people for the human misery and injustice to the poor and the weak, know that war does not build that simply exacerbate the hatred!

Story of a Rwandan, an eyewitness to the tragedy of his people.

Source: Veritas Info

General Stanislas Nzeyimana aka General Deogratias Bigaruka Izabayo was abducted by Rwandan Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) operatives in the middle of last week.
He was captured in Kigoma, Tanzania on his way back to Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He had been in Tanzania since late February 2013.

A Guest of the military leaders of the Republic of Tanzania.

General Stanislas Nizeyimana travelled to Tanzania in�late February 2013 at the invitation of the commission of the Tanzanian Military in charge of deploying the United Nations Special Brigade to the Eastern DRC. The deployement of the brigade to be mainly composed by troops from the Southern African Development Community countries (SADC) has been in preparation since late 2012. The deployment was requested by the countries of the Region in Addis Ababa on February 24, 2013 under the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the region, known as �PSC Framework.�(see article: UN Special Envoy in Great Lake: Will Rwandan President Kagame Seize the Opportunity of March 7, 2013) The Intervention Brigade, to operate under MONUSCO, was formally approved by the United Nations Security Council on March 28, 2013. According to the UN Security Resolution, the Intervention Brigade has the mission to combat Rwandan Government supported M23 Congolese rebels, Rwandan rebels of the FDLR-FOCA, and Congolese Mai-Mai groups. Contrary to the UN Resolution, the Southern African Development Community leaders, especially Tanzanian, South African, and Zimbabwean military want to focus solely on M23 Rebels, supported, funded and armed by the Rwandan government.

Hence, before the deployment, the Tanzania military invited the FDLR-FOCA leadership to Dar-Es-Salaam to discuss how the military operations against M23 rebels by the Intervention Brigade could be conducted without a confrontation with FDLR-FOCA.
Initially FDLR-FOCA hesitated about sending a top Commander, but with the assurances from the Tanzanian military, General Nzeyimana, who had strong connections with Tanzanian military leaders when he was the FDLR liaison officer in Kigoma in early 2000s, volunteered. The meeting between General Nzeyimana and the Tanzanian Military officers in Dar-es-Salaam ended on February 28, 2013.

Western Europe Non-Government Organizations (NGO) in the mix

When Western NGOs that have been working on Eastern DRC and are close to FDLR-FOCA learned of the trip of General Nzeyimana to Tanzania, they also organized to meet with him while in Dar-Es-Salaam. The meeting between General Nzeyimana and the NGOs was held on March 1, 2013. Among the discussions were how dependents of FDLR-FOCA, especially children and elderly, could be removed from the combat zones to cities or other identified safe zones, where NGOs could care for them. An agreement between the NGOs and the FDLR-FOCA was signed. After the meeting, the NGOs and General Nzeyimana separated. NGOs staff returned to the West and General Nzeyimana planned to return to Eastern DRC via Kigoma. That is where the drama started.

Tanzanian Security Services hold General Nizeyimana in a Safe House

Before returning to Eastern DRC, General Nzeyimana paid visits to friend among Rwandan refugees based in Dar-es-Salaam. On March 3, 2013, while leaving Dar-es-Salaam to Kigoma, General Nzeyimana was arrested by Tanzania Security Services operatives. According to sources close to Tanzanian Security Services, the operatives were acting on a tip, independently from the Tanzanian Military. They believed that General Nzeyimana, then using the war name of General Bigaruka Izabayo , was actually General Mudacumura, the FDLR-FOCA Commander who is sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and whose arrest would generate a $5 million dollars windfall promised by the United States Government.

The operatives held General Nzeyimana in a safe house and contacted the FDLR-FOCA High Command in DRC. They ordered FDLR-FOCA to pay $4 million dollars to have General Nzeyimana released. According to the sources close to the Tanzania Security Forces, FDLR-FOCA High Command said they cannot afford that kind of money and instead contacted the Tanzanian Military to complain. The Tanzanian Military contacted the Tanzanian Security Services, telling them that the person held in the safe house was not General Mudacumura. Upon verification, the Tanzanian Security Services confirmed that it was General Nzeyimana who, instead, is on the list of the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee and on the United States Travel Ban list, and hence not allowed to travel across states. The Tanzania Security Services asked that the FDLR-FOCA pay a fine of US $1 million to the Tanzanian Security Services. The FDLR-FOCA High Command once again refused to pay the money.

Rwandan Department of Military Intelligence buy General Nzeyimana.

When FDLR refused to pay $1 million dollars, the Tanzania Security Services contacted the Rwandan military attache at the Rwandan Embassy in Dar-es-Salaam, Lt Colonel Tinka, and asked �whether �the Rwandan Department of Military Intelligence was ready to pay $3 million dollars in exchange of General Nzeyimana. Whether the Rwandan Military attache paid the three million dollars remains unknown. What is known is that last week, after a month in the safe house General Nizeyimana was told by the Tanzanian Security Services that he was free of movement and let go. He left Dar-es-Salaam and arrived in Kigoma the same day. As soon as he arrived in Kigoma and was ready to cross the border into DRC, he was surrounded by both Lt Colonel Tinka and Rwandan operatives who were awaiting for him there and led to an unknown destination. He has not been seen since.

FDLR-FOCA put on a brave face

Sources within FDLR-FOCA have acknowledged the situation to AfroAmerica Network and confirmed the accounts from AfroAmerica Network�s other surces. Asked where General Nzeyimana may be, the FDLR-FOCA sources said that probably in a torture house in Rwanda and probably will be killed. Asked why he may be killed instead of imprisoned, the FDLR-FOCA sources said that because General Nzeyimana had travelled to Tanzania with the invitation from the Tanzanian Military, he could not be held in Rwandan official prisons, unless there is �a strange� explanation how he ended up there.

Asked about the impact of General Nzeyimana�s capture on FDLR-FOCA, the sources said that it is a severe, but not fatal blow.
�Look, our struggle rests on a cause, not on individuals. We survived the defection of General Rwarakabije, the assassination of General Mugaragu and Colonel Sadiki. We will survive this and more. At the end, we believe in our cause and the cause, not the individuals, will win.�

Source: AfroAmerica Network.

The shed at Bisesero memorial where the victims� remains are kept temporarily

As the country commemo�rates the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, in some areas of the country victims� re�mains are still awaiting appropriate burial, due mainly to the fact that some memorial sites have been de�molished or heavily damaged.

The Rwanda Focus visited sever�al memorial sites and found some of them indeed in a poor state.

One of the heavily damaged ones is Bisesero, located in Karon�gi district. Funded by the ministry of sports and culture and super�vised by the National Commission against Genocide (CNLG), the re�habilitation works at the memo�rial were supposed to cost Frw 150 million. However, in the last years several contractors were hired to do the job, only to leave the work un�finished.

Part of the project consists of reno�vating the main part which lies next to the memorial monument at the entrance, consisting of spears that symbolize the resistance of the fall�en Tutsis. CNLG�s agent at Bisesero said the roof of the main building is about to collapse because of rain water accumulated on it for more than twelve years.

It is also scheduled for the me�morial to be expanded with more rooms representing places where the victims sought refuge on Muy�ira hill. The rooms will also show historic moments of the Bisesero massacres which occurred under the eyes of French soldiers guarding the so-called Zone Turquoise while thousands were brutally massacred by Interahamwe militia and the then army (FAR) who then fled to neigh�boring Congo (then Zaire) with the French.

With the memorial�s main build�ing in disrepair, the remains of the victims are kept in a small structure made of iron sheets, where they are rather exposed to the elements. This makes the rehabilitation all the more urgent.

The survivors of the horror on the Bisesero hills strongly protest against this situation. �This memo�rial reminds us how we had to fight for more than three months for our lives,� stresses Damascene Ntagani�ra. �We have to bury the dead in an honorable way and not keep on ar�guing with incompetent and care�less contractors.�

�If we have to be self-reliant we have first to make sure that our own are given back the dignity they lost when they were killed for how they were born. Once we are sure they are buried in an appropriate way, we have the courage to work hard and develop ourselves towards self-reliance,� says Samuel Ndarisi, also a Bisesero survivor.

The only mass grave where Bis�esero heroes were buried was de�stroyed last year by heavy rains. Their bodies too were taken to the temporary shack at the memorial. �It is disturbing to see that we will wait for years to re-dignify our fel�lows,� Ndarisi complains.

�Even if the other works have to wait, we should give priority to the graves so that we stop seeing the traumatizing images of the remains of our brothers, sisters and parents exposed in that so-called house,� he says, casting an eye on the forlorn structure.

According to Salomon Nshimyu�mukiza, who is in charge of social welfare in Rwankuba sector which neighbors the Memorial�s Twumba sector, officials are doing what they can to get the Memorial rehabilitat�ed. �Despite the scarce resources, we are doing all in our possibilities,� he says, and refusing to give any fur�ther comment.

The head of Ibuka in Karongi, Isaac Habarugira says that although three previous contractors have failed, the one that has now been hired gives hope that the works will have been completed by June, when the Bisesero massacres will be com�memorated.

Other memorial sites like Nyama�ta are also in a deplorable state and need immediate renovation to pro�vide a decent resting place to the re�mains of the Genocide victims.

Source: The Rwanda Focus