The New Times (Kigali)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Felix Muheto
Kigali
While Rwanda still mourns the Genocide perpetrated 14 years ago against more than 1 million Rwandans, Paul Rusesabagina, a self-proclaimed hero fallaciously claims having saved 1,268 people that took refuge in the Hotel des Milles Collines in 1994.
He still continues to cultivate a negative image of Rwanda among the Rwandan Diaspora, friends of Rwanda as well as other foreigners - though lately with little success.
This was evidenced by a number of conferences and interviews Paul Rusesabagina had these last months with different personalities in order to attempt different ways of promoting his disingenuous ideology based on sectarianism that he uses as a playing card to vilify the government in Rwanda.
In the same vein, Rusesabagina convened a conference in Brussels on November 24, 2007, that intended to entrench his negative propaganda. As our readers might recall, we described how access to that conference was denied to Rwandans who do not belong to his extremist ethnic-based ideology by a security cordon that was manned at the entrance by the most extreme among his followers.
The access was also restricted in favour of some foreigners who share his negationism of the Rwandan Genocide such as the recently indicted French writer Pierre Péan whose book, "Noires fureurs Blancs menteurs", alleges the existence of a "Double Genocide", a revisionist attempt to alter realities of the well-known history of the 1994 Genocide with other false comparisons. Fortunately, as it is so easy to discern the malicious intention of the propaganda he advocates, the conference was attended by a small number of participants, but Rusesabagina later on lied to the international media that the conference was welcomed and attended by many people.
Similarly on the closing of the EU-ACP summit that was held in Kigali last November, Rusesabagina himself, having realized that foreign delegates might have been aware of the significant steps that have been made by the Rwandan government, organised an interview with a Dutch journalist called Raymond Frenzen, the founder and chief-editor of EUX.TV, in order to persuade him that whatever good is done in Rwanda benefits Tutsis at the expense of the Hutus.
Whereas discrimination in Rwanda is a crime according to the Rwandan Constitution, Rusesabagina still perpetuates the tool that was unfortunately the cause of the 1994 Genocide. As written previously, he benefited out of the heinous crime of the 1994 Genocide and it is hence not surprising that he is trying the same tools in the hope of its incarnation. He is, however, living in history. Rwandans have said no to ethnic ideology and it is actually a transcended subject and disappeared with the collapse of the Habyarimana dictatorial regime. The present government of national unity and reconciliation has a single concern which is the development of its citizens and empowerment of all on an equal base, different from the past when policies of exclusion and discrimination prevailed. This is an issue that is easily perceptible by even a primary school kid in present Rwanda.
In the article entitled "Hotel Rwanda; the Sequel - Rusesabagina seeks Truth and Reconciliation for Rwanda" published by Dutch journalist Raymond Frenzen, Paul Rusesabagina persuaded him that anti-retroviral medicines benefit only Tutsis at the expense of Hutu HIV positive patients. It would seem by this as if the Genocide continues, and that Aids is used as one of the new weapons. Unfortunately for messrs Rusesabagina and Frenzen there is not a shred of evidence supporting this allegation; although it clearly shows the true colors of Rusesabagina, the unscrupulous self-styled hero.
First of all ethnic-based identity aspects are illegitimate in current Rwanda. Unlike the previous regimes, ethnic based identity cards were banned by the current government and all are now viewed and identified equally as Rwandans.
Secondly, unless Rusesabagina wants people to believe that blood tests can identify the ethnic group to which one belongs, this would be in perfect line with his genocide ideology. On the contrary, Rwandans wouldn't agree with Rusesabagina's claims that Hutus are still being systematically and pervasively discriminated against. Indeed, retired U.S. chemistry teacher Albert Schlueter, now working with students in Rwanda on a voluntary basis, took an offensive with a recent commentary written locally by Cheadle's cinematic namesake; he insists that in fact much progress is being made and openly seen by whoever happens to visit or stay in Rwanda at present.
Another deceptive piece of information that Rusesabagina gave the journalist and published in the afore-mentioned article is that in Rwanda there is a police force that is not known to so many people called the "Local Defense Forces". Honestly, this is something that can only be questioned by somebody only deliberately bent on conveying a terribly negative image of Rwanda's administration for some hidden motives. The Local Defense Forces are known to be persons of integrity chosen by the population itself to take part in the maintaining of security in their local sectors or cells. This is well known by everybody in Rwanda, foreign or local, and nobody complains about it; and to be precise they are well known to the population because they work closer to them and are selected on merit by the very people they serve. In addition to that they are managed by the people themselves at their respective lower levels.
In his wicked plan of carrying on doing his discreditable propaganda, on January 2, Paul Rusesabagina declared his wish to lobby US Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton to support the establishment of his groundless 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission". However, if followed up, the latest revelations that Mrs. Clinton pressed his husband to intervene during the 1994 genocide, although in vain, he would have understood that it is unlikely that someone who saw what was happening and recognized it for what it was, genocide, would let herself be lured by falsehoods and clumsy allegations like he keeps making against the current regime.
Obviously, Rusesabagina's view of one group of Rwandans, who have been described as being in the minority, as controlling all the various districts and cell positions, as well as the elected Parliament, is mathematically impossible and exploits colonial-inspired hatred.
Finally, Rusesabagina's views take Rwanda back to Habyarimana's policy of ethnic identification and he had better know that genuine Rwandans have said in one voice that "Never Again". Rusesabagina's self-described family history makes this point clear. One of his parents is Hutu and the other Tutsi and this is common among Rwandans, he said. Instead of being Rwandan he is still inclined and insisting on the use of discriminative ethinism for his own selfish ends.
The Habyarimana government, following the colonial example, forced an identity on him, and he wishes to perpetuate identity politics, even though most experts agree that one of the causes of conflict is identity politics. Rusesabagina's views take Rwanda back to the colonial period, if not the Genocide-promoting policies of the Habyarimana government, and this leads every good thinker to ask himself/herself how such a Hollywood-made "hero who saved people" now turns his sword towards the very people he claims to have suffered for
One can reasonably rule out his pretended heroism and consider him an opportunist and a mere discriminative agent.
maandag 21 januari 2008
UN Employee is Genocide Criminal
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
17 January 2008
Posted to the web 17 January 2008
Kigali
The UN Tribunal for Rwanda has not acted to reprimand one of its employees Mr. Ephrem Gasasira despite a Genocide trial due to start in which he is also accused by witnesses, African Rights said on Thursday in a new report.
On January 18, the trail of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Roman Catholic priest resumes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but interestingly, his alleged key ally during the Genocide Mr. Gasasira works with documentation department at the ICTR in Arusha - Tanzania.
African Rights claims Mr. Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza (now part of Southern Province) in 1994. The campaign organization says Mr. Gasasira is accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Father Nsengimana to ensure a successful Genocide in Nyanza.
The trail of Father Nsengimana began on June 22 last year but was adjourned six days later.
Before the trial for the cleric began, African Rights apparently informed the tribunal about the allegations against Mr. Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the Genocide.
However, Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, and in mid-January 2008, the witnesses remain fearful for their lives, as they prepare to leave for Arusha, the organization says in its report: 'Undermining Justice From Within Ephraim Gasasira and Father Hormisdas Nsengimana's Trail at the ICTR'.
It is not the first time Rwandan employees of the costly UN court have come under scrutiny for their past in Rwanda.
Genocide suspect Joseph Kanyabashi posed as ICTR investigator in Rwanda in order to gain access to information about several protected witnesses, and tried to discourage them from going to testify at the tribunal.
Mr. Simon Nshamihigo, a former prosecutor with a provincial court in Rwanda managed to get a posting with the same tribunal. He would later be put to book. Others are Mr. Joseph Nzabirinda and Mr. Callixte Gakwaya.
In another very controversial twist in the history of the United Nations in Rwanda, Mr. Callixte Mbarushimana, a former United Nations employee linked to the Genocide was awarded thousands of dollars in compensation by the same organisation.
African Rights says the tribunal needs to do more to protect the identities of witnesses in the trail of the catholic priest whose family and former followers in Butare (now part of Southern Province) - are threatening them. In some cases, as the organization alleges, witnesses have been bribed not to testify.
The protection of witnesses invited by the Tribunal for its trails remains a thorny issue and some have alleged that court officials deliberately reveal their identities. Government of Rwanda and Genocide survivors have also angrily complained about the treatment they receive from examining attorneys.
17 January 2008
Posted to the web 17 January 2008
Kigali
The UN Tribunal for Rwanda has not acted to reprimand one of its employees Mr. Ephrem Gasasira despite a Genocide trial due to start in which he is also accused by witnesses, African Rights said on Thursday in a new report.
On January 18, the trail of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Roman Catholic priest resumes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but interestingly, his alleged key ally during the Genocide Mr. Gasasira works with documentation department at the ICTR in Arusha - Tanzania.
African Rights claims Mr. Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza (now part of Southern Province) in 1994. The campaign organization says Mr. Gasasira is accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Father Nsengimana to ensure a successful Genocide in Nyanza.
The trail of Father Nsengimana began on June 22 last year but was adjourned six days later.
Before the trial for the cleric began, African Rights apparently informed the tribunal about the allegations against Mr. Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the Genocide.
However, Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, and in mid-January 2008, the witnesses remain fearful for their lives, as they prepare to leave for Arusha, the organization says in its report: 'Undermining Justice From Within Ephraim Gasasira and Father Hormisdas Nsengimana's Trail at the ICTR'.
It is not the first time Rwandan employees of the costly UN court have come under scrutiny for their past in Rwanda.
Genocide suspect Joseph Kanyabashi posed as ICTR investigator in Rwanda in order to gain access to information about several protected witnesses, and tried to discourage them from going to testify at the tribunal.
Mr. Simon Nshamihigo, a former prosecutor with a provincial court in Rwanda managed to get a posting with the same tribunal. He would later be put to book. Others are Mr. Joseph Nzabirinda and Mr. Callixte Gakwaya.
In another very controversial twist in the history of the United Nations in Rwanda, Mr. Callixte Mbarushimana, a former United Nations employee linked to the Genocide was awarded thousands of dollars in compensation by the same organisation.
African Rights says the tribunal needs to do more to protect the identities of witnesses in the trail of the catholic priest whose family and former followers in Butare (now part of Southern Province) - are threatening them. In some cases, as the organization alleges, witnesses have been bribed not to testify.
The protection of witnesses invited by the Tribunal for its trails remains a thorny issue and some have alleged that court officials deliberately reveal their identities. Government of Rwanda and Genocide survivors have also angrily complained about the treatment they receive from examining attorneys.
Rights Body Accuses ICTR Staff of Intimidating Witnesses
The New Times (Kigali)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Edwin Musoni
Kigali
Human rights watchdog, African Rights (AU) has protested alleged intimidation and threats against witnesses in the case of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana who is currently held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The trial of Fr. Nsengimana began on June 22 last year and lasted six days before it was adjourned to today, January 18.
But in a 15-page protest report issued yesterday, African Rights said key prosecution witnesses were intimidated as away of discouraging them from going to Arusha to testify against Nsengimana.
The rights body gives a number of people accused of failing justice and that those involved are residents of the former Nyanza, Butare Prefecture (now Southern Province), where Nsengimana had worked and lived during the 1994 Genocide. They include a fellow-priest as well as Nsengimana's relatives.
Those implicated include Ephrem Gasasira, an ICTR staff who is currently working in the documentation department at the tribunal.
Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza in 1994, and is himself accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Nsengimana to perpetrate genocide in Nyanza and beyond.
'Before the trial began in June, African Rights informed the ICTR about the allegations against Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the genocide,' the AU report says.
It also indicates that if Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, witnesses would be fearful for their lives as they prepare to leave for Arusha.
Nsengimana was the rector of Christ Roi Secondary School in Nyanza, in the commune of Nyabisindu in 1994.
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Edwin Musoni
Kigali
Human rights watchdog, African Rights (AU) has protested alleged intimidation and threats against witnesses in the case of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana who is currently held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The trial of Fr. Nsengimana began on June 22 last year and lasted six days before it was adjourned to today, January 18.
But in a 15-page protest report issued yesterday, African Rights said key prosecution witnesses were intimidated as away of discouraging them from going to Arusha to testify against Nsengimana.
The rights body gives a number of people accused of failing justice and that those involved are residents of the former Nyanza, Butare Prefecture (now Southern Province), where Nsengimana had worked and lived during the 1994 Genocide. They include a fellow-priest as well as Nsengimana's relatives.
Those implicated include Ephrem Gasasira, an ICTR staff who is currently working in the documentation department at the tribunal.
Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza in 1994, and is himself accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Nsengimana to perpetrate genocide in Nyanza and beyond.
'Before the trial began in June, African Rights informed the ICTR about the allegations against Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the genocide,' the AU report says.
It also indicates that if Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, witnesses would be fearful for their lives as they prepare to leave for Arusha.
Nsengimana was the rector of Christ Roi Secondary School in Nyanza, in the commune of Nyabisindu in 1994.
Government Says Tony Blair Gesture is Not Unusual
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kigali
Former British Premier Tony Blair is widening his post-premiership portfolio by becoming an unpaid adviser to the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame and authorities here are saying he is just among a host of others "partners" that "want to help Rwanda", RNA has established.
According to The Guardian newspaper, in the first indication of the kind of work Mr. Blair would like to undertake in Africa, he has dispatched a three-strong team to Rwanda to see how he will be able to help build the capacity of the once war torn government.
The Press Secretary in the Office of the President Ms. Yolanda Makolo confirmed to RNA on Friday that such a gesture from Mr. Blair was in the works but declined to part with any more details.
Ms. Yolanda also confirmed that the three-member team was already in the country and the President Kagame and Mr. Blair "have spoken".
The team includes Ms. Liz Lloyd, former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Blair and an Africa specialist. Another is his former Number 10 private secretary Ms. Kate Gross and Mr. David Easton, a former McKinsey's consultant. Number 10 is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.
"The fact is Mr. Tony Blair is a friend of the President and he has offered to assist in capacity building.and he is exploring how that is feasible", Yolanda said.
According to her, the team is "here to explore how this can work". She also said the issue is still in the early stages "that is why he has sent a team here to explore how it could workout.
Mr. Blair has always taken the view that government capacity, good governance and fighting corruption are vital to development, The Guardian reported. Since leaving office Blair, who has often said he is ashamed that the world stood aside during the Rwandan civil war, has met President Kagame to discuss how they should work together.
Mr. Blair has apparently been impressed by the way Rwanda has transformed itself since the 1994 genocide and believes he can raise funds to help the government. The country already has the second highest growth rate in Africa, but half the government's budget is based on overseas aid.
The former prime minister showed his commitment to Africa in office by setting up the African Commission and, in 2005, working with Gordon Brown to build big financial pledges during the British presidency of the G8 industrialised nations.
In the same year his wife Cherie visited Rwanda to see the war graves, and attend some of the court hearings held to try perpetrators of the Genocide. She addressed a major regional Women parliamentarians' conference in Kigali and attended a Gacaca court session. Mr. Blair himself has only met President Kagame on several occasions in London.
Blair's officials stressed that his work will be unpaid. He will be seeking to raise funds for the future consultancy. The Rwandans have already set a up a programme with the British government to pinpoint bottlenecks to growth, including the lack of export growth and the role of the private sector.
The daily also reports that Mr. Blair received criticism last week after it was revealed that he had taken a highly paid job as an adviser to J P Morgan, the blue chip US bankers.
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kigali
Former British Premier Tony Blair is widening his post-premiership portfolio by becoming an unpaid adviser to the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame and authorities here are saying he is just among a host of others "partners" that "want to help Rwanda", RNA has established.
According to The Guardian newspaper, in the first indication of the kind of work Mr. Blair would like to undertake in Africa, he has dispatched a three-strong team to Rwanda to see how he will be able to help build the capacity of the once war torn government.
The Press Secretary in the Office of the President Ms. Yolanda Makolo confirmed to RNA on Friday that such a gesture from Mr. Blair was in the works but declined to part with any more details.
Ms. Yolanda also confirmed that the three-member team was already in the country and the President Kagame and Mr. Blair "have spoken".
The team includes Ms. Liz Lloyd, former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Blair and an Africa specialist. Another is his former Number 10 private secretary Ms. Kate Gross and Mr. David Easton, a former McKinsey's consultant. Number 10 is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.
"The fact is Mr. Tony Blair is a friend of the President and he has offered to assist in capacity building.and he is exploring how that is feasible", Yolanda said.
According to her, the team is "here to explore how this can work". She also said the issue is still in the early stages "that is why he has sent a team here to explore how it could workout.
Mr. Blair has always taken the view that government capacity, good governance and fighting corruption are vital to development, The Guardian reported. Since leaving office Blair, who has often said he is ashamed that the world stood aside during the Rwandan civil war, has met President Kagame to discuss how they should work together.
Mr. Blair has apparently been impressed by the way Rwanda has transformed itself since the 1994 genocide and believes he can raise funds to help the government. The country already has the second highest growth rate in Africa, but half the government's budget is based on overseas aid.
The former prime minister showed his commitment to Africa in office by setting up the African Commission and, in 2005, working with Gordon Brown to build big financial pledges during the British presidency of the G8 industrialised nations.
In the same year his wife Cherie visited Rwanda to see the war graves, and attend some of the court hearings held to try perpetrators of the Genocide. She addressed a major regional Women parliamentarians' conference in Kigali and attended a Gacaca court session. Mr. Blair himself has only met President Kagame on several occasions in London.
Blair's officials stressed that his work will be unpaid. He will be seeking to raise funds for the future consultancy. The Rwandans have already set a up a programme with the British government to pinpoint bottlenecks to growth, including the lack of export growth and the role of the private sector.
The daily also reports that Mr. Blair received criticism last week after it was revealed that he had taken a highly paid job as an adviser to J P Morgan, the blue chip US bankers.
MPs in Bid to Stamp Out 'Genocide Ideology'
published in The Nation (Nairobi)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kezio-Musoke David
Kigali
Rwanda's parliament has called for an extraordinary session. The session is distinctive in nature because it seeks to discuss the findings of an evil that is believed to have steered the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
This evil, referred to as "genocide ideology", according to the findings, is slowly creeping back into the society. And this time through a cross-section of Rwanda's secondary schools.
It all started late last year when a report presented to parliament by a team of MPs investigating the existence of "genocide ideology" since August 2007 revealed an alarming rate of cases of its existence in several secondary schools around the country.
"Genocide ideology" is a term used to describe the notion genocide perpetrators used to instill a hate campaign that creates divisions among two distinctive groups, usually ethnic groups.
These ideologies cause differences based on individual characteristic features, religion, race and tribal sentiments. But, ideologies are usually baseless and are used by leaders to incite hate against one another in order to yield power and control of resources. Adolf Hitler used the same principle of "genocide ideology" against Jews, describing them as parasites, bacteria and viruses.
Hitler's Nazi ideology revolved around the fantasy of Germany as a living organism containing virulent Jewish micro-organisms. Genocide on Jews was undertaken as a form of immunology, a struggle to kill pathogenic cells in order to save the organism.
In colonial Rwanda, the Belgians who served partially as colonialists identified each Rwandan with identification card as Hutu or Tutsi and this kind of division is believed to have bred all sorts of genocide ideologies.
The repeated references to "Hutu" and "Tutsi" labelling is feared to have continued to promote animosity among a section of some Rwandans, something that has prompted ethnographers to stop recognising the two as distinct ethnic groups.
They speak the same language, practise the same religions and share the same cultures.
The report presented to a parliamentary plenary session in December last year showed that there was evidence that some Rwandan schools were encouraging a platform to promote "genocide ideology".
Different uniforms
According to the New Times, a daily English newspaper, authorities in a school called Association pour la Culture, l'Education et le Development Integre de Mataba in Gakenke District, were found to have introduced and encouraged different uniforms for genocide survivors.
The MPs are now querying that motive. The MPs' inquiry came up with a list of 11 schools, where students rebuked each other depending on which ethnic group they came from.
Some students are reported to have developed a habit of writing to each other anonymous genocide-fuelling letters. One of the letters presented as evidence said, " ni inzoka, baraturambiye kandi tuzabica", which is literally translated to mean " they are snakes. We are fed up with them and we will kill them".
The report says that at the Institute Prespyterien de Kirinda, Karongi District in Rwanda's Western Province, there were hostile actions against a genocide survivor.
A cross-section of some students were found torching their colleague's clothing. Led by MP Donatilla Mukabalisa, the investigating team told their colleagues that in one particular school they found writings similar to the infamous ten "Hutu Commandments", which were once published in the former extremist Kangura newspaper, inciting violence against their victims, in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The killings were sparked off by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash in April 1994 and ended when rebels led by Paul Kagame, the current president seized power mid 1994.
Rwanda's parliamentarians have gone ahead to demand an immediate enactment of the law to punish those who harbour these kind of genocidal sentiments.
One MP, Juvénal Nkusi, said the law will not only protect genocide survivors in schools but also cure the country of an ideology that dragged Rwanda into the massacre of more than a million Rwandans in 1994. The report quoted the alarming rate of "genocide ideology" in two Northern Province schools, at 97 per cent.
This is something that prompted parliament to probe two Cabinet members, Dr Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, the Minister of Education, and her junior Joseph Murekeraho to explain their progress in containing the problem. The duo's explanations didn't really convince the law makers, labelling them careless. Dr Mujawamariya said the fact that there is prevalent genocide ideology in some schools does not mean that she, as the custodian of the education system in the country, is a subversive politician.
"We are not behind it and let me say that we are devising tough measures to stamp out the problem," Dr Mujawamariya told enraged MPs.
Parliament thereafter set up a six-man commission to help Dr Mujawamariya to further scrutinise the probe report.
In one case, Ms Alphonsine Musabyayezu the headmistress of Gakiarage Primary School in Nyagatare, Eastern Province was suspended by authorities and parents over "genocide ideology".
It is alleged that the headmistress dismissed and transferred teachers in the school basing on ideological leaning.
Ms Musabyayezu is also reported to have suspended the English section at the school, without any consultation with district leaders, a clear manifestation of her ill motives. Though Rwanda, a former French colony, is predominantly Francophone, her joining the East African Community and her application to join the Commonwealth has seen the English language being introduced as a compulsory part of the curriculum in recent years.
Launching a new drive to fight genocide ideology, State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary of Education, Mr Joseph Murekeraho, addressed 600 head teachers at Lycee de Kigali and told them that school disciplinary committees will be introduced with powers to inspect and review students' behaviour on a daily basis. "It's shameful to hear of 'genocide ideology' in the education sector, which is expected to transform our society from such a horrific mind-set," Mr Murekeraho said. Mr Narcisse Musabeyezu, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Education, said that genocide ideology in schools was a litmus test to the elite who are expected to uphold the future socio-economic revolution of this country.
Under their national umbrella body, Rwanda Federation for Directors of Secondary Schools, school directors have come out to boost joint efforts to fight genocide ideologies.
The federation's vice chairman, Mr Peter Claver Kabanda, has suggested the establishment of "Never Again, Unity and Reconciliation" clubs in all schools.
Vice Speaker of Parliament Mr Denis Polisi is quoted in the local press late last week saying that the major reason for calling for an extraordinary session is to discuss the report of the commission and draw measures to contain the genocide ideology in schools.
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kezio-Musoke David
Kigali
Rwanda's parliament has called for an extraordinary session. The session is distinctive in nature because it seeks to discuss the findings of an evil that is believed to have steered the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
This evil, referred to as "genocide ideology", according to the findings, is slowly creeping back into the society. And this time through a cross-section of Rwanda's secondary schools.
It all started late last year when a report presented to parliament by a team of MPs investigating the existence of "genocide ideology" since August 2007 revealed an alarming rate of cases of its existence in several secondary schools around the country.
"Genocide ideology" is a term used to describe the notion genocide perpetrators used to instill a hate campaign that creates divisions among two distinctive groups, usually ethnic groups.
These ideologies cause differences based on individual characteristic features, religion, race and tribal sentiments. But, ideologies are usually baseless and are used by leaders to incite hate against one another in order to yield power and control of resources. Adolf Hitler used the same principle of "genocide ideology" against Jews, describing them as parasites, bacteria and viruses.
Hitler's Nazi ideology revolved around the fantasy of Germany as a living organism containing virulent Jewish micro-organisms. Genocide on Jews was undertaken as a form of immunology, a struggle to kill pathogenic cells in order to save the organism.
In colonial Rwanda, the Belgians who served partially as colonialists identified each Rwandan with identification card as Hutu or Tutsi and this kind of division is believed to have bred all sorts of genocide ideologies.
The repeated references to "Hutu" and "Tutsi" labelling is feared to have continued to promote animosity among a section of some Rwandans, something that has prompted ethnographers to stop recognising the two as distinct ethnic groups.
They speak the same language, practise the same religions and share the same cultures.
The report presented to a parliamentary plenary session in December last year showed that there was evidence that some Rwandan schools were encouraging a platform to promote "genocide ideology".
Different uniforms
According to the New Times, a daily English newspaper, authorities in a school called Association pour la Culture, l'Education et le Development Integre de Mataba in Gakenke District, were found to have introduced and encouraged different uniforms for genocide survivors.
The MPs are now querying that motive. The MPs' inquiry came up with a list of 11 schools, where students rebuked each other depending on which ethnic group they came from.
Some students are reported to have developed a habit of writing to each other anonymous genocide-fuelling letters. One of the letters presented as evidence said, " ni inzoka, baraturambiye kandi tuzabica", which is literally translated to mean " they are snakes. We are fed up with them and we will kill them".
The report says that at the Institute Prespyterien de Kirinda, Karongi District in Rwanda's Western Province, there were hostile actions against a genocide survivor.
A cross-section of some students were found torching their colleague's clothing. Led by MP Donatilla Mukabalisa, the investigating team told their colleagues that in one particular school they found writings similar to the infamous ten "Hutu Commandments", which were once published in the former extremist Kangura newspaper, inciting violence against their victims, in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The killings were sparked off by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash in April 1994 and ended when rebels led by Paul Kagame, the current president seized power mid 1994.
Rwanda's parliamentarians have gone ahead to demand an immediate enactment of the law to punish those who harbour these kind of genocidal sentiments.
One MP, Juvénal Nkusi, said the law will not only protect genocide survivors in schools but also cure the country of an ideology that dragged Rwanda into the massacre of more than a million Rwandans in 1994. The report quoted the alarming rate of "genocide ideology" in two Northern Province schools, at 97 per cent.
This is something that prompted parliament to probe two Cabinet members, Dr Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, the Minister of Education, and her junior Joseph Murekeraho to explain their progress in containing the problem. The duo's explanations didn't really convince the law makers, labelling them careless. Dr Mujawamariya said the fact that there is prevalent genocide ideology in some schools does not mean that she, as the custodian of the education system in the country, is a subversive politician.
"We are not behind it and let me say that we are devising tough measures to stamp out the problem," Dr Mujawamariya told enraged MPs.
Parliament thereafter set up a six-man commission to help Dr Mujawamariya to further scrutinise the probe report.
In one case, Ms Alphonsine Musabyayezu the headmistress of Gakiarage Primary School in Nyagatare, Eastern Province was suspended by authorities and parents over "genocide ideology".
It is alleged that the headmistress dismissed and transferred teachers in the school basing on ideological leaning.
Ms Musabyayezu is also reported to have suspended the English section at the school, without any consultation with district leaders, a clear manifestation of her ill motives. Though Rwanda, a former French colony, is predominantly Francophone, her joining the East African Community and her application to join the Commonwealth has seen the English language being introduced as a compulsory part of the curriculum in recent years.
Launching a new drive to fight genocide ideology, State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary of Education, Mr Joseph Murekeraho, addressed 600 head teachers at Lycee de Kigali and told them that school disciplinary committees will be introduced with powers to inspect and review students' behaviour on a daily basis. "It's shameful to hear of 'genocide ideology' in the education sector, which is expected to transform our society from such a horrific mind-set," Mr Murekeraho said. Mr Narcisse Musabeyezu, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Education, said that genocide ideology in schools was a litmus test to the elite who are expected to uphold the future socio-economic revolution of this country.
Under their national umbrella body, Rwanda Federation for Directors of Secondary Schools, school directors have come out to boost joint efforts to fight genocide ideologies.
The federation's vice chairman, Mr Peter Claver Kabanda, has suggested the establishment of "Never Again, Unity and Reconciliation" clubs in all schools.
Vice Speaker of Parliament Mr Denis Polisi is quoted in the local press late last week saying that the major reason for calling for an extraordinary session is to discuss the report of the commission and draw measures to contain the genocide ideology in schools.
donderdag 17 januari 2008
Trial of Catholic Priest Resumes Before UN Court
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
14 January 2008
Posted to the web 15 January 2008
Arusha
The trial of Abbot Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Catholic priest accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, resumed Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), reports Hirondelle News Agency.
It is the first trial to resume after the end of year festive holidays.
During 1994 genocide, the priest, who has pleaded not guilty, was vice-chancellor of the College of Christ the King of Nyanza, southern Rwanda, one of the most prestigious schools of the country.
The prosecution Monday called a witness who worked at the College of Christ the King and claimed that the accused had ordered death of a Tutsi identified as Kayombya, who lived in the vicinity of the College.
Presenting himself as "an old man who can neither read nor write", the witness alleged that the victim was never seen again.
"I never saw him again (...) I concluded that they killed him", he told the court, without elaborating further.
Nsengimana was arrested in March 2002 in Yaounde, Cameroon, and was transferred to the ICTR detention facility in April, the same year.
The accused is among other three Rwandan Catholic priests indicted before the UN court over their roles in the 1994 killings.
14 January 2008
Posted to the web 15 January 2008
Arusha
The trial of Abbot Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Catholic priest accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, resumed Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), reports Hirondelle News Agency.
It is the first trial to resume after the end of year festive holidays.
During 1994 genocide, the priest, who has pleaded not guilty, was vice-chancellor of the College of Christ the King of Nyanza, southern Rwanda, one of the most prestigious schools of the country.
The prosecution Monday called a witness who worked at the College of Christ the King and claimed that the accused had ordered death of a Tutsi identified as Kayombya, who lived in the vicinity of the College.
Presenting himself as "an old man who can neither read nor write", the witness alleged that the victim was never seen again.
"I never saw him again (...) I concluded that they killed him", he told the court, without elaborating further.
Nsengimana was arrested in March 2002 in Yaounde, Cameroon, and was transferred to the ICTR detention facility in April, the same year.
The accused is among other three Rwandan Catholic priests indicted before the UN court over their roles in the 1994 killings.
Armenians Protest Genocide Revisionism in Brussels
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008
Kigali
The Armenian community in Belgium says it is outraged at the aggression of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda by a top government official who has not even been punished, RNA reports.
A Belgium daily Le Soir (Read: 'Haine raciste à la Région bruxelloise', Jan. 12-13, 2008), reported that the Director of External Trade in the Brussels Regional government had used hate language against Mr. André an employee of the same local office.
The unnamed Brussels official according to witnesses said: "Should it be the person with a taller size and light colour, I will kill him (.). If it is him.the Rwandan Genocide is not over yet!".
However, instead of expressing remorse and apologizing for the hate language, the official has refused and actually denied he did anything like that despite testimony affirming the action, the Committee of Armenians in Belgium said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Armenian community says the reaction of the regional government is also 'shocking' because instead of punishing the official, he was to be given a 3-month paid leave. The Armenians have described this as 'gratifying the guilty'.
Meanwhile, the affected employee of Rwandan origin Mr. André, who has worked with the Brussels government since 1996, has since refused to go back to work until the courts put an end to the situation.
According to different versions of history, millions of Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) at different times with the climax in 1909, but Turkey has been dismissive of any responsibility.
The Armenian Genocide as they themselves now refer to it is also covering the walls of the Kigali Memorial Center - that houses remains of thousands of victims of the Rwandan Genocide.
As indication that Turkey does not accept any responsibility for the Armenian massacres, it blocked a photo exhibition depicting the Rwandan Genocide at the UN Headquarters in New York last year.
The Armenians in Belgium are also bitter that the line-Secretary of State Ms. Brigitte Grouwels - who they have called 'negationist Secretary of State' - because as they say, she has simply 'closed her eyes'. They also blame her for not doing anything even when an Armenian businessman was abused on October 21 last year.
Ms. Grouwels has even sided with the (Genocide) negationists, notably by participating as a speaker at a scandalous conference held December 15 2006 at ULB (Belgian university), the Armenian community says.
This conference was organized by exiled Rwandans - most of whom are defiant critics of the establishment in Kigali. Such occasions are often used to distort facts about the Genocide the left over a million lives massacred.
16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008
Kigali
The Armenian community in Belgium says it is outraged at the aggression of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda by a top government official who has not even been punished, RNA reports.
A Belgium daily Le Soir (Read: 'Haine raciste à la Région bruxelloise', Jan. 12-13, 2008), reported that the Director of External Trade in the Brussels Regional government had used hate language against Mr. André an employee of the same local office.
The unnamed Brussels official according to witnesses said: "Should it be the person with a taller size and light colour, I will kill him (.). If it is him.the Rwandan Genocide is not over yet!".
However, instead of expressing remorse and apologizing for the hate language, the official has refused and actually denied he did anything like that despite testimony affirming the action, the Committee of Armenians in Belgium said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Armenian community says the reaction of the regional government is also 'shocking' because instead of punishing the official, he was to be given a 3-month paid leave. The Armenians have described this as 'gratifying the guilty'.
Meanwhile, the affected employee of Rwandan origin Mr. André, who has worked with the Brussels government since 1996, has since refused to go back to work until the courts put an end to the situation.
According to different versions of history, millions of Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) at different times with the climax in 1909, but Turkey has been dismissive of any responsibility.
The Armenian Genocide as they themselves now refer to it is also covering the walls of the Kigali Memorial Center - that houses remains of thousands of victims of the Rwandan Genocide.
As indication that Turkey does not accept any responsibility for the Armenian massacres, it blocked a photo exhibition depicting the Rwandan Genocide at the UN Headquarters in New York last year.
The Armenians in Belgium are also bitter that the line-Secretary of State Ms. Brigitte Grouwels - who they have called 'negationist Secretary of State' - because as they say, she has simply 'closed her eyes'. They also blame her for not doing anything even when an Armenian businessman was abused on October 21 last year.
Ms. Grouwels has even sided with the (Genocide) negationists, notably by participating as a speaker at a scandalous conference held December 15 2006 at ULB (Belgian university), the Armenian community says.
This conference was organized by exiled Rwandans - most of whom are defiant critics of the establishment in Kigali. Such occasions are often used to distort facts about the Genocide the left over a million lives massacred.
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)