RWANDA - 17/01/2014 ....... AND ...... RWANDA-15/01/2014

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Ugandan's soldiers are dying in South Sudan, check it out Look at the story about Kenya's position. The madness must be stopped.

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Date: January 17, 2014 at 5:00:30 AM EST
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Subject: RWANDA- 17/01/2014

Affaire Karegeya: déclarations sans précédent des États-Unis à l'égard du Rwanda

Créé le 2014-01-17 07:57

Par RFI

RWANDA / ETATS-UNIS

A la veille de l'enterrement de Patrick Karegeya, les Etats-Unis ont tenu des propos sans précédent sur cette affaire. Lors d'une conférence de presse, la porte-parole du département d’Etat américain a renouvelé la condamnation du meurtre de l'ancien chef des renseignements extérieurs du Rwanda dont le corps avait été retrouvé le 1er janvier dans un hôtel de Johannesburg. Mais Jen Psaki est allé plus loin en disant que Washington était « troublé par une succession de meurtres d'exilés rwandais qui semblent avoir une motivation politique ». Washington qui se dit également très inquiet des récentes déclarations du président rwandais.

Selon plusieurs sources diplomatiques, le gouvernement américain s'était dans un premier temps contenté d'un avertissement officieux à l'égard de Kigali. Mais il y a eu cette déclaration de la porte-parole du département d'Etat, Jen Psaki :
« Nous sommes troublés par une succession de meurtres d'exilés rwandais importants, meurtres qui semblent avoir une motivation politique. Les déclarations récentes du président Kagame à propos, "des conséquences pour ceux qui trahiraient le Rwanda", nous inquiètent au plus haut point. »
« La trahison a des conséquences », avait prévenu Paul Kagame dimanche. « Quiconque trahit notre cause ou souhaite du mal à notre peuple deviendra une victime », avait-il poursuivi, sans jamais citer le nom de Patrick Karegeya. Un faux pas diplomatique, selon un expert sur le Rwanda, qui ajoute que ce durcissement de ton de la part des Etats-Unis était dans la continuité d'un progressif revirement de Washington à l'égard de Kigali, notamment après les accusations de soutien à la rébellion congolaise du M23.

Première réaction rwandaise

Interrogé sur Twitter à propos de ces déclarations et sur une éventuelle réaction officielle de son pays, le représentant adjoint du Rwanda auprès de l'ONU, Olivier Nduhungirehe a déclaré que « la réaction officielle viendra des résultats de l'enquête sud-africaine ». « Ce n'est pas la première fois d'un officiel américain essaie de faire la leçon à un chef d'Etat africain », a-t-il déclaré ajoutant que « les États-Unis devraient s'occuper d'al-Qaïda et laisser les Rwandais s'inquiéter du terrorisme auquel ils font face ».

■ VU D'AFRIQUE DU SUD : la famille de Patrick Karegeya déplore un manque d'informations
En Afrique du Sud, la famille de l’ancien chef du renseignement rwandais, Patrick Karegeya, assassiné à Johannesburg, est arrivée dans le pays pour assister aux funérailles. Karegeya a été retrouvé mort le 1er janvier dans une chambre d’hôtel de Johannesburg. Il aurait été étranglé.
L’inhumation de l’ancien chef du renseignement Rwandais aura lieu demain samedi, en banlieue de Johannesburg. Une partie de sa famille est arrivé dans le pays hier en provenance d’Ouganda. Sa femme qui réside aux Etats-Unis, est toujours attendue. Tous sont choqués, « très choqués » dit l'un de ses neveux, David Batenga, « parce qu’il ne s’agit pas d’un acte de banditisme sur l’autoroute. Ceci est un plan orchestré pour tuer quelqu’un. Donc ça n’a rien à voir avec l’Afrique du Sud. Peu importe où vous résidiez, si quelqu’un veut votre mort, cela veut dire que le système vous aura. »
Kigali montré du doigt
La famille accuse le gouvernement rwandais d’être derrière cet assassinat. Et regrette de ne pas avoir plus de renseignement sur l’enquête.
« Les rapports médicaux, par exemple, poursuit David Batenga, nous ne les avons pas eus. [Ni] les images des caméras de surveillance de l’hôtel. Est-ce qu’on pouvait voir quelqu’un ? Qu’est-ce qui c’est passé ce jour-là ? Ceux qui étaient ici, dans le pays, comment sont-ils rentrés et sortis ? Tout cela, nous aurions aimé le savoir avant de l’enterrer. »
La police sud-africaine, qui a ouvert une enquête, précise que pour l’instant personne n’a été interpellé, malgré des rumeurs d’arrestations au Mozambique. Quant à un des suspects, un homme d’affaires rwandais censé avoir été avec la victime quelques heures avant sa mort, il a disparu.

STATE DEPARTMENT DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

Jen Psaki

Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC

January 16, 2014

QUESTION: Jen, can I move to Rwanda, please?
MS. PSAKI: Sure.
QUESTION: I wanted to ask about the murder of the Rwandan former spy chief. His name is Patrick Karegeya. I’m not exactly sure how you pronounce his name.
MS. PSAKI: I think that’s right.
QUESTION: He was found dead in his hotel room in Johannesburg on New Year’s Day. Are you aware of the case?
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Do you have any more information? And what is the U.S. comment on it?
MS. PSAKI: Well, we condemn – we are aware of the case. We condemn the murder of former Rwandan Government official Colonel Patrick Karegeya in South Africa, where he lived in exile. We welcome the South African Government’s prompt and thorough investigation into his death and await the outcome of that investigation. We also welcome their statement pledging – from January 9^th, so just last week – to leave no stone unturned in bringing to justice those involved in this criminal act.
And let me also say we are troubled by the succession of what appear to be politically motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles. President Kagame’s recent statements about “consequences” for those who betray Rwanda are of deep concern to us.
QUESTION: Are you in touch with the Rwandan authorities about this? Have you spoken to them directly about your concerns?
MS. PSAKI: Let me check on that. I know, obviously, we regularly voice our concerns, but let me see if there is anything specific on how we’ve done that.
QUESTION: And where are you with the sanctions that were put in place over the M23 children soldier recruits issue?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t have anything new to report to you on any changes to that.
QUESTION: They’re still – they remain in place, do they?
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Okay.
MS. PSAKI: Yeah. But I can check with our team and see if anything has changed.
QUESTION: How would you review them? How would you go about reviewing whether to lift them or not?
MS. PSAKI: Well, there’s always an internal review when we put sanctions in place or when we take them back, and there’s a range of factors, depending on the country. Typically, we don’t outline those publicly, but I can see if there’s anything specific to update you all on on that piece.
QUESTION: Thank you.

jeudi 16 janvier 2014 à 13:19

Rwanda: pour Faustin Twagiramungu, «il est temps de mettre fin au chantage de Kigali»

Par RFI

L’ancien Premier ministre rwandais, Faustin Twagiramungu, à la tête Rwandan Dream Intiative, parti d'opposition en exil, a décidé de rallier les Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) - accusées par le gouvernement rwandais d’héberger des génocidaires en leur sein - et le Parti social-Imberakuri, dont l’ancien président a été condamné pour « divisionnisme ». Les autorités rwandaises n'ont pour l'instant pas réagi.

L'ancien Premier ministre rwandais, Faustin Twagiramungu, a décidé, avec son parti politique en exil, le Rwandan Dream Initiative, de signer un accord de collaboration avec les Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, les rebelles hutus rwandais réfugiés au Congo et le Parti social-Imberakuri.
Les FDLR sont accusées par Kigali d'avoir des génocidaires en leur sein et de propager l'idéologie du génocide. Le PS-Imberakuri, de son côté, a vu son ancien président Bernard Ntaganda condamné et emprisonné en 2010 pour « divisionnisme ».
Malgré cela, et alors que 2014 marquera les vingt ans du déclenchement du génocide au Rwanda après l'attentat contre l'avion du président rwandais Juvenal Habyarimana le 6 avril 1994, Faustin Twagiramungu a tenu à s'associer à ces deux formations. Interrogé par RFI, il affirme qu’« il est temps de mettre fin au chantage de Kigali, notamment du président Kagame, qui essaie chaque fois d’instrumentaliser le génocide, pour qualifier tout le monde est génocidaire ».
« Je considère que les Rwandais, qui sont réfugiés depuis 1996 jusqu’à aujourd’hui et qui sont dans les forêts congolaises, ne sont pas des génocidaires. S’il y en avait, ils ne seraient pas nombreux et je pense que la justice devrait s’en occuper », avance-t-il. « Nous savons qu’il y a presque 75 % de jeunes gens entre 20 et 30 ans. Ceux-là ne peuvent pas être accusés d’être des génocidaires », dénonce-t-il encore.
Il affirme que l’objectif de cette coalition entre le Rwandan Dream Intiative - son parti - les FDLR et le PS-Imberakuri, est de faire pression sur la communauté internationale pour qu’elle « puisse [les] aider à chercher un dialogue avec Kigali ».
Pression de la communauté internationale
Au-delà de cette coalition, il en appelle également à tous les autres partis d'opposition rwandais en exil et à la communauté internationale. « Cette coalition n’est pas suffisante, à mon avis. Il y a plusieurs autres partis comme le RNC [Congrès national du Rwanda, ndlr], ou un autre qui s’appelle le PD [Parti démocrate, ndlr]... Il y a tout un tas de partis politiques et nous aimerions qu'ils se mettent ensemble, pour que la pression continue de croître, pour que la communauté internationale puisse prêter une oreille attentive à la situation du Rwanda qui perdure depuis vingt ans. »
Pour Faustin Twagiramungu, « nous ne pouvons pas continuer comme ça. S’il y a des criminels dans la forêt congolaise, il y a des criminels au Rwanda aussi. Il est temps, maintenant, que l’on suive l’exemple de l’Afrique du Sud, du Burundi. »
« Il faut qu’on apprenne à se parler, pas à se chasser et à se vanter que l’on peut tuer les gens dans les hôtels, et partout dans les pays où ils sont réfugiés », ajoute Faustin Twagiramungu, évoquant les propos du président rwandais Paul Kagame, dimanche 12 janvier, après l’assassinat, le 31 décembre en Afrique du Sud, de Patrick Karegeya, un ancien proche devenu l'un de ses plus farouches opposants. « La trahison a des conséquences », avait alors déclaré Paul Kagame, ajoutant à destination des opposants en exil, que « quiconque trahit notre cause ou souhaite du mal à notre peuple deviendra une victime. Il reste seulement à savoir comment il deviendra une victime. »
Interrogées par RFI sur cet accord entre Faustin Twagiramungu et les FDLR, les autorités rwandaises n'ont, pour l'instant, pas souhaité réagir.

Kenya fears Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda 'could get entangled' in South Sudan conflict

AFL2014011728505114 Nairobi Daily Nation Online in English 17 Jan 14

Kenya fears Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda could get entangled in South Sudan conflict
Text of report by Lucas Barasa entitled S. Sudan violence threat to regional peace, warns Kenya published by Kenyan privately-owned newspaper Daily Nation website on 17 January
Kenya fears that the war in South Sudan could escalate into a major international conflict.
A confidential dossier prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses concern that Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda could all get entangled in the conflict.
The report notes that the ongoing peace talks in Addis Ababa under the auspices of Igad [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] were not seen as neutral because Ugandan troops had entered South Sudan to support President Salva Kiir against his arch-rival, former Vice-President Riek Machar.
There were also concerns that Rwanda was preparing to send troops to join the Ugandans in fighting alongside South Sudan army.
The report details the factors hampering the peace talks following the visit of a mediation team to Dr Machars base in Jonglei State.
Dr Machar rejected proposals for a ceasefire because he did not see Igad as neutral following Ugandan President Yoweri Musevenis military intervention.
He told the delegation that his forces had killed 50 Ugandan soldiers in a 10 January battle for the bridge linking Juba and Bor towns.
Speaking elsewhere Thursday [16 January], President Museveni admitted that Ugandan troops have been killed in action in South Sudan.
Dr Machar accused President Kiir of starting the conflict, saying, the fighting started after 35 of his bodyguards were disarmed and killed. He also told the delegation that President Kiir had recruited 4,000 soldiers without the knowledge of the military.
The brief warns that the South Sudan conflict is getting internationalised and likely to draw more countries intervening in support of either of the parties.
It looks at concerns expressed by Sudan over the Ugandan involvement, particularly President Omar Al-Bashirs fears that President Museveni is intent on forcing a regime change in his country.
Sudan is likely to support Dr Machar to counter Ugandas military manoeuvres and those of the Darfur rebels, the report said.
But Dr Machar, in turn, was unhappy with President Bashirs visit to Juba and the agreement to establish a joint military protection for the oil field, which he took as another indication of Igads bias.
The document reports that African Union Commission chairperson Dlamini Zuma was to visit Juba on Wednesday to appeal to President Kiir to release 11 detained leaders of Dr Machars movement to avoid embarrassment before the African Union Summit scheduled to start soon.

[Description of Source: Nairobi Daily Nation Online in English -- Website of leading independent newspaper with respected news coverage; published by the Nation Media Group; URL: www.nation.co.ke]

============================

DRCongo army prepares residents ahead of campaign against armed groups in east

AFL2014011661699834 Goma Kivu 1 Radio in French 1300 GMT 16 Jan 14

Text of report by DR Congo's privately-owned, Goma-based Kivu 1 radio on 16 January
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo [FARDC] launched a sensitization campaign among the people before the beginning of military operations against armed groups north of Nord-Kivu Province. Meanwhile, area residents have expressed satisfaction following massive deployment of troops in the area.
[Presenter] Didier Etumba, FARDC chief of staff spearheaded the launch of a campaign against armed groups ahead a military offensive by the army. FARDC spokesman Gen Kasonga and 8th military region spokesman Col Olivier Hamuli said the military had prepared and disseminated messages calling on armed groups to lay down their weapons and surrender to the FARDC. The military spokesmen also called upon the people to support the FARDC. Magloire Paluku filed this report from Beni.
[Paluku] The sensitization campaign is going on in Beni ahead of the actual military operations. One message to the people reads: Courageous Beni residents the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo will launch military operations to restore peace and security disrupted by armed groups including the Allied Democratic Forces - National Army for the Liberation of Uganda [ADF-NALU]. You have a patriotic duty to rally behind the president of the republic and supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo and to support your army.
Residents in Beni and surrounding areas are once again called upon to break away from armed groups and those still working with the terrorist movements to stop forthwith and leave the armed groups and perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The unequivocal message that peace comes at that price. The residents have observed troops moving up and down as in the area, as this resident testifies.
[Resident] We have observed frequent deployment of soldiers from Kinshasa, Kisangani and their presence has reassured us. They have been deployed in really big numbers. We have also seen equipment such as jet fighters. All this is reassurance that very soon the army will drive away all armed groups, particularly ADF-NALU.
[Paluku] FARDC chief of staff Gen Didier Etumba has been supervising the sensitization campaign.

[Description of Source: Goma Kivu 1 Radio in French -- Privately owned radio]

Washington condamne le meurtre de Patrick Karegeya

Wednesday, 15 January 2014 18:42 by RNA Reporter

http://www.rnanews.com/politics/8097-washington-condamne-le-meurtre-de-patrick-karegeya

Kigali: Les Etats-Unis figurent parmi les chancelleries occidentales qui condamnent le meurtre de Patrick Karegeya, ancien chef des services de renseignements extérieurs du Rwanda.

C'est ce qu'assure à RFI un responsable du département d'Etat américain, même si aucun communiqué n'a été rendu public.

Cette source précise que Washington salue l'ouverture d'une enquête par Pretoria et attend les résultats. Tout en continuant de souligner l'importance du développement d'une opposition politique pacifique au Rwanda.

Plusieurs sources diplomatiques occidentales affirment à RFI que les Etats-Unis seraient allés plus loin en émettant un avertissement à l'égard de Kigali.

Son contenu : si un tel incident se produisait sur le sol américain, cela aurait des conséquences sur les relations bilatérales.

Deux des membres fondateurs du RNC, le parti de Patrick Karegeya, se trouvent effectivement aux Etats-Unis.

Il s’agit de Gérard Gahima, ancien Procureur Général du Rwanda, et Théogène Rudasingwa, ancien directeur de cabinet du Président Kagame.

Mais interrogé à ce propos, le responsable du département d'Etat américain joint par RFI n'a ni confirmé, ni infirmé l'existence d'un tel avertissement.

Dimanche 12 Janvier, le Président rwandais Paul Kagame a dit : «Ceux qui nous accusent d'être responsable [du meurtre de Karegeya] ont fait de même un millier de fois pour défendre leurs nations ».

«Quiconque trahit notre cause ou souhaite du mal à notre peuple deviendra une victime. Ce qui reste à voir, c’est comment il deviendra une victime », a menacé le Président rwandais, qui a affirmé que «la trahison a des conséquences».

Des propos qui ont beaucoup surpris. Puisqu'officiellement, seule l'opposition en exil accuse le régime rwandais d'être derrière cet assassinat.

Les propos du Président rwandais Kagame s’inscrivent dans la même ligne que ceux tenus par son ministre de la Défense, James Kabarebe, lors d’un échange avec la population de Rubavu (Nord du Rwanda).

« Ignorez ceux qui font du boucan en disant que quelqu’un a été étranglé. Si vous choisissez d’être un chien, vous mourrez comme un chien et les éboueurs viendront ramasser les déchets et les jeter là où ils sont censés être afin que leur odeur ne gêne personne. Ceux qui sont tombés, c’est parce qu’ils ont choisi ce chemin-là », a-t-il dit sèchement.

L'Afrique du Sud est le premier pays à avoir condamné officiellement cet assassinat. Mais la diplomatie sud-africaine a déclaré qu'il fallait attendre les résultats de l'enquête, qu'il était trop tôt pour évoquer de possibles tensions avec un quelconque gouvernement pour expliquer l’assassinat.

Patrick Karegeya a été retrouvé étranglé dans une chambre de l’hôtel Michelangelo Towers, du quartier de Sandton, à Johannesburg.

Il est mort le 1er Janvier 2014 en Afrique du Sud à l’âge de 53 ans. Patrick Karageya a été d’abord pendant longtemps proche du régime rwandais, avant de se tourner vers l’opposition. Il sera enterré samedi 18 Janvier en Afrique du Sud.

Au cours d’une messe de requiem organisée à Kampala (Ouganda), la veuve de Patrick Karageya, Leah Kabuto, a demandé à Dieu de venger le sang de son mari.

"Que le sang de mon mari leur crée un cauchemar le matin, à midi et le soir, pour qu'ils réalisent un jour qu’il y a un prix à payer pour le mal commis", a-t-elle dit en substance.

La famille a décidé d'inhumer Patrick Karegeya en Afrique du Sud après avoir échoué d’obtenir l'autorisation de rapatrier ses restes à son lieu de naissance à Rwenjuru, district de Mbarara, en Ouganda. (Fin)

Rwandan peacekeepers arrive in C. African Republic

By Associated Press, Published: January 16

BANGUI, Central African Republic— Dozens of peacekeepers from Rwanda landed Thursday in Central African Republic, where waves of retaliatory violence between Christians and Muslims have left more than 1,000 people dead.
About 44 Rwandan soldiers had arrived by midday and another 33 were expected later, Lt. Col. Jean-Paul Karangoua said.

Rwanda has pledged more than 800 peacekeepers toward the African mission working to stabilize Central African Republic as it teeters on the brink of anarchy.
The aid from the Rwandans is particularly significant, because the international community has said it wants to prevent Central African Republic from becoming a repeat of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when more than 500,000 people were killed.
“That’s not to say that only the Rwandans who have experienced genocide in their country are responsible for stopping the slaughter in Central African Republic,” said Col. Leon Ndong-Ntutume, a spokesman for the African peacekeeping mission known as MISCA that has about 4,400 troops.
“We’re all working to stop genocide from happening in CAR and to calm the country.”
Former colonizer France sent 1,600 troops last month in an effort to help secure the country until an African-led mission was at full strength.
Muslim rebels from the distant north united to overthrow the president, who was in office for a decade, in March and later were blamed for wide-scale abuses against the country’s Christian majority.
An armed Christian movement known as the anti-balaka arose in opposition to the new leadership, and the Christian militiamen launched an attempted coup in early December. Violence exploded in the capital, and more than 1,000 people died in the days that followed. Some victims were stoned to death in the streets by angry mobs who accused them of working with the rebel government.
Michel Djotodia, who was installed as president after the March coup, stepped down from power last week amid mounting international criticism over his government’s failure to rein in the violence.
A national transitional council is meeting this week in Bangui to select an interim leader who will guide the country toward elections before year-end. Critics, though, already say that timetable is not feasible given that so many administrative buildings were looted and records destroyed during the past year.
___
Associated Press writer Geoffrey Bata contributed to this report.

Rwandans Expelled From Tanzania Say Unsatisfied With Relocation Conditions

AFL2014011440058239 Kigali Radio Rwanda in French 1600 GMT 06 Jan 14

The Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees’ Affairs on 3 January started the operation aimed at relocating the Rwandans expelled from Tanzania to their home districts.

These expelled Rwandans were living in the transit camps of Kiyanzi located in Kirehe district and Rukara, Kayonza district. Among the criticisms they made, one concerns their separation from their relatives. Let us listen to one of the returnees.

[Begin unidentified returnee recording] Let us suppose that you have a child, they transfer him far away, either to Bugesera, Gisenyi or Byumba, a place where you cannot meet him easily. How can an old person survive when his child is relocated in another place? That is why we criticized the way the operation was conducted. For instance, my child was listed to be transferred to Gasabo district, Kigali City. Yet, the car would come to carry me in Bugesera district, while I have only that child, and he is the one who would take care of me when I am ill. Actually, I do not know what must be done. [end of recording]
About the same issue, the camp administration announced that anyone who happens to face again such a problem should report it to the district, which he is supposed to be transferred to in order to help resolve it.

Odette Uwamaliya, the governor of the Eastern Province, also talked a little bit about the present issue.

[Begin Uwamaliya recording] During the census, they should prove their home regions. If such a child becomes an adult, he can live wherever he wants. If he did not indicate that he is not from Ngororero and he was sent to Kicukiro, first he has to arrive there and check if he should be living there. Even, there were some refugees who have no trace of their origin and they are going to be relocated in various places.
Nowadays, everyone should live in whatever place they may want in this country, and once they have a particular problem, they have to contact the local administration in order to be helped. All these problems depend on the information they provided during the census. In order to avoid the interruption of this program, those who have serious cases should raise them to be resolved in a particular manner. [end of recording].

At the first time, those Rwandans expelled from Tanzania are being relocated to other places so that they can live together with other Rwandans in their home districts, such as Nyarugenge, Kicukiro, and Ngororero.

After being relocated, the Government of Rwanda will continue to support them during three months through the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees’ Affairs. Three months later, these Rwandans would be living on their own.
[Description of Source: Kigali Radio Rwanda in French -- Government owned radio station operated by the Office of Information (ORINFOR), a government information agency that broadcasts in English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili]

Nord-Kivu: la Monusco redoute des exactions d’anciens combattants du M23

publié il y a 8 heures, 45 minutes, | Denière mise à jour le 16 janvier, 2014 à 2:56 |

Le chef de bureau de la Monusco au Nord-Kivu, Ray Virgilio Torres, a déclaré le mercredi 15 janvier redouter que d’anciens rebelles du M23 deviennent des criminels qui commettent des exactions dans certains coins de la province. « Ça m’inquiète beaucoup parce que c’est plus difficile à suivre et à repérer mais l’impact pour la population est le même », a-t-il expliqué.Ray Virgilio Torres a également affirmé craindre que ces ex-rebelles coalisent avec d’autres groupes armés. « Ça sera un renforcement de la violence et c’est ce que nous ne voulons pas », a-t-il indiqué.
Le responsable onusien a fait savoir que la responsabilité de la Monusco et des autorités congolaise est de protéger la population civile.
Lors de son intervention devant le conseil de sécurité de l’Onu le lundi dernier, le chef de la mission onusienne en RDC a demandé au gouvernement congolais d’accélérer le processus de démobilisation et de désarmement des ex-combattants du M23.
Cette rébellion s’est auto-dissoute en novembre dernier après avoir été défaite par l’armée congolaise.
Le gouvernement congolais et l’ex-rébellion du M23 ont signé en décembre dernier à Naïrobi deux documents différents pour officialiser la fin de la rébellion.

Faustin Twagiramungu décide de rallier les FDLR

Thursday, 16 January 2014 16:55 by RNA Reporter

http://www.rnanews.com/politics/8101-faustin-twagiramungu-decide-de-rallier-les-fdlr

Kigali: L'ancien Premier ministre rwandais, Faustin Twagiramungu, a signé depuis son exil belge un accord de collaboration avec les rebelles rwandais des FDLR et le Parti social-Imberakuri, l’aile de Bernard Ntaganda emprisonné à Kigali depuis 2010.
Faustin Twagiramungu affirme que l’objectif de cette coalition entre le Rwandan Dream Intiative - son parti -, les FDLR et le PS-Imberakuri est de faire pression sur la communauté internationale pour qu’elle « puisse les aider à chercher un dialogue avec Kigali ».

«Tout ce qui viendra des FDLR sera pris pour terroriste. Ce ne sont pas uniquement les Rwandais qui avons une telle perception, mais aussi la Communauté internationale, car les FDLR restent toujours listés internationalement en tant que groupe terroriste », a déjà averti Vincent Munyeshyaka, secrétaire permanent au Ministère de l’administration locale qui a les partis politiques dans ses attributions.

Dans un point de presse tenu à Kigali sur le lien entre les FDLR et le PS-Imberakuri, Vincent Munyeshyaka a rappelé que les FDLR se sont adonnées durant ces dernières années au lancement de grenades dans les villes du Rwanda.

Les combattants FDLR sont retranchés à l’Est de la RDC depuis la fin du génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda en 1994 auquel certains ont participé.

Dans ce communiqué, les FDLR/Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda promettent de renoncer à l’usage des armes pour se focaliser sur la lutte politique tout en conservant sa dénomination de FDLR.

Mais ils exigent au préalable un dialogue direct avec Kigali. Une proposition rejetée par le Rwanda au motif qu’il ne peut pas dialoguer avec des génocidaires et des terroristes.

Interrogé par RFI, Faustin Twagiramungu affirme qu’« il est temps de mettre fin au chantage de Kigali, notamment du Président Kagame, qui essaie chaque fois d’instrumentaliser le génocide, pour qualifier tout le monde de génocidaire ».

« Je considère que les Rwandais, qui sont réfugiés depuis 1996 jusqu’à aujourd’hui et qui sont dans les forêts congolaises, ne sont pas des génocidaires. S’il y en avait, ils ne seraient pas nombreux, et je pense que la justice devrait s’en occuper », avance-t-il.

« Nous savons qu’il y a presque 75 % de jeunes gens entre 20 et 30 ans. Ceux-là ne peuvent pas être accusés d’être des génocidaires », dénonce-t-il encore.

Pour Faustin Twagiramungu, « nous ne pouvons pas continuer comme ça. S’il y a des criminels dans la forêt congolaise, il y a des criminels au Rwanda aussi. Il est temps, maintenant, que l’on suive l’exemple de l’Afrique du Sud, du Burundi. »

« Il faut qu’on apprenne à se parler, pas à se chasser et à se vanter que l’on peut tuer les gens dans les hôtels, et partout dans les pays où ils sont réfugiés », ajoute Faustin Twagiramungu, allusion faite au propos du Président rwandais Paul Kagame après le meurtre en Afrique du Sud de Patrick Karegeya, ex-chef des services de renseignements extérieurs du Rwanda

Faustin Twagiramungu invite tous les autres partis à rallier cette nouvelle coalition « pour que la pression continue de croître, pour que la communauté internationale puisse prêter une oreille attentive à la situation du Rwanda qui perdure depuis vingt ans».

A ce propos, il sied de rappeler que les FDLR est un groupe dirigé par des chefs qui sont poursuivis pour crimes de génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda et crimes contre l’humanité. Les FDLR se distinguent par une idéologie génocidaire et terroriste.

Adhérer à ce groupe signifie communier à cette idéologie et devenir complice des actes terroristes que ce mouvement perpètre au Rwanda et en RDC. (FIN)

Grands Lacs : pas d’asile pour les criminels de guerre, exhorte l’ONU

publié il y a 10 heures, 55 minutes, | Denière mise à jour le 16 janvier, 2014 à 2:18 |

La Haut-commissaire des Nations unies aux droits de l’homme, Navi Pillay, a exhorté les chefs d’Etats de la région des Grands Lacs à ne pas donner asile aux personnes suspectées d’avoir commis des crimes internationaux et de graves violations des droits de l’homme. Dans un communiqué de presse publié mercredi 15 janvier à Genève (Suisse), elle a indiqué que le 5^e sommet de la CIRGL « est une opportunité pour les Etats membres de faire avancer la lutte contre l’impunité dans cette région marquée par des violences ».« J’exhorte les Etats à cesser de fermer les yeux sur la présence sur leur territoire de personnes soupçonnées d’avoir commis des crimes très graves. Je leur demande de saisir l’opportunité que représente ce sommet [de la Conférence internationale de la région des Grands lacs, CIRGL] pour aborder la question de la coopération judiciaire et garantir que des comptes soient rendus pour les crimes internationaux et les graves violations des droits de l’homme commis dans la région », a affirmé Pillay.
Le 5^e sommet de la CIRGL se tient depuis vendredi 10 janvier à Luanda (Angola). La présidence tournante est revenue au président angolais José Edourdo Dos Santos. Ce dernier a promis de placer son mandat sous le signe de la promotion de la paix, la sécurité, la stabilité et le développement.
Ces objectifs ne pourront être atteints que si les personnes responsables de violence et d’exploitation économique illégale rendent des comptes, a précisé Navi Pillay.
« Pour citer un exemple récent, le Rwanda et l’Ouganda hébergent actuellement des hauts gradés du groupe rebelle M23 qui figureraient parmi les pires auteurs de violations des droits de l’homme perpétrées en République démocratique du Congo, notamment des massacres, des violences et le recrutement et l’utilisation d’enfants. S’ils continuent à échapper à la justice dans des Etats voisins, ils constitueront une menace pour la sécurité, nuisant aux efforts en faveur d’une paix et d’un développement durables de la région »,a ajout la Haut-commissaire des Nations unies.
Navi Pillay a félicité les autorités congolaises pour les progrès réalisés sur les questions liées à l’impunité, notamment dans le suivi du « rapport de cartographie » des Nations Unies qui répertorie les violations manifestes des droits de l’homme en RDC entre 1993 et 2003.
«Je suis encouragée par les efforts récents déployés par les autorités congolaises pour que les hauts gradés responsables de violations graves des droits de l’homme, dont des violences sexuelles, rendent des comptes. Cette tendance doit se poursuivre et inclure la coopération transfrontalière. La lutte contre l’impunité exige un engagement actif et réel de tous les États de la sous-région», a-t-elle ajouté.
Accord-cadre d’Addis-Abeba
Les pays de la CIRGL ont signé le 24 février 2013 à Addis-Abeba un accord-cadre dans lequel ils s’engageaient à ne pas accueillir ou protéger les personnes accusées de crimes internationaux ou qui relèvent du régime de sanctions des Nations Unies.
En dépit de cet accord de paix, de nombreux anciens éléments du M23 sont encore en fuite au Rwanda et en Ouganda, se plaint Navi Pillay dans son communiqué.
Deux décennies après le génocide de 1994 au Rwanda, des personnes soupçonnées d’y avoir activement participé continuent également d’échapper à la justice en RDC. D’autres personnes soupçonnées de crimes très graves auraient également échappé à la justice en partant pour un pays tiers, poursuit-elle.
Intervenant sur Radio Okapi, le coordonnateur du mécanisme de suivi de l’accord cadre d’Addis-Abeba a expliqué que les chefs d’Etats se sont réengagés à respecter ce texte.
« L’évaluation aura lieu d’une manière formelle entre le 30 ou le 31 [janvier] à Addis-Abeba. Elle permettra de clarifier dans quelle mesure chaque pays a respecté cet accord », promet François Muamba.

RDC : 13e anniversaire de la mort de l’ancien président Laurent-Désiré Kabila

Créé le 2014-01-16 22:37

Par RFI

RDC

En République démocratique du Congo (RDC), le 16 janvier marque l’anniversaire de l’assassinat de Laurent-Désiré Kabila père, tué en 2001. Comme chaque année, l’anniversaire est marqué par une commémoration sur la stèle de l’ancien chef d’Etat et la visite de son palais. Mais cet anniversaire est aussi l’occasion de se rappeler la trentaine de condamnés qui, treize ans plus tard, croupissent toujours dans la prison centrale de Makala pour leur participation supposée - et régulièrement remise en cause - au meurtre de l'ancien président. Depuis plusieurs années, des organisations de protection des droits de l’homme demandent à ce qu’ils soient rejugés ou amnistiés.

Le 16 janvier 2001, vers 13h30, Laurent-Désiré Kabila est abattu de trois balles. C’est l'un de ses gardes rapprochés qui a tiré. Ce dernier sera tué quelques minutes plus tard par l’aide de camp du président. Le principal complice réussit à prendre la fuite. S’en suit alors une gigantesque rafle dans l’entourage du président défunt.
En 2002, cent vingt prévenus sont jugés en neuf mois devant une cour militaire. Au final, trente personnes sont condamnées à mort dont vingt-six à perpétuité mais beaucoup doutent qu’il s’agisse des véritables coupables.
Ces dix dernières années, les appels à la réouverture de leur procès se sont donc multipliés, au nom du droit à la défense, sans succès.
En 2005, une loi d’amnistie pour faits de guerre, infraction politique et délits d’opinion est adoptée. Les condamnés pour l’assassinat de Kabila père en sont exclus.
En conséquence, chaque année les organisations de protection des droits de l’homme renouvellent leur appel et demandent l’application de l’amnistie de 2005, jusqu’à ce jour, sans succès.
Pendant ce temps, six condamnés déjà sont morts en détention.

Rwanda's economic growth slows further in third quarter, 2013

January 15, 2014 1:23 AM

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda's economic growth slowed for the third straight quarter between July and September last year, reaching its lowest level since 2009, official data showed on Tuesday.

The east African country's economy expanded 3.9 percent in the third quarter of 2013 against 6.7 percent a year earlier, due largely to a slowdown in agricultural and services output.

Rwanda has not posted a year-on-year quarterly growth figure this low since the third quarter of 2009 when the economy expanded 3.5 percent, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda data showed.

Mark Bohlund, senior economist for sub-Saharan Africa at IHS Global Insight, said growth had suffered from a tightening of fiscal policy during the first half of the year, even after donors reinstated budget support earlier suspended over Rwanda's alleged support of Congolese rebels.

"The poor Q3 GDP growth reading contrasts (with) positive developments in other areas, such as a reduction in aid dependency and the budget deficit and continued moderation in inflation, which should be conducive for longer-term growth and macroeconomic stability," Bohlund said.

Last month the International Monetary Fund said Rwanda, which aims to become a middle income country by 2020, needed to bolster domestic revenues to finance its development targets without placing strain on the budget.

The IMF forecast the Rwandan economy would expand 6.6 percent in 2013 before accelerating to 7.5 percent this year.

Le Rwanda parmi les économies les plus «libérales» d’Afrique

Thursday, 16 January 2014 15:02 by RNA Reporter

http://www.rnanews.com/economy/8099-le-rwanda-parmi-les-economies-les-plus-lliberalesr-dafrique

Kigali: Le Botswana, le Cap Vert et le Rwanda sont les économies les plus «libérales» en Afrique, révèle le classement annuel du Wall Street Journal et de la Heritage Foundation publié le 14 janvier.

D’après l’Agence Ecofin qui livre cette information, le Botswana qui arrive à la 27è position à l’échelle mondiale est le pays le favorables à la liberté d'entreprendre du continent, selon ce classement intitulé "Index of Economic Freedom 2014" et qui concerne 178 pays et territoires.

Souvent cité comme un modèle de réussite économique sur le continent africain, le Botswana est ainsi mieux classé que la France, la Turquie, la Belgique ou encore Israël.

Classé 60è sur le plan mondial, le Cap Vert est la deuxième économie la plus libérale en Afrique.

Ce pays insulaire est talonné à l’échelle continentale par le Rwanda (65è à l’échelle mondiale), le Ghana (66è), l’Afrique du Sud (75è), Madagascar (79è), le Swaziland (82è), la Zambie (88è), l’Ouganda (91è) et la Gambie (92 è).

Les pays du Maghreb sont plutôt mal classés: le Maroc arrive à la 103è position à l’échelle mondiale, la Tunisie occupe la 109è place alors que l’Algérie pointe au 146è rang.

Trois pays africains figurent, par ailleurs, parmi les dix derniers du classement: le Zimbabwe, la RDC et la République du Congo.

Hong Kong reste l'économie la plus «libre» de la planète pour la 20ème année consécutive. Ce territoire autonome chinois, qui doit son rang à la liberté de commerce et d'investissement conjuguée à une faible pression fiscale, est talonné par le Singapour, l'Australie, la Suisse et la Nouvelle-Zélande.

Seuls trois pays européens figurent parmi les dix premiers du classement, la Suisse étant la mieux placée devant l'Irlande et le Danemark. Berne obtient en outre sa meilleure position en vingt ans de classement.

L'Allemagne occupe la 18è place. La France est moins bien notée que la Turquie (64è) ou la Roumanie (62è) et pointe au 70è rang mondial. La Corée du Nord est la dernière du classement, après Cuba et le Zimbabwe.

L'indice de liberté économique prend en compte la taille de l'Etat, le respect de l'Etat de droit, l'efficacité de la réglementation et l'ouverture du marché. (Fin)

==================================

Angolan Head Calls for 'Joint Efforts' for Security, Development in Great Lakes Region

AFL2014011659156498 Kampala KFM in English 16 Jan 14

[Unattributed report: "Great Lakes Leaders Hail M7 for Promoting Peace"]

The ICGLR leaders have commended President Yoweri Museveni who is the outgoing chairman for his peace efforts in the region.

They specifically cited the successful mediation between the DRC Government and the ex-M23 group.

The fifth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Great Lakes Region has closed with a call by the new chairman President Jose Edwardo Dos Santos for joint efforts for security, peace, stability and development in the region.

President Dos Santos further emphasized the importance of establishing state Institutions in the Central African Republic that will spear-head reconciliation, peace and development.

On the situation in Southern Sudan, the Angolan leader said he was optimistic that the cessation of hostilities will soon be achieved to allow negotiations for peace a chance.

The Summit was attended by President Yoweri Museveni, who handed over the office to the incoming Chairman President Edwardo Dos Santos of Angola, the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyata, that of Rwanda Paul Kagame, the president of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza and that of South Africa Jacob Zuma who attended as a guest of honor.

Countries represented by powerful delegations included Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Congo.

[Description of Source: Kampala KFM in English -- Privately owned news and entertainment station featuring talk shows and interview programs on social and political issues

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The Case Against Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame

By Howard W. French

Filed: 1/14/13 at 12:00 AM | Updated: 1/25/13 at 2:45 PM

http://www.newsweek.com/case-against-rwandas-president-paul-kagame-63167

Does the celebrated Rwandan president really deserve an indictment?

When Rwandan-backed rebels recently took Goma, the biggest city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Paul Kagame had every reason to think the world would give him a pass. That, after all, has been the pattern for years.

Frequently lauded by people such as Bono, Tony Blair, and Pastor Rick, the Rwandan president enjoys some extraordinary backing in the West—support that is particularly remarkable given his alleged hand in ongoing regional conflicts believed to have killed more than 5 million people since the mid-’90s.
On the aid and awards circuit, Kagame is known as the man who led Rwanda from the ashes of the 1994 genocide—one of the late 20th century’s greatest atrocities—to hope and prosperity: a land of fast growth and rare good economic governance with enviable advances in health care, education, and women’s rights. Bestowing his foundation’s Global Citizen Award on Kagame three years ago, Bill Clinton said: “From crisis, President Kagame has forged a strong, unified, and growing nation with the potential to become a model for the rest of Africa and the world.”
But that model narrative seems to be shifting in the aftermath of the Goma takeover. After a United Nations report found that Rwanda created and commands the rebel group known as M23, important European friends such as Britain and Belgium partially suspended aid donations to Rwanda, and President Obama called Kagame to warn him against any continued military adventurism.
Leading observers say the reevaluation of Kagame and his legacy is long overdue. Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian scholar whom many consider the world’s foremost expert on Rwanda, describes Kagame as “probably the worst war criminal in office today.” In an interview, Reyntjens told me that Kagame’s crimes rank with those perpetrated by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein or Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Washington and London have long supported Kagame as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region. But a recent U.N. report accused his government of instigating trouble across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Meanwhile, specialists in African affairs say a regime like Kagame’s, an ethnic dictatorship built along unusually narrow lines, represents a political dead end. And international human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have raised serious questions about violence committed against journalists and opposition figures. Kagame has generally been dismissive of such accusations of abuse.
Tall, gaunt, and almost professorial in manner, Kagame cuts an unusual figure for a former African guerrilla leader. His rise to power began in 1990, when as head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, an exiled movement made up primarily of Tutsis, he launched a war to take over his native country from bases in neighboring Uganda.
Four years later, the course of history took a dramatic turn: on April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying Rwanda’s president, Juvénal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was mysteriously shot down on its approach to the capital, Kigali, unleashing the murder spree that became known as the Rwandan genocide. In the space of 100 days, about 800,000 people—most of them members of the Tutsi minority—were killed at the instigation of Hutu extremists. As Kagame and his army gained control of the country, ending the genocide, the Hutu extremists, along with hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, fled to neighboring states, in particular Zaire, as it was then known.
Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, was named president in what seemed an effort at providing representation for the roughly 84 percent Hutu majority in Rwanda’s new national unity government. However, Kagame, a Tutsi and the nominal vice president, kept control of the Rwandan Army, becoming the country’s de facto leader. And by 2000, after numerous cases of forced exiles, disappearances, and assassinations of politicians, Bizimungu resigned the presidency, bringing a definitive end to the illusion of ethnic balance in high office. (The government now prohibits the use of ethnic labels.)
Since then, former Rwandan officials say, almost every position of meaningful power in the country has been held by a Tutsi. In 2001, when Bizimungu began organizing a political party in order to run for president, it was outlawed on charges of being a radical Hutu organization. The following year, Bizimungu was arrested on charges of endangering the state, and later he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(Bizimungu, whom Amnesty International called a prisoner of conscience, was pardoned by Kagame in 2007, but the methods used to sideline him have been applied broadly ever since, with critics of the regime of all stripes being prosecuted for promoting “genocide ideology,” which has become an all-purpose charge.)
Troubled Neighborhood: For years Rwandan government forces and their proxies have operated in Congo, setting off conflicts that have killed millions.
Theogene Rudasingwa, a Tutsi who was appointed Rwanda’s ambassador to Washington after serving as an officer in Kagame’s army, puts it bluntly: “If you differ strongly with Kagame and make your views known from the inside, you will be made to pay the price, and very often that price is your life.”
Rudasingwa, who now lives in exile in the United States, describes Kagame as an extreme control freak who has concentrated power in the hands of a select group of Tutsis who, like Kagame himself, returned to Rwanda from years of exile in Uganda after the genocide.
“When you look at the structure of key parts of government, leadership is occupied almost entirely by Tutsis from the outside, and this is especially true in the military,” Rudasingwa says. “As for the Hutus, they are completely marginalized, and things [for them] have never been as bad as they are today. Almost the entire Hutu elite that was built up since 1959 is either outside the country or dead. They are marginalized and banished, forced into exile when they haven’t simply been killed.”
Kagame tightly controls the country and its citizens through the Tutsi-
dominated Army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the country’s dominant political party. Throughout Rwanda—in every town and tiny village—the RPF is present, not unlike the Stasi in East Germany during the Cold War. While a town may have a Hutu mayor, under Kagame’s system government officeholders have little authority compared with the RPF representatives who work in parallel to them and often pull rank.
RPF regulations—enforced by local commissars with vigor and steep fines—govern almost every aspect of daily life. There are laws requiring peasants to wear shoes and good clothes when not working their fields and prohibition of drinking banana wine from shared straws—a traditional gesture of reconciliation—and myriad other rules, generally resented as gratuitous and insulting.
“The RPF saturates every aspect of life in Rwanda,” said Susan Thomson, a longtime Rwanda expert at Colgate University. “They know everything: if you’ve been drinking, if you’ve had an affair, if you’ve paid your taxes.” Everything is reported on, Thomson says, and there is no appeal.
From the beginning, Kagame’s legitimacy was founded on his image as the man who had halted the genocide committed by the Hutu-led government and extremist militias. While the vast majority of the 800,000 people killed in the frenzy were Tutsis and moderate Hutus, there are profound flaws in what is usually a rather simplistic telling of the country’s history.
Pointing to the origins of the war and its bloody aftermath, Scott Straus, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, said: “An honest analysis ... would show that the reasons for what happened were much more complicated than the idea that the Hutus hate the Tutsis and want to wipe them out.”
For one thing, there is abundant evidence that Kagame’s forces in the early days carried out targeted executions of the Hutu elite, followed later by much larger extermination campaigns that killed tens of thousands of people.
A year after the genocide had ended, blood was still being spilled, recalls Timothy Longman, then the country director for Human Rights Watch. “People would take me around and say, ‘There’s mass grave right over here,’ and you would ask, ‘From when?’ And they would say, ‘Just from a few weeks ago—not from the genocide,’” says Longman, who now directs the African Studies Center at Boston University.
One of the earliest investigations was undertaken by a U.N. team led by the American Robert Gersony in the fall of 1994. The team conducted research by interviewing people in refugee camps and the In the run-up to the 2010 election in which Kagame was declared the winner, there was widespread violence, with several journalists and figures from the opposition attacked or killed, including a politician who was beheaded. Amnesty International condemned the violence and the “killings, arrests, and the closure of newspapers and broadcasters [which] reinforced a climate of fear.”
The case of Victoire Ingabire, a politician from the opposition, was instructive. When she returned to Rwanda that year, having lived 16 years in exile, to prepare a run for president, her first stop was at the official genocide memorial. “We are here honoring at this memorial the Tutsi victims of the genocide. There are also Hutu who were victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, not remembered or honored here,” she said in a prepared statement. “Hutu are also suffering. They are wondering when their time will come to remember their people. In order for us to get to that desirable reconciliation, we must be fair and compassionate towards every Rwandan’s suffering.”
Ingabire was promptly arrested and accused of “genocide ideology.” During her trial, President Kagame publicly declared that she was guilty.
Tiny Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills because of its verdant, rolling countryside of strikingly fertile farmland. It is a land of beauty and unrelenting order. But unlike its much larger neighbor Congo, it is not endowed with any mineral wealth to speak of. Yet Rwanda’s economy depends on the exploitation of Congolese resources.
Through mafialike networks reportedly run by the Rwandan Army and the RPF, huge quantities of Congo’s minerals are siphoned out of the country, experts say.
As early as 2000, Rwanda was believed to be making $80 million to $100 million annually from Congolese coltan alone, roughly the equivalent of the entire defense budget, according to Reyntjens, the Belgian expert.
Pillaging the Congo obscures Rwanda’s giant military budget from foreign donors who provide as much as 50 percent of the country’s budget every year. It also provides a rich source of income to the urban elites, especially returnees from Uganda, who form the regime’s core.
“After the first Congo war, money began coming in through military channels and never entered the coffers of the Rwandan state,” says Rudasingwa, Kagame’s former lieutenant. “It is RPF money, and Kagame is the only one who knows how much money it is—or how it is spent. In meetings it was often said, ‘For Rwanda to be strong, Congo must be weak, and the Congolese must be divided.’”
Congo looms large in the story of Kagame in other ways as well. For years Rwandan government forces and their proxies have operated in Congo. Twice Rwanda has invaded the country outright, in September 1996, when with U.S. acquiescence it successfully waged war to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko, and again beginning in August 1998, when it mounted a repeat operation to depose Laurent-Désiré Kabila. This second operation, to replace the very man Kagame installed to replace Mobutu, ended in failure but established a pattern of intervention and meddling aimed at undermining its much larger neighbor. The ensuing war, involving several African nations, is believed to have cost the lives of 5 million people.

As early as 1997, the U.N. estimated that Rwandan forces had caused the deaths of 200,000 Hutus in Congo; Prunier, the French expert, has since estimated that the toll is closer to 300,000. According to the U.N. report, these deaths could not be attributed to the hazards of war or to collateral damage. “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 concluded that the systematic and widespread attacks, “if proven before a competent court, could be characterized as crimes of genocide.”

Two years ago, Kagame delivered a lecture in London on “The Challenges of Nation-Building in Africa: The Case of Rwanda.” When confronted with a U.N. report that was then making headlines with the suggestion that his forces had committed genocide in Congo, he dismissed such allegations as “baseless” and “absurd.” Clearly he was keener to talk about economic indicators and repeat the oft-told success story of his country.
But even that is a truth with modification. Social inequality in Rwanda is high and rising, experts say. Despite an average annual growth rate of about 5 percent since 2005, poverty is soaring in the countryside, where few Western journalists report without official escort.

“The rural sector has suffered enormous extraction under the post-genocide government, far more than what had happened before,” said one longtime researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There is a real increase in misery. When you speak of Rwanda as a volcano, that’s what’s involved.”

Will Rwanda explode again? The big, looming issue is whether Kagame will leave office in 2017, as the Constitution calls for. With so much to answer for, few expect a straightforward exit

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Subject: Fwd: RWANDA-15/01/2014

Beware of Kagame's manipulations, this is repeat of the story that he made up to invade DRC
using the AFDL. Since the last UN report is once more incriminating him and Museveni, he is trying to diffuse the situation by creating a new narrative to justify what they are doing in Beni and elsewhere (Kamango etc..) with the resurgence of the M23. Suspected of murdering Karageya, he has to find a way to distract and get the pressure of his back. Kagame is the one creating chaos in the region
Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

Date: January 15, 2014 at 4:47:32 AM EST
To:
Subject:RWANDA-15/01/2014

EXCLUSIVE: Rwanda Faces War Threats

The government of Rwanda has alerted the United States, United Nations, UK and countries in the Great Lakes region of an “impending invasion” of Rwanda by militants in DRC, a military plan that reportedly has the blessing of individuals in France.

By Giles Muhame17 hours 16 minutes ago

http://chimpreports.com/index.php/special-reports/15897-exclusive-rwanda-deploys-tanks-on-drc-border-amid-war-threats.html

President Kagame at a military training facility in Rwanda a few years ago (File photo)

Highly placed sources said senior Rwandan officials in December 2013 held emergency meetings with influential leaders in the international community in Kigali and United States, warning that any invasion of Rwanda would lead to “catastrophic consequences” on DRC and the region.

Chimpreports understands that Rwandan officials relayed classified intelligence from former FDLR fighters regarding a military build-up of negative forces in eastern DRC to the international community which it accused of being “passive.”

Rwanda also told United Nations that the militants’ bases are well known and that they had started receiving heavy military supplies.

They further alleged that some countries hostile to Rwanda were part of the plan and expressed willingness to contribute fighters to reinforce the FDLR and other negative forces to overthrow the government in Kigali.

A European country was also accused of promising to “provide all the necessary funding” for the war on Rwanda.

Rwanda officials further said that some members in the UN Force Intervention Brigade were in bed with FDLR instead of fighting the negative force as required by the UN mandate.

The UN brigade that fought and defeated the M23 comprised soldiers from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.

Before he was strangled in a South African Hotel, dissident Patrick Karegeya was also identified as the coordinator of the war plan against Rwanda.

It is thought Karegeya was working with individuals from France and FDLR not only to destabilise but remove resident Kagame from power by use of arms.

Imminent chaos

“The Rwandan government was very clear that it would never at any one time accept to see a repeat of genocide. This is a trying moment for the nation as it remembers over one million lives lost in 1994 at the hands of the genocidal Hutu government. If regional leaders do not act now, Rwanda might even take a pre-emptive action,” a senior official told this website in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The source added: “FDLR fighters would escape from their camps and bring intelligence to us. They revealed the whole plan. The UN has been warned, US, UK and others. They were told to expect chaos that will never stop in the region if these people go ahead with this plan.”

Deployment

Rwandan troops and heavy artillery from the mechanised Brigade remain stationed along the borders with DRC.

The development comes against the backdrop of worsening relations between Kigali and Dar es Salaam following the expulsion of Rwandans from Tanzania last year.

Rwanda also believes that Tanzania is either supportive or sympathetic to the FDLR cause, basing on statements from President Jakaya Kikwete that Kigali should sit down with the militants for talks.

FDLR is considered a terrorist organisation.

Tanzania also contributed to the defeat of M23 which had provided a buffer zone to Rwanda against the marauding FDLR.

The clearance of M23 bases left a vacuum which would later be filled with militia groups accused of perpetrating genocide in 1994 and exhibited intentions to attack Rwanda.

Diplomacy failing?

With temperatures hitting boiling levels, sources said, President Paul Kagame contacted President Museveni over the matter.

It is important to note that Rwanda’s stability remains one of Uganda’s main security interests.

Realising that a regional war could be around the corner, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya security chiefs recently signed a pact in Kigali.

A three day meeting to discuss establishing a Mutual Defence Pact and a Mutual Peace and Security Pact between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda was concluded on January 8 in Kigali.

Defence Ministers and Ministers of Internal Security from respective countries concluded the meeting by approving relevant documents that should culminate into the two Pacts.

Rwanda Minister of Defence, Gen James Kabarebe said in his speech while closing the meeting that “the cooperation between our countries has brought real advantages to our people including free movement of people and goods, removal of non-tariff barriers and other several social-economic projects. However, these projects cannot be sustained unless there is peace and security”.

He further said that Mutual Defence and Security Pacts will address the threats of several marauding negative armed groups such as the genocidal FDLR, terrorist groups of ADF-NALU and Al-Shabaab and several transnational crimes that require “collective security framework.”

Sources conversant with the pact said the three countries agreed to work together in case any of the country is threatened by aggression led by external forces.

This implies that an attack on Rwanda or any other signatory to the pact would be considered as an attack on the three tripartite countries.

By selecting Kigali as the venue for the signing of the pact, it appeared that regional countries intended to show their solidarity with Rwanda amidst threats of war.

Angola Summit

Meanwhile, Ugandan senior diplomats in the Great Lakes region have already arrived in Angola’s Capital, Luanda in preparation for the 5th Ordinary Summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) scheduled to take place this Wednesday.

South African President Jacob Zuma has already confirmed his attendance.

The ICGLR members are Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

The summit which will be chaired by, President José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, is anticipated to discuss peace, stability and development in the region with a focus on the current situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan.

Officials told this website on Monday night that President Yoweri Museveni is likely to attend the function.

The ICGLR has in recent years proved to be a successful platform for leaders to iron out their grievances in one-on-one discussions and averting possible confrontations which would lead to a regional war.

 

 

 

Karegeya’s wife asks God to avenge husband’s murder

Publish Date: Jan 15, 2014

By John Agaba
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/651450-karegeya-s-wife-asks-god-to-avenge-husband-s-murder.html
The widow of the slain Rwandan ex-spy chief, Patrick Karegeya, yesterday said her husband’s killers will one day know there is a price for doing evil.

“May the blood of my husband be the blanket and sheets of those that planned and paid to take his life,” said Leah Kabuto during the funeral service for the late Karegeya at St. Andrews Church of Uganda, Bukoto in Kampala Tuesday.

“May the blood of my husband cause them nightmare at breakfast, lunch and dinner so that they may one day realise that there is a price to pay for the evil committed,” she added.

Hundreds of mourners, including friends, relatives and family members, attended.

The message was delivered by Brenda Mugambwa, a close family member.

Karegeya was strangled in Johannesburg’s upmarket Sandton Michelangelo Hotel on New Year’s Eve. A rope and bloodied towel was found in the hotel room safe.

He was 53 years old.

The family, however, decided to bury Karegeya in South Africa after failing to get clearance to return his remains to his birthplace in Rwenjuru, Mbarara district.

Kabuto described her husband as a fighter for justice, who did not compromise on what he believed was right.

“Like any other couple, we had our highs and lows. We had our fights and disagreements, but I could never have wished for a better father for my children,” she said.

Presiding over the service, Rev. Steven Bamutungire wondered why Karegeya’s body couldn’t be returned home for burial.

“They feared Patrick’s body. What was it going to do? It was just a body. It could not hold a pistol, not wink or even smile. Why?” he asked.

“Everyone, however strong or mighty, you are just a breath,” Bamutungire added.

“It does not matter who you are. Whether you are a Tutsi, Hutu, Munyarwanda, Munyankole, FDC, NRM, we are all just a breath. Why should there be tension? Why should people kill one another? Look what is happening in South Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, here in Uganda, in Congo. Why can’t we have peace?” he asked.

Justice Kenneth Kakuru, who described the deceased as his best friend since they met at the Makerere University’s faculty of law over 34 years ago, said Karegeya was always wearing a smile.

Karegeya will be buried in South Africa on Saturday

DRC: Ex-M23 Rebels Deny UN Accusations of Fresh Recruitment

AFL2014011511860933 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 0212 GMT 15 Jan 14

[Unattributed report: "DR Congo rebels deny UN accusations of fresh recruitment"]

Kinshasa, 01/15/2014 02:12 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebel movement on Tuesday denied UN accusations that it was seeking to rebuild from the ashes of its defeat in November. The UN mission chief in the DRC, Martin Kobler, said on Monday there were "credible reports that the military recruitment of the M23 did not cease" after a December peace pact.

The M23, an ethnic Tutsi rebel group described as a Rwandan proxy force, officially laid down its arms after suffering a crushing military defeat at the hands of the UN-backed Congolese army in November. The group's demise ended an 18-month insurgency that had threatened to sow violence across the region.

It marked the first step in efforts by Kinshasa to eradicate the myriad of rebel groups operating in the country's troubled east. In a statement to the UN Security Council Monday, Kobler cited reports that the M23 had relocated north of its old bases in North Kivu to rebuild in the Ituri province. "We should tolerate no military re-emergence of the M23," he said. In a statement addressed to Kobler, the M23 said Tuesday that his allegations were unsubstantiated.

"It is not enough to claim that your information is credible for it to become so and be upheld as such in front of everyone, it needs to be backed up by evidence," the group said. The DR Congo, supported by an UN intervention brigade with an unprecedented offensive mandate, has vowed to use the momentum of its victory against the M23 to go after other groups that have been wreaking havoc in the east. Among them are the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu militia that includes some the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, and the ADF-Nalu, an Islamist Ugandan group that has proved very resilient.

The M23 said in its statement it was committed to the peace documents it signed in December and accused Kobler of "using the ghost of the M23 movement as an excuse not to fight" the other groups.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- World news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

The Opinion Pages|LETTERS

Tracing the Rwanda ‘Genocide Fax’

NYT-JAN. 14, 2014

Regarding “The shroud over Rwanda’s nightmare” (Opinion, Jan. 10): The crucial January 1994 “genocide fax” to which Michael Dobbs refers — warning of an “anti-Tutsi extermination” plot — was never shared with the United Nations Security Council in any way. But, in his preface to a major volume of Rwanda-related documents published by the United Nations in 1995, Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali asserted that the fax actually had been shared with the council.

Since I was president of the Security Council when the fax arrived, I confronted the secretary general on this issue toward the end of 1995. In a subsequent meeting also attended by Chinmaya Garekhan of the United Nations Secretariat, a right-hand man of Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s, the secretary general stuck to his position. In the end, however, Mr. Boutros-Ghali conceded that the Americans, at least, had been informed — which in his view should have been enough as far as the Security Council was concerned. It wasn’t.

Engaging in “what-if” history is rarely fruitful. But if the Security Council had been aware of Brig. Gen. Roméo Dallaire’s views on the impending genocide, it would at least have had a chance to react — and history might have taken a vastly different turn.

Karel Kovanda, Brussels

The writer was the Czech ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997.

Jan-13-2014 12:40

Kigali Working Hard to Divide and Confuse the Opposition

Jennifer Fierberg, MSW Salem-News.com

“In a time of Universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”-Orwell

(WASHINGTON, DC) - The murder of Patrick Karegyea of the Rwandan National Congress (RNC) has left the political opposition as well as Rwandans in the diaspora who support them raw yet determined. His murder continues to be investigated by the South African Police who have refused to comment on an open investigation. Back in Rwanda President Kagame and his political leaders have had a lot to say about the death of Karegeya both in the press and on social media outlets. The comments started with Louise Mushikiwabo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, abusing the children of Patrick Karegeya on Twitter in this conversation; further, she went on local radio stations in Rwanda continuing to accuse the late Karegeya of grenade attacks inside Rwanda and stating that Mr. Karegeya had “declared war” on the country. None of these statements is true. The RNC has always maintained that they are a peaceful group and they have no intentions of violent or forceful means of making political change in Rwanda.

Rwanda’s Defense Minister, James Kabarebe, last week in an speech referred to the late Karegeya as a “dog” and stated, “When you choose to be a dog, you die like a dog, and the cleaners will wipe away the trash so that it does not stink for them. Actually, such consequences are faced by those who have chosen such a path.

There is nothing we can do about it, and we should not be interrogated over it.” His overt mention of “the cleaners will wipe away the trash” was a clear warning to all Rwandan opposition groups, specifically the Rwanda National Congress leaders, and other who criticize the Government of Rwanda that they are not safe no matter where in the world they are.

Many journalists and activists have received death threats via phone, email and in online discussions. The accusations of these sending threats are that those who criticize the government are trying to “destabilize the country” by feeding “false information to the public.” This is a hardline statement from the Government of Rwanda regarding all those who choose to speak the truth about what the Government of Rwanda is doing “behind the façade” of what they portray to the world as the Eden of Africa. There are numerous publications that have continued to expose President Kagame and his crimes and how the UK and US continue to cover up his record of destabilization in the region, particularly in the DRC through his most recent proxy army, the M23. Ambassador Stephen Rapp has now, also, come out with tough evidence that President Kagame was behind the 1994 genocide in Rwanda along with the backing of the US and UK.

Kagame confusing a prayer breakfast as a confessional

For further evidence that President Kagame and his government are behind the murder of the late Karegeya, look no further than the National Prayer Breakfast that he attended in Rwanda on Sunday January 12, 2014. He gave a lengthy speech and admitted to the elimination of Karegeya. He stated to the group attending that, “you are a bunch of cowards if you dare to deny my involvement in the murder of Col. Karegeya”. President Kagame then added, “shouldn't we actually be murdering more of Karegeya's type?" If this is not a clear confession of his involvement, I do not know what is.

The Investigative team in South Africa refused to comment on these statements and continues to investigate in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In a press release on the same day as the Prayer Breakfast/Confessional, the Amahoro People’s Congress released a statement stating in party that:

“This presidential confession strengthened similar statements made earlier by other Rwandan government officials. Rwandan Prime Minister Pierre Habumuremyi tweeted on Monday, 6th January, 2014: “Betraying citizens and their country that made you a man shall always bear consequences to you.” Foreign Affairs Minister, Madam Louise Mushikiwabo tweeted and later confirmed in an interview that Karegeya was a “self-declared enemy” of her government and that what happens to its enemies should not make it lose sleep. In her interview, she insisted that late Patrick deserved to be killed because of betraying the country that created him. Speaking at a governmental controversial "Ndi Umunyarwanda" campaign in Rubavu district on 11th January, 2014, the Defence Minister, General James Kabarebe, joined other officials in confirming the regime’s role in the assassination. “Do not waste your time on reports that so and so was strangled with a rope on the 7th floor in whatever country.” “When you choose to be a dog, you die like a dog, and the cleaners will wipe away the trash so that it does not stink for them. Actually, such consequences are faced by those who have chosen such a path. There is nothing we can do about it, and we should not be interrogated over it.”

Further they stated that, “Rwandan democratic voices have, over the last several years, called for a peaceful settlement of Rwanda’s problems through dialogue. President Kagame has rejected peace and dialogue, and opted for a violent path, by assassinating and jailing his opponents, and declaring war on all Rwandans who demand freedom.

In view of the above, we call upon:

1. President Paul Kagame and his criminal regime to resign immediately since he has lost all legitimacy to govern;

• The Rwandan people to reject fear and intimidation, remain calm, united, and be more determined to continue the just and legitimate struggle for freedom;

• The international community to invoke “RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT", the new international security and human rights norm to address the international community’s responsibility to prevent and stop genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity;

• The international community to compel President Paul Kagame and his agents of terror to account for the crimes they have committed before, during and after 1994; and,

• The international community to support the Rwandan people who seek a new political dispensation characterised by truth, justice, the rule of law, genuine reconciliation and healing.

We would like to assure the Rwandan people that though the struggle for freedom, unity, democracy, justice and shared prosperity is long and difficult, ultimately, freedom will triumph over dictatorship, and pursuit of a better life for all over imposition of death.” Dr. Nkiko Nsengimana, Coordinator, FDU-Inkingi; Etienne Masozera, President, AMAHORO People’s Congress and Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, Coordinator, Rwanda National Congress (RNC), signed the press statement. They end their press statement with an important message to all Rwndans:

“We would like to assure the Rwandan people that though the struggle for freedom, unity, democracy, justice and shared prosperity is long and difficult, ultimately, freedom will triumph over dictatorship, and pursuit of a better life for all over imposition of death.”

Lies about the RNC and Kayumba

In an anonymous blog post published today an author by the name of Miley Jameson made outlandish claims entitled; “Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa negotiating return to Rwanda.” This post reads like a bad propaganda attempt to further divide and confuse activists and political opposition members.

This writer contacted Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa for his response and he asked to be quoted directly:

“Quote me:

a. The death of Patrick has strengthened our resolve to fight the dictatorship. b. The confession by President Kagame that he killed Patrick gives credence to what Patrick and the opposition has all along accused Kagame of. c. Kagame calls his critics, enemies of the country. He does not distinguish between himself and the country. His personal opponents are enemies of the country!! c. If Kagame wants negotiations, let him talk to the opposition. I have no personal deals to negotiate with Kagame because our differences are national including: lack of democracy and rigging of elections, meddling with the judiciary, lack of liberty and freedom culminating in an influx of refugees, imprisonment of opposition politicians, extra judicial killings of opponents and the general personalisation of state institutions especially parliament and security organisations. He should also stop machinations to change the constitution to allocate himself a 3rd term. d. In his speech, he said my death is a matter of time, now how do I negotiate with such a person? e. Who is Miley Jameson and which media house does he/she write for? This publication is without identity. Most dictatorships operate like that. You cannot expect anything better from a President who goes for prayers and boasts how he has murdered and intends to murder other people.”

Final words from Col. Patrick Karegeya

"In the absence of democratic reforms, the policies of the present government of Rwanda are likely to lead to a return to violence in the country. A system of government that deprives citizens of fundamental human rights, especially the right to political participation and the integrity of the person, cannot last indefinitely. Change in Rwanda is inevitable; the issue is whether change will be negotiated and peaceful, or violent and imposed, again, by the victors of a bloody armed conflict. Political change is necessary to avert violent conflict that repressive government in Rwanda has made almost inevitable. A return to violent conflict in Rwanda would further destabilize the Great Lakes region of Central Africa."

Col. Patrick Karegeya
28 December, 2013

RDC : après la défaite, le M23 continue-t-il de recruter ?

15/01/2014 à 08:34 Par Jeune Afrique

Accusée par la Monusco de continuer à recruter à partir du Rwanda et de l'Ouganda, le Mouvement du 23-Mars (M23) a démenti être en voie de résurgence militaire. Dans un communiqué publié mardi, l'ex-rébellion congolaise a réaffirmé les engagements qu'elle a pris dans la déclaration de Nairobi consacrant la fin des hostilités avec Kinshasa.

À quoi joue le Mouvement du 23-Mars (M23) ? Après la défaite militaire sur le terrain et sa déclaration de l'arrêt des hostilités, "l'ex-rébellion congolaise continue de recruter", a affirmé Martin Kobler le 13 janvier devant le Conseil de sécurité, se basant sur d'"informations crédibles". Ce que le M23 a qualifié, le lendemain, d'"accusation gratuite".

Dans un communiqué rendu public mardi, le M23 a reproché à l'envoyé spécial de Ban Ki-moon en RDC d'avoir imputé "gratuitement" au M23 "des faits graves et non avérés". "Il ne suffit pas de dire que vos informations soient crédibles pour qu'elles le soient et deviennent opposables à tous, il faut aussi en apporter la preuve", a dénoncé l'ex-mouvement rebelle.

La rébellion du M23 a été active dans la province du Nord-Kivu (est de la RDC) d'avril 2012 jusqu'à sa défaite militaire en novembre 2013 sous le coup d'une offensive de l'armée congolaise soutenue par la brigade d'intervention de l'ONU au Congo. Elle a depuis lors renoncé officiellement à la lutte armée et promis de s'engager dans un processus de démobilisation de ses combattants, réfugiés au Rwanda et en Ouganda.

Le communiqué du M23 a également précisé que l'ex-groupe rebelle "tient au strict respect de ses engagements" et a accusé Martin Kobler de "prendre prétexte du fantôme du M23 pour ne pas combattre" les dizaines de groupes armés encore présents en RDC et que la Monusco a reçu pour mission de neutraliser.

(Avec AFP)

How communities in Rwanda are using social audits to improve governance

(And how more aid transparency can help)

January 14th, 2014 | by Jennifer Lentfer

http://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2014/01/14/how-communities-in-rwanda-are-using-social-audits-to-improve-governance/

“Let those in Washington, DC discover what is being done in Africa, especially what is being done to hold our governments accountable and how our governments are working to improve the lives of citizens.”

In Rwanda, one such practice is “social audits.” Alexis Nkurunziza, the Policy & Advocacy Coordinator for CLADHO, a network of human rights organizations in Rwanda, explained the purpose of social audits when he visited Washington, DC in October to talk about how local actors can and are using aid data to strengthen country systems and empower citizens.

“Social audits offer an alternative to sitting in government offices and making priorities on behalf of citizens. It enables community members to say, ‘You are talking about building a marketplace, but we need clean water. Why is this?’”

Nkurunziza explained that in a social audit, community members sit together with program plans from the government in hand. It’s a monitoring tool that brings leaders, elders, and other influential people in the area to hear citizens testify on progress made. They then take this feedback and submit it to local district officials. Community radio programs, where district officials share plans and respond to feedback as listeners phone in questions, complement the community-level activities.

Nkurunziza said that at a social audit, you might hear something like this:

“‘The government last year promised to build a school. It’s been built, but this school cannot accommodate the number of students that need schooling. The school lacks enough teachers, toilets, etc. The school we required was not this.’”

In the case of a secondary school in Gisagara district, Nkurunziza described how community members participating in the social audit tackled the issue of newly-constructed classrooms that did not meet safety standards. The school was temporarily shut down due to parents’ concerns, and the district pursued the contractor to reimburse what he charged to the government. The contractor publicly asked for forgiveness and is now fixing the facility that provides nine-year basic education to almost 500 kids.

CLADHO has been working with communities to conduct social audits for the last three years, starting in five of Rwanda’s 30 districts. When word got out about the results of these social audits, local NGOs started requesting support so that they could also help conduct them. Now due to the demand, social audits have been conducted in 15 districts.

“We told them [fellow local NGOs]—Don’t be dependent on outside funding for social audits. All you need is a space and the district budget. They have also found it to be a powerful process,” says Nkurunziza.

“We are creating a mechanism so that the Rwandan government can really understand its people. We want to see a government that relies on citizens’ priorities to guide them.”

Oxfam America hosted Nkurunziza and three other African government and civil society leaders who spoke in congressional and USAID offices, addressing issues such as direct funding for local civil society groups and current legislation, the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act, which is intended to support greater US aid transparency.

“For countries like ours where we are dependent on aid, it is very important for us in the civil society to access data from aid donors because so much of our budget comes from aid [48% in Rwanda],” Nkurunziza told stakeholders. “Take for example agriculture inputs or roads or health clinics. Information that the US government has provided this much money can help the community to demand services from the Rwandan government.”

Nkurunziza also made a strong argument in DC for why more accessible aid data can also help the donors themselves.

“We are not just pushing for aid donors to provide this information, but for them to know better how their money is affecting people on the ground and if citizens consider what they are funding to be essential,” he said. “We want donors to not just fund political changes, but changes at the community level. Donors should see civil society organizations as full partners if they really care about the development of all of Rwanda.”

Alexis has served as the focal point of the International Budget Partnership in Rwanda at CLADHO since 2008, where he is leading cutting-edge work to get information from the government into people’s hands so that everyday citizens and civil society organizations can more actively participate in budget formulation and monitoring. Beginning in 2010, the Rwandan government began publishing a yearly citizen’s guide to the national budget to inform citizens about the national budget. Published in English, French and Kinyarwanda, the Citizen’s Guide is now widely distributed throughout Rwanda.

Alexis began his professional career with the Rwandan Ministry of Public Work and Labor, serving in the Department of Child Labor, so he knows what’s needed to improve public financial management systems. He says CLADHO has also had a role in building the capacity of Rwandan Members of Parliament.

“If people were elected on a political basis, they often have to learn about serving constituencies and holding the executive branch accountable. Aid data can also be useful for them to bring about open government. They come to understand the legitimacy of public servants can only come from the Rwandan people.”

Nkurunziza acknowledges that transparency and communities finding their voice can bring up difficult situations, especially if those in power want to continue to be seen as effective in the international community. But Nkurunziza is also says that when it comes to transparency and responding to citizens’ needs, the government and civil society need each other.

“I am not against the government. I am against bad practices. I just want it to work better.”

Sheikh Kayitare finally appointed Muslim leader

Published on 13-01-2014 - at 03:07'

by IGIHE Reporter

http://en.igihe.com/news/sheikh-kayitare-finally-appointed-muslim-leader.html

Sheikh Kayitare Ibrahim, who was an interim head of Rwanda Muslims Association (AMUR), has been finally elected to head this association to complete the mandate of Mufti Gahutu who was forced to resign from this post.

Kayitare has been appointed to this post during an administrative meeting that was held on 12 January 2014, after appreciation of what AMUR has achieved throughout Kayitare’s interim leadership.

Sheikh Kayitare Ibrahim’s mandate will last for two years from the time of his appointment.

Muslim association of Rwanda administratively represents the entire Muslim community of Rwanda. Among its objectives there are; calling people to Islam (Muslim Daawah), education and health development, unity and reconciliation by promoting peaceful co-existence between Muslims and non Muslims, general social work meant to free Rwandans and Muslims in particular from poverty and its associated miseries.

UN Report Reportedly Confirms Continued Rwanda, Uganda Backing of DRC Rebel M23

AFL2014011455344142 Kigali Radio Rwanda in French 1600 GMT 06 Jan 14

The new unedited report by UN experts that RFI obtained mentions that Rwanda and Uganda are still backing the 23 March Movement [M23]. The report, which was compiled on 12 December 2013, indicates that Rwanda and Uganda supported the M23 a lot, mainly in recruiting new soldiers. This was done during the period in which intensive fighting was going on between the M23 and the DRC Armed Forces [FARDC] backed by the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC [MONUSCO].

The report adds that both countries contributed toward providing the M23 rebel group with military equipment. It also demonstrates that the Rwanda Defense Forces [RDF] also joined in the battle. After the defeat of the M23 rebels, the RDF continued recruiting children into the army.

Although the report has not yet been published, it comes in addition to other reports issued before this accusing Rwanda and Uganda of backing the M23. However, both countries have strongly denied such accusations. Moreover, the report also mentioned that the FARDC, in collaboration with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, violated human rights by recruiting children into its army, and invading the people and raping women.

[Description of Source: Kigali Radio Rwanda in French -- Government owned radio station operated by the Office of Information (ORINFOR), a government information agency that broadcasts in English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili]

UN Scribe's Official for Great Lakes Meets DRC Leaders on Disarmament, Peace; To Visit Angola

AFL2014011377603311 Kinshasa Radio Okapi Online in French 13 Jan 14

[Unattributed report -- "DRC: Mary Robinson Hopes To See an Actual Implementation of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reinsertion Plan"]

Mary Robinson, the special representative of the UN secretary general for the Great Lakes Region, has expresed the hope to see an actual implementation of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reinsertion [DDR] plan presented in November last year by the Congolese Government. She expressed this wish on 13 January after emerging from her discussions with Prime Minister Matata Ponyo in Kinshasa, the DRC capital.

The DDR plan concerns the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, and social reinsertion of members of the national armed groups. It favors a reintegration of these combatants in social life, but not automatically in the army.

Mrs. Robinson, the special UN secretary general’s representative for the Great Lakes Region, who expressed satisfaction with the presentation of this plan, suggested its actual implementation in order enable the ex-combatants of the M23 rebel group in exile to return to their country.

“I am happy about this plan and I hope that it will work very fast now because it is always necessary to have the adhesion of the DRC’s neighboring countries so that they do not give space to those who committed crimes. The [ex-rebels] of the M23 rebel group who are in Rwanda and in Uganda should return home for the DDR process,” the special emissary of the UN secretary general for the Great Lakes Region pointed out.

Mrs. Robinson and Congolese Prime Minister Ponyo also discussed the law related to amnesty. It was inserted in the list of issues to be discussed at the budget session of September at the parliament and is awaiting adoption by the two houses of the legislative institution.

The special representative of the UN secretary general for the Great Lakes Region also met on the same day with the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The UN secretary general’s official hailed the decision related to the ongoing preparation of a roadmap for the election. In the afternoon, Mrs. Robinson exchanged views with the head of state, President Joseph Kabila on the progress achieved in favor of the DRC.

In a communiqué issued by the UN Mission for the Stabilization of the DRC and published the same day, Mrs. Robinson stressed the importance of the framework agreement for peace, security, and cooperation. The special representative of the UN secretary general also urged all the signatories to the agreement to respect their commitments. The agreement was signed on 25 February of last year by 11 heads of state of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region [CIRGL].

The special representative of the UN secretary general for the Great Lakes Region stressed the need to tackle the economic chapter of the framework agreement in order to help the Congolese people benefit from the dividends of peace.

Mrs. Robinson will on 14 January go to Luanda, the Angolan capital, where she will take part in the summit of the CIRGL.

Nord-Kivu Civil Society Denounces Ugandan Rebel Killing of Traditional Rulers

AFL2014011438880011 Kinshasa Top Congo FM in French 0800 GMT 13 Jan 14

Announced since November 2013, the hunt down of the remaining illegal armed groups, especially the rebel Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda [ADF/NALU] in eastern DRC is delayed, even though some contingents of the DRC Armed Forces have been deployed there. The Nord-Kivu Province civil society, particularly the civil society coordinator, Omar Kavota, is concerned about this situation, and has denounced the extermination of traditional rulers by these armed groups in the constituency of Watalinga in Beni territory. Let us listen to Omar Kavota.

[Begin Kavota recording] Unfortunately, we have not seen anything since the government announced this track down. You are aware that at the end of last year, the authorities announced this manhunt against all illegal armed groups that are still active in the east, notably the ADF/NALU, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, and so on, but so far nothing is observed on the ground. We do not know the reason for such a delay whereas the people continue to suffer atrocities at the hands of these negative forces.

We also fear for the security of the traditional chiefs in Watalinga constituency in Beni territory. We have just calculated the assassination of at least five traditional rulers in this constituency in less than six months. The criminals sometimes identify themselves as the ADF/NALU. Actually, we fear the extermination of the traditional rulers or chiefs of villages in this constituency because these Ugandan rebels aim to occupy some villages after they have eliminated the chiefs of these villages in this part of the country.

Unfortunately, we observe that the authorities do not care about us. We are calling on the international community to assist in order to prevent the extermination of the traditional rulers in this part of the Congo by the Ugandan rebels. [end recording]

[Description of Source: Kinshasa Top Congo FM in French -- Privately owned independent FM station]

Xinhua: Drc's Ex Rebel M23 Denies Involvement Of Rebellion In Ituri

CHL2014011457803307 Beijing Xinhua in English 1538 GMT 14 Jan 14

[Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention]

DRC's ex-rebel M23 denies involvement of rebellion in Ituri

KINSHASA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- The president of the former M23 rebels, Rev. Jean-Marie Runiga, has denied his movement is involved in a new rebellion in Ituri in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Runiga reacting to the statement of the special representative of the UN secretary general in the DRC, Martin Kobler, that the M23 continues recruitment after signing a the peace agreement with the government in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in December 2013 and is again active in Ituri.

"This declaration commits its author," Runiga told Xinhua on telephone, adding that "our troops are in Uganda and Rwanda and this is verifiable. Elements of M23 who remained in the DRC went to the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC)."

"If the elements of the M23 are currently in Ituri as stated by MONUSCO, so they were made by the regular army. For us, we prepare to enter to our country within the framework of implementation of the Nairobi statements, if all conditions are met," he said.

The DRC government and the rebel M23 group signed an agreement to end the armed conflict of more than 18 months in the eastern province of North Kivu in the DRC, after the FARDC and MONUSCO troops dislodged the rebels from their last positions in North Kivu in November 2013.

[Description of Source: Beijing Xinhua in English -- China's official news service for English-language audiences (New China News Agency)]

DRCongo premier, UN envoy discuss security

AFL2014011446888055 Goma Goma Radio Okapi in French1900 GMT 13 Jan 14

Text of report by DRCongo's UN-sponsored Radio Okapi on 13 January

[Presenter] The special envoy of the United Nation Organization today in the morning met Prime Minister Matata Ponyo Mapon with whom she discussed the progress registered in favor of peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo and, among other things, the law on amnesty and the plan for disarmament and demobilisation, reinsertion and reintegration. At the end of their meeting, the United Nations diplomat said she is satisfied with the disarmament, reinsertion and reintegration plan put in place by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She also expressed the wish to see it effectively executed in a bid to allow former rebels of the M23 [March 23] to return to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[Robinson] I think now that we must register some progress in the implementation of the Kampala agreement, I mean the law on amnesty which is being tabled, discussed in parliament, the process of disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration and reinsertion. I am glad that there is already a disarmament, demobilisation, reinsertion and reintegration programme which I hope will work out because it is necessary.

As I said that is at national level. On a regional level now, I want to have other countries involved, mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo's neighbours. In order to avoid giving space to those who committed crimes, there must be a balance between the two. There must be progress at a security level and development level and also former fighters of M23 who are still in Rwanda and Uganda must come back for the process of disarmament, demobilization and reinsertion which will be put into execution, implementation after the adoption of the law on amnesty by parliament.

[Presenter] Mary Robinson also met the chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission and the minister of foreign affairs. In her agenda she will also meet with head of state Joseph Kabila Kabange.

[Description of Source: Goma Goma Radio Okapi in French -- Privately owned radio station jointly funded by the UN Observer Mission in Congo and the Geneva-based NGO Fondation Hirondelle; widely observed to carry timely and accurate reporting ]

The Rwandan Genocide - The World Watched and Did Nothing

By thedavenatio | Posted January 13, 2014 |

Houston, Texas

CNN PRODUCER NOTE

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1074628?ref=feeds%2Flatest

I have visited Rwanda five times. I have been to the Genocide Memorial in Kigali five times. I have exited the last section of the memorial dedicated to the child victims with tears streaming down my cheeks five times. I could visit it a hundred times and not have a different result. More than the crushing sadness of seeing a detailed description of children, their personalities, their likes and the manner in which their young lives were ended, is the knowledge that the genocide didn't have to happen. Tolstoy wrote in "War and Peace" that "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing". The Rwandan Genocide may have been the worst realization of that notion.

It is impossible to fully describe the Rwandan Genocide in a few paragraphs but for most people, the event is not fresh in their memory and the causes probably were never known to them. The root cause stems primarily from resentments of Hutus against Tutsis who were favored by the Belgians during their colonial rule and put into positions of power despite being a minority of the population. These resentments reached a boiling point in 1959 in the first large scale Hutu on Tutsi violence. 100,000 Tutsis were forced to flee to neighboring countries. Rwanda gained independence from Belgium in 1962 and the Hutus took controlof Rwanda. Sporadic violence against Tutsis continued over the next 25 years which led to more and more Tutsis fleeing to neighboring countries. In October 1990, these displaced Tutsis, who had formed a well organized Army and political party, invaded Rwanda and the Rwandan Civil War began. The war went on for over three years before the Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, agreed to a peace settlement with the Tutsi rebel army. On April 6, 1994, Juvenal Habyarimana and the President of neighboring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, were returning from a regional summit in Tanzania when their plane was shot down while attempting to land in Kigali. Who fired the missile that shot down their plane, killing everyone on board, has never been fully answered. One thing that is not in dispute, is that the shooting down of their plane was the beginning of the genocide.

Within minutes of the downing of the presidential jet, road blocks went up all around the country. Hutu death squads, called the Interahawme, went from house to house with lists of Tutsis to round up and kill. The killing was indiscriminate and savage. Machetes and sticks were the most common instrument of death. Parents were forced to watch their children be killed before they themselves were killed. Wives and daughters who were spared would be raped by men known to be HIV infected. People tried to take shelter in churches but this only aided the Interahamwe in their task of rounding up victims. In more than one case, priests would turn over their churches filled with cowering people to the death squads. Some of the worst incidents of the entire genocide occurred in churches. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people died EVERY SINGLE DAY of the genocide. For 100 days the killing raged on and not one country lifted a finger to stop it.

When the first peace talks between the Tutsi Army and government of Rwanda began in the fall of 1993, the United Nations deployed a force of peace keepers to Rwanda. The force numbered 2,500 poorly equipped troops, primarily from Bangladesh and Ghana, commanded by Canadian General Romeo Dallaire. Through the early months of 1994, it was becoming progressively clearer that radical elements of the Hutu government were planning a genocide. General Dallaire repeatedly warned the United Nations Security Council that the situation was deteriorating and he needed more troops, equipment and authorization to use force to protect civilians. Rather than provide General Dallaire with these requests, the Security Council cut his force and restricted his mission. When the genocide began, he could do little but watch as the killing went on. Dozens of his own soldiers were killed or wounded during the genocide. In early July 1994, the Tutsi army captured Kigali and most of the Rwanda ending the genocide. The Hutu perpetrators fled to neighboring Zaire (Congo) were their presence was a major cause in the deadliest conflict since the end of World War II - the first and second Congo Wars.

General Dallaire has stated that he could have stopped the genocide with as few as 5,000 properly equipped soldiers with authorization to use force. Former United States President Bill Clinton said in 2013 that as few as 10,000 United States soldiers in the first weeks of the genocide could have saved 300,000 Rwandans. The reasons there were no United States troops for Rwanda is because of Somalia. Just a few months before the genocide, the United States had fought the Battle of Mogadishu taking severe casualties. The United States was in the process of withdrawing from African peace keeping missions when the Rwandan genocide began. Additionally, the Tutsi rebels were backed by the United States and the Hutu Rwandan government was backed by France. This unusual situation of allies supporting different sides in the conflict stymied any international intervention. Countries with wealth and power will always be faced with a quandary of when to intervene in less developed countries to stop internal strife. Many interventions don’t achieve their stated goals and the intervening country frequently regrets getting involved. The Rwandan Genocide shows all to painfully that when outside countries don’t intervene when they should have, you can’t undo the carnage.

The little boy whose picture is with this story is one of the child victims shown in the Genocide Memorial in Kigali. I will always be haunted by his last words “The UN soldiers will come for us”. The thought that he and 1,000,000 other victims died thinking the same thing should be a tragic lesson that is not soon forgotten by the international community.

David Chaney will be riding a bicycle across Rwanda to commemorate the 20th anniversary the genocide. You can visit the ride website at http://www.rideforthesurvivors.com/ .

 

 

Tuesday, Jan 14, 2014 09:00 AM EST

Your favorite tech devices could be funding wars in Africa

"Conflict minerals" mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo are often found in smartphones, laptops and tablets

laptops and tablets

Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/14/your_favorite_tech_devices_could_be_funding_wars_in_africa_partner/

Rebels attack town in eastern DR Congo, UN reports

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46927&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo

14 January 2014 – The United Nations today reported a new rebel attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the region continues to suffer from deadly violence even after the defeat of a major dissident group, the M23, over a month ago.

In the latest violence, Mayi Mayi Sheka fighters attacked Pinga, in North Kivu province, but left after a 30-minute gun fight with the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), the UN peacekeeping force in the DRC (MONUSCO) reported.

Around 1,000 civilians sought refuge during the confrontation near the UN Mission’s base in Pinga, but only 90 remained there today, the others having returned home.

Briefing the Security Council yesterday by video link from Kinshasa, the DRC capital, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Mary Robinson, warned that the positive atmosphere that prevailed last month following the defeat of the M23 rebel group has “vanished” and the region is going through a period of renewed turbulence.

This has been marked by deadly attacks in eastern DRC by another rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the ongoing crisis in Central African Republic (CAR) and the eruption of fighting in South Sudan.

The Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the Region, signed by 11 nations last February, remains “the best chance” to achieve sustainable peace, security, cooperation and development in the Great Lakes Region, she said.

In the same briefing Mr. Ban’s Special Representative for DRC Martin Kobler called the Framework a major milestone, along with the creation of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, which put all armed groups on notice that “we have the will and the means to take robust action at any time.

“In the coming weeks, we will finalize the review of our military deployment across eastern Congo. We will then have a more flexible force. We need it to be more agile, ready to deploy when it is needed and where civilians are threatened, to take on the threat,” he added, also noting that peace in eastern DRC can only be durable if its root causes are addressed.

“Restitution of State authority alone is not enough. Only regional cooperation and good governance will provide the peace dividend the population is expecting.”

Today he strongly condemned the latest attack and sent his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and the Congolese people, stressing that MONUSCO will continue to work to consolidate the recent military gains.

The DRC has been torn apart by civil wars and factional fighting since it became independent from Belgium in 1960, but with the support of a series of UN missions a measure of stability has been restored to much of the vast country over the past decade.

But fighting between the Government and a variety of rebel and sectarian groups has continued to devastate the eastern regions, particularly North and South Kivu provinces.

In March, the Security Council authorized the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO, based in North Kivu province with a total of 3,069 peacekeepers, to carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without FARDC, against armed groups threatening peace in eastern DRC.

DRCongo, Uganda military chiefs discuss security

AFL2014011441899099 Goma Kivu 1 Radio in French 0500 GMT 14 Jan 14

Text of report by DR Congo's privately-owned, Goma-based Kivu 1 radio on 14 January

[Presenter] The army chiefs of general staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo and his Ugandan counterpart met in Beni [eastern DRCongo] on Monday 13 January 2014. The three chiefs of staff arrived in the northern part of Nord Kivu province at a time when actuality is based on insecurity to be eradicated and the need to build trust between the two neighbouring countries. Further details with Magloire Paluku.

[Reporter] Those smiles and greetings in English are those of the two generals in charge of defence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the one of Uganda. General Didier Etumba is in Beni where he welcomed the head of defence in neighbouring Uganda Gen Katumba Wamala who in turn explained the reason why he crossed the border and came to Beni: the continuation of talks between the two countries.

[Wamala] Just as we were together in Goma [eastern DRCongo] in the framework of a collaboration/cooperation between our two armies so we are continuing with what we talked about in Goma.

[Reporter] The army chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo General Didier Etumba has put much emphasis on the cooperation between the two countries at the defence and security level.

[Etumba] We are used to meeting with my Ugandan colleague because we have things which interest us both, which interest our two armies, which interest our armies in the framework of security. We regularly have the habit of meeting.

[Reporter] Beni is quiet; Beni is waiting to experience the hunt against the Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.

[Description of Source: Goma Kivu 1 Radio in French -- Privately owned radio]

Rwanda: Govt Woos Investors to Agric Sector

By Madeleine Otto & Collins Mwai, 14 January 2014

Agriculture is one of the most lucrative and productive drivers of the economy, a fact that should encourage investors to tap into the many opportunities the sector presents.

Tony Nsanganira, who heads the Agribusiness department at Rwanda Development Board, made the call while setting the pace at the Cracking the Nut conference, a three-day event that opened yesterday in Kigali.

Nsanganira said the country exhibited great potential and had many viable opportunities, especially in value addition in agriculture, information-based sector (ICT) and real estate.

Opportunities

The conference opened with a match-making session where investors were taken through the various business opportunities available in agriculture sector.

Nsanganira, who represented the chief executive of Rwanda Development Board, Valentine Rugwabiza, said the sector is one of the main drivers of gross domestic product.

"The government has identified it as a sector of priority to reduce poverty and drive economic growth. It caters for 90 per cent of the national food need and also generates more than 50 per cent of Rwanda's total export revenue," Nsanganira said.

He added that the sector has exhibited major growth in the last few years.

"In the last five years, the sector has had a 4.9 per cent growth and contributed to about 36 per cent of GDP, with tea and coffee being the major exports," he said.

Registered private investments have been playing a huge role in creating progress in the agricultural sector in the recent years totaling $512 million cumulatively over the last 13 years.

"Currently, we have 184 projects that have been running between 2000 and 2013. Before that, we had only three projects registered worth less than $1 million. Although tea and coffee have dominated the sector, they currently account for only about 19 per cent of total investment. Private investors have opened up other sub-sectors such as beverages, dairy, meat, rice and fish, among others," Nsanganira said.

Why agriculture?

The official also took investors through the attractions that makes it worth sinking their money into agricultural projects.

Among these, he mentioned the country's favourable ranking in the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2014, which ranked Rwanda as the top global reformer out of 189 countries, 22nd in protecting investor property and 13th in accessing credit.

"Gallup poll also ranked us as the safest country in the world in 2012. We are also building a robust capital market and Kigali Special Economic Zone that in the first phase will have 98 hectares of fully serviced land with roads, energy, fibre optic cable and water," he said.

The country also provides incentives that come in handy for investors such as duty free access within EAC and Comesa and no restriction on repatriation of capital and profits for foreign investors.

Among the opportunities on offer are horticultural projects, establishment of Kigali wholesale market for fresh produce, dairy investment in Rubirizi dairy, partnership at Mukamira dairy and tea and coffee expansion projects.

Raphel Rurangwa, the director-general of planning and programme coordination at the Ministry of Agriculture, said they were collaborating with RDB on policy interventions to make land use more efficient and sustainable.

They are working to develop an agricultural land lease client charter along with standard contract and corporate farming models, which will be ready in about two weeks to ease land lease processes.

RDB has also been in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture in developing infrastructure that will make for smoother agricultural processes such as energy and irrigation projects.

Already, q feeder roads upgrading programme has a target of 2,300 kilometres in the next five years.

Investors were also reminded to invest responsibly and be keen on the social and environmental impacts of their projects.

The call was made by Anita Campion, the president of AZMJ (a global consulting firm offering services to transform international development and build local capacity).

"It should not only be about how much a firm makes, but also about having positive social impacts in the communities. By using socially-responsible investment approaches, investors can have an impact on food security, environmental protection, economic productivity of a region as well as health and education," Campion said.

Her comments were echoed by Frank Rubio, the global head of agriculture at Oikocredit, a renowned social investor that funds microfinances, who said they are always looking to fund responsible investors, citing firms that were having an impact on surrounding communities.

"There are lots of collaborative opportunities through which investors can be socially responsible like, leveraging public resources and coordinating group work outputs to improve management of smaller projects," Rubio said.