Children at Iwawa prison have their moms in different prisons in Rwanda to make claims impossible


The genocide in which more than half a million people were killed in just three months in 1994 [Kagame's scenario of events (n.d.l.r)] undeniably makes Rwanda an exceptional case. The level of organisation of the massacres, the scale of the horror, the suffering and the devastation - all of these were exceptional. 

Me Bernard Ntaganda Imberakuli Opposistion leader

What is not exceptional, however, is that Rwandans, like human beings in any other country, have fundamental rights and want to be able to enjoy them. These include the right to life - of which hundreds of thousands were robbed so brutally during the genocide - the right to freedom of expression, to liberty and security and a fair trial, and many other rights enshrined in
Rwandan law and in international conventions.

Rwanda has become the largest worlwide prison and the ever-untouchable human rights violations. Rwandans cry for Justice.

Ms. Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire The would-be president of Rwanda

Chapman's argument deprives Rwandans of those rights. His article falls into the trap, skilfully set by the Rwandan government, of using the horror of the genocide to deflect criticism of the fact that Rwandan men and women are being denied their rights to voice their opinions, participate in the political life of their country, and go about their daily activities unhindered. Those who buy into this argument fail to see that a thriving, healthy society cannot be built on a foundation of fear - as illustrated in other repressive countries, not least in parts of North Africa and the Middle East currently experiencing dramatic upheaval.
Chapman's article rightly sets out Rwanda's achievements since the genocide, but jumps to some astonishing conclusions. "Human rights violations are a small price to pay for Rwanda's remarkable progress," it asserts. For some Rwandans, that "small price" has been their life or their liberty. Consider Jean-Léonard Rugambage, the young journalist gunned down outside his home in the capital Kigali last year; or Bernard Ntaganda, the opposition party leader arrested just weeks before the 2010 elections, who is now serving a prison sentence simply for opposing the government in his public statements; or Abbé Emile Nsengiyumva, the priest who has spent six months in detention awaiting trial after criticising state policies on housing and family planning in his Christmas sermon. Would they, or their families, consider that this was a "small price to pay" for their country's "remarkable progress"?



Mr Andre Kagwa Rwandan Democratic Green Party Vice President murdered July 13, 2010 

The assassination of Rugambage and the arrest of Ntaganda are just two of the flagrant incidents that took place in the run-up to the presidential elections. 2010 saw President Kagame re-elected with 93% of the vote. This election, like the previous one in 2003, was a contest only in name: Kagame's three "rivals" all represented parties that had broadly supported the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). None of the three new opposition parties, which had openly criticised the government, was able to stand. Two were not even allowed to register as parties. The vice-president of one, André Kagwa Rwisereka, was murdered less than a month before the elections; no one has been brought to justice for this crime. Several lower-ranking opposition party members were detained and beaten by the police.

The Rwandan media was also ruthlessly targeted. In April 2010, two popular independent newspapers, Umuseso and Umuvugizi - which often reported allegations of corruption and abuse - were suspended while their editors were charged with defamation. After receiving persistent threats, they fled the country for their safety. The fate of their colleague Rugambage, who stayed behind, sadly proved that they had made the right decision.
*******
The answer to your question relating to KAGAME'IMPUNITY. Watch the video:
The repression has not stopped since the elections. In February 2011, two other journalists were sentenced to 17 and 7 years respectively for writing articles seen as critical of the government and the president. A court found them both guilty of endangering public order, and also found the newspaper's editor guilty of minimising the genocide, "divisionism" and "genocide ideology" - a catch-all offence that has frequently been used to target perceived critics.

It is unclear in Chapman's argument, and in similar ones proferred by Kagame's allies, how jailing journalists and targeting opposition party members is necessary for economic and social development. For development to be sustainable, many development experts agree, it should be participatory and transparent. Long-term economic and social stability relies on an empowered citizenry and a vibrant civil society.


Brainwashed Hutu children in prison at Iwawa island prison and now living in extrmely conditions How to get them back? Wonder their parents?

 So where is the "civil society... with a staunch Rwandan national identity" that Chapman claims is emerging in Rwanda? With a few exceptions, the civil society organisations operating in Rwanda today are those that submit to the government's wishes, actively promote its programmes, or stick to uncontroversial areas. Independent human rights organisations, like independent newspapers, have been dismantled one by one or been infiltrated by individuals close to the RPF. Many leading human rights activists have been forced to leave the country. Others, worn down by constant threats to their safety, have simply opted out of the struggle. A few courageous individuals - you can count them on the fingers of one hand - continue doggedly monitoring abuses, but rarely publish their findings. Official censorship has led to self-censorship throughout much of civil society.

J. L. Rugambage, Umuvugizi Editor murdered June 24, 2010

 Chapman talks of political "stability" in Rwanda - a term also favoured by donor governments. If Chapman scratched the surface, he would find that that stability is not quite what it seems. Human Rights Watch's field research has shown that disillusion and discontent are more prevalent among the population than is widely assumed and that they cut across political, ethnic and social lines, eating into Kagame's public support.

Agnès Uwimana Nkusi et Saidath Mukakibibi In prison since July 28, 2010

On June 24, 2010, U.S. agents in Manchester, New Hampshire arrested Rwandan genocide survivor Beatrice Munyenyezi, a Hutu and a U.S. citizen since 2004. Charged with lying on her immigration documents to conceal her alleged major role in genocide in Rwanda, Ms. Munyenyezi is also charged with rape as a war and genocide crime. Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor for the case is known for misconduct, falsification of evidence and perjury. Is it a crime to have a Facebook profile? Is it a crime to use a

“If the road would speak, then I wouldn’t be scared, if the birds would sing, then I would vow to never vanish,” wrote Beatrice Munyenyezi, “I wouldn’t be lost in the woods, a place where sound and noise is unheard of, and the sky, the sky is not even there to guide you, to guide me.”
So begins Beatrice Munyenyezi’s personalized account as a refugee who survived the slaughter of millions of people in Rwanda, in Zaire/Congo, and in neighboring countries, between 1990 and 1998—always erroneously defined as “the 1994 Rwanda genocide” where brutality is universally attributed to the Hutu ethnic group and Tutsis are always the only victims.
Ms. Munyenyezi has been transforming her ordeal of unspeakable brutality and terror into a book tentatively titled Life in the Middle of Nowhere: Surviving Genocide in Rwanda and Zaire. It is her version of Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire (2004) a renowned non-fiction book published in Europe and written by Marie Beatrice Umutesi, a Hutu and genocide survivor.
On Thursday June 24, 2010, this project abruptly came to a halt when Federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confiscated all of Ms. Munyenyezi’s texts, notes, documents, computers and other personal items. (ICE is the largest investigative agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.) Now her private testimony as a refugee and survivor will likely be used against her in another case of politically motivate genocide charges.
The U.S. Department of Justice has suggested that Beatrice Munyenyezi might be deported to face genocide charges in Rwanda. But Ms. Munyenyezi will be a milestone case: the first international legal proceedings in the United States involving a female of any ethnicity or nationality charged with rape as a genocide and war crime.
On June 24, 2010, Beatrice Munyenyezi (MOON’-yen-yezi) was arrested in Manchester, New Hampshire (USA) and charged, according to U.S. prosecutors, with “procuring U.S. citizenship unlawfully by misrepresenting her activities during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.”

According to the government of Rwanda, Beatrice Munyenyezi, 40, allegedly “participated in, committed, ordered, oversaw, conspired to, aided and abetted, assisted in and directed persecution, kidnapping, rape and murder during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.”
These are generic genocide charges used by the Rwandan military regime against all Hutus

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying reality : the Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron fist, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.

So long as justice and accountability for RPF past and current crimes are ignored and delayed, Peace and Stability will remain illusive and impossible in Rwanda=>ASIF]

We, Rwandan refugees and friends of Rwanda, request the United Nations High Commission for Refugees not to apply the cessation clause to Rwandan refugee protection status as it is currently exploring that option.
Conditions that sent many Rwandan citizens in exile are far from ceasing to exist and in some areas, have even become worse. Though the Rwandan refugee crisis has been cyclical since 1959, from the last massive exodus of Rwandans in 1994, the current government led by General Paul Kagame hasn’t engaged in any substantive effort to set conditions that will encourage refugees to return home voluntarily but rather used tactics of coercion and subversion to get some refugees, primarily from the neighboring countries, to return while on the other hand it set new threatening actions and speeches that sent more people in exile.

Here are few tangible non-exhaustive examples to depict the most recent threats on refugees:
• Just as recent as May 22, 2011, according to the BBC Newsnight – the British Police in London gave a warning to two prominent Rwandan refugees that they had reliable sources confirming that the government of Rwanda was hunting them down and that their lives could be in danger. For many Rwandan refugees, this is rather a common practice by the Rwandan government in a number of neighboring countries.
• On April 13, 2010, when presiding the swearing in ceremony of high ranking military officers before the Parliament, President Kagame compared Rwandans who were fleeing the country to human waste being excreted. And he added “Those who do well for the country [as well as] understanding the role they have, the country owns them…they live in it. But for the waste, the country throws them out. These are things that are automatic. If that is how it’s supposed to be, so be it.”Sign the petiton



The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

 Jeudi 17 mars 2011 à 11h01








 

Le colonel en retraite Luc Marchal, ancien numéro deux de la force de l'ONU au Rwanda lors du début du génocide de 1994 au Rwanda, a violemment critiqué la visite que le président de la Chambre, André Flahaut et le vice-président du Sénat, Willy Demeyer, ont effectué la semaine dernière à Kigali, dressant un parallèle avec celle de l'ex-ministre française des Affaires étrangères, Michèle Alliot-Marie, en Tunisie.

Le Colonel en retraite Luc Marschall en 2010

"Comment est-il possible que des responsables politiques, exerçant des fonctions importantes au sommet des structures démocratiques de notre pays et qui ont, précisément, la tâche de veiller au respect de la démocratie et de promouvoir ses idéaux de par le monde, vont se compromettre au sein d'une dictature pure et dure dont le chef est accusé, dans un récent rapport de l'ONU, d'être responsable de la mort de plusieurs millions de personnes?", écrit-il dans une lettre ouverte adressée à ces deux parlementaires et intitulée "Le voyage de la honte".

MM. Flahaut et Demeyer (PS tous deux) ont participé le 9 mars à Kigali à la conférence des présidents des parlements de la Communauté des pays des Grands Lacs (CEPGL), qui a adopté un texte portant sur les fonts baptismaux la création d'une force militaire régionale à la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), du Rwanda, et du Burundi. Ils ont également rencontré le président rwandais Paul Kagame.
"Comment justifier le parrainage d'une force militaire en y intégrant un Parti-Etat, le Rwanda, qui depuis plus de vingt ans sème la mort et la désolation dans la région? Faire croire que cet embryon d'armée commune serait un gage de stabilité dans cette zone martyre de l'Afrique est une duperie inique. Les forces de défense rwandaises sont composées à plus de 90% de Tutsis, alors que ceux-ci ne représentent qu'un faible pourcentage de la population du Rwanda", poursuit l'ex-ancien commandant du secteur Kigali de la Mission des Nations Unies au Rwanda (MINUAR).

"Par comparaison, que penser du cas de Michèle Alliot-Marie, contrainte à la démission de son poste ministériel pour s'être compromise avec le régime tunisien de Ben Ali, alors que ce dernier n'est ni accusé d'avoir fait assassiner deux autres chefs d'Etat ni accusé d'être responsable de la mort de plus de cinq millions de personnes ni accusé de piller depuis des années les richesses minières d'un pays voisin?", se demande encore le colonel Marchal.

Il souligne enfin que lorsque dix Casques bleus belges ont été sauvagement assassinés le 7 avril 1994, "c'est précisément parce qu'ils étaient tenus pour responsables de la mort du président (de l'époque, Juvénal) Habyarimana".
"Vous ne pouvez ignorer les lourdes présomptions de culpabilité qui pèsent sur Paul Kagame dans l'organisation et l'exécution de l'attentat du 6 avril. Etant donné ce contexte particulier, il me semble qu'une certaine retenue s'imposait, par respect pour la mémoire de nos dix Casques bleus martyrisés. Ce ne fut pas le cas. C'est la raison pour laquelle je ressens, douloureusement, votre voyage comme celui de la honte", conclut l'ancien officier.

♦ Levif.be avec Belga




The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

 Last month, I moderated a panel at Brown University on the topic of whether genocide could ever happen again. The details of the event can be found here:

Panelists include the Rwandan Ambassador to the US, James Kimonyo, as well as two prominent Rwanda human rights activists, Aloys Habimana and Noel Twagiramungu.


The Ambassador spoke aggressively, and did not leave much space for either Aloys or Noel to speak, probably because he knew that he would not agree with what they would have to say. Instead, I had to bring Kimonyo to heel twice as he spoke beyond his allotted time, accusing some of us on the panel of denying the 1994 genocide within his barrage that Rwanda will have another genocide if we (meaning foreigners, I think) continue to deny the genocide. For my part, because Kimonyo mentioned what he sees as my views to the audience, I spoke briefly to say that my position is, has been and always will be a desire to stop the killing by all sides, and to bring justice to the Great Lakes Region. Having similarly denounced Aloys and Noel as individuals whose work also tries to deny the genocide, one of them made the best comment of the panel, asking if the government of Rwanda itself was not denying genocide (by its own definition) in denouncing the UN Mapping Report of 1 October 2010.

Most interesting was the Ambassador's lack of knowledge about the opinions of his fellow panelists. He accused me and Aloys of being genocide deniers (his understanding of my views is from my blog, not my opinion pieces or academic writing; I am not sure where he gets his information on Aloys' ideas). His failure of logic is that you cannot deny what you cannot talk about. No thinking person denies that there was genocide in Rwanda in 1994 - what some of us argue is that the genocide occurred in a broader context of civil war in which Rwandans of all ethnicities were caught up in the violence. It is a shame that the current government of Rwanda cannot understand that. It is the lack of understanding, combined with intra-RPF conflict that will push Rwanda to another round of violence....
 
© Democracy Watch 

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

PRESS RELEASE







At long last, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has released its final report into horrendous crimes that were committed among others by Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), against Hutu refugees in DRC from 1996 to 2003. Although justice delayed is justice denied, we salute the bravery of the UNHCHR, for refusing to bow down to intense pressure from the government of President Kagame and its lobbies, in order to water down the tone of the report.
By publishing the report, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has honoured the mandate bestowed on it by the General Assembly as an independent UN body to cater for the promotion and protection of human rights, and for implementing the human rights programme within the UN. The legal qualification is clear and the facts are so chilling that something has to be done.

It is quite shocking to see negative forces struggling to belittle the crimes that engulfed, according to NGOs, more than 6 millions of DRC citizens and  Hutu refugees, by battling over the word "genocide".
 
Whatever the legal framing, the crimes listed are so chilling that their authors ought to be prosecuted.
1. The July 1995 Srebrenica killings landed Milosevic, Karadzic and other Serbs leaders into jail. Yet, the victims were, according to UN records, between 6,000 and 8,000.

2. The UPC leader, Thomas Lubanga was arrested, and charged in ICC with minor crimes of enlisting and using child soldiers. This was done under the pressure of some of the very powers which are today reluctant to prosecute Rwandan leaders.

3. The killing of Rafik Hariri in Lebanon prompted the United Nations to set up a special tribunal.
Why should the Rwandan Patriotic Army misdeeds not be exposed and prosecuted?

As the report eloquently shows, the killings were systematic, selective, methodical and carried out over a long period of time that they cannot be termed as collateral damage. Nothing can justify the massacres of children, women and elderly people and reducing to ashes their bodies. Alleging that there were elements from former Rwandan government forces among refugees does not at all give to RPA a license for wanton and massive killings.
The Rwandan government reaction filed in Geneva on the eve of the release of this report is sadistic and misleading:
- The Rwandan government does not as such deny the mass and large-scale killings. Instead, it considers them as "self-defence against the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide" (item 14). Some of the killings took place as far as Mbandaka, over 3,000 km in the West. It is hard to believe that those victims were posing a security threat to Rwanda.

- The Rwandan government also links the invasion to "cross—border attacks". The attacks on refugees started the very day RPA troops entered Gisenyi town on 18th July 1994. Indeed, mortar shells landed in the middle of crowds of refugees that were gathered in the vicinity of Goma airport. The airport had to be closed. So was the incursion of RPA in Birava in South Kivu in 1995.The assumption of self-defence betrays rather a well planned and premeditated crime.

- The claim by the Rwandan current regime of invading the DRC for "rescuing its own citizen and facilitating their return and reintegration (item 14) is another scapegoat illustration. There are reliable reports on killings targeting some returnees in different areas of the country. This is the case with the late catholic bishop Phocas Nikwigize of Ruhengeri who went missing at the crossing border of Gisenyi. Furthermore, the only military assault on refugees’ camps is a serious crime.

Leaving unprosecuted the master minders and perpetrators of these crimes, even for the selfish sake of not disturbing the UN peace keeping forces in Darfur (Sudan), or for the sake of a false analysis of regional stability will give licence to militarism and violence as means of achieving political goals.

The embers of hate and mistrust will not be put out as long as there will be a double standard justice in Rwanda.

When the Security Council set up the two ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, it considered truth-seeking and criminal punishment essential prerequisites for reconciliation and for maintaining or restoring peace (item 1010 of the UNHCHR report). The FDU-INKINGI fully agrees with this stance and expects the United Nations to bear this in mind. There will be no peace and sustainable development in the African Great Lakes Region in general and in Rwanda in particular, until there is fair justice and a fair road map to uproot the impunity. All the victims cry for justice and rehabilitation. The FDU- INKINGI urges the UN Security Council in particular, to fulfill its international obligations to punish genocide and crimes against humanity including the establishment of an appropriate international tribunal to punish the culprits within the current Rwandan regime and rehabilitate the victims of these absolute crimes.

 A regime accused of such atrocities has no longer any moral legitimacy to run a country, leave alone the fact that it has totally closed down the political space to opponents and through unfair elections that were marred by political killings of opposition leaders and independent journalists. Therefore, we call upon the UN to act on the report as a matter of urgency and ensure that a judicial mechanism is put in place. Otherwise, the UN will be betraying its mandate.
Victoire INGABIRE UMUHOZA

FDU-INKINGI

Chairperson

Related articles:.

• N. Report on Congo Massacres Draws Anger
• UN Report on Congo Atrocities

WishAFriend.comThe Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

1. 
   
   FACTBOX-U.N. report on Congo atrocities ,