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Thursday, August 5, 2010

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL : PRESS RELEASE

Rwanda: Pre-election attacks on politicians and journalists condemned.

Amnesty International condemns attacks on politicians and journalists in the run up to the presidential election on August 9 and calls on the government to ensure the poll is held in an atmosphere where Rwandans can freely express their views.

The murder of a journalist and an opposition politician – both critical of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) - in late June and mid-July has created a climate of repression likely to inhibit freedom of expression ahead of the vote, the organisation said.

“In recent months killings, arrests and the closure of newspapers and broadcasters has reinforced a climate of fear,” said Amnesty International’s Africa Programme Deputy Director, Tawanda Hondora. “The Rwandan government must ensure that investigations into the killings are thorough and reinstate closed media outlets.”

On 14 July, André Kagwa Rwisereka, the vice president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, was found dead in Butare, southern Rwanda. Amnesty International has obtained photographs that show that his head was severed from his body.
Rwisereka, who left the RPF to create the Green Party, had reportedly been concerned for his security in the weeks before his murder. Other Green Party members said they had also received threats.

Investigations into Rwisereka’s death continue, but insufficient evidence has been gathered to press charges, according to the Prosecution.

Positive pictures of Rwanda, such as the country’s famous gorilla trails for tourists, are used to change its image

Photograph: Getty Images

[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying 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 hand, 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]

When Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda's foreign minister, was due to speak at her country's high commission in London reporters from the world's media waited inside a fake Rwandan village hut and leafed through glossy brochures promoting the country's famous gorilla trails.Smart-suited young British PR executives poured Rwandan coffee and burbled about presenting "a different image" and focusing on "mountains, gorillas, crops" – all part of the country's increasing efforts to reinvent itself 16 years after it was torn apart by genocide. Alluring offers were held out of trips to the nature reserves for journalists willing to write up such topics, and when Mushikiwabo arrived she wanted to share "the good news that has been taking place in Rwanda". There are more women in parliament than any other country and it has been admitted to the Commonwealth. "We are at a time in our post-genocide history where we have to move on," she said.

As Rwanda prepares to go to the polls on Monday to elect a president for only the second time since 1994, this public relations drive, masterminded by the incumbent president, Paul Kagame, this week faces its sternest test. The government is facing accusations, which it denies, of state murder and corrupting the democratic process. Will the international community accept that Rwanda has indeed, moved on?

Tasked with persuading the world is London PR firm Racepoint, hired by Kagame. "You used to Google Rwanda and the first thing you would see would be about genocide," said Cathy Pittman, Racepoint's managing director. "Now we are feeding content and stories to journalists about the economy and culture. A lot of it is about images."

It sometimes works. A writer from Foreign Direct Investment magazine was taken on a trip to Rwanda by Racepoint and wrote a piece in February which stated Rwanda "prides itself on having zero corruption" and that "Rwanda is poised to become Africa's newest success story".
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, in a report last year, found that Rwanda has "excellent public relations machinery" which has succeeded in "persuading the key members of the international community that it has an exemplary constitution emphasising democracy, power-sharing, and human rights which it fully respects". It concluded: "The truth is, however, the opposite."

Rwanda's constitution, the report said, was "a facade which hides the exclusionary and repressive nature of the regime", "basic human rights are in an unsatisfactory state", "censorship is prevalent" and there are "serious concerns about the level of political freedom".
On 24 June Jean Leonard Rugambage, a dissident journalist, was approached at the gate of his home in Kigali by two gunmen and shot twice in the neck. The killing sparked accusations and denials that his murder was commissioned by the government, which had already withdrawn his newspaper's licence to print.

Hutu opposition politician Victoire Ingabire has failed to secure registration to stand in the election, leading to claims Kagame's regime is blocking her candidacy. At Racepoint's suggestion, James Musoni, Rwanda's local government minister, wrote an opinion piece for British newspapers, which was pitched to the Guardian, among others, to try to deal with these issues.
It concluded somewhat ambiguously: "The government is determined to ensure these elections go ahead peacefully and fairly – without interference from those inside and outside the country who stand to gain from stirring up instability."

Racepoint also arranged for a Guardian journalist to interview Kagame in Kigali. The resulting story was published on 28 May and focused on the allegations.
Earlier this month, opposition politician Andre Kagawa Rwisereka was found dead, reportedly nearly decapitated, sparking concern that the killing was politically motivated.

Rwanda is not alone among regimes with controversial human rights records to turn to London's PR firms for help. Others have hired leading outfits such as Bell Pottinger, led by Lord Bell, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher; Portland PR, which counts Michael Portillo among its advisers; and Hill and Knowlton, better known for representing Adidas, Castrol and Nissan. Leading consultants have fanned out from London to win contracts as far afield as China, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Zambia.

A recent report into the phenomenon in Brussels by Corporate Europe Observatory, a campaign group which researches the power of corporate lobbying, said: "Secrecy among both embassies and consultancies keeps much of this phenomenon out of public sight … some of the consultancies are lobbying on behalf of governments which are directly or indirectly responsible for serious human rights violations."

London's growing status for reputation management is partly down to the time zone, language, and the important role for their clients of British publications with large international readerships including the Economist and the Financial Times, PR executives said.
"If you are managing a client's reputation, whether individual, company or country, it is the Anglo-Saxon media that matters and particularly the London-based media," said Ivo Gabara, who advises the Kazakhstan foreign ministry on press relations in London. "Coverage in the US is important but what is said out of London will determine your global reputation."

An Amnesty report on Kazakhstan earlier this year stated that "torture or other ill-treatment of individuals deprived of their liberty, whether formally detained or in de facto unacknowledged detention, continue to be routinely used".

"I take on business I am comfortable to identify myself with," said Gabara. "In Kazakhstan I see a country making progress on every front including its human rights record, media legislation and political freedom."

The doyen of this business is Lord Bell, the chairman of Chime Group, which runs Bell Pottinger. His firm's political contracts include Sri Lanka, where the government was recently accused of war crimes and Madagascar, where he acts for the former president, Marc Ravalomanana, who was forced out following violent clashes and was sentenced in absentia to four years in jail for abuse of office in buying a presidential jet. Bell's position on the ethics of which contracts to take is simple.

"I wouldn't do anything I would do a bad job on," he said. "It is about the direction of travel. I don't choose to sit in judgment on whether they are going fast enough. If the direction of travel is right then I am perfectly happy to help them."

Another big UK firm, Hill and Knowlton, has contracts with the Malaysian government's cyber security agency; the Singapore prime minister; city governments in Beijing, Shanghai and Chonqing; and Saudi Arabia's investment authority. Portland PR works for the Kremlin while Africa Practice, whose director, Marcus Courage, helped run Mwai Kibaki's presidential campaign in Kenya which was followed by a wave of violence, is working for the government in Gabon.

A PR executive who has worked for governments in eastern Europe and Africa said working for foreign governments was sometimes an exercise in "spinning them into legitimacy".
"You are often paid a lot to do something that you know from the outset you will not be able to achieve," he said on condition of anonymity. "It is almost like a con. You can't spray perfume on a turd. It will smell nice for a while, but eventually it will smell like what it is."
He said he was once offered, but turned down, a £2m two-year contract by the Sudanese government to produce PR about Darfur. With such fees on offer competition is growing.

"Firms distinguish on whether they are being asked to do anything unethical rather than whether their client is acting in that way, rather as a lawyer would take on the case of a criminal," said a senior partner in a leading firm which contested the recent Kazakhstan contract. "We are paid to put the best case on behalf of the client."

Another PR firm with an office in London, Marston Nicholson, produces the Kazakhstan Live website, which has featured items on folk music and apple harvests.

Morris International Associates, a London firm, manages UK media relations for the Saudi Arabian government, including arranging briefings with the London ambassador, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf al-Saud, and press trips to the kingdom. In 2009 Saudi authorities executed, mainly by beheading, 102 men and women for offences ranging from drug possession and blasphemy to rape and murder, according to Amnesty International. In its latest annual report on the kingdom, the human rights organisation said: "Torture and other ill-treatment continued to be widespread and committed with impunity. Commonly cited methods include severe beatings with sticks, electric shocks, suspension from the ceiling, punching, sleep deprivation and insults."

Ann Morris, a director of the company, acknowledged the country had a mixed reputation and "terrible things happen everywhere", but she insisted the Saudi government "deserves to have the many, many positive things emphasised and pushed forward". She said: "Our aim is very much to develop a better understanding," she said. It is quite often lop-sided. It is quite difficult for some countries to swim above that and show the good things they are doing. Nobody is suggesting any country is perfect but we are trying to get a balance."

Her firm has arranged meetings with Saudi officials for the Guardian and other newspapers.
PR consultants who profess to maintaining high ethical standards said they would not take contracts if they believed their clients' values would reflect badly on them.

"You need to see the whites of their eyes and if you think they want you to spin and promote a picture of their regime which is untrue, it is an unacceptable contract," said Simon Cohen, managing director of Global Tolerance, an agency which has worked for the Dalai Lama, the Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation and the Green Party. "PR and communication agencies have to ask if the people they are working with are aligned with their values."
Beneath the PR façade
Rwanda

The PR says: "The Rwandan government has gained significant international support in the past few years precisely because of the stability and reconciliation it has brought to the country." - An article written by James Musoni, minister of local government in conjunction with Racepoint, a London public relations firm, June 2010

A human rights NGO says: "It uses the constitution opportunistically as a façade, which hides the exclusionary and repressive nature of the regime; relies on power structures that sometimes run parallel to, and sometimes cross-cuts, the formal government; and in which the army plays a central role." - Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative report August 2009.
The PR says: "We are ready to engage positively with anyone and everyone around the world who wishes to help us achieve our dream of a united and prosperous land and enable Sri Lanka to take its rightful place in the world as an island of unsurpassed beauty, enterprise and now peace." - Sri Lankan president Rajapaksa in an article pitched to the Guardian by Bell Pottinger, a PR group, in December 2009.

Amnesty says: "At the end of the war, atrocities against civilians and enemy combatants appeared to be fuelled by a sense that there would be no real international consequences for violating the law." - Madhu Malhotra, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific region in March 2010

Kazakhstan

The PR says

"Political stability, religious tolerance and a unique location at the crossroads of China, Russia and Europe gives Kazakhstan a stabilising role for the whole region – as well as making it the perfect host for the Congress of World Religions." Kazakhstan Live – website created for the Kazakhstan foreign ministry by Marston-Nicholson.

The UN says

"I conclude that the use of torture and ill-treatment certainly goes beyond isolated instances. I have received many credible allegations of beatings with hands and fists, plastic bottles filled with sand, police truncheons; of kicking, asphyxiation through plastic bags and gas masks used to obtain confessions from suspects." Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment following a visit to Kazakhstan in May 2009
***

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

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Communiqué de Presse N° 06/2010/PNR

République Démocratique du Congo

Le 2 Aout 2010

Déclaration du PNR sur l'insécurité de Beni, Lubero et Butembo au Nord-Kivu.

À la suite des récentes séries des crimes et assassinats du peuple congolais victimes de l’insécurité totale qui continue de régner dans les territoires de Beni, Lubero et la ville de Butembo au Nord-Kivu; le Parti National pour la Réforme (PNR) présente ses condoléances les plus attristées.
Dans notre pays la République démocratique du Congo, pas un seul jour ne passe sans qu’on enregistre soit des actes des crimes, des assassinats ciblés ou des violences sexuelles humainement indescriptibles faites aux femmes et aux enfants. Pour le seul mois de juillet, plus de sept assassinats dans l’axe Beni-Lubero- Butembo sont des faits évidents de l’incapacité du gouvernement actuel de ramener la paix dans notre pays et de former un gouvernement dans lequel chacun se reconnaîtrait; qui rétablit la paix et consolide le respect des droits humains pour tous.

Depuis le début de la guerre d’invasion de 1998, l’Est de la République Démocratique du Congo, a été livré aux prédateurs de toute sorte dont l’objectif principal est de pousser notre nation dans la voie de la dislocation et du démembrement. La stratégie pour y arriver parait de prouver d’abord à la population et aux yeux du monde que le Congo est ingouverné et qu’il est ingouvernable. Ces séries quotidiennes des carnages laissent derrières elles la désolation profonde, preuve de la complaisance du gouvernement de Kinshasa qui ne peut pas traîner ces criminels devant la justice.
Alors que notre pays vient de célébrer ses 50 ans d’indépendance, il est digne de se poser la question : Jusque quand le peuple congolais va-t-il continuer de compter les cadavres de leurs frères et sœurs assassinés. Certes, cela confirme la limite du gouvernement actuel de protéger ses citoyens et leurs biens.

En effet, pendant que Kinshasa fait semblant comme si la paix et la sécurité sont rétablies sur l’étendue nationale, l’axe Beni-Lubero- Butembo est devenu un abattoir des crimes en séries, au vue et su des forces de l’ordre public et de la MONUSCO. Ce qui est encore inquiétant c’est de constater que pas de communiqué officiel du gouvernement provincial de Goma ou central de Kinshasa n’a été rendu public pour dénoncer ces actes de crimes qui endeuillent le peuple congolais.

C’est cynique et curieux de remarquer que cette stratégie correspond exactement à celle qui a amené Laurent Nkundabatware et ses hommes à se positionner comme un partenaire incontournable dans le retour de la paix à l’Est du Congo alors qu’il n’était qu’un valet du Rwanda qui, aujourd’hui le garde à Kigali à l’abri de toute impunité.

La liste des victimes de nos frères et sœurs du Nord-Kivu allonge celle des paisibles citoyens, des hommes d’affaire, des militants des droits humains, des journalistes et des citoyens de toutes les catégories sociales qui sont régulièrement massacrés et dont les auteurs et commanditaires circulent encore en toute liberté et savourent en toute quiétude les retombées dans le gouvernement.

Dans ces circonstances douloureuses, le PNR exprime à travers ce message, ses sympathies à chaque famille affectée par ces actes d’irresponsabilité du gouvernement congolais, aux citoyens du Kivu et au peuple congolais en général.
Le Parti National pour la Reforme croit sincèrement que le seul salut pour sortir de cette insécurité résidé dans la capacité du peuple congolais à s’organiser pour apporter un changement à Kinshasa. La liberté du peuple congolais ne viendra que de lui seul; en refusant comme un seul homme, d’accorder les voix électorales à un gouvernement qui, une fois au pouvoir, tourne le dos aux électeurs qui lui ont conduit pouvoir en lui accordant la majorité électorale écrasante.
C’est ainsi que le PNR lance un appel au rendez-vous historique de la reforme, car il est impérieux de déclencher par des actions qui mènent à la victoire, un combat démocratique contre cette fragilisation de notre chère nation qui se manifeste concrètement par l’insécurité permanente de notre peuple et dont les bénéficiaires continuent de tirer leurs dividendes dans le système actuel. Il faut donc changer ce système en vue de réformer l’armée et les services de sécurité pour rétablir la paix par une armée vraiment nationale qui sécurise nos frontières et assure la sécurité des personnes et de leurs biens.
Tout en saluant la volonté de la présidence et du gouvernement d’organiser des élections dans les délais impartis, le Président national du PNR, Monsieur Delphin Kyubwa, exhorte le gouvernement congolais à mettre fin à l’insécurité totale entretenue à l’est du pays. Celle-ci ne rassure pas la bonne volonté du gouvernement de voir ces élections se dérouler dans les bonnes conditions.

Au nom du respect des droits et valeurs humains, le PNR exige de manière claire et sans équivoque que la communauté internationale exerce son influence sur le gouvernement congolais pour que justice soit faite et que des enquêtes impartiales soient menées sur ces assassinats et ailleurs en République démocratique du Congo.
Que les âmes de nos frères et sœurs victimes de ces séries de crimes odieux et douloureux reposent en paix!
Ci-dessous un lien qui vous permet de voir les images de cette tragédie dans l’axe Beni-Lubero- Butembo. Soyez avertis, ce sont des images très dures.
Voici le lien :
http://www.pnrcongo.net/files/39990760.pdf

Mwene Nabulizi Samba
Communications et Relations publiques du Cabinet du Président national du PNR

Site: www.pnrcongo.net
A propos du PNR
Le PNR est un mouvement politique agrée par arrêté ministériel No 109/2010 du 15 Juin 2010 qui incarne les aspirations profondes du peuple congolais de réformer fondamentalement la gestion politique du pays. Le PNR entend donc actionner une révolution pour réformer le Congo en combattant les mauvaises pratiques politiques qui sont à la base de la misère du peuple et de la culture d’impunité. Pour plus d’ information sur le PNR: www.pnrcongo. net
*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

Rwanda: Attacks on Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Association, and Freedom of Assembly in the Run-up to Presidential Election

The following is a chronology of violations of the right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly in Rwanda, and related events, from January through July 2010, leading up to presidential elections on August 9. Human Rights Watch documents listed in related materials provide additional information on some of these cases.

The chronology focuses primarily on selected incidents affecting members of opposition parties, journalists, and nongovernmental organizations. It is not an exhaustive list, and Human Rights Watch has documented additional incidents that are not included.

Kagame will have his breaking point and I think it will be very soon.

Written by ROBERT MUKOMBOZI

Monday, 02 August 2010 06:19

Karegeya says ‘dictators’ don’t step down, they are ‘brought down’

President Kagame himself decided to step in, branding Nyamwasa, a nobody, with some reports even suggesting he (Kagame) had referred to both Gen. Kayumba and Col. Patrick Karegeya as human excrete! Talk about stooping so low!

"You can fool the world for sometime but you cannot fool the world forever"

Jailed twice over alleged indiscipline, desertion and insubordination, PATRICK KAREGEYA was stripped of his rank of Colonel. The former Rwandan intelligence chief later fled to exile in 2007. He spoke to ROBERT MUKOMBOZI late last month about his fallout with President Kagame, escape, and life in South Africa.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Paul Kagame assassinated Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa

Posted by Ann Garisson

"The world is stopping its ears because a larger ideology has been put into circulation, compared to which everything else is relative. Genocide become ‘ideological’ then works like a blank check that the current US administration has issued to Rwanda and Uganda to do anything they want to all the communities around in total impunity."

This last week we have seen a surge of articles in western media aiming to legitimize Paul Kagame's ongoing election rigging. Newsweek on the one hand gave a free ride to Rwanda's Foreign Minister to portray the regime in a very favorable light. The Guardian and Time on the other hand have published articles in which they try to put Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's political party in a negative light without giving her a chance to react to their venomous slander and unproven allegations. Alex Perry has done so by intentionally misquoting her. Matteo Fagotto does so by quoting some anonymous opposition figure and concluding "The shortcomings of the opposition (he means UDF-Ingkingi) are undeniable".Christophe Munzihirwa, Archbishop in Bukavu until his assassination by Paul Kagame's thugs in 1996, witnessed RPF crimes from very close range from 1994 to 1996 and informed the world:

Let me remind the readers that Paul Kagame is responsable for counter-genocide in Congo, as reported for example by Newsweek in 2003:

The funeral of Monsignor Emmanuel Kataliko [© Associated Press/LaPresse

"For years, Rwanda mercilessly pursued Hutu refugees on the run in Congo. This campaign, still ongoing in some areas, amounted to a counter-genocide, but the World was unwilling or unable to stop it. During the overthrow of Mobutu in 1996, Rwandan troops systematically went to Congolese villages killing all the Hutus they could find. They massacred as many as 350,000 Hutu refugees, former U.S.

Assistant Secretary of State Herman Cohen estimates.

"The embarrassed USA and Great Britain are seeking a way out but are worried the removal of Kagame may interfere with the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or lead to another genocide in Rwandan and Eastern DRC" a Western diplomat in Kinshasa told AfroAmerica Network.

When all hell broke loose in 1996, the invasion of Congo by Rwandan troops disguised as Congolese rebels, Christophe Munzihirwa was archbishop in Bukavu . The representatives of the UNHCR had left Bukavu when it became clear that the attack by RPF troops was imminent, leaving Christophe Munzihirwa behind. Together with Spanish missionaries hee stood by refugees until 29 october 1996, the day he was Assassinated. Joseph Mukabalera has written a thesis on Christophe Munzihirwa work for refugees in Bukavu 1994 to 1996 at the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles). On wikipedia we read:

"Specifically during the attack on the city of Bukavu and the beginning of the massacres of Hutu refugees in South Kivu in the DRC (former Zaire) by the army of Paul Kagame. Officials of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had packed up, well before October 1996 and the attack on the DRC (formerly Zaire) was imminent. The first victim of this attack was Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa. He had spared no effort to help refugees (since they had come into Congo in 1994).
The night of his assassination, he had helped two tutsi trappist sisters to a place where they felt safe. The humanitarian and moral support by the Archbishop to Rwandan refugees from 1994 to 1996 had attracted the wrath of the RPF government in Rwanda against the catholic priests and brotherhoods of the DRC. This explains why Bishop Munzihirwa and Spanish missionaries were the first target of an armed commando when the town of Bukavu and the Hutu refugee camps were attacked."

Paul Kagame's RPF systematic assassinations of catholic priests in the DRC reminds us of the horrific crimes by Russia's communist revolutionaries in 1918

Those who claim peace in the great lakes region is served by revolutionaries like Paul Kagame have taken a wrong exit at some point. I am amazed that a Republican like James Inhofe supports a guy that has more revolutionary credentials then Che Guevara or Fidel Castro combined.
Or is it that liberal and anti-christian journalists like Alex Perry did not care about the fact that Catholic priests were butchered by Paul Kagame in Congo? That could be an explanation why Christophe Munzihirwa won't pop up in articles about Congo in English media.
Josh Trevino, co-founder of Redstate, Chuck Devore's campaign manager (Republican) recently twittered: "It's probably past time for Paul Kagame to go". As Huckabee blogger during the primaries, I fully agree! Which reminds me of Mike's words when he made his candidacy official in New Hampshire:
"what makes this a great country is when its citizens take their responsibility seriously as citizens, and stand not because of the outcome but because of their hearts, their souls and what they truely believe is important for America."
Exactedly, that's what makes a country great, when citizens stand up, like Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa, for what they truely believe in.

©olored Opinions
*
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

Dutch government Helping Kagame Rigg Elections? ?

The Dutch Government Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen recently answered questions (google translated) in Parliament concerning Rwanda's election. (These answers were published online in Dutch on 30-7-2010).

Dutch version can be found here.

The rush transcript shows that the Dutch government refutes all claims by the Rwandan opposion parties of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Frank Habineza and Ntaganda that the process sofar has been rigged and since july the Dutch government is apparently copresiding the Rwandan National Electoral Commission.

The translated answer by Maxime Verhagen which specifically refutes an important claim by the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties states:

"The claim of the PCC that the independence of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) would only be guaranteed through the participation of opposition is not shared by me. The PCC is the fact that the chairman of the NEC is a member of the RPF. Neutrality, however, effectively monitored by the co-chair a donor. Netherlands since July 2010 as co-chairman of the NEC is active and is also responsible for setting the agenda and it is taken up by specific topics.
The NEC is directly involved in the process for the adjustment of the electoral law and also responsible for the electoral process. The NEC shall also ensure that the fairness of the campaign, eg by checking that the media focus on their current four candidates distribute evenly. The registration of presidential candidates was held at the NEC. "

On Frank Habineza the statement by Maxime Verhagen states that his party wanted to participate without fulfilling all condition, which is (my translation) " participating without holding a founding meeting, which is considered contrary to Rwandan constitution." A statement that totally ignores the fact that the Rwandan government has made it impossible, through Kafkaesk measures, for the Green Party to hold such a meeting.

I advise those holding a meeting in August 3 in DC "Rwandan Elections: Implications for Peace and Stability in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region" to carefully read the transcript and to specifically adress the fact that the Dutch government is now member of the Rwandan NEC.
Has anyone in the world ever seen a foreign government be part of a National Electoral Commission?
If you want to read how Kagame rigged the 2003 elections, read here

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

Le Gouvernement Congolais doit Aider les 90.000 Personnes Déplacées

MJPC exhorte le gouvernement congolais et ses alliés militaires étrangers à mener des opérations militaires qui prennent en compte le devoir de protéger les civils. La déclaration a été publiée à l'issue d'un nouveau rapport de l'Office des Nations Unies pour la coordination des affaires humanitaires (OCHA), qui signale de nouveaux cas de meurtre, pillages, viols, et d'autres violations des droits humains parmi les personnes déplacées.

Le bras humanitaire des Nations Unies a signalé que, selon les autorités congolaises locales, près de 90.000 personnes ont été déracinées de leurs maisons suite à une récente opération militaire lancée par l'armée congolaise (FARDC) contre les combattants associés au groupe rebelle ougandais connu sous le nom démocratique des Forces démocratiques alliées - Armée nationale de libération de l'Ouganda (ADF/NALU) dans le territoire de Beni, province du Nord Kivu.En dépit du nombre alarmant de nouvelles personnes déplacées dans le besoin urgent de nourriture, abris, eau et soins de santé, le gouvernement congolais n'a pas encore pris de mesures concretes pour fournir les populations déplacées une protection et des assistances adéquates.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Don't think that this is history. It is not. It is happening right here : The Great Purge in Rwanda

Don't think that this is history. It is not. It is happening right here, and it's happening right now in Rwanda.

Abuses of Human Rights in Rwanda – January to July 2010

It involved a large-scale purge of the RPF political party and the RPF government officials, repression of the Hutu community from intellectuals to peasants, the RPF leadership, and the persecution of the Tutsi democrates, characterized by the RPF widespread police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "genocide deniers", disapperarances, imprisonment following the campaign of Hutu intellectuals by Kagame's permanent free labor force "Gacaca", torture in prison, RPF secret services terror and intimidations, executions and mass-murder. Every single day, the Hutu prisoners are made to lie face down and beaten on the soles of their feet and their spine with a rubber strap.

Commonwealth to monitor Rwanda's 2010 election? Which election, a one-man-show?
Number of people executed:Since 2003, Kagame dispatches th elocal defense forces throughout the country and proceed to execute hundred thousands of having ties with the FDLR or acused of carrying out the genocidal ideology. Many are subsequently shot dead .
My brother Kyomuhendo-Ateenyi posted on his face book wall a link to a profile of Gen. Kagame of Rwanda who is milking life from all Rwandans who attempt not to think like him. On following this link; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10479882.stm , the BBC story shocked me by the level of repression being practiced in Rwanda. The story lists the individuals that have been assassinated or harassed for opposing Kagame. I will adopt the list as it is;
◦1995: Journalist Manasse Mugabo disappears in Kigali; not seen again

◦1996: First post-genocide Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga and businessman Augustin Bugirimfura shot dead in Nairobi

◦1998: Journalist Emmanuel Munyemanzi disappears from Kigali; body spotted in city but not returned to family

◦1998: RPF MP and government intelligence chief before the genocide Theoneste Lizinde assassinated in Nairobi

◦2000: First post-genocide President Pasteur Bizimungu’s adviser, Asiel Kabera, shot dead in Kigali
◦2003: EX-RPF officer and top judge Augustin Cyiza and magistrate Eliezar Runyaruka disappear from Kigali; not seen again

◦2003: Opposition MP Leonard Hitimana disappears from Kigali; not seen again

◦2010: Ex-RPF officer Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa shot and wounded in Johannesburg

◦2010: Journalist Jean-Leonard Rugambage gunned down in Kigali

◦2010: Reporter Dominique Makeli survives abduction in Kampala

Source; BBC.

In May, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson announced that the U.S. government plans to send a dozen teams of election observers to Rwanda before the Aug. 9 polls, but many Rwandans now say they will only be wasting U.S. taxpayers’ money.

“There is no reason to vote if you don’t have a choice.” – Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza

“Why do people seriously think of going there to observe elections?” asked Charles Kambanda, an American of Rwandan origin, former member of Kagame’s RPF Party and former professor at Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda. “Which elections are they going to observe? There is nothing to be observed, because what we have is a one-man show. What we have is a situation where the government has created the so-called opposition.

In this pre-1997 map, Congo is shown as Zaire.“The RPF has kicked out all the real opposition leaders. They are either under house arrest, like Ms. Victoire Ingabire, or in prison like Me Ntaganda Bernard or they are already dead or they are in exile.”
“Foreign election observers planning to go to Rwanda to observe the ‘election’ this August are wasting time and money,” said Aimable Mugara. “I would recommend that they stay in their countries and write their reports based on all the insane actions Gen. Kagame’s ruling party has taken since the beginning of this year, actions that make this so-called election null and void.”

The United States government has provided not only election observers but also over $1,034,000,000 in United States taxpayer-funded foreign assistance to Rwanda since 2000. An additional $240,200,000 is proposed in the president’s fiscal year 2011 budget.

Purge of the the intellectuals: most of them accused of gencide ideology. Widespread arrests and arbitrary executions of the Hutu intellectuals. Many books and writings were destroyed (large numbers were burnt) to make easier the re-writing of the Rwandan History. RPF deputy chair Tito Rutaremara and Antoine Mugesera have ordered the destructions of all books contrary to the RPF ideology and Kagame'scenario of the chronological events of the Rwandan History.

Political Repression in Rwanda: Widespread Arrests of Journalists and Opposition Politicians

Many are imprisoned and 1,500died in prisons and 8,000 to 21,000 in concentration camps. Repression and Terror: Kagame in Control as he said nobody can't make a coup d'Etat. Kagame set the stage for gaining absolute power by employing police repression against opposition elements within the RPF organization. The machinery of coercion had previously been used only against Hutus, not against RPF members themselves. We saw execution of the interior Tutsi and recently the attempt of assassination of the General kayumba nyamwasa, ....who are expelled from the party.

Paul Kagame eliminates all likely potential opposition to his leadership and is the unchallenged leader accross the country. Nevertheless, he proceeds to purge the RPF rank and file and to terrorize the entire country with widespread arrests and executions. During the ensuing Great Terror, which includes the notorious show trials of General Nyamwasa and reaches its peak recently, millions of innocent Hutu Rwandans are actually sent off to labor camps or killed in prison.

Since 1994, Kagame manages to bring both the RPF and the public to a state of complete submission to his rule. The RPF regime is so atomized and the people so fearful of reprisals that mass arrests are no longer necessary. General Kagame rules as absolute dictator of Rwanda throughout 1994-2009.
Other victims are nobility and political and academic figures, along with some ordinary Hutu ethnic menbers. Mass graves containing hundreds of executed Hutus monks and civilians are discovered daily in different places.
Condition for "confessing"

The wide purge :
Although the trials of Hutu intellectuals are widely publicized, the hundreds of thousands of other arrests and executions are not reported to the public opinion.

Kagame is personally and intimately involved in the RPF terror against the Rwandan Hutu and interior Tutsis. The arrested are accused of conspiring with the terrorist groups namely FDLR and the genocide deniers to assassinate Kagame and other RPF leaders, dismember the RPF government and restore the democratic regime.
We have a duty to act. The international community could wait no longer to achieve peace, end tragedy in Rwanda, and fight the RPF terrorism. “We can wait no longer.”
Mass graves and memorials.
United Nations soldiers believe they have uncovered mass graves in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where hundreds of civilians executed by Rwandan soldiers were buried.
The discovery of those mass graves of the assassinated of Hutu refugees did not destroy Rwanda's image as a country that recovered from genocide to become one of east Africa's most benign and stable regimes.
These mass graves, the largest of their kind so far found in the region, are expected to provide evidence of the atrocities carried out by the Rwandan army and put international pressure on the Rwandan and Congolese governments to investigate the killings.

JUSTICE, TRUTH SEEKING, PEACE LOVING PEOPLE OF THE GREATLAKES REGION OF EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA, AND ALL WELL WISHERS LIVING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM; IT IS YOUR TURN TO COME OUT AND BE COUNTED!

Rwanda's Tutsi-led government is oppressing Hutus in throughout Rwanda and in the neighboring Uganda and the ethnic divisions that sparked Rwanda's 1994 genocide have re-emerged.

"They squeezed my neck attempting to strangle me. I pretended that I was dead," he said. "They moved a short distance from me and one of them made a phone call."
Speaking in Rwanda's Kinyarwanda language, the attacker reported that Uwimana was dead, and "they should send a vehicle to take away my dead body."

*
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

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