A Candle For Remembering
May this memorial candle lights up the historical past of our beloved Country: Rwanda, We love U so much. If Tears could build a stairway. And memories were a lane. I would walk right up to heaven. To bring you home again. No farewell words were spoken. No time to say goodbye. You were gone before I knew it And. Only Paul Kagame knows why. My heart still aches with sadness. And secret tears still flow. What It meant to lose you. No one will ever know.
Why did Kagame this to me?
Can't forget. He murdered my mother. What should be my reaction? FYI: the number of orphans in Rwanda has skyrocketed since the 1990's Kagame's invasion. Much higher numbers of orphans had and have no other option but joining FDLR fighters who are identified as children that have Lost their Parents in Kagame's Wars inside and outside of Rwanda.If someone killed your child/spouse/parent(s) would you seek justice or revenge? Deep insight: What would you do to the person who snuffed the life of someone I love beyond reason? Forgiving would bring me no solace. If you take what really matters to me, I will show you what really matters. NITUTIRWANAHO TUZASHIRA. IGIHE KIRAGEZE.If democracy is to sell one's motherland(Africa), for some zionits support, then I prefer the person who is ready to give all his live for his motherland. Viva President Putin!!!
RPF committed the unspeakable
The perverted RPF committed the UNSPEAKABLE.Two orphans, both against the Nazi world. Point is the fact that their parents' murder Kagame & his RPF held no shock in the Western world. Up to now, the Rwandan Hitler Kagame and his death squads still enjoy impunity inside and outside of Rwanda. What goes through someone's mind as they know RPF murdered their parents? A delayed punishment is actually an encouragement to crime, In Praise of the ongoing Bloodshed in Rwanda. “I always think I am a pro-peace person but if someone harmed someone near and dear to me, I don't think I could be so peaceful. I would like to believe that to seek justice could save millions of people living the African Great Lakes Region - I would devote myself to bringing the 'perp' along to a non-happy ending but would that be enough? You'd have to be in the situation I suppose before you could actually know how you would feel or what you would do”. Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Libre Penseur
Hutu Children & their Mums
Look at them ! How they are scared to death. Many Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi, Foreign human rights advocates, jounalists and and lawyers are now on Death Row Waiting to be murdered by Kagame and his RPF death squads. Be the last to know.
Almighty God :Justice for US
Hutu children's daily bread: Intimidation, Slavery, Sex abuses led by RPF criminals and Kagame, DMI: Every single day, there are more assassinations, imprisonment, brainwashing & disappearances. Do they have any chance to end this awful life?
Killing Hutus on daily basis
RPF targeted killings, very often in public areas. Killing Hutus on daily basis by Kagame's murderers and the RPF infamous death squads known as the "UNKNOWN WRONGDOERS"
RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya
Rape, torture and assassination and unslaving of hutu women. Genderside: Rape has always been used by kagame's RPF as a Weapon of War, the killings of Hutu women with the help of Local Defense Forces, DMI and the RPF military
The Torture in Rwanda flourishes
How torture flourishes across Rwanda despite extensive global monitoring
Fighting For Our Freedom?
We need Freedom, Liberation of our fatherland, Human rights respect, Mutual respect between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
[Global: Africa]
With respect to the United Nations Report officially released October 1, showing the role of the RPF and other parties in genocide against Hutus in the Congo (1993-2003).
I think that the language used in the report is much less important than the pattern of commission of massive crimes against civilians, killing 6 million or more, and the illegal extraction of resources from the eastern Congo which the report confirms, once again.
The same information was contained in reports commissioned by the Security Council in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2008.Former President Bill Clinton--
U.S. complicity in Central Africa genocide?
The Spanish indictment also details more than 300,000 deaths prefecture by prefecture committed by the RPF in Rwanda during 1994, and the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, as a means to trigger Burundi-like civilian massacres to de-stabilize Rwanda as part of the RPF war plan, is well-documented in UN documents in the public record at the ICTR, as well.It is this evidence that caused the ICTR to find Gen. Gratien Kabiligi not guilty of all charges, and to find Col Theoneste Bagosora, Col. Anatole Nsengiyumva and Maj. Aloys Ntabakuze not guilty of "conspiracy and long-term planning to commit genocide," which completely rejects the RPF story of the "Rwandan-genocide" and is why I was arrested as a genocide denier by the Kagame regime.
The Past Is The Past..... (talking about genocide against Hutus and recent murders of the RPF before the August elections).
Just Forget It And Move On => In Rwanda
The infamous Rick Warren' statement at Kagame's swearing in ceremony
It was stated more out of cynism and irony than anything else. => simple observation (ASIF)
This does not deny mass violence took place, but the mass violence did not take place as described by the RPF victors in the Rwanda War. Whether the massive RPF crimes in Congo are called "war crimes," "crimes against humanity" or "genocide" the punishment is the same under international law. President Kagame's insistence that the Report's language be changed does not change the fact that ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had the evidence to prosecute him and the RPF in 2003 or earlier, and was prevented from doing so by the U.S. State Department. "
Toning down" the language is far from being able to "bury" the entire report, as the U.S. has been able to do with similar reports and even evidence at UN tribunals, up until now.
Now that the RPF/Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni crimes are being exposed, U.S.-created "impunity" for the last 20-years of these crimes in the Great Lakes Region begins to verge on U.S "complicity." A complete reversal of U.S. policy is necessary, and soon.
Prof. Peter Erlinder is an American lawyer and teaches at Wm. Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN. He also represented Rwanda opposition politician Ms. Victoire Ingabire, who was prevented from running in the sham elections in August and remains under confinement. Erlinder was arrested in May and held for weeks in Rwanda after he went there to represent Ingabire.
"Speaking Truth To Empower."
Related article
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
Monday, October 4, 2010
Action needed to investigate a decade of crimes
01-10-2010 The publication of the UN mapping report documenting gross human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a significant first step, but concrete action is needed to ensure that those responsible are held to account, Amnesty International said today.
Amnesty International urges the Congolese government and the United Nations to urgently develop a long-term, comprehensive plan to end impunity for crimes committed during the decade covered by the report as well as for crimes that continue to be committed on a daily basis.
This detailed and thorough report is a powerful reminder of the scale of the crimes committed in Congo and of the shocking absence of justice. These events can no longer be swept under the carpet. If followed by strong regional and international action, this report could make a major contribution to ending the impunity that lies behind the cycle of atrocities in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Kenneth Roth, executive director
(New York) - United Nations members should make a concerted international effort to initiate judicial investigations into grave human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo documented by the UN and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
International Efforts Needed to Create Mechanisms to Ensure Justice
On October 1, 2010, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published the report of its human rights mapping exercise on Congo. The report covers the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in Congo between March 1993 and June 2003.
"This detailed and thorough report is a powerful reminder of the scale of the crimes committed in Congo and of the shocking absence of justice," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "These events can no longer be swept under the carpet. If followed by strong regional and international action, this report could make a major contribution to ending the impunity that lies behind the cycle of atrocities in the Great Lakes region of Africa."
The report documents 617 violent incidents, covering all provinces, and describes the role of all the main Congolese and foreign parties responsible - including military or armed groups from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Angola.
An earlier version of the report was leaked to the news media in August. The Rwandan government, whose troops are accused of some of the most serious crimes documented in the report, reacted angrily, threatening to pull its peacekeepers out of UN missions if the UN published the report.
"The UN has done the right thing by refusing to give in to these threats and by publishing the report," Roth said. "This information has been stifled for too long. The world has the right to know what happened, and the victims have a right to justice."
The UN had tried to investigate some of the events described in the report, notably in 1997 and 1998, but these investigations were repeatedly blocked by the Congolese government, then headed by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, father of the current president, Joseph Kabila. Despite those efforts, information about massacres, rapes, and other abuses against Rwandan refugees and Congolese citizens in the late 1990s was published at the time by the UN and by human rights organizations. However, no action was taken to hold those responsible to account.
"The time has come to identify and prosecute the people responsible for carrying out and ordering these atrocities, going right up the chain of command," Roth said. "Governments around the world remained silent when hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians were being slaughtered in Congo. They have a responsibility now to ensure that justice is done."
One of the most controversial passages of the report concerns crimes committed by Rwandan troops. The UN report raises the question of whether some might be classified "crimes of genocide". The possible use of the term "genocide" to describe the conduct of the Rwandan army has dominated media coverage of the leaked report.
"Questions of qualification and terminology are important, but should not overshadow the need to act on the content of the report regardless of how the crimes are characterized," Roth said. "At the very least, Rwandan troops and their Congolese allies committed massive war crimes and crimes against humanity, and large numbers of civilians were killed with total impunity. That is what we must remember, and that is what demands concerted action for justice."
The report has received widespread support from Congolese civil society, with 220 Congolese organizations signing a statement welcoming the report and calling for a range of mechanisms to deliver justice.
The mapping exercise has its origins in the UN's earlier investigations into crimes committed in Congo from 1993 to 1997. In September 2005, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, discovered three mass graves in Rutshuru, in North Kivu province of eastern Congo, relating to crimes committed in 1996 and 1997. The gruesome discovery acted as a trigger to re-open investigations. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the support of the UN Secretary-General, initiated the mapping exercise and broadened the mandate to include crimes committed during Congo's second war from 1998 to 2003.
The mapping exercise was conducted with the support of the Congolese government. However, the Congolese justice system has neither the capacity nor sufficient guarantees of independence to adequately ensure justice for these crimes, Human Rights Watch said. The report therefore suggests other options, involving a combination of Congolese, foreign, and international jurisdictions.
These could include a court with both Congolese and international personnel as well as prosecution by other states on the basis of universal jurisdiction. Human Rights Watch supports the establishment of a mixed chamber, with jurisdiction over past and current war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Congo.
Countries in the region whose armies are implicated in the report should carry out their own investigations and initiate action against individuals responsible for crimes, Human Rights Watch said.
The report is both important for highlighting past injustices and relevant to the situation in present-day Congo, Human Rights Watch said.
"This is more than a historical report," Roth said. "Many of the patterns of abuse against civilians documented by the UN team continue in Congo today, fed by a culture of impunity. Creating a justice mechanism to address past and present crimes will be crucial to ending this cycle of impunity and violence."
L’horreur du génocide des Tutsis du Rwanda par les Hutus en 1994 continue de neutraliser tout inventaire supplémentaire de l’apocalypse qui a frappé l’Afrique des Grands Lacs à l’orée du XXIe siècle. A tel point que l’élimination en 1996-1997, cette fois-ci, de centaines de milliers d’Hutus par l’armée tutsie du général Kagamé reste un crime politiquement incorrect qu’il demeure délicat d’évoquer, sous peine de se voir taxer des intentions les plus vicieuses.
Si accablant que puisse être le pré-rapport de l’ONU sur les crimes commis en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) de 1993 à 2003, divulgué par Le Monde, il pourrait faire naître de faux espoirs à ceux qui désespèrent que la tragédie absolue qui a causé la mort de centaines de milliers de personnes dans l’Est du Congo reste à jamais sans sépulture judiciaire. Car le chemin qui reste à parcourir pour conduire les responsables devant un tribunal sera long. Et il est bien possible qu’ils bénéficient encore une fois d’un classement sans suite.
Juillet 1995, Srebrenica, Bosnie : 6 000 à 8 000 morts. Certains des auteurs ont été condamnés. Milosevic a fini ses jours en prison. Karadzic se fait juger. Comment est-il possible, par comparaison, qu’il ait fallu autant d’années avant que ne commence seulement à être esquissée la nécessité de punir des crimes qui sont au minimum contre l’humanité – des milliers de morts – pour ne pas parler de génocide, puisque cela froisse Paul Kagamé ? Le génocide des Tutsis au Rwanda en 1994 a rendu depuis lors le vainqueur, encore au pouvoir à Kigali seize ans après, totalement intouchable.
Regardons le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR). Alors que sa mission était également de juger les crimes de masse perpétrés par l’Armée patriotique rwandaise (APR) du général Kagamé, pas un seul accusé n’a été présenté devant une chambre. Le Rwanda a pratiqué le chantage, bloqué le fonctionnement du tribunal pour que finalement après le départ de Carla Del Ponte, le nouveau procureur du TPIR abandonne définitivement toutes velléités de faire juger quiconque du pouvoir rwandais actuel. Aurait-on osé devant l’histoire, s’agissant de l’ex-Yougoslavie, ne poursuivre que des criminels Serbes sans s’intéresser à ce qu’avaient fait les Croates ou les Bosniaques ? Il semble, en effet, que les critères soient différents lorsqu’on touche à l’Afrique et en particulier au Rwanda.
L’élimination organisée et volontaire d’au moins 200 000 Rwandais en 1996-1997 par l’APR est connue et documentée depuis des années. La communauté internationale avait assisté presque en direct à la disparition dans les forêts congolaises des refugiés rwandais. Emma Bonino, Commissaire européen aux droits de l’homme, avait interpellé le Conseil de sécurité sur le danger mortel que courraient des centaines de milliers de personnes. Un projet d’une force internationale était alors évoqué et bientôt sabordé par les soutiens de Kigali qui, de son côté, fermait la zone aux ONG et aux journalistes.
Et une fois de plus, malgré le caractère immense et notoire des massacres, on a tourné la tête, voir nié. Mieux, en ne poursuivant ni les crimes de l’APR en 1994 au Rwanda, ni ceux de 1996-1997, c’est un véritable permis de tuer que l’on a octroyé au pouvoir rwandais. Et depuis lors, son dossier criminel s’est nourri du pillage, avec d’autres, des ressources minières du Kivu et de l’Ituri, de l’entretien de la guerre et de ses chefs comme Laurent Nkunda. Avec pour constante, le martyr des populations vulnérables, dans ces forêts congolaises que certains rescapés surnomment la zone du diable.
DEUX POIDS, DEUX MESURES ?
Voilà seize ans que cela dure. Paul Kagamé vient de faire renouveler à 94 % son mandat de dictateur. Le pouvoir rwandais a réglé à l’intérieur le problème du questionnement de sa responsabilité dans les événements de 1994 qu’il appelle du négationnisme. Le procureur du Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda, lui, s’est satisfait d’un déni international de justice. Et le secrétaire général des Nations unies court à Kigali parce qu’on craint que le Rwanda ne retire ses troupes du Darfour : pensez donc, un projet de rapport onusien utilise une qualification – génocide – inapproprié… Et ce n’est pas le moindre des paradoxes non plus que le ministre de la défense rwandais, James Kabarebe, fasse l’objet d’un mandat d’arrêt de la justice espagnole, précisément pour les événements du Congo.
Il faut terriblement ignorer le Rwanda pour penser que l’impunité laissée au vainqueur de 1994 sur les crimes commis contre sa propre population pourra contribuer à solder les comptes de l’horreur. Les braises de la haine ne s’éteindront jamais tant que les crimes de l’APR ne seront pas jugés. L’injustice faite aux victimes Hutus du Congo vient nourrir les excuses que se donnent déjà les anciens tueurs de Tutsis au Rwanda. Loin des trottoirs de Kigali, refaits à neuf avec l’argent des bailleurs de fonds, la rancœur fermente dans les collines.
Alors, maintenant qu’un peu de lumière est à nouveau jetée sur le charnier congolais, la diplomatie de couloir va-t-elle encore une fois réussir à escamoter les responsables ? C’est bien probable. C’est une fosse commune judiciaire que l’on prépare pour enterrer définitivement de véritables excommuniés du droit international. Les faits n’entrent dans la compétence d’aucune des juridictions internationales existantes et l’on ne peut compter sur les dirigeants impliqués pour se mettre en accusation. Si un tribunal spécial pour le Congo n’est pas créé, les assassins ne seront ni poursuivis, ni jugés.
Après l’attentat ayant coûté la vie au Liban à Rafic Hariri, l’émotion de la communauté internationale et l’action des diplomates avaient poussé les Nations unies à instituer un tribunal spécial pour juger de l’assassinat d’un seul homme. L’élimination de certains groupes entiers d’êtres humains a-t-il moins d’importance ? L’ONU fait-elle deux poids, deux mesures ? Il est encore temps pour le Conseil de sécurité et le Secrétaire général des Nations unies de nous prouver le contraire.
Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, avocat au Barreau de Paris
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
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Navi Pillay
High Commissioner
for Human Rights
More importantly, DR Congo has praised the report and reiterated its call for help to create the judicial framework that would allow perpetrators to face justice. The Congolese representative to the UN was careful not to name Rwanda in his statement, perhaps because of the recent rapprochement between Presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame.
So, let's see how DR Congo follows up. Let's also not forget that along with the Rwandan army, the rebel movement led by Mr Kabila's father was among those accused of "systematic killings" of Hutus. Mr Kabila's next step on this issue will be closely watched. Find outr more HERE
Thomas Fessy
Rwanda : Le rapport de l’ONU : Les crimes commis en RDC peuvent être qualifiés de Génocide.
Colère du Rwanda après la publication d’un rapport édulcoré de l’ONU évoquant un génocide en faisant référence aux exactions commises en RDC contre des réfugiés hutus par l’arméepatriotique rwandaise de Paul Kagamé.
Colère du Rwanda après la publication d’un rapport édulcoré de l’ONU évoquant un génocide en faisant référence aux exactions commises en RDC contre des réfugiés hutus par l’armée
Redoutée par les principaux acteurs régionaux de l'interminable drame humain dans la région des Grands Lacs, la radiographie sans précédent des crimes jalonnant dix ans de guerre en République démocratique du Congo (RDC, ex-Zaïre) que vient d'établir le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies aux droits de l'homme (HCDH) est accablante, principalement pour le Rwanda voisin.
Sur près de 600 pages, ce document, dont Le Monde a obtenu une version quasi définitive, décrit les "violations les plus graves des droits de l'homme et du droit international humanitaire commises entre mars 1993 et juin 2003 en RDC".
Derrière l'intitulé se cache une décennie de meurtres, viols, pillages auxquels prirent part plusieurs pays de la région. Des conflits qui firent un nombre indéterminé de morts, mais qui se chiffrent au bas mot en centaines de milliers.
La compilation des rapports existants et la collecte de nouveaux témoignages menée par le HCDH fournissent une base pour des poursuites judiciaires à venir contre les auteurs de ce que le HCDH qualifie de "crimes contre l'humanité, crimes de guerre, voire de génocide" après des années d'impunité.
"CRIMES DE GÉNOCIDE"
Depuis des semaines, le Rwanda déploie ses réseaux et son énergie pour tenter d'étouffer ce rapport qui risque d'atteindre le cœur du régime du président Paul Kagamé, l'homme fort du Rwanda depuis 1994.
Le document estime en effet que "les attaques systématiques et généralisées [contre des Hutu réfugiés en RDC] révèlent plusieurs éléments accablants qui, s'ils sont prouvés devant un tribunal compétent, pourraient être qualifiés de crimes de génocide".
Il reste à savoir quel tribunal se chargera de cette œuvre de justice alors que la plupart des crimes sortent du champ de compétence de la Cour pénale internationale.
Face aux insuffisances de la justice congolaise, le HCDH insiste sur la nécessité d'imaginer de nouveaux mécanismes judiciaires pour mettre fin au cycle de l'impunité dans la région.
Christophe Châtelot
© Le monde
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Le Carnet de Colette Braeckman
Un rapport sur les massacres de Hutus met en cause les gouvernements de toute la région
La bombe, longtemps maintenue sous le boisseau, a finalement explosé et ses ondes de choc ébranlent toute la région des Grands Lacs : elle fait 545 pages et elle relate les conclusions d’une enquête extensive menée par les Nations unies à propos des crimes de guerre et des crimes contre l’humanité commis au Congo entre 1993 et 2003, et plus précisément durant la première guerre du Congo, de 1996 à 1998. Initialement, les enquêteurs onusiens avaient été chargés de dresser la carte des massacres commis dans la région durant ces années de feu, de recenser les charniers enfouis dans tout le territoire de la République, du Kivu jusque Mbandaka dans l’Equateur, de collationner les témoignages afin d’identifier aussi bien les victimes que les auteurs.
Lire la suite ici
GENEVA (AP) — On Nov. 14, 1996, armed men surrounded the Mugunga refugee camp in eastern Zaire and began shooting indiscriminately at its inhabitants as they huddled for safety or tried to flee.
Hundreds of men, women and children died over a three-day period, according to eyewitnesses and forensic evidence later gathered from mass graves.
A report published Friday by the U.N. human rights office says the killings at Mugunga may have been one of many instances that qualify as crimes against humanity or even — taken together — genocide by the Rwandan army,
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/01/uns-congo-report-could-spur-genocide-trials/#ixzz11KjmNH7U
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
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Posted by 
Agnès Gruda
La Presse
Agnès GrudaC'est l'histoire d'une guerre atroce, qui a duré 10 ans, fait des millions de victimes, tout en restant largement ignorée de la planète.
Kigali 01 October 2010
PRESS RELEASE Ms. Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire
FDU Chairperson
.
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
Friday, October 1, 2010
[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 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]
NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations on Friday officially released a much-disputed report on massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has drawn the ire of several countries, especially Rwanda, whose forces were accused of possibly committing genocide.The report paints a harrowing picture of the conflict in Congo from 1993 to 2003, with foreign armies from a half-dozen African countries slaughtering countless civilians across a vast stretch of territory, often in the quest for minerals.
The hefty, 566-page document was issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, which said that it interviewed more than 1,280 witnesses and analyzed more than 1,500 documents over two years.
Rwanda’s foreign ministry still rejected the report as “an insult to history,” and said it could “undermine the peace and stability” of the Great Lakes region in Africa.
“The report contains flawed methodology and applies the lowest imaginable evidentiary standard that barely meets journalistic requirements,” the Rwandan government said in an official response.
Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Uganda, too, had issued a veiled threat on Thursday, saying the allegations “undermine Uganda’s resolve” to its peacekeeping operations. The several thousand Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia are about the only thing keeping Somalia’s weak transitional government from being overrun by Islamist insurgents.
No country is depicted favorably in the Congo report. Ugandan forces are accused of torturing civilians. Rwandan troops are blamed for systematically hunting down refugees. Angolan forces are said to have raped women and looted hospitals. Zimbabwean planes carried out indiscriminate air raids, the report asserts, and Chadian troops torched homes.
Many analysts said it was precisely the use of the word “genocide” that so angered Rwanda’s leaders. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, and his inner circle have built a powerful and morally righteous image by ending Rwanda’s genocide in 1994, when they say the world abandoned them, and rebuilding the country afterward.
Hutu children in Death camp
Up to a million people were killed in the genocide when Hutu death squads methodically slaughtered Tutsi civilians. As Mr. Kagame and his party rebuilt the country, they enacted strict speech and national security laws, arresting critics who have claimed that Rwandan forces also killed Hutus. Yet, according to the Congo report, Mr. Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated forces massacred thousands of Hutus in Congo.
Rwanda has faced such allegations before. In 2008, a Spanish court indicted several high-ranking Rwandan officers on charges of mass murder and crimes against humanity. That case has gained little traction, and until recently donor nations like the United States have chosen to focus instead on the strides Rwanda has made fighting poverty and re-establishing order after the genocide. But the image of Rwanda is shifting. Human rights groups and others have increasingly criticized the Rwandan government of squashing political dissent and donors, including the United States, have begun to air their own concerns.
Earlier versions of the report had so outraged Rwanda that it threatened to withdraw thousands of its peacekeepers from Sudan, where it plays a linchpin role in the troubled Darfur region.
But after a special visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and extensive negotiations, Rwanda rescinded its threat and the final report is not fundamentally different than previous versions. 
The hefty, 566-page document was issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, which said that it interviewed more than 1,280 witnesses and analyzed more than 1,500 documents over two years. Rwanda’s foreign ministry still rejected the report as “an insult to history,” and said it could “undermine the peace and stability” of the Great Lakes region in Africa.
“The report contains flawed methodology and applies the lowest imaginable evidentiary standard that barely meets journalistic requirements,” the Rwandan government said in an official response.
Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Uganda, too, had issued a veiled threat on Thursday, saying the allegations “undermine Uganda’s resolve” to its peacekeeping operations. The several thousand Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia are about the only thing keeping Somalia’s weak transitional government from being overrun by Islamist insurgents.
Later statements from Uganda, though, gave the impression that Uganda was not planning on withdrawing its peacekeepers. A Ugandan military spokesman sent a text message on Friday simply saying, “No pull out.”
The final report is slightly watered-down compared with the draft copies, with a few more qualifications in the language.
In a section about Rwandan and Congolese forces attacking Hutu refugees, a draft version said, “The systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of damning elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide.”The final report reads: “The apparent systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of inculpatory elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be characterized as crimes of genocide.” The final version of the report also includes more reasons such attacks may not be considered genocide, citing Rwanda’s willingness to take back hundreds of thousands, if not more, Hutu refugees.
Many analysts said it was precisely the use of the word “genocide” that so angered Rwanda’s leaders. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, and his inner circle have built a powerful and morally righteous image by ending Rwanda’s genocide in 1994, when they say the world abandoned them, and rebuilding the country afterward.
Hutu children in Death camp
Analysts say that may be one reason why this Congo report will get a more extensive airing than previous reports that alleged the Rwandans massacred civilians. One such report from 1994 emerged only recently, after some high-level United Nations officials denied it even existed.
Already, the calls for prosecution have begun. On Friday, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others urged the Congolese government and other United Nations member states to begin judicial action to punish those responsible for the killings in Congo.
Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Nairobi, and Josh Kron from Kampala, Uganda.
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Source: Reuters
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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