NL Staatsecretaris Ben ]knapen Ontwikkelingssamenwerking

[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]


Binneland
 
 
DEN HAAG/KIGALI - Staatssecretaris Ben Knapen voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking heeft dinsdag in een gesprek met president Paul Kagame van Rwanda aangedrongen op een eerlijk en open proces voor Victoire Ingabire. Deze oppositieleidster, die zestien jaar in Nederland woonde, is vorig jaar na terugkeer naar haar thuisland opgepakt en vastgezet.

Ms Ingabire Victoire Ingabire The Would-Be President of Rwanda

Knapen is dinsdag en woensdag in Rwanda, maar het was niet zeker of hij met Kagame zelf kon spreken. De president heeft nog eens benadrukt dat de rechterlijke macht in zijn land onafhankelijk is en dat die ervoor moet zorgen dat processen eerlijk verlopen, zo liet Knapen telefonisch vanuit de hoofdstad Kigali weten. Hij kwalificeerde het gesprek als openhartig. Vanwege de onafhankelijkheid heeft Knapen zich niet tot in detail met de beschuldigingen tegen haar kunnen bemoeien, zei hij. Wel heeft de bewindsman zijn zorgen uitgesproken over de politieke ruimte voor de oppositie en over de vrijheid van meningsuiting en persvrijheid in het Afrikaanse land. Kagame liet tegenover Knapen blijken dat hij deze zorgen serieus neemt, zei hij.


Volgens de advocaat van Ingabire wordt zij ervan beschuldigd de regering in Rwanda omver te willen werpen. Maar dat zijn politieke verzinsels, stelde hij eerder. Ingabire heeft niet de Nederlandse nationaliteit en dat maakt het lastiger voor het kabinet om voor haar belangen op te komen, zei Knapen eerder.

De staatssecretaris had ook complimenten voor de president in petto, over economische vooruitgang, de bestrijding van de armoede, de verbetering van het investeringsklimaat en de aanpak van corruptie. Nederland draagt in Rwanda financieel bij aan projecten op het gebied van onder meer landbouw, infrastructuur en de justitiële sector.



Eerder dinsdag bezocht Knapen in buurland de Democratische Republiek Congo (DRC) het vrouwencentrum van Justine Masika, die in 2008 de Nederlandse Mensenrechtentulp kreeg. Nederland is een belangrijke donor van het centrum, waar slachtoffers van massale verkrachtingen en ander geweld in dat gebied worden opgevangen. Knapen is niet van plan die bijdrage te korten.


© De Telegraaf

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

 “I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never”.
 
“My resignation has nothing to do with my private life”, another way of minimizing Kagame´s success, Said Joe to BBC.

It´s not about fame,  prostitution, money, power, and infidelity. It´s all about corruption.

Min. Joe Habineza victim of Kagame recycling  Since DMI is involved, he became the solution to Kagame´s garbage problem.

The silence must be broken. We have been told Rwanda is not among corrupt countries. The reality is horrible. e.g. Kagame buys their silence... 

 “They will abduct you; they will torture you for hours; they will kill you, and then dismember you. And your family will be destroyed.” A blackmail that followed the publication of the infamous pictures discrediting the Youth and Culture minister. Amayere ya RPF ni menshi.
 

RPF smear campaign to bury what could end up being significant facts of the RPF corrupt regime particularly during the ongoing turmoil in the Arab world and after the publication of the UN Mapping Report.


There is no doubt that RPF SS police today is at the political service of  General Paul Kagame to infiltrate all services to by their silence. They won't denounce it because they are proven again and again that they are minded bigot.
There is no denying that the RPF government threatens unspecified consequences if some of the well-informed ministers and other personalities dare to speak out on RPF and Kagame crimes and impunity. In addition to obvious ethical questions raised about the even seen plot against the Hutu minister with the intention of politically crippling or incapacitating Joe Habineza or blackmail him into silence. Kagame is believed to do the same with outsiders who were involved in assassinations and apparently accidental deaths and mass-murder of Hutu ethnic members in exchange  

When one looks at what is happening, one wonders what type if people are governing Rwanda as they show up Kagame and RPF ever incomparable criminal records. Looking at all the facts, there is no good reason whatsoever for justifying Tony Blair´s good will to serve as volunteering adviser to the Top Rwandan criminal.

ONE of the cornerstones of any healthy democracy is a robust freedom of speech. This does not only mean rights to individuals freedom should be legally codified. It also means we must develop and nurture a public space that is conducive to a flourishing freedom of speech. 

The best response to these thuggish threats is to simply to tell the truth and denounce impunity and human rights abuses. To look into the matter, Paul Kagame has been using him in different occasions as a Hutu working shoulder to shoulder with the Tutsi extremist now President of Rwanda. And we can’t understand why Tony Blair is still serving as Kagame adviser with that very serious corruption, assassinations of journalists  and Hutu intellectuals, political opponents, and the mass-murder of Hutu ethnic members which are the well-known cases hanging over his head if and only if Justice is happened to be independent.
Here next are some pattern examples:

"You are right to say that “Mr. Kagame will one day leave power but his legacy will remain” and you are quite right that “It’s an insult to Rwandans to say that after Paul Kagame, Rwanda will no longer exist”. The sooner that day comes the better for Rwandans and for him.
There are definitely some positive things he would have done but also a legacy of bad memories: we will have the debt to pay for plundering Congo resources, enemies created on our borders and in particular Congo where our invasions are partly responsible for the death of around 6 million Congolese, economic disparities in the country and entrenched ethnic divisions.

You are also completely right in asserting that: “People should know that resilience is characteristic of Rwandans”, that “We are a people with passion and determination”. Those qualities will make that day come true and I sincerely pray every day that it comes through the means used by my heroes Gandhi and Martin Luther King.


I am worried by your final statement that “(Paul Kagame) will never hand over the leadership of Rwanda to people who have no vision for their country, who want to use violence as a shortcut to power, who are not connected to Rwandans.”


This conclusion confirms what is said all along that we are dealing with a dictatorship: it will be Kagame and not people to decide who succeeds him. And this reminds me of the following Rwandan anecdotal.


When young men asked a young lady “why are you always rude young lady?”, she answered: “how I am rude you bloody fools?”Bati wa mukobwa we ko ushira isoni? Ati nshira isoni nte mwa buhungu mwe?" Innocent Nsengiyumva  

“Failed to keep Kagame conditions, Joe Habineza has to find himself behind bars whether it’s Christmas or not.”, that is only the beginning of the long story of Joe Habineza´s forfeiture.


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

Alison L. Des Forges, second from left, before a panel discussion in New York City in 2005.

 Among her victims there is Jean-Paul Akayesu, the first to be condemned to life sentence... conspirators thought that doing so would be the beginning of the "death" of the Truth. The reality however,is that you can't hide from the truth, because the truth is all there is.
 
"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."

In recent weeks, a more sinister development has been how Kagame's political opponents have featured disproportionately as victims of violent crimes.

 Rwanda, the biggest concentration camp (26,338 km²) in the world after Auschwitz and Kibeho.

Kagame is not only a mass-murder but also a serial killer....the exiled former Rwandan general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, once an ally of Kagame, was shot in Pretoria in South Africa in a botched assassination attempt. Then, Jean Leonard Rugambage, an editor on the banned paper Umuvugizi, was murdered outside his Kigali home, Kagame has ordered his killing machine beheading dead and cutting into pieces the Rwandan Greens Vice president, etc. 


Through the vigorous but useless RPF propaganda war against the Truth on Rwanda, no one doubts that RPF criminal masterminds and RPF philosophers are crossing most of Rwandans who continue to pay a horrible price for it. While President Kagame has made public his hidden agendas, he's in particular showing up that he has more regrets for not having finished the job. We all thus agree that Kagame, his allies and accomplices efforts are nothing but  a reminder of the spilled milk.
For many years, great Alison Des Forges of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch was misled and manipulated by Kagame allies and accomplices. To get more insight about that, get informed about her statements before she died.

Pattern: Patrick Karuretwa and Stephanie Nyombayire, the well-known Tutsi extremists have recently  misused the US Harvard Law School to hide the Truth on the Rwandan and Congolese mass-murder plan, to misinform and disinform the world community about Kagame war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide in both Rwandan and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Both Tutsi extremists know the impact to misuse the Harvard Law School. To make easier misinformation, distortion, lies and the vilification, stereotyping and demonization of  the HUTU.

Reason and Truth will prevail, they always do.  




Kagame Admits He Murdered Them. Does the World community need other convincing testimonies? The Answer is No.
 Kagame statements were free of evidence of coercion or trickery.
 

The success of RPF ideology known now as the Rwandan Nazi-ism cannot be separable from the effectiveness of RPF, allies and accomplices propaganda machine. the reason why the current UN Ba Kimoon remains hostage of Kagame motivating beliefs namely: to remain on power no matter how big are consequences of RPF barbarity and cruelties base indeed on a grand scale.

Rwandans, Hutu and Tutsi ethnic members(who both directly experience RPF/RDF/DMI and LDF horrors), US and British including Western famous scholars shame the same point of view that the Tutsi rebels,their allies and accomplices made their major decisions in a highly institutionalized manner.



The Tutsi extremists led by Major Paul Kagame expected their challenge to provoke genocidal retaliation but viewed this as an acceptable cost of achieving their goal of attaining power in Rwanda.
We should not be surprised about the alarming situation: the extremists are in government and are implementing Kagame genocidal policies.

 Rwandans got abandoned at the beginning of RPF invasion, during 1993- 2003 Rwandan and Congolese genocides. 

African SurViVors are still wonder about the UN and Ban Kimoon s' motives in particular on his silence about the urgency of  creating the International Tribunal for RPF criminals on Rwandan and Congolese crimes according to the existing and new findings about Kagame plan as the mastermind of the Rwandan and Congolese genocides. While eye-witnesses provide strong testimonies against Kagame, the sweet US and GB criminal mercenary, Harvard Institute discredits itself by supporting the criminal our planet has ever hosted. 
GENEVA / DRC MAPPING REPORT
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights releases a 550-page report listing 617 of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law over a 10-year period by both state and non-state actors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNTV / FILE.

Most of the findings on  Paul Kagame, the Rwandan master-mind's hidden agenda tell us to reject and invert the entirety of the scholarly literature based on Kagame's scenario of the Rwandan 1994 horrors. Following all major human-rights investigations accomplished by the fully respectable worldwide organization Amnesty International, the immense wealth of Rwandan survivors and of many scholars' testimonies, we can't help but tell the Hard core Truth and be fascinated by it. 


President Paul Kagame Threatened US Marines If They Stopped Genocide


Alison L. Des Forges, a human rights activist  and Human Rights Watch Director, African Division, was among the passengers killed Thursday when Continental Airlines Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo. She was 66 and lived in Buffalo.

 Dr. Des Forges was also an authority on human rights violations in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire.

While a central focus of her work was documenting the crimes of the Hutu-led government that organized the three-month-long genocide, Dr. Des Forges later leveled strong criticism of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi-led rebel movement headed by Paul Kagame, the still Rwandan president. His government has been in power since the genocide.

Dr. Des Forges was among critics who accused the Kagame government of massacring thousands of Rwandan civilians in 1994, of killing civilians and refugees in the eastern Congo in 1996 and 1997, and of making repeated military interventions in the Congo. The government barred her from entering the country last year.
Alison B. Liebhafsky was born Aug. 20, 1942, in Schenectady, N.Y., the daughter of Herman A. Liebhafsky, a chemist, and Sybil Small. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1964 and received a master’s degree in 1966 and a doctorate in 1972, both in history, from Yale.


Why if we say the truth we will be scolded and they won't believe us? Honesty should be the best policy. Watch next : 


May her soul rest in peace 

© ASI


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

 By Sarah Jackson
Researcher - Rwanda and Burundi










 

 Rwandan opposition politician jailed for exercising rights

 London - Amnesty International has called for the unconditional release of Rwandan opposition leader Bernard Ntaganda jailed today on politically motivated charges.

Bernard Ntaganda, president of the Ideal Social Party (PS-Imberakuri) party, was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment after being found guilty of breaching state security, of “divisionism” for holding public speeches criticizing government policies ahead of last year’s elections, and attempting to plan an “unauthorized” demonstration.

Ntaganda had been arrested at dawn on 24 June 2010 - the first day that presidential candidates could register for the elections – and remanded in pre-trial detention.

Restrictions on freedom of association and expression prevented new opposition parties from contesting the August 2010 presidential elections.

Ntaganda’s prosecution for threatening state security and “divisionism” was based solely on his speeches criticizing government policies.

The prosecution had requested a 10 year jail sentence for these two charges and contended that “paint[ing] a negative image of state authority” could cause the population to rebel and create unrest.


“Today’s ruling once again criminalizes peaceful dissent”, said Amnesty International’s Africa Programme Director, Erwin van der Borght.

“The growing trend in Rwanda to convict individuals of threatening national security for criticizing government policies is deeply concerning and in violation of Rwanda’s obligations under international human rights law”.

Last week, two Rwandan journalists, Agnes Uwimana and Saidati Mukakibibi, were found guilty of threatening state security for opinion pieces critical of government policies published before last year’s elections. They were sentenced to 17 and 7 years respectively.

Vague and sweeping laws on “divisionism” and “genocide ideology” were introduced in Rwanda in the decade after the 1994 genocide.

....The laws prohibit hate speech, but are broadly drafted so that they criminalize expression that does not amount to hate speech, including legitimate criticism of the government.

The Rwandan government expressed a commitment in April 2010 to review the “genocide ideology” law, but it is unclear whether the “divisionism” law will also be revised.

Alice Muhirwa, Martin Ntavuka and Sylvain Sibomana of the United Democratic Forces-Inkingi (FDU-Inkingi) were found guilty of conspiring to participate in demonstrations on 24 June 2010 without authorization. They were fined 100,000 Rwandan francs.

The prosecution had requested a two month jail sentence.
Jean Baptiste Icyitonderwa of PS-Imberakuri was acquitted of conspiring to participate in the same demonstration without authorization.

Theobald Mutarambirwa of PS-Imberakuri and Theoneste Sibomana of FDU-Inkingi, also charged with conspiring to participate in demonstrations without authorization, will be tried separately.

The opposition politicians were arrested on 24 June 2010.

Some of the FDU-Inkingi members were arrested near the Ministry of Justice in the capital, Kigali, where they had gathered to request the registration of their party.

Some of the PS-Imberakuri members were arrested outside the US Embassy, where they had gone to enlist help following Ntaganda’s arrest.

Although the opposition members were convicted of conspiracy to participate in demonstrations without authorization, Amnesty International has found no evidence that they either resorted to, or intended to resort to, violence.

The government failed to put forward any legitimate justification for banning the demonstration.

Ntaganda had requested authorization to hold the demonstration.


The prosecution said the authorities had attempted to notify Bernard Ntaganda that the demonstration was banned, the day before it was due to take place.

But the defence said the demonstrators were unaware of the move.

Those arrested were later released on bail, after spending days in police detention and reportedly being subjected to ill-treatment such as being beaten and handcuffed to each other, even when they went to the toilet.

“Instead of jailing individuals for planning a demonstration, the government should have taken steps to allow for peaceful protest before the elections,” said Erwin van der Borght.

Background

Restrictions on freedom of association prevented new opposition parties from contesting the elections, which President Kagame won with 93 per cent of the vote.

PS-Imberakuri had secured registration, but was subsequently infiltrated by dissident members, who decided not to field a candidate.

Ntaganda was called before the Rwandan Senate in late 2009 to respond to “genocide ideology” accusations. In April 2010, the Senate’s political commission said they felt such accusations were well-founded.


ENDS
© Amnesty International

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

Door Anneke Verbraeken

Please let Victoire out and me in, mr Kagame!
 
In dit rubriek :

1. Iran executeert Nederlands-Iraanse Zahra Bahrami. 
2. In Rwanda spreekt Knapen met de ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken, Justitie en Landbouw
3. Van voetbalplaatjes tot ophanging van vrouw in Iran,Terwijl je wel onder je klompen kunt voelen dat dit een leugentje is om mevrouw te straffen. 
4. http://www.trouw.nl/opinie/commentaar/article3403743.ece/Ophanging_Bahrami_toont_Iraanse_regime_in_al_zijn_wreedheid_.htmlVolgens mensenrechtenorganisaties : Nederland te weinig zou hebben gedaan voor Zahra Bahrami.

Dr Theogène Rudasigwa

Rudasingwa vertelt dat hij Rwanda ontvluchtte omdat hij niet langer een dubbelleven wilde leiden. Als een van de topfunctionarissern in Rwanda moest hij liegen over bijvoorbeeld de aanwezigheid van troepen in Congo. "Ik was toen ambassadeur in de VS. Natuurlijk geloofden ze me niet. Maar dan zeiden we altijd: waar waren jullie in 1994. Wie zijn jullie om kritiek op ons te hebben?" Dezelfde reactie werd gegeven als Amnesty International of Human Rights Watch weer eens met een kritisch rapport naar buiten kwam.
In een openhartig interview met een Amerikaans radiostation vertelt voormalig chefstaf Theogene Rudasingwa over zijn dubbelleven als Rwandese vertrouweling van Kagame. Rudusingwa vocht nog zij aan zij met Kagame eind jaren tachting en begin jaren negentig. Onlangs werd hij veroordeelt tot 24 jaar gevangenisstraf. Rudasingwa woont tegenwoordig in de VS. Hij is mede-oprichter van een nieuwe politieke partij RNC, Rwanda National Congress afgelopen december.

NL Staatssecretaris Prof. dr. H.P.M Ben Knapen

De voormalige hoge officier in het regeringsleger wordt genoemd in het VN-mappingrapport waarin het Rwandese leger en Kagame beschuldigd worden van genocide in Oost-Congo eind jaren negentig. Toch is hij niet bang dat hij zich voor een tribunaal moet verantwoorden: "Ik was toen niet in Congo, maar was ambassadeur in de VS. Toch vind ik dat deze gruwelijkheden onze gezamenlijke verantwoordelijkheid zijn. Ik ben daarom bereid om op alle vragen antwoord te geven." Volgens Rudasingwa was het algemeen binnen de RPF bekend wat er zich allemaal in het land en in Oost-Congo afspeelde.

Dat Rudasingwa nu veroordeelt is, past in een patroon, zegt hij. "Zodra een Hutu kritiek heeft op het regime, dan wordt hij door Kagame weggezet als genocidair, divisionist of terrorist.
 

Kijk naar de voormalig manager van Hotel Rwanda en naar oppositieleider Victoire Ingabire." Rudasingwa wijst ook naar de toenemende verdeeldheid binnen leger en RPF: "Kagame keert zich nu niet alleen meer tegen de kritische Hutu's, iedereen die kritiek op hem heeft beschouwt hij als zijn vijand. Kagame is machtscorrupt. Zijn 'gut-instinct is om te doden."

Rudasingwa beschuldigt Kagame van grootschalige corruptie: "Hij gebruikt staatsgelden voor zichzelf. Neem de twee privé-vliegtuigen. Die zijn vanuit de staatskas betaald."

Volgens Rudasingwa zijn er twee toekomstscenario's mogelijk. Als het Rwandese volk niets doet, als de internationale gemeenschap stil blijft, dan stevent het land volgens hem af op een nieuwe burgeroorlog. Het tweede toekomstscenario is een stuk positiever: daarin moeten alle Rwandezen samenwerken aan de democratie.
© buitenpostdewereld.org 






The hospitality of Rwanda has its limits. I cannot follow my secretary of state, Ben Knapen, who is visiting Congo and Rwanda next week. The regime doesn't want me: my visa was denied. Kagame who always speaks proudly of his country, the economic growth, democracy and freedom, doesn't want me. Officially no reason was given, but everybody knows I'm not welcome because I'm a journalist who writes not so jubilant about the regime. But most of all, access was denied, because I'm a friend of Victoire Ingabire.

The visit of our secretary of state could be important for Ingabire, who is in custody since October 14th. The Dutch government should ask for her release, because she remains in custody illegally since December 25th. That was the date the prosecutor should have asked for a prolonging of bail. That never happened. There were other irregularities during her time in prison so a fair trial is already out of the question.

The accusations which led to her arrest, are the accusations used for everybody who dares to criticize the regime. Former manager of hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesebagina, leader of the socialist party Bernard Ntaganda, former Kagame-comrades Kayumba, Karegeya, Gahima en Rudasingwa, they all are accused of the same more or less: divisionism, genocide ideology, threat of state security, aid to or forming of a terrorist organization.

Ms Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza, the would-be President of Rwanda

Because the accusations are false, witnesses and evidence have to be manipulated. Alice and Sylvain, housemates of Victoire and secretary and treasurer of FDU-Inkingi, were pressured into giving false statements. They were also threatened if they didn't stop with their activities for the party. The lawyers of Victoire are now in the possession of her dossier. They are studying closely the 2086 pages! 

Victoires dossier doesn't include the documents found during the house search in Zevenhuizen. In this small Dutch village live the family of Victoire: husband and three children. The house search took place because Rwanda had asked for it. Timing was curious: just a week before, the ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to end budget support, because the lack of political space and press freedom. So there was a situation in which one ministry condemned the regime and another ministry obediently followed the orders of the same regime.

According to the secretary of state, Teeven, there are no obstacles to send the material, found during the house search, to Rwanda. But chances are, that those documents will be manipulated. If the Dutch government decide tot send the material to Kigali, I advise the government to make copies!

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Eurac, the organization for EU NGO’s in the Great Lake Region, also acknowledge that a fair trial is practically not possible.

It is all a bit ironic, because the Dutch government donates a lot to improve the judicial system in Rwanda. But you can improve whatever you like, if the president tells his people one day before a bail hearing that 'this woman should remain in prison', you can't say Rwanda has an independent judicial system.
Let's hope Ben Knapen, our secretary of state, is courageous enough to give a clear signal. A comparison with the Dutch-Iranian woman hanged in Teheran is a comparison easy made. But contrary to Zahra Bahrami, Ingabire doesn't have the Dutch nationality. Therefore, our ministry of Foreign Affairs considers her case an internal Rwandan affair.

But it's not a case of nationality. In Rwanda you have a regime that consistently oppresses the opposition. In Rwanda is no freedom of press. In Rwanda, civil society cannot develop. In Rwanda the judicial system is used for political means. In Rwanda you have a regime that enriches itself, just like Tunisia and Egypt, at the cost of the Rwandan population.

Therefore, it's high time, the Dutch government, this time by its spokesman Ben Knapen, makes a clear statement. Knapen should insist in the release of all the political prisoners. Knapen should tell the president to release all journalists who perish in prison. Knapen should argue Ingabire doesn't belong in jail.

  And Knapen should make a statement the whole world can hear. The days of silent diplomacy are over.




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

4 February 2011
By Ms Sarah Jackson
Researcher - Rwanda and Burundi


Rwandan journalists’ imprisonment condemned 

Ms. Agnes Uwimana, the editor of the independent newspaper UMURABYO

Amnesty International has condemned the imprisonment of two Rwandan journalists who criticized president Paul Kagame ahead of last year’s elections.
Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, editor of the private Kinyarwanda tabloid newspaper, Umurabyo, and her deputy editor, Saidati Mukakibibi, were sentenced today to respectively 17 and 7 years imprisonment over opinion pieces they wrote ahead of the August 2010 presidential elections.

 “Today’s verdict marks yet another blow to freedom of expression and opinion in Rwanda”, said Amnesty International’s Africa Programme Director, Erwin van der Borght.

“Rwanda’s clampdown on critics shows no sign of abating after last year’s elections”.

Agnes Nkusi Uwimana was found guilty of threatening state security, genocide ideology, divisionism and defamation and Saidati Mukakibibi was found guilty of threatening state security.

The pair was prosecuted over several articles they had written in which they criticized government policies and made corruption allegations against senior government officials, including President Kagame. The articles also made references to the prevailing feeling of insecurity prior to the elections in 2010 and contended there were growing divisions within the security forces.

“The government has not adequately demonstrated how the articles could be construed as a threat to national security or were intended, or likely, to incite violence” said Erwin van der Borght.

“The journalists should not have been subjected to criminal sanctions.”

Uwimana said she accepted some of her articles may have lacked professionalism.

“Journalists must be free to criticize public officials and policies without fear of criminal sanctions for defamation”, said Erwin van der Borght. “Rwandan officials should respond to criticism, rather than try to stamp it out”.

 Vague laws on “genocide ideology” and “sectarianism” laws were introduced in Rwanda in the decade after the 1994 genocide to restrict speech that could promote hatred.

Rwandan media incited ethnic hatred before and during the genocide, in which up to 800,000 Rwandans were killed, mostly ethnic Tutsi, but also Hutu who opposed the organized killing.

The Rwandan government expressed commitment in April 2010 to review the “genocide ideology” law. The draft law is said to be on the agenda for February’s cabinet meeting.

The law prohibits hate speech, but also criminalizes legitimate criticism of the government.

“Rwandan authorities should follow through on their commitment to revise these laws to respect freedom of expression”, said Erwin van der Borght. “Vague laws should not be misused to prosecute critics”.

Background
The Rwandan government clamped down on critics before the August 2010 presidential elections. They used regulatory sanctions, restrictive laws and criminal defamation cases to close down media outlets critical of the government. Some leading editors and journalists fled Rwanda after facing repeated threats.

Before prosecution, Uwimana was called before Rwanda’s Media High Council, a government-aligned media regulatory body, to respond to allegations that her articles were defamatory.

Uwimana served a one-year sentence after being convicted in 2007 of divisionism and defamation. The prosecution was based on an article comparing the current Rwandan administration to the government of former President Habyarimana.
 ENDS

 © Amnesty International

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

 




 
We call for immediate end to the ongoing genocide against the Hutu majority in Rwanda. In fact there is abundant evidence that Paul Kagame is doing whatever he can to exterminate the hated Hutu majority. We can not understand how the American Human Rights organizations remain silence about the monst hidous criminal our planet has ever known. All worldwide religions including  catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, Protestants, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international to denounce Kagame's criminal purposes, to protect and help Rwandans from Kagame and his RPF Nazi regime.

A Hutu woman murdered by RPF after being tortured with Akandoyi

Le gouvernement rwandais envisage de lancer 'prochainement' une vaste campagne de vasectomie, une méthode de stérilisation masculine pour quelque 700 000 individus sur l'ensemble du territoire national dans la perspective de limiter une croissance démographique galopante de ce petit pays d'Afrique centrale, apprend-on mercredi de source officielle à Kigali.

Le ministre rwandais de la Santé, Richard Sezibera, a laissé entendre que la croissance de la population rwandaise a atteint récemment une vitesse 'jamais enregitrée' depuis plus de dix ans.

Le Rwanda compte une population d'environ 11 millions d'habitants sur une superficie de 26.338 kilomètres carrés, soit une moyenne de 395 habitants au kilomètre-carré, selon l'Institut national de la statitique du Rwanda dans un récent rapport des projections annuelles publié sur son site Internet.

'Nous avons adopté des mesures pour limiter la croissance de la population à travers l'introduction de méthodes simples', a déclaré le Dr Sezibera qui s'exprimait devant le Sénat rwandais.

'Cette méthode n'est autre que cette opération mineure qui consiste à couper et à bloquer les canaux déférents qui transportent les spermatozoïdes à partir des testicules', a-t-il ajouté, précisant que la nouvelle campagne va s'étendre sur les trois prochaines années.

Le Dr Sezibera, très connu pour avoir apporté de nombreuses innovations dans le secteur sanitaire au Rwanda depuis sa nomination à ce poste en octobre 2008, a par ailleurs renchéri que la nouvelle campagne va aller de pair avec le programme de circoncision de masse qui a été inauguré depuis quelques années au Rwanda.

'Au cours des interventions chirurgicales de circoncision en cours, les médecins auront désormais toute la latitude de proposer aux hommes de subir également la vasectomie', a souligné Dr Sezibera.


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