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
Sunday, June 28, 2009
by Kevin Jon HellerNDLR: In a 2007 interview with the BBC, Mr Kagame said he would co-operate with an impartial inquiry. So why then he's not satisfied with the Spanish inquiry on the matter and other crimes committed in Rwanda? What matters?
I have been reading Roger’s fascinating missives from Rwanda with great interest and agree with much of what he has to say. But I have to demur from the claim that “Kagame is personally invested in making Rwanda a country that is committed to reconciliation, human rights and self-sufficiency.” Self-sufficiency, perhaps — there is no question that Rwanda has experienced significant economic growth over the past decade, although it is important to emphasize that, according to USAID, “[a] majority of the population lives on less than $1 per day and nearly nine in ten live on less than $2 per day.”
As for Kagame’s investment in reconciliation and human rights? Here is the summary paragraph from the State Department’s 2008 Country Report on Rwanda — which was one of its better years:
Significant human rights abuses occurred, although there were improvements in some areas. Citizens’ right to change their government was restricted, and local defense forces (LDF) personnel were responsible for four killings during the year. Violence against genocide survivors and witnesses by unknown assailants claimed at least 16 lives. There were reports of torture and abuse of suspects, although significantly fewer than in previous years. Prison and detention center conditions remained harsh. Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained persons. Prolonged pretrial detention was a problem, and government officials attempted to influence judicial outcomes, mostly regarding the community-based justice system known as gacaca. There continued to be limits on freedom of speech and of association, and restrictions on the press increased. The government limited religious freedom, and official corruption was a problem. Restrictions on civil society, societal violence and discrimination against women, recruitment of child soldiers by representatives of a Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)-based armed group, trafficking in persons, child labor, and restrictions on labor rights occurred.
As for democracy, if Rwanda gets good marks, it’s only because the bar is set so low in the region. Here is the State Department again:
National Electoral Commission (NEC) rulings restricted the ability of the PSD and the PL to effectively spread their message, allowing the RPF to dominate the 22-day electoral campaign. The media devoted the bulk of its coverage to the RPF. There were credible reports of local government interference with PL and PSD rallies and meetings, and security forces briefly detained several campaign workers.
According to observers many voting stations opened early, did not make proper use of forms, and did not initially seal ballot boxes. Observers were often prevented by NEC and other government officials from monitoring the ballot counting above the polling station and polling center level (the first two levels). The Civil Society Election Observation Mission observed in its Statement of Preliminary Findings that “in a significant proportion of cases, it was not possible to confirm the accuracy of consolidated results at any stage beyond polling center consolidation.”
In 2003 President Paul Kagame won a landslide victory against two independent presidential candidates, receiving 95 percent of the vote in a largely peaceful but seriously marred election.
The constitution provides for a multiparty system but offers few rights for parties and their candidates. According to the 2006 African Peer Review Mechanism report, released by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, a mandated initiative of the African Union, the country had made significant progress toward political pluralism, but parties were still “not able to operate freely” and faced legal sanctions if accused of engaging in divisive acts. The government’s continuing campaign against divisionism discouraged debate or criticism of the government and resulted in brief detentions and the holding of one political prisoner, former minister Ntakarutinka.
All political organizations were constitutionally required to join the Forum for Political Organizations, which continued to limit competitive political pluralism, according to the 2006 APRM report. Despite a June 2007 law allowing political parties to open offices at every administrative level, local officials on occasion reportedly prevented opposition meetings preceding the September parliamentary elections, citing improper paperwork or venue booking conflicts. During the year there were no reported efforts to form any new parties or efforts by the government to deny registration to any party.
And, of course, we cannot forget Kagame’s multiple invasions of the Congo, using the need to hunt down the FDLR as a pretext for illegally exploiting Congo’s natural resources — leading the UN to describe Kagame as one of the “godfathers” of such exploitation — and his unwavering support for Congolese rebel groups such as the RCD and Nkunda’s CNDP, which has led to suffering on a scale not seen since WW II.
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
An exile from her native land, Victoire Umuhoza seeks ethnic reconciliation.
By Doug Page, Staff Writer
1:25 AM Sunday, June 28, 2009
DAYTON — Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is one of the estimated 500,000 Rwandans living in exile.
The mother of three hopes to end her exile in September, returning to her country to get her political party on the 2010 presidential ballot.
Umuhoza is chairwoman of the United Democratic Forces, which espouses nonviolence and reconciliation among the various Rwandan ethnic groups following the 1994 genocide.
“It is time to get the (democratic) process back on track,” she said Saturday, June 27, prior to speaking to members of the local Rwandan community at the Holiday Inn North. “I am speaking to the exiles, telling them they can play a role in solving these problems.
“The first step is to end the use of violence. We must give a chance (to) a peaceful transition of power.”
Unlike some in her audience Saturday, Umuhoza did not witness the genocide that killed an estimated 1 million people. She left her country for school in the Netherlands several months before the start of the countrywide violence.
But what she saw on television started her down a political path.
Recently, several disparate exile groups formed a political coalition of the Umuhoza’s United Democratic Forces and the Rwanda Democratic Opposition Party to put forward a presidential candidate: Umuhoza.
There are several roadblocks the coalition must pass. It must be recognized by the current government, which prohibits opposition parties, to appear on the ballot.
And Umuhoza must get a passport and return to Rwanda for the first time since 1994. If allowed back and her candidacy is recognized, then comes a likely uphill campaign.
“I will do anything for my country,” she said, though admitted some trepidation about returning to Rwanda. “The regime does not accept dissenting voices.”
She hopes that her appearances before Rwandans in Europe and the United States will encourage Western governments with investments in Rwanda to speak out on her behalf to the current Rwandan government.
“I hope the United States government will support the democratic process, put words into action,” she said.
By Doug Page, Staff Writer
1:25 AM Sunday, June 28, 2009
DAYTON — Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is one of the estimated 500,000 Rwandans living in exile.
The mother of three hopes to end her exile in September, returning to her country to get her political party on the 2010 presidential ballot.
Umuhoza is chairwoman of the United Democratic Forces, which espouses nonviolence and reconciliation among the various Rwandan ethnic groups following the 1994 genocide.
“It is time to get the (democratic) process back on track,” she said Saturday, June 27, prior to speaking to members of the local Rwandan community at the Holiday Inn North. “I am speaking to the exiles, telling them they can play a role in solving these problems.
“The first step is to end the use of violence. We must give a chance (to) a peaceful transition of power.”
Unlike some in her audience Saturday, Umuhoza did not witness the genocide that killed an estimated 1 million people. She left her country for school in the Netherlands several months before the start of the countrywide violence.
But what she saw on television started her down a political path.
Recently, several disparate exile groups formed a political coalition of the Umuhoza’s United Democratic Forces and the Rwanda Democratic Opposition Party to put forward a presidential candidate: Umuhoza.
There are several roadblocks the coalition must pass. It must be recognized by the current government, which prohibits opposition parties, to appear on the ballot.
And Umuhoza must get a passport and return to Rwanda for the first time since 1994. If allowed back and her candidacy is recognized, then comes a likely uphill campaign.
“I will do anything for my country,” she said, though admitted some trepidation about returning to Rwanda. “The regime does not accept dissenting voices.”
She hopes that her appearances before Rwandans in Europe and the United States will encourage Western governments with investments in Rwanda to speak out on her behalf to the current Rwandan government.
“I hope the United States government will support the democratic process, put words into action,” she said.
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, June 26, 2009
RWANDA MUST BE FREED FROM THE AUTOCRATIC RPF REGIME. Enough is enough. Enough to the World Still Watching.
The world cannot abandon Rwandans in two decades without repercussions. If nothing is done to help the ever determined Rwandan pro-democratic movement, contempt of the value of democracy outside THE FREE WORLD will flourish.
The shameful silence of the EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN LEADERS about the heavyweight criminal Paul Kagame's criminal records, the Freen world indifference to the multitude of obvious mass atrocities committed by Paul Kagame and his RPF/A, the whitewashing of Paul Kagame's crimes with visits, TERRORISM sponsoring, invitations and shameful academic awards MUST END. That silence or the lack of thereof, is what has actually got us to take such a decision. Regrattable silence has led to the assassination of more than 8 millions of Rwandan and Congolese people.
NOT TO MAKE PRESSURE ON THE ICTR TO PROSECUTE AND ARREST RPF CRIMINALS INVOLVED IN THE MASS-ATROCITIES AGAINST RWANDANS WILL BE A COMMON FAILURE BECAUSE OF WORLD LEADERS -CRIMINALS AND RPF BACKERS IN ADDTION TO THE INTERNATIONAL MAFIA'S INTERESTS. INSTEAD OF ARMING RWANDAN TERRORISTS (PAUL KAGAME, NKUNDA, NTAGANDA) AND BANNING RPF CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS SETTLED ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD, THE CIVILIZED WORLD WOULD MUCH BE FOCUSED ON HELPING THE RWANDAN POPULATION INCLUNDIG THOSE ORPHANS WHO HAVE NO OTHER CHOISE BUT FIGHTING TO LIBERATE THEIR HOMELAND, Rwanda.
We know many of former Clinton adminstration members, those who are currently enjoying the Congolese bloody coltan are not willing to help those who oppose the current bloody RPF regime, those who are determined to liberate Rwanda. And they still do. That means Paul Kagame and his bloody criminal organization, RPF will have more time to continue to continue arming Local Defence Forces and RPF/A/RDF who wish to kill as many Hutus and others from the democratic world (Spanish, Amercans and French mainly) as they can find.
Contempt is already there: Paul Kagame says: I don't care. And He actually doesn't. Look : 8 millions consciously mass-slaughtered without being intimidated. RPF Impunity is underway inside Rwanda and outside of IT.
The ending democracy of Rwanda is setting back the cause of Freedom around the world, including and especially in The African Great Lakes Region and that region will never be secure until Rwanda is free. We cannot and must not allow the Rwandan people to always be abandoned. Lessons : 1990 RPF invasion, 1994 genocide, 1995 Kibeho genocide, 1996 up to 1998 genocide. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !
With the seemingly world conspiracy, Rwandans feel they have no choice. Therefore Rwandan SurViVors inside Rwanda and around the world hereby beg every single European, American, Burundian, Congolese to join us in supporting the continuing effort to liberate Rwanda and demanding the European Union, the United States of America and Canada NOT ANYMORE ABANDON THE RWANDAN PEOPLE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !
NOTHING BUT HUMAN RIGHTS. WE WILL WIN !
***
The revolution starts by changes in ideas. Once the changes in thinking processes started then it needs that changes get maturity. Mind will remain active with practices of ideas.
When the ideas are put in practice the difficulties and problems arise that were not thought before or neglected. Hence the thinking minds are needed to lead the revolutionary process.
It is the process of maturity of revolution. The masses also mature with maturation of the revolution. If a revolution has to survive it has to evolve constantly and it only can evolve when there are thinking minds with clear visions and devotions. Hence every revolution has three basic processes:
1- Birth of revolution: The struggle to change opinion of masses and intellectuals is key to revolution. A culture and system that is making lives for people difficult, messy, hard to handle and no ways to escape can’t be expressed effectively by people. People usually lack the ability to express in coordinated manners though they express their sufferings frequently.
The coordination of sufferings and finding their reasons in coordinated manner reveal the defects the culture and system that govern society. It is the intellectuals that have the ability to coordinate the sufferings, defects of culture and systems and link the sufferings of people to them. Similarly it is the intellectuals which can present the alternative solutions and systems. Presenting the alternative solutions is the seed of change in mind. This seed germinates only if the thought processes are continuously injected.
2- Maturation of revolution: When the ideas put into practice it would need a thinking body of visionary intellectuals to solve the problems and lead revolution in correct path (Stick to objectives). The high levels of flexibility in tactics and approaches are necessary for maturity of revolution.
3- Evolution of revolution: Once revolution succeeds to put its firm foundations in society and achieved the goals and changes it promised then there is need to expand and make alive the revolution. As coming generations are brought up under new situations and conditions so their preferences, judgments and objectives differ from previous generations. It is called generation gapes. Generation gaps are a common phenomenon of all societies. It is dangerous for revolutions and many revolutions collapse by ignoring generation gaps. The coming generations may reject the accomplishments of revolutions by making alternative historical interpretations and analysis so it is necessary for a revolution to indulge its every generation in revolutionary processes by creating tasks and making their minds thinking in the revolutionary lines. It is called evolution of the revolution.
In all three processes that we have counted the thinking process is the core and hub of the revolution. No revolution could take birth or succeed with leading thinkers. Societies which lack leading revolutionary groups or settings fail to have any revolution or have riots, civil wars, chaos and destructions by name of revolution.
A small introduction and knowing the stages of revolution we can have a short analysis of revolution by posing key questions and answers to them.
1- Does revolution need massive support to be started?
From historical evidences it is clear that revolution starts from small thinking devotees rather than in masses. The socialist revolution has its roots in Marx that had a small part of his life in political struggle and in large part had an intellectual struggle.
It was not Karl Marx that had massive struggle for revolution and its maturity but it was Lenin and Mao who had evolved in Marxist thoughts that agitated people of Russia and China to propagate the Socialist and communist revolutions. The same example is fitted to the Islamic revolution in Iran.
The leftist thoughts rooted in Marxism already working in China and Russia, and other parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Islamic thoughts have roots both in Iran and Iraq. Imam Khomeini were old man lived majority of his life teaching Islamic thoughts. The thinking process requires time to develop leading intellectuals and coordination of thoughts.
If breaking of habits is difficult in individuals then breaking habit of masses is much difficult. Individuals suffer from their bad habits but it requires high levels of convincing to change the individual’s life style. To change lives of people it requires changes in culture and systems of society. Certainly both culture and system are too resistant to change. Cultures and systems are evolved through long processes and they govern daily lives of people. Changing these sustained cultures and systems require high levels of intellect, knowledge and visions. More important than this, is transferring of these intellect and visions to people to prepare people for a change.
The development of historical dialectic and historical materialism is the foundation of intellectual endeavors of communists and socialists movements. Similarly, the revival of concepts of Islamic government was the foundation of the Islamic movements which lead to the Islamic revolution of Iran.
2- How intellectual leaderships lead to maturity of revolution?
It is the Chinese communist party and the Islamic councils that lead the Chinese and Islamic revolution of Iran when the ideas put into practice. The Chinese communist party and Islamic councils were the sources of intellectual leaderships to bring revolution into maturity.
The successful leadership involve in total restructuring and nourishing the young generation into a revolutionary culture. The most effective part of introducing new culture is educations, active and controlled participation of masses in processes of change.
3- Do people not become trouble making once they become habitual of resistance and aware of their powers?
Revolution is more sensitive than artworks as they just not only agitate people for change but also put people in constructive process of change. It is the real art of revolutionaries that they make people more responsible and contributing than normal conditions or in older exploiting systems and cultures.
As agitations of people require learning new ideas and skills, interacting and coordinating with each other but once the revolution took place, it will follow unlearning processes in which people have to unlearn the agitating behaviors and learning constructions. Unlearning agitations and having active participations in reconstructing new revolutionary systems, culture and ideals in society the people require new skills, knowledge and coordination.
4- Societies are part of international communities and they have agreements. Revolutions break the relations between societies. How the revolutionary societies could reattach into international community?
Certainly! The revolution break ties with international community and even may result in conflict with international communities as we have seen in case of Soviet, Chinese, Cuban and Islamic revolution in Iran.
As revolution matures, it starts evolving and it is the evolutionary phases of the revolution that the revolutions and the international community find ways to bring their relations and interactions normal. Why I have chosen the evolutionary stage of revolution as a phase of normalization of relation because in this phase or stage the revolutionary process would have constructed the promises it made and would have gained skills, knowledge, professionalism, productivities and capabilities that international communities can no more ignore them.
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 Hannah C. Bealer, Staff Writer
12:38 AM Friday, June 26, 2009
12:38 AM Friday, June 26, 2009
Rwandan presidential candidate and United Democratic Front party member Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza will be at the Dayton North Holiday Inn at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 27.
Dayton has a Rwandan population of about 300, said Kristine Ward, chair of the board at the House of the People, a shelter for Rwandan refugees in Dayton.
Ward said 17 refugees are currently housed at the center, where they have the opportunity to seek employment and focus on education.
In September 2010, Umuhoza will run against President General Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
The Tutsi-formed RPF are widely believed to have played a part in the killings of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, who died when their plane was shot down in 1994. The assassinations caused controversy among the two groups, and led to the Rwandan genocide.
“Those who ignore all about Rwanda think that Kagame is a hero for his country whereas he is co-responsible for the Rwandanese tragedy,” Umuhoza said April 15 while giving a lecture at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Ward said as an American citizen, she does not have a position in the Rwandan election. She believes that the local refugees, however, will “have a great deal to say about it. They were the ones who fortunately lived through the genocide.”
Renewal ceremony
“We gather not because we are all the same. We gather because we are all in this together,” Father John Krumm said at St. Mary’s Church on Saturday, June 20.
Krumm, who has been the priest of St. Mary’s for nine years, led a ceremony for the renewal of Isaie Sibomana’s and Sylvie Incuti’s marriage vows. The couple married in 1999 in Burkina Faso, a nation in West Africa. Their first child, Brice Sibomana, 8, was born in the country.
When the couple moved to Dayton, Incuti gave birth to their now 1-year-old twins, Bryan and Bright.
The family felt it was “important to renew their vows in a church for the community and their children,” Ward said. Brice’s first communion was included in the ceremony as well as the twins’ baptism.
Many Rwandan refugees who escaped the 1994 genocide were in attendance for the ceremony, and Krumm’s words must have hit home for many of them.Ward has only positive things to say about the refugees she assists at the House of the People. “They’re very forgiving,” she said. “That’s why it’s hard for them to understand the genocide.”
Ward also noted that many of the refugees held high-ranking jobs in Rwanda, ranging from university professors to doctors. However, when they arrive at the House of the People, “they take any job they can get.”
Many will agree to work the night shift so they can spend the daytime with their children, she said.
“If there’s a gift they can give, it’s the way they care for their children,” Ward said. “These men are the most dedicated fathers I have seen.”
Ward, who’s work at the House is voluntary, says it’s a miracle when a Rwandan fam
ily comes to live at the House with all members intact. Despite their misfortunes, “they never lost their dignity, their hope or their love,” said Ward.Now, the refugees have a new hope for the country they fled.
That hope comes in the form of Umuhoza.
Umuhoza did not witness the genocide personally.
In an interview with Oliver Nyiruburgara, a journalist who focuses on African affairs, she explained she left Rwanda in 1994 to live in the Netherlands. She watched the genocide progress on television.
“It hurt me deep in my heart,” she told Nyiruburgara. “My political determination is based on that. We suffered a genocide and the first step should be reconciliation.”
Philippe Bizimana, the Rwandan community coordinator in Dayton, says that Umuhoza will be the first politician the community will see when she comes to speak in Dayton.
Bizimana came to live in the U.S. 10 years ago when he left a Kenyan refugee camp and arrived in Dayton. “This is my place,” he said of the city.
Bizimana said not many people know of Umuhoza, but “many people would support anyone who could bring peace in Rwanda.”
Dr. Joseph Twagilimana, another Rwandan refugee, feels similarly. He explained the name ‘Umuhoza’ means a person who cleans the tears off of a crying person’s cheeks.
If Umuhoza defeats the current president, she will be the country’s first female president.
“That would be great. I feel like everyone will be happy like they are in Liberia now,” said Bizimana, referring to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who won the 2005 Liberian presidential election and became its first elected female head of state.
“We don’t distinguish between male or female,” explained Twagilimana. “We distinguish who can do what and the way he or she can do it. A president is a president, not a male or a female.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-9370 or hbealer @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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
Les FDLR dénoncent l’entrée massive en RDC de nouvelles troupes du régime de Kigali dans le but de piller les richesses de la RDC , de brûler les villages, de violer les femmes et les filles et tuer tous ceux qui s’opposent au plan macabre de soumettre les populations de l’est de la RDC au dictat du dictateur de Kigali et de ses sponsors.
En complicité avec les autorités de Kinshasa et de la MONUC , des troupes de Kigali sont entrain de retourner massivement en RDC pour tuer tous les Rwandais et les Congolais qui s’opposent à la politique sanguinaire du régime de Kigali et celle de Kabila qui a cédé l’exploitation des richesses de l’est de la RDC aux groupes criminels de Kagame et de ses sponsors.
Les troupes de l’Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR/RDF) traversent actuellement la frontière rwando-congolaise en passant par Bunagana et Jomba ainsi que par Kibumba et Rugali. De même, les autorités de Kinshasa ont accepté que des troupes de Kigali habillées en civil passent directement par le poste frontalier de Goma. Ce sont ces mêmes troupes de Kagame qui vont assurer la sécurité des festivités marquant le 49è anniversaire de l’indépendance de la RDC prévues le 30 juin 2009 à Goma.
Selon des informations fiables à notre disposition, plus de 6.000 hommes lourdement armés viennent de traverser la frontière ces derniers jours pour s’ajouter à plus de 8.000 hommes de Kagame qui sont déjà en RDC sous le drapeau du CNDP.
Les autorités de la RDC , de la MONUC et de Kigali se sont entendues pour ne pas parler dans les médias de ce retour massif des troupes de Kigali afin d’éviter des protestations des populations civiles et des élus provinciaux et nationaux qui sont contre l’occupation de leur territoire par des troupes sanguinaires de Kigali comme ils l’ont montré lors de l’opération « Umoja Wetu ».
Ainsi, Kabila espère-t-il que ces nouvelles troupes envoyées par Kigali pourront d’ici peu remporter certaines batailles contre les troupes des FDLR et qu’il pourrait dans ce cas s’approprier ces victoires des troupes de Kigali dans son discours à la nation le 30 juin 2009.
C’est dans cette logique de la guerre que depuis le 23 juin 2009 les troupes de Kigali ont lancé des attaques généralisées contre les éléments des FDLR aussi bien dans le Sud-Kivu que dans le Nord-Kivu et commis des crimes graves contre les populations civiles locales, provoquant ainsi un immense exode de populations.
Les FDLR prennent encore une fois les peuples congolais et rwandais ainsi que la Communauté Internationale à témoin que les va-t-en guerre n’ont pas encore abandonné leur plan diabolique d’achever le génocide qu’ils ont commis contre les peuples rwandais et congolais depuis le 1 octobre 1990.
Les FDLR rappellent à tous les peuples de la Région des Grands Lacs Africains et au monde entier que dans la discipline et l’abnégation, leurs troupes ont, depuis le lancement de l’opération « Umoja Wetu » en janvier 2009 et à maintes reprises, donné des leçons inoubliables aux agresseurs de la coalition composée de l’APR (RDF) et des FARDC.
Les FDLR rassurent que même dans les nouveaux affrontements qui viennent de commencer, leurs troupes continueront à protéger les populations civiles congolaises et les réfugiés rwandais et que la coalition de l’APR (RDF) et des FARDC va en sortir tête baissée.
Les FDLR demandent une fois de plus à la Communauté Internationale , spécialement au Conseil de Sécurité des Nations Unies, à l’Union Africaine et à l’Union Européenne de ne pas continuer à endosser la responsabilité de cette guerre inutile et injuste mais plutôt d’opter clairement pour la négociation directe entre les FDLR et le régime de Kigali.
Les FDLR restent attachées à la paix et rappellent que seuls les régimes de Kigali et de Kinshasa ainsi que leurs sponsors doivent porter la responsabilité de toutes les conséquences de cette guerre qu’ils ont imposée aux peuples épris de paix de la Région des Grands Lacs Africains.
Fait à Paris le 25 Juin 2009
Callixte Mbarushimana
Secrétaire Exécutif des FDLR
(Sé)
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
Thursday, June 25, 2009
******
Click here : Text of Amendment
******
Ref: 66/2009
Date: 21 May 2009
Time: 12:00 GMT
On 19 May, 2009, the Spanish parliament passed a resolution calling on the government to limit Spain’s universal jurisdiction mechanisms. The proposal called for the existing legislation to be modified so that cases may only be pursued if they involve Spanish victims or if the accused is present on Spanish soil.
In light o
f the confusion surrounding this proposal, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) whish to clarify certain issues.The existing law, which grants Spanish courts jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, has not been modified. The Spanish parliament has agreed to request the government to draft new legislation aimed at amending the existing law. This legislation will have to be drafted, and then accepted by the parliament. Further, it must be found to be compliant with the Spanish constitution and Spain’s international legal obligations.
Current universal jurisdiction cases, which include PCHR’s case against seven senior Israeli officials in relation to the June 2002 Al-Daraj attack in Gaza, currently remain unaffected. However, if the law is changed, Spanish judges will no longer have the jurisdiction necessary to continue their investigations; the victims will be denied judicial remedy.
PCHR wish to emphasize that universal jurisdiction is not merely a Palestinian issue. It is an essential legal tool – a
mechanism of last resort – used when national courts are genuinely unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute those accused of international crimes. As such, it provides a means of judicial remedy to victims throughout the world who suffer at the hands of oppressive regimes. Universal jurisdiction is an essential component in upholding the rule of law. It is a first step on the road towards universal justice, whereby victims’ rights may be ensured through the legal punishment of guilty parties. Victims’ rights to an effective judicial remedy form a core component of international human rights law, and are codified in article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).All available options will be considered in an effort to ensure that Spain does not succumb to political pressure, and continues to uphold international justice.
PCHR call on lawyers, human rights organizations, civil society, and all concerned parties, to combat any proposed amendment to the law, and to fight to ensure that the interests of justice, and the rights of victims, are upheld. The constitutionality of any proposed amendment to the law will be challenged.
In 2005, following the issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Major General Doron Almog, former Prime Minister Tony Blair declared Britain’s intention to modify the United Kingdom’s laws on universal jurisdiction. Four years later, this amendment has not come to pass. Last week, British Justice Secretary Jack Straw embraced the concept of universal jurisdiction, when he noted that he was considering proposing changes to UK law that would allow courts in Britain to try cases where genocide had allegedly been committed elsewhere in the world.
The fight for justice will be continued. PCHR affirm their intention to continue to pursue all available legal mechanisms to ensure that victims’ rights are protected and the rule of law upheld. The fight against impunity cannot be lost.
Click here to see a translation of the proposed amendment.
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
***** -----******
Les députés espagnols ont approuvé jeudi une réduction du mandat du principe de juridiction universelle, qui permet aux magistrats espagnols d'engager des poursuites pour certains crimes particulièrement graves commis dans d'autres pays.
Fait rare, les députés socialistes et les conservateurs (opposition) se sont alliés pour faire voter ce texte à la chambre basse du Parlement. La mesure va désormais être transmise au Sénat, où elle devrait être approuvée.
En vertu de la nouvelle loi, les magistrats espagnols ne pourront plus engager de poursuites dans le cadre de la juridiction universelle que lorsque des Espagnols seront victimes dans les affaires concernées ou lorsque les auteurs présumés des faits se trouveront en Espagne.
La loi ne sera pas rétroactive, les dossiers actuellement en cours ne seront donc pas abandonnés.
Cette réforme fait suite à plusieurs critiques de pays étrangers, dont Israël, qui se sont plaints de faire l'objet de procédures initiées par l'Audience nationale, la plus haute instance judiciaire espagnole, sur la base de cette disposition.
Le principe de juridiction universelle a notamment été utilisé par Baltasar Garzon, le plus célèbre juge d'Espagne, pour ouvrir de nombreuses enquêtes ayant trait aux droits de l'Homme, comme celle qui a visé l'ancien dictateur chilien Augusto Pinochet.
En avril, il avait ouvert une enquête sur les tortures qu'aurait autorisées l'administration Bush dans la prison américaine de Guantanamo, à Cuba.
Fait rare, les députés socialistes et les conservateurs (opposition) se sont alliés pour faire voter ce texte à la chambre basse du Parlement. La mesure va désormais être transmise au Sénat, où elle devrait être approuvée.
En vertu de la nouvelle loi, les magistrats espagnols ne pourront plus engager de poursuites dans le cadre de la juridiction universelle que lorsque des Espagnols seront victimes dans les affaires concernées ou lorsque les auteurs présumés des faits se trouveront en Espagne.
La loi ne sera pas rétroactive, les dossiers actuellement en cours ne seront donc pas abandonnés.
Cette réforme fait suite à plusieurs critiques de pays étrangers, dont Israël, qui se sont plaints de faire l'objet de procédures initiées par l'Audience nationale, la plus haute instance judiciaire espagnole, sur la base de cette disposition.
Le principe de juridiction universelle a notamment été utilisé par Baltasar Garzon, le plus célèbre juge d'Espagne, pour ouvrir de nombreuses enquêtes ayant trait aux droits de l'Homme, comme celle qui a visé l'ancien dictateur chilien Augusto Pinochet.
En avril, il avait ouvert une enquête sur les tortures qu'aurait autorisées l'administration Bush dans la prison américaine de Guantanamo, à Cuba.
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
NDLR: The information released here next does not reflect the SurViVors Edition's position on the way UN and involved parties dealt with the Assassination of President Habyarimana. the reson why this article has been published is among other questions. It's bloody obvious that the assassination was so planed and the killer knew what he was doing. Why RPF Killers remain still at large and worse of that run a country: Rwanda? Does the International Community (Western powers) have minimum respect for Human beings even if they are Africans?*** --***
It is the story of a black box, an orange metal box in the size of a large shoe box. The commercial airliners are equipped with such boxes, which are identified by numbers riveted to the metal. Designed to record flight data and cockpit conversations, black boxes are useful in case of accident.
It is indeed the story of a black box, but a story like no other ones. The one in question was in fact supposed to shelter in her womb the key to the Rwandan genocide in 1994 against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
It first appeared on the scene when the French troops involved in Turquoise military operation take their positions in Rwanda, while the genocide continues.
Suddenly, the box is brandished by Paul Barril, the former police officer in the Elysée. On June 28, 1994, Paul Barril reassures the public that he surely possesses the black box of the Falcon 50 of President Juvenal Hab yarimana that was shot down three months ago. This is the attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide.
Paul Barril declared to the international institutions that he now holds the enigmatic black box capable of uncovering the mystery surrounding the genocide. From now on, all regards were turned away from Rwanda, away from the facts and the reality on the ground, to focus on this box comparable to the Holy Grail, which subsequently became the black box of genocide. Alas, a few days later, the blow falls. From July 8, 1994, the French newspaper "Le Monde" alleges that the black box presented by Paul Barril was "not the black box."
According to the article, the black box had been conveyed ten years earlier in New York at the UN headquarters but the UN became disinterested of the box. Conclusion: "If the black box is still there, the UN has for sure a substantial asset for the day when it would like to know what really happened on Apri l 6, 1994, in the night sky of Kigali-City" .
Once again, the revelation was invalidated ten days later. "Last week, a first examination of the black box done at UN headquarters in New York, revealed nothing that would establish that it comes from the Falcon 50 shot down on April 6, 1994", reported Le Monde.
The tape was played over. It contains extracts from the conversation between the control tower and an aircraft on the tarmac of Kigali, but has provided no evidence what so ever. The public will thereafter learn that this was just a montage.
This concludes the second life of the mysterious black box. Nevertheless, there still is a third chapter, which although written and recorded, has not yet been made available to the public. Here it is. It starts exactly from the quote 6 798 of Judge Bruguiere's instructions.
On March 31, 2004, an official representative of Dassault-Aviation Company acknowledges that the Rwandan president's plane was not equipped with a black box. On July 1, 2004, the final UN investigation on the black box discovery in New York was reexamined. It is clearly mentioned that immediately after the attack on the president's aircraft, at 2:45 am, on April 7, 1994 the French military mission in Rwanda has received authorization from Paris to conduct an investigation into this crash.
It also well established that that access to the plane crash area was denied to the United Nations until May 21, 1994. It is also stated that the black box currently in New York was found by the UN on May 27, 1994, abandoned near the crash area. In conclusion, the United Nations confirmed that the black box currently in New York is not from the Falcon 50 that was shot down.
Judge Bruguiere was nonetheless obliged to go ahead and complete the investigation. On November 2 9, 2004, he interviewed an Air France official. Under penalty of perjury, he said that the black box discovered a decade later in UN shelves is from a Concorde aircraft! Specifically, it is from the Air France Concorde 209 Air France, F-BVFC. Records in the maintenance files of Air France Concorde undoubtedly attest its origin. One month later, a second Air France confirmed these findings.
It is indeed the story of a black box, but a story like no other ones. The one in question was in fact supposed to shelter in her womb the key to the Rwandan genocide in 1994 against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Suddenly, the box is brandished by Paul Barril, the former police officer in the Elysée. On June 28, 1994, Paul Barril reassures the public that he surely possesses the black box of the Falcon 50 of President Juvenal Hab yarimana that was shot down three months ago. This is the attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide.
Paul Barril declared to the international institutions that he now holds the enigmatic black box capable of uncovering the mystery surrounding the genocide. From now on, all regards were turned away from Rwanda, away from the facts and the reality on the ground, to focus on this box comparable to the Holy Grail, which subsequently became the black box of genocide. Alas, a few days later, the blow falls. From July 8, 1994, the French newspaper "Le Monde" alleges that the black box presented by Paul Barril was "not the black box."
This concludes the first chapter about the mysterious black box, but the story is far from over. The black box will be resurrected and have a second life. This occured in 2004. As the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide approaches, many damning evidences on the foreign policy of Paris in Rwanda have been made public. The date marks a turning point.
On March 10, 2004, the French newspaper, Le Monde, announced that "the black box of the Falcon 50 has been transferred, ten years ago, to the UN Headquarters in New York". The newspaper specifically stated that "according to Judge Bruguiere, the United Nations are currently obstructing the investigation into the attack of April 6, 1994. The accusations were clear: for unknown reaso ns the United Nations retained an important piece of conviction. The public would immediately be flooded of flash news, articles and statements supporting this sudden turn of effects. Once again, the mechanisms of genocide are obscured in favor of a polar well tied.According to the article, the black box had been conveyed ten years earlier in New York at the UN headquarters but the UN became disinterested of the box. Conclusion: "If the black box is still there, the UN has for sure a substantial asset for the day when it would like to know what really happened on Apri l 6, 1994, in the night sky of Kigali-City" .
Once again, the revelation was invalidated ten days later. "Last week, a first examination of the black box done at UN headquarters in New York, revealed nothing that would establish that it comes from the Falcon 50 shot down on April 6, 1994", reported Le Monde.
The tape was played over. It contains extracts from the conversation between the control tower and an aircraft on the tarmac of Kigali, but has provided no evidence what so ever. The public will thereafter learn that this was just a montage.
This concludes the second life of the mysterious black box. Nevertheless, there still is a third chapter, which although written and recorded, has not yet been made available to the public. Here it is. It starts exactly from the quote 6 798 of Judge Bruguiere's instructions.
On March 31, 2004, an official representative of Dassault-Aviation Company acknowledges that the Rwandan president's plane was not equipped with a black box. On July 1, 2004, the final UN investigation on the black box discovery in New York was reexamined. It is clearly mentioned that immediately after the attack on the president's aircraft, at 2:45 am, on April 7, 1994 the French military mission in Rwanda has received authorization from Paris to conduct an investigation into this crash.
It also well established that that access to the plane crash area was denied to the United Nations until May 21, 1994. It is also stated that the black box currently in New York was found by the UN on May 27, 1994, abandoned near the crash area. In conclusion, the United Nations confirmed that the black box currently in New York is not from the Falcon 50 that was shot down.
Judge Bruguiere was nonetheless obliged to go ahead and complete the investigation. On November 2 9, 2004, he interviewed an Air France official. Under penalty of perjury, he said that the black box discovered a decade later in UN shelves is from a Concorde aircraft! Specifically, it is from the Air France Concorde 209 Air France, F-BVFC. Records in the maintenance files of Air France Concorde undoubtedly attest its origin. One month later, a second Air France confirmed these findings.
Upon such new developments, Judge Bruguiere interrupted his investigation without trying to understand the sequence of these amazing facts. Do you imagine how a black box from an Air France Concorde, inadvertently found on the grass near Kigali-City in late May 1994, then ten years later on UN shelves in New York, can be brandished as the missing puzzle piece that is crucially needed to solve the riddle posed by the Rwandan genocide? The question irresistibly evokes the bordereau of the Dreyfus affair.
It is not given to everybody to have a Concorde black box. It is not easy to mount a somewhat credible soundtrack of this box or to drop it on the grass near Kigali-City after the attack of April 6, 1994, when the war was raging throughout the city. It is even more difficult to follow in detail the itinerary of this box all the way to the UN Headquarters in New York.
It is finally very rude to leak out the information at the right time that corresponds to the timing of a useful scandal that will capture the media's attention but also lead to a timely confusion.
Of course, the story of the black box of genocide doesn't tell anything about the genocide. However, it tells everything that people would like it to tell. Who are those people? Why are they doing this? The answer to these questions can only be found in one place: Paris.
It is not given to everybody to have a Concorde black box. It is not easy to mount a somewhat credible soundtrack of this box or to drop it on the grass near Kigali-City after the attack of April 6, 1994, when the war was raging throughout the city. It is even more difficult to follow in detail the itinerary of this box all the way to the UN Headquarters in New York.
It is finally very rude to leak out the information at the right time that corresponds to the timing of a useful scandal that will capture the media's attention but also lead to a timely confusion.
Of course, the story of the black box of genocide doesn't tell anything about the genocide. However, it tells everything that people would like it to tell. Who are those people? Why are they doing this? The answer to these questions can only be found in one place: 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, June 21, 2009
By Abdoul Aziz AgneWalfadjri
June 5, 2009
DAKAR, Senegal
Fifteen years after the missile attack that killed the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana the mystery continues to surround this terrorist act that triggered the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The Rwandan Youth Movement for Reconciliation, Peace and Truth in Rwanda (MJRPVR) strongly believes that the United Nations, by its inaction, is complicit in the missile attack that destroyed Habyarimana' s aircraft.
The future of Rwanda appears to be linked to this unfortunate event that occurred on April 6, 1994 which tragically cost life to President Juvenal
Habyarimana. The president's jet was shot down by a missile attack as it prepared to land at the Kanombe International Airport. The president and his team had been on a regional peace meeting in Tanzania in an attempt to end the Rwandan civil war between his government and the RPF rebels that had invaded the country from Uganda since October 1990.
Today, fifteen years later, Rwandans want that justice be done by shading the light on the real culprits of this terrorist act. With regard to this issue, the Rwandan Youth Movement for Reconciliation, Peace and Truth in Rwanda (MJRPVR) does not go around the bush to accuse the United Nations of complicity in this crime. The movement which encompasses Rwandan youths who love justice, attests that the missiles used to carry out this terrorist act were launched from an area that was controlled by the UN peacekeepers.
"It is important that the world know that the UN has always hidden the truth about this terrorist attack against the president's plane", asserted these young people during a press conference held at the headquarters of the African Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO).
One may recall that just a few weeks ago, a study in the United States reported that the black box found on the site of the accident was not from Habyarimana' s plane. Instead, it was from a Concorde aircraft, specifically, the Air France Concorde 209, F-BVFC.
This suspicious fact suggests that other factors are indeed involved in this mysterious murder. In addition, members of this youth movement reminded the public that since 1992 the UN, through the UNAMIR, was in charge of the security of Kigali City.
Furthermore, MJRPVR members pointed out the following questions: How were the three missiles used in this attack sent to Rwanda when we all know that at that time Rwanda was under the UN arm embargo? How did these missiles escape the control by the UN peacekeepers?
There are so many unanswered questions which put the UN in the center of such a tragic event that has profoundly marked the Rwandan history. Indeed, the attack against the Rwandan president's plane triggered for the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which claimed nearly two million lives, Tutsis and Hutus included.
This is why, the MJRPVR "begs" the UN "to release the recording from the black box of the aircraft that was shot down". It will be recalled that the incident occurred in a context of peace negotiations to end the Rwandan civil war that began on October 1, 1990.
These negotiation efforts had led to the Arusha Peace Agreement signed on August 4, 1993. The agreement mainly focused on three points including power-sharing, recognition of the RPF movement as a political party and the integration of RPF rebels in the Rwandan army.
Actually, the MJRPVR strongly believes that restituting the truth about who killed Habyarimans is a fundamental step in the search for peace and stability in Rwanda. For this reason, MJRPVR members plan to seize the African Union so that the investigation process into the where about of the black box from Habyarimana' s plane can finally find its epilogue.
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
The future of Rwanda appears to be linked to this unfortunate event that occurred on April 6, 1994 which tragically cost life to President Juvenal
Habyarimana. The president's jet was shot down by a missile attack as it prepared to land at the Kanombe International Airport. The president and his team had been on a regional peace meeting in Tanzania in an attempt to end the Rwandan civil war between his government and the RPF rebels that had invaded the country from Uganda since October 1990.Today, fifteen years later, Rwandans want that justice be done by shading the light on the real culprits of this terrorist act. With regard to this issue, the Rwandan Youth Movement for Reconciliation, Peace and Truth in Rwanda (MJRPVR) does not go around the bush to accuse the United Nations of complicity in this crime. The movement which encompasses Rwandan youths who love justice, attests that the missiles used to carry out this terrorist act were launched from an area that was controlled by the UN peacekeepers.
"It is important that the world know that the UN has always hidden the truth about this terrorist attack against the president's plane", asserted these young people during a press conference held at the headquarters of the African Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO).
One may recall that just a few weeks ago, a study in the United States reported that the black box found on the site of the accident was not from Habyarimana' s plane. Instead, it was from a Concorde aircraft, specifically, the Air France Concorde 209, F-BVFC.
This suspicious fact suggests that other factors are indeed involved in this mysterious murder. In addition, members of this youth movement reminded the public that since 1992 the UN, through the UNAMIR, was in charge of the security of Kigali City.
Furthermore, MJRPVR members pointed out the following questions: How were the three missiles used in this attack sent to Rwanda when we all know that at that time Rwanda was under the UN arm embargo? How did these missiles escape the control by the UN peacekeepers?
There are so many unanswered questions which put the UN in the center of such a tragic event that has profoundly marked the Rwandan history. Indeed, the attack against the Rwandan president's plane triggered for the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which claimed nearly two million lives, Tutsis and Hutus included.
This is why, the MJRPVR "begs" the UN "to release the recording from the black box of the aircraft that was shot down". It will be recalled that the incident occurred in a context of peace negotiations to end the Rwandan civil war that began on October 1, 1990.
These negotiation efforts had led to the Arusha Peace Agreement signed on August 4, 1993. The agreement mainly focused on three points including power-sharing, recognition of the RPF movement as a political party and the integration of RPF rebels in the Rwandan army.
Actually, the MJRPVR strongly believes that restituting the truth about who killed Habyarimans is a fundamental step in the search for peace and stability in Rwanda. For this reason, MJRPVR members plan to seize the African Union so that the investigation process into the where about of the black box from Habyarimana' s plane can finally find its epilogue.
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, June 19, 2009
Posted on Jun 14, 2009By Chris Hedges
This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks th
e start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.Barack Obama, and the criminal class on Wall Street, aided by a corporate media that continues to peddle fatuous gossip and trash talk as news while we endure the greatest economic crisis in our history, may have fooled us, but the rest of the world knows we are bankrupt.
And these nations are damned if they are going to continue to prop up an inflated dollar and sustain the massive federal budget deficits, swollen to over $2 trillion, which fund America’s imperial expansion in Eurasia and our system of casino capitalism. They have us by the throat. They are about to squeeze.
There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully. The gathering is, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.”
It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds.
The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. Obama, endowed by many with the qualities of a savior, will suddenly look pitiful, inept and weak. And the rage that has kindled a handful of shootings and hate crimes in the past few weeks will engulf vast segments of a disenfranchised and bewildered working and middle class. The people of this class will demand vengeance, radical change, order and moral renewal, which an array of proto-fascists, from the Christian right to the goons who disseminate hate talk on Fox News, will assure the country they will impose.
I called Hudson, who has an article in Monday’s Financial Times called “The Yekaterinburg Turning Point: De-Dollarization and the Ending of America’s Financial-Military Hegemony.” “Yekaterinburg,” Hudson writes, “may become known not only as the death place of the czars but of the American empire as well.” His article is worth reading, along with John Lanchester’s disturbing exposé of the world’s banking system, titled “It’s Finished,” which appeared in the May 28 issue of the London Review of Books.
“This means the end of the dollar,” Hudson told me. “It means China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran are forming an official financial and military area to get America out of Eurasia. The balance-of-payments deficit is mainly military in nature. Half of America’s discretionary spending is military. The deficit ends up in the hands of foreign banks, central banks. They don’t have any choice but to recycle the money to buy U.S. government debt. The Asian countries have been financing their own military encirclement. They have been forced to accept dollars that have no chance of being repaid. They are paying for America’s military aggression against them. They want to get rid of this.”
China, as Hudson points out, has already struck bilateral trade deals with Brazil and Malaysia to denominate their trade in China’s yuan rather than the dollar, pound or euro. Russia promises to begin trading in the ruble and local currencies. The governor of China’s central bank has openly called for the abandonment of the dollar as reserve currency, suggesting in its place the use of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights. What the new system will be remains unclear, but the flight from the dollar has clearly begun.
The goal, in the words of the Russian president, is to build a “multipolar world order” which will break the economic and, by extension, military domination by the United States. China is frantically spending its dollar reserves to buy factories and property around the globe so it can unload its U.S. currency. This is why Aluminum Corp. of China made so many major concessions in the failed attempt to salvage its $19.5 billion alliance with the Rio Tinto mining concern in Australia. It desperately needs to shed its dollars.
“China is trying to get rid of all the dollars they can in a trash-for-resource deal,” Hudson said. “They will give the dollars to countries willing to sell off their resources since America refuses to sell any of its high-tech industries, even Unocal, to the yellow peril. It realizes these dollars are going to be worthless pretty quickly.”
The architects of this new global exchange realize that if they break the dollar they also break America’s military domination. Our military spending cannot be sustained without this cycle of heavy borrowing. The official U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2008 is $623 billion, before we add on things like nuclear research. The next closest national military budget is China’s, at $65 billion, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.
There are three categories of the balance-of-payment deficits.
- America imports more than it exports. This is trade.
- Wall Street and American corporations buy up foreign companies. This is capital movement.
- The third and most important balance-of-payment deficit for the past 50 years has been Pentagon spending abroad.
It is primarily military spending that has been responsible for the balance-of-payments deficit for the last five decades. Look at table five in the Balance of Payments Report, published in the Survey of Current Business quarterly, and check under military spending. There you can see the deficit.
To fund our permanent war economy, we have been flooding the world with dollars. The foreign recipients turn the dollars over to their central banks for local currency. The central banks then have a problem. If a central bank does not spend the money in the United States then the exchange rate against the dollar will go up. This will penalize exporters.
This has allowed America to print money without restraint to buy imports and foreign companies, fund our military expansion and ensure that foreign nations like China continue to buy our treasury bonds. This cycle appears now to be over. Once the dollar cannot flood central banks and no one buys our treasury bonds, our empire collapses. The profligate spending on the military, some $1 trillion when everything is counted, will be unsustainable.
“We will have to finance our own military spending,” Hudson warned, “and the only way to do this will be to sharply cut back wage rates. The class war is back in business. Wall Street understands that. This is why it had Bush and Obama give it $10 trillion in a huge rip-off so it can have enough money to survive.”
The desperate effort to borrow our way out of financial collapse has promoted a level of state intervention unseen since World War II. It has also led us into uncharted territory.
“We have in effect had to declare war to get us out of the hole created by our economic system,” Lanchester wrote in the London Review of Books. “There is no model or precedent for this, and no way to argue that it’s all right really, because under such-and-such a model of capitalism ... there is no such model. It isn’t supposed to work like this, and there is no road-map for what’s happened.”
The cost of daily living, from buying food to getting medical care, will become difficult for all but a few as the dollar plunges. States and cities will see their pension funds drained and finally shut down. The government will be forced to sell off infrastructure, including roads and transport, to private corporations. We will be increasingly charged by privatized utilities—think Enron—for what was once regulated and subsidized. Commercial and private real estate will be worth less than half its current value.
The negative equity that already plagues 25 percent of American homes will expand to include nearly all property owners. It will be difficult to borrow and impossible to sell real estate unless we accept massive losses. There will be block after block of empty stores and boarded-up houses. Foreclosures will be epidemic.
There will be long lines at soup kitchens and many, many homeless. Our corporate-controlled media, already banal and trivial, will work overtime to anesthetize us with useless gossip, spectacles, sex, gratuitous violence, fear and tawdry junk politics.
America will be composed of a large dispossessed underclass and a tiny empowered oligarchy that will run a ruthless and brutal system of neo-feudalism from secure compounds. Those who resist will be silenced, many by force. We will pay a terrible price, and we will pay this price soon, for the gross malfeasance of our power elite.
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
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Like a freak in bed, Paul Kagame with his trademark fanatical stare dresses up like Hitler.
Check out his look and to ensure you're on the right way, watch this:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW0fRwGKV2I
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02b2V6hK3EQ
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP5LdEE8KIE
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8j-o3JPrY&NR=1
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1GS-fLuL5A&feature=related
Those who argue that Paul Kagame has stopped genocide don't k
© SurViVors Editions
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, June 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
U.S. Faces Surprise, Dilemma in Africa
By Lynne Duke
Washington Post
KIGALI, Rwanda
—When Rwandan troops invaded the former Zaire in October 1996, it was a rude jolt for the U.S. officials managing relations with this small central African nation.
Following the 1994 civil war here, during which more than a half-million Rwandans were massacred, the United States had become increasingly close to the Rwandan government and the army that backed it. Rwanda's de facto leader, Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame, was regarded in Washington as a brilliant military strategist. Hoping to build stability in strife-torn central Africa, Washington pumped military aid into Kagame's army, and U.S. Army Special Forces and other military personnel trained hundreds of Rwandan troops.
But Kagame and his colleagues had designs of their own. While the Green Berets trained the Rwandan Patriotic Army, that army was itself secretly training Zairian rebels. Rwandan forces then crossed into Zaire and joined with the rebels to attack refugee camps where exiled Rwandan extremists were holed up. That touched off a war that eventually toppled Africa's longest-reigning dictator, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko.
Although the United States shared the goals of dismantling the refugee camps and replacing Mobutu, the invasion took Washington by surprise, sources in both countries say. And when the Rwandan forces became involved in massacres and other human rights abuses inside Zaire, now known as Congo, the United States faced a dilemma over how to react that persists to this day.
The story of the U.S. relationship with the Rwandan military illustrates the complications that have occurred when military ties -- and, in particular, hard-to-track training operations by the Pentagon's special operations forces -- have become a prime instrument of American policy. Since the early 1990s, deployments of special operations forces have been rapidly expanding around Africa, part of a worldwide increase in contacts that are not subject to the civilian and congressional oversight that applies to other foreign military aid programs.
Many of the exercises are funded through a 1991 law that allows deployments if the primary mission is to train U.S. troops. How U.S. troops benefit from this training is not readily apparent. But in many cases special operations troops, of which the Army's Special Forces are the largest element, have instructed foreign armies in how to combat their own domestic insurgencies, or pursued U.S. policy objectives ranging from stopping narcotics traffic to preventing genocide.
In the last two years alone, U.S. special operations troops -- mainly Green Berets from the 3rd Special Forces Group based at Fort Bragg, N.C. -- have taught light infantry or other military tactics to troops in Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. An initial exercise with South Africa is planned for the fourth quarter of this year.
U.S. special operations commanders say that among the purposes of the training, called the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program, is to build contacts with foreign military leaders and encourage respect for human rights by foreign armies.
But U.S. access to military officials has not necessarily meant U.S. influence over their actions. In the case of Rwanda, U.S. officials publicly portrayed their engagement with the army as almost entirely devoted to human rights training. But the Special Forces exercises also covered other areas, including combat skills. As a result, U.S. promotion of human rights has been overshadowed by questions about whether Rwandan units trained by Americans later participated in atrocities during the war in Zaire.
A U.N. report released last month charged that elements of the Rwandan army were involved in abuses during the war that "constitute crimes against humanity," including the massacre of unarmed civilians and refugees. Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the House subcommittee on international operations and human rights, has questioned whether the Pentagon even has tried to find out if Rwandan troops trained by Special Forces were among those who committed the massacres.
In fact, according to Pentagon officials, no such review has been conducted, because none is required by the 1991 legislation. At Smith's request, the Pentagon will provide the names of Rwandan troops trained by Americans since 1994 and after-action reports from their missions. But a Pentagon spokeswoman, Col. Nancy Burt, said that "as a practical matter, it would not be feasible" to vet the Rwandan forces for human rights violations "due to the large number of persons with whom we conduct training."
Despite continued reports of human rights abuses by the Rwandan army, this time inside Rwanda, a new round of Joint Combined Exchange Training between Army Special Forces and Rwandan units is scheduled to begin July 15. It will be the second this year. The Pentagon also plans to send an assessment team to Rwanda in the coming weeks to see whether and how the military training should be further enhanced.
U.S. officials defend the collaboration by arguing that it is wiser to engage with Rwanda to help it develop a human rights culture than to step aside and risk a new descent by the country into chaos.
The effort to support and strengthen the Rwandan military is "a matter of practical policy interests and common sense," a Clinton administration official said. "Assuming diplomacy fails and [ethnic conflict] grows, somebody needs to be in a position to contain it."
Although Rwanda is an impoverished, shattered nation at the far fringes of U.S. national security interests, it is not the prototypical weak client state seeking military help from a powerful patron. Instead, its relationship with Washington is built on a complex mix of history, personal relationships, shared geopolitical objectives, and -- not least, some would say -- guilt.
The origins of the relationship lie in the Rwandan civil war, which began in 1990 when a rebel force led by minority Tutsi exiles invaded Rwanda from Uganda in an attempt to overthrow the government, led by ethnic Hutus. Kagame, a Tutsi who was then a colonel in Uganda's army, was in a training course at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., when the war began. He dropped out of the course to take command of the rebel army, then later participated in talks that led to a 1993 peace accord.
The peace collapsed in April 1994, when an airplane carrying Rwanda's Hutu president was shot down near Kigali, killing all aboard. Extremist Hutus in the government and army subsequently orchestrated massacres of Tutsis around the country. At least 500,000 people were slaughtered while indecisive Western governments and the United Nations debated what to do.
Finally, a revived rebel movement led by Kagame defeated the government army and took power in Kigali in July. Hundreds of thousands of Hutus, fearing retribution, fled to eastern Zaire, and many of the Hutu soldiers and militiamen involved in the massacres took refuge in their midst.
U.S. officials were deeply relieved that the rebels had halted the massacres, thus ending pressure for a U.S.-led intervention. They also said they were greatly impressed by Kagame's leadership. By the end of the war, some U.S. officials had concluded that Kagame was "a brilliant commander, able to think outside the box," as one put it. "He was a fairly impressive guy," added the official, who met Kagame in the early 1990s. "He was more than a military man. He was politically attuned and knew what compromise was."
Immediately after the war, the United States helped mount a humanitarian operation to assist the refugees in Zaire. Then-Secretary of Defense William J. Perry visited the region, and he too was taken by the new Rwandan leaders.
"When Secretary Perry visited the American troops in Kigali, Goma and Entebbe, he was impressed by how, so close [after] the genocide, these people [the new Rwandan army] could be talking about reconstruction and reconciliation instead of revenge and retaliation," the defense official said.
Still, Rwanda's new civilian government was largely a facade. Kagame, who took the posts of vice president and defense minister, remained in charge. With democratic elections nowhere in sight, a diplomat said, the government was, in essence, a "disguised military dictatorship."
U.S. officials nevertheless focused on the Kagame leadership as one with which they could work to restore order in Rwanda, eastern Zaire and neighboring areas of central Africa.
For its part, the new Rwandan government felt it held the upper hand in its relations with Washington, because its army alone had put an end to the massacres while the West dithered. Analysts here say the Rwandans have played on Washington's sense of guilt about the genocide of 1994, and its stated objective of preventing a recurrence. In deciding how to deal with the lingering problem of the Rwandan refugees and militant exiles in Zaire, for example, "we were [diplomatically] stronger because nobody could argue against us," said Patrick Mazimhaka, a minister to Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu.
Said a diplomat here, "I think the Americans were terribly manipulated by this government and now are almost held hostage by it."
Lt. Col. Frank Rusagara, secretary general of the Rwandan Defense Ministry and the top policymaker for military development, described the army as a reflection of Rwandan society: in flux as it tries to establish a brand new set of core social values. "Among us there are orphans of genocide victims," Rusagara said. "Among us there are sons and daughters whose parents actively were in the genocide."
"Over a period of time, we've got to establish democratic institutions and values for the military to protect," said Rusagara, who returned in April from three months of defense resource management training at the U.S. Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, Calif. "So I think in Rwanda, we're evolving."
Rusagara presides over a military administration that started from scratch in 1994 as a national entity. The army inherited little from the Hutu-led armed forces that was worth saving. After all, much of the old army, especially the presidential guard, perpetrated the genocide against the Tutsis, or stood by.
The U.S. military engagement here began in 1995 as an effort to help the Rwandan army with its task of reinvention, both of itself and of the nation's power structure. U.S. officials said they wanted the former rebel army to become a professional force that would support the principles of the democracy that Rwandan officials say they aspire to create.
Hundreds of soldiers and officers were enrolled in U.S. training programs, both in Rwanda and in the United States. Rwandan officers went to the United States to study military justice, defense resource management and law of war and human rights. Scores of Rwandans were trained for land-mine detection and disposal under the U.S.-funded National De-mining Office, which was up and running in early 1996.
When asked in a December 1996 congressional hearing about the kinds of training the United States provided to Rwanda, Ambassador Richard Bogosian, the Clinton administration's coordinator for Rwanda, said the training dealt "almost exclusively with the human rights end of the spectrum as distinct from purely military operations."
But some Rwandan units were getting U.S. combat training, as well. In a JCET program conducted by U.S. Special Forces, Rwandans studied camouflage techniques, small-unit movement, troop-leading procedures, soldier-team development, rappelling, mountaineering, marksmanship, weapon maintenance and day and night navigation.
And while the training went on, U.S. officials were meeting regularly with Kagame and other senior Rwandan leaders to discuss the continuing military threat faced by the government from inside Zaire.
Hutu militia forces driven into Zaire had regrouped and by late 1995 were launching raids across the border into Rwanda from the camps in eastern Zaire, where more than 1 million Rwandan refugees still languished. Efforts by the United Nations to send the refugees back home were repeatedly blocked by the Hutu militants, who depended on U.N.-supplied food and fuel.
U.S. officials agreed that the camps were a problem requiring a solution, and had discussed several options with Kagame, including air strikes to hit at the extremist bases, sources said. Information about the camps was exchanged between the two countries, a Western military analyst said.
Kagame himself visited Washington in early August 1996 to discuss the situation with senior Clinton administration officials. He later said that he had been seeking solutions from Washington, but left disappointed. U.S. officials said Kagame had warned that the camps in Zaire had to be dismantled and had hinted that Rwanda might act if the United Nations did not. They said they expected that Kagame might try something, but did not know when he would do it and what form it would take.
Meanwhile, from July 17 to Aug. 30, a U.S. Army Special Forces team from Fort Bragg instructed Rwandan army soldiers in small-unit leader training, rifle marksmanship, first aid, land navigation and tactical skills, such as patrolling. In September, dozens of other Rwandan soldiers received training under the International Military Education program.
Clearly, the focus of Rwandan-U.S. military discussion had shifted from how to build human rights to how to combat an insurgency. In 1995, a diplomatic observer said, Kagame's attitude seemed to be, "I want [the army] to get rid of that bush mentality. I want to teach them by sending them" for training.
"But then," the diplomat said, "when the infiltration [from the Zaire camps] started and you have the [Zaire] war, it got all out of hand."
Kagame's alliance with the Pentagon was not the only one he nurtured after 1994. He also remained in close touch with Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni, a longtime comrade. With Museveni's support, Kagame conceived a plan to back a rebel movement in eastern Zaire. He hoped to clear out the Rwandan refugee camps, crush the exiled Hutu militias and deal a blow to Mobutu, one of Africa's most corrupt rulers. Uganda contributed some troops and materiel to the war effort, and Angola, Zambia and several other African states later joined in. Laurent Kabila, an aging former Marxist revolutionary, was recruited to head the rebels, who tried to keep their connections to Rwanda and Uganda hidden.
The operation was launched in October 1996, just a few weeks after Kagame's trip to Washington and the completion of the Special Forces training mission. But according to sources in both governments, the Clinton administration did not learn of the infiltration by Rwandan troops and officers or the extent of their ambitions until the fighting was well underway. Two sources in Kigali described the United States as angry and embarrassed at being surprised.
"I wouldn't say they pulled the wool over our eyes," a U.S. defense official said. "They acted in what they perceived to be their national interest." He compared it to Israel's frequent incursions into neighboring countries without advance U.S. knowledge.
Once the war started, the United States provided "political assistance" to Rwanda, a Western diplomat said. An official of the U.S. Embassy in Kigali traveled to eastern Zaire numerous times to liaise with Kabila. Soon, the rebels had moved on. Brushing off the Zairian army with the help of the Rwandan forces, they marched through Africa's third-largest nation in seven months, with only a few significant military engagements. Mobutu fled the capital, Kinshasa, in May 1997, and Kabila took power, changing the name of the country to Congo.
U.S. officials deny that there were any U.S. military personnel with Rwandan troops in Zaire during the war, although unconfirmed reports of a U.S. advisory presence have circulated in the region since the war's earliest days. Rwandan officials also bristle at the suggestion that they would have needed any U.S. military support.
Still, U.S. military training continued inside Rwanda during the war. A small contingent of Special Forces land-mine-removal trainers was in the country even as Rwandan troops were moving into Zaire in early October. Small Mobile Training Teams in military civil affairs and public information were in Rwanda in early November 1996. Another contingent of mine-removal trainers was in the country for much of December.
Another mobile training team and a mine-removal mission came to Rwanda in early 1997 as well, although the mobile training mission was aborted because no Rwandan troops were available. Rwandan army "operational requirements precluded training," according to a Pentagon chronology. The mission was to have begun on March 15 -- the day that Rwandan-led forces captured Kisangani, Zaire's second-largest city, in one of the few actual battles of the war.
The United States favored Mobutu's overthrow. But the Rwandan campaign inside Zaire was often brutal. Although Rwandan and Congolese officials have said their only targets were former Rwandan soldiers and gunmen, U.N. investigators, private human rights groups and journalists have collected considerable evidence, including first-hand accounts from witnesses and soldiers, that Rwandan officers and troops participated in massacres of civilians. For example, rebel soldiers and witnesses have said that two Rwandan officers commanding Zairian rebels ordered the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Rwandan refugees who had gathered near Mbandaka, a town in northwestern Zaire, on May 13, 1997, near the end of the war.
The U.N. commission later formed to investigate wartime abuses was thwarted by Kabila's government and eventually abandoned its probe in frustration. Nevertheless, its members did gather testimony about the Mbandaka massacres. Its report concluded that "these killings violate international humanitarian law and, to the extent that Rwandan officers were involved, Rwanda's obligations under international human rights law."
of the Rwandan army's human rights record say its abuses did not end with the war in Zaire. They cite periodic revenge killings in Rwanda, directed against Hutus suspected of participating in the 1994 massacres. Other observers cite evidence that the human rights record is improving, including a recent slackening in violence against civilians and the prosecution of military figures for abuses.
Now conflict appears to be rising again as the Hutu extremist militants who have returned to Rwanda following the war in Zaire mount a low-grade insurgency that has spread from Ruhengeri prefecture in the northwest -- the extremists' traditional heartland -- to areas close to Kigali.
The conflict is variously described as a low-grade civil war or a terrorist threat. A diplomat here said the conflict has sent the Rwandan army back to some of its harsh ways. In the northwest region where the insurgents had been strongest, the army's strategy is to "systematically reduce the male population," the diplomat said, speaking anonymously.
Despite the concerns, a Pentagon team will travel to Rwanda in the coming weeks to assess how the army is coping with the insurgents and what kind of assistance the military may need, a U.S. defense official said. The range of possibilities being considered includes combat and counterinsurgency training, conducted by U.S. Special Forces or by private contractors, administration officials say.
U.S. officials clearly still see Kagame and his army as a partner, in spite of all that has happened in the last two years. "In terms of determination, you can't underestimate them," the diplomat said. "In terms of discipline, they're very disciplined. In terms of human rights? It's a good-weather project. They apply it in peacetime, but now they have a war."
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
U.S. Faces Surprise, Dilemma in Africa
By Lynne Duke
Washington Post
KIGALI, Rwanda
—When Rwandan troops invaded the former Zaire in October 1996, it was a rude jolt for the U.S. officials managing relations with this small central African nation.
Following the 1994 civil war here, during which more than a half-million Rwandans were massacred, the United States had become increasingly close to the Rwandan government and the army that backed it. Rwanda's de facto leader, Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame, was regarded in Washington as a brilliant military strategist. Hoping to build stability in strife-torn central Africa, Washington pumped military aid into Kagame's army, and U.S. Army Special Forces and other military personnel trained hundreds of Rwandan troops.
But Kagame and his colleagues had designs of their own. While the Green Berets trained the Rwandan Patriotic Army, that army was itself secretly training Zairian rebels. Rwandan forces then crossed into Zaire and joined with the rebels to attack refugee camps where exiled Rwandan extremists were holed up. That touched off a war that eventually toppled Africa's longest-reigning dictator, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko.
Although the United States shared the goals of dismantling the refugee camps and replacing Mobutu, the invasion took Washington by surprise, sources in both countries say. And when the Rwandan forces became involved in massacres and other human rights abuses inside Zaire, now known as Congo, the United States faced a dilemma over how to react that persists to this day.
The story of the U.S. relationship with the Rwandan military illustrates the complications that have occurred when military ties -- and, in particular, hard-to-track training operations by the Pentagon's special operations forces -- have become a prime instrument of American policy. Since the early 1990s, deployments of special operations forces have been rapidly expanding around Africa, part of a worldwide increase in contacts that are not subject to the civilian and congressional oversight that applies to other foreign military aid programs.
Many of the exercises are funded through a 1991 law that allows deployments if the primary mission is to train U.S. troops. How U.S. troops benefit from this training is not readily apparent. But in many cases special operations troops, of which the Army's Special Forces are the largest element, have instructed foreign armies in how to combat their own domestic insurgencies, or pursued U.S. policy objectives ranging from stopping narcotics traffic to preventing genocide.
In the last two years alone, U.S. special operations troops -- mainly Green Berets from the 3rd Special Forces Group based at Fort Bragg, N.C. -- have taught light infantry or other military tactics to troops in Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. An initial exercise with South Africa is planned for the fourth quarter of this year.
U.S. special operations commanders say that among the purposes of the training, called the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program, is to build contacts with foreign military leaders and encourage respect for human rights by foreign armies.
But U.S. access to military officials has not necessarily meant U.S. influence over their actions. In the case of Rwanda, U.S. officials publicly portrayed their engagement with the army as almost entirely devoted to human rights training. But the Special Forces exercises also covered other areas, including combat skills. As a result, U.S. promotion of human rights has been overshadowed by questions about whether Rwandan units trained by Americans later participated in atrocities during the war in Zaire.
A U.N. report released last month charged that elements of the Rwandan army were involved in abuses during the war that "constitute crimes against humanity," including the massacre of unarmed civilians and refugees. Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the House subcommittee on international operations and human rights, has questioned whether the Pentagon even has tried to find out if Rwandan troops trained by Special Forces were among those who committed the massacres.
In fact, according to Pentagon officials, no such review has been conducted, because none is required by the 1991 legislation. At Smith's request, the Pentagon will provide the names of Rwandan troops trained by Americans since 1994 and after-action reports from their missions. But a Pentagon spokeswoman, Col. Nancy Burt, said that "as a practical matter, it would not be feasible" to vet the Rwandan forces for human rights violations "due to the large number of persons with whom we conduct training."
Despite continued reports of human rights abuses by the Rwandan army, this time inside Rwanda, a new round of Joint Combined Exchange Training between Army Special Forces and Rwandan units is scheduled to begin July 15. It will be the second this year. The Pentagon also plans to send an assessment team to Rwanda in the coming weeks to see whether and how the military training should be further enhanced.
U.S. officials defend the collaboration by arguing that it is wiser to engage with Rwanda to help it develop a human rights culture than to step aside and risk a new descent by the country into chaos.
The effort to support and strengthen the Rwandan military is "a matter of practical policy interests and common sense," a Clinton administration official said. "Assuming diplomacy fails and [ethnic conflict] grows, somebody needs to be in a position to contain it."
Although Rwanda is an impoverished, shattered nation at the far fringes of U.S. national security interests, it is not the prototypical weak client state seeking military help from a powerful patron. Instead, its relationship with Washington is built on a complex mix of history, personal relationships, shared geopolitical objectives, and -- not least, some would say -- guilt.
The origins of the relationship lie in the Rwandan civil war, which began in 1990 when a rebel force led by minority Tutsi exiles invaded Rwanda from Uganda in an attempt to overthrow the government, led by ethnic Hutus. Kagame, a Tutsi who was then a colonel in Uganda's army, was in a training course at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., when the war began. He dropped out of the course to take command of the rebel army, then later participated in talks that led to a 1993 peace accord.
The peace collapsed in April 1994, when an airplane carrying Rwanda's Hutu president was shot down near Kigali, killing all aboard. Extremist Hutus in the government and army subsequently orchestrated massacres of Tutsis around the country. At least 500,000 people were slaughtered while indecisive Western governments and the United Nations debated what to do.
Finally, a revived rebel movement led by Kagame defeated the government army and took power in Kigali in July. Hundreds of thousands of Hutus, fearing retribution, fled to eastern Zaire, and many of the Hutu soldiers and militiamen involved in the massacres took refuge in their midst.
U.S. officials were deeply relieved that the rebels had halted the massacres, thus ending pressure for a U.S.-led intervention. They also said they were greatly impressed by Kagame's leadership. By the end of the war, some U.S. officials had concluded that Kagame was "a brilliant commander, able to think outside the box," as one put it. "He was a fairly impressive guy," added the official, who met Kagame in the early 1990s. "He was more than a military man. He was politically attuned and knew what compromise was."
Immediately after the war, the United States helped mount a humanitarian operation to assist the refugees in Zaire. Then-Secretary of Defense William J. Perry visited the region, and he too was taken by the new Rwandan leaders.
"When Secretary Perry visited the American troops in Kigali, Goma and Entebbe, he was impressed by how, so close [after] the genocide, these people [the new Rwandan army] could be talking about reconstruction and reconciliation instead of revenge and retaliation," the defense official said.
Still, Rwanda's new civilian government was largely a facade. Kagame, who took the posts of vice president and defense minister, remained in charge. With democratic elections nowhere in sight, a diplomat said, the government was, in essence, a "disguised military dictatorship."
U.S. officials nevertheless focused on the Kagame leadership as one with which they could work to restore order in Rwanda, eastern Zaire and neighboring areas of central Africa.
For its part, the new Rwandan government felt it held the upper hand in its relations with Washington, because its army alone had put an end to the massacres while the West dithered. Analysts here say the Rwandans have played on Washington's sense of guilt about the genocide of 1994, and its stated objective of preventing a recurrence. In deciding how to deal with the lingering problem of the Rwandan refugees and militant exiles in Zaire, for example, "we were [diplomatically] stronger because nobody could argue against us," said Patrick Mazimhaka, a minister to Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu.
Said a diplomat here, "I think the Americans were terribly manipulated by this government and now are almost held hostage by it."
Lt. Col. Frank Rusagara, secretary general of the Rwandan Defense Ministry and the top policymaker for military development, described the army as a reflection of Rwandan society: in flux as it tries to establish a brand new set of core social values. "Among us there are orphans of genocide victims," Rusagara said. "Among us there are sons and daughters whose parents actively were in the genocide."
"Over a period of time, we've got to establish democratic institutions and values for the military to protect," said Rusagara, who returned in April from three months of defense resource management training at the U.S. Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, Calif. "So I think in Rwanda, we're evolving."
Rusagara presides over a military administration that started from scratch in 1994 as a national entity. The army inherited little from the Hutu-led armed forces that was worth saving. After all, much of the old army, especially the presidential guard, perpetrated the genocide against the Tutsis, or stood by.
The U.S. military engagement here began in 1995 as an effort to help the Rwandan army with its task of reinvention, both of itself and of the nation's power structure. U.S. officials said they wanted the former rebel army to become a professional force that would support the principles of the democracy that Rwandan officials say they aspire to create.
Hundreds of soldiers and officers were enrolled in U.S. training programs, both in Rwanda and in the United States. Rwandan officers went to the United States to study military justice, defense resource management and law of war and human rights. Scores of Rwandans were trained for land-mine detection and disposal under the U.S.-funded National De-mining Office, which was up and running in early 1996.
When asked in a December 1996 congressional hearing about the kinds of training the United States provided to Rwanda, Ambassador Richard Bogosian, the Clinton administration's coordinator for Rwanda, said the training dealt "almost exclusively with the human rights end of the spectrum as distinct from purely military operations."
But some Rwandan units were getting U.S. combat training, as well. In a JCET program conducted by U.S. Special Forces, Rwandans studied camouflage techniques, small-unit movement, troop-leading procedures, soldier-team development, rappelling, mountaineering, marksmanship, weapon maintenance and day and night navigation.
And while the training went on, U.S. officials were meeting regularly with Kagame and other senior Rwandan leaders to discuss the continuing military threat faced by the government from inside Zaire.
Hutu militia forces driven into Zaire had regrouped and by late 1995 were launching raids across the border into Rwanda from the camps in eastern Zaire, where more than 1 million Rwandan refugees still languished. Efforts by the United Nations to send the refugees back home were repeatedly blocked by the Hutu militants, who depended on U.N.-supplied food and fuel.
U.S. officials agreed that the camps were a problem requiring a solution, and had discussed several options with Kagame, including air strikes to hit at the extremist bases, sources said. Information about the camps was exchanged between the two countries, a Western military analyst said.
Kagame himself visited Washington in early August 1996 to discuss the situation with senior Clinton administration officials. He later said that he had been seeking solutions from Washington, but left disappointed. U.S. officials said Kagame had warned that the camps in Zaire had to be dismantled and had hinted that Rwanda might act if the United Nations did not. They said they expected that Kagame might try something, but did not know when he would do it and what form it would take.
Meanwhile, from July 17 to Aug. 30, a U.S. Army Special Forces team from Fort Bragg instructed Rwandan army soldiers in small-unit leader training, rifle marksmanship, first aid, land navigation and tactical skills, such as patrolling. In September, dozens of other Rwandan soldiers received training under the International Military Education program.
Clearly, the focus of Rwandan-U.S. military discussion had shifted from how to build human rights to how to combat an insurgency. In 1995, a diplomatic observer said, Kagame's attitude seemed to be, "I want [the army] to get rid of that bush mentality. I want to teach them by sending them" for training.
"But then," the diplomat said, "when the infiltration [from the Zaire camps] started and you have the [Zaire] war, it got all out of hand."
Kagame's alliance with the Pentagon was not the only one he nurtured after 1994. He also remained in close touch with Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni, a longtime comrade. With Museveni's support, Kagame conceived a plan to back a rebel movement in eastern Zaire. He hoped to clear out the Rwandan refugee camps, crush the exiled Hutu militias and deal a blow to Mobutu, one of Africa's most corrupt rulers. Uganda contributed some troops and materiel to the war effort, and Angola, Zambia and several other African states later joined in. Laurent Kabila, an aging former Marxist revolutionary, was recruited to head the rebels, who tried to keep their connections to Rwanda and Uganda hidden.
The operation was launched in October 1996, just a few weeks after Kagame's trip to Washington and the completion of the Special Forces training mission. But according to sources in both governments, the Clinton administration did not learn of the infiltration by Rwandan troops and officers or the extent of their ambitions until the fighting was well underway. Two sources in Kigali described the United States as angry and embarrassed at being surprised.
"I wouldn't say they pulled the wool over our eyes," a U.S. defense official said. "They acted in what they perceived to be their national interest." He compared it to Israel's frequent incursions into neighboring countries without advance U.S. knowledge.
Once the war started, the United States provided "political assistance" to Rwanda, a Western diplomat said. An official of the U.S. Embassy in Kigali traveled to eastern Zaire numerous times to liaise with Kabila. Soon, the rebels had moved on. Brushing off the Zairian army with the help of the Rwandan forces, they marched through Africa's third-largest nation in seven months, with only a few significant military engagements. Mobutu fled the capital, Kinshasa, in May 1997, and Kabila took power, changing the name of the country to Congo.
U.S. officials deny that there were any U.S. military personnel with Rwandan troops in Zaire during the war, although unconfirmed reports of a U.S. advisory presence have circulated in the region since the war's earliest days. Rwandan officials also bristle at the suggestion that they would have needed any U.S. military support.
Still, U.S. military training continued inside Rwanda during the war. A small contingent of Special Forces land-mine-removal trainers was in the country even as Rwandan troops were moving into Zaire in early October. Small Mobile Training Teams in military civil affairs and public information were in Rwanda in early November 1996. Another contingent of mine-removal trainers was in the country for much of December.
Another mobile training team and a mine-removal mission came to Rwanda in early 1997 as well, although the mobile training mission was aborted because no Rwandan troops were available. Rwandan army "operational requirements precluded training," according to a Pentagon chronology. The mission was to have begun on March 15 -- the day that Rwandan-led forces captured Kisangani, Zaire's second-largest city, in one of the few actual battles of the war.
The United States favored Mobutu's overthrow. But the Rwandan campaign inside Zaire was often brutal. Although Rwandan and Congolese officials have said their only targets were former Rwandan soldiers and gunmen, U.N. investigators, private human rights groups and journalists have collected considerable evidence, including first-hand accounts from witnesses and soldiers, that Rwandan officers and troops participated in massacres of civilians. For example, rebel soldiers and witnesses have said that two Rwandan officers commanding Zairian rebels ordered the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Rwandan refugees who had gathered near Mbandaka, a town in northwestern Zaire, on May 13, 1997, near the end of the war.
The U.N. commission later formed to investigate wartime abuses was thwarted by Kabila's government and eventually abandoned its probe in frustration. Nevertheless, its members did gather testimony about the Mbandaka massacres. Its report concluded that "these killings violate international humanitarian law and, to the extent that Rwandan officers were involved, Rwanda's obligations under international human rights law."
of the Rwandan army's human rights record say its abuses did not end with the war in Zaire. They cite periodic revenge killings in Rwanda, directed against Hutus suspected of participating in the 1994 massacres. Other observers cite evidence that the human rights record is improving, including a recent slackening in violence against civilians and the prosecution of military figures for abuses.
Now conflict appears to be rising again as the Hutu extremist militants who have returned to Rwanda following the war in Zaire mount a low-grade insurgency that has spread from Ruhengeri prefecture in the northwest -- the extremists' traditional heartland -- to areas close to Kigali.
The conflict is variously described as a low-grade civil war or a terrorist threat. A diplomat here said the conflict has sent the Rwandan army back to some of its harsh ways. In the northwest region where the insurgents had been strongest, the army's strategy is to "systematically reduce the male population," the diplomat said, speaking anonymously.
Despite the concerns, a Pentagon team will travel to Rwanda in the coming weeks to assess how the army is coping with the insurgents and what kind of assistance the military may need, a U.S. defense official said. The range of possibilities being considered includes combat and counterinsurgency training, conducted by U.S. Special Forces or by private contractors, administration officials say.
U.S. officials clearly still see Kagame and his army as a partner, in spite of all that has happened in the last two years. "In terms of determination, you can't underestimate them," the diplomat said. "In terms of discipline, they're very disciplined. In terms of human rights? It's a good-weather project. They apply it in peacetime, but now they have a war."
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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