Rwanda: The batshit crazy country.

Jeune Afrique reports ( I have used Jeune Afrique's  translation service and cleaned up the copy ).

Rwanda: Media told to apologize for accusing Ingabire of witchcraft 

                                                               Ingabire with her British lawyer Iain Edwards


The Rwandan media regulatory authority has ordered three newspapers to publish an apology and offer a right of reply for accusing Ingabire of witchcraft. Ingabire is imprisoned for "terrorism."

Two aspects are worth noting here, first it is no surprise that the media organisation felt they had carte blanche to make such fucking ridiculous accusations. Victoire Ingabire has been the victim of an incredible miscarriage of justice and one that could only have been orchestrated by Kagame. The second and from this blogs perspective far more important aspect is that the Rwandan Media Commission has had the balls to go into bat for Ingabire. Kagame has not yet managed to strangle all independent thought from non governmental officials.  

A website, Rwandapaparazzi.net and Umusingi newspaper had published a photograph of Ms. Ingabire carrying a child in her arms, accusing her of trying to cast a spell, according to information relayed by Radio One in its press release.

Which I would suggest speaks volumes for the state of the media in Rwanda again something that can be laid at the feet of Kagame.

The picture was taken on March 8 during the celebrations of the International Women's Day in Kigali prison where Ingabire, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "conspiracy against the government by terrorism and war" and for " minimizing the genocide " of 1994 in Rwanda has been incarcerated since 2010. These media " have not submitted facts " to support their accusations and " admitted defaming Ingabire," said Fred Muvunyi Friday, President of the of the Rwandan Media Commission.

It will be interesting to see if there are any further developments in this story. I suspect not, this ruling will probably get overturned by some sort of insane defence as " freedom of speech ". I can't imagine Kigali allowing Ingabire a platform to speak to the Rwandan people on this or any issue. David Farrar of Kiwiblog made an interesting observation on free speech on his blog.

" Some people here are fucking idiots. Free speech is not speech free of consequences."

Although unrelated to this issue Farrar is spot on the media in this case are fucking idiots and even if they avoid the sanction of the RMC they will discover there are consequences, journalists without credibility are a waste of space.

Defamation

"The articles published by the media and reported on air by Radio One in its press review are defamatory of Victoire Ingabire ", said the RMC in its decision.

I think deformation would have to be proved in court and that will never happen for Ingabire in Rwanda.

They were ordered to write a letter of apology to Ms. Ingabire, to apologize to their readers or listeners admitting their mistake and to publish or read an on-air response from Ingabire.

As I said above I would be very surprised if Kagali allowed that to happen.

Victoire Ingabire, 45, is president of the Unified Democratic Forces (UDF) opposition party, not legally recognized. She was arrested in October 2010, two months after a presidential poll in which she could not participate as she had intended, against President Paul Kagame, who was re-elected. Rwandan justice has asserted Ingabire has links with the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the sworn enemy of the Kigali authorities who accused the FDLR of being led by former executives of the Hutu regime responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

I have no doubt at all the FDLR leadership are amongst those responsible for the 1994 genocide. There is no evidence whatsoever to link Ingabire to those genocidal bastards. Ingabire is a prisoner of conscience and a worthy successor to the mantle of Madiba.

New Zealand: " Earth rim walker seeks his meals Prepare the funeral pyres "

Radio New Zealand National reports

Therapist faulted over spiritual treatment

                                                          Stupid is as stupid does

A massage therapist has been asked to review her practice and apologise to a 16-year-old patient who she did not properly inform about a Maori spiritual treatment she was referring her for.

Excuse me " ..review her practice ..." Doctors, dentist's, optometrists or outside the medical field say architects have practices. Massage therapists... well I guess the honest ones offer extras that both parties understand at a mutually agreed rate.

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Theo Baker says the therapist should have been meticulous in the way she informed the girl.

The Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner should have declined jurisdiction and referred the incident to the appropriate authorities who might have had the ability to sanction the " therapist " (a power The Health and Disability Commission doesn't have ) like the police who deal with fraud.

The girl, who is not Maori, went to the massage therapist for help with migraines, period pains and sport injuries.

A GP would I am guessing would have cost a lot less and would have additional advantages such as medical training and the ability to refer to specialists.

 

A report says the therapist told the girl she had problems with her aura and contacted an iwi healer.

An aura from a medical perspective is: 

" Aura: A sensation perceived by a patient that precedes a condition affecting the brain. An aura often occurs before a migraine or seizure. It may consist of flashing lights, a gleam of light, blurred vision, an odor, the feeling of a breeze, numbness, weakness, or difficulty in speaking.."

Or in other words a reason to call an ambulance and get the person to a hospital ASAP.

The healer diagnosed the girl as having six spiritual entities in her and recommend that she come immediately to a nearby river to be cleansed.

I had no idea that traditional Maori health providers  fucking con men had the ability to diagnose what from this report would suggest such a complex medical condition and such a simple cure over the phone. This clown along with our " massage therapist " have impugned reputable Maori health providers and that is what really pisses me off.

The girl gave her consent and waded in the river, but reported feeling felt rushed and pressured. She has been having nightmares since the incident.

Let's have a real investigation. Invoices, payments and lets have a look at the financial arrangements of this " Massage therapist " particularly as they relate to the Iwi Healer.

The therapist is not registered with any professional body and has not been named in the report.

As I said the The Health and Disability Commission has no place investigating this. This is the problem though... who does ? The police I am sure are the obvious authority but " somebody got wet in a river and is having nightmares about it " is probably not going to inspire any cop to turn on the siren and lights.

Sound stupid ?

Uganda: " Your lucky charms are tarnished so you leave alone. "

New Vision Uganda reports

26 pregnant university students suspended

By Hope Mafaranga, Isaac Nuwagaba & John Masaba

Twenty-six girls have been suspended from Uganda Christian University’s Kabale affiliate college for conceiving before marriage. They were found to be pregnant during random tests. 

It is easy to understand the use of random testing in situations such as drinking and driving or workplace drug testing in dangerous industries but this is pathetic. 

The girls accuse the university of suspending them without hearing them out.

However, Godwin Kiiza, the Dean of Students, maintains the students who were suspended were admitted as single students and they are not supposed to be engaged in a sexual immorality, that is, sex before marriage.

Sexual immorality. Jesus wept. Godwin Kiiza is a stupid sod who I hope is first against the wall when the revolution comes. I assume his next bigoted action will be the arranging of public stonings. 

“Some students who go against our rules first face a disciplinary committee and if the committee finds them guilty of being of pregnant, are suspended,” he said.

I don't have to many objections to the church being involved in the provision of school education but the church has absolutely no role in running a university. Sure they can provide theological studies but this is bloody ridiculous. This university is not fit to provide tertiary education. 

Bishop Barham college principle, Prof. Manuel Muranga, said that they only teach students who are accountable to God.

Fine then what the fuck are you punishing them for ? Oh yeah I sort of answered that didn't I. Interesting to note both these bigots are men.

“Only six girls were pregnant and the rest had other problems and most of them were forgiven and allowed back to school,” the university’s Public relations officer, Reuben Twinomujuni, said.

So 26 young women were randomly tested and 6 were pregnant. This story is getting more batshit crazy. I sort of have to wonder how Uganda Christian University defines random. I can only assume that the 20 " fortunate " women allowed back were engaging in sexual activity but didn't get pregnant.

Twinomujuni said the university policy provides that unmarried girls who get pregnant automatically suspend themselves.

You bloody hypocrite. You suspended the women and now you are trying to make them accountable for your total lack of charity. And these guys call themselves Christians.

“Our policy here is that you came to study but not to get pregnant. We look at our students as our daughters and sons, so when someone gets pregnant it is a bad example to the rest especially to an institution that is founded on religion,” he said.

An interesting way to treat your " daughters ". Show them absolutely no support and deprive them of further education.

Twinomujuni said that when girls give birth or officially marry, they are allowed to sit for their examinations.  “If the man who impregnated the girl weds her, we allow her back but she cannot stay in the halls of residence because she is a married woman,” he added.

I am guessing ( from my days at university ) that the guys responsible were also students but it would seem that it quite OK for them to engage in premarital sex, something I agree with, but if Uganda wants the world to take its stance on equality and human rights seriously it need to extend that freedom to women matriculating at the university. A child born out of wedlock is not a tragedy, well unless you are a bigoted fool.

All Africa blogs and the progressive Americans who have not thought.

The All Africa blog platform is back, as a ( initially involuntary ) contributor to the site I am pleased to see it back. Think Progress is a contributing blog and today I couldn't help but spot this post.

"If You Support The Death Penalty, You Are Probably White"

                                                                                                Death Chamber

Well I am white and don't support the death penalty although there have been times and will be again I am sure that as a watcher of the DR Congo and neighbouring countries I have and will again want the death penalty used. A great friend of mine Ross Blanch has actually felt the need to tell me to pull my head in on this subject. He was of course correct, he usually is. 

A new Pew Research Study reveals that the percentage of Americans who support the death penalty declined from 62 percent in 2011 to 55 percent in 2013 — and that support for executions is driven largely by white people. According to the survey, 63 percent of America’s white population support capital punishment, whereas only 36 percent of black people and 40 percent of Hispanics do.

I suspect and I have no evidence to back this up, that these figures would alter massively in the other direction if the study was done globally rather than just in America. Western European states and the Anglo Saxon derived states such as New Zealand don't want capital punishment. The headline for this blog probably should read more along the lines of:  " If you are white and don't support capital punishment you probably are in the majority unless you live in the USA "

This racial disparity is unsurprising in light of the way death sentences are often dolled out in this country. Florida, for instance, has never executed a white person for killing a black person. Defendants are 97 percent more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim in question was white, and Alabama follows a similar trend: African Americans are six times more likely to be sentenced to die for murdering white people with college degrees than white people who kill blacks. All told, 32 of the 39 executions that occurred last year were cases in which a white person was victimized.

" African Americans are six times more likely to be sentenced to die for murdering white people with college degrees than white people who kill blacks."

I have no doubt that the USA is totally screwed. The domestic citizens of Lego Land never fail to astonish me and always for the wrong reasons. However could anyone explain to me the relevance of college degrees ?  

I am totally in favour of college degrees, I think every one should be allowed the opportunity to get them ... but that statistic has made me wonder,  perhaps in the interests of fairness we should stop white Americans being allowed to matriculate. 

OK I am taking the piss but the author of this blog is also doing so. lets face it, this could be read as an instruction to black people planning to kill white people to select their victim carefully and make sure they don't have a college degree. 

Batshit crazy ? Yup. 

Rwanda: " Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary "

New Times Rwanda reports

Hamitic myth that led to Genocide in Rwanda

                                                                                           Marcel Kabanda

A new book has shed more light on how a 19th Century Hamitic myth, construed by colonialists and imposed on Rwandans, promoted hatred that led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis.

I think constructed by colonialists is probably a bit hard insofar as I very much doubt any of the Rwandan colonists had the wit to come up with such a theory. The Hamitic myth as it relates to Africa was of course an " intellectual " justification for slavery as well as a load of bollocks. 

" According to the Hamitic theory this "Hamitic race" was superior to or more advanced than Negroid populations of Sub-Saharan Africa. In its most extreme form, in the writings of C. G. Seligman, it asserted that all significant achievements in African history were the work of "Hamites" who migrated into central Africa as pastoralists, bringing technologies and civilizing skills with them. In the early twentieth century, theoretical models of Hamitic languages and of Hamitic races were intertwined."

Written in French by historians Marcel Kabanda (Rwandan) and Jean Pierre Chrétien (French), the book is titled; “Rwanda, racisme et génocide : l’idéologie hamitique,” (Rwanda , racism and Genocide: the Hamitic Ideology).

The “Hamitic Hypothesis” derives from the Bible, where the story of Ham, the son of Noah, who upon finding his father naked and in a drunken stupor allegedly exposed him to his brothers Shem and Japheth.

Ironically Ham escaped any consequences and it was his youngest son who ended up being cursed, from this you can probably draw many conclusions, not least that Noah was a bloody idiot, mind you if you take the existence of Noah seriously then I guess you would probably stupid enough to think slavery was a great idea. 

Researchers say that the racial-based hypothesis was brought to Rwanda by Belgian missionaries who described Tutsis as a foreign race which came from somewhere beyond Rwanda; probably descendents of Europeans.

In all fairness to the Belgian missionaries the " Out of Africa " theory of human expansion hadn't been theorised at that point but that said how on earth they came up with such a batshit crazy idea is beyond me. These guys had to believe in Noah for it to work and if that was the case then logically the Tutsis would already be Christians. I guess it isn't only turkeys who don't vote for an early christmas.

The “Hamitic” myth held that all civilised institutions in central Africa were the result of an invasion by Hamites, variously identified as ‘black Caucasians’ from Europe.

Based on the belief in that myth that every civilisation has to come from Europe, European colonialists somehow attributed the governing Tutsi aristocracy under the King of Rwanda to the European civilisation because their belief in racism did not allow them to see Rwandans as a people capable of organised living.

Again very ironic if one considers 21 century Rwanda which couldn't be more organised if it was a police state. Hang on....

That myth together with a series of discriminatory policies under the colonial Belgian rule in Rwanda and the post-colonial regimes led to the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis.

Why not use one load of bollocks to justify another load of bollocks ? The Rwandan genocide roots are slightly more complicated than can be explained by a myth. Also we see yet another myth in the making, one that ignores, for racial reasons and isn't that ironic, any non Tutsi victims of the genocide.  

“It is essentially an weapon of massive destruction,” Marcel Kabanda said, shortly after launching the book at Ikirezi bookshop in Kigali on Friday.

“Racism is in itself an arm of massive destruction,” the historian had said earlier in the discussions about his book. 

“Now the challenge is how to dismantle that myth and move on with life as Rwandans”.

Moving on with life as Rwandans is a good idea, I think the Hamitic Myth has already been confined to the dustbin of bloody stupid ideas.

Dr Alice Urusaro Karekezi, of the University of Rwanda’s Centre for Conflict Management, said it was possible to do away with myths by looking at what fuels the perceived differences and address them. 

“It is our own efforts that will deconstruct that myth,” she said. 

Dr Alice Urusaro Karekezi needs to get out of her ivory tower.

Giving an example, she said the government-sponsored One Cow per Poor Family can help demystify the myth that only Tutsis own cows.

Well maybe but I am not so sure based on this story.

" In 2006 she obtained a donation of a cow, which she describes as a gift from God and a miracle.“One day I came back from work in the farm and sat down drinking a Primus beer. As I drunk, I looked at the bottle and said, ‘Oh! God! Why can’t you relieve me from beer? I need milk.’ The next morning local leaders knocked at the door and told me that I had been chosen to receive a cow as part of the One Cow per Family.”

It would seem that there is still a fair amount of mystification at play.

Raising cows is one of the major characteristics which colonialists based on in the 1930s while distributing identity cards to Rwandans with the mention of whether one was Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa.

I haven't got a clue what the point being made here is, however anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the history of Rwanda would be aware that including ethnic identity on an identification document is a thoroughly bad idea. That it is a practice brought about from the 1930's is not a surprise but I am at a loss to figure out the cow connection. 

One of the participants during the discussions wondered who would be in charge of deconstructing the “Hamitic Myth”, saying it was unclear whether it would be the role of the government or researchers.

Kabanda said it’s going to be everyone’s role to help deconstruct the myth.

And will deconstructing the myth require that someone does research to identify where Rwandans came from?

Dr Raphael Nkaka, a historian and lecturer at the University of Rwanda, said it would be useless. 

And thus ended some promising careers in genealogical anthropology.

" The Genographic Project is an ambitious attempt to help answer fundamental questions about where humankind originated and how we came to populate the Earth. Using the latest genetic and computational technologies to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world, our team of world-renowned scientists led by Dr. Spencer Wells, seeks to reveal our migratory history and to better understand the connections and differences that make up humankind."

“It’s a pointless question even if people like to ask about it. It’s not the origin that gives vitality, what is important is the evolution,” he said.

Kabanda said that there is no trace of the migratory movements that led to people’s settlement in Rwanda and that no one can say where people living in Rwanda today came from.

Well there might as well not be if one of the countries leading historians can't see the value in analysing DNA to discover the migratory history of mankind. Lets face it Dr Raphael Nkaka by rejecting the science is little different from the morons who came up with the Hamitic theory in the first place.

The conversation was moderated by Dr. Rose Gasibirege who runs the former NUR Kigali Campus and local media owner and journalist Albert Rudatsimburwa.

Rudatsimburwa said that there is a serious need to transmit the message to Rwandans about things that have divided them.

Maybe concentrating on human similarities would have a greater dividend when it come to defeating batshit crazy ideas like ethnic and racial discrimination.

Human genetic variation is the genetic differences both within and among populations. There may be multiple variants of any given gene in the human population (genes), leading to polymorphism. Many genes are not polymorphic, meaning that only a single allele is present in the population: the gene is then said to be fixed. On average, biochemically all humans are 99.9% similar to any other humans.

Dr Claudine Uwera Kanyamanza, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of Rwanda said that Rwandans will need to craft a new and positive way of living despite what they went through.

“We have to decide what to make of the tragedy that engulfed Rwandans. We need to give a sense to our life,” she said.

Ikirezi bookshop said the book will be available on the local market at Rwf 22,000.

That is about $32 US dollars which is a lot of money in a Rwandan context


" The median net hourly wage of the total sample is 450 Rwandan francs (RWF); 26% of workers earn less than 150 francs per hour, another 24% earn between 150 and 450 francs, 29% earn between 450 and 1350 francs and the remaining 21% earn more than 1350 francs per hour."

DR Congo: FDLR - " A son of a swastika of '45 parading a peroxide standard "

Chimpreports reports

FDLR Threaten To Kill Tutsi Civilians In DRC

                    FDLR Soldiers  genocidal killers whom if not already dead I can only hope soon attain that condition.

As the United Nations Intervention Brigade and DRC government troops come under intense pressure to make good on their mandate by attacking FDLR, the militia whose leadership and ideology led to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has vowed to kill Tutsis in DRC. 

I have argued that no one can set the timetable for FARDC, MONUSCO and it's Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade other than those organisation themselves when it come to neutralising the FDLR, I was it would seem wrong. This is an FDLR suicide note and one I suggest the actors involved respect, FARDC, MONUSCO and the Intervention Brigade should look at this as a request for voluntary euthanasia and  kill these bastards as soon and as violently as possible. 

In a statement seen by Chimpreports on Sunday, the FDLR which recently joined forces with PS Imberakuri to form what is now known as ‘FPLC’, warned the international community especially the UN, European Union, the African Union and regional organizations “against the loss of life that this unnecessary war will cause again to the poor Congolese population as well as to the Rwandan refugees present on our territory.”

Killing off the FDLR and remaining Interahamwe fools is not unnecessary it would seem, I had hoped that was the case after reading the December 30, 2013 declaration of cessation of hostilities issued by the FDLR but as I blogged my skepticism was well placed. 

" I am guessing that MONUSCO has also been dropping leaflets from the air, there is no postal service in the territory that the FDLR control. The consequence of fighting have been disastrous for M23 and the ADF are being decimated in their scrap with FARDC, MONUSCO and the Intervention Brigade. I am skeptical about the sincerity of the FDLR but keeping the faith with a genocidal ideology of hatred is insane and many if not most of the perpetrators must be getting on or dead. I don't imagine recruitment is that easy."

‘General’ Gad Ngabo further warned in the statement that an attack on their bases would lead to “mourning in the many families and thus revive the wounds of broken hearts.”

The FDLR bases that will certainly be attacked, it is interesting this faux 'general' seems oblivious to the effects of  " mourning in the many families and thus revive the wounds of broken hearts.” that will be caused by his resumption of genocide against the Tutsi community.

The United Nations Mission for Stabilization in Congo (MONUSCO) has reportedly been preparing to attack FDLR.

It would be very surprising if it wasn't planning to attack the FDLR, given that these apologists for members of humanity have been deemed worthy of elimination by the UN and that is part of the MONUSCO and Intervention Brigade mandate from the Security Council.

However, observers say this may not be possible as FDLR supported the UN Brigade and DRC forces in neutralising the M23 rebels in 2013.

Then those observers are fools. Eliminating M23 has been completed, the ADF ( Ugandan Muslim rebels ) are being eliminated having surprisingly managed to make themselves a more urgent problem than the FDLR. In mid January I blogged on the prioritisation:  

" The FDLR were I would have said a far more significant target but the scale of activities and sheer brutality of the ADF has made it urgent that this mess be cleaned up first."

Further more the FDLR have never supported the Intervention Brigade or the MONUSCO. There has been criminal cooperation with corrupt FARDC elements but that seems to have come to a halt.

The UN has in previous publications explained serious crimes committed by the Hutu FDLR against the Tutsi population in DRC.

In November last year, UN Security Council said FDLR as “a group under UN sanctions whose leaders and members include perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have continued to promote and commit ethnically – based and other killings in Rwanda and the DRC…”

The FDLR it is clear remain unreconstructed genociders, this threat against the civilian Tutsi community in the Eastern DR Congo proves in the twenty years since they murdered 800,000 civilians in the Rwandan Genocide nothing has changed, other than they have had a further 20 years of robbing, raping and killing Congolese civilians.

The Council strongly condemned the continuing violence and abuses of human rights by FDLR and other armed groups “including summary executions, sexual and gender based violence and large scale recruitment and use of children,” said Liu Jieyi of China, on behalf of the 15-member body.

All of which are crimes against humanity.

It is thought the FDLR intend to use the threat of attacking Tutsi civilians in DRC as leverage in their quest for a power–sharing deal with the Rwanda government.

Something that will never happen. The idea that the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide could ever be trusted in a governmental capacity is laughable. The only way out for these killers is unconditional surrender the leadership being sent to the Hague and rank and file members undergoing rehabilitation and reintegration into Rwandan society. The alternative is death and quite frankly it is in my opinion the FDLR deserve the latter, I hope they are stupid enough to avail themselves of that option.

The FDLR announced in their Declaration of 30 December 2013 they officially laid down their arms and demanded negotiations with the Government of Rwanda.

Kigali has consistently maintained its position that it would not talk to the terrorists and has urged fighters to renounce the genocide ideology.

The FDLR are in no position to demand anything it also seems to have escaped them that they are on Congolese territory and Kinshasa is the sovereign power not Kigali. Kigali is correct to spurn talks with terrorist groups, it is a shame that both Kampala and Kigali failed to recognise that when M23 was making similar batshit crazy demands on Kinshasa.

Several FDLR fighters who have in recent years crossed to Rwanda have undergone rehabilitation courses to enable them discard the extremist ideology.

Rwanda President Paul Kagame last year emphasized that a sustainable solution to the political turbulence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must include the neutralization of the FDLR.

Kagame told Russell Feingold, the US Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at his Urugwiro Village office that the genocidal militia must be firmly dealt with “as a matter of priority.”

Kagame needs to tread very carefully on this issue. He has won the war against the FDLR already, there is just the battle to come and the timing for that is as it should be, with the forces tasked with the destruction of the FDLR. 

Regional leaders remain split on how to deal with the aftermath of the defeat of M23 rebels in Eastern Congo who had provided a buffer zone to Rwanda against attacks by FDLR.

Really ? Maybe I should have blogged this. 
" The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, announced an amnesty on Wednesday for former members of the defeated M23 rebel army.

The amnesty covers "acts of insurgency, acts of war and political offences" committed in the DR Congo up to December 20, 2013, when the bill was approved by the government." 

Rwanda believes that FDLR should be crashed if the militia is not willing to surrender and demobilize.

I suspect that should be crushed and if so I agree.

However, Tanzania wants to see Uganda and Rwanda talk to ADF and FDLR terrorist groups, a suggestion scorned by the Kampala and Kigali.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has a legitimate interest in this issue having provided troops to the Intervention Brigade but is he serious ? Does he think the Great Lakes region will benefit from having Muslim militants intent on bring Jihad to Uganda or genocidal thugs returning to power in Rwanda ? I don't say it lightly but Kikwete should shut the fuck up. The ADF and FDLR are deserving of the fate they have selected.
Uganda and Rwanda are also not willing to see the two terrorist groups rearm and recruit new combatants across their borders.

I think both Uganda and Rwanda would love to get the ADF and FDLR across their respective borders and they would not be doing any recruitment if that was to happen. As it stands if any of the leadership of these militias are taken alive that is what should happen to them. In short surrender now and face the justice of the ICC with the added benefit of living. Or fight and die at the hands of FARDC, MONUSCO and the Intervention Brigade. If they survive then it would seem reasonable to repatriate them to Uganda and Rwanda, they having spurned the ICC option.

DR Congo:" Care for your children. Order them not into damnation to eliminate those who would trespass against you."

Voice Of America reports

DRC: 103 Died in Monday's Attacks

A Congolese security officer takes position to secure the street near the state television headquarters in the capital Kinshasa, Dec.30, 2013.

DAKAR, SENEGAL — The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo says 103 people were killed Monday when its forces repelled attacks in Kinshasa and at least two other towns. Eight soldiers were among those killed in the fighting, which appears to have been led by followers of  evangelical Christian pastor Joseph Mukungubila, a self-proclaimed prophet who is an outspoken opponent to the government.

"...evangelical Christian pastor Joseph Mukungubila"  Don't make me laugh. Alex Engwete blogs.

" To understand the suicidal insanity that was unleashed on Kinshasa today, one has to read an obscure essay penned by James Yuma titled "The Devil's Comma" published in the launch issue of the African Cities Reader--a joint publication of the African Centre for Cities and Chimurenga Magazine, both South African-based.

In a nutshell, that essay demonstrates that Jesus has broken into the hallowed land of the Congo where Congolese are basking in the exceptionalism prophesied in Isaiah 18.

This is not a joke, mind you! This kind of mumbo-jumbo led people to throw their dear lives out of the window in the morning of December 30, 2013 in senseless and doomed attacks on N'Djili International Airport, the RTNC TV station, and the FARDC headquarters."

DRC government spokesman Lambert Mende said security forces had captured more than 150 attackers. He said these young people had been sent on "suicide missions" by what he referred to as a "sort of guru." But he did not name that person.  

Mende is a smart operator. I am guessing he has a reason for referring to Joseph Mukungubila as some sort of Guru.  

Mende said several justifications have been put forth to explain Monday's violence, and that they are political in nature. He said it is hard to link them with any "plan of God," and difficult to see how one individual could have the right to wreak havoc in society because he is upset about a nomination to some post. Mende said political and judicial means exist for addressing these kinds of grievances.

Political and judicial means don't exist for addressing the grievances of the batshit crazy. Most societies deem them as clinically or in this case criminally insane and lock them up. It would seem to me to be a good option for this so called man of God.

On Monday, young men who briefly captured the state TV station went on the air and identified themselves as followers of Mukungubila.

The station was one of three locations that were attacked in the capital city.

Alex Engwete goes on to observe

" We are here right in the midst of the realm of magical realism, what Yuma called "actionable theology," that is, "a reading of Scriptures yielding immediate practical results and action in the here-and-now."

It is hard to see this as anything other than a massive disconnect with reality. However the idiot responsible for this act of insanity wrote a couple of weeks ago this drivel. 

" Remember what I said about our military: our army is weak, a strong army. And thank you God, the thing has come true because our military come to dislodge the M23 our land.

Alas, they were dislodged but the country is full of Rwandan soldiers in all the cities and even in Kinshasa. As a sign of their presence in Kinshasa, they were seen on patrol. And during their patrol, they met a couple Binza Ozone, a man who accompanied his wife about to give birth; Tutsi soldiers will disembowel the woman like a goat to see where the baby lay."

Sort of ignores the role of the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade and then suggests that the Congolese Army FARDC is comprised of Rwandan soldiers along with the standard anti-Tutsi racism that is inflicted on members of that ethnic group despite their Congolese citizenship. I have no doubt this arsehole would have been an active participant in the the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. 

A press release from "the Office of the Prophet" posted to Facebook and released by the pastor's Twitter account said the attacks were a spontaneous uprising by his followers in several parts of the country. The statement says the uprising was a response to security forces that had stopped young followers from distributing leaflets the day before, and then attacked the pastor's home in the southeastern town of Lubumbashi.

I don't believe a word of it.

The web site for Mukungubila's ministry, called the Ministry of Restoration From Black Africa http://www.ministryofrestoration.com/ , dubs him the "Prophet of the Eternal."

A series of YouTube videos that profile Mukungubila bill him as "marrying the priesthood and politics."

Yes it is little wonder he polled less than 1 percent. The separation of church and state is a fairly widely accepted concept.

Mukungubila ran for president in 2006, but won less than one percent of the vote. He has since been a minor, if vocal, political figure, frequently and vehemently criticizing President Joseph Kabila and the neighboring country of Rwanda.

I think that declaring him insane is probably the solution. Either that or sending him off to the USA where idiots of this type seem to have a constituency and the state is better prepared to deal with the consequences of this sort of insanity.

Mukungubila has confirmed to several international media outlets that his followers took part in Monday's attacks. It remains unclear, however, if he had any role in coordinating the violence or if his followers acted on their own.

Really ? Independent action I think it is fairly clear Mukungubila orchestrated this.

Swaziland: No more low flying witches as Swaziland enters the airline business

Swazi Media Commentary reports

NEW NATIONAL AIRLINE A WASTE OF MONEY

                                              Sikhuphe Airport 

The Swaziland Government proposal to set up its own national airline to use at the kingdom’s proposed Sikhuphe Airport is a waste of time and money.

It is estimated a single aircraft for the airline would cost E700 million (US$70 million). This compares to the E125 million budgeted for free primary school education in Swaziland this year.

I have blogged before about the many reasons Swaziland needs to indulge in a bit of regicide and it would appear this is yet another one. Swaziland actually owns a jet or rather Swaziland has already paid for a jet. It of course belongs to the King rather than the people who paid for it.

                                                                      The Kings Jet

Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) says it needs to set up its own national airline to encourage international airlines to use the airport, which is being built 80km from the kingdom’s capital, Mbabane.

If you are going to fuck up big time building an airport you can't afford then I guess building it 80km from its potential users is consistent. One should remember that this is the country which has recently passed a law banning witches flying on broomsticks over 150 meters.

"Swaziland has launched a crackdown on high-flying witches after banning them from hovering above 150metres.

Anyone caught flying their broomstick above the height limit faces arrest and a hefty R500,000 fine, the country’s Civil Aviation Authorities said this week.

According to the Corporate Affairs Sabelo Dlamini‘A witch on a broomstick should not fly above the [150-metre] limit,"

Sikhuphe is an on-going project to build an ‘international airport’ in the wilderness in Swaziland. Since the idea for the airport was first raised by King Mswati, who rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, more than 10 years ago independent observers have called it a waste of resources.

One doesn't have to wonder why the king who has a jet has decided he needs an international airport. I am guessing he also has a reason for building it in the wilderness.

In 2003, the International Monetary Fund said it should not be built because it would divert funds away from much needed projects to fight poverty in Swaziland. About seven in ten of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 per day.

It would seem 10 years hasn't changed anything.

Meanwhile, the king has a lavish lifestyle, including a personal fortune, once estimated by Forbes magazine to be US$200 million, 13 palaces, a private jet and fleets of top-of-the range Mercedes and BMW cars.

What the King really needs now is an international travel ban.

Solomon Dube, Director of SWACAA was reported by local media saying Swaziland needed a national airline because every time he went abroad to market the new airport, ‘reputable airlines’ demanded that the kingdom should have a national airline which would ferry, on-transit passengers.

Ferry them where exactly ? 

" Swaziland is a small country, no more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) north to south and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east to west."

He said they wanted to buy a 90- to 100-seater jet that would cost around E700 million.

I actually would have concerns about flying Swazi Air or what ever the fuck they decide to call it. I am betting that it will probably have a major aviation incident with one of those low flying witches. 

The Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported Dube saying big airliners agreed ‘in principle’ to bring passengers to Swaziland but wanted to know if these passengers would not be stuck in the kingdom.

I think that the big airlines would do better by their customers by not taking them to Swaziland. As for getting stuck there it doesn't bare thinking about. 

‘They all demand that we have a national airline that will transport the many passengers they would be transporting from all over the world to Southern Africa,’ he said.

‘They want us to distribute passengers from Europe to Sikhuphe Airport if they are travelling to places like Zimbabwe and Botswana for example,’ he said.

I think I can see a flaw in this plan. Sir Seretse Khama International airport and Harare International Airport

‘They tell us that they do not want their important passengers to be stranded in a Third World country and, therefore, if we want them to use our airport, we should also have a national airline which they would work with.’

Dube did not reveal how many aircraft would be needed to fulfil this role.

It might be cheaper to get the witches to help out.

Dube and the Swazi Government have forgotten one important point. The only reason passengers would fly to Swaziland was because they kingdom was their final destination. If they wanted to go to some other country in southern Africa they would fly into airports in neighbouring South Africa and take already existing routes to their intended destination.

That flaw in the cunning plan again.

So, setting up a national airline for Swaziland would have no effect on that.

Dube has made a number of unsustainable statements in an attempt to ‘talk-up’ the airport and its usefulness.

Last month (October 2013) he claimed SWACAA had targeted small and medium business travellers to use the airport. He said low-cost airlines were interested in using Sikhuphe for business travellers who might want to fly to nearby countries ‘on a daily basis’.

Batshit crazy ?

It was, of course, fanciful, since there is an existing airport at Matsapha and if there was such a market it would already be met.

Dube insisted last month that Sikhuphe would be operational by the end of October 2013, but there are no signs that it is. To date no international airline has announced it intends to use Sikhuphe when it eventually opens.

Regicide please.