Rwanda: " And I suffer premonitions confirm suspicions of the holocaust to come. "

New Times Rwanda reports

PM urges prosecutors to expedite terror cases

Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi (L) congratulates Mukarugambwa Mukunzi, one of the prosecutors sworn in yesterday.

Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi has urged prosecution to handle cases related to crimes against the State in earnest.

Which is fine but rather begs the question of what Rwanda's prosecutors have being doing to date ?

The premier, who was swearing in four prosecutors at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kigali yesterday, said there was need to beef up the way such cases are handled in order to “discourage those who want to betray our nation.”

The real issue isn't betraying the Rwandan State, it is both the definition of betrayal and  a lack of consensus on what is the State of Rwanda. From the perspective of the Rwandan political elite they are the state and failure to agree with the " powers that be " amounts to betrayal. In parliamentary democracies there is a fairly simple concept of the loyal opposition a concept that has not been allowed to develop in Rwanda and the nation is far weaker for that. As a consequence Rwanda is forced to increase the coercive power of the state hence the need for more prosecutors. 

" In parliamentary systems of government, the term loyal opposition is a term applied collectively to the opposition parties in the legislature to indicate that the non-governing parties may oppose the actions of the sitting cabinet while remaining loyal to the source of the government's power."

Between January and June, 44 people were arrested in the country in connection with subversive activities, and eight guns and 21 grenades were recovered, Police said on Tuesday.

I obviously don't have any information on who was arrested and how many of them were packing guns and grenades. The government of Rwanda doesn't make this information public in any forum I have seen so I can't judge how legitimate those arrests were, that being the situation one can only look at cases that are on the public record.

"The prosecution of Ingabire for 'genocide ideology' and divisionism illustrates the Rwandan government's unwillingness to tolerate criticism and to accept the role of opposition parties in a democratic society," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The courts should not be used for such political purposes."

It is interesting to note that the prosecution  persecution of Victorie Ingabire did not end with her conviction and sentence of 8 years in prison.

" The Supreme Court yesterday increased Victoire Ingabire’s jail term to 15 years from eight years earlier ruled by the High Court, after it found her guilty of inciting the masses to revolt against the government, forming armed groups to destabilise the country, and minimising the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi."

Just for the record Ingabire's crime was to ask that there be recognition of the thousands of Hutu Rwandan's who opposed the genocide and were murdered by the genocidal Hutu regime in 1994. ( I should also note that my partner and my four daughters are ethnic Tutsi )

" On her arrival in the country in January 2010, to honour the victims of the genocide, she visited the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre. In her speech, she stressed that those who committed Genocide as well as those who committed other war crimes and crimes against humanity should be brought before the courts of justice."

“You cannot cut a branch of a tree you are sitting on; whenever you are pursuing such cases, never be passive,” Habumuremyi said.

Actually you can cut the branch of the tree you are sitting on and Habumuremyi is part of a regime that is doing just that.

" The largest ethnic groups in Rwanda are the Hutus (about 75% of the population), the Tutsis (24%), and the Twa (1%)."

New prosecutors

Of the four prosecutors, three will be handling cases before primary courts and one will be in intermediate courts.

The three prosecutors of primary courts are Michel Nshimiyimana, Mukarugambwa Mukunzi, and Claudette Umutesi.

Bonaventure Habimana, who will be handling cases before intermediate courts, said in the face of terrorism they would do their best to confront the challenge in accordance with the law.

Jean Bosco Mutangana, a national prosecutor and head of international crimes unit, said the public prosecution has the capacity to win convictions.

When the judiciary is as politicised as it is in Rwanda it would be astounding if the prosecution didn't win convictions.   

“We have already strengthened the way we handle terror charges, I find these new prosecutors as a big asset,” Mutangana said.

Habumuremyi urged prosecutors to be able to detect new crimes that are being born.

The government of Rwanda should not surprise us. Orwell predicted it.

" In George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects, labelling unapproved thoughts with the term thought crime or, in Newspeak, "crimethink".

“As the people evolve and the country grows, crooks also devise new tactics, so you should as well be devising new ways to beat them,” the premier said.

Yes  

" You stretch the frozen moments with your fear.
And you'll never hear their voices
And you'll never see their faces
You have no recourse to the law anymore."

He thanked the prosecution for having handled a backlog of more than 35, 000 cases since 2001 in different courts.

One wonders how it is possible to have managed to achieve a backlog of that amount. I am guessing it refers to all crime not just political dissension cases but how many innocent people does Rwanda have rotting in gaols ?

Rwanda currently has more than 100 prosecutors at all levels of the judicial system, including in primary courts, intermediate courts, high courts and Supreme Court as well as military and commercial courts. 

It is a great shame Rwanda doesn't have justice. Remember the " betray our Nation " statement at the beginning of this article ? Maybe Habumuremyi would like to explain the Rwandan funding of M23 with regard to the context of his statements here. He is of course just another hypocrite.

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.

Rwanda: " The heralds of the holocaust, Uzis on a street corner "

New Times Rwanda reports

Controversial ICTR judge acquits top Genocidaires

                         

                                                                                  Judge Theodor Meron.

Former head of the Rwandan gendarmerie Gen. Augustin Ndindiliyimana walked away from the latest judgement of the appeal bench in Arusha yesterday, Tuesday, having been acquitted of all charges against him.

Augustin Ndindiliyimana seems to have been more of a moderate and that appears to be what has brought about this acquittal it is interseting to note that Paul Rusesabagina   (Hotel Rwanda)  in his biography observes: 

" Ndindiliyimana was more of a moderate who did not seem to entirely approve of the genocide. He also notes that Ndindiliyimana was responsible for dismantling a potentially disastrous roadblock in front of the Hôtel des Mille Collines."

Sorry but  "....who did not seem to entirely approve of the genocide." doesn't sound like a very good defense in my opinion.

The 65-minute ruling also decided on the acquittal and immediate release of former army major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and a downgrading of the sentence of Captain Innocent Sagahutu from 20 to 15 years.

Major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and Captain Innocent Sagahutu acquittal and the reduction in prison sentence is more than odd, it would seem that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda appeals bench has lost all touch with reality. Or to put it another way Judge Theodor Meron  has. I would have to say that having a clearly senile Judge in charge of the tribunal has resulted in justice being denied to the victims of the atrocities of 1994.  

" The ICTR indictment alleges that between 1990 and 1994, Nzuwonemeye and other officers conspired to exterminate the Tutsi civilians and political opponents, and helped to train interahamwe and militia groups who committed the genocide.

After Habyarimana's death and the start of the genocide, members of the Reconnaissance Battalion commanded by Nzuwonemeye's subordinate, Innocent Sagahutu, "tracked down, arrested, sexually assaulted, and killed" Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. They also took into custody ten Belgian peacekeepers from UNAMIR who had been guarding her house, who were later killed. They were accompanied in this by members of the Presidential Guard commanded by Major Protais Mpiranya.
During the same operation, the Rwandan Army soldiers took into custody ten Belgian peacekeepers from UNAMIR who had been guarding her house. They were taken back to Camp Kigali, a FAR encampment, were they were "attacked and beaten" by members of RECCE under Sagahutu's command. They were later killed."

Prosecutor Hassan Jallow and trial judges looked shocked and, in some cases, bewildered, by the result.

Bewildered is indeed the operative word here, but I am surprised that they were shocked. Meron has form, as head of the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia he came up with some shockingly bad judgments overturning precedents from WW I I.

" Over the last eight months, a series of surprise rulings at the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sparked extraordinary controversy in the staid world of international law.

Critics say the decisions weakened World War II-era precedents that hold commanders responsible for war crimes. Supporters say their impact is being exaggerated and the judge associated with them is being unfairly maligned."

And that seems to be the crux of the incomprehensible decisions that have been made by the same Judge in these Rwandan cases. This isn't a principle that applies only to the law it is common throughout society, if some goes wrong on your watch you are accountable. Lets be really clear though, genocide is not merely something going wrong, it is the most heinous crime possible and these " soldiers " and I use that word with great reservations, have not been punished.    

A notable absentee from the judgement who had been scheduled to appear was former head of the Rwandan armed forces (FAR) General Augustin Bizimungu.

Originally, the four accused had been tried together as part of the case termed ‘military 2.’

On Friday, February 7, the Appeal bench decided at the final moment that it was ‘severing’ the Bizimungu case from that of the others while it considered ‘the absence of legal findings in the trial judgement in relation to Bizimungu’s conviction for genocide’, for which he had received a 30 year sentence at the ICTR on  May 17, 2011.

The packed public gallery listened attentively as the head of the appeal bench, 83-year-old Presiding Judge Theodor Meron read out the controversial decision.

" ...83-year-old Presiding Judge Theodor Meron ...", 800,000 people died and now we have denied them justice, great age does not always mean great wisdom.

Ndindiliyimana had been sentenced at his original trial for crimes of genocide, extermination and murder but given a sentence of ‘time already served in detention’ that amounted to 11 years and released.

He had been appointed as head of the gendarmerie in September 1992, holding the position until July 1994.  He looked calm and impassive as step by step the appeal bench found that the original trial judges had ‘erred’ in their findings.

In fact, the word ‘erred’ was to be used time and again to describe the previous trial judgement.

I think that the nature of these errors need to be spelt out in far greater detail.  

According to the appeal judges, Ndindiliyimana had ceded control of most of the gendarmerie to the Rwandan army (FAR) on April 7, 1994 and extremist and rogue elements had ‘infiltrated’ the police thus downplaying his authority and ability to control their actions. At his trial it was shown that gendarmes had been guarding Ndindiliyimana’s residence at the request of his wife. Some of these had later taken part in the massacre of Tutsi at Kansi Parish for which Ndindiliyimana was originally held responsible by not preventing or punishing them as their superior.

Following orders is not a defense, but failing to give orders when you are in a position to do so is a defense. This is bollocks, no commander would be foolish enough to give orders to commit crimes against humanity therefor it would seem logical the only possible defense is to give orders that prohibit explicitly the committing of such crimes. Abdication of responsibility as a defense is an obscenity.  

Meron’s appeal bench decided that this was an error and Ndindiliyimana lacked ‘the ability to prevent or punish them and no reasonable trial finding could find the gendarmes had participated’ at the parish. A similar decision was taken to account for his responsibility for killings by Ndindiliyimana’s gendarmes at St André College in Kigali.

Just for the record St Andre College: 

" A number of those who escaped the massacre in the Nyamirambo church hid in the nearby Collège Saint André. There, a similar siege occurred following another broadcast by RTLM. By 11 April, an estimated 100 people were hiding in the school. According to witness testimony, RTLM targeted the school on 11 or 12 April, claiming it was harbouring RPF [Front patriotique rwandais] accomplices. In apparent response to the RTLM broadcast, on the evening of 13 April, the RPF rescued about 40 of the people hiding there. On 14 or 15 April, militias stormed the premises and killed all those remaining."

François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye surprisingly did not attend the court with no reason given for his absence and was represented by his counsel. He had been Commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion within the Rwandan army from 1993.

At his trial in 2011 he was convicted of genocide and murder as a crime against humanity and sentenced to 20 years. Meron, reading the appeal bench decision with just an occasional pause for a sip of water, again decided there had been numerous ‘errors’ by the original trial judges.

Why does the sipping of water remind me so much of this ?

" Pilate washes his hands to show that he was not responsible for the execution of Jesus and reluctantly sends him to his death."

Meron like Pilate and indeed the accused it would seem, feel that abdicating responsibility is acceptable. It wasn't, it isn't and it never will be.

Most notably this had been in the actions of troops under Nzuwonemeye’s control who had taken part in the murder of then prime minister Agathe Uwilingyimana.

However, the appeal court ruled that Nzuwonemeye could not have known that some of his men placed 100 metres away to stop Uwilingiyimana escaping to give a radio broadcast would take part on their own initiative in the brutal killing. Equally, Sagahutu, who was the second in command of the reconnaissance battalion, was also cleared of any responsibility in this killing.

Both army officers had originally been convicted for the murder of members of the Belgian Unamir force, also on April 7, at Camp Kigali.

Meron announced that the appeal bench was clearing Nzuwonemeye of being responsible as a superior officer for the death of the peacekeepers.

It did though find with the original trial decision that Sagahutu had aided and abetted the killing, allowing a mobile grenade launcher to be taken from his office for this purpose, though it was unclear if it was used to murder the last of the Belgians who were putting up some resistance.

A soldier takes a soldiers chance, the Belgian peacekeepers died with honour, that is enough and Meron's  stupidity will never detract from that. It is also far more than can be said for these Genocidaires. 

 

Ndindiliyimana has been living for the past two years in a safe house in Arusha with others the ICTR has either acquitted or released. His attempt, as with many of the other former accused, to get a residency permit for Belgium has been refused. The defence now hopes that this acquittal will enable him to travel to Europe to rejoin his family.

Belgium should issue indictments for murder, that these men, responsible for the deaths of the Belgium peacekeepers could think that Belgium would want them beggars all belief.

Sagahutu, who sported a long greying beard for the judgement, was taken back to the UN detention facilities. However, as he has been in custody since being transferred back from Denmark where he was arrested in February 2000, he has only a year left of his reduced punishment to serve, and it is likely he may be set free far sooner given the ICTR decision to release convicted prisoners after serving three quarters of sentences and he has already applied for early release.

This is not justice, we have failed the 800,000 victims of the Rwandan genocide. 

Given the nature of Meron’s appeal judgements in this case and other military ones at the ICTR and ICTY in the Hague, there is every prospect that General Bizimungu will also find his sentence substantially reduced or even dismissed when he appears in the coming months to hear his own verdict.

Genocide survivor and director at the National Commission for the fight against genocide (CNLG), Dr Diogene Bideri, reacted to yesterday’s verdicts with shock and a sense that once again the ICTR has let down victims of the 1994 horror.

Bideri said: “I cannot really find a word to express what I see happening at the ICTR and what I see as a systematic attempt by Judge Meron, working to a political agenda, that has downplayed what actually happened here and which we Rwandans all know the truth about.

I agree. I disagree with just about everything the current Kigali regime stands for and does but I hope Kagame raises pure hell over this travesty, he would have my total support.

“There is great indignation at the trivialization such a judgement gives, and it is something we cannot accept even though we are just meant to sit back and keep silent.”

Bideri pointed to a number of other highly controversial decisions taken by the appeal bench under Meron in Arusha and at the ICTY in the Hague that have led to high profile military and political figures being acquitted after receiving hefty original sentences with the trial judges being held to be ‘in error’ in their understanding or application of the law.

The world is not short of jurists, why have the victims of 1994 been delivered into the hands of this incompetent ? We the world failed them in life and now we have failed them in death.

DR Congo: FDLR- " So you resigned yourself to failure, my friend And I emerged the chilling stranger "

Radio France International reports: 

This is a translation from the Radio France International ( RFI ) article provided by the RFI website. It isn't a great translation but I have not cleaned it up as it seems understandable and if I clean it up I risk alter the meaning, something on an issue of this magnitude doesn't bare thinking about. 

Rwanda: the Acting Executive Secretary of the FDLR announced the end of hostilities

                                              Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR, 150 km north-west of Goma in 2009

FDLR formally cease hostilities against the Rwanda says Acting Executive Secretary of the Rwandan Hutu rebels. According to Colonel Wilson Iratageka, the movement has officially laid down their arms since December 30. The group settled for more than two decades in the eastern DRC is particularly targeted recently by the UN mission in the region.

I will say at the start that I find this very unusual and it seems to be stretching credibility to breaking point and then some. The FDLR has not as yet been targeted by the the UN mission MONUSCO and its component the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade. At this point MONUSCO, the Intervention Brigade and FARDC ( Congolese Army ) are neutralising the Ugandan ADF ( Allied Democratic Forces ) but there is no doubt that the FDLR will be next.  

After neutralization of the M23 in the DRC, MONUSCO had stated that the decommissioning of harm of Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) was a priority. Lately, Rwandan rebels had sent several letters to the peacekeepers saying be prepared to lay down their arms, provided such a dialogue with Kigali.

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.    

This time, the Acting Executive Secretary, Colonel Wilson Irategeka says that the cessation of hostilities is official.

" The FDLR have decided to lay down their arms because whenever Kigali wanted to attack the Congo and plunder the wealth of the DRC, he pretended to pick the FDLR who are armed and could attack Rwanda. So let's give a chance for peace in the Great Lakes region and the FDLR can participate, we always asked the international community to encourage Kigali to accept negotiations with the opposition political parties, the FDLR. "

Had Kigali allowed a democratic political opposition to develop this situation would have been a lot easier to resolve, in fact in all probability it would have been resolved.

Olivier Nduhungirehe is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations. Information of this laying down of arms, he asked to see. As for negotiations with the FDLR is not a firm and final.

" We, what matters to us is that they physically deposit their weapons with MONUSCO and they are therefore in the repatriation program. We have a demobilization center in the north of the country hosting the FDLR. So, if they say they lay down their arms, they have to MONUSCO. If they refuse to do so, the intervention brigade established by Resolution 20-98 is responsible for neutralizing the FDLR. 

It has been said repeatedly that he will not be any negotiations with the FDLR was a genocidal movement. In Rwanda, we agree to reinstate the FDLR in society. But those who have committed crimes, those who committed genocide, will have to answer for their crimes to justice. "

There is a problem here and that is Kagame will not negotiate with terrorists and I have a lot of sympathy with that position, unfortunately it is not a position that allows for resolving this situation. I think any surviving genociders should be handed over to the ICC but rank and file members many of whom must have been either too young or born after the 1994 Rwandan genocide should if they surrender be given the opportunity for rehabilitation.  Rwanda has accepted this for FDLR members who have previously surrendered.
  

Notwithstanding the filing of weapons supposed to be official since 30 December, an attack in Virunga National Park in eastern DRC, January 13, killed a guard and three attackers presented just as the FDLR. This incident, Colonel Wilson Irategeka says his men have nothing to do and that the perpetrators are armed elements sent by the Kigali government.

I blogged this incident that actually happened on the 11th January and Colonel Irategeka is bullshitting, it was the FDLR who did this and it was because the rangers caught them in an illegal charcoal manufacturing operation, just how bloody stupid does Irategeka think we are ?

If he is prepared to lie about this then all I can say is that he has great prospects in Kigali should he be rehabilitated. On balance it would be better to attempt a negotiated settlement and give the FDLR the initial benefit of the doubt, but I doubt it will work I doubt that this is anything other than attempt to buy some time while other alternatives are examined. This is an issue that needs to be resolved by Kinshasa and MONUSCO not Kigali, although Rwanda does have a legitimate interest in the outcome. 

If the FDLR are serious give them a tight deadline to disarm, a couple of weeks at the most. It is the FDLR that must establish both its bonafides and gain the goodwill of the forces that are very soon going to oppose and ultimately annihilate it. 

Africa, Germany & the UN: " From the dream on the barbed wire at Flanders and Bilston Glen "

Al Jazeera reports

Germany sees bigger military role in Africa

                                         Ursula von der Leyen said she foresaw boosting the training mission in Mali 

New defence minister talks about Mali and CAR and says Germany cannot stand by in the face of "murder and rape".

Germany's new defence minister said Sunday her country should engage more strongly in Africa by sending additional military trainers to Mali and supporting the French intervention in Central African Republic.

It is easy to forget that pre WW1 Germany had fairly extensive colonial acquisitions in Africa. The Treaty of Versailles extinguished Germanies African possessions. German East Africa  included what are now Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania , Kenya and Mozambique. German South West Africa Namibia and Botswana. German West Africa included bits of Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and  Togo.  

Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday Germany that "cannot look the other way when murder and rape are a daily occurrence, if only for humanitarian reasons."

She is of course correct and what is frustrating is that dealing with the situation in the Central African Republic ( CAR ) seems to be a step too far for the UN Security Council. Ideally the troops on the ground would be wearing blue helmets and under a unified command rather than French and African Union troops. The failure of the UN to get its shit together has left a gap that it seem the EU nations are now moving to fill. That is a good and the forces in the CAR are UN mandated but they represent a failure of the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council needs to be reformed.  

The first female defence minister said she foresaw boosting the training mission in Mali from its current mandate of 180 personnel, with 99 now on the ground, to up to 250, and deploying a medical services airbus to back up the French mission in CAR.

"In Central Africa, a bloody war is unfolding between Christians and Muslims. We cannot allow this conflict to set the entire region ablaze," she added.

I think it would be fair to say that Muslim terror groups are eyeing up opportunities in sub Saharan Africa, the last thing the world needs is another Afghanistan. In the neighbouring DR Congo the government is fighting the Ugandan Muslim terrorist group the ADF, interestingly the UN Experts Group for the DR Congo noted:

" The Group determined that during 2013, foreign, Arabic-speaking men have conducted military training courses and operations with ADF; however, the Group was not able to firmly establish the nationalities of these foreigners or their organizational affiliation(s)."

In the long term European national armies should be merged into a European military because "unified armed forces are a logical consequence of an ever-increasing military cooperation in Europe," said the minister who has been in her post for about one month.

It would be a logical development for the EU and it might well come to pass but where does that leave the UN Security Council ? When the UN acts it does so with the authority of the world, a rival EU Security Council would damage the authority of the UN, it also might prove a damn sight more efficient which is why we need to reform the UN Security Council.   

Development Minister Gerd Mueller meanwhile said Germany also planned to expand its aid activities in Africa, especially in Mali, speaking to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

This reads very like a German vote of no confidence in the UN Security Council and who could blame them, New Zealand has long desired UN Security Council reform. 

" At the height of the Rwanda killings, New Zealand and others pushed for the Council to act; but, under pressure from the US, France and UK – all with a veto – its response was watered down, the UN peacekeeping force was downsized, and the genocide continued, unabated.

As recounted by the Czech Ambassador (on the Council at that time ), our Ambassador “drew his final trump”, and turned a draft presidential statement into a draft Council resolution - “an absolutely brilliant manoeuvre” because, “unlike a presidential statement, a resolution didn’t need unanimity”; and any debate would highlight the veto possibility and expose the opponents in “their real colours”. "

New Zealand for all its brilliance at the Security Council couldn't stop the Rwandan genocide. The CAR is fast becoming a genocide situation, a student of history might see many ironies in the German intentions, the less obvious one being that the Security Council was set up to ensure that never again would the world witness a holocaust.

The chairman of the German Armed Forces Association, Andre Wuestner, told the same newspaper that the Mali mission would likely take more than a decade, citing the "disastrous" state of the armed forces there and the goal of "a stable and functioning state".

The West African nation of Mali was hit by a coup in 2012 when its northern half was occupied by Al-Qaeda-linked armed fighters before being liberated by a French-led military intervention.

French forces also intervened last month in CAR to try to stem violence between mainly Muslim Seleka fighters who had staged the coup last year and rebels from the country's Christian majority.

If the UN Security Council will not reform it will become redundant and kudos to Germany for making it so obvious.