DR Congo: FARDC fails Kamangu

Al Jazeera reports

Congo refugees pour into Uganda after attack

Ugandan rebels attack town in eastern Congo, raising fears of a renewed campaign and a refugee influx.   The Red Cross is working with the UN and other aid agencies to set up a camp further inside Uganda     More than 30,000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and crossed into neighbouring Uganda after a rebel group that had been hiding out in eastern Congo attacked a town. Reuters  gives an update The Uganda Red Cross Society said 66,000 Congolese refugees have so far crossed into the east African country since the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) started attacking the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Kamangu on Thursday. Families streamed across a bridge over a river near the border, clutching belongings. Some carried firewood over their heads, many brought livestock and women held small babies. Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from the Ugandan side of the border on Friday, said people were so desperate to escape that some ignored the bridge and waded through the river. “We heard rumours there were rebels coming but we did nothing," Evaketi Tibalumanya, a Congolese Refugee, told Al Jazeera, holding one of her nine children in her lap. "Then they came by surprise at night. They caught a person and killed him. We escaped death because we ran away.” I gather that a police station was over run and 9 police officers have been taken as hostages but that does not seem to be confirmed. The Ugandan military said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group that was driven across the border into the dense jungle of the DRC after a violent campaign in the late 1990s, overran the town of Kamangu on Thursday. They briefly occupied it and, though they have since left, Ugandan military spokesman Paddy Ankunda said people are still crossing into Uganda for fear of the rebels. Ugandan troops have been sent to reinforce the border. Who are the ADF ? The ADF was formed by puritanical Muslim Ugandans of the Tabliq sect who merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.The main figure of the group was Jamil Mukulu, a former Catholic. The members were largely from central Uganda, in particular Iganga, Masaka and Kampala, and portray themselves as religious crusaders. Beyond this vaguely stated religious ideology and statements that the government discriminates against Tabliqs, the ADF has given few coherent rationales for their insurgency. The ADF chose western Uganda apparently for three reasons: terrain that is ideal for a rural insurgency, proximity to the DRC where the rebels could set up bases and recruit fighters, and the presence of some Ugandan ethnic groups unfriendly to the government that could offer assistance. The ADF waged an insurgency against the Ugandan government in the late 1990s from bases in the Ruwenzori Mountains and across the frontier in eastern Congo. At its peak, it was blamed for a series of deadly blasts in the capital. 'No food, no shelter' Recently carrying out only minor attacks on villages and units of DRC's army, the group had kept largely silent since the Ugandan government offensive against it in 2001. Which begs the question where were the Congolese army FARDC ? It would appear they were joining up with Rwandan rebels to attack M23, an act astonishing stupidity. It would be hard to blame the Ugandan Army if they decided to act against  the ADF rebels and made territorial incursions into the eastern DR Congo to suppress them. Fortunately the Ugandan Army has not gone down this road. Aid groups and the Ugandan government are struggling to cope with an influx that took them by surprise. “People have no food, they have no shelter, they are sleeping in the open. The classrooms that have been provided by the government are not adequate enough to accommodate the huge number of people,” Richard Nsubuga of the Uganda Red Cross told Al Jazeera. I have been a fairly harsh critic of Museveni and Uganda but on the refugee issue they have behaved to date with extraordinary honour. Ugandan soldiers kept a close watch on the refugees as they crossed the border and Paddy Ankunda, Uganda's military spokesman, told a news conference that the military was worried the rebels might join the influx disguised as refugees. Ankunda also said the military feared the ADF could have gained attack skills from al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked group operating in Somalia, that could be used inside Uganda. That is a very reasonable concern. Al-Shabab have carried out the attacks in Ugandan capital Kampala before to avenge Uganda's deployment of troops as part of an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Rwanda. Victoire Ingabire awaits a crocodile

IOL News reports

Rwandan opponent’s verdict postponed

Kigali - A Rwandan court on Friday put off its verdict in the trial of opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, accused of bankrolling terrorism and denying the 1994 genocide, until October 30, the third such postponement.

The court justified this latest postponement by saying it had expected to have two clear weeks after a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of one of the laws under which Ingabire is being prosecuted.

Interesting to note that once again justice has been denied again in Rwanda, that the eyes of the world are of course focused on Rwanda at the moment no doubt has influenced this decision. The result is probably a foregone conclusion,   President Crocodile  Paul Kagame does not tolerate any opposition as the Guardian reminds us. 

" All four of those sentenced are safely outside Rwanda, but the severity of the sentences,which range from 20 to 24 years, was startling. The defendants were Kagame's former chief of staff and ambassador to Washington, Theogene Rudasingwa; Gerald Gahima, Rwanda's former prosecutor general and vice president of the supreme court; Col Patrick Karegeya, former director of Rwanda's external security services; and Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former army chief of staff who survived an assassination attempt in South Africa last year."

" The four were found guilty of forming a terrorist group, threatening state security, undermining public order, promoting ethnic divisions and insulting the president. Evidence was taken in part from a "Rwanda Briefing" they issued as their former boss began his second term, describing him as "a callous and reckless leader" shaped by "greed for absolute power". They asserted that there is "more to Rwanda and Paul Kagame than new buildings, clean streets, and efficient government … Rwanda is essentially a hard-line, one-party, secretive police state with a façade of democracy." To avoid future conflict, they urged Kagame to convene a "genuine, inclusive, unconditional and comprehensive national dialogue" with the aim of creating a new "national partnership government".

" In one passage, which the court cited as a criminal attempt to stir communal hatred, they warned of another ethnic explosion in Rwanda. "The Tutsi minority cannot hope to impose their will on the Hutu majority forever," they warned. "The military victory of Hutu insurgency could, in turn, conceivably lead to the genocide of the remaining Tutsi population of Rwanda."

These are essentially the same charges that Ingabire faces.

But the Supreme Court decision was postponed for two weeks and was not issued until Thursday, rejecting Ingabire's case.

As I mentioned the eyes of the world are focused on Rwanda at the moment following the countries undeserved success at gaining a place on the UN Security Council.

" Philippe Bolopion of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch criticized the inclusion of Rwanda on the Security Council

"After blatantly violating the Security Council's arms embargo and undermining the work of the U.N. by propping up the abusive M23 rebels, Rwanda is rewarded with a seat at the table," he said.

"Kigali is now in a position to try to shield its own officials implicated in abuses from U.N. sanctions, which is a flagrant conflict of interest," Bolopion said in a statement. "Other Security Council members now have an even greater responsibility to hold Rwanda to account."

I will blog on this separately given the Rwandan spin that the win has generated. This from blogger Willis Shalita.

" The implications of Rwanda’s election cannot be minimized. This is a vote of confidence in our leadership and governance, and President Kagame deserves our admiration and respect for having steered us thus far."

It is of course the interpretation that I would have expected from Rwanda. Kagame is constructing a " cult of personality " style of politics that would garner applause from Stalin and Mao.

“It is in this context that we need more time to come up with a clear verdict that is in line with the Supreme Court decision on genocide ideology,” judge Alice Rulisa said Friday.

When you have had two years to do something I guess a couple of more weeks is no problem if it takes that amount of time to get the international press looking else where. 

Ingabire, who has been in custody for two years, had filed a suit in March contesting the legality of Rwanda's genocide ideology laws.

The Supreme Court said Thursday it found no contradiction between the genocide ideology law and the constitution. “It is true the constitution grants freedom of expression and speech but the genocide ideology law puts limitations to avoid violations of the freedoms,” the nine-man panel of judges said.

Which sort of begs the question why bloody well bother with a constitution ?

The Guardian piece above gives us far more insight into the Kagame regime than the eventual decision of the court which will rubber stamp the regime view.

The genocide denial charges against Ingabire were triggered by remarks she made in January 2010 at the memorial to the estimated 800,000 people, the majority of them Tutsis, who were killed in the slaughter.

The remarks were actually so far from the " hate speak "  legislation that some western governments have as to be laughable. Judge for yourself. This from Jambo News

The speech
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza  arrived in Rwanda on the 16^th of January 2010, From the airport she went straight to the memorial of the genocide to pay respect to Tutsi victims of genocide. She made a speech in which she called for justice to bring to book those who committed genocide against Tutsi and those who committed other crimes including war crimes and crimes against without fear or favour, irrespective of ethnic or political affiliation. She considered equitable justice as a solid foundation for national reconciliation and durable peace and development. After this speech she was accused of having and spreading  Genocidal ideology, negationism and divisionism.

Despite overwhelming evidence regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide, committed by members of the RPF, the latter have remained immune from prosecution”.

As I have said President Paul Kagame leader of the RPF brooks no dissension and is worthy of his place amongst the African Crocodiles.  Another example here.

Ingabire, herself a Hutu and the leader of the Unified Democratic Forces (FDU), a political grouping that has not been allowed to register as a party, said it was time Hutu war victims were also commemorated. - Sapa-AFP

How ironic.