Rwanda: President Gas is President Gas again

Anadolu Agency reports

AA / Kigali / Henri Demarie

Rwanda: Parliament is in favor of a constitutional reform on presidential term

" The Rwandan Parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of a constitutional amendment that would allow President Paul Kagame to stand in the 2017 presidential election."

Surely not, from The Guardian   

" Kagame has pledged to step down in 2017, the end of his second term. But Twagirimana is doubtful. "Maybe they will change the constitution so he can continue. I think he would like to rule for 20, 30, 50 years like Robert Mugabe."

Hilariously Bill Clinton believed him.I think the comparison with Mugabe is probably a little bit harsh. Kagame is more than just a common thief come criminal who's only goal is personal enrichment. Kagame wants the Kivus. His vision for Rwanda includes the Eastern DR Congo. It is I suspect no coincidence that the remnants of his Congolese militia movement M23 have come out today all over Facebook  pushing the WEF propaganda on the Rwandan miracle. I am confident the WEF would have approved of Hitler who did a lot initially to raise German economic performance last century. Yes I am aware of the Rwandan genocide...I have four Congolese daughters of Tutsi descent, I despise the FDLR and the Hutu extremists. 

" According to the world economic forum, Rwanda is the African country where the government is the most effective. Kigali ranks 7 th globally in front of Mauritius (26 th) and South Africa (32 e)."

It is interesting to note that Kigali has made it a point of pride to piss off South Africa whilst Kinshasa has chosen to ally themselves economically with South Africa. The M23 thugs despite being supplied, trained and all the evidence points to Rwandan army personnel reinforcing M23 were comprehensively defeated by the Africa Brigade made up of a significant number of South African troops. Does Kagame really believe South Africa is going to stand by and let the DR Congo be dismembered by him ? Is pissing off the most powerful military nation on the African continent a sensible foreign policy objective ? 

During a plenary session, 79 of 80 deputies and 24 senators out of 26 voted for the amendment of Article 101 of the Constitution which limits to two the number of presidential terms, Anadolu learned from informed sources.

Well no surprises there. Again from The Guardian.  

" When Kagame won the 2010 election with 93% of the vote, for example, three major opposition parties were excluded from the ballot. Two of their leaders were jailed and still languish there today."

93% ? Rwanda is a democracy ?

"We must pick up the pace to give Kagame chance to further develop our country," said Tuesday Anadolu MP Juvenal Nkusi, the Social Democratic Party "PSD" one of the allies of the RPF "RPF", the party in power.

Abundant in the same direction, the Joan of Arc Nyinawase RPF MP said: "Economic progress and security in our country, are to be credited to Paul Kagame and the views of foreign countries are less important than the majority of Rwandans. "

The vast majority of Rwandans are Hutu, from Wikipedia. 

"The largest ethnic groups in Rwanda are the Hutus (about 85% of the population), the Tutsis (14%), and the Twa (1%)."

Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, currently rotting in a Rwandan geol is a Hutu a woman who genuinely wants Hutu Tutsi reconciliation. Her crime of course was to oppose Kagame.   

The opposition, however, denounced the plenary, calling on people to abstain from participating in the referendum that has the power to perform.

"We knew that the idea of ​​revising the constitution will be a letter in the mail at a parliament subservient to the ruling party. We will continue the fight by legal means, either by winning the trial at the Supreme Court or by mobilizing people to vote no in a referendum that the "RPF" is gradually trying to impose on Rwandans "said Bernard Ntaganda, leader of the Social Imberakuri Party (opposition).

Bernard Ntaganda is clearly a very brave man. He might want to reflect on the importance of a independent judiciary I suspect he will have time to do so soon when the Rwandan regime lock him up.

The Green Party appealed to the Supreme Court in June to end the inclination to change the constitution.The case is still under investigation in the highest court in the country of a thousand hills. A session is scheduled for July 29, 2015 a final decision on this dispute. The opposition remains confident and has won the duel against President Paul Kagame, head of state since 2000.

Wrong. Sorry but just wrong. Dictatorships just don't work that way.

Section 101 of the Rwandan constitution limited to two the number of presidential seven-year terms. But Article 193 of the Constitution provides for a mechanism for amendment to Article 101. The 3 quarters of the bicameral parliament must agree before a referendum, the final stage for a revision of the constitution.

Remember the voting figures above.

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.

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 / NZ: " To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarred A refugee, refugee. "

Stuff reports 

Returning to Rwanda 'too dangerous'

TWENTY YEARS: Joseph Kimenyi had hoped to take his children to Rwanda by now, but ongoing tensions in the area make it impossible.

The last drive Palmerston North man Joseph Kimenyi made to Kilgali International Airport lives on behind his eyelids.

Thousands of mutilated corpses didn't just line the familiar road, they covered it. Many were bloated.

"There was no way to pass them by. We just had to close our eyes and drive over them," Kimenyi said.

It is reminiscent of the portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina journey across Kigali in the film Hotel Rwanda, the realisation that they are driving over bodies is mind numbing.

On Sunday it will be 20 years since the worst mass-murder event of modern times was triggered in Rwanda - a three-month massacre that left 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus dead.

It was a lesson for the world and unfortunately one that we failed to learn from if one was to look at the current situation in the Central African Republic. Our failure to act against the Rwandan regime 20 years ago is one of the direct causes of the Congo wars that have killed a further 6 million people. Only now is the world catching up with the remnants of the genocidal  regime and the civilian Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe, the FDLR will be defeated soon by the Congolese Army ( FARDC ), MONUSCO, and the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade.

It forced Kimenyi, a Hutu himself and son of Rwanda's first president Dominique Mbonyumutwa, to repatriate to Kenya and then New Zealand with his family two years later.

The night the genocide began, Kimenyi, managing a fleet of 400 cars for the United Nations in Kigali, dropped a cohort of Bangladeshis off at Kigali Airport and drove back to the UN compound to finish his shift.

"Gunshots started to be fired and I was waiting for them to stop so I could go home but it just got worse and worse," Kimenyi said.  

It is a familiar story, one that you will hear repeated throughout both Rwanda and the DR Congo. It is an interesting historical footnote that whilst the UN Security Council dithered New Zealand was in the presidency and attempted to prevent it only to be frustrated by the permanent members of the council. Former NZ Deputy Prime Minister Jim McLay recounts:

" As the death count grew, our Ambassador, Colin Keating, pressed hard for the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda to be strengthened, and for the Council to declare this atrocity as genocide.

As the Council’s President in April 1994, we even had to threaten to hold a public debate to shame certain countries for their refusal to acknowledge what was happening.

In the end, mainly because of the unwillingness of some of the Council’s permanent members, those efforts were unsuccessful and 800,000 innocent people were butchered – many with jungle knives."

New Zealand is in the running for a non permanent seat on the UN Security Council later this year. I hope the world remembers the efforts of a small South Pacific nation to help Rwanda, destined to failure though they were.

Kimenyi could not go home. He was holed up in the sandbagged five-storey compound eating biscuit rations until May 18, more than a month after fighting began, when he was transported by the UN to the airport and then Kenya.

Twenty years on Kimenyi, now 58, wishes he and his adult-age children could go back to his former country. See the mountains, walk the streets, reprogramme the memories.

That is not possible under the current Tutsi-led government, which he says is still marginalising the Hutu population and silencing those abroad who speak up about it.

Paul Kagame's regime is little better ( if at all ), than that of the genocidaires who he displaced. One only needs to look at his treatment of Victoire Ingabire to realise the levels of domestic oppression he continues to inflict on the Rwandan Hutu population. The actions of his government and other African regimes in the Great Lakes Region surrounding the eastern DR Congo have exceeded even the colonial atrocities of the west. That the west has only just started to act to restrain Kagame is in itself an indictment upon us.    

"I had hoped that those who took over power would have learned from the mistakes of other governments. I had thought it would be five, maybe 10 years, but now 20 has gone by and still there's problems."

They haven't and all that can be said for that failure to learn, is that a repeat of the 1994 insanity is far more likely because of that. I blogged this stupidity from Rwanda's UN Ambassador Eugène-Richard Gasana back in January.

" Meanwhile, 20 years after the Genocide, the UN for the first time yesterday used the phrase “genocide against the Tutsi” in reference to the 1994 killings that claimed the lives of one million people, instead of the “Rwandan genocide”.

That is a mistake. Many Hutu also died because they would not participate in the genocide. Their sacrifice should never be forgotten. Racism should be fought wherever it happens, the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide like the Nazi's will face justice. The world owes the murdered nothing less, both Tutsi and Hutu. 

The label “Rwandan genocide” is mainly associated with groups and individuals who attempt to distort the history of the Genocide, including those who deny that Tutsis were the principal targets during the 100-day killing spree.

Bullshit. Again a lie covered with a truth. No one denies that Tutsi were the principal target I just refuse to see people in terms of racial identity. Will New Times next be asking for ethnicity to be included on identification documents ? That is the road of ethnic separation that idiotic statements such as " groups and individuals who attempt to distort the history of the 

Genocide"  will take Rwanda down, a road it should never travel again."

Gasana is a fool in a nation that is governed by fools. Tomorrow should not be about Tutsi or Hutu, it should be a day for the world to reflect on our failing of both the Tutsi and Hutu who were murdered by the Interahamwe thugs and for Rwanda it should be about reconciliation. I have little hope either will happen.  

The Manawatu Standard spoke to Kimenyi in 2010 after a BBC correspondent contacted him to tell him his father's body had been dug up.

After his death in 1986, Mbonyumutwa was buried at Democracy Stadium in Gitarama - the place where Rwanda's Hutu leaders announced the Tutsi monarchy would be abolished.

The exact location of Mbonyumutwa body's is unknown but he is understood to have been moved to a public cemetery. Kimenyi said that was just one example of the government's attempt to rewrite history to exclude the suffering of Hutu during the genocide.

Paul Kagame and his merry men thugs will ultimately fail. As Jason Stearns at Congo Siasa reminds us, " Lokuta eyaka na ascenseur, kasi vérité eyei na escalier mpe ekomi."

"There's still no acknowledgement of the Hutu that have put their lives at risk to protect Tutsi.

Remember Victoire Ingabire who now is rotting in a Rwandan gaol for trumped up charges that there is absolutely no evidence of her committing, her principle crime was opposing Kagame and being a Hutu. 

" 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." 

"It is heartbreaking for me - there can't be reconciliation if the government continues to change our history.

"I feel I have to make a choice. Do I let myself be silenced or do I speak and face the consequences?"

It is a real fear the Kagame regime has undoubtedly informants within the Rwandan diaspora, New Zealand might well be too much of a stretch for Kagame but Joseph Kimenyi would be at risk anywhere in Africa and one of the consequences he now faces is that his country of birth is now for the foreseeable future out of his grasp.

Kimenyi said his criticism of the government was far easier for him to do in New Zealand than if he were in Rwanda but he could never be certain of his safety.

Again that is true Kagame would be insane to attempt anything in New Zealand and if he did his agents would almost certainly be caught but it is not unreasonable to question Kagame's sanity.

"That's why I'll probably never get back to Rwanda. I do wish to go back some day. The weather is beautiful."

Rwanda's loss is our gain.

Hat Tip Ambrose Nzeyimana

Rwanda: " But to stand up and fight I know we have six million reasons "

The Washington Post opines

Another Rwandan dissident assassinated

By Lara Santoro, Published: January 25

Patrick Karegeya’s murder did not come as a surprise. The former Rwandan spymaster, whose network of spooks at one point spanned half a continent, had fallen foul of President Paul Kagame in 2007 and went on to help found the opposition, headquartered in South Africa. But as human rights organizations keep noting, the survival rate among Rwanda’s dissidents is not high .

Kagame will not tolerate any opposition. Victoire Ingabire is in effect the leader of the opposition currently she is serving 15 years in gaol, in her situation she made the ill advised move of returning to Rwanda to contest the  the presidential elections in 2010, she was barred from running then gaoled for 8 years increased to 15 on appeal.

The country that many in the West associate with brave recovery from genocide in the 1990s has, in the years since, turned into an autocratic state with zero tolerance for dissent. Filip Reynt­jens, a leading academic authority on Rwanda, says the central African country is no longer “a state with an army but an army with a state.” It’s a depressing transformation, although true plurality was unlikely to blossom in that country, with a 15 percent ethnic minority effectively in charge.

".....but an army with a state.” Says it all really. The problem is that Kagame knows no restraint. His crime of killing opposition politicians pales into relative insignificance when his crimes against the people of the Eastern DR Congo are considered. Six million dead and climbing. 

What did come as a surprise was the way Karegeya was murdered. His strangled body was found in a Johannesburg hotel room Jan. 1. The killers didn’t even bother to tidy up: They left the rope and a bloodied towel behind, as well as a “do not disturb” sign on the door. “It’s Kagame’s impunity,”Theogene Rudasingwa, a former Rwandan ambassador to the United States and one of the leaders of the Rwandan opposition in exile, said in an interview. “He doesn’t care anymore, no one has ever held him accountable, so why should he care?”

That is starting to change. The eyes of the world are starting to watch Rwanda. The Eastern DR Congo is slowly being turned around and should Rwanda intervene either directly or indirectly via proxies such as M23 it is going to become increasingly difficult to ignore from the perspective of the west. Already America has been forced to cut aid and impose sanctions.

Kagame has denied involvement in the murder, but at a recent prayer meeting in the Rwandan capital he said, “You cannot expect to betray your country and get away with it.” Aside from a brief statement by the South African police mentioning strangulation, the circumstances of Karegeya’s death remain mysterious. What is clear, however, is that no one had greater interest in seeing Karegeya dead than Kagame. Experts on the region say that Karegeya’s job description under Kagame included eliminating enemies — potential and actual — which left Karegeya with a lot of sensitive information. “It was pretty clear to everyone what Karegeya’s job was,” professor Brian Endless of Loyola University said in an interview just after the murder. “Even he wasn’t terribly shy about it. He took care of dissidents, in however distasteful a fashion was required.”

Kagame has become delusional, his inability separate his administration from the the nation state that is Rwanda. He assures all that he will not alter the constitution to extend his tenure as Rwanda's President but the reality is that he has created a situation where he will be forced to remain in office. Expect an African version of the Putin / Medvedev  tandemocracy . There is very little available in the way of attractive retirement options available for autocratic dictators after they lose power. Ask Gaddafi.    

When someone was deemed a problem outside Rwanda — be it in Kenya, Congo or other countries — it was Karegeya’s job to get rid of them. (Internally, the job fell to Jack Nziza, whom Rudasingwa called “the most feared man in Rwanda”).

What is strange is that Karegeya must have been aware that he was in Kagame's sights yet he dispensed with his South African security detail. 

" It was reported in the South African press that Karegeya had agreed to dispense with his South African security detail in 2012. The government of South Africa had provided the protection since Karegeya’s arrival in South Africa in 2007. The decision to provide protection was reportedly influenced by assassination attempts against former army chief of staff Kayumba Nyamwasa, another Rwandan exile in South Africa. "

Whatever “problems” Karegeya allegedly eliminated at Kagame’s behest is unknown, but Endless and others have estimated that the number is in the double digits and includes former interior minister Seth Sendashonga, who was gunned down in traffic in Nairobi in 1998.

Such information is public knowledge in Rwanda. When Nziza walks into a room, Rudasingwa told me, people start to shake. The murder of Karegeya does more than silence a potential squealer. It sends a message to the Rwandan opposition and to ordinary citizens: If someone as powerful, rich, competent and cunning as Karegeya can be dispatched, what can be done to the average citizen? Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch attest that the levels of fear in Rwanda are pathologically high: Too many people have vanished and later turned up dead. Karegeya’s death is certain to make the situation worse.

By the same token there is a growing awareness in the West about the realities of Kagame's regime. The European Parliament has made its opinion on the Victoire Ingabire situation fairly clear.

Despite a clear pattern of stifled dissent during his tenure, Kagame is about to receive his latest installment of U.S. bilateral aid. Overall foreign aid to Rwanda — estimated to be about $800 million a year — is roughly 40 percent of its government expenditure, keeping the country afloat. Karegeya’s murder ought to open a debate on whether Rwanda should receive any aid at all.

Cutting aid is problematic and probably would have the effect of increasing the levels of oppression in Rwanda whilst not hurting the country's political elite in any real way, it also puts the most vulnerable Rwandans at risk. Targeted sanctions aimed at the Rwandan civilian and military leadership would make a lot more sense.

Hat Tip: Charly Kasereka 

Rwanda: " Suffer my pretty children and follow me, follow me "

The BBC reports

Patrick Karegeya 'murder': Mozambique holds Rwandan suspects

                                            Patrick Karegeya formed an opposition party in 2010

Four Rwandans have been detained in Mozambique in connection with the apparent murder of Rwanda's ex-intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya, Mozambican police say.

The body of Mr Karegeya was found in a hotel in South Africa on 1 January.

A Mozambican police spokesman confirmed that the four suspects were detained a week ago.

It comes as no surprise that suspects are Rwandan and I think most observers have expected that the Rwandan Government was behind this murder. 

Mr Karegeya was stripped of the rank of colonel after falling out with his ex-ally, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame.

His allies say he was killed by government agents - a charge denied by Rwanda's high commissioner to South Africa.

Rwanda lies, that is the standard response of the Rwandan government even when presented with evidence that would stand up in any jurisdiction in the world. At this point it is worth remembering that the suspects are just that suspects, but should it credibly emerge that they are behind this operation the standard in the west is " beyond reasonable doubt "  then once again Rwanda will have lied to the world and more importantly to the South African government about committing crime on South African territory.  

Mozambique police spokesman Joao Machava told the Associated Press news agency that one of those detained in Mozambique, which neighbours South Africa, was a senior official in the Rwandan army.

Just one ?

South African police say Mr Karegeya, 53, might have been strangled. A rope and bloodied towel were found in the safe of the hotel room where his body was discovered, they said.

Mr Karegeya, who formed a Rwandan opposition party in exile in 2010, had lived for the past six years in South Africa, where he had been granted political asylum.

It is interesting that South Africa had given him a security detail but it was withdrawn in 2012, South Africa obviously has no illusions about the regime in Kigali. 

" It was reported in the South African press that Karegeya had agreed to dispense with his South African security detail in 2012. The government of South Africa had provided the protection since Karegeya’s arrival in South Africa in 2007. The decision to provide protection was reportedly influenced by assassination attempts against former army chief of staff Kayumba Nyamwasa, another Rwandan exile in South Africa. "

Earlier this week, President Kagame warned that those who betrayed Rwanda would face "consequences", without mentioning any names.

Kagame will brook no opposition at all. Ask Victoire Ingabire about the state of democracy in Rwanda.

Rwandan dissidents in several Western countries, including the UK and US, say local security agents have warned them of plots to kill them.

The Rwandan government has denied trying to kill its opponents.

Mr Kagame, who has been accused of not tolerating opposition, maintains that Rwanda needs a strong government to prevent a return to ethnic conflict.

There is a huge difference between political representation and ethnic conflict, it is also worth noting that Patrick Karegeya was part of the Kigali political elite which tends to suggest this has nothing to do with the ethnic conflict red herring. 

Patrick Karegeya was part of the opposition ( in exile ) Rwandan National Congress. 

Rwanda:Victoire Ingabire - The eyes of the world are watching.

New Times ( Rwanda ) reports

Ingabire sentenced to 15 years in prison

                                                                          Victoire Ingabire

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.

Paul Kagame will brook no opposition, he is a dictator who despite his attempts to compare himself with Mandela over the past week should be compared to Stalin. This blog is not hostile to the people of Rwanda, it is very hostile to the government of Rwanda, I make no apology for that. Rwanda has been  the cause of the vast majority of the ongoing instability in the DR Congo, the evidence is overwhelming and the denials and lies of the junta in Kigali have been nothing short of astonishing in their total lack of any credibility.  It is worth keeping that in mind when it comes to situation Victoire Ingabire has found herself in. Hungry for Truth blog has a transcript if Ingabire's speech made on her return to Rwanda in 2010.   

" I would like to say that today I came back to my country 16 years after that tragedy took place in this country. I know very well that there was genocide and crimes against humanity. Therefore, with my return after 16 years in a country where such actions took place in my absence, I could not have fallen asleep without first passing by the place where those actions took place. I had to see the place. I had to visit the place."

That is the first paragraph of the first public ( on the record ) words that Ingabire spoke, I struggle to see how an acknowledgement of the the 1994 genocide by a Hutu political leader is in any way minimising it.  Ingabire was placed under house arrest in April 2010. She was arrested on 14 October 2010. The speech made the day she arrived was delivered on January 16 2010.

“The court has found Ingabire guilty of spreading rumours with an intention to incite the public to rise up against the State, endangering state security and minimising the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. For that, she’s sentenced to 15 years in prison,” Justice Immaculee Nyirinkwaya announced.

" The flowers I brought with me are a sign of remembrance from the members of FDU-INKINGI and its Executive Committee. They told me to pass by here and tell you, the Rwandan people, that what we wish for is to work together, to make sure that such a tragedy will never take place again. That is one of the reasons why the party FDU-INKINGI decided to return to the country peacefully, without resorting to violence as many people think that the solution to Rwanda’s problems is to resort to armed struggle. We do not believe that shedding blood resolves problems. When one sheds blood, the blood comes back to haunt him/her."


The crime Ingabire has committed is simple. She believes in democracy but returned to Rwanda ... a dictatorship. I blogged at her original sentencing just over a year ago.

" Actually I was surprised it was only " eight " years maybe the eyes of the world have caused a bit of caution on the establishments part."

It would seem that my original surprise was well placed, something that gives me no pleasure whatsoever. Rwanda has compounded the original injustice with an even greater injustice. 

Both Ingabire and prosecution had appealed the earlier sentence.

The evidence of Ingabire’s trial shed light on her active participation in the leadership of the armed terrorist group made up of the Congo-based militia Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia, which is responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Really...? Even if I was inclined to believe such stupidity and I am not how would she have achieved this. She entered Rwanda 16 January and within 10 weeks she was under arrest. That would perhaps have been enough time had she been a private citizen but we can be fairly sure of two things, one that she was under observation by the security services of Rwanda and two she would have been well aware of that and would never have done anything that stupid.

The trial also revealed Ingabire’s role in assisting in the escape of her mother, Therese Dusabe,  who was sentenced to life in prison after Mageragere Gacaca court found her guilty of torture by disembowelling Tutsi women at Butamwa Health Centre where she was a nurse.

Although often described as political opposition, evidence collected on Ingabire’s FDU-Inkingi mission with the help of the Netherlands police proved its goal was far from political.

Among the evidence were plans for armed activities to be undertaken by FDU-Inkingi. The documents, which Ingabire later admitted to owning, calls for a change of tactic used by FDLR to one of terrorist acts and destabilisation strategy.

The problem with this is that I have been unable to see any of this evidence despite hearing all about from witness so compromised that no serious legal system would consider it admitable. Human Rights Watch points out just how unreliable the evidence of her co conspirators was. 

" The trial, which began in September 2011 and closed on April 25, was complex and marred by setbacks and delays. Ingabire, who pleaded not guilty, was tried alongside four co-defendants − Vital Uwumuremyi, Jean-Marie Vianney Karuta, Tharcisse Nditurende, and Noel Habiyaremye − who implicated her in alleged collaboration with armed groups.

All four pleaded guilty to charges of belonging to a terrorist movement, participating in terrorist acts, and creating an armed group. Uwumuremyi was sentenced to four years and six  months in prison,  Nditurende and Habiyaremye to three years and six months each, and Karuta to two years and seven months. All four are former members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group operating in eastern Congo that consists in part of individuals who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The FDLR has committed numerous atrocities against civilians in eastern Congo in recent years."
Interesting to look at their sentences.  

Meanwhile, Ingabire’s co-accused Vital Uwumuremyi saw his appeal rejected by the Supreme Court. The High Court found him guilty of conspiracy to harm authorities through terrorism and war and complicity in the act of terrorism for which he was sentenced to four years and six months jail term.

The other three co- accused; Jean Marie Vianney Karuta, Tharcisse Nditurende and Noel Habiyaremye completed their sentences.

Yes no doubt with time off for good behaviour perjury.  

The four admitted they were arrested while still members of the Congo-based FDLR militia and confessed that Ingabire had approached them with view to launching an armed rebellion against the Government.

Upon returning to Rwanda from the Netherlands in 2010, Ingabire, 44, headed straight to the Kigali Genocide Memorial centre where she gave a speech where she described the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi as a double genocide.

It was, infact it is in many ways an on going multiple genocide. I have no time for the FDLR who I hope are going to soon feel the the teeth of the MONUSCO Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade as they follow M23 into extinction but I do not believe Ingabire has anything to do with them, other than perhaps as a constituency that exists in Rwanda and needs to be delt with by Rwandan politicians.     

Yesterday’s verdict was delivered in a packed courtroom, with both Ingabire and Iain Edwards, one of her two counsels, in attendance.

Justice Nyirinkwaya said that the three charges Ingabire was found guilty of amount to a sentence of 27 years but the court reduced it to 15.

Rwanda has politicised its judiciary to the point that one wonders why Kigame doesn't just abolish it. It is yet another rubber stamp for the criminal junta in Kigali.  

Prosecutors argued that Ingabire’s earlier sentence was too lenient and were seeking 25 years imprisonment. They had also asked the Supreme Court to restore the dropped charges.

The ruling means Ingabire will spend a further 12 years behind bars having served three years already.

Actually I doubt that. Hopefully she will be released from jail and take her place in the political life of Rwanda.... it is also possible that she will be murdered but Rwanda should know that the eyes of the world are watching.