curbing genocide ideology in schools
The New Times (Kigali) EDITORIAL
Rwanda: Use All Diplomatic Means to Curb Genocide Ideology
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The news that members of the Chamber of Deputies have summoned Education minister Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya and Local Government minister Protais Musoni to explain to them the measures the two ministers have put in place to curb genocide ideology in schools, is welcome. This follows a report showing alarming levels of the ideology in some selected secondary schools, where it is apparent it is openly abounding.
However, the summon should be taken with a pinch of salt.
The huge numbers involved of people who subscribe to the killer mentality is the one that is worrying, and the objective is to whittle it down by luring people out of that mindset.
...like the Holocaust and the Nazi adherents. Even when the Nazi flame did not die down in the German hearts completely, the Jew-hate ideology was controlled as the appalling results of the original supporters of Nazism were reviled publicly, and the young taught tolerance and unity.
Rwanda: French Author in Court for His Book
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne), 4 January 2008 (Media for Peace and Human Dignity)
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Paris
French writer-journalist Pierre Pean has been charged in court for complicity to racial slandering and racial provocation and hatred following the publication in November 2005 of his book on the Rwandan genocide - "Noires Fureurs, Blancs Menteurs (Black Furies, White Liars)".
A hearing to plan the trial is scheduled for 5 February 2008 before the 17th chamber of the correctional tribunal of Paris, according to Hirondelle sources.
The association SOS Racisme had filed a complaint in October 2006, describing Mr Pean book on the genocide in Rwanda as "negationist".
In Kigali, Rwandan capital, François Xavier Ngarambe, former President of Ibuka, said his intention was "to mobilize the Rwandan community living in Europe but also to support the national media, within the limits of means, to follow the trial".
A score of passages of the books are targeted for racial defamation and provocation to discrimination, violence and racial hatred. Pean writes, in particular, that "the culture of the lie and dissimulation dominates all the others in the Tutsis or that the Tutsi rebels "succeeded until now in completely falsifying Rwandan reality, to allot to others their own crimes and acts of terrorism, to demonize their enemies".
Claude Durand, editor of Mr. Pean's book, is also charged in the court.
List of 6,945 suspects in DR Congo; Genocidaires or not?
Rwanda: 6900 Genocide Suspects in Congo, More to Come - Says Government
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As part of the November 2007 agreement between Kigali and Kinshasa to flash out Rwandan extremist rebels - the FDLR - from the eastern DRC - dubbed the 'Nairobi Communiqué', Rwanda was to compile a list of Genocide criminals among the rebel ranks. In return DRC would have them handed over to face justice - which Kigali says is basis for lasting regional stability.
"We have compiled a list of 6945 individuals but cannot give it to you because it was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that asked us to do that", Ms. Domitilla Mukantagazwa, Executive Secretary of the Gacaca Courts told RNA on Wednesday. "You can contact them (Foreign Affairs) for any more details you need".
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Charles Murigande first refuted any suggestion that his office was in possession of the list.
"The Information (you have) is false because we have not got the list", he said but later changed his tone when RNA insisted. "We are still waiting for the 'full list' from a number of sources because we are not the ones doing it anyway".
The issue of whether all the people among the rebel ranks of the FDLR are Genocide suspects remains of contention depending on who you talk to.
Outspoken Human Right Watch Africa Expert Ms. Alison Deforge at some pointed late last year doubted if there were more than five Genocide suspects among the rebels because as she put it, Kigali has not provided the list.
Much more at the link
EDIT: The Rwandan government's current list of Category One genocide suspects can be viewed here on the government's home page.
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a) Persons whose criminal acts or whose acts of criminal participation place them among the planners, organizers, instigators, supervisors and leaders of the crime of genocide or of a crime against humanity;
b) Persons who acted in positions of authority at the national, Prefectorial, Communal, Sector or Cell level, or in a political party, the army, religious organizations or in a militia and who perpetrated or fostered such crimes;
c) Notorious murderers who by virtue of the zeal or excessive malice with which they committed atrocities, distinguished themselves in their areas of residence or where they passed;
d) Persons who committed acts of sexual torture or violence.
Genocide Witnesses and their defense
France stops genocide transfer
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'Invalid' warrants
France's Supreme Court has overruled a decision to hand over a Rwandan genocide suspect to an international tribunal in Tanzania...
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo is accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of coordinating the killing of up to 25,000 Tutsis in April 1994.
His lawyer, Thierry Mausis, told the BBC an earlier ruling was overturned because of procedural violations.
Two other Rwandan suspects held last year in France were subsequently freed.
Former UN Deputy Commander to Testify for Ex-Rwandan Top Soldier
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Colonel Luc Marchal, former number two of the United Nations Forces in Rwanda, will Wednesday be the first witness to testify for General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, the former Chief of Staff of the Rwandan gendarmerie...
Colonel Marchal, currently retired, was the assistant of General Romeo Dallaire, who was the head of the United Nations force in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.
He has already testified in 2007 for genocide accused General Gratien Kabiligi, former official for the operations of the chief of staff of the army, in the Military I trial.
General Ndindiliyimana is defended by Christopher Black (Canada) and François Lurquin (Belgium).
Armenians Protest Genocide Revisionism in Brussels
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The Armenian community in Belgium says it is outraged at the aggression of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda by a top government official who has not even been punished, RNA reports.
Belgium daily Le Soir reported that the Director of External Trade in the Brussels Regional government had used hate language against Mr. André an employee of the same local office.
The unnamed Brussels official according to witnesses said: "Should it be the person with a taller size and light colour, I will kill him...the Rwandan Genocide is not over yet!".
The Armenian community says the reaction of the regional government is also 'shocking' because instead of punishing the official, he was to be given a 3-month paid leave. The Armenians have described this as 'gratifying the guilty'.
A Spanish judge has indicted 40 current or former Rwandan military officers
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The judge issued international arrest warrants against the 40, including Gen. James Kabarebe, whom the judge said is believed to be the chief of staff of Rwanda's military; Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, whom the judge said is believed to be Rwanda's ambassador to India; and Lt. Col. Rugumya Gacinya, whom the judge said is believed to be a military attaches at Rwanda's embassy in Washington, according to court documents
more at the link
After my time but some thoughts
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Five of the Spanish victims were missionaries. The bodies of four of them were found in late 1996 after they were tortured, and shot or hacked to death with machetes, the documents said, while a fifth is still missing.
Three other Spaniards were shot to death in early 1997 while working for a non-profit medical group providing aid to Hutu refugees in Rwanda, the documents said.
The majority of the victims during the wave of terror, the documents said, were Hutu Rwandan refugees or Congolese civilians, mainly Hutus as well.
I departed Rwanda in March 96 so I missed this with the Spanish missionaries. But in late 1996 with the RPA's move on the camps in Zaire, the massive return of Hutu refeugees pushed the already simmering insurgency into high gear.
Bob Gribbin was the Ambassador at that time and he offers comments on RPA heavy handiness inside Rwanda--as well as the countermeasures Kagame took to bring the Army under firm control. Notably key RPA officers like Karake Karenzi were put in field commands along the Zairian/Congolese border plus former ex-FAR Hutu officers who had been integrated into the RPA in late 94 were commanding battalions in the RPA by that time. At the same time, the RPA/rebel push on Kinshasa and the Congolese War were ongoing. The court seems to have luumped all of that with the COIN effort inside Rwanda; they were connected but they were not the same.
As for the 22 witnesses who provided testimony, again we have the same thing that has gone on with the Hutu Power IO effort since the genocide and its aftermath. I have been personnally vilified by that effort as have others like Tony Marley and Rick Orth so I am not surprised by any of this.
Tom
Rwanda Artilcle, Military-Review September-October 2008
I have not gone through the other articles but the one on Reconciliation in Rwanda is weak, poorly researched, and simplistic in its level of understanding. Considering I made available 2 US Ambassadors, and 2 Defense Attaches to support the project and none of us were contacted, I guess I should not be surprised.
Amnesty, Reintegration, and Reconciliation in Rwanda - Major Jeffrey H. Powell, U.S. Army Failure to grant amnesty has mired the reconciliation process in Rwanda after the genocide there in 1994. gets a thumbs down from me. :(
The September-October 2008 edition is now online. The full line up is on the SWJ blog.
MG Lewis MacKenzie on LTG Romeo Dallaire
First a hat tip to Linda Melvern who sent me this article from Macleans.Ca!
This is an interesting piece. My only criticism of General Dallaire was that he had never been on an operational UN mission before he took UNAMIR. That lack of experience seemed to me to limit his understanding of how UN missions really run.
Thoughts from our Canadian brothers?
Tom
Quote:
Dallaire's deadly error
In his memoirs, former Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie offers a harsh critique of Roméo Dallaire's leadership during the genocide
August 20, 2008 |
Former Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie speaks to Senior Writer Michael Friscolanti
In the 1990s, after the Cold War ended and Canadian peacekeeping troops found themselves embroiled in increasingly dangerous conflicts, the nation's generals acquired a prominence not seen since the Korean War. The first to become a household name was Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, UN commander of Sector Sarajevo in 1992 during the Bosnian civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and now author of the forthcoming memoir Soldiers Made Me Look Good (Douglas & McIntyre, Sept. 20). He was followed by Maj.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire, force commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated UN peacekeeping force during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The two men have come to symbolize opposing poles to Canadians urging a more forceful international intervention in the world's murderous ethnic conflicts.
About Time--Bagasora Convicted But the ICTR Blew It
Nearly 15 years but at last this walking, talking piece of excrement was found guilty.
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Rwandan Officer Found Guilty of 1994 Genocide
ACCRA, Ghana — A senior Rwandan military officer charged with being one of the masterminds of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was convicted on Thursday by a United Nations court in Tanzania of genocide and sentenced to life in prison.
Col. Theoneste Bagosora, 67, is the most senior military official to have been convicted in connection with the genocide, in which bands of Hutu massacred 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. He was a leading Hutu extremist and the cabinet director for Rwanda’s Defense Ministry at the start of the slaughter. He and three other senior army officers had been on trial since 2002 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is based in Arusha, Tanzania.
Incredibly the court said there was no conspiracy:
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However, the court cleared Colonel Bagosora and the others on trial of conspiring to commit genocide before April 7, 1994. The trial lasted six years, during which 242 witnesses were heard.
Ms Desforge is equally out to lunch yet again.
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The exclusion of the conspiracy charge against the men is a blow to Rwandan officials, said Alison Desforges of Human Rights Watch, because it undercuts their argument that the genocide was not a one-time event but the inevitable product of an anti-Tutsi atmosphere dating from the colonial era.
“It brings us back to reality and says this genocide was a discrete historical event related to a specific set of circumstances,” Ms. Desforges said.
So the genocide was a spontaneous expression of hatred that just happened?
Linda Melvern's work disproves that line of thinking. Romeo Dallaire would also (I think disagree).
Good on the conviction. But the court blew it on the conspiracy. This will heighten conflict in the Congo, not reduce it.
Tom
prepare the apocalypse he once said
Tom,
Sadly, we saw this coming when former PM Kambanda shocked everyone by pleading guilty (early 98 ?). That relatively short trial kept most like Bagosora out of the lime light with Rwanda desperately trying to put someone behind bars.
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“The conviction should send a signal to all people with ongoing responsibility for atrocities in Congo,” he said. “If they are in effective control of armed forces, whether they are state troops, a rebel group or guerrillas, they are potentially criminally liable.”
Jeez, now that's a threat :wry:
Mixed feeling no love no hate
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tom Odom
MA
We will have to disagree on Kagame.
Is Paul hardnosed and calculating? Yes. You would have to be to do what he has done since 1990.
Is he the typical corrupt figure we both know? I don't think so; to the contrary he was brutally direct in dealing with corruption when I knew him and when people I am close to knew him.
Did Rwanda exploit its military successes in the DRC? No doubt. With the West's record in Africa, I find it curious that we would even consider stepping up on that soap box.
The blame for the fiasco in the DRC goes across international boundaries. The overall situation is abhorrent. It was in the making over decades, not just since 1998.
Rwanda however has changed dramatically.
Lastly let me add that I have long said that Paul Kagame ultimately is perhaps Paul Kagame's greatest threat. That to me will be the true test of his leadership: whether he will be able to pass on a stable government and become that most rare of African leaders, a former president.
Regards
Tom
My own impressions are mixed.
Economy: Paul Kagame is surely a hard nosed politician and an excellent salesman (His country depends for 50% on budget aid coming from abroad).
The Rwandan economy due to the genocide and structural problems (demography, lack of land,...) was in ruins when he came to power. Now ???? It still depends a lot on Foreign aid (still around 50%) but macro figures have been stabilized and GDP growth exceeds the population growth. Is he interested in development ? SURE. He needs it to keep control of the country (like most presidents).
Corruption: Kagame's allergy to corruption is well known, but does it really cover the whole span ? UN reports have shown in the past that people close to Kagame have made a lot of money in DRC. Did Kagame benefit of this money ? Possibly but not sure. Did he benefit from their support to his DRC policy because it brought them so money ? Sure. In conclusion, high level corruption during the wars in DRC and until very recently was tolerated as it reinforced Kagame's control over these guys and ensured they will support his policy. One bad point.
BTW: Sorry Tom but your historic argument about "With the West's record in Africa" is a bit empty. It just would justify anything (from "let's kill Christians because they killed Muslims during the crusades" to "you Germans have nothing to say because of AH") and would certainly be direguarded by Kagame himself as an excuse to repeat the errors of the past.
The DRC fiasco has multiple sources, but surely the Rwandan intervention of 1998 did not help DRC (and did help some in Rwanda). Let's be realistic now, since then Kagame understood he had more to gain by transforming Rwanda into an African Singapore with a veneer of democracy than by continuing to play the interventionist policy (entering DRC to hunt down the FDLR and staying). Why ? First, he needs the international community (aid donors) to like him (50% of the budget, international recognition,...). With RDF in DRC, everyday this image was tarnished. Second, internally, the risks was great to so some men of power use DRC as a training ground for their future ambitions inside Rwanda (making money, prestige,...that one day could lead to them challenging Kagame). Third, to control the population he needs to give them jobs, health,... DRC only enriched a few and did not benefit the average Rwandan "Joe", but further fuelled the impression of a regime orientated towards the defense of its own interests and those of the Tutsi community.
In conclusion, Kagame is not a clear cut mix between a successfull entrepreneur - Elliot Ness and Ghandi. No way. He is a very realistic politician who needs a good international reputation, development and support from inside his regime to stay in power. Hey...he is no superhero, nor a villain. :wry: