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Thread: Rwanda (catch all)

  1. #41
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    The problems in Rwanda didn't start in '94 or in the '50 or '60. Keep in mind that the colonial time draw borders true comunities. In the '50 en '60 there was a sociale revolution going over Africa for independence and social standards. Donth forget that many africans participated in the european wars and both world wars. After the independence of Rwanda, there was a refugee progress of tutsi to the nabouring countries. Soon after, the insergency started from Uganda, That event led with the counterincergency by Belgian troops hunting the incergents all the way back to Uganda where they countered Britisch Troops. These insergencies kept on going until 1990. From there on the story has been told that the genocide started by the result of the shootdown of the airplaine.

    There still has to be a lot of investigations on the history of the genocide, most of all the attack of the airplane, the different flows of powers (akazu, amasusu, etc) the responsability of western nations, the result of moderate politicians in the destabilisation of the country.
    Most of all, we shoud remember that a western form of democraty thus not work on a African nation.

    grtz

  2. #42
    Council Member RTK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stan View Post
    More than a decade later, French involvement in the genocide may actually surface. In October of last year, reports of a Rwandan hearing claims of French complicity may come to a head.
    I have two Rwandan's in my course right now. I talked to them the other night about this. I was absolutely blown away by what they told me regarding French involvement. Neither are very fond of the French.
    Example is better than precept.

  3. #43
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Hey Ryan !
    I bet those folks have lots more to tell.

    Quote Originally Posted by RTK View Post
    I have two Rwandan's in my course right now. I talked to them the other night about this. I was absolutely blown away by what they told me regarding French involvement. Neither are very fond of the French.
    There's a November 2006 rehash here at The Independent from 08 DEC 07.

    French accused of complicity in genocide that killed a million in Rwanda

    The commission is also examining Operation Tur-quoise, the 1994 French military intervention that was ostensibly aimed at saving Rwandan lives. Human rights groups in France claim French soldiers tricked thousands of Tutsi survivors out of hiding, and abandoned them to the Interahamwe militia...

    Close links existed between France and Rwanda, the tiny African country ruled by a Hutu dictatorship for 20 years. France was its biggest supplier of heavy military equipment, and sent troops in 1990 to help repel a military offensive from Uganda by the largely Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front, (RPF), against the corrupt president, Juvenal Habyarimana.

    During nearly three years of civil war, in some instances senior French officers took operational battlefield control. In 1993, an international peace agreement replaced the French with UN peacekeepers, to monitor creation of a power-sharing democracy.

    For years, the French government denied any part in the genocide. Its own parliamentary enquiry in 1997, calling the genocide one of the greatest tragedies of the century, admitted only that France had underestimated the threat...

    By 1994, the Rwandan army had become a "military protégé" of France. Before the genocide, 47 high-ranking French army and gendarmerie officers were with the Rwanda military. French officers were attached to the élite battalions, the Presidential Guard, the para-commandos and the reconnaissance battalion.

  4. #44
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Ancien

    Indeed the problems go way back before the 1990s. The continent as a whole has yet to recover from colonialism and often the lack of recovery was a self-inflicted failure, one often extended i the parameters of the Cold War.

    Ryan

    Ask them if they know me. If they do not ask 'em if they know Frank Rusgara, Charles Muheri, and Karake Karenzi (all my old contact circle).

    Best

    Tom

  5. #45
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    The problem today is that a lot of people are pointing fingers in the direction of the criminal minds behind it whatever there side may be. Up ontil 94 nobody wrote a book on the case that the frensh where training the FAR for the cenario of a genocide. Personelly I don't believe that. The issue of training committed by frensh and belgian lies in the untherstanding that rwanda was a state and not some rebelgroup. The case that the frensh trained direct or indirect the militia lies to the fact that it was not to commit genocide, but to create a extra force to the FAR, mostly in a rear position while the FAR was fighting the FPR. Taken in account that the FAR was a army not whordy the name, army. Its difficult to make the assumption that sush a gang could plan a orchistrated genocide.

    As always, the concorer writes the history.
    Biggest problem today is that Rwanda is far from any reconciliation attemt so problems in the future wil occure.

    grtz

  6. #46
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default Among those blacklisted

    ...Majority of the rebel members are largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide.

    Rwanda: U.S. Backs Call for Sanctions On FDLR

    The United States has pledged support to efforts by regional governments to secure UN Security Council sanctions against the ex-FAR/ Interahamwe militias who are now grouped under the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

    US President George Bush signed an executive order imposing sanctions on seven rebel leaders involved in the conflict in the DRC.

    Others blacklisted are Congolese rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda, Khawa Panga Mandro, Viktor Anatolijevitch Bout, Sanjivan Singh Ruprah, Dimitri, Igorevich Popov and Douglas Mpano.

  7. #47
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    The issue of the FDLR is well documented as wel as all the other so called rebel groups that are actife in the DRC. The DRC is a ideale climate for suche organisations. It has the legal status of a state but it has no managmentplatform. So, there is a big gap that gets filled in by missionary and NGO's who provide a more constructive effort. On the other hand you find all sorts of rebelgroups who try to fill in the gap of nongoverment, by endorsing there ruling over the area that they controle.

    Back on topic. From a more personal point of view. If the nations that where involved in the Rwanda peace process did not stick there noses in the wind when it got from bad to disaster, the problem could be contained to minimum civilian casualties and perhaps a peace was still possible.

    grtz

  8. #48
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    Default Rwanda SAM story

    The story concerning the assasination on president Habyarimana reflects on the recuperation of SAM tubes from Masaka. The event shows they where send to Zaire.
    Conclusions:
    According to UN files surten people where aprehended by UN and handed over to the FAR.
    If the attackers got away, why leave the tubes to be find?
    Are the tubes from the SAM's accualy the weapons that where used?
    If the FPR was behind the attack, they where not captured, so why leave the tubes?
    If the FAR was behind the attack, why do they come out with the missiles?

    note: They came up with the tubes 3weeks after the attack.

  9. #49
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    Exclamation Big ????

    Hi!
    I was impressed by your story. However, you have to ask somebody who was involved in the event (?!!!!???).
    No comment! If that, I will be ......I know much more about the event, but.........Big brother
    Regards,
    George

  10. #50
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    sorry, I did not now that it was a sensitive issue

    grtz

  11. #51
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default curbing genocide ideology in schools

    The New Times (Kigali) EDITORIAL

    Rwanda: Use All Diplomatic Means to Curb Genocide Ideology

    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.

  12. #52
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default Rwanda: French Author in Court for His Book

    Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne), 4 January 2008 (Media for Peace and Human Dignity)

    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.
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  13. #53
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default List of 6,945 suspects in DR Congo; Genocidaires or not?

    Rwanda: 6900 Genocide Suspects in Congo, More to Come - Says Government

    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.

    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.
    Last edited by Stan; 01-14-2008 at 11:05 AM. Reason: Added website for current list
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  14. #54
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default Genocide Witnesses and their defense

    France stops genocide transfer

    '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


    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

    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'.
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  15. #55
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    This is interesting:

    BLAIR APPOINTED AS CONSULTANT TO PRESIDENT KAGAME, MISNA, 21 January, 2008:

    Former British prime minister Tony Blair shall soon start consulting for the government of Rwanda said Kigali’s ‘The New Times’ quoting a politician close to president Paul Kagame: “Everything started during a meeting between Kagame and Blair, then I discussed the situation of our country with the former British premier” said David Himbara, head of the Office for the Presidency and Political Strategy.
    There are only a couple more lines at the link and they only add a little, basically saying that Blair will be confirmed in the appointment when he visits Kigali next month. I wonder what this means for the situation in the Great Lakes and Great Rift Valley regions? Is this just more of a formalization of existing ties, or a prelude to something more ambitious?

  16. #56
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norfolk View Post
    This is interesting:

    BLAIR APPOINTED AS CONSULTANT TO PRESIDENT KAGAME, MISNA, 21 January, 2008:



    There are only a couple more lines at the link and they only add a little, basically saying that Blair will be confirmed in the appointment when he visits Kigali next month. I wonder what this means for the situation in the Great Lakes and Great Rift Valley regions? Is this just more of a formalization of existing ties, or a prelude to something more ambitious?
    Just saw this...

    I started laughing immediately just cause I know how French hardliners will react. They will of course see it as absolute proof that 1990 til now has all been an Anglophone plot to "steal" Africa...

    As for the meat of this agreement, I suspect it is meant as a counter to French influence against Rwanda in European circles.

  17. #57
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Well, the French certainly didn't wait long to get in on the act...better late than never, eh ?

    APA-Kigali (Rwanda) French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will be in Kigali over the weekend for bilateral discussions aimed at normalizing relations between the two states...

    Murigande declined to give details of the key issues to be discussed.

    \"I cannot go any further in commenting on that issue. For details you will have to wait until the right time,\" he said.

    On Wednesday, Paris announced that Kouchner would visit Rwanda in a bid to normalize ties that were strained after the 1994 genocide and broken in 2006.
    And then there's this slight detail to be ironed out...

    Rwanda: French Army And Genocide - Documents That Remains Secret to This Day

    RNA can exclusively reveal that it has gotten hold of secret French Ministry of Defence memorandum that the French Parliamentary Mission of Information for Rwanda, in charge of examining French policy on Rwanda from 1990 to 1994, did not deem worth making public.

    RNA correspondent in France Mr. Serge Farnel, who acquired the two documents, says they show that the French military and political establishment ensured the media was kept in the dark, and knew that the massacres targeting Tutsis were bound to take place anyway.

    One document states the concern of the Army of not showing the media French soldiers avoiding any intervention to stop the mass slaughter to which they are close witnesses. The other document shows evidence that the French Army knew, as early as April 8 1994, that these massacres in Kigali were targeting the Tutsis.
    more at the links
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  18. #58
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    Default A Spanish judge has indicted 40 current or former Rwandan military officers

    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

  19. #59
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Default After my time but some thoughts

    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

  20. #60
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    The situation after the genocide toward the invasion of the old Zaire is not very complex and probebly predictable at that time. There was a security problem in Rwanda by the escaped FAR/militias and because the RPA went a few times after them in Zaire, they experienced minimum countering by the FAZ. So one thing led to the other.....

    For all you gents who have a intrest, I would recommend this (french).
    The author has no political idee in this, but it gives a very good discription on wat was going on right after the invasion by Kabila.

    regards

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