Mugume

UPDF officer tortured by his boss
Gerald Bareebe, Dily Monitor, Uganda

Kampala

“He hit me and broke my arm. He hit my head with an iron bar and burnt my buttocks using a red hot metal,” Mr Bosco Mubangizi, a 38-year-old private with the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) narrated the harrowing details of how he was tortured by one of his superiors.

Mr Mubangizi, attached to the Chieftaincy of Rehabilitation Centre in Mubende District, Central Uganda said that he was tortured on December 11, 2006 by Capt. Asaba, a Regimental Police (RP) Commander based in Mubende Barracks.

This comes barely three weeks after the Human Rights Watch accused the Ugandan Army of torturing suspects during interrogation.

To add to his misery, Mr Mubangizi – a married father of three has been ordered by the army to go back to Mubende and serve under the same man who tortured him.

“I am now a lame man, I can’t work to help my wife or my children. They are telling me to go back and serve under the same man who almost killed me. Now that he knows that I reported him, he will kill me if I go back,” a tearful Mubangizi said.

An internal investigation by the army, which was sparked off by a Uganda Human Rights Commission inquiry, confirmed that the Mubangizi, RA141781, was indeed tortured.

After learning about the incident, the UPDF Medical Board recommended in a December 5, 2008 sitting at the then army headquarters in Bombo that the victim be compensated to the tune of 25 per cent of his annual salary. A private in the UPDF earns Shs200,000 monthly. Mubangizi said he is yet to receive the money.

How he was tortured
The torture he was subjected to, according to Mr Mubangizi, happened on the very day he returned from a one-month leave. At the Mubende barracks quarter guard, he met the RP commander who asked him for ‘a manual target’. When he said that he did not understand the instruction, Capt. Asaba allegedly started beating him.

Mr Mubangizi says he did not know the meaning of a ‘manual target’ because the term – a reference to an Identification Card – was introduced in the barracks while he was on leave. But Capt. Asaba would have none of his plea.
A scar from Torture.

Mr Mubangizi says the next day; he was arrested and locked up in the barracks’ prison – where he spent nearly two months. He was only released on January 28, 2009 after the officers in charge of the prison saw that his body had started rotting.
With his body still wasting away, Mr Mubangizi says he met a Good Samaritan who carried him and dumped him at the regional offices of Uganda Human Rights Commission at Kibuye, a Kampala suburb where Ms Ida Nakiganda, the officer in charge rushed him to Kadic Hospital in Bukoto for treatment.

Dr Henry Kasozi, the Medical Director of Kadic Hospital, who examined Mr Mubangizi’s four month-old ulna fracture, says in an April 14, 2008 report that the fracture damaged his patient’s elbow, which now limits the free movement of his hand.

Army Responds
The UPDF Joint Chief of Staff, Brig. Robert Rusoke who could not explain why the army had not compensated the victim to-date, told Saturday Monitor on Tuesday that he will raise Mr Mubangizi’s case with the relevant authorities within UPDF.

Army spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye admitted that there are cases of torture amongst UPDF soldiers but added that the army has clearly set out punitive measures for soldiers who are found guilty of torturing others.
“We are going to investigate whoever did it and he should be punished. How can we allow torture when we even abolished corporal punishment within UPDF?”
Maj. Kulayigye added that Mr Mubangizi should be compensated as per the recommendations of the UPDF medical board. “If the medical board recommended that he be compensated, that is not debatable,” he said.

Hermaphrodite becomes boy

CHARLES Tabu, the 16-year-old who was born with two sexual organs, has been operated upon and turned into a boy.

Medics at the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services in Uganda (CoRSU) hospital in Kawuku on Entebbe Road removed Tabu’s breast, uterus and the female organ.

CoRSU administration director Matthias Widmaier-Maicher said last week’s operation was the first of the three that Tabu is to undergo to be fully turned into a male.

“He will undergo the second operation after six weeks and the date when the third operation would take place will be determined then,” he stated.

The hospital carries out plastic surgery on persons with disability.
Widmaier-Maicher said they would compute the cost later “but right now we are giving him treatment without any payment.” He said the boy was traumatised by his condition and needed counseling.

Tabu’s condition was highlighted in Bukedde a couple of months ago. Sources said it was less complicated to turn him into a male than into a female.

Girl aged 12 gives birth

A GIRL aged 12 was being helped by social services staff yesterday after giving birth to a boy.

The mum — barely out of primary school — became pregnant following a one night stand with an older lad.

The pair were not in a relationship. The mum is white, from a broken home and lives in a deprived part of the South West. She was taken to hospital suffering stomach pains and feeling “under the weather”. She did not realise she was expecting.

A family friend said: “It was a shock.

“She had been feeling unwell for a while, fainting. We took her to hospital for tests, and she gave birth. The staff hadn’t even noticed she was pregnant. We were all furious at the nurses for failing to spot it.

“Luckily she is doing well, and so is the baby boy. We do know the father of the baby, and his family. They can’t help what their son did and we don’t blame his parents. I don’t think they’re a couple now, it was just a one off thing.

“It’s something they’re going to have to live with. Social Services will help, but they also need money too.” Family groups said it was another sign of Broken Britain. A spokesperson for the relationships charity Life said: “In Britain today we have children giving birth to children, it is sad.

“We need to empower young people to make wise choices about sex that leads to long term happiness.”

Britain’s youngest mum gave birth two months shy of her 12th birthday in 1996 near Edinburgh. Her boyfriend was charged with having sex with a minor.

The UK has the world’s highest pregnancy rate in under-16s apart from the US.

Adopted from The Sun

Wives of policemen sexually starved
Thursday, 23rd April, 2009

MPs on the parliamentary committee probing Police conduct, promotion, training and welfare during a tour of Naguru Barracks yesterday

By Madinah Tebajjukira, Newvision, Uganda

SOME wives of Police officers at Naguru barracks yesterday complained to parliamentarians that they are sexually starved due to accommodation congestion.

The wives, who preferred anonymity, said they cannot make love in the presence of their children with whom they share single-roomed houses, commonly called ‘maama ingiya pole,/i>’.

An angry mother of four explained that she and her husband only have sex during the school holidays, when the children have gone to the village.

“Honourable members, you are all parents. But in situations like this, how do you make love when the children are almost under your bed?” she asked in Luganda.
“I am sexually starved. I am a human being like any other person, and I am not certain about the future of my marriage.”

The revelations came during a tour by MPs on the special parliamentary committee probing Police conduct, promotion, training and welfare.

The complaints about deprivation of sex were mainly raised in Naguru barracks, which has a population of over 15,000. During the impromptu tour, the MPs discovered that Naguru had some of the most congested and dilapidated barracks in the city.

Another housewife in her early 30s said she is in a marriage where she does not enjoy her conjugal rights. She told the MPs that she can only engage in sex with her husband quietly in order not to awaken the children.

“After failing to find a solution to the poor accommodation in the barracks for years, we resorted to performing sex very quietly, which makes it boring. How can you enjoy a meal when none of you is saying a word?” she asked.

Guided by Sgt Twinomujuni Odomaro, the MPs discovered that four constables share a unipot and sleep on mats without any mattress.

One of the constables told the MPs that when they want to make love with their girlfriends, they negotiate amongst themselves and allocate time to each other. Some constables who got married resorted to constructing their own mud-and-wattle houses in order to have privacy, he added.

The MPs found one constable in the barracks building his own house while two others were digging a pit-latrine.

“I am tired of sharing the kibati (unipot). I want to marry but I can’t marry in a shared unipot,” James Ekeram, a probation constable, told the MPs.

The MPs also found two families sharing one room which they had demarcated with curtains.
“Originally, there were three families here, but one family has relocated to a new hut they constructed,” Odomaro said.

Some houses in Naguru were so rundown that the roofs, made of iron sheets, were partly gone.

Odomaro explained that new unipots had been set up at the barracks to cater for the new constables who had completed the training in 2007 but they were not enough.

In Ntinda barracks, the next stop on the MPs’ tour, Police constables were found housed in a structure with walls made of iron sheets.

Corporal William Tumutungu, who has served in the force for 22 years, said it was impossible for the Government to fight corruption in the Police without improving their remuneration and welfare.

At Nsambya barracks, home to about 10,000 people, the MPs found the Police dogs better accommodated than the staff. The compound at the dog’s wing was partly tarmacked and partly covered with well-kept grass. The houses for the constables, in contrast, had sewage flowing and were packed one-roomed hovels.

The MPs received a hostile reception from the constables present, who accused them of criticising them while not doing anything to improve their plight.

“You are just looking at the way we handle you during arrests. But when you don’t feed your dog, what do you expect it to do?” one of them, Bosco Winyi, asked.

Another policeman heckled the visitors, saying their monthly salary was just enough to pay for the MPs’ breakfast. They complained that Parliament had not increased the Police budget to cater for new houses. Police constables, corporals and sergeants are paid between sh154,000 to sh200,000 a month.

After the tour, the MPs promised that they would highlight the problem of accommodation in their report to Parliament. Some were so shocked that they suggested seeking audience with President Museveni over the matter.

“We discovered two families in one room, one with four children and the other with nine children. This is serious and something urgent has to be done,” Peter Nyombi, the committee’s chairperson, told journalists.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said while the force gives priority to accommodation, it faces constraints of inadequate funding.

The number of Police officers in the country doubled in the last three years to handle the growing number of cases, from 18,000 to 37,000.

Capital expenditure for the Police force, however, has stagnated.

Britain is now a haven for Genocide suspects

Kigali: Last week, on the day the world marked the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Britain officially became a safe haven for suspected mass murderers. This is the incomprehensible and inhumane message two senior judges have given the grieving survivors of the Rwandan genocide by freeing four genocide suspects Rwanda wanted to put on trial – effectively saying that alleged Rwandan mass murderers are welcome to live in Britain.

I know for sure that several Rwandan killers are hiding in this country. After the release of the four, they must be rubbing their hands in glee, assured of immunity from prosecution.

In their landmark High Court ruling, the judges decided the four Rwandans, two of whom had been living here under false identities until exposed by The Sunday Times, cannot be deported to Rwanda to be put on trial for mass murder.

They did not dispute the quality or quantity of prosecution evidence that they had committed heinous crimes in their country, for which they should be punished. But they said there was a “real risk” the four would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. This would not matter if we could try them instead in our domestic courts, as Belgium, Switzerland and Canada have given themselves the legal power to do. But we can’t.

Britain approved the relevant genocide legislation far too late in the day, only in the early part of the new millennium. It was not made retroactive to 1994. So Rwandan genocide suspects can now go scot-free and British law has shown itself incapable of responding to one of the most monstrous crimes in recent history.

To cap it all, this shocking development happened on the very day genocide survivors were commemorating the start of the slaughter in which 800,000 people were hacked to death in the space of 100 days.

What a welcome signal we have given to these men. What a cruel blow for the traumatised relatives of the victims.

A blow too for all those from the Crown Prosecution Service, British diplomats at the embassy in Rwanda and Rwandan officials themselves who, over the past three years, invested an immense amount of time, energy, money and commitment to get Rwandan justice in line with British expectations for a fair trial for the four.

There is much Rwanda’s justice system can be criticised for. But these officials are convinced it did everything it could with its limited resources to prepare for a fair trial. So much so that the authorities there faced criticism for setting up a two-tier trial system for major genocide suspects; one for the four they were expecting to be sent back from Britain – entitled to representation by foreign lawyers and good detention facilities – and another for the rest.

How this legal farce was allowed to happen defies belief. This weekend, the four released men will be back with their families, perhaps living on benefits. They may sue for compensation. One is already a British citizen. The others will no doubt apply. They are here for good now, seemingly untouchable even though at least two of them violated every sort of immigration law to sneak into the country.

Survivors are sickened by the outcome. In 1994, Drocelle Kantetere’s parents and six siblings were massacred. She had long accused one of the four men, Charles Munyaneza, 50, a former Rwandan government official, of orchestrating their deaths and the murder of thousands of other civilians. Unknown to her, Munyaneza came to Britain in 1999, using a false name. In 2002 the Home Office approved his refugee status and granted him unlimited leave to stay.

In 2006 he was found by The Sunday Times, in Bedford, working as a cleaner. Another of the four to be freed last week, a former Rwandan mayor Emmanuel Nteziryayo, 55, also found by The Sunday Times, has been accused in Rwanda of complicity in the murder of more than 87,000 people.

Kantetere, 39, was looking forward to Munyaneza’s trial. She hoped Britain would offset some of the very negative decisions of the United Nations war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, which is due to close at the end of this year with its work incomplete.

Munyaneza’s new-found freedom has struck her like a dagger to the heart. “Munyaneza is the one who has everything now, but I have no one left in my family. I accuse Munyaneza of forcing me to be so alone, to try and get by in a world I find empty of meaning,” she said when he was discovered hiding in Britain.

Sorrowful words. And even more sorrowful now she realises her murdered loved ones are never going to have justice and British judges have instituted impunity for the crime of genocide in Rwanda.

Rwanda News Agency

A visit to our dead in Uganda

L-R: A monument in Ggoolo, Mpigi District erected in memory of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Namirembe landing site where some of the bodies of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were recoverd.
BY IGNATIUS SSUUNA
Reports have been rife that remains of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi buried in Uganda are being disinterred for witchcraft purposes. IGNATIUS SSUUNA visited the sites and writes.

Silence welcomes you as you open the gate at Ggoolo, one of the sites at which thousands of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi are buried in Uganda. It’s so quiet you can’t even hear birds chirping.

At the height of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, tens of thousands of victims were thrown into River Nyabarongo, a tributary of Lake Victoria. Their bodies were washed away down the river and ended up in Uganda and probably beyond.

The bodies were later buried at six different sites in Uganda. The sites include Ggoolo, in Mpigi District, Labu, Namirembe, Malembu and Kasensero, all in Makasa District.

At the entrance of Ggoolo sits Clinton Okoye, the overseer of this site. There are five mass graves here and home to 955 remains.

The burial site here is well maintained. This land (3 acres) was donated by Muhammad Taban- owner of Big Ways Investment Limited. Taban employed Clinton Okoye to take care of the site.

“Taban is a generous man,” Okoye begins. Okoye says he was scared at first because he didn’t know why these people had been killed. But after reading about the genocide, he accepted the job. Nobody can enter here without permission. A guard’s house is being built near the site.

“I am not paid well. I only earn Shs 25,000 a month. But I am not complaining too much,” Okoye says.

Okoye explains one of the reasons why he is paid to guard the site is to make sure that the remains are kept intact. He says some people in Uganda still believe in witchcraft because they think they can become rich overnight by using human bones in exchange for blessings from witchdoctors.

“Everything here is cemented. Even if I don’t sleep at the site, nobody can exhume the bodies,” Okoye says. There are headstones at the mass graves on which words ‘victims of the Rwanda conflict’ are engraved.

“This was an error and we shall soon rectify it,” Okoye sombrely says.

Taban plans to improve the Ggoolo site to the level of Gisozi memorial site in Rwanda. “The government of Rwanda has already recognised our contribution. We are not demanding money from Rwanda.”

Lambu

There are nine graves here and the site houses 1718 bodies. However, the irony here is that though Ugandans living at the shores of Lake Victoria did a noble job of burying the dead during the Genocide, authorities in Kampala have reportedly refused Rwanda to exhume the bodies and accord them decent burial. As a result, the remains are in the bushes. Some graves are defaced and inaccessible.

At Lambu, a visitor can hardly tell whether mass graves do exist.

My guide John Lubowa, a resident of the area says nobody in the neighbourhood is paid to maintain the graves.

“Sometimes, residents who clear the bushes covering the graves need money. Nothing can be done without money,” says Lubowa. There are also signs that cows graze atop the graves.

Other sites

Remains of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at Namirembe, Dimo and Malembo were supposed to have been transferred to Lambu last year.

The Rwandan embassy in Uganda built two mass graves at Lambu but Uganda blocked the move to transfer the remains.

At Kasensero landing site, 2827 bodies are buried there.

The Rwandan embassy here plans to cement the mass graves in Kasensero soon. Dimo is home to 2149 bodies while Malembo houses 1669 bones. Residents talked to say since the graves are not cemented and are in the bushes, the remains are not safe.

“Remains of human beings not kept well can be abused. It is very common here,” Linda Nalukwago, a resident of Lwalaaro in Mpigi District said.

A report compiled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Unity, Human Rights and the fight against Genocide recently visited Uganda to assess the situation of the remains buried there.

After the visit, lawmakers expressed concern over the reluctance by relevant organs to rebury the remains. They recommended the remains be accorded decent burial as a matter of urgency.

Ambassador speaks out

Rwanda’s ambassador to Ugandan Ignatius Kamali recently met officials from the Ugandan Foreign Affairs Ministry to discuss the possibility of exhuming the bodies from the bushes.

“We are still trying to convince Ugandan officials but we have not yet succeeded. They are giving three reasons why we should not exhume the dead,” Kamali reveals.

One reason why the bodies should not be exhumed is that they could cause health problems to the people living in the area.

The Ugandan government says it needs to get clearance from the Ministry of Health before Rwanda is allowed to exhume the bodies. But a source from the Ministry of Health in Uganda says this is not the first time bodies are to be exhumed.

“Many bodies get exhumed. Some bodies of those died in the bush war in Luwero have been exhumed,” says the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ugandan leaders also asked Rwanda to give them time to establish the owner of the land on which the bodies will be buried. “They say the issue concerning land in Uganda is sensitive. When we met leaders here, they raised this issue,” Kamali said.

Ugandan leaders are of the view that the graves be cemented in their respective locations.

There is also argument that exhuming the remains is against the Ugandan culture. Let’s hope that soon a consensus will be reached to give our dear departed a decent burial.
Adopted from The Newtimes, Rwanda, www.newtimes.co.rw

Ends

Obasanjo, Mkapa pay tribute to Rwandans

BY EDMUND KAGIRE, Newtimes, Rwanda
Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania on Tuesday paid a courtesy call on President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro to show their support to Rwandans in commemorating the 1994 Genocide.

“We always touch base with President Paul Kagame to discuss several issues facing the region but on this particular occasion we are here to join Rwandans and show our support. This is a special day for Rwanda” Obasanjo told Journalists after the short visit.

The former leaders also said that this particular time that has left a dark spot in Rwanda’s History should not only be for Rwandans to remember or Africa but the whole world and the human race.

The two Statesmen have also been actively involved together with Rwanda to resolve the conflict in Eastern Democratic of Congo (DRC) where remnants of the Ex-FAR/Interahamwe who carried out the atrocities in 1994, now known as the Democrtaic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) are camped.

President Yoweri Museveni with his renown critic Justice George Kanyeihamba during the opening of the East Africa Law Society conference and annual general meeting in 2006.
Justice Kanyeihamba questions Museveni’s vision on patriotism
By Isaac Imaka

Kampala

Justice Prof. G.W.Kanyeihamba—Justice of the Supreme Court on Tuesday blasted President Yoweri Museveni on patriotism saying that the president is preaching a virtue, whose meaning he does not fully understand.

Kanyeihamba also accused the president of looking for people’s devotion to the person of the president instead of the nation.

“Patriotism is a devotion and love for one’s country and not allegiance to an individual. If someone is going everywhere preaching patriotism; patriotism for whom if he tells MPs to place their parties before the nation,” Kanyeihamba said during a public lecture at Makerere University on constitutional amendments in Uganda’s constitution.

The President is on nationwide education drive trying to teach Ugandans how to practice patriotism in a hope that this might curtail the increasing cases of corruption and bad governance.

Prof. Kanyeihamba said that while addressing Members of Parliament sometime ago, he advised them to put the state first, their constituency next and lastly the party to which they are affiliated to, an argument that the president did not buy.

“President Museveni strongly opposed my argument and he convened another meeting and told the MPs that they should place their party as the first priority and not the country,” Kanyeihamba said.

He also noted that Uganda has never been well governed, and accused the present leadership and MPs of poor leadership, bad governance, and ignoring the rule of law, something that has exacerbated corruption and underdevelopment in the country.

“The leadership and the mode of governance of today not only haunt Uganda but it is very bad. The current leadership and rulers appear more comfortable and wallowing in the same evils of the past. They look at how to accumulate wealth for themselves other than the nation,” he said

He added: “MPs who are supposed to champion the rule of democracy have instead hesitated to fight bad governance and are indulging in aggravated corruption.”

He added: “MPs who are supposed to champion the rule of democracy have instead hesitated to fight bad governance and are indulging in aggravated corruption.”

The government of Uganda has for long been trying to fight bad governance and corruption in the country but the fight has always hit a dead end because of the unscrupulous legislators who instated of fighting corruption indulge in the act.

The Professor said that although the president is trying to teach patriotism to fight corruption and bad governance, the country already has laws to fight corruption and bad governance and it only lacks good will from those who indulge in dubious activities and at the same time try to show the people that they care yet they do not.

“Corruption and bad governance has not only become a danger to society but they have been accepted as a way of life,” he said.

“What Uganda lacks to fight corruption and bad governance is not patriotism, a new law, or a court, but the political will from the people concerned.”

Full version of a paper he presented at Makerere University on April 7.

Related articles
Justice Kanyeihamba questions Museveni’s vision on patriotism

Women must take control over their sexual rights
Rose Gawaya

I would like to reflect on an article that appeared in a local tabloid a few weeks ago, alleging that Education Minister Namirembe Bitamazire’s marriage had hit the rocks. And I am putting this far more decently than it was reported.

The gist of the story was that the minister had caught wind of her husband’s infidelity and cut their sexual ties, something which broke up the marriage. The Minister’s fear of Aids was more than just hinted upon in the story. My problem, however, is that the story was twisted in a way that takes the focus off the problem – the relationship between gender, HIV/Aids and culture generally; and specifically power relations in marriage and unfaithfulness as the most important conduit of Aids.

The story was instead and unfortunately a catalogue of unhealthy and unholy insinuations about their sex life. In between the lines are very uncharitable innuendos about an otherwise honourable senior citizen, indicating that she should have stayed and faced the music.

Little mention is made of the dangers she faced in such a relationship – the emotional torture that women suffer when their spouses are unfaithful, the disillusionment at the broken promises and the reality that Aids could have been shipped into the marital bed – hardly a fitting reward for a woman who has been stable, faithful and true over many years of marriage.

We may never know what actually happened, but if we are to limit ourselves to what is in the public domain, then we have a huge problem on our hands. We are in a society that expected the minister to literally die in silence. If it is true that Minister Bitamazire ended her marriage due to the fear of HIV infection, then she ought to have been applauded by women – and the media.

Having multiple sexual partners is one of the leading causes of HIV infection. Marriage --for long one of the bastions against HIV infection-- is now reported to have lost that immunity, one of the reasons the HIV prevalence rate is now threatening to hit double figures.

Gender inequality and unequal power relations between women and men are drivers of the HIV/Aids epidemic. Women are more infected and affected by HIV and Aids than men. While it seems okay for men to philander around, it is unthinkable if women return this favour. Women are expected to be submissive in bed even when in grave danger. And in most cases, women have no choice in the matter because they lack financial independence.

Evidence suggests that gender norms strongly influence sexual behaviours and HIV risk (UNAIDS, 2008). In addition, there are reports that HIV infection is high among married women. In Asia and the Pacific, for example, there is evidence to suggest that women’s vulnerability to HIV, most of whom are married or in monogamous relations, stems from severe gender inequality prevailing in the region (UNDP, 2008).

Applying a rights based approach to HIV prevention and mitigation, cannot be realised by governments if women do not exercise their rights to take control over their sexuality. All human beings have the right to control their sexual and reproductive rights. They make personal decisions regarding when, how and with whom they have sex.

Sexual rights refers to human rights associated with physical and mental integrity, including the right to safe sex, the right to choose an intimate or life partner and the right to sexual information and services. Unfortunately, women’s ability to take control over their sexual and reproductive rights is hindered by negative cultural attitudes and beliefs, poverty, limited access to information about sexual health information and services, conflict and other factors.

Women constitute the majority of those infected and affected by HIV and Aids and lack of control over their sexual and reproductive rights is one of the major drivers of the HIV/Aids epidemic.

Lastly, the media should play a more meaningful role by challenging the negative stereotypes about women.

rosegawaya@yahoo.com

FROM, Daily Monitor, Uganda

U.S. says it failed to stop Rwanda Genocide
By Chistian
Wednesday, 08 April 2009
New York: The United States ambassador to the U.N., during a emotional ceremony here marking the 1994 Rwandan genocide, said that the U.S. government had failed to prevent the mass killings that began 15 years ago on Tuesday.

"Rwanda did not suffer from 'ancient hatreds' between Hutu killers and Tutsi victims," Ambassador Susan Rice said. "It suffered from modern demagogues, from ... those who were willing to kill in the warped name of ethnic difference, from those who saw division and death as a path to power."

Ms. Rice added, "it suffered from an international community, international institutions, and individual governments -- including my own -- that failed to act in the face of a vast, unfolding evil."

On the night of April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down as it was landing at the airport of Rwanda's capital, Kigali. As the U.N.'s war crimes tribunal on Rwanda later established, militia for the majority Hutu ethnic group the next day put into motion a detailed plan to exterminate the minority Tutsis.

The U.N. says as many as 800,000 Tutsis, along with some moderate Hutus, were slaughtered in just three months with guns and machetes. On the National Security Council at the White House at the time of the genocide, Ms. Rice's position was director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping. In 1997, she got a brief on Africa at State as assistant secretary for African Affairs. She said she visited Rwanda in December 1994, six months after the genocide ended.

"I'll never forget the horror of walking through a churchyard and schoolyard where one of the massacres had occurred. ... The decomposing bodies of those who had been so cruelly murdered still lay strewn around what should have been a place of peace," Ms. Rice said.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton traveled to Rwanda and apologized for Washington's failure to act. Analysts say that after the U.S. military humiliation in Somalia in 1992, the Clinton administration was hesitant to intervene again in an African conflict.

In Rwanda on Tuesday, Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused the international communityfor failing to stop the killings of being "cowards" who "abandoned" the Rwandan people.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon declined to comment on Mr. Kagame's charge. But he told reporters, "I express my resolve as secretary-general to do all in my power to not repeat this kind of human tragedy." Ms. Rice said that the world "must develop a collective will to respond when tragedies occur and we must work together to prevent conflict before an ember becomes a blaze."

Why the US didn't intervene

The Clinton administration and Congress watched the unfolding events in Rwanda in April 1994 in a kind of stupefied horror.

The US had just pulled American troops out of a disastrous peacekeeping mission in Somalia – later made famous in the book "Black Hawk Down" – the year before. It had vowed never to return to a conflict it couldn't understand, between clans and tribes it didn't know, in a country where the US had no national interests.

From embassies and hotels in Kigali, diplomats and humanitarian workers gave daily tolls of the dead, mainly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus who had called for tribal peace. The information came in real time, and many experts say that the US and the Western world in general failed to respond.

'We knew before, during, and after'

"During World War II, much of the full horror of the Holocaust was known after the fact. But in Rwanda, we knew before, during, and after," says Ted Dagne, a researcher at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, who has traveled to Rwanda on fact-finding missions. "We knew, but we didn't want to respond."

In an official letter written as late as June 19, 1994, the then-UN-Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali showed exasperation at the numbers of peacekeepers that member nations were willing to provide.

"It is evident that, with the failure of member states to promptly provide the resources necessary for the implementation of its expanded mandate, UNAMIR (the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda) may not be in a position, for about three months, to fully undertake the tasks entrusted to it," Mr. Boutros-Ghali wrote. Within a month of the writing of this letter, the genocide ended, as Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front took full effective control of Rwanda.

US support for a rapid-action force

Mr. Dagne, a Congressional aide at the time, says that if the Clinton administration had called for a rapid-action force to stop the killings in Rwanda, Congress would have supported him. Letters from bipartisan panels of Congress back this up.

"We are writing to express our strong support for an active United States role in helping to resolve the crisis in Rwanda," wrote Rep. Bob Torricelli (D) of New Jersey, in a letter of April 20, 1994, signed by Republicans and Democrats alike. "Given the fact that approximately 20,000 people have died thus far in the tragic conflict, it is important that the United States endeavor to end the bloodshed and to bring the parties to the negotiating table."

But time and again in that spring and summer, President Clinton replied with more pleas for the government and the rebels to stop the violence themselves, and suggested that the underarmed, overstretched UN peacekeeping mission on the ground was the right group to lead the way.

"On April 22 ... the White House issued a strong public statement calling for the Rwandan Army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front to do everything in their power to end the violence immediately," President Clinton wrote on May 25, 1994, to Rep. Harry Johnston (D) of Florida. "This followed an earlier statement by me calling for a cease-fire and the cessation of the killings."

With Congress looking toward the president, and the White House looking toward the UN, nothing was done, and the genocide ran its course.

"At the end of an administration, they write a report, and Rwanda was at the top of the failures list for the Clinton administration, so this is something that they acknowledge themselves," says Dagne.

If there is a lesson learned from Rwanda, Dagne says, it is that the international community needs to avoid giving the impression that it is willing or capable of rescuing civilians in a conflict. "It's important to build the capacity of people to do the job themselves [of protecting themselves]," Dagne says. "We must not give the expectation that people will be saved."

Adapted from the Christian Science Monitor online magazine

Kagame blasts UN over genocide
Tuesday, 7th April, 2009

By Raymond Baguma and Agencies, New Vision

PRESIDENT Paul Kagame of Rwanda has slammed the cowardice of the international community that “abandoned” his people during the 1994 genocide.

Commemorating 15 years after the genocide, Kagame addressed nearly 20,000 people gathered at the Nyanza site in Kigali, a scene where some 5,000 people were slaughtered.

The massacre came four days after a deadly attack on Belgian UN peacekeepers that led the troops to withdraw – which Kagame said made the outside world “guilty”.

“We are not like those who abandoned people they had come to protect. They left them to be murdered. Aren’t they guilty?” Kagame said of those who commanded the UN presence.

“I think it is also cowardice. They left even before any shot was fired. We are not cowards. They (the international community) are part of that history and the root causes of the genocide,” Kagame added.

President Yoweri Museveni in a message hailed Rwanda for rising above the tragedy and focusing on reconciliation and development. Uganda, he said, would continue to stand with Rwanda. He said the genocide was one of the most unfortunate episodes in the history of mankind.

Kagame placed a wreath at the hill site in Nyanza and lit a torch in memory of the one million victims, mainly minority Tutsi and moderate Hutu, killed across the small central African country by extremist Hutu militia during the 100-day slaughter.

Kagame also led a symbolic burial of a victim’s remains as children sung songs of hope.

“As we remember, life must go on. We must continue to build a better future,” said Kagame. He said Rwanda had made “significant and tremendous progress”.

“Our future, no one can decide it for us,” he added.

It was Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front rebel group, backed by Uganda, which ended the genocide after it took over power.

Rwandans living in Uganda converged at Ggolo in Mpigi district in honour of the dead.

Often, the victims’ bodies were dumped in rivers Kagera and Nyabarongo, which flow into Lake Victoria in Uganda. The bodies ended up on lake shores in Rakai, Masaka and Mpigi districts. Locals retrieved and buried them in six mass graves at Namirembe, Malembo, Dimo, Lambu, Kasensero and Ggolo in Mpigi.

The graveyard in Ggolo was offered by local entrepreneur Thoban Mahmood of Four-ways Group of Companies. A monument with chambers to enable viewing of the remains is to be built.

State minister for foreign affairs Henry Okello Oryem presided over the Ggolo service. Diplomats from Norway, France, Cuba, Belgium and Tanzania attended.

Oryem said the burial sites will provide an eternal shared history for the two countries and determination to ensure that genocide never happens in the region again.

Ignatius Kamali Karegesa, Rwanda’s ambassador to Uganda, said the remains in Namirembe, Malembo and Dimo will be exhumed and reburied in Lambu, Kasensero and Ggolo beginning next week. This will reduce the burial sites in Uganda to three from six.

Karegesa honoured Godfrey Kasumba and George William Wasswa, residents of Ggolo who helped retrieve rotten bodies from the lake. “Without gloves, or masks, they served humanity,” he said.

Please send it to your friends too.
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Sudan Tribune
Saturday, April 04, 2009 Edition.

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders"
Saturday 4 April 2009 06:10. Printer-Friendly version Comments...

April 2, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – Southern Sudanese political leaders denounced the arrest warrant for the President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir saying it was politically motivated and "orchestrated by outsiders."

Some 64 southern Sudanese political leaders and figure met in Kenana, on the eastern bank of the White Nile, 250km south of Sudan’s capital, to discuss the ICC decision and to review the political situation in the south.

Chaired Gissimalla Aldallah Rassas, Former President of the High Executive Council for Southern Sudan, the two day meeting was also attended by Presidential Advisor Bona Malwal, former foreign minister Lam Akol, among others.

"President Al-Bashir, is our head of state, accountable only to us, the people of Sudan and no to any other body anywhere in the world. Sudan is not a member of the ICC and the ICC move against our President is clearly orchestrated by outsiders, to subject Sudan to their whims."

The statement further reaffirmed the rejection of the ICC move and described it as "part of new international order" aiming to control the developing countries.

The meeting also argued that President Al-Bashir signed three peace agreements in the country in southern eastern and western parts of sudan. "An attempt to remove him from power at this juncture, by whatever means, including through the ICC indictment efforts, is an attempt to derail all the functioning Sudanese peace agreements."

The southern leaders urged Darfur rebels to negotiate a political settlement for the conflict and pledged to support Al-Bashir as long as he remains committed to the signed peace deals.

"To President Al Bashir, we wish to assure him that as long as he upholds the principle of search for peace, for all the people of Sudan and as long as he continue to implement the peace agreements that he has already signed into law for the good of all the people of Sudan no ICC will remove him from power."

The judges of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I issued on March 4 an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president on seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Sudan refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC saying it has not ratified the treaty establishing the court. Currently there are two ICC arrest warrants pending for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb.

(ST)

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Related subjects :
Politics :

Sudan delays general elections to Feb 2008
Brazil president declines seat next to Sudan’s Bashir in Qatar
Arab-South America summit refuse to back Sudan’s Bashir on ICC warrant

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Comment on this article...
12 Comments
What South is called Kenana???
4 April 2009 06:55, by Jayo
Those so-called South Sudan leaders do not represent anyone in the South.We have 10 states in the South,why then did they have to hold two day meeting near Khartoum if they have anything to do with the South???

Those traitors and Arab-shoe leekers will remain in the North when we vote to for independent.Why do they meet only when Bashir was to be arrested?Did they ever meet to discuss any affairs of the South??I don’t have any trust in them.

True Southerners leaders discuss our well-being in Juba,Wau,Yei,Torit,Malakal,Bentiu,Bor,Yambio,Rumbek and Aweil

Reply to this comment

What South is called Kenana??? 4 April 2009 07:09, by John Costa
They are not even honored among their people? They only knew their interest.When they were name ministers, governs, and mayors, the where to conform to Mundukoro military commanders in their own town. during the Civil War, they spent most of the time in Khartoum, they sent their children to Europe while millions of their country men and women are being raped, kill, torture, they have done nothing, but puppets. Farewell for their time!

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders"
4 April 2009 07:10, by Mathiang
This is very disturbing report for our fellow southern sudanese to be taking Bashir side. Lam and Bona Mawual, each of them has always worked for his own self interest, so for them to claimed southern sudanese voice is just nothing, but Bashir propaganda. Sudan problem is not just the name arab, but it is Bashir. we, southern sudanese should always ask ourselves first, when did Bashir became our Friend ? CPA came as a result of our long struggle against Bashir ideologies. One successful ideology of Bashir is using sudanese against each other. For Southern Sudan rightnow, we should keep our nose out of Bashir Icc problem. Icc is not fighting against sudanese, but only against Bashir, so let Bashir dance with his own music.

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South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders" 4 April 2009 07:58, by Martin
I think this article is politically motivated or created by an enemy of peace to confuse the unified south sudanese. The article has no writer name on top or under it. And those mentioned politicians are just hyenas and do not represent the south at all. Lam and Malual are so disperate to get leadership positions in the south but they are doing it in a bad way. Yes, Malual, Lam, and others who are natives of Sthe outh Sudan have a right to join the NCP in belief but should not have a divided hearts between the SPLM and NCP parties. Bottom line, Malual and Lam are short-sighted politicians because they chose money first before their people interests.

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South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders" 4 April 2009 08:27, by pol d
Good job Southern we all come from one mother and,one father. let supports our country South.

So Lam and Bona look how people of Great SouthSudan need you,please!please! stick in South at one,don’t sell your land and your people

Al Bashir shoud deal with ICC, and his Northen,because the are supporter tribes in South like it,or not

GOD Bless SouthSudan and in his people.

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders"
4 April 2009 08:10, by Ben-Fu
Don’t you know that Bashir has paid a team that he select especially to rule Southern Sudan in Khartoum? Wake up people, Southern leaders are divided and will soon be too late to know that they have fails their duties to unite and lead Southerners with pride. Well they are crying out after criminal Bashir and they don’t care who die in Darfur or in any part of Sudan. Bashir is the corrupted King. All African leaders defend him with their souls.

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South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders"
4 April 2009 10:51, by Joseph
Politicians,

Play your games, but one thing you should acknowledge if this CPA collapses the Southern Sudan shall be independent country and shall be recognizes by the world.

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders" 4 April 2009 12:13, by uncorrupt_dinka
Wicked Wicked Bashir,

Do you think the ICC is going to exonerate you because some retarded southern sudanese who sold their souls to the Devil are willing to go to hell with you. Stop wasting money, grab your IBRIK and go to Hague without a fight is your best option.

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders"
4 April 2009 11:48, by tayeb M. Alhassan
FINALLY WE COME TO FIGHT TOGETHER ONE HAND FOR OUR COUNTRY SUDAN. Let traitors and ICC fans drink from the Read Sea

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders" 4 April 2009 12:30, by Makeethy
Alhassan, Those calling themselves "Southern Politicians" are nothing but mere puppets of Elbashir. None of them have ever seen the distruction that has been going on in the south, and other marginalized areas. Leave Elbashir alone.

It seem like Elbashir had forgotten an Arabic term that say "yom alek, wa yom le akhuk". It was his time back then but now, it is a time of those who had endured pain under his torture. Elbashir will never stay in power for ever. He will one day be an ordinary man; a situation for which he will easilly be captured.

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders" 4 April 2009 14:07, by Rem Minyiel Kulangdit
To those who are calling themseves southern sudan politicians, time is upon you now with your father bashir to face it roughtly in the Hugae or somewhere else.you where just rally for money and you seen south were been in war all these years, why don’t you leave us alone in peace in the south, time will tell who are you exactly to sudan? i know all of you have muslim mark,some of you are carry names of christainty but not real christian you are wasted your days.my understanding bashir will be taken to court very soon is not above the law.By use threats on south and Durfur by arab is bigs lair against the south is over.these time it is not new things to go for war, it was some things we experience in it already.why do n’t take your money and kep silent, to me you are not politicians of southern sudan, you are just politicians by filled your stomach only.

Reply to this comment

South Sudan politicians say ICC "orchestrated by outsiders" 4 April 2009 14:53, by tayeb M. Alhassan
Dear Makeethy

I don’t know about your personal case with Albasheer but I tell you, don’t get disappointed or frustrated with the situation now. It will be alright very soon!!!

You can’t put 65 of your best politicians in one hand and sling them at a time as good for nothing pack. You have to look behind the reasons and you may find good excuses for those gentlemen meeting in Kenana now to decide for you whether in an independent South or a South in a unified secular Sudan.

Tune down boy!!

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This is politics, You can wonder when International Law will ever be Law.

Rwanda welcomes French court ruling to lift arrest warrant of top official
By Rwanda News agency

Kigali: The Rwandan government has welcomed a decision by a French court to lift the arrest warrant of Madam Rose Kabuye who was arrested in Frankfurt, last November, RNA reports.

Madam Rose Kabuye, the Director of Rwanda’s State Protocol was arrested on a French warrant over her suspected involvement in the assassination of Rwanda’s former president, Juvenal Habyarimana, in 1994.

After the court ruling Kabuye returned and was received Tuesday evening at Kigali International Airport. Upon arrival, she indicated that the lifting of the indictment implies that she will be able to resume her duties and travel freely anywhere in the world.

The government released a communiqué welcoming the ruling and stated that, Rwanda as a nation has interest in supporting international justice and the government remains ready and willing to play its role in conformity with the spirit of international justice and fairness.

The arrest caused a diplomatic furore and was greeted by street protests across the country and many African organisations condemning the arrest.

Kabuye’s arrest stemmed from the controversial indictments issued in 2006 by French Judge Jean Louis Bruguière’s indictments that have widely been condemned by the Rwandan Government as having been politically motivated.

Rose Kabuye was suspected along with eight other former senior members of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in connection with the shooting down of the plane carrying former presidents Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi.

Kabuye was arrested in November last year in Germany while on an official trip to prepare for a presidential visit. (End)

I have always wondered the thinking os such people, i dont know what they are about! Instead of reconciling and think about the future and a better Rwanda, They keep on making such attrocities. May God come for thier rescue. Am sure its the devil in them making them do that.

Two Genocide survivors killed, bodies dumped in Nyabarongo

BY EDMUND KAGIRE , Newtimes, Rwanda
Theodore Simburudali, the President of IBUKA, the umbrella body of Genocide survivors association, Tuesday, strongly condemned the killing of two genocide survivors in the Southern Province.

The victims, Francois Gasirabo and Jeannette Nyirabaganwa, both residents of Huye District, were reportedly murdered on March 22 in the Southern Province and their bodies were dumped in River Nyabarongo. They were recovered near Kigali.

Simburudali told members of the press there was evidence that the two were killed by people they possibly exposed before Gacaca courts or their relatives, for participating in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis.

He added that to cover up the cause of the killings, the suspected murderers started circulating rumours that the two were killed because of business rivalry.

During the Genocide, Tutsis were killed and dumped in the river that pours into River Akagera and Lake Victoria so they could flow back to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) where they allegedly came from.

The IBUKA President said that the act was unfortunate especially at a time when the Genocide Commemoration Week is approaching, noting that more cases of stigma and trauma directed towards genocide survivors are being registered.

Police Spokesperson John Uwamungu said that police are still investigating the murder and a search for the culprits has been mounted.

He however refused to give further information about any progress in the search saying it would jeopardise investigations.

Uwamungu also noted that another case of attacks directed towards genocide survivors is being investigated but could not give further details.

Meanwhile, Simburudali said that IBUKA and other organisations like AVEGA (Genocide Widow’s Association) and the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) are working with the police and other authorities to ensure that the attacks on the survivors, which are expected to increase ahead of the commemoration, are quelled.

Gasirabo and Nyirabaganwa were buried on March 28 and 30 respectively.

18 Lango ministers sworn in
By Patrick Okino, Newvision, Uganda

The state minister for gender, Rukia Nakadama, has urged cultural leaders to promote cultures which respect human dignity and consolidate their institutions.

Officiating at the swearing in of 18 Lango Cultural Foundation ministers at the cultural centre in Lira district on Saturday, Nakadama advised people to kick out politicians who did not support their institution in the next elections.

Nakadama said the National Resistance Movement government restored the cultural institutions because their role in resolving disputes and domestic problems were paramount.

“It is your constitutional responsibility to pay allegiance to the cultural leaders,” Nakadama told the public. She appealed to the leaders to incorporate women in their cabinets.

Commenting on a query raised by the Lango Paramount Chief, Yosam Odur, about the Domestic Relations Bill, Nakadama said the Bill was aimed at reducing the rampant domestic violence.

The ministers and prime minister were sworn in by Gabriel Nyipir, the Lira chief magistrate.

World Bank Trains Young Southern Sudanese

By Mugume Rwakaringi

The World Bank has embarked on a training program young Southern Sudanese aimed at improvement of Human resource in the country, Daily Liberation has reliably established.

Last week, World Bank started with 11 students who will graduate as Administrative and Client Support (ACS) staff usually referred to Secretaries or Administrative Assistants in other institutions five of these trainees will immediately be absorbed as World Bank staff while the remainder will be recommended for potential employers, reliable sources intimated to our reporter that the rest will also require some “juicy” jobs in other UN agencies here in Southern Sudan.

Speaking on the function to inaugurate this training, World Bank Sudan Country Manager, Mr. Laurence said: “Our main objective is to fill the support staff positions in the World Bank Juba Office with Southern Sudanese”.

South Sudan has in past failed to have qualified staff for some professional employments living employers to rely from those from East Africa.

World Bank Human Resource Manager for Eastern Africa, Mr Agufana Obed said via a video conference from Nairobi concurred that it was difficult to get the cadres needed, Therefore the Bank had to recruit the support staff from the Eastern African region when the it was setting up the Secretariat for the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Southern Sudan (MDTF-SS) in 2005.

Addressing the audience on the launching ceremony from Addis Ababa via the same video conference, the World Bank Country Director for Sudan and Ethiopia, Mr. Kenichi Ohashi, said the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) needs all the support it can get to reconstruct the war devastated region. He said development is not only about building infrastructure. The Director underlined the importance of qualified personnel as assets in fostering development.

The GoSS Minister of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development, H.E. Awut Deng Achuil, appreciated the role of the Bank in capacity building in Southern Sudan. She urged the Bank to continue supporting the institutional and personnel development in Southern Sudan.

The Minister supported The World Bank Human Resource Manager for Eastern Africa, Mr. Agufana Obed appeal on the trainees to absorb the knowledge given by International experts.
He requested them to be good ambassadors of Southern Sudan in the international community.

Some of the courses offered include Ethics in Workplace, Cross Cultural Communication, Basic Administrative Procedures, Time Management, Project Cycle Writing Memos and E-mails conducted by World Bank experts from Washington, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Khartoum and Juba.

…ends….