Rwanda: The Sinister Offensive of a Regime in Decline

From UK-AFRICA BLOG

By Emmanuel Hakizimana, Ph.D.

President of the Rwandan Congress of Canada

Kagame and the Queen of England

Also available in: Français.

On May 13, 2011, BBC Radio broadcast information according to which two Rwandan nationals living in London had just been warned by British police that their lives were in danger. In a warning notice sent to each of them, police wrote: “Reliable intelligence states that the Rwandan Government poses an imminent threat to your life. The threat could come in any form.” Two weeks earlier, the London newspaper The Independent published an article stating that the British intelligence service MI5 had issued an advisory notice to the Ambassador of Rwanda to the United Kingdom, Ernest Rwamucyo, warning him that British aid to Rwanda would be cut if he did not cease to threaten and intimidate Rwandan nationals living in Great Britain. That aid amounts to more than CAN$130 million.

The reports have caused considerable concern among members of the Rwandan community living in the West and more particularly those residing in Commonwealth countries including Canada. Indeed, they never imagined that the Kigali regime would dare to export insecurity to countries that are its biggest supporters. It will be remembered that those countries disregarded the recommendations put forward in a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and agreed to allow Rwanda to join the Commonwealth a little over a year ago.

The campaign of terror further illustrated by the events in London seems to be part of a strategy that was initiated by General Paul Kagame a few months before the presidential elections of August 2010 and was escalated following the release in October 2010 of the United Nations mapping report on crimes committed in Congo between 1993 and 2003. According to the report, the army of President General Paul Kagame committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly crimes of genocide against Hutu refugees in Congo and Congolese citizens.

The strategy basically has two concomitant areas of focus. The first is a vast diplomatic campaign in Western countries primarily intended to demonize opponents of the current Rwandan regime and denounce the UN mapping report. The second is the assassination of opponents, real or imagined, as well as independent journalists who reveal the criminal activities of the Kigali regime.

As part of the diplomatic offensive, a large Rwandan delegation led by Senator Aloysie Inyumba (recently appointed Minister of Gender and Family) toured Europe in November 2010. Another arrived in Canada in the second half of May 2011 for a series of conferences organized in conjunction with the Embassy of Rwanda in Ottawa. At the same time, Paul Kagame is scheduled to personally visit Chicago in the United States from June 10 to 12, 2011.

The recent events in Great Britain fall within the political assassinations component of the strategy, which was revived a few months before the presidential elections of August 2010 and continues to this day. It began with the decapitation of Green Party Vice-President André Kagwa Rwisereka, the assassination of independent journalist Léonard Rugambage and the assassination attempt in South Africa on General Kayumba Nyamwasa. It has now spread to Western countries.

Rwandan nationals who fled General Paul Kagame’s regime and settled in Canada take the recent events in London very seriously. They now know that the Rwandan regime can also carry out a campaign of terror in Canada and elements abound to indicate that their fear is not unfounded. First, there are precedents on Canadian soil. In 1998, a former Red Cross employee was the victim of an attempted murder because he had witnessed massacres perpetrated against Rwandan Hutu refugees by Paul Kagame's army. The incident was made public in an article published in La Presse on January 29, 1998. Next, the fact that Canada is the only Western country not to take legal action against the killers of Canadian citizens living in Rwanda (including Father Claude Simard and Father Guy Pinard) is not likely to deter Paul Kagame from sowing terror on Canadian soil. Finally, the initiative by Rwandan authorities to carry out a campaign of terror in Great Britain when that country ranks first among providers of aid to Rwanda shows that no country, not even Canada, can delude itself into believing that the Kigali regime will not dare to carry out terrorist attacks on its territory.

Many members of the Rwandan community in Canada fled Paul Kagame’s regime for different reasons. Some are survivors of his crimes against humanity, as revealed by the UN mapping report referred to above. Others, including journalists, jurists and human rights activists, were singled out because they denounced human rights violations and other abuses. All arrived broken-hearted and wanted nothing more than to live in peace and thrive in their host countries. The campaign of terror waged today by the Kigali regime is plunging them back into the world of terror they fled. Canada should take action immediately and warn Rwandan authorities against organizing terrorist activities on Canadian territory. At stake are the safety and security of all Canadians.

SUMMARY : THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE BRITISH BUDGET SUPPORT AND GEO-STRATEGIC AMBITIONS

· 4 Heads of State assassinated in the francophone African Great Lakes Region.
· 2,000,000 people died in Hutu and Tutsi genocides in Rwanda, Burundi and RD.Congo.
· 600,000 Hutu refugees killed in R.D.Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic and Rep of Congo.
· 6,000,000 Congolese dead.
· 8,000,000 internal displaced people in Rwanda, Burundi and DR. Congo.
· 500,000 permanent Rwandan and Burundian Hutu refugees, and Congolese refugees around the world.
· English language expansion to Rwanda to replace the French language.
· 20,000 Kagame’s fighters paid salaries from the British Budget Support from 1986 to present.
· £500,000 of British taxpayer’s money paid, so far, to Kagame and his cronies through the budget support, SWAPs, Tutsi-dominated parliament, consultancy, British and Tutsi-owned NGOs.
· Kagame has paid back the British aid received to invade Rwanda and to strengthen his political power by joining the East African Community together with Burundi, joining the Commonwealth, imposing the English Language to Rwandans to replace the French language; helping the British to establish businesses and to access to jobs in Rwanda, and to exploit minerals in D.R.Congo.

Related Stories:

Rwanda sending death squads to Britain: why is this news? By Nkunda

Rwandan exiles warned of assassination threat by London police

Rwandan assassin 'sent to kill dissidents in UK

British Police Warn Rwandan Dissidents of Threat

Rwanda: State terrorism tolerated for long by the international community

DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003

BBC Newsnight - Claims that the Rwandan government is plotting assassinations in the UK

Update on the Kagame Killing Machine in the UK & BBC Expose

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Rwanda: State terrorism tolerated for long by the international community

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by therisingcontinen

 

By Ghislain Mikeno – Translated from French by Ambrose Nzeyimana
In recent days, the news in the Great Lakes is dominated by revelations of the British press that the police in that country has warned some Rwandan nationals living in London about death threats against them and from Paul Kagame’s regime. These revelations have been confirmed by some of the targeted individuals themselves, be it in interviews on radio or television giving details and displaying written statements from security officials.
Thus Rene Claudel Mugenzi and Jonathan Musonera testified in the press by showing the certificate of the British police who warned them that their lives were in danger.
As usual the Kagame regime has strongly denounced this news in manners as too clumsy as useless, far from stifling the scandal, fueling instead a debate which is taking place now on the political front in Great Britain. Some elected representatives of the opposition are beginning to seriously question whether Great Britain, which is the largest supporter of Kagame’s regime, must continue keep a blind eye on the actions of a regime that openly practices state terrorism.
Background
The Kagame’s regime is however not new to state terrorism. Soon after getting into power in 1994, it sent commandos in several countries to kidnap or kill Rwandans. In 1998, Mr. Seth Sendashonga, who was interior minister in the first RPF government in 1994 and as well part of the politico-military movement, was shot in the streets of Nairobi by a commando unit sent by Kagame. He had gone into exile in protest a few months after disagreeing with Kagame on a number of issues including the blind repression that Kagame’s soldiers had on the population. Intelligent, competent and therefore considered highly as a potential serious political challenger by Kagame, Sendashonga was wounded in a first assassination attempt and his assailant arrested by Kenyan police at the scene of the attack with still a smoking gun. The assailant was quickly identified as a diplomat of the Embassy of Rwanda in Nairobi. The second attack proved fatal.
In the same city of Nairobi, Colonel Theoneste Lizinde who had deserted the ranks of the RPF was shot at close range in the company of a well know businessman Bugilimfura, by a commando which, obviously was acting under the orders of Kagame.
Parallel to these killings, kidnappings and abductions were operated by the secret services of Kagame around the world. Thus in 1996, Karamira who was Vice-President of the MDR party was kidnapped in Ethiopia and forcibly repatriated in Kigali. He was summarily tried and executed in public. Soon after, former Justice Minister, Mrs Agnes Ntamabyariro, was kidnapped by a commando from exile in Zambia and found herself in Kigali. For more than 15 years, she languishes in jail without trial until today.
In Belgium, a reporter revealed that the Rwandan government had asked him to identify a certain group of Rwandan refugees for their neutralization. In Norway, a Rwandan exile threatened by Kagame’s death squads is under heavy police protection in that country. The threat is so serious that the individual wears an electronic bracelet so that he can be traced at any time, for his safety. More recently, in South Africa, commandos fired on General Kayumba Nyamwasa, former Chief of Staff of the army of the RPF. This terrorist act was orchestrated by the invisible hand of Kagame.
Direct or indirect threats continue to reach Rwandan exiles living in different countries. But so far, few security services had taken them seriously and they especially did not cause any political debate. We hope that the case of Britain will be followed and that police services in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, US, Canada, Norway and other countries, take this time  Rwandan exiles’ worries seriously and put in place stronger deterrents  for criminal plans of Kigali in their countries.
No compromise with a rogue regime which practices state terrorism!
Beyond the implications of this police case in London, we hope and expect that policies in different countries will be reviewed accordingly in order to stop criminal activities of Kagame’s regime on their territories. As suggested by some British MPs, financial assistance generously provided to the dictator should be cut. After which sanctions would be as well considered if he persists in practicing state terrorism. And if he carries on undeterred, why not consider hitting the facilities of Kagame’s army and his intelligence services which spread death in foreign capitals? After all, Muammar Gaddafi is an amateur next to Paul Kagame.

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RWANDA : FIASCO D'UN ENSEIGNEMENT AU BORD DE L'EFFONDREMENT

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by Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza for President on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 6:32pm

RWANDA: FIASCO D'UN ENSEIGNEMENT AU BORD DE L'EFFONDREMENT

1. Situation actuelle: Le fiasco de l’enseignement au Rwanda.

Selon «The Rwandan Statistician», le dernier bulletin de Recherche de l’Institut National des Statistiques du Rwanda, qui se fait l’écho des résultats de la récente enquête intégrale sur les conditions de vie des ménages, près de 80% des jeunes Rwandais âgés de 13 à 18 ans ont accès à l’enseignement secondaire.



Ce chiffre, qu’il faut prendre avec des pincettes, prouverait un progrès remarquable par rapport à la situation d’avant 1994 où à peine 3% de cette tranche d’âge fréquentait l’école secondaire. Malheureusement cette progression n'aurait pas été accompagnée par l’amélioration de la qualité. Ceci a été déploré par le rapport d'une commission spéciale des députés sur la situation de l'enseignement discuté au parlement déjà depuis le 24 mars 2010.

Le niveau est tellement bas que les étudiants rwandais qui arrivent en Europe pour poursuivre et/ou parachever leurs études, éprouvent de sérieuses difficultés à suivre et sont souvent rétrogradés d’un à deux ans selon les orientations pour des remises à niveau.

Cette baisse de niveau est due à plusieurs facteurs:

- la formation et les conditions de vie des enseignants

- la langue d’enseignement

- les conditions d’études
l’enseignement est devenu une sorte de business

La formation et les conditions de vie des enseignants

Au lieu d’utiliser les enseignants formés et qualifiés se trouvant au Rwanda avant la prise du pouvoir par le FPR, celui-ci les a mis de côté, marginalisés ou emprisonnés en les accusant d’idéologie génocidaire et s’est contenté de les remplacer par des rapatriés qui ne remplissaient pas les conditions requises : pas de formation appropriée, pas de titre requis, ou qui ne maîtrisaient même pas la langue d’enseignement de l’époque, en l’occurrence le français.

Les autorités du FPR ont créé Kigali Institute of Education qui tente, tant bien que mal, de remédier à la situation, mais le rapport cité plus haut de la Commission Sociale du Parlement qui déplore tant la médiocrité de formation des enseignants que des étudiants, montre bien qu’il y a encore d’énormes progrès à accomplir; ce rapport affirme notamment que les lauréats des universités rwandaises sont incapables de rédiger convenablement une lettre de demande d’emploi, beaucoup sont incapables de faire des rédactions des brochures de fin de cycle ( mémoires) et recourent des fois à des intellectuels prisonniers et à d'autres corvéables en échange de l'argent ou d'autres avantages.



Le remplacement inopiné et brutal, du jour au lendemain, du français parlé par 80% de la population scolarisée, par l’anglais, a compliqué la situation. L'abolition de la langue parlée par l’écrasante majorité du corps enseignant a mis au chômage des professeurs francophones remplacés par des anglophones sans matériels didactiques adéquats et sans formations appropriées.

Par ailleurs, le maigre salaire des enseignants, accompagné de la dégradation de leur considération sociale tant de la part des élèves, des parents que de leurs autorités hiérarchiques, a un impact négatif sur l'image de l'enseignement.



Le manque de discipline des élèves et de plusieurs membres du corps professoral a instauré une situation chaotique dans beaucoup d'établissements scolaires.

Les promotions automatiques où les élèves ne font pas d’effort afin de passer dans la classe supérieure, a eu comme conséquence directe d’avoir beaucoup de finalistes incompétents.

La langue d’enseignement

Depuis le 10/01/2011, l’anglais est désormais, la seule et unique langue d’enseignement secondaire et universitaire au Rwanda.

La rentrée scolaire a coïncidé avec la mise en œuvre d’une autre mesure décidée par les autorités rwandaises, à savoir le «Programme Enseignement de base des 9 ans» qui consiste à permettre à tous les jeunes rwandais de terminer l’école primaire et le premier cycle du secondaire. Les mesures d'accompagnement font défaut En plus du défit de la langue véhiculaire, il y a une insuffisance de locaux, un manque de matériels didactiques et de professeurs compétents.

Les autorités religieuses, en particulier l’évêque catholique Mgr Sérvillien NZAKAMWITA, proposent l’introduction de la langue maternelle, le Kinyarwanda, à coté de l’anglais, étant donné que cette dernière langue n’est pas du tout maîtrisée par tous les élèves qui sortent du lycée. Elles renchérissent en ajoutant qu’enseigner en Kinyarwanda surtout dans le cycle primaire n’empêcherait en aucun cas l’apprentissage d’autres langues étrangères, notamment l’anglais, le français et le kiswahili qui sont essentiels comme outils de communication et pour la poursuite des études dans des pays étrangers.



Les conditions d’études

Le pauvre et l’enfant du pauvre resteront ignorants et pauvres», disent les paysans rwandais.

Dans les conditions actuelles, les inégalités et l’injustice sociales au Rwanda ne peuvent donc que s’aggraver. En effet, les études au Rwanda coûtent de plus en plus cher, et, confrontés déjà à la cherté de la vie et aux autres conséquences de l’inflation, les pauvres sont incapables de subvenir aux frais scolaires de leurs enfants, notamment le minerval et l’achat de matériel didactique.

Par ailleurs, les bibliothèques sont inexistantes ou embryonnaires; l’accès à l’outil informatique demande des moyens exorbitants; les conditions d’études (lumières, salles d’étude, aide aux devoirs,...) ne sont pas réunies.



En plus, comme le Gouvernement rwandais a décidé la suppression du système d’internat et d’allocations d’études, la situation va s’empirer. Privés de bourses d’études, beaucoup d’étudiants sont contraints de travailler; ce qui les empêche d’aller au cours, d’où «travailler plus, étudier moins»; d’autres ont déjà renoncé à leurs étude. Par exemple au niveau de l'université nationale du Rwanda sur 85 inscrits en Agronomie, 28 sont retournés chez eux.

Le tableau ci-dessous montre l’ampleur de la mesure de suppression de bourses d’études supérieures pour cette année académique dans les institutions de l’Etat

1ère année:

Les non bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 1029

Les bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 340



2ème année:

Les non bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 1564

Les bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 355



3ème année:

Les non bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 1429

Les bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 635



4ème année:

Les non bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 1203

Les bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 353



5ème année:

Les non bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 57

Les bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 11



6ème année:

Les non bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 37

Les bénéficiaires de frais de subsistance: 5

En outre, tous les cours dans les différentes disciplines doivent être accompagnés par l’idéologie du Front Patriotique Rwandais qui est devenu ipso facto le Parti-Etat. Les élèves finalistes des études secondaires doivent passer quelques mois dans des camps de formation idéologique et militaire baptisés «INGANDO» où les élèves subissent le lavage de cerveau notamment par l’initiation à l’histoire réécrite par le régime dictatorial. Pendant la clôture de l’INGANDO sous la direction des hautes autorités y compris l’armée et la police, la rentrée forcée de chaque étudiant dans le parti FPR est obligatoire; ce qui explique l’objectif principal de ces camps.



* l’enseignement devenu business



Dans le but d’acquérir un niveau d’études toujours plus élevé en vue d’augmenter les chances de trouver un emploi ou de gagner plus, il y a une course effrénée aux diplômes. En effet, si les conditions requises changent au niveau du travail, on peut à tout moment se voir remplacer par quelqu’un d’autre.

En outre, les frais académiques sont trop élevés (plus de 5000$ par an); à moins d’être boursiers de l’Etat ou bénéficiaires d’un crédit bancaire, rares sont les parents capables de s’acquitter d’un tel montant. Cette situation incite des gens véreux à la fraude pour avoir le précieux sésame; cela explique le trafic énorme de faux diplômes, de faux certificat d’études secondaires, voire de niveaux académiques.

S’agissant de la suppression de l’internat, celui-ci a suscité de l’inquiétude chez les parents et les élèves puisque les conditions ne sont pas réunies pour l’externat: pas d’électricité à la maison, pas de moyen de déplacement, un long trajet à parcourir, le coût exorbitant du loyer et de la nourriture, etc.



En plus, les autorités exigent que les parents interviennent pour le repas de midi puisque le Rwanda ne veut plus de l’aide en vivres fournie par le Programme Alimentaire Mondial alors que les prix des produits alimentaires flambent fortement et que la famine est désormais devenue endémique.



* Conséquences fâcheuses



Cette situation calamiteuse de l’enseignement rwandais entraîne inexorablement des conséquences graves comme:
Arrivés sur place, aux problèmes évoqués plus haut vécus au Rwanda, s’ajoutent les difficultés d’intégration sociale;l’exode des étudiants rwandais vers les pays limitrophes (Ouganda, Burundi, Tanzanie, Kenya) à la recherche d’hypothétiques études moins onéreuses et d’un niveau d’enseignement plus ou moins élevé

le manque de planification qui a comme corollaire la production d’un grand nombre d’universitaires mal formés et voués au chômage;
la piètre qualité des diplômes: à titre d’exemples: sur 611 étudiants universitaires ayant réussi les examens finaux de la promotion du 27/03/2009, l’on compte 509 satisfactions (83,31%), 101 distinctions (16,53%) et 1 seule grande distinction (0,16%).



2. Propositions d’améliorations



Pour Les FDU-INKINGI, toute politique dans le domaine de l’éducation doit tendre à répondre aux besoins éducatifs fondamentaux. Ces besoins concernent aussi bien les outils d’apprentissage essentiels, que les contenus éducatifs fondamentaux dont l’être humain a besoin pour survivre, pour développer toutes ses facultés, pour vivre et travailler dans la dignité, pour participer pleinement au développement, pour améliorer la qualité de son existence, pour prendre des décisions éclairées et pour continuer à apprendre. Les FDU-INKINGI estiment que le Rwanda a d’abord besoin des citoyens dotés de compétences expertes nécessaires au dynamisme économique du pays et à l’émancipation sociale et culturelle de chaque rwandais. C’est toute la problématique de l’autonomisation de la personne qui est posée. Elles considèrent que la scolarisation est un instrument d’émancipation et de justice sociale. L’éducation et la formation professionnelle doivent être considérées à juste titre comme des outils de réduction des inégalités sociales et de renforcement de l’égalité des chances.
Dans cette optique, les FDU-INKINGI restent convaincues que:

* L’éducation de base est un droit fondamental de tout rwandais;
* L’éducation est un des facteurs qui contribuent à l’amélioration de la santé, de la sécurité, de la prospérité. Elle contribue au maintien d’un environnement viable pour l’homme, favorise le progrès social, économique et culturel ainsi que la tolérance et la capacité de vivre ensemble;
L’éducation dite traditionnelle est le point de départ de toutes les formes d’éducation modernes et peut contribuer aussi valablement que les autres formes d’éducation au développement de la société;\
La formation professionnelle et sa généralisation constituent une priorité.

Au niveau du contenu des cours au secondaire, les FDU-INKINGI optent pour des cours généraux, y compris dans l’enseignement professionnel et technique, et pour l’introduction des matières correspondant à la réflexion fondamentale dès le deuxième cycle du secondaire. Ainsi:

* Le cours d’éducation à la citoyenneté sera introduit dans l’enseignement pour favoriser l’émergence d’une véritable culture du vivre ensemble et pour préparer les jeunes à participer activement à la vie démocratique et à exercer leurs droits et responsabilités.
* L’histoire des idées philosophiques, morales, religieuses, économiques ou scientifiques figurera en bonne place au programme.
* La confrontation et l’échange des expériences seront favorisés pour permettre l’essor de nouvelles formes de respect mutuel et pour éviter un repli sur sa propre identité, en développant cet art du débat et de la conversation qui est l’art de se mettre à la place de l’autre, à égalité avec lui, en nous arrachant aux automatismes de notre pensée.
* L’éducation nationale fera revivre à chaque enfant les grands moments de notre histoire mais devra éviter que cet enseignement soit inspiré par une démarche d’instrumentalisation pour aboutir à un discours mensonger. Il s’agit d’évoquer le passé pour y puiser les semences saines de l’avenir.
* L’ouverture vers l’extérieur sera garantie par la diversification de l’enseignement des langues, des cultures et de l'histoire de l'humanité.


Face à un enseignement qui a longtemps été marqué par un manque de transparence dans l’admission des élèves et étudiants aussi bien dans les établissements secondaires que supérieurs, et face aux mécontentements et aux inégalités engendrés par le système au sein de la population, les FDU-INKINGI prévoient un programme sectoriel basé à la fois sur:

l’accroissement de la capacité d’accueil au niveau primaire, secondaire, supérieur et universitaire;

Face au déficit qu’accuse actuellement le Rwanda au niveau des ressources humaines, notre pays a dans le moyen terme plus besoin d’entrepreneurs, d’ouvriers qualifiés, de techniciens supérieurs et d’ingénieurs. Cela va de pair avec:

* sur le terrain et dans des écoles;La formation accélérée du personnel d’encadrement et de techniciens supérieurs
* La création et la réhabilitation d’écoles professionnelles et la généralisation de l’apprentissage professionnel;
* La création de sociétés d’ingénieries à même de mobiliser des spécialistes de différentes branches.



* la démocratisation de l’enseignement général et professionnelle tant au niveau du public que du privé.



Si l’accès à la formation et à la culture doit être offert au plus grand nombre, les FDU-INKINGI ne le conçoivent pas dans un cadre autre que celui qui offre l’égalité des chances pour tous les candidats afin d’acquérir une formation qualifiante. Dans ce cadre, les FDU-INKINGI entendent mettre sur pied une meilleure politique de prêts et bourses pour les candidats méritants, et de subventions aux établissements d’enseignement privés méritants pour favoriser l’accès d’un plus grand nombre de gens aux établissements d’enseignement supérieur ou universitaire.

jouer un rôle prépondérant dans ce secteur d’autant que l’enseignement jusqu'à un certain niveau sera du ressort des entités provinciales et communales.La décentralisation devra, elle aussi

Les parents seront eux aussi étroitement associés à l’éducation de leurs enfants dès leur jeune âge et devront être conscientisés sur l’importance de l’éducation, car il subsiste encore quelques réticences chez certains parents à envoyer leurs enfants à l’école.

LES FDU-INKINGI se battent pour une société où la fonction d’enseignant deviendra le moteur en vue d'atteindre la qualité de l’enseignement tant dans le secteur public que privé. Une des mesures prioritaires pour les FDU-INKINGI à cet effet sera de revaloriser le métier d’enseignant, non seulement en améliorant le sort matériel et les conditions de travail des fonctionnaires de l’éducation nationale, mais plus encore en œuvrant à réévaluer leur place dans la société et à rétablir le respect qui leur est dû. La hiérarchie des salaires devra être progressivement élargie. La contrepartie de cette revalorisation sera de consacrer systématiquement au moins 1 mois de vacances scolaires à des stages d’échange et de perfectionnement pédagogique, à des cours de rattrapage ou à des remises à niveau.

Conclusion:

Dans leurs soucis d’équité sociale, les FDU-INKINGI sont en faveur d'une scolarité obligatoire jusqu'à 19 ans et un programme d'alphabétisation fonctionnelle à grande échelle pour les adultes.

L'actuel système d’études qui favorise beaucoup la filière généraliste sachant bien que moins d’un quart seulement des élèves formés pourront accéder à la formation supérieure, les autres restant sur le carreau sans perspective, est élitiste et creuse un fossé de plus en plus profond des inégalités sociales. C’est la raison pour laquelle les FDU-INKINGI feront en sorte que, pour au moins 80% des jeunes qui finissent la scolarité obligatoire, puisse accéder à une formation professionnelle qualifiante.

Dans un pays où plus de 60% de la population vit en dessous du seuil de pauvreté, supprimer les bourses d’études revient à barrer objectivement la porte des études aux enfants méritants issus des familles pauvres. Les FDU-INKINGI restaureront les bourses d’études pour ces catégories de population. Elles introduiront aussi un système d’épargne-crédits-études à long terme, à des taux bonifiés. Pour les parents de la classe moyenne inférieure qui ont des enfants aux études supérieures, un système d’abattement de la taxe professionnelle sera instauré pour pouvoir financer les études des enfants. Il va de soi que les parents aisés pourvoiront aux frais des études de leurs enfants.

Fait à Kigali, le 18 Mai 2011

Boniface Twagirimana

Premier vice-président provisoire

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State Department War Crimes Chief Stephen Rapp’s cover-up of U.S. War Crimes in Rwanda Genocide

Daya Gamage – Foreign News Desk Asian Tribune Washington, DC. 29April

 

The April 28 report in The New York Times captioned ‘American Lawyer is Barred from Rwanda Tribunal Work’ caught the eye of this Online Daily’s Foreign News Desk which informed the readers that Peter Erlinder, a law professor in an American university, has been barred by the UN from working at the international tribunal for Rwanda based in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. He refused to travel to Arusa for fear of his life.
He said that he is a target of the Rwandan government and has even received threats while on lecture tours in the U.S.
Prof. Erlinder charges the current Paul Kahame regime of Rwanda of targeted assassinations of those who were accusing the Rwandan leader of genocide - 1990 through 1994 - in which one million people were killed. He and others who have given a long list of victims in many worldwide cities attributed those assassinations to the current Rwandan leadership of Paul Kagame.
One of the mysterious deaths known to the Asian Tribune network was a UN professional who worked to unearth the evidence of the Rwandan genocide – a Sri Lankan Shyamlal Rajapaksa who happened to be a first cousin of the present president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa. His killing in August 2009 in the Tanzanian city of Arusha where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was headquartered is still a mystery.
Professor Peter Erlinder has come out with an array of evidence and interpretations of the direct culpability of the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame in the Rwandan genocide, how he and his colleagues were given military training in the U.S., how Kagame as the head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a proxy force of the Pentagon according to Erlinder, invaded Rwanda to unleash a genocide with tacit approval of the United States, and in the following years how the United States took covert and overt steps to cover up its involvement in the Rwandan mass massacre.
It is here that Ambassador-at Large Stephen Rapp’s name emerge. Mr. Rapp is currently the head of the Office of War Crimes Issues of the U.S. Department of State, and in his previous position as the chief prosecutor of the Rwandan genocide, according to Peter Elinder, and many other investigators, Mr. Rapp was one of the main who was involved in the cover up of US involvement in the Rwandan Genocide.
The Asian Tribune readers may recall that Stephen Rapp in his capacity as the State Department’s War Crimes Issues chief who prepared and released a document in October 2009 with ambiguous evidence which accused Sri Lanka of violating international humanitarian laws during the final (Jan-May 2009) stage of the battle with separatist/terrorist Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
In October 1990, the Ugandan army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF) led by Major General Paul Kagame invaded Rwanda. The guerrillas who violated international laws and committed massive war crimes were backed by Britain, Belgium, the United States and Israel, according to many investigators and researchers. By July 1994, the RPF completed its coup d'etat and consolidated its power in Rwanda.
On April 6, 1994, the governments of Rwanda and Burundi were decapitated when the plane carrying the two presidents and top military staff was shot down over Kigali, Rwanda's capital. The well-planned assassinations of Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira sparked a massive escalation of warfare that is falsely portrayed as the result of meaningless tribal savagery. These assassinations were major war crimes, and the RPF and UPDF were responsible, but almost every attempt to honestly investigate the double presidential assassinations has been blocked by the U.S. and its allies.
A frequent contributor to a think tank called Global Research, Prof. Elinder outlined the United States endeavor in the cover up of its own culpability in the Rwandan genocide.
He wrote: “The July 9, 2009 New York Times reported that the Obama administration had selected Stephen Rapp to replace the Bush administration Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Pierre Prosper. Rapp began his international career at the UN Security Council Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001, while Carla Del Ponte was Chief Rwanda Prosecutor. Rapp’s nomination just a few months after Del Ponte’s of her memoir of her years as Chief UN Prosecutor, Madam Prosecutor: Confronting Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity was published in English.
“Del Ponte’s book describes in detail the systematic U.S.-initiated cover-up of crimes by the current Rwandan government, a U.S. ally, committed during the Rwanda Genocide, and how she was removed from her ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) position in 2003 by U.S. Ambassador Prosper, himself, when she refused to cooperate with the U.S.-initiated “cover-up.”
According to Del Ponte, her ICTR Office had the evidence to prosecute Kagame for “touching-off” the Rwanda Genocide by ordering the assassination of Rwanda’s former President Juvenal, Habyarimana, long before 2003. She also details the dozens of massacre sites, involving thousands of victims, for which the current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame and his military, should be prosecuted. The well-publicized canard, that “the identity of the assassins of Habyarimana is unknown” is a bald-faced lie, well -known by ICTR Prosecutors, according to Ms. Del Ponte, writes Prof. Elinder in Global Research.
Two years after Del Ponte was removed from office, Stephen Rapp became “Chief” of ICTR Prosecutions with access to all of the evidence known to Ms. Del Ponte, and more that has been made public in the past few years. During his four years at the ICTR, Rapp like Del Ponte, also was in a position to prosecute Kagame and members of the current government of Rwanda but, not ONE member of Kagame’s military has been prosecuted at the ICTR, to date…and the “cover-up” revealed by Del Ponte, continues today. And, unlike, Ms. Del Ponte, who was fired by the U.S., Mr. Rapp was first rewarded with an appointment as Chief Prosecutor at the U.S.-funded Sierra Leone Tribunal and now, a coveted ambassadorship by the Obama administration as the chief of the Office of War Crimes Issues at the State Department.
Mr. Rapp, for reasons known and unknown to the Asian Tribune, used ambiguous and conflicting information and data to accuse Sri Lanka of violating International Humanitarian Laws (IHL) in a report released to the US Congress in October 2009.
Former Chief ICTR Prosecutor Del Ponte Details War Crimes “Cover-up”
According to Del Ponte, in May 2003 she was called to Washington D.C. by Prosper (ironically, also a former ICTR prosecutor with knowledge of Kagame’s crimes) who informed her that the U.S. would remove her UN post, if she carried through with her publicly announced plans to indict Kagame and members of his government and military. According to Del Ponte, when she refused to knuckle-under because “she worked for the UN, - not for the U.S” Prosper told her ICTR career was over. In October Del Ponte was replaced by a US-approved ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Abubacar Jallow, who elevated Rapp to “Chief of Prosecution” two years later.
ICTR Trials: More Evidence of Rwanda Crimes Cover-Up
Del Ponte’s revelations are not the only evidence that a U.S.-initiated “war crimes cover-up” at the ICTR is creating impunity for crimes committed by the Kagame and his military. On September 10, 1994 memo in evidence in the ICTR Military-1 Trial confirms that U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher was informed that Kagame’s troops were killing “10,000 civilians a month” in military-style, according to an investigation funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID). And, as early as January 1997, a team made up of Chief ICTR Investigative Prosecutor and former Australian Crown Prosecutor Michael Hourigan; former FBI Agent James Lyons; and former UN-Chief of Military Intelligence in Rwanda, Amadou Deme; reported Louise Arbour, Ms. Del Ponte’s predecessor, that Kagame should be prosecuted for assassinating the previous president. Arbour scuttled the investigation, suppressed the report and disbanded the investigative team.
Shortly, thereafter, Arbour was elevated to Canada’s Supreme Court and has sunsequently been chosen to head the International Crisis Group.
Louise Arbour as the head of the International Crisis Group released a report in May 2010 accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes said: “Evidence gathered by the International Crisis Group suggests that these months saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilian men, women, children and the elderly killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths. This evidence also provides reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes with top government and military leaders potentially responsible.”
Former ICTR Prosecutor Rapp Complicit in Cover-up
But, even though Arbour suppressed the “Hourigan Report,” Del Ponte, Rapp and other ICTR prosecutors certainly knew about it, because ICTR judges had ordered Del Ponte’s Office to release the “Hourigan report” to a defense team as early as the year 2000, a year before Rapp began his ICTR work, and three years before Del Ponte was fired by Prosper.
Prof. Peter Elinder says “But….to date, not one indictment has been issued against Kagame by the ICTR Prosecutor.”
Consequences of the ICTR Cover-up of Kagame’s Crimes
The tragic consequence of the failure to prosecute Kagame at the ICTR, from 1994 to date, is that Kagame has been free to invade the Congo in 1996 and 1998, and to occupy part of the eastern Congo many-times larger than Rwanda, to this day. No less than four UN Security Council-commissioned Panel of Experts Report(s) on the Illegal Exploitation of the DR Congo (2001, 2002, 2003 and December 2008) have detailed the massive rape of the Congo’s resources that has brought vast riches to Kagame and his inner circle.
While Rapp was ICTR Senior Trial Attorney in 2003, Kagame was effectively elected President-for-Life with 95% of the vote, after banning opposition parties and jailing opponents, in “a climate of intimidation” according to EU observers.
“Chief of Prosecutions” Rapp Withheld Exculpatory Evidence
In February 2009, the ICTR issued its Judgment the Military-1 case, that main case at the ICTR, in which Mr. Rapp personally appeared for the Prosecution. Although massive violence did occur in Rwanda, the court certainly recognized that blaming only one side WAS a falsehood, when it acquitted all of the “architects of the killing machine” (as Mr. Rapp called the defendants in court) of conspiracy or planning to kill civilians. The highest ranking military-officer was acquitted of all charges.
And, although it is now clear from Ms. Del Ponte’s memoirs that Mr. Rapp had the evidence to clear the ICTR defendants of the assassination charges and only the losing side has been blamed for all crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994. Simply put, Mr. Rapp and other ICTR prosecutors have withheld evidence that would be beneficial to the defense, contrary to Tribunal Rules; have prosecuted defendants for crimes they knew were committed by Kagame’s forces; and, have created a system of “judicial impunity” that has permitted Kagame to kill millions in the eastern Congo.
It is in this context that Prof. Peter Elinder writing to Global Security questioned President Obama’s wisdom in appointing Stephen Rapp as the head of the Office of War Crimes Issue at the State Department in this manner: “This “inconvenient-African-truth,” raises an uncomfortable question regarding President Obama’s nomination of Mr. Rapp, in the first place: Are Obama and his advisors ignorant of the public record regarding Rapp’s complicity in the ICTR Cover-up….or do they just not give a damn?”
The U.S. Culpability in Rwanda Genocide
Aimable Mugara in a piece to OpEdNews put it this way: “In 1990, General Kagame who was the Chief of Military Intelligence of Uganda and head of the Rwandan Patriotic Forces (RPF) led a violent invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, with the approval and support (financial, military and political) of the United States government. This violent war changed the landscape of that region forever. By landscape, I also mean the number of mass graves that dot every of inch of that region now. The two final years of President Bush the father, during which his American government supported the murderous gang of General Kagame and Yoweri Museveni resulted in the deaths of many innocent Rwandan and Ugandan civilians. During those two years, there are thousands who lost their lives at the hands of General Kagame's soldiers and Yoweri Museveni's soldiers. But this was nothing compared to the more than 6 millions of civilians that would later die under Bill Clinton's 8 year reign, with American money, American weapons and American political support.”
In a September 30, 2010 New York Times article titled ‘Dispute Over U.N. Report Evokes Rwandan Déjà Vu’, it is mentioned how in the fall of 1994, a United Nations investigation discovered that General Kagame's forces had killed tens of thousand of innocent civilians that year. That under pressure from Bill Clinton's government, the United Nations was forced not to publish that report. In that New York Times article, they talk about how the 1994 UN report describes General Kagame's soldiers "rounding up civilians and methodically killing unarmed men, women and children."
“Kagame received his military education under the Pentagon’s Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) at the Command and General Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, beginning in 1990,” wrote John E. Peck of the Association of African Scholars (2002). “His sidekick, Lt. Col. Frank Rusagara, got his JCET schooling at the U.S. Naval Academy in Monterey, California. Both were dispatched to Rwanda in time to oversee the RPF’s takeover in 1994. Far from being an innocent bystander, the Washington Post revealed on July 12, 1998 that the United States not only gave Kagame $75 million in military assistance, but also sent Green Berets to train Kagame’s forces (as well as their Ugandan rebel allies) in low intensity conflict (LIC) tactics. Pentagon subcontractor Ronco, masquerading as a de-mining company, also smuggled more weapons to RPF fighters in flagrant violation of UN sanctions. All of this U.S. largesse was put to lethal effect in the ethnic bloodbath that is still going on.”
In 2009 published Edward S. Herman and David Peterson's investigative/research book The Politics of Genocide said: “The United States and its allies worked hard in the early 1990s to weaken the Rwandan government, forcing the abandonment of many of the economic and social gains from the social revolution of 1959, thereby making the Habyarimana government less popular, and helping to reinforce the Tutsi minority’s economic power.9 Eventually, the RPF was able to achieve a legal military presence inside Rwanda, thanks to a series of ceasefires and other agreements. These agreements led to the Arusha Peace Accords of August 1993, pressed upon the Rwandan government by the United States and its allies, called for the “integration” of the armed forces of Rwanda and the RPF, and for a “transitional,” power-sharing government until national elections could be held in 1995.10 These Peace Accords positioned the RPF for its bloody overthrow of a relatively democratic coalition government, and the takeover of the Rwandan state by a minority dictatorship.”
The U.S. State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues chief Stephen Rapp knew this entire Rwandan episode, the U.S. interests in Paul Kagame, the UN concealment of the 1994 report at the behest of the Clinton administration, the U.S. military assistance to Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front and the entire exercise of the ‘Rwandan cover up’ to conceal the U.S. culpability in the Rwandan genocide when he focused his attention elsewhere; Sri Lanka.
- Asian Tribune -

ICT for development ‘lacks African voice’

ICT for development ‘lacks African voice’by Afronline

Dec22

LONDON – African academics are being left behind in the rush to research how communication technologies can help development, according to a review of papers in the field.

As a result, key theories in the field are being formed without the influence of African academics, researchers told the Information and Communications Technology and Development 2010 (ICTD2010) conference, in London, United Kingdom, this week (13–16 December).

The team surveyed, for the first time, academic publications in the field of ICTD between 1990 and 2009, using the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge.

The researchers also took an in-depth look at research output and themes over a more recent period (2007–2009), including a study of some of the emerging international and African ICTD journals.

African researchers and institutions have contributed just nine per cent of international papers across all ICTD disciplines — although this went up to 13 per cent for some topics such as library science and e-governance. In ‘hard’ sciences, such as computer science, this figure fell to below one per cent.

The research comes at a time of growing interest in how ICTs can boost Africa’s and other developing nations’ development, as highlighted, for example, by the recent mobile health summit held in Washington DC in the United States.

The team, based in South Africa, said that of the nine per cent of publications containing at least one African author, South Africa contributed over a third of the papers, with Botswana and Nigeria contributing 14 and 17 per cent respectively. The number of non-English publications was negligible.

African participation at related international conferences was also low.

“Today’s theories of the use of ICT in development are being formed with little African influence,” said Kathleen Diga, co-author of the paper and a researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “ICTD claims to be participatory but the lack of African contributions undermines this.”

The authors said that some of the causes were generic obstacles to Africans publishing research, such as the emphasis on teaching rather than research as the driver of career success, difficulties accessing international journals, and a claimed Northern bias against Southern authors.

Tim Unwin, UNESCO’s (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) chair in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) and organiser of ICTD2010, said that the problems are not limited to Africa.

“We need to do much more to support people from other parts of the world who don’t understand the rules of the game enough to get published in those international journals,” he told SciDev.Net.

Polly Gaster, head of ICT4D at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, said that interesting ICT research in Africa is being done at PhD level, and a survey of theses might have produced a more positive picture.

But, she added, they “are remaining as theses and sitting on a library shelf somewhere and that is the end of them”.

By Naomi Antony – SciDev. Net

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Dick Cheney Nigeria Bribery Charges Could Be Dropped For Fine

From Huffington Post

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been charged with bribery by Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, may avoid the charges if Halliburton instead pays a hefty fine, reports Reuters. Nigeria is considering a deal in which the energy company would pay $250 million in lieu of prosecution.
Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the anti-corruption agency, said that the sum would include $130 million frozen in Switzerland, with the rest paid in fines, reports Reuters.
In order for the deal to move forward, it must be approved by Nigeria's government. Global Post reported earlier that both sides were considering a plea bargain, with estimates originally running as high as $500 million. Without the deal, Cheney and other executives could face "sentences of three years in a Nigerian prison if convicted of the charges in the 16-count indictment."
The charges stem from an alleged bribery case concerning up to $180 million paid in bribes to Nigerian officials. According to the AP, Halliburton allegedly paid the bribes to win $6 billion worth of contracts in the oil producing West African nation. Cheney was CEO of the company during the time of the alleged bribery.
KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, resolved its own Nigerian bribery charges by paying a fine. The AP reports:
The Halliburton case involves its former subsidiary KBR, a major engineering and construction services firm based in Houston. In February 2009, KBR Inc. pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to authorizing and paying bribes from 1995 to 2004 for the plant contracts in Nigeria. KBR, which split from Halliburton in 2007, agreed to pay more than $400 million in fines in the plea deal

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Why the Netherlands won’t support Kagame’s government…

Ever since the reelection of Kagame, there has been a lot (more) of open critics coming from the US and the Netherlands on Kagame’s government .

The problem is:

The UN diclosed that there has been some possible acts of genocide in Congo, and Kagame was involved in it. After the genocide the Netherlands were one of the first to help Rwanda. After all this, turns out that the Rwandan government may have supported atrocities that could have led to a genocide too.

What’s the story behind it?

This arcticle might clarify some open questions.

————————————–

The United Nations said acts of genocide may have been committed in the DR Congo as it published a hotly-contested report Friday detailing massacres by foreign armies and rebels in the war-torn nation.

Rwanda, whose troops were at the centre of the most serious accusations, said it categorically rejected the report after it failed to have it suppressed while Burundi said it was designed to destabilise the region.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government said it was “appalled” by the details in the report covering 1993 to 2003 and demanded justice for the victims. “While it neither aims to establish individual responsibility, nor lay blame, the report — in full candour — reproduces the often shocking accounts by victims and witnesses of the tragedies they experienced,” Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in the preface to the report.

“The report is intended as a first step towards the sometimes painful nonetheless essential process of truth-telling after violent conflict,” she added.

Uganda and Angola also denied allegations against their armies.

The report, reworded in parts after a leak, said the “apparent systematic and widespread attacks… reveal a number of inculpatory elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be characterised as crimes of genocide”, pointing in particular to attacks by Rwandan troops during 1996-1997.

“It was not a question of people killed unintentionally in the course of combat, but people targeted primarily by AFDL (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo)/APR (Rwandan Army)/FAB (Burundi army) and executed in their hundreds,” it added.

The AFDL was led by Laurent Kabila, who proclaimed himself president after dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown. His son Joseph, now president of DR Congo, was fighting alongside.

Joseph Kabila, son of Laurent Kabila and actual president of the DR Congo.

The Rwandan government reacted furiously, saying it “categorically rejected” the report.

“The desire to validate the double genocide theory is consistently present throughout the report by mirror imaging the actors, ideology, and methods employed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide,” the statement from Rwanda said.

The accusations of genocide are particularly contested by Kigali as its government has based much of its legitimacy on being the force that stopped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who had earlier dismissed the report’s claims as “absurd”, was at the vanguard of the Rwandan force which drove the Hutu militias behind the 1994 genocide in his homeland across the border into eastern DR Congo.

Amnesty International’s Erwin Van Der Borght said it is “quite appalling that states have attacked the work of the UN team,” stressing that the report was a “very credible piece of work” with “very solid methodology.”

“It’s a step backward if neighbouring countries reject the report offhand because obviously they have a role to play — many of their troops were directly involved in the conflict in the DRC,” he said.

The report’s language was already less assertive than in a leaked draft compiled by a team of investigators since 2008.

Words like “allegedly” or “apparently” have been inserted into the final version of descriptions of violations, as well as references to the involvement of the foreign armies during the 1996-1998 first Congo war.

However, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that “the substance [of the report] remains the same”.

The UN report is the product of a “mapping exercise” that took more than two years to research and produce.

The report, compiled after interviews with over 1,280 witnesses, also included more paragraphs explaining the difficulties of proving genocide in court.

It said therefore that a full judicial inquiry was necessary to determine if the incidents amount to the crime of genocide.

In a statement at the UN headquarters in New York, the Congolese government’s ambassador called for justice.

“The victims deserve justice and they deserve that their voices are heard by my government and by the international community,” Ileka Atoki said, proposing possible mixed international-DR Congo courts to try the perpetrators.

Human Rights Watch’s Carina Tertsakian urged for a “serious response from the UN and its member states.”

“The UN Security Council should formally discuss the report and should insist that all the countries that are implicated in the report should help with efforts to bring justice,” she told AFP.

Reaction from Rwanda

Reached by RNW, Albert Rudatsuburwa, from the radio station Contact FM in Kigali, had this to say.

“Rwanda is outraged by the charges, 16 years after the 1994 genocide. One should not play with words. On one hand they say that Rwanda has an army of genocidaires, and on the other the same army is used to participate in a peacekeeping force to protect civilians. You have to know what you want.”Read the full UN report

Watch an interview with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on the release of a 550-page report listing 617 of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law over a 10-year period, by both state and non-state actors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Source: YouTube

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