IGIHE

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  • Cameron castigates cyberbullying websites

    {{British Prime Minister David Cameron has urged Internet users to boycott certain social networking sites, after a teenage girl who was bullied online committed suicide.}}

    Cameron on Thursday described the death of 14-year-old Hannah Smith, who hanged herself last week after receiving abuse on the website ask.fm, as ‘’absolutely tragic’’.

    “There’s something all of us can do as parents and as users of the Internet and that is not to use some of these vile sites,” Cameron told Sky News television.

    Cameron also urged website operators to do more to stop them from being used as forums for bullying.

    “The people that operate these websites have got to step up to the plate and show some responsibility in the way that they run these websites,” he said.

    Some charities in Britain have called for tighter regulation of social networks.

    Internet abuse has hit the headlines in Britain in recent weeks after several women, including two lawmakers, received rape and death threats on Twitter.

    ‘True tragedy’

    Ask.fm has described Hannah’s suicide as a “true tragedy” and pledged to work with police investigating her death.

    It stressed that it encourages users and their parents to report any bullying.

    The website, which is popular amongst teenagers, has a question-and-answer format and allows users to post messages without their identity being disclosed.

    The ninth most popular social networking site in the world created in 2010 and based in Latvia, has 13.2 million daily users.

    Source: {Al Jazeera and agencies}

  • Zimbabwe poll body acknowledges mistakes

    {{Nearly 305,000 Zimbabwean voters were turned away and 206,000 received assistance from election officials during last week’s disputed vote, the state-appointed election commission says.}}

    Thursday’s revelation followed reports by independent poll monitors of widespread manipulation of the voters’ roll and irregularities in the elections that President Robert Mugabe won with 61 percent of the vote.

    Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s challenger, won 34 percent of the vote and has called the elections “fraudulent”. He said he would seek legal redress.

    The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said nearly 3.5 million people cast their ballots in the July 31 polls, which extended Mugabe’s 33-year rule and ended a unity government formed in 2009 in which Tsvangirai was prime minister.

    The commission’s statistics showed the largest number of voters – 64,483 – were turned away in the capital Harare.

    Urban areas have long been a stronghold of Mugabe’s rival Tsvangirai.

    Regular voters were reportedly turned away because their names were missing from the voters’ roll, they were registered in another ward or they did not have adequate identification.

    The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said over 750,000 urban voters were missing from the electoral list, in what they described as “a systematic effort to disenfranchise an estimated million voters”.

  • Nagasaki Marks 68th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing

    {{Nagasaki on Friday marked the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing by the United States during World War II that turned the Japanese city into an inferno.}}

    Tens of thousands gathered to remember the more than 70,000 people who died instantly in the blast, or of the after effects in the months and years after the bombing, which hit Nagasaki at 11:02 am local time (0202 GMT).

    Bells tolled as ageing survivors, relatives, government officials and foreign delegates observed a moment of silence at the time of detonation.

    The bombing of Nagasaki came three days after the first ever atomic blast at Hiroshima, which claimed about 140,000 lives in all. Hiroshima held its own remembrance ceremonies earlier this week.

    “We hold the responsibility to realise a world free of nuclear weapons and pass on to the next generation and to the world the inhumane nature” of atomic weapons, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the ceremony.

  • Israeli-Palestinian Peace talks to Resume

    {{Palestinian and Israeli negotiators will resume talks on ending their long-standing conflict on August 14 in Jerusalem, the US State Department has said.}}

    The sides held their first peace negotiations in nearly three years in Washington on July 30 in US-mediated efforts to end the conflict of more than six decades. They agreed to try to resolve their differences within nine months.

    Jen Psaki, State Department spokeswoman, said that Martin Indyk, the US mediator, would attend the next round of talks, which will be followed by a meeting in Jericho.

    She said Secretary of State John Kerry, who hosted July’s resumption of the talks, “does not expect to make any announcement in the aftermath of this round of talks”.

    After three years of stalemate in the peace process, last month’s meeting was hailed as a breakthrough.

    Tzipi Livni, Israeli negotiator, and her Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erakat, held two days of face-to-face dialogue in Washington DC and promised to quickly resume talks in their divided region.

    The rivals hope to reach an agreement on recognising two states living side by side in peace, across a border roughly based on that of 1967, but many thorny issues remain.

    The final status of the city of Jerusalem and of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory are expected to be sticking points.

    Psaki, the State Department spokesperson, said it had expressed its concern to Israel after reports that it was to authorise the building of a thousand new homes for Jewish settlers on Palestinian land.

    Settlement building angers Palestinians, and the peace process has been derailed in the past by disputes over new housing.

    “Our position on settlements has not changed. We do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity and oppose any efforts to legitimise settlement outposts,” she said.

    The latest direct talks collapsed in late 2010 over Israel’s building of the settlements in the West Bank.

    Source: Agencies

  • Military plane bursts into flames at Mogadishu airport

    {{An Ethiopian military aircraft carrying ammunition crash-landed at Mogadishu’s international airport on Friday, bursting into flames and killing at least one crew member, airport staff and security officials said.}}

    The plane got into trouble in the air and then missed the runway, crashing into the ground nearby.

    Ethiopian troops are supporting Somalia’s fight against al Qaeda-linked militants in the Horn of Africa country, although they are not part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force.

    “We can hear explosions as it burns. It is burning like hell,” said one security source at the airport shortly after the accident.

    Yusuf Nur, an airport worker, said rounds of ammunition exploded in the fire.

    A convoy of empty Somali military trucks had earlier been seen at the airport.

    The fire, which was initially too intense for firefighting crews to tackle, was put out about two hours after the plane crashed. Witnesses said only a blackened shell remained.

    Military aircraft regularly land at the city’s airport, which also serves as the headquarters for the AU peacekeepers.

    Authorities closed the airport, which has received a growing number of passenger flights over the past two years after African troops and Somali government forces flushed Islamist al Shabaab rebels from their bases in the capital.

    Somalia’s aviation record is among the worst on a continent which has a history of plane disasters. Until recently, the carcass of a Russian-made cargo plane lay tilted on its belly between the runway and passenger terminal of Mogadishu’s airport.

    Somalia is emerging from more than two decades of civil conflict. Security has improved in Mogadishu, which until mid-2011 was the frontline in the battle between government forces and militants, though the capital is still vulnerable to insurgent attacks.

    reuters

  • Kiramuruzi Sector Council Convenes over ‘Beaten Cell Official’

    {{Kiramuruzi Sector Council has today (August 8)convened to discuss among other issues on the agenda, the recent wrangles between the executive secretary at the sector and Executive secretary of Gakenke cell.}}

    A reliable source has told IGIHE that the meeting was chaired by Rugengamanzi Emmanuel (Vice chairperson of the Sector Council), the secretary of the meeting was Niyonziza Felicien (Chairperson of Kiramuruzi Sector Council) Munyaburanga Joseph and Kayumba Charles were also present including other Executive Secretaries of Cells in the Sector.

    After the meeting, Niyonziza (chairperson of the meeting) confirmed to IGIHE that the meeting also discussed about the Munyaburanga-Kayumba wrangles but said the whole story was a hoax.

    “Munyaburanga did not strangle Kayumba as the media reported recently.But the meeting discussed about the issue among others,”Muzungu said without giving more details.

    However, Niyonziza declined to reveal the details of their discussions on the matter; “I cannot reveal the contents in the minutes of the meeting now because I dont know if you are a real journalist of IGIHE. You should come and we talk face to face.”

    Munyaburanga is accused of allegedly storming into Kayumba’s office on July 16 and strangling him while demanding that he relinquishes office Keys.

    Kayumba is also reported to have on July 15, appealed to the Gatsibo district authority over the matter which in turn constituted a committee to investigate the alleged wrangles between the two officials.

    Gatisbo district mayor Ruboneza Ambroise told IGIHE that there was no evidence that Munyaburanga had strangled Kayumba.

    {{Read Related Story}}:http://en.igihe.com/news/kiramuruzi-executive-secretary-accused-of-beating.html

  • Ex-Prime Minister Kambanda Publishes Damning Portrait of ICTR

    {{Writing from his prison cell in Mali, former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda has released a book that paints a damning portrait of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).}}

    Kambanda, who was given a maximum sentence of life despite pleading guilty, claims he was victim of a confidence trick by the ICTR prosecution.

    The book of some 400 pages is titled in French “Rwanda face à l’apocalypse” and is published by Belgian publishing house E.M.E. “Sources d’Homme”.

    Kambanda, a former head of the Banques Populaires du Rwanda, was Prime Minister of the government in place during the Rwandan genocide.

    After his arrest in Nairobi on July 18, 1997, Kambanda was flown to Arusha, Tanzania, where the ICTR is based. He writes that he was then installed in a “sumptuous villa”, where he stayed for two weeks and was subjected daily to 16 hours of questioning by a prosecution team. On August 3, he was transferred to the ICTR Detention Facility.

    “From August 3 to 27, 1997, I stayed in my cell without ever leaving it for a single minute,” he writes. “This ordeal had physical and psychological effects from which I still suffer today.”

    The next day, he was taken to Dodoma in central Tanzania accompanied by two investigators for the prosecution, Pierre Duclos and Marcel Desaulniers, ironically referred to as “my two guardian angels”. Still there was no indictment, he complains.

    “From the time of my arrest to my initial appearance nearly nine months later, I remained under the exclusive responsibility of the Office of the Prosecutor, with the full knowledge of the judges,” says Kambanda.

    “This despite the fact that my lawyer and organizations like Amnesty International had alerted them.” According to his book, the Registry refused to assign him the lawyer of his choice, Johan Scheers of Belgium, who was nevertheless on its list.

    “The person said to be my lawyer, Oliver Michael Inglis of Belgium, was in fact imposed by Deputy Prosecutor Bernard Muna,” Kambanda claims. He says that during his rare sessions with Inglis, prosecutor Pierre Duclos would sit nearby and request the minutes at the end of the meeting.

    As a “hostage of the prosecution”, “in conflict with the Registry”, without proper legal assistance and with the judges “turning a blind eye”, Kambanda claims he had no choice but to plead guilty.

    Above all, he says, Deputy Prosecutor Bernard Muna had promised to obtain from the judges a reduction in his sentence and to relocate his family who were living at the time in Côte d’Ivoire.

    If the former Prime Minister is to be believed, the prosecution even put pressure on his family after they arrived in Egypt so that he not retract his confession. He claims that representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor threatened to abandon his wife and children in the desert if he withdrew his guilty plea.

    “What could I do? (… ) I thought and I still think that I had to concede on everything so that one day I would be able to deliver freely my own testimony, for the sake of History. That is the only reason I pleaded guilty to all charges.”

    On May 1, 1998, Kambanda pleaded guilty to all six charges brought against him. However, on September 4, 1998, he was sentenced to life in jail. Feeling betrayed, Kambanda filed an appeal and stopped cooperating with the prosecution.

    He claims two envoys from the Office of the Prosecutor, Gilbert Morizette and France Thibodeau, went to see his family, who had just got asylum in the United States, and put new pressure on them.

    He claims they tried to persuade his wife to telephone him and tell him to maintain the guilty plea before the Appeals Chamber.

    “This idea I rejected,” says the former Rwandan Prime Minister. “I also informed the ICTR Prosecutor that if such pressure continued to be put on my family, I would tell them to request protection from the judicial authorities of their host country. This threat put a stop to all the prosecution’s pressure on my family.”

    Today he admits only the failure of his government to ensure the security of all Rwandans at that time. “As a human being, I have not committed any crime against any individual,” he writes.

    “I plead guilty to leading a government that was unable to protect its people, all its people, and not for any criminal act that I personally committed or ordered.” Kambanda also claims that “this government did everything that it could”.

    {Hirondellenews}

  • AMISOM Foils Al-Shabaab Planned Attacks

    {{AMISOM troops and Somali National Army yesterday evening raided an Al- Shabaab elite group camp planning to attack AMISOM defensive position in Afmadhow city in Southern Somalia.}}

    The Al- Qaeda linked militia group was preparing to attack the AMISOM defensive position when they were thwarted by the allied forces.

    The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif congratulated the forces on their alertness saying their speedy response had saved lives while thanking civilians for the tip off.

    During the late afternoon engagement, twenty four Al-Shabaab militias were killed among them three identified foreign fighters. Other militias escaped with multiple injuries and are being pursued by the allied forces.

    The joint forces recovered weapons and ammunition among them being a rocket propelled grenade launcher, two light machine guns, nine AK 47 rifles and other assorted equipment.

    Regrettably, two SNA soldiers died and four others sustained minor injuries and are receiving medical attention at AMISOM facility in the locale.

    Ambassador Annadif sent his condolences to the family and friends of the brave soldiers killed in the attack as well as his prayers and quick recovery for the wounded.

    He reiterated the mission’s support to the Somali National Security Forces saying the two were working closely to improve security in Southern Somalia. Afmadow has been relatively calm since its liberation from Al-Shabaab in early-2012.

    Many formerly displaced residents have been able to return to their homes and humanitarian aid agencies have resumed operations in the area.

    {agencies}

  • 117 Arrested in anti-crime Operation

    {{Police has arrested 117 people in connection with a string of criminal acts. The anti-Crime operation was conducted in the central business district of Nyarugenge.}}

    Those apprehended include 31 suspected thieves and drug dealers and consumers, 47 street vendors, loiterers and beggars.

    The District Police Commander, Chief Supt. Dismas Rutaganira said, “it was a normal operation aimed at fighting and preventing crimes.”

    Vending along Kigali streets is illegal following a 2009 directive from city authorities which penalizes those caught in this act.

    Penalties for anyone caught vending or buying goods from a hawker include a fine of Frw10, 000 and seizing the former’s belongings.

    These decisions aimed at bringing order and security and improve hygiene in the city.
    “We had reports of people involved in various criminal acts like theft where they would snatch ladies bags, electronics like phones, steal computers or other belongings in cars. These are things which embarrass the business community, the general public and even people visiting our country, which we can’t allow,” CSP Rutaganira said.

    He added: “Rwanda National Police and Nyarugenge District held a meeting where we decided to avail a free market in Biryogo, where vendors should relocate to. They were also given an incentive of operating in this place without paying taxes or rent for six months. We sensitized them to shift to this market, but some of them resisted.”

    “We, therefore, can’t tolerate this insubordination and secondly some wrongdoers disguise as vendors when in actual sense are drug dealers, using this chance to steal from clients by profiting this disorder. Such operations are therefore ways of maintaining public order and security in the city,” he explained.

    Senior Supt. Urbain Mwiseneza, the central region police spokesperson said those apprehended were taken to Gikondo Transit Centre for screening.

    “At the centre, they are given civic education and urged (vendors) to form cooperative societies, which helps their businesses to grow instead of remaining on streets, which is illegal and threats security. For those involved in other criminal acts, those found to be habitual are taken to Iwawa Rehabilitation and Vocational Development Centre,” Senior Supt. Mwiseneza said.

    “We can’t allow anything that threats the peace and security of people and their property. There is always an alternative and a better one for every Rwandan to develop, an opportunity everyone should seize,” he added.

    {RNP}

  • Rwandan Trader Robbed of U$250,000 in Goma

    {{A Rwandan trader Dusengimana Kayitesi 30, has allegedly been kidnapped and robbed of US$250,000 in cash by members of the Congolese army FARDC based near Goma Airport.}}

    A relative of Kayitesi told IGIHE that she was kidnapped Wednesday near Goma airport at 3:00PM on her way to purchase machandise. She was later snatched by members of FARDC army that whisked her into a military vehicle and drove off to an undisclosed place.

    The information of Kayitesi’s kidnap was revealed to her family by one of her workmates after the incidence. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

    Tuyishime Jean de Dieu also a relative of Kayitesi told IGIHE that he feared his sister could have been killed.