The Lords have insisted on amendments to the Bill that declare Rwanda a safe country, despite the members of the House of Commons overturning proposals put forth in the Bill on Tuesday.
Some of the amendments the peers are pushing for include the exemption of agents, allies, and employees of the UK overseas, including Afghans who served alongside British soldiers, from the scheme and the condition that Rwanda would not be declared safe until a report is completed.
They are also seeking amendments to ensure that the Bill complies with domestic and international law, including human rights and modern slavery legislation, and to ensure that the scheme allows appeals based on safety.
The MPs are now expected to vote on the peers proposals next week on Monday.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had hoped that the Bill would be passed on Wednesday to pave the way for the first flight to depart to Rwanda.
The Labour party, accused by Sunak of derailing the scheme, had opposed rushing it, stating that flights should not take off until a committee of experts, set up to monitor the scheme, determines that Rwanda has fulfilled certain safety standards.
The scheme, first announced in April 2022 by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government following a deal with Rwandan authorities, seeks to act as a deterrent to persons arriving in the UK on small boats across the English Channel.
The Bill was introduced to Parliament after the UK Supreme Court ruled that the government’s scheme was unlawful.
The judges argued that genuine refugees being removed to Rwanda faced the risk of being returned to their home countries, where they could face harm.
Speaking on Sanny Ntayombya’s podcast the ‘Long Form’, the seasoned international lawyer maintained that there was no evidence to support the claims that the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) engaged in a counter-genocide against the Hutus after taking control of the country and stopping the government-led killing of the Tutsi in July 1994.
According to Adeogun-Phillips, while there were killings of members of the Hutu community during the period, there was no evidence to prove that the murders were coordinated or state-sponsored, as witnessed during the 100 days of targeted killings of the Tutsi.
“There was clear evidence that there was some reprisal attacks but there is no evidence that those reprisal attacks were coordinated or state sponsored,” Adeogun-Phillips stated.
He maintained that the RPF soldiers had no means to commit a genocide as they were “too busy trying to gain ground to be able to secure and take over the country as best as they could.”
“It was not humanly possible for them to have spread to be chasing the refugees and doing what they are alleged to have done. Not on a concerted national planning level as we saw with the genocide.”
“Widespread and systematic attacks in international criminal law require coordination not only on the local level but also on the central level. If you knew the amount of planning that went into planning the Genocide against the Tutsi, the purchase of machetes, how machetes were imported, how refugees were gathered in preconceived safe locations, how political leaders were earmarked and eliminated here in Kigali and other parts of the country, there was no such evidence of a plan against the Hutu,” he added.
As an investigator, he claimed to have been aware of court martial processes against soldiers suspected to have been involved in the isolated cases of reprisal attacks.
“There were some cases of court martials taking place. As part of my work, I was privy to some of the investigations that we did and shared with government. I was privy to some of the prosecutions that took place,” the lawyer noted.
Adeogun-Phillips played a leading role in the probed and prosecution of 12 war crime trials before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda UN-ICTR.
Reflecting on the tribunal’s works as the country marks the 30th commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi which claimed the lives of a million people, the lawyer said there were many challenges ranging from inadequate facilities to limited number of judges to hear the cases in Arusha, Tanzania.
“Our infrastructural needs as an institution did not progress as fast as our procedural needs. Maybe there were two cases on at a time but there was no court room, the judges had to alternate,” he revealed.
The ICTR was established pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 955 of November 8, 1994.
Curtains came down on the tribunal in December 2015 after more than two decades of trial that led to indictment of 93 individuals, 61 convictions and 14 acquittals.
During the period, the ICTR withdrew two indictments, and three individuals died before the conclusion of their trials. Furthermore, five cases were transferred to national courts in Rwanda and France.
According to The Telegraph, the list of 13 military top brass includes three former Chiefs of the Defence Staff as well as a former Chief of the General Staff and a former Chief of the Naval Staff.
In a letter quoted by the British publication, the group sent a strong warning to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying deporting Afghans who fought alongside the British army would be a “dereliction of our moral duty”.
“Any brave men and women who have fought alongside our armed forces or served the UK Government overseas must be exempt from removal to Rwanda,” the letter signed by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Craig of Radley, Gen Lord Richards of Herstmonceux and Gen Lord Houghton of Richmond—all former Chiefs of the Defence Staff—was quoted as saying.
The group further accused the government of mismanaging the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy – known as the ARAP scheme – which was launched in April 2021.
The scheme was established to help current or former Afghan staff who were employed by the UK government in Afghanistan.
The military chief’s warning comes amid reports that Afghan soldiers have been subjected to torture and murder by the Taliban after being denied help by the UK Government, despite extensive evidence showing they were paid, trained, and worked “shoulder to shoulder” with British special forces.
The military top brass argue that the Arap scheme was “intended to be a lifeline for brave Afghans who worked alongside UK forces but there is a huge backlog of applications”.
“It is essential that those who have made it to British shores are not unduly punished by being removed to Rwanda when the Government’s scheme is up and running,” the group is further quoted.
The sentiments come at a time Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill, which proposes the relocation of certain asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda for processing their claims, returns to the Commons on Monday after a series of defeats in the Lords.
Rwanda and the UK signed the Migration and Economic Development Partnership in April 2022.
Officials said the migrants caught trying to enter UK territory illegally by boat or hiding in vehicles would be sent to Rwanda.
The scheme faced headwinds last November after the UK Supreme Court ruled that it was unlawful.
This forced the government to amend the legislation, including a new treaty and stating in law that Rwanda is a safe country.
MPs are expected to vote on those amendments when they return to parliament.
This week, Sunak, while expressing his confidence that the scheme would succeed, faulted the Labour Party for the delays in the implementation of the programme.
“First of all we need to get it through parliament, where the Labour Party has been blocking it for a long time.
“Once it is up and running I am confident we will be able to operationalise the scheme [and] get people on flights because that’s how we set up a deterrent and ultimately end the unfairness of people jumping the queue, coming here illegally, putting pressure on local services and risking their own lives,” he stated in response to a question from the reporters seeking to know when the first flight would depart to Rwanda.
In March 2024, UK authorities announced that the government would offer failed asylum seekers up to £3,000 (Rwf4,866,727) to move to Rwanda under the new voluntary scheme.
In a statement released in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, however, faulted the UN Security Council for failing to stop Israel’s aggression, which claimed the lives of seven Iranian senior military advisors.
“Upon instructions from my Government and pursuant to our letter dated 1 April 2024 concerning the Israeli regime’s armed attacks against the diplomatic premises of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, the Syrian Arab Republic, which led to the martyrdom of seven Iranian senior military advisories (A/78/838-S/2024/281), I would like to inform you that, in the late hours of 13 April 2024, the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out a series of military strikes on Israeli military objectives,” the statement reads.
“This action was in the exercise of Iran’s inherent right to self-defense as outlined in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, and in response to the Israeli recurring military aggressions, particularly its armed attack on 1st April 2024 against Iranian diplomatic premises, in the defiance of Article 2 (4) of the Charter of the United Nations.”
Iran accused the UN Security Council of failing in its duty to maintain international peace and security, which it said had allowed the Israeli regime to “transgress red lines and violate the fundamental principles of international law.”
“Such violations have exacerbated tensions in the region and threatened regional and international peace and security,” the mission stated.
Iran, while acknowledging its commitment to resolving the conflict amicably, warned that any further provocations would result in a “stronger” response.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent right of self-defense when required. Should the Israeli regime commit any military aggression again, Iran’s response will assuredly and decisively be stronger, and more resolute,” the mission warned.
Israel said on Sunday that more than 300 drones and missiles were launched at it from Iran, Iraq and Yemen, adding that a majority of them had been intercepted.
Israel further noted that the attacks had resulted in minimal damage but warned people to remain alert.
United States President Joe Biden condemned the Iranian drone attacks on military facilities in Israel, further affirming America’s “ironclad commitment” to the security of Israel.
“Tomorrow, I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack,” he said.
Iran’s attack mirrors that of Israel-Hamas war which started on October 7, 2023.
Hamas launched missile attacks on Israel, saying the attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, threats to the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the plight of Palestinian refugees and prisoners.
EAC Deputy Secretary General, Andrea Ariik Aguer Malueth, said plans are underway to table the request before the Council for consideration, as part of efforts to ensure EAC takes a leading role to prevent a repeat of the atrocities committed in Rwanda in 1994.
If the proposal sails through, the Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi would be observed by EAC Partner States, Organs, and Institutions like any other EAC day, and given a commemoration budget in the EAC Annual Budgets.
“We are going to lay strategies to ensure that the genocide vice is uprooted from our region, through discussions and reflections on the dangers of genocide ideology and its denial,” Malueth stated.
Malueth spoke on behalf of EAC Secretary General Peter Mathuki during the commemoration at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania, on Monday, April 8.
The deputy secretary general disclosed that in an effort to show solidarity with the government and people of Rwanda to commemorate Genocide Against Tutsi, the EAC Heads of State Summit erected a Genocide Monument in the EAC Gardens at the EAC Headquarters in memory of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
He further noted that the EAC Secretariat has marked 7th to 13th April each year as silent week in the EAC Calendar of Activities.
Acknowledging the rise of Rwanda from the 1994 ashes, Malueth said Rwanda’s tremendous strides had exceeded expectations.
The event was also attended by Louis Uwimana, EAC Liaison Officer from Rwanda, who emphasized Rwanda’s commitment to continue sensitizing the international community to enact laws that criminalize genocide and genocide ideology.
Uwimana also underscored Rwanda’s collaboration with national and foreign partners in the fight against denial and revisionism of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Rwanda is among the eight member states of EAC. Others are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, the Federal Republic of Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.
Speaking during his engagement with the media on Monday, April 8, 2024, the Head of State said the country had defied the odds to record tremendous growth over the last 30 years, when the country was derailed by the Genocide against the Tutsi that left at least a million people dead.
“In the next 30 years we will continue making progress and be where others are that they have even taken for granted. We see developed countries, why can’t Rwanda or Africa develop to that extent or even beyond,” Kagame stated.
He highlighted that with the right politics in the country and the region, Rwanda will be far much better than its current state.
“The Rwanda of the next 30 years should maybe be three, four, or five times better than what you are seeing now. Thirty years from our graves to being here, I think another year we are not coming from the graves; this time we are coming from some level of progress,” he added.
Rwanda economy is, according to Central Bank Governor John Rwangombwa, projected to remain strong and resilient with the country’s GDP expected to grow by 6.6 per cent in 2024 after recording a remarkable growth of 8.2 per cent to hit $35 billion last year.
{{Instability in eastern DRC}}
Weighing in on the political instability in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), President Kagame lamented what he termed the dehumanization of the Congolese Tutsis.
He insisted that the M23 rebel group, which he has been accused of backing by President Felix Tshisekedi, is fighting for the rights of the Congolese Tutsis who are being “uprooted from their ancestral land, persecuted,” and left to seek shelter in neighboring countries, including Rwanda and Uganda.
“I am saying that even those who are accusing us, I should actually accuse them of not supporting M23 because it is as if they agree with the injustice being done to this community,” he said in response to a question whether he supports the rebel group.
President Kagame said more than 100,000 refugees have sought shelter in Rwanda due to the insecurity in the eastern part of the DRC.
“Otherwise, if you did not agree with this injustice, you would actually be raising questions as to why these M23 people are being treated like this. Why do we have 100,000 refugees in Rwanda?” Kagame stated.
He added, “Whether Rwanda supports or associates in anyway with M23 is immaterial.”
Speaking during his recent visit to Rwanda for the 30th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Ramaphosa admitted that the relationship between the two countries has been facing challenges.
He, however, indicated that since he came to power, he has been working to mend the relations.
According to the South African Head of State, some of the “wrinkles” include Rwandans needing to apply for visas to visit South Africa, something he said he had agreed with his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, to resolve “as soon as possible”.
“I had an extensive discussion with him about how we can refashion our relationship on a bilateral basis on issues to do with visa and travel. We believe that we are definitely going to get on the way of rekindling and rebuilding that relationship,” Ramaphosa stated.
“I say rekindling because it is a relationship that is in existence, like relationships between countries, sometimes they face challenges, they wrinkle up and those wrinkles will be straightened up.”
Ramaphosa also noted that the crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the war with the M23 rebel group, which DRC accuses Rwanda of backing, featured prominently in their discussions.
The two leaders agreed that a political solution would be much beneficial in ending the tension between Rwanda and DRC rather than military action.
“We both agreed that peace was an essential component fostering the development of this part of the continent and that in doing so we should bring the conflicts that are happening in the eastern part of the DRC to an end,” he said.
“There are a number of forces that operate in this area (North Kivu) and we agreed that a peaceful political solution is the best option to any military action.”
Ramaphosa also noted that he had involved former President Thabo Mbeki in the discussions and hoped for a resolution of the dispute.
“All of us, in our discussions, expressed a deep yearning for a peaceful political solution to the challenges being faced [in the DRC]. I leave Rwanda with a renewed, bigger intention to find a solution that could lead to a political solution.”
Kagame, on his part said, the discussions were fruitful.
“I think we had a very good discussion, very good understanding of the situation and maybe the best ways we can work together to resolve that,” he told the media on Monday.
Ramaphosa had attracted criticism over his decision to deploy more than 2,000 troops to the Eastern Congo as part of SADC mission to fight alongside a Congolese government-led coalition. This coalition includes the FDLR, composed of Interahamwe, who are remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Rwanda protested against the South Africa-led mission and urged the United Nations Security Council not to support the troops logistically or technically, arguing that do so could spark a regional war.
Speaking during an engagement with the media on Monday, April 8, 2024, President Kagame said he had requested the US to be “kind enough” to commemorate with Rwanda every April 7 and avoid constant criticism of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) leadership during this special day.
“For me, that concern was answered long ago by making our position clear, maybe in 2014 or 2015 when we told them to be kind enough to commemorate with us on April 7 and have the rest of 365 days to blame us every day for everything they don’t like about us,” said President Kagame.
He was responding to a question from a local journalist who sought to know whether he discussed America’s failure to define the genocide against the Tutsi correctly during his recent meeting with former President Bill Clinton.
“We receive messages from all over the world joining us in the commemoration. At that time, we received a message that talked about, on one hand, Kwibuka and sympathizing with us, and then another part addressed issues about democracy, human rights, and everything that we are thought not to have in our country.”
“Our country wrote a letter back to the US. I am the one who authored that letter. The United States or any government of any country has the freedom to tell us what they want, whether we are happy about it or not. That is no problem, and we are always going to accept whatever is brought our way,” President Kagame stated.
He noted that the US or any other foreign state was free to criticize the country but not on the commemoration day dubbed “Kwibuka”.
“But I also told them an important thing: on this commemoration, we are grateful when you commemorate with us. But for these other points you are trying to make to us, we have one request which is important to us. We told them, ‘Feel free to commemorate with us if you want, and feel free to tell us whatever you don’t like about us. But our request is one: when it’s the day of commemoration, which is April 7, can you be kind enough to commemorate with us and stop there,” he added.
“There are 365 days in a year; give us that day of April 7 to commemorate with us, and then you can have the rest of the 364 days to blame us every day for everything you don’t like. Just separate these things: blame us for the rest of the days of the year.’ I thought it was a fair deal. For me, that problem was solved that day.”
Yesterday, President Paul Kagame, in an apparent reference to the US, also condemned intentional vagueness in reporting of the genocide against the Tutsi, which he said plays a role in fueling denial.
“Rwandans will never understand why any country would remain intentionally vague about who was targeted in the genocide. I don’t understand that. Such ambiguity is, in fact, a form of denial, which is a crime in and of itself, and Rwanda will always challenge it,” Kagame stated during Kwibuka30.
The French book, written by Esther Mujawayo and Daniel Le Scornet, was launched during the Kwibuka30 International Conference held at Intare Arena in Kigali on Friday, 5, 2024. The newly -launched book retails at RWF25,000.
Speaking during the launch of the book, Mujawayo, who founded AVEGA after the genocide in 1994, said 13 women from the association contributed to the book.
According to the survivor, the testimonies in the book aim to comfort people suffering from trauma and depression by showing them that they have a supportive country and that survival is possible, as evidenced by these women’s experiences.
“The association helped us a lot from trauma, from loneliness as all our relatives were killed… Being together not only brought us hope but brought us to life,” she stated.
Mukandoli Dancille, one of the women and contributor in the book, emphasized that the organization had not only renewed their hope to live but help the vulnerable too.
“We started the association in tears. We would wonder what we could do with tears. There was a lot of trauma that we could not bear alone without the support of others. We used to think we were dead. But we survived. We wondered what we could do. We said we needed to do something; we didn’t need to cry alone,” she stated.
“Later, we were determined and said we could do it. Even our grown children were telling us, ‘Mom, you are our heroines. You can do something that could change the world.’ To speak out about what had happened in Rwanda.”
The association’s work includes starting a trauma center to help individuals suffering from trauma receive counseling and other psychological services.
“In the months following the genocide, we were lost. We had women, like teachers, who lost their children. When schools reopened and these women saw students the same age as their deceased children, they were traumatized and even fled their jobs. Nurses faced similar experiences. Providing care to children the same age as their own who were killed during the genocide deeply affected them mentally,” Dancille disclosed.
“We thought that the first thing to do is establish a trauma center for traumatized people because then someone who was traumatized was deemed to be mad,” she added.
Scornet, on his part, maintained that the women deserve to be heard because they have an important message for humanity.
“We went out of our way with pen and paper to have something to remember all the people we lost. Now that the genocide is recognized and the responsibility, including that of my country, is known, we felt compelled to write something. We approached this with some form of ambition because we wanted to share what happened to these ladies,” the author added.
The 28-year-old came into the limelight in 2022 after her Master’s thesis, “The Port of Evidence: Reconstructing Past Events of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi,” from the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture, received a distinction.
She also scooped three other merit awards for her research, which largely challenges the validity of the documented history on the three Rwandan communities – Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa.
Speaking during her presentation dubbed “Architectures of Memory: Exploring the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi” at the Kigali Public Library on Saturday, April 6, 2024, Mhoja said that her research investigated an ideal ethnicity, which was validated through the eugenics movement started by Belgian colonialists in Rwanda in 1919.
Mhoja said personal experiences where she was often subjected to discrimination based on her facial appearance in her home country Tanzania and other countries, shaped the objectives of her research work.
According to the architect, due to her Tutsi ancestry, she was once stopped by an immigration official who demanded to see her birth certificate.
She disclosed that her grandfather was from Rwanda and was exiled to Tanzania by the Belgian colonizers.
“My interest in the subject began with me constantly being discriminated against in different countries including my home Tanzania and asking why I am discriminated against based on how I look and my facial features,” she said.
The perception about her looks pushed her to look into the craniometric measurements performed by Belgian anthropologist, Jean Hiernaux, on the classification of the three ethnic groups of Rwanda.
Hiernaux had through his findings developed an index which classified the ethnic groups and claimed that the Tutsis were more “superior” because they originated from Caucasoid phenotypes. Using facial features and their sizes, the Tutsis were compared to the Aryans, Jews, and Greeks.
The Belgian government then used this index to assign ethnic cards, which afforded the most privileges to the Tutsis that brought about hate, which is blamed in the killing of more than one million people 30 years ago.
Using her training in architecture, she was able to disprove Hiernaux’s Index using her facial measurements as the Index could not prove that she was a Tutsi.
Using archived materials, she was also able to analyze how other infrastructures including the media such as Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) were used to continue to perpetuate hate messages against the Tutsi.
“Through looking at the infrastructure that facilitated the genocide, I began to question how we can subvert the historical narrative of these infrastructures facilitating genocide and look to informal spaces and public areas which can provide healing, learning, and information about the dangers of the genocide,” she said.
The Master’s thesis took Mhoja a year to complete.
She noted that she faced several challenges in the research including sieving through all types of information on the internet including that from genocide denials and filtering the truth from false information.
Mhoja intends to continue to explore the subject of the genocide further in the future as part of her Ph.D. work.
Some of the notable personalities who attended the event included genocide and history researcher Tom Ndahiro and political analyst Albert Rudatsimburwa, among others.
The presentation came a day before the 30th commemoration of the genocide where several heads-of-state across Africa and other high-ranking dignitaries including former United States President Bill Clinton are scheduled to attend.”
