Author: Publisher

{ It is a historical Trial that opens next Tuesday before the Assize Court of Paris. Captain Pascal Simbikangwa, a family friend of former President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda fifties will be the first to be tried in France, a country accused by Kigali of being a haven for genocide suspects.}

Accused of complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity, Pascal Simbikangwa must answer for his role before a jury in the Criminal Court of Paris

Mr. Vinay Kumar, Joint Secretary for Eastern and Southern Africa, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

H.E. Mrs. Jennet Zewide, Ambassador of Ethiopia and Acting Dean of the African Diplomatic Group

H.E. Archibishop Msg. Salvatore PENNACCHIO, Apostolic Nuncio

Mr. Rajiv Chandran, United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan

Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank the United Nations Information Center for India and Bhutan for being an invaluable partner and for co-hosting this and other genocide commemoration activities over the next couple of months.

Your Excellencies,

Allow me to invoke this famous statement and poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller, a German Pastor and Theologian:

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one to speak for me.”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We all have a responsibility to speak out in the face of genocide, anti-Semitism, bigotry, hatred, racism, intolerance or discrimination. These crimes know no boundary.

After the Jewish holocaust, the world committed that “Never Again” would such heinous and brutal tragedy befall human kind.

That pledge was never honored. That is partly why we have gathered here today.

Twenty years this year, Rwanda went through the worst horror of the modern human history. While the world looked on, over one million innocent, unarmed, ordinary children, women, men, disabled, young and old Rwandan Tutsi were massacred in the most brutal and inhumane way.

The genocide against the Tutsi which started on April 7th 1994 was the fastest, most vicious and brutal mass massacre in the known history of mankind. It is estimated that 10,000 people were massacred every day, with 20 people killed per minute. In just 100 days, over one million people perished. This is inconceivable. The entire fabric of the Rwanda society was destroyed. The negative legacy and devastation of the genocide on the Rwandan people and the region has been devastating.

The “crime” of those killed was only because they had been born Tutsi, a matter on which they had no choice. Nobody has a say about which tribe, ethnic group, region or religion they will be born into, and it is not a crime to be who one is created to be.

Your Excellencies,

We gather today to remember and pay homage to the victims of this carnage and ruthless atrocity. We are here also to pledge solidarity and to strengthen the survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi.

Elie Wiesel, Author, Noble Laureate and one of the most prominent survivors of the Jewish Holocaust made a powerful statement in reflection to his own brutal experience and suffering during the holocaust. His words imbue a heavy responsibility on all of us “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness”.

This act of remembrance and reflection is one way for us to bear witness. In a small, but meaningful way, we honor the dead and console and strengthen the living.

Remembering is very vital. Elie Wiesel further emphasizes this in these words “without memory there is no culture, without memory there would be no civilization, no society, no future”.

For Rwanda, this Kwibuka20 (20th Commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi) is very significant. We will observe 100 days of remembrance, reflection and soul searching on what went wrong in our society that led to the genocide. What were the consequences and how can we build a shared, prosperous and stable future for all Rwandans today and for future generations. Commemoration activities were launched in Kigali on 7th January and have continued in different countries in all parts of the world.

This launch today in New Delhi, will see the lighting of a torch of hope that will move across India and return to New Delhi on April 7th for the main genocide commemoration. This will coincide with the main 20th Commemoration observation in Kigali and the rest of the world.

The theme for this year’s genocide commemoration: Remember, Unite, Renew, was deliberately selected to reflect the future that Rwandans want to build.

Let me explain:

Remember:

Remembrance is about honoring the memory of those who perished and offer comfort to survivors. This period is one of deep reflection and mourning for survivors and their families. I would like to use this platform to call on those present here and the global community to reflect on the suffering, trauma and hardship the survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi have endured and continue to face. The scars of the genocide are still flesh. 20 years is not a long time.

Remembering, without bitterness, pity or hopelessness, but with dignity, resilience and a determination to gather the pieces and move on, is the only means to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

Unite:

Rwanda is determined to uproot the history of bad governance, discrimination, culture of impunity, hatred and bigotry which laid the foundation for the genocide and tore our society apart.

We have chosen to focus on things that unite Rwandans, which far outweigh any differences, real or perceived. The history of the country focused on fomenting differences, even where they didn’t exist. Rwandans share one language, one culture, same values and norms with a long history of peaceful and harmonious co-existence. These are powerful assets that we want to nature and reclaim our true Rwandan identity.

The Rwandan leadership is today inculcating and promoting a culture of tolerance, values of self-worth (agaciro), rebuilding the shared Rwandan identity (ubunyarwanda), and rule of law and respect of individual rights. Rwandans have been awakened to the reality that we have a shared responsibility to build a new modern stable nation of shared opportunity and prosperity. Every Rwandan must have a stake in this new nation. Strong pillars and a foundation for national unity and reconciliation have been firmly built.

Rick Warren, a renowned American Pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life” in acknowledging the progress Rwanda has made in building reconciliation remarked “ In all my travels, I’ve never seen a country’s population more determined to forgive, to build and succeed than Rwanda”

Renew:

In the words of my President, His Excellency Paul Kagame, “we cannot turn the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again”

The President has also often said that the 1994 genocide, much as it was a tragic and inconceivable horror for the Rwandan people, we must refuse to be bogged down by tragedy. From it, we should garner the courage and resolve to rebuild our lives and our country. Revive the Rwandan values of resilience, self-worth, respect and dignity and single mindedly focus on pursuing a vision of transformation that will ensure that genocide never happens again. From the catastrophe, we should build an entirely new and modern nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

From almost a failed state in 1994, Rwanda has become a beacon of hope, prosperity and equal opportunity for its people.

President Paul Kagame has provided the leadership, charisma and vision which has inspired Rwandans, given us hope and demonstrated that a failed state can stand again on its feet, be a model for post conflict recovery and regain its place in the global community of nations.

Rwanda is today a stable country. The economy has grown at over 8% per year over the last decade. Per capita income has tripled over the same period.

Rwanda has created a vibrant market economy, with a competitive and attractive investment and business environment. Foreign Direct Investment has grown significantly.

The infrastructure has been rebuilt and further expanded across the country. There is universal access to education, health and basic social protection services. Rwanda is one of the countries on track to achieve almost all the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 timeline.

Institutions of governance and the core foundation for democracy have been built. Rwanda established efficient, transparent, accountable systems for provision of basic services.

Different sections of the Rwandan society – youth, women, disabled, civil society and religious groups have assumed an important stake and play an active role in the process of rebuilding the country. Women have come at the forefront of nation-building. Today, for every one man in Parliament, there are two women, with a women representation in parliament of 64%, the largest in the world.

Your Excellencies,

In order to contribute to ensuring that what happened in Rwanda in 1994 never happens elsewhere, Rwanda has committed to making substantive contribution to peace keeping across the world. This week, we completed a full deployment of a mechanized battalion of 850 peace keepers to Central African Republic. Rwanda has become one of the top 6 troop contributing countries to UN peace keeping missions across the world. We have peace keepers and monitoring teams deployed in South Sudan, Darfur, Chad, Ivory Coast, Haiti and Liberia.

Peace keeping is an undertaking that we take very seriously and with full commitment based on the experience of genocide in our country. The genocide against the Tutsi was preventable. But the world and the international community abandoned us at the hour of greatest need. We believe no country should suffer the same fate and lives should not be wasted due to indifference and inaction of global actors.

In the words of Ann Clwyd MP, a British Member of Parliament, “genocide is the responsibility of the entire world”. Rwanda’s experience proves otherwise. We are therefore determined to make a modesty contribution within our means to help save lives where ever the need arises and we are able to contribute.

Edmund Burke, famously said that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” or simply put, “when good men do nothing, evil triumphs”.

With this, I believe we can all leave this room with a determination to make our individual and collective contribution to speak out against genocide, racism, hatred, bigotry, anti-Semitism, intolerance and any form of discrimination. Because if we do not speak out now, then when they come for us, there will be no-one to speak for us, to use the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller.

Thank you for your kind attention.

{The United Nations Security Council has ordered Congolese armed forces (FARDC) to halt collaboration with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a blacklisted terrorist outfit with bases in that country’s eastern region.}

This is contained in Security Council Resolution no. 2014/55 that was passed yesterday, which also demands FDLR, whose members are largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, to disarm and disband.

The Council noted with “deep concern reports indicating FARDC collaboration with the FDLR at a local level, recalling that the FDLR is a group under UN sanctions whose leaders and members include perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.”

The Security Council said FDLR continues to “promote and commit ethnically based and other killings in Rwanda and in the DRC”.

Kigali has repeatedly blamed FDLR and a network run by renegade former military officers for a spate of grenade attacks inside Rwanda over the last couple of years.

Former FDLR combatants and other sources have previously revealed how the Congolese army maintained close ties with the militia group, with some FDLR elements fighting alongside FARDC on different fronts in the country’s troubled east.

Last year, FDLR units made brief incursions on Rwanda on several occasions, causing some deaths in areas near the Congo border.

All armed groups to cease

The UN Resolution demands that all DR Congo-based armed groups, including FDLR, and Uganda’s Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as well as various Mayi Mayi groups to “cease immediately all forms of violence and other destabilising activities and that their members immediately and permanently disband, lay down their arms and demobiliSe children from their ranks.”

The world body warned that the situation in eastern DR Congo, where a 20,000-plus UN peacekeeping mission is authorised to use force to disarm armed groups, “continues to constitute a threat to peace and security in the region”.

After the adoption of the UN Resolution, Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Eugène-Richard Gasana, said his government shared the same concerns with the Security Council’s over reports of the FARDC-FDLR collaboration, but that Rwanda remained committed to finding a lasting solution to recurring crises in eastern DR Congo, bilaterally or through regional efforts.

The FARDC-FDLR alliance is of particular concern because the militia is among those targeted by a 3,000-strong special intervention brigade, deployed last year to bolster the UN peacekeeping force, Monusco.

After the brigade helped defeat the M23 rebels in November last year, its leaders promised to go after the FDLR and other armed forces, but as of to date, nothing has been done.

Instead, reports from eastern DR Congo indicate that FDLR expanded its territory after moving into some of the areas previously occupied by the M23 rebels, and launched a fresh wave of deadly attacks against civilians.

“The Security Council strongly condemns all armed groups operating in the region and their violations of international humanitarian law as well as other applicable international law, and abuses of human rights including attacks on the civilian population, Monusco peacekeepers and humanitarian actors, summary executions, sexual and gender based violence and large scale recruitment and use of children, and reiterates that those responsible will be held accountable,” the Resolution reads in part.

It Council called on “all States, especially those in the region, to take effective steps to ensure that there is no support, in and from their territories, for the armed groups in the eastern part of the DR Congo”.

It also urged States to “take steps, where appropriate, against leaders of the FDLR and other armed groups residing in their countries.”

For some time now, top FDLR political and military leaders have been under travel and financial sanctions, and there is a US$5 million bounty for anyone with information that would lead to the capture of the group’s supreme commander, Sylvester Mudacumura.

Meanwhile, 20 years after the Genocide, the UN for the first time yesterday used the phrase “genocide against the Tutsi” in reference to the 1994 killings that claimed the lives of one million people, instead of the “Rwandan genocide”.

The label “Rwandan genocide” is mainly associated with groups and individuals who attempt to distort the history of the Genocide, including those who deny that Tutsis were the principal targets during the 100-day killing spree.

Rwanda is currently serving its second year as a non-permanent member of the 15-nation UN Security Council.

{Source : AllAfrica}

{Rwandans are deeply saddened by the news of the death of Anne Heyman who is the Founder of Agahozo Shalom Youth village in Rwanda.}

Inspired by Israeli youth villages that took in Holocaust orphans, Ms. Heyman and her husband Seth Merrin, founder of electronic stock-trading firm Liquidnet, set out in 2006 to build a place where Rwandan orphans could go to live, study and help rebuild their country.

Expressing his sadness, Rwanda’s Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean P. Nsengimana tweeted that “your legacy will live on forever, our thoughts are with your family and hundreds of youth in Agahozo Shalom Youth Village who just lost a mother.”

In a statement released on its official website, Agahozo Shalom Village says “Death is nothing so long as one can survive through one’s children. – Rwandan Proverb

It is with deep and heartfelt sorrow that we share the sad news of the unexpected passing of Anne Heyman, founder of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. Each of us grieves not only for the passing of a tremendous woman and a true visionary, but also for the loss suffered by her family.

Nine years ago, Anne had a vision to build a village to heal vulnerable orphans in Rwanda. Today her vision has been realized and countless lives have been transformed by her incredible generosity, spirit and determination. She has made a remarkable impact on this world and we will continue to work to uphold her legacy.

Agahozo Shalom will be providing details on the funeral arrangements in the coming days.

The UN Security Council on Thursday renewed a sanctions regime against Democratic Republic of Congo in a vote that sparked a furious row between Congo and Rwanda.

The council backed a sanctions committee report which says the M23 rebel group is recruiting in Rwanda despite its military defeat and that its leaders are moving freely in Uganda.

Rwanda, as a temporary member of the 15-nation Security Council, voted for resolution 2136 but then lashed out at the sanctions report and DR Congo.

Kigali’s UN ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana called the sanctions committee report “baseless” and said his DR Congo counterpart was a “cry baby” always complaining to the council about Rwanda.

DR Congo’s ambassador Ignace Gata Mativa said the sanctions experts had clearly shown “grave violations” by Rwanda and Uganda by aiding “destabilisation” in eastern DR Congo.

“Such an attitude constitutes an act of aggression that the Security Council must record and condemn,” Mr Gata added.

“Dear friend, it is time to stop acting like a cry baby each time, each time to come here and hit out at Rwanda,” Mr Gasana responded.

M23 launched an uprising against the DR Congo government in 2012 and briefly occupied the key city of Goma before it was defeated by government forces late last year. It is one of a host of groups that have brought strife to eastern DR Congo over the past two decades.

UN experts have repeatedly said Rwanda and Uganda support the rebels. The two countries deny any role in the uprising.

Mr Gasana repeated accusations that the experts are “unprofessional” and that their work threatens peace efforts.

The council resolution renewed the mandate of the experts and expressed “full support” for their work, however.

‘Critical step’

The council expressed “strong condemnation” of “internal or external support to armed groups active in the region, including through financial, logistical and military support.” But it did not mention Rwanda or any alleged backing for M23.

The resolution did highlight “deep concern” over accusations in the sanctions report that DR Congo forces had been in “collaboration” with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which includes some fighters who took part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

The Security Council ordered that individuals and entities arming DR Congo groups “through illicit trade of natural resources, including gold or wildlife as well as wildlife products” should be included on the sanctions list.

The East African

{Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants may be planning new attacks on Kenya, the director of US national intelligence warned on Wednesday.}

Security has increased and counter-terrorism efforts have been strengthened in Kenya and other East African countries in the aftermath of the September massacre at the Westgate shopping mall, intelligence chief James Clapper said in his global threat assessment for 2014.

“Nonetheless,” he told the members of the US Senate’s intelligence committee, “East African governments will have difficulty protecting the wide range of potential targets.”

Shabaab could also launch attacks on Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda because of those countries’ troop contributions to the African Union force in Somalia, Mr Clapper added.

{{Somalia and South Sudan}}

He was unsparingly candid in his assessments of the governments of Somalia and South Sudan.

“The credibility and effectiveness of the young Somali government will be further threatened by persistent political infighting, weak leadership from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, ill-equipped government institutions and pervasive technical, political and administrative shortfalls,” Mr Clapper declared.

“Rampant corruption” will continue to afflict South Sudan, he added. And President Salva Kiir’s “authoritarian approach to running the country” is likely to persist, Mr Clapper said on the day the South Sudanese government announced that seven dissidents will face treason trials.

The East African

{Key stakeholders in Rwanda’s horticulture sector on January the 29th 2014 met and discussed the current status, challenges, available opportunities and best approaches on how to promote the sector. }

The one-day meeting brought together officials of the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), producers and traders of fruits, vegetables and flowers, representatives from financial institutions financing agriculture projects as well as representatives of the Ministry of Trade and Industry among others.

While presenting the current status of horticulture in Rwanda, Epimaque Nsanzabaganwa, the Head of Horticulture Division at NAEB, said the horticulture in the country is still in its embryonic stage; noting that the production is still very low.

According to the official, private sector operators engaged in producing fruits, vegetables and flowers are still very few; which leads to low horticulture exports; hence a need to woo the private sector to embrace the sector.

Nsanzabaganwa said NAEB is striving to provide farmers with good seeds in a bid to boost the production. He also noted that they are encouraging exporters to work closely with producers in order to produce what is needed on market.

Horticulture exports increased significantly over the last seven years – from 1.16 US$ million in 2006 to 10.2 US$ million earned last year, but a lot is yet to be done in order to meet the country’s expectation to reach 22.8US$ million of income earned from horticulture in 2015, as envisaged by Rwanda’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS2).

Officials said tremendous effort is being made to hit the target. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources put in place a scheme dubbed Rural Income Through Exports (PRICE) Project, that is providing farmers with incentives of 50% as grant on vegetables and fruit projects.

“If there is an area that can ensure huge returns in agriculture, think about horticulture,” Corneille Ntakirutimana, the deputy director general in charge of Production Support and Chain Development at NAEB, told private sector operators engaged in horticulture value chain.

Although horticulture has huge potential for gains in Rwanda, but several areas of horticulture are still unexploited, while the horticulture has huge potential to increase Rwanda’s exports.

The EDPRS2 envisages that national exports should increase by 28% every year – and horticulture has been identified as the potential area that will help the country to achieve this target.
On the other side, the private sector operators said they still need much assistance if the government wants to see huge horticulture exports. Frank Ntabana, a mango grower based in Nyagatare, said that the government should incubate the private sector, noting that the same practice has been done other countries like in Kenya.

“The government should start incubating exporters if they need to increase exports,” pointed out Ntabana, noting that even producers still lack technical assistance, which affects the quality of their produce.

Other exporters also requested the government to provide them with information on international available markets.

The meeting with the national horticulture stakeholders comes following a good number of agreements that the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources signed in the recent past with international institutions and companies to bring in skills and modern technologies in Rwanda’s horticulture.