IGIHE

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  • Kigali: 35,000 Tutsis killed in 1963 to be commemorated today

    Kigali: 35,000 Tutsis killed in 1963 to be commemorated today

    {For the first time in 50 years, Rwandans who lost their family members between 1963-1964 in separate massacres of Tutsis around the country, will join together to pay tribute to the 35 000 Tutsis who were massacred.}

    Although the Genocide in Rwanda took place in 1994, the 35,000 Tutsis were targeted because of their ethnic group, which can justify the massacre also to be included in the chronology of Genocide against Tutsi.

    In 1963, Rwandan Authorities were accusing Tutsis to be conspirators adding that they were supporting Inyenzi rebels that were fighting against the Government of Gregoire Kayibanda who was installed on power after Hutus revolution that took place between 1961 and 1962.

    Since then killing Tutsis continues and thousands of them were forced to flee the Country.

    50 Years passed. 35,000 Tutsis were killed between 1963 and 1964. Families of those who were killed organize a collective commemoration event that took place on Friday 27 December 2013 in Centre Christus in Remera, from 2 pm.

    This is the First time these families coming together because, by before every family had its Commemorative date where family members joins together and pay tribute to their parents, sisters and sons who were killed during that separate massacre.

  • DRC: UN Force used Helicopters to to fire on Ugandan rebels

    DRC: UN Force used Helicopters to to fire on Ugandan rebels

    {A special UN force in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo used helicopters Wednesday to fire on Ugandan rebels and help government troops retake the town of Kamango after an attack that killed civilians.}

    “South African helicopters in the UN intervention force were asked by FARDC (the DR Congo army) to give them support to recapture Kamango,” said a senior officer with the UN mission to DR Congo (MONUSCO) who declined to be identified by name.

    “We have already taken back Kamango,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Amuli, a FARDC army spokesman in North-Kivu province, the mineral-rich but volatile region plagued by a number of armed groups.

    Amuli admitted that at the time of the attack on Kamango the Congolese forces “withdrew because they were outnumbered”.

    The rebel attack took place before dawn, said Teddy Kataliko, head of the civil society in the Beni region where Kamango is located.

    The civil organisation blamed the initial attack on the Islamist Ugandan rebel group ADF-Nalu in collaboration with Uganda’s army. It is one of the oldest but least-known armed groups based in eastern DR Congo.

    “We have 10 people kidnapped, 11 civilians and five soldiers wounded, and several civilians killed, as well as homes burned, by the attackers,” Kataliko earlier told AFP.

    The officer from Monusco also confirmed the retaking of Kamango by government troops saying “apparently the demonstration of force and the involvement of South African Rooivacks intimidated the ADF-Nalu.”

    Kataliko said the rebels were “now heading towards the town of Nobili,” on the Congolese-Ugandan border, where more than 150,000 people have taken refuge from the fighting.

    “We believe there is the risk of a massacre and that’s why we are asking to establish a humanitarian corridor,” he said, making an appeal to the government to come to the aid of those people.

    Kataliko also said that those fleeing the fighting would not be able to cross the border into Uganda, which was closed.

    ADF-Nalu stands for Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda and is considered the only Islamist organisation in the region.

    In July the Congolese army battled the ADF-Nalu rebels to take control of the Kamango region, but the fighting had sent tens of thousands of people fleeing for safety in neighbouring Uganda.

    MONUSCO reported that at least 21 people were killed last week with “extreme brutality” in the Beni region. The UN did not identify the assailants but again local civil groups pointed to the Ugandan rebels.

    The rebels are led by Jamil Mukulu, a Christian convert to Islam, and has never really managed to take its fight against President Yoweri Museveni’s regime to Uganda.

    Some observers have voiced concern that ADF-Nalu could become a link in the growing network of radical Islamist groups in East Africa.

    MONUSCO’s mission in DR Congo includes a 3,000-strong UN intervention brigade made up of troops from Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi, specially authorised to go after armed groups ravaging DR Congo. There are another 17,000 peacekeepers mobilised in the overall mission.

    The mission helped bring down the M23 rebel movement last month, which was suspected of receiving support from Rwanda and Uganda, something both countries deny.

    AFP

  • Why South Sudan issue should be addressed

    Why South Sudan issue should be addressed

    {The UN says it has reports of three mass graves in South Sudan, amid “palpable fear” among civilians they will be killed for their ethnicity.}

    There has been a week of fighting amid a power struggle between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and ex-deputy Riek Machar, of the Nuer.

    The UN said 34 bodies had been found in Bentiu in the north, with two more sites reported in the capital, Juba.

    One man in Juba said he was rounded up with 250 men and only 12 survived.

    The fighting first erupted in the capital last week and has spread throughout South Sudan.

    The growing number of allegations of ethnically motivated killings is deeply concerning. It’s important to remember that this crisis is at its heart a political struggle, in a militarized, and, yes, ethnically divided society.

    The strength of politicians often comes from their ethnic base, so the power struggle is exacerbating ethnic cleavages.

    It is wrong to paint this as an “ethnic war”, though – it is far more complicated than this. It is also unclear to what extent the military commanders can control the many armed civilians fighting in different parts of the country.

    With all that said, international concern about ethnically driven violence is high. Ban Ki-moon has warned that anyone responsible for human rights violations will be held to account.

    It is to be hoped that these are not empty words.

    UN officials say at least 80,000 people have been displaced by the crisis – about half of them seeking shelter at UN bases – with fighting now having spread to half of the 10 states.

    UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has urged both sides to do all they can to protect civilians.

    She said “Mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions have been documented in recent days.”

    UNHCR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said a UN official had seen 14 bodies in the grave in Bentiu and another 20 at a riverside nearby.

    But she said 75 Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers, all Dinka, were unaccounted for there and were feared dead.

    Ms Shamdasani said: “As for the other two reported graves in Juba, we are still working to verify but it is very difficult, and there are reports that some bodies may have already been burned.”

    The two sites are at Jebel-Kujur and New side, near Eden.

    Ms Pillay added: “There is a palpable fear among civilians of both Dinka and Nuer backgrounds that they will be killed on the basis of their ethnicity.”

    BBC Africa analyst James Copnall says the fighting in South Sudan is not an exclusively ethnic conflict – it is a military combat propelled by political ambitions.

    But he says South Sudan does have deep ethnic divisions and they are being exacerbated by the fighting.

    Salva Kiir has agreed to talks “without preconditions”
    Riek Machar says he has formed a delegation for talks in Ethiopia

    President Kiir and Mr Machar have both said they are willing to talk to try to end the conflict.

    However, Mr Machar has said his detained political allies must first be freed, while Mr Kiir says there should be no preconditions.

    Mr Machar told Radio France Internationale he had spoken to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday. Mr Machar said he had formed a delegation for talks and that they would probably be held in Ethiopia.

    He said: “We want a democratic nation. We want democratic free and fair elections. We want Salva Kiir to call it a day.”

    ‘Rounded up’
    Rebels supporting Mr Machar have seized the major towns of Bor and Bentiu, the capital of the oil-producing Unity State.

    Ban: “The world is watching all sides in South Sudan”
    Troops loyal to Mr Kiir are advancing on Bor. Army spokesman Col Philip Aguer said: “We expect that we [will] retake Bor within 72 hours.”

    Mr Kiir has accused Mr Machar, who he sacked in July, of plotting a coup. Mr Machar denies he is trying to seize power.

    Hannah McNeish, a journalist in Juba, told the BBC she had interviewed a man called Simon, living at a UN camp, who said he had been shot four times but managed to survive a mass killing by hiding under dead bodies.

    “He tells of being rounded up with about 250 other men, driven to a police station in one of Juba’s busiest suburbs. He describes an ordeal whereby over the course of two days, forces outside the windows fired into this room, killing all but 12 men,” she said.

    The official death toll in the week of fighting stands at 500, but aid agencies say the true figure is likely to be much higher.

    UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an increase in the UN’s peacekeepers from 6,800 to about 11,800. A Security Council vote on the resolution is expected later on Tuesday.

    Sudan suffered a 22-year civil war that left more than a million people dead before the South became independent in 2011.

    Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a power struggle between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and his Nuer ex-deputy Riek Machar. The fear is that the rivalry will spark a widespread ethnic conflict. According to OCHA, 81,000 people have been forced from their homes.

  • Togo: Rwandan refugees to choose between repatriation and Citizenship

    Togo: Rwandan refugees to choose between repatriation and Citizenship

    {Togolese authorities Thursday signed a declaration of cessation for Rwandan refugees living in Togo where about 224 Rwandans will, from now, choose between voluntary repatriation, naturalization and residence permit}

    These Rwandan refugees enjoy a digitized map of refugees and biometric travel titles, which were the subject of two Memorandum of Understanding, concluded between Togo and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

    Rwandan refugees arrived in Togo following the 1994 genocide against Tutsis. The Togolese Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Colonel Yark Damehame , signed the declaration of cessation in the presence of the representative of UNHCR, Mbili Michel Ambaoumba.

    The spokesperson of Rwandan refugees in Togo, Ms. Daphorose Niyirora, some Rwandan refugees are skeptical and prefer to opt for the Togolese citizenship after many years in Togo where they work in different Business.

    {{Photo: Colonel Yark Damehame}}

  • Thai protesters clash with police in Bangkok

    Thai protesters clash with police in Bangkok

    {Thai police in the capital Bangkok have fired teargas at protesters trying to prevent political parties from registering for February’s elections.}

    About 500 protesters tried to storm a stadium where election commission officials were working.

    Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called the snap elections after weeks of protests that demanded an unelected “people’s council” take power.

    The demonstrators say political reforms are needed before polls can take place.

    On Thursday, the protesters – some of whom were throwing stones – tried to break into the stadium where the electoral commission was registering candidates.

    But police responded with tear gas, dispersing the crowd.

    There were no reports of serious injuries.

    Ms Yingluck dissolved parliament and called an election on 9 December, after more than 150,000 demonstrators took to the streets calling for her government to step down.

    Last Sunday, she said elections must take place and urged protesters to express their views at the ballot box.

    “If we don’t hold on to the democratic system, what should we hold on to?”

    The Pheu Thai Party won the last election in 2011, and has a majority in parliament.

    However, protesters say her brother – ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra – remains in charge.

    Mr Thaksin is currently in self-imposed exile after he was overthrown in a military army coup in 2006 and convicted of corruption.

    BBC

  • Police declares force to drive drunks home

    Police declares force to drive drunks home

    {A Traffic Police officer flags down a car for routine inspection in Kicukiro District.
    }

    Police registered five road accidents countrywide on Christmas Eve, with four people killed while one person sustained injuries.

    According to Police spokesperson Damas Gatare, two accidents occurred in Rulindo District, where a cyclist and a pedestrian were the victims.

    “In Gasabo and Nyabihu districts, two pedestrians were also killed after similar accidents,” said Gatare, adding that in Bugesera, a driver rammed into an electric pole.

    The motorist sustained injuries and is recovering from hospital.

    “All accidents occurred Tuesday morning; these were ‘usual’ accidents that can’t easily be related to the festive celebrations. The night of December 24-25 was reported calm across the country, no major incidents were reported,” Gatare said.

    Police launched a Traffic Week on Tuesday, which came at a time when road accidents are on the decrease, and it seeks to lower them further and to enforce road security during this festive season.

    Police Traffic and Road Safety spokesperson Jean Marie Vianney Ndushabandi said measures were put in place to ensure road safety during the festive period.

    “Every bus operating long distance should have at least two drivers on it. Any bus found without two drivers will not be allowed to operate more than one trip,” he said.

    {{Drunk driving}}

    Ndushabandi said any motorist found drink-driving will be punished according to the law. The punishments include impounding the vehicle until the end of the festive period.

    “We have officers on standby ready to drive anyone home at any time at no charge. There is no need to end up in trouble when you can just make one call and you reach home safely and protected,” he said.

    As the year 2013 comes to an end, police recently reported that a strong partnership was realized between the public and the Police which resulted in crime reduction by 2.1 per cent in the last quarter alone, and a reduction of Road traffic related offences by 34.9 per cent.

  • EA Journalists form Regional Network

    EA Journalists form Regional Network

    A team of journalists has formed a network that will bring together media professionals from across the East African Community in an ambitious initiative that will transform the region’s media landscape.

    The East African Journalists Platform (EAJP) aims to advance the regional integration agenda and encourage networking among journalists in the region. It will also enable quick exchange of information on events across the region using its wide network of journalists.

    The Platform will work closely with the EAC Secretariat, Organs and Institutions. It will also establish linkages with regional businesses, development organizations and umbrella bodies.

    The formation of EAJP followed a series of meetings in Nairobi, Bujumbura and Kampala attended by journalists from all the five EAC member states. The meetings coincided with regional meetings being held in those capitals, the latest being the Media Summit and EAC Heads of State Summit held in Kampala at the end of November.

    The 54 founding members of the Platform are drawn from all the five EAC Partner States. The group includes journalists from both print and broadcast areas and is drawn from a wide spectrum of media houses.

    It is chaired by Kenyan freelance writer and editor Isaac Mwangi, who is also a columnist with the East African News Agency. He is deputized by Florence Apolot of WBS TV in Uganda.

    James Karuhanga of Rwanda’s New Times newspaper is the Platform’s Secretary, while Peter Saramba of the Mwananchi Newspaper in Tanzania is Assistant Secretary. The Treasurer is Florine Mukeshimana of Radio Publique Africaine in Burundi.

    The media houses with members in the network include the IPPMedia in Tanzania, Nation Media Group, Standard Group, Radio Africa Group, Citizen TV and the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in Kenya; and Fedeco Radio, Mwananchi and Zanzibar Leo in Tanzania.

    Uganda is represented by journalists from the New Vision, Kings Broadcasting, and Uganda Network Radio, among others. Rwanda’s representation includes journalists from the Rwanda Focus, Radio Izuba, and Radio Huguka. Burundi has journalists from the Burundi Press Agency, Iwacu newspaper and Radio-Télévision Nationale du Burundi, among others.

    Apart from the Platform, other media bodies that are expected to be formed in the near future include an East African Media Council as well as a separate body that will bring together media owners and other stakeholders in East Africa.

    SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

  • Fina Bank in Rwanda, Uganda to be renamed very Soon

    Fina Bank in Rwanda, Uganda to be renamed very Soon

    {Nigeria-based Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) has acquired 70% interest in Fina Bank, a Kenyan bank with units in Uganda and Rwanda. }

    The acquisition follows a share sale and purchase agreement signed by GTBank and the shareholders of Fina Bank on 18 July 2013.

    The deal was subject to customary regulatory approvals, which have now been obtained.

    Following the acquisition, Fina Bank in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda will now be renamed and rebranded as subsidiaries of GTBank.

    According to GTBank, the latest acquisition is part of a structured expansion program that will allow the bank tap into the vast business opportunities that abide within the region.

  • Snowden’s message on privacy

    Snowden’s message on privacy

    (Reuters) – Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed details of electronic surveillance by American and British spy services, warned of the dangers posed by a loss of privacy in a message broadcast to Britain on Christmas Day.

    In a two-minute video recorded in Moscow, where Snowden has been granted temporary asylum, he spoke of concerns over surveillance and appeared to draw comparison with the dystopian tale “1984” which described a fictional state which operates widespread surveillance of its citizens.

    “Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us are nothing compared to what we have available today.”

    “We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person,” he said.

    “A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,” said Snowden. “They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that’s a problem because privacy matters, privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.”

    The “Alternative Christmas Message”, broadcast annually on Britain’s Channel 4 television since 1993, mimics the format of the yearly address to the nation by Queen Elizabeth.

    “For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” he said.

    Snowden left his NSA post in Hawaii in May and went public with his first revelations from Hong Kong a few weeks later.

    In June, he left for Russia and stayed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for nearly six weeks until the Kremlin granted him temporary one-year asylum.

    The United States has revoked his passport and demanded he be sent home to face charges for stealing secrets.

    Earlier this month there were signs of thawing attitudes when Richard Ledgett – a top NSA official who leads a task force at the agency responding to the leaks – left open the option for Snowden to return to the United States in an amnesty.

    “It’s worth having a conversation about,” he told CBS.

    “I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured and my bar for those assurances would be very high,” Ledgett said. Senior officials in the Obama administration remain opposed to such a move.

    Last week a White House-appointed panel proposed curbs on some key NSA surveillance operations, recommending limits on a program to collect records of billions of telephone calls, and new tests before Washington spies on foreign leaders.

    “The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it,” Snowden said in the Christmas address.

    “Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.”

    Reuters

  • Riots erupt in Egypt after deadly bombing

    Riots erupt in Egypt after deadly bombing

    {There have been riots in the Egyptian city of Mansoura after the bombing of a police station that killed 14 people.}

    Police said on Tuesday three bombs had been planted before the explosion at the police station, two of which went off at almost at the same time. The third one, found in a car nearby, was defused.

    They warned that the death toll from the bombing, which injured 150, could rise because more people might be trapped in the building.

    Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Fahmy, reporting from Cairo, said Ansar Beit al-Makdis, an armed group active in the Sinai peninsula, had claimed responsibility for bombing.

    The group, which is also known as Ansar Jerusalem, posted their statement on the Internet, Fahmy said.

    Despite the group’s claim, there were anti-riots in Mansoura on Tuesday afternoon.

    Hundreds of people attacked shops and businesses and set two vans reportedly owned by the Muslim Brotherhood on fire, according to Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Sobky, reporting from Mansoura.

    The blast had prompted a cabinet statement declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, although officials did not directly accuse the group of staging the attack.

    The Brotherhood, which is already outlawed, condemned the bombing as “an attack on the unity of the Egyptian people”.

    Thousands attend funeral

    Adly Mansour, Egypt’s interim president, has declared three days of mourning and thousands attended a mass funeral in Mansoura, north of Cairo, on Tuesday.

    Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt’s interior minister, visited victims in the hospital where he promised that the January referendum would go ahead.

    “The security plans have been made and what happened will not affect the referendum process because it has its own comprehensive security plan,” Ibrahim said.

    He said four people had been arrested after admitting their involvement in the attack.

    “The attacks are an attempt to create a diversion and to terrorise people because of the referendum,” he said. “But I want to reassure people that there is a plan in place, in co-operation with the armed forces to protect all of the election centres at the highest level.”

    Sections of the five storey building in the Nile Delta city has collapsed after the blast and police evacuated surrounding buildings.

    Source:
    Al Jazeera and agencies