Author: Publisher

{Congolese Army-FARDC is accused of harassing Rwandans who cross the border to Goma accusing them [Rwandans] of being part of the recent defeated Congolese rebellion commonly known as M23. }

Meanwhile Congolese who come to shop in Rwanda are able to travel through Rwanda freely without worrying about their security, residents told IGIHE Journalists who went to the spot to witness and investigate these allegations.

“The Congolese military say they have already defeated fighters of M23, what remains, is to continue their work up to Kigali,” says Elias Havugimana who lives in the Village of Mbugangari in Rubavu District not far from Goma, the Eastern City of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Havugimana, who owns a small business in Goma added, “What hurts us is that when the Congolese come home [Rwanda], they are welcomed and they have everything they need. But when we go there [Goma], we are harassed.”

Nyinawimana Vestine, a resident of Gisenyi told IGIHE that some of the FARDC members said that after defeating M23 their new target is to support FDLR so that they are able to head to Kigali.

However, Sheikh Bahame Hassan, the Mayor of Rubavu District assured residents that Rwanda is protected from any outside attack that can destabilize its security.

In an Interview with IGIHE, Bahame said that even in the past Congolese used to threaten to invade Rwanda but nothing has happened.

“Bah! There is nothing new in these statements. Even in the last days of the Mobutu regime, such rhetoric threats were made”. He added that he is hurt to see Rwandans suffer unfair treatment on the other side of border. He attributes this behavior to poor Governance; which characterizes the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UGANDA and Rwanda traders are still pushing to recover almost $47.6m they lost about five years ago in Kenya’s post election violence but with little success.

In a recent meeting in Nairobi, the traders once again brought up the matter that they feel is not being treated with the urgency it deserves by Kenyan authorities who initially pledged to solve the matter.

New Vision has learnt that the Kenyan government approved the compensation in the last budget but the matter was blocked by a senior official for unclear reasons.

But East African Community secretary general Richard Sezibera is still hopeful the matter will be resolved and the traders compensated.

“It is an issue we know. The Kenyan government has commitment on this matter,” said Richard Sezibera.

In a letter dated March 23 2012, the federation of East African Freight forwarders Association (FEAFFA) asked President Museveni to intervene.

“To date we continue to suffer the strenuous march to obtaining relief following suspension of attention to all efforts earlier commenced,” read the letter.

“To our knowledge the efforts flagged off by Your Excellency suffered the earlier rigors of bureaucracy in Kenya thereby tremendously slowing down to a halt the progressive steps taken,” said FEAFFA.

The traders say their efforts have proved “absolutely futile and inconsequential.” The violence which engulfed various parts of Kenya in the early part of the year 2008 led to massive commercial loses with trucks and merchandise burnt in the chaos.

Following the incident, traders and transporters from the hinterland states subsequently lodged a claim with the Kenyan government.

Initially, the traders commenced a claim against the Kenyan Attorney General in 2009.

The Attorney General recommended that the case be settled out of court. An Inter-ministerial committee was formed to detail the settlement. The Committee evaluated and analysed the evidence and legality of the claims.

A compensatory amount was then settled upon and approved by the Cabinet.

The traders say they have supplied all the documents and evidence in support of their respective claims amounting to $47.6m.

Before the current president Uhuru Kenyatta took charge, the traders met former leader Mwai Kibaki also then chair of the East African Community who directed that the compensatory payments agreed upon be paid and the matter finalised.

According to documents, on November, 24 2012, Kibaki issued a directive to the then minister of Foreign Affairs (Sam Ongeri) and minister of Trade and Industry (Moses Wetangula) in the presence of his private secretary (Mr. Nick Wanjohi) to settle the compensation claim within the shortest time possible.

“The minutes of the meeting were addressed, adopted and passed as a resolution. Unfortunately, nothing happened thereafter. No payments were made,” said the traders through their association.

Several other events including bilateral meetings and diplomatic notes between Kenya and Uganda occurred as proof of Kenya’s undertaking to settle the claims.

The traders now say the five year wait has had severe effects on their businesses with creditors “now swooping” on them.

“Unlike the traders, the creditors have long lost their patience,” said one trader.

{{New Vision}}

{The Ngendahayo family was among the first Rwandan refugee families to arrive in Concord 11 years ago, welcoming and helping assimilate those who came later. Free from the post-genocidal threats and ethnic hatred that wracked their homeland, they never even locked their doors until they awoke on a September morning in 2011 to find frightening, racist graffiti scrawled on their home.}

One of the messages called the family of seven “sub-humans.”

“Go back to your hell and leave us alone,” read another.

“Having someone attack us like that, it brought back the image of Africa,” 22-year-old Ami Ngendahayo told The Associated Press last week by phone. “I admit I was afraid.”

City police on Oct. 15 arrested Raymond Stevens, a 42-year-old tattoo shop owner and a former neighbor, and charged him with targeting four immigrant families with the venomous graffiti. Police said their investigation turned up evidence that Stevens embraced the hateful rhetoric used by white supremacists.

The Ngendahayos are relieved an arrest was made but still want to know why they were targeted and forced to move, this time leaving the New England city where they worked and their children attended school because they feared a violent attack.

“We came to America to live freely,” said 26-year-old Joli Ngendahayo. “My dad had a job. Mom had a job. We were all in school.”

Stevens is charged with felony criminal mischief, accused of using permanent marker to write hate messages on the home of the Ngendahayos and those of three other African refugee families. The arrest came after an exhaustive two-year investigation in which Det. Wade Brown examined the handwriting on thousands of police files to find a distinctive “b” that looked like the number 6.

Brown said he found it on a gun permit application Stevens filed when he lived in the same Concord neighborhood as the refugees. Stevens, who is free on $8,000 bond, is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 13 in Merrimack Superior Court. He faces 10 to 30 years in prison if convicted. His lawyer has declined to comment.

After seeing Stevens’ picture on news websites, Ami says she recalls seeing him walking the sidewalks of their neighborhood or near the local park where they played. His expression, she said, was always angry.

“I was afraid he could do more than just words,” Joli said.

The sisters say their brother Moses didn’t speak for days after discovering the graffiti. He thought someone was out to get him.

“He was an 11-year-old boy who’s supposed to be happy, enjoying life,” said his father, Manassee Ngendahayo. “He wouldn’t walk outside. He didn’t laugh or joke.”

Family members’ reactions varied from gracious to scornful when asked what each would say to Stevens.

“Calling me sub-human, I would just call it ignorant,” Joli said. “I would disagree with him and tell him, ‘You do not know what we’ve been through.’”

The genocide in Rwanda claimed hundreds of thousands of lives during a spasm of violence in 1994.

Ami, a student at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts, said the biggest question the family has for Stevens is: “Why?”

“We were the kind of family that didn’t cause any trouble,” she said. “We’re just ordinary people who want to live life like everybody else. What was his point?”

Manassee Ngendahayo, who was a pastor at a local church in Concord, said that he can forgive Stevens but that it broke his heart to see what the graffiti did to his wife and children. It also sent the family on an odyssey through North Carolina, Massachusetts and Idaho to find a place where they felt secure and could get jobs. They finally settled in Aberdeen, Texas, where Manassee works in a group home and his wife is a housekeeper.

They still view Concord as their hometown but say it is too late and too costly to return. Paying college tuitions is the priority now.

Although pleased with Stevens’ arrest, Joli wants more.

“The only thing that would be kind of nice,” she said, “is that he actually accepts that what he did is wrong.”

{{AP}}