Category: News

{{The Hybrid Peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) has been blamed for delaying implementation of the security arrangements as provided in the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) Sudan.}}

The head of Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), Tijani el-Sissi pointed out that the UNAMID did not honor its commitments in the implementation of the security arrangements.

UNAMID also has been slammed for failing to map rebel positions and areas they control.

Rwanda troops are involved in peacekeeping mission UNAMID in Darfur.

The UNAMID established the Ceasefire Commission (CFC) one month after the signing of the DDPD in Doha on 22 August 2011.

Chaired by UNAMID Force Commander and comprising Sudan, Qatar and Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) officials, the CFC is tasked with the monitoring violations of the ceasefire and support of the disarmament of former rebels.

Speaking after a meeting with a delegation of the Council of States, the upper house, visiting El-Fasher in Friday, Sissi who is also LJM chairman, reiterated his commitment to implement the security arrangements as provided in the peace document.

In accordance with the DDPD, the CFC chaired by the UNAMID has to ensure the effective implementation of these measures including military disengagement, redeployment of forces and limited arms control.

UNAMID had to start on 25 February the verification of positions occupied by the two signatories of the DDPD, after what the peacekeeping operation has to assemble the LJM troops in assembly points agreed by the parties.

The new CFC chaired by the peacekeeping mission is mandated to monitor the implementation of all ceasefire and security agreements signed since 2004. But currently it includes only LJM and Sudanese government.

Before the defection of Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi from Abuja peace agreement of May 2006, the UNAMID after the take over from the African Mission was blamed for not establishing a ceasefire mechanism to implement the security arrangements.

{{Police in Kicukiro district is investigating the case of Jean-Marie Vianney Sebagenzi and his wife Jacqueline Nyirajyambere who sold their house to two different buyers.}}

On October 10, 2011, Sebagenzi and his wife received 10 million Rwandan francs $ 8,000 (U.S. dollars) from Jackson Kazayire payment for the house he had just bought.

Under the agreement, the couple was supposed to go home after three months Kazayire.

Kazayire had earlier requested among the witnesses to the purchase agreement include the signature of the Niboye Sector Executive Secretary Jean-Marie Ngamije.

The house is located at Niboye cell, Niboye sector in Kicukiro District,

However, two months later, Sebagenzi and his wife sold the same house to another client Clementine Nyiradende at FRW 8 Million.

Yet again Ngamije signed as a witness to the purchase agreement this time not as executive secretary of Niboye Cell because he had been transferred to the cell Kagunga in Gikondo Sector.

Realizing that his decision would trigger trouble, Sebagenzi wrote to the Niboye sector authorities asking that his purchase agreement with Nyiradende be canceled. However, authorities have rejected the suggestion.

Sebagenzi has directly decided to flee, leaving his wife. However, he left the keys of the house with his friend and asked he calls Kazayire to hand him the keys.

Ngamije currently detained at the police Kicukiro, admitted that he signed for two different buyers.

He however, said he had agreed to re-sign him after Sebagenzi was reassured that he had found his house after paying Kazayire.

If found guilty Ngamije risks embezzlement, a crime punishable by six months to five years imprisonment under Article 424 of the Rwandan penal code.

Sebagenzi is also likely to be accused of fraud and sentenced from six months to five years imprisonment under Article 428 of the Rwandan Penal Code

{{Today a commuter taxi burst into flames at ETO Muhima. The taxi was plying between Remera and Nyamirambo.

Habyarimana Joseph the driver of the taxi told IGIHE that he was carrying 18 passengers.

While he was driving the car he realized the car was losing forward motion and decided to park it at a Bus stop and ordered passengers to exit the car.}}

{{Aurelien Agbenonci, Rwanda’s One UN representative has been transferred to Mali. Agbenonci had stayed in Rwanda for four years.}}

Before leaving the country, he met with President Paul Kagame and thanked him for the cooperation he has received from the government in especially executing some of the UN projects.

“The government has been so helpful, and through the cooperation we have worked together to form programs meant to eradicate poverty,” he said.

While addressing members of the press, Agbenonci noted that he asked the president for some advice but he didn’t disclose the details.

“I adore Rwandan people and their leader Kagame who is very intelligent, that’s why I wouldn’t mind seeking advice from him time and again,” he said.

Agbenonci, further points out that he will be a good ambassador for Rwanda and will emulate some of the cultural practices he has learnt in the country such as work in unison and zero tolerance against corruption.

{{Télesphore Dereva, a Rwandan resident of Canada, with an international arrest warrant issued by the Justice of Rwanda, was released on bail Wednesday after being arrested by Canadian authorities.}}

Rwanda accuses Dereva for being part of militias that participated in the 1994 genocide. He has been resident in Canada since 2007 in Quebec.

He received a letter in late February of the Border Services Agency (FSA) asking him to appear March 5 at the local office of the FSA, told AFP his lawyer, Philippe Larochelle.

Upon his arrival, Dereva was arrested under an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda, which accuses him of being part of the extremist Interahamwe militia. Dereva was transferred to a detention center for illegal immigrants in Laval.

“He was released on bail Wednesday at a hearing,” said Larochelle.

His lawyer said Dereva was acquitted by courts Rwandan “gacaca”, charged with trying almost all of the alleged perpetrators of the genocide against Tutsis in 1994.

Recall that in late January, Mugesera had been removed from Canada indicted by the Rwandan justice planning and incitement to genocide and distributing weapons.

Mugesera, 59, was claimed by the Rwandan justice system since 1995 to a famous speech in November 1992 at a rally of his party.

Rwandan authorities believe that this speech is one of the triggers of genocide against the Tutsis, in which people who participated in the genocide killed up to over a million people. In that speech, Mugesera characterized the Tutsi “cockroaches.”

{{The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Government Spokesperson, Louise Mushikiwabo, said today that Rwanda had lost a good friend and a respected advocate for Africa in the passing of late Donald Payne who died Tuesday in New Jersey.}}

“Representative Payne was a true champion of human rights. He took the time to understand what was happening around the world, particularly in Africa, and advocated on these issues with passion and conviction in the US Congress.”

“We in Rwanda appreciated his efforts in trying to tell his country and the world the truth about the genocide that happened in here 1994. On behalf of people of Rwanda, we join his family and his government in mourning the death of this extraordinary man.”

Donald Payne was recognized by Rwanda in 2010 with the “Umurinzi – Campaign against Genocide Medal” for his role in fighting genocide through his advocacy actions. “Umurinzi” is the name of a tree that is known in Rwandan folk tales for its protective powers.

{{The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has granted an early release to former Rwandan military officer, Lieutenant Colonel Tharcisse Muvunyi, after having served more than twelve years of a 15-year jail term for his role in the 1994 genocide.}}

According to a press statement, on April 18, 2011 Muvunyi wrote to the ICTR President requesting an early release since he had served two thirds of his sentence.

In his first trial, the ex-officer had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and other inhumane acts.

But, the Appeals Chamber overturned the lower court’s judgment on August 29, 2008, and ordered a new trial on only one count of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, throwing out other charges on grounds of errors in the indictment.

The single charge of direct and public incitement to commit genocide related particularly to a speech Muvunyi made at Gikore Commercial Centre, Butare Prefecture, southern Rwanda, in May 1994. Muvunyi was accused of using Kinyarwanda proverbs to encourage Hutus to kill Tutsis.

The Chamber found him guilty over the event that led to killings of ethnic Tutsis. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with credit on the time already spent in custody since his arrest in 2000.

Two other ICTR convicts have already been granted early release. They include former head of Rwandan Tea Authority, Michel Bagaragaza, who was set free on December 1, 2011 and ex-Rwandan Mayor, Juvenal Rugambarara released from jail on February 8, 2012.

Bagaragaza served his sentence in Sweden whereas Rugambarara was doing the same in Benin. Muvunyi, who was in the custody of ICTR at the time of decision for his early release, did not plead guilty to the charges as was the case for Rugambarara and Bagaragaza.

According to the ICTR Spokesperson, Roland Amoussouga, Muvunyi has already been set free and has arrived at the Safe House where other acquitted persons stay under the supervision of the Tribunal.

{{The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Tuesday began hearing the first of eight additional witnesses whom the prosecutor intends to challenge the alibi defense of the former Planning Minister Augustin Ngirabatware.}}

Investigator in the office of the prosecutor of the ICTR, Senegalese Massamba Ndiaye has rejected claims by the accused that he was on mission in several foreign countries, including Senegal, France, Gabon, Switzerland, Belgium, Cameroon and Togo from 21 April to July 1994.

Regarding Senegal, the former minister claims to have met during this period the country’s top officials, including Foreign Minister at the time, Moustapha Niasse.

But, the investigator said Ndiaye, M.Niasse denies receiving Ngirabatware during this period. The investigator said he had asked the Senegalese diplomat on the issue three times between January 9, 2011 and February 1.

The witness continued his testimony Wednesday.Three of the seven rebuttal witnesses are already at the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, while the other four will be heard by video link from Dakar.

Prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity, the former minister is accused of primarily been the main instigator of the massacres of Tutsis in his home commune Nyamyumba north of the country in 1994.

What he denies by denying having set foot in Nyamyumba during the massacres.Ph.D. in economics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Ngirabatware was in his country, teaching at the National University of Rwanda (1986-1994) and Minister of Planning (1990-1994). During his exile from July 1994, he worked in various research institutes in Gabon and France.

Arrested in Germany on 17 September 2007, it is in the hands of the ICTR since October 8, 2008.

{{UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that the successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the MDGs not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people.}}

According to a report by the World Health Organisation by UNICEF, they are over 780 million people are still without access to improved sources of drinking water and 2.5 billion lack improved sanitation.

The World Health Organsation says if current trends continue, the numbers will remain high in 2015, where over 605 million people will be without an improved drinking water source and 2.4 billion people will lack access to improved sanitation.

Many countries are off track in meeting the MDG sanitation target, including much of sub-Saharan Africa and several countries in Asia.

The report also discusses the beginnings of a process to develop new water, sanitation and hygiene goals.

An alternative indicator has been developed to measure progress in sanitation which will represent the proportion of the current population that gained access between1995 and 2010.

But certain individual countries have achieved these desired proportions of populations that have achieved sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Some of these countries are notably, Rwanda, Angola Cape Verde, Gambia, Botswana and Malawi.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the remarkable countries for having added 10 million new users of improved sanitation facilities.

{{The Rwandan association for the promotion of family welfare ARBEF is embroiled in fights resulting from accusations among the leadership citing Nepotism, mismanagement of funds and interference.}}

Dr. Osee Sebatunzi, the board chair and Dr. Nyabyenda Laurien are pointing accusing fingers at each other for poor management of the association.

The wrangles are due to a disagreement over who should be in office as the board chair following last Saturday’s General Assembly in which, Dr. Sebatunzi was ousted and subsequently replaced.

In a related twist Dr. Sebantuzi and one Dr. Nyabenda are blaming each other for poor management of the association. They are also disagreeing on employing new members of staff.

Dr Sebatunzi the current board chair accuses his rival of nepotism saying that he only hired his relatives.

“ARBEF is operational in all provinces, all the clinics and banks are working but he is not authorized to transact any business on behalf of ARBEF.” He said

However, Dr. Nyabyenda accuses Sebantuzi saying he is interfering with his work yet he too hired two of his in-laws. He says Sebatunzi’s in-laws were the cause of disagreements between him and other staff members.

“They have family relations. Look at it this way, you are the president, I am your in-law and I’m also your employee, isn’t that a close relation. This is what caused problems in ARBEF, nothing else.” Dr. Nyabyenda explained.

The rifts have prompted meetings with members of the association but none of them has bore positive results as both men refuse to take responsibility for any mistakes.

The ministry of local government has since the violent wrangles intervened.