Category: News

{{Hiring children to perform inappropriate work could land faulting Rwandan employers into jail following the recent deliberations aimed at designing a new policy that seeks to control child labour in the country.}}

Subject to international standards, children below 15 years are prohibited from employment or engaging in any family related work, unless they are allocated light tasks for less hours to avoid jeopardizing their education.

In Rwanda majority of children especially those aged from 10-14 are involved in menial work. National statistics conducted three years ago show that 83.2% are in agriculture while domestic work constitutes 51.3% others include manufacturing 3.8% and services 5.3%.

Two thirds of children work in family related duties and only 14.6% get allowances. Child labour is prevalent in Kigali city compared to provinces. Most jobs in the city given to minors could instead be assigned to youths .The report shows that the employers opt for kids since there paid less and easy to manage.

The Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA) is currently involved with stakeholders with the objective to design a policy that would address child labour in the country.

Scott Lyon, an expert with Understanding Child Works (UCW) advises that among priorities to consider in a child labour policy is incorporating adequate social protection. Enough support to those living in poverty conditions and once they have a better welfare their children should be taken back to school. This involves giving a second chance to school dropouts. Those that cannot return to class can be referred to vocational schools to obtain working skills.

It is not clear though about the effectiveness of punishing such employers that violate the children’s rights by exposing them to poor working conditions. Most of the employed children work for over 50 hours a week a fact that affects their health and reduces their school life expectancy.

In most cases, the employed children do not have a choice since they have to assist their poor families despite existing government initiatives that would address the issues if consolidated.

Moses Kayihura the human resource assistant at Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA- Rwanda) explains that they facilitate with feeding school children through the support from World Food Program (WFP) to improve class attendance. ADRA has also patterned with UNICEF to provide financial assistance to vulnerable households, the same funds are also used to buy scholastic materials to support pupils.

{{ {Construction is set to takeoff at the school of a Frw 15M documentation centre in memory of the students and teachers that perished in the 1994 Tutsi genocide that left a million people dead. }
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Lycee de Kigali (LDK) has honoured 13 students and 24 teachers that were massacred at the school in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

A group of 150 students and 35 teachers travelled to Ntarama genocide memorial centre in Bugesera district and received explanations on how genocide was prepared and shown tools used to kill people during the genocide.

“We learned a lot during the visit especially focusing on the future while rebuilding our nation,” the school director Martin Masabo said.

In an interview with{ Igihe.com}, Emily Mworoha, the Chairperson of the survivors association (AERG) at LDK said during the week, students were lectured about Rwanda’s history with particular emphasis on the 1994 Tutsi genocide that left a million people dead.

“The information provided during the week will help us in knowing better where we are coming from and where we are heading to,” he pointed out.

AERG association at LDK introduced the idea of building a memorial site at a cost of Frw15M that will be a centre of documentation for other schools. The school’s administration will cater for its construction.

Speaking at a Young African Women leaders Forum in Johannesburg South Africa, Mrs. Obama has emphasized the need for collaboration among local leaders and the society as a way of enhancing accountability.

Young African women are encouraged to take part in decision making since their ideas would address some of the challenges in the society.

Participants at the forum took part in several activities meant to inspire them on the importance of teamwork with leaders in bringing change to their communities. The activities covered entrepreneurship education and health.

The young women leaders together with the first lady took part in several community service projects. On her part Mrs Obama prepared a kitchen garden which is in line with her campaign to promote nutritious meals especially to those living with HIV/AIDS. It is also known that she has several gardens at the White House.

Later on the team painted a social hall which will now be used by locals to organize meetings that particularly set a forum for locals to discuss issues affecting their society.

Mrs Obama formed a Facebook page ‘first lady’s forum with young African women leaders’ to expand the discussion of among young women leaders in Africa.The network will also provide mentors to those in entrepreneurship and those who have income generating activities.

Through a phone conference with Bruce Wharton , the deputy assistant secretary of state in the African bureau, he explained that the forum was sponsored by the US government and was attended by 76 young African women leaders, including 44 from the host country and 32 from other African countries.

The young women leaders age are from 16 to 30 years and represent the fields of education, health, civil society, business and the media. Rwanda was represented by Diana Mukundwa a student leader at Kigali’s School of Finance and Banking, at her university she’s also the acting gender minister and board member.

KIGALI, RWANDA: President Paul kagame has rejected claims from a recently released report indicating the status of various states in which Rwanda is ranked as a failed state at position 34 of the 60 countries evaluated.

Speaking to journalists at a monthly press briefing, President Kagame lambasted the report saying, “If you think Rwanda is a failed state then you must be on another planet”.

The Failed States Index (FSI) ranks 177 countries using 12 social, economic and political indicators of pressure on the state, along with over 100 sub-indicators.

In the FSI 2011 report, Rwanda performed poorly under Demographic Pressures, Group Grievances, Human Rights and Factionalized Elites. Other indicators of state vulnerability include Refugees/Internally Displaced People, Uneven Development, Economic Decline, and Delegitimization of the State, Public Services, Security Apparatus and External Intervention.

Each indicator is rated on a scale of 1-10, based on the analysis of millions of publicly available documents, other quantitative data and assessments by analysts. A high score indicates high pressure on the state, and therefore a higher risk of instability.

Some sections of foreign press have described Rwanda government as increasing authoritarianism of including further restrictions on the media and opposition groups, thus this affecting Rwanda’s FSI score card.

Somali was ranked the number one failed state for the fourth consecutive year, citing widespread lawlessness, ineffective government, insurgency, crime and well publicized pirate attacks against foreign vessels.

President Kagame also attacked rights groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International which have called the Rwandan government repressive and criticized the soon to conclude Gacaca courts.

“Gacaca handled over a million cases and allowed people to settle back in their homes and live together and it cost us only 25 million dollars. But some people think we should spend 2billion dollars as they did ICTR yet they only tried 58 people.” He continued, “I don’t care who HRW is. I have never gone to Amnesty International for help so I don’t give a damn about them,” he said.

Regarding warnings given by the United Kingdom to dissidents living in Britain, Kagame said, “There is something fundamentally wrong. I can’t explain these rumors because I don’t know where they came from. But you don’t apprehend just one person and then hold the government of Rwanda responsible,” Kagame said questioning the rationale of UK officials stopping a suspected assassin but then releasing him the same day.

Kagame also responded to assertions that Rwanda could experience a new form of colonialism through its relationship with China and other developed nations, “Rwandan will not accept neo-colonialism from China or the West. The days of colonialism are over. If we can’t agree how to invest for the both of us then we won’t have it”.

Rwanda National Police in conjunction with other security organs have arrested a terror network on a mission to conduct terror activities in Rwanda.

The arrested criminals are led by Colonel Norbert Ndererimana commonly known as Gaheza who heads an armed group based in Binza, Rutchuru, in Virunga national park, North Kivu, Eastern DRC.

Colonel Ndererimana was arrested with Ramathan Sibomana, Ibrahim Niyonzima, Asifat Kansime, Emmanuel Higiro also known as Kabasha and John Mutabaruka.

Investigations have shown a strong link between this group and Kayumba’s terror activities. They have testified how they received orders from Kayumba and Emmanuel Habyarimana through Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and Convention National des Republicains (CNR) respectively to conduct terror activities in Rwanda.

They have been receiving financial, material and political support from Kayumba’s extensive network in Uganda and DRC to commit terror acts and wage war on Rwanda.

The arrested terrorist criminals revealed their plans of committing terror acts in Rwanda from their bases in Eastern DRC.

They were to target high populated areas, fuel storage facilities and fuel transport vehicles, national leaders as well as diplomats.

This revelation has been corroborated by earlier investigations linking Kayumba to terror activities in Kigali and his alliance with other terror groups operating from outside of Rwanda.

The Rwanda National Police take this opportunity to thank members of the public who have provided vital information that led to the uprooting of this terror network.

It assures the public of their security against these terrorists. Every effort will be done to bring the terrorists especially their leaders to justice.

The leader of yet to be registered FDU-Ikingi political party, Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire has finally been granted her wish for the beginning of her trial in September – as prosecution again accused her of wasting time.

Before the start of her trial, Ingabire pleaded that her team needed more time to study more than 2,500 pages of documents. And because two of her three lawyers are British, the documents also had to be translated into English as all have been prepared in Kinyarwanda.

Amongst the many serious charges, Ingabire is accused of promoting ethnic divisionism, setting up of a terrorist organization and collaborating and financing the Rwandan FDLR rebels in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Three of the prosecution’s top witnesses are also accused along with Ingabire. They are former FDLR commanders who have alleged that Ingabire had engaged them to start a rebel force in eastern DRC.

In Court, Ingabire repeated her previous quest for four months to work on her defense. She said the prosecution dossier had information coming from different countries including Belgium, The Netherlands and Burundi.

Public prosecution spokesperson Alain Mukurarinda said in a statement, “we are ready to begin the trial as soon as the defense is fully prepared. Our country respects the rights of the accused to a fair and speedy trial”.

After a brief consultation, the Judge ruled that the trial could begin on September 05, 2011. In the earlier appearance in May, Ingabire has actually asked for time up to September. For the meantime she will be back in jail until the agreed hearing date. This story was first published by the Rwanda News Agency.

A Norwegian court has extended by two months the detention of a 45-year-old Rwandan suspected of murder during the 1994 genocide.

While conceding that remanding the suspect, Sadi Bugingo, in custody for several months was a constraint for him, the Oslo court, citing the “gravity of the charges”, said “it was necessary to guard against the risk of destruction of evidence and escape.”

Bugingo, who has lived in the western Norwegian town of Bergen with his family since 2002, was arrested there last May 3. Bugingo is also suspected of murdering Tutsis in the southeastern town of Kibungo and elsewhere. His Norwegian lawyer however said his client denies all the allegations against him.

Bugingo is the second Rwandan to be arrested in Norway for an alleged role in the genocide after Charles Bandora was arrested last year. Currently he’s on remand pending an investigation into his identity and possible extradition to Rwanda. Some parts of the story were borrowed from AFP

{{Residents in Kamatamu cell Nyarutarama golf club were once shocked to find a young lady’s dead body floating in a nearby dam. 8 people have so far died in the dam since 2009.
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postmortem results affirm that the cause of the death was not a result of physical assault or sexual harassment as proposed earlier by the majority of onlookers.

Vedaste Nsabimana the Kacyiru sector executive secretary noted that investigations are in its peak and that he was hopeful that the mystery would be solved to the yet to be identified woman.

The corpse was first noted by child who was heading home from the market and raised the alarm to an official in charge of social affairs in the Kamatamu cell. The police was later informed but arrived on the scene after the residents had pulled out that body.

According to public concerns the incident was not new since in the past three years there have been eight cases of death in the dam, causes of human loss are often attributed to suicide and drowning.

The deceased lady had a height of 1.40 meters; she was wearing a jacket with red and white stripes as well as black spectacles.

Christian Murenzi one of the residents noted. “This dam has caused many deaths especially among kids who drown or even acquire harmful waterborne diseases,” he commented.

In this regard, the majority of residents urged authorities to dry-out the damn as a way of reducing the number of deaths. Though this sounds like a sustainable solution Nsabimana differed with the proposal citing that the advantages of the lake were enormous particularly in environmental conservation. He further pointed out that the dam’s security will be stepped-up from the current day time surveillance till overnight.

“Normally we have people who guard the dam from morning to evening but we hope that strange incidents which occur often during the night will reduce once we increase the watchmen,” he remarked.

The Kacyiru executive secretary also advised that investors should utilize the dam since there were lots of business opportunities. He was more optimistic that the dam would attract investors since it was first constructed to facilitate recreational activities but got stuck in the building process.

{{Survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide Immaculée Ilibagiza believes Trinidad and Tobago should learn from other countries in an effort to avoid similar incidents of ethnic violence.}}

She disclosed this during a media briefing yesterday at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.

Ilibagiza is one of the world’s leading speakers on peace, faith, and forgiveness. She is also a best-selling author of Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

“You realise hate is like a snake, it is in different shapes but the damage is the same. What happened in Rwanda, with people who look completely alike, one with a bigger nose, one with a smaller nose, that was the beginning of tribes in Rwanda so I would advise learn from outside, and realise hate is just hate, it is not about people of different origins. Don’t be like us, don’t do what we did to ourselves… please learn from other people and be wise,” she said.

She advised women who also experienced hate throughout their lives that there was always hope and God. “There is a time I didn’t have nothing, when I came out the bathroom after three months, my family was gone, every home was destroyed, the only thing I had was the rosary my father gave me, all I had was God, the Almighty,” she said.

Ilibagiza was one of eight women who spent 91 days confined in a bathroom of a Rwandan pastor’s house. She entered the bathroom as a 115-pound university student with a family and came out, weighing just 65 pounds, to find out her entire family had been killed in the genocide with the exception of one brother who had been studying out of the country.

When asked how long it took her to forgive those who wronged her and her people she said about a month.

“For three months, we haven’t showered, haven’t brushed our teeth, sharing a plate of garbage food. It took maybe a month, I went through a stage, I went through rage, there is no way God would want me to forgive them. I remember hurling out of anger, sweating of thinking of what I could do, I blew up the country in my mind…then I moved into a time through prayer when I knew God was there,” she said. Ilibagiza arrived in Trinidad yesterday afternoon from New York.

She will be giving lectures today and tomorrow at the National Academy of Perform-ing Arts (NAPA). She is also expected to pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar tomorrow at 9.30 am. some parts of the story were borrowed from NewsDay.

{{The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha (ICTR() Hassan Jallow says the former Rwandan presidential guard commander Protais Mpiranya is hiding somewhere in Zimbabwe but Harare has not cooperated in his extradition}}

Jallow explains the former Rwandan presidential guard commander Protais Mpiranya is hiding somewhere in the southern African country but the Harare government has not taken action on Rwanda’s request for his extradition.

Mpiranya is wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the UNs war crimes tribunal for Rwanda.

Despite a $US5m ($5.2m) bounty, Mpiranya has evaded justice for 14 years. But his presence has been detected, sometimes in Zimbabwe and sometimes in the Congo, a UN source said.

Yet the Zimbabwean government and police have denied Mpiranya is in Zimbabwe. But sources say he enjoys ties with the military and may be enjoying their protection.

He is suspected of enjoying business links with former army officers close to the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.

Mpiranya fled to neighbouring Congo. When conflict erupted there in 1998, sucking in six African countries including Zimbabwe, he allied his forces with the 11,000 Zimbabwean troops that Mugabe had sent in.

UN sources said Mpiranya established personal business links with several Zimbabwean officers, some of whom set up their own companies to plunder Congos wealth. It is these links that enable him to feel secure in Zimbabwe.

After hunting down, sexually assaulting and murdering Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the prime minister, on April 7, 1994, troops under his command hacked to death the 10 Belgian UN paratroops who had been ordered to protect her.
Their slaughter panicked the Belgian government into withdrawing its troops, in effect rendering the UN force powerless.