Category: Politics

{{The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is seeking Rwanda’s expertise in conflict resolution to address continued unrest in the central African region.{}}}

With its success in restoring peace in Central Africa Republic, Mali S. Sudan, and other conflict regions, ECCAS has officially requested Rwanda to be a member of the block, after the country withdrew its membership to focus on contribution to the growth of the East African Community.

Ahmad Allam-Mi, the Secretary-General of t ECCAS met with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame in Kigali today and delivered the request.

Ahmad Allam-Misaid that ECCAS is looking for Rwanda’s unique leadership especially in good governance, conflict resolution and integration. “You [Rwanda] are a model in Africa,” has said shortly after meeting Kagame.

Allam-Mi told President Kagame that the central African States are encountering difficulties to solve conflicts that are prevailing between them, especially in Central Africa Republic where hundreds have been killed in a civil war that started in 2012.

An extraordinary security summit for Central African Republic (CAR) by ECCAS Head of States is scheduled to take place in Chad, the current chair of ECCAS before end of this year.

Ahmad Allam-Misaid, a Chadian national, requested President Kagame not to miss it.
The block believes Kagame’s presence will be of a vital contribution.

Regardless, Rwanda’s input will be an addition to what the country is doing in the region since the last 10 years in peace building.

Rwanda was the first to send its peacekeepers in Darfour, Sudan when a conflict erupted since 2004, under African Mission in Sudan (Amis) and then United Nations Mission for Sudan (UNAMISS).

Rwanda also intervened in Central Africa Republic since 2012, with several contingents including a special guard for the Head of State.

Other Rwandan troops are serving in Haiti and South Sudan.

Rwanda has deployed 4,650 Peacekeepers in various missions, and is ranked 5th globally.

Recently, President Paul Kagame pledged for more peacekeepers and logistics to the countries in conflicts.

The country will contribute additional 1600 troops, two attack helicopters, a Level Two Hospital and an-all female police unit.

Rwanda had temporarily withdrawn from ECCAS in 2008 to concentrate on East African Community Integration especially on policies and reintegration projects, including single monetary policy, removing non-tariff barriers and execution of the northern corridor projects.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had announced Rwanda’s reintegration in ECCAS earlier this month.

{{Allam-Misaid believes in Rwanda}}

Allam-Mi has continuously expressed concern about the insecurity prevailing in the central Africa region. In 2006, he declared that Chad had received over 300,000 refugees from the insecure Darfour in Sudan while 50,000 other people in his own country had been displaced, and hundreds killed.

He called upon UN to send peacekeepers in the region.

The United Nations Security Council agreed to send peacekeepers to Sudan. Meanwhile, before trrops were deployed, Rwanda had already sent 155 peacekeepers in the region under the African Mission in Sudan (Amis).

Allam-Mi believes Rwanda is a valuable partner.

KT PRESS

{{Rwanda has officially rejected accusations that it is involved in Burundi’s turmoil. Foreign Affairs Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, told journalists on Thursday evening that Burundi should stop blaming other countries for its political crisis.{}}}

“Burundi’s problem is not Rwanda, Burundi’s problem is Burundi,” Mushikiwabo said.
She said that Rwanda is not insensitive to Burundian problem, “but it’s not our mandate to solve the problem. I can assure you Rwanda has done all it can do.”

“We have opened our hospitals, we have opened our schools, we eased all the hurdles any refuges can have going to any country,” she said.

Rwanda believes the priority in Burundi now is to bring the country back on track and then “ shall we able to handle frictions. No blame game”.

More than 120 people have died and 190,000 people have been forced to flee Burundi since April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans to seek a third term in office. Rwanda hosts a thousands of refugees fleeing Burundi.

Nkurunziza secured the new term in July elections, which the opposition boycotted saying it broke the terms of the 2005 peace deal that set two-term limits for presidents.

Mushikiwabo said, “let’s agree that East African Community and the rest of the world failed to support peaceful solution. When leaders take decisions, they should be able to live with the consequences,” she said.

Although some Burundi Diaspora thinks that Rwanda should intervene in the crisis, Mushikiwabo said ; “There’s only so much that we can do, we don’t have a mandate to fix other’s problems.”

However, she said, ” We welcome latest African Union resolutions.”
The African Union Peace and Security Council asked the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to carry out the investigation and submit a report within 45 days from last Saturday.

In more efforts to find a lasting solution to Burundi political crisis, the African Union has also called for an inclusive dialogue between the Burundian government and opposition groups to be held in any capital around Africa.

Burundi’s government is also expected to attend talks in Brussels to seek a solution to a political crisis. A 150-day consultation process that the European Union hopes will end the country’s worst crisis since a civil war ended in 2005.

Rwandan troops in Burundi & FDLR

There have been suggestions that Rwanda should send troops to rescue Nkurunziza from the crisis. But Mushikiwabo made it clear Rwanda cannot do so. “Rwanda will never send troops to a host country that is not ready to receive our troops” she said.

As the issue of Burundi continues to dominate regional security talks, Rwanda is at the same time engaging DRC and other neighbouring countries regarding the FDLR.

DRC’s Defense Minister Aimé Lusa-Diese Ngoi-Mukena was in Rwanda recently to discuss the way forward. “He discussed broadly ..and when a neighbour wants a dialogue..its good, we were happy”

Rwanda does not find FLDR posing a military threat, but a political and ideological melting pot.

“FDLR is not a big problem, militarily, Mushikiwabo said and added that Rwanda believes if the other countries and people involved are out of equation, “we [Rwanda and DRC] would have this issue resolved.”
Russia

Minister Mushikiwabo also shed some light on her recent visit to Russia. She said the two countries have had a long time friendship and her visit was a courtesy call to Sergei Lavrov her counterpart to renew the bilateral ties.

My visit in Russia was a courtesy call by my counterpart to renew our commitments. The minister said her visit was also to woe Russian investors into the investment opportunities in Rwanda.

KT PRESS

{{Senators have concluded scrutiny of the 2013/14 Auditor-General’s report with a call to the government to help districts ensure proper accountability of their subordinate institutions.{}}}

The AG report was scrutinised by the senatorial Standing Committee on Economic Development and Finance.

The senatorial committee recently expressed discontent over the reported wasteful expenditures and abnormal losses of public funds as raised by the previous AG report.

The senators’ analysis states that non-budget agencies (NBAs) – local government sectors, cells and health centres – needed adequate follow-up to verify the accountability reports submitted to districts.

Presenting the analysis of the report before a Plenary session, Senator Perrine Mukankusi, who chairs the committee, said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning needs to find a suitable channel of accountability for these agencies.

“To reduce mismanagement and unauthorised expenditures by non-budget agencies at the lowest levels of government, the Ministry of Finance should help parent districts to establish suitable and credible channel to ensure non-budget agencies are fully accountable,” Mukankusi said

{{Make NBAs fully-fledged’}}

Commenting on this recommendation, Senator Jean Damascene Ntawukuliryayo called on the government to find means for non-budget agencies to grow into fully-fledged budget agencies since they also indirectly account for quite a fair share of public funds.

“If districts cannot account for mismanagement done by their subordinates, then there is a need to help them turn into fully accountable public institutions,” Ntawukuliryayo said.

“The decentralisation system has been in place since 2002, the government should have found a way to have these small public entities grow into complete budget agencies.”

Public enterprises such as Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), the now defunct Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority; Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and Onatracom were also faulted over misuse of huge amounts of taxpayers’ money.

Senators recommended that RSSB revises its strategic plans, mostly on housing projects that initially should be built to benefit, among others, its loyal clients.
The senators had earlier raised concerns over RSSB housing projects with low or no occupancy rate, mostly for infrastructure that were built in remote areas, which are now lying idle.

While the report will be submitted to the National Public Prosecution Authority for further investigation on possible public fund abusers, Senators committed to carry-out extensive studies on more approaches to hold public enterprises more accountable.

The New Times

{{President Kagame yesterday met with the Secretary-General of International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Houlin Zhao, in Kigali. Houlin is in the country to attend the three-day Transform Africa Summit.{}}}

The second of it’s kind to be held in Rwanda, the meeting allows participants to share experiences and renew commitment of accelerating and sustaining the continent’s on-going digital revolution.

The New Times

The Government of Rwanda would like to affirm that there are no unofficial detention centres in the country. This comes after Human Rights Watch (HRW) falsely names Gikondo Transit Centre in Kigali as a detention centre. The transit centre has and continues to play an important role in the rehabilitation of those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Commenting on the report, Rwanda’s Minister of Justice, Johnston Busingye, emphasised that all detention facilities in Rwanda are properly legislated and run in accordance with United Nations standards, and national laws that affirm those principles.

Minister Busingye further reiterated that the country’s recent history has involved a lot of trauma and family conflict: “Victims of such situations, even if they end up in crime or delinquency, are better off when offered another chance in life. The Government of Rwanda stands by its policy of rehabilitation rather than incarceration. This policy has worked in the past and will continue to do so into the future.”

While HRW insists that Rwanda should charge drug addicts and other criminals with serious crimes that carry jail terms, the country has instead chosen to focus on rehabilitating and reintegrating them to offer the chance for a better life. This policy of rehabilitation over incarceration is one example of how Rwanda has found unique solutions to the challenges the country faces.

“Gikondo is not a detention centre. It is a transit centre and people are held there for a short period before longer term remedial or corrective measures are taken. The later consists of rehabilitating and reintegrating former drug addicts and city dwellers – through drug rehabilitation and learning a trade to prevent repetition – and supporting them to reunite with their families,” Minister Busingye said.

Over 7,000 Rwandans have completed the transition programme and are now working in carpentry, masonry, welding, tailoring, and bee-keeping cooperatives – improving their wellbeing for a brighter future.

The Government of Rwanda takes all allegations of human rights abuses seriously, however speculative they may be. Any information related to possible abuses is welcome and will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate action taken. To facilitate this, the National Police has a toll free hotline which can be used anytime to report any abuses. The office of the Ombudsman and the National Commission for Human Rights also welcome any information on human rights violations so that they can be fully investigated.

It is unfortunate that Human Rights Watch has again chosen to deliberately mislead people with false statements that serve only to undermine Rwanda’s efforts to provide a better life for its citizens. HRW has a Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda’s Ministry of Justice through which human rights concerns can be raised and addressed by the institutions responsible. The Government of Rwanda encourages HRW to use this MoU to address any concerns it has in a constructive manner. However, it has become increasingly clear that HRW refuses to engage through the mechanisms established under the MoU and instead seeks to spread falsehood and speculation.

The Government of Rwanda invites Human Rights Watch to provide information on the alleged cases – according to its report – and any others so that they may be investigated and due process undertaken.

{The contrast between Burundi and Rwanda is quite striking. The havoc on one hand, and the evident serenity on the other.}

{{Ending the dogma of presidential term limits in Africa}}

Beyond this, there is the awareness that African countries are not as identical as we think and that certain groups of people do not vilify their leaders.

And lest I forget. The calm of the Rwandan people is apparently due to the terror of the Rwandan Robespierre, which would make Kagame more tyrannical than Nkurunziza.

Let’s try a thought experiment to test this idea.

Rwanda is an exception in recent African history. In the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide, the fate of this East African country was sealed: without resources, it was destined to join the long list of African countries whose ambition seemed to be to remain insignificant.

From chaos, the Rwandan leader was to build a modern state and a true nation. Not an easy feat. Yet 21 years after the destruction of the country, Rwanda is one of the most promising countries on the continent.

Appreciating the true value of Rwanda’s journey is difficult if one does not see it from a historical perspective.

Western countries have developed modern states – impersonal and efficient – gradually from the late 17th century, which is late considering their long history.

{{Modernization before democratization}}

In most of these countries the modernisation of state institutions preceded democratisation. The context of permanent wars at the time forced these reforms. The lack of the “‘Human Rights-ism’” (pejorative expression of excessively tolerant implementation of the human rights concept or its distortion) was a catalyst.

Germany is emblematic of this phenomenon. Under constant military pressure from its powerful neighbors, Prussia was forced to modernize a patrimonial state. Initiated around 1648 after the Treaty of Westphalia, this transformation was completed with the implementation of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms in the early 19th century.

Like Germany, and in similar contexts, several European countries first built effective states and ensured the law ruled over the arbitrary before developing democratic systems.

National unity of the great Asian and Western countries seems miraculous when you look at it from the African perspective. Ethnic or religious tensions here are still latent. Forging a national identity is in fact achieving utopia.

As Ernest Renan recalls in “What is a Nation”, “the existence of a nation is a daily plebiscite”.

The emergence of a nation is not a natural phenomenon – people of different backgrounds and cultures coming together is not a spontaneous reaction but the result of political will.

And because “unity is always achieved through violence” political will in the past was shaped through violence.

But, fortunately, “amnesia and omission in history are essential factors in the creation of a nation”, due to “acts of violence that occurred at the origin of all political processes.”

History is politically incorrect. But it has a formula: different types of dictatorship – not democracy – built great European and Asian nations. Democracy can empower people but it makes building systems difficult.

{{Peaceful transformation}}

Our era differentiates itself from previous ones by the importance we place on human dignity. It is an undeniable progress. The career of a dictatorship has never been so uncertain. But in the eyes of history, ‘Human Rights-ism’ is also a constraint on the visionary leaders of our time.

According to the World Economic Forum 2014-2015 ranking, the Government of Rwanda is the most efficient on the continent and the 7th most efficient in the world. Furthermore, indications show that Rwanda is gradually taking shape as a nation. Since 2000, the country has been radically transformed, without any instability.

{{Historically, that is unheard of in Africa.}}

This small miracle is the result of a consensus between the people of Rwanda and their representative.

Rwandans have agreed not to be the Dutch. In return, Kagame has promised to emulate Lee Kwan Yew.

Before longing for freedom in the Western sense, Rwandans are fond of order, stability, and economic opportunities. True freedom comes from these three elements.

For a long time swans were known to be white. Then Australia was discovered. And with her, black swans. The theory of Black Swan was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe phenomenon that are not easily predictable but do occur (the election of Barack Obama is one example). The metaphor of the Black Swan is also an indicator of our ignorance.

We are used to dictators in Africa: leaders despised by their people and who cling to power beyond constitutional limits. Perhaps, with Paul Kagame, we are in the presence of a black swan: a leader appreciated by a people that in its majority want him to continue his masterpiece. If this is the case, then the least one can do is put an end to the dogma of presidential term limits in Africa.

{{The writer is a Cameroonian entrepreneur and essayist. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, he lives and works in Cameroon.}}

This article was first published in {{Jeune Afrique}} in French and Republished by {{The New Times}} in English

{{By JENDAYI FRAZER
Nairobi, Kenya
}}

President Obama arrived in Kenya on Friday and will travel from here to Ethiopia, two crucial U.S. allies in East Africa. The region is not only emerging as an economic powerhouse, it is also an important front in the battle with al Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Islamic State and other Islamist radicals.

Yet grievances related to how the International Criminal Court’s universal jurisdiction is applied in Africa are interfering with U.S. and European relations on the continent. In Africa there are accusations of neocolonialism and even racism in ICC proceedings, and a growing consensus that Africans are being unjustly indicted by the court.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. After the failure to prevent mass atrocities in Europe and Africa in the 1990s, a strong consensus emerged that combating impunity had to be an international priority. Ad hoc United Nations tribunals were convened to judge the masterminds of genocide and crimes against humanity in Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These courts were painfully slow and expensive. But their mandates were clear and limited, and they helped countries to turn the page and focus on rebuilding.

Soon universal jurisdiction was seen not only as a means to justice, but also a tool for preventing atrocities in the first place. Several countries in Western Europe including Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium and France empowered their national courts with universal jurisdiction. In 2002 the International Criminal Court came into force.

Africa and Europe were early adherents and today constitute the bulk of ICC membership. But India, China, Russia and most of the Middle East—representing well over half the world’s population—stayed out. So did the United States. Leaders in both parties worried that an unaccountable supranational court would become a venue for politicized show trials. The track record of the ICC and European courts acting under universal jurisdiction has amply borne out these concerns.

Only when U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatened to move NATO headquarters out of Brussels in 2003 did Belgium rein in efforts to indict former President George H.W. Bush, and Gens. Colin Powell and Tommy Franks, for alleged “war crimes” during the 1990-91 Gulf War. Spanish courts have indicted American military personnel in Iraq and investigated the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.

But with powerful states able to shield themselves and their clients, Africa has borne the brunt of indictments. Far from pursuing justice for victims, these courts have become a venue for public-relations exercises by activist groups. Within African countries, they have been manipulated by one political faction to sideline another, often featuring in electoral politics.

The ICC’s recent indictments of top Kenyan officials are a prime example. In October 2014, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta became the first sitting head of state to appear before the ICC, though he took the extraordinary step of temporarily transferring power to his deputy to avoid the precedent. ICC prosecutors indicted Mr. Kenyatta in connection with Kenya’s post-election ethnic violence of 2007-08, in which some 1,200 people were killed.

Last December the ICC withdrew all charges against Mr. Kenyatta, saying the evidence had “not improved to such an extent that Mr Kenyatta’s alleged criminal responsibility can be proven beyond reasonable doubt.” As U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2005-09, and the point person during Kenya’s 2007-08 post-election violence, I knew the ICC indictments were purely political. The court’s decision to continue its case against Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto, reflects a degree of indifference and even hostility to Kenya’s efforts to heal its political divisions.

The ICC’s indictments in Kenya began with former chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s determination to prove the court’s relevance in Africa by going after what he reportedly called “low-hanging fruit.” In other words, African political and military leaders unable to resist ICC jurisdiction.

More recently, the arrest of Rwandan chief of intelligence Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Karenzi Karake in London last month drew a unanimous reproach from the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. The warrant dates to a 2008 Spanish indictment for alleged reprisal killings following the 1994 Rwandan genocide. At the time of the indictment, Mr. Karenzi Karake was deputy commander of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur. The Rwandan troops under his command were the backbone of the Unamid force, and his performance in Darfur was by all accounts exemplary.

Moreover, a U.S. government interagency review conducted in 2007-08, when I led the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, found that the Spanish allegations against Mr. Karenzi Karake were false and unsubstantiated. The U.S. fully backed his reappointment in 2008 as deputy commander of Unamid forces. It would be a travesty of justice if the U.K. were to extradite Mr. Karake to Spain to stand trial.

Sadly, the early hope of “universal jurisdiction” ending impunity for perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity has given way to cynicism, both in Africa and the West. In Africa it is believed that, in the rush to demonstrate their power, these courts and their defenders have been too willing to brush aside considerations of due process that they defend at home.

In the West, the cynicism is perhaps even more damaging because it calls into question the moral capabilities of Africans and their leaders, and revives the language of paternalism and barbarism of earlier generations.

{Ms. Frazer, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa (2004-05) and assistant secretary of state for African affairs (2005-09), is an adjunct senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.}