The partnership between South Korea and the countries of the ASEAN including Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines has been developed in various fields such as economy, politics, and culture. In particular, Myanmar has been building the cooperative relationship with South Korea as the two countries share a lot in common including emphasis on tradition, courtesy, and affection (‘Ttanyosen’ in Burmese and ‘Jeong’ in Korean language).
H.E. Naing Ngun Lin, the Minister of Social Affairs of Yangon Region Government, celebrated the event through the letter. “You, the next generation, are essential to the establishment of lasting peace and security. I believe that it is the youth who get actively involved in peace-making activities today that will be future leaders of the world tomorrow. The long term sustainability of peace for Myanmar and for Korea, therefore, rests squarely on the shoulders of the next generation of leaders.”
Regarding the question about how to achieve peace, H.E. Thura Thet Oo Maung, Ambassador of Myanmar answered, “We have to understand each other to maintain the balance. And when you become the leader, you should educate your child with the peace education since they are very young. As you live in peaceful community owe to your previous generations, your parents, you must pass the peaceful world down to the next generations.”
Mr. Jin-Young Kim, a university student attending the event, said, “I think it is important to understand each other first to achieve a peaceful world without war. In that respect, through lectures on various cultural exchanges such as today’s lecture on Myanmar culture, I would like to have all the families of the world become together as one.”
In this occasion, there were a concert performance by the Korean instrument orchestra performing songs for a culture of peace and a photo exhibition introducing the culture of Myanmar as well as the peace activities of the IPYG youth around the world. The IPYG is working in cooperation with about 4.6 million young people around the world to promote a culture of peace, to implement peace education, and to establish an international law for peace.
The two were in first instance sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 over genocide crimes and crimes against humanity that they allegedly committed in the former Kabarondo Commune (district) which they consecutively led as Bourgmestres (mayors) from 1977 to 1994. They are especially accused of giving orders to kill over 3,500 Tutsi who had sought refuge at Kabarondo Parish in Kayonza District.
The appeal trial running in the Paris Assize Court from May 2nd to July 6th is expected to receive 100 witnesses including those invoked by the defendants and the plaintiff.
In a tele-press conference organised by Pax Press on the 25th day of the hearing last Friday, Emmanuel Ruvugiro Sehene told the journalists in Kigali that the Paris Assize Court is working tirelessly from 9:00am to 10:00pm every day in order to bring about the final verdict on the appeal by July 6th.
Sehene is in Paris from last month to follow all the hearings in appeal of Ngenzi and Barahira.
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Sehene said that filing their appeal, defendants had claimed to have not received enough time in the first instance to defend themselves but they have now received ample time though witnesses on the plaintiff side still outnumber those on the defence.
“Something new has happened today since the beginning of the appeal trial as anonymous witnesses have appeared for the first time, citing their security concerns. Defendants had tried to avoid those witnesses, saying that they cannot exchange words with the people they are not seeing but the jury took an hour apart and came back with the decision that defendants’ claims were baseless and allowed anonymous witnesses to testify. The first one is done and the second is starting now,” Sehene said on Friday afternoon.
The jury president Xavière Simeoni said the law allows for the protection of witnesses’ identity and both sides in trial can freely ask them their questions.
The male witness named ‘X’ who had a Tutsi wife said that Ngenzi led Interahamwe militia to his home where his sister-in-law was hiding whom Ngenzi ordered the witness to kill in order to spare his wife. The witness who said was convicted with that crime of killing his sister-in-law said Ngenzi who was carrying a pistol forced him to commit that crime.
It was expected for defendants to do investigations in Rwanda but time did not allow. The witnesses including relatives of the suspects are coming from many areas mainly Rwanda and France.
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The court’s jury consists of three judges flanked by nine people who are ready to replace a member of the jury anytime.
The general public and media’s attendance has been very poor since the beginning of the appeal hearings and Sehene says that he has heard that people better attended the first instance and think there is nothing new in the appeal hearings. He said he is always the only reporter in the media area while the audience often consists of three to five people. Witnesses are also often accompanied by three to four people.
Witnesses are insisting on Ngenzi’s incitement of people for killing the Tutsi with some saying they saw him in the killings while others say they never saw him on the killing scenes. Ngenzi and Barahira have consistently denied the charges.
Citing example of testimonies about babies who sacked their dead mothers in the Genocide against the Tutsi, Sehene said that, earlier in other hearings, some witnesses caught trauma as they recount their ordeal during the genocide and testimonies shocked even the defendants and others in the court room that all looked solemn.
Cyasa Habimana Emmanuel, who is serving life sentence over genocide crimes, testified how the genocide was planned in former Kibungo prefecture, currently in Eastern Province.
Cyasa who admitted his role in the killings said that he attended many meetings involving Ngenzi and Barahira among other local leaders that were planning to exterminate the Tutsi.
“I am not testifying to get my penalties reduced but I later recovered my conscious to realize how much we did bad and tarnished our own and country’s image. I feel responsible for witnessing about what I know,” he said.
Referring to the death of President Juvenal Habyaraimana, Cyasa cited a meeting of April 1, 1994 which convened leaders from the sector level to prefecture in which the Tutsi were excluded and Hutu told that they had to revenge after the death of a high profile member of then ruling party MRND.
The National Coordinator of Pax Press, Albert Baudouin Twizeyimana who also attended some hearings last week, said there were important testimonies in the trial which can help Rwandans understand their history and urged media to intensify efforts in reporting justice matters especially those related to the Genocide against the Tutsi.
He said that Pax Press, in partnership with RCN Justice et Démocratie, Haguruka and AMI, will attend and report other genocide trials wherever they will take place in the world in the next five years through the project dubbed “Justice et Memoire.”
Ngenzi and Barahira’s life sentence was the stiffest ever handed out to genocidaires by a French court. In 2014, former army captain Pascal Simbikangwa got 25 years in solitary confinement for genocide and crimes against humanity. Ngenzi and Barahira were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by Rwandan people’s courts, known as “gacaca”, in 2009.
Ngenzi was captured in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, off the east coast of Africa, where he had been living under a false name. Barahira was arrested in 2013 in the south-western French city of Toulouse where he was living.
Rwanda National Police (RNP), yesterday, marked its 18th anniversary commending the immense role of various players and the citizenry in general for driving the philosophy of community policing, a major factor credited for fighting and preventing crimes and promoting safety.
The State Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Evode Uwizeyimana, who presided over the Police Day, said that the “18 years of RNP were not in vain; today we live in a safer country and governed by the system of partnership at all levels.”
“Security is the foundation of social welfare and sustainable development […] because of the existing partnership in policing, Rwanda is ranked one of the safest countries in the world,” the State Minister said. “Ensuring safety and security is a continuous act, it is a continuous journey, let’s continue to work together not to lean back. It requires laying effective strategies, strengthening partnership and teamwork to identify potential threats, share information and lay a ground for crime prevention. When a village is crime-free the country is safe and secure.”
The latest world internal security and Police index ranked Rwandan National Police as Africa’s second-best Police service after Botswana. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Emmanuel K. Gasana thanked RNP’s partners and reflected the journey of the body in terms of security and called for united efforts to move forward.
“This is the day to thank all Rwandans and all our partners for we know that without their partnership we wouldn’t be this far in making our country safer for all.” “This is also a day for us to look back and see where we have come from, where we are and devise effective measures to take us where we want to be in terms of security as a firm foundation towards sustainable development,” IGP Gasana said. “Over the last 18 years, RNP achieved a lot in terms of capacity and skills development, acquired modern policing equipment; infrastructure development such as schools, offices and police quarters, building confidence and trust among Rwandans, and took part in international peace support operations, among others,” the Police Chief said.
The Police Day also marked the end of four weeks of community development activities under the auspice of the annual ‘Police Week.’
The anniversary was attended by other sister security institutions that include Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) and all entities under the justice sector, provincial governors and district mayors, NGOs, faith-based organizations and civil society as well as Youth Volunteers in Community Policing, among others.
The children made the request during celebrations of the International Day of the African Child that took place this Saturday, organized by “We-actx For Hope” a dedicated team of Rwandan health care providers.
Speaking during the event, a sixteen-year old child who had attended the celebrations remarked that in the Rwandan society, children living with AIDS were not treated like normal children.
‘‘The problem we mostly meet is that we are shunned out. In our society, you’ll find that the HIV positive child is most often than not an outcast. I’d give you a quick example; the family that I went to live with after my parents died, did not allow me to eat, sleep or play with their children because they were afraid of AIDS,’’ the child countered
Another seventeen old echoed the remarks ‘‘I learnt that I was HIV positive when I was 12[…]and the problem I had to deal with was being shunned out. Most children refuse to take meds mostly because of the way they are treated by their families and this leads to us losing them.’’
The President of ‘We-actx For Hope’, Benekigeri Chantal, said that the problem of shunning out HIV positive children would be solved only if people changed their mindset.
‘‘Our society does not give enough importance to children living with HIV/AIDS, they mostly shun them out, where you find that a parent sends all his other children at school while the HIV Positive child is forced to stay at home. This shouldn’t happen because he is a child just like others.’’ He said
Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment for HIV (WE-ACTx) was created in early 2004 in response to a request from these women for help in accessing ART. Working collaboratively with five local genocide survivors’ associations, the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Rwandan National AIDS Program, WE-ACTx founding members mobilized resources to develop a treatment program for the survivors.
In Rwanda, HIV prevalence has been stable since 2005 and remains at 3% among adults age 15–49 (4% among women and 2% among men).
The youth who gave the donations came from a group dubbed “Association les Fraternels Zirikana”.
The President of the association, Kabahuza Bernard, said that the action was for Genocide survivors to know that they were not alone and they were still remembered.
“In these 100 days that are a homage to those we lost during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis, we also called to do something to those who survived, so to show them that they are not alone and that they should not lose hope for a better future.” Kabahuza said
Beneficiaries welcomed the donation. “Although I no longer have children of my own, this is not the first kind gesture that young people did for me. I thank God that the country has such considerate beings. This gesture gives us hope,” said Kankindi Esperance, one of the beneficiaries.
The Vice-President of IBUKA in Nyaruguru District, Ndagijimana Emmanuel, thanked the youth for the donation and encouraged them to keep it up.
Representing the two airlines during the signing ceremony that took place Thursday was the State Minister for transport in Rwanda, Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye and the Minister of State for Trade and Industry in Singapore, Koh Poh Koon.
According to RwandAir’s CEO, Yvonne Makolo, the deal presents an opportunity to foster Africa’s economic development through air transport, and enhancing cooperation with Singapore Airlines, which is experienced in the field.
“Signing this agreement is a golden opportunity in expanding our horizons in Asia. We now fly Mumbai and Guangzhou is a destination that is set for 2019. This will further deepen our cooperation with Singapore, whom we are sure to much learn from,” Makolo said.
The national carrier will be launching three weekly flights from Kigali to Lusaka on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, Tharman Shanmugaratnam who was accompanying the Singaporean Minister of State for Trade and Transport said that he was impressed by the clarity of thinking of the part of Rwanda. He further added that both parties will be sharing experience.
With the new agreement, Singapore Airlines and Rwandair, and subsequently Singapore and Rwanda, position themselves as pioneers of bilateral agreements for air services and promotion of Investments.
This was revealed during the third host of Experts Talk by KCB Bank Rwanda, where Trade and Commodity Finance was the subject being discussed. The event saw customers from KCB Bank Rwanda including those involved in the value chain of the bank’s corporate and SME business.
The Managing Director of Ennovative Capital, Kefa Nyakundi, who was among the experts, was the one who introduced this innovative solution that will see suppliers of Corporate Institutions, receiving payment for goods and services offered, without having to wait for the stipulated credit period.
“It’s all about the use of technology to help SMEs access working capital by removing hurdles that they normally encounter when they go to banks to borrow for working capital. If well adopted and taken in whole, it is able to reduce the cost of accessing that finance and again is able to give SMEs that access more often than not. You do not need to give collateral, nor do you have to go through credit assessment processes. As long as you have a good buyer, then you have access to the value you have supplied at the earliest opportunity,” Nyankundi explained.
As participants appreciated the idea, KCB Bank officials revealed that they were in discussions on the innovative solution.
Speaking to the press, Mpirwa Alex, the In-charge of Agriculture in KCB Bank Rwanda, said that KCB Bank Rwanda was set to launch a program dubbed KCB MobiGro, highlighting its commitment towards supporting the agriculture sector in the country.
“We are reimagining and redefining the agricultural sector with a view of transforming agribusiness by accelerating financial services access. We believe that technology supported agribusiness is an emerging and fast growing frontier that will embolden the agricultural sector to be a stronger driver of economic expansion in the Rwanda” said KCB Bank Rwanda’s Mpirwa Alex.
He added that the mobile application purposely designed for farmers will start in September this year.
Also at the event was Prosper Ndayirangije, the Country Director of Africa Improved Foods in Rwanda who shared his experience on managing the Value Chain in Agribusiness, commended the session as very educative.
“Usually, financing agriculture is taken as a great risk by banks because there are a number of risks they cannot predict such as climate change, whether they will be able to pay back, etc…This session brought in spotlight the trader and farmer and the difficulties both parties and what solutions could be brought up.” Prosper Ndayirangije said
KCB Bank Rwanda launched the Expert Talks to boost uptake of bank products and access to finance, thus financial inclusion.
The idea, according to Rosette Mutoni, the Corporate Communications Manager at KCB Bank Rwanda, was to create a platform where the bank can interact with customers, share their knowledge on how banks can work with citizens to improve access to finance and financial inclusion, as well as keeping them informed on the latest trends of the trading world.
According to NEC, the process begins Wednesday 13th and runs until July 25th. It will take place starting 7:00am to 5:00pm.
For a potential independent candidate to be eligible to compete for a seat in parliament, according to the electoral code, they should have 600 signatures of voters supporting the candidate.
Members of Parliament elections are due September 2nd to Rwandans living abroad and September 3rd to those in the country.
For an independent candidate to be able to secure a seat in parliament, they should at least earn 5% of the votes of total voters.
Kagame is in Russia for the opening of 2018 World Cup ceremony.
According to Russia’s Office of the President, Putin said that he was pleased to welcome Kagame to Moscow.
“Our Foreign Minister has visited you recently. This year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. I am very pleased that we have this opportunity to talk about the development of our relations,” reads the statement by Russia’s Office of the President, the Kremlin.
“I hope you will have an interesting and pleasant time in Moscow during the 2018 FIFA World Cup”
Kagame thanked Putin for welcoming him and for the invitation to Russia as well as participating at the FIFA World Cup.
“I want to congratulate you also on Russian Independence Day as well as the hosting of the World Cup,” the statement reads in part.
“Also I am happy that our relationship has so far lasted over 55 years. I am happy about that and look forward to strengthening our relationship further,” Kagame said.
Kagame said that Rwanda had a very good visit by the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Lavrov.
“He came with a delegation to Kigali. We are happy about that. We want to build on that momentum for strengthening our relationship which we want to continue to take further,” he said.
He thanked Putin for the support and the cooperation by Russia to different fields that are very useful and productive to the development of Rwanda.
“These are the areas of education, training, defence cooperation as well and other areas. And we are looking forward to having the private sector work in Rwanda and look forward to hosting some of them from Russia to see the areas in which we could do investment and business,” Kagame elaborated.
Taking place in Travelling to a different European city each year in June, World of Coffee is the essential event for coffee professionals – drawing a loyal audience from the global specialty coffee community, more than 80% of whom return year-on-year. Brought by the Specialty Coffee Association, the event has more than doubled in size and stature over the last five years, growing from 3,000 visitors and 45 exhibitors to 6,800 visitors and 240 exhibitors in just 5 years.
Rwanda Coffee with its complex acidities and diverse flavours will be exhibited and tasted by prominent European specialty coffee importers, roasters and retailers. The exercise will generate business deals and seek more investment opportunities within the coffee sector in Rwanda.
A delegation of 15 exhibitors from Rwanda representing the coffee sector players will participate in the RAI Amsterdam event. The participation of Rwanda delegates is facilitated by a joint collaboration of the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda in The Netherlands and National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB). The team will similarly explore sessions related to coffee quality improvement, marketing and promotion. On the side-lines of the World of Coffee, Rwanda Coffee exhibitors will make a call for participants about the up-coming ‘African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition’ to be hosted by Rwanda at Kigali in February 2019.
‘This is an invaluable experience for international coffee enthusiasts, ‘urban foodies’, key industry players and of course many other interested parties to discover and enjoy the specialty coffees from Rwanda’, said H.E. Ambassador Jean Pierre Karabaranga.
Rwanda Coffee – A Second Sunrise is a national coffee brand, comes from Rwanda’s best coffee-growing areas. It captures the essence, landscapes, resplendent beauty and natural biodiversity of Rwanda.
The 2018 edition of the World of Coffee will be another opportunity for Rwanda’s Coffee to reach thousands of coffee industry stakeholders.
