{{South Sudan Human Rights Commission (SSHRC) has called for the resignation of security ministers due to the killing of innocent civilians across the country, and in the capital, Juba, in particular; and to allow investigations into the death of Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol to take place fairly.}}
Chairperson of the SSHCR, Lawrence Korbandy, made the comments at the prayer service organised by Awuol’s relatives and friends, and attended by top-level government officials and foreign diplomats held at the house of undersecretary in the ministry of defence, Bior Ajang Dut, in Juba on 16 December.
Awuol was a leading political commentator. He was shot outside his home in Gudele on 5 December.
Korbandy called on the security ministers to “step down” if the government intends to conduct independent and credible investigation into Awuol’s killing.
He claimed that “if the government has a hand in this, then it will be difficult to establish the fact because those who may have participated will not cooperate with investigators.”
According to Korbandy investigations into constitutional post-holders will be hampered by their immunities and that for an “independent and credible result” resignations must take place.
Korbandy is one of the first senior government officials to echo calls by members of civil society organisations and civil right activists, urging the government to produce the culprits and bring them to justice.
“The tragedy is being felt not only by the immediate family members with relatives and friends of late Isaiah, but indeed by the country at large. We have lost a great thinker and a leader. He was a nationalist and freedom fighter,” said Korbandy.
He claimed that South Sudan’s “rampant killings” are adding to a perception that the people of the young nation are not able to govern themselves.
A member of the National Legislative Assembly representing Awuol’s area, Anna Lino Wuor, urgued journalists and opinion writers to carry on writing.
“We are in complete pain. […]The killers are cowards and must be traced. The government must produce them so that they are brought to book,” said Lino.
The national security minister, Oyai Deng Ajak, said all security organs and other associated institutions have received “clear instructions” from the President to conduct “full and thorough” investigations to establish the facts and will they resign if the investigations find them responsible.
“I will not accept to work for an institution which kills people. I actually refused to attend training for security and combat intelligence in Bonga in 1983 when I was among the first groups to for training.
It was actually our current president Salva Mayardit who was selecting us. The reason for which I refused was that I did not want to take part in the killing of our people in the same way Nimeri was doing it.
But commander Salva Kiir at the time said ’no’. He explained that the security and combat intelligence training you are going to attend is not to kill our people but to allow you acquire knowledge on how to get the information about the activities of the enemy to the front line. This was why I accepted,” Oyai explained.
The US ambassador to South Sudan, Susan Page, said she was “struck” by the level of disappointment amongst senior government officials over the killing.
Page pledged the US’s commitment to exert efforts and expertise to establish the facts.
“You need to work together as team to assist in the investigation. The American government will support the process and I am glad that president Salva Kiir has accepted the involvement of Federal Bureau of instigation,” Page told the mourners.
{{Reports from Kenya indicate that the number of registered voters is edging towards the 11 million mark, with only two days to the deadline.
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The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) communication’s manager, Ms Tabitha Mutemi, told the Nation that as at last Wednesday, the number of registered voters had reached 10.3 million.
This number is expected to increase, taking into consideration the number of voters registered during the weekend.
This figure still falls short of the targeted 18 million voters by 7.7 million.
As the deadline nears, Beach management unit officials in Migori County have barred locals from fishing unless they register as voters. Fishmongers too must produce voters cards before they can buy fish.
“Voter registration statistics in Nyanza are worrying. That’s why we are using such methods to encourage people to register,” said Mr Victor Otieno, a fisherman from Nyatike.
{{Rwanda Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo has used her tweeter account to send her condolences to American families who lost members of their families in a rampage at a Connecticut elementary school.}}
The killing happened Friday, when a 20 year-old Lanza shot 20 children and six adults at School.
“Many people in Rwanda following with sadness events in Newtown, Connecticut…Our hearts go out to bereaved families!” Mushikiwabo said.
The report said On Friday morning, Lanza shot his mother Nancy in the face at the home they shared in Newtown, and then drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Dressed in black combat gear, he broke a window at the school, which had recently had a new security system installed, and within minutes had shot and killed six adults and 20 schoolchildren between the ages of five and 10.
The killing have brought a state of panic among Americans who urged the US Government to take serious measures to avoid further killings
President Barack Obama assured the grieving, shell-shocked Newtown community on Sunday that “you are not alone” and vowed sternly to wield “whatever power this office holds” in a quest to prevent future mass shootings.
“We can’t tolerate this anymore,” Obama said from behind a podium on the stage of a Newton High School auditorium, as adults wept, or hugged, or sat quietly, many hugging small children. “These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”
“In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens — from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents, and educators — in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have?”He said
{{Teams from three New England colleges have won about $15,000 each in a student competition to design sustainable technologies that help protect public health and the environment.}}
Teams from Dartmouth College in Hanover designed a hydropower generation and distribution system to bring electricity to rural areas of Rwanda.
The technologies also aim at promoting economic development.
Teams from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., University of Massachusetts in Lowell and the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, were among 45 teams nationwide to win awards in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s annual competition.
College of the Atlantic students designed a process to pre-treat food waste to produce liquid fuel and biogas.
At UMass-Lowell, students are designing a new class of non-toxic wetting agents used in soap and other items.
{{Mr. Beyon Luc Adolphe Tiao Prime Minister of Bourkina Faso has commended Rwanda’s progress in the past 18 years after the 1994 Genocide.}}
“No one can believe that in 18 years, Rwanda progressed like this” He said.
He was on a study tour in Northern Province of Rwanda.
Together with Rwandan officials, the visit was held in both Mutobo reintegration Centre and Butaro Hospital locating in Musanze.
He was impressed with how government puts emphasis on improving living conditions among citizens by starting from local population.
He said that establishment of Butaro Hospital in a remote area is the sign that Rwanda values lives of citizens irrespective the boundaries.
Prime Minister Luc A. Tiao also said that he was interested in Rwanda’s Health Insurance system and Girinka program aiming at eradicating poverty among poor families.
While paying visit to Mutobo reintegration Centre, he was briefed on how former soldiers are being reintegrated in Rwandan society.
The former FDLR Combatant has testified to PM of Bourkina Faso that during his time in bush he was not good.
The Premier calls upon former fighters to be committed to the development of Rwanda by focusing on one goal.
{{In a recent article published in The New Times, it was reported that a study commissioned by the Ministry of Youth and ICT and carried out by a team of researchers from Kigali Health Institute found out that “52.5% of youth in Rwanda have at least once taken drugs, and 92.7% of that population group kept on consuming them”}}.
This would imply that 48.66% of all Rwandan youth consume drugs. Another misleading element in the article is the reference to trafficking, which was not covered by the said report.
Considered out of their proper context, these numbers would undoubtedly be alarming.
To put things in perspective, the public needs to know that the research considered as “drug” both legal and illegal substances.
Out of the 52.5% reported as consuming drugs, the same research further states that about only 5 % have ever tried an illegal substance mainly cannabis whose lifetime prevalence stood at 4.4% and 2.54% reported problems of dependence on it.
The other most prevalent illegal drugs are illicit brews such as Kanyanga, solvents (glue) and local brews prepared from sorghum, sugar, etc. collectively responsible for about 1% of reported cases of drug use.
These findings point out to the relatively high level use of alcohol (34%) and tobacco (8.5%) among the youth (14 – 35 years of age).
What is most important, is to note that the commissioning of the report was by itself an acknowledgment that drug abuse among the youth was indeed a serious problem that deserves policy attention and action which wouldn’t be based on mere anecdotic evidence.
The study informed and strengthened a number of on-going programmes by the Ministry and its public and non-profit stakeholders to tackle the issue of drug abuse and its consequences on the youth.
Most importantly, it justified on-going policy and regulatory reviews, geared towards making Rwanda a drug-free country.
The campaign for drug eradication was launched by Her Excellency the First Lady Jeanette Kagame in December 2011.
In response to her call, the Ministry of Youth and ICT initiated the “Neighbour’s eye” (Ijisho ry’umuturanyi) which aims at pushing the campaign to the village level (umudugudu).
The programme is a partnership between MYICT (Ministry of Youth and ICT), Imbuto Foundation, the National Police, the Ministry of Local Government, Faith-based organisations and a number of other public and non-for-profit stakeholders.
To-date, the campaign has established anti-drugs committees in all the14, 813 villages of Rwanda.
Iwawa Rehabilitation and Skills Training Centre is another home-grown solution to assist those who have fallen victims of drug addiction leading to petty crime.
So far the programme rehabilitated and graduated 2,056 young men in a range of vocational skills that include carpentry, construction, commercial farming and tailoring. Today, the centre hosts 1,936 youth.
The programme has achieved remarkable success whereby more than 90 per cent of graduates were successfully reintegrated back into their communities as responsible and productive citizens.
However, to win the battle against alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use among young Rwandans, it will take much more than policy, government backed programmes and law enforcement.
There has to be a mind-set change towards the traditional and cultural value of these substances.
Parents, educators and communities need to play a leading role by protecting children against exposure to these substances at a tender age.
The writer is the Minister of Youth and ICT of the Republic of Rwanda.
Speaking to Uganda’s Monitor, Mr Betrano Bisimwa in photo above explored several issues concerning the Eastern Congo crisis. below is a full interview…
{{What does the name M23 Movement mean?}}
M23 is a platform for the different armed groups and political movements that signed a peace accord with the government of DR Congo on March 23, 2009.
These movements requested the government to fully implement the accord but also bring good governance to our country.
Therefore, our name is from March 23, the date when we signed this accord. This was CNDP, on the one hand with other armed groups, and on the other hand, it was DR Congo.
Therefore, the M23 is composed of all these groups. We want the government to implement fully the peace accord it signed with these groups.
{{Why are you fighting}}?
We are not fighting the government. We are reacting to the attacks by Kinshasa. When we told Kinshasa that we wanted the peace process to be implemented fully, they reacted by attacking us.
We found ourselves in a situation to have to defend ourselves. We acted in self-defence.
What do you make of the allegations by the government and the international community that you are committing atrocities against the people in eastern Congo?
I would like to emphasise one thing. This is propaganda by the Kinshasa government. They are accusing us of things that have never happened.
The crimes in DR Congo are committed by the government. DR Congo is in a chaotic phase. There is nobody in control of this country. Some of these reports are drafted by people in their offices in Paris and Washington.
Those who dare to come to Congo, stop in Kinshasa where they get fabricated intelligence. We have asked so many times that an independent inquiry be put in place by any international mechanism to verify those allegations. These allegations are baseless.
{{Hasn’t the UN written reports talking about areas where you have recruited children?}}
We recently captured Goma, and journalists, NGOs were there. No one saw a single child soldier among our soldiers. We operate in daylight. These allegations, accusations and counter-accusations are just fabricated for purposes of propaganda.
We wrote a letter to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, requesting the leaders to put in place a commission of inquiry because we do not participate in the ICGLR meetings but the government does.
This correspondence was sent but there was no follow up. If the DR Congolese government was sure about the allegations, they would have seized this opportunity and follow up with the ICGLR.
But they didn’t because they know these are fabricated allegations.
These allegations cannot be proved. If a commission of inquiry was sent there and they found that there was no single case of murder, or any other atrocity in the areas controlled by the M23, then the whole case would fail.
The current secretary General of ICGLR is Congolese, appointed by the government but we don’t understand why he didn’t seize this opportunity to put in place that commission of inquiry to bring evidence.
{{What about allegations that you are a proxy group for Uganda and Rwanda formed to fight Kinshasa and that you have no cause to fight for?}}
When we signed the peace agreement with the government and they failed to implement it, is this not a cause? When we say that Congo is not governed or that public service is non-existent is this not a cause?
When we say that Congo is populated by foreign armed groups operating with the help of the government and are raping and killing Congolese women, are these not causes? When a national group is systematically marginalised and relegated because of their ethnic origin, isn’t this not a cause to fight for?
When the whole country goes into elections, rigs and declares somebody who got minority votes as president, isn’t it a cause that people can fight for?
After all, these causes that I have enumerated, we are also trying to ask those making the allegations whether these are Ugandan and Rwandan causes. What is the immediate interest that Uganda and Rwanda may have as a result of all these factors I have talked about?
They are not the ones that created these problems in Congo. When they allege that Rwanda and Uganda are helping M23, it’s a way of trying to divert attention from the real issues and find scapegoat.
{{Why would the international community be against you if you have problems with Kinshasa?}}
The answer is simple: The international community, represented by the UN, is not with us because they are partners with the government. In fact, the UN has ceased to be a force that is neutral. If they had come to us in order to understand our concerns, they would have listened to our side.
They are held prisoners of their principle of neutrality. It’s only recently that the people of Palestine were admitted and given a position at the UN. The UN considers governments as its partners and the UN Secretary General works for the union of the governments.
However, the UN was one of the signatories of the March 23 agreement. But they have kept quiet.
They are actually part of the problem. They cannot go public and say that they have failed in Congo. They have failed and they continue to fail because they don’t put in efforts to understand the needs of the people of Congo. Recently, when we were fighting in Goma, the government troops were backed by the UN.
They used UN helicopters and bombed our troops and we lost a number of fighters. When the UN workers are coming to work in Congo, they get their accreditation from Kinshasa. That’s why they do not understand us.
{{You continuously say that the Congolese government has failed to implement the March 23 agreement. What are those issues Kinshasa has refused or failed to implement?}}
First, it was the repatriation of refugees who have been living in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi for 18 years. These refugees were supposed to be repatriated when we signed the agreement in 2009. But no one was repatriated until the election of 2011 when few of them were brought back.
The refugees are seen as foreigners. They are not considered Congolese.
Secondly, we had agreed with the government that permanent reconciliation committees be created at the grassroots level so that we tackle all the problems that may arise as a result of tribal and ethnic conflict.
Apart from that, the government made a formal commitment to put in place a ministerial structure that would be in charge of national reconciliation since 2009.
This ministerial structure was not put in place and nothing was done with regard to national reconciliation.
We see danger, when people were chased away from their land in 1996, their properties, including their ancestral land were seized by those who remained.
We told the government that before these people are repatriated, we need systems in place to sort out all these challenges. Let the government show the world these structures exist and that we have no point to make.
The third and the most important is that our accord also had incorporated the Great Lakes region security agreement on all negative forces operating in Congo, have to be neutralised and eradicated.
But as you may be aware, the FDLR that’s well known operates jointly and manages Ishasha, a very important border point with Uganda with Kinshasa government.
They are the ones controlling this border point. Why would a serious government give part of its territory to a foreign rebel group to manage it? That country has an obligation to disarm this negative force.
{{What about those who say that you want to secede from DR Congo and form a new state called Kivu?}}
As M23, we believe that we are not even competent to talk about creation of a new state of Kivu as they allege. We believe that this is the choice of the people that can decide how they want to be governed.
When you try to talk about their weaknesses, they use propaganda to cause confusion.
If we were to create a state, we would not create a small state. Our interest is clear. We want to have a government in Kinshasa that protects its people.
Our concerns are national. We are condemning poor leadership.
We are condemning poor service delivery. In fact, to be realistic, DR Congo is like a country that does not exist. We have resources that no other country has, but we are the poorest, ever suffering.
We want this to end. Therefore, to hide its weaknesses, the government wants to portray us as people who want to secede.
{{Do you see these peace talks succeeding?}}
Our position is that these negotiations must succeed and whoever will be responsible for failure of the talks, will be answerable to the people of Congo.
The Congolese will decide on that person’s fate. We have the obligation to succeed. We have made sacrifices for peace. When we captured Goma, the whole world said it wanted to listen to grievances on the condition that we withdraw.
We had gone beyond Goma. But because of peace, we withdrew 60km and went to our old positions. We have made so many sacrifices. Whoever participates in the failure of these negotiations, will have to pay a price.
Will you resume fighting and recapture Goma if the negotiations fail?
Our aim is not to take new areas.
We are aware, cautious and very sorry about this war and the suffering it has caused to our people who are now tired of fighting.
We are optimistic that these talks will continue and end well. If our aim was to capture ground, we would have captured many more towns because we have the capacity.
We are not the ones who started this war. But if the talks fail, the people of Congo will decide the next move.
We have seen your forces dressed in new uniforms, new boots and carrying strong weapons. Where do you get these from?
Everybody knows that the M23 soldiers came from the government side. They came with their guns. All the commanders we have were big commanders in the government units.
They came with soldiers and their logistics. It’s also well known that when we are fighting government forces, they abandon everything on the battlefield.
They abandon weapons and ammunitions in the quantities that we cannot even manage.
Recently, in Goma, we captured thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition, including BMs and we are saying, if unfortunately, we were attacked today and we used these weapons that we got from Goma, the whole world would say these arms were supplied by Rwanda.
We got 33 containers full of weapons and ammunition. We have more than enough weapons.
We don’t need to ask from the neighbours. Why should we ask for weapons from Rwanda, or Uganda or Burundi, when we can get them easily from the government soldiers who abandon them on the battlefield?
{{A new intelligence assessment of global trends by a US-based intelligence council projects that Rwanda is at high risk of becoming a failed state within the next 18 years}}.
The 140-page report that is released every four years, after the US President is elected by the National Intelligence Council says Rwanda and 14 other countries risk becoming a failed state because of their potential for conflict and environmental ills.
The other 14 countries in the same category are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Burundi,Uganda, Somalia, DR Congo, Malawi and Yemen, among others.
It says by 2030, middle classes in the developing world are expected to balloon, while the tools of war, including cyber and biological weapons, are predicted to become more readily available.
Climate change is destined to make wet places wetter, and dry places more arid. And new communication technologies are described as a “double-edged sword.”
A product of four years of intelligence-gathering and analysis, the study, by the National Intelligence Council, presents grounds for optimism and pessimism in nearly equal measure.
The report states that China will outstrip the US as the leading economic power before 2030, but US will remain an indispensable world leader, bolstered in part by an era of energy independence.
Russia’s clout will wane, as will the economic strength of other countries reliant on oil for revenues, the assessment says. “There will not be any hegemonic power,” the report says. “Power will shift to networks and coalitions in a multipolar world.”
{{Middle class}}
One remarkable development it anticipates is a spreading affluence that leads to a larger global middle class that is better educated and has wider access to health care and communications technologies like the Internet and smartphones.
“The growth of the global middle class constitutes a tectonic shift,” the study says, adding that billions of people will gain new individual power as they climb out of poverty.
“For the first time, a majority of the world’s population will not be impoverished, and the middle classes will be the most important social and economic sector in the vast majority of countries around the world.”
At the same time, it warns, half of the world’s population will probably be living in areas that suffer from severe shortages of fresh water, meaning that management of natural resources will be a crucial component of global national security efforts.
The study also warns of the risk that terrorists could mount a computer-network attack in which the casualties would be measured not by the hundreds or thousands killed but by the millions severely affected by damaged infrastructure, like electrical grids being taken down.
The study acknowledges that the future “is malleable,” and it lists important “game changers” that will most influence the global scene through 2030: a crisis-prone world economy, shortcomings in governance, conflicts within states and between them, the impact of new technologies and whether the US can “work with new partners to reinvent the international system.”
{{Two thousand four hundred and five children were raped countrywide out of the 3 421 cases reported between January and October this year. }}
According to police statistics, neighbours perpetrated 41 percent, while relatives accounted for 27 percent of the cases.
Officer commanding the Victim Friendly Unit Assistant Commissioner Isabella Sergio yesterday said the rape of juveniles continued to increase countrywide.
“As an organisation we are obviously worried by the fact that children continue to bear the brunt of sexual offences.
“The majority of reported cases have been perpetrated against children under the age of 18 years,” she said.
Asst Comm Sergio was speaking at the launch of ZRP’s Crime Awareness Campaign in Harare.
She said rapists seemed to take advantage of children’s naivety, vulnerability and inability to protect themselves.
She said parents had become careless and left their children in the custody of potential rapists.
“Parents leave minors in the custody of male relatives or their neighbours as they go about their activities. This exposes them to sexual abuse.”
Asst Comm Sergio said during school days, some children go to and from school unaccompanied with some of them using shortcuts such as secluded areas exposing themselves to danger.
Some parents even let their children sell various wares on street corners, shopping centres and residential homes where they could be subjected to sexual harassment and abuse.
“What has become more worrisome now is that boys under the age of 18 years have developed a habit of sexually abusing young girls below 12 years.
“These teenage boys take advantage of unaccompanied minors left in their custody or waylay them in secluded footpaths, bushy areas and maize fields as well as along the distances between schools and homesteads especially in rural areas,” she said.
She said lack of accommodation for families had also resulted in children sharing bedrooms with male relatives and this subjected them to abuse.
Asst Comm Sergio said children were also lured with cash, private lessons and transport in private vehicles before being raped by some unscrupulous individuals, teachers, motorists and male relatives.
“Rape of juveniles is characterised by late reporting. The majority of cases are rather discovered than disclosed,” she said.
She also expressed concern over date rape as some boyfriends were in the habit of putting noxious substances in their girlfriends’ drinks before raping them.
Asst Comm Sergio said domestic violence cases were also on the increase.
So far, she said, 9 807 cases have been reported countrywide compared to last year’s 8 296.
“Murders as a result of domestic violence also continue to rise. The link between domestic violence and technology has become very significant as a number of cases emanate from invasion of privacy particularly through cellphones and e-mails.
“Infidelity and misuse of family income are other major causes of domestic violence,” she said.
She urged the public to report all cases or suspected cases of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
{{South African President Jacob Zuma has defended his record at the opening of the African National Congress (ANC) conference at which his position is being challenged.}}
His deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, is contesting the party leadership.
But one of South Africa’s richest businessmen, Cyril Ramaphosa, lent his support to Mr Zuma by standing for the deputy leadership of the ANC.
Mr Ramaphosa played a key role in the transition to black-majority rule.
He was the pre-eminent union leader in the dying days of apartheid and negotiated the end of white rule.
But after losing out to Thabo Mbeki in the race to succeed Nelson Mandela as president, he turned to business, and created the Shanduka Group of industries.
Zuma said the country was now ready to “move into the second phase in which we will focus on achieving meaningful socio-economic freedom”.
