IGIHE

Tag: HomeNews

  • Who is now on the World’s Most Wanted list?

    Rwanda’s most high profile fugitive and genocide mastermind Felicien Kabuga may have probably be quivering as news began to filter in that Osama Bin Laden had been shot dead on Monday. Kabuga, who has a US$5 million bounty on his head, is said to be hiding somewhere in neighbouring Kenya, though his exact location remains a mystery to many. But what the world has exhibited is that one can run (for protracted periods) but cannot hide. Osama, despite his camouflage and immense financial prowess, could not survive the fury of the innocent blood he shed during the years that he has continued to terrorise the world. Would something similar happen to Kabuga, who has all along managed to mask his identity this long ? After the demise of Osama, Kabuga alongside Uganda’s Joseph Kony, the leader of the murderous Lords Resistance Movement, join FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives in the world.

    He wasn’t the World’s Most Wanted Man. Officially, at least, there’s no such thing. But when Osama bin Laden|More from guardian.co.uk on Osama bin Laden died from a shot to the head and another to the chest sometime between midnight and 1.30am local time on Monday, the man who, in the popular western imagination, held arguably the best – and certainly the best-publicised – claim to be regarded as such left behind him something of a conundrum for those who compile such lists : who could replace him ?

    It’s not such a straightforward question. Leaving aside such niceties as one man’s evil terrorist mastermind being another man’s blessed freedom fighter, attempting to place in order of importance crimes on the kind of scale that might warrant inclusion in a Top 10 of global iniquity is a task fraught with difficulties. How do you measure a Serbian ethnic cleanser against an American serial killer, dismemberer and necrophile ; a Mexican drugs baron against a Rwandan genocide-merchant ?

    Most lists, sensibly, do not try. The first and perhaps the most famous of all, the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives|FBIs 10 Most Wanted Fugitives – from which Bin Laden was summarily ejected on Monday, his photograph stamped with a blood-red banner and the single word “Deceased” – doesn’t rank its members, who are confined to criminals indicted by a US federal grand jury. Bin Laden, indicted in absentia in New York in 1999 for his alleged part in the US embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi the previous year, was a bit of a misfit on that list.

    His fellow fugitives were, for the most part, fraudsters, rapists, murderers and drug traffickers, with bounties on their heads ranging from $100,000 to $2m ; the reward offered for Bin Laden’s capture totalled $27m (£16m). Robert William Fisher, for example, is wanted for allegedly killing his wife and two young children and then blowing up the house in which they all lived in Scottsdale, Arizona in April 2001 ; Alexis Flores for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old girl in Philadelphia.

    Heinous crimes, but hardly the equivalent of masterminding 9/11. Or indeed, as assorted warrants put it, of “organising a global network committed to bringing down the United States|More from guardian.co.uk on United States“. That explains why the FBI created a separate list in 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks :Most Wanted Terrorists|Most Wanted Terrorists. The death of the al-Qaida|More from guardian.co.uk on al-Qaida figurehead leaves 29 people on that list, including his reported deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and also indicted for the US embassy bombings ; Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, wanted in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors ; Adam Yahihe Gadahn, sought for providing “material support, comfort and aid” to al-Qaida ; and Abdul Rahman Yasin, indicted in the 1993 bombing of the New York World Trade Centre.

    The FBI’s hope, it seems, was that the terrorist list would have the same mobilising effect on the US public as the original 10 Most Wanted, first launched on 14 March 1950 after the FBI director, J Edgar Hoover, spotted the potential of the publicity generated by a news agency story profiling the “toughest guys” the bureau would like to capture. The first person placed on the list was Thomas James Holden, wanted for the murder of his wife, her brother and her stepbrother. Down the years it has also featured the likes of James Earl Ray, the prime suspect in the assassination of Martin Luther King ; the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy ; and (briefly) civil rights activist Angela Davis.

    According to the FBI, 494 fugitives have figured on its 10 Most Wanted list, and 464 have been captured or at least or located, 152 of them with the help of the public. Priorities have changed over time, the agency says. In the 50s, the list was “primarily comprised of bank robbers, burglars, and car thieves”. In the radical 60s, “the list reflected the revolutionaries of the times, with destruction of government property, sabotage, and kidnapping dominating”. The 70s were overwhelmingly about organised crime|More from guardian.co.uk on Organised crime, and in the 80s and 90s the 10 Most Wanted began to include suspected international terrorists as well. In more recent years, common crimes have included rape and other sexual abuse, crimes against children, white-collar crime, gang violence and drug trafficking.

    Maintaining such a list on a global scale has obvious pitfalls. Interpol, the international police organisation, makes no attempt to prioritise. The 321 criminals who currently feature on its website|321 criminals who currently feature on its website range from an Australian kidnapper to an Argentinian counterfeiter.

    (In Britain, rather more prosaically, Crimestoppers UK’s 10 Most Wanted includes one John Levy, wanted for “driving off from a petrol station without paying for £51 worth of diesel”.)

    Since 2008, the US business magazine Forbes has published a list of The World’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, compiled in consultation with law enforcement agencies internationally (see below). Its criteria, the magazine says, are that fugitives have been criminally indicted or charged in national jurisdictions or by an international tribunal, stand accused of “a long history of committing serious crimes”, and are “still considered dangerous”. In addition, each is said to represent “a type of criminal problem with which legal institutions in diverse jurisdictions are grappling”. It also ranks its candidates from one to 10.

    Described as “armed, dangerous and very tough to catch – the world’s worst thieves and thugs who have eluded local police, armies and international organisations for years”, Forbes’s most recent list was topped by Bin Laden. It also includes Semion Mogilevich, “the face of Russian organised crime” ; Joaquin Guzman, “Mexico|More from guardian.co.uk on Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficker” ; Dawood Ibrahim, “India|More from guardian.co.uk on India’s most wanted man” ; Italian |More from guardian.co.uk on Mafiamafia|More from guardian.co.uk on Mafiaboss Matteo Messina Denaro ; Rwandan businessman (and alleged genocide financier) Felicien Kabuga ; Joseph Kony of the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army ; and James L Bulger, a Boston mobster wanted in connection with up to 19 murders.

    But the list is disputable. Britain, for example, would probably quite like to see Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB operative wanted for the murder by plutonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, somewhere on a list of this kind (although he hasn’t been charged). Augustin Bizimana, likewise, is the most senior of the 12 or so people wanted for genocide by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda|More from guardian.co.uk on Rwanda not to have been apprehended ; the former defence minister faces charges over the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. Some might like to see the name of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese dictator seen as responsible for ethnic cleansing that has left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless in Darfur and the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the International Criminal Court. And what of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army chief indicted for genocide in The Hague in 1995 ? He’s still out there, laughing.

    So who will replace Bin Laden for the list-makers ? It seems logical he could make way on Forbes’s list to last year’s runner-up, Guzman. The FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list will simply shrink ; Bin Laden’s name will not be substituted. But on the Top 10 Most Wanted, the jury’s out. Some reckon Zawahiri is a shoo-in ; other favour the Libyan, Anas al-Liby, or the Egyptian Saif al-Adel, both allegedly implicated in the east African embassy bombings. Adan el Shukrijumah, a Saudi citizen suspected of planning to attack the New York subway in 2009, and Yasin, wanted in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, are also mentioned. But, some observers say, Bin Laden’s replacement on America’s 10 Most Wanted could be an altogether less rarefied species of lowlife : a white-collar criminal, say, or a bank robber. Ultimately, such lists are always going to be subjective.

    The new 10 Most Wanted List

    1 Joaquín ’El Chapo’ Guzmán Mexican drug lord

    “El Chapo” or “Shorty” (he stands 5ft 6in tall) heads an international drug trafficking organisation, the Sinaloa Cartel, and became Mexico’s top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cárdenas of the Gulf Cartel. Appears simultaneously on Forbes’s lists of the world’s most powerful, most wealthy and most wanted men. Ruthless and determined, Guzmán has succeeded in turning Ciudad Juárez, a strategic smuggling point that overlooks El Paso, Texas, into one of the murder capitals of the world through mind-numbingly brutal battles against both the Gulf and La Linea cartels, leaving thousands dead. A faction from La Linea has recently defected to Shorty’s side ; a local street gang, the Mexicles, has sub-contracted its services in killing, kidnapping, drug dealing and extorting ; and even elements of the police and army seem to have thrown their lot in with him. Sinaloa smuggles many tonnes of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the United States, and is also heavily involved in Mexican methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin.

    2 Dawood Ibrahim Head of Indian crime network 

    The most wanted man in India heads up a 5,000-strong organised crime network called the D-Company that is involved in everything from drugs trafficking to contract killing in Pakistan, India and the UAE. Currently on the Interpol wanted list for organised crime and counterfeiting, besides association with al-Qaida. According to Washington, Ibrahim uses the same smuggling routes as al-Qaida and has worked with both the mother organisation and its offshoot Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He is also suspected in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people and wounded 713. Like Bin Laden, Ibrahim may well be based in Pakistan.

     3 Semion Mogilevich Russian ’boss of bosses’

    Arrested in Russia|More from guardian.co.uk on Russia for tax evasion in 2008, Ukrainian-born Mogilevich was released in 2009. Wanted in the US in connection with a $150m share fraud ; believed by both European and US law enforcement agencies to be the “boss of bosses” of most Russian mafia syndicates in the world. Nicknames include “Don Semyon” and “The Brainy Don” ; often described as “the most dangerous mobster in the world”.

     4 Matteo Messina Denaro Cosa Nostra kingpin

    Sicilian mafioso who has effectively taken control of Italy’s Cosa Nostra following the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano and other leading mobsters. Nicknamed “Diabolik“, after an Italian comic-book character. Known for his fast lifestyle, Porsches and Rolex watches, he has been on the run since 1993.

     5 Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov Uzbek mobster

    Major Russian mobster originally from Uzbekistan and apparently known as “Taiwanchik” for his Asian appearance. Washington describes him as a “major figure in international Eurasian organised crime” engaged in “drug distribution, illegal arms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles.” He is even alleged to have bribed the figure skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

    6 Felicien Kabuga Mastermind of genocide

    Accused of bankrolling the Rwandan genocide, inciting bloodshed through his radio station and even supplying the machetes and hoes used in the massacres, Kabuga is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for “serious offences under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, crimes against humanity and genocide” in connection with the massacre of more than 800,000 Rwandan men, women and children in 100 days of terror in 1994. Allegedly hiding in Kenya.

     7 Joseph Kony Ugandan guerrilla leader

    Head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a guerrilla group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government in Uganda|More from guardian.co.uk on Uganda. Has also operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan, abducting an estimated 66,000 children and displacing more than two million people since 1986. The International Criminal Court has indicted him on 33 charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes.

     8 James ’Whitey’ Bulger Old-school US mobster

    The ever-so-slightly embarrassing older brother of William Michael Bulger, a former president of the Massachusetts state senate and the University of Massachusetts, Bulger was part of the Winter Hill Gang, a Boston-based Irish-American crime network that for many years ran illicit drugs and extortion rackets. Pursued by the FBI for more than a decade for racketeering, murder (his name has been linked to 19 killings from the early 70s up to the mid-80s), conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering and narcotics distribution. Bulger’s wealth is estimated at between $30m and $50m (£18m-£30m), cash he is said to be using to evade arrest with his longtime girlfriend. Last confirmed sighting was in London in 2002. There is a reward of $2m for information leading to his arrest.

    9 Omid ’Nino’ Tahvili Head of Canadian crime group

    Head of a Persian organised crime network in Canada linked to assorted Triads and other global criminal groups. Arrested on charges of torturing a relative of a man he suspected had stolen a chunk of his organisation’s illicit drugs money, he walked out of a Canadian maximum security prison in a janitor’s uniform in November 2007 after promising to pay a guard to let him out (he never forked up). US law enforcement wants to talk to him about a fraudulent telemarketing business that targeted people in the US, stealing some $3m from hundreds of victims, most of them elderly.

    10 ? Ayman al-Zawahiri Al-Qaida number two

    Born in June 1951 into a prominent upper-middle class family in Cairo, Zawahiri was the final “emir” of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he merged into al-Qaida in 1998. Reportedly a qualified surgeon, he speaks Arabic, English and French. According to former al-Qaida members, Zawahiri has worked with al-Qaida since the organisation’s earliest beginnings. He is often described as Bin Laden’s right-hand man, and by some as the “real brains” of al-Qaida. The friendship between the two men supposedly began in the 80s when Zawahiri is said to have given medical treatment to Bin Laden in Afghanistan in the teeth of a Soviet attack. According to terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, Bin Laden considered Zawahiri his mentor. Most experts believe 9/11 could not have happened without Zawahiri’s controlling influence.

  • Troubled Rwandatel seeks foreign investors

    Rwandatel may turn to a foreign investor if a local court does not liquidate the debt-laden telecoms firm, its interim management said on Wednesday.

    Rwanda’s telecoms regulator stripped Rwandatel of its mobile licence for failing to meet key performance targets in terms of investment, network roll-out, coverage and quality of service.

    The company, 80 percent owned by the Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP), acquired its operating licence in 2007 but only started mobile operations in December 2008.

    The Rwandan government has taken custody of some Libyan-owned assets in line with an international freeze, but has not explicitly stated that the Libyan investment in Rwandatel has been frozen, given the pending court ruling.

    The telecoms regulator said on Wednesday it would await the court ruling to see what options there would be to protect the interests of Rwandatel creditors.

    Last month, a Rwandan court appointed an interim manager to oversee the company’s affairs for the next two months, including paying debts of 54.3 billion Rwandan francs.

    However, the company maintained its fixed line and data license, which accounted for 60 percent of its revenues.

    Richard Mugisha, the company’s interim manager, dispelled media reports that foreign telecom companies, particularly Vodacom of South Africa, were already in talks with the company and the regulator about a possible take over. 

    “I have not been approached by any telecom investor. However, if the court rules that the company shouldn’t be liquidated our plan of action would definitely require the involvement of a strategic investor,” Mugisha said.

    “The kind of assets the company has can only be used by someone who is established in this business and understands it. Keeping, or changing the brand identity of the company, would depend on the business decision of that investor. When that time comes we will definitely interest some people,” he said.

    According to figures presented on Wednesday, the debt includes 1.7 billion francs in interconnection fees owed to MTN Rwanda and Millicom’s Tigo Rwanda. It also owes the government 3.6 billion and 400 million francs in regulatory fees.

    The company will remain 80 percent owned by the Libyan fund with the other 20 percent in the hands of Rwanda’s social security fund until the court makes its ruling, the country’s telecoms regulator said.

    Before revocation of its licence, Rwandatel had over 500,000 subscribers, MTN Rwanda 2.3 million and Tigo Rwanda 700,000 clients. MTN Rwanda was once forced to payoff Rwf 70 million ($145,000) for failure to meet contractual obligations. 

  • Rwanda Plans to Start Sinking Geothermal Wells

    Rwanda plans to start drilling exploratory geothermal wells in an area that may have at least 700 megawatts of steam power, following in the footsteps of neighboring Kenya, Energy Minister Coletha Ruhamya said.

    Rwanda lies within the same Great Rift Valley fault system as Kenya, where shifting tectonic plates provide sizeable reserves of geothermal energy. Kenya, Africa’s biggest geothermal power producer, estimates the extent of its untapped power resources at as much as 10,000 megawatts, enough to meet its own electricity needs and export the surplus.

    “Geothermal is the area that the government of Rwanda wants to prioritize,” Ruhamya said, according to a statement e- mailed from the Nairobi-based Geothermal Development Co. today. “Since Kenya has progressed far in the area, we are looking for collaboration and partnership in capacity building, drilling and putting plants in place.”

    Ruhamya made the comments in a meeting yesterday with her Kenyan counterpart Kiraitu Murungi, according to the statement. She didn’t say when drilling may start. The New Times newspaper reported on March 10 that the country would start digging wells in August, citing Ruhamya.

    Experts from Kenya’s state-run Geothermal Development Co. are currently training 12 Rwandese students on how geothermal technology works, today’s statement said.

    Investigations into Rwanda’s geothermal potential began in 1982 with the north-western Volcanoes National Park and areas around Lake Kivu identified as possible sites, according to the energy ministry’s website.

  • Business Life After Death in Rwanda

    Last month, three Rwandan owners, graduates of the three-year BPeace program, visited the United States during a trip that paired them with American businesses in their industries. The participants included Languida Nyirababeruka, who founded Pompe Funebre Twifatanye, a funeral home, after the 1994 genocide.

    Ms. Nyirababeruka, a former teacher who lost her job for political reasons, ran a tailoring business before 1994. The genocide claimed her husband and several family members, as well as her home and business. When it was over, she had to locate her three children, now in their 20s. “After the genocide, I started from scratch,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. A United Nations contact helped Ms. Nyirababeruka get a job as a cook, and she began to rebuild her life in Kigali.

    The idea of opening a funeral home took shape after Ms. Nyirababeruka spent an exhausting day helping a friend plan a funeral. At the time, there was no one business that provided all funeral-related items and services, like coffins, transportation and flowers. Ms. Nyirababeruka said her friend was forced to “run around, buying things here and there.”

    When Ms. Nyirababeruka opened Pompe Funebre Twifatanye in 2003, her friends and neighbors were uncomfortable with the concept of a business that profited from death. Now, many have become her customers, and she has two competitors. “She’s changing their culture,” said Craig Baker, a BPeace mentor who works at Brady Funeral Home in Danville, Pa., which was the host of Ms. Nyirababeruka for part of her stay. Mr. Baker met Ms. Nyirababeruka two years ago when he traveled to Rwanda to share his expertise.

    Today, Ms. Nyirababeruka employs 10 people, including a recently hired carpenter who makes the coffins that she previously outsourced. Her business, which supports her family, had 2009 revenue of $26,435. Though she said that owning a business places her in Rwanda’s growing middle class, Ms. Nyirababeruka said her company must become more profitable.

    She looked forward to learning from her counterparts in the United States. After leaving Pennsylvania, Ms. Nyirababeruka visited Cobble Hill Chapels in Brooklyn. Brady Funeral Home and Cobble Hill Chapels shared best practices and arranged field trips to the businesses that service the industry, including florists, cemeteries, headstone makers and a morgue.

    During a meeting with the staff at Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka admitted she often reduces her prices out of sympathy for grieving families and then regrets it. Although fixed prices are virtually unknown in Rwanda, Ms. Nyirababeruka vowed to establish them for her services and to make no exceptions. She was intrigued to learn that many American funeral homes offer interest-bearing accounts that make it easier for families to save for future funeral costs. Back in Rwanda, she plans to educate people to prepare for funeral expenses and to increase her chances of collecting them.

    At Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka also learned about potential add-on products and services that could boost her profits, like rosary beads and casket engraving. While some practices (like embalming) would be too costly for her to implement now, she learned how to create printed extras, like prayer cards, using a computer. She left Cobble Hill with shopping bag full of samples, including thank-you notes and a guest book.

    Ms. Nyirababeruka hopes one day to pass her business on to her children. She is thinking about sending her son to a funeral services program that Mr. Baker attended in Pennsylvania and that they visited during her trip. Most of all, she said, she hoped her children will struggle less than she had.

  • BRALIRWA launches star search contest

    The country’s largest beverages manufacturer, Bralirwa through its Primus beer brand will sponsor a music competition dubbed ‘Primus Guma Guma Super Star’. Among the main highlights of the three month competition is a concert that will feature one of the most recognisable faces in world music Sean Kingston. The Jamaican-American singer is scheduled to jet into the country on 30th July 2011to grace the finals and perform live.

    In an exclusive interview with IGIHE.com, the brand manager of Primus and Heineken, Jean Pierre Uwizeye said that BRALIRWA through the Primus brand is launching the competition with initial ten contestants who have been preselected by the local media.

    Uwizeye said that in March this year, the local media were invited to conduct a pre-selection of the most promising artists who would be revealed on Saturday, 7th May 2011.

     ”After illuminating on the top ten artists on 7th May 2011, all those artistes will each receive RwF 1.5million. They will then perform concerts countrywide as a way of campaigning for votes,” Uwizeye said.

    He observed that the competition would be conducted in three phases with the first selection due for 16th May. The top ten artists would campaign from one province to the other and thereafter, the public would from 2nd July 2011 vote in their favourite musicians. Each fan would be limited to two sms votes.

    Uwizeye explained that BRALIRWA alongside the partner telecommunications companies would ensure there is no manipulation of the votes.

    Through the polling, fans will select the top seven contestants. Subsequently, the battle for the winner among the four finalists will take place from 9-16 July 2011. This time, the supporters will send in only one text message per week, which translates to two votes in two weeks.

    The winner will be declared on 30th of July. During the gala, Sean Kingston will perform live alongside Rwanda’s most talented artistes. The winner will scoop Rwf 6 million on top of a free ticket to the USA to record a song with Sean Kingston. 

    Uwizeye disclosed that the Primus Guma Guma Super Star contest is organised by promoters from other East African countries to make it a success. 

  • Promote team spirit- Governor urges local leaders

    The Governor of the Southern Province, Alphonse Munyentwari, has urged local leaders to promote team spirit and improve communication skills as a way of delivering better services in the community.

    The governor made the remarks during the celebration of the International Labour Day marked in Muhanga district this Tuesday.

    Munyentwari said : “There is need to build a team of leaders, which has good qualities of communication, friendly and highly disciplined. A team which is able to do monitoring, evaluation and cross checks its activities, so as to deliver services and promote good governance”

    The governor further asked local government leaders to consult with residents and opinion leaders during the implementation of community development activities build a strong collaborative effort with key players in development. 

    Guest speaker, Théoegene Karake, the secretary General of Association of Local government officials (RALGA), made a presentation on customer care and service delivery. He called upon local leaders to be examples in their community.

     “Customer care is a value that should be evident in all leaders and this can be done through exhibiting a character of simplicity and courtesy to the clientele”.

    “If the president of the republic can receive guests with a warm welcome, then what does it take for a local leader to stand up and receive residents who enter their offices ?” he posed.

    Other speakers at the celebrations included Brig. Gen.Mubarak Muganga, who also challenged leaders on the image of a leader in public, and the manner in which they spend a lot of time on their phone calls instead of attending to clients.

    Muhanga District also rewarded three best performing cooperative- and IABM cooperative which emerged top, was awarded Rwf500.000 cash prize to boost its maize growing activities.

    A district local leader’s savings and loans cooperative (KOPIMU) was also officially launched and its leaders elected during the celebrations held at the Muhanga Cultural center.

    The governor hailed the activities of cooperatives in Muhanga district, and encouraged cooperatives to also focus promote the growth and integration of human values with the members, so as to build a nation towards unity in development.

  • Rwandan neighbour: Kobagaya not at ethnic killings

    A former neighbour of a Rwandan accused of participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide testified Tuesday that he never saw the man at any of the ethnic killings in the area where they lived.

    Jean-Marie Byiringiro took the stand during the third day of testimony in the U.S. immigration trial of Lazare Kobagaya. Byiringiro, who admitted killing a 12-year-old Tutsi boy in exchange for a goat as part of the genocide, said he was at nearly all of the ethnic killings in the area where he and Kobagaya lived.

    Kobagaya, 84, is in a federal courtroom in Kansas, USA, fighting charges of unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship in 2006 with fraud and misuse of an alien registration card. The government, which is seeking to revoke his citizenship, contends he lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his involvement in the genocide. Kobagaya contends he is innocent.

    The arsons and killings related to Kobagaya’s case allegedly occurred in a rural community known as Birambo, where Kobagaya and his family lived at the time, as well as at Mount Nyakizu, where thousands of Tutsis had sought refuge.

    The government contends Kobagaya was a wealthy and influential leader who incited the arsons and killings in his community, along with Francois Bazaramba, a former Rwandan pastor who was sentenced last year to life imprisonment by a Finnish court for committing genocide against the Tutsi minority in 1994.

    Most of Byiringiro’s testimony implicated Bazaramba, not Kobagaya. In fact, Byiringiro, who served seven years in prison for his role in the genocide, told jurors that Kobagaya, a Hutu born in neighboring Burundi, didn’t have any power in the community because he was a refugee in Rwanda.

    When a mob gathered at Bazaramba’s house before the homes of Tutsis were set on fire on April 15, 1994, Byiringiro said, Kobagaya came out of his house only because people were in front of it. It was Bazaramba who spoke to the crowd, Byiringiro said. During the speech, Bazaramba called on Kobagaya to explain to the crowd that the Tutsis were bad people.

    Byiringiro said through a translator that Kobagaya did tell people that “we did not know the badness of the Tutsis” and that if they didn’t kill them, the Tutsis would kill the Hutus. However, Byiringiro told the jury he didn’t see Kobagaya join the rest of the crowd of more than 100 people in the arsons.

    His testimony came a day after another neighbor, Valens Murindangabo, testified that Kobagaya told the mob to burn down the houses of Tutsis so they wouldn’t return and ordered the killings of others.

    On Tuesday, defense attorney Kurt Kerns questioned Murindangabo, a former teacher who has served more than 10 years in prison for his role in the genocide, about an eight-page government form he had filled out as part of his own confession. The form asked him to list all witnesses and accomplices, but it didn’t have Kobagaya’s name.

    Murindangabo insisted an attachment had been lost that listed Kobagaya as participating in the genocide.

    The defense also hammered on the money he was receiving for his testimony — $96 a day while he is in the United States and $274 when he was in Rwanda for meeting with investigators. The defense team noted that is a lot of money in Rwanda, where the per capita annual income is $490 a year.

  • Rwanda projects lower farm output this year

    Growth in Rwanda’s agricultural output is seen slowing to 6 percent in 2011 from 7.1 percent last year due to a drought late in 2010, agriculture minister Agnes Kalibata has said.

    The country has invested in new agricultural production to raise food and export output, with agriculture a mainstay of recent economic growth.

    “Agriculture growth this year will not be as good as the previous year’s because of a drought at the end of last year, so we expect around 6 percent growth,” Kalibata said during a rural poverty conference.

    “Next year we go back to our original plan, 8 percent growth,” she added.

    Kalibata said increased agriculture investment would pave the way for Rwanda to reduce its dependence on two of its main imported crops — rice and wheat.

    “We are investing very strongly in irrigation systems that will see (rice) imports going down in the next three years,” she said.

    “We will probably be importing about 10 percent from 40 percent now by 2014. In wheat we also have investments coming in that indicate… we could produce in the next two-to-three years about 50 percent of what we consume in the country,” Kalibata added.

    Rwanda currently produces 60 percent of the rice it consumes, importing the shortfall, while it imports about 60 percent of its wheat needs.

    She said the country of about 11 million people did not have any food security fears, although the rising global cost of fuel and food prices could impact domestic inflation.

    “Inflation is going up because some imported commodities are going up because fuel is influencing them,” Kalibata said.

  • 2011/2012 budget estimates hit FrwI trillion mark

    For the first time in the country’s history, estimates show that the budget will total Frw 1.116 trillion compared to Frw 984 billion during the previous year.

    Finance minister John Rwangombwa made the announcement yesterday when he read the first budget estimates for the year 2011/2012 before Parliament. The presentation was meant to seek opinions from parliamentarians before the final reading on June 8, this year. 

    “We have resources, we increased domestic revenues and this budget reflects the collective determination of the government to mobilise resources,” Rwangombwa said in an interview after the presentation.

    Rwangombwa said that the priority areas include agriculture, trade and financial services. Revenues invested in productive capacities will increase from Rwf137.4bn to Rwf 199.7 billion in the upcoming budget, representing a 17.9 percent of the total budget. Other areas that recorded an increase in budget allocation include the human development and social sectors.

    The minister said that the ministry is increasing resources to support the budget but there has also been consistency in terms of the support received from development partners at 41 percent of the total budget.

    He attributed this to the country’s accountability on the funds donated by development partners. Development projects account for Rwf503 billion representing 40.9 percent of the budget compared to Rwf394b in the last financial year.

    Development projects account for Rwf503 billion representing 40.9 percent of the budget compared to Rwf394b in the last financial year.

    Rwangombwa further pointed out that tax revenues are projected to climb from 13 percent to 14.6 percent, while donor funding would decrease from 12.8 percent to 10.1 percent.

  • Ready, Set, Wibro!

    Forget your wireless network at home, office or Wi-Fi hot spots around the city. Kigali is now itself a wireless hot spot , thanks to the newly-built fibre optics infrastructure and base stations installed around the capital supplying the city with the latest wireless broadband technology known as Wibro, developed by Korean Telecom, a South Korea firm.

    In an age where technology is gathering staggering pace, Rwanda has had a head start with an astonishing 4G technology that provides high speed connectivity superior to the conventional 3G.

    The Wibro project, which had taken a whole year to complete, has an approximate coverage of 80 percent of the city making it accessible to almost everyone.

    “It is now awaiting the final processes of commercialisation before it can reach the market,” says the Division Manager, Mark Karomba at the Wibro Centre in Telecom House, a process estimated to be complete before the third quarter of the year.

    On inquiry about its advantages says. “This wireless broadband will provide users with a faster connection enabling them to enjoy the internet experience at a much higher level, be it on smart phones or even on the go with your laptop.”

    The interesting feature of mobility is a trademark of the Wibro technology that makes it even more convenient and flexible in terms of use, compared to other powerful technologies such as WIMAX.

    The project will operate in the public sector for a while before switching to the private sector. It will be under government control offering the service at an undisclosed tariff that is projected to be even lower than what other internet service providers are presently charging. “The goal of this is to widen the Rwandan market in terms of access to internet. By offering a cheap and accessible service, the penetration rate of internet within the population, which is approximately 2 percent, is bound to increase,” observes Karomba.

    Even though Kigali will be the hub of this broadband technology, a nationwide expansion is anticipated with areas such as Rwamagana, Huye , Rusizi, Rubavu already covered through the fibre optic networks.

    In addition to WIBRO, other service providers such as MTN and TIGO would continue to be operational. “Implementation of the project is not aimed at competition, but rather a much bigger and far-reaching goal that is expanding the Rwandan internet market. Few players will always keep the prices high but with the new addition of Wibro, prices will be cheaper for the service, making it accessible to more people thus fulfilling our aim of increased penetration,” says Karomba.

    The Wibro technology is a big step technological step that will not only provide the population with a much better internet experience but also allow institutions and businesses to operate efficiently. This would significantly contribute to other areas of the country’s development.