Gollira Baptisms

Musanze communities benefit from gorilla baptism ceremonies

BY GEORGE KAGAME
ARUSHA

The gorilla ‘baptism’ ceremonies dubbed as the Kwita Izina last week were a break from tradition of past editions where very powerful and influential persons were invited.
This time, Nigerian pop musicians P. Square were invited as the main attraction of the ceremonies which are a big occasion on Kigali’s very limited social calendar.

The last ceremonies were graced by Hollywood star of ‘Star Wars’ fame Natalie Portman and environmental conservationist Jack Hanna.
In a related development the national office of tourism has invested back in the communities surrounding the sanctuaries of the gorillas around the district of Musanze in Western Rwanda.

ORTPN has built several social amenities in the areas including a community centre, classroom block, health centre, and water tanks.

While the baby gorillas and their neighbours will be happy, legal executives in the country will be disturbed to learn the latest from the UN court trying Rwanda’s genocide suspects in Arusha.

Rwanda’s judicial sector has been busy the entire week defending its capacity to be a competent system strong enough to try suspects accused for their role in implementing the 1994 Genocide in the country.

Last week the Arusha based International Criminal Tribunal passed another judgment turning down the second request to transfer suspects to face trial procedures in Rwanda, the judges in both decisions alleged they were not convinced with the general competence of Rwanda’s legal system.

Martin Ngoga the Prosecutor General had to fly to the New York based Security Council to make his point that Rwanda indeed has developed mechanisms to try suspects in Rwanda. In response, the prosecutor general of the ICTR Hassan Jallow has appealed the tow cases involving Yususf Munyakazi and Gaspard Kanyarukiga.

Also, in a press conference on Thursday at the ICTR premises Hassan Jallow the General prosecutor expressed his doubts about the cooperation of the Kenyan govermnet in efforts to arrest the most wanted person of the tribunal Felicien Kabuga in connection with his funding of the genocide militias in 1994.


In a related development, some experts at the court have expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Rwanda on many occasions has been called to testify only in the capacity of ‘Friend of the Court’. Yet it is the country with the deepest interest in the ICTR!

The government also arrested four senior army officer accused of murdering priests at the Catholic Disocese of Kabgyayi during the liberation struggle of 1994, the four officers, it was reported carried out the revenge killings after they found all their relatives who had sought refuge at the huge diocese murdered during the 1994 Genocide.
The ICTR Prosecutor said that his office will give the government all the necessary support during trial procedures for the army officers.

The court will however have to stretch its legal arms much further than that as reports in the week indicated that another fugitive, the former head of Juvenal Habyarimana’s presidential security Protais Mpiranya who according to the UK broadsheet The Sunday Times, is hiding in Zimbabwe. Thouh he is the subject of an arrest warrant from them, the ICTR could comment on the Mpiranya reports in Zimbabwe.


President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party however have more pressing issues to deal with right now instead of tracking down Rwandan fugitives.
The Zimbabwean government has continued in its determination to throw all their reputation to the dogs.

The March presidential elections in that country have ensured that there’s a sustained period of uncertainty through out Zimbabwe.
Morgan Tvangarai, the man who stood against Mugabe and ‘won’ tested that uncertainty on Thursday and he was arrested twice the same day.
The secretary general of his party, the Movement for Democratic Change is currently in detention facing treason charges.

Yet Mugabe is not the only opposition politician that faced the cruel hand of fate last week, two Kenyan ministers died after their plane crashed midair over the Maasai Game Reserve due to bad weather.

The dead ministers are Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones and Assistant Home Affairs Minister Lorna Laboso both belonged to Raila Odinga’ Orange Democratice Movement that is in coalition with Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity in governing Kenya.

The highly publicized visit to Rwanda of former UN Human Rights boss Sadako Ogata could not be complete with some history in Rwanda’s tertiary education sector.
The National University of Rwanda, which opened its doors in 1963, awarded its maiden honorary degree to Ogata for her work in helping with emergency relief programmes for Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide at a time when she was still at the helm of the UNHCR.
Ogata was awarded an honorary degree in Laws.


Influential South Korean evangelical church members from the Myung Sung Presbyterian Church have committed to use their wealthy members to help fund water provision, support to agriculture, establishing technical and vocational training as well as educational exchanges between the church’s network of universities and the people of Rwanda.
This is after a delegation from the church premises in Seoul visited President Paul Kagame while touring the country.



Sports fans across the country have been happy the entire week with the beginning of the 2008 edition of the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland.
Many of the players on display in the tournament are household names inRwanda. So far the only surprise of the tournament apart from the absence of England is the defeat to Germany by Croatia.