EAC keeps talking while Kagame cautions on public service delivery
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Detractors of the famous performance contracts in Rwanda will take heed of President Paul Kagame’s confirmation during his monthly press conference that he ordered the firing of the three most senior police officials in the country recently. Commenting on why Chief Inspector Andrew Rwigamba along with CID boss Costa Habyara and Peter Sano were fired, Kagame said he was not satisfied with their performance.
In Europe and the US currently, the buttons making the word 'credit crunch or crisis' have been pressed more times than any other thanks to even more complex financial headaches about the housing sector that are rocking the two societies.
Experts have said the financial problems are being helped further by the high rate of borrowing for bank clients to purchase houses.
The issue of houses is currently occupying the minds of Rwanda economy planners. The World Bank and government last week inked their commitment to introducing a mortgage lending program to help address the country’s significant housing shortage.
The mortgage scheme will be run through the World Bank investment firm-International Finance Corporation in partnership with the Rwanda National Housing Bank.
Observers note that the new mortgage thrill in Rwanda is part of the drive to redevelop Kigali city through the recently launched Master Plan. Finance and trade were big this week after it emerged that the World Trade Organization talks- on going for the past seven years-had collapsed once again. Over 150 experts from all the corners of the world meeting in Switzerland last week failed to agree on any middle ground after the US, China and India disagreed on the movement of goods and labour.
The Rwandan representative at the talks Antoine Ruvebana said the failure of the talks was a ’disaster’ to poor countries caused largely by the developed countries. He added that the collapse is ’missed opportunity’ to uplift millions from poverty.
The East African Community last week launched another round of talks to discuss the controversial Economic Partnerships Agreement between the block the European Union.
The agreements which are a set of documents related to trade between Europe and Africa have been dismissed as patronizing by other regions of Africa, they are seen as unfair to African economies and benefiting mostly Europe.
Meanwhile in the same week a leading British expert politician on regional economic integration has called on EAC leaders to adopt a more pragmatic approach to achieving economic benefits for the region not necessarily tied to politics.
The British Peer, David Edward Lea, Lord Lea of Crondall who was this week paying courtesy call to Juma Mwapachu the secretary general of the East African Community in Arusha observed that in spite of its structure of strong political authority and emphasis on sovereignty of the Partner States, the EAC was not short of things that could be done outside the purely political considerations.
Trade is what the newly opened COMESA Comesatradehub in Kampala will deal with helping formal arrangements and logistical support to regional traders and link inter-country buyer-seller relationship in all COMESA member countries. Last week, the hub was launched to help traders in East Africa access information regarding opportunities to sell their products in 11 member COMESA grouping. In the spirit of integration, a Ugandan Court of Appeal has issued a judgment withholding the eviction of ethnic Banyarwanda, a Ugandan tribe from their Buliisa environs. The Kinya-rwanda speaking tribesmen were a subject of violent eruptions in the Ugandan district of Buliisa, they were accused of grazing their cattle on grounds owned by other tribesmen in Uganda.
Now their appeal has paid off when the court halted the powerful clique of Ugandans that was spearheading the eviction The Banyarwanda are Rwandans that have been historically linked with Uganda for hundreds of years.
Buliisa District is also home to a highly disputed chunk of land that lies within the prime area close to the speculated abundant oil deposits currently under exploration in that part of Uganda, it is alleged by opinion leaders that African oil politics has already to play itself out in Buliisa.
Ubudehe, the local government administrative programme initiated in Rwanda in 2003 has been recognized by the UN as being an effective policy in rural poverty alleviation.
In it remarks on the United Nations Public Service Award 2008, the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service, the UN noted ’Obudehe’ was recognised for its efforts in fostering citizens’ participation in policymaking while having improved transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public service.
The UN this week extended the mandate of its 9000 peace keeping force in Darfur for one more year moments before the existing one was due to expire. The extension had caused a worldwide furore when the International Criminal Court threatened arresting Sudan President Omar Bashir for his role in the Darfur conflict which according to several reports has claimed over 300,000 people and displaced more than two million.
The BCC further reports that UNAMID peace keepers lack the equipment necessary to keep protect the internally displaced people of Darfur from the attacks of the Janjaweed.
Kagame while addressing the press during the week said Rwanda was still committed to UNAMID and called for more support to the force.
Tuesday 5 August 2008
ICTR Mandate
UN Security Council extends ICTR mandate to end of 2009
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha
The UN Security Council this week extended the mandate of the the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for another year till 31-December 2009.
The ICTR was due to close at the end of 2008, however, in his recent report about its Completion Strategy, Dennis Byron the President of the ICTR had asked the Security Council for a one year extension such that the court could clear its trials. In a document released by the Security Council after the 111th plenary session of the UN the sixty second General Assembly in New York, the ICTR was allowed one more year.
This was after UN Secretary General had approved to the request of the ICTR to extend the contracts of Trial Chamber judges, most employees of the ICTR have their contracts ending on 31 December 2008.
The extension, Byron stated were because the ICTR had: "faced new developments beyond the control of the Tribunal, he cited especially recent arrests as one of the reasons for extending the ICTR mandate by a year: “Two accused were arrested at the end of 2007 and one in early 2008. Such events have an impact on the date by which trials can be completed." He added that among the recent arrests are three high level cases which can only be tried by the Arusha based Tribunal. The calendar of the ICTR demonstrates that "seven permanent judges and eight ad litem judges (non permanent) can complete all the remaining cases, including the three new ones, by end of 20 November 2009."
The ICTR was formed in 1994 but began trial procedures in 1997, since then the court has indicted 91 persons accused to have prepared and carried out the 1994 Rwandan Genocide which claimed close to one million innocent citizens.
The court has so far completed 35 trials, has 23 suspects in detention in Arusha and is still tracking down at least 13 fugitives headed by Felicien Kabuga believed to be living in neighbouring Kenya.
The ICTR is estimated to have cost one billion US dollars by the end of 2007 and Byron said the financial cost of extending the contracts of Trial Chamber judges alone would total up to 1.5 million USD.
The Rwandan Representative at the UN expressed dissatisfaction at the decision to extend the ICTR mandate, he said instead of extending the mandate of judges, efforts must and resources should be directed at further improving Rwanda's capacity to deal with cases referred by the Tribunal to its national courts, where improvements had been modeled by the Tribunal." The ICTR has already denied the transfer to Rwanda of three cases involving Yusuf Munyakazi, Gaspard Kanyarukiga and Ephrem Hategekimana. The Security Council also approved Byron's request to extend the terms of office of Trial Chamber judges until 31 December 2009 and those of the Appeals Chamber until 31 December
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha
The UN Security Council this week extended the mandate of the the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for another year till 31-December 2009.
The ICTR was due to close at the end of 2008, however, in his recent report about its Completion Strategy, Dennis Byron the President of the ICTR had asked the Security Council for a one year extension such that the court could clear its trials. In a document released by the Security Council after the 111th plenary session of the UN the sixty second General Assembly in New York, the ICTR was allowed one more year.
This was after UN Secretary General had approved to the request of the ICTR to extend the contracts of Trial Chamber judges, most employees of the ICTR have their contracts ending on 31 December 2008.
The extension, Byron stated were because the ICTR had: "faced new developments beyond the control of the Tribunal, he cited especially recent arrests as one of the reasons for extending the ICTR mandate by a year: “Two accused were arrested at the end of 2007 and one in early 2008. Such events have an impact on the date by which trials can be completed." He added that among the recent arrests are three high level cases which can only be tried by the Arusha based Tribunal. The calendar of the ICTR demonstrates that "seven permanent judges and eight ad litem judges (non permanent) can complete all the remaining cases, including the three new ones, by end of 20 November 2009."
The ICTR was formed in 1994 but began trial procedures in 1997, since then the court has indicted 91 persons accused to have prepared and carried out the 1994 Rwandan Genocide which claimed close to one million innocent citizens.
The court has so far completed 35 trials, has 23 suspects in detention in Arusha and is still tracking down at least 13 fugitives headed by Felicien Kabuga believed to be living in neighbouring Kenya.
The ICTR is estimated to have cost one billion US dollars by the end of 2007 and Byron said the financial cost of extending the contracts of Trial Chamber judges alone would total up to 1.5 million USD.
The Rwandan Representative at the UN expressed dissatisfaction at the decision to extend the ICTR mandate, he said instead of extending the mandate of judges, efforts must and resources should be directed at further improving Rwanda's capacity to deal with cases referred by the Tribunal to its national courts, where improvements had been modeled by the Tribunal." The ICTR has already denied the transfer to Rwanda of three cases involving Yusuf Munyakazi, Gaspard Kanyarukiga and Ephrem Hategekimana. The Security Council also approved Byron's request to extend the terms of office of Trial Chamber judges until 31 December 2009 and those of the Appeals Chamber until 31 December
Who owns the EAC?
Pragmatic economic realities will spur EAC integration advises British expert
BY GEORGE KAGAME Arusha A leading British expert politician on regional economic integration has called on EAC leaders to adopt a more pragmatic approach to achieving economic benefits for the region not necessarily tied to politics.
The British Peer, David Edward Lea, Lord Lea of Crondall who was this week paying courtesy call to Juma Mwapachu the secretary general of the East African Community in Arusha observed that in spite of its structure of strong political authority and emphasis on sovereignty of the Partner States, the EAC was not short of things that could be done outside the purely political considerations.
He said the EAC could identify and focus on the practical issues, among them immigration, the free movement of persons , environment, infrastructure, health , education and social security , without getting distracted or bogged down with lengthy conceptualization and indulgence in metaphysics over intricate political and sovereignty issues. He also added that African regional economic communities needed to go for “opt outs” on some of the sticking issues, and concentrate on the areas of “intermediate comfort” where movement would be demonstrated without compromising the unity of the regional economic blocs.
Lea added that there was need for resolute action to get things done and demonstrate concrete benefits and achievements of integration while using the success stories to get the people more interested and deeper involved in the regional integration process.
President Paul Kagame has on several occasions called on EAC members to reform business procedures such that there's increased speed in the delivery of basic services especially along commercial terminal routes in the region.
Kagame has stated that with faster service delivery along boarder points in the region, there would be faster development in the economies of the region. Lea's remarks come only days after a lobby group of small scale farmers in East African were at the EAC secretariat in Arusha appealing to the secretary general that they were being kept out of the EAC integration process, they also lamented that the EAC currently belonged to political leaders with no practical feature with which the citizens of the EAC could identify with. The farmers noted that currently Tanzanians traveling to Burundi are required to pay Visa fees at the boarder posts. Burundi as a member of the EAC has committed to the end of such limits to citizens of EAC member countries.
He advised that EAC needed to learn from the evolution and development of the EU which was political but its engine was propelled by a pragmatic focus on the economic necessity.
The EU, he said, was launched more with economic expression than with political fanfare. It was a trade-off between political abstraction and the push to get things done, particularly on the economic front. While responding to Lea's remarks, Mwapachu said the current EAC was learning from the mistakes its predecessors who having been started in 1967, the EAC collapsed in 1977 after disagreements between EAC leaders at that time. Tanzania's Julius Nyerere was on bitter terms with Idd Amin of Uganda, while Kenya did not agree with her two neighbours’ economical and political policies. Mwapachu said the EAC proceeding this time "with caution, on the step by step basis, with consensus established at every stage of the integration."
Mwapachu noted that the National Consultative Process of Fast Tracking the East African Federation carried out in 2007 was found to be acceptable to the people of the EAC countries.
He said the EAC was currently committed to re-engaging the East African people about the whole question of political federation through deeper sensitization of the people on the benefits of integration. The EAC budget presented to the East African Legislative assembly reserved over 600,000 US dollars to go in its re-branding campaign throughout the region.
Ends
BY GEORGE KAGAME Arusha A leading British expert politician on regional economic integration has called on EAC leaders to adopt a more pragmatic approach to achieving economic benefits for the region not necessarily tied to politics.
The British Peer, David Edward Lea, Lord Lea of Crondall who was this week paying courtesy call to Juma Mwapachu the secretary general of the East African Community in Arusha observed that in spite of its structure of strong political authority and emphasis on sovereignty of the Partner States, the EAC was not short of things that could be done outside the purely political considerations.
He said the EAC could identify and focus on the practical issues, among them immigration, the free movement of persons , environment, infrastructure, health , education and social security , without getting distracted or bogged down with lengthy conceptualization and indulgence in metaphysics over intricate political and sovereignty issues. He also added that African regional economic communities needed to go for “opt outs” on some of the sticking issues, and concentrate on the areas of “intermediate comfort” where movement would be demonstrated without compromising the unity of the regional economic blocs.
Lea added that there was need for resolute action to get things done and demonstrate concrete benefits and achievements of integration while using the success stories to get the people more interested and deeper involved in the regional integration process.
President Paul Kagame has on several occasions called on EAC members to reform business procedures such that there's increased speed in the delivery of basic services especially along commercial terminal routes in the region.
Kagame has stated that with faster service delivery along boarder points in the region, there would be faster development in the economies of the region. Lea's remarks come only days after a lobby group of small scale farmers in East African were at the EAC secretariat in Arusha appealing to the secretary general that they were being kept out of the EAC integration process, they also lamented that the EAC currently belonged to political leaders with no practical feature with which the citizens of the EAC could identify with. The farmers noted that currently Tanzanians traveling to Burundi are required to pay Visa fees at the boarder posts. Burundi as a member of the EAC has committed to the end of such limits to citizens of EAC member countries.
He advised that EAC needed to learn from the evolution and development of the EU which was political but its engine was propelled by a pragmatic focus on the economic necessity.
The EU, he said, was launched more with economic expression than with political fanfare. It was a trade-off between political abstraction and the push to get things done, particularly on the economic front. While responding to Lea's remarks, Mwapachu said the current EAC was learning from the mistakes its predecessors who having been started in 1967, the EAC collapsed in 1977 after disagreements between EAC leaders at that time. Tanzania's Julius Nyerere was on bitter terms with Idd Amin of Uganda, while Kenya did not agree with her two neighbours’ economical and political policies. Mwapachu said the EAC proceeding this time "with caution, on the step by step basis, with consensus established at every stage of the integration."
Mwapachu noted that the National Consultative Process of Fast Tracking the East African Federation carried out in 2007 was found to be acceptable to the people of the EAC countries.
He said the EAC was currently committed to re-engaging the East African people about the whole question of political federation through deeper sensitization of the people on the benefits of integration. The EAC budget presented to the East African Legislative assembly reserved over 600,000 US dollars to go in its re-branding campaign throughout the region.
Ends
Rwanda and the ICTR
Rwanda remains committed to supporting the ICTR; government representative
BY GEORGE KAGAME&
CHARLOTTE KINGSMAN
Arusha: The ICTR completion strategy, its mandate and the aloof nature that the UN has allowed France in regard to its role in the 1994 genocide have been critical to the relationship between the ICTR and the government of Rwanda.
This and a host of other issues is what Alloys Mutabingwa the government of Rwanda Special Representative at the ICTR discussed as he held a lively session recently with all the interns currently attached to the ICTR in Arusha.
Of particular interest to many Rwandans is the fact that Rwanda actually never ratified the ICTR after its creation by the UN in 1994. Mutabingwa said of Rwanda’s refusal to ratify the ICTR: “there were concerns from Rwanda that the UN did not adhere to at the time”.
Apparently, Rwanda never ratified the ICTR at its creation in 1994 after the government disagreed with the UN Security Council on certain requirements . Rwanda's conditions included setting up the ICTR in Kigali, where suspects could answer for their crimes in the proximity of their crime scenes.
Says Mutabingwa: "the ICTR did not correspond to a number of conditions posed by Rwanda.” He adds that by the time of its creation, Rwanda still held the maximum criminal sentence of death, which the international community disagreed with, and therefore a neutral country in which the death penalty was non-applicable was chosen.
That is how the ICTR ended up in Arusha Tanzania.
The Rwandan government also insisted on the attendance of civil parties in trial procedures and this principle is not popular in international law. Further still, Rwanda disagreed with the UN over the Issue of collecting evidence against suspects: its concern with this stemmed from the fact that some suspects after their possible acquittal by the ICTR, FRESH EVIDENCE could be obtained after such acquittals and the ICTR insisted that once a person has been freed once, there is no possibility of rearrest even if incriminating evidence was found in the future in a separate trial.
Because of such fundamental concerns by the Rwandan government at that time, Rwanda voted against the creation of the ICTR.
However, since its creation the Rwandan government has cooperated with the ICTR as a member of the UN and has also appeared in trial proceedings sometimes in the capacity of friend to court otherwise known as Amicus Currea.
Recently Rwanda has in fact been more cooperative with the ICTR, this in return has benefited Rwanda where the ICTR has contributed in the reconstruction and reforms currently the government is undertaking in judicial sector.
The reforms which began after the 2003 presidential elections won by Paul Kagame are mainly funded by the European Union and a consortium of other donors, however the Arusha based ICTR has offered technical assistance to Rwanda's judicial sector, and this has involved training of judges and internship opportunities for legal practitioners in the country.
Rwanda has also since scrapped the death penalty since March 2007, replacing it with life imprisonment, the government has also constructed a special state of the art prison facility in the southern provincial town of Butare. Such arrangements were seen by observers as pre-requisites for the ICTR to allow the transfer of genocide suspects to stand for trial in Rwanda as the prosecution side has requested and so far and failed on four attempts.
Rwanda has also persistently voiced its concerns about the ICTR, the government chief prosecutor Martin Ngoga is on record for dismissing the statements of the ICTR especially in its recent decisions denying the transfer of suspects to Rwanda. Ngoga has also dismissed the International Community and the ICTR's silence on the role of France in propagating circumstances that led to the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.
Ngoga has been particularly critical on the infamous indictments by first a French and later a Spanish judge when both European judges issued arrest warrants against some 40 leaders of the ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front.
The ICTR has also been on record, trial chamber judges using Rwanda's reaction against the arrest warrants in all the four cases in which they have denied transfer to Rwanda of Genocide suspects to stand trial in the country.
This has in return led to observers questioning the fairness of the ICTR in its dispensation of justice, commenting on the issue Mutabingwa said: "the issue is not about fairness, there is fairness, the issue is about the degree of fairness: not all fairness is considered alike.
ICTR is more inclined on rights of the accused." He added that the standard of fairness of the ICTR is different from that of national jurisdictions and not just unique to Rwanda’s system saying that because the ICTR is the first of its kind, it has got no models to follow and so: "fairness is a relative term."
Commenting on why there's not been any formal complaint by the international community on the role of France in Rwanda's Genocide, Mutabingwa said thus far, there had not been a case against France as as a nation, because an individual must be responsible for a crime, and to this end, the ICTR has not yet not yet found a high profile French official guilty of any crime in Rwanda during the genocide.
Mutabingwa however said that Rwanda had carried out its own investigations on the role of France in the 1994 genocide. The government in 2007 created the Mucyo Commission which carried out investigations on the role of France in events leading to and during the genocide. The commission which was headed by Jean De Duie Mucyo has since presented its findings to the government but its contents are yet to be made public.
On the state of affairs of Rwanda's relationship with France currently Mutabingwa said the two former cohorts were first cordial referring to France's initial reaction to the victory of the RPF in 1994.
Diplomatic relations between the two have however been severed since the infamous Brugulierre warrants, Mutabngwa however said: "no diplomatic issues however does not mean there are no issues around the genocide but then the Bruguilierre affair closed the door on diplomatic issues, however, it does not mean that we are not speaking at all".
He added that affairs were however better with Rwanda's former colonail masters Belgium saying that the Belgian government has been a partner of Rwanda in its reconstruction proccess. The Belgian government is one of the leading donors to Rwanda’s Judicial Reforms which began in 2003.
In 2000, then Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt made a public apology to the people of Rwanda and regretted the 10 Belgian UN Peace Keepers who were brutally murdered along with Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the interim prime minister of Rwanda in 1994.
On the denial by the ICTR to transfer suspects to answer for their crimes from Rwanda, Mutabingwa said Rwanda has undergone "unprecedented reforms, the judicial sector has improved not from its destructive effects after the 1994, our mission is to replace impunity with Justice: zero tolerance, the system is now decentralized.”
He said that Rwanda's judicial standards were "optimum but the system was faster yet the ICTR is very high standard but extremely slow, Mutabingwa asked: “Is justice about standards? About time? Who is justice for? Academics (foreign judges wanted to raise the standards, focusing on standards)? Or for the people (faster justice)?"
BY GEORGE KAGAME&
CHARLOTTE KINGSMAN
Arusha: The ICTR completion strategy, its mandate and the aloof nature that the UN has allowed France in regard to its role in the 1994 genocide have been critical to the relationship between the ICTR and the government of Rwanda.
This and a host of other issues is what Alloys Mutabingwa the government of Rwanda Special Representative at the ICTR discussed as he held a lively session recently with all the interns currently attached to the ICTR in Arusha.
Of particular interest to many Rwandans is the fact that Rwanda actually never ratified the ICTR after its creation by the UN in 1994. Mutabingwa said of Rwanda’s refusal to ratify the ICTR: “there were concerns from Rwanda that the UN did not adhere to at the time”.
Apparently, Rwanda never ratified the ICTR at its creation in 1994 after the government disagreed with the UN Security Council on certain requirements . Rwanda's conditions included setting up the ICTR in Kigali, where suspects could answer for their crimes in the proximity of their crime scenes.
Says Mutabingwa: "the ICTR did not correspond to a number of conditions posed by Rwanda.” He adds that by the time of its creation, Rwanda still held the maximum criminal sentence of death, which the international community disagreed with, and therefore a neutral country in which the death penalty was non-applicable was chosen.
That is how the ICTR ended up in Arusha Tanzania.
The Rwandan government also insisted on the attendance of civil parties in trial procedures and this principle is not popular in international law. Further still, Rwanda disagreed with the UN over the Issue of collecting evidence against suspects: its concern with this stemmed from the fact that some suspects after their possible acquittal by the ICTR, FRESH EVIDENCE could be obtained after such acquittals and the ICTR insisted that once a person has been freed once, there is no possibility of rearrest even if incriminating evidence was found in the future in a separate trial.
Because of such fundamental concerns by the Rwandan government at that time, Rwanda voted against the creation of the ICTR.
However, since its creation the Rwandan government has cooperated with the ICTR as a member of the UN and has also appeared in trial proceedings sometimes in the capacity of friend to court otherwise known as Amicus Currea.
Recently Rwanda has in fact been more cooperative with the ICTR, this in return has benefited Rwanda where the ICTR has contributed in the reconstruction and reforms currently the government is undertaking in judicial sector.
The reforms which began after the 2003 presidential elections won by Paul Kagame are mainly funded by the European Union and a consortium of other donors, however the Arusha based ICTR has offered technical assistance to Rwanda's judicial sector, and this has involved training of judges and internship opportunities for legal practitioners in the country.
Rwanda has also since scrapped the death penalty since March 2007, replacing it with life imprisonment, the government has also constructed a special state of the art prison facility in the southern provincial town of Butare. Such arrangements were seen by observers as pre-requisites for the ICTR to allow the transfer of genocide suspects to stand for trial in Rwanda as the prosecution side has requested and so far and failed on four attempts.
Rwanda has also persistently voiced its concerns about the ICTR, the government chief prosecutor Martin Ngoga is on record for dismissing the statements of the ICTR especially in its recent decisions denying the transfer of suspects to Rwanda. Ngoga has also dismissed the International Community and the ICTR's silence on the role of France in propagating circumstances that led to the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.
Ngoga has been particularly critical on the infamous indictments by first a French and later a Spanish judge when both European judges issued arrest warrants against some 40 leaders of the ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front.
The ICTR has also been on record, trial chamber judges using Rwanda's reaction against the arrest warrants in all the four cases in which they have denied transfer to Rwanda of Genocide suspects to stand trial in the country.
This has in return led to observers questioning the fairness of the ICTR in its dispensation of justice, commenting on the issue Mutabingwa said: "the issue is not about fairness, there is fairness, the issue is about the degree of fairness: not all fairness is considered alike.
ICTR is more inclined on rights of the accused." He added that the standard of fairness of the ICTR is different from that of national jurisdictions and not just unique to Rwanda’s system saying that because the ICTR is the first of its kind, it has got no models to follow and so: "fairness is a relative term."
Commenting on why there's not been any formal complaint by the international community on the role of France in Rwanda's Genocide, Mutabingwa said thus far, there had not been a case against France as as a nation, because an individual must be responsible for a crime, and to this end, the ICTR has not yet not yet found a high profile French official guilty of any crime in Rwanda during the genocide.
Mutabingwa however said that Rwanda had carried out its own investigations on the role of France in the 1994 genocide. The government in 2007 created the Mucyo Commission which carried out investigations on the role of France in events leading to and during the genocide. The commission which was headed by Jean De Duie Mucyo has since presented its findings to the government but its contents are yet to be made public.
On the state of affairs of Rwanda's relationship with France currently Mutabingwa said the two former cohorts were first cordial referring to France's initial reaction to the victory of the RPF in 1994.
Diplomatic relations between the two have however been severed since the infamous Brugulierre warrants, Mutabngwa however said: "no diplomatic issues however does not mean there are no issues around the genocide but then the Bruguilierre affair closed the door on diplomatic issues, however, it does not mean that we are not speaking at all".
He added that affairs were however better with Rwanda's former colonail masters Belgium saying that the Belgian government has been a partner of Rwanda in its reconstruction proccess. The Belgian government is one of the leading donors to Rwanda’s Judicial Reforms which began in 2003.
In 2000, then Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt made a public apology to the people of Rwanda and regretted the 10 Belgian UN Peace Keepers who were brutally murdered along with Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the interim prime minister of Rwanda in 1994.
On the denial by the ICTR to transfer suspects to answer for their crimes from Rwanda, Mutabingwa said Rwanda has undergone "unprecedented reforms, the judicial sector has improved not from its destructive effects after the 1994, our mission is to replace impunity with Justice: zero tolerance, the system is now decentralized.”
He said that Rwanda's judicial standards were "optimum but the system was faster yet the ICTR is very high standard but extremely slow, Mutabingwa asked: “Is justice about standards? About time? Who is justice for? Academics (foreign judges wanted to raise the standards, focusing on standards)? Or for the people (faster justice)?"
Arusha 9
Hollywood pales in comparison to the ‘espionage’ thrillers at the ICTR BY GEORGE KAGAME Arusha One of the first impressions a new comer discovers at the ICTR is the existence some imagined covert network of spies.
The spies are allegedly working for or against the prosecution and defense sides of detained suspects of the Rwandan Genocide.
It is highly advised that you cross check any information you receive from first acquaintances when you have just reached here as a result. According to one veteran Arusha journalist the 'agents' of these networks collect their information from chit chats in bars, restaurants, and any other social interaction place or event in or around Arusha. Therefore, after a few days in these highly protected premises of the ICTR and the respect that inevitably comes with working for the United Nations, I was disappointed by the limited or lack of interaction among ICTR employees. Josh Kron, the Kigali based free lance journalist from New York called it; "effects of bad first impressions that change with time".
The first impressions have unfortunately not changed, all the people that work here socialize along carefully chosen lines.
That is where the ‘agents’ come in. This factor however is mainly limited among the Rwandan community here, since the 1000 employees of the ICTR coming from 99 different nationalities, the issue of spies does not concern them.
I arrived in Arusha when Manchester United was playing Chelsea in the 2008 final of the European Champions' league, located a few metres away from the third street lodge where I was residing was a lower scale sports bar.
Dressed in sports camouflage, I headed to the bar and with flawless Swahili interlaced with well calculated English words; I posed as a Tanzanian university student from Dar Salaam heading to Mwanza for holidays in front of five fellow football enthusiasts who also claimed to be Tanzanians from Arusha.
The rest is mere details but after several weeks I crossed paths with one of the football fellows in the corridors, he was speaking fluent Kinyarwanda, we have never exchanged another word.
Apparently at the ICTR, normal professional suspicion goes deeper than the episodes John Grisham the American legal writer pictures in his famous novels. People working for the defense really dislike the ones in prosecution; this mutual feeling however is not mainly among the legal practitioners like the lawyers and judges.
It is common among the technical staff of both sides and even support sectors like the media. Therefore, there was no debate as to which spy network when I belonged to when i arrived at the ICTR.
The New Times as a pro government newspaper is as such ‘designated’ to be in cohort with the prosecution side, which places anyone associated with it in the capacity of government spy.
It also means that everyone in the defense team is on the other side.
Journalists are trained to be in the middle of any story they follow and yet take no side, and the ICTR itself has issued many statements about unity and reconciliation in Rwanda-which would give the impression the ICTR itself, is serious about unity. Those principles do not apply here. Such state of affairs has ensured the same ICTR employ a very sophisticated security system at all the premises of its employees, ICTR premises, UN detention facility and airport. The detainees themselves are given state of the art protection. The ICTR security detail was not able to detect a website that Hassan Ngeze one of the detainees was running from the comfort of his cell at the UNDF.
However, even this security is big joke. Currently, there is a story from impeccable sources that a defense witness escaped last week after reaching Arusha, where he was supposed to testify in one high profile case. Reliable sources say the witness disappeared on the eve of his appearance in court.
If that is not surprising then consider, a recent scene in court. The typical Rwandan names which have the name of God mentioned in them caused quite an embarrassing moment that only the ICTR can afford.
The incident was caused due a misspelled name, whereby a wrong person ended up appearing in the witness box and it took court 30 minutes to see their mistake. The witness appearing for the defense side had the prosecution team fuming for having the wrong person in cross examination.
The name of the right witness was supposed to begin with 'Hiti', instead defense presented one whose name began with 'Habi'.
That day, proceedings stopped after those thirty minutes, and the next day, the ICTR announced their mandate had been extended by the UN Security Council till the end of 2009.
The ICTR security is not just a joke, it is as well dramatic. It is mandatory that all individuals connected to the ICTR in one way or another move around with special identity cards hanging around their necks like slave numbers.
These cards have specialized codes, which ensure or deny entry for the holders for access to the different departments of the UN. Also employees of the ICTR have electric gadgets placed in all rooms of their houses for rapid security response if the employee is attacked at home. And many of them live in top notch apartments built purposely for the UN market place.
In such sophistication, it is dramatic that a witness disappears.
It is also funny that the entire espionage system employed at the ICTR and its stakeholders, an alleged suspect can infiltrate the system, and even get employed the ICTR itself. That is exactly what happened in the case of Simeon Nshingamihigo. Nshingamihigo is a classic movie story.
Having been a participant in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, he escaped to DR Congo after 1994. Nshamihigo, who was deputy prosecutor during the genocide, was working at the international tribunal as an investigator for the defense team of a former military commander who was a close ally during the slaughter and is now convicted, Samuel Imanishimwe.
Nshingamihigo was arrested in 2001 at the ICTR premises after he was discovered working at the United Nations court under a false name.
He was detained after a witness at one of the trials recognized him and revealed his true identity as one of the alleged organizers of the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of fellow Rwandans.
Nshamihigo was detained by tribunal security staff and then handed over to immigration officials in Tanzania, after it was discovered he was using an assumed name and a false passport. He was going by the name of Sammy Bahati Weza and claiming to be a Congolese citizen instead of a Rwandan.
The judgment in his case is due before the end of 2008.
The spies are allegedly working for or against the prosecution and defense sides of detained suspects of the Rwandan Genocide.
It is highly advised that you cross check any information you receive from first acquaintances when you have just reached here as a result. According to one veteran Arusha journalist the 'agents' of these networks collect their information from chit chats in bars, restaurants, and any other social interaction place or event in or around Arusha. Therefore, after a few days in these highly protected premises of the ICTR and the respect that inevitably comes with working for the United Nations, I was disappointed by the limited or lack of interaction among ICTR employees. Josh Kron, the Kigali based free lance journalist from New York called it; "effects of bad first impressions that change with time".
The first impressions have unfortunately not changed, all the people that work here socialize along carefully chosen lines.
That is where the ‘agents’ come in. This factor however is mainly limited among the Rwandan community here, since the 1000 employees of the ICTR coming from 99 different nationalities, the issue of spies does not concern them.
I arrived in Arusha when Manchester United was playing Chelsea in the 2008 final of the European Champions' league, located a few metres away from the third street lodge where I was residing was a lower scale sports bar.
Dressed in sports camouflage, I headed to the bar and with flawless Swahili interlaced with well calculated English words; I posed as a Tanzanian university student from Dar Salaam heading to Mwanza for holidays in front of five fellow football enthusiasts who also claimed to be Tanzanians from Arusha.
The rest is mere details but after several weeks I crossed paths with one of the football fellows in the corridors, he was speaking fluent Kinyarwanda, we have never exchanged another word.
Apparently at the ICTR, normal professional suspicion goes deeper than the episodes John Grisham the American legal writer pictures in his famous novels. People working for the defense really dislike the ones in prosecution; this mutual feeling however is not mainly among the legal practitioners like the lawyers and judges.
It is common among the technical staff of both sides and even support sectors like the media. Therefore, there was no debate as to which spy network when I belonged to when i arrived at the ICTR.
The New Times as a pro government newspaper is as such ‘designated’ to be in cohort with the prosecution side, which places anyone associated with it in the capacity of government spy.
It also means that everyone in the defense team is on the other side.
Journalists are trained to be in the middle of any story they follow and yet take no side, and the ICTR itself has issued many statements about unity and reconciliation in Rwanda-which would give the impression the ICTR itself, is serious about unity. Those principles do not apply here. Such state of affairs has ensured the same ICTR employ a very sophisticated security system at all the premises of its employees, ICTR premises, UN detention facility and airport. The detainees themselves are given state of the art protection. The ICTR security detail was not able to detect a website that Hassan Ngeze one of the detainees was running from the comfort of his cell at the UNDF.
However, even this security is big joke. Currently, there is a story from impeccable sources that a defense witness escaped last week after reaching Arusha, where he was supposed to testify in one high profile case. Reliable sources say the witness disappeared on the eve of his appearance in court.
If that is not surprising then consider, a recent scene in court. The typical Rwandan names which have the name of God mentioned in them caused quite an embarrassing moment that only the ICTR can afford.
The incident was caused due a misspelled name, whereby a wrong person ended up appearing in the witness box and it took court 30 minutes to see their mistake. The witness appearing for the defense side had the prosecution team fuming for having the wrong person in cross examination.
The name of the right witness was supposed to begin with 'Hiti', instead defense presented one whose name began with 'Habi'.
That day, proceedings stopped after those thirty minutes, and the next day, the ICTR announced their mandate had been extended by the UN Security Council till the end of 2009.
The ICTR security is not just a joke, it is as well dramatic. It is mandatory that all individuals connected to the ICTR in one way or another move around with special identity cards hanging around their necks like slave numbers.
These cards have specialized codes, which ensure or deny entry for the holders for access to the different departments of the UN. Also employees of the ICTR have electric gadgets placed in all rooms of their houses for rapid security response if the employee is attacked at home. And many of them live in top notch apartments built purposely for the UN market place.
In such sophistication, it is dramatic that a witness disappears.
It is also funny that the entire espionage system employed at the ICTR and its stakeholders, an alleged suspect can infiltrate the system, and even get employed the ICTR itself. That is exactly what happened in the case of Simeon Nshingamihigo. Nshingamihigo is a classic movie story.
Having been a participant in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, he escaped to DR Congo after 1994. Nshamihigo, who was deputy prosecutor during the genocide, was working at the international tribunal as an investigator for the defense team of a former military commander who was a close ally during the slaughter and is now convicted, Samuel Imanishimwe.
Nshingamihigo was arrested in 2001 at the ICTR premises after he was discovered working at the United Nations court under a false name.
He was detained after a witness at one of the trials recognized him and revealed his true identity as one of the alleged organizers of the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of fellow Rwandans.
Nshamihigo was detained by tribunal security staff and then handed over to immigration officials in Tanzania, after it was discovered he was using an assumed name and a false passport. He was going by the name of Sammy Bahati Weza and claiming to be a Congolese citizen instead of a Rwandan.
The judgment in his case is due before the end of 2008.
Arusha 10
ICTR needs to adopt an international version of Rwanda’s Imihigo
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha
The speed of service delivery among government institutions is renowned the world over, some really classy public service organizations like Rwanda’s Revenue Authority are so efficient that everything associated with them is normally about good performance. However the rate of service delivery in other sectors of public service is another matter and is best kept out of view.
But for a little insight, the World Bank has stated as recently as 2007 that in certain cases, it takes 162 days for a prospective investor in a firm that can employ 50 people to get formal registration in Rwanda.
Aware of such inadequacies among many civil servants, the government of Rwanda launched the famous Performance Contracts in 2006. The contracts set out specific objectives for efficient service delivery to the grass root citizenry by local government institutions and they are determined with practical goals which can easily be achieved in the given time.
This include the number of families in a local leader's area can have access to a radio, health care, education and a home. As a result of such contracts, Rwanda has been able to achieve significant progress in the health care system for all diseases across the country, increased access to schools and other social and infrastructure amenities. Rwanda's performance contracts-controlled in Kigali and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sitting in Arusha could have a reader wondering what connection is there between local government service delivery mechanisms and genocide justice. The connection is in the day to day operations of both institutions. While local government politicians compete to be voted into office, once they get there, they serve for a given time and come back to campaign among their voters for their mandate to be extended. As a result, the politicians need to show their voters what they done for the time they have been in office, and that is where the rate of delivery in daily work output by all involved in a local government setting comes up. At the ICTR, there are several institutions whose rate of delivery is not monitored by any system and going by theory output, there’s urgent need for a unique version of performance contracts to be instituted at the ICTR.
The UN Security Council (which is the principal body that regulates all ICTs) gives the court a given timeframe and does not require it to have achieved specific objectives in that period.
So when the court takes 15 years to try only 33 cases at the cost of over one billion US dollars, there are no questions concerning the rate of work for all the components involved within the ICTR. Therefore when one senior technical figure at this UN court shows up at the office in the morning, hangs his court behind his desk and goes out of the office till late in the evening, to pick up the court or sometimes tomorrow there are no questions as to what he did that day. There are also no questions when the court goes back to the UN Security Council after the mentioned 15 years to ask for their mandate to be extended.
The UN grants the extension and the courts hang behind empty desks for one more year! Well as government officials have been accused to be lazy and often missing from their work stations, the civil servants have in turn defended themselves saying they are earning ‘peanut’ salaries from public service and therefore they have to offset their incomes by reporting to their 'day' time jobs and going out of force to hustle. The employs of the ICTR cannot point to the same excuse as the reason for their laziness; they are paid very handsomely on top of several dream incentives. They just don't care, and in a rather annoying manner, they all know they are very lazy and, as one Michael Habumugisha recently found out;” they all say someone else is responsible for even the most simple task." That is what he found out when he took his faulty computer-as advised to be repaired in the ICTR Computer mechanical department, which by the way, is separate from the ICT department of the ICTR.
It would be injustice not describe the computer department of the ICTR. There are about five new generation young technology department experts working in a crowded room packed in all corners by computer gadgets that would dazzle Nyabugogo mechanics. When all of them are in the office-which is the case normally, the room as an aura of a high level international airport-it is a busy hub. But unlike the airport, the new generation experts are chatting away on their computer simultaneously with headphones in their heads. About two of them still go to school; this is explained by the number of text books always thrown on the floor. On some occasions, when a stranger enters their office, it could take anywhere between five to thirty minutes before their presence is recognized. When his presence was finally recognized, he was required to fill in some paper work in order for his computer to be repaired.
To cut the story short, the ICTR unlike local government institutions operates with a blank cheque, and that is exactly what the president of the court Judge Denis Byron, a respected judge from the Island nation of Saint Vincent Kitts said recently while he was lecturing a live video conference in the Caribbean about the accountability of ICTR judges.
The judge said he was trying to find a formula through which the judges of the trial chambers would be accountable for the number of time they spend to dispense off one case. Such is the irony at the ICTR that recently while making a routine visit in the office of one of the bosses in these UN offices, I found his humour in good spirits. His attention diverted from a Solitaire match which he playing on the computer, the boss remarked: “Do you see how idl
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha
The speed of service delivery among government institutions is renowned the world over, some really classy public service organizations like Rwanda’s Revenue Authority are so efficient that everything associated with them is normally about good performance. However the rate of service delivery in other sectors of public service is another matter and is best kept out of view.
But for a little insight, the World Bank has stated as recently as 2007 that in certain cases, it takes 162 days for a prospective investor in a firm that can employ 50 people to get formal registration in Rwanda.
Aware of such inadequacies among many civil servants, the government of Rwanda launched the famous Performance Contracts in 2006. The contracts set out specific objectives for efficient service delivery to the grass root citizenry by local government institutions and they are determined with practical goals which can easily be achieved in the given time.
This include the number of families in a local leader's area can have access to a radio, health care, education and a home. As a result of such contracts, Rwanda has been able to achieve significant progress in the health care system for all diseases across the country, increased access to schools and other social and infrastructure amenities. Rwanda's performance contracts-controlled in Kigali and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sitting in Arusha could have a reader wondering what connection is there between local government service delivery mechanisms and genocide justice. The connection is in the day to day operations of both institutions. While local government politicians compete to be voted into office, once they get there, they serve for a given time and come back to campaign among their voters for their mandate to be extended. As a result, the politicians need to show their voters what they done for the time they have been in office, and that is where the rate of delivery in daily work output by all involved in a local government setting comes up. At the ICTR, there are several institutions whose rate of delivery is not monitored by any system and going by theory output, there’s urgent need for a unique version of performance contracts to be instituted at the ICTR.
The UN Security Council (which is the principal body that regulates all ICTs) gives the court a given timeframe and does not require it to have achieved specific objectives in that period.
So when the court takes 15 years to try only 33 cases at the cost of over one billion US dollars, there are no questions concerning the rate of work for all the components involved within the ICTR. Therefore when one senior technical figure at this UN court shows up at the office in the morning, hangs his court behind his desk and goes out of the office till late in the evening, to pick up the court or sometimes tomorrow there are no questions as to what he did that day. There are also no questions when the court goes back to the UN Security Council after the mentioned 15 years to ask for their mandate to be extended.
The UN grants the extension and the courts hang behind empty desks for one more year! Well as government officials have been accused to be lazy and often missing from their work stations, the civil servants have in turn defended themselves saying they are earning ‘peanut’ salaries from public service and therefore they have to offset their incomes by reporting to their 'day' time jobs and going out of force to hustle. The employs of the ICTR cannot point to the same excuse as the reason for their laziness; they are paid very handsomely on top of several dream incentives. They just don't care, and in a rather annoying manner, they all know they are very lazy and, as one Michael Habumugisha recently found out;” they all say someone else is responsible for even the most simple task." That is what he found out when he took his faulty computer-as advised to be repaired in the ICTR Computer mechanical department, which by the way, is separate from the ICT department of the ICTR.
It would be injustice not describe the computer department of the ICTR. There are about five new generation young technology department experts working in a crowded room packed in all corners by computer gadgets that would dazzle Nyabugogo mechanics. When all of them are in the office-which is the case normally, the room as an aura of a high level international airport-it is a busy hub. But unlike the airport, the new generation experts are chatting away on their computer simultaneously with headphones in their heads. About two of them still go to school; this is explained by the number of text books always thrown on the floor. On some occasions, when a stranger enters their office, it could take anywhere between five to thirty minutes before their presence is recognized. When his presence was finally recognized, he was required to fill in some paper work in order for his computer to be repaired.
To cut the story short, the ICTR unlike local government institutions operates with a blank cheque, and that is exactly what the president of the court Judge Denis Byron, a respected judge from the Island nation of Saint Vincent Kitts said recently while he was lecturing a live video conference in the Caribbean about the accountability of ICTR judges.
The judge said he was trying to find a formula through which the judges of the trial chambers would be accountable for the number of time they spend to dispense off one case. Such is the irony at the ICTR that recently while making a routine visit in the office of one of the bosses in these UN offices, I found his humour in good spirits. His attention diverted from a Solitaire match which he playing on the computer, the boss remarked: “Do you see how idl
Sport
Sastre’s victory in Tour De France emphasizes Spain’s current domination in world sport
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Sport is one of the unique social features that can identify with and also announce the 'arrival' of a major power player among nations in the wider world of international relations.
Therefore, it was with no surprise that five years after the end of the cold war, the supposed victor of that long grueling and sad episode of civilization-US, was given the right to host the 1994 World Cup, four years after the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989.
Sport is also currently announcing the arrival of another episode of civilization, China, which is tipped by many observers to be the next super power of world politics is hosting this year's Olympic championships beginning next week. And that country has already befitted from wide inches of space in international media thanks to the Olympics.
This is not about China however, it is about Spain. Two years ago, Spanish clubs were playing eye catching football in the European Champions’ league that had Roman Abramovich at Chelsea jealous.
The nature of their flamboyant attacking football was expressed in the character and personality of a Ronaldinho inspired Barcelona-appearing to be able to play the 'beauty and the beast' with equal competence.
Spain's dominance of world sport was also evident during that time when Fernando Alonzo dominated Formulae one and Rafael Nadal rivaled Roger Federer in tennis, Federer considered by many modern tennis experts as the greatest of that sport. 2008 began on a high for Spain, Spanish club were not playing impressively in Europe, but Spanish players were very instrumental in the performance of other major clubs in Europe, the high profile of Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal were primary evidence in that category. Right after the end European football club there was again Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, then football's European Championship, then Nadal at Wimbledon. And last week it was Carlos Sastre who continued Spain's rampant run of sporting success this year with a victory in the Tour de France as stunning as it was unexpected.
During the European Championship, it was noted that the Spanish victory with Aragones at the top was a high personal victory, it also fulfilled the long standing dream of Spain to emulate Real Madrid in football terms was the ultimate dream game of a neutral fan.
The victory of last week of Spanish cyclist Carlos Sastre in the grueling Tour De France it was another Spanish conquest in world sport and it was not just any ordinary achievement as the tour has in recent years suffered the bad publicity of positive doping tests for its most recent victors.
Satre’s victory, it was reported, came with no allegations of drugs and hopefully that will be copied by other mainstream sports disciplines like short distance athletics.
Keane, latest jigsaw in Liverpool puzzle
Robbie Keane has toiled his way through many premiership games since his courtship with Inter Milan in the late 1990s. From running the midfield in the brilliant midfield that was assembled by David O’leary at Leeds United to leading Totenham Hotspur’s title challenge in the last couple of years.
Last week, the Irishman made another move to Liverpool after a good season at the Lane.
Apart from the little problem of finding space in Rafael Benitez squad which is already bulging, Keane will have to deal with increased expectations. Fitting into a system in which either he or Steven Gerrard will seemingly have to yield up their preferred offensive central role.
ENDS
bonnex10@yahoo.co.uk
kas2dani@yahoo.com
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Sport is one of the unique social features that can identify with and also announce the 'arrival' of a major power player among nations in the wider world of international relations.
Therefore, it was with no surprise that five years after the end of the cold war, the supposed victor of that long grueling and sad episode of civilization-US, was given the right to host the 1994 World Cup, four years after the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989.
Sport is also currently announcing the arrival of another episode of civilization, China, which is tipped by many observers to be the next super power of world politics is hosting this year's Olympic championships beginning next week. And that country has already befitted from wide inches of space in international media thanks to the Olympics.
This is not about China however, it is about Spain. Two years ago, Spanish clubs were playing eye catching football in the European Champions’ league that had Roman Abramovich at Chelsea jealous.
The nature of their flamboyant attacking football was expressed in the character and personality of a Ronaldinho inspired Barcelona-appearing to be able to play the 'beauty and the beast' with equal competence.
Spain's dominance of world sport was also evident during that time when Fernando Alonzo dominated Formulae one and Rafael Nadal rivaled Roger Federer in tennis, Federer considered by many modern tennis experts as the greatest of that sport. 2008 began on a high for Spain, Spanish club were not playing impressively in Europe, but Spanish players were very instrumental in the performance of other major clubs in Europe, the high profile of Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal were primary evidence in that category. Right after the end European football club there was again Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, then football's European Championship, then Nadal at Wimbledon. And last week it was Carlos Sastre who continued Spain's rampant run of sporting success this year with a victory in the Tour de France as stunning as it was unexpected.
During the European Championship, it was noted that the Spanish victory with Aragones at the top was a high personal victory, it also fulfilled the long standing dream of Spain to emulate Real Madrid in football terms was the ultimate dream game of a neutral fan.
The victory of last week of Spanish cyclist Carlos Sastre in the grueling Tour De France it was another Spanish conquest in world sport and it was not just any ordinary achievement as the tour has in recent years suffered the bad publicity of positive doping tests for its most recent victors.
Satre’s victory, it was reported, came with no allegations of drugs and hopefully that will be copied by other mainstream sports disciplines like short distance athletics.
Keane, latest jigsaw in Liverpool puzzle
Robbie Keane has toiled his way through many premiership games since his courtship with Inter Milan in the late 1990s. From running the midfield in the brilliant midfield that was assembled by David O’leary at Leeds United to leading Totenham Hotspur’s title challenge in the last couple of years.
Last week, the Irishman made another move to Liverpool after a good season at the Lane.
Apart from the little problem of finding space in Rafael Benitez squad which is already bulging, Keane will have to deal with increased expectations. Fitting into a system in which either he or Steven Gerrard will seemingly have to yield up their preferred offensive central role.
ENDS
bonnex10@yahoo.co.uk
kas2dani@yahoo.com
Weekly musings
EAC investors promise nursing school while APR suffers a long week
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha
The week started off with the best and worst extremes of news, it began with a group of influential investors from Kenya who were in the country to assess business opportunities they could exploit.
In their meeting with President Paul Kagame the investors promised to set up a nursing training school which, according to William Kituyi a former trade minister in Kenya will help strengthen Rwanda's ambition of being a knowledge based economy, the investors added that they will also train Rwandans involved service sector.
The service sector in Rwanda is the largest sector of Rwanda's economy by 2007 estimates, contributing Frw 173 billion. Talk about Rwanda's power of seduction in the East African Community. On the other side of the news, it was reported that Rwandans who are closely suspected to have committed genocide and crimes against humanity here in 1994 are still causing havoc in other parts of Africa.
Ex members of Interahamwe (who need no further introduction) are reported to have been very active in recent violent outbreaks during Zimbabwe's failed presidential election.
The Interahamwe, the media stated were recruited in Robert Mugabe's fanatical band militias commonly known as liberation fighters.
It was not reported however, whether the ICTR wanted fugitive, the former head of Juvenal Habyarimana's presidential guard Protais Mpiranya was among Zimbabwe’s ‘terror squads’. Mpiranya is reportedly chilling in Zimbabwe.
The Interahamwe along with Mpiranya met up with Mugabe's people when Zimbabwe used them to fight alongside the DR Congolese army during the war in that country beginning in 2002. The development of the media in Rwanda; "one story at a time" was a theme that National University of Rwanda in partnership with Carleton University in Canada took to practicing Rwandan journalists in a one week long training programme. While in parliament, the minister of information Louise Mushikiwabo was called to explain why radio transmission was not covering the entire country, leaving many Rwandans out of the 'information age' and susceptible to the infamous 'genocide ideologies'.
Mushikiwabo admitted the equipment used by ORNINFOR; the national information office is outdated and promised changes soon. ORINFOR is funded by the government and runs a thriving publishing enterprise in the country as a near monopoly. When ambition and pragmatism meet, the common folks suffer; therefore it comes as no surprise that Kigali kiosk owners are lugging it out with the city administrators about the location of their enterprises-this time in courts of law.
You see, the government has been very consistent with talk about helping create: "strong vibrant small and medium scale private sector in the country", cum the small investors who have opened up commercial sharks along main streets in a city, the city itself is striving to be a hallmark of beauty in regional capitals, in their determination to attract tourists, investors and conferences.
These kiosks serve "amata na fanta bikonje"or cold milk and soft drinks, cigarettes and mid day bars have since been chased away from the face of the city and the small investors are not happy, as a result, they have taken KCC to court. The sharks are accused of spoiling the beauty of the Kigali city which has cretwd itself a niche as one of the cleanest capitals in East and Central Africa.
The case, if it comes up for mention will be one of biggest so far for the recently created Commercial Court will have handled.
The developments come soon after Kigali's new and modern Master Plan is due for passing by the cabinet. Football players plying their trade in professional leagues have been known to live a life of paradise, blessed with mind boggling salaries, which are only dreamt of by professionals in other careers the soccer players led by Michael Ballack and Clarence Seerdorf have decided to clean up their image.
Recently the footballers, many of whom are from Africa formed an organization which will help reduce global poverty in an interesting and practical manner.
The organization known as Goal4Africa will see soccer fans donate a small amount of money whenever their favourite team scores a goal. The announcement comes only weeks before the extremely popular English Premiership resumes in August, the revenue from this project will be used to fund education and development on the African continent, it is estimated to have collected $90m by 2010 when the World Cup begins in South Africa. Also in the news;
The National Identity card issuing scheme begins in time for good preparations for parliamentary elections in September. The national identity cards will be used as the voting cards.
APR football club have been humiliated in the going Kagame Cup in Dar Salaam, after drawing in their opening match against Tanzania’s Yanga FC, APR were thumped by Zanzibar minnows Miembeni. By press time, APR were making mathematical calculations to qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament in which they are considered as giants.
BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha
The week started off with the best and worst extremes of news, it began with a group of influential investors from Kenya who were in the country to assess business opportunities they could exploit.
In their meeting with President Paul Kagame the investors promised to set up a nursing training school which, according to William Kituyi a former trade minister in Kenya will help strengthen Rwanda's ambition of being a knowledge based economy, the investors added that they will also train Rwandans involved service sector.
The service sector in Rwanda is the largest sector of Rwanda's economy by 2007 estimates, contributing Frw 173 billion. Talk about Rwanda's power of seduction in the East African Community. On the other side of the news, it was reported that Rwandans who are closely suspected to have committed genocide and crimes against humanity here in 1994 are still causing havoc in other parts of Africa.
Ex members of Interahamwe (who need no further introduction) are reported to have been very active in recent violent outbreaks during Zimbabwe's failed presidential election.
The Interahamwe, the media stated were recruited in Robert Mugabe's fanatical band militias commonly known as liberation fighters.
It was not reported however, whether the ICTR wanted fugitive, the former head of Juvenal Habyarimana's presidential guard Protais Mpiranya was among Zimbabwe’s ‘terror squads’. Mpiranya is reportedly chilling in Zimbabwe.
The Interahamwe along with Mpiranya met up with Mugabe's people when Zimbabwe used them to fight alongside the DR Congolese army during the war in that country beginning in 2002. The development of the media in Rwanda; "one story at a time" was a theme that National University of Rwanda in partnership with Carleton University in Canada took to practicing Rwandan journalists in a one week long training programme. While in parliament, the minister of information Louise Mushikiwabo was called to explain why radio transmission was not covering the entire country, leaving many Rwandans out of the 'information age' and susceptible to the infamous 'genocide ideologies'.
Mushikiwabo admitted the equipment used by ORNINFOR; the national information office is outdated and promised changes soon. ORINFOR is funded by the government and runs a thriving publishing enterprise in the country as a near monopoly. When ambition and pragmatism meet, the common folks suffer; therefore it comes as no surprise that Kigali kiosk owners are lugging it out with the city administrators about the location of their enterprises-this time in courts of law.
You see, the government has been very consistent with talk about helping create: "strong vibrant small and medium scale private sector in the country", cum the small investors who have opened up commercial sharks along main streets in a city, the city itself is striving to be a hallmark of beauty in regional capitals, in their determination to attract tourists, investors and conferences.
These kiosks serve "amata na fanta bikonje"or cold milk and soft drinks, cigarettes and mid day bars have since been chased away from the face of the city and the small investors are not happy, as a result, they have taken KCC to court. The sharks are accused of spoiling the beauty of the Kigali city which has cretwd itself a niche as one of the cleanest capitals in East and Central Africa.
The case, if it comes up for mention will be one of biggest so far for the recently created Commercial Court will have handled.
The developments come soon after Kigali's new and modern Master Plan is due for passing by the cabinet. Football players plying their trade in professional leagues have been known to live a life of paradise, blessed with mind boggling salaries, which are only dreamt of by professionals in other careers the soccer players led by Michael Ballack and Clarence Seerdorf have decided to clean up their image.
Recently the footballers, many of whom are from Africa formed an organization which will help reduce global poverty in an interesting and practical manner.
The organization known as Goal4Africa will see soccer fans donate a small amount of money whenever their favourite team scores a goal. The announcement comes only weeks before the extremely popular English Premiership resumes in August, the revenue from this project will be used to fund education and development on the African continent, it is estimated to have collected $90m by 2010 when the World Cup begins in South Africa. Also in the news;
The National Identity card issuing scheme begins in time for good preparations for parliamentary elections in September. The national identity cards will be used as the voting cards.
APR football club have been humiliated in the going Kagame Cup in Dar Salaam, after drawing in their opening match against Tanzania’s Yanga FC, APR were thumped by Zanzibar minnows Miembeni. By press time, APR were making mathematical calculations to qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament in which they are considered as giants.
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