Kagame Is Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Kigali Convention Centre (KCC) is finally here! Congratulations to all those involved in building it since 2008. It has been a long journey.

But like everything else in Kagame's Kingdom there is a dark side - CASH!
While we were sleeping KCC mysteriously got new owners. Guess who are the owners:

The new owners include Prime Holdings and Crystal Ventures. This should come as a shock!
Back in 2006, the Kagame regime assured the IMF that Prime Holdings had ceased to manage public assets after it was caught stealing. Prime Holdings is a shadowy company that was unable to account for funds used to build the current Serena Hotel in Kigali and Gisenyi! Ten years later, the corrupt mafia-like Prime Holdings is back!

Evidently Kagame has rewarded Prime Holdings with an even bigger cake - big money from the US$400 million Eurobond the Kagame regime borrowed to build KCC among other things!
So why did Kagame bring back the thieving Prime Holdings? The same reason Crystal Ventures became a co-owner of KCC. To siphon off CASH!

We hope the IMF is observing this ugly drama that is hidden away by the celebrations around the KCC.




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David Himbara

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At the Crossroads? The Scission of FDLR in relation to CNRD-Ubwiyunge

What has for long been a fragile cohabitation full of tension inside FDLR finally seems to have reached an ultimate breaking point. Congruent reports suggest the breakaway of a substantial part of a group that hitherto maintained its position as the single most important non-state armed movement in eastern Congo. What do we know about the scission led by Col. Wilson Irategeka (aka Laurent Ndagijimana)?

Gen. Sylvestre Mudacumura

To start with some background: All through the last months, the FDLR is further losing strength, with their size ranging roughly around an estimated 1500 elements (this figure should be taken as a rough estimate based on various lower and higher numbers mentioned by various sources). Since late 2015, the still ongoing Sukola II operations of the Congolese army have not only dislodged the militia from its former strongholds (around Ihula), it has also shaken up the group’s internal hierarchy and potentially further undermined its fragile cohesion.

It is not entirely clear to which extent Gen. Sylvestre Mudacumura (aka Bernard Mupenzi), the groups overall military head for many years, maintains full commanding power within the organisation. Given chief of staff Gen. Léopold Mujyambere’s (aka Achille Musenyeri) arrest, this points at increasing clout of Gen. Pacifique Ntawunguka (aka Omega/Israel). The recently concluded trial of the FDLR’s political president Ignace Murwanashyaka (together with Straton Musoni) saw Gen. Victor Byringiro (aka Gaston Iyamuremye/Rumuli) emerge as FDLR’s president ad interim, with Wilson as his de facto deputy. Both are believed to entertain lively animosities towards each other for years, and Victor’s relations to Mudacumura and Omega are evenly reported to be tense at best.

Prior to the onset of Sukola II operations by the Congolese army (which, still, are carried out unilaterally after allegations of human rights abuses of Congolese generals that created a friction between MONUSCO and Kinshasa), a series of voluntary demobilisations had made the news. In three waves, the FDLR leadership tried to show its goodwill by handing over a few hundreds of combatants and a number of arms. Victor and Wilson were both involved in these activities, while certain actors in the military leadership are said to have been more reluctant.

Gen. Victor Byringiro

A more hidden contention, however, has been the way FDLR deals with its ‘dependents’, meaning both the actual dependents and the larger Rwandan refugee population that remains in eastern DRC’s forests since the 1994 Genocide. FDLR has been repeatedly accused of using them as ‘human shields’ and ‘recruitment pool’, but certainly also for economic activities which have traditionally linked civilians and combatants (i.e. the organisation of agricultural production and other revenue generating activities including but also beyond their ‘logistique non-conventionnelle’). Within FDLR’s leadership there has been historic disagreement over how to deal with these populations — both in terms of seeing in them a ‘constituency’ but also thinking of them as a strategic asset. Obviously, there is a thin line here.

At the same time, the refugee issue has a larger connotation: 22 years after most of them have arrived in eastern Congo, it becomes nearly impossible for both the UNHCR and the national refugee commission (CNR) of the DRC to exactly identify who is a refugee, who is a ‘refugee secondo’, who is a displaced rwandophone Congolese, and so on. The political solution aimed at resolving this confusion most recently was to run a biometric census. This is highly problematic, since comparative baseline data is not existing. Hence, if feasible at all, it would be an enormous undertaking, giving the logistic challenges, to have a more or less accurate picture. Attempts in 2015 have, in addition, shown a significant amount of suspicion among the target populations — in certain pilot centres in the Kivus almost no one showed up.

Back to FDLR: within this contestation over the role of refugees, the fault lines between Wilson and Victor consistently grew deeper. Sukola II had — despite its consistent challenges to roll out operations more quickly and decisively — achieved rather remarkable progress in military terms and effectively further weakened FDLR-Foca (Forces Combattantes Abacunguzi is the official name of FDLR’s military). It is in this context that we need to situate the comeback of hefty internal discussions over how to deal with the refugees. According to different sources, Wilson was pushing for a more open stance towards identification and census. A possible rationale behind this could be Wilson’s general political strategy towards a ‘decriminalisation’ of FDLR and the attempt of opening up avenues towards a diplomatic solution, incl. potentially third-country resettlement of those leaders not indicted by either ICC or ICTR. Coupled with political ambitions to ‘represent’ the refugees, these dynamics contributed to the most recent internal escalation. This might have been the tipping point having him being suspended by Victor, Omega, Mudacumura, and spokesman LaForge Fils Bazeye, and resulted in Wilson’s defection and the creation of the CNRD-Ubwiyunge under his leadership. In a Kinyarwanda communiqué, FDLR’s South Kivu commander Hamada Habimana is named as the CNRD’s military commander and strong accusations were issued against FDLR’s alleged strategy of ‘human shields’.

 Col. Wilson Irategeka

CNRD-Ubwiyunge would, if confirmed as a politico-military group, be the fourth relevant split-off from FDLR-Foca since its creation in 2000 (following RDR, ALiR I and II) — a meanwhile defunct group called ‘Rastas’ was operating in the early-mid 2000s in South Kivu and FDLR-Soki and RUD-Urunana broke away around 2006/7. While minor remnants of the Soki group still operate in northern Rutshuru territory, only RUD had a larger relevance in the last few years (their military leader Gen. Musare was reported to be killed early 2016 in fighting with, potentially, the NDC-Rénové and UPDI in southern Lubero.

To date, we know little about whether or not Wilson is succeeding to take a considerable number of commanders and troops into his new movement. The (by far smaller) South Kivu branch of FDLR-Foca, according to several sources is, in majority but not wholly, following Wilson. The larger North Kivu branch appears to be more divided. Several important commanders seem to be favourable to Wilson, but key commanders and potentially the groups ‘special forces’ called CRAP are unlikely to turn towards CNRD for their allegiance to Mudacumura and Omega. Voices from within have been stating that ‘a significant part of the combatants and civilians’ were on Wilson’s side, but also that ‘many rank-and-file’ remain ‘highly confused and barely up to date’ regarding the precise fault lines so far.

While international tensions in FDLR are no news anymore, it is surprising (or not) that in a situation of high external pressures to the movement that this scission seems to happen. While that looks logical in the first place, it is interesting to remember that — beyond all dissent — the FDLR had previously often managed to overcome their internal beef whenever the group as such was exposed to existential threats. This time, it might be different.

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Kagame didn't end Genocide; He started it.

Please Stop Saying

“Paul Kagame ended a genocide in which mostly Tutsis (and a few moderate Hutus) were killed”!

1. He did not come riding in to stop killing in 1994.
   
2. His gang invaded Rwanda in 1990 (yes, 1990, 4 years before) to begin the genocide.
   
3. He orchestrated and accomplished much of the killing (including killing of Tutsis by Hutus and by his own men)
   
4. The evidence suggests more Hutus than Tutsis were killed.
   
5. And that was from 1990 until the end of 1994;he continued beyond this, in Rwanda and in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Did the UN and others "fail" to act? Kagame threatened to kill UN officials or others who stood in his way to conquest of Kigali, his long-planned base for stealing Congo's resources.

GOOGLE "Ann Garrison" or "Taylor report"+Philpot or "Gersony report" or Davenport+Stam or "Mapping exercise"+UN or "Peter Erlinder" or "Keith Harmon Snow" etc.

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Frank LeFever

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CNRD-Ubwiyungu Does not have any Territorial Ambition in the Democractic Republic of Congo

Press release No. 002 / CP / 16.

AA/Lumbumbashi/Heritier Maila

The National Council for Renewal and Democracy (CNRD-Ubwiyunge) is horrified by the misinformation circulating on social media including the website "www.direct.cd" which wrote in on of it’s published article that CNRD-UBWIYUNGE is a movement seeking to destabilize peace in Democractic Republic of Congo.

The CNRD-UBWIYUNGE has taken this oppoturnity to inform the public, the Congolese people and the international community that this information is groundless. Indeed, the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE was found on 31, May 2016 by Rwandan refugees in Democratic Republic of Congo and around the world. The objectives of the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE includes the following:

1. Plead the cause of the Rwandan refugees. Throughout the world but especially those located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You will notice that CNRD-Ubwiyunge works closely with the Democratic Republic of Congo government institutions, UNHCR, humanitarian NGOs, and many other organisations to ensure that our refugee population are:
   
   A. Recognize
   B. Secured and protected
   C. Receiving Humanitarian Assistance.
    
2. Return dignity to all Rwandan Refugees. We this by working with other opposition parties to pressure the RPF-Inkotanyi regime to open political space and is committed to the path of dialogue with the real political opposition.
3. Create true reconciliation between the ethnic that make up the Rwandan Society. Here we fight all forms of impunity and advocate for a Rwandan society where everyone is equal before the law.

The above mentioned evidence, concludes that , the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE has no territorial ambition in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instead, it intends to offer its experience to build an enduring peace in the Great Lakes region of Africa, through legal and political means under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Information linking the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE to those who want to destabilize the peace of the Congolese people within harmful propaganda orchestrated by the detractors of the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE. We strongly disagree and we against those lies that are being circulating on social media.

The authors of this article which was published in ‘Direct.Cd’ should exercise intellectual, honesty and seek information from the concerned individuals rather than doing a propagandist press.



Done at Rutchuru, June 26, 2016.

For the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE
Barnabas Sinayobye
Spokesman of the CNRD-UBWIYUNGE (Sé)
Telephone: +243842543221 / + 243824804184

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The other Rwandan Massacre: 20 Years on

An Australian soldier carrying a young Rwandan boy injured during the Kibeho massacre, Rwanda, 1995 [Photograph: George Gittoes]

The 1994 Rwandan genocide was one of the most horrifying events of the 20th Century. But many are unaware of another massacre the following year. Australian Author Paul Jordon and filmmaker George Gittoes witnessed the brutality.


Twenty years ago, on April 22, thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by Rwandan soldiers at the Kibeho Internally Displaced Persons Camp (IDP) in the south of Rwanda.
A small team of 32 Australian Defence Force personnel were the only western troops to witness the massacre.




It is admittedly one the worst carnages Australian troops have been exposed to since the Second World War.

Australian author Paul Jordan was there.

He was one of the highly trained elite SAS forces deployed in Rwanda at the time.

“We arrived as part of the second contingent in February 1995. We took up residence at the hospital and started providing care for those who were injured.”

Kibeho was the last and the biggest Internally Displaced People's camp remaining in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide.

Outnumbered by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and unable to intervene in virtue of their UN mandate, the small Australian contingent deployed extraordinary courage in an effort to save lives.

The Australian Defence force was providing medical support to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR) following the Rwandan Genocide.

Jordan’s section was tasked to support and protect a small Australian Medical Team sent to the Kibeho IDP which was about to be closed.

“We were then told in April that the camp at Kibeho was to be closed. And our job was to go there and document those who might be injured; provide care where we could while people were being repatriated to their villages.”

Deadly motives of the 'repatriation operation'

Behind the official IDP repatriation operation that started on the 18th of April 1995 and ended tragically on the 22nd of April 1995, there was another unspecified agenda.

Earlier this month George Gittoes was awarded the 2015 Sydney Peace Prize in recognition for, amongst other things, his courage to witness and confront violence in the war zones of the world.

Australian activist and war artist George Gittoes has been awarded the 2015 Sydney Peace Prize. (AAP)

A seasoned investigative documentary maker, Gittoes was on a mission to document the deployment of Australian forces in Rwanda.

He had learned about the other possible motives of the Kibeho IDP repatriation operation.

“They did it in a grotesque way. They’d shoot them in the leg and then they’d laugh at them and then watch them trying to get up and eventually put a bullet in their head or somewhere fatal.”

“Before I left Kigali I had been briefed on the likelihood that there would be a retaliatory massacre at Kibeho. So I came in very aware and alert.

“I came with the Australian infantry soldiers who were supporting a medical team setting up a field hospital run by Captain Carol Vaughan Evans.”

It wasn’t long before Gittoes witnessed the other aspect of the "repatriation operation".
“The first sign was watching the RPA clear the villages and hills around it. People being forced out and as they ran… they were made to run, they would shoot them."

He says the RPA were ruthless in their execution.

“They did it in a grotesque way. They’d shoot them in the leg and then they’d laugh at them and then watch them trying to get up and eventually put a bullet in their head or somewhere fatal.”

Completely surrounded by heavily armed and trigger happy RPA troops, the people in the camp had nowhere to run.

And as Jordan recalls, armed militias within the camp were also busy doing their own killing.

“The Rwandans had machine guns, they had mortars, and all set up to mow these people down; which they did.

“And while this was going on, there were also people running within these poor people with machetes and other weapons killing them from within as well. So these displaced persons were being hit from both sides; from the army and from militias from within the camp.”

Attempts to stop the killings

In the midst of this carnage one would wonder whether there were any attempts to intercede.

Jordan says that there were numerous initiatives from Australian forces and other parties to stop the killings.

“It was coming from the UN and it was coming from our command element. And we had one signaller who spent his entire time on that radio maintaining communications and reporting exactly what was going on.

“But it was also our officers within our small group who were pleading with the Rwandan Patriotic Army officers, a major in particular, that this had do stop.”

But their calls fell on deaf ears.

“It was to the point where there was a set of horrible circumstances and some of the events leading up to the events where… displaced persons who knew that things were going bad and would make a run for it.

“And one or two soldiers would give chase. Rwandan Patriotic Army soldiers would give chase, fire a few shots, wing this poor guy and then proceed to bayonet him to death.”

He says there were endless efforts to stop the killings but often it was too late.

“There are countless incidents that took place where innocent people were murdered and executed in front of us and you know not only myself but everybody who was involved in those couple of days stood up to Rwandan soldiers and said no."

"There are countless incidents that took place where innocent people were murdered and executed in front of us and you know not only myself but everybody who was involved in those couple of days stood up to Rwandan soldiers and said no.

“If we were given the opportunity we did that and often we were successful but sometimes you just weren't there on time.”

Faced with mounting casualties and a situation of total helplessness there was increased pressure on the Australian Medical team to leave Kibeho altogether.

But, in true Anzac spirit, the small team decided to continue their mission of saving IDP's lives despite their own being at risk.

Gittoes recalled those moments of extraordinary courage.

"The RPA commander came and said to Carol Vaughan Evans you can’t go back we are going to finish them all. So they would kill the people that the Australians had been treating.

“Carol made an amazing decision. She said no we are going back. So with the heavy machine gun fire it seemed that all the Australians could have been killed in the process of trying to save all these people.

“They had been attached to them. They went back and got them and helped them. This meant tripping through razor wire and stuff … Trying to get people out and bullets flying everywhere.”

Counting the casualties

At the end of more than four days of killings the counting of casualties was to become one of the most controversial events surrounding the United Nations mission in Rwanda.

Jordan and his team were asked to count the victims for the United Nations

“I was charged by the UN along with another officer to take half a section of infantry and move around each side of the camp and count the dead bodies. This took place the day after the massacre. You know we walked along with pace counters and we counted everybody that we found.”

They provided a partial tally of more than 4000 victims.

But the Rwandan government disputed this figure and came up with its own figure of 338 people killed in four days of unabated killings.

Human Right organisations and many scholars believe the tally is much higher. Their figures vary between 10,000 and 15,000 people killed in a matter of four days.

Jordon has his own account.

“I recognise that by being there and bearing witness to what had taken place they would have to kill all of us … to clear that evidence from their slate.

“Or, they had to stop what they were doing. And they didn't kill 12,000 people. I believe the count was somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000. And I would say closer to 10,000."

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sbs.com

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Why Rwandan Food Refugees Are Moving To Uganda In Increasing Numbers

While King Paul is mostly overseas these days lecturing how he has built the Singapore of Africa, back home, people are hurting. Massive crop failure has struck hard in Nyagatare District — Voice of America has captured this disaster in a revealing documentary about food refugees crossing into Uganda.

We know what the Kagame regime will do: Deny that the problem exists, or blame the weather. The other name for the regime is “Deny, Deny, Deny, and Deny” the truth about everything under the sun.

The regime will also blame climate change, and point out that the rains have failed for almost a year. Evidently some parts of Nyagatare District have not had rains since February 2015.

Dead crops

But where is planning? Where are strategic predictions and early warnings to mitigate disasters? Where is awareness-raising to enable rural populations to prepare and reduce risks? Where is proactive response after the disasters?

Nothing.

Does Rwanda Meteorological Service even have capacity to deliver sufficient data, information and advisories? Does the service have qualified personnel to forecast disasters in advance for adequate preparation and handling of disasters?

Zero.

Of course we all know that rainfall deficit risk zones of Rwanda include Bugesera, Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Ngoma and Kirehe districts in the eastern province. Eastern parts of Nyanza and Gisagara districts in southern province are also characterized by high frequency of either rainfall deficit, late rainfall onsets, or early rainfall cessations. Anyone who knows anything about Rwanda knows that these sub-regions are prone to dry spells and drought.

And it goes without saying that droughts are responsible for famine, food shortages, a reduction in plant and animal species and displacement of people in search of food and pasture.

This is why Rwandans are crossing into Uganda — they are food refugees. This is not rocket science. Hungry people will do anything to survive. So, rather than hide its head in the sand, the Kagame regime should at least appeal for food aid to mitigate hunger.

The regime does not have money to handle the situation on its own. Rwanda is currently suffering from a combination of self-inflicted wounds — depressed exports, massive imports, shrinking foreign reserves, and expenditure on prestige projects such as the Kigali Convention Centre. KCC swallowed much of the USD400 million Eurobond acquired in 2013.

Let the regime not hide hunger — ask for foreign food aid.

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David Himbara

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