Critical steps towards a competitive East Africa.

President Paul Kagame

11/21/07

Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen:

I start by congratulating you, your Excellency President Museveni, the government and people of Uganda, for hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and thank you most sincerely for your gracious hospitality.

The Commonwealth Business Forum together with your sponsors, deserve applause for putting together an impressive program that brings together business and government leaders, to explore ways of making East Africa competitive in the commonwealth and global contexts.

Discussions like this rightly remind us of our respective roles.
It cannot be stated enough that businesses create wealth, while governments provide a supportive environment.

This partnership is what will permit us to achieve our vision for Africa – a continent finally free from poverty and aid dependency. This is also our vision in and for Rwanda.  We want to become home to entrepreneurs who transform agricultural produce into commercially viable goods; who develop tourism into dynamic clusters that generate wealth; who utilise ICT to create export-oriented service industries – where ample energy and modern infrastructure become permanent features of our landscape.

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AngolaPress

16/11/2007

Kigali, 16/11 – Le procureur général de la République à Kigali, Martin Ngoga, a salué, jeudi, la décision de la cour d`Appel de Paris d`extrader un présumé génocidaire rwandais, Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, recherché par le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR), demandant que la même procédure soit appliquée pour d`autres suspects en quête d`asile dans ce pays.

La cour d`Appel de Paris a accepté, mercredi, la remise au Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR) siégeant à Arusha, en Tanzanie, de l`ancien sous-Préfet Ntawukuriryayo, recherché pour génocide et arrêté le 16 octobre en France.

"C`est une obligation pour la justice française de prendre cette décision, car ce présumé génocidaire était recherché depuis de longues années", a déclaré le procureur Ngoga qui a demandé que la même procédure judiciaire soit appliquée pour deux autres suspects génocidaires, un prêtre catholique, l`abbé Wenceslas Munyeshyaka et un ancien Préfet de Gikongoro (sud), Laurent Bucyibaruta, tous actuellement dans le collimateur de la justice française.

"C`est une affaire de justice et une obligation pour faire comparaître tous présumés génocidaires rwandais en quête d`asile en Europe", a souligné M. Ngoga, qui a rappelé que le Rwanda a déjà délivré des mandats d`arrêt pour plusieurs présumés génocidaires rwandais qui se cacheraient en France.

"Cette décision constitue une lueur d`espoir pour leur extradition devant le TPIR ou au Rwanda, ou dans le cas contraire, de procéder à leur jugement", a-t-il conclu.

AngolaPress

 BBC News

11/16/07

A former Rwandan mayor has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for crimes committed during the genocide.

Some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus died in the 100-day slaughter in 1994. Juvenal Rugambarara pleaded guilty for failing to investigate and then punish those in his district of Bicumbi who were implicated in a massacre.

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By Simran Jain

11/12/07

A group of Emory faculty members who opposed allowing the “Hotel Rwanda” figure Paul Rusesabagina to speak unopposed at State of Race last month has organized a follow-up event to present other views on the Rwandan genocide.

The event, scheduled for Nov. 27, is titled “Beyond Hollywood’s Rwanda: Truth and Justice, Security and Development after the 1994 Genocide,” will be a panel discussion about Rwanda. Susan Allen, professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health, said Rusesabagina is a “genocide denier” who has misrepresented the facts of the 1994 genocide for political purposes.

“You have to be a critical thinker. Just because he says things, doesn’t mean it’s true,” she said. “That’s how this panel began. It’s not ‘let’s bash Paul,’ it’s, ‘let’s tell the truth.’” In the past, College Council’s annual State of Race address has featured a panel of experts, not one person speaking unopposed.

“The contract Emory signed with Rusesabagina really went against the spirit of the State of the Race,” said Professor of Anthropology and Global Health Peter Brown, another organizer of the November event.

“If $20,000 of our tuition money went towards this man making political-ethnic tensions worse, then you’re putting $20,000 in the war chest,” Brown added. “We don’t know for sure, but these are things to be concerned about.” One panelist will be former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, who produced a documentary called “Rwanda Rising” about the genocide.

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Intelink

08/11/2007

Les chefs de sécurité et de renseignement en provenance de 46 pays africains regroupés au sein d’une structure régionale dénommée Security services of Africa (CISSA), se trouvent depuis deux jours à Kigali pour une réunion de consultation d’une semaine.

La rencontre devrait se focaliser sur les enjeux ainsi que de nouvelles stratégies à adopter pour combattre le génocide et participer aux différentes missions de maintien de la paix à travers le continent, a indiqué mardi une source autorisée à Kigali.

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The New Times

9/11/07

GLASGOW – President Paul Kagame was on Wednesday night granted an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In a formal ceremony attended by over 600 students, faculty and members of the Glasgow community, President Kagame was conferred the honorary doctorate by the University Chancellor, Sir Kenneth Calman, in recognition for “his leadership, and in encouragement of his commitment to nation building and reconciliation in Rwanda”.

Following the presentation of the honorary degree, President Kagame delivered a lecture on “Education for Development: the African and Rwandan Challenge”.

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By LINDA MBABAZI And GASHEEGU MURAMILA

05/11/07

KIGALI – Eighteen-year-old Cynthia Akazuba is the maiden Miss Kigali. The Lycée de Kigali Senior Four student emerged the winner of the Miss Kigali Beauty Pageant 2007, beating off competition of nine other contestants who made it to the final stage of the contest.Akazuba was crowned Miss Kigali 2007 by the First Lady Jeannette Kagame at a function held at Jali Club.

The event was graced by other several leaders and a number of musicians including Ugandan songbird Julian Kanyomozi.

Célyse Isimbi, a Senior Five student at Lycée de Kigali, and Joseline Murekatete, who is a first year student at the Kigali Independent University (ULK), emerged the first and second runners-up respectively.

The function was held on Saturday night at Jali Club in Kigali.

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By JAMES MUNYANEZA and EDWIN MUSONI

27/10/07

The Government has described DR Congo’s new action plan to disarm the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels as unrealistic. According to a classified document obtained by The New Times, Foreign Affairs minister Dr Charles Murigande told a group of donors on October 23 that the plan was not different from the usual rhetoric of voluntary disarmament by the rebels.

FDLR is largely composed of remnants of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and Interahamwe, groups which are largely responsible for the slaughter of at least one million people during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

The Minister explained that such an action plan was not the first to be made, that there are others that were previously made, which were even better than the one of DRC…. When you closely examine it, you find nothing tangible in it,’ the document stated.

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BBC News

19/10/07

A man wanted in connection with Rwanda's 1994 genocide has been arrested in France, Interpol says.

Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, who was detained in the southern French town of Carcassonne, has been charged with genocide by the Rwanda tribunal.

His indictment says he co-ordinated the killing of up to 25,000 Tutsis at Kabuye Hill near Gisagara over a five-day period in April 1994.

He is the third fugitive wanted by the tribunal to be caught in France.

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