RDC: Monusco strongly condemns the Mayi Mayi milita attack in Butembo (19.12.2016)

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RDC: M7 Media – “Du Lundi 19 Desembre 2016 au jeudi 5 Janvier 2017” (16.12.2016)

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Democratic Republic of the Congo: Zeid calls for rights to be upheld as president’s mandate nears end (19.12.2016)

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A planned shutdown of social media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Sunday evening ahead of the end of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, coupled with a continuing ban on demonstrations by civil society and the opposition, is deeply alarming.

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 19, 2016 – A planned shutdown of social media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Sunday evening ahead of the end of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, coupled with a continuing ban on demonstrations by civil society and the opposition, is deeply alarming, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Saturday.

“We are especially concerned as Monday also marks three months since 54 people died in Kinshasa, when defence and security forces used excessive force against people calling for constitutional deadlines to be respected and for President Kabila to step down at the end of his second and final mandate. No one has to date been held accountable for this violent repression of demonstrations,” Zeid said.

Since the beginning of December, the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC has documented at least 45 arrests of people trying to exercise their right to peaceful assembly. Of these, at least 16 people were detained in Bunia, Kinshasa and Goma in the context of the “Bye Bye Kabila” campaign organized by the Filimbi and Lucha  youth movements.  A further 26 people were reportedly arrested for their political links or because they belong to citizen movements.

“Intimidating and targeting opponents and civil society is not the answer. Silencing their views and stopping them from protesting is not the solution, and in fact is more likely to push them to resort to violence,” said Zeid.

“We call on the Government, and especially its security forces, to take all necessary measures to guarantee the rights to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.  We call on them to exercise restraint in line with their obligations under international human rights law related to the use of force during demonstrations. All responsible, at any level, for human rights violations must also be held accountable,” Zeid stressed.

“I am also concerned that DRC Government has asked internet providers and phone operators to block social media networks from Sunday evening. Such disruption is generally disproportionate and risks heightening tensions and fears, as it follows recent increased restrictions on independent media and on political debate,” he added. “I urge the authorities to reverse this order and to guarantee the right to freedom of expression and to access information, in line with the Congolese constitution.”

Under an agreement reached with some members of the opposition, elections are not expected before April 2018, with Mr. Kabila planning to stay on in office beyond 19 December.

Talks mediated by the Catholic Church have been taking place in Kinshasa to try to find a negotiated way forward beyond this date and to avoid violence. Respect for the Constitution and human rights principles and standards must be a cornerstone of any agreement achieved at these talks, the High Commissioner said.

“Let me stress how important the implementation of confidence-building measures is to reassure the Congolese population. I call on the Government to release all political prisoners, guarantee the independence of state institutions, including the judiciary, and open up the political space. At the same time, the opposition and civil society must strictly adhere to the peaceful exercise of their rights and freedoms,” the High Commissioner said.

“I urge all the Congolese to continue their efforts to achieve an agreement on the upcoming transitional period that respects the constitution and the human rights of all,” Zeid added.

 

Opinion: Kabila will not go silently!

Patrice Lumumba

President Patrice Lumumba addressed the Congolese Youth in August 1960:

“Today I am addressing the youth, the young men and women of the Republic of the Congo. In speaking to them, I am addressing these words to future generations because the future of our beloved country belongs to them. We are fighting our enemies in order to prepare a better and happier life for our youth. If we had been egoists, if we had thought only about ourselves we would not have made the innumerable sacrifices we are making. I am aware that our country can completely liberate herself from the chains of colonialism politically, economically and spiritually only at the price of a relentless and sometimes dangerous struggle. Together with the youth of the country, we have waged this struggle against foreign rule, against mercantile exploitation, against injustice and pressure” (Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 33-36).

Joseph Kabila, the president since 2001 after his father was assassinated will not leave silently from the Executive, from the commander-in-chief of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He will go into a fourth term without any direct amendments of the constitution of the Third Republic. He has been now in powers for over 15 years!

“Although Mr Kabila almost certainly died within minutes or hours of his shooting, his body was flown to Harare, ostensibly for treatment but probably merely to give the government time to reorganise and agree on a successor. Orders were issued in his name and the death was kept secret for 50 hours. As a result, Kinshasa remained calm and factions in the army that might have risen up were disarmed. But if Mr Kabila’s killing was planned—and it may well have arisen just from discontent among the palace guard—it is still not clear what it was meant to achieve” (The Economist, 2001).

Kabila has worked in the FARDC and even we’re in command of the army when the Ugandan and Rwandan armies we’re taking Kisangani in the past. He we’re in command of the Northern Contingent as the Operational Commander. So he has army experience and knows military tactics.

Kabila have worked with allies in United States and in Belgium, as they both have served each other well, even as the mandate of MONUSCO has been strengthen as the FARDC haven’t had the will to get rid of all the different guerrillas that are in the nation. The Republic has over a dozens of guerrillas and militias controlling mines and natural resources as the illegal mining, illegal exports through Uganda and Rwanda is happening in broad daylight. That has happen for two decades and not that Kabila government has tried to stop it. Neither has the industries that need these minerals that sheds the blood and uses the children to create future soldiers.

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Just as Kabila continued the line of his father, he still cleared the shop and made sure he got loyal people to him and not to the deceased father, like a year after he was sworn-in the first time as President in the transition government, he changed the ministers and put in Evariste Boshe, Samba Kaputo, Mulegwa Zihidula and Pierre Lumbi became close allies in personal cabinet in 2002. Some of them are still key figures in the regime to this day.

As of today the pictures surfacing online before the VPN and shutdown that the regime has promised where all of social media like WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook so on. Because Kabila doesn’t want the world to know about the oppressive behaviour of the FARDC and authorities; we know about some because of LUCHA and other political organizations has already in total behind bars over 130 known activists. So the Kabila government doesn’t really want change or political freedoms for their citizens.

Gloria Sengha, youth activist in Kinshasa and member of Lucha was kidnapped yesterday by Congolese security forces in Kinshasa. She is among the latest Congolese youth who have been kidnapped this past week. We still do not have the details of where Congolese lawyer and member of Compte a Rebours, Chris Shematsi is as well since his kidnapping earlier this week” (Kambale Musavuli, 18.12.2016).

Kabila a military man who became second generation president, doesn’t have not had the will to generate freedom, his armies haven’t even made peace in regions like South Kivu or North Kivu, as the militias and own army has created massacres in the villages around mines and valuable resources to export. There been incidents in Beni, Bukavu and Goma where the violence has happen and people have fled the area.

Kabila took power in 2001 after his father, got elected in a positive election in 2006, more contested and more questionable 2011. When Kabila we’re supposed to step-down now it would be miracle for a man who has ruled for 15 years. Since he has power since his father died, though he could have learned from the past, which the innocent dies when power corrupts the President.

We can expect that the army is stationed in the major towns and cities over the next few days to quell the displeased crowds who feels that there is coup d’état silently going-on. Kabila plans to silently take control over the nation again, as he did in 2001, as he needed to postpone elections and stay as commander-in-chief as long as he can. Kabila owns businesses, businesses that have contracts with the state and others that are licensed by government authority.

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So the son of former president Kabila knows the problem of leaving and knows that certainly leaving in peace would be something new, a succession that hasn’t occurred in the giant central African nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Patrice Lumumba we’re assassinated by the Belgium post-colonial forces, Mobutu Sese Seko died in exile in Rabat Morocco, Laurent-Desire Kabila killed by assassination by alleged royal guards. Now Joseph Kabila can decide his fate.

President Kabila from 2001-2016 can make a decision, if he haven’t already; he has been eating of the government plate and also with the surrounding mineral exports and trading agreement as the Third Republic Executive. The family is tangled and involved in all sectors of the economy and if he unleash himself from the throne. If he releases himself he fears and his family fears for the business and their future. This is something they have taken over from the previous ones in power, which are Mobutu and Laurent Kabila. The connected businesses are all there because of the connection with the state.

The State isn’t a big-government, it’s a militarized single-person based government that are only what it is, depending on the one that is the President, the executive at the time, because the government isn’t full with procedure or with institutions, it’s based on the appointments from the President and with the state corporations that can be partly owned by the family of Kabila.

Kabila has been and still is the President, even as hasn’t been any election, as the fourth term is coming to him. Like so many other Presidents coming before him, they haven’t counted the transition period, even as he wasn’t elected; he was handpicked and selected by the kingmakers in 2001. To make sure the army and population got a popular figure. Certainly Kabila got the two terms after the transition. Now he is in the wind and keeping the people in shackles, because he is not caring about legal proposition of his affairs.

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The problem now, the dialogue with the opposition has been dragged out and even the CENCO, the religious forum hasn’t created a space where the general election has taken place, even as the United Kingdom doling out fortunes for the election, but nothing happens. We could all wonder if Edem Kodjo really wanted the regime under Kabila to change or if the whole thing was fraud?

The silence, the little sanctions from the European Union and United States happen in December, as the republic couldn’t feel a fret from the mediocre actions of the international community, as the Rwandan and Ugandan guerrillas are still inside the republic, together with the soft borders that has even had MONUSCO helped the SLPM-IO to Khartoum in Sudan after the rebellion in July 2016. The South Sudanese rebels fled after skirmishes in the Juba. After that the UN peacekeepers helped the rebels as they fled again to safety in Sudan.

So when Kabila now is still in power, will continue to stay in power and hold on to power without any consideration of the Congolese people and their justice. The Kabila clan doesn’t own the country, they we’re supposed to run it on their behalf. Now Joseph Kabila acts like he owns them and they owns him a favour, which isn’t true.

#Telema or #Yelema have been youth and civil activists who work for development and change as of getting a new president in the Republic. They have been stopped by tear-gas, violence and being detained. The reason is that Kabila wants to safe on the throne.

“As announced, the discussions have failed. Now, Congolese people, the ball is in your camp! Now arrived at the end of our efforts” – Felix Tshisekendi.

As Tshisekendi announce this today on Twitter shows the world how Kabila has silenced the opposition, as Moise Katumbi has been under monitoring by the authorities, even detained in Lubumbashi and had to flee for South Africa for health check after Kabila’s security organization throws tear-gas and brutalized supporters as well as Katumbi himself.

It hasn’t been the will of the Kabila to leave power or even try to fix the dialogue between the parties; he has the army and the businesses in his pocket. Kabila are now taking the Congolese citizens as hostage as he doesn’t deliver an election or a succession to himself as he stays in power. The Congolese authorities are now and have been in the hands of Kabila. Certainly Kabila proves that he never wanted to deliver democratic change.

The militarized leadership of the past are still in the midst of the leadership of Kabila, nothing different to ones of the Mobutu dictatorship or of the puppet-regime of Laurent Kabila. The Military, the Police and Special Forces as much as the Royal Guards are still following orders from above high. They are doing it now as they are guarding the cities like Goma, Kinshasa and others.

Kabila even warned of major violence if he had to stepdown, because he will use the military to silence the opposition and the citizens. Therefore the violence will come as a result of Kabila using force to quell the people into his will. The non-acts of the President are elementary of the will of keeping power.

President Kabila will not let go, not letting go silent and seemingly have had no plan of leaving office, as the keys, the guns and ammunition is in his hands. The army and police together with the banning of social media are elements of taking total control and not letting go. Just like President Museveni, President Nkurunziza and President Kagame. Kabila wants to copy them, but without the legal fuzz of Burundi and without Museveni’s bickering and changes of laws over 3 decades. As Kabila doesn’t have a totalitarian control like Kagame in Rwanda.

Kabila now shows his cards without playing, that is way of playing, though the silence, the non-existing plans and the dodging the ordinary parts of the Parliament and amending laws or even the constitution to secure legality of the third official term. But also the non-existing election and campaigning, as the Kabila regime is holding on without taking in consideration of the citizens of the Congolese state.

We should hope he would step down to respect his own people, but the Congolese people aren’t respected, as they haven’t been by the authorities for so long time. Kabila follows the tradition of Mobutu who used the military and the support of United States to control the Republic.

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We know that the Third Republic is in the image of the Kabila and total control is because of him and the appointed men who he trusts. Kabila are now seeking to overstay and to make the citizens hostage. #Telema can address the deficiency and show the truth, but the citizens have to demonstrate and besiege the Parliament, make noise on the radio and also protect the constitution.

Third Republic cannot be at the current, the Democratic Republic of Congo doesn’t owe anything to Kabila and his clan. They have eaten for a long while and let many people starve, therefore the clan fears that the citizens will take that away. The Congolese people deserve a democratic, transparent and fiscal responsible government who cares for the citizens and not only the riches of Kabila and his elite.

Kabila are now 15 years in and not leaving, we can hope civil disobedience and #Telema has power to make a difference, which the civil activists in LUCHA can change, the powers. What is more important is that citizen’s act against Kabila and the Congolese authorities, because the citizen deserves a government who represent them.

Now the Kabila government have shackled the society and taken the people for granted. Prepare that the Rassamblement, the Telema and all the other efforts will end up with more people in prison, more death as the soldiers will kill demonstrators and the army will besiege the cities. Peace.

Reference:

The Economist – ‘Kabila is dead, long live Kabila’ (25.01.2001) link: http://www.economist.com/node/486713

[Wish I had a bigger Microphone] The World right now is too Bloody…

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There aren’t only murders and mysteries on the telly, its real life and not fiction as the Syrian civil war continues rapidly without whomever force and whomever ally around Aleppo or other check-points where the Presidents force, rebels or ISIS are shooting. The bullets don’t have names, but the men and woman on the side-line and at the battle who dies does; the men and woman who loses their life for themselves or a Nobel-cause.

As much as there are forces battling inside the Iraq nation as Government Forces are attacking together with American soldiers ISIS stronghold around Mosul. There are continued fighting inside of Afghanistan. Still battles between civilians and the Indian Army inside the Kashmir state that has issues there and on the Pakistan side of Kashmir. The long battle for freedom or justice, as the Kurds are battling for in Syria, Turkey and in Iraq; being the minority in the middle of the civil war in Syria and Iraq.

That is just some places, as the deteriorating state of affairs are attacking all sort of freedoms inside Ethiopia, as the army and Aghazi squad are killing and harassing the people’s in Amhara and Oromia states. Together with the arrests of bloggers, silencing media outlets, and detaining demonstrators, burning the homes of people and inflicting violence on the citizens. This state of emergency is used as a useful tool to oppress, silence and make sure the violence and killings doesn’t get out; while the Central Government works to find reasons and solutions to ways of total control of minds and bodies in the states of demonstrations against the Addis Ababa regime.

In Burundi the central government are using the Police and army, together with the Imbonerakure that are detaining, harassing, killing and torturing civilians, silencing the opposition and the ones not loyal to the  President Pierre Nkurunziza narrative of keeping power by any means. The Burundian Government has claimed that the Rwandan Government has created armies and guerrillas that wished for a coup d’état against the Nkurunziza regime. Therefore the fleeing civilians are in the wind as the Rwandan government has been wonder for a spell, if they would banish the Burundian refugees a place in the country.

FARDC Beni May 2016

While in the Democratic Republic of Congo, several guerrillas are still running wild, burning and killing villagers in the States of North and South Kivu, Katanga and so on. Where the foreign based groups that have been started in Rwanda and Uganda, continues to battle the locals for the valuable minerals; as even today a former M23 Commander Sultani Makenga who been in Uganda has crossed with a militarized group, surely from Kisoro as before to cause more havoc in the Kivu’s. The ADF-NALU, Mayi-Mayi and others doesn’t create enough death and crimes against humanity already, as the MONUSCO and FARDC haven’t the ability or will to silence them.

In South Sudan, the internal battle that started in July 2016, the resurgence of skirmishes between the SPLA/M and the SPLM/A-IO who are the TGNU and the Opposition party, which is the armies for President Salva Kiir and his former First Vice-President Riek Machar. That has since July battled each other with forces, in Western Bahr El Ghazal State, Equatoria State and Upper Nile State. There been fighting between the two in other states, but just show how big and powerful the forces are. The South Sudanese civilians are the losers who flees to Ethiopia, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, even in Congo because the Opposition we’re there has been asked to leave to other destinations. Therefore the internal power-struggle those fear of genocide, as still creating implications inside other nations.

In Somalia the Al-Shabab, the different state continues to have infighting together with the AMISOM mission. The running battles for land between Galdumug Interim Administration and the Puntland Government inside the Federal Republic of Somalia. Doesn’t really help for a peaceful session and making dialogue in the war-torn nation where Piracy and Khat been the ways of securing funds for ammunition and AKs, not for building a state and security.

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Eritrea is closed and the continuation of the flow of refugees, as the internal controlling central government that forces the freedoms and liberties, as the men and woman does what they can to even enter Ethiopia, where they are badly treated. Eritrean reports are staggering as they are even supporting internal guerrillas in Ethiopia and Djibouti to unsettle their neighbours.

There are wars and running battles between government forces and rebels in Central African Republic, Mali, Mozambique and so on. This is happening in silence and without little flash, even as the ones are guerrillas like Boko Haram that are going in between Nigeria and Cameroon, to stop the Government from functioning and spreading fear of locals.

What is worrying how these actions continues, and how there are other I could mention, the issues in Libya, the Algerian complex and the Western Sahara colony of the Kingdom of Morocco.

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The death that dies in silence, in the midst of homes, villages where their families have been living for decades, while big-men fight like two elephants; the grass get hurt, but the big-men be fine. The same is with all of these civil wars, the civilians are dying, the societies are deteriorating, the central government are controlled by little amount of people instead of procedure and rule of law.

The worry is how it becomes pro-longed, how the innocent dies and the power-hungry survive and the lucky get refugee somewhere else in uncertainty, like for how long can they stay, as been seen with the Kenyan Government work to get rid of Somali refugees in Dadaab Refugee camp during this calendar year, while the Somalian Federation if far from peaceful. Even as the Ethiopian troops has went home again surely to use their knowledge to chop heads in Amhara and Oromia. That is what they do now, they just doesn’t want people to know about it.

We shouldn’t allow this actions to happen, this killings, this violence and the silence of freedom, liberty and justice to our fellow peers, we should act upon it, question our power-to-be and the men who rules over these armies, the ones creating the havoc and the ones who are behind the crimes against humanity. Those are the ones that earning money on the wars and the ones that doesn’t want the words on the acts; those are the worst ones in it all as they are accomplices to destruction of lives and societies as we speak. Peace.

Bill Clinton’s remarks honoring genocide survivors in Kigali, Rwanda March 25, 1998

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Thank you, Mr. President. First, let me thank you, Mr. President, and Vice President Kagame, and your wives for making Hillary and me and our delegation feel so welcome. I’d also like to thank the young students who met us and the musicians, the dancers who were outside. I thank especially the survivors of the genocide and those who are working to rebuild your country for spending a little time with us before we came in here.

I have a great delegation of Americans with me, leaders of our Government, leaders of our Congress, distinguished American citizens. We’re all very grateful to be here. We thank the diplomatic corps for being here, and the members of the Rwandan Government, and especially the citizens.

I have come today to pay the respects of my Nation to all who suffered and all who perished in the Rwandan genocide. It is my hope that through this trip, in every corner of the world today and tomorrow, their story will be told; that 4 years ago in this beautiful, green, lovely land, a clear and conscious decision was made by those then in power that the peoples of this country would not live side by side in peace. During the 90 days that began on April 6, in 1994, Rwanda experienced the most extensive slaughter in this blood-filled century we are about to leave – families murdered in their homes, people hunted down as they fled by soldiers and militia, through farmland and woods as if they were animals.

From Kibuye in the west to Kibungo in the east, people gathered seeking refuge in churches by the thousands, in hospitals, in schools. And when they were found, the old and the sick, the women and children alike, they were killed – killed because their identity card said they were

Tutsi or because they had a Tutsi parent or because someone thought they looked like a Tutsi or slain, like thousands of Hutus, because they protected Tutsis or would not countenance a policy that sought to wipe out people who just the day before, and for years before, had been their friends and neighbors.

The Government-led effort to exterminate Rwanda’s Tutsi and moderate Hutus, as you know better than me, took at last a million lives. Scholars of these sorts of events say that the killers, armed mostly with machetes and clubs, nonetheless did their work 5 times as fast as the mechanized gas chambers used by the Nazis.

It is important that the world know that these killings were not spontaneous or accidental. It is important that the world hear what your. President just said: They were most certainly not the result of ancient tribal struggles. Indeed, these people had lived together for centuries before the events the President described began to unfold. These events grew from a policy aimed at the systematic destruction of a people. The ground for violence was carefully prepared, the airwaves poisoned with hate, casting the Tutsis as scapegoats for the problems of Rwanda, denying their humanity. All of this was done, clearly, to make it easy for otherwise reluctant people to participate in wholesale slaughter.

Lists of victims, name by name, were actually drawn up in advance. Today, the images of all that, haunt us all: the dead choking the Kigara River, floating to Lake Victoria. In their fate, we are reminded of the capacity for people everywhere, not just in Rwanda, and certainly not just in Africa but the capacity for people everywhere, to slip into pure evil. We cannot abolish that capacity, but we must never accept it. And we know it can be overcome.

The international community, together with nations in Africa, must bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy, as well. We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe havens for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide. We cannot change the past, but we can and must do everything in our power to help you build a future without fear and full of hope.

We owe to those who died and to those who survived who loved them, our every effort to increase our vigilance and strengthen our stand against those who would commit such atrocities in the future, here or elsewhere. Indeed, we owe to all the peoples of the world who are at risk because each bloodletting hastens the next as the value of human life is degraded and violence becomes tolerated, the unimaginable becomes more conceivable – we owe to all the people in the world our best efforts to organize ourselves so that we can maximize the chances of preventing these events. And where they cannot be prevented, we can move more quickly to minimize the horror.

So let us challenge ourselves to build a world in which no branch of humanity, because of national, racial, ethnic, or religious origin, is again threatened with destruction because of those characteristics of which people should rightly be proud. Let us work together as a community of civilized nations to strengthen our ability to prevent and, if necessary, to stop genocide.

To that end, I am directing my administration to improve, with the international community, our system for identifying and spotlighting nations in danger of genocidal violence, so that we can assure worldwide awareness of impending threats. It may seem strange to you here, especially the many of you who lost members of your family, but all over the word there were people like me sitting in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully appreciate the depth and the speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror.

We have seen, too – and I want to say again – that genocide can occur anywhere. It is not an African phenomenon and must never be viewed as such. We have seen it in industrialized Europe; we have seen it in Asia. We must have global vigilance. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence.

Secondly, we must, as an international community, have the ability to act when genocide threatens. We are working to create that capacity here in the Great Lakes region, where the memory is still fresh. This afternoon in Entebbe leaders from central and eastern Africa will meet with me to launch an effort to build a coalition to prevent genocide in this region. I thank the leaders who have stepped forward to make this commitment. We hope the effort can be a model for all the world, because our sacred task is to work to banish this greatest crime against humanity.

Events here show how urgent the work is. In the northwest part of your country, attacks by those responsible for the slaughter in 1994 continue today. We must work as partners with Rwanda to end this violence and allow your people to go on rebuilding your lives and your nation.

Third, we must work now to remedy the consequences of genocide. The United States has provided assistance to Rwanda to settle the uprooted and restart its economy, but we must do more. I am pleased that America will become the first nation to contribute to the new Genocide Survivors Fund. We will contribute this year $2 million, continue our support in the years to come, and urge other nations to do the same, so that survivors and their communities can find the care they need and the help they must have.

Mr. President, to you, and to you, Mr. Vice President, you have shown great vision in your efforts to create a single nation in which all citizens can live freely and securely. As you pointed out, Rwanda was a single nation before the European powers met in Berlin to carve up Africa. America stands with you, and will continue helping the people of Rwanda to rebuild their lives and society.

You spoke passionately this morning in our private meeting about the need for grassroots efforts, for the development projects which are bridging divisions and clearing a path to a better future. We will join with you to strengthen democratic institutions, to broaden participation, to give all Rwandans a greater voice in their own governance. The challenges you face are great, but your commitment to lasting reconciliation and inclusion is firm.

Fourth, to help ensure that those who survived, in the generations to come, never again suffer genocidal violence, nothing is more vital than establishing the rule of law. There can be no place in Rwanda that lasts without a justice system that is recognized as such.

We applaud the efforts of the Rwandan Government to strengthen civilian and military justice systems. I am pleased that our Great Lakes Justice Initiative will invest $30 million to help create throughout the region judicial systems that are impartial, credible, and effective. In Rwanda these funds will help to support courts, prosecutors, and police, military justice, and cooperation at the local level.

We will also continue to pursue justice through our strong backing for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The United States is the largest contributor to this tribunal. We are frustrated, as you are, by the delays in the tribunal’s work. As we know, we must do better. Now that administrative improvements have begun, however, the tribunal should expedite cases through group trials and fulfill its historic mission.

We are prepared to help, among other things, with witness relocation, so that those who still fear can speak the truth in safety. And we will support the war crimes tribunal for as long as it is needed to do its work, until the truth is clear and justice is rendered.

Fifth, we must make it clear to all those who would commit such acts in the future that they too must answer for their acts, and they will. In Rwanda, we must hold accountable all those who may abuse human rights, whether insurgents or soldiers. Internationally, as we meet here, talks are underway at the United Nations to establish a permanent international criminal court. Rwanda and the difficulties we have had with this special tribunal underscores the need for such a court. And the United States will work to see that it is created.

I know that in the face of all you have endured, optimism cannot come easily to any of you. Yet I have just spoken, as I said, with several Rwandans who survived the atrocities, and just listening to them gave me reason for hope. You see countless stories of courage around you every day as you go about your business here, men and women who survived and go on, children who recover the light in their eyes remind us that at the dawn of a new millennium there is only one crucial division among the peoples of the Earth. And believe me, after over 5 years of dealing with these problems, I know it is not the divisions between Hutu and Tutsi or Serb or Croatian; and Muslim and Bosnian or Arab and Jew; or Catholic and Protestant in Ireland, or black and white. It is really the line between those who embrace the common humanity we all share and those who reject it.

It is the line between those who find meaning in life through respect and cooperation and who, therefore, embrace someone to look down on, someone to trample, someone to punish and, therefore, embrace war. It is the line between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past. It is the line between those who give up their resentment and those who believe they will absolutely die if they have to release one bit grievance. It is the line between those who confront every day with a clenched fist and those who confront every day with an open hand. That is the only line that really counts when all is said and done.

To those who believe that God made each of us in His own image, how could we choose the darker road? When you look at those children who greeted us as we got off that plane today, how could anyone say they did not want those children to have a chance to have their own children, to experience the joy of another morning sunrise, to learn the normal lessons of life, to give something back to their people? When you strip it all away, whether we’re talking about Rwanda or some other distant troubled spot, the world is divided according to how people believe they draw meaning from life.

And so I say to you, though the road is hard and uncertain and there are many difficulties ahead, and like every other person who wishes to help, I doubltless will not be able to do everything I would like to do, there are things we can do. And if we set about the business of doing them together, you can overcome the awful burden that you have endured. You can put a smile on the face of every child in this country, and you can make people once again believe that they should live as people were living who were singing to us and dancing for us today. That’s what we have to believe. That is what I came here to say. And that is what I wish for you.

Thank you, and God bless you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. at Kigali Airport. In his remarks, he referred to President Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda and his wife, Sarafina, and Vice President Paul Kagame and his wife, Janet. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.

COPYRIGHT 1998 U.S. Government Printing Office

COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

Opinion: My 2 Cents on why the African Nations leave the ICC or want to!

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“A founding signatory of the Rome Statute, on ICC: Yes we should be out of the ICC. ICC is not serious. It is partisan. There are so many people who should have been tried if they were serious. The way to go is to have our own African Criminal Court. Trying to work with ICC was a mistake” – President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni [at the Second #UGDebate on the 13th February 2016]

As Washington is shocked by the recent events, that the International Criminal Court which is stationed in The Hague and the Netherlands; where they ironically are closing down prisons because of lacks of criminals. The International Community and the African Nations are triggering the Article 127 of the Rome Statute of 1997 to Withdraw from the honourable justice chambers of this so-called earth. There is certain reflections and vivid reasons for why this is happing. And I will try to sort it out, the Westerns and Europeans, even some Americans might be offend, but still carry it and take it for what it is.

“In June 2009, Comoros, Djibouti, and Senegal called on African States Parties to withdraw en mass from the Statute in protest against allegations that the ICC was targeting Africans. This declaration was specifically in reference to Sudanese Pres. Omar al-Bashir’s indictment” (Mbaku, Weber State University).

The ICC is not a pre-historic relic of the European Colonial past, still the actions of is of a seemingly imperialistic affair where the smaller newer nations and less resourceful have been targeted at much higher extent than the ones of more sophisticated countries who are not former colonialized. That is a fact and not NRM fiction. Just a certainty that the further hurt the African sovereign nations that they even has Executives under the microscope for their actions while Tony Blair and George W. Bush walks around like Kings on this earth. It’s not like the powers to be, touches the big-men from there, but around the corner they get taken away quicker than ice-cream on a hot-summer-day.

Not that the men and woman who has been questioned and been under investigations has been involved in crimes and activity against the humanity. They have and many using child-soldiers, used ethnicity to win power and even some killings to the level of genocide.

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“Article 127

Withdrawal

  1. A State Party may, by written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the

United Nations, withdraw from this Statute. The withdrawal shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification, unless the notification specifies a later date.

  1. A State shall not be discharged, by reason of its withdrawal, from the obligations arising from this Statute while it was a Party to the Statute, including any financial obligations which may have accrued. Its withdrawal shall not affect any cooperation with the Court in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings in relation to which the withdrawing State had a duty to cooperate and which were commenced prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective, nor shall it prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective” (ICC, P: 74, 2011).

Burundi withdraws:

“President Pierre Nkurunziza, who critics accuse of human rights abuses, signed a decree late on Tuesday that paves the way for his east African nation’s departure from the court. His decision comes at time when the ICC is conducting a preliminary investigation into politically motivated violence in Burundi in which several hundred people died” (Alionby, 2016).

South Africa withdraws:

“Under the Rome Statute, the 2002 treaty that established the court, countries are obligated to arrest anyone sought by the tribunal. “Legal uncertainty” around the statute blocks South Africa from resolving conflicts through dialogue, including inviting adversaries for visits, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said, and handing over a foreign leader to the court would have amounted to an infringement of South Africa’s sovereignty” (…) “The Rome Statute “is in conflict and inconsistent with” South Africa’s law giving sitting leaders diplomatic immunity, Mr. Masutha said at a news conference on Friday. The question is before the country’s high court” (…) “Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane this week formally notified the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, of South Africa’s intention to withdraw from the international court. Leaving the body would take about a year, during which South Africa would still have to cooperate with the court’s proceedings”  (Chan & Marlise, 2016).

This is happening while the ICC has asked for Nations who has signed up for the Rome Statute and the ICC. This has been South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. The Non-compliance documents of Djibouti and Uganda has even come in 11th July 2016. The Arrest Warrant on President Omar Al-Bashir we’re set on 4th March 2009. There has gone 7 years has passed and his still roaming around with countries willingly delivering “non-compliance” documentations to the ICC for their non-cooperation towards them.

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There are more running cases on the continent… some of them are:

The ICC Prosecutor has opened cases against 26 individuals in connection with five African countries. Twenty-five of these remain open; the 26th, against Darfur rebel leader Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, was dismissed by judges, though the prosecutor may attempt to submit new evidence in an attempt to re-open it. The cases stem from investigations into violence in Libya, Kenya’s post-election unrest in 2007-2008, rebellion and counter-insurgency in the Darfur region of Sudan, the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency in central Africa, civil conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and a 2002-2003 conflict in the Central African Republic. The Prosecutor is also examining 2010-2011 violence in Côte d’Ivoire, a 2009 military crackdown on opposition supporters in Guinea, and inter-communal violence in central Nigeria, but has not opened formal investigations or opened cases with regard to these situations. Uganda, DRC, CAR, Kenya, Nigeria, and Guinea are states parties to the ICC. Sudan, Libya, and Côte d’Ivoire are not. ICC jurisdiction in Sudan and Libya stems from U.N. Security Council actions, while jurisdiction in Côte d’Ivoire was granted by virtue of a declaration submitted by the Ivorian Government on October 1, 2003, which accepted the jurisdiction of the Court as of September 19, 2002.25 Five suspects—four Congolese nationals and one Rwandan—are currently in ICC custody. The ICC Prosecutor has sought summonses, rather than arrest warrants, in connection with attempted prosecutions of Darfur rebel commanders and of Kenyan suspects. The Prosecutor has not secured any convictions to date” (Congressional Reaserch Service, 2011).

The Kenyan case we’re like the Prosecutor said wasn’t done, but for now there wasn’t able to follow through on evidence and make a case worth living. That is me translating the jurors lingo. The IGAD communique on the 6th April 2016: “The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) joins Kenyans of all walks of life to rejoice the collapse of cases against the Deputy President, H.E. William Samoei Ruto and his co-accused, radio journalist, Joshua Arap Sang at the International Criminal Court in The Hague yesterday” (…) “It would be recalled that IGAD had condemned the way the ICC had handled the Kenyan cases from the beginning. During a press conference held in Nairobi on 22nd March 2011, Amb Mahboub stated clearly IGAD’s position on the deferral request of the ICC cases by Kenya pointing out that the trials would “weaken the country and weaken the region” (IGAD, 06.04.2016).

The Kenyan government President Kenyatta the day before on the 5th April 2016:

“Earlier today, Trial Chamber V (a) of the International Criminal Court acquitted my Deputy President, Honourable William Ruto, and Mr. Joshua Arap Sang. I welcome the aforementioned decision, which reaffirms my strong conviction from the beginning about the innocence of my Deputy President. From the start of this case, I have believed that this case was ill-conceived and never grounded on the proper examination of our experience of 2007/2008 as a nation” (…) “Each and every Kenyan was touched by the tragedy that befell our nation in 2007-2008. Each and every victim of this unfortunate happening matters. Not one of them has been forgotten. Their suffering demanded of us as leadership to seek reconciliation. My Deputy and I campaigned and were elected on a platform to unite and reconcile our motherland. When you entrusted the leadership of the country to our administration, you made us responsible for the healing and reconciliation of our people” (Kenyatta, Uhuru – ‘H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta Statement on ICC verdict on the Ruto and Sang Case’ 05.04.2016).

So with this in mind, the Kenyan Government have been thoroughly investigated by the ICC recently over time since the ICC charged people close connected to the current leadership and government. They even at some point had a case against the Kenyan President Kenyatta, but they let it slide because they got no witness angle on him. The Jubilee has fought back and has done their duty towards Courts. Still the wound of charges, the appearance and the trial has hurt.

The newest ICC cases into Africa is the post-election violence where even the Parliament we’re put on fire.  “In the letter of referral to the ICC signed by Gabon’s Justice Minister Denise Mekamne Edzidzie, the government accuses Ping and his supporters of incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity” (…) “It highlights a speech which Ping gave during his electoral campaign, in which he allegedly called on his supporters to “get rid of the cockroaches.” (…) “These words were an incitement to commit the crime of genocide,” the letter says” (France24, 2016). The Gabonese Authorities tries to pin it on the Opposition as the election rigging made the public mad and not just the supporters of Jean Ping. If the ICC uses this opportunity not to pin it on themselves as the Second Generation for life President Bongo!

African Union Letter to the ICC on the 29th January 2014:

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So the long-stemming grievances are now coming into effect. The feeling of being targets while others walk scotch-free. The inaccurate acts of being the main ones, even as the violence, genocides and crimes against humanity happen; the leaders don’t want a hanging gallows over their heads. Still, the acts of many current Presidents and their Regimes are using armies like Ethiopia against civilians. If they weren’t a strong ally of the United States, they would have a cherry to pick at the courts. President Museveni fears for place, the same should President Mugabe that never been for the Gukurahundi massacres we’re Zimbabwean Republican Police killed 20,000 people. These are men who fear the ICC and would do what they can to not be touched by their current sins and the ones of old.

Sudan, the country of President Omar Al-Bashir has said this in the recent our about the matter:

“This wise decision is established by the Republic of Burundi on objective grounds that the so-called International Criminal Court has become a tool of pressure and instability in the under-development countries. Further, the opening of investigations against some leaders is a result of pressures exercised by the western force,” the statement cited by the Sudan Tribune said” (Akwei, 2016).

So the country who has the Executive under charges, the other one of late has been forces away from power, but still men who was in charge of their respectable nations President Laurent Gbagbo who have now recently been in trial at ICC:

“On Thursday, Mr. Gbagbo, the former president of Ivory Coast, will go on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, facing four counts of crimes against humanity stemming from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election. He was narrowly defeated in a runoff, but he insisted that he had won and refused to cede power, leading to months of turmoil and the deaths of more than 3,000 people before his arrest in April 2011” (…) “The trial of Mr. Gbagbo is an important challenge for the International Criminal Court. He is the first former president to reach trial at the tribunal, which has been in operation for a decade with a mandate to deal with war crimes and genocide. Also on trial with him will be Charles Blé Goudé, one of Mr. Gbagbo’s militia leaders in the 2011 upheaval, which followed more than a decade of ethnic political violence in Ivory Coast” (Rothschild, 2016).

So with this in mind, he isn’t a guerrilla fighting with child-soldiers like the ones charged by the ICC when coming to Lord Resistance Army and others who has been charged for violations against humanity in the ICC. These being Bosco the Terminator from the Democratic Republic of Congo, also that the former Vice President of Pierre Bemba of the MLC has been charged for his crimes, while his President Joseph Kabila walks free for his sins. This proves the neglect and the handpicked cases of the ICC. Reasons why the African Union and others are claiming so, partly righteous, partly wrong! The key to this, if the ICC want to be serious as an International legal institution… it needs cases and probes into states in Europe, America and Asia; not only War-Lords in Africa. That is just Neo-Colonialism and proves the questionable attributes to the character of the laws and big-man politics of the world. Peace.

Reference:

Akwei, Ismail – ‘Sudan urges mass African withdrawal from the ICC’ (21.10.2016) link: http://www.africanews.com/2016/10/21/sudan-urges-mass-african-withdrawal-from-the-icc/

Alionby, John – ‘Burundi becomes first nation to quit International Criminal Court’ (19.10.2016) link: https://www.ft.com/content/ce408588-95bf-11e6-a1dc-bdf38d484582

Chan, Sewell & Simons, Marlise – ‘South Africa to Withdraw From International Criminal Court’ (21.10.2016) link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/world/africa/south-africa-international-criminal-court.html?_r=0

Congressional Research Service – ‘International Criminal Court Cases in Africa: Status and Policy Issues’ (22.07.2011) link: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34665.pdf

France24 – ‘ICC opens preliminary probe into Gabon unrest’ (29.09.2016) link: http://www.france24.com/en/20160929-icc-opens-preliminary-probe-situation-gabon

Mbaku, John Mukum – ‘Africa’s Case Against the ICC’, Weber State University

 

Rothschild, Saskia de – ‘Trial of Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo Will Test International Criminal Court’ (27.01.2016) link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/world/africa/ivory-coast-laurent-gbagbo-hague-trial.html

 

International Criminal Court – Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (17.07.1998 in force on 01.07.2002) Copyrighted 2011

AU condoles with Tanzania following Earthquake (13.09.2016)

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The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma sends a message of condolence to the Government and people of Tanzania following Saturday’s earthquake.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, September 13, 2016 -The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma sends a message of condolence to the Government and people of Tanzania following Saturday’s earthquake that hit the North – Western part of Tanzania. The earthquake is reported to have claimed 16 lives and injured over 200 people.

“On behalf of the African Union, the AU Commission and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to extend my heartfelt condolences to the Government and the people of Tanzania, and particularly to the families of those that lost their loved ones,” she said.

The AU Commission Chairperson further wishes the injured victims a quick recovery and expressed the AU’s solidarity with the victims and the people of Tanzania in these tragic circumstances.

H.E. Benjamin Mpaka Statement at the Extra-Ordinary EAC Heads of State Summit recently (Earlier in September 2016)

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