BRUSSELS, Sept 25, 2012 (AFP) – The European Union is suspending new aid to Rwanda following allegations that the country is backing rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an EU spokesman said Tuesday.
“The EU is not interrupting ongoing projects, which are there to help the poor,” said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
“But (it) is delaying decisions on additional budget support in the pipeline pending clarification of Rwanda’s role and its constructive engagement in search of solutions.”
The decision follows a report by experts of the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee alleging Rwandan support for M23 rebels, who launched an uprising in April. The DR Congo government also accuses its neighbour of involvement.
Rwanda however has denied the charge and in turn accuses Kinshasa of backing a group of Hutu rebels who also operate in eastern DR Congo.
The M23 is led by Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and was formed by former fighters in an ethnic Tutsi rebel group integrated into the Congolese military in a 2009 peace deal.
Nearly half a million civilians have been displaced by the new conflict and there is growing pressure for progress to be made at a UN summit on the crisis to be held in New York on September 27.
Mann said Ashton had told Rwanda in talks this month “that we expect Rwanda to act constructively — in words and actions — for a lasting peace solution in the eastern DRC.”
EU President Herman Van Rompuy will represent the 27-nation bloc at talks on the crisis in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The High Court in Kigali has just adjourned to Friday 19 October 2012, 11:00, the political verdict of the opposition leader, Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, incarcerated since 14 October 2010 on politically motivated charges. The Court is waiting for the Supreme court ruling on a constitutional review motion.
The prosecution has asked for a life sentence in this case. Most of the presidents of opposition parties in Rwanda are in maximum security prisons.
3 days ago, we informed about the disappearance of the first vice president of PS Imberakuri, Mr. Alexis Bakunzibake. There are news that the kidnappers have dumped him alive in a bush in Kabare district (Uganda). We are still investigating this information.
We welcome the return yesterday from exile of Mr. Frank Habineza, leader of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda. He left after the assassination of his first Vice President, the late André Kagwa Rwisereka in July 2010, a month before the presidential election. The demanded independent investigation never happened.
Rwanda: Ingabire political verdict postponed to 19 October 2012.
Amakuru ya nyuma aravuga ko umuyobi w’ishya “Green Party” ryo mu Rwanda Franck Habineza ejo azaba yasesekaye i Kigali nyuma y’imyaka ibiri. Yatanagarije BBC ko agiye gukora politiki mu Rwanda.
Aho yari yarahuze uwari umwungirije Andreya Kagwa Rwisereka bamaje kumwica bamuciye umutwe. Umunyamakuru wa BBC, Ally Mugenzi yamubajije ariko undi arya iminwa. N’umuntu ubeshya. Birababaje. Azagire urugendo ruhire.
Aka ya mbwa yabonye shebuja yihahuye, nubwo jye ntari imbwa nkaba nta n’icyo mpfana na Habineza ureste ko twese turi abanyarwanda, ndamubwiye nti: abafite aho bajya baragenda.
Umusaza w’inararibonye abanyarwanda bubaha, Tribert Rujugiro yigeze kubwira abanyeshuli bo muri Kaminuza muri Australia aho yatangaga ikiganiro cyerekeranye n’uburyo Afurika yakoresha ikihaza, bamubajije igituma atera imbere, arabasubiza, ati: ” Nizera buri muntu wese kugeza anyeretse ko atagikwiriye ikizereye namugiriye”.
Abwirwa benshi akumva beneyo. Kandi rero, muri Suede nubwo haba heza hate, nta gihugu cyaruta u Rwanda.
Habineza Frank yari yarahunze amahoro
Senate president’s son stabbed in Belgium
Senate president’s son stabbed in Belgium
Rwandans during a peaceful demonstration against attacks by Congolese nationals in Brussels on August 18. The New Times / Courtesy.
A son to Senate president Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo was on Saturday stabbed in the stomach in Brussels as he was in transit back to school in the US.
Roger Ntawukuriryayo, a university student, left Rwanda last Thursday after a two month holiday before making a stopover in Brussels on Saturday to pick some documents that he needed, according to his family.
Reports indicate that Roger, in his early 20s, was ambushed by a gang of about eight black men, in the company of two Rwandans and one Congolese friend.
He was stabbed in the abdomen and later rushed to a hospital where he was admitted in the intensive care unit.
“He is out of the intensive care, I managed to talk to him on phone today but he sounded very weak,” his father, Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, told The New Times last evening. He was at the Kigali International Airport shortly before boarding a Brussels bound plane to go and see his son.
No suspects have been arrested yet but it is believed that those who attacked Roger are linked to a ring of Congolese gangs, who have been accused of carrying out violent attacks on Rwandans living in Brussels in recent months.
The attack came weeks after another Rwandan, Jules Mwiseneza, 22, was attacked by a Congolese mob at Merode subway station in Brussels, and was later admitted in hospital with a fractured jaw.
Mwiseneza is a son to Charles Uyisenga, once an employee of the Rwanda’s Embassy in Belgium, who now works with the National Electoral Commission in Rwanda.
The attacks came in the wake of eruption of fighting in eastern Congo between government troops and the M23 rebels, who mutinied in April following the collapse of a 2009 peace deal under which they had been integrated into the army.
Kinshasa has accused Kigali of backing the rebels but the latter has denied the allegations.
Speaking in Kigali on Sunday, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Didier Reynders, said Brussels was aware of the attacks targeting Rwandans, saying they would ensure justice for the victims. “We have organised all possible activities for proper prosecution. It is unacceptable – we have the police, the logistics, we will do whatever it takes,” Reynders told journalists at the end of a two-day visit to Rwanda.
The association of the Rwandan Diaspora in Belgium petitioned the authorities over the attacks, which are supposedly linked to allegations of Rwanda’s involvement with the DRC conflict. On August 18, the group staged a peaceful protest against the attacks in Brussels.
There have also been reports of targetted attacks and torture against Rwandans in DRC in recent months.
Rwanda: Kagame araregwa kuri ICC
Rwanda: abanyarwanda n’abanyeCongo barasaba ko Prezida w’u Rwnda Paul Kagame yakurikiranywa kubera ibyahaba aregwa kuba yarakoreye muri Kongo. Abantu barenga ijana bahuriye i La Haye, barigaragambya, kandi bashyikiriza ubucamanza inyandiko ikubiyeo ikirego. Cyarakiriwe.Zizasuzumwa. Muhabura iributsa ko ibihugu cyangwa se l’ONU aribyo bishobora gutanga ibirego. Congo niramuka ireze Kagame, ib intu niho byagira ireme. Urukiko rwa ICC rurakora iperereza ku mutwe wa M23 uvugwa ko ushyigikiwe na Leta y’u Rwanda.
Umuganda wo Kubaka u Rwanda
Abanyarwanda barasabwa gutanga umusanzu wo kugoboka ubukungu bw’igiuhugu bwifashe nabi kuva amahanga yatangira gukomatanyiriza ubutegetsi bwa Prezida Kagame. Aamakuru dukesha umunyamakuru wacu uri i Kabarongo, Felix Songa Mbele aratubwira ko abaturage batangiye gusabwa hafi 30% by’umushahara. Abahizni n’aborozi nibitegure kugurisha imirima n’amatungo yabo kugirango bitunge. Mbese abategetsi basahuye ibya mirenge bazatanga angahe?
Rwanda – Congo: Mutineers seize more towns in Democratic Republic of Congo
UN peacekeepers in North Kivu province, where the Congolese armed forces have been fighting a group of mutineers loyal to former rebel leader and indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda. Photograph: Junior D Kannah/AFP/Getty Images
Mutineers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have seized territory near the Rwandan border after an offensive against government troops, UN and government officials said on Friday.
The troubled province of North Kivu has been swept by fresh waves of violence since late March, after hundreds of former rebels defected from the army in support of the renegade general, Bosco Ntaganda.
The new fighting in mineral-rich North Kivu province will probably dampen hopes of any revival which had begun in the region following a lull in fighting after two decades of instability.
The UN estimates the fighting has forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes since April.
The mutiny risks dragging eastern Congo back into war and damaging fragile relations with neighbouring Rwanda, which has repeatedly denied allegations that the rebels – known as M23 – are receiving cross-border support.
This is the first time in recent weeks that the heavily outnumbered rebels have seized territory from government forces, who had been bombarding M23 positions with helicopter gunships and artillery.
“It looks as though [M23] have taken four or five villages and what I’ve heard is that the army is planning an offensive to take the positions back,” Alex Essome, a spokesman for the UN’s peacekeeping mission in provincial capital Goma told Reuters.
A spokesman for M23 said the group had inflicted heavy losses on government troops and seized large quantities of arms during fighting on Thursday, although this could not be independently verified.
Colonel Vianney Kazarama, who is leading the rebels in the area, said his group would consolidate their new positions and repel any counteroffensive. “If they attack us again, we’ll chase them off,” he said.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende said rebels had advanced a mile from their positions near Mbuzi but the army had seized other territory near M23 headquarters in Runyoni.
Mende also said the mutineers had deliberately cut water to the town of Bunagana and had attacked government positions using heavy weapons supplied from across the Rwandan border.
“We are waiting for a response [from Kigali] as to why they are reluctant to stop this support for the M23,” Mende said.
Rwanda has vigorously denied sending support across the border to the mutineers, who are former members of the Kigali backed CNDP armed group, which integrated into the Congolese armed forces following a 2009 peace deal.
The Congolese government has repeatedly said it is not prepared to negotiate with the rebels this time, but that situation could change if M23 is able to seize more territory and strengthen its bargaining power, said Fred Robarts, former head of the UN’s group of experts panel in Congo.
“Unless they’re negotiating from a similar position of strength, the government won’t be prepared to concede so much ground,” he said
Muhabura 