Rwanda – Page 2 – praag.org

Rwanda on Security Council despite funding rebels

Rwanda – along with Australia, Argentina, Luxembourg and South Korea – won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, despite accusations by a U.N. panel that Rwanda’s defense minister commands a rebellion in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rwanda was unopposed in its bid for the African seat on the council that South Africa will vacate at the end of December, but still needed approval from two-thirds of the U.N. General Assembly members present to secure the two-year term. It won 148 votes in the 193-nation assembly.

Argentina also was elected to the council unopposed, winning 182 votes. Australia won a seat with 140 votes, Luxembourg with 131 votes and South Korea with 149.

Cambodia, Bhutan and Finland failed to secure two-year seats on the council.

There are five veto-holding permanent members of the council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – and 10 temporary members without veto power. Thursday’s election was for the term from Jan. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2014.

Rwanda’s government said that it would work with all members of the council to ensure “it is responsive and reflective of the views & aspirations of the developing world.”

“Rwanda’s troubling and tragic past allows it to bring to the UNSC a unique perspective on matters of war and peace,” it posted on a Twitter account created for its Security Council term (@RwandaUNSC).

Before the vote, the Congolese delegation told the General Assembly it objected to Rwanda joining the Security Council, accusing its neighbor of harboring “war criminals operating in the eastern part of the DRC and who are being sought by international justice.”

A confidential U.N. report, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, cast a shadow over Rwanda’s election to the 15-member U.N. power center – which has the ability to impose sanctions and authorize military interventions.

The Security Council’s “Group of Experts” said that Rwanda and Uganda – despite their strong denials – continued to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in the east of the country.

BLATANT VIOLATIONS?

Rwandan President Paul Kagame posted a declaration on Twitter welcoming the result: “No matter what haters say … justice&truth will prevail!!! Sometimes it just requires a bit of good fight for all that…!!!”

Speaking to reporters in New York, Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo complained about the timing of the leak of the experts report to Reuters two days ahead of the Security Council vote, but added that the leak was “predictable.”

She also sought to assure Congo that Rwanda would be a responsible council member. “I believe the Democratic Republic of Congo should see Rwanda on the Security Council as value addition,” she said after the vote.

Philippe Bolopion of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch criticized the inclusion of Rwanda on the Security Council

“After blatantly violating the Security Council’s arms embargo and undermining the work of the U.N. by propping up the abusive M23 rebels, Rwanda is rewarded with a seat at the table,” he said.

“Kigali is now in a position to try to shield its own officials implicated in abuses from U.N. sanctions, which is a flagrant conflict of interest,” Bolopion said in a statement. “Other Security Council members now have an even greater responsibility to hold Rwanda to account.”

Britain’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Philip Parham put a more positive spin on Rwanda’s election, saying: “We look forward to working with them on issues of international peace and security including the efforts to try to end the cycle of violence in the eastern DRC.”

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr described Australia’s election as a “big juicy, decisive win” that endorsed the country as a good global citizen.

“For us as a middle power a long way from the centers of clout in the world, the centers of power in the world, this is a lovely moment,” Carr told reporters after the vote.

South Africa, Colombia, Germany, India and Portugal are leaving the Security Council in December. Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Togo and Morocco will remain until the end of 2013.

The last time Rwanda was on the council was in 1994-95. That coincided with a genocide in which 800,000 people were killed when Rwanda’s Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing spree, massacring Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The Congolese government on Wednesday demanded targeted sanctions against Rwandan and Ugandan officials named in the U.N. experts report.

According to the U.N. experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo, Rwandan Defense Minister General James Kabarebe was ultimately commanding the rebellion and both Rwanda and Uganda were providing weapons, troops and military and political aid to the insurgency. – Reuters

WSJ trashes SA’s black government

The Wall Street Journal has published an article painting a bleak picture of South Africa’s economy, saying labour unrest has caused its economic growth to fall behind other African states.

“The unrest is exposing a stark reality – South Africa is falling behind, even in Africa,” read the Wall Street Journal article, published on its website on Friday.

The article said Rwanda, which had 800 000 people killed in the same year the ANC took power, had managed to achieve annual economic growth near 8% since 2004, more than double South Africa’s 3.7% growth rate during the same period.

It said that when Zambia held its democratic elections in 1991, it scrapped nationalisation, but South Africa “is debating nationalisation and other ways to intervene in the mining sector”.

Countrywide strikes coupled with unemployment and income disparity were posing a grave challenge to the ruling party, read the Wall Street Journal article.

Brazil’s economy had grown around the same pace as South Africa’s but its income disparity had diminished, it added. – Sapa

Exiled Rwandan general shot in South Africa

Days before an exiled Rwandan army general was shot and wounded in South Africa, two of the men charged in the shooting were plotting another attempt on his life, a witness testified Wednesday.

The Rwandan witness, a former roommate of one of suspects, was testifying in the trial of three Rwandans and three Tanzanians accused of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and weapons charges in the June 2010 shooting of Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa.

Rwandan authorities deny allegations of involvement that have been made by Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s opponents.

South African prosecutors won’t say whether they believe Kagame’s government was behind plots against Nyamwasa, who was once Rwanda’s military chief and has been in exile in South Africa since 2010.

Last year, Nyamwasa was among four men, all former top Kagame aides now in exile in South Africa and the United States, convicted in absentia by a Rwandan military court of disturbing public order, threatening state security, sectarianism and criminal conspiracy. The four have accused Kagame of crushing dissent and democracy after helping to end the 1994 genocide that left more than 500,000 people dead in Rwanda.

South African prosecutors have said key witnesses are under police protection in South Africa because they fear Rwanda’s government.

The possibility Kagame’s government has pursued his opponents abroad has been raised elsewhere.

In Sweden earlier this month, a person close to the Swedish government told The Associated Press a Rwandan diplomat had been expelled because he had engaged in “refugee espionage.” The person spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a sensitive diplomatic matter. Sweden is home to a small community of Rwandans, some of whom run blogs and online newspapers that are critical of Kagame.

Last year, police in Britain warned some Rwandans living there that their lives were in danger after the men criticized the government of the east African nation.

Testimony in the South African trial has hinted that shadowy figures were determined to kill Nyamwasa, trying more than once and offering large amounts of cash to draw in conspirators.

After Nyamwasa survived the shooting, prosecutors say the people pursuing him plotted to kill him in his South African hospital bed. But that case, which had been tried separately, was dropped earlier this month after a key witness changed his story and accused police of forcing him to make earlier statements.

Wednesday, Adriani Kamali testified in the shooting trial that he came to South Africa from Rwanda in 2002, when he met one of the suspects in Nyamwasa’s shooting, Amani Uriwani, another Rwandan. The two were roommates at the time of the shooting.

Kamali said that about two weeks before the shooting, Uriwani and another suspect, Hassan Mohamedi Nduli, introduced him to another Rwandan identified only as Vincent. Kamali said Vincent at first said he was recruiting a gang to break into the Johannesburg home of a man he said had taken money from his brother. Vincent at first said he only wanted the money back, but several days later said he wanted someone to attack the man.

“They wanted him dead,” Kamali said. Kamali said he backed out when he realized he was being asked to commit murder, but by then was deeply enough involved to have been paid several thousand rand (more than $1,000), shown the intended victim’s house and given a key to one of its security gates.

Vincent persisted, offering as much as 100,000 rand more (about $13,000), Kamali said. Kamali continued to refuse.

Kamali said he only realized the identity of the intended victim and that a new plot had been hatched without him when he saw news reports about Nyamwasa’s shooting. Kamali said he recognized the general’s home when he saw it on TV.

Prosecutor Shaun Abrahams refused to say Wednesday whether investigators knew more about Vincent’s identity. Abrahams said Vincent was no longer in South Africa, but would not say where he was believed to be. – Sapa