Kigali

Rwanda called on the United Nations on Wednesday to take action against peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accused of trading food and intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels for gold. The world body is investigating allegations made against Indian troops in eastern DRC’s North Kivu province.

It’s not cheap motels or the back seats of cars, but the marriage bed where the new high-risk sex takes place in Uganda, delegates attending a conference on scaling up Aids services, held in Kigali, Rwanda, heard this week. Dr David Apuuli, director general of the Uganda Aids Commission, warned that marital sex accounts for 42% of new infections.

A Rwandan journalist was beaten unconscious and left in a coma for hours by unknown attackers, a media rights group said on Wednesday. Rwanda’s government has long been criticised for keeping a tight grip on the media. Kigali is accused of arresting and harassing journalists who write critical articles about the government.

Rwanda’s government said on Friday it had approved plans to scrap the death penalty, in a step which could remove a major obstacle to the transfer back home of defendants facing trial over the 1994 genocide. Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said the legislation had been voted through at a Cabinet meeting this week.

France armed and trained radical militia blamed for most of the killings in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, two Rwandan ex-soldiers told a panel probing alleged French complicity in the massacres on Monday. The pair said French troops had worked closely with the former Rwandan army and members of the Interahamwe militia.

Rwanda on Friday severed all ties with France as a row over a French judge’s implication of the Rwandan president and top aides in the assassination of the country’s former leader boiled over. President Paul Kagame’s Cabinet ordered the closure of the French embassy and the expulsion of its envoy in Kigali.

Rwanda on Friday recalled its ambassador to France and hinted it might break diplomatic relations with Paris in a row over arrest warrants issued by a French judge related to the 1994 genocide. A day after more than 25 000 people rallied in Kigali to denounce France, Rwanda’s foreign minister accused Paris of trying to destroy his government.

Rwanda on Tuesday opened public hearings into an alleged French role in the 1994 genocide that left at least 800 000 people dead in the Central African nation. A former senior Rwandan official testified that Paris had indeed supported the perpetrators of the genocide in order to protect a French-speaking nation from rebels backed by an English-speaking country.

Huddled in a draughty football stadium, about 2 000 Rwandans braved hours of torrential rain to watch the screening of the latest movie on their country’s 1994 genocide, Shooting Dogs. Survivors were in the audience at the film’s Rwanda premiere, braving their own memories more than a decade after hundreds of thousands were slaughtered in a 100-day bloodbath.

Britain has agreed to provide the Rwandan government with nearly -million over the next 10 years because it has a proven track record in fighting poverty, a British official said on Tuesday. Since the 1994 genocide that left more than 500 000 people dead, Britain and Luxembourg have been leading donors to the Rwandan government.

Rwandan authorities have demanded the extradition of a Catholic priest exiled in France who is suspected of participating in the country’s 1994 genocide, officials said on Thursday. Kigali has asked Paris to hand over Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, the former vicar of the capital’s Holy Family parish, to face trial for his alleged role in the 100-day killing spree between April and June 1994.

With new hotels springing up and existing ones getting makeovers, Rwanda is trying to shake off once and for all its image as a land of state-sponsored killing and rivers of blood to draw larger numbers of well-heeled tourists to enjoy its scenery and rare wildlife.

Veterinary experts from across Africa warned on Thursday that an avian-flu outbreak could prove devastating to the continent because of the poor facilities and inadequate monitoring capacity in many countries. The officials also outlined measures to deal with the deadly virus should it reach Africa.

A Belgian priest arrested in Kigali this week on suspicion of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide will face crimes against humanity charges before a village tribunal. The case of Father Guy Theunis is to be referred to prosecutors who are expected to transfer it to the gacaca courts that have been set up to deal with genocide suspects, they said.