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/ 11 November 2004
Rwandan lawmakers are studying a Bill that accuses France of ”misunderstanding and downplaying” the 1994 genocide in which, according to Kigali, about one million people, mostly minority Tutsis, were killed. The draft law paves the way for the creation of a commission to examine France’s role in the 100-day killing spree.
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/ 1 November 2004
Dozens of additional Rwandan troops left for Sudan’s troubled Darfur region on Monday to reinforce a tiny, but growing, African force widely seen as the main hope to stabilising the area, a defense spokesperson said. About 58 new troops are to join 165 others who arrived in Darfur over the weekend aboard United States air-force planes.
A formerly wealthy Rwandan businessman on Thursday pleaded innocent to four counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for his alleged participation in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Prosecutors allege that Gaspard Kanyarukiga, arrested this month in South Africa, was responsible for the deaths of more than 2Â 000 Tutsis.
Kigali on Wednesday welcomed this week’s arrest in South Africa of a suspect in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide who now faces trial at a United Nations-mandated court. ”That’s great news. This is what we have been asking all countries around the world to do,” Attorney General Jean de Dieu Mucyo told the Hirondelle news agency.
In recent months, Rwanda has experienced long, daily power cuts because of electricity rationing. This began after two of the country’s hydroelectric plants, Ntaruka and Mukunga, which are responsible for providing half of Rwanda’s power, experienced drops in yield. Butcheries, delicatessens and fishmongers and beauty salons are among the businesses that have been most seriously affected.
Shaking his head incredulously, South Africa’s Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, stared at a bed of skeletons when he visited the Murambi Genocide Memorial in southern Rwanda on Tuesday. Survivors of the 1994 genocide in which about 800Â 000 Hutus and Tutsis were massacred claim the killings have not stopped.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118261">Lekota in Rwanda for defence deal</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118222">Rwandans face village justice</a>
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota arrived in Rwanda on Monday to sign a defence agreement with his counterpart, General Gatsinzi Marcel. Lekota’s visit coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which an estimated 800 000 people were massacred in 100 days.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118222">Rwandans face village justice</a>
Rwanda on Saturday reopened its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a bid to ease tension that brought fear of renewed war between the two neighbours and led to the sealing of the frontier. President Paul Kagame and the DRC’s President Joseph Kabila held talks in Nigeria on June 25 in a bid to ease tensions.
Heavy fighting broke out early on Wednesday as Congolese troops and fighters loyal to a renegade commander battled for control of the centre of the troubled Congolese city of Bukavu, residents said. United Nations peacekeepers were blocking the advance into Bukavu of the bulk of troops loyal to Nkunda, UN spokesperson Sebastien Lapierre said.
Congolese soldiers fought troops loyal to a renegade commander near the eastern town of Bukavu on Tuesday, breaking a shaky ceasefire and spurring United Nations peacekeepers to try to negotiate an end to the violence, a UN spokesperson said. Fighting broke out again on Tuesday near the airport, which is controlled by UN forces.
Of the 12 people in her immediate family, only Mamerthe Karuhimbi and her mother survived the Rwandan genocide. But 10 years later she has little hope for her future. ”I have no life because I don’t have a family or children,” Karuhumbi says. Her words are echoed by Elizabeth Onyango, programme coordinator for African Rights — an NGO based in Kigali and London.
Janine Umuhoza was seven years old in April 1994 when her parents were killed during the Rwandan genocide. As the eldest, and a lot sooner than she could have imagined, she became mother to her siblings in a country fraught with danger at the time. Now 17 years old, she still faces the challenges of providing food and basic necessities for the family.
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/ 19 February 2004
Rwanda is to release a large number of prisoners accused of participating in the country’s 1994 genocide who have confessed to their roles in massacres that claimed the lives of up to a million people, the chief prosecutor said on Wednesday. The release plan comes as Rwanda prepares to commemorate the 10th anniversary genocide.
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/ 15 February 2004
African leaders ended their summit in Rwanda on Saturday having adopted a unique peer review system aimed at allowing countries on the continent to judge the behaviour of fellow African states. ”The most important point is that we can now start evaluation,” Mozambican President Joachim Chissano said.
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/ 22 November 2003
The former head of a Rwandan rebel group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and blamed for Rwanda’s 1994 genocide has called on his former companions-in-arms to follow his example and surrender. But the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda’s interim leader, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, does not agree.
President Paul Kagame criticised Western countries on Friday for putting pressure on him to allow political opponents to operate more freely ahead of elections scheduled to take place in the next two months.
More than 22 000 Rwandan prisoners, most of them suspects in the 1994 genocide, began returning home on Monday after undergoing a three-month ”re-education” course and spending several years in jail.
Former US President Bill Clinton on Wednesday said the world has a stake in helping Africans survive Aids and in using the knowledge gained to help other regions of the globe where the disease is growing at alarming rates.
Rwandan police have arrested two people in connection with the killing of two endangered mountain gorillas and the disappearance of an infant in the first incident of poaching in 17 years.
Nyagakaganga lay on his stomach, stroking his chin with an enormous palm before plucking off an insect and popping it into his mouth with obvious relish.