tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130462832024-03-14T01:09:43.396-07:00Agathon RwasaCe site web publie les atrocités des rebelles FNL du Burundi et mène une campagne pour traduire en justice le dirigeant des FNL, Agathon Rwasa. Nous essayons aussi de mettre à nue la question d'impunité en génerale.
This website aims to highlight atrocities by the Burundian FNL rebels, and campaigns to see FNL leader Agathon Rwasa brought to justice. We also aim to highlight the issue of impunity worldwide.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-11417169061169254242008-08-20T23:29:00.000-07:002008-08-20T23:37:45.673-07:00Gatumba, four years on: Empty words from the international community?The following quotes give something of an overview of the international outrage generated by the Gatumba massacre in the days and weeks that followed:<br /><br /><em>The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack that took place on Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi on August 13, 2004. Armed elements, including the National Liberation Front of the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People, participated in this vicious attack on an already vulnerable population of refugees, many of them women and children. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims and to the Congolese government and people.<br /><br />The United States strongly supports the initiative of the UN Security Council to quickly investigate the massacre. We call on the authorities of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to cooperate in identifying the perpetrators and in bringing them to justice.</em><br /><strong>- US State Department, August 16 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>It is with horror and great indignation that the European Union has learned of the attack perpetrated in the evening of Friday 13 August on a refugee camp in Burundi... In line with the measures already announced by Burundian President Ndayizeye, the Presidency of the European Union expects that every effort will be made to establish the identity of the perpetrators of this cowardly and despicable attack, to arrest them and bring them to trial.<br /></em><strong>Presidency of the European Union, August 15 2004<br /></strong><br /><em>The Security Council calls upon the authorities of Burundi and of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to cooperate actively so that the perpetrators and those responsible for these crimes be brought to justice without delay.</em><br /><strong>- United Nations Security Council, August 15 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>France condemns with the utmost firmness the terrible massacre of Congolese refugees that occurred in Gatumba, on Burundi’s territory.<br /><br />It is currently in close contact with its Security Council partners. The facts must be established without delay so that these crimes do not go unpunished.</em><br /><strong>- French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 16 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>Foreign Office Minister, Dr Denis MacShane, today condemned the killing of 130 people during a raid on the Gatumba camp in Burundi, which is sheltering refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.<br /></em><strong>-United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office, August 14 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>The people who committed this terrible crime must be out of their heads. They are really terrorists... I condemn very strongly what they did. They should be arrested as soon as possible, they should be brought to court.<br /></em><strong>- Agnes van Ardenne, Netherlands Minister For Development Co-operation, August 22 2004<br /></strong><br /><em>Protecting refugees and displaced persons is a fundamental principle - and no cause or ideology can justify attacking such vulnerable, weakened groups. Consequently it is vital that every attempt be made to shed light on who was responsible for this act so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.</em><br /><strong>- Karel de Gucht, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, August 15 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>The only fault of the dead was that they were Banyamulenge. A mindless and criminal hatred drove the killers to carry out an unpardonable crime against humanity. What they hated was the fact that the Banyamulenge were Banyamulenge. The murderers viewed the mere fact that the Banyamulenge exist as human beings as unacceptable.<br /><br />They therefore took it upon themselves to commit cold-blooded murder, to ensure that the Banyamulenge cease to exist. Led by Adolf Hitler, the Nazis had taken the same decision with regard to the Jewish people, and systematically embarked on the Holocaust intended to annihilate an entire people.<br /><br />Half-a-century later, other criminals, this time on our continent, carried out a genocide that claimed the lives of a million Rwandans in a mere 100 days. Hitler's African successors argued that the Tutsis of Rwanda, ethnically related to the Banyamulenge of the DRC, were "cockroaches" that did not deserve to live and therefore had to be exterminated.</em><br /><strong> - Thabo Mbeki, South African President, August 20 2004<br /></strong><br /><em>It is not only terrorism within one state which has to be the concern of the international community as a whole, but other conflicts too. The situation in Darfur, in the Sudan, from where I returned last week, demands action both because it is a human tragedy, and because it affects the whole region through the spread of instability and the movement of refugees. And in Gatumba, in Burundi, the horrific massacre a few weeks ago underlines the continuing potential of that conflict to destabilise the Great Lakes, and the challenges which the UN force there has to face.</em><br /><strong>- Jack Straw, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, September 3 2004<br /></strong><br /><em>It is essential that the killings of more than 150 Congolese refugees in Burundi are the subject of an independent impartial investigation, the findings of which should be made public and acted upon so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice...<br /><br />The international community should do its utmost to ensure that past and present human rights abuses are investigated and that the perpetrators, whoever they are, are brought to justice. Sacrificing justice for short term political expediency will only prolong the region’s terrible human rights crisis and plays into the hands of the many protagonists who have no wish to see the truth, and justice, emerge.</em><br /><strong>- Amnesty International, August 17 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The African Human Rights Rally (RADDHO) has qualified as "crime against humanity" the massacre of Congolese refugees last Friday in Gatumba, Burundi.According to the Dakar-based NGO, the killing of some 170 people in a transit camp hosting Congolese refugees and claimed by the National Liberation Front (FNL) represents "a crime against humanity jeopardising the peace processes in Burundi and DR Congo."</em><br /><strong><em>-</em> Panafrican News Agency, August 17 2004</strong><br /> <br /><em>The Gatumba massacre was a direct attack on civilians in violation of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) for which all those responsible must be fully prosecuted. The Burundian government has issued arrest warrants for two leaders of the FNL, a promising first step that must be followed by the actual arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.</em><br /><strong>- Human Rights Watch, September 2004</strong><br /><br /><em>...our position on the FNL remains unchanged. FNL leaders responsible for crimes against humanity and human rights violations must be brought to justice. We will continue to resist any moves to grant Rwasa or other FNL leaders immunity. We have made our position on this clear to EU partners and participants in the Regional Peace Initiative (group of African states including South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania) on many occasions. We are clear that breaking the culture of impunity in the region is key to peace in the Great Lakes. The FNL and other groups must be sent a signal that they cannot negotiate immunity.<br /><br />If and when Rwasa and other FNL leaders return to Burundi we will push strongly for the Burundian authorities to try them as soon as possible for the crimes of which they have been accused or admitted responsibility for (such as the massacre in Gatumba in August 2004).<br /></em><strong>- British Foreign Office official, 6 May 2005</strong><br /><em> </em><br /><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-77265204607493850522008-08-20T23:21:00.000-07:002008-08-20T23:38:44.670-07:00Gatumba - support the survivor's call for justice!I'm still reeling from last weekend's meeting to <a href="http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=1775">commemorate the 4th anniversary of the Gatumba massacre</a>. It was more brutal and harrowing than I think any of us expected. The organisers showed video footage taken from the scene just a few hours after the attack, and it was by a long stretch the most shocking piece of film I'd ever seen.<br /><br />More or less unedited, and mercilessly graphic, the film is largely silent except for the sobbing of the dazed survivors, which can be heard constantly in the background. The smoke still rises from the charred bodies and burned-out tents as the cameraman makes his way around the remains of the refugee camp, meticulously documenting the scene. As the film goes on, we see various Burundian dignitaries arriving, trying to look as if they have some kind of control over the situation, while soldiers and UN peacekeepers wander aimlessly around the remains of the camp. But the look on everyone's faces is one of dazed, incredulous horror.<br /><br />The extremist group Palipehutu-FNL, which claimed responsibility for the attack, continues to assert, in the face of all the evidence, that Gatumba was not in fact a UNHCR refugee camp, but a military base. I think there is something almost Orwellian in the psychology of that claim.<br /><br />This film - which I didn't even know existed until the moment it was shown to me – answers it more eloquently and comprehensively than words ever could.<br /><br />Watching the film with us was Janvier Mudagiri, one of the survivors of the Gatumba attack. The Foreign Office had, at the last minute, denied him a visa to travel to the UK from the Netherlands, where he now has permanent residency. I, along with several of the organisers, had spent much of last Thursday trying to persuade them to change their minds - never expecting that they would – before the decision was unexpectedly reversed. Another small testament to the power of campaigning, I suppose, but it seemed like an unnecessary piece of bureaucratic cruelty. We were less lucky with Janvier's fellow survivor, Dorkasi Nankumi, who is now based in Finland, and whose visa refusal we were unable to overturn.<br /><br />Coming after the film, Janvier's account was almost too much. In chilling detail, he recounted how the attack had unfolded, and reminded us that five of the Gatumba survivors had subsequently died from their injuries in hospital, bringing the final death toll to 165, while many others continued to live with crippling physical injuries.<br /><br />The circumstances of Saturday's event were made all the more cruel by the fact that the Palipehutu-FNL had, just the day before, renewed their demand for immunity from prosecution and significant political power (without, naturally, the formality of having to be elected) as the price for ending their campaign of war crimes, and crimes against humanity. On Friday, <a class="external" title="This link will open in a new window" href="http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i-Cf2sEC8c4lS-HdHfxo-NhAPmPQ" target="_blank">Agence France Presse</a> reported that the group was demanding "one of the two vice-presidencies and 13 out of the government's 26 ministries, including the interior, foreign affairs, defence, finance, planning, justice, agriculture, education, health, trade, labour and energy portfolios".<br /><br />It's hard to see how acceding to such demands would help to advance peace, democracy or human rights in Burundi. Those who have lost loved ones at the hands of Palipehutu-FNL are particularly hurt that some elements of the international community now <a class="external" title="This link will open in a new window" href="http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-08-13-voa4.cfm" target="_blank">appear to be pressurising Burundi's elected (and Hutu-led) government to make just such a concession</a>. It's difficult to think of a clearer illustration of the cycle of impunity in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa – and the extent to which the international community is all too often directly complicit.<br /><br />Speaking at Saturday's event, Janvier Mudagiri called on the international community to ensure that those who carried out the Gatumba attack are brought to book for what they have done, and that justice is done for the victims of Gatumba.<br /><br />Both the European Union and the UK government strongly condemned Gatumba at the time, and <a class="external" title="This link will open in a new window" href="http://www.europa-eu-un.org/articles/en/article_3746_en.htm" target="_blank">called for justice</a>. Both also exert significant leverage in the region – and <a class="external" title="This link will open in a new window" href="http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-01-19-pressure-forces-acquittal-of-burundi-coup-plotters" target="_blank">international pressure for human rights improvements has been shown to work in the past</a>. If you would like to support Janvier's call, please <a class="external" title="This link will open in a new window" href="http://www.writetothem.com/" target="_blank">write to your MP or MEP about the Gatumba case</a>, and urge them to call on the UK government and European Union to use their leverage to persuade the Burundi government to refer Gatumba to the International Criminal Court.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.writetothem.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Take action - write to your MEP</strong></a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html"><strong>Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</strong></a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-21547028701887517002008-08-16T00:18:00.000-07:002008-08-16T02:33:20.687-07:00Another victory for South African diplomacy - with African Union support, unelected Hutu-extremists demand every key government ministry in BurundiHot on the heels of the African Union's <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-08-13-voa4.cfm">bullying demand that the elected Burundian government enters into a powersharing deal with the unelected extremist group Palipehutu-FNL</a>, South African diplomacy has delivered yet another edifying development. As the price for supposedly ending his ongoing campaign of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the FNL leader Agathon Rwasa has demanded that he be given control of <a href="http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i-Cf2sEC8c4lS-HdHfxo-NhAPmPQ">every key government ministry, both Vice Presidencies, ten key Ambassadorial posts and over half the provincial governorships across the country</a>. Four years and three days on from the FNL's <a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2008/08/breaking-international-silence-over.html">brutal massacre at Gatumba</a>, this would place the group in pole position to finish the genocide that was started in Rwanda in 1994, and continued across Burundi and in the DRC throughout the 1990s.<br /><br />Presumably we can now expect another African Union press release, lobbying for an elected government to accede, in the name of 'peace', to the demands of Burundi's answer to the Khmer Rouge. Great job, South Africa!<br /><br /><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>,<br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">South Africa</a>,<br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Tanzania</a>,<br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">African Union</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-6818478286118627962008-08-14T00:10:00.000-07:002008-08-14T01:20:09.786-07:00Breaking the international silence over the Gatumba massacre<a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/11/fnl-bujumbura-chief-of-staff-in.html"></a><p> Four years ago this week – on Friday 13th, as it happens – more than 150 people, <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.iansa.org/about/pastor_jaques/liste_de_massacre_de_gatumba.pdf">half of them children,</a> were <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/109276385281.htm">shot, hacked, and burned to death</a> at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi. The victims, supposedly under UNHCR protection, were almost all Banyamulenge Congolese Tutsis, singled out by their attackers, who left non-Tutsi refugees in the camp unharmed. Here is <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2004/text/at33.txt">Thabo Mbeki</a>'s account of what happened: </p><p> <em>The killers came in the dark of night. They attacked a Burundi army camp located nearby, charged with the responsibility to protect the refugees. This was to stop these soldiers intervening as the murderers did their dirty work of murdering in cold blood well over 150 children, women and men as they slept.<br /><br />The killers came in the night and hacked to death perfectly innocent people who were already suffering because violent conflict in their country had turned them into refugees. They poured petrol on the shacks in which the people lived and set them alight. Many of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition. Those who tried to run away were shot down in cold blood.<br /><br />With cold and deliberate intent, they did not touch even one of the other refugees who stayed in other shacks a mere few metres away, but belonged to other Congolese ethnic groups.<br /><br />The only fault of the dead was that they were Banyamulenge. A mindless and criminal hatred drove the killers to carry out an unpardonable crime against humanity. What they hated was the fact that the Banyamulenge were Banyamulenge. The murderers viewed the mere fact that the Banyamulenge exist as human beings as unacceptable.<br /><br />They therefore took it upon themselves to commit cold-blooded murder, to ensure that the Banyamulenge cease to exist…</em> </p> <p> <em></em>Mbeki goes on to talk about the group that claimed responsibility for the attack: </p> <p> <em>There is an armed group in Burundi called the Palipehutu-FNL. This group, whose leader passionately presents himself as a born-again Christian, has refused to lay down arms and join the Burundi peace process. As the Barundi have courageously engaged the process to bring peace to their country, preparing for democratic elections, Palipehutu-FNL has taken the conscious decision that it will not join the peace process.<br /><br />In action, it has made the unequivocal statement that it is determined to continue killing other Barundi, utterly contemptuous of the people's heartfelt desire for peace, and unmoved by the fact that 300,000 people have died in a decade-long conflict. Active in the vicinity of the capital city, in Bujumbura Rural, Palipehutu-FNL has unashamedly carried out operations that make the statement that this organisation, wrongly described as a Front for National Liberation, has nothing to do with the national liberation of the Barundi, and everything to do with the commission of violent crimes against the people of Burundi.<br /><br />Perhaps it should have not come as a surprise that, by its own admission, Palipehutu-FNL was involved in the Gatumba massacre of Friday, August 13. This armed group has become so accustomed to the shedding of innocent blood that it made bold to make the statement that it was responsible for the Gatumba massacre. It went further to say that it had no fear of retribution for its crimes, because it was certain that it had become untouchable.</em><br /></p> <em></em> <p> <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/burundi/2004/0904/6.htm#_Toc81987429">Human Rights Watch</a> gave further details of the FNL's admission of responsibility: </p> <p> <em>Pasteur Habimana, spokesman for the movement, was the first to make such a statement. Early on the morning of the attack he called several Burundian journalists to castigate them for having broadcast reports that the perpetrators of the massacre had come from the Congo and were mostly Rwandan rebels and Mai Mai. </em> </p> <p> <em>Even after it became increasingly clear that accepting responsibility for the attack might be seriously damaging to his group, Habimana as well as the national secretariat made no retraction. They did elaborate on several reasons why the FNL had made the attack. They referred to the many killings of civilians that had gone unpunished in the years of conflict in Burundi, seeming to suggest that attacking the Banyamulenge was a justifiable response to these previous killings. Habimana also claimed that the FNL force had attacked the military and police camps and had pursued soldiers and police who fled from their camps to the refugee camp. There, said Habimana, Banyamulenge had brought out arms that had been hidden and fired on the FNL. As the days passed, he elaborated this explanation to the point of calling the refugee camp the Banyamulenge general staff headquarters. No evidence supports these claims.</em> </p> <p> The Gatumba attack was also roundly condemned by the European Union, Britain, the United States, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and many other countries around the world, all of whom urged that the perpetrators be prosecuted. The African Union and the UN Security Council both issued statements urging that those responsible be brought to justice "without delay". In December 2004, <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8258.doc.htm">UN resolution 1577</a> reiterated the need for justice, and an end to Burundi's culture of impunity. Under heavy international pressure, the Burundian government issued arrest warrants for the Palipehutu-FNL leadership. </p> <p> Despite the calls for justice to be done "without delay", the victims of Gatumba are still waiting, four years on. Calls for the attack to be referred to the International Criminal Court came to nothing. A UN investigation into the massacre petered out within a year. When, in April 2005, the Palipehutu-FNL leader Agathon Rwasa called a press conference in the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salaam and appeared in public for the first time, no attempt was made to arrest him. </p> <p> When I queried this with the UK Foreign Office at the time, they told me that: </p> <p> <em>The Government of Tanzania is trying to persuade the FNL to end its armed struggle so that peace and security can be brought to the whole of Burundi and that elections can be held in safety. We support these efforts to bring an end to Burundi's civil war. The Government of Burundi has agreed to meet the FNL in Tanzania to discuss ending the fighting.<br /><br />But our position on the FNL remains unchanged. FNL leaders responsible for crimes against humanity and human rights violations must be brought to justice. We will continue to resist any moves to grant Rwasa or other FNL leaders immunity… We are clear that breaking the culture of impunity in the region is key to peace in the Great Lakes. The FNL and other groups must be sent a signal that they cannot negotiate immunity.</em> </p> <p> <em>If and when Rwasa and other FNL leaders return to Burundi we will push strongly for the Burundian authorities to try them as soon as possible for the crimes of which they have been accused or admitted responsibility for (such as the massacre in Gatumba in August 2004). </em> </p> <p> Despite <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4550361.stm">these hopes</a>, Palipehutu-FNL carried on killing people. Elections were held, and judged free and fair, despite the FNL's continued violence. But at the international level there was no more talk of bringing them to justice over Gatumba. Simply by <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4441679.stm">popping up in Tanzania and saying that they were ready for peace</a>, the FNL had effectively unravelled all the commitments that had been made to the victims of the atrocities they had committed. </p> <p>One Burundian friend of mine often talks of the uncanny ability of regional politicians to 'launder' themselves of the crimes they have committed, and the extent to which the international community is willing to play along. Compare and contrast the above quote from Thabo Mbeki with another one – this time from a speech he made in <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/2008/tm0612.html">June 2008</a>: </p> <p> <em>Let me first acknowledge the delegation from the Republic of Burundi both from Government and Palipehutu-FNL, led respectively by the Minister in the Burundi Presidency, General Evariste Ndayishimiye and the Palipehutu-FNL and its President, Agathon Rwasa. I am very pleased to extend a warm welcome to our dear friends from Burundi. </em> </p> <p> This year, the FNL declared an end to their campaign of violence – again – and are now angling for government posts and a <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2008/05/mil-080507-irin02.htm">blanket amnesty</a> as their price for disarming and demobilising. Amid reports that the group was continuing to recruit child soldiers, the FNL leader returned from Tanzania to the Burundian capital Bujumbura on May 30th. It remains to be seen whether the UK government – or any of the others who spoke out against the Gatumba massacre four years ago – will keep the promises that they have made. </p> <p> At 1.30pm this Saturday, two survivors of the Gatumba massacre will be giving their own account of the events of that day, at a public commemoration being organised by the Ubuntu peacebuilding organisation, and held at <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10151">Amnesty UK's Human Rights Action Centre in London</a>. </p> <p> Similar events will be held <a title="This link will open in a new window" target="_blank" class="external" href="http://www.gatumbasurvivors.org/">around the world</a>, as the massacre survivors – and those who lost loved ones in the attack – seek to challenge the international community's selective amnesia over what happened in Burundi on the night of August 13th 2004. </p><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-56790447505804075212008-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:002008-08-11T12:36:43.565-07:00Communiqué de presse de la famille de Charlotte Wilson, tué au Burundi 28/12/00<strong>"Quelle sorte de chef a suffisamment de courage pour ordonner le meurtre d'hommes, femmes et enfants sans armes, mais qui manque le courage de reconnaître ses faits et d'expliquer pourquoi une telle brutalité était nécessaire?"</strong><br /><br />Londres, 9 août 2008<br /><br />Le 28 décembre 2000, Charlotte Wilson, professeur britannique, et son fiancé Burundais, Richard Ndereyimana ont été parmi les 21 personnes innocentes tuées pendant le massacre brutal des passagers du bus Titanic Express par le groupe extrémiste<br />Palipehutu-FNL.<br /><br />Malgré des preuves accablantes- y compris dépositions de témoins oculaires et documents, qui impliquent la FNL dans ce crime et dans beaucoup d'autres, Agathon Rwasa continue de nier que ses soldats étaient responsables.<br /><br />Nous demandons : Quelle sorte de chef a suffisamment de courage pour ordonner le meurtre d'hommes, femmes et enfants sans armes, mais qui manque le courage de reconnaître ses faits et d'expliquer pourquoi une telle brutalité était nécessaire ?<br /><br />Nous demandons : Quelle sorte de soldat prétend combattre pour libérer le peuple Hutu mais envoie des enfants Hutus n'armés que de bâtons et de houes, trouver la mort dans les rues de Bujumbura?<br /><br />La FNL prétend qu'ils avaient des preuves qu'ils n'étaient pas les responsables de l'attaque dans laquelle est morte Charlotte Wilson. Nous leur avons demandé de nous montrer ces preuves. Ils ne nous ont rien montré. Nous leur prions de cesser de feindre et de reconnaître les meurtres qu'ils ont commis le 28 décembre 2000.<br /><br />La FNL prétend également que l'Ambassadeur britannique au Burundi leur a dit qu'il soit possible que la famille de Charlotte retire leur demande de justice et qu'il travaillera avec eux à cette fin.<br />Néanmoins le Ministre britannique pour l'Afrique, Mark Malloch Brown, a vérifié par écrit que le gouvernement de sa Majesté continuait de chercher la justice. La semaine dernière le ministère des Affaires étrangères a redit qu'ils croient que la FNL a tué Charlotte Wilson.<br /><br />La famille de Charlotte Wilson se sent solidaires des victimes de l'express Titanic, des victimes de Gatumba et de la population innocente de Bujumbura-Rurale, terrorisée depuis longtemps par les forces de Rwasa. La famille voudrait confirmer qu'ils ne retireront<br />pas jusqu'à ce que la justice ait été accordée à toutes les victimes des atrocités de la FNL.<br /><br />Comme a affirmé récemment Ismail Diallo « Les personnes qui estiment que la vérité et la justice elle-même ne sont pas utiles, sont celles qui pensent qu'elles sont susceptibles de ne pas pouvoir supporter la vérité et de faire face à la justice ---- verité et la justice elle-même n'ont des raisons d'être que pour panser les plaies, que pour aller vers la réconciliation. Ce n'est pas simplement pour punir mais pour réparer. » Richard Wilson, frère de Charlotte<br /><br />richardcameronwilson AT yahoo.co.uk<br /><br />FIN<br /><br />Plus information ici:<br /><br /><a href="http://burundi.news.free.fr/actualites/rwasavirginite.html">http://burundi.news.free.fr/actualites/rwasavirginite.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article992717.ece">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article992717.ece</a><br /><a href="http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=1122">http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=1122</a><br /><a href="http://titanicexpress.wordpress.com/">http://titanicexpress.wordpress.com/</a> <br /><br /><br /><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-3337664697561566882008-05-30T14:48:00.000-07:002008-06-02T10:26:50.353-07:00Groundhog day in Burundi as Rwasa declares an end to his campaign of violence - again<p align="center"><img src="http://www.abarundi.org/allfolders/Rwasa_Ndayizeye_2.jpg" /><br /><br align="center">Rwasa (r) promising to stop killing people in 2005<br /></p><br /><br /><p align="center"><img src="http://www.arib.info/Rwasa_Nkurunziza_Hobe.jpg" /></p><p align="center">Rwasa (l) promising to stop killing people in 2006</p><p><br /></p><p align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206302364237127218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="198" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1UjDT1BXSjxLjskO4GmeUFNF3JGexOepO-y-AYlpYldKFv5I6jS4O0yGiDBO3YO0H-aczGU0q1QqSBmRRNNu-aDM5rhd751HM_V3z1Bzghbt68tFkR4D3cVjlEuZ19k4wLCO-/s320/rwasa2.jpg" width="304" border="0" />Rwasa (c) promising to stop killing people in 2008</p><p>It happened <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4550361.stm">in 2005</a>, it happened again <a href="http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6TK4A8?OpenDocument">in 2006</a>, and now we're back here for round three: the FNL leader Agathon Rwasa has <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7427154.stm">declared his intention to stop killing people</a>, and affirmed his commitment to peace, democracy etc. while the UN and the international media look on and applaud. </p><p>Strangely absent, as usual, from the <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/30/africa/AF-GEN-Burundi-Rebel-Returns.php">media coverage of Rwasa's latest rebranding exercise</a>, are the names of his many victims: - <a href="http://www.iansa.org/about/pastor_jaques/index.htm">Pasteur Jacques Rutekereza</a>, one of the 156 Congolese Tutsis murdered by a coalition of FNL, Mai-Mai and FDLR killers in the August 2004 Gatumba refugee camp massacre. <a href="http://yvongodin.npd.ca/en/node/268">Arthur Kabunda</a>, <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/07/316594.html">Charlotte Wilson and Richard Ndereyimana</a>, three of the 21 passengers who were massacred after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_Express_massacre">Titanic Express</a> bus was ambushed close to Bujumbura in December 2000. The thousands of others killed in other bus ambushes around Bujumbura between 1993 and 2005. And the hundreds - if not thousands - of Hutu residents living under the paranoid tyranny of FNL control in Bujumbura Rurale, who have been tortured and killed on suspicion of disloyalty.<br /><br />Burundian government promises of justice for the victims of the Titanic Express and Gatumba massacres have so far come to nothing - and there is little to show for all the talk of the <a href="http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/africa/bur040824.html">Gatumba massacre being referred to the International Criminal Court</a>.<br /><br />It would be nice to think that the international mediators falling over themselves to take credit for "restoring peace" are right this time, and that giving in to the FNL's demand for a blanket amnesty and government posts (without, of course, the formality of actually having to be elected) are all that it will take to persuade them, at last, to stop killing and torturing people. But history would suggest otherwise, and tragically the UN's wishful thinking on this issue is likely only to embolden Burundi's criminal elite, and lead to yet more killings. <a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iBIOcfjx9TRcJM2lN8EMO39Up4ZAD90SKDS80">War criminals tend not to make great politicians</a>.</p><br /><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-44205934973433053592008-05-20T06:07:00.000-07:002008-06-02T10:30:02.196-07:00"We have to kill Tutsis wherever they are" - Guardian interviews the FNL's allies in Eastern DRC<strong></strong>From the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/16/congo.rwanda">Guardian</a><br /><em></em><br /><em>Child soldiers can be found across Africa. Sometimes they are responsible for appalling atrocities; sometimes it is because their minds have been twisted by powerful drugs. But nowhere on the continent are they as driven by hate and ideology as among the Rwandan Hutu refugees in eastern Congo. Here, after more than a decade of invasion, civil war and slaughter - rooted in the genocide - a second generation of killers is being imbued with the mind-altering ideology of extermination and reared to hate and murder Tutsis.</em><br /><em><br />Some of the children learn it from fathers who were responsible for the mass killings the first time around, back in Rwanda. Others, like the boy, are raised by the extremist Hutu rebels who control large areas of eastern Congo and are among the most important causes of the conflict there that has claimed an estimated five million lives or more over the past decade and continues to kill about 45,000 people each month in Congo through the effects of war - principally starvation and disease.<br /></em><br /><em>These children are led by men with multimillion-dollar rewards on their heads offered by the United States for their capture to stand trial accused of the murder of thousands in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. America has listed their armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), as a terrorist organisation, but some of its political leaders have found safe haven in Europe. And while their army is fighting, the leadership is raking in millions through the smuggling of gold and diamonds, and extortion.</em><br /><br />See also:<br /><a href="http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/testimony/2007/DeLorenzoTestimony071024a.pdf">De Lorenzo's testimony to the United States Senate</a><br /><br /><em>Fighting broke out again in the early 1990s, before the Rwandan genocide took place. Bukavu and Uvira in South Kivu were cleansed of Tutsi in 2004 after Nkunda withdrew his forces from Bukavu after trying to capture the city. They have not been allowed to return, and local leaders in the city have expressed satisfaction that it is finally "clean". That was followed by the massacre of 150 Congolese Tutsi refugees at Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi by a joint </em><br /><em>force of FNL, Mayi-Mayi, and FDLR units, apparently with links to some Congolese officials. </em><br /><em></em><br />The FDLR's representatives in Europe can be contacted directly here: <a href="http://www.fdlr.org/">http://www.fdlr.org/</a><br /><b><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Congo</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Rwanda</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-70705845108445764012008-05-18T04:36:00.000-07:002008-05-18T08:01:36.476-07:00FNL demand immunity from prosecution and government posts - againThe BBC is reporting that some members of the FNL leadership have returned to Bujumbura, again, declaring their intention to talk about peace.<br /><br />The report notes that "FNL leaders in exile in Tanzania want full immunity from prosecution and a share of government jobs. But this would require constitutional changes which the government - wracked by a parliamentary crisis - does not have the power to deliver."<br /><br />No mention is made of the fact that granting of blanket immunity to Rwasa and his fellow <a href="http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20040818101104687C553978">indicted war criminals </a>would be a violation of Burundi's obligations under international law to uphold victims' rights - or that giving government posts to unelected warlords would not simply be "unconstitutional" - it would effectively bring to an end Burundi's short experiment with electoral democracy.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7405552.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7405552.stm</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-58733151501224756992008-04-10T03:58:00.000-07:002008-04-10T04:12:58.892-07:00Rhetoric versus reality: Burundi's leader feted by the churches in Northern Ireland just weeks after violent attacks on political opposition at home<em>The Rev Trevor Stevenson, of Irish-based charity Fields of Life, which invited the President Nkurunziza to Northern Ireland, believes this is an opportunity to discuss reconciliation progress in both countries. His visit is a symbol of how far the political process has moved forward. “We are thrilled to have President Nkurunziza here as a guest of Fields of Life. The strong message that he hopes to convey is that through the word of God, forgiveness can be found in the bleakest of times,” -</em><strong>Belfast Newsletter, 5 April 2008</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/President-briefs-churchleaders-on-peace.3951147.jp">http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/President-briefs-churchleaders-on-peace.3951147.jp</a><br /><br /><em></em><br /><em>The attacks on the politicians’ homes took place almost simultaneously on March 8, 2008, suggesting they were a coordinated effort to intimidate the political opposition to the ruling party... Several opposition politicians have been threatened and targeted for violence during the last 18 months.... Five parliamentarians from the opposition party Front for Democracy in Burundi (Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi, Frodebu) and from a dissident wing of the CNDD-FDD, including Mpawenayo, were targeted in a set of grenade attacks in August 2007 that injured several bystanders. Pancrace Cimpaye, Frodebu spokesperson, was detained after suggesting the ruling party bore responsibility for the August attacks; after being released, he briefly left the country. In February 2008, a local Frodebu official was killed, while another was seriously injured in a grenade attack which killed his wife and child.... Increasing insecurity in Burundi spurred 46 opposition parliamentarians to write to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on February 22 to request international protection. They accused the ruling party of “persecution, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial executions, and assassination” of its opponents. The four targets of the March 8 attacks had all signed the letter.</em> <strong>-Human Rights Watch, 12 March 2008</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/12/burund18269.htm">http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/12/burund18269.htm</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-2513597372203997762008-04-08T07:10:00.000-07:002008-04-08T07:11:35.981-07:00Amnesties kill - the legacy of impunity in ZimbabweFrom <a href="http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/breaking.html">“Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace - A report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands”</a><br /><br /><em>Before the first election in Zimbabwe there was also a general amnesty granted under the peace agreement drawn up by Lord Soames, the British High Commissioner at this time. This amnesty meant that all those who had committed human rights violations could not face prosecution, whether they were Rhodesians or ex-freedom fighters. This meant people who had done terrible things during the 1970s were not punished.</em><br /><br /><em>Some of these Rhodesians who had tortured remained on in the Zimbabwean CIO and other units. A few used their position to act as South African agents to destabilise Zimbabwe. Others were recruited from ZANLA into 5 Brigade.<br /></em><br /><em>In 1988, after the Unity Accord had brought an end to violence, a second amnesty was announced in Zimbabwe. This time those who were being saved from prosecution for crimes committed against civilians were 5 Brigade, CIO, other army units and dissidents.<br /></em><br /><em>The very men who tortured people in the 1970s used the same methods to torture people again in the 1980s. Both times they got away with it and were never punished. Some of these men still hold senior positions in the Zimbabwean Government and armed forces.</em><br /><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-4429204377936243652008-04-05T03:27:00.000-07:002008-04-05T03:32:53.140-07:00Topsy-turvy justice in Burundi - torture and killings go unpunished while calling the President an "empty bottle" can land you in jailFrom the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7330298.stm">BBC</a><br /><em></em><br /><em>Burundi's Supreme Court has sentenced one of the country's most powerful politicians, Hussein Radjabu, to 13 years in prison for subversion.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>The former ruling party chairman was accused of plotting an armed rebellion and insulting the president by referring to him as an "empty bottle".</em><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-27782720315682433472008-04-01T16:09:00.000-07:002008-04-01T16:29:46.188-07:00Reuters issue bogus report on FNL "amnesty"<b>Reuters' latest report on Burundi claims that the FNL have demanded an amnesty, and that the Burundian government say they have acceded to this demand - yet the only sources given in the report refer not to an "amnesty" - which awards permanent protection from prosecution, but to "immunity". Under the terms of the peace agreements signed to date, the judicial immunity granted to Burundi's killers has always been clearly stated as a strictly temporary measure, pending the creation of a Special Court and Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Reuters' conflation of these two very different things can only serve to embolden those within Burundi's political elite who are determined to rewrite history and ensure that the "provisional immunity" they were granted in 2003 is quietly redefined as a permanent amnesty, thereby forever denying victims their right to justice. </b><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>From: </strong><strong><a href="http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL01782031.html">http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL01782031.html</a></strong><br /><b><em></em></b><br /><b><em>Burundian rebels refused to rejoin a truce monitoring team which was to have begun work on Tuesday, demanding amnesty in exchange for participation in the group overseeing the end of the country's long civil war.<br /><br /></em></b><b><em></em></b><b><em>The Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) insurgency is seen as the final barrier to lasting stability in the central African coffee growing nation of 8 million, which has seen more than a decade of ethnic conflict that killed 300,000 people.<br /><br /></em></b><b><em></em></b><b><em>The FNL first quit the team last year, hampering a deal they had signed in September 2006 to end Burundi's 13-year civil war.<br /><br /></em></b><b><em></em></b><b><em>The truce team -- FNL members, government officials and international mediators -- was due to resume work on Tuesday, under a deadline set by chief mediator Charles Nqakula of South Africa.<br /><br /></em></b><b><em></em></b><b><em>"We have a team of 11 people ready to join the joint verification monitoring mechanism, but they can't come to Bujumbura unless they have immunity," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.<br />He said the Burundian parliament should grant the amnesty, which the Burundian government said had already been granted.</em></b><br /><b><em><br />"Last year, FNL members came into Bujumbura to take part in the ceasefire monitoring team. This couldn't be possible if an immunity was not given to them," said Evariste Ndayishimiye, head of the government delegation to peace talks.</em></b><br /><b></b><br /><b><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-52716849092675864802008-03-07T12:29:00.000-08:002008-03-07T12:32:45.362-08:00"It's the white people supplying the weapons in Africa" - breakthrough in struggle against impunity as Great Lakes gunrunner Victor Bout is arrestedFrom the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/07/thailand.russia">Guardian</a>, March 7 2008<br /><br /><em>If Viktor Bout did not exist, a thriller writer would have invented him. A former Russian lieutenant, he became one of the world’s biggest arms dealers, flying his ancient Soviet planes into battlefields from Liberia to Afghanistan. His clients have included the Taliban and the US government, African warlords and the UN.<br /></em><br /><em>He has as many aliases as an AK-47 has rounds, and has acquired the nicknames Merchant of Death and Lord of War. Pursued for years by the intelligence services of the world, and tracked for months by Thai detectives, yesterday the elusive 41-year-old was finally arrested in a five star hotel in Bangkok.<br /></em><br /><em>This time Bout is accused of attempting to buy arms and explosives for leftwing Farc rebels in Colombia but the charge sheet could have listed half a dozen countries where governments might like to interview him. Accused of flouting UN arms embargos and wanted by Interpol, he was eventually arrested on a warrant issued by a Thai court acting on information from the US Drug Enforcement Administration. It is understood that DEA agents posed as arms buyers acting on behalf of Farc.<br /></em><br /><em>“We will take legal action against him here, before deporting him to face trial in another country, [most] likely the US,” said Major General Pongpat Chayaphan, the commander of Thailand’s crime suppression division. “We have followed him for several months. He just came back to Thailand today.”<br /></em><br /><em>Bout’s story is a classic end-of-the-cold-war morality tale. As a smart and opportunistic 25-year-old, he took advantage of three converging factors after the collapse of the USSR: the sudden availability of cheap, clapped out Soviet airforce planes, a massive stockpile of weapons and spare parts guarded only by underpaid and disgruntled servicemen, and the burgeoning demand for arms from countless conflict areas around the world. Soon he was flying arms to any government or militia that wanted them and filling his Antonov cargo planes with less lethal wares, from gladioli to diamonds, for equally lucrative return trips.<br />Initially, he provided cheap freight routes to whomever would pay, whether the Angolan government or Unita rebels, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan or their Taliban opponents. After 2001, he worked for the US government and its civilian suppliers, shipping goods into Iraq on their behalf.<br /></em><br /><em>“In an age when the US president has divided the world into those who are with the United States and those who are against it, Bout is both,” wrote Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, authors of Merchant of Death, the investigation into Bout which they published last year.<br /></em><br /><em>He has also flown peacekeepers for the UN to Somalia and aid to Sri Lanka, after the 2004 tsunami, and been accused of supplying the Liberian warlord, Charles Taylor.<br /></em><br /><em>Yuri Orlov, the character played by Nicholas Cage in Lord of War, the 2005 film about the international arms trade, is said to be modelled on Bout. Amnesty International has commended the film for highlighting the baleful effects of the arms trade. Doubtless Bout will one day be the subject of a film himself, played perhaps by Russell Crowe in a bad moustache, dark glasses and baseball cap; Bout rarely allows himself to be photographed.<br /></em><br /><em>As far as he was concerned, he was purely a businessman, providing an international freight service stripped of any ideology. As far as some aid agencies were concerned, on occasion Bout was the swiftest supplier of relief to disaster zones. As far as the then Foreign Office minister Peter Hain was concerned, when he denounced him in the House of Commons in 2000, he was a “merchant of death”, cynically fuelling the civil wars in Africa.<br /></em><br /><em>Yesterday Hain welcomed news that Bout had been detained in Bangkok. “I am pleased he has been arrested,” he said. “At the time I exposed him, he was running arms to Angola, Sierra Leone and Congo and taking out blood diamonds. It was a lethal trade and some of those weapons were used against British troops in Sierra Leone. I tried with MI6 to dismantle his activities and we were partially successful but he still has a lot of friends in Moscow.”<br /></em><br /><em>Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International’s UK arms programme director, also hailed the arrest. “While we welcome the fact that Victor Bout has finally been arrested, why has it taken so long for this to happen?” he asked. “This is exactly why an international arms trade treaty is needed. Such a treaty would close loopholes that gun-runners like Viktor Bout so easily exploit for their own gain. Through their irresponsible arms transfers gun-runners like Bout have fuelled conflicts where dreadful human rights abuses have occurred.”<br /></em><br /><em>Like any good fictional character, Bout has managed to muddy the waters of his past. He was supposedly born in Tajikistan but he has also claimed that he is from near the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan. Others suggest he is Ukrainian. His many passports carry variations of his name, with his western nom de guerre being Victor Butt. He is married, with at least one daughter.<br /></em><br /><em>Having studied at Moscow’s military institute of foreign languages, he is multilingual, speaking everything from Uzbek to French, Portuguese to African dialects, but he denies that he was ever in the KGB.<br /></em><br /><em>“Bout would fly for anyone who paid,” an associate told the Centre for Public Integrity in the US, which has long tracked his activities. “He is good because he takes the chances.”<br />Although the US had made use of his services, the CIA targeted him and the US treasury froze his assets. Bout, with his companies registered in Liberia, fluttering countless flags of convenience, and with a lavish home in Moscow and powerful contacts around the world, continued undeterred. Until yesterday.<br /></em><br /><em>As to how he has survived untouched for so long, Farah and Braun quoted a South African associate of Bout: “You never shoot the postman.”</em><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-82277319395277934842007-12-17T10:04:00.000-08:002007-12-17T10:09:23.295-08:00Rwasa may face International Criminal Court over use of child soldiers, says East African newspaper<em>From: <a href="http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/news171220075.htm">The East African</a></em><br /><em></em><br /><em>A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting warned that the government would freeze FNL accounts and assets, refuse to issue visas to FNL members, deny them access to the media, revive a most-wanted list of FNL leaders, arrest them and extradite them. </em><br /><em><br />This comes on the heels of a UN Security Council report that accuses the FNL of recruiting and arming child soldiers, in violation of the Rome Statute.<br /><br />Officials familiar with the report told The EastAfrican that the report might lead to International Criminal Court indictments against Rwasa and other senior FNL officials.<br /></em><b><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-79761484796270493512007-12-13T13:29:00.000-08:002007-12-13T13:51:07.973-08:00Forgiveness, real and imagined<em><a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/tls_selections/article3040040.ece">From the Times Literary Supplement, December 12th 2007</a></em><br /><em></em><br /><em>When forgiveness becomes the public rallying cry, played out on daytime television soap operas, encouraged by civic and religious leaders, and praised far and wide for its power to heal, its slide into confusion and vulgarity is inevitable. It becomes identified with “closure”, it is sentimentalized and transformed into therapy, and the criteria for its practice are obscured. It melds into forgetfulness of wrong, and is granted all too easily, once the expected public theatrics are performed.</em><br /><br /><em><a href="http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=340848&apc_state=henh">From the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, November 23rd 2007</a></em><br /><em></em><br /><em>Michael Okello 32, of Koch Goma internal refugee camp, complained that rebel team leader Martin Ojul chose a very disparaging way of asking for forgiveness from victims. It seemed as if Ojul was making them apologise, he said. </em><br /><em></em><br /><em>"This is adding insult to injury. Does it mean that these people came all their way to tell us to rise up our hands so that they take our pictures and show the world?” he asked. </em><br /><em></em><br /><em>“Are they after genuine reconciliation? “They want us to reconcile but they haven't accounted for the atrocities they committed."To many, Ojul was not offering an apology on behalf of the LRA. Rather he was trying to create an impression that the Acholi community has forgiven Kony and is opposed to a trial for Kony and his top commanders in front of the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague. </em><br /><em><br /></em><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-59560870765100245512007-12-12T02:37:00.001-08:002007-12-12T02:41:37.301-08:00New Gatumba campaign website + new online petition calling for justice for the victims and survivors of GatumbaFrom: <a href="http://www.gatumbasurvivors.org/">http://www.gatumbasurvivors.org/</a><br /><br /><em>The Gatumba Refugees Survivors foundation was founded immediately after the 2004 Gatumba Genocide on the consensus of all the survivors of this Genocide.<br /></em><br /><em>A team of fifteen people headed its elected president Olivier Mandevu has been voted by the survivors to lead the organization.</em><br /><em><br />The foundation was legally incorporated in the state of New York in 2007.<br /><br /></em><em></em><em>The goals of this organization:</em><br /><em><br />1) Promoting the memorial of the deceased.<br />2) Working for the healing of the Gatumba Genocide Survivors.<br />3) Speaking out against Genocides, oppressions, tortures and all other kinds of Human Rights Violations.<br />4) Promoting justice with regard to the Gatumba Genocide perpetrators.<br />5) Promoting Unity, Love and Reconciliation.</em><br /><br />The petition can be viewed here: <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/18/justice-for-gatumba-survivors">http://www.thepetitionsite.com/18/justice-for-gatumba-survivors</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-75683235543488790092007-12-06T08:57:00.000-08:002007-12-06T09:07:16.549-08:00More on the general amnesty of the early 1990s, and other events that helped precipitate Burundi's decade-long warFrom: <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDCOI/3ae6a9fc3c.html">http://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDCOI/3ae6a9fc3c.html</a><br /><br /><strong>Amnesty International Report 1994 - Burundi [looking at the events of 1993]</strong><br /><br />The newly elected President and other leading figures were brutally killed by soldiers who tried to seize power in October. This sparked off widespread intercommunal violence and political killings in which tens of thousands of people, including children, were killed and hundreds of thousands became refugees. Many of the victims were executed extrajudicially by the army. Earlier, there were arrests of suspected government opponents in the first half of the year, and others were brought to trial, some being sentenced after apparently unfair trials. However, all those still held were among some 500 political prisoners who were released as part of a general amnesty in September. Those freed also included 91 political prisoners sentenced after unfair trials in 1992. There were no executions: all death sentences were commuted under the September amnesty which also, however, gave immunity from prosecution to perpetrators of past human rights violations.<br /><br />In February Burundi acceded to the UN Convention against Torture.<br /><br />At the start of the year a multi-party electoral process began, raising hopes of an end to massive human rights violations which had been committed during 28 years of one-party military rule. However, there were violent incidents between supporters of the then ruling party, the Union pour le progrès national (UPRONA), Union for National Progress, and the main opposition party, the Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), Front for Democracy in Burundi. In January the Minister of the Interior threatened to ban FRODEBU, accusing it of inciting violence and being a front for the banned Parti pour la libération du peuple hutu (PALIPEHUTU), Hutu People's Liberation Party.<br /><br />President Pierre Buyoya, a member of the minority Tutsi ethnic group which dominates the armed forces, was defeated in presidential elections on 1 June. He had come to power in a coup in 1987. He was replaced by Melchior Ndadaye, a former prisoner of conscience and the first member of the majority Hutu ethnic group to become President. National Assembly elections on 29 June were won by FRODEBU. President Ndadaye said the new government was committed to the promotion of human rights and would abolish the death penalty. In a move apparently designed to foster national unity, he appointed a Tutsi member of UPRONA as Prime Minister to head a government which included Tutsi ministers. However, there were demonstrations by Tutsi students and UPRONA supporters against the transfer of power to a Hutu-dominated government.<br /><br />On 21 October the President and other senior officials were killed by soldiers who attempted to overthrow the government. Other members of the government took refuge in the French Embassy. Those responsible for the coup, Tutsi members of the army, announced the formation of a National Public Salvation Council with Hutu former minister François Ngeze as its President. However, their actions were condemned by the UN, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and governments around the world, and received a hostile reaction from the majority Hutu population. After several days the army's commanders said that the coup had been carried out by low-ranking soldiers and asked surviving members of the government to return to power.<br /><br />The attempted coup, and the murder of the President and others, sparked off a wave of intercommunal violence which engulfed the country for the following month. Tens of thousands of civilians, including children, were killed in violence between Hutu and Tutsi. Hutu attacked Tutsi and Hutu supporters of UPRONA to avenge the killing of Hutu leaders by Tutsi soldiers. Tutsi civilians killed Hutu either in self-defence or in revenge attacks for the killing of Tutsi. Members of the security forces carried out reprisal attacks on Hutu villagers or failed to intervene to stop the violence. Approximately 700,000 refugees fled to neighbouring countries, and some 250,000 people were displaced within Burundi.<br /><br />Surviving members of the government called on the UN and the OAU to help them put an end to the violence, set up a commission of inquiry to establish responsibility for the coup and related human rights abuses, and bring those found responsible to justice. In December the government headed by Prime Minister Sylvie Kinigi appointed a commission of inquiry headed by the Procurator General to investigate the human rights abuses which had occurred after the October coup attempt. However, the commission of inquiry had not started its work by the end of the year because of objections to its appointment from the opposition. The UN said it would send a team to Burundi to investigate the execution by soldiers of President Ndadaye and other government officials and to complement the work of the government's commission of inquiry, and the OAU offered to send soldiers to protect ministers, but none had been deployed by the end of the year.<br /><br />No steps were known to have been taken by the military high command to identify those involved in the coup attempt and the killings and other violations linked to it. The government refused to agree to an amnesty for the killers of President Ndadaye and other senior officials and for those responsible for the coup attempt. Eight soldiers suspected of involvement in the October coup attempt were arrested in the days after the attempt. They were still held without charge or trial at the end of the year. Other soldiers suspected of having had a leading role fled the country. In December the Burundi Government demanded the extradition of two of these soldiers from Uganda.<br /><br />In addition to President Ndadaye, the President and Deputy President of the National Assembly, the Minister of the Interior, the head of the security police and other officials were killed by soldiers during the coup attempt, as were the wife of a government minister and that of a National Assembly member. The President was reportedly stabbed to death with bayonets at a military barracks in Bujumbura, the capital, on 21 October. The same day, soldiers opened fire on people taking part in a peaceful demonstration in Bujumbura to protest against the attempted coup, killing about 10.<br /><br />Elsewhere in the country, in the days and weeks following the coup, Hutu local government officials and supporters of the murdered President killed thousands of defenceless Tutsi civilians. For example, on 22 October a local government official in Mututa commune, Kayanza province, reportedly organized the execution of 90 Tutsi at Mungara trading centre. In reprisal for killings of Tutsi, serving and former members of the security forces attacked Hutu civilians. In some cases members of the security forces distributed arms to Tutsi civilians to use against Hutu. For instance, in Ruyigi province Tutsi students from a local secondary school, who had been armed by a Gendarmerie commander, attacked Hutu civilians at Ruyigi bishopric, killing about 70. The governor of Ruyigi province, who attempted to stop the killings, was imprisoned for a week by the local military commander.<br /><br />Earlier, about 50 government opponents were arrested between January and May but none of these had been tried when the new National Assembly passed a general amnesty for all political prisoners. Most of those detained were members of FRODEBU accused of inciting violence or of involvement in killing political opponents. Seven others were alleged members of PALIPEHUTU who the authorities said were insurgents who had entered the country from neighbouring Rwanda.<br /><br />On 3 July, seven army officers were arrested in connection with an alleged coup attempt and detained on the orders of the military procurator. They included Lieutenant-Colonel Sylvestre Ningaba, former President Buyoya's Principal Private Secretary. They had not been brought to trial when they were freed by other soldiers at the time of the October coup attempt.<br />Eight soldiers, including Major Hilère Ntakiyica, who had been arrested in connection with the alleged coup attempt in July and freed in October, were rearrested by military authorities at the end of October. They were held in Mpimba prison and accused of attempting to murder the Head of State but it remained unclear at the end of the year whether they had been formally charged.<br /><br />About 500 political prisoners and detainees arrested during the previous two years were released in September, along with some 4,000 criminal prisoners, following the ratification by the National Assembly of a general amnesty. Death sentences were also commuted. Those released included about 400 prisoners who had been accused of involvement in attacks by Hutu insurgents at the end of 1991 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). The amnesty also applied to members of the security forces who were thereby given immunity from possible prosecution for tens of thousands of past human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, which remained uninvestigated.<br /><br />There were several trials of people who had been arrested in 1991 and 1992 in connection with political violence at the end of 1991, but some were still in progress in September when most political prisoners were released under the amnesty. Those tried included about 140 civilians whose trial began in May 1992 before the Court of Appeal in Ngozi. The prosecution reportedly failed three times to provide evidence to the court that the defendants had been involved in the violence, which had not directly affected northern Burundi where the defendants lived. In March the Court of Appeal submitted the case to the High Court in Ngozi, which subsequently convicted about 60 people who had been arrested in Kayanza province: the court ruled that they had been involved in planning the 1991 violence. They were sentenced to between five and 20 years' imprisonment. However, the impartiality of the court was in question: it was alleged that the defendants were convicted after unofficial consultation between the court and government officials. Trials were subsequently suspended and about 80 defendants remained untried in custody until their release in September.<br /><br />Earlier, about 30 people were brought to trial in March before the Court of Appeal in Bujumbura. They included Alexandre Sindakira, a PALIPEHUTU leader, who denied involvement in or advocating violence. Defence lawyers alleged that most of the defendants had been tortured to make them confess (see Amnesty International Report 1993). The trial was adjourned and had not resumed by the time of the September amnesty, when they were released.<br /><br />Other trials in connection with an alleged coup attempt in early 1992 began in March and April. The defendants included Cyprien Mbonimpa, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and more than 100 soldiers (see Amnesty International Report 1993). The soldiers were tried by court-martial: 60 were convicted and sentenced to between one and 20 years' imprisonment and the others were acquitted. Cyprien Mbonimpa appeared before the Supreme Court in April and his trial had not resumed when he was released in July. Other soldiers and civilians had been released without trial in previous months.<br /><br />All prisoners sentenced to death before mid-1993 were released or had their sentences commuted as a result of the general amnesty in September. No new death sentences were reported and there were no executions.<br /><br />Amnesty International was greatly concerned by the mass killings sparked off by the October<br />coup attempt and murder of the President and others. An Amnesty International delegation was in Bujumbura at the time of the coup to discuss human rights with government officials, including the problem of impunity. Both before and after the October events, Amnesty International called on the authorities to ensure that all human rights violations were fully and impartially investigated, and that those responsible for perpetrating torture, extrajudicial executions or other grave violations were brought to justice.<br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-71887735935617050852007-12-04T06:56:00.000-08:002007-12-04T07:53:29.433-08:00Victims respond to Sacramento Bee's pre-emptive attack on basic human rights[UPDATED]<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/519889.html">this article</a> in the “Sacramento Bee”, a former US Ambassador to Burundi, Robert Krueger, urges that Burundi’s war criminals be awarded immunity from prosecution. Comments critical of this view have been posted in response, one of which has now been published. We reproduce it below:<br /><br /><em>My sister Charlotte Wilson was murdered in Burundi on December 28th 2000, with her fiancé Richard Ndereyimana and 19 others, including a number of children. The killers were Hutu-extremists seeking “retribution” for the atrocities of the Tutsi-dominated army - and seeking, of course, to advance their own power. The families of the dead, and the survivors, want those responsible to be prosecuted as war criminals, fairly and impartially under international standards. We want this because we want action to deter future killings and prevent others from suffering as we have; a TRC alone simply will not work. To characterise this as a desire for “retributive justice” is a cruel form of bullying, which seeks to create a moral equivalence between our cherished hope of justice and the killers' twisted desire for revenge. We want justice, not vengeance, and it is our basic human right under international law. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch support us. Please don't deny us our rights, Mr. Krueger<br /></em><br /><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-91998242799252984452007-12-03T04:33:00.000-08:002007-12-03T04:35:16.968-08:00FNL still arming and recruiting children, un-named European country denies humanitarian assistance to FNL deserters<em>UN says Burundi rebels are arming child soldiers <br /><br />By DANIEL K. KALINAKI <br /><a href="http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/news031120079.htm">The EastAfrican </a> <br /><br />A draft UN Security Council report has accused Burundi’s last remaining rebel group, the Forces Nationales pour la Liberation (FNL), of recruiting and arming child soldiers. <br /><br />The draft report, part of which The EastAfrican has seen, will be discussed by the Security Council as early as February, which could lead to punitive action against the FNL and its leader, Agathon Rwasa, who continues to hold out against implementing terms of a peace agreement signed with President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government. <br /><br />“Children continue to be associated with the FNL,” the report notes. “It is reported that children are still in the ranks of the two remaining factions of FNL, the Agathon Rwasa and Jean Bosco Gateyeri groups, and ongoing recruitment of children by these groups continues to be of grave concern.” <br /><br />The Rome Statute bans the recruitment of child soldiers and its violation could lead to the International Criminal Court indicting Rwasa and other senior FNL leaders. <br /><br />The report documents 85 cases in which the FNL recruited child soldiers between October last year and July this year, with most cases coming soon after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the rebels and the government to end more than a decade of fighting in Burundi. <br /><br />“The upsurge in recruitment by the FNL is allegedly aimed at enhancing their bargaining power should further peace negotiations take place and enabling them to claim increased financial benefits during the demobilisation and reintegration phases,” the confidential Security Council report notes. <br /><br />The report notes that the delay in the implementation of the ceasefire agreement has forced many of these child soldiers to defect to authorities in Burundi, a development that has further raised tensions in the country. <br /><br />Fighters of the FNL have reportedly been attacking these defectors on their way to reception centres set up by the South African peacekeepers in the country. <br /><br />Kingsley Mamabolo, President Thabo Mbeki’s special envoy to the Burundi peace process, confirmed the defections. <br /><br />“There are people who came out of the bush who claim they are FNL. We have been given orders by the regional leadership to take care of them on humanitarian grounds. We now have about 2,500 of them. They told us that they are tired of war and they want to participate in the peace agreement.” <br /><br />The South African envoy added: “There’s one group of FNL that has been attacking them and killing them. There have been clashes between the two groups. On humanitarian grounds, we have no alternative but to get involved. There will, of course, be a process of verification.” <br /><br />The FNL’s spokesman in Dar es Salaam, Pasteur Habimana, was not available for comment. <br /><br />Uganda’s envoy to the Burundi peace process, Adonia Ayebare, declined to comment on the matter in depth but confirmed that President Yoweri Museveni, who chairs the regional peace initiative on Burundi, had given the order to offer humanitarian assistance to fighters laying down their arms and coming out of the bush. <br /><br />The EastAfrican has independently learnt that a European country with links to Burundi has opposed the offer of humanitarian assistance to the defectors on the grounds that it was a “deliberate ploy” by Uganda and South Africa to weaken the FNL by tempting its fighters out of the bush. <br /><br />The FNL was the last major rebel group to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Burundi government, but has failed to meet its obligations under the deal. <br /><br />In September, we reported that the rebel leaders had rejected South African mediation in the conflict, accusing Johannesburg of partiality in favour of President Nkurunziza’s government. Analysts now warn that unless more diplomatic attention is paid to the conflict, war might break out again. <br /><br />In a sign of growing tensions, Rwasa recently turned down an invitation to a meeting with Bernard Membe, Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs And International Co-operation, in which the Tanzanians, who host the Burundi peacekeeping effort, as well as some FNL rebel leaders, were expected to demand that the FNL complies unconditionally with the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. <br /><br />Mr Mamabolo however said that there was still time to reach a diplomatic solution to the conflict. <br /><br />“We continue to call on the FNL to participate in the peace process; nobody has taken their place in the joint verification mechanism,” he said. <br /><br />“We are concerned and we hope they realise that the way to resolve this problem is to come back to the ceasefire agreement.” <br /><br />The report also documents rape and other acts of sexual violence against children by members of the Burundi national police, army, intelligence services, as well as the FNL, with 80 cases reported between October 2006 and July this year. </em><br /><br /><br /><br /><b><a href="http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html">Take action - Fax your MP!</a><br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Gatumba/petition.html">Take action - sign the Gatumba petition</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-20173733407372123712007-11-30T22:30:00.000-08:002007-11-30T22:36:47.484-08:00Burundi's victims want justice - An open letter to the Sacramento BeeDear Sir/Madam,<br /><br />As someone who has been <a href="http://titanicexpress.wordpress.com/2006/07/30/sunday-times-june-18-2006/">personally affected by the conflict in Burundi</a>, I found it ironic that Robert Krueger’s <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/519889.html">argument for "Truth and Reconciliation"</a> was premised on a such a grotesque distortion of the facts.<br /><br />Mr. Krueger’s claim that “Burundi has already seen too much retributive justice without the UN adding more” is bizarre and misleading. If by “retributive justice” Mr. Krueger means the prosecution, under fair and impartial international standards, of those suspected of crimes against humanity, then it simply isn’t true that Burundi has seen “too much” of it. As readers can see for themselves by reading the excellent reports of <a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGAFR160142006">Amnesty International</a> and <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burundi/index.htm">Human Rights Watch</a>, the defining feature of Burundi’s conflict has been the wholesale denial of justice to all but a handful of victims. Both groups argue compellingly that Burundi urgently needs more justice, not less of it, if peace is to be sustainable. <br /><br />“Retributive justice” is a derogatory term, which demonises as vengeful advocates of “retribution” those who simply seek to uphold their right, guaranteed under international law, to <a href="http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html">“an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals”.</a> Burundi’s victims <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1842893,00.html">want justice</a>, not vengeance. I would urge Robert Krueger to support them.<br /><br />Richard Wilson<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Burundi/petition.html">Take action - sign the petition for an end to impunity in Burundi</a></b><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Africa</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Robert Krueger</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-14866532041010607112007-03-25T07:33:00.000-07:002007-04-09T05:53:03.183-07:00Doctor Amanda runs Marathon for Rwanda in memory of murdered friend<p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbtIymbMEYDRFSmtvEFOAve8UAAvhJyYgVroPzujAHFRRtbFDTI9hRfonCEPtZketd_PoD_oWf6Nn8OS_3zMf9miXUtqhju9JaRIpq1tWcBfKKLORZO2_Focx1nTdLwtOKzS8/s1600-h/PhotoofCharlotteandIatMariaswedding-cropped.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051388163994036146" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbtIymbMEYDRFSmtvEFOAve8UAAvhJyYgVroPzujAHFRRtbFDTI9hRfonCEPtZketd_PoD_oWf6Nn8OS_3zMf9miXUtqhju9JaRIpq1tWcBfKKLORZO2_Focx1nTdLwtOKzS8/s320/PhotoofCharlotteandIatMariaswedding-cropped.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">Amanda Liddle (r) with Charlotte Wilson (l)</span></p><div align="left">In December 2000, Charlotte Wilson, a British volunteer teacher, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1093135.stm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">was murdered by extremist rebels in war-torn Burundi</a>. Now her friend Dr. Amanda Liddle, a medical researcher and trustee of the memorial fund set up in Charlotte’s name, plans to <a href="http://www.justgiving.com/AmandaLiddle-CharlotteWilsonMemorialFund" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">run the 2007 Flora London Marathon to raise money for the Rwandan school</a> where she had been working.<br /><br />The Charlotte Wilson Memorial Fund (<a href="http://www.cwmf.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.cwmf.org.uk/</a> - registered charity 1091955) has raised more than £20,000 since it was established in 2001. As well as supporting impoverished students at Shyogwe school, in Rwanda, it has funded a series of HIV awareness projects, helped rehabilitate Rwandan street children, and supported vital peacebuilding work in Burundi.<br /><br />Amanda Liddle says:<br /><br />“I am proud to be running the marathon for the CWMF, in memory of my great friend Charlotte. I have never done anything like this before, so it truly is a challenge, but running for a charity I really believe in makes it all worthwhile. Charlotte had planned to support education and HIV awareness projects on her return to the UK, but didn't have the opportunity to do so herself. Through CWMF, I hope we will be able to help build a more hopeful future for Rwanda”.<br /><br />Margot Wilson, Charlotte’s mother, and chair of the Charlotte Wilson Memorial Fund says:<br /><br />“We are delighted and touched that Amanda has decided to support CWMF in this way. After serving on our board of trustees for four years, she will soon become our first ever marathon runner. It costs just £150 a year to put a Rwandan child through secondary school, so every pound Amanda raises will make a huge difference.”<br /><br />Notes to editors:<br /><br />1. For more information about the Charlotte Wilson Memorial Fund, please visit <a href="http://www.cwmf.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.cwmf.org.uk/</a>, which also has a link to Amanda Liddle's online fundraising page. To arrange an interview with Amanda Liddle or Margot Wilson, please contact Richard Wilson via richard cameron wilson AT yahoo.co.uk.<br /><br />2. Charlotte Wilson and Amanda Liddle met at university in 1995, whilst studying Biochemistry in Paris on the Erasmus programme. They graduated together from Imperial College, London, the following year and both went on to complete a PhD in their chosen field.<br /><br />After finishing her doctorate in 1999, Charlotte travelled to Rwanda with VSO, planning to pursue a career in medical research on her return. She spent a year teaching science in a rural school, before being seconded to the Rwandan Ministry of Education in October 2000. It was while working there that she met and became engaged to a Burundian teacher, Richard Ndereyimana. A few days after Christmas 2000, they boarded a bus for Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, where Charlotte was due to meet Richard’s family for the first time. A few miles short of their destination the bus was ambushed by members of the Hutu-extremist Palipehutu-FNL rebel group –a faction linked to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Charlotte, Richard and 19 of their fellow passengers, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic group, were shot dead. No-one has yet been prosecuted for the attack.<br /><br />3. The Charlotte Wilson Memorial Fund was set up in 2001 by Charlotte’s family and friends, and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1367366.stm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">raised more than £10,000 in its first year</a>. Since then, it has supported twenty students at Shyogwe school - many of them orphans of the 1994 genocide – and helped refurbish the school’s science laboratory where Charlotte taught.<br /><br />In conjunction with VSO, CWMF has also funded a series of HIV education workshops across Rwanda, helped produce AIDS awareness leaflets in the local language, Kinyarwanda, and supported the recording of an AIDS awareness song by Rwanda’s ITETERO project.<br /><br />Other projects supported by CWMF include the <a href="http://sacca.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">“Streets Ahead” Children’s project</a>, which works to rehabilitate Rwandan street children, and Burundi’s Youth Intervention for Peace, which brings together young Hutus and Tutsis to discuss the causes of the conflict between their two communities, and work together on collaborative projects.<br /><br />4. The trustees of the Charlotte Wilson Memorial Fund are: Charlotte’s mother Margot Wilson, an adult education teacher, former VSO Head of Fundraising, Dick Bird, Charlotte’s brother Richard Wilson, a writer and fundraiser, Mine Bolgil, a university friend of Charlotte who now works as a corporate trainer, Amanda Liddle, another close friend of Charlotte who works as a medical researcher, and Ben Pollitt, a former VSO Rwanda volunteer and friend of both Charlotte and her fiancé Richard<br /><br />5. Charlotte Wilson’s life, the aftermath of her death, and the memorial fund set up in her name, are recalled in the book, Titanic Express, written by her brother Richard and <a href="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article1222466.ece" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">published last year by Continuum</a>.<br /><br />6. Images of Charlotte Wilson, and further information can be obtained from this website: <a href="http://remembercharlotte.wordpress.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://remembercharlotte.wordpress.com</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Rwanda" rel="tag">Rwanda</a>,</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-31127442614111534372007-02-03T00:09:00.000-08:002007-03-25T07:38:57.168-07:00Afghan government votes to deny justice to victims of war crimes<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6386676,00.html">Afghan Council Urges War Crimes Amnesty</a><br /><br /><em>KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Parliament has voted for an amnesty for leaders accused of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting, arguing that it would help heal the deep divisions in Afghanistan. <br /><br />The amnesty resolution, passed in the lower house Wednesday, covers the mujahedeen leaders who led the resistance against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and later turned their weapons on one another, plunging the country into civil war. <br /><br />Lawmaker Sayed Mustafa Kazmi, who backed the resolution, said it was aimed at fostering national unity. But rights activists have called for Afghanistan's factional leaders and warlords to face prosecution for the massacres and torture they allegedly committed in their struggle for power, especially during the 1992-96 civil war. <br /><br />Only justice, the rights advocates say, will heal the wounds of Afghanistan's traumatic past. <br /><br />But justice for the warlords would come at a political price. Several of the accused hold prominent positions in parliament and in the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, who has shown little enthusiasm for charging them with war crimes. <br /><br />The resolution called for ``respect and honoring those who have participated in the holy war and resistance.'' Taliban and other militants who have laid down their weapons and joined the government should also be pardoned, it said. <br /><br />The United Nations reacted coolly to the amnesty. <br /><br />For national reconciliation to succeed ``the suffering of victims must be acknowledged and impunity tackled,'' the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said. ``No one has the right to forgive those responsible for human rights violations other than the victims themselves.'' <br /><br />The resolution follows a report from New York-based Human Rights Watch calling for Afghan officials - including Vice President Karim Khalili and Army Chief of Staff Abdul Rashid Dostum - to face trial before a special court. <br /><br />Human Rights Watch also listed Energy Minister Ismail Khan, parliamentarians Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Mohammed Qasim Fahim and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani as among the ``worst perpetrators.'' <br /><br />Others who should also be brought to trial include Taliban leader Mullah Omar and fugitive warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the rights group said. <br /><br />In December, Karzai launched a plan to help the country come to terms with decades of human rights violations by documenting past abuses. U.N. officials said the plan called for people who committed the crimes to be held accountable, but the government has yet to spell out what that might mean. <br /><br />In the past, officials have argued that prosecuting still-powerful warlords and regional leaders - some of whom helped the United States oust the Taliban from power in 2001 - would undermine Afghanistan's fight against the resurgent Taliban movement. </em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-34235363518309979642007-01-30T15:28:00.000-08:002007-01-30T15:30:45.235-08:00Agathon Rwasa demands $12 million to stop killing people - Tanzania admits bankrolling the FNLFrom the <a href="http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/news290120073.htm">East African</a><br /><br /><em>The growing restlessness of the rebel leaders drove the countries involved in the regional initiative to arrange a meeting in Dar-es-Salaam last week in which the FNL leaders were persuaded to fulfil their obligations under the ceasefire agreement and return to Bujumbura. <br /><br />Sources close to the process told The EastAfrican that it was made specifically clear to the rebels that their $12 million claim to, among others, clear war debts, would not be honoured under the terms of the deal. <br /><br />Another source in the Tanzanian government also revealed to The EastAfrican that “it was made clear to the rebel leaders that they could not continue to lounge in the hotels here, while we paid all their bills and gave them a per diem.” </em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-18612958826555947922007-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:002007-01-20T01:40:12.713-08:00International pressure can work: Drama as Burundi court acquits key figures in fictitious coup plot - Torture victims vow international legal action<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=296277&area=/insight/insight__africa/">Pressure forces acquittal of Burundi coup plotters - SA Mail and Guardian</a><br /><br /><em>Pressure from the international community, NGOs and civil society led to the acquittal recently of five alleged coup plotters imprisoned in Burundi in August this year. The men were arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the government, but the accusations were widely believed to have been fabricated by elements in the government. Well-placed sources in Burundi said the judge’s decision to acquit five of the accused was a “political decision due to international pressure.”<br /><br />Five of seven alleged coup plotters, including ex-president Domitien Ndayizeye, were found not guilty of plotting to overthrow the government and were released after spending the past six months in jail. <br /><br />“It is a positive development which was very urgently needed,” Jan van Eck, a Burundi analyst told the Mail & Guardian. Van Eck says the alleged coup plot had been “destabilising the country, creating the impression that the government was becoming undemocratic, oppressing the opposition and not honouring the election promise to apply good governance”. This is “a step in the right direction,” he added.<br /><br />In 2005 the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza was elected in a landslide victory in the country’s first election since the end of a civil war that destabilised the country for over a decade. <br /><br />Explaining the decision, the spokesperson for the supreme court, Elie Ntungwanayo, said: “The court judged that the accusations lacked foundation. [Information was] based on testimonials by Alain Mugabarabona and Tharcisse Ndayishimiye, and [we] could therefore not rely on their sole testimonials as no other proof had been found.” <br /><br />Mugabarabona, a former rebel leader, and Ndayishimiye, who were imprisoned on the same charges, received hefty sentences of 20 years and 15 years in prison respectively, allegedly because they had confessed to planning a coup.<br /><br />“Since the two accused have confessed to having organised meetings in the hope of organising a coup d’état, it is only logical for the court to consider their testimonials and charge them accordingly,” said Ntungwanayo.<br /><br />Others have questioned whether the two men are really guilty: “How can a coup be organised by two people with no help from the army?” asked Deo Niyonzima, one of the accused acquitted this week and an opposition party leader. Niyonzima added that he found the accusations ludicrous. <br /><br />“Hussein Radjabu [the leader of the ruling party] is behind this coup set up,” Niyonzima said in an interview with the M&G. “They wanted to keep quiet all those who did not agree to their political programme … they want to create a dictatorship.” <br /><br />Niyonzima, who was released on Tuesday, still battles with the pain caused by injuries he received when he was tortured by security officers shortly after his arrest. <br /><br />“They beat me with galvanised pipes, steel wires; inserted nails in my shin. There were eight people beating me from all angles,” says Niyonzima. “They beat me on my lower back where my nerves are, they tried to break my back in two,” he says. <br /><br />He was beaten in an attempt to get him to consent to allegations of which he knew nothing. “They asked me to lie,” says Niyonzima. <br /><br />A medical evaluation done on Niyonzima while he was in prison proved he had been tortured. “I still have scars on my body,” he says.<br /><br />Had it not been for his lawyer’s rapid public denouncement of the torture, which led to a visit from the minister of human rights, who acknowledged the torture, Niyonzima believes that he and the other alleged coup plotters would be dead.<br /><br />“In terms of the law we were innocent, but in terms of the political will, we were the enemies,” says Niyonzima.<br /><br />He believes that they owe their liberty not to the court system but to the pressure applied to the government by civil society, human rights organisations, the European Union and other foreign donors.<br /><br />“We will lodge a complaint on an international level,” says Niyonzima.</em><br /><br />Ed: While the allegations against Ndayizeye, Kadege, Niyonzima, Mugabarabona and the other detainees were manifestly false, there appears to be ample evidence that several of them were tortured by the Burundian authorities in order to extract confessions. Torture is a "Crime Against Humanity" under international law, punishable through <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4693239.stm">universal jurisdiction</a> in dozens of countries around the world, as well as, in principle, the International Criminal Court (ICC). Burundi <a href="http://www.icc-cpi.int/asp/statesparties/country&id=98.html">ratified the ICC statute</a> on September 21st 2004, so any international crimes committed in the country since then could fall under its jurisdiction. <br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Burundi" rel="tag">Burundi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/human+rights" rel="tag">human rights</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Current+Affairs" rel="tag">Current Affairs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Politics" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Africa" rel="tag">Africa</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13046283.post-58479525819035073322007-01-09T05:18:00.000-08:002007-01-09T05:23:42.628-08:00A new blog for the new year: "African Path" launches, giving serious news and comment on Africa<a href="http://www.africanpath.com/p_home.cfm">New "African Path" blog</a><br /><br /><em>The African Path web site has launched. African Path is created to fill a void in the marketplace for a strong Pan-African web site where news content and blogging can be merged into a unified voice. A lot of African bloggers are discussing issues relevant to the continent but online exposure to these blogs is limited. African Path aims to provide this much needed exposure. We aim to fill the void left by big media in covering information on Africa and providing a forum in which Africans can discuss issues concerning themselves both within and outside the continent.<br /><br />The African Path website features news headlines from global and major African media houses, an ever growing group of bloggers covering various topics and an interactive calendar for events taking place in different cities worldwide.<br /><br />Topics featured on the site include current events, politics, technology, religion, music, entertainment, sports, health, human rights, AIDS, democracy and much more. The site will share experiences inherently African from daily accounts of people within the continent, Africans in the Diaspora and foreigners who have visited Africa. <br /><br />The site will promote dialogue on issues being discussed and encourage the participation of all site users through comments, letters to the editor, and new blogger recruitment. Special programs will be created to promote dialogue and exposure of work on the continent conducted by human rights groups and not-for-profit organizations aiming to provide solutions to improve living standards, health, technology, leadership or education.</em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1