Burundi: En bref ce 19 AVRIL 2006 ...

UNE TRENTAINE DE JOURNALISTES BURUNDAIS SEQUESTRES PENDANT PLUS DE SIX HEURES PAR LA POLICE PRESIDENTIELLE
Bujumbura, le 18 Avril 2006 (RTNB)-La police présidentielle a séquestré une trentaine de journalistes qui étaient présents chez un député issu du CNDD-FDD mais qui vient d'être radié sur les listes de ce parti. Le député répondant au nom de Basabose Mathias animait une conférence de presse chez lui au quartier Zeimet (vers le sud de la capitale Bujumbura) lorsqu'une cinquantaine de policiers de la documentation ont fait irruption dans les bâtiments de ce parlementaire. La conférence de presse terminée, un des agents de la documentation nationale a demandé aux journalistes de lui remettre tous les enregistrements qu'il allait remettre à qui de droit. Les journalistes n'ont pas obéi à ses ordres et la police leur a exigé de rester sur place dans les jardins de cette maison ils sont restés là jusque tard dans la soirée (vers 23 heures locales). Entre-temps deux femmes ont été torturées et se trouvent maintenant à l'hôpital. Tous les partis politiques y compris le CNDD-FDD ont déploré ces actes de même que les associations de la société civile.

LES INFRASTRUCTURES SOCIALES NE S'AMELIORENT PAS PARALLEMENT A L'AUGMENTATION DES EFFECTIFS DES ETUDIANTS A L'UNIVESRITE DU BURUNDI
Bujumbura, le 18 Avril 2006 (RTNB)-L'université du Burundi compte actuellement un peu plus de trois mille étudiants, un nombre qui augmente chaque année alors que les infrastructures d'accueil ne suivent pas. La télévision nationale du Burundi a diffusé ce lundi 17 avril 2006 un reportage qui montre que les conditions de vie ne sont pas des meilleures soit du côté de la restauration soit du côté de l'hébergement. Le matériel de la restauration date de longtemps et fonctionne plus des fois, les homes universitaires sont sales et les herbes poussent partout de manière que les étudiants s'interrogent si le service de propreté fonctionne toujours à l'université. Les mêmes étudiants demandent au gouvernement d'améliorer leurs conditions de vie à l'université du Burundi, celle-ci à travers ses autorités, dit que le coût de réhabilitation de l'université est très élevé ; cependant, il promet de faire son possible.

LANCEMENT DES TRAVAUX DE REHABILITATION DES ROUTES PAR LE CHEF DE L'ETAT BURUNDAIS
Bujumbura, le 18 Avril 2006 (RTNB)-Le président de la République, monsieur Pierre Nkurunziza a présidé le 17 avril 2006 les cérémonies de réhabilitation des routes nationales 3 et 4 respectivement Bujumbura-Rumonge et Bujumbura-Gatumba pour un coût d'environ quatorze milliards de francs burundais octroyés par la Banque Mondiale. Il y a quelques jours il avait lancé les travaux de réhabilitation de la route nationale n° 10 Rugombo-Kayanza. Ces travaux vont bientôt démarrer en marie de Bujumbura.

Burundi: La Fédération Internationale des Journalistes condamne la séquestration des journalistes au Burundi

Gabonews (Libreville) 19 Avril 2006 Paris

La Fédération Internationale des Journalistes (FIJ) a condamné mardi la détention arbitraire par la police lundi d'une trentaine de journalistes à Bujumbura (Burundi), a appris GABONEWS.

Alors qu'ils participaient à une conférence de presse donnée par le député Matthias Basabose dans sa résidence, ces journalistes y ont été maintenus contre leur gré pendant plus de 7 heures, indique un communiqué de la Fédération.

Selon un responsable de l'Association Burundaise des Journalistes qui faisait partie des journalistes séquestrés, lundi, à 15h30 (13h30 GMT), une cinquantaine de policiers, armés de fusils mitrailleurs, ont encerclé la maison de M. Basabose, et ont annoncé aux journalistes qu'ils avaient reçu des ordres de la police présidentielle d'"empêcher quiconque de sortir". Sans recevoir d'explication, les journalistes n'ont été libérés que vers 23 heures locales, au bout de plus de 7 heures de séquestration.

Le député Matthias Basabose a organisé cette conférence de presse après avoir été exclu samedi du parti présidentiel, le CNDD-FDD, le (Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie - Forces de défense de la démocratie). M. Basabose avait accusé la semaine dernière le CNDD-FDD de s'immiscer dans les affaires judiciaires et de décider de l'attribution des marchés publics pour renflouer ses caisses.

« Malgré les promesses d'ouverture du nouveau pouvoir, ces coups de semonce annoncent des velléités de musellement de la presse », a déclaré Gabriel Baglo directeur du bureau Afrique que de la FIJ ajoutant que « ces harcèlements démontrent que la liberté de la presse reste précaire au Burundi et appellent la vigilance des défenseurs de la liberté de la presse ».

La FIJ dénonce cette violation de la liberté de la presse et cette tentative d'intimidation et invite le gouvernement à éviter de telles dérives.

« Les médias ont un important rôle à jouer dans le processus de réconciliation nationale et de démocratisation en cours au Burundi, les journalistes doivent de ce fait exercer leur profession en toute liberté de même que les différents acteurs de la vie politico sociale du pays doivent avoir la liberté d'exprimer leurs opinions », a rappelé M. Baglo.

La FIJ représente plus de 500 000 journalistes dans plus de 110 pays.

Burundi: Police Hold Journalists Hostage At Parliamentarian's Home After Ruling Party Quarrel

Reporters sans Frontières (Paris) / PRESS RELEASE
April 18, 2006
The action of the Bujumbura police in holding around 20 journalists hostage at the home of parliamentarian Mathias Basabose for more than seven hours on 17 April 2006 was "absurd and astounding," said Reporters Without Borders. The reporters had been invited to a press conference about Basabose's expulsion from the ruling party.

"We are amazed by this absurd act of intimidation," the press freedom organisation said. "These reporters were clearly taken hostage in an internal dispute within the security apparatus and ruling party. We thought the days when the security forces would stage this kind of show of force were over in Burundi. If the authorities cannot provide a credible explanation, they must at least give the press guarantees that such an incident will not repeated."

Some 50 policemen armed with assault rifles surrounded Basabose's home at 3:30 p.m.(local time), shortly after the journalists had arrived for a press conference about Basabose's expulsion two days before from the ruling coalition known as the National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Front for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD).

President Pierre Nkurunziza's former campaign manager, Basabose had wanted to give his version of his dispute with CNDD-FDD leader Hussein Radjabu about alleged embezzlement and political maneuvering aimed at perverting the course of justice.

As they took up positions around the house, the police officers announced that the presidential police had given them orders to "prevent anyone from leaving." On learning of the situation, other journalists came to Basabose's home to "give themselves up to the police in solidarity" with their colleagues.

At least three journalists who tried to leave the house despite the warning were hit with rifle butts. Without offering any explanation, the commander of the Bujumbura police, Major David Nikiza, announced shortly before 11 p.m. that the journalists could leave.

La Rdc, le Rwanda et le Burundi discutent de la sécurité à Bujumbura
Trois pays membres de la sous région des Grands Lacs sont déterminés à réinstaurer le climat sécuritaire d’antan, en cherchant à mettre d’abord de coté certaines divergences qui les opposent et se mettre par la suite autour d’une table
Kinshasa , 19.04.2006 | Politics DIGITALCONGO

Le Rwanda le Burundi et la République démocratique du Congo se retrouvent cet après-midi à Bujumbura, dans le cadre d’une réunion dite de « La Tripartite Plus », au cours de laquelle seront discutés des questions communes de sécurité entre les pays membres et très certainement aussi, de la cellule de fusion et de renseignements, basée à Kisangani, dans la Province Orientale.
L’annonce de cette information a été faite mercredi, au cours du point de presse hebdomadaire de la Mission d’observation des Nations Unies au Congo (Monuc), par Kemal Saïki, le porte-parole de cette mission.

M. William Swing, représentant spécial du secrétaire général de l’Onu en Rdc appelé également à prendre part à ces assises, a pris son avion cet après-midi à destination de Bujumbura. Ces réunions, a-t-on signalé, sont facilitées par les Etats-Unis. Les membres observateurs sont la Monuc, l’Union Africaine et l’Union Européenne.

Sur un autre registre, le porte-parole de la Monuc a présenté à la presse la satisfaction de son institution, suite à l’annonce par l’Ouganda, la semaine dernière, de l’arrestation sur son sol, de certains leaders du Mouvement révolutionnaire congolais (Mrc), notamment M. Mbwabale Kakolele. La détention des personnes concernées, a déclaré le porte-parole de la Monuc, ne peut que contribuer à améliorer la situation sécuritaire en Ituri. M. Kemal Saïki n’a pas perdu de vue de saluer l’initiative des sénateurs de ce district de l’Ituri, qui ont décidé d’y entreprendre une tournée à la veille des élections. (CL/SL)

Burundi: Talks with rebel group postponed

April 19, 2006, Source : IRIN News By ANDnetwork .com

Talks between the Burundian government and the country's only active rebel movement that had been scheduled to take place in Tanzania on Monday have been called off, the head of the government's negotiating team has said on today.

"The members of the team are on standby and could leave at any time for Dar es Salaam," Salvator Ntacobamaze, a former Burundi interior minister who is head of the government negotiating team, said in the capital, Bujumbura.

He said his team was on the way to Bujumbura airport on Monday to board a plane to the venue of the talks, Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam, when he received a call from an official in the Tanzania government asking him to cancel the trip.

He denied reports that the Burundi government was boycotting the talks. He added that Tanzania's ambassador to Burundi had informed him that arrangements for the talks would be finalised in the coming days and could take place by the end of this week.

An official IRIN contacted on Wednesday at Tanzania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined a request to comment.

A delegation representing the rebel Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) has been in Dar es Salaam since mid-March waiting for the talks to begin. It is headed by FNL leader Agathon Rwasa who recently agreed to the talks although he insists on face-to-face negotiations with Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Ntacobamaze said that if Rwasa refuses to negotiate with the government team, "we will listen to his views and report them to the head of state".

The FNL is spilt into two factions, one led by Rwasa and other by Jean Bosco Sindayigaya. A member of the government delegation, Brig-Gen Silas Ntigurirwa said on Monday that the government delegation would be willing to listen to both factions.

The FNL's stronghold is in Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza provinces near the porous border with the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On Monday, the Congolese army handed FNL combatants based in eastern Congo over to the Burundian army. Burundi has previously accused the DRC of harbouring FNL fighters and welcomed the Congolese action. "This is a good sign that Congo authorities want to collaborate with Burundi," said army spokesman Maj Adolphe Manirakiza during the handover.

Rwanda survivors say Hollywood has got it wrong

By Arthur Asiimwe Reuters Wednesday, April 19, 2006

KIGALI (Reuters) - Three films in two years about Rwanda's genocide have shocked Western audiences with the scale and savagery of the slaughter, but many survivors in the tiny central African nation are unimpressed.

They say the big-screen depictions of the carnage, when about 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered in 100 days of state-sponsored killings, have got the story wrong.

"My conclusion was that both movies are another Hollywood fiction geared at making money," said Jean Pierre Rucogoza, a 47-year-old university lecturer and genocide survivor who has watched "Sometimes in April" and "Hotel Rwanda."

Rucogoza lost 11 relatives in the killings. In an interview on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the genocide earlier this month, he said he believed the films partly represented the West's conscience rearing its head too late.

"But, unfortunately, they are also being used as a money-minting tool," he told Reuters. Many who lived through Rwanda's bloodshed say they are happy the films remind the world of the tragedy, but say the reality was different.

'NOT OUR STORY'

"'Sometimes in April' is characterized by very serious inaccuracies and omissions which made most survivors say, 'It is not our story'," said Francois Ngarambe, president of a Rwandan genocide survivors' association.

Directed by Raoul Peck, "Sometimes in April" tells of the plight of a Hutu soldier who is separated from his Tutsi wife and two children as violence engulfs the capital Kigali in April 1994.

Ten years later, he learns of their deaths from his brother, who was a presenter on a hate radio station urging the killers on, and is now facing an international trial.

Ngarambe said the film wrongly portrayed the genocide as largely the work of militia, neglecting the careful planning by the Hutu extremists in the government and the military.

The latest screen take on the genocide, and the only to be filmed on location, Michael Caton-Jones's "Shooting Dogs," had its world premiere at a stadium in Kigali last month.

It was filmed at the Ecole Technique Officielle, a school in the capital where Belgian U.N. troops abandoned more than 2,000 Tutsis to be slaughtered by machete-wielding killers.

It has also been criticized by some survivors, particularly for one scene where a white Roman Catholic priest decides to stay with the refugees, rather than be evacuated along with his expatriate colleagues.

Many senior church leaders were complicit in some of Rwanda's killings and the depiction angered many who already blame the United Nations and Western powers for failing to intervene.

SYMBOLS OF HEROISM

"There was never a situation, not at that school or anywhere, where a white person refused to be evacuated. That is a pure lie," said Wilson Gabo, a coordinator of Rwanda's Survivors Fund charity.

The makers concede a degree of artistic license with the facts of what actually happened at the school, risking inflaming tempers in a society where memories are still raw.

Amid international inaction, the genocide was finally ended by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, who led a rebel army from Uganda to seize power. He has recently joined the film debate, sharply criticizing the Oscar-nominated "Hotel Rwanda."

Released last year, Terry George's movie stars Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina, the Hutu manager of a Kigali hotel where more than 1,200 people survived the killings taking place outside.

Kagame, a Tutsi, said the South African-filmed portrayal of Rusesabagina was a "falsehood," and he would not have picked him as a symbol of heroism in those tragic times.

"Some of the things actually attributed to this person are not true," Kagame told reporters last week. "Even those that are true do not merit the level of highlight."

Uganda: Rwanda-Uganda Diplomatic Tensions

The Monitor (Kampala) April 19, 2006 Emmanuel Mutaizibwa

The arrest of a Rwandan diplomat, Mr John Ngarambe, two weeks ago allegedly over a sex scandal with a married woman, took the 'spying ping-pong' between the two countries to a more sophisticated level.

The Ugandan government, through a response from the minister of state for International Affairs, Mr Okello Oryem told Parliament that Kampala never meant to humiliate the Republic of Rwanda.

"I wish to point out that at no time during the evolution of this incident, was any action consciously designed and undertaken by Uganda to humiliate the above diplomat and cause embarrassment to the government of Rwanda, Oryem said.

"In fact it is our view that the matter is a largely private affair, which is being blown out of proportion by the press." But his attempt to pour water on the raging fires seemed to exacerbate the fragile situation.

Ugandan MPs fired back at Oryem. Before he was forced to withdraw the statement, the MPs entirely blamed the Ugandan government of not handling the incident diplomatically.

Was it a smokescreen?

Before his arrest, the Ugandan government confirmed that Ngarambe had been trailed over links of espionage. The Rwanda government, disgusted by the incident fired back.

"The manner in which the diplomat was arrested and disgraced epitomised Uganda's hostile disposition towards its neighbour," said the minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr Charles Muringande. According to political pundits, the arrest of Ngarambe is a classical example in terms of 'sophisticated humiliation.'

The Rwandan diplomat, to Uganda Mr Kamali Karegesa told Inside Politics on Sunday that; "I thought Uganda could apologise for contravening article 20 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relation."

He said the incident did not affect the relations between the countries to a big extent. "Uganda and Rwanda's foreign affairs' ministers shall hold a meeting in Bujumbura [Burundi] on April 20," Karegesa said.

Hima-Tusti egos

Samia Bugwe North MP Aggrey Awori said the matter between Rwanda and Uganda is just a frivolous matter fuelled by egos.

"This Entebbe raid is just shadow boxing. If Museveni wanted to really fight Kagame, he could have put obstacles for Rwanda against joining the East African Federation," Awori said. He said, "I think these CMI Bahima operatives are doing shadow boxing. The foreign affairs ministry is detached from this incident at Entebbe." Awori added, "The minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Sam Kuteesa has very personal ties with Rwanda. His father was a missionary in Rwanda and died there."

When asked whether the crisis was being fuelled by the Hima-Tusti sentiment, he said, "That is the perception of people."

The struggle over supremacy, became evident on August 16, 1999, when Uganda and Rwandan troops engaged in proxy wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a clash that left hundreds dead on both sides.

The death of senior Rwanda Patriotic Forces, military officer Lt. Col. Wilson Rutayisire and UPDF's Lt. Col. Reuben Ikondere raised more eyebrows.

The Bahima and Tusti who share a superiority complex over other races belong to the Hamites group and in the past presided over other races as the aristocrats. However, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political History at Makerere University, Mr Mwambutsya Ndebesa told Inside Politics that the problem surfaced after the Kisangani clash.

"Well I think it's not a Tusti-Hima issue but rather a Kagame issue. It is the egos of two political leaders; it appears as if after the Kisangani clash, Museveni's ego was pricked," Ndebesa said.

He added, "Really Rwandese and Ugandans by large are brothers and cannot be at loggerheads. There is no strategic interest for us to fight," he said.

Hamites myth

According to research done by Dr Anastate Shyaka, a respected scholar at the National University of Rwanda, he claims that, "The Hamitic hypothesis was the ideological matrix at the root of the colonial racial vision of Africa peoples."

He says, "That hypothesis has developed step by step and originates from the biblical myth of the origin of man and from the place allotted to the Blackman in mankind structure." He argues that colonial explorers at the end of the 19th century had noticed, notably in East Africa and in the Great Lakes region, different types of populations who did not meet the caricature image of the black, which was popularised in Europe at that time.

To explain that diversity, the colonial circles adopted that Hamitic hypothesis, which instituted a distinction between genuine Negroes and other black less Negroes of a Caucasoid white type.

Shyaka says that by the end of the 18th century, archeological findings led to the conclusion that pharaohnic Egypt was black. That idea brought the scientists to take up again the idea of the repopulation of Africa by Noe- descendants asserting this time that the curses called down by Noe was only upon Canaan, the son of Charm and his two descendants. But that Charm himself and his two descendants had two main branches: a cursed one born from Canaan, Negroid or genuine Negroes and another non-cursed one born from Canaan's brother, Hamitic, encompassing among other races, Egyptians, Berbers and Abyssinians.

The second development of that hypothesis affirms that among the population in the depths of Africa who were considered to be 'genuine Negroes' there were significant variations, some of them being close, according to them, to Hamites, who had been previously identified. As a result, the categories of the Bahima, the Masai's and the Tutsi's were related to that group, but it was preferred to apply the term to semi-Hamitic or semi-Nilotic to them.

Rwanda: Wait for Probe Results - Uganda

The New Times (Kigali) April 18, 2006 James Munyaneza
Kigali

The Ugandan government has refrained from making official comments on the alleged illegal issuance of Ugandan passports to Rwandan dissidents until an investigation into the saga is completed later this week. Speaking to The New Times on Monday, the Ugandan internal affairs minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda said his government was not willing to declare its stand on the allegations before the inquiry is complete.

"Let us wait for the investigation findings later this week; I would not want to pre-empt the findings," Rugunda said on telephone from Kampala. The Ugandan government says it launched the investigation a few days ago following continued allegations by Kigali that Rwandan rebel leaders carry Ugandan passports and either live or pass through the Ugandan territory to co-ordinate their rebel activities.

Uganda has denied support to these elements but has not officially denied their presence.

The recently-arrested leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) Dr. Ignace Murwanashyaka is one of the anti-Rwanda elements said to have obtained Ugandan passports illegally. Others include Major Protais Mpiranyi alias James Kakure, a former Commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion during late Juvenal Habyarimana's regime, Col Aloys Ntiwiragaba alias Omar Bar, Christophe Hakizabera, and Rafiki Nsengiyumva a.k.a John Muhindo. The New Times has previously published some of specimens of these passports.

Minister Rugunda said the investigation would establish whether the passport claims are substantiated and if so, establish circumstances under which they were obtained.

He said it was prohibited for both governments to use the press to discuss bilateral relations between them.

Speaking to The New Times on Monday, the Spokesman of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) Maj. Felix Kulaigye said both countries should refrain from discussing diplomatic issues in the media.

The issue of the Rwandan dissidents' presence in Uganda is set to become a hot topic during the upcoming Tripartite Plus Commission meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi. The meeting, set to open this Friday, will bring together foreign ministers from Burundi, the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

A bitter diplomatic row erupted between the two countries three weeks ago, following the arrest and molestation by Ugandan security apparatus of John Ngarambe, the First Secretary at Rwanda's Embassy in Kampala.

Rwanda: FDLR Leader Could Be Tried At ICC

The New Times (Kigali) April 18, 2006
James Munyaneza Kigali

The detained leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia, Ignace Murwanashyaka, could stand trial at the International Criminal Court, should a move by three countries and the world court succeed.Murwanashyaka, who is currently held in Germany following his April 7 arrest by the country's police, is accused of leading a militia group responsible for, among others...

perpetrating the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and unleashing a dozen years of gross human rights abuses on the peoples of the Great Lakes region.

The efforts to take the militia leader to The Hague-based international court are being spearheaded by the UN Mission in the Congo, ICC and the governments of Germany and the DRC, according to a release from the MONUC liaison office in Kigali.

"MONUC is now working closely with the DRC and German Governments and the International Criminal Court with a view to pursue a case against Murwanashyaka in connection with his presidency of the FDLR," the one-page release dated April 11 and signed by Slobodan Kotevski Didi, the Head of MONUC office in Kigali, said.

However, contacted for details on Monday, Didi was reluctant to comment on the issue, saying he needed authorisation from his superiors in Kisangani, DRC. He asked to be given time to seek permission from their Kinshasa headquarters before making any comment, promising to call back. By press time, he had not called.

The Germany Ambassador to Rwanda Hubert Ziegler could not be reached for comment by press time.

Murwanashyaka, who along with fourteen other militia leaders are under UN Security Council travel and financial sanctions since last November, arrived in Germany from Belgium where he had connected on an SN Brussels plane from Entebbe Airport in Uganda on April 5.

Rwandan officials implicated Uganda and MONUC in the FDLR leader's illegal movements but, contrary to earlier reports, MONUC denies any complicity in Murwanashyaka's flight to the European country.

"In fact whatever part Kampala may have played, MONUC facilitated nothing of the sort," Didi said in a statement sent to The New Times.

He, however, regretted that Murwanashyaka could easily move out of the region. "It is unfortunate that Ignace Murwanashyaka managed to fly out of the region, but we reiterate our satisfaction that he has since been arrested by the German authorities."

MONUC said it had communicated to Kampala that Murwanashyaka was due to use Entebbe Airport as his exit from the region. Observers say the revelation is yet another piece of evidence showing that the Ugandan government knew about the rebel chief's illegal movements on Ugandan soil, where he arrived from the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo through Buramba border post on April 4.

Shortly before his arrest, Rwandan sources had indicated that Murwandashyaka was travelling to meet Ugandan army officials in Kampala along other FDLR rebel officials, who allegedly stay in Uganda. Sources said that he later cancelled his attendance of the meeting that was planned for between April 8 and 14, but it is yet to be established whether the alleged meeting took place. Murwanashyaka is one of the several Rwandan rebels carrying a Ugandan passport.

A day after his arrest, The New Times reported that MONUC had earlier written to the Federal Republic of Germany notifying it of the planned Murwanashyaka's trip to the European country. In a response dated March 03, 2006, the Permanent Mission of Germany informed MONUC that appropriate measures had been taken by the competent German authorities to prevent Dr Murwanashyaka's re-entry to Germany.

Rwanda has demanded that Murwanashyaka be extradited but said failure to do that, German authorities should ensure that the alleged war criminal be brought to book anywhere else, including either Germany, ICC, DRC or Burundi.

"All we need is for justice to take its due course; he must be answerable for the atrocities committed by his forces," information minister Prof. Laurent Nkusi said by telephone on Monday.

Last week, Foreign Minister Dr. Charles Murigande said Murwanashyaka should be held accountable for the insurgency that hit Rwanda's northern and western provinces between 1997 and '99 besides other cold-blooded murders in DRC, Burundi and Uganda.

The German government said he will be kept in custody for three months before a decision on whether to deport him is reached.

Meanwhile, other reports last week indicated that Berlin was considering prosecuting him from its courts.

Following the UN sanctions imposed on Murwanashyaka, the German government revoked his residence permit. For most of his presidency of the FDLR, Murwanashyaka has been living in Germany.

Besides massive civilian deaths, rape and pillage in Congolese villages, the FDLR is implicated in the slaying of at least 150 Congolese of Rwandan origin (Banyamulenge) in Gatumba Refugee Camp in Burundi in August, 2004; and the killing of eight Western tourists in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

ANGOLA

UGANDA

Uganda: DP Backs Govt On Hosting Commonwealth Summit

New Vision (Kampala) April 19, 2006 Jude Etyang Kampala

THE Democratic Party (DP) has backed the Government on hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, next year, reports Jude Etyang.

The party yesterday pledged to co-operate with the Government in preparation for the event to be attended by Queen Elizabeth II of England, who heads the 53-member state association.

"We welcome the summit but we must be part of the preparations. We want the Government to involve us," DP secretary general Prof. Ebil Ottoo told journalists.

He added that DP had a high stake in the event. "We expect the Queen among the guests. They would be delighted to have audience with DP, the first party to form a government in Uganda. This (CHOGM) is more relevant to DP than anyone else," he said.

The DP position departs from that of FDC, which is reportedly rallying against the event.

A Sunday monitor story said FDC had lobbied the UK government to stop Queen Elizabeth from attending the summit in Uganda, as a vote of no confidence in President Museveni's democratic credentials.

FDC envoy to the UK Sam Akaki allegedly wrote to the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, asking that the Queen's visit for CHOGM be reviewed because Museveni was not elected in line with the electoral laws.

Addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday, Ottoo asked the Government to allow ugandans to stage peaceful demonstrations during the summit.

He said the party would hold a retreat for 30 party leaders to examine its performance in the just-concluded elections and chart a way forward.

The party is planning to lobby Parliament to enact a law on disclosure of aid, which compels the Government to disclose the source and details on any donor funds.

Uganda: Congo Rebels to Be Deported

New Vision (Kampala) April 19, 2006 Emmy Allio and Mary Karugaba Kampala

Uganda is poised to deport Congolese militia leaders recently rounded up in Kampala, as relations between Uganda and the DR Congo warm up.

State minister for defence Ruth Nankabirwa yesterday said, "We shall deport them by transporting them to the DRC-Uganda border, and hand them over to the Congolese authorities."

She said she would be part of the talks between Uganda and Congo in the the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, on April 21. She will join, among others, foreign affairs ministers Sam Kutesa (Uganda) and Ramazani Baya (DRC).

"We shall discuss the issue of the militias in Bujumbura," Nankabirwa said in reference to arrests of the Congolese Revolutionary Movement (MRC) chiefs whose forces are based in Ituri. Those to be deported include MRC top officers, Col. Bwambale Kakolele, Dido Manyiroha, John Asiki, Bahemuka and Arsene Kaswara.

Kakolele and Manyiroha sneaked back to Uganda after being declared persona non grata last August.

Most of the 10 arrested rebels belong to the MRC based in Ituri.

Manyiroha was arrested in February along with an American, Dr. Peter Waldron, who has already been deported.

Waldron and Manyiroha had promised to raise a militia group in Congo's Garamba region to fight Kony rebels in exchange for arms and ammunition from Uganda government.

Sources yesterday said two refugee leaders in Kyaka II refugee camp in Kyenjojo, who had formed another militia, were arrested on Monday for recruiting Congolese refugees there.

Northern Ugandans fear rebel resurgence
The Lord’s Resistance Army is still raiding villages, but the Ugandan military says the rebels are close to defeat.

By Peter Eichstaedt in Lira, Uganda for IWPR (19/04/06)

Fear clouds Tom Okeng’s eyes and his voice is strained as he recounts the attack on his village by ten rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army early last month.

While his children and wife watched in horror, Okeng was dragged from his thatched-roofed mud hut in the darkness of night, tied up with a rope, and stabbed repeatedly with a bayonet.

The rebels wanted money from him but settled for food, he says. Then they abducted a handful of villagers whom they would use as porters, cooks, and soldiers to swell their depleted ranks.

When the band’s leader called for a pistol and threatened to finish him off, Okeng leapt up, struck at his captors, and stumbled into the darkness with bullets whizzing by his head.

Later that night, eight of the kidnapped villagers escaped when the rebels, who had by now separated into two groups, began shooting at each other in the belief that they had been attacked by a local defense militia.

“We all ran off in different directions,” recalled Lily Aburu, 40, who had earlier been yanked from her hut. “I thought it was the end.”

Aburu believes both she and Okeng were lucky. “If Tom [Okeng] had not taken the chance to run, he would not have survived,” she said.

For nearly 20 years, the mysterious Joseph Kony and his LRA have terrorized northern Uganda, southern Sudan, and most recently eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC.

More than 1.8 million people, about 94 per cent of northern Uganda’s entire population, live in 202 refugee camps created by the war, according to a consortium of aid groups called Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda.

A recent report from the consortium, which represents dozens of aid groups with decades of experience in the region, says that some 900 people die each week from the warfare or related problems, such as disease and injury. That is three times higher than the death rate seen in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The LRA rebels survive by pillaging communities, kidnapping children to become soldiers and wives, and routinely killing and mutilating victims. An estimated 25,000 children have been kidnapped during the past 15 years.

The recent LRA attack on Orem - the second in a month - has left villagers wondering if this war will ever end, even though the Ugandan military says it is all but over.

According to the villagers, their assailants were well-armed and wore new camouflage uniforms. This suggests the LRA still have access to supplies, which many analysts believe come from neighboring Sudan.

By day, Okeng’s wife Lucy and her neighbors tend garden plots of cassava, beans and millet around the village. But at night, they return to the nearby refugee camp, or hide out in the dense bush to sleep or keep an eye on their few remaining farm animals. “Once the moon is full, they will come back,” says Okeng, nervously watching the waning daylight - the rebels move around at night.

But Ugandan officials say the villagers’ fears are largely unfounded. They dispute the extent of the problem claimed by the coalition of civil society groups, and argue instead that the LRA’s days as an effective fighting force are over.

Colonel Charles Otema, the head of intelligence for the Ugandan army in the north, says the rebels still active are just “a few remnants” of Kony’s army “who have resorted to thuggery”.

Otema describes the army’s activity as “mop up” operations, in pursuit of disparate bands of rebels. “If there’s an attack, we pursue them, we chase them and crush them.”

“In the villages, people are feeling safe, gradually,” said Otema, indicating that some people may soon leave the refugee camps and go back to their farms.

Recent reports suggest Kony may be in Garamba National Park, a jungle game preserve in the troubled northeastern provinces of the DRC.

Kony fled his previous stronghold in southern Sudan with a small force of his most loyal soldiers, many of whom were kidnapped as children and have known no other life, to join his second-in-command, Vincent Otti.

Otti commands some 200 or more fighters and has terrorized parts of eastern Congo since last year. In January, his fighters killed eight Guatemalan peacekeepers and wounded five more members of the 17,000-member United Nations force struggling to maintain order there.

Colonel Otema says Uganda wants permission from DRC officials to cross the border and pursue Kony and Otti. Once that authorization comes, he says confidently, “end of story - we are talking months. These people cannot hold”.

The capture of Congolese militia commander Thomas Lubanga, who was turned over to the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, has renewed hope that Kony and Otti could be captured.

Lubanga, alleged to have killed 2,000 civilians during regional conflicts in Congo in the late nineties, faces charges of kidnapping children and forcing them to become child soldiers in his militia.

Last October, the ICC issued indictments for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kony and four of his top commanders, one of whom is already dead.

Additionally, the UN Security Council has asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop plans for the UN to help end the conflict in northern Uganda, just as it moves toward possible intervention in Sudan’s Darfur region.

But some LRA commanders close to Kony say he will never be captured alive.

Jackson Acama, 44, a former major in the LRA who was granted amnesty, says Kony is convinced he is a prophet and takes his orders directly from God.

“Kony does not care how many people die,” claims Acama. “He is doing what God tells him to do. Kony will never give up until people accept him as a prophet, or he is killed.”

Betty Bigombe, the lead Ugandan negotiator with Kony and the LRA, is hopeful yet sceptical, saying, “The LRA is weak now, but they always have regrouped and come back with renewed brutality.”

Bigombe speaks to the LRA regularly and insists they are willing to negotiate. But when asked whether the end is near for the rebel movement, she grimly responds, “It’s a long way off.”

Kony has only three options, she suggests: death, prison or exile.

But the last of these options is now is unlikely, following Nigeria’s recent agreement to turn over former Liberian leader Charles Taylor to be prosecuted for war crimes by an international court.

Despite mounting international pressure for action against the LRA, the residents of Orem doubt that peace is around the corner.

Okeng is mystified about why the LRA persists with its violence, but pressed to give an answer, he confides that he believes the people of northern Uganda are being punished. But why, and for what sins, he cannot say.

Robert Akona, 33, who is Okeng’s neighbour, shrugs when he is asked when the conflict might end. “I’m leaving it all to God and prayers,” he said.

Peter Eichstaedt is a senior editor in Uganda with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting - Africa.

This article originally appeared in Africa Report, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Africa Report is supported by the UK Foreign Office and the US State Department.

EU Goes Back to Congo

By Tim Williams Apr 2006
http://www.rusi.org/publications/newsbrief/ref:P444666AE0AC82/

In 2003 the EU’s first military mission without NATO support was deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Operation Artemis was a small French-led endeavour designed to support the 17,000 strong UN MONUC (Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) force in the DRC. The EU operation was specifically charged with stabilizing the humanitarian and security situation near Bunia in eastern DRC after fighting had broken out between rival militias and completed its deployment after three months. Since that time, the EU has assumed control of SFOR (Stabilization Force) in Bosnia, provided military support (along with NATO) to the African Union’s (AU) AMIS II mission in Darfur, and engaged in numerous monitoring, rule of law, border security and police missions. And the EU Council has now agreed to launch a second mission to the DRC.

AFRIQUE DU SUD :

AFRIQUE / U A :

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USA :

Former Presidents to Discuss US-Africa Ties
2006-04-20 Xinhua
Ten former African presidents are scheduled participate in a two-day roundtable discussion beginning from Thursday at Wits University, Johannesburg, on issues that impact on U.S-Africa relations.

The topics to be discussed include facilitating private capital flows to Africa, engaging the Diaspora in Africa's development and Africa's image in the American media.

The former heads of state expected to be at the roundtable are Nicephore D. Soglo of Benin, Sir Q. Ketumile J. Masire of Botswana, Pierre Buyoya of Burundi, Aristides Maria Pereira of Cape Verde, Flt. Lt. Jerry J. Rawlings of Ghana; Daniel arap Moi of Kenya; Karl Auguste Offmann of Mauritius; Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.

David Monyae of the Wits International Relations Department said: "The aim of the event is to provide former leaders, who constitutionally retired from the presidency seat as required by democratic rule, with a platform to discuss issues pertaining to Africa, to share and reflect on their experiences during their term of office with the continent and upcoming leaders on issues of economic and political governance."

This joint event hosted by Wits University and the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University is a follow-up to three previous annual roundtables.

CANADA :

EUROPE :

EU Goes Back to Congo

By Tim Williams Apr 2006

http://www.rusi.org/publications/newsbrief/ref:P444666AE0AC82/

In 2003 the EU’s first military mission without NATO support was deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Operation Artemis was a small French-led endeavour designed to support the 17,000 strong UN MONUC (Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) force in the DRC. The EU operation was specifically charged with stabilizing the humanitarian and security situation near Bunia in eastern DRC after fighting had broken out between rival militias and completed its deployment after three months. Since that time, the EU has assumed control of SFOR (Stabilization Force) in Bosnia, provided military support (along with NATO) to the African Union’s (AU) AMIS II mission in Darfur, and engaged in numerous monitoring, rule of law, border security and police missions. And the EU Council has now agreed to launch a second mission to the DRC.

CHINE :

INDE :

BRAZIL: