Monday, 29 July 2013

John Kerry and Security Council silent on Rwanda backing M23 in Congo

http://www.anngarrison.com/audio/2013/07/28/452/john-kerry-and-security-council-silent-on-rwanda-backing-m23-in-congo

John Kerry and Security Council silent on Rwanda backing M23 in Congo

Submitted by Ann Garrison on Sun, 07/28/2013 - 08:48

John Kerry addressing the Security Council session on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, 07.25.2013KPFA Evening News, 07.27.2013

On Thursday, 07.25.2013, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry led a special UN Security Council session, on the Great Lakes Region and the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but failed to name Rwanda as the aggressor behind the M23 militia. On Friday, the next day, the UN awarded $400 million in aid to Rwanda.

Transcript:

KPFA Evening News Anchor Cameron Jones: On Monday this week, Human Rights Watch released a news report saying that Rwanda remains behind the M23 militia in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and that M23 is guilty of a new list of atrocities including the extrajudicial execution of at least 44 people and the rape of at least 61 women and girls. The report was published by major media outlets all over the world, and on the following day, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jan Paski told press that State was calling upon Rwanda to immediately end any support to M23, and withdraw its military personnel from eastern Congo. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.

The Congo conflict has cost over six million lives and created millions of refugees, over two million of them within Congo's own borders.

KPFA/Ann Garrison: Two days after the State Department's spokeswoman called on Rwanda to stop supporting M23, with reference to the Human Rights Watch report, Secretary of State John Kerry led a UN Security Council special session on Congo and the Great Lakes Region. Kerry spoke for over 16 minutes and referred to the report but did not identify Rwanda as the aggressor. All other parties who spoke in turn followed his lead. Many referred to the report, which does name Rwanda, as the aggressor behind M23, but did not name Rwanda themselves. Loyola University Professor of International Relations Brian Endless, speaking from Chicago, had this to say about why.

Brian Endless: Speaking about it in the Security Council . . . John Kerry in particular standing up and making a statement saying that Rwanda is involved here . . . would take this to a new level and make this a central issue on the international stage, and I think that's something that the U.S. and other major powers don't wanta do at this point in time. This is not something that's important to the people in power, and whether that's government power, or business power, or military power or the intelligence community, the vested interests that drive the country and that drive other countries in the world have no reason to change the status quo right now. This is one of those inconvenient truths that's out there. Six million. . . I think seven million is probably a safe estimate at this point. . . people have died in this conflict since the mid-1990s But, no one wants to talk about it. In part, in the case of Rwanda, because the Kagame government was the horse we backed after the genocide, we, the U.S., would get some political pie in the face, if we backed off of that now.

KPFA/Ann Garrison: On Friday, the day after the Security Council session on Congo and the Great Lakes Region, the UN awarded $400 million in aid, though even the UN investigators have suggested that aid to Rwanda frees up resources that continue to fuel its war in Congo.

For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.

Tags:

John Kerry

Congo

Rwanda

Great Lakes Region of Africa

Africa

DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo

DR Congo

IMPRISONMENT OF VICTOIRE INGABIRE VIOLATES RWANDA'S OWN CONSTITUTION | Black Star News

http://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/global-politics/imprisonment-of-victoire-ingabire-violates-rwandas-own-constitution

IMPRISONMENT OF VICTOIRE INGABIRE VIOLATES RWANDA'S OWN CONSTITUTION

ANN GARRISONJULY 28,2013

Rwanda's imprisoned opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire

^-A ⁺A

[Global: Africa] The hearings of the trial against Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza before the Supreme Court resumed on July 22, 2013 with responses of Mrs. Ingabire's defense counsel comprising lawyers Iain Edwards and Gatera Gashabana. Ian Edwards told the court that his client is prosecuted in violation of Article 19 of the International Convention on Human Rights as well as Article 33 of the Rwandan Constitution relating to freedom of expression. The defense counsel argued that the fact that Mrs. Ingabire condemned the genocide against the Tutsi and also condemned war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by some elements from RPF-Inkotanyi, targeting the Hutu, as well as pointing out that families of the victims of those crimes deserve the right to commemorate and mourn their loved ones, cannot be construed to be a minimization of the genocide as alleged by the prosecution.

According to the prosecution, the fact that Mrs. Victoire Ingabire made such comments at the memorial site for the genocide against the Tutsi and finger pointed some RPF elements indicates that she meant double genocide.

The defense lawyers explained to the court how when the High Court was running out of legal arguments to convict their client on the crime of minimization of genocide, the judges resorted to the use of Yves Ternon's article which was posted on Wikipedia without explaining how this author was expert in legal matters.The defense lawyers had also pointed out the ambiguity of the law punishing genocide ideology and the minimization of genocide.

Meanwhile, the prosecution had argued that the law was clear and that the reason why the defense lawyers couldn't understand it was due to their limited knowledge of Kinyarwanda language. Such an ambiguity had prompted Mrs. Victoire Ingabire to bring the case before the Supreme Court which had dismissed it.

However, the Ministry of Justice had itself acknowledged that the law was ambiguous and non-compliant with the international standards and had submitted a draft of revision to parliament. It is therefore astonishing that this same law which the Ministry acknowledged was ambiguous and not meeting international standards is currently being used to convict many innocent people.

Mrs. Victoire Ingabire asked the court to increase the frequency of hearings so that the trial can end in July before the beginning of the judiciary summer recess in August. The judges seemed to approve the request and promised Mrs. Ingabire that they would make sure that at least all of the hearings are completed by the end of this month.

- See more at: http://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/global-politics/imprisonment-of-victoire-ingabire-violates-rwandas-own-constitution#sthash.2pHnkpmw.dpuf

IMPRISONMENT OF VICTOIRE INGABIRE VIOLATES RWANDA'S OWN CONSTITUTION | Black Star News

http://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/global-politics/imprisonment-of-victoire-ingabire-violates-rwandas-own-constitution

IMPRISONMENT OF VICTOIRE INGABIRE VIOLATES RWANDA'S OWN CONSTITUTION

ANN GARRISONJULY 28,2013

^-A ⁺A

- See more at: http://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/global-politics/imprisonment-of-victoire-ingabire-violates-rwandas-own-constitution#sthash.2pHnkpmw.dpuf

Rwanda: A dead American officer used to discredit Human Rights Watch

http://www.theproxylake.com/2013/06/rwanda-attack-on-human-right-watch-dirty-tactics/

Rwanda: A dead American officer used to discredit Human Rights Watch

Share it now!

Rwanda attacks HRW

by Christophe Sangano

Who has interest in tarnishing the image and the work of Human Rights Watch in Rwanda? Who would go the extra mile in creating a fake 55-page report to discredit one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights?

A fake report with an already dead author !

A newly opened blog on the internet with the name of The Travesty of Human Rights Watch on Rwanda published a report about the Human Rights Watch on Rwanda. The report is titled The Travesty of Human Rights Watch on Rwanda. The author of the report is said to be Richard G. Johnson.

In Summary, the report shows how "HRW's discourse on Rwanda over the past twenty years has been viscerally hostile to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which defeated the genocidal Hutu Power regime in 1994, and systematically biased in favor of letting unrepentant Hutu Power political forces back into Rwandan political life…"

Before the reader takes a deeper look into the report, one will notice that the blog is named after the report itself. The blog was open in March 2013 and has no posts, no other pages except one page dated March 18, 2013 which contains the entire report dated March 19, 2013 and a link to download the report. In other words, the report was out on the internet (the 18th) before its own publication date (the 19th).

The Author of the report, who is also the owner of the blog is said to be "Richard G Johnson". Everyone will be surprised to know that the real Richard G. Johnson died in 2011 aged 90. In fact, according to Washington Post, Richard G. Johnson, 90, a retired political officer with the U.S. Foreign Service who specialized in Eastern European affairs, died on 19th November 2011 in his home in Potomac, Maryland, United States.

The problem is: the author died two years before the existence of the report and the blog belonging to him was also created by him two years after his own death. However, the same blog states that "he can be reached at richardgaronjohnson@gmail.com".

Are we talking about the same person? Yes. Theauthor's profile on Blogger is of Richard Johnson who "served as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State from 1979 to 2002, specializing in Russian, East European and North African affairs…"

No international publisher, journal, newspaper or blog posted this report but to raise awareness of that report, only Rwanda-based media wrote articles mentioning it:

On 21st March 2013, two days after the report publication , News of Rwanda newspaper wrote "A retired American diplomat Richard Johnson has rapped Washington-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) and said that what it does on Rwanda is not human rights advocacy, but rather political advocacy. In a well articulated document he called 'The Travesty of Human Rights Watch on Rwanda'; Johnson said that HWR has become profoundly unscrupulous in both its means and its ends."

On the 19 April 2013, The New Times referred to the report: "Last month, Richard Johnson, a retired American diplomat wrote a lengthy document; 'The travesty of Human Rights Watch on Rwanda' in which he says that HRW's discourse on Rwanda is a threat to peace and stability in the region."

A Ugandan newspaper The Independent published extracts from the report this way: "I'm a retired American diplomat. My professional experienceincludes the genocide in Bosnia, and my personal experience includes living in Rwanda in 2008-2010 as the spouse of another U.S. diplomat. My purpose here is not to defend the Rwandan government, which is accountable first and foremost to its own people as well as to a variety of outside institutions. My purpose is to expose and perhaps alter the conduct of HRW"

You do not need to have been in FBI training school to be able to identity without error who is the "really author of the report'

The most important point to retain here is the damage the report might be doing, in different courts, when HRW reports used by defense teams are being discredited using this pseudo report by a fake American experts. What does the late Richard G. Johnson's family think of all of this? Are they aware that his career and reputation are being used in these dirty tactics?

Christophe Sangano

Share it now!

Related Tags: Human Rights

Previous Topic: The Fifth of 5 Illusions a Naïve Visitor to Rwanda Falls for

Next Topic: Is Obama Calling Out Congo's Neighbors Enough For Peace In The Congo?

One Comment for "Rwanda: A dead American officer used to discredit Human Rights Watch"

Ann Garrison says:
29/07/2013 at 12:15
Thank you for this, Claire. I read the Richard Johnson report, but somehow failed to notice this until Vincent Harris brought it to my attention here on Colored Opinions:http://coloredopinions.blogspot.com/2013/07/democratization-catalyst-for-war-in.html
Reply

-“The root cause of the Rwandan tragedy of 1994 is the long and past historical ethnic dominance of one minority ethnic group to the other majority ethnic group. Ignoring this reality is giving a black cheque for the Rwandan people’s future and deepening resentment, hostility and hatred between the two groups.”

-« Ce dont j’ai le plus peur, c’est des gens qui croient que, du jour au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre ».

-“The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

-“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.”

-“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

Rwanda History

Pages

Monday, 29 July 2013