U.S. Asks Rwanda to Stop Backing Congo Rebels as Fighting Flares Up - WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130826-700275.html
 

U.S. Asks Rwanda to Stop Backing Congo Rebels as Fighting Flares Up

 
  By Nicholas Bariyo 

KAMPALA, Uganda--The U.S. government has asked Rwanda to end its support of M23 rebels in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo following days of intense fighting near the flashpoint border city of Goma which has heightened tensions along the common border.

It marks the second time this year that the U.S. is openly asking Rwanda to stop meddling in eastern Congo, underscoring Washington's growing frustration with Kigali, long accused of sponsoring violent insurgencies in the mineral-rich but restive nation.

The State Department condemned M23 rebel attacks on United Nations peacekeepers as well as attacks on civilians in Goma that killed at least three people over the weekend.

"We urgently call on the DRC and Rwandan governments to exercise restraint to prevent military escalation of the conflict or any action that puts civilians at risk," a State Department spokeswoman said in a statement Sunday.

"We reiterate our call for Rwanda to cease any and all support to the M23 and to respect the DRC's territorial integrity," she added.

Fighting erupted in the middle of last week after M23 rebels shelled Goma, killing several civilians. The UN peacekeeping mission, authorized in March to take on armed groups in the country, fired at M23 rebel positions Friday and has since been battling to push the rebels out of Goma's security zone to minimize threats to civilians.

The Rwandan government has accused the Congolese army of deliberately shelling its territory along the border in the past few days, a charge denied by the Congolese government. The accusations are threatening to ignite long-standing tensions along the border reminiscent of the conflict in the 1990s, when Rwanda invaded Congo ostensibly to hunt down rebel dissidents, triggering a large-scale war that later drew in several neighboring countries and culminating in the mass plunder of Congolese resources and the death of more than 5 million people.

The M23 rebel group is made up of mainly Congolese Tutsi former rebel fighters who were integrated into the national army under a 2009 peace accord. They mutinied in April 2012, accusing the government of reneging on the deal.

Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@dowjones.com

U.S. Asks Rwanda to Stop Backing Congo Rebels as Fighting Flares Up - WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130826-700275.html
 

U.S. Asks Rwanda to Stop Backing Congo Rebels as Fighting Flares Up

 
  By Nicholas Bariyo 

KAMPALA, Uganda--The U.S. government has asked Rwanda to end its support of M23 rebels in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo following days of intense fighting near the flashpoint border city of Goma which has heightened tensions along the common border.

It marks the second time this year that the U.S. is openly asking Rwanda to stop meddling in eastern Congo, underscoring Washington's growing frustration with Kigali, long accused of sponsoring violent insurgencies in the mineral-rich but restive nation.

The State Department condemned M23 rebel attacks on United Nations peacekeepers as well as attacks on civilians in Goma that killed at least three people over the weekend.

"We urgently call on the DRC and Rwandan governments to exercise restraint to prevent military escalation of the conflict or any action that puts civilians at risk," a State Department spokeswoman said in a statement Sunday.

"We reiterate our call for Rwanda to cease any and all support to the M23 and to respect the DRC's territorial integrity," she added.

Fighting erupted in the middle of last week after M23 rebels shelled Goma, killing several civilians. The UN peacekeeping mission, authorized in March to take on armed groups in the country, fired at M23 rebel positions Friday and has since been battling to push the rebels out of Goma's security zone to minimize threats to civilians.

The Rwandan government has accused the Congolese army of deliberately shelling its territory along the border in the past few days, a charge denied by the Congolese government. The accusations are threatening to ignite long-standing tensions along the border reminiscent of the conflict in the 1990s, when Rwanda invaded Congo ostensibly to hunt down rebel dissidents, triggering a large-scale war that later drew in several neighboring countries and culminating in the mass plunder of Congolese resources and the death of more than 5 million people.

The M23 rebel group is made up of mainly Congolese Tutsi former rebel fighters who were integrated into the national army under a 2009 peace accord. They mutinied in April 2012, accusing the government of reneging on the deal.

Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@dowjones.com

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Rwanda+contentiously+moves+to+seize++20+million+private+property/-/688340/1968442/-/item/0/-/pbipny/-/index.html

Rwanda contentiously moves to seize $20 million private property

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By Robert Mukombozi

Posted  Monday, August 26  2013 at  11:36

IN SUMMARY

South African based Rwandan billionaire and former Kagame confidante set to become latest victim

 
 

Johannesburg – A climate of fear among investors in Rwanda is hovering over the country after the Government's move to confiscate one of the top multimillion dollar private investments in the country.

Kigali plans to start with the confiscation of the mega Union Trade Centre at the heart of the capital's central business district claiming it is an abandoned business.

According to a letter sent to UTC proprietors by Rwanda's Prosecutor General, Mr Martin Ngoga, which Daily Monitor has reliably obtained, the government has ordered an immediate freeze of all the centre's bank accounts with Access Bank Limited.

Mr Ngoga's directive also orders for the freezing of bank accounts of UTC's primary stakeholder and Rwandan billionaire Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro and his wife Ms Nathalie Mukagatete.

Mr Rujugiro is the UTC founder and its largest shareholder.

Efforts to reach Mr Ngoga for a comment were futile as his mobile was switched off.

The Rwanda National Prosecuting Authority on 8 August instructed Access Bank to freeze the investor and his wife's 12 accounts allegedly to facilitate "ongoing criminal investigations."

However, the billionaire has dismissed the allegations as wild and ill-constructed.

In his first interview on the subject, he has expressed disappointment towards Mr Paul Kagame's government for such attacks on businesses.

"These actions by the Rwanda government are incomprehensible to me. UTC is an incorporated entity in Rwanda and a good corporate citizen since 2006. It pays tax and has not broken any laws," Mr Rujugiro told the Daily Monitor in an exclusive interview in Johannesburg, South Africa recently.

The $20 million Union Trade Centre is a business home to over 80 companies. Over 400 workers both local and foreign are earning a living from this investment located in Rwanda's Capital, Kigali.

The government is using the law enacted in 2004 to takeover property abandoned by individuals who fled the country after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Critics say the law provides a window for the government to expel any investor who is opposed to the government at will and confiscate their property as an abandoned business.

Ordinary Rwandans, according to Mr Rujugiro, are instead becoming victims as a result of this particular law.

"Why play strange games around the livelihoods of hard-working Rwandan businesses and workers? For me building successful businesses in Africa and in my native Rwanda is primarily about people and prosperity-creation," he said, adding that only then can Africans expand their resources base in order to cut down dependency on handouts from the west and east.

"That government wants to seize or destabilise it (UTC'S) is sad indeed. Actions such as this we are seeing in Rwanda of wanting to takeover an asset do not create prosperity, they destroy prosperity that is moreover created and grown from within. It is our people who suffer the consequences, not the government," Mr Rujugiro said, sounding a rude awakening to over 400 workers in Kigali whose jobs are on the line as a result of the Rwandan government's planned takeover of the UTC.

Mr Rujugiro, who now lives in South Africa, is a former advisor to President Kagame on entrepreneurship as part of Kagame's Presidential Advisory Committee alongside former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US Ex President Bill Clinton.

The Rwandan billionaire says he decided to migrate permanently to South Africa after realising the President's increasingly growing disapproval for opposing views.

Mr Rujugiro owns a chain of multimillion dollar investments across the continent in tobacco, cement, snack foods, tea, real estate and banking.

Mr Kagame, it is said, has increasingly become fearful of the billionaire's proximity to powerful Rwandan exiles such as Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa and Col. Patrick Karegeya both of whom are in South Africa, a link Mr Rujugiro vehemently denies.

Mr Kagame's attitude towards the business community and individuals opposed to his economic and political policies has raised concern of late, with some commentators saying it has become a big threat to the country's local and foreign investment.

"The government is abusing its own laws to stop independent investment. For instance the UTC in Kigali opened 12 years after the genocide and it is an excellent corporate citizen with five shareholders. For the Rwandan government to suggest it has been abandoned by its owners is laughable at best," Dr David Himbara, a Rwandan economist told Daily Monitor in an interview on Thursday.

Mr Himbara, a former senior advisor to President Paul Kagame on policy and strategy said such action by the Rwandan government to seize private property and businesses does not have a place in the modern age.

"It's illegal and unethical. The government neither notified Rujugiro of its plans to freeze the accounts nor did it allow for any legal recourse. This is the most ridiculous and unheard of decision by the government that I have ever come across," he said.

Meanwhile the World Bank's "Doing Business in the East African Community (EAC) 2013" report launched March this year ranks Rwanda among the top East African Community economies to introduce regulatory reforms that have improved the business environment between 2005 and 2012.

Globally, Rwanda is rated 52nd.

The World Bank report also highlights Rwanda's success in cutting red tape and encouraging private sector led growth. The report says "Rwanda's commitment to private sector development has facilitated growth in exports, domestic investment and foreign direct investment inflows—and the implementation of effective fiscal policies supported by structural and institutional reforms."

However, Dr Himbara disputed the report's findings. "Today you have a government terrorizing its investors and confiscating private property and business at will in Rwanda and tomorrow you have a World Bank report placing the country at the helm of investment destinations in Africa. How do you reconcile the two?"

He said unlike other countries, in Rwanda the power to open and close a business is entirely in the hands of the executive especially the President – and government investment structures such as the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) – are only mask institutions.

Repeated calls to the RDB Acting Chief Executive Officer Miss Claire Akamazi for a comment went unanswered. The Board, however, states on its website that "It is truly a one stop shop for all investors."

"The RDB is independent and influential," it says but quickly adds:"It reports directly to the President.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Rwanda+contentiously+moves+to+seize++20+million+private+property/-/688340/1968442/-/item/0/-/pbipny/-/index.html

Rwanda contentiously moves to seize $20 million private property

SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTRATING

By Robert Mukombozi

Posted  Monday, August 26  2013 at  11:36

IN SUMMARY

South African based Rwandan billionaire and former Kagame confidante set to become latest victim

 
 

Johannesburg – A climate of fear among investors in Rwanda is hovering over the country after the Government's move to confiscate one of the top multimillion dollar private investments in the country.

Kigali plans to start with the confiscation of the mega Union Trade Centre at the heart of the capital's central business district claiming it is an abandoned business.

According to a letter sent to UTC proprietors by Rwanda's Prosecutor General, Mr Martin Ngoga, which Daily Monitor has reliably obtained, the government has ordered an immediate freeze of all the centre's bank accounts with Access Bank Limited.

Mr Ngoga's directive also orders for the freezing of bank accounts of UTC's primary stakeholder and Rwandan billionaire Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro and his wife Ms Nathalie Mukagatete.

Mr Rujugiro is the UTC founder and its largest shareholder.

Efforts to reach Mr Ngoga for a comment were futile as his mobile was switched off.

The Rwanda National Prosecuting Authority on 8 August instructed Access Bank to freeze the investor and his wife's 12 accounts allegedly to facilitate "ongoing criminal investigations."

However, the billionaire has dismissed the allegations as wild and ill-constructed.

In his first interview on the subject, he has expressed disappointment towards Mr Paul Kagame's government for such attacks on businesses.

"These actions by the Rwanda government are incomprehensible to me. UTC is an incorporated entity in Rwanda and a good corporate citizen since 2006. It pays tax and has not broken any laws," Mr Rujugiro told the Daily Monitor in an exclusive interview in Johannesburg, South Africa recently.

The $20 million Union Trade Centre is a business home to over 80 companies. Over 400 workers both local and foreign are earning a living from this investment located in Rwanda's Capital, Kigali.

The government is using the law enacted in 2004 to takeover property abandoned by individuals who fled the country after the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Critics say the law provides a window for the government to expel any investor who is opposed to the government at will and confiscate their property as an abandoned business.

Ordinary Rwandans, according to Mr Rujugiro, are instead becoming victims as a result of this particular law.

"Why play strange games around the livelihoods of hard-working Rwandan businesses and workers? For me building successful businesses in Africa and in my native Rwanda is primarily about people and prosperity-creation," he said, adding that only then can Africans expand their resources base in order to cut down dependency on handouts from the west and east.

"That government wants to seize or destabilise it (UTC'S) is sad indeed. Actions such as this we are seeing in Rwanda of wanting to takeover an asset do not create prosperity, they destroy prosperity that is moreover created and grown from within. It is our people who suffer the consequences, not the government," Mr Rujugiro said, sounding a rude awakening to over 400 workers in Kigali whose jobs are on the line as a result of the Rwandan government's planned takeover of the UTC.

Mr Rujugiro, who now lives in South Africa, is a former advisor to President Kagame on entrepreneurship as part of Kagame's Presidential Advisory Committee alongside former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US Ex President Bill Clinton.

The Rwandan billionaire says he decided to migrate permanently to South Africa after realising the President's increasingly growing disapproval for opposing views.

Mr Rujugiro owns a chain of multimillion dollar investments across the continent in tobacco, cement, snack foods, tea, real estate and banking.

Mr Kagame, it is said, has increasingly become fearful of the billionaire's proximity to powerful Rwandan exiles such as Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa and Col. Patrick Karegeya both of whom are in South Africa, a link Mr Rujugiro vehemently denies.

Mr Kagame's attitude towards the business community and individuals opposed to his economic and political policies has raised concern of late, with some commentators saying it has become a big threat to the country's local and foreign investment.

"The government is abusing its own laws to stop independent investment. For instance the UTC in Kigali opened 12 years after the genocide and it is an excellent corporate citizen with five shareholders. For the Rwandan government to suggest it has been abandoned by its owners is laughable at best," Dr David Himbara, a Rwandan economist told Daily Monitor in an interview on Thursday.

Mr Himbara, a former senior advisor to President Paul Kagame on policy and strategy said such action by the Rwandan government to seize private property and businesses does not have a place in the modern age.

"It's illegal and unethical. The government neither notified Rujugiro of its plans to freeze the accounts nor did it allow for any legal recourse. This is the most ridiculous and unheard of decision by the government that I have ever come across," he said.

Meanwhile the World Bank's "Doing Business in the East African Community (EAC) 2013" report launched March this year ranks Rwanda among the top East African Community economies to introduce regulatory reforms that have improved the business environment between 2005 and 2012.

Globally, Rwanda is rated 52nd.

The World Bank report also highlights Rwanda's success in cutting red tape and encouraging private sector led growth. The report says "Rwanda's commitment to private sector development has facilitated growth in exports, domestic investment and foreign direct investment inflows—and the implementation of effective fiscal policies supported by structural and institutional reforms."

However, Dr Himbara disputed the report's findings. "Today you have a government terrorizing its investors and confiscating private property and business at will in Rwanda and tomorrow you have a World Bank report placing the country at the helm of investment destinations in Africa. How do you reconcile the two?"

He said unlike other countries, in Rwanda the power to open and close a business is entirely in the hands of the executive especially the President – and government investment structures such as the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) – are only mask institutions.

Repeated calls to the RDB Acting Chief Executive Officer Miss Claire Akamazi for a comment went unanswered. The Board, however, states on its website that "It is truly a one stop shop for all investors."

"The RDB is independent and influential," it says but quickly adds:"It reports directly to the President.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

President Clinton takes swipe at human rights groups, backs Kagame - Frost Illustrated Newspaper : Frost Illustrated Newspaper

http://www.frostillustrated.com/2013/president-clinton-takes-swipe-at-human-rights-groups/

President Clinton takes swipe at human rights groups, backs Kagame

Frost Illustrated Staff | August 20, 2013

Courtesy of Global Information Network

(GIN)—Former President Bill Clinton, on an African tour with daughter Chelsea, praised the Rwandan government lead by President Paul Kagame despite increasing evidence that Rwanda is backing ruthless rebels in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A feisty Clinton, in an extended interview with the BBC, barely contained himself when reminded that human rights advocates, the U.N. and even President Obama have linked Kagame to the M23 rebel group which reportedly employs child soldiers and uses "terrible acts of violence," according to the U.S. Treasury, which has placed sanctions on group members.

"Where were those human rights groups criticizing Rwanda today when Hutus were slaughtering Tutsis," Clinton asked BBC reporter Komla Dumor of Ghana. "…where were they when the Hutus went crazy in 1994?" To which Dumor responded: "Where was the world?"

Allegations of Rwanda's support for M23 rebels in DRC, said Clinton, "has not been fully litigated." He added: "Secondly, its complicated by the fact that this section of Congo near Rwanda is full of people who perpetrated the genocide, who spurned the president's offer to come home and not go to prison… and you can't get around the fact that the economic and social gains in Rwanda have been nothing short of astonishing under Kagame, and he says he going to leave when his time is up….

"…So I understand that some people in the human rights community believe that every good thing that has happened in Rwanda should be negated by what they allege they [Rwandans] have done in eastern Congo…."

In addition to support for M23, Dumor said, there's repression of media and other human rights abuses.

A laughing Clinton said: "Look, I believe in a free press. When I was president, I helped to keep the press free that made a living out of feasting on my bones everyday! And, I think too many politicians are too sensitive to being criticized.

"I think we have to be a little sensitive to the fact that if you're Rwandan, you remember that an alleged free press helped push Rwanda into a boiling cauldron of butchery…."

The Clintons' tour took them to Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa, where they pumped up support for the Coca Cola Company's Clinton Global Initiative Commitment which focuses on retail entrepreneurship for women.

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK distributes news and feature articles on Africa and the developing world to mainstream, alternative, ethnic and minority-owned outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.