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Saturday, 7 September 2013

USA: Should critics of Syria intervention be reminded of Rwanda?

Should critics of Syria intervention be reminded of Rwanda?

Opinion

Syrian refugees fetch water in the Za'atari refugee camp on February 1, 2013 in Za'atari, Jordan. Record numbers of refugees are fleeing the violence and bombings in Syria to cross the borders to safety in northern Jordan  and overwhelming the Za'atari camp. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Syrian refugees fetch water in the Za'atari refugee camp on February 1, 2013 in Za'atari, Jordan. Record numbers of refugees are fleeing the violence and bombings in Syria to cross the borders to safety in northern Jordan and overwhelming the Za'atari camp. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
The United Nations has said the current Syrian refugee crisis is the worst since Rwanda.
Nearly 2 million Syrian refugees have registered with the U.N. and fled their country across the borders into Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
African-Americans were very outspoken in criticizing the United States for not intervening in Rwanda, but the current humanitarian crisis is not inducing that same support.
Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose Syrian intervention. African-Americans, like most Americans, strongly oppose intervention in Syria. Some have even expressed sympathy for Assad, but some of those same black Americans — including members of the Congressional Black Caucus – decried our nation's lack of action during the Rwandan crisis of the mid-1990s.
There is no doubt that there is a humanitarian crisis in Syria. The question is whether military strikes are the appropriate way to respond and if so, whether Americans will support that action, in light of the past decade of wars in the middle east.
African-Americans may be more reluctant to support action in Syria after the past decade, and because the United States didn't get involved in Rwanda where nearly a million innocent civilians perished.  President Clinton later expressed remorse for not doing enough to help prevent the Rwandan genocide, but our lack of response and the tragic deaths just don't seem to hit as close to home as the myriad crises right here in Chicago and Philadelphia, as African-American children are dying and unable to get adequate educations.
Many Americans care about tragedies abroad, but do not want the United States to use our money and resources abroad, while our country is still in sequestration and congressional ineptitude doesn't allow action on jobs and infrastructure.  It's like trying to put out the fire at your neighbor's house when your house is still on fire.
The fact that there are so many domestic issues that have gone unaddressed make it much more difficult for Americans to support, particularly African-Americans who have heard repeatedly that America is "broke" and yet has plenty of money to drop bombs in the middle east.
The comparison to Rwanda is effective and one that President Obama has yet to make.  Instead of framing our response to Syria as an obligation because the president uttered the words "red line," and the media claims that since it was crossed he must act, perhaps the story about Syria should focus on the suffering of the women and children.
When the focus is on Bashar al-Assad, the entire public relations campaign to win over public and congressional support for action sounds like Iraq 2.0 with a new boogie man for Americans to fear.  Comparing this current crisis to Iraq is important, because our lack of thoughtfulness in entering that conflict was paid for with lives, limbs, and trillions.  But this comparison also helps to make the case for doing nothing in Syria.
The situation in Syria is both like Rwanda and like Iraq.  Both should inform our decision-making process and considering them could help persuade those who have no idea why anti-war President Barack Obama is asking the American people to support intervention.  Many Americans don't know why the use of chemical weapons requires swift action from the international community.  Many Americans don't know that the United States is bound by the Genocide Convention of 1948 to respond if there is a genocide taking place.
And many Americans don't understand why the rest of the international community can choose to not intervene in Syria, leaving American intervention as the only option.  Without framing this as the United States helping to curb a humanitarian disaster, Americans and particularly African-Americans may not support the president's actions.
Once it's framed properly as the United States being the global humanitarian, the next step is to convince Americans that a military strike that drops bombs and not food is actually going to help end this humanitarian disaster.


Rwanda: Will Karugarama survive a regime he has defended all his life?


The Hunter is hunted; will Karugarama survive a regime he has defended all his life?

When the former Minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama was sacked from the cabinet few people thought that the regime he has served and defended even in indefensible circumstances will hunt him the same way he used his office to hunt the innocent people under the orders of his boss president Kagame.
Karugarama
For those who know very well the way RPF operates will forgive Mr. Karugarama but for those who don't know will hang him with insults and other curses, because he headed the Ministry which in the last couples of years has watched  or powerlessly or ignored  judgments passed by his courts against innocent people. Indeed, it is in his tenure that many Rwandan politicians have been incarcerated simply because they do have different political views with his RPF Party.
Again, it is during his tenure that the Vice President of the Green Party Andrew Rwisereka Kagwa was decapitated and his body thrown in the swamp and his killers have never been brought justice.  Indeed, many Politicians like Deo Mushayid, Bernard Ntaganda, Victoire Ingabire have been locked up on concocted charges and are serving long sentences including life.
This is the kind of justice this honorable Minister has been on steering wheel  for almost 7 years being used by his boss to lock or unlock people  the regime want or don't want not because theiy are  guilty of any offence but because the regime don't like that individual to see the next rising sun.
Will Karugarama get justice in the Kangaroo courts he knows very well? Why is he then referring the journalist of the Izuba Rirashe which in fact is the sister news paper of the government mouth pieces the New Times that he is ready to go to court?  Many political commentators who know very well RPF have argued that Karugarama is in hot waters since he has refused to go and kneel down and apologize for the crimes of suggesting that the president should not stand after his term of office expires in 2017.
President Kagame has built the system on the foundation of fear, intimidation, killing, and sideling.  Indeed, RPF history has seen all the former senior military and civilian officials sidelined, killed, or made politically impotent.  The regime has run out of ideas and the only way of survival is to intimidate all the people perceived to have independent mind and Karugarama is the new victim of what we have all along been saying that RPF has created a monster that will not spare anybody even its own.  What are the remaining options for Karugarama if he wants save his own skin?
Fortunately Mr. Karugarama is not new in the RPF; he knows that it's just a blink of an eye for the system to assemble some people who will come out and accuse him of stealing money from the government, abuse of office and behaving in a manner incompatible with the good code of conduct of a leader of his caliber.    Actually they have already done it; her former permanent secretary has already come out accusing him.  All the government institutions have started giving a pre – trial testimony, what is now remaining is to order the prosecution to bring charges against him. This is exactly how he has indifferently or helplessly been sitting on the volcano of life and death which is likely to blow him into pieces in the same way many Rwandans have been blown out.
It is in this regard that Mr. Karugarama could go and kneel in front of the RPF cadres in the secretariat under the chairmanship of Francis Ngarambe, Christopher Bazivamo, Edward Bamporiki, just to mention a few in the same way his colleagues have done or he could come out and say enough is enough, lets stand up for the tyrant once and for all.  President Kagame is also a man who has tasted too much blood; indeed, he has become a political vampire he will not waste time in ordering his killing squad of Dan Munyuza, Jack Nziza and others to do something for him (kumufanyiya).  We have witnessed Kagame's brutality, where he has killed both enemies and friends, just recently he told his Tanzanian counterpart that he will wait for him at the right place and time, and then hit him. If he can say such undiplomatic words to a president of another country, what about a man he thinks is a fly which could be hit with even a hammer if necessary?
The French have an adage that not every true thing should be said, it is not therefore surprising that Mr. Karugarama has been pushed from the RPF system in the same way his many colleagues have found themselves on the wrong side of RPF just because in his own judgment and belief Kagame should not seek another term come 2017. This is the only crime Mr. Karugarama has committed which could land him in jail and come out after the elections.  Mr. Kagame should listen to his true friends, I mean those who tell him the truth or will be like his colleagues the likes of Mobutu of former Zaire, Hussein Mubarak of Egypt, Hissène Habré of Chad, Col. Kaddafi of Libya just to mention a few who lost their senses of smell and eventually missed in action or are in custody for the crimes against humanity they committed during their rule.
Jacqueline Umurungi
Brussels.

Igihugu cy'u Rwanda cyahagurukiwe n'intumwa z'ibihangange by'iyi si!


Madame Mary Robinson
http://www.rfi.fr/sites/filesrfi/dynimagecache/83/0/685/512/344/257/sites/images.rfi.fr/files/aef_image/000_DV1327176_0.jpgKuri uyu wa gatandatu taliki ya 7/09/2013 u Rwanda rurasurwa n'abashyitsi bakomeye bahagarariye ibihangange byo kuri iyi si. Abo bashyitsi niMadame Mary Robinsonuhagarariye umunyamabanga mukuru w'umuryango w'abibumbye wa ONU mu karere k'ibiyaga bigari uherekejwe na Russ Feingolduhagarariye igihugu cya Leta Zunze Ubumwe z'Amerika mu karere k'ibiyaga bigari, Koen Vervaeke,uhagarariye umuryango w'ibihugu by'i Burayi mu karere k'ibiyaga bigari, Martin Kobler , umuyobozi w'ingabo za ONU mu gihugu cya Congo naBoubacar Diarra uhagarariye umuryango w'ubumwe bw'Afurika.
 
Nk'uko bitangazwa na radiyo mpuzamahanga y'abafaransa RFI, aba bashyitsi barabonana na Ministre w'ububanyi n'amahanga w'u Rwanda Madame Mushikiwabo Louise na Ministre w'ingabo Kabarebe James, biteganyijwe ko bashobora no kubonana na Paul Kagame perezida w'u Rwanda.
 
Uru ruzinduko rw'aba bayobozi bahagaraririye ibihangange by'iyi si barukoreye mu Rwanda nyuma yaho baviriye mu nama y'ibihugu 11 bigize umuryango mpuzamahanga w'ibihugu bituriye ibiyaga bigari i Kampala muri Uganda ; aho mu nama y'abayobozi b'ibyo bihugu hafatiwemo icyemezo cyo gusaba igihugu cya Congo n'umutwe wa M23 gusubira mu biganiro i Kampala mugihe kitarenze iminsi 3 gusa kandi ibyo biganiro bikamara iminsi 14.Icyi cyemezo cyo gusubira mu biganiro kikaba cyari gihuriweho na Mary Robinson n'abayobozi b'u Rwanda.
 
Aba bayobozi basuye u Rwanda mu gihe ruri mu kato mpuzamahanga kuko rushinjwa kugira uruhare rukomeye mu guhungabanya umutekano w'akarere kose,ndetse mu cyumweru gishize umuryango w'abibumbye ukaba warongeye gushinja igihugu cy'u Rwanda gutera inkunga umutwe wa M23 mu bitero bya gisilikare uwo mutwe wagabye ku ngabo za Congo no ku ngabo z'umuryango w'abibumbye ziri i Goma ; Madame Mary Robinson uyoboye izo ntumwa akaba yaravuze mu cyumweru gishize ko azavugana n'abayobozi b'u Rwanda kuburyo busobanutse neza kandi ntakubica kuruhande uruhare rw'icyo gihugu mu mutekano mucye w'akarere kose.
 Russ-et-Koen.png
Gusa rero, ubwo Madame Mary Robinson yongeraga gusura umujyi wa Goma yagaragaje kuburyo budasubirwaho ko ntambabazi zizahabwa abarwanyi b'umutwe wa M23 bashinjwa gukora ibyaha cyangwa ngo abo barwanyi bemererwe kwinjira mu ngabo za Congo. Mary Robinson yavuze kuburyo budasubirwaho ko mu mishyikirano izakorwa i Kampala igomba kuzasuzuma uko umutwe wa M23 ugomba gushyira intwaro hasi ; icyo gitekerezo cya Mary Robinson cyo kwambura umutwe wa M23 intwaro abayobozi b'i Kigali bakaba batagishyigikiye na gato.
 
Twizere ko rya tangazamakuru ry'i Kigali ritaza gukubita abantu urusenda mu maso ribumvishako u Rwanda rwakiriye abayobozi bakomeye kuri iyi si bitewe ni uko ari igihugu cy'indashyikirwa mu kugira imiyoborere myiza nk'uko bakunze kubivuga ; ahubwo iryo tangazamakuru ritinyuke rivuge ko u Rwanda rwahagurukiwe n'abayobozi bakomeye b'iyi si kubera urugomo icyo gihugu kigaragaza mu guhungabanya umutekano w'akarere kose !
 
 
Ubwanditsi

Rwanda: Will Karugarama survive a regime he has defended all his life?


The Hunter is hunted; will Karugarama survive a regime he has defended all his life?

When the former Minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama was sacked from the cabinet few people thought that the regime he has served and defended even in indefensible circumstances will hunt him the same way he used his office to hunt the innocent people under the orders of his boss president Kagame.
Karugarama
For those who know very well the way RPF operates will forgive Mr. Karugarama but for those who don't know will hang him with insults and other curses, because he headed the Ministry which in the last couples of years has watched  or powerlessly or ignored  judgments passed by his courts against innocent people. Indeed, it is in his tenure that many Rwandan politicians have been incarcerated simply because they do have different political views with his RPF Party.
Again, it is during his tenure that the Vice President of the Green Party Andrew Rwisereka Kagwa was decapitated and his body thrown in the swamp and his killers have never been brought justice.  Indeed, many Politicians like Deo Mushayid, Bernard Ntaganda, Victoire Ingabire have been locked up on concocted charges and are serving long sentences including life.
This is the kind of justice this honorable Minister has been on steering wheel  for almost 7 years being used by his boss to lock or unlock people  the regime want or don't want not because theiy are  guilty of any offence but because the regime don't like that individual to see the next rising sun.
Will Karugarama get justice in the Kangaroo courts he knows very well? Why is he then referring the journalist of the Izuba Rirashe which in fact is the sister news paper of the government mouth pieces the New Times that he is ready to go to court?  Many political commentators who know very well RPF have argued that Karugarama is in hot waters since he has refused to go and kneel down and apologize for the crimes of suggesting that the president should not stand after his term of office expires in 2017.
President Kagame has built the system on the foundation of fear, intimidation, killing, and sideling.  Indeed, RPF history has seen all the former senior military and civilian officials sidelined, killed, or made politically impotent.  The regime has run out of ideas and the only way of survival is to intimidate all the people perceived to have independent mind and Karugarama is the new victim of what we have all along been saying that RPF has created a monster that will not spare anybody even its own.  What are the remaining options for Karugarama if he wants save his own skin?
Fortunately Mr. Karugarama is not new in the RPF; he knows that it's just a blink of an eye for the system to assemble some people who will come out and accuse him of stealing money from the government, abuse of office and behaving in a manner incompatible with the good code of conduct of a leader of his caliber.    Actually they have already done it; her former permanent secretary has already come out accusing him.  All the government institutions have started giving a pre – trial testimony, what is now remaining is to order the prosecution to bring charges against him. This is exactly how he has indifferently or helplessly been sitting on the volcano of life and death which is likely to blow him into pieces in the same way many Rwandans have been blown out.
It is in this regard that Mr. Karugarama could go and kneel in front of the RPF cadres in the secretariat under the chairmanship of Francis Ngarambe, Christopher Bazivamo, Edward Bamporiki, just to mention a few in the same way his colleagues have done or he could come out and say enough is enough, lets stand up for the tyrant once and for all.  President Kagame is also a man who has tasted too much blood; indeed, he has become a political vampire he will not waste time in ordering his killing squad of Dan Munyuza, Jack Nziza and others to do something for him (kumufanyiya).  We have witnessed Kagame's brutality, where he has killed both enemies and friends, just recently he told his Tanzanian counterpart that he will wait for him at the right place and time, and then hit him. If he can say such undiplomatic words to a president of another country, what about a man he thinks is a fly which could be hit with even a hammer if necessary?
The French have an adage that not every true thing should be said, it is not therefore surprising that Mr. Karugarama has been pushed from the RPF system in the same way his many colleagues have found themselves on the wrong side of RPF just because in his own judgment and belief Kagame should not seek another term come 2017. This is the only crime Mr. Karugarama has committed which could land him in jail and come out after the elections.  Mr. Kagame should listen to his true friends, I mean those who tell him the truth or will be like his colleagues the likes of Mobutu of former Zaire, Hussein Mubarak of Egypt, Hissène Habré of Chad, Col. Kaddafi of Libya just to mention a few who lost their senses of smell and eventually missed in action or are in custody for the crimes against humanity they committed during their rule.
Jacqueline Umurungi
Brussels.

USA: Should critics of Syria intervention be reminded of Rwanda?

Should critics of Syria intervention be reminded of Rwanda?

Opinion

Syrian refugees fetch water in the Za'atari refugee camp on February 1, 2013 in Za'atari, Jordan. Record numbers of refugees are fleeing the violence and bombings in Syria to cross the borders to safety in northern Jordan  and overwhelming the Za'atari camp. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Syrian refugees fetch water in the Za'atari refugee camp on February 1, 2013 in Za'atari, Jordan. Record numbers of refugees are fleeing the violence and bombings in Syria to cross the borders to safety in northern Jordan and overwhelming the Za'atari camp. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
The United Nations has said the current Syrian refugee crisis is the worst since Rwanda.
Nearly 2 million Syrian refugees have registered with the U.N. and fled their country across the borders into Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
African-Americans were very outspoken in criticizing the United States for not intervening in Rwanda, but the current humanitarian crisis is not inducing that same support.
Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose Syrian intervention. African-Americans, like most Americans, strongly oppose intervention in Syria. Some have even expressed sympathy for Assad, but some of those same black Americans — including members of the Congressional Black Caucus – decried our nation's lack of action during the Rwandan crisis of the mid-1990s.
There is no doubt that there is a humanitarian crisis in Syria. The question is whether military strikes are the appropriate way to respond and if so, whether Americans will support that action, in light of the past decade of wars in the middle east.
African-Americans may be more reluctant to support action in Syria after the past decade, and because the United States didn't get involved in Rwanda where nearly a million innocent civilians perished.  President Clinton later expressed remorse for not doing enough to help prevent the Rwandan genocide, but our lack of response and the tragic deaths just don't seem to hit as close to home as the myriad crises right here in Chicago and Philadelphia, as African-American children are dying and unable to get adequate educations.
Many Americans care about tragedies abroad, but do not want the United States to use our money and resources abroad, while our country is still in sequestration and congressional ineptitude doesn't allow action on jobs and infrastructure.  It's like trying to put out the fire at your neighbor's house when your house is still on fire.
The fact that there are so many domestic issues that have gone unaddressed make it much more difficult for Americans to support, particularly African-Americans who have heard repeatedly that America is "broke" and yet has plenty of money to drop bombs in the middle east.
The comparison to Rwanda is effective and one that President Obama has yet to make.  Instead of framing our response to Syria as an obligation because the president uttered the words "red line," and the media claims that since it was crossed he must act, perhaps the story about Syria should focus on the suffering of the women and children.
When the focus is on Bashar al-Assad, the entire public relations campaign to win over public and congressional support for action sounds like Iraq 2.0 with a new boogie man for Americans to fear.  Comparing this current crisis to Iraq is important, because our lack of thoughtfulness in entering that conflict was paid for with lives, limbs, and trillions.  But this comparison also helps to make the case for doing nothing in Syria.
The situation in Syria is both like Rwanda and like Iraq.  Both should inform our decision-making process and considering them could help persuade those who have no idea why anti-war President Barack Obama is asking the American people to support intervention.  Many Americans don't know why the use of chemical weapons requires swift action from the international community.  Many Americans don't know that the United States is bound by the Genocide Convention of 1948 to respond if there is a genocide taking place.
And many Americans don't understand why the rest of the international community can choose to not intervene in Syria, leaving American intervention as the only option.  Without framing this as the United States helping to curb a humanitarian disaster, Americans and particularly African-Americans may not support the president's actions.
Once it's framed properly as the United States being the global humanitarian, the next step is to convince Americans that a military strike that drops bombs and not food is actually going to help end this humanitarian disaster.


-“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.”

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