Saturday, 2 August 2014

[AfricaRealities] A Quiet Murder in Rwanda

A Quiet Murder in Rwanda

JULY 20, 2014

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Gustave Makonene, coordinator of Transparency International Rwanda's Advocacy and Legal Advice Center in Rubavu.
© 2012 Private

Author(s):

Wenzel Michalski

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The details of Gustave Makonene's death are gruesome. His body was found outside the lakeside town of Rubavu, in northwestern Rwanda, on July 18, 2013. The police medical report indicated he was strangled. Local residents who saw his body gave Human Rights Watch more graphic detail. They believed his body may have been thrown from a car on a road above the lake and ended up twisted around a large tree, which had blocked its fall into the water. There was a rope around his neck. One of the first people to see Makonene's body told Human Rights Watch that passers-by were afraid of approaching. "People were shocked," he said. "We did not understand why this happened."

Gustave Makonene was the coordinator of Transparency International Rwanda's Advocacy and Legal Advice Center in Rubavu. Until his death, he didn't have a high public profile. He just got on with his work, receiving and investigating cases for the anti-corruption organization. Some of the recent cases he had handled reportedly involved allegations of corruption by members of the police.

His brutal, unexplained death briefly thrust Makonene into the spotlight. But within a short time, no one was talking about it anymore and it seemed the matter had been forgotten. When Human Rights Watch began its own investigation into the case and issued a news release, the reaction we encountered was, at best, passive concern. More often it was a disturbing silence and evasion.

The German government should be leading calls for justice for Makonene's murder. Not only is Germany an important donor and longstanding friend of Rwanda, but it is also the home of Transparency International's headquarters. The German Development Agency Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports Transparency International Rwanda, so the murder of one of its employees should be of direct concern.

One year on, there are still many unanswered questions about Makonene's death and the motive for his murder. To date, official investigations have not shed any light on the circumstances of his death. Soon after the murder, the police arrested four people, but they were released for lack of evidence. There have been no further arrests. In January 2014, Rwandan justice officials told Human Rights Watch that there had been no progress in their investigations but that the case was still open. Recently the ministry of justice told Human Rights Watch that investigations were ongoing and that there was additional information from the police, but did not provide further details. Barring a lucky break, these questions will continue to haunt Makonene's family and friends.

But there are other, equally troubling questions. Why have Rwanda's media and independent organizations been so quiet about this murder, and what does this silence mean for the few human rights and anti-corruption activists left in the country?

As a result of years of government intimidation and harassment, Rwanda's independent non-governmental organizations are extremely weak. The collective public silence around Makonene's murder reflects a broader fear of speaking out on politically sensitive cases. The Rwandan media, dominated by pro-government press and radio, are similarly reluctant to report on such cases. As a result, the murder of this anti-corruption activist slipped under the radar. Hardly anyone inside or outside Rwanda had even heard about it.

Contrast this with neighboring Burundi, for example, where five years after the murder of the anti-corruption activist Ernest Manirumva, nongovernmental organizations continue to organize public demonstrations every year on the anniversary of his death, hold news conferences and mobilize international support – despite repeated harassment and threats by state officials. Manirumva's friends and colleagues will not rest until justice is served. Their counterparts in Rwanda are nowhere to be seen.

When an anti-corruption campaigner is violently murdered in any country, alarm bells should ring. But human rights organizations and journalists in Rwanda have been so cowed over the years that none of them dare campaign publicly about human rights abuses anymore. Even fewer carry out in-depth work on corruption. The silence around Makonene's death speaks volumes.

Rwandan prosecuting authorities should re-focus their efforts on this case, not only to deliver justice to Makonene's family but to reassure Rwanda's remaining few activists.

At the international level too, there is a responsibility to ensure that this case is not forgotten. If local voices in Rwanda have been silenced, international voices must rise in their place. The safety of other activists in Rwanda depends on it.

The first anniversary of Makonene's death is an appropriate time for the German government to express that concern publicly and to ask Rwandan authorities to redouble their efforts to bring the killers to justice.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/20/quiet-murder-rwanda

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Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>

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[AfricaRealities] Africa’s Slide Toward Disaster

Africa's Slide Toward Disaster

A specter is haunting Africa — the specter of impunity. Many countries the United States considers allies are in the grip of corrupt, repressive tyrants; others are mired in endless conflict. As Washington prepares to host the first-ever U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit next week, American policy makers must acknowledge their contributions to this dismal situation. By lavishing billions of dollars in military and development aid on African states while failing to promote justice, democracy and the rule of law, American policies have fostered a culture of abuse and rebellion. This must change before the continent is so steeped in blood that there's no way back.

The summit seeks to highlight Africa's development successes and promote trade and investment on a continent rich in oil and natural resources. Justice and the rule of law aren't on the agenda. But they should be, unless American C.E.O.s want to see their investments evaporate.

Look at South Sudan, a country that declared independence just three years ago. Initially things seemed promising: The economy was booming and a new capital was planned with parks and boulevards. The American-supported United Nations Mission in South Sudan launched a nation-building program, with about $1 billion in annual financing for everything from free wheelbarrows to a new tax system.

But abuses committed by southern Sudanese against each other duringSudan's 22-year civil war, which ended in 2005, were never adequately addressed. Just weeks after South Sudan's independence, ethnic conflicts over cattle and grazing land broke out in Jonglei State. When massacres ensued, allegedly abetted by government security forces, the United Nations Mission failed to publicize government abuses or demand a response from President Salva Kiir. The United Nations was also largely silent when Mr. Kiir dismissed his cabinet and vice president in July 2013. When members of the South Sudanese armed forces began massacring Nuer soldiers and civilians in Juba last December, it's little wonder that civil war followed.

In Africa's richest country, Nigeria, corruption and mismanagement have left many people reliant upon $600 million in annual American aid. For years, Boko Haram has been committing atrocities across the country, including the April abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls. Initially, however, the group was just one of many calling for Islamic law to cleanse Nigeria of corruption. Then, in 2009, its founder and leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was arrested and executed after clashes with the police. Hundreds of others were subsequently arrested and killed by government security forces on suspicion of links to the group. This only intensified support for Boko Haram, even as it grew increasingly violent. If American and other Western leaders had urged Nigeria to respect the rule of law when it first engaged with Boko Haram, the sect might have eschewed such savagery.

Another of our African partners, Uganda, may also soon implode. In the two decades since I first worked as a development consultant there, I have watched with horror as a promising country descended into tyranny. President Yoweri Museveni and his henchmen have conned the West out of billions of foreign aid dollars, using these funds to rig elections, torture critics and perhaps worse. The Ugandan Army needlessly prolonged the war against rebel leader Joseph Kony, commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, while looting its own bloated defense budget.

Uganda supported some of the rebels responsible for mass murder and rape in Democratic Republic of Congo; the Ugandan Army also stole up to $10 billion worth of timber, minerals and elephant tusks from that country, according to the International Court of Justice. The Ugandan Army's backing of President Kiir in the South Sudanese civil war has almost certainly prolonged that conflict. Ugandans serving in the American-supported African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia even reportedly sold guns to the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabab.

Kampala has so prodigiously looted American aid, mainly earmarked for public health, that rates of malaria are now significantly higher than they were in the 1990s. Women at Mulago Hospital, Uganda's largest, are more likely to die in childbirth today than they were during Idi Amin's presidency in the 1970s. Some critics of Mr. Museveni's government languish in jails where, their lawyers say, they are tortured or killed.

Mr. Museveni long assured the West that he would never pass a vicious anti-homosexuality bill, imposing life sentences on some "offenders," that had languished in Parliament since 2009. But in February, with his popularity plunging because of staggering unemployment, corruption and collapsing public services, he signed it into law with great fanfare. When the United States and other donors threatened (and later imposed) sanctions, Mr. Museveni informed them that the law would be contested in the Ugandan Constitutional Court. On Friday, the court struck down the law; one of the petitioners, Fox Odoi, was the Ugandan president's onetime legal adviser. Thus Mr. Museveni may have quietly supported the challenge in order to dupe the West yet again, this time into trusting the integrity of Ugandan justice.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is ignoring graver abuses stemming from Mr. Museveni's long assault on the rule of law. This not only undermines Uganda's struggle for L.G.B.T. rights, but may also be leading the country to civil war. Signs of stress in the Ugandan Army are emerging, with members of its elite special forces, commanded by President Museveni's son, Lt. Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, having reportedly defected to parts unknown, and with army barracks having been the targets of numerous attacks in recent weeks.

It may be too late to prevent another African country from self-destructing. But President Obama and other Western leaders should learn from this pattern of atrocities, particularly since some currently peaceful countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya are also imperiled by a culture of impunity. The West must use all means, including aid cuts, trade sanctions, travel bans and forceful public statements, to punish governments that abuse their own people — before it's too late. The best guarantee of peace and prosperity is justice. Indifference to it, as the agenda of the U.S.-Africa summit appears to reflect, is creating the very disasters its delegates wish to avoid.

Helen Epstein is the author of "The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/opinion/africas-slide-toward-disaster.html?_r=0

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Posted by: Afrika Watch <afrikawatch@yahoo.com>

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Friday, 1 August 2014

[AfricaRealities] Facebook expands Africa push

Facebook expands Africa push

It's the new frontier for the internet - connecting billions of people in Africa and Asia who have yet to sample the delights of the digital world. Through an organisation called Internet.org, Facebook has put itself at the forefront of this mission.

Today it unveils a clever plan to get millions of people in Zambia online. It is without doubt a laudable philanthropic mission - but in the long run it could also be hugely important to Facebook's growth.

As Guy Rosen of Internet.org explained to me over a video link from Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters, 85% of those people who aren't connected to the internet are in places with mobile phone coverage. There are two reasons why, despite the widespread use of mobile phones, they have not tried the internet - affordability and awareness. In other words, data use on a mobile phone is far too expensive for most people and they have no idea of what advantages it might offer them.

The plan in Zambia is to address both those issues. The mobile operator Airtel - like a number in Africa - has been offering a simple Facebook experience for free on mobile phones. Now in Zambia it will offer an Internet.org app which will supply Facebook but also a number of other web services. Users will get access to Wikipedia, job sites, weather forecasts, and information about health, all without paying any data charges.

More at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28580900

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Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>

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[AfricaRealities] South Africa Land Reforms Still Contentious 20 Years Later

South Africa Land Reforms Still Contentious 20 Years Later

JOHANNESBURG —

In 2014, 20 years after the end of apartheid, land issues remain as contentious in South Africa as they ever have. Activists argue that the pace of land reform is slow and biased, while legal experts are scratching their heads about how some proposed reforms would be implemented.

Land reform is a prickly issue in South Africa. For some it conjures up images of land being stolen from black people under apartheid. For others, mainly whites, it incites fear of being evicted from their farms, echoing Zimbabwe's forceful approach.

Today, most of South Africa's most fertile land is still in the hands of a few thousand white commercial farmers. The government now wants to buy land from those owners and redistribute it to black people who were forced off it during white-minority rule.

The Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill became law on July 1. The law reopens a claims process that ended in 1998, and gives people who were forcibly moved from their land five years to lodge new claims. If claimants are successful, they are given the option of getting their land back or receiving financial compensation.

Nomfundo Gobodo, who is the country's chief land claims commissioner, says the law is necessary.

"You find that peoples' wounds have not yet healed," said Gobodo. "No, they still remember… the stories where people say they went to school and when they came back they didn't have a home. It is really about giving back people's dignity."

However, the process is fraught with problems. Some experts argue that there is a lack of capital to sustain farms under new ownership and that many black farmers who would win land claims do not have the skills to keep the farms commercially viable.

More than 5,000 claims have been lodged in the first month. The majority, Gobodo says, are opting to take cash payment over having their land back. But she warns that this short-term win won't break down inequality and poverty for future generations.

"I think that the people really feel that they need immediate benefits and so they usually want to opt for financial compensation. But what we are undertaking is to try and convince people that the better option long-term is the land," Gobodo said.

The government has made big promises. But less than 10 percent of white-owned land has been handed over since 1994. Out of the nearly 80,000 land claims submitted during the 1990s, 8,000 still have not been settled due to protracted legal battles.

Corruption could also taint the process as politically connected traditional authorities try to push through large land claims.

The better off may reap the rewards of a scheme originally designed to reduce poverty and inequality says Ruth Hall, an associate professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.

"[There are] many more challenges - the question of how to distribute the land? And the one of the most contentious issues is who should get it?" she said. "Here there are powerful lobbies in favor of black commercial farmers who would like to get access and would like to get state subsidies to do so."

Some politicians are calling for a more drastic approach - including taking land from white farmers without compensation.

The government is considering a proposal to transfer a 50 percent share of commercial farmland to workers in proportion to the amount of time they have worked on the land.

It would be an unprecedented move in land reform. Heated parliamentary discussions and outcry from farmers suggest a rocky road ahead.

Hall says there is huge disconnect between policy and the demands of rural people.

"Many of the farm workers organizations we've been working with have been saying, 'We didn't want to have equity in the commercial farms where we already have experienced oppression," she said. "We would much rather have land of our own.' And that is what we are asking government for, give us land of our own and also many people would like to remain in their jobs on farms, give us better living and working conditions, implement and enforce minimum wages.'"

Whichever way the debate turns, it is clear that South Africa's land issues are far from over.

Source:

http://www.voanews.com/content/south-africa-land-reforms-still-contentious-twnty-years-later-/1968908.html

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Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>

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[AfricaRealities] African and U.S. Civil Society Leaders to Host Alternative Forum to White House African Leaders Summit

African and U.S. Civil Society Leaders to Host Alternative Forum to White House African Leaders Summit

RESS RELEASE

Washington, DC — Progressive Activists, NGOs, and Scholars Say Obama Administration is Ignoring Critical Issues

On the eve of President Obama's historic African Leaders Summit, nearly 100 grassroots citizen-activists, scholars, progressive NGOs and community organizers from Africa and the United States will gather for US-Africa Network's (USAN) Empowered Africa Dialogue.

There, participants will critique significant issues related to U.S.-Africa policy, and discuss alternative strategies and policies from a progressive and proactive perspective.

"People should be at the center of U.S. policy in Africa," said Prexy Nesbitt of the US-Africa Network in response to the criticism that President Obama's Africa policy has been focused on advancing corporate interests.

"Leaders in Africa and the U.S. should be responsive and accountable to the needs of their citizens and we should not assume that markets will take care of themselves. There needs to be an honest conversation about economic rights and social rights."

The full program is available here.

DETAILS
WHO: Civil Society Leaders from Africa and the US [partial list]
Jacqui Patterson, NAACP, USA
Sulayman Nyang, Howard University, USA
Brenda Mofya, Oxfam International, Ethiopia
Mithika Mwenda, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, Kenya
Abel Ngigie, Firestone Agricultural Workers' Union of Liberia
Alvin Mosioma, Tax Justice Network Africa, Kenya
Khadija Sharife, Investigative Dashboard, South Africa

WHAT: Empowered Africa Dialogue
WHEN: August 4th 9:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. - Press gaggle 12:30 P.M.-1:00 PM.
WHERE: Howard University, Armour J. Blackburn Center, Gallery Lounge, 2400 Sixth St, NW, Washington, DC 20059
RSVP: Please RSVP to empoweredafrica2014@gmail.com.

The primary focus of the US-Africa Network is to promote progressive policies and relationships between Africa and the United States, with a particular emphasis on common issues that affect people around the world. The US-Africa Network facilitates communication and solidarity among people and groups in the United States, on the African continent, and in the African Diaspora. We work for universal human rights and global social justice, recognizing that contemporary global issues are interlinked to each other and not confined within geographical and social boundaries.

Source:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201407311771.html

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Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>

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-“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

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Saturday, 2 August 2014

[AfricaRealities] A Quiet Murder in Rwanda

A Quiet Murder in Rwanda

[AfricaRealities] Africa’s Slide Toward Disaster

Africa's Slide Toward Disaster

Friday, 1 August 2014

[AfricaRealities] Facebook expands Africa push

[AfricaRealities] South Africa Land Reforms Still Contentious 20 Years Later

[AfricaRealities] African and U.S. Civil Society Leaders to Host Alternative Forum to White House African Leaders Summit

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