Monthly Archives: October 2017

Nigeria: Tackling Challenges in Steel Sector

re posted from                               All Africa

originally published 7 Jan 2016

http://allafrica.com/stories/201601080808.html

Nigeria: Tackling Challenges in Steel Sector

The steel industry is a key sector in Nigeria’s economy that should have been the bedrock of the country’s industrialization. The sector provides industrial items such as iron rods, barbed wires and coils, as well as metal doors and windows.

The sector should also have been providing employment to millions of Nigerians, particularly in steel rolling companies which produce steel materials, if the federal government had developed it over the years.

But instead, the sector has experienced perennial neglect which consequently inhibited its growth. Now, stakeholders in the sector stress that genuine efforts be made to address the challenges and save the sector from total collapse.

Global steel production grew enormously in the 20th century from a mere 28 million tonnes at the beginning of the 20th century to 781mn tonnes at the end. Over the course of the century, production of crude steel had risen at an astounding rate to a production level of about 1.6bn tonnes per year. Today, it is difficult to imagine a world without steel.

During the 20th century, the consumption of steel increased at an average annual rate of 3.3 per cent. By 1900, the United States of America was already producing 37 per cent of the world’s steel. With the post-war industrial development in Asia, that region now (at the turn of the 21st century) accounts for almost 40, with Europe (including the former Soviet Union) producing 36 per cent and North America 14.5 per cent.

Planning for the Nigerian steel industry started around 1958. Many international organizations and consulting firms were commissioned at various times to study the feasibility of steel plants under the aegis of the Federal Ministry of Industries. Parallel efforts were also made to identify and analyse the principal raw materials needed for the steel industry. In 1971, an extra-ministerial agency called the Nigerian Steel Development Authority (NSDA) was established to focalize efforts required to actualize a steel plant.

At one time, the Delta Steel Company (DSC), Aladja, was, rather than import super-concentrate, sourcing it from Itakpe (in Kogi state). The DSC was then supplying steel billets to the inland rolling mills at Jos, Oshogbo and Katsina. The steel produced in Aladja was said to have met international standard.

It is also on record that the Ajaokuta Steel Company, which was designed to operate on a “backward integration model”, had, by 1983, completed the rolling mills – namely the light section, billets, wire rod, medium section and structural mills – envisaged to provide the needed funds for the completion of the remaining five per cent of blast furnace yet to be completed. The Ajaokuta Steel is believed to be the largest integrated steel company in West Africa and has cost the federal government an estimated $7 billion (N1.1 trillion) since it was commissioned by the Shehu Shagari administration in the second republic.

Saliu Otori, the national chairman of the Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ISSSAN), who at different fora had spoken to journalists on the state of the ASC, blamed the comatose state of the plant on lack of political will by the government to complete the plant and bring it on stream.

“In our estimation as key stakeholders, the missing link in the gap that had hitherto existed in the real desire of the people of Nigeria to see Ajaokuta Steel plant completed and operational is the required political will by the government,” he said.

Experts in the steel sector say that as a developing nation, Nigeria’s steel production is supposed to be far more than her consumption as a country eager to develop. They estimated Nigeria’s present steel production at about 300,000 tonnes per annum, while consumption, as shown by recent studies in 2010, is above 20 million tonnes per annum.

Already, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, saddled with the burden of developing the country’s solid minerals sector, has started to smoke hot. On his first official visit to the company immediately after being sworn in as minister, Fayemi said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has resolved to revive the Ajaokuta steel company once and for all.

“I want to let you know that the president is very passionate about the Ajaokuta steel company. We will take a look at the company holistically with a view to making it work for the benefits of Nigerians. I’m here on a fact-finding mission. I have read much about the steel complex and have been briefed by the sole administrator. We will make a final decision on the complex, which Nigerians would be happy about.

“We are looking at the entire steel complex. We will not segment the plant. We are told that the captive power plant has been reactivated. After taking the one needed by the company, we will be happy if Kogi and its environs could benefit from the remaining megawatts,” Fayemi said.

In his inaugural press briefing, he hinted that the government would partner with relevant stakeholders that would help fix the moribund company for the country to be able to produce its own liquid steel for consumption by local industries.

“We want to build a sector that will support Nigeria’s industrialization, expansion of low- cost coal-generated power, earn foreign exchange and generate tax revenues for governments at all levels. Our strategic aspiration is to build a sustainable, globally competitive mining and related supporting sectors that will prudently use the finite resources available to improve the quality of life for Nigerians,” he said.

Speaking with journalists recently, Nuhu Audu, a former Deputy General Manager (Administration) with Ajaokuta Steel, who disagreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) option that importing steel is cheaper for the country, said, “Yes, it is cheaper, which is true, and the money government is spending on maintenance of the steel company was much. But it was an advice that is in the interest of the western world and not in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians, because the advantages of the steel plant cannot be measured in naira and kobo.”

Audu stressed that for any nation to develop and attain industrialization, steel development is a major catalyst. “In fact, steel is everything; making of cars, ships and even airplanes.”

To him, the western world does not want their hold on the steel market in Nigeria and by extension Africa to collapse and this is why they have been discouraging steel production in Nigeria through the IMF and World Bank’s advice.

Audu said, “At a time, the ASC was reputed to have the highest concentration of engineers. The engineers were trained in India and Russia but could not utilize their knowledge because of the collapse of the company.”

There is no doubt that the steel industry in Nigeria can be developed productively provided there is the will, commitment and genuine patriotism. Although it has been stagnant for so long, it could still be reactivated to provide the necessary vehicle for industrial transformation and growth.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201601080808.html

Militants kill 30 travelers in northeastern Congo

re posted from                                  PressTV

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/10/08/537911/Congo-militants-civilians-Beni-army-tensions-assailants

Sun Oct 8, 2017 04:07PM
This file photo shows a group of armed militants in DR Congo.
This file photo shows a group of armed militants in DR Congo.

Militants ambushed a group of about 30 civilians in northeastern Congo and killed many of them before fighting a fierce battle with the army, politicians said on Sunday.

The attack took place near the city of Beni and, if the deaths are confirmed, would be the first mass-killing this year in that area. It has seen relative peace since more than 800 people were killed in dozens of massacres between 2014 and 2016.

The spate of attacks raised serious questions about the state’s ability to impose order over a region full of ethnic tensions and plagued by pockets of lawlessness where armed groups prey on populations and exploit rich mineral reserves.

In the latest attack, on Saturday, assailants armed with machetes and guns ambushed travelers on the main road linking Beni territory in North Kivu province to neighboring Uganda, Boris Maelezo, a member of parliament from the area, told Reuters.

He said about 30 civilians were riding on motorbikes, with several people on each vehicle, and that most of them could have been killed.

Albert Baliesima Kadukima, another lawmaker from the area, said two women freed by the militants had told local authorities the assailants had slit the throats of more than a dozen people.

Mak Hazukay, a local army spokesman, said Congolese forces were battling the militants and attempting to dislodge them from a section of the road that was several kilometers long.

The two lawmakers and the army spokesman said the militants belonged to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan extremist group active near the border between Congo and Uganda.

Eastern Congo is a tinderbox of ethnic tensions and has been racked by conflict for more than two decades. It is the world’s biggest source of coltan, used in mobile phones and other electronic products.

Various armed groups have committed atrocities around Beni since late 2014 to settle scores and undermine rivals, with attacks sometimes sectarian in nature.

(Source: Reuters)

Source: PressTV

Plague hits Madagascar, what is the solution?

Plague hits Madagascar, what is the solution?

Since August Madagascar has been hit by an outbreak of the Plague.This is a disease of poverty. This is a yearly occurrence on this beautiful island, outbreaks vary in severity. The solution is not to try and kill the plague but to make people immune to it by killing the root cause which is poverty. Therefore the answer is to eradicate the globalist system that keeps Madagascar in such poverty.

Peurto Rico is suffering after the recent hurricanes. President Trump had the foresight and compassion to say that the solution is for Peurto Rico`s debt to be wiped out and for the island`s infrastructure to be developed. For Trump to say that was a really big thing because it is like sending a hurricane to hit Wall Street. Wall Street and the City of London are the seat of the globalists, the big money-lenders who like to keep the world enslaved with debt.

There is already a plan of action to resolve poverty in Madagascar and to join it to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.

Here is the first part of an excellent article translated from French, to read the rest go here:

http://www.sebastienperimony.fr/madagascar-une-ile-sur-la-nouvelle-route-de-la-soie/

Article rédigé en décembre 2016 par Mr Razafisambatra Louis De Mon Désir et Mr Périmony Sébastien.

 

« Antsika ny tany, antsika daholo, daholo » (A qui appartient la terre ? A nous).

“Today Madagascar is dying. An epidemic of corruption is rife in the country and people rich in history and potential, abandoned. The financial globilization set up in the past 70 years by the City of London and Wall Street has been transformed into “global misery”.

In Madagascar, the collapse of food and livestock farming and fishery resources has condemned the population to famine or immigration and plunged that part of our world into the “Heart of Darkness”.

Madagascar can and must get out of it and you have to put the price on it. It will not be just as we will see it,  to put schools or infrastructure here or there, but indeed to remobilize a population around its past and its future. To involve everyone, to feed, to clothe, to educate and to care for one another. To restore self esteem to the Malagache must become part of the great  project of mankind. A project in which France could be involved in , in partnership with South Africa and India, BRICS member countries.”

continue reading :

http://www.sebastienperimony.fr/madagascar-une-ile-sur-la-nouvelle-route-de-la-soie/

 

MONUSCO, the Monster that ate the Congo

MONUSCO the Monster that ate the Congo

Imagine if…

The year is 2020

Bashir al Assad has been sentenced to life by the ICC for crimes against humanity.A transitional government now runs Syria. The government is a coalition of moderate rebels, Al Nusra etc. with a token anti-Assad element from within the previous administration. Damascus is littered with statues to the heroes of the revolution – the White Helmets.

A tribunal is in progress and the officers of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces are being tried for crimes against humanity, accused of genocide within their own country. All high ranking officers will receive prison sentences and the entire world will accuse Syria`s military of genocide. The real Syria Civil Defence are also being tried for crimes against the civilian population.

The Syrian Arab Armed Forces are forced to retreat into Iraq and begin guerrilla warfare against the transitional government. They are labelled a terrorist organization and UN peacekeepers are positioned across Syria to protect the Syrian civilians from their terrorist activities.

The transitional government cuts off all ties with Russia and accepts IMF loans to rebuild the country. Western corporations flock to Syria to invest in its resources. To pay for the debt from the IMF loans all services in Syria are privatized and sold to a handful of private Western investors. The oil and gas rights are shared 50/50 between the national government and Glencore.

Raed Saleh of the White Helmets becomes the first president of `free Syria`. He is invited to Washington and adored by the international community. He gives speeches on how the free Syrian army has saved Syria. A new Syrian army is formed. It is a mix of all the ISIS rebel groups. The new government army begin a silent genocide . All pro-Assad citizens in the north of Syria are systematically murdered. Kurdish citizens are encouraged to immigrate to northern Syria to replace the reduced population of indigenous Syrians. A special homeland is set up for them and they are given minority rights that will allow them in future to form an autonomous province that will eventually become an independent Kurdish state.

Meanwhile the former Syrian Arab Armed Forces that has resorted to guerrilla warfare are bombed in their bases in Iraq and Syria by a coalition of the free Syrian army and UN peacekeeping forces. In order to restrict food and weapons from reaching them,the UN increases its presence in the region.

Civilian atrocities increase with reports of rape and mutilation. This is all attributed to the `terrorist` Syrian Arab Armed Forces. Eyewitness accounts describe the perpetrators as waving flags of the old Assad Syria, dressed in their uniforms and terrorizing the local population.But this is not the real Syrian army it is a state-supported fake entity in disguise.

Journalists who report this travesty and who try to clear the name of the Syrian Arab Army are convicted of supporting a terrorist group.

All of that is thankfully fiction in the case of Syria. But it is exactly what happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The lie is so monstrous and the sheer scale of the deception is so over-whelming that the truth is beginning to die.

The DRC is the world`s most prime real estate. Its untapped resources have an estimated value of $24 trillion. It is the feeding ground of a deeply psychopathic international elite.

The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)began with American State funding under the guidance of Roger Winter of the US State Department.It is a party of the Tutsi elite who believe in a Zionist-like right to their own homeland, they too believe in their superiority as a race.Paul Kagame was trained at Fort Leavenworth in 1990.

The RPF began incursions into Rwanda in the early 1990s. This was an operation to terrorize the population, stoke ethnic divide and ripen the environment for war. The RPF conducted the genocide of 1994 and overthrew the government of Juvenal Habyarimana who was assasinated at the start of the killings. It has been alleged that Romeo Dallaire`s UN mission was to shoot down the plane on which were the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi.Events at this time in Rwanda were called by the international media – civil war. There was no divide between Rwandans just as there was no divide between Syrians. Rwanda, like Syria was invaded.

Having over-seen the murder of 800 000 Rwandans Kagame was made Vice President in 1994.Kagame took the presidential office in 2000 after the resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu.

Paul Kagame was lauded as a `new breed of African leadership` by the international community. He is seen as the hero who saved Rwanda. The RPF began a methodical extermination of Hutus inside Rwanda in order to reduce the Hutu majority population. Returning refugees were systematically murdered in their thousands by using brutal methods that did not waste bullets.

The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) of the previous government evacuated to Congo after the victory of Kigali by the RPF. They took with them most of the Rwandan population who were fleeing in terror from the RPF.

The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) became what is known as the FDLR, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. Their mission was to remove Kagame and his occupying forces from their homeland, Rwanda. It was branded a terrorist organization by the US State Department and has been falsely accused of violence and atrocities in Eastern Congo.

A replica of FDLR was set-up by the government of DRC and has indeed carried out atrocities and still does so. People in Eastern Congo consider it a government army and call it an occupation force. Most  of the top officials are Tutsi Congolese nationals who are pro-Kabila and are the terrorist agents of Rwanda and Uganda.

It is the bogey man of Eastern Congo that justifies excessive military presence of UN peacekeeping forces who work with the government army (FARDC). It was branded a terrorist organization in order to justify money from the US State Department ; anti terrorist funding as part of the `War on Terror`.The Lords Resistance Army in Uganda, Boko Haram in Cameroon and Nigeria, Al Shebaab in Somalia all exist to justify NATO anti-terrorist aid. They are all also synthetic duplicats of existing organizations that originally formed with a justifiable cause.

Leaders of the real FDLR have been charged with crimes against humanity and sentenced to lengthy terms.

A Spanish priest, Juan Carrero Saralegui and other decent people who tried to clear the name of the real FDLR have been accused of funding a terrorist group.

Joseph Kabila was made president in 2001 under a transitional government. Peace talks resulted in the Sun City agreement.The outcome was a Congolese military that is the amalgamation of the Syrian version of `moderate rebels`. Former warlords were appointed to government positions.Elements within FARDC have since become perpetrators of a silent genocide in Eastern Congo. The UN stabilization mission, MONUSCO, has worked along side FARDC and elements within FARDC that are the real genocidaires.

Most of mineral rich Eastern Congo has been sold off to mining consortiums under the presidency of Joseph Kabila who is allegedly not the son of Laurent Kabila but a Rwandan named Hippolyte Kanambe who is related to Rwanda`s genocidal Tutsi elite.

The Kivu region of Eastern Congo is already considered an autonomous zone, functions as part of Rwanda`s economy and is being swamped with refugees who are not indigenous  Congo nationals.

The truth about what has happened in the heart of Africa is slipping away with the sands of time. It is the truth about the biggest heist and largest genocide that has ever occurred under the watchful eye of the international community of the United Nations.

 

Appeal for an end to relentless persecution of FDU-Inkingi members: case of Anselme Mutuyimana.

re posted from                              The Rwandan

http://www.therwandan.com/blog/appeal-for-an-end-to-relentless-persecution-of-fdu-inkingi-members-case-of-anselme-mutuyimana/

Appeal for an end to relentless persecution of FDU-Inkingi members: case of Anselme Mutuyimana.

Mr Anselme Mutuyimana

PRESS RELEASE

The FDU-Inkingi political party opposed to the repressive regime of
President Paul Kagame would like to appeal to all peace-loving people
and governments as well as human rights organisations to put pressure on
the Rwandan government to end the persecution and torture of its
members. We would like to draw the attention of the public on the
continued psychological and physical torture of Anselme Mutuyimana held
in Nyanza prison.

We have raised the pathetic situation of Mr Anselme in our earlier press
releases but the situation has deteriorated after the FDU-Inkingi
leadership was arrested and detained on trumped charges. He is regularly
beaten and put in solitary confinement in a very squeezed prison cell.

According to the investigation, he is subjected to sleep deprivation
even though he has been sick and needed to be transferred to Butare
University hospital for specialised examination and treatment. He was
first forced to sleep in the corridors of the prison and this was later
denied to him. Nobody is allowed to talk to him or to lend him their
sleeping space for him to get some sleep. Five inmates who either who
talked to him or gave him some space to sleep were punished when found.
He is said to have been refused to attend church service, to engage in
prayer groups or other group activities. He has been refused visits
since August 26, 2017. He is said to be regularly beaten accused of
leaking to newspapers negative information about the prison conditions.
The person responsible for his ordeal is alleged to be Superintendent
John Mukono.

We would like to condemn in the strongest terms possible the physical
ill-treatment and psychological torture of our member Anselme Mutuyimana
which is a violation of national and international law. We call on the
Rwandan government to carry out investigations on these allegations and
give justice to Anselme Mutuyimana.

London October 3, 2017

Justin Bahunga
Commissioner for External Relations and spokesperson
infocomrelext@fdu-rwanda.com

Source: http://www.therwandan.com/blog/appeal-for-an-end-to-relentless-persecution-of-fdu-inkingi-members-case-of-anselme-mutuyimana/

The Rwanda Hit List:Revisionism, Denial, and the Genocide Conspiracy

re posted from                          Conscious Being Alliance

http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/2010/03/the-rwanda-hit-list#more

original publication date 12 March 2010

The Rwanda Hit List:

Revisionism, Denial, and the Genocide Conspiracy

keith harmon snow
12 March 2010

RWANDA HIT LIST IMAGES003 LR.jpg

My experience with the Great Lakes region of Africa began in 1991. While traveling in southern Uganda I was witness to the shooting of an unarmed man by unknown assailants believed to be rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front. Since then I have worked tirelessly to uncover the truth about the war in the Dem. Republic of Congo (DRC) and ‘genocide’ in Rwanda.

I began researching and reporting on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Rwanda in 1995; I began reporting on events in Zaire (DRC) in 1996. In 2000 at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania I explored the case of Major Bernard Ntuyahaga, ex-Forces Armée Rwandaise (ex-FAR), a celebrated Hutu ‘genocide ringleader, who I personally met there.

Of course, I presumed the man guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide, prior to any trial, according to the prevailing climate of institutionalized suspicion and assumptions of guilt against all Hutu people, and certainly against all officials of the former government under President Juvenal Habyarimana. Major Ntuyahaga committed genocide. We all knew it. Why bother with a trial?

On April 6–the anniversary of the double presidential killings–2001 I gave expert testimony at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing, convened by Cynthia McKinney, ranking member of the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee, International Relations Committee, convened to assess genocide and covert operations in Central Africa.1

For the last 15 years I have been investigating militias and criminal rackets and propaganda about Central Africa. I investigated massacres, assassinations, torture, rape as a weapon of war, and disappearing, individuals and groups, multinational corporations, state and non-state actors, Africans and non-Africans.

Eastern Congo’s north and south Kivu provinces are effectively controlled to this day by criminal networks from Rwanda: there are Rwandans who have fled Rwanda there, and others who are allied with the Kagame regime.2 In DRC, I investigated numerous cites of atrocities committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front (RPA/F) and Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) as they marched across Zaire (DRC), calling themselves the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire/Congo (ADFL), and hunted down and slaughtered perhaps as many as 600,000 unarmed refugees, 1996-1997, mostly women and children under 15 years old.3 I have also interviewed European expatriates who are direct witnesses regarding massacres and/or the creation of mass graves, and the destruction of evidence (including the collection, removal and incineration of bodies and/or skeletons).4

My early reportage on Rwanda (1995-1997) unknowingly advanced false narratives about victims v. killers, and the nature of and culpability for atrocities, including ‘genocide’ in Rwanda. The established narrative remains overly simplified and the truth has been hijacked and suppressed by the mass media. My work has been very high profile, and I have been warned to stay out of Rwanda by Rwandan insiders. A few years ago the Government of Rwanda (GOR) labeled me a ‘genocide denier’ and I consider myself persona non grata in Rwanda (and Ethiopia).

On February 24, 2010 a communiqué was received by email from a Rwandan human rights organization in Belgium, written in Kinyarwanda and allegedly leaked, listing alleged directives from the Rwandan intelligence services to members of Rwanda’s Annual Ambassadors and High Commissioners Retreat. The closed-doors meeting of February 17-18, 2010–‘officially’ organized by Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Communications (MINAFFET) Minister Ms. Louis Mushikiwabo, and ‘officially’ held at MINAFFET headquarters in Kigali, Rwanda–was actually held in Gisenyi. The topic was: “Failure to implement Kigali’s orders: crack down the on opposition and other people tarnishing the current RPF government image.”

The document circulated coincident with the late February 2010 defection and flight of Rwanda’s ambassadors to Holland and India (see below). While its origin remains unverified, this document exemplifies the GOR’s modus operandi on public and international relations.

***************

Some Conclusions of the Ambassadors’ Meeting in Kigali
During an in camera meeting between the Rwandan ambassadors and President Kagame in February 2010, many issues were discussed.
The ambassadors have been criticized of failing to fulfill their mission of representing Rwanda abroad. They were reminded the instructions they failed to fulfill, with the consequences of tarnishing the Rwanda image following the negative propaganda by the Rwandan refugees.
They were given a report from the Intelligence Services revealing the enemies of the country who should be fought by all means possible and if necessary by assassination. The following are names of foreigners and organizations that need to be fought urgently.
Foreigners to target: Robin Philpot5; C. Peter Erlinder; Keith Harmon Snow; Jordi Palou-Loverdos; Peter Verlinden; Pierre Péan; Charles Onana; Filip Reyntjens; Luc de Temmerman.
Also target Rwandan refugees representing the FDLR [Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Congo] in Africa; Europe; America; and elsewhere.
Organizations to target, starting by their leaders (CLIIR; COSAR; FEDA; AJIIR; AGPJR; OPJDR).
Political parties that are active abroad, starting with their leaders (FDU/UDF; Intwari Partnership; PDR-Ihumure; PDP-Imanzi).
We are still collecting information about the list of the Rwandese people to be hunted specifically because they are sabotaging the Kigali regime. This list is long and it keeps growing, as enemies are getting more numerous.
The ambassadors were given all authority to have these people eliminated or discredited. Each ambassador would request, as needed, the government to provide all capabilities to attain his objectives. Whoever gets more information would kindly share with other group members.
Wishing you all the best.

***********

The westerners listed above (a few key ‘enemies’ names do not appear, including Christopher Black, Wayne Madsen, Cynthia McKinney, Luc Marchal, Mick Collins and Helmut Strizek) have pressed against public opinion and propaganda to expose the lies, disinformation and terrorism victimizing innocent people and shielding the true perpetrators of the crimes in Central Africa.

While we are led to believe that the perpetrators are those nasty genocidaires, the extremist Hutus, their Interahamwe militias, the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in Congo, and other undesirables, the primary responsible perpetrators are always protected. These are:

[1] Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front: the elite, extremist Tutsi network that has committed massive atrocities and widespread terrorism in Central Africa as far back as 1980, and primarily responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Rwanda (1990-present) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (1996-present);

[2] Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF): the elite, extremist Hema networks operating out of Uganda and the source of the RPA/F Tutsi networks, who together perpetrated massive war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, in Uganda (1980-present), Rwanda (1990-1998) the DRC (1996-present);6

[3] The backers, partners, allies and propagandists of the Kagame and Museveni regimes who are from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Europe.

States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Europe.

How do these terrorist networks maintain and spread their ideology and terrorism worldwide, even as into the United States?

uganda-map 1.jpg

ABOVE: Map from the petroleum sector showing petroleum concessions (green) under Lake Albert and in northern Uganda areas where the Ugandan government has interned Acholi people in death cames, leading to one of the greatest unacknowledged genocides of the current era, and the Barrick Gold (Bau) concessions in Congo and Tanzania.

 

The Dehumanization of Hutu People

Any person of Rwandan, Ugandan or Burundian origin, no matter their sex, age or ethnicity, or their civilian or military status, who has sought asylum from or in any way annoyed the Government of Rwanda (GOR), will be persecuted, subject to intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and detention without trial, if not torture, forced labor, extrajudicial execution, or being ‘disappeared’.

Rwandans inside and outside Rwanda are accused of ‘genocide’ or ‘complicity in genocide’ through fabricated evidence, coerced testimonies, bribery, and petty jealousies. There is no possibility of any kind of fair trial procedure in Rwanda and no possibility of freely investigating facts, or identifying and securing witnesses.

The categories ‘extremist Hutu’ and ‘moderate Hutu’, like the general categories of ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi,’ are complex and not easily negotiated in the context of ‘genocide’, ‘terrorism’ and other violence in Rwanda from 1990 to the present. The labels ‘genocidaire‘ and ‘Interahamwe‘ are freely applied by the RPA/F regime to demonize anyone they see fit, no matter the veracity or falseness of the claims against those they accuse.7

The GOR under the one-party control of Paul Kagame projects a shiny veneer of tourism, development and ‘entrepreneurism’, but submerged barely under the surface of this veneer there exists a climate of absolute terror and there are profound ethnic divisions leading towards war. We are beginning to see this more openly with the approach of the 2010 elections.8

Rwanda (and Uganda) is run by a secretive criminal military organization in parallel with formal government structures, responsible for the systematic and intentional deaths of: scores of thousands of persons in Rwanda from Oct 1, 1990 to April 5, 1994; hundreds of thousands of persons in Rwanda from April 6, 1994 to December 31, 1995; tens of thousands of persons in Rwanda between January 1, 1995 and January 1, 2010; between 200,000 and 700,000 Rwandan refugees in DRC and for the deaths of between 100,000 and 300,000 Burundian refugees in DRC between September 1996 and September 1997; and millions of persons of Rwandan, Congolese, Burundian and Ugandan origin in DRC between September 1996 and the present day.9

Language has also been manipulated for the dehumanization of all Hutu people. For example, the label ‘Interahamwe‘ has come to stand for ‘extremist murderous Hutu militias’ and has usually been translated from Kinyarwanda to mean “those who attack together.” Yet President Paul Kagame and the RPA/F military-intelligence apparatus applies this terminology to mean “anyone who is in opposition to the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front movement, its government, or its elite clandestine networks,” and in the case of Paul Kagame, even to “anyone I don’t like,” and the labels ‘Interahamwe‘ and genocidaire are used to dehumanize all Hutu people everywhere, just as the Jews were dehumanized by National Socialism in Germany prior to and during World War II. This has created the political, social and economic conditions for the perpetration of genocide by the RPA/F government, and its collaborators, and this dehumanization has been perpetuated through the international mass media, human rights institutions, think tanks, non-government organizations, and foreign governments everywhere.

RWANDA HIT LIST IMAGES004 LR.jpg

ABOVE: Hutu people in the DR Congo, as everywhere, have become the scapegoats for the international organized crime and its white collar war criminals, and their porxy agents, in Central Africa. This is the dehumanization of innocent men, women and children, and even babies have been massacred by the RPA in Rwanda and through the RPA’s invaders in Congo (RCD, CNDP) masquerading as Congolese.  The FDLR — Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda — are some of the most misunderstood and legitimate fighters in Central Africa. Comprisd of soldiers who fled the murderous US -RPA coup d’etat, these people are not Central Africa’s nightmare, as they are everywhere portrayed. War is peace. Victims are klillers, teh supposed killers are the victims.

The dehumanization of all Hutu people, and the persecution of anyone in opposition to the RPA/F, was supported as early as 1988 by certain international ‘legal’ and ‘human rights’ institutions working as clandestine agents and/or accomplices to the RPA/F agenda.

The terms ‘genocidaire‘ and ‘Interahamwe’ are meaningless due to the constituency and fluidity of these terms. For example, the President of the Interahamwe, presented to the world as an extremist Hutu killing organization, was Robert Kajuga, a Tutsi businessman. Similarly, the treasurer of the Interahamwe was Dieudonne Niyitegaka, a Hutu businessman resettled in Canada in reward for his collaboration to accuse and frame other Hutus with ‘genocide’. The RPA/F had infiltrated and controlled the Interahamwe, and this renders the terminology, and its ideological force, meaningless.

FARDC_Kivu.jpg

The criminal parallel structure behind the Rwandan government has been identified by numerous experts and investigations, including more than seven United Nations Panels of Experts between 2000 and 2009;10 the high court indictments of Spain11 and France12; the exhaustive analyses by eminent Rwandan experts, including Dr. Filip Reyntjens13; the work of investigative journalists like Charles Onana, Wayne Madsen and myself14; the Michael Hourigan report assessing blame for the presidential assassinations of April 6, 1994; the Robert Gersony report documenting RPF/A atrocities against tens of thousands of Rwandans in Rwanda in 1994; the Helmut Strizek report to the ICTR titled Discredit the Hutu Population Forever;15 ICTR defense attorneys Chris Black, Peter Erlinder, John Philpot, Phil Taylor and others; the McKinney hearings; and research by academics; and by many credible sources, human rights documents, testimonies and other examples in the public record.

Even Tutsis–the supposed victims (of the supposed Hutu conspiracy)–have been persecuted by the victorious and extremist RPA/F Tutsi regime in Rwanda. We all know the standard story about 800,000 to 1.2 million Tutsis killed. Well, these numbers are wrong, and the constituency of the dead is wrong. It cannot be denied that hundreds of thousands of Tutis were killed in Rwanda, especially if we confine our discussion to the 100 days of genocide from April 6 to July 1994.

Clearly, there is evidence of persecution and threats of persecution against Tutsis based on the established realities about acts of genocide committed by members of the Hutu ethnic group in Rwanda between April 6, 1994 and July 1994, and there has also been retaliatory violence, post-1994, against Tutsis. However, there is substantial documentation about the RPF/A regime killing Tutsis, because this elite Tutsi rebel force did not trust any members of the Tutsi minority who stayed in Rwanda after President Juvenal Habyarimana came to power in 1973: Rwandan Tutsis were generally eliminated, internally displaced, assassinated and/or forced to flee Rwanda.

The Genodynamics Project of academic researchers Dr. Christian Davenport and Dr. Alan Stam, both U.S. citizens, has seriously challenged the Rwanda genocide mythology. Stam and Davenport were labeled ‘genocide deniers’ by the mass media and the Tutsi expatriate community after publishing their interim research on ‘genocide’ in Rwanda and they are persona non grata in Rwanda today.16

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ABOVE: Pro-RPF propaganda in the New York Times Magazine takes many forms but all leads to the dehumanization of the Hutu people en masse, and lays the groundwork for the ongoing genocide against them.

There is overwhelming evidence establishing that crimes defined, prosecuted and/or punished as ‘genocide’ in Rwanda, whether before 1994, in 1994, or after 1994, were for reasons other than ethnicity. The GOR itself admits that both ‘Tutsis and moderate Hutus’ were victims of the violence in 1994. Thus while these acts of violence may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other crimes–including acts of genocide–the allegation that Hutus were both the victims and the perpetrators of the 1994 violence does not on its face meet the specific intent required of ‘genocide’ as defined by the international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.17 The current regime is responsible for massive bloodshed against all ethnic groups in Rwanda, and the façade is supported internationally due to the economic, political and military interests at stake.18 The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) also supported the façade, as confirmed by Carla Del Ponte, the former Chief Prosecutor of the ICTR, in her memoirs.19

People accused of ‘genocide’ in Rwanda have been brought before the so-called ‘community-based’ Gacaca tribunals repeatedly, compelled by the GOR to revisit their cases until a guilty verdict is established; many innocent civilians have been tried and retried until they were found guilty. After one Gacaca tribunal found the accused persons innocent the citizen judges fled for their lives, were captured, returned to their Gacaca and ‘compelled’ to retry the case, and returned a guilty verdict. Human rights experts have criticized the Gacaca system as a mechanism of terror used to silence critics.20

NKUNDA CNDP TANK GOMA.jpg

(Photo credit unknown.)

ABOVE: The murderous Rwandan RPF-aligned military (RCD, CNDP, etc etc) are the primary problem for eastern Congo, with Ugandan military (UPDF) a close second, and with the Penntagon, and now AFFRICOM, behind them.

Apologists for the Regime

The London-based ‘non-government organization’ African Rights was co-founded by Rakiya Omaar, a woman of Somali origin who has worked since 1990-1991 as a paid agent of the RPA/F regime, always casting the Hutus as perpetrators and Tutsis, and especially the RPA/F Tutsi extremists, as the victims of the violence, creating a positive image for the RPA/F.21

African Rights has generated false accusations against Rwandans that have led to their arrest and imprisonment and its ‘human rights investigations’ have whitewashed the RPA/F terrorism. African Rights has petitioned governments, the ICTR and other legal bodies, even Pope John Paul II, and it spreads disinformation in international media (only to happy to comply), and accused and secured the arrest and prosecution of RPA/F ‘dissidents’.22 For example, African Rights helped frame Monsignor Augustin Misago, the Bishop of Gikongoro, who was subsequently arrested and jailed in 1999, but cleared by the Rwandan Court in 2000.23 They have produced disinformation targeting Rwandan opposition in DRC24 (used by ICTR prosecutors25).

A Rwandan agent working for African Rights for the past 8-10 years, first in Kigali and then in Zambia, fled to seek asylum in Belgium in February 2010. Felicien Bahizi recently testified in a court of law (Scandinavia) about African Rights’ clandestine ties to the RPA/F, the falsification of documents and allegations used to accuse, indict and imprison ‘enemies’ of the regime.

An extension of the RPA/F network into the ‘human rights’ sector, African Rights is on the payroll of the RPA/F government, as evidenced by a letter from Rakiya Omaar requesting payment of an “outstanding $100,159” for their production of a propaganda book benefiting the regime.26 Rakiya Omaar works freely in Rwanda, where she has a special office.

There are other rights bodies and ‘experts’ on ‘genocide in Rwanda’ who have protected the killers and criminalized the victims, including the pro-RPA/F International Commission of Investigation on Human Rights Violations in Rwanda Since October 1, 1990, early reports by Africa Watch and Human Rights Watch, and others.27

The 1993 International Commission of Inquiry [ICI] on Rwanda included the Human Rights Watch expert on Rwanda, Alison Des Forges, and Canadian law professor William Schabas, both of whom have provided expert testimony used to convict Rwandans of genocide or related crimes, and both have been discredited in law courts. Schabas has been one of the U.S. government’s witnesses of choice for hunting refugees28 and travels free in Rwanda.

William Schabas and French human rights activist Jean Carbonare, both members of the ICI, were amongst the first to apply the term ‘genocide’ to Rwanda and against the Hutu government of Juvenal Habyarimana.

“On 22 January 1993, in a press statement published in Paris after returning from Kigali [as a member of the ICI], they accused President Habyarimana of having already committed Genocide against the Tutsis under the pretext of the RPF war launched on 1 October 1990. In a television broadcast with Bruno Masure on 28 January 1993, Jean Carbonare was given the opportunity to repeat the accusation to an audience of millions.”29

The ICTR has not prosecuted any suspects of the RPA/F, no matter the evidence of crimes, including: the assassinations of the presidents of Rwanda (Juvenal Habyarimana) and Burundi (Cyprien Ntaryamira), their chiefs of staff, several aides, and the French pilots of the Dassault Falcon 50 aircraft (a gift from French President Mitterand) on April 6, 1994, the pivotal event which sparked the 1994 genocide;30 or the massive crimes described in the indictments issued by the judiciaries of France and Spain.31

In December 2008, the Trial Chamber-1 at the ICTR acquitted the four highest-ranking senior military officers of the former government army, the ex-Forces Armee Rwandaise (ex-FAR), including General Theoneste Bagosora (the supposed ‘genocide mastermind’), of conspiracy to commit genocide.32

In November, 2009, the Appeals Chambers of the ICTR acquitted Protais Zigiranyirazo, brother-in-law of President Juvenal Habyarimana, of all charges of ‘genocide planning’, following seven years of trial at the ICTR, where the court found that the Prosecutor’s evidence was explained by normal military planning in the course of the four year Rwandan civil war (1990-1994).

In November, 2009, the Appeals Chambers of the ICTR acquitted, and ordered the immediate release of, Hormistas Nsengimana, charged with genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda in 1994.

The above ICTR judgments destroy the ‘conspiracy to commit genocide’ conspiracy universally charged to the former Hutu government and responsible for the total dehumanization of Hutu people everywhere.

Kagame_Leavenworth.jpg

ABOVE: Kagame’s comrades at the US Army’s Fort Levenworth, Kansas, 1990.

Vigilante Journalism

The current regime in Rwanda is aggressively hunting down any perceived threat, including dissidents, refugees, political opposition, former soldiers of the Habyarimana government (ex-FAR) and former RPF/A, regardless of ethnicity.

Goucher College (Md.) professor Dr. Leopold Munyakazi is one of their latest targets, falsely accused of being a genocidaire merely because he has been an outspoken critic of the regime. Dr. Munyakazi was unjustly framed–in support of the RPA/F agenda to neutralize him–by a short-lived NBC News television program that sought to gain high prime time ratings (read: corporate profits) by tracking down and ‘exposing’ supposed genocidaires. The program was titled THE WANTED, and the morality of ‘good versus evil’ was subliminally underscored by the choice of the show’s commentator, Scott Tyler, an ex-Navy Seal, who by moral implication embodies saintliness, while the wanted man, Dr. Leopold Munyakazi, embodies the devil. The zealous NBC News team acted as accuser, judge and jury against Dr. Munyakazi.33

The U.S. Embassy in Kigali allegedly assisted the criminal RPA/F regime in framing Dr. Munyakazi and, from August to December 2009, the U.S. Embassy collaborated in the RPA/F campaign of intimidation, bribery, detention and punishment of hundreds of people acquainted with Dr. Munyakazi, in order to fabricate evidence and coerce witnesses against him.

At Goucher College “a swirling retinue of about ten cameramen, technicians, and professional interrogators” descended on Dr. Munyakazi as he finished teaching a French class.34 Leading the pack was NBC Producer Adam Ciralsky: when contacted by other journalists, Ciralsky hid behind NBC’s corporate PR department.35 Prejudged by journalists and mass media, whether acting overzealously or in collaboration with the RPA/F regime, Rwanda’s critics, refugees and survivors have been falsely accused and, through the mass media, publicly branded as genocidaires.

Just as the NBC News television team targeted Dr. Leopold Munyakazi at Goucher College in February 2009, mass media sensationalism and genocidaire branding to advance the criminal aims of the GOR has been used before.

In Laredo, Texas in 1998, Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a Hutu pastor, was accosted by New Yorker magazine writer Philip Gourevitch, an RPA/F supporter and personal friend of Paul Kagame, whose book was one of the earliest propaganda tracts espousing the now entrenched narrative about Hutus (killers) v. Tutsis (victims) and the so-called ‘100 days of genocide’ in Rwanda.36 Ntakirutimana was extradited, tried and cionvicted by the ICTR; his story–sensationalized and fictionalized by Philip Gourevitch–was published in the award-winning non-fiction’ book whose title takes it’s name from a letter written by Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, but one which Gourevitch misconstrued and criminalized.37

RWANDA HIT LIST IMAGES001 LR.jpg

   ABOVE:  More of Philip Gourevitch’s pro-RPF propaganda in the The New Yorker (“The Life After,” 4 May 2009) manufactures concepts of justice, if problematic, at so-called “community-based” Gacaca tribunals in Rwandan villages. Gourevitch is cranking out one-sided propaganda: see, e.g., The New Yorker:  “The Arrest of Madame Agathe,” March 2, 2010, and “The Mutsinzi report on the Rwandan Genocide,” January 8, 2010.

The British Broadcasting Corporation in 2006 publicly branded as genocidaire Dr. Vincent Bajinya, a Hutu physician and U.K. citizen who lived and worked in London for years. Similar to the NBC camera crew’s unannounced confrontation with Dr. Leopold Munyakazi in Maryland, without any appointment or prior warning, a BBC team showed up on the street in London and shoved a television camera in Dr. Bajinya’s face and began interrogating him about his alleged role as a ‘mastermind’ of the Rwandan Genocide.38

Within days of the first BBC report, the Dr. Vincent Bajinya story was everywhere in the news and was combined with defamatory stories branding three other Rwandan refugees (Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo, and Celestin Ugirashebuja) supposedly ‘hiding’ in the U.K. The BBC framed all four refugees as ‘Most Wanted’ criminals and ‘masterminds’ of ‘genocide in Rwanda in 1994’. After confronting Bajinya in London the BBC team traveled to Rwanda and, escorted by GOR agents, filmed the places and people who testified on camera to the alleged crimes.

The four Rwandans were jailed for 28 months and the case was supported by RPA/F intelligence agent Jean Bosco Mutangana, the head of Rwanda’s genocide fugitives tracking unit, who also turned up with the NBC News crew and confronted the President of Goucher College (MD) and Dr. Leopold Munyakazi.39

The City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered the extradition of all four Rwandans but an appeals court on April 8, 2009, ruled that there was no freedom or justice in Rwanda ordered their release.40, 41

Enemies of the State

Who are Paul Kagame and the RPA/F regime’s ‘enemies’?

    • Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, Hutu, opponent of the previous Hutu (Habyarimana) government, later the first Prime Minister appointed by the RPF/A in 1994, who fled to exile 1995 after he challenged the RPF/A massacres of thousands of Hutu civilians at Kibeho refugee camp in April 1995;
  • Seth Sendashonga, Hutu, member of RPF/A, forced into exile in Kenya, 1995, after challenging the Kibeho massacres, assassinated in Kenya in 1998;
  • Pierre Celestin Rwigema, Hutu, Prime minister (circa 1995-2000), who fell out with the regime and went into exile in the US, and afterwards he was accused on ‘genocide’ charges (because he owned a gun in Kigali prior to 1994);
  • Alfred Mukezamfura, Hutu, Speaker of Rwanda’s National Assembly, who fled Rwanda to exile in Belgium (2008-2009), and who was afterwards accused of ‘genocide’, tried by the Gacaca courts in abstentia, and sentenced to 30 years in prison, who lives in exile, under the threat of an international arrest warrant issued by Kigali;
  • Stanley Safari, Hutu, civil servant under the Habayrimana government, who later became a Member of Parliament under the RPF government, a position held until 2009, who was forced to flee Rwanda in 2009, and was subsequently tried in abstentia by the Gacaca courts, on ‘genocide’ charges, and sentenced to 30 years in prison (Mr. Safari, who currently resides in the U.S., is accused by Rwandans in exile of denouncing innocent people who were subsequently imprisoned by the Kagame regime, and sentenced to harsh prison terms, between 1994 and 2009);
  • General Emmanuel Habyarimana, Hutu, ex-Forces Armee Rwandaise (ex-FAR), the RPF/A Minister of Defense after 1994, now residing in Switzerland, subject to threats of assassination to this day;
  • Theobald Gabwaya Rwaka, Hutu, founder of the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LIPRODHOR), Minister of the Interior under the RPA/F, fled Rwanda April 2002, lives in the U.S.;
  • Claudine Mazimpaka, Hutu, wife of Jean-Baptise Mberabahizi, Hutu, Secretary General of Unified Democratic Forces (FDU) opposition party, attacked in Belgium on October 24, 2009 by unidentified assailants (presumed to be sent by Kagame;
  • Joseph Ntawangundi, Hutu, aide to FDU opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, convicted in abstentia by Gacaca courts in 2007, beaten and jailed on ‘genocide’ charges in Kigali in February, 2010, after returning from exile to Rwanda in January 2010, to register an opposition party for the national elections of 2011; Mr. Ntawangundi was reportedly in Sweden (International Federation of Trade Unions) during the 1994 genocide, and returned after several months to Kenya, where he stayed in exile, and who remains in prison in Rwanda today;
  • Colonel Theoneste Lizinde, Hutu, FAR, Director General of Intelligence; imprisoned by the Habyarimana regime for an attempted coup d’etat; freed from a Ruhengeri prison by the RPA in a military raid in 1992; joined the RPA/F high military command: reportedly provided critical information about Kigali International Airport for the April 6, 1994 attack on the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. Fled to Zaire after becoming disenchanted with the RPA/F (1994-1995): assassinated by the RPA/F in Nairobi, 1995;
  • Jean-Pierre Bizimana, Hutu, former RPF/A intelligence agent, later the RPF government Minister of Education, most recently (2009-2010) Ambassador to the Netherlands, fled Rwanda into exile in late February 2010, after threats against him, allegedly due to his ties to the Rwandan opposition FUD party, and who is at this time seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland;
  • Victoire Ingabire, Hutu, leader of the FDU opposition party, formerly exiled in Holland since 1994, threatened and attacked in Rwanda after taking the opposition struggle back to Rwanda, under investigation by the RPA/F for espousing ‘genocide ideology’ today because she publicly raised questions about massacres of Hutus (and Tutsis) in Rwanda;
  • Joseph Sebarinzi, Tutsi, went into exile from Rwanda in 1979, returned to Rwanda under the Habyarimana government prior to 1990, but fled to Burundi in 1994, and returned to Rwanda after July 1994 to become Speaker of the National Assembly under the RPF/A government, and then fled (circa 2000) Rwanda after falling out of favor with the Kagame regime, and is now a United States citizen accused by the Kagame regime of treason for supporting the 1959 King of Rwanda;
  • Col. Balthazar Ndengeyinka, Hutu, member of the RPF/A, in exile in Switzerland after falling out with the Kagame regime;
  • General Kayumba Nyamwasa, Tutsi, RPF/A commander, more recently the Rwandan Ambassador to India (2001-2010), who was indicted by the Spanish Court (February 2009) 42, along with 40 other top RPF/A military officials, for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and was indicted by the French Court (December 2006)43, along with nine other RPF officials, for his participation in double presidential assassinations of April 6, 1994, who fled Rwanda to exile in Uganda in late February 2010, and escaped the Rwandan military-intelligence networks to exile in South Africa on March 2, 2010;
  • Journalist Godwin Agaba, previously imprisoned for courageous reporting from inside Rwanda, who was forced into hiding in early March 2010 and is on the run for his life, with an arrest warrant issued by the kagame regime;
  • Madame Agathe Habyarimana, Hutu wife of the assassinated President Juvenal Habayrimana, who tops Rwanda’s ‘most wanted’ list, falsely accused and arrested in Paris on March 2, 2010, the day after President Sarkozy made a deal with Kagame in Kigali;
  • The many other Hutu victims of the unjust ICTR court and the Kagame regime it protects.
Kabila_Kagame.jpg
(Photo credit unknown.)

ABOVE: Military strategist Kagame with his junior officer Hypolitte Kanambe, alias Joseph Kabila, now President of the DRC, behind him, circa 1995, in the RPA in Rwanda–before the RPA and UPDF marched across Congo murdering inncoent Hutu men, women and children by the hundreds of thousands.

Since August 2009 the Kagame regime has been intimidating, bribing and forcing ‘witnesses’ to fabricate evidence of Dr. Munyakazi’s guilt in order to attempt to substantiate these charges and convince the U.S. and public opinion that there are grounds for Dr. Munyakazi’s extradition. Some 200-300 people have been terrorized by the RPA/F regime in order to compel witness testimonies out of fear, and to frame Dr. Leopold Munyakazi.

In 2002, two of Dr. Munyakazi’s children were threatened and forced to flee to Europe where they were granted refugee status. In 2006 Dr. Munyakazi’s wife fled to the United States and applied for asylum after being threatened with imprisonment by local Rwandan authorities and blamed with “being married to a Hutu Interahamwe” because she refused to give false testimonies against the former neighbors of the Munyakazis. Between October and December 2006, three children of Dr. Munyakazi were systematically harassed and terrified, often through unannounced middle of the night visits, by the RPF/A Directorate of Military Intelligence and Local Defense Force agents; the family members fled to Uganda.

On August 3rd 2009, the chairperson of the Gacaca tribunal in Dr. Munyakazi’s native area reportedly confirmed that a dozen persons were put in jail because they had refused to give false accusations against Dr. Munyakazi. On September 2, 2009, she again informed Dr. Munyakazi that some 200 people had their cases revised before the Gacaca tribunal mainly to get a ‘legal reason’ to incarcerate them. From October 12-30, 2009, the Gacaca tribunal condemned 15 of these people to lengthy prison terms based on these fabricated crimes.

In seeking to fabricate evidence and extort or coerce testimonies against Dr. Leopold Munyakazi, the GOR has reportedly forced hundreds (minimum) of civilians from their homes in Dr. Leopold Munyakazi’s native and neighboring areas (Gitarama Prefecture), taken them to Kigali, and ‘interviewed’ them inside the U.S. Embassy, and with the collaboration of U.S. Embassy officials. Many refused to testify against Dr. Munyakazi and were subsequently, while some have accepted bribes to testify against Dr. Munyakazi, and some have later changed their minds when threatened with being brought before a Gacaca court on charges of ‘complicity in genocide’, while others have had their Gacaca hearings ‘re-done,’ with the understanding that no one is innocent, on penalty of violence from the GOR.

When Victims Become Killers

One of the latest pro-RPA/F vigilante refugee hunters on the Rwanda ‘genocidaire‘ trail is Jason Stearns, a former U.N. (MONUC) and International Crises Group ‘analyst’ (the ICG and its clone groups ENOUGH and Raise Hope for Congo are front for the U.S. National Security apparatus funded by the Center for American Progress).

Stearns also worked on several U.N. panels of experts on the illegal exploitation in the DR Congo, including the U.N. ‘experts’ report of November 2009, which launched a smear campaign against Fundacio S’Olivar and Inshuti, Spanish charities affiliated with Juan Carrero Seralegui, Jordi Palou-Loverdos (named on Rwanda’s ‘Hit List’ above) and Joan Casoliva Barcons, accusing them of backing terrorists in Congo. (A key ‘confidential source’ for the U.N. Panel of Experts [sic] has been the RPA/F front group African Rights: the November ‘experts’ report was fed information through RPA/F agents Theodore Nyilinkawaya in Brussels and Rakiya Omaar in Kigali. It appears that African Rights has maintained a tight connection to previous U.N. Panel of Expert’s as well.) This is the U.N.’s failed attempt to discredit the Spanish indictments against the RPA/F.44, 45

Working out of Yale University grad school, Stearns has been zealously gunning for Rwandans connected to the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an organization also targeted on Rwanda’s ‘Hit List’ (above) and Kagame’s disingenuous excuse, over and over, for RPA/F terrorism in DRC. “For an excellent review of the FDLR Diaspora,” Stearns wrote, citing the RPA/F front African Rights, “see Rakiya Omaar’s recent report: ‘The end in sight?‘”46

The Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)–until 2000 known as the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR)–are not the evil genocidaires respondible for every war crime in Central Africa, as they are billed by western flak organizations like ENOUGH, Raise Hope for Congo, the U.N. panels of experts, Jason Stearns and their benefactors in the Kagame muilitary regime. FDLR include ex-FAR soldiers forced out of Rwanda during the illegal RPA/F invasion and coup d’etat. Being in the losing side does not automatically make these soldiers genocidaires or war criminals: their cuilpability in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide is far less evident than the culpability of the RPA/F regime. So-called “FDLR” in Congo also include innocent women and children who have been subject to war crimes by the RPA/F and its factions (RCD, CNDP, etc.) and their artners, including the FARDC, and the United Nations Observers Mission for DR Congo (MONUC). To add insult to injury, the organized crime networks of the Kagame government, and even Canadian BANRO Ciorporation (illegally occupying and terrorizing South Kivu) have alliances and realtyionships with FDLR and other Hutu groups in eastern Congo.

The criminalized genocidaire label of ‘FDLR’ offers the ready made sound bite utilized by the media, by white skinned propagandists like Nicholas Kristof and Jeffrey Gettleman, by actorvists like Ben Affleck and George Clooney, and by western institutions like the United Nations, and US Government, to whitewash their own involvement in criminal exploitation of one stripe or another. The ultimate goal is western corporatte control achieved with through such supposedly ‘progressive’ legislation as the U.S. Congress bills in Blood Minerals. The situation with the Lord’s resistance Army–the scapegoat for which to excuse President Yoweri Museveni–and the LRA Disarmanent Act is identical, but different, but only to serve wetsren militarization and expropriation of African people’s lives and lands and loves.

U.N. ‘expert’ Jason Stearns never mentions the western corporations, intelligence agents or U.S. officials involved in the Great Lakes plunder. Instead, Stearns is on crusade against Dr. Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro and Dr. Felicien Kanyamibwa, two Rwandan intellectuals living in the U.S.A. named as leaders or former leaders of the FDLR. Stearns has lobbied the U.S. State Department to arrest and charge the Rwandan opposition leaders, by any means necessary, to “get them for material support to a terrorist organization” or “for having committed fraud on their immigration documents.” 47

Dr. Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro was director of the Rwandan Information Office (ORINOFOR) under the Habyarimana government: Dr. Higiro was a member of the MDR (Mouvement Démocratique Républicain), a political party opposed to the Habyarimana regime. He is one of very few intellectuals left alive with an insider’s understanding of the genocide propaganda leading up to April 6, 1994, and what scares the U.S. and their RPA/F proxy is his understanding of the genocidal media of the RPA/F.48

Dr. Higiro’s daughter was born in the USA, and Dr. Higiro and his family were evacuated from Rwanda to Burundi by the U.S. Embassy on April 9, 1994, was flown on a U.S. military Hercules C-130 to Nairobi (the USAF billed him for the flight). He was appointed Minister of Information to the RPF/A government on July 19, 1994, the day he flew to the U.S. He declined to return after reports of the RPF/A’s “unmistakable patterns of killings” of scores of thousands of Hutus.49, 50

Dr. Higiro has lived under constant threats and accusations–and assumptions of his ‘complicity in genocide’–to the present day, teaching at Western New England College in Springfield, Ma, a U.S. citizen since 2000. A photo that Dr. Higiro (his child in his arms) sent to his aged father in Rwanda was confiscated when African Rights investigators intimidated Dr. Higiro’s father at his home village in Rushaki, Rwanda; the photo identifies Dr. Higiro (one of the FDLR terrorists) in an African Rights document authored by Rakiya Omaar.51

Dr. Felicien Kanyamibwa left Rwanda in 1991 and was a Ph.D student in the U.S. in 1994. Funneled disinformation from African Rights, the Rwandan state media accused him of being a Hutu ‘hardliner’ tied to the Interahamwe and ex-FAR, casting him as a genocidaire.52 Dr. Kanyamibwa lives in New Jersey. As with most Rwandans being hunted by the RPA/F, the Department of Homeland Security is constantly harassing him.

The Christian Science Monitor has also been practicing vigilante journalism for the RPA/F through Max Delany and Scott Baldauf.53 The CSM advances U.S. State propaganda through the International Crises Group intelligence agents John Prendergast, former National Security Council under William Jefferson Clinton, and Guillaume Lacaille, former U.N. Political Affairs Officer and U.S. Embassy Attaché, and they protect western corporations plundering eastern Congo (Banro Resources, Cabot, Moto Gold, Anglo-Ashanti, etc.). Of course, the U.S. military’s AFRICOM is all over Central Africa, backing, training and funding the RPA/F and UPDF, building bases in Rwanda, Uganda, Congo and South Sudan, and force missions are run by the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command–SOCOM: covert operations, death squads, snatch-and-grab black ops, psychological warfare, other terrorism of the kind that first brought the RPA/F to power.54

Max Delany is working on a hit piece about Dr. Higiro and Dr. Kanyamibwa, expected to appear on April 6, 2010–the anniversary of the ‘plane crash’ [sic] that sparked the ‘100 days of genocide’ [sic]. “I hope that North America will do something about the FDLR leaders on their soil too,” the CSM quotes the ICG’s Lacaille to say. “Because when you go against the [Hutu] genocidaires of 1994, you are doing it because of justice. When you go against someone like Ignace Murwanashyaka”55–or Dr. Higiro, or Dr. Munyakazi–“it’s not only justice, it’s about security in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”56

The end to impunity for war and terrorism in Central Africa begins with the arrest of the 40 extremist Tutsi RPA/F war criminals indicted by the Spanish court, and with the arrest and indictment of His Excellency, Paul Kagame, the man they call ‘the Butcher of Kigali’–one of AFRICOM’s leading men in Central Africa.

clinton_visit_6.jpg

 

ABOVE: The Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations all supported war crimes and genocide in Central Africa by backing the guerrila warfare of Yoweri Museveni (now President in Uganda) and his National Resistance Army/Movement and then Paul Kagame (Museveni’s former Director of Military Intelligence) and the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Front in Rwanda. (Photo credit: some photographer serving the propaganda system.)

______________

 

Footnotes:

 

1 Jim Lyons, former Commander of Investigations for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, also provided expert testimony at this hearing.

2 See, e.g.: keith harmon snow: “Three Cheers for Eve Ensler?” ZNet, October 24, 2007; “Merchant’s of Death: Exposing Corporate Financed Holocaust in Africa,” Dissident Voice, December 8, 2008; “Over Five Million Dead in Congo? Fifteen hundred People Daily?” February 4, 2008.

3 The ADFL (RPF/A + UPDF + U.S. & U.K. & Israel backing) war crimes and genocide against Rwandan and Burundian refugees is well documented. In August 1996 there were an estimated 1.5 million refugees in eastern Zaire, and by November the estimated 500,000 to 750,000 Rwandan refugees that did not return to Rwanda under the illegal forced repatriation became the targets of a systematic manhunt by ADFL forces. See, e.g., Roberto Garreton, Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Zaire No. E/CN.4/1996/66, June 29, 1996; Howard French, A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, Vintage Books, 2005; and Filip Reyntjens, The Great African War, Cambridge University Press, 2009; Gerard Prunier, Africa’s World War, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 120-128; Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Edwin Mellen Press, 1999; and International Non-governmental Commission of Inquiry into the Massive Violations of Human Rights Committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Zaire) 1996-1997, Int’l Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, 1998; DRC: What Kabila is Hiding: Civilian Killings and Impunity in Congo, Human Rights Watch, Vol. 9, No. 5(A), October 1997.

4 E.g., [1] [name withheld] former Manager for David Blattner SAFBOIS logging corporation in Bosondjo, Equateur Province, DRC; [2] [name withheld] businessman in Kisangani, Orientale, DRC, whose bulldozers were confiscated by the RPF/A and UPDF for excavation and covering of mass graves.

5 See: Robin Philpot, Ça ne s’est pas passé comme ça à Kigali, (That’s Not What Happened in Kigali), published in English by the (Phil) Taylor Report: Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard, 2004, http://www.taylor-report.com/Rwanda_1994/.

6 Although Rwandan and Ugandan troops warred against each other in Kisangani, DRC, in 2000, and their leaders hate each other, these criminal networks have links, common interests, and equal culpability for ongoing terrorism in Central Africa, Sudan and Somalia.

7 The French term genocidaire has universally been used to castigate innocent Hutus as deeply sinister and evil.

8 This double reality–economic advances and political regression–has been seen before in cases, for example, such as Chile, backed by western powers, under General Augusto Pinochet.

9 The question of mortality statistics by ethnic category have been addressed by Filip Reyntjens, Christian Davenport, Alan Stam and others, leading to the conclusion that the number of Hutu deaths in Rwanda during the so-called “100 days of genocide” of 1994 exceed the possible numbers of Tutsi deaths, a complete inversion of the claims by the GOR, and its supporters and allies, who have always maintained some 800,000 to 1.2 million Tutsis killed in the “Rwanda genocide”.

10 E.g., Final report of the Group of Experts on the DRC submitted in accordance with paragraph 8 of Security Council resolution 1857 (2008); e.g., Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC, October 2003; Final report of the Group of Experts on the DRC submitted in accordance with paragraph 18(d) of Security Council resolution 1807 (2008); Final report of the Group of Experts on the DRC submitted in accordance with paragraph 8 of Security Council resolution 1857 (2008).

11 Spanish Indictment (Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles), February 2008. The 182 pp. Spanish indictment charges President Kagame and forty members of the RPF/A regime with the deaths of more than 300,000 civilians, detailed in Prefecture-by-Prefecture totals.

12 French Indictments (Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere), December 2006.

13 Filip Reyntjens, The Great African War, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

14 E.g., Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Edwin Mellen Press, 1999; Howard French, A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, Vintage Books, 2005; and International Non-governmental Commission of Inquiry into the Massive Violations of Human Rights Committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Zaire) 1996-1997, International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, 1998.

15 Dr. Helmut Strizek, Discredit the Hutu Population Forever, Report by Dr. Helmut Strizek, Expert Witness in “The Prosecutor v. Innocent Sagahutu,” Before the International Criminal tribunal For Rwanda, (Case No. ICTR 2000-56-I), entered into ICTR records October 30, 2008.

16 See, e.g., Christian Davenport and Alan C. Stam, “What Really Happened in Rwanda,” Miller McCune, 2009.

17 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Approved by the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 260 A (III) of December 9, 1948, came into effect on January 12, 1951.

18 See, e.g., the conclusions of the Genodynamics Project of Dr. Christian Davenport and Dr. Alan Stam or the countless human rights reports documenting RPA/F atrocities, e.g., Rwanda: Civilians Trapped in Armed Conflict: The Dead Can No Longer Be Counted, Amnesty International, December 19, 1997.

19 Carla Del Ponte and Chuck Sudetic, Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst War Criminals, and the Culture of Impunity, The Other Press (NY), 2009.

20 Kenneth Roth, “The Power of Horror in Rwanda,” Los Angeles Times, April 11, 2009.

21 See, e.g., Rakiya Omaar, The Leadership of Rwandan Armed Groups Abroad With a Focus on the FDLR and RUD-URUNANA, December 2008: p. 8.

22 See, e.g.: [1] Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal, Death, Despair and Defiance, African Rights, November 1994; [2] Rakiya Omaar, Rwanda: Insurgency in the Northwest, African Rights, 1998; [3] Rakiya Omaar, Letter to Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc, President of the United Nations Security Council, African Rights, October 19, 2005; [4] Rakiya Omaar, An Open Letter to His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, African Rights, May 13, 1998.

23 See, e.g., An Open Letter to His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, African Rights, May 13, 1998.

24 African Rights, A Welcome Expression of Intent: The Nairobi Communique and the Ex-FAR/Interahamwe, December 2007.

25 International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, Minutes of Proceedings, Hategekimana: ICTR-00-55-T, July 1, 2009.

26 See: Delivery of the Murambi Book and African Rights outstanding $100,159, Letters from the GOR’s National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide to Rakiya Omaar, Director of African Rights, dated June 6, 2008, and June 22, 2008, stamped with an official seal, and copied to H.E. The President of the Republic, the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, The Minister of Sports and Culture, and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning (Kigali).

27 See, e.g., Report of the International Commission of Investigation on Human Rights Violations in Rwanda Since October 1, 1990, Final Report, Federation Internationale Des Droits de L’Homme (FIDH) (Paris), Africa Watch (New York, Washington, London), Union Interafricaine Des Droits de L’Homme et des Peuples (UIDH)(Ouagadougou), Centre Internationale des Droits De La Personne et du Developpement Democratique (CIDPDD/ICHRDD) (Montreal), March, 1993. Notable members of this Commission included Alison Des Forges and William Schabas.

28 See, e.g., Munyaneza & Ors v. Government of Rwanda, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, April 8, 2009; and Dr. Helmut Strizek, The Influence of the International Background on the Creation of the International Tribunal for Rwanda: An Historian’s View, October 24, 2009.

29 Dr. Helmut Strizek, The Influence of the International Background on the Creation of the International Tribunal for Rwanda: An Historian’s View, October 24, 2009.

30 French indictment Judge Bruguiere, November 2006.

31 Spanish Indictment (Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles), February 2008.

32 Prosecutor v. Bagosora, 98-41-T, Judgment of 12/18/08, published in full February 9, 2009 (www.ictr.org).

33 While the article and the framework for the article are in many ways flawed, displaying the same tendencies toward a priori assumptions of guilt, please see, e.g.: Andrew Rice, “Doubt: A Professor, A Genocide, and NBC’s Quest for a Prime Time Hit,” The New Republic, August 12, 2009.

34 Andrew Rice, “Doubt: A Professor, A Genocide, and NBC‘s Quest for a Prime Time Hit,” The New Republic, August 12, 2009.

35 Jack Shafer, “To Catch a War Criminal? Why is NBC Being so Cagey about it’s New Series?” Slate, February 10, 2009.

36 Notably, a U.S. immigration judge in St. Paul Minnesota imposed Gourevitch’s book as compulsory reading for all attorneys dealing with Rwandan refugees requesting political asylum. Similarly, the International human Rights Law Clinic at American University for several years (at least) asked students to read Philip Gourevitch on genocide in Rwanda, in preparation for legal work with the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. Professor Melissa Crow, who worked with the Law Clinic, followed her term at Human Rights Watch (1994-1995) working for the Office of the ICTR Prosecutor from Kigali, Rwanda, under the RPA/F regime.

37 Philip Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1998.

38 Fergal Keane, “Rwanda Genocide Suspect in UK” and Fergal Keane, “Rwanda Suspect Worked at UK Trust,” BBC News, November 6, 2006.

39 The Government of the Republic of Rwanda v. Vincent Bajinya, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo, and Celestin Ugirashebuja, Decision by Anthony Evans, Designated District Judge, June 6, 2008.

40 Munyaneza & Ors v. Government of Rwanda, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, April 8, 2009.

41 The BBC article reporting their release was highly biased, citing, for example, how the Rwandan “president died in a plane crash,” and not an act of terrorism–being the double presidential assassinations–and another example of language used to skew perceptions about violence, victims, and killers in Rwanda. See: Unsigned, “Rwanda Accused Win UK Court Case,” BBC News, April 8, 2009.

42 Spanish Indictment (Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles), February 2008.

43 French Indictments (Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere), December 2006.

44 See: “The UN in Congo: Watchdog of the Great Mining Interests,” Save Rwanda (.org), November 11, 2009.

45 The latest ‘Panel of Experts’ report on Congo revealed the true pro-RPA/F bias of the United Nations, and discredited the report, which has some solid information in it about certain western criminals, such as, for example, Philippe de Moerloose, whom this author has previously cited for war crimes.

46 Jason Stearns: Congo Siasa (.blogspot.com) [1] “Are We Really Serious About Getting Rid of the FDLR?” October 27, 2009;

47 Jason Stearns: Congo Siasa (.blogspot.com) [1] “Are We Really Serious About Getting Rid of the FDLR?” October 27, 2009; [2] “Ignace in Handcuffs,” November 18, 2009

48 Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, “Rwandan Private Print Media on the Eve of the Genocide,” in Thompson, Ed., The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, Pluto Press, 2007.

49 U.N. High Commission for Refugees investigator Robert Gersony reported in September 1994 on the RPA/F’s killing of more than 30,000 ethnic Hutus–in a period of two months–and gave a detailed account of locations, dates and nature of crimes, as well as the methods used to kill and to make the bodies disappear. Gersony also identified RPF leaders responsible for the killings. The classified U.N. “Gersony Report” has never been released. Sections of the ‘Gersony Report’ were referenced in other documents, and the conclusions were similar in a declassified Refugees International Situation Report of 1994 (begging questions about why refugees Inetrenationals SITREP are classified by the U.S. State Department…).

50 Raymond Bonner: “Rwandans Say the Victors Kill Many Who Go Back,” New York Times, August 5, 1994; and “UN Stops returning Rwandan Refugees,” New York Times, September 28,1994.

51 Rakiya Omaar, The Leadership of Rwandan Armed Groups Abroad With a Focus on the FDLR and RUD-URUNANA, December 2008: p. 8.

52 RNA reporter, “U.S. Government Investigating FDLR Official,” Rwanda News Agency, December 12, 2008.

53 Max Delany & Scott Baldauf, “Germany Arrests Congo Rebel Leaders,” Christian Science Monitor, November 17, 2009; Scott Baldauf, “The Legacy of Rwanda’s Genocide: More Assertive International Justice,” Christian Science Monitor, April 7, 2009; Scott Baldauf, “Rwanda Rebel Leaders: US, French, Spanish and Congo Business Links,” Christian Science Monitor, December 2, 2009.

54 See, e.g., Nicole Dalyrimple, “U.S. and DRC in Partnership to Train Model Congolese Battalion,” U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs, February 18, 2010, http://www.africom.mil/printStory.asp?art=4032; and Kenneth Fiddler, “Ward Leads Africa Command Delegation to Rwanda,” U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs, April 22, 2009, http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=2931.

55 FDLR leader Ignace Murwanashyaka was arrested in Germany in November 2009.

56 Scott Baldauf, “Rwanda Rebel Leaders: US, French, Spanish and Congo Business Links,” Christian Science Monitor, December 2, 2009(

Written by: keith harmon snow

Photography Credits: keith harmon snow

Source: http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/2010/03/the-rwanda-hit-list#more

Presidents of Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria Speak-out

re posted from                                    Africa and the World

Presidents of Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria Speak-out

Presidents of Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria Speak-out

Oct 2 2017

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi Reiterates Egypt’s Orientation Is Toward Africa

President el-Sisi, in a timely reiteration of a theme in his 2014 inaugural address, told the UN General Assembly Sept. 19 that “Africa lies at the heart of Egypt’s foreign policy.” He also condemned the current world order for its hypocrisy and its reliance on “conflict and zero-sum games,” and had sharp remarks about the state of affairs in Libya and Syria.

Concerning Africa, el-Sisi said, “As Egypt’s geographical home, Africa lies at the heart of Egypt’s foreign policy, for it is in Africa that our historic roots lie, and it is from Africa that we derive pride in our identity and our deep sense of

belonging. This continent has also become subject to the same security threats facing the Arab region, and constitutes a major example of the crisis in the current international economic order, which cements poverty and economic disparity. This global order bears a major responsibility in the economic, political and social crises that threaten international peace and stability, rendering any discussion on sustainable development goals futile.”

Leaders in Black Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, the era of African (political) independence–such as Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Senegal’s Cheikh Anta Diop–looked to ancient Egypt and the Egypt of their contemporary, President Gamal Abdel Nasser, as a source of inspiration.

El-Sisi repeatedly condemned the current world order, and pointed to the alternative, saying in one place, “Force and zero-sum games cannot remain as a means to realize interests, especially in today’s world, which is based on mutual interdependence among nations, and where significant horizons for cooperation and understanding exist to achieve the common interests of everyone….”

“This requires,” he said, “involving developing countries more in the international economic governance structure and facilitating their access to easier financing, markets, and technology transfer.”

Turning to the Arab region’s crises, with emphasis on Syria, he said that these crises can only be resolved by “upholding the notion of the modern nation-state.” There will be “no salvation for Syria except through a consensual political solution amongst all Syrians at the core of which is the preservation of the unity

of the Syrian state, the maintenance of its institutions, and the broadening of their political and social base to include all factions of the Syrian society, and to decisively counter terrorism until it is defeated.”

On Libya, Iraq, and Yemen, he said: “Egypt will not allow the continuation of attempts to tamper with the unity and integrity of the Libyan state, or to undermine the capabilities of the Libyan people. We will continue to work diligently with the UN to achieve a political settlement based on the Sokhairat Agreement. The aforementioned logic applies to the Egyptian strategy regarding the crises in Iraq and Yemen.”

South African President Zuma’s Message at the UNGA: No  More Regime Change, Anywhere!

President Jacob Zuma’s assertive address to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 20 included a denunciation, in detail, of regime change as a threat to world peace and development. It seems clear that his message was directed especially to U.S. President Donald Trump.

He said in part: “In 2011, the African Union called for dialogue to resolve the crisis in Libya. Unfortunately, some among us here opted for guns and bombs. Today those countries are making little effort to promote stability in Libya. The major focus and preoccupation has become how to deal with the flow of migrants arriving in Europe from our continent and the Middle East, which are just mere symptoms.

“The war in Libya contributed a great deal to the destabilization of the Sahel region and all the way to Central Africa, creating a corridor for illicit trafficking in arms as well as terrorist activities.

“In fact, had our warning been heeded, that the supply of arms to civilians in Libya and the arming of civilians in Syria would cause loss of life, great instability, and mayhem, the world would be more peaceful today.

“South Africa continues to call for an immediate end to the violence and for a Syrian-led political transition and a negotiated settlement reflecting the will of the Syrian people.

“In both instances of Libya and Syria, we strongly cautioned against seeking to resolve internal challenges of sovereign states by imposing foreign solutions through military means.”

Regarding North Korea, he said:

“We continue with our call for calm in the Korean Peninsula. The situation cannot be allowed to get out of hand. …. It can no longer be acceptable that some few countries keep arsenals and stockpiles of nuclear weapons as part of their strategic defense and security doctrine, while expecting others to remain at their mercy.”

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Speaking on October 1.

Below are excerpts from President Buhari’s address to the Nation of Nigeria on the 57th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule

“Recent calls on re-structuring, quite proper in a legitimate debate, has let in highly irresponsible groups to call for dismemberment of the country. We cannot and we will not allow such advocacy. As a young Army Officer, I took part from the beginning to the end in our tragic civil war costing about 2m lives, resulting in fearful destruction and untold suffering. Those who are agitating for a re-run were not born by 1967 and have no idea of the horrendous consequences of the civil conflict which we went through
“December last year, this Administration has produced over 7 million 50Kg bags of fertilizer. Eleven blending plants with a capacity of 2.1 million metric tons have been reactivated. We have saved $150 million in foreign exchange and N60 billion in subsidy. Fertilizer prices have dropped from N13,000 per 50Kg bag to N5,500.

“Furthermore, a new presidential initiative is starting with each state of the Federation creating a minimum of 10,000 jobs for unemployed youths, again with the aid of CBN’s development finance initiatives.

“Power remains a huge problem. As of September 12th, production of power reached an all — time high of 7,001 Megawatts. Government is increasing its investment, clearing up the operational and financial log jam bedeviling the industry. We hope to reach 10,000 Megawatts by 2020.

“Key priorities include better energy mix through solar and Hydro technologies. I am glad to say that after many years of limbo, Mambilla Power Project has taken off.

“Elsewhere in the economy, the special window created for manufacturers, investors and exporters, foreign exchange requirements has proved very effective. Since April, about $7 billion has come through this window alone. The main effect of these policies is improved confidence in the economy and better investment sentiments.

“The country has recorded 7 consecutive months of lower inflation, and the Naira rate is beginning to stabilize, appreciating from N525 per $1 in February this year to N360 today. Broad-based economic growth is leading us out of recession.

Source: https://lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com/2017/10/02/presidents-of-egypt-south-africa-and-nigeria-speak-out/

The Revolution of Thomas Sankara

SANKARA`S REVOLUTION

this writing is dedicated to S`bu Zikode, founder of Abahlali baseMjondolo

It is 30 years since Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara was assassinated. Why after all this time is this man loved so much? Why more than any other person , is he held up as our symbol of African liberation, our symbol of hope and our symbol of human dignity? Why does he remain our moral and spiritual guide?

Thomas Sankara was president of Burkina Faso for 4 years.In that brief time he made a miracle. He turned one of the poorest countries in Africa into a success.

That success was an economic success, an economic miracle. But it was the human success, the happiness of the nation that created the economic success.

Sankara`s economics was contradictory to the world, it was unique. His model of economics was the opposite of everything that is taught in places like Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics. His economics was instead, like that of Franklin D Roosevelt who built up America after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Roosevelt would talk over the radio to the American nation in what became known as the `fireside chats`. Here he would inspire people with his vision of destroying poverty and making America great.

Roosevelt, like Sankara, loved his nation. And like Sankara, Roosevelt understood the value of the physical economy, the value of infrastructure – roads, bridges, railways, ports, the value of national banks that exist to serve the nation by issuing credit for investment in a country’s future, the value of production, manufacturing and above all the value of the human being as the center of an economic system – an economy that is not monetarist; an economy that is not based on money but on man.

Roosevelt had learned his economics from one of the founding fathers of America, Alexander Hamilton who was the first Secretary of the US Treasury. It was Hamilton who revolutionized the free world with his system of national banking where each country has sovereignty/control over its own currency. Hamilton created a new kind of economics which is called the credit based American System of Political Economy. Wall Street and the City of London do not believe in its principles, they can only see the world in terms of paper money, they are monetarist. Thanks to Lyndon LaRouche China is believing more and more in Hamilton`s system which is why China is a success.

Roosevelt made a new law in America in 1933. The law was a banking act that separated the banks . Investment banking and commercial banking were sepatated .That law was called the Glass- Steagall Act. Roosevelt made Glass- Steagall because it was the commercial banks of Wall Street that caused the terrible Great Depression in America and Europe in the 1930s. The law was removed in the 1990s. Wall Street, America`s commercial banking center, has destroyed America`s real wealth and burdened it and much of the world with debt because it has used the nation`s investments to speculate/gamble.

Speculative banking is part of the system of economics that is taught by the West. It is money that is invented and not based on physical assets like gold. Speculative banking runs on currency exchange.It is trading worthless paper money on the world stock markets.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank operate a debt based monetarist system that has never benefitted Africa or any part of the developing world; it benefits a political elite and a handful of anti-human criminal bankers.

Sankara understood the criminality of the financial system.

In 1987 at the OAU Summit in Addis Abeba Sankara gave a speech which became known as `La Discours sur La Dette`. In his speech Sankara explained the financial system to the African leaders.He said that the imperialists` financial system was like a casino.

The banks that run the casino are the big banks of Wall Street and the City of London. These are banks such as Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Barclays, Standard Charter,and Deutche Bank of Europe and many others.It is a casino full of money launderers, gamblers, villians and thieves, economic hitmen.

This is the financial system that makes kings of the few and impoverishes the many. It supports a feudal system where 80% of the people in the world are too poor to own anything. It enslaves us with debt. On a national level Africa has spent the last 60 years enslaved by IMF debt. The IMF is run by the big banks who lend the money.

The IMF operates with the ideology of Adam Smith who was an economist in the 1700s. His economic thinking is that government should not have a say in trade policies that a state`s business deals should be conducted by private financiers, businessmen.

Private finance should not even be allowed near government, let alone run it as it does in the West.

Under the ideological cover of free-market policies, the IMF, through its structural adjustment programs (SAPs) of the 1980s, demanded the removal of any state involvement in the economy. Its diktats included eliminating subsidies, liberalizing financial institutions, privatizing 90% of state-run corporations, and shrinking the work force of the civil sector. The result was to further drive down fledgling economies, and to end even the limited investment in infrastructure. But the most evil intended effect of the SAPs, along with the emergence of the World Trade Organization (WTO), was to utterly destroy agricultural sectors and the capacity to feed the people of a nation through their own labor. (Even under the boot of direct colonialism, this was never accomplished.) As a result, since the mid- 1980s, virtually all African nations have been dependent on food produced outside their borders for their very existence“Source: Lawrence Freeman, 2009 [1]

Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms; a loan, food aid, blackmail. We are fighting a system that allows a handful of men on earth to rule all of humanity,” said Thomas Sankara.

Thomas Sankara understood that the big banks are run by a cartel, by a handful of oligarchs that can never have enough money and power. This cartel operates under other names and disguises such as the Bilderberg Group, G7 (Group 7), Club of Rome, Club of Paris, Club of the Isles and more recently Club de Madrid. It is called a capitalist system . But it is not free and fair capitalism because this cartel sets the prices for oil and gold.They manipulate the markets. It is really monopoly capitalism because the cartel have a monopoly on everything in the world.

Starting in the 1990s this imperialist cartel began operating what is called globalization. Globalization is basically that anything and everything is for sale to the highest bidder.It is how commercial banks get their hands on state assets, how private investors get to own state services like electricity and water supply; how private corporations can own a nation`s mineral reserves (and pay virtually no tax due to liberalized economic practices).It was a simple procedure for the IMF to ruin African states through debt and then force then to sell off state assets  through a process of privatization.Globalization wants the world and humanity run as a business model, it is called the New World Order.

Globalization of African economies has made kings of the political elite and impoverished the many.

Sankara said that you can see imperialism by looking at your plate of food, by how much of it imported.

Some people ask me: But where is imperialism? Just look into your plates; you see imported corn, rice or millet. This is imperialism. No need to look any further………………………Of course, we encourage aid that aids us in doing away with aid. But in general welfare and aid policies have only ended up disorganizing us; thus beguiling us and robbing us of a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political and cultural affairs. We choose to risk new paths to achieve greater well-being“, said Thomas Sankara.

Globalization has `globalized` the world food market. It has made it impossible for African farmers to compete with mass produced grains. It has encouraged the farming and export of non-essential food and discouraged any form of self-sufficiency in staple foods.

Sankara stopped all but essential imports and concentrated on building up the domestic economy. In less than 4 years Burkina Faso and its 7 million citizens were self sufficient in food and self sufficient in cotton and in textile production.

Raising the standard of living for the people was his priority, to feed, to medicate , house and provide productive employment. Like Roosevelt in America Sankara set about developing the infrastructure. Building roads and railways not only provided employement it connected everyone, even those in remote rural areas were not forgotten. The new infrastructure transformed trade as farmers could take produce and livestock to market, travel was quicker and easier with a new vast road network that connected every region of the country. Infrastructure is the platform for trade. Roosevelt called his vision the New Deal. Sankara did the same and called his the Battle of the Rail. As the IMF refused to loan for this the population  laid down hundreds of kilometers of railway by hand.

Sankara refused to run Burkina Faso according to the globalist economic model. He refused to run his country as a business model where profit and loss sheets do not reflect the well being of people, where GDP is taxable income instead of human dignity; and where the necessities of a dignified life, home, food, water, electricity are part of the profit system.

Maybe this is why he is still so loved. He put his people before profit. The dignity of their living standards was the profit!

For Africa to continue learning from Sankara then his revolution against the globalist system must be re-kindled. There is no better time than now for the nations of Africa to come together as suggested by Sankara, and to unite in the development of Africa`s physical economy. With the help of China, we can build roads and railways to each other.We can treasure and respect the national sovereignty of each country and develop policies that build domestic economy as a priority; policy that strengthens and empowers the small and medium traders and farmers, policy that places value on present and future generations and not solely on the interests of corporations and private sector investment.

Egypt has already proved that Egyptians can build a second Suez Canal without foreign financial assistance. The new Suez Canal was paid for by the Egyptian people buying bonds. It worked, they own the world`s largest shipping canals and when the world economy sorts itself out they will benefit enormously.

Sankara said:”  You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.”

Everything in Africa is bigger, the raindrops, the stars and the sky are bigger – let the dreams of madmen be bigger, let Africa build the biggest infrastructure projects,the soundest economies, the finest universities and let Africa feed, house and clothe every African and set a new world standard for human dignity.

[1]http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2009/2009_20-29/2009_20-29/2009-29/pdf/36-39_3628.pdf

TRANSCRIPT OF SANKARA`s Discours sur le Dette

We think that debt must be seen from the standpoint of its origins. Debts origins come from colonialism`s origins. Those who lend us money are those who colonized us before.They are those who used to manage our states and economies. Colonizers are those who indebted Africa through their brothers and cousins who were the lenders. We are strangers to this debt. Therefore we cannot pay for it. Debt is neo colonialism in which the colonizers transform themselves into `technical assistants`. In fact it is better to say `technical assasins`.

They present us with financing, with financial backers, as if someone`s back could create development! We have been advised to go to these recommended lenders. We have been proposed with nice financial set-ups. We have been indebted for 50, 60 years and more. That means we have been led to compromise our people for 50 years and more.

Under its current form the debt is a formula for controlled imperialism; debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa aiming at subjugating its growth and development through foreign rules. Thus each one of us becomes the financial slave, that is to say – a true slave to those who were treacherous enough to put money in our countries with obligations for us to repay. We are told to repay, but it is not a moral issue. It is not about this so-called honour of repaying or not!

Mr President we have been listening and applauding Norway`s prime minister when she spoke right here. She is European but she said the whole debt cannot be repaid. The debt cannot be repaid, first because if we don`t pay the lenders will not die. That is for sure. But if we repay we are going to die. That is for sure.

Those who led us to indebting have gambled like in a casino. As long as they had gains, there was no debate. But now they suffer losses they demand repayment. And we talk about crisis! No they played, they lost and that is the rule of the game. Life goes on.

We cannot repay the debt because we do not have the means to do so. We cannot repay because we are not responsible for the debt. We cannot repay but the other owe us what the greatest wealth could never repay. That is the debt of blood. Our blood has flowed. We hear about the Marshall Plan that rebuilt the economies of Europe. But we never hear about the Africa Plan that let Europe face the Hitlerian hordes. When their economies and their stability was at stake. Who saved Europe. It was Africa. No one rarely mentions it. To such a point that we cannot really be the accomplices of that thankless silence. If others cannot sing our praises then at least we must say that our fathers have been courageous and that our troops saved Europe and set the world free from Nazism.

Debt is also the result of confrontation. When we are told about economic crisis, nobody says that this crisis did not come out suddenly.The crisis has always been there but it gets worse each time the masses become more and more conscious of their fight against exploitation.We are in a crisis today because the masses refuse for wealth to be concentrated into a few individuals` hands. We are in a crisis because some people are saving huge sums of money in foreign bank accounts that would be enough to develop Africa! We are in a crisis because on one side is this private wealth that we cannot name and on the other side are the masses who don`t want to live in ghettos and slums. We are in a crisis because on one hand there is Soweto and facing it is Johannesburg. There is a fight and the amplification of it worries those with the financial power. Now we are asked to be accomplices in a balancing, a balancing that favors those with the financial power .[ SAPs – Africa`s austerity program] Balancing against the masses. No we will not be accomplices!

No we will not comply with those who suck on our people`s blood and live on our people`s sweat!We cannot go with them in their march of assasination!

Mr President, we hear about clubs, Club of Rome, Club of Paris, club of everywhere. We hear about Group of 5, Group of 7, group of 10 and maybe group of 100 or whatever else. It is normal then for us to have our own club and our own group. Let Addis Abeba starting from now become a new breath. The Club of Addis Abeba , a united front against debt. That is the only way to assert that this is not a bellicose move on our part in refusing to repay. On the contrary it is a fraternal move to say it as it is!

Further more the masses of Europe are not opposed to the masses of Africa. Those who expolit Africa are those who exploit Europe too! We have a common enemy.

So our Club of Addis Abeba will have to explain to everyone that the debt will not be repaid. And that by saying that we are not against morals, dignity or keeping one`s word. We think we don`t have the same morality as others. Morality is not the same for the rich and the poor.The Bible and the Koran cannot serve both the exploiters and the exploited in the same way. If it could be used in favor of both sides, there should be 2 different editions of the Bible and 2 different editions of the Koran.

We cannot accept to be told about dignity and be told of the virtue of those who repay and the disvirtue of those who don`t. On the contrary we must recognise that the biggest thieves are the wealthiest . When a poor man steals it is just a theft, a piccadillo, it`s just about survival, a necessity. When the rich man steals it is with financial authority , from customs duty. They are the ones who exploit the people.

My proposal dose not aim at showing off or provoking, I just want to say what each one of us thinks and wishes. Who here doesn`t want the debt to be just cancelled? Anyone who doesn`t can get on a plane and go straight away to the World Bank and pay it!

I would not want to think Burkina Faso`s proposal is coming from youth and immaturity, inexperience. Don`t think it is only revolutionaries that say these things. It is only objectivity and obligation. Take for example others who have said not to repay , revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries, old and young. Fidel Castro said not to pay, he is not my age. Francois Mitterand said African countries should not have to pay, he is not a revolutionary!

The Norwegian prime minister said not to pay, she is not my age and I would hold it against myself to ask her age! President Felix Houphouet Boigny, he is not my age and he officially declared that Cote D`Ivoire will not pay. Now Cote D`Ivoire is the richest country of Francophone Africa and that is way he naturally has to pay more contributions here! So in my case it is not provocation. Mr President, I would like to ask you to offer us wise solutions. I would like this conference to adopt as a necessity the refusal of repayment. Not with bellicose intentions but to prevent us all from being individually assassinated. If Burkina Faso stands alone in refusing to pay, I will not be here at the next conference! But with everyone`s support which I need we can avoid repaying. Instead we can devote our small resources to our own development. And I would like to conclude by saying that each time an African country buys a gun it is against an African. It is not against a European, it is not against an Asian country. It is against an African country. Consequently we should take advantage of the debt issue to solve the weapons problem.

I am military and I have a gun.But Mr President I would like us to disarm. Because I carry the only gun I have but others have concealed guns! My dear brothers with everyone`s support we will make peace at home. We will also use these huge potentialities to develop Africa. Because our soil and our sub-soil are so rich. We have enough labor force and vast markets north to south and east to west. We have enough intellectual abilities to create or to at least use technology and science from wherever we can find it. Let`s set up this Addis Abeba united front against debt. Let us make from Addis Abeba a commitment of limiting armaments among weak and poor countries.Clubs and knives we buy are useless. Let`s make the African market the market of Africans.Produce in Africa, manufacture in Africa and consume in Africa.Let`s produce what we need, consume what we produce instead of importing.

Burkina Faso came here displaying our cotton fabric.Produced in Burkina Faso, weaved in Burkina Faso, sewed in Burkina Faso to clothe Burkinabe. Our delegation here are dressed by our weavers, by our farmers.There is not a single thread here from America or Europe! I will not do a fashion show but I will simply say we must accept to live African.That is the only way to live free and dignified.

I thank you Mr President.

The homeland or death. We shall overcome!

7 shot dead as Cameroon Anglophone protest for independence

re posted from                                  PressTV

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/10/01/537148/Cameroon-Anglophone-violence

Sun Oct 1, 2017 06:58PM

Police and the military in Cameroon have shot dead at least seven Anglophone people as members of the community continue protesting for independence from the majority Francophone nation.

The unrest took place Sunday on the anniversary of Anglophone Cameroon’s independence from Britain in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Five prisoners were killed in the jail where they were being held in the town of Kumbo. Donatus Njong Fonyuy, mayor of the town said a fire erupted in the jail and soldiers shot dead five prisoners at around 6 a.m. (0500 GMT).

“We don’t know what caused the fire in the prison … But five prisoners were killed by soldiers. Two were wounded by bullets and are at the hospital,” said the official, adding that two civilians were also injured in the incident.

Reports said soldiers shot dead a demonstrator in the same town after he attempted to raise the blue and white flag of the Ambazonia separatist movement in the local chief’s palace. Two demonstrators who had raised the flag were also shot and wounded around midday.

Security forces attempted to block pro-independence marchers from entering the city of Buea, a major hub of protests. Witnesses said one protester was killed in the clashes on the edge of the city.

A similar protest was held in Bamenda where young men brandishing improvised secessionist flags clashed with security forces. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters trying to march on the regional governor’s office. There was no account of casualties in Bamenda.

Security was high in Buea and Bamenda as military helicopters circled overhead and businesses remained shuttered for the entire day. Troops from the Cameroonian army’s Rapid Intervention Brigade, a unit known for its fight against the militants of Nigeria-based Boko Haram group, were also deployed in the two cities. There were also reports of gunfire although it was not clear whether they targeted the protesters or were only fired in the air.

In anticipation of the protests in English-speaking regions, authorities had ordered Cameroon’s border with Nigeria closed for the weekend. All gatherings of more than four people had been banned and movement between different parts of the region had been forbidden.

Cameroon civilians travel in a police vehicle along a street in the administrative quarter of Buea some 60kms west of Douala on October 1, 2017. (AFP photo)

Police and the military have yet to comment on the shootings that led to deaths Sunday. A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said security forces were taking restraint in dealing with the fresh bout of violence.

“We won’t use violence unless there is major cause. There are numerous risks, even terrorist risks. We’re keeping calm,” said the source.

The months-long protests are viewed as a sign of increasing dissatisfaction with President Paul Biya’s 35-year rule.

Biya said the acts of violence, “regardless of their source and their perpetrators”, were deplorable.

“Let me make this very clear: it is not forbidden to voice any concerns in the Republic. However, nothing great can be achieved by using verbal excesses, street violence, and defying authority,” the president wrote on his official Facebook account.

Cameroon, a former German colony under the name of Kamerun, was divided between the allied French and British victors at the end of World War One.

Source: PressTV