Military high court rules Cpl Gahamanyi to life in Prison

By Robert Mugabe
A Military High Court sitting in Mukamira Sector, Nyabihu District has sentenced a soldier of the Rwanda Defence Forces to life imprisonment for killing six people and injuring 13.

Cpl. Venant Gahamanyi committed the crime on October 8, after a quarrel in a local bar, over payment of beer bills.

Court also stripped Gahamanyi of his military rank, as Prosecution led by Lt Faustian Nzakamwita, had requested.

Delivering the verdict yesterday in a court fully packed with soldiers and civilians, Judge Maj. Bernard Ndayisaba said,
“After some deliberations, the court has found the accused guilty of the crimes of premeditated murder and attempt to assassination.”

“Therefore Cpl Gahamanyi is hereby sentenced to life in prison for the above mentioned crimes, and stripped of all military ranks.”

Gahamanyi, who appeared in a sombre mood, was given 30 days to appeal if he felt dissatisfied with the verdict.His lawyer, Janvier Ndaruhutse, said he would appeal.

Earlier during the trial on Tuesday, Gahamanyi together with his advocate, Ndaruhutse, argued that he was provoked into shooting after being humiliated and roughed up by a gang who included the bar owner.

His defence was corroborated by residents, who claimed that four men and the bar’s owner had ganged up against Gahamanyi, undressed him, forcing him to retreat and pick the firearm.
“I saw a woman called Specioze Nyirasoni, the owner of the bar, holding this soldier by the neck and pulling his private parts. They wanted to kill him but he managed to sneak out, went and brought the gun and ended up with the whole mess,” said one Kabuguma, briefly interrupting the hearing.
But court dismissed this defence.

However, this case did not pass without incident as residents maintained that the soldier was a good man who was provoked into shooting.
Angry residents dissatisfied with the ruling, blocked the road and stormed the house of Nyirasoni, the bar owner, threatening to lynch her.

It took the intervention of police which shot in the air to disperse the crowd. Nyirasoni was later whisked to the district for safe custody.

“We had deployed armed soldiers with the police at her house, but she still fears for her life since the whole community has turned against her,” a security official said.

Rwanda's Kagame rules out third term

By Robert Mugabe and agencies

KIGALI — Rwandan President Paul Kagame, fresh from his re-election in August, says he has no intention of altering the country's constitution so he can seek a third term in office.

President Kagame was quoted by AFP as saying that he has no need for a new mandate. What he needs and what his government need is to continue on the path of development. He told his former senior officials in his government speech on Saturday.

"Those who seek a third term seek a fourth and then a fifth term," added Kagame in his address, two months after a resounding election victory.

Although he is embarking on a second term in office, Kagame has effectively governed Rwanda since his rebel force ended the country's 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. He took part in the first post-genocide government as vice president and defence minister.
Having been elected president by parliament in 2000, he won presidential elections in 2003, before cruising to a second term in August.

Kagame said it would be a mark of failure if he did not find a suitable replacement before the end of his mandate expires in seven years' time. Under Rwanda's constitution, a president can only serve two full terms.

"That (failing to find a successor) would be my failure and not yours. And it would not be a reason to seek a third mandate," he said.

Gen Kayumba assassin suspect denied bail

By Robert Mugabe

The lead suspect in the assassination attempt on exiled Rwandan Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa offered some US$1million to South African police officers as bribe to release him clandestinely just after he had been arrested in mid July, a Johannesburg court heard Thursday.

Prosecutors produced in court sworn affidavits from two police officers who narrated that Pascal Kanyandekwe, 29, promised to give them that amount of money in cash if they let him go. The suspect was in court amid very tight security.

The officers attached to a maximum security police detention facility in Johannesburg, said in their affidavits they immediately sensed what the suspect was planning – including possibly leaving the country.

Based on the evidence availed, the Judge ruled to deny bail to Kanyandekwe - the only Rwandan among the five people currently in custody over the failed murder attempt on dissident Gen Nyamwasa on June 29.

The Judge said if Kanyandekwe tried to avoid arrest, he may have intent to flee South Africa.

The magistrate said he would not speculate on whether the murder attempt was backed by the Rwandan government.

It is easy to begin a rebel group than a business in DRC

UN boss arrives in Kigali in amid leaked controversial report law

By Robert Mugabe

Kigali-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived on Tuesday in Rwanda, the United Nations said, following a dispute with the African nation over a leaked U.N. report saying its troops may have committed genocide.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Ban flew into the Rwandan capital Kigali on the unannounced visit. He would meet later on Tuesday with Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo and would see President Paul Kagame on Wednesday, Haq said.

During the swearing in of President Kagame, were more than a dozen African Heads of states were in Kigali, Kagame shunned foreign agencies who want to give lessons on Rwandese about Human rights.
“We are tired of the people who criticize what we do, and give us what we did not do,” Kagame said
Mushikiwabo received Ban Ki-moon on air port to night where it’s said he will meet Kagame afternoon after the meeting with Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister.

Mushikiwabo said last week Rwanda is considering pulling out all its troops from U.N. peacekeeping missions, starting with Darfur in Sudan, because of its anger over the draft report.

The report, whose publication the United Nations has delayed until Oct. 1, said in the leaked draft that Rwandan troops may have committed genocide in the 1990s against Rwandan Hutus who had been driven into neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Rwanda has described that charge as malicious and ridiculous.

Rwanda threatens to pull out Peace keepers from Sudan

By Robert Mugabe

Kigali-Rwanda stepped up its threats on Tuesday to withdraw thousands of peacekeepers from Sudan if the United Nations published a report that accused Rwandan forces of massacring civilians and possibly committing genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo years ago.

The UN controversial draft report which linked to the media, Rwanda defence forces are accused of committing crimes in Easter DRC which the report say may be called Genocide
Rwandas’ foreign minister, Louse Mushikiwabo was quoted as saying that the whole contingent serving under UN have been briefed on stand bye to pull out of Sudan, If, UN goes ahead to publish the report which is said that former UN boss Kofi Anan is brain behind the report.

“We are waiting to see what the United Nations does with this report, but we are very seriously considering pulling out our troops,” Mushikiwabo said.

As early as 1997, the United Nations began investigations into reports of possible crimes against humanity involving extermination of Hutu populations by the Congolese rebel forces and their Rwandan backers, but Laurent Kabila, as president, refused access to areas where atrocities were believed to have been committed, and the investigation was abandoned

The 545-page report on 600 of the country’s most serious reported atrocities raises the question of whether Rwanda could be found guilty of genocide against Hutu during the war in neighbouring Congo, but says international courts would need to rule on individual cases.

Rwanda has 3,300 peacekeepers in Darfur, and a Rwandan general is in charge of the entire 21,800-strong United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission there.
The Rwandan government responded angrily to the report, calling it “outrageous.” The topic is extremely delicate for the government, which has built its legitimacy on its history of combating the genocide in Rwanda.

Pascal Kambale, a prominent long time Congolese human rights lawyer who was consulted by the United Nations investigators, said: “The ex-F.A.R. fighters were said to be hiding behind the refugee populations, but the truth is that the attackers were targeting both the Rwandan Hutus and the Congolese Hutus,”

Referring to the Hutu-led Rwandan militia, F.A.R. in its French initials. “Entire families were killed, whole villages were burned, and in my view this remains the most heinous crime that happened during these 10 years.”

Six people died following grenade attack in Rwanda capital Kigali

By Robert Mugabe

Kigali: At least 6 people are reported dead from the large blast that rocked a busy area of Kigali center Wednesday evening – which is going to change the lives of many people who were seriously injured.

Police arrested 3 people on the scene, and spokesman Eric Kayiranga said Thursday that no new details were available as yet, as investigations continue.

At about 20minutes to 19:00hours, a large explosion went off as people hurried to go home during the rush hour, according to witnesses working at the Rubangura area. The bomb exploded at the exact spot where taxis headed for Nyamirambo Park.

Compared to a similar explosion earlier this year, witnesses say the Wednesday blast was larger, louder and more destructive. No building was affected, but several taxis were damaged. A motorcycle could be seen completely destroyed.

Two young men were in the intensive care unit undergoing surgery, says our reporter.

Another victim named Mbyabarumwanzi Eduard (40) said he only remembers seeing what he described as a “blue Toyota” vehicle passing by him. The next thing I woke up hospital, narrated Mbyabarumwanzi

An unidentified woman lost her eye in the explosion.

Doctors at the Kigali hospital say all the injured will fully recover, but that they need a lot of counseling from the trauma of the explosion.

All of Thursday, business had returned to normal at the blast area, but what is noticeable is the tightened security. Soldiers and police officers can be seen at every corner of the area, and in increased presence from the pre-election period.

Police have not been providing as much detail on the casualties – which some sources say are much higher than known. Some are reported to be getting treatment in other health centers around Kigali.