Friday, 7 August 2015

[AfricaRealities.com] Gen. Karake's arrest: Another crack in the Kagame regime

http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/features/95338

Gen. Karake's arrest: Another crack in the Kagame regime

Claude Gatebuke and Kambale Musavuli

2015-08-06, Issue 738

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/95338

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The tide is beginning to turn toward justice. Despite receiving enormous political, diplomatic and economic support from Western governments, Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front-led government have been subjected to increasing scrutiny and pressure for past and current crimes committed on the African continent.

The British arrest of Rwanda's spy chief on an international warrant issued by Spain is a long awaited and necessary development toward ending impunity for Rwandan government officials accused of war crimes.

The arrest on June 20, 2015, of Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, Rwanda's director general of National Intelligence and Security Services, also highlights a contrast in foreign policies: Spain's unbiased pursuit of justice against Rwandans accused of war crimes and the United States' history of shielding current Rwandan government officials accused of war crimes from prosecution.

The international arrest warrant on which the British courts acted dates back to 2008 when Spanish judge Fernando Andreu Merelles, acting under the principle of universal jurisdiction, indicted 40 Rwandan military officers on several counts of genocide, human rights abuses and terrorism during the 1990s. Gen. Karake was one of those 40 officials indicted.

The indictment also names eight Spanish citizens who died or disappeared during the 1990s in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and alleges that Karake specifically ordered the killing of three Spanish nationals. The victims in these massacres number millions, with the vast majority being Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese citizens.

Predictably, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo responded with outrage and wholesale denial of the charges against Karake. President Kagame is a master at presenting a picture of Rwanda being under attack by the West, while at the same time Rwanda enjoys Western aid and support at American taxpayers' expense.

Among African leaders, few have better connections with the West and benefit more from judicial protection than Kagame. The US Department of State, then led by Secretary Hillary Clinton, requested a privilege for Kagame that even former President Bill Clinton was unable to obtain as president. The privilege was immunity from a US civil lawsuit on the basis of Kagame occupying the presidency.

American presidents do not have such immunity because of a precedent set in Clinton v. Jones, a contentious 1997 case that established that a sitting president of the United States has no immunity from civil litigation against the president for acts done before taking office and unrelated to the office.

The tide is beginning to turn toward justice. Despite receiving enormous political, diplomatic and economic support from Western governments, Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front-led government, over the last five years, have been subjected to increasing scrutiny and pressure for past and current crimes committed on the African continent.

It appears that with the passing of each year, governments and institutions in the West, along with international bodies, have sought to hold the Kagame regime and its members accountable for the mass crimes and human rights violations they have committed in Rwanda and Congo. Most recently notable was the U.S.-led effort to withhold financial assistance from the Rwandan government in 2012 because of its support of the militia group M23 in the Congo.

The M23 was committing crimes against humanity, destabilizing the Congo and displacing hundreds of thousands of Congolese civilians. The US and a number of European countries withheld tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer aid to the Rwandan government and eventually pressured Kagame to cease his support of the militia group.

The Karake arrest in June provides a view into the crimes that have been committed by the post-genocide regime in Rwanda and the region. A series of reports and studies have been published since the 1994 genocide that clearly document the mass atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by the Kagame regime. Among these reports is the 1994 Gersony report, which documents the following:

• U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' mission leader Robert Gersony reportedly estimated that 'during the months from April to August the RPF had killed between 25,000 and 45,000 persons, between 5,000 and 10,000 persons each month from April through July and 5,000 for the month of August,' according to a 1999 Human Rights Watch report.

• Large-scale indiscriminate killings of men, women, children, including the sick and the elderly, were consistently reported. The reported violence includes: '-- Mass killings at meetings. Local residents, including entire families, were called to community meetings, invited to receive information about 'peace,' 'security' or 'food distribution' issues. Once a crowd had assembled, it was assaulted through sudden sustained gunfire; or locked in buildings into which hand-grenades were thrown; systematically killed with manual instruments; or killed in large numbers by other means.'

The arrest also is a stark reminder of atrocities such as the Kibeho massacres of an estimated 10,000 innocent civilians.

Other reports with similar findings include the 1997 Garreton report, which revealed the massacres by the RPF's military wing, also known as the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), in the Congo, and the 2010 UN Mapping Exercise Report, which claimed that if tried in a competent court the RPA could be charged with crimes of genocide in the Congo. The recent BBC documentary titled The Untold Story encapsulates in film many of the crimes documented in hundreds of pages of reports since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

In spite of the abundance of documentation and evidence of the massive crimes committed under the leadership of Paul Kagame, he and his co-conspirators have been able to avoid accountability. Due to the powerful relationships that Kagame has cultivated with influential individuals and institutions in the West, these reports have been blocked, ignored or left to gather dust.

Kagame has benefited tremendously from diplomatic and political cover from both the United States and the United Kingdom. Such benefits include continued aid to the Kagame regime despite mounting evidence of horrific human rights violations, suggestion for immunity from civil lawsuit liability, and strengthened business and economic relationships, as well as opportunities to serve on major international bodies, including the U.N. Security Council.

The Karake case will certainly take many months to go through the legal process in the UK. Karake has been granted bail ahead of a full extradition hearing in October. He was ordered to relinquish his passport and other travel documents and is allowed travel only within the London Metropolitan area.

Because former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is one of Karake's closest peers and defenders and is a paid adviser to Kagame's government, to no one's surprise, none other than Blair's wife, Cherie Blair, is on Karake's defense team. Some of Kagame's sponsors in the West appear willing to stick with him no matter how much evidence is accumulated against him and his officials.

However, the masses of peace-loving and justice-seeking people in Africa and the West will certainly continue the push to hold the West's 'friendly tyrant' accountable until justice is delivered for his millions of victims.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously noted that the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice. We are witnessing the arc of history bend toward justice for the victims of Kagame and his post-genocide regime.

* Claude Gatebuke is a Rwandan war and genocide survivor. He is the executive director and co-founder of the African Great Lakes Action Network. Claude is a human rights advocate who regularly speaks in various parts of the world as well as appear on national and international media. He can be reached at claude@aglan.org

* Kambale Musavuli, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo and one of the leading political and cultural Congolese voices, is a social entrepreneur and an international human rights advocate. He serves as the National Spokesperson for the Friends of the Congo, a group that raises global consciousness about the situation in the Congo and provides support to local institutions. He is featured in the short film 'Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth,' an abbreviated version of the upcoming feature length documentary that explores the role that the United States and its allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century. He can be reached at Kambale@friendsofthecongo.org

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[AfricaRealities.com] Is Burundi really on brink of a bloodbath?

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-08-04-is-burundi-really-on-brink-of-a-bloodbath/#.VcTFt5Mz8TV

Is Burundi really on brink of a bloodbath?

Simon Allison
Africa
04 Aug 2015 11:22 (South Africa)
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Two nights in Bujumbura, two assassination attempts on high-profile figures. One succeeded, while the other failed. But together these add up to bad news for the troubled East African nation, as hopes for a peaceful resolution dim further and the international community runs out of ideas. By SIMON ALLISON.

Over the past few months, as President Pierre Nkurunziza tightens his grip on power and his opponents seek to resist him, the residents of Bujumbura have become increasingly used to the sound of gunfire at night – and the reports of deaths in the morning. But even by Burundi's increasingly low standards, the attacks on two high-profile figures from opposite sides of the divide came as a shock. Burundians can only hope these are not a harbinger of things to come.

The first attack was on Sunday evening. General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a colleague and confidante of the president, was attacked in his car by men in military uniforms. The general was killed, as were his bodyguards.

Nshimirimana wasn't just any old general. He was Nkurunziza's right-hand man, his war buddy, perceived by many to be the power behind the throne. Whoever killed him – and speculation ranges from disgruntled military officers to armed opposition to plots from within the inner circle itself – struck a devastating blow against the heart of the regime.

The second attack was on Monday evening. Human rights activist Pierre Claver Mbonimpa was also in his car, near his home, when he was surrounded by motorcyclists who fired into the vehicle. Mbonimpa didn't die, but he was seriously injured and rushed to hospital. It's believed his injuries are not life-threatening.

Mbonimpa wasn't just any old human rights activist (although there are precious few of them left in Burundi). "I would say he is Burundi's leading human rights activist, very much respected and admired and loved by the population … He has a lot of charisma, has refused to be intimidated, has been threatened by all sides, but he's carried out his work regardless and I think the authorities just can't handle that," said Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian, who specialises in the region. Mbonimpa was also a leading critic of Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term in office.

Whether by coincidence or design, there's something ominous about the symmetry of these assassination attempts. It's hard to escape the feeling that they presage a new and disturbing chapter. "Up until now I've been resisting the more alarmist interpretations of what's been going on, but in the last few days the situation is really spinning out of control. These two dramatic and quite shocking incidents are a sign that the violence is likely to escalate. I don't want to predict too much gloom and doom, but these are two high-profile individuals," said Tertsakian.

Her fears are echoed by the Crisis Group's project director for Central Africa, Thierry Vircoulon. "The re-election of Nkurunziza has put Burundi on the path of war. It sent the signal to the opposition that there is nothing left to negotiate after his re-election and all they can do is to accept his 'victory'. As a result, the opposition is trying to unite on the political front (with the creation of an opposition coalition in Addis Ababa) and some parts of the opposition have opted for the armed struggle and decided to strike at the top of the Burundian regime's power system. The change of the pattern of violence, from street demonstrations to targeted assassinations of top leaders, is a clear sign of the things to come," he said.

While the signs aren't good, it's important to note that the violence is still relatively small-scale and targeted. Burundi has yet to become the bloodbath some have been predicting. Comparisons with Rwanda in 1994 remain off the mark – for now. "What you see now is really very similar to what you saw following 2010 elections. But concern is that you have high level targets, compared to mid to low level targets previously," explained Yolande Bouka, senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies. "Until you see an escalation of violence in the street, in up-country violence, then we're not at the worst case scenario."

Naturally, attention turns to what comes next, and specifically what can be done to prevent that worst case scenario. Options are dangerously limited for the international community, which remains reluctant to be drawn into a costly, open-ended military intervention and is hamstrung by its reliance on Burundian soldiers to keep the peace in Somalia. Even worse, the measures already taken are failing: neither the East African Community nor chief mediator Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni have been able to make any headway in negotiations. And while the African Union has been vocal in its condemnation of the assassination attempts, its military observers – deployed only late last month – have been powerless to prevent the violence.

The last word goes to Domitille Kiramvu, who reported from Burundi for Deutsche Welle until she was forced out by the violence. In a moving op-ed, she describes just how chaotic the situation remains – and, in these circumstances, how easily power comes and goes: "In such choppy waters, more or less everybody believes they can lay their hand on the tiller. Former henchmen who helped create the repugnant apparatus of repression now cloak themselves in innocence. Former politicians choose to remember their past deeds in a positive light, forgetting that the people rejected them for their authoritarian and tyrannical excesses. New arrivals to Burundian politics promise everybody everything. There is little appealing or pleasant about those campaigning for change in our country. One can only hope that with the passage of time political realism will triumph over the villainy, egotism and thoughtless speculation. May statesmanship and self-control eventually prevail." DM

Photo: Protestors gather next to rocks strewn on a street in Bujumbura's Niyakabiga district on presidential election day in Burundi, July 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Simon Allison
Africa
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