[AfricaRealities] Rwandan General Accused of Supervising Death Squad Leaves UN | Foreign Policy Journal

 

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2014/12/13/rwandan-general-accused-of-supervising-death-squad-leaves-un/

AFRICA · ANALYSIS

Rwandan General Accused of Supervising Death Squad Leaves UN

by Judi Rever       December 13, 2014 No Comments

Rwandan General Jean Bosco Kazura is alleged to have supervised a death squad in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

Jean Bosco Kazura with Dutch officials Frans Timmermans, Bert Koenders, and Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert in 2013.

The United Nations department of peacekeeping has unceremoniously announced the departure of one of its top commanders, Rwandan General Jean Bosco Kazura, who is alleged to have supervised a death squad in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

Kazura—one of Rwandan President Paul Kagame's most trusted generals—had been appointed commander of the UN's stabilization force in Mali, known as MINUSMA, in June 2013.

A statement from UN peacekeeping in New York said that while Kazura's appointment had followed established screening procedures, the UN later become aware of a series of serious allegations of human rights violations against the general.

As a result, the department consulted with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and its Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, whose officials took note of the 'gravity of the accusations.'

"Following receipt of serious allegations of human rights violations against Major General Kazura, UN Peacekeeping undertook a wide range of consultations with a number of relevant interlocutors, including ICTR and OHCHR both of which are fully aware of the gravity of the accusations," the statement, sent in an email to this reporter, said.

"You may wish to be in touch with the Office of the High Commissioner in this regard," a spokesman for UN peacekeeping urged late Friday.

The UN human rights office was not immediately available for comment.

"As of 14 December 2014, Major General Jean Bosco Kazura is no longer in the employ of the United Nations," the spokesman declared. No further explanation was given.

Detailed allegations of Kazura's human rights record were first reported in December 2013 in Foreign Policy Journal.

The report was based on lengthy interviews with more than a dozen of Kagame's former soldiers and officers, in addition to a former ICTR official, a human rights activist and other sources.

The sources said Kazura and his colleague General Patrick Nyamvumba, the former commander of the UN/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, directed highly organized operations during the 1994 genocide in the prefectures of Byumba and Kibungo—areas controlled by Kagame's Tutsi-led army as early as April 1994, at the beginning of the genocide. During those operations, Rwandan Patriotic Army soldiers under Nyamvumba and Kazura's command hunted down and slaughtered thousands of unarmed Hutu civilians—men, women and children—according to testimony. These operations, known as "sweeping" or "mopping up," were conducted in communes that had already been cleared of soldiers loyal to the former government and Hutu extremists known as Interahamwe. 

Some of the Hutu victims were allegedly killed and dumped in graves mixed with Tutsis who had been murdered by Hutu extremists.  In other instances, Hutu civilians were rounded up, killed and burned in Akagera National Park near Rwanda's eastern border.

Former Tutsi officers said that after the genocide, Generals Nyamvumba and Kazura also oversaw the transport at night of male Hutu army recruits from all areas of Rwanda to killing grounds near the Gabiro training barracks and in other areas of Akagera Park, which were off limits to outsiders.

The sources said in many cases the recruits were put on trucks, eventually suffocated and were dead on arrival. In other cases Hutu recruits were killed in the park, at different locations.

In gruesome testimony, the Tutsi soldiers revealed that bodies of Hutu victims were often dumped into graves, burned with oil and dissolved with acid. The ashes were then mixed with soil or thrown into lakes.

These operations were directed by then Lt Colonel Nyamvumba, assisted by Kazura, and planned and coordinated by Kagame's Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and intelligence staff from his High Command, according to people interviewed.

Earlier this week, the Rwandan government made no mention of the reason for Kazura's departure from UN peacekeeping, only that he was winding up his tour of duty in Mali.

"We congratulate him for a job well done," Rwanda's defence spokesman Brigadier General Joseph Nzabamwita said.

"He has represented Rwanda Defence Forces and Rwanda well in UN, as Force Commander. RDF is a key contributor to UN in terms of peacekeepers and leadership in several UN leadership positions," Nzabamwita added.

Rwanda is widely considered an important contributor of peacekeepers to the United Nations, employing nearly 5,700 troops, military experts and police officers in global hot spots such as Darfur, the Central African Republic and Mali.

In July, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power lauded Rwanda for its international role.

"Rwanda's troops were among the first boots on the ground when conflicts metastasized in the Central Africa Republic and South Sudan," Power said in New York.

"And it's not just that the Rwandans volunteer for complex and dangerous missions. It's that because of their commitment to protect civilians, the population in countries where the Rwandans serve trust them; troops from other countries who serve alongside them draw strength from their fortitude; and aggressors who would attack civilians fear them," the diplomat added.

Related

Rwandan Generals Accused of War Crimes in UN EmployDecember 10, 2013In "Africa"

Mutabazi's Last Stand: An Inside Look at Rwandan-Style JusticeFebruary 5, 2014In "Africa"

Amid Attempts to Seek Indictments Against Rwanda's Regime, Spain's Pursuit of International Criminals Under ThreatFebruary 27, 2014In "Africa"

Judi Rever

Judi Rever is a Montreal-based freelance journalist, formerly with Agence France-Presse and Radio France Internationale. She has reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and the Middle East. She specializes in human rights issues, and is currently doing research for a book that would explore war crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its army. 

More articles by this author »

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Fwd: No. 27471: SKA mega-project boosts astronomy research and skills -- Youth & Children

AfricaFiles

Title: SKA mega-project boosts astronomy research and skills
Author: Munyaradzi Makoni
Category: Youth & Children
Date: 12/12/2014
Source: University World News
Source Website: http://www.universityworldnews.com

African Charter Article# 17: Every individual shall have the right to education, cultural life, and the promotion and protection of values.

Summary & Comment: For ordinary Africans its difficult to see why they should care about looking back billions of light years ago into stars. It does not bring them food on the table, at least for now, but getting skills and jobs is making the educated youth contented. MM

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http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20141211134347812

The advanced technological skills required to run the Square Kilometre Array, or SKA - a mega-research project due to become fully operational in 2020 in South Africa and eight other African countries - are scarce in Africa. But efforts to rectify that are gathering momentum.

The SKA is a ?1.5 billion (US$1.9 billion) collaboration between South Africa and Australia to build the world's largest radio telescope, with a square kilometre of collecting area. It will comprise thousands of large antennae spread across Africa and Oceania, and will be 50 times more sensitive and will survey the sky 10,000 times faster than any other radio telescope.

Astronomers and engineers from more than 70 institutions in 20 countries are involved in developing the SKA, but in Africa the expertise required to design, construct and operate radio telescopes is minimal, and in many countries astronomy is in its infancy.

The eight African countries - Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia - that are partnering with SKA South Africa in hosting remote stations are at different levels of development.

Senior science ministry officials from the African countries met in March this year to discuss a readiness plan that will include developing a community of scientists to undertake radio astronomy studies across Africa.

And earlier this month country representatives involved with astronomy at African universities came together at the 9th SKA Africa Postgraduate Bursary Conference held in Stellenbosch, near Cape Town.

Human hurdles in Madagascar

Madagascar started classes in astrophysics at masters level last January but a pressing matter that needs resolution is the proposed sites of the SKA telescopes in the country.

Professor Minoson Rakotomalala, head of astronomy at the University of Antananarivo, told University World News that two proposed sites in the south of the large Indian Ocean island - Ankaramena and Betroka - were too far from the university where physicists and astronomers are based.

For security reasons there are plans to revise the suggested locations.

"There are armed gangsters in the proposed areas which will make the infrastructure a target of vandalism. For several months Malagasy soldiers have not managed to overcome the gangsters. Sometimes they are captured but others reappear," said Rakotomalala.

"To put our telescopes there would be a waste of money, to send our scientists there would be simply to kill them," he said. Rakotomalala said a new site at Tampoketsa, 200km away in the north was being considered, as experts would be able to visit regularly at less cost.

The University of Antananarivo is the only institution that offers astrophysics courses in Madagascar. "Students are eager to know more about the new field. We now need Malagasy astronomers and graduate students in South Africa to help us out," he said.

Since 2007 Madagascar has sent 11 students for training in South Africa through the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme at the University of Cape Town. There are now four students with doctorates in astronomy and cosmology and two in engineering.

"These astronomers are expected to help us to run the new coursework programme at the university, as well as co-supervise the students during their masters project," said Rakotomalala.

Mauritius builds from own experience

Dr Radhakhrishna Somanah, associate physics professor at the University of Mauritius, said the university's remote station would be at the site of the Mauritius Radio Telescope - the first interferometry array in Africa - considered 'most probably the last telescope to be able to have a good look at the southern sky successfully at a low radio frequency before human progress kills this possibility'.

Education is free from primary to undergraduate level in the country and the University of Mauritius has taught astronomy in its BSc honours in physics course for more than 20 years. Today students can do a BSc honours in physics specialising in astrophysics, and a masters in astrophysics with radio-astronomy and applications is also offered.

"There are no postgraduate scholarships so far. Our government gives 50 scholarships for undergraduate studies to African students each year with an annual intake of around 15. We are trying to see how we can shift the undergraduate scholarships to postgraduate. We are also seeking funds from the European Union," he said.

There are three astronomers at the University of Mauritius, five PhDs outside Mauritius and eight doing PhDs in astrophysics abroad, mostly in South Africa.

Somanah said his government was fully supportive of the SKA project but there was a need for more financial support, especially for initiating the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network, or AVN, in Mauritius.

"The AVN project is a 100% African project which is essential for ensuring that technicians and scientists in the African partner countries can acquire experience which is essential for the SKA project," he said.

Other African experiences

"The closest Zambia comes to having astronomers are two students studying in South Africa," said Nchimunya Mwiinga, a lecturer at the University of Zambia. "One is a PhD student and another is doing a masters."

Mwiinga said only electrodynamics and astrophysics were being taught as foundation courses at his university and he hoped more students would study in South Africa in future.

"As we talk about astronomy one aspect seems to be forgotten - we are at different levels of capital development," he said.

Copperbelt University in Zambia was chosen to host the Southern African node of the International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for Development in August this year.

Dr Kgakgamatso Moloi from the University of Botswana said his country didn't have any astronomy programmes.

"We are taking steps to start two courses in astrophysics," he said, adding that there were plans to buy a telescope for teaching and research and initially five or six students would be enrolled in the programme.

Moloi said they were pinning their hopes on 12 undergraduate and masters students who are studying at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa being able to help grow the programme when they returned home.

Geoffrey Okengo, a Kenyan astrophysicist at the University of Nairobi who is completing a PhD in South Africa, said Kenya was "beyond buying equipment. We now need our computational facilities to be able to interpret the data." The University of Nairobi awarded degrees to its first astronomy graduates last year.

Bernard Duah Asabere, a PhD student at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa and a research scientist at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, said his country was also in the process of building up numbers of astronomers. Ghana is currently involved in converting old satellite dishes into low-cost radio telescopes.

Bursaries to the rescue

Meanwhile the SKA capital development project, designed to build a vibrant scientific community with the necessary skills to drive astronomy, has managed to produce 612 graduates, up from nine when it started in 2005.

Kim de Boer, general manager for human capital development at SKA South Africa, told a parliamentary committee on 12 November that since 2005, 612 bursaries and grants had been awarded to postdoctoral fellows, postgraduate and undergraduate students doing science, engineering and technical degrees and research at universities, and to further education and training students training to be artisans.

De Boer said the capacity development programme - which is "starting to work successfully" - is intended to create a pipeline of skills for astronomical research and instrumentation, by supporting students doing physics, engineering and technology degrees from undergraduate to postgraduate level, and filling staff positions in universities or the SKA project office.

Since 2005, 434 men and 178 women had received grants and 450 out of the total 612 beneficiaries were South Africans.

Dr Bonita de Swardt, SKA South Africa programme officer, told the parliamentary committee that for new projects the objective was to improve the demographics of SKA South Africa by attracting talented young graduates from universities throughout the country to work in its science and engineering teams.

Selected science and engineering students were employed by SKA South Africa for two or three years depending on the level of their qualifications.

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