Author: b_igi_adm1n

Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces (TPDF) students of Monduli military Academy, are in Rwanda for a study tour aimed at enhancing their military knowledge.

Brig General Ezekiel Elias Kyunga of TPDF also head of Monduli military academy led a delegation of 28 students to Rwanda where they will be for a period of One month to acquaint themselves with Rwanda’s leadership structures.

He told Journalists that every year Monduli military academy sends its students to one of the East African member states to study about challenges of the region.

This year they chose Rwanda a country that has witnessed fast growth both in Africa and worldwide.

“we are from Tanzania. We are here in Rwanda to study what happens on ground and what Rwandans are doing to achieve their fast growth.We will specifically study the economy of Rwanda, Politics and general livelihoods of Rwandan people.”

Last Friday, the British High commission held an event to receive Rwandan students that have been awarded scholarships to study masters programs in various academic domains in Britain.

Sankara Regis(engineering), Sylvia Gasana(media), Doreen Mutoni (molecular Genetics) and Aline Nyinawamahoro (public Health).

The scholarships were awarded in collaboration with the British foreign office and Chevening Scholarship program.

For the past 52 years, Egypts state owned Television never allowed news anchors to wear Islamic Headscarf.

Veiled women employed in the TV industry were given jobs away from the cameras.

But the new Muslim Brotherhood-led government has introduced new rules, saying that nearly 70 per cent of Egyptian women wear the headscarf.

However, a woman presenter has appeared on Egyptian state TV in an Islamic headscarf for the first time since the station opened in 1960.

Fatima Nabil wore a cream-coloured headscarf as she read a news bulletin. The presenter later said: “At last the revolution has reached state television.”

Under the government of ex-President Hosni Mubarak there was an unofficial ban on women presenters covering their hair.

Fatima Nabil appeared in the headscarf to read the mid-day news bulletin on Sunday.

She is expected to be followed by other news and weather presenters similarly dressed.

New Information Minister Salah Abdel-Makshoud, a Brotherhood member, has pointed out that many women appearing on other Arab and international TV channels cover their hair.

Under Mubarak’s regime, veiled women employed in the TV industry were given jobs away from the cameras.

Celebrated Peace Icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said ex British prime minister Tony Blair and ex-US President George W. Bush should face trial at the International Criminal Court for their role in the Iraq war.

He argues that different standards appeared to apply for prosecuting African leaders than western counterparts, adding that the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict was sufficient for Blair and Bush to face trial.

Archbishop Tutu Wrote in The Observer newspaper, accusing the two former leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction saying the invasion of Iraq left the world more destabilized and divided “than any other conflict in history.”

“On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague,” Tutu wrote.

“But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world.”

However, Blair responded in a statement saying that “this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say.”

Tutu, a long-standing vocal critic of the Iraq war, had snubbed Blair last week, pulling out of a South African conference on leadership last week because the ex-premier was attending.

The peace icon said he had boycotted the event in protest at Blair’s “morally indefensible” support of the US-led 2003 Iraq invasion.

The archbishop added on Sunday: “I did not deem it appropriate to have this discussion.
“As the date drew nearer, I felt an increasingly profound sense of discomfort about attending a summit on ‘leadership’ with Blair.”

He added: “Leadership and morality are indivisible. Good leaders are the custodians of morality.

“The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Bush and Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level.

“If it is acceptable for leaders to take drastic action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement or an apology when they are found out, what should we teach our children?“

The Nobel Peace Prize winner also argued that the 2003 Iraq war to oust Saddam Hussein had created the backdrop for civil war in Syria, and a potential wider Middle East crisis involving Iran.

“The then-leaders of the US and UK fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart,” he wrote.

“They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand — with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us.”

Blair issued a stern defense on Sunday in response to the article.

“To repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown,” he said.

“And to say that the fact that Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre.

“We have just had the memorials both of the Halabja massacre where thousands of people were murdered in one day by Saddam’s use of chemical weapons; and that of the Iran-Iraq war where casualties numbered up to a million including many killed by chemical weapons.

“In addition his slaughter of his political opponents, the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his people make the case for removing him morally strong. But the basis of action was as stated at the time.”

A 24year-old man is being detained at Bwishyura Police Station in Karongi district after he allegedly killed his 70-year old father.

The suspect identified as Jean Baptiste Nsanzumukiza on August 31 brutally hacked to death his father Bizimana alias Munyabarame and dumped the body in a pit latrine.

Bizimana’s lifeless body was recovered by residents who notified the police and took it to Kirinda hospital for an autopsy.

Neighbours say the two had never had any conflict. Nsanzumukiza is a resident of Rwungo Cell, Rugabano.

Investigations are still ongoing to determine the cause of the gruesome murder.

Police Spokesperson Superintendent Theos Badege, who condemned the gruesome act, urged the public to always seek judicial recourse to sort-out their differences.

Residents of cyanzarwe in Rubavu district are disgruntled saying their livelihoods are not impressive due to poverty.

They are part of the group that was relocated from Gishwati eco reserve which had been seriously depleted pausing an environmental disaster.

They claim that their new area doesn’t support their agriculture activities
saying it’s very small and less yields obtained.

Each family was allocated land measuring 40 by 50 metres which they say is very small to support their families.

According to state broadcaster, the residents in Ngwinurebe of Cyanzarwe claim there has been no improvement of their livelihoods due to poor housing and limited arable land.

Kabera Eric, the Executive secretary of Cyanzarwe says, there are plans to sensitize residents to work hard and improve their livelihoods.

GISHWATI

As recent as 20 years ago, the Gishwati Forest covered more than 50,000 acres. Today, about 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) are forested, replaced by farming and grazing.

In 2008 Rwanda government, Great Ape Trust of Iowa and Earthpark announced that Gishwati Forest Reserve is the future site of the Rwanda National Conservation Park, setting into motion one of Africa’s most ambitious forest restoration and ecological research efforts ever.

The Gishwati Forest was deforested in the 1980s by agricultural development and in the 1990s during the resettlement of people following the civil war and genocide.

Human encroachment, deforestation, grazing and the introduction of small-scale farming resulted in extensive soil erosion, flooding, landslides and reduced water quality – as well as the isolation of a small population of chimpanzees.

We join you in mourning and paying tribute to a great man, a great son of Ethiopia who is also ours as a continent. But we also celebrate his rich life that has touched millions of people in Africa and across the world.

His was a life of immense courage, vision and enterprise which he devoted to the advancement of his fellow citizens in this country and across Africa.

We gather here to recognise his remarkable achievements that have made us all proud as Ethiopians, Africans and beyond.

I say this, not simply to praise him because he is no longer with us, but from the knowledge of, and experience with him as a friend, a comrade, a leader, a visionary and gallant fighter for freedom.

He was a man of such high calibre, rare talent and selflessness that we all feel the magnitude of the gap he has left.

The Late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi did not court greatness. He led a humble and simple but very meaningful life. He was an unassuming person – but his sharp intellect and tremendous courage to face any kind of challenge made him a formidable presence.

He had the capacity to grasp and cut through complex issues and move forward. It is these qualities that he used to lead the charge in the transformation of his country and that of our continent – restoring the dignity of Ethiopians and Africans as a whole.

Friend and foe alike recognised and respected Meles as a man of strong convictions, principles and long term vision.

Where some could have been compromised for short term profit or gains, or easily succumbed to pressures, he was steadfast and always took a definite stand on issues of right and wrong.

And more often than not, he was on the side of right.

Prime Minister Meles was uncompromising where his people’s interests were concerned. He was, however not rigid. He recognised the value of new ideas, of adapting practice to circumstance and innovation in the socio-economic transformation of his country.

For all of these, he was sometimes misunderstood, not because he was wrong, but because he was ahead of many in these matters.

Yet we can all see the remarkable economic growth and surge in well-being of Ethiopians that has been achieved in a relatively short time.

For Meles, the benefits of freedom and prosperity were best if shared with other African countries; and he practised it.

The people of Rwanda will always remember with immense gratitude the aid he and the people of Ethiopia gave our country in the time of need; the immediate aftermath of the genocide.

Ethiopia did this even when Ethiopia had just started its own transition.

Meles led from the front with other leaders in working for the stability of this region, in mediating in such places as Sudan and Somalia. As in everything he did, he spared no effort and did not shy away from taking tough but right decisions to bring peace and security to our region.

As a person, Meles was a serious man. But he combined this with a very good sense of humour and a sense of good judgement. He was a man of substance and dignity, an irreplaceable voice for humanity.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s legacy has deep roots in the rich heritage of independence and dignity that this great nation of Ethiopia has inspired on our continent.

He was a true heir and fierce champion of that tradition and sought to share it with the rest of Africa.

He was a very able voice for Africa in leading NEPAD, Climate change, agriculture and food security, to mention but a few.

This is the friend, the colleague, I knew, I worked with, the man with whom I shared so many views and the person I will always remember.

Today, we say farewell to this great man and celebrate his life. The most befitting tribute we can pay him is to consolidate and carry on with the work and the vision he associated with for our continent.

It is to make a better future for Africa because his legacy to us does not lie in the past but in the future.

There is no doubt that the ideals Meles lived for, the work he did, the courage he showed in facing many challenges will live on and be carried forward by the millions of young, energetic motivated Ethiopians and other Africans.

May his soul rest in eternal peace

Speech by President Kagame at the funeral of PM Meles Zenawi
Addis Ababa, 2 September 2012