Author: b_igi_adm1n

A Rwandan genocide survivor, Immaculee Ilibagiza who also authored a book titled, “Left to Tell” will on Sept. 17, in Tahoe California share her experience on the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.

The book and her speech will be presented in honor of the international day of peace and in support of Peace One Day due to be celebrated on Sept. 21.

Ms. Ilibagiza will focus on her experience during the Rwandan Holocaust and passionate to forgiveness. She will also give an update on Rwanda, the work she does with her ‘Left to Tell’ Charitable Fund, which directly benefits the children orphaned by the genocide, and her personal development.

Ilibagiza’s book which illustrates God’s love amidst the Rwandan Holocaust is a shining example of someone who learned to forgive the unforgivable.

In 1994, Ilibagiza spent 91 days hiding in a 4 x 3 foot tile bathroom with seven other women while savage killers hunted them.

Her friends and neighbors turned against her, burned her home to the ground and mercilessly butchered her family. While she hid she lived on table scraps and her faith in God.

The only weapons she had against the fear, rage, hatred and hopelessness that tormented her every waking moment were prayer, meditation and visualization.

“I had to find a way to get the hatred from my heart, but that was beyond me. I turned to God and asked Him to help, and He did. He touched my heart and taught me how to forgive those I hated,” she is quoted as saying. She prayed for the murderers, that they would see the evil of their ways and be forgiven. In doing so, she was transformed for “Victory over hatred can be won with love”.

Since its 2006 publication “Left to Tell,” has been translated into 15 languages and Ilibagiza has become known as a world-leading speaker on peace, faith and forgiveness.

In June 2007, For Goodness Sake hosted her appearance at the North Tahoe Conference Center.

Nancy Lopez, who saw her speak in 2007, said, “It was amazing. What was so wonderful is she had a way of telling her story with so much love, forgiveness and passion. I expected the night to be somber but what I took home was this love that she had, this love for humanity.”

In 2001 all of the United Nations member states voted to adopt an annual day of ceasefire and non-violence to coincide with the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21. Anyone anywhere may celebrate Peace Day. It’s a day to put down weapons, a day to commemorate peace and a time to make peace with you and others.

A three day workshop aimed at sensitizing heads of micro finance institutions on ethical codes in their financial organs to endorse improved customer care in Rwanda ends September 19 at Chez Lando Hotel in Remera.

Speaking to Igihe.com, the Programs Manger for Micro Finance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR) Peter Rwema said, “Most of micro finance institutions don’t have codes of ethics to guide their institutions which leads to poor customer care delivery”

“People fear to acquire loans because of some horrible procedures used by some institutions when people fail to payback, there should be instant communication between both parties before selling properties” he narrated adding that such scenarios are due to lack of professional ethics.

He also added that even the few that posses such ethical rules keep them in drawers in some cases. “We find some files kept in drawers with dust showing that they have not been touched by anyone” he further clarified

The micro finance institutions came as a cure to poverty in Rwanda though some of them became more obstacles than cure to access to financial credits. The government of Rwanda has invested a lot in poverty eradication projects to fight poverty in Rwanda.

In 2006, poorly managed micro finance institutions where closed down by central bank and this left a big number of People in a dilemma after losing millions

This led many people to lose confidence in such institutions yet in developed countries micro finance institution have played a very big role towards the development.

SACCO is an example of current micro Finance which reaches down in the villages, the government of Rwanda’s initiative as elaborated in the Vision 2020 development agenda that aims to increase access of financial services to citizens.

The concept of Umurenge and Umwalimu SACCO was initiated on the understanding that banks and other financial institutions are more concentrated in towns to the detriment of the poor citizens in rural areas. As a result establishing a SACCO at every Umurenge would bridge this gap.

In a meeting between FDU – Inkingi and RNC in Brussels that took place on 31st July 2011, the United Democratic Forces (UDF) and the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), neither of which is recognized in Rwanda, vowed they would mobilize their members in France and Belgium for a protest outside the headquarters of the French bosses’ union, Medef, on 13 September.

The UDF is aligned to jailed self-styled politician Ingabire Victoire who is facing several serious charges including terrorism, as RNC is for ex-army Chief of staff Kayumba Nyamwasa who is also wanted in Kigali on terrorism and many other charges for which he was sentenced to 24 years.

These two so-called political movements recently formed an unholy alliance in a bid to coordinate their terrorist activities they have been involved in and for which the two mentioned leaders together with some other accomplices have been charged for in Rwanda’s courts of justice.

Indeed, shortly before Ingabire Victoire returned to Rwanda in January 2010, a UN Group of Expert’s report on Congo (9th November 2009), concluded that “FDLR military leaders were in telephone contact with Diaspora members of the Forces Democratiques Unifees (FDU). The Group reported that Victoire Ingabire, the president of FDU, then based in the Netherlands, had attended so-called “Inter-Rwandan Dialogue” meetings with pro-FDLR participants”.

Later, witnesses, emails, and Western Union receipts proved that she had directed and funded the creation of an armed wing of her political party, FDU Inkingi by persuading top FDLR commanders to break away from the organization, arguing it wasn’t violent enough. The purpose of Ingabire’s armed group was to wage a guerilla war against Rwanda.

With the assistance of a number of nations, Rwanda has obtained persuasive evidence – wire transfers, phone logs, emails and co-conspirator confessions – of Ingabire’s contacts and coordination with FDLR leaders and her attempts to create a more violent FDLR splinter faction. She sent thousands of dollars to Congo to pay for arms and ammunition.

On 29 April 2010, former FDLR Colonel Tharcisse Nditurende pleaded guilty to forming the said guerrilla rebel group to launch an offensive against Rwanda. Nditurende confessed that he had been recruited by Victoire Ingabire during meetings held in Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville to lead a military guerrilla wing of her political party – FDU-Inkingi.

On 6 May 2010 another former FDLR Commander Jean Marie Karuta pleaded guilty to working with Victoire Ingabire’s FDU party (alongside Colonel Nditurende) to plan military offensives to cause state insecurity within Rwanda.

The newly formed RNC has played its role as regards the same evil agenda. RNC dissidents have also been in collaboration with FDLR leadership. RNC operatives/emissaries and sympathizers have been active both around the globe and in the region rallying for support with a grand plan to topple Rwanda Government of National Unity.

Two FDLR operatives, RWANDANGA Frodouard and Berchmas MUKESHIMANA, currently on trial on charges of last year terrorist grenade attacks in Kigali, revealed the collaboration between RNC and FDLR in carrying out terror attacks in Rwanda.

Rwandanga revealed that in May 2010, the FDRL/FOCA Deputy Commander Brig Gen BIGARUKA talked with KAYUMBA Nyamwasa on phone and the latter promised to send a representative to meet him (Brig Gen Bigaruka) to discuss the possibility of carrying out terrorist activities in Rwanda. Lt Col AMRI BIZIMANA, FDLR senior commander who defected to Rwanda on 29th December 2010 revealed that Patrick Karegeya and Maj. Gen. Sylvestre Mudacumura held two telephone conversations in Sept 2010 and this had also been corroborated by the UN Group of Experts report.

To achieve their terrorist goals, FDU and RNC also use Rwandan negationists/revisionists groups, hostile associations/individuals in Europe to raise funds and carry out other mobilization activities.

It is thus in this context that the two terrorist groups organized their followers in the mentioned Brussels meeting to call for demonstrations against president Kagame’s visit in France.

Inside sources have revealed that among those co-opted to organize the unwelcome demonstrations include Joseph NGARAMBE, an RNC member and FDU-Inkingi sympathizer living in Lille, France, Ben RUTABANA, an obscure singer, RDF (Rwanda defense forces) deserter and RNC activist in France who resides in Lille, Jean KABANDA, leader of hostile Association pour la Promotion de la Culture Rwandaise (ACPR) in Rouen, France and Jean-Marie Vianney Ndagijimana, the Chairperson of another hostile association called Action for Impartial International Justice in Rwanda (AJIIR) based in France.

Jean marie Vianney Ndagimana, wanted by the Rwandan justice for embezzlement of public funds

A former ambassador who run away after embezzling hundreds of US dollars from government coffers, Ndagijimana is the founder of a new association « Covigla » (Coalition of massive victims from the Great Lakes region) which aims at coalescing Rwandans and Congolese that are alleged to be victims of the Rwandan government.

In its evil political scheme, the group plans to file a sham case against president Kagame on September 12, 2011 on behalf of the mentioned so-called victims.

But a more awesome association is the one of Kayumba Nyamwasa with a former member of Akazu, Seraphin Rwabukumba.

The term Akazu means “small house” in the Rwandan language and refers to the immediate entourage of Agathe Kanziga, the wife of Juvénal Habyarimana, regarded as one of the key figures in the organization and execution of the genocide.

The key members of this informal structure came from the communes of Karago and Giciye in the prefecture of Gisenyi). Seraphin Rwabukumba,
Rwabukumba Seraphin, Kayumba Nyamwasa and Col Elie Sagatwa that is now said to be a major brain within the RNC, is a brother to genocide suspect Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana and younger brother to Col Sagatwa who perished together with Habyarimana when the latter’s plane was shot down.

He is suspected of taking part in the genocide perpetrated in 1994 and following a report made by the Belgian intelligence services, the prosecution in Brussels, after denying him Belgian nationality he had applied for, has since early this year investigated and prepared a case against him for war crimes linked to the Rwandan genocide.

These are the kinds of disgruntled people and suspected hardcore criminals the two self-portrayed political opposition parties rely on for mobilizing demonstrations against the President of Rwanda and hope to disrupt the reconciliation process of the two great people, the French and the Rwandans through their Presidents’ visionary endeavor.

One thing is quite sure, they should expect no more success, or one should say failure, than the one they experienced in Chicago last June.

Ecole Secondaire de Kayonza that recently changed its name to ‘Kayonza Modern School’ located in Nyamirama Sector in Kayonza district,entered a new building of 8 classrooms built under the assistance of Japan Government.

The Japan Ambassador to Rwanda Kunio Hatanaka presided over the inauguration ceremony held September 7.

On behalf of his government Ambassador Hatanaka pledged continued support from the government of Japan towards Rwanda’s education sector which he said is “moving in conformity” with the country’s long term development vision 2020.

The building which was constructed in less than 3 months, cost up to Frw 66M and all classrooms will accommodate at least 368 students.

Prior to the opening ceremony, Ambassador Hatanaka visited a new laboratory that contains laboratory equipment for sciences that was opened late last year.

Talking to igihe.com, the Director of the school, Steven Rwamurangwa who with the assistance of the parents founded the school in 1996 noted,
“The new classes are going to help students study in a conducive environment and reduce the congestions in classrooms while promoting academic standards.”

According to Rwamurangwa, among other achievements attained include a new modernized girls dormitory built under the assistance of a U.S based organization ‘Barbara Stone Foundation’, a drilled water well from underground with water reservoir that overcomes water shortage during dry season funded by ‘Living Water International’.

The school also established a Media club that helps to disseminate news to the students funded by both Ministry of Information and MINEDUC two years ago.

Janvier Gasana, a representative from MINEDUC challenged teachers and all staff to ensure both academic standards and discipline are emphasized at the school.

Helping the school to recover, in recent years under the assistance of U.S Embassy, the school constructed a Dining Hall, modern football and volleyball pitches, former science laboratory, kitchen, students’ library and the Director of Studies’ office.

The school is also among the few best schools in government’s program of greening and beautifying the environment.

According to the Director, the school must soon be called a ‘school of excellence’ at the national level through promoting discipline, academics and the school social values.

“We have competent and qualified staff and we must reach our target,” Rwamurangwa outlined.

According to him, the school started in 1996 with the aim of helping children who had come back from Anglophone education system since the education system in Rwanda by that time was purely Francophone.

The school now accommodates over 800 students both national and international students with both ‘O’ and ‘A’ level teaching all science and arts subjects.

Last year the school emerged the 11 position countrywide and in 2009 it had 3rd position in science subjects.

Remera Police is holding a group of more than ten suspected thieves arrested in connection with stolen items including;generator, laptops,sound systems, projectors ,marijuana,kitchen utensils and three women found in posession of illegal alcoholic brew.

Police Spokesperson Supt. Theos Badege said, “We want to show the public that we are empowered to bring all these crimes and illegal activities to the end. With the help of citizens, Police will be successful in this campaign against such crimes. Security is a strong pillar in the country’s development.”

Willy Ndizeye the Gasabo district Mayor has also pledged support from his district in curbing down all illegal activities including robbery, smuggling and sell of illicit drugs.

Ndizeye said that the district will do it successfully with the assistance of local officials and security departments including; the army, Police patrols and night guards.

“Such activities are on the decline and what is increasing is security operatives to finish them. Our country’s security has attracted many investors and we have to strengthen powers to retain the security of the country,” he said.

He outlined the statement at Remera police station yesterday where products worth millions that belong to investors were recovered from thieves by the Police. They included over 10 laptops, keyboards, and output speakers among others.

There were also cans of illegal local brews impounded from different parts of Kigali city.

Ndizeye added, “We are not promoting security on behalf of foreign investors only but also the citizens of the country.”

He said that as leaders they are strengthened to rid the country of crimes and illegal activities while promoting enough security.

Victimized, Pastor Gaby Opare-Obuabisa of Lighthouse Chapel International located in Kimironko said, “I am very glad and recommend the National police for its efforts to recover the items my church.”

He said that thugs broke into his church two weeks ago and took away microphones, a keyboard, speakers and a projector.

Among the detained laptop thieves, Brice Dushime 15, from Nyabisindu in Nyarutarama Cell confessed,“We have been using wires to steal laptops in cars and sell them to DJ Mike of Kimironko at Frw 150, 000 each.”

He could also steel phones and money if found together with the laptop in a car.

Libya’s fugitive leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi has dismissed as lies and psychological warfare the speculation that he has fled south to neighbouring Niger.

The comments, made in a telephone call to a pro-Gaddafi TV channel in Syria, apparently came from inside Libya. Col Gaddafi also promised his forces would defeat Nato and the National Transitional Council (NTC).

Earlier, Niger said it was considering how to deal with him if he decided to enter the country to seek refuge. Niger would decide later whether to accept Col Gaddafi or hand him to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the country’s foreign minister told the BBC.

There has been speculation that Col Gaddafi may go to Niger after groups of loyalists fled there in recent days.

Libya’s transitional authorities have asked Niger not to take him in.
According to Mark Doyle, the BBC’s Correspondent in Niger, Niger’s foreign minister says the [former Gaddafi aides] are in the capital Niamey. That would be the logical thing for them to do: the authorities want to assure security, insofar as they can in this vast and mainly desert nation.

Niamey would be the place where they have most of their security operatives to do that. If anyone wanted to hide or melt away into the desert, it would be relatively easy for them to do so without the Niger authorities knowing where.
Doyle says the fact is that Niger really is in a dilemma.

It is a poor country compared to Libya, and for many years now, a whole tissue of relationships has built up with Col Gaddafi’s Libya. His organisations and agencies have been investing here, in terms of business and aid operations and so on. And hundreds of thousands of Niger citizens are seeking work in Libya.

Niger recognises the ICC, which is seeking the arrest of Col Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and his former intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi.

Col Gaddafi told the Arrai channel, which is based in the Syrian capital Damascus, that there was nothing unusual about convoys going to Niger.

However, in a BBC interview on Wednesday, Niger’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum admitted that officials from his government were among those people who had recently crossed into Niger.

But he said that neither Col Gaddafi nor any of his sons were currently in his country, dismissing reports in some media.

“There is no news about Gaddafi in Niger, we have no news about him, it is not true that he has tried to come into Niger or he came into Niger.”
Regarding the recent Libyan refugees, Mr Bazoum said, “We told them that we can accept them to stay for humanitarian reasons, but they have to respect what the international law allows them to do or not allow them to do.”

The minister said at least three convoys had crossed from Libya into Niger, and that none of Col Gaddafi’s sons was travelling in them.

Officials in Niger have said Col Gaddafi’s security chief, Mansour Daw, was among those who entered the country in the convoys over the weekend or on Monday.

Mr Bazoum added that those who had arrived from Libya – of whom there were fewer than 20 – were free to stay in Niamey, or to continue to Burkina Faso.

The foreign minister also stressed that Niger simply had “no means to close the border” with Libya, describing it as “too big”.

And Niger’s government has belatedly recognised Libya’s interim authorities, the NTC, the BBC’s Mark Doyle in Niamey says.

But the government in the capital Niamey clearly feels it cannot just abandon Col Gaddafi completely, a man with whom it has had a long relationship, the correspondent adds.

Burkina Faso – which borders Niger to the south-west – has denied reports that it had offered to welcome Col Gaddafi.

Meanwhile, Fathi Baja, a senior official from the NTC, said the Libyan transitional authorities would ask Niger to send any Gaddafi aides back to Libya. He also said people in the area had reported seeing gold and money in the convoys that drove to Niger.

“If that happened, we want that money back,” AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Col Gaddafi’s wife, two of his sons and his daughter fled to Algeria last week.
His own whereabouts remain the subject of speculation – though the NTC say they believe he is still in Libya.

Senior Western officials say they have no information about where Col Gaddafi may be, but have no indication he has left the country.

A Nato spokesman, Col Roland Lavoie, told the BBC that Col Gaddafi was not a target, but Nato would continue to strike “command and control centres”.
“If we have intelligence revealing that from a specific location attacks are being co-ordinated or communications are being received or sent to conduct attacks or the threat of attacks, we would take action,” he said.

The NTC has been trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution to stand-offs in a handful of Libyan towns or cities still controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.

These include Bani Walid, Jufra, Sabha and Col Gaddafi’s birthplace of Sirte.
The NTC has positioned forces outside Bani Walid, and says talks will continue there until a deadline on Saturday.

The chief Magistrate in Musanze district Claudien Niyonizera 57, who has been recently transferred to Rwamagana district, was on Tuesday caught red-handed by the police inspection with the assistance of the litigant and other responsible citizens, in Kigali receiving the bribe worth Frw 100, 000.

Police Spokesperson Supt. Theos Badege told igihe.com, “The judge (Niyonizera ,pictured above)was caught while receiving sum of Frw 100,000 from the litigant.”

According to the Spokesperson, the suspect was supposed to receive Frw 100,000 down pay in the first phase and after the litigant of the case wins his case, the judge was going to be given other Frw 70M in addition.

The litigant in the case is Francois Ntinzehiki of Musanze who is accusing the transport company called Golliland (where he was an employee) of not paying him his Frw 700M.

It is said that in an agreement with Judge, Ntinzehiki was supposed to pay him Frw 70m toppling Frw 100, 000 that is after winning and being refunded his Frw 700M. But with the pressure put on him by the Judge upon the bribe, he decided to make a photocopy of this amount before he gives it to him so that it can work as an exhibit.

Badege said that though the investigations are still underway with local official, the available exhibits are enough to produce the judge to court.

Suspected judge, has however, not accepted allegations saying he was not involved in receiving the bribe.

“I received a phone call from my friend inviting me to meet him at the City Valley Hotel here in Kigali to share with him a bottle of beer and when I reached I found he was with a person with whom I am handling his case but I never interacted with him though,” said Judge Niyonizera.

According to the suspect, he has been helping his friend Jean Chrysostome Harerimana 61 also of Musanze but present at the scene of crime to lend him money for his own problems. He says that this friend however borrowed money from the other victim also present to refund him.

His friend Harerimana, a farmer who is also in custody with the judge and accused of intermediating the two suspects that “I had asked Ntinzehiki (litigant) to lend me some money to refund Niyonizera (Judge). He then called me saying he is coming to Kigali and he has the money and in the due course Niyonizera found us there and I just received money from Ntizehiki and paid Niyonizera.”

According to the suspected judge, the litigant’s case was supposed to open this Thursday at Musanze High Court and he the same judge was supposed to handle it before relocating to Rwamagana where he has been transferred.

The judge says by the time of his detention, he had come to sleep in Kigali and proceed to Rwamagana the following day to look for a house where he was supposed to stay during his work there.
Chrysostome Harerimana and judge Niyonizera are now held at Remera Police Station.

National Police continues to argue the public to help report and curb down such illegal activities that retards the development of the country

Officials of governments of countries in the Great Lakes region are meeting in Kigali to discuss and formulate mechanisms that will help eradicating negative armed forces in region.

Rwanda’s permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mary Baine emphasised that the expected outcome of the ICGLR defense and security experts is the adoption of a common approach with a view of supporting bilateral and regional initiatives that intensify efforts in dealing with negative forces.

Jacqueline Mukangira, the ICGLR national coordinator said that the resolutions of this meeting will lay a foundation for the meaningful strategies for a peaceful region the future generations will enjoy.

She said it is believed that the presence of negative armed groups in the region, particularly in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan remain an impediment to sustainable development in the region.

Among the rebel groups include Forces for the Defense and Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) , a Rwandan group operating in Eastern DRC and the Diaspora, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) pictured above, a Ugandan armed group now operating in DRC, Sudan and Central African Republic as well as Allied Democratic Forces, another Ugandan rebel group operating in the Ituri province in DRC.

According to Rwanda’s Colonel Dan Munyuza, the Director General of external security in the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS), member states should make a permanent army brigade which will be mandated to fight the negative forces.

“Member states should not allow to be used as territories of aggressive and subversive penetration against another country.

“Governments in the region should impose heavy economic sanctions in order to weaken the rebels financings,” said Col Munyuza.

Col. Mamba from DRC was quick to note that joint military efforts have weakened FDLR. “Both operations Umoja 1 and 2 which were conducted by Rwanda and Congo military weakened 60 percent of the rebels’ capacity and some were disarmed while others voluntary left the force,” he pointed out.

This meeting will be concluded by a special roundtable of ministers of defense in member countries scheduled on Friday in Kigali who are expected to discuss on how to implement the recommendations.

The ministers will discuss the role of security organs in the initiative to fight the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the region and strengthen cooperation in the efforts to deal with the threat of terrorism especially that posed by Al- Shabab.

At around 11:00AM in Kigali city center at Sameer Hussein’s shop opposite Rubangura’s building, tyres of a car belonging to motorist only identified as Kayitare were deflated under orders by the parking owner.

According to the eyewitness, only Sameer Hussein clients are allowed to use the parking space. Non clients are not allowed to park there. Sameer shop deals in motorcycle spares parts.

Hussein’s Mother drew closer and found a car in red parking, asked for the holder however nobody showed up and decided to tell shop employees to deflate the tyres.

According to Hussein,“No one is allowed to park close to the shop unless they are our customers, even police authorities know that.”

“Cooperative KVCS, street parking fee is Frw 100 per hour, he ought to have parked there, why at our place while he did not come to buy”, he wondered.

According to Kayitare Onesphore, a business man and car owner said,“No traffic sign to stop us from parking there, it is thorny to identify whether it is illegal or not”.

The angry Kayitare told igihe.com,“Even though I parked in their place, it does not mean to deflate my car tyres, do they have their own rules for punishments, what if I do it as a resident, what can happen”? he also wondered.

After the earshot, Igihe.comin a phone interview with the Traffic Police Commander, Chief Supt. Celestin Twahirwa said, no one is allowed to take such measures of deflating someone’s car since police is there to apprehend such drivers who do not observe traffic rules.

A driver of Hussein said, “I asked a gentleman to take away his car but he could not heed to my advice and soon Hussein’s mother was passing by and saw a red car parking and immediately ordered employees to deflate the tyres.