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Rwanda’s envoy to Tanzania, Ben Rugangazi has made an impassionate appeal to the regional media to play an active role in fast-tracking the regional integration processes.

The envoy was responding questions on ICT development, East African integration processes, and private sector’s contribution to Rwanda’s economic progress.

While praising the media as a key tool in fostering the agenda of development in the region, Rugangazi was also concerned that it has been very slow in sending out important messages on regional integration processes.

“Regional leaders have made initiatives — setting up systems and making decisions, in the course of pushing for regional integration, but these important messages have not reached many East Africans. We need the media to assist and actively support governments in the integration processes,” the envoy said.

Describing education as one of the important components in regional integration, Rugangazi said it allows interactions among East Africans, enabling them to understand each other and create solid bounds.

Citing specific examples, he said there are about 100 students from Rwanda pursuing different courses at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), adding that students from East African partner states should be encouraged to study in “Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania.

It’s through this way; our students/people would mix and understand each other.”

“EAC governments and higher learning institutions need to encourage this spirit if we really want to speed up the regional integration,” the Rwanda envoy concluded.

The Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians (FFRP) and the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) met July 26 to reflect on the basic factors that can justify the confirmation of a gender sensitive parliament.

Alphonsine Mukamugema the President of the FFRP, said that Rwanda is still the only country with the highest number of women in Parliament.

She said the ongoing meeting rooted in the report published in 2011 by IPU themed ‘Gender sensitive Parliament’ will discuss other factors that may be considered to confirm the gender sensitive parliament.

Zeina an envoy from IPU raised a question to the FFRP members, to suggest other factors beyond a huge number of women in parliament to confirm a gender sensitive parliament.

Other factors cited include; voting law considering gender equality, contribution of both men and women in any parliament, eradication of all discriminations rooted from feminine nature and inclusion of disadvantaged groups–disabled people and youth.

Other MPs showed the role of parliament in Rwanda in creation of gender sensitive laws stimulating gender equality.

Rwanda’s parliament has 56% women. This number has granted Rwanda an award as the country with the highest number of women in parliament around the world.

On 9th July IGIHE had reported that over 400 students of Rwathia Girls Secondary school in Kenya had gone on strike demanding for short skirts ’appealing’ uniform.

The girls have won the battle for shorter skirts as the long ones suggested by the school administration, and which they rejected, will now be replaced with shorter ones.

The Kenyan Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo says the girls at Rwathia Secondary School can breathe a sigh of relief as the length of their skirts has been “minimised”.

Mutula on Thursday displayed three sets of skirts for the girls, with various lengths and designs, and indicated the “approved” one.

The minister showed skirts that the girls rejected, the ones they used to wear and what was agreed upon at his offices in Jogoo House, Nairobi.

The demands of the girls have been granted and supported by the Kenyan Constitution in particular the Bill of Rights, Article 53 (2) that states: “A child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.”

The skirt length was approved after a meeting among the school administration, the girls and the Ministry of Education officials.

Earlier this Month, the furious girls brokeout of school very early Monday morning(9th July) in a peaceful protest demanding for shorter skirts (mini) as opposed to the long skirts (max) introduced as their new school uniform.

Congolese authorities in the Province of North Kivu have reported presense of Ugandan military elements on the Congo territory which have allegedly sneaked in to reinforce the M23 rebels.

Congolese media has reported that Provincial coordination of civil society in North Kivu said in a July 25 statement that six Fuso brand vehicles from Uganda came into DRC, last weekend, with several Ugandan soldiers.

The Ugandan combat elements are said to have grouped at Kitagoma Busanza.

“Three vehicles introduced elements of the UPDF (Ugandan army) to Nyarukwarangara, while three others have filed to Kabira,” said Omar Kavota the Civil society coordinator in the area.

Civil society in North Kivu also said they received information stating that “the elements of the Uganda army have supported the rebels M23” on the front lines in Rutshuru Nyongera-center , more particularly on the axis of Kiringa Kalengera.

“We have verified information to that effect and firepower of the M23 is now attest. The information that we made available to the authorities needed to be taken seriously,”said the coordinator of the provincial civil society.

This structure, also reported the infiltration of the Ugandan army in the area of Rwenzori in the leadership of and Watalinga Bashu, in eastern territory of Beni (North Kivu).

The mutiny began last April in the province. The mutineers have created, beginning March 23 Movement (M23) to demand the implementation of peace agreements signed by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the former armed movement’s National Congress for the People’s Defence (CNDP) in March 2009.

M23 rebels have taken over a a sizeable portion of the territory including the lizière of Virunga National Park to the DRC border with Uganda and Rwanda.

Two men have been arrested by police in Gasabo district in connection with theft of fertilisers meant for agricultural activities in Nduba Sector.

The suspects include;Theogene Ndagiriyemungu 31, an agricultural officier and J Pierre Sebahire 32, a security guard at the store where fertilisers were being kept.

They were caught in possession of a sack of NPK and 2 litres of pesticides in his house. Police later arrested and detained the two suspects at Nduba police post.

Police Spokesperson Superintendent Theos Badege condemned that criminal act warning that those involved in siphoning goods meant for common interest shall dealt with.

“Fertilizers are meant to help local farmers increase their farm production and thus improve their standards of living but not to be used for private interests”, Badege noted.

The African Union Peace and Security Council has Commended African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) for its invaluable contribution towards the protection of civilians,as well as for its support to early recovery initiatives in troubled Darfur.

The Council has also commended the review by UNAMID of its Protection of Civilians Strategy that focuses on physical protection, humanitarian assistance, protection through access to the rights, early recovery and social empowerment, and protection through political engagement.

The Council has therefore extended the mandate of UNAMID for another year and urged the UN to do the same. The UNAMID force led by Rwanda’s Lt. Gen. Patrick Nyamvumba, its mandate was due to expire on July 31, 2012.

The Council resolutions were made Tuesday during the 328th meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Rwanda has more than 3,200 officers and men in Darfur mandated to protecting civilians, promoting an inclusive peace process and helping ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance across Darfur.

The Council expressed satisfaction with reduction of hostilities between Sudan Government forces and the armed Movements.

However, the Council expressed concern at the sporadic fighting in Darfur, the increase in incidents of banditry and other criminal activities, and the attacks by unidentified armed individuals against UNAMID convoys.

The Council said it was satisfied with the significant increase in the number of voluntary and spontaneous returns throughout Darfur in the past few months, and calls for continued efforts to sustain this trend, especially as close to 1.7 million Darfuris still remain in IDP camps, while dozens of thousands others are refugees in neighboring countries, particularly Chad.

A former FDLR rebel combantant Capt. Nshimiyimana Eraste a.k.a Platau has abandoned rebellion and returned to Rwanda.

The rebel who returned to rwanda on 24 July, was formerly operating in Rufuro, Masisi territory.

Capt. Nshimiyimana advises his colleagues still in the jungles of DRCongo to drop their mission and return to Rwanda and work with other citizens to develop their home country.

He (Nshimiyimana) commended the great treatment he was received with and thus urged other rebels in the bush to return home as soon as possible.

Capt. Nshimiyimana Eraste is a former resdient of Nyarugeshi, Kajwi, Nyarutovu in Ruhengeri Prefecture.

Source: ORINFOR

On 10 July 2012, a Sudanese Judge Imad Shamoun sentenced Laila Ibrahim Issa Jamool, 23, to death by stoning for adultery at Al-Nasir Criminal Court under Article 146 of the Sudanese Penal Code 1991.

Jamool is allegedly detained, shackled at the ankles with her six-month old baby at her side.

Her child is reportedly in poor health and the distressed mother in need of psycho-social support.

This is the second case of its kind this year. In April, Intisar Sharif Abdullah confessed to adultery after being beaten by her own brother and was sentenced to death by stoning.

However, in both cases the women did not have access to a lawyer and were nursing children of breast feeding age, which is illegal under Sudanese and international law.

Article 36(3) of the 2005 Interim Constitution of Sudan states: ‘No death penalty shall be executed upon pregnant or lactating women, save after two years of lactation.’

Mrs. Abdullah was eventually released after an appeal with the retrial court finding a “lack of evidence” against her.

Responding to Jamool’s sentence SIHA – the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa – issued a statement demanding her immediate and unconditional release and the end to the criminalisation of women for adultery in Sudan.

The group asked the Ministry of Justice and other relevant institutions to investigate and overturn the judgment.

SIHA’s statement outlined that the case was “problematic” under both Sudanese and international law, calling on the “human rights community, The African Union, The Arab League, and United Nations and to oppose this practice and leverage its influence to prevent this act of brutality.”

Under the United Nations Convention on Torture (1984) stoning is classed as cruel, inhuman and degrading. International human rights legislation that Sudan has signed prohibits stoning as a method of execution, according to SIHA’s statement.

Critically, the human rights group said, “this has been taking place in absence of legal representation for Jamool and after only three court sessions, inclusive of a referral to a higher court than that of first instance, Jamool was sentenced to death by stoning.”

Sudan is one of the few countries which retains the death penalty for adultery. However, its application has not been recorded in recent years.

Many of Sudan’s Public Order Laws (based on the government’s interpretation of Islamic Shari’a Law) are inconsistently applied.

President Omar al-Bashir said recently that Sudan’s new constitution would be “100% Islamic” following the secession of the largely Christian South of the country last year.

The legal procedures in Mrs. Jamool’s case, SIHA said, are in clear violation of due process and Sudan’s interim constitution:
Article 34 (6) states that:

“any accused person has the right to defend himself/herself in person or through a lawyer of his/her own choice and to have legal aid assigned to him/her by the State where he/she is unable to defend himself/herself in serious offences,”

SIHA also observe that Article 135 of Sudan’s Criminal procedure code has been violated.

This stipulates that defendants are entitled to legal representation in criminal cases carrying a sentence of 10 years or more, imprisonment, amputation or death.

Jamool married her husband in 2008 but after 18 months she returned to her family and they have been estranged ever since. For over a year they have been going through divorce procedures.

However, when she gave birth to a child six months ago her husband launched adultery charges – known as Zina in Islamic Shari’a Law – against her and filed a case for her to be returned to his home.

Jamool’s husband has also asked her family to return some or all of the the dowry he paid them as part of traditional Sudanese wedding procedures four years ago.

SIHA’s Director, Hala Alkarib, said her organisation “condemns all forms of corporal punishment”, especially those involving the criminalisation of personal behaviour.

“The victimization of women as the result of complex socio-economic and cultural relationships must be stopped and Sudan must urgently adopt measure and laws that protect and respect the dignity and the human rights of Sudanese women”.

“The criminalization of Sudanese women within the current legal framework subjects women to systematic and severe forms of violence and ultimately undermines their humanity and that of the society at large.”