President Paul Kagame has urged Rwandans to work hard without waiting to be given aid.
“If someone is giving you aid it means they are carrying your baggage and will drop it any time they wish.”
Kagame made the remarks during community work today at Nduba in Gasabo district where he joined the area residents on a monthly Umuganda (community work).
Meanwhile the visiting US Permanent Ambassador to UN, Susan Rice participated in the monthly community work-umuganda.
Zimbabwean government has denied presence on their soil of Protais Mpiranya, a fugitive of the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide.
A principal director in the Immigration office Clemence Masango said Mparinya is not in the country.
Mpiranya the former commander of the Rwandan Presidential Guard who allegedly masterminded the genocide is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for war crimes.
“We do not have him in our records. Interpol wrote to us on the matter and investigations were carried out. He is not here,” Masango told a Parliamentary portfolio committee on defence and security yesterday.
Masango was answering questions on the deportation of Zimbabweans from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.
He said the deportations are not a strange thing saying it is an ongoing process which is often carried out by countries, including Zimbabwe, to flush out unregistered foreigners.
Reports linking Mparinya with Zimbabwe caused a diplomatic tiff between Harare and Kigali with the later accused of deliberately hiding many genocide fugitives including Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam who is wanted in Ethiopia for crimes against humanity.
Masango told parliamentarians that investigations were still in progress but so far indications are that the fugitive is not in the country.
In a press interview, Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga said while Rwanda government was not aware of the communication between the UK and Zimbabwe, it was becoming increasingly clear that Zimbabwe was harbouring Mpiranya.
“I am not privy to the communication between the UK and Zimbabwe but I would not be surprised because it is getting increasingly believable that Mpiranya is in Zimbabwe.”
“Zimbabwe must cooperate to get him apprehended and brought to justice,” Ngonga said.
Mpiranya is accused of crimes against humanity during the 1994 war. He is also accused of killing ten Belgians guarding the first Rwandan female Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana in 1994.
He is also accused of distributing weapons to the militia and to certain members of the civilian population with the intent to exterminate the Tutsi.
The EAC secretary General Ambassador Richard Sezibera has affirmed EAC’s support for the ongoing initiatives aimed at pacifying Somalia.
Amb. Sezibera confirmed that the country’s security situation would feature on the agenda of the EAC Heads of State Summit meeting due 30 November in Bujumbura.
“EAC is committed to finding a long term solution to Somalia so that its people can find the peace and stability they deserve,” the Secretary General stated.
Meanwhile EAC is working on harnessing the potential of Lake Tanganyika by attracting investments to the lake basin, the EAC Secretary General Ambassador Richard Sezibera said today.
While briefing journalists attending the EAC-GIZ Advanced Media Training on Reporting on Regional Integration, which is currently on in Bujumbura, Amb.Sezibera said attracting investment and increasing awareness of the importance of the Lake Tanganyika basin would be top on the agenda at the Lake Tanganyika Development Conference which opens next Monday in the Burundian capital.
Amb. Sezibera said that in addition to raising awareness about one of the region’s most important shared trans-boundary natural resources, EAC would also use the 28-29 November conference to woo investors to the basin, which presents opportunities in transport and communication infrastructure; tourism; agri-business and fisheries; trade and industry; and investment-led research among others.
“We want people to be fully aware of the potentials available in the lake, which is shared by four countries; Tanzania, Burundi, DRC and Zambia. There are lots of potentials that need to be tapped in the lake through investment as it is in other lakes in the region,” he told journalists.
The Secretary General challenged media in the region to play an active role in ensuring East Africans are involved in the integration project by providing a medium for citizens to interface with their leaders to discuss pertinent EAC issues and in the process address fears and reservations towards integration, some of which Amb. Sezibera said result from a lack of information.
“When the people are aware of the Community, see it and feel its presence, they would appreciate more and acknowledge its benefits and prospects,” the Secretary General said.
Amb. Sezibera, who also addressed himself to various EAC-related subjects ranging from trade to the economy and regional security, emphasized the need for the Partner States to speed up work towards the East African Monetary Union, which he said would put the region on a firmer economic footing.
“Currency fluctuations [in the region] are a reflection of underlying economic fundamentals. A monetary union with the accompanying economic and financial integration would make our region more competitive,” he said. “But that’s not enough,” he added, noting that the region needed to boost industrial growth, food production and energy generation, among others.
He also affirmed that the region was committed to tackling Non Tariff Barriers, which slow down intra-regional trade and declared that these had now been reduced by at least half from 59 a few years ago.
Amb.Sezibera reiterated the bloc’s commitment to conclude the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union and explained that any delays were because the EAC negotiators “wanted to get the right EPA for East Africa”.
On the fifth day of the cycling competition dubbed ‘Tour of Rwanda 2011’ Smet Guy a Beligian citizen topped the Muhanga-Huye race.
Guy from FLANDERS AVIA club was followed by Ruvogera Obedi a Rwandan national from Akagera team.
The route surprised many due to results change when they saw the potential cyclists not emerging in their usual best positions.
People like Kiel Reijnen and Joseph Rosskopf who have been doing well in the previous routes were left far behind this time.
However much American Joseph Rosskopf who was the 9th in this in Muhanga-Huye route, is still the best and still wearing a yellow jersey because he leads in the accumulated points since the competition started.
Jean de Dieu Uwimana commonly known as Rafiki also from Akagera club emerged fourth in the Muhanga-Huye route contributing points to the team though it remains on the seventh position.
Abraham Ruhumuriza whose home area is Huye where ride destined did not quench his funs expectations but unfortunately emerging the 16th in race while his colleague Adrien Niyyonshuti topping six positions.
Muhanga-Huye route of 72.4km has been the first time cyclist raced the route following previous years which would be either Kigali-Huye or Karongi-Huye.
This has been the tour of Rwanda 2011’s fifth stage, the remaining sixth and seventh stage, cyclists will now race in a Huye -Karongi and Karongi- Kigali routes respectively.
Cycling competitors’ lineup
1. ROSSKOPF Joseph (Type 1 SANOFI)
2. REIJNEN Kiel (Type 1 SANOFI)
3. GIRDLESTONE Dylan (MTN QHUBEKA)
4. BYUKUSENGE Nathan (Karisimbi )
5. HATEGEKA Gasore (Karisimbi )
6. RUHUMURIZA Abraham (Karisimbi )
7. NIYONSHUTI Adrien (MTN QHUBEKA)
8. HABIYAMBERE Nicodem (Karisimbi )’
9. CHENEVIER Aléxis (RHONE ALPES)
10. KOGO Benjamin (Kenya)
11. RUDAHUNGA Emmanuel (Karisimbi )
In partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC Rwanda), the Centre for Business Solutions (CBS) is training Kigali entrepreneurs in marketing skills for their work and sales.
Patrick Kagabo, the CBS manager told igihe.com that this training aims at enhancing entrepreneurs’ skills in dealing with their businesses.
“We help them at enhancing their skills in doing their marketing system. It is good that people start understanding the role of these trainings that could change their way of working”, said Kagabo.
He added that this helps increase their practical skills because most of them are used to theoretical skills got from schools.
One of the trainers Jimmy Rutabingwa says that trainings opened their eyes as business people and this will help to make their businesses known.
“These trainings will help us to get their eyes open as entrepreneurs.All of them will put this into practice and let me mention that time is now”, said Rutabingwa.
One of the trainees, Christian Mutembe told igihe.com that he welcomed the initiative by the Centre for Business Solutions.
“On my behalf, this training was successful. We got to know how to make things into practices. I get out of here with much knowledge and skills to improve my business”, stated Mutembe.
Following the recent story that three miners were still missing after the soil covered the entrance and exit tunnels of the Muhanga based mine, the three miners have been rescued still alive and normal, igihe.com can reliably report.
Information attained by igihe.com indicate that Viatuer, Jean Manirarora and only identified as Ndayamaje were rescued at 2:20 pm as combined efforts from residents, police and the army hurried to save their lives.
Even one of them had a cell phone, there was no communication due lack of power on his phone’s battery.
“No one was traumatized, no psychological distress, no injury. It was just a miracle,” Gabriel Rulinda the Managing Director of Rwanda Rudniki mining company has said by his cell phone.
Yesterday, soils fell from the hills and covered the entrance and exit of the a coltan mine in Nyarusange Sector, Muhanga District in Southern Province four men surviving while other three remaining covered in the mining tunnel.
Speaking at the scene in Nyarusange sector where the mine is situated Beatrice Uwamariya the sector’s Executive Secretary told igihe.com that rescue mission involved police, the army and the residents who worked tirelessly.
“We worked since yesterday and the rain interrupted and after sun set it was dark and we left, we came back very early in the morning to continue with the rescue mission. They spent the whole night inside the mining tunnel, thank God they came out alive,” Uwamariya said by phone.
Uwamaliya said that the rescue team used different tools like spades to remove the soil that had covered both entrance and exit tunnel.
“They told us they had morale and had hope they would be rescued because they heard people talking and doing something to rescue them,” Uwamariya said.
“They all looked ok and the rescue mission went very successful, they have finished taking some food and drinks,” she added.
An effort to speak to one of the three rescued members was fruitless as they were not in a position to speak to the press at the time.
In case of any damage, Rulinda said that all miners in his company are protected and insured with CORAR insurance company and that they would be compensated if any damage occurred.
Ends
The president of the National Women Council Francesca Tengera has said that new findings indicate that even men have been brutally domestically violated.
Tengera was speaking to igihe.com in a separate interview after addressing the press at the launch of 16 days of campaign against gender based violence.
She said that available statistics indicate that at least 94 men were brutally beaten by their spouses though women are still largely violated brutally with 430 women violated this year.
“Women are not only the victims but men too. this year only 430 women were brutally beaten by their spouses and 94 men in the same way,” Tengera gave part of the statistics.
Physical assaults were found to be among the leading form of domestic violence resulting to loss of lives with 83women and 60 men killed this year.
Tengera said that there are still lack of one’s awareness on their rights is making the matter worse; “just imagine 20 women and 31 men committed suicide simply because they couldn’t stand being tormented and others divorced and left family because they didn’t know where to present their cases.”
“Women are most affected that’s why we intend to focus more on sensitizing them on their rights, especially on owning property,” she said.
Emmanuelle Ingabire the focal point of gender based violence at Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe a women rights activists Non-Governmental Organization, called for the abolition of laws and cultural practices that oppress women.
“Rights over land for instance is a major issue, I can’t believe there are areas where women up to now are denied fair shares of land during inheriting process, a similar practice is seen in men who deny their women to own property like houses, cars etc,” Ingabire remarked.
Prior to the campaign’s launch there was a walk from Kacyiru roundabout to the Amahoro national stadium, in the afternoon that involved high profiled women leaders in the country followed by a football match between high ranking women leaders from the government versus their counterparts from civil society.
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Four people were yesterday rescued alive from a big coltan mine hole after a landslide at Nyarusange sector, Muhanga district in the Southern Province, igihe.com has learnt.
At the moment three people are still missing and have not been recovered from the landslides that almost covered the mine.
According to reliable information, the victims were mining coltan by the time heavy rain fall started causing wetting of the sorrounding soils that fell and covered the path to their way out.
Before the mine tunnel was covered the four managed to escape the huge ambushing soils and survived death and as per now there is no information about the fate of the rest who seems to have been buried by the soils inside the mine.
Beatrice Uwamariya, Nyarusange sector’s Executive Secretary told igihe.com that more efforts are being invested to rescue the victims.
“Since yesterday after the incidence we have been trying our best to rescue the missing people but we had to stop because of heavy rains and resumed work today very early in the morning with the help of police,RDF staff and the residents,” she said.
Uwamariya said that there is a chance of the victims being still alive because there is a resistant rock inside and that they may be hiding in it for protection.
According her, it’s not the first time such incidence happened because even in August this year 6 people also survived death narrowly as a result of landslide.
Ends
In the morning of today Nov. 25, at around 9hrs000 at Kinamba-Gisozi junction at the bridge, a body was found roped arms and legs, placed into a sack and drowned in the flowing river under that bridge.
By the time igihe.com reached at the scene, this body was not yet identified and our reporter found a crowd of terrified people plus the National Police taking pictures and trying to take rescue.
When contacted Police Spokesperson Supt. Theos Badege who wasn’t yet aware of the saga said that normally when such incidents happen, police has to take action very fast.
‘When such incidence happens, we try to identify the person in case it’s possible, investigate the reasons behind the death, and who did the act as well among others before we take action,” Badege said.
Badege promised to give detailed information after confirming the act and after identifying the victim.
Sub-Saharan African countries that invest in training doctors have ended up losing $2 billion as the expert clinicians leave home to find work in more prosperous developed nations, researchers have said.
A study by Canadian scientists found that South Africa and Zimbabwe suffer the worst economic losses due to doctors emigrating, while Australia, Canada, Britain and the United States benefit the most from recruiting doctors trained abroad.
The scientists, led by Edward Mills, chair of global health at theUniversity of Ottawa, called on destination countries to recognize this imbalance and invest more in training and developing health systems in the countries that lose out.
“Many wealthy destination countries, which also train fewer doctors than are required, depend on immigrant doctors to make up the shortfall,” Mills’ team wrote in a study, which was published in the British Medical Journal.
“Developing countries are effectively paying to train staff who then support the health services of developed countries.”
Experts say the migration, or “brain drain,” of trained health workers from poorer countries to richer ones exacerbates the problem of already weak health systems in low-income countries battling epidemics of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
CRITICAL SHORTAGE
The World Health Organization adopted a code of practice in 2010 on international recruitment of health personnel that highlighted the problem of doctor brain drains and called on wealthy countries to offer financial help to poorer ones affected.
The code is seen as particularly important for sub-Saharan Africa, which suffers from a critical shortage of doctors and has a high prevalence of diseases such as HIV, TB and malaria.
The latest United Nations global HIV/AIDS report released on Monday found that 68 percent of the around 34 million people worldwide who have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS live in Africa.
Using various data including published reports on primary and secondary school spending from UNESCO, Mills’ team estimated the cost of educating a doctor through primary, secondary and medical school in nine sub-Saharan countries with some of the world’s highest rates of HIV.
The countries studied included Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The research team then added the figures together to estimate how much the origin countries paid to train doctors and how much the destination countries saved in employing them.
The results show that these governments spend between $21,000, the figure for Uganda, and $59,000, in South Africa, to train a doctor, only to see them in many cases migrate to richer countries.
“Among the nine sub-Saharan African countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, more than $2 billion of investment was lost through the emigration of trained doctors,” the researchers said. “Our results indicate that South Africa incurs the highest costs for medical education and the greatest lost returns on investment.”
The findings suggested the benefit to Britain was around $2.7 billion, and to the United States was around $846 million. Australia was estimated to have benefited to the tune of $621 million and Canada was $384 million better off.