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The two years long arguments in the trial of former Rwandan Minister Callixte Nzabonimana will close this Thursday through Friday, according to Arusha based Hirondelle news Agency.

Hirondelle News Agency is based at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania as the only media outlet reporting the Court’s proceedings linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda on a regular basis.

Nzabonimana was Youth Minister in the interim government in place during the 1994 genocide and has been on trial since November 2009.

The defendant is charged with conspiracy to commit Genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, extermination and murder.

The prosecution presents him as the main instigator of massacres of Tutsis in his native prefecture Gitarama today’s Muhanga District in 1994.

Nzabonimana has always denied this, and is pleading not-guilty.

The indictment alleges that before the genocide, Nzabonimana actively participated in recruiting, indoctrinating, training and arming Interahamwe extremist Hutu militia, especially in the Muhanga District.

After the massacres started, he allegedly ordered the erection in the prefecture of various roadblocks which he visited and supervised, distributing arms, money, beer and food to the killers who were manning them.

According to the prosecution, Nzabonimana had influence not only over the civilians who manned the roadblocks but also soldiers, gendarmes and local officials in the prefecture, including the prefect and mayors.

He allegedly abused this influence to call for massacres of Tutsis during numerous public meetings in Muhanga District in 1994.

It is alleged that during a meeting in Murambi on April 18, 1994, attended also by other members of the interim government, Nzabonimana ordered the killing of mayors and other officials who had opposed the massacres.

Immediately afterwards, according to the prosecution, the mayor of Mugina, Callixte Ndagijimana, and other local officials were killed.

The former minister has sought to demonstrate that he did not have the influence in the region that the prosecutor alleges.

He stresses he was a member of the former presidential party MRND whereas after the 1991 advent of multiparty politics in Rwanda, Muhanga the then Gitarama was a stronghold of the main opposition party MDR.

The ex-minister was arrested in Tanzania on February 18, 2008, and his trial started on November 9, 2009.

The court trying him is composed of presiding judge Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Judge Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov of Russia and Judge Mparany Rajohnson of Madagascar.

President Paul Kagame has been listed among the world’s most influential people ranked the 48th position and becoming the 2nd on the African continent.

On the African continent Jacob Zuma, the South African president emerged number one leader who has had more influence in Africa but also ranked 36th most influential leader in the world.

From pop stars and activists to religious leaders and heads of state, a UK based news paper New Statesman carried out its annual survey and listed the people doing the most to shape the world.

The New Statesman survey indicates that many people in the world have come up to work towards a better world but the most influential of them all in their respective sociaty settings were only listed.

Kagame having moved from the 49th position in the last year’s ranking, the paper pointed him out due to his relentless efforts to transform Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide into one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Under Kagame’s stewardship ended the massacres, advocating for African development made him a a prominent figure to the international community.

The same list of 50 most influential people in the world ranked German Chancellor as the number one most influential person in the world.

The paper suggests that the answer to that question if euro zone is doomed depends on Angela Merkel as the head of government of the largest and richest country in the European Union.

She is said to the solution provider in an effort to convince her parliament endorse the proposal to bailout Greece and other euro members currently hit by the financial crisis.

Other people include David Petraeus the Director of United States intelligence agency CIA, Ai Wei wei the Chinese artist whose Sunflower Seeds filled the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern until May, Tim Cook who inherited Apple deceased CEO Steve Jobs and Barack Obama USA president in their descending order.

Kagame emerging
After serving as head of intelligence in Uganda, Kagame led a guerrilla group Rwandan Patriotic Front that stopped the 1994 Genocide, he emerged a hero to lead a group that liberated Rwanda.

As the chairman of Rwanda Patriotic Front-Inkotanyi, Kagame has achieved great progress- under his stewardship, Rwanda emerged the most transforming economies both in Africa and the world.

Rwanda is reported as the second-highest growth rates in Africa, averaging 10 per cent from 1994 to 2000, and 6 per cent since then.

Poverty has also decreased, from 70 per cent in 1994 to 57 per cent in 2007.
Kagame has been critical of the United Nations and has advocated new approaches to development in Africa.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has scheduled to try Major Protaise Mpiranya in absence supposedly dead.

Information from Arusha based court indicate that ICTR will start special evidential hearings held in camera in the case of Major Mpiranya,
Thirty witnesses have been called to stand by the prosecution tomorrow on Wednesday.

A Defence lawyer has been assigned; he will be cross-examining witnesses and leading his own investigations.

The Tribunal has already started conducting similar proceedings in Kabuga’s case and intends to commence soon special evidential hearing in the case of former Defence Minister Augustin Bizimana supposedly hiding in the DRC.

The 1994 Genocide suspect Major Mpiranya the ex-commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion is claimed to be dead by his publishers ‘Edition source du Nil’.

The Author of the book ‘Rwanda; the lost paradise’ published by Edition source du Nil, he is said to have passed away on October 5, 2006 and his book was published posthumously in October 2010.

Nevertheless, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow believes him to be alive and hiding in Zimbabwe.

August 13, 2011, Zimbabwean police Constable Innocent Chinembire of the force’s public relations department announced on the state-run Radio Zimbabwe that an arrest warrant against Major Mpiranya has been issued.

He claimed that the special CID taskforce was trying to track him down. He also added that Major Mpiranya has been adopting false identities such as: James Kakule and Patrick Sambo.

The international media also reported other aliases: Yahaya Mohamed, Hirwa Protais Alain, Alain Protais Muhire, and Mambo Mapendo Augustin.

Major Mpiranya was born in 1960 in Giciye, in the former Gisenyi prefecture, he graduated from the Superior Military school of Kigali, and was trained in Germany and France.

In 1993, he was second-in-command of military operations and intelligence in the Presidential Guard Battalion, and was appointed Commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion in the same year.

Major Mpiranya is accused of participating in the planning, preparation and execution of the genocide.

The presidential guards, under Mpiranya’s command, are alleged to have been responsible for the sexual assault and murder of the former Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwiringiyimana, and also taking into custody and killing ten Belgian UNAMIR soldiers.

He is charged by way of his personal and superior responsibility for the crimes alleged. The United States government has offered a reward of US$5 million to anyone who furnishes information leading to the arrest or conviction of Major Mpirinya in any country.

All roads led to Nyamirambo Regional Stadium today as hundreds of Muslim community went to witness the ordination of their new Mufti.

Men clad in white with white Islamic hats also called Kufi or Taqiyah covered their heads and women wrapping themselves from head to the toe.

Hundreds of Rwandans in the Islamic faith gathered patiently before the actual time approached to see their new Muft Sheikh Abdul Karim Gahutu ordained replacing Sheikh Saleh Habimana.

The ordination of a new Mufti of Rwanda was presided over by President Paul Kagame who was also accompanied by several other government officials.

At the same event, hundreds of Islamic faith witnessed the handover of the office of mufti and also the office of overall representative of Rwanda Muslim Association- Association des Musulman au Rwanda (AMUR).

In his speech Mufti Gahutu conveyed his gratitude towards the Rwandan Muslim community for entrusting him with their leadership.

He stated; “No one can thank God, without thanking people! In my opinion President Kagame did an outstanding work of unifying Rwandans in the aftermath of the 1994 Tutsi Genocide”.

Gahutu compared such achievements to what Prophet Muhammad did in Saudi Arabia when he unified two different ethnic groups that were always conflicting.

In his speech, President Kagame also thanked the former Mufti Saleh Habimana for promoting the welfare of Muslims.

Kagame also thanked Rwandan Muslims for having recognized Sheikh Gahutu as trustworthy, and hence elected him as their leader.

“Muslims, like all other Rwandans ought to accept that people can have different ideas, understanding, religions, and arguments but ultimately, they are unified by their culture, therefore they should strive for what brings them together rather than what separates them.” Kagame said.

Kagame wished the new Mufti a good life, good leadership and guaranteed him that the government will assist in the development of the Muslim community.

Gahutu and his new committee declared pillars that will characterize their leadership as promoting development of Muslims, upholding culture of unity and providing health aid to the poor.

Mufti Sheikh Abdul Karim Gahutu was elected as Mufti of Rwandan Muslim community on August 3, 2011, replacing Sheikh Saleh Habimana who had been the overseer of muslim community for ten years.

Gahutu is the seventh Mufti to lead the Rwandan Muslims association (AMUR), he was born May 1, 1966, and is married, with four children.

A report which has been released by ActionAid has indicated that Rwanda is among the only three countries that is equipped to fight triple crisis.

Among 28 developing countries where ActionAid carried their study, Rwanda, Tanzania and Mali were the only three countries in a position to confront what they have called triple crisis involving the accelerating climate change, growing population and rising food prices.

The report warns titled ‘On the Blink; Who’s best prepared for a climate and hunger crisis?’ suggest that the triple crisis could lead to a collapse in global food systems by 2050.

According to the report Rwanda has programmes and political will including a 25 year plan intending to confront the triple crisis.

“Rwanda was the first country in Africa to sign on to the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), and has demonstrated a clear political will to decrease endemic levels of hunger and malnutrition,” the report read in parts.

In addition to doubling government spending on agriculture over the last few years, from a low of five per cent in previous years, Rwanda’s government committed an extra US$5 m (Est. over 2,9bn) in the agriculture sector for 25 years.

In February this year, Rwandan government announced its intension to undertake a countrywide restoration of its degraded soil, water, land and forest resources for the next 25 years.

It was in a bid to restore the lost forest cover that had since 1990 become a victim for agricultural activities and settlements triggering floods and heavy rains that not only destroyed crops but also human lives.

A predicted 30% increase in world population by 2050, together with the severe impact of climate change on harvests, a scene of food scarcity in decades is predicted.

This year’s famine in East Africa provided a terrible preview of how such crises could play out years to come, with severe drought, conflict over access to water and land, and high food prices interacting to push 13 million people into starvation.

The report states that 526 million people could be at risk of hunger because of climate change by 2050 because Land is being diverted away from the small-scale farmers who produce most of the food consumed in poor communities.

The report states that since 1960, a third of the world’s farmland has been abandoned because it has been exhausted beyond use; about 10 million hectares are destroyed every year.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that in Africa alone 6.3 million hectares of degraded farmland has lost its fertility and water-holding capacity and needs to be regenerated to meet the demand of food from a population set to double in Africa by 2050.

Worldwide hunger has been reduced by just 2% in the last 15 years.

ActionAid is the only UK international development charity with headquarters in the developing world with head offices in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It works in 19 countries across the continent dealing with issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment; famine relief; peace building; food and education.

With regional headquarters are in Nairobi while operating in 40 countries including Burkino Faso, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The British High Commissioner to Rwanda, Ben Llewellyn – OBE yesterday congratulated Jean Damascène Ntawukuliryayo upon his post as the new Senate president.

During his visit to the senate the Commissioner hailed the excellent working relationships High Commission had with the previous Senate and expressed his will to be more strengthened with new senate.

The new Senate President Dr. Ntawukuliryayo thanked the Ambassador for the courtesy call and the congratulations.

Ntawukuriryayo also said that he was devoted to fulfill his new duties saying that he had acquired experience in the last 3 year working in the lower chamber of parliament.

The two discussed existing working framework between the Parliament of Rwanda and the one of the United Kingdom.

They also talked about bills that the Parliament is likely to vote in the near future such as the media law, mending the existing law on genocide ideology among others.

They agreed that existing cooperation initiatives will be strengthened during this new Senate term, for the benefit of both parties.