[The UN in Somalia says tens of thousands of people will have died of starvation by the time the famine in the Horn of Africa ends.]
BURUNDI :
RWANDA :
Kagame ‘not excited’ by France’s genocide report, says Africa shouldn’t be judged by outsiders
By Associated Press/Published: January 15
KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwandan President Paul Kagame said Sunday he’s “not very excited” by a report released by a French commission that found that the missile fire that brought down the Rwandan president’s plane in 1994 and sparked the country’s genocide came from a military camp and not Tutsi rebels.
The findings essentially clear several people close to Kagame, who was the leader of the Tutsi rebels at the time of the assassination. French judges had filed preliminary charges against Kagame’s allies and were investigating the incident because a French air crew was killed in the plane crash.
Kagame told a national prayer breakfast that while he was happy with the findings, he said he takes issue with the idea that Rwanda or Africa should be judged and defined by outsiders.
“While I am happy with the findings and everybody in this country seems to be very excited, I am not very excited,” Kagame said. “The reason is simple. All along, have we been waiting to be cleared by a certain French judge?”
The government had praised last Tuesday’s conclusion, which is in line with its own investigation that pointed the finger at Hutu extremists.
Critics of the Rwandan government had questioned that investigation and, for years, some have said the rebel Tutsis who were fighting then-President Juvenal Habyarimana’s Hutu-led government shot down his plane.
After the April 1994 crash, militants from the Hutu ethnic majority quickly set up roadblocks across the capital of Kigali. More than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in 100 days of frenzied killing — slaughter that was stopped when Kagame’s Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, toppled the Hutu extremists.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement after word of the French commission was made public that the findings vindicate Rwanda’s standing on the downing of the plane, that it was a coup d’etat carried out by extremist Hutus.
Mugesera to ask to be released while he fights to stay in Canada
The Gazette /www.montrealgazette.com/January 15, 2012
Léon Mugesera is expected to ask the Immigration and Refugee Board on Monday to allow him to return home while he fights to stay in Canada.
On Saturday, the Canada Border Services Agency arrested and detained Mugesera, alleged to have incited the 1994 Rwandan genocide, after he was released from a Quebec City hospital, the CBSA said in a statement Saturday.
“All individuals detained by the CBSA will have their detention reviewed by the Immigration and Refugee Board … within 48 hours,” the CBSA said.
Mugesera’s family says he has been transferred to an immigration detention centre in Laval that houses people who are awaiting deportation.
Mugesera’s son told reporters that Mugesera will ask to be free from the detention centre at a hearing Monday.
The Rwandan native was granted a one-week reprieve from deportation by a Quebec Superior Court judge last week after he was admitted to hospital, reportedly after suffering a “malaise” just before he was to be deported.
His family issued a statement Thursday saying that he was in critical condition.
The safeguard order, issued by Justice William Fraiberg, was granted after lawyers filed a motion on behalf of Mugesera against Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Attorney-General of Canada.
The motion sought to give legal teeth to a request to Ottawa issued Wednesday by the United Nations Committee Against Torture that Mugesera not be deported until his case is reviewed by the committee’s 10 experts.
Mugesera has claimed that he would face torture and possibly death in Rwanda if he is forced to return.
The safeguard order gives Mugesera until Tuesday to present a motion to the government for an interlocutory or permanent injunction that will be heard in court, if necessary, on Jan. 20.
RDC CONGO:
Les résultats des élections en RDC “entachés d’irrégularités”?
le dimanche 15 janvier 2012/www.rtbf.be
Les opérations de compilation des résultats des élections législatives de la fin 2011 en République démocratique du Congo ont été entachées d’irrégularités qui posent la question de la “légitimité des résultats”, a dénoncé dimanche une mission nationale d’observation.
Cette mission regroupant quatre ONG, qui a déployé près de 2700 observateurs pour la compilation, a notamment relevé dans un rapport une mauvaise gestion des procès verbaux (PV) de dépouillement, “l’obstruction” au travail des observateurs et des témoins, une compilation “opaque et incomplète”, ou des cas de “falsifications” de résultats dans certains Centres locaux de compilation (CLCR).
Dans un souci de “transparence et de crédibilité”, la Commission électorale (Céni) a annoncé vendredi le report au 26 janvier de la publication -initialement prévue le 13- de la totalité des résultats des législatives, qui se sont déroulées le 28 novembre 2011 avec la présidentielle, remportée par le chef de l’Etat sortant Joseph Kabila.
Ce dernier a devancé l’opposant Etienne Tshisekedi qui s’est autoproclamé “président élu” après avoir rejeté les résultats et dénoncé de nombreuses irrégularités, constatées également par plusieurs pays, des missions d’observation et l’Eglise catholique congolaise.
Pour les législatives, dans “nombre de circonscriptions” les PV n’ont pas été signés par les témoins des partis et des candidats ou simplement remis à ces derniers, en violation de la loi électorale, relève le rapport de 15 pages.
“La question de la légitimité des résultats” des deux scrutins “est posée”, estime le rapport. “Si cette question ne connaît pas un début de solution par une médiation politique et un accord minimum, il y a des risques que les institutions et les personnes issues des élections du 28 novembre rencontrent des réelles difficultés de gestion des populations dans les années à venir”, conclut la mission d’observation.
Cette dernière met aussi en cause la légitimité de la Céni pour la suite du processus électoral, qui doit se poursuivre jusqu’en 2013 avec des scrutins provinciaux et locaux.
Belga
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Lire suite du document : bur16012012.doc
