Africa

Burundi AFP 21 Apr 2004 Burundi's last active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), announced Wednesday it would immediately stop attacking government troops and their allies and that it was willing to consider holding peace talks.

Côte d'Ivoire AFP 2 Apr 2004 UN orders enquiry into Ivory Coast bloodshed / IRIN 2 Apr 2004 Government confirms paramilitary role in Abidjan unrest The government says 37 people were killed as the police and army fired live bullets at unarmed civilians on 25 March to disperse a banned opposition protest demonstration against Gbagbo's alleged unwillingness to implement a 15-month-old peace agreement aimed at ending Cote d'Ivoire's civil war. However, opposition parties claim 350 to 500 people were killed

DR Congo AFP 31 Mar 2004 8,000 Rwandan militia still in DR Congo: UN / SAPA 29 Apr 2004 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) troops have killed 39 Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern DRC and "neutralised" two battalions of the feared Interahamwe militia, blamed for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, the United Nations mission said on Thursday.

Ethiopia IRIN 30 Mar 2004 Ethiopia: Parliament Votes for Independent Probe Into Violence in Gambella / Biddho.com 4 Apr 2004 Ethiopian PM´s Dossier: Meles Zenawi about Meles Zenawi´s downfall Meles Zenawi more and more contested ION News Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is now losing the authority that he had regained over the Tigray People's Liberation Front . . . In the federal parliament also, TPLF MPs no longer speak with a single voice. Last week, during a session chaired by the deputy speaker, Petros Olango, the TPLF MPs did not appreciate the report by Abay Tsehaye, minister of federal affairs, on the recent confrontations in Gambella (in the west of the country). / L’Organisation Mondiale contre la Torture 27 Apr 2004 Ethiopia: concerns about a Commission of Investigation attempting to cover up State involvement in acts of genocide / Reuters 29 Apr 2004 E Ethiopia's prime minister Thursday dismissed a report that said the army had helped kill more than 1,000 people in ethnic murders in the west of the country, calling it a "fiction" that had duped outsiders.

Kenya The Nation (Nairobi) 31 Mar 2004 Families of people who died in the infamous Wagalla massacre in Wajir, northern Kenya, 20 years ago are willing to have bodies exhumed for examination. They also want a truth commission established to investigate the atrocities allegedly committed by government officials between February 9 and 13, 1984.

Namibia Independent UK 3 Apr 2004 Mugabe aiding Namibia land grab . . . civic groups in Namibia have warned against Zimbabwe- style methods, which have destroyed its country's agriculture and reduced it to the status of beggar nation. However, with an election due next year, Namibia's white farmers fear that Mr Nujoma's ruling Swapo party might resort to the populist methods that have been pioneered by Mr Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Rwanda Reuters 1Apr 2004 Westerners Shun 10th Anniversary Rwandan Genocide / Reuters 1 Apr 2004 Ex-Rwandan president Bizimungu goes on trial / Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 2 Apr 2004 Seven Heads of State to Attend Genocide Commemoration The leaders include Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Umar al-Bashir of Sudan, Idriss Deby of Tchad, Mwai Kibabi of Kenya, Yoersi Museveni of Uganda. Tanzania will be represented by its Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye and Burundi, by the Vice-President Alphonse Marie Kadege. Of the Western countries Belgium will send the most important delegation, led by the Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. / IRIN 2 Apr 2004 Census finds 937,000 died in genocide / BBC 5 Apr 2004, Preventing another genocide By Alison De Forges / BBC 11 April, 2004 A military official said at least 16 rebels were killed attempting to attack a Tutsi village inside Rwanda's border.

Sudan BBC 1 Apr 2004 Sudan's Islamist party HQ closed / VOA 1 Apr 2004 Pentagon Closely Monitors Situation in Sudan’s Darfour Region / HRW 2 Apr 2004 Sudanese government and militia accused of war crimes UN News Centre 2 Apr 2004 . Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the Council in New York on what he described as a growing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. "We have now seen an organized campaign being undertaken of forced depopulation of entire areas," he said, adding he could find no other words than ethnic cleansing to describe what has been happening. / HRW 2 Apr 2004 Sudan: Massive Atrocities in Darfur Almost One Million Civilians Forcibly Displaced in Government’s Scorched-Earth Campaign / IPS 2 Apr 2004 The Security Council threw its weight behind talks aimed at halting a year-old conflict in western Sudan, calling on the government and opposition groups to halt fighting for humanitarian reasons and to settle their dispute politically / BBC 6 Apr 2004 UN mission probes Darfur violence The government is accused of tolerating ethnic cleansing in Darfur The United Nations has launched a 10-day mission to investigate alleged human rights abuses by government-backed Arab militias in Darfur. UN spokeswoman Annick Stevenson said human rights experts had started interviewing refugees, mostly black Sudanese, who had fled to Chad. / NYT 6 Apr 2004 Remember Rwanda, but Take Action in Sudan By SAMANTHA POWER A radio exchange between a Sudanese ground commander and a pilot overhead (taped by a British journalist in February) captures the aims of the attackers: Commander: We've found people still in the village. Pilot: Are they with us or against us? Commander: They say they will work with us. Pilot: They're liars. Don't trust them. Get rid of them. / Reuters 21 Apr 2004 U.S. Forgoes Penalties on Sudan, Urges Negotiations Bush is ``especially concerned'' about the Sudanese government's actions in the western Darfur region. ``Although not directly related to the North-South talks, he urges the government to ensure the unrestricted freedom of movement for international aid agencies,'' the official said. / AFP 21 Apr 2004 Attacks in Sudan's Darfur may be crimes against humanity: UN mission / Reuters 22 Apr 2004 Rights Group Reports Massacre of 136 Men in Darfur Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:52 PM ET By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Arab militia and Sudanese government troops were responsible for the massacre of 136 African men in the Darfur region last month, Human Rights Watch charged on Thursday. / HRW 23 Apr 2004 Sudan: Government and Militias Conspire in Darfur Killings Major Massacre Shows State Complicity / WP 26 Apr 2004 Perhaps for the first time, United Nations Commission on Human Rights the commission has suppressed one of its own reports. The report, written by a team of U.N. human rights investigators -- and led by Bacre Waly Ndiaye, a Senagalese lawyer who warned of the potential for genocide in Rwanda a year before it happened -- was based on interviews with Sudanese refugees who had escaped across the border from Darfur, into Chad. / VOA 27 Apr 2004 Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail speaking to the VOA, denies accusations that genocide has occurred in the region.

Uganda newsday.com 4 Apr 2004 TERROR IN UGANDA Where kids are primary victims and victimizers The Lord's Resistance makes children kill their families and turns the abducted boys into soldiers and the girls into sex slaves

Americas

Argentina BBC 31 Mar 2004 On Monday, an Argentine court found two police officials guilty of arranging the theft of a baby from murdered detainees during the country's last military dictatorship, and then handing her over for adoption. Some 400 babies are believed to have been snatched in this way, and their identities suppressed. Of those, 77 have since been "discovered".

Brazil WP 14 Apr 2004 Young Brazilian Indians Find Suicide Only Way Out . . . According to news reports, more than 300 of the 30,000 Kaiowa Indians who live here in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul have taken their own lives since 1995; 54 did so last year alone, corresponding to a rate of 180 per 100,000. . . With a population of 180 million people and an area larger than the contiguous United States, Brazil has in its postwar development efforts squeezed its 300,000 native people into smaller and smaller reserves. . . . The unemployment rate on the reservation is more than 60 percent, said Luciano Arevalo. Drug and alcohol abuse is rampant and malnutrition common, said Andrea Depieri, a local police officer. Often left behind, adolescent girls and young women from the reservation have increasingly turned to prostitution to support themselves or their families, she said. "The reservations are like a vacuum," she said, "and the only thing that fills it is deprivation. . . . "It's like watching a genocide," Depieri said. "And until there is some real land reform here, the Kaiowa will continue to cut their children down from trees.

Canada Reuters 21 Apr 2004 The Canadian House of Commons voted 153-68 to support a motion declaring the events of 90 years ago as genocide, despite a plea from Foreign Minister Bill Graham not to aggravate NATO ally Turkey.

Guatemala UN News Centre 2 Apr 2004 Guatemala: UN hails Government's promise to halve army, military budget

United States St. George Daily Spectrum, UT 1 Apr 2004 Lee statue will go up, council says Council members vote to go ahead with the statue despite public outcry Lee is connected to an event in 1857 wherein Arkansas emigrants headed for California were attacked by Utah militiamen, a group comprising members from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and others. More than 100 men, women and children died in what came to be known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Lee was the only person to ever be tried, convicted and executed for the massacre. / Bayside Times Ledger (NY) 1 Apr 2004 Queensboro exhibit shows century of global genocide / Hillsboro Argus, OR 1 Apr 2004 Dr. Sheridan Thiringer shared his thoughts with me upon his recent return from the First International Conference of the Institute for Action Against Hate at his alma mater, Gonzaga University / Wilmington Journal wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com TULSA RIOT LAWSUIT DISMISSED, WEEK OF APRIL 1-APRIL 7, 2004 by CASH MICHAELS Acknowledging that the event was a “terrible devastation,” an Oklahoma federal judge reluctantly dismissed a lawsuit seeking reparations from the state, city of Tulsa and the Tulsa Police Department for the deadly 1921 race riots that claimed over 100 lives. / AFP 31 Mar 2004 Justice Dept backs girl's right to wear headscarf / Long Beach Press Telegram 3 Apr 2004 www.presstelegram.com Khmer Rouge tribunal sought L.B. lawmakers urge Bush to fund court that would try regime chiefs.

Asia-Pacific

Cambodia AFP 2 Apr 2004 In the first book written by a former Khmer Rouge leader on the regime’s brutal 1970s reign, Khieu Samphan styles himself as an intellectual and a patriot who knew nothing of the genocide being wrought.

China BBC 30 Mar 2004 Chinese security agents have detained the mothers of three students killed during the Tiananmen demonstrations 15 years ago. The three are all prominent members of the Tiananmen Mothers' Organisation. / www.chinaview.cn 30 Mar 2004 Progress in China's Human Rights Cause in 2003 / AP 30 Mar 2004 China Defends Human Rights Record / BBC 31 Mar 2004 US demands China release three Tiananmen relatives / UPI 2 Apr 2004 China has released three women arrested for seeking justice at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

India BBC 3 Apr 2004 Unique tribe on edge of extinction There is supposed to be no contact between Jarawa people and the so-called civilised settlers that have moved onto the Andamans in increasing numbers for the past 300 years. / Reuters 4 April 2004 . In its campaign for this month’s Indian elections, the BJP has put aside its Hindu revivalist rhetoric and is making a determined effort to reach out for the political middle ground and cement alliances with moderate, secular parties. Most of India’s 120 million Muslims are still deeply mistrustful of a party associated with the destruction of a 16th century mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya in 1992 and the controversial campaign to build a Hindu temple on the site. But some, it seems, are beginning to think the unthinkable. . .. Two years ago, the BJP state government in Gujarat was accused of complicity in the massacre of hundreds of Muslims in revenge for the torching of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims by suspected Muslim extremists.

Indonesia WP 31 Mar 2004 Democracy Seeks A Drill Sergeant Indonesians Let Down by Reforms Throng to Presidential Campaign of Indicted Ex-General. Despite being indicted for crimes against humanity by a U.N.-supported tribunal in East Timor -- a charge he denies -- Wiranto, 57, has emerged as one of the most visible challengers to President Megawati Sukarnoputri in elections scheduled for July. Last week, U.N. prosecutors at the special tribunal urged East Timor to seek an international arrest warrant for Wiranto. / Xinhua 1 Apr 2004 Human rights abuse in Indonesia to be brought to UN Four students of the University of Trisakti were shot dead on May 12, 1988, when they staged rally to protest the Suharto dictatorship, which fell that month after mounting protests. / BBC 2 Apr 2004 A self-confessed member of the group behind the Bali and Jakarta bombs has said his leaders received orders from Osama Bin Laden to attack Americans. The Bali attacks killed 202 people Another interviewee said he had recruited two alleged explosives experts being sought in connection with the Bali and Jakarta bombings and a third said he had helped provide explosives for the Christmas 2000 church attacks in Indonesia. / BBC 21 Apr 2004 Indonesia's former ruling party Golkar has chosen an alleged war criminal, General Wiranto, to run for president. He has been indicted for war crimes for his role in the crackdown on the independence movement in East Timor, but remains popular across Indonesia. / AFP 29 Apr 2004 Snipers spread terror Thursday in parts of Indonesia's Ambon but most of the city was calmer after four days of Muslim-Christian fighting which has killed at least 37 people. A banned parade by Christian separatists sparked off the bloodshed on Sunday in the eastern city, which is the Maluku provincial capital. The violence was the worst since a pact in February 2002 ended three years of religious battles in which some 5,000 people died.

Iraq BBC 4 Apr 2004 Coalition troops are reported to have opened fire on demonstrators in the Iraqi city of Najaf. At least three Iraqis were killed and dozens wounded after troops fired on a mass of people who were approaching their base, witnesses said. / KurdishMedia.com 31 March 2004 Turkmen is named as the Iraqi Defence Minister The representative of Turkmens in the Iraqi Governing Council, Songul Cabuk, is named as the Minister of Defence of Iraq . . She would be the first female who has taken the position of the defence minister in the entire Arab countries. Cabuk is well-known for her anti-Kurdish views / BBC 7 Apr 2004 US vows to wipe out cleric's army Sadr's Mehdi Army is thought to have about 10,000 members

Israel www.israaid.org.il 1 Arp 2004 IsraAID Commorates Rwandan Geoncide / www.maarivintl.com 1 Apr 2004 Israeli professor accuses Israel of genocide in European newspaper "The murder of Sheikh Yassin is part of an Israeli policy that can be described as symbolic genocide". This claim was made by Ben-Gurion University professor Lev Greenberg in a recent article published in the Belgian daily 'La Libre Belgique'.

Japan Mainichi Shimbun 7 Apr 2004 mdn.mainichi.co.jp Controversial visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi infringed upon the constitutional separation of religion and state, a court ruled here on Wednesday. The Fukuoka District Court ruled on a suit filed by more than 200 people who claimed that they suffered mentally from Koizumi's pilgrimages to the shrine. / ABC Radio Australia News Japan's PM plans to continue controversial Yasakuni war shrine visits The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, says he will continue to pay his respects at a controversial War Shrine, despite a court ruling that the visits are unconstitutional. Our Tokyo correspondent, Mark Simkin, reports that Mr Koizumi has called the ruling "irrational" and pledged to continue his controversial visits.

Nepal Deutsche Presse Agentur 1 Apr 2004 Maoists abduct over 1000 villagers in west Nepal Kathmandu / BBC 3 Apr 2004 It is the third day running that the capital has seen protests For the third day running the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, is witnessing large pro-democracy demonstrations.

Sri Lanka AFP 31 Mar 2004 Army deployed as Tamils flee east Sri Lanka amid arson attacks, war fears / AFP 29 Apr 2004 Sri Lanka imposes regional curfew as ethnic riots kill two. Residents said two Tamil men of recent Indian origin were killed when police opened fire to stop mobs that attacked shops and vehicles late Wednesday in clashes triggered by a traffic accident.

Syria www.kurdmedia.com 3 Apr 2004 Kurdish leadership console of Western Kurdistan of Syria 02/04/2004 Kurdish Leadership Console (KLC) The Syrian regime and its security forces are still continuing their massacre of the Syrian Kurds and threatening Kurdish leaders. On Friday, March 26, 2004 The Syrian regime tortured five Kurdish soldiers in the Syrian army, killing one of them for attending the Kurdish celebration of Newroz and critically injuring the other four. Kurdish students are being expelled from the Universities and many Kurds along with other minorities are being arrested. / BBC 7 Apr 2004 The human rights organisation Amnesty International has called on Syria to release Kurds detained during last month's violent riots. "Hundreds" of Kurds are being held at unknown locations, incommunicado and without charge, Amnesty said.

Thailand BBC 29 Apr 2004 Thai troops are braced for new attacks after over 100 suspected militants were killed on Wednesday during fighting in the country's Muslim south. Top generals have warned of a new military campaign by Islamists, but the prime minister said the attacks were carried out by criminal gangs. The violence began before dawn on Wednesday as groups of young men launched apparently co-ordinated assaults on security posts throughout Yala, Pattani and Songkhla provinces. But the security forces, who had been tipped off, were lying in wait and responded with devastating fire power, losing only five of their own men.

Uzbekistan WP 31 Mar 2004 Two Dozen Killed in Wave Of Violence in Uzbekistan Bombings, Shootouts Claim Mostly Suspected Militants

Europe

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe 29 Apr 2004 www.osce.org OSCE Press Release : 'Berlin Declaration' sets out concrete measures to fight anti-Semitism

Azerbaijan www.azernews.net 1 Apr 2004 On March 31 the Azerbaijan people mark the Day of Genocide. This date has been observed since 1998, when President Aliyev issued an edict "On genocide of Azerbaijanis", the first document to give political and legal assessment to the atrocities perpetrated by Armenians in the name of their "great Armenia" obsession. On this date in March 1918, a group comprising Bolsheviks and Dashnaks, Armenian nationalist party, under the pretext of a "struggle against counter-revolutionaries", launched a hideous plan of cleansing Baku of Azerbaijanis.

Bosnia AP 1 Apr 2004 Thousands of Serbs protest NATO raid By SAMIR KRILIC ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Waving Serbian flags, 3,000 protesters denounced NATO on Thursday for a pre-dawn raid in search of war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic that wounded a priest and his son. Jeremija Starovlah, 52, a known Karadzic supporter, and his son Aleksandar, 28, were taken to the hospital in the northern city of Tuzla. Both were in critical condition with multiple fractures and head wounds, said Mirsada Praso, who heads the hospital's intensive care unit.

Denmark AP 1 Apr 2004 A man granted political asylum in Denmark has been charged with war crimes in the death of two policemen and the kidnapping of a government official in Uganda, the Danish war crimes prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Germany BBC 1 Apr 2004 The southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has become the first in the country to ban teachers from wearing Islamic headscarves.

Netherlands www.expatica.com 2 Apr 2004 The commander of the Dutchbat UN battalion which surrendered to Serb forces in 1995 at Srebrenica, where 7,000 Muslim men and boys were executed, has fled the Netherlands because he feels threatened. Colonel Thom Karremans has fled to Spain / Radio Netherlands www.rnw.nl 2 Apr 2004 Last year, a study centre was set up in Amsterdam to glean more insight into the factors that can touch off mass killings. "Genocide can be defined as the effort to wipe out minorities as completely as possible. It requires mass involvement of ordinary people, who are needed to perform the actual killing." The words are from Johannes Houwink ten Cate, professor of history at the University of Amsterdam and the director of the Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Netherlands - ICTY Reuters 31 Mar 2004 The Hague War Crimes Tribunal Wednesday sentenced a former Bosnian Serb policeman to 17 years in jail for taking part in the 1992 massacre of more than 200 non-Serb men on the edge of Bosnian cliff. /Reuters 14 Apr 2004 MILOSEVIC WANTS 1,631 WITNESSES Mr. Milosevic has been given 150 court days to complete his defense.

Poland Reuters 14 Apr 2004 Polish Firebrand Praises Hitler's 'Early' Policies

Russia International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights 1 Apr 2004 Authorities severely intimidate remaining Chechen IDPs in the last two tent camps in Ingushetia / AFP 1 Apr 2004 One of last two Chechen refugee camps closes in neighboring republic / Radicalparty.org 2 Apr 2004 press release CHECHNYA: UMAR KHANBIEV AT THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ASKS FOR THE INTERVENTION OF THE UN

Serbia AP 31 Mar 2004 Serbian lawmakers on Tuesday awarded salaries, legal fees and other financial perks to former President Slobodan Milosevic and other Serbian war crimes suspects who are being tried by a United Nations tribunal in the Netherlands. It was adopted by a 141-to-35 vote in Parliament and illustrates the surge of nationalism in the Balkan republic. / BBC 31 March, 2004 Washington cuts off aid to Serbia The US wants Ratko Mladic handed to The Hague The US has suspended its aid to Serbia, saying Belgrade is not fully co- operating with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The decision means Washington will not disburse the last $25m of a $100m assistance package set up three years ago to help Serbia reform its economy.

Serbia - Kosovo AFP 31 Mar 2004 UN revises death toll from Kosovo violence down to 19 The victims include 11 Kosovo Albanians and eight Kosovo Serbs," UN police spokesperson Neeraj Singh told a news conference. / European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) 31 Mar 2004 The ERRC has gathered evidence that Roma and Ashkaelia have been subjected to very serious human rights violations during the wave of pogroms on minority communities carried out in the period March 17-21, 2004 throughout the province by ethnic Albanians. ERRC field investigation undertaken in recent days has documented that, in addition to the pogroms on ethnic Serb communities, several hundred Roma and Ashkaelia have been also targeted. At least 75 houses belonging to Romani and Ashkaeli families have been set on fire. OSCE 22 Apr 2004 OSCE free media representative finds Kosovo press coverage of March violence "reckless and sensationalist"

Slovenia On April 4, 2004 voters in a non-binding referendum upheld the 12-year-old policy creating 'erased residents' (izbrisani) in Slovenia. In 1992, eight month after declaring independence from Yugoslavia, the government of Slovenia deleted some 30,000 persons from civil registries. Some call this policy 'administrative ethnic cleansing' or 'soft genocide.'. / Ljubljana Life 20 Mar 2004 (Weekly Bulletin in English ) www.geocities.com/ljubljanalife/ by Brian J. Pozun Liberals urge boycott of Izbrisani referendum Anti-war protestors in Ljubljana were not the only ones this week to call for a boycott of the upcoming Izbrisani referendum / AP 4 Apr 2004 Slovenians vote against restoring rights of ethinic minorities / Slevenska Tiskovna Agencija (STA) Slovene Press Agency www.sta.si/en/ Polls Close in Referendum on the Erased Ljubljana, 04 April (STA) - Only 23.57 percent of some 1.6 million eligible voters turned out to vote at the polling stations by 4 PM. / BBC 2 Apr 2004 Mosque bid stirs feelings in Slovenia

United Kingdom Independent UK 2 Apr 2004 Digging deep: the British brothers who are building hope in Rwanda Mr James Smith and his brother Stephen - an English businessman who normally sells novelty cakes - are in charge of the frantic effort to build the first national genocide memorial through Aegis Trust, the genocide-prevention charity they founded. / News 24 SA 30 Mar 2004 Lloyd's of London, US bank FleetBoston Financial Corp and the RJ Reynolds tobacco company were expected to be named in a lawsuit that will allege they profited from the 17th-century slave trade, lawyer Edward Fagan said.

Global

Reuters 6 Apr 2004 UN Special Advisor for Genocide Prevention UN to unveil anti-genocide plan by Tuesday 06 April 2004 6:59 PM GMT Annan: The risk of genocide remains frighteningly real UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to unveil a plan of action to prevent acts of genocide such as the one in Rwanda in which up to one million people died. Critics charge that international bodies, inlcuding the United Nations, still remain ill-equipped to detect, let alone deal with, wholesale ethnic violence and calculated massacres such as the one in Rwanda that stunned the world. / IPS 6 Apr 2004 Could U.N. 'Special Adviser' Prevent Future Genocide? Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Apr 6 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will soon appoint a 'special adviser on the prevention of genocide', perhaps as early as next week. U.N. Spokesman Fred Eckhard says the new official will deal primarily with the prevention of genocide, the systematic and planned extermination of a national, racial or ethnic group. ''This is something the secretary-general feels very strongly about,'' Eckhard said, adding that Annan also intends to develop ''a plan of action'' to ensure that no mass slaughter of people will ever happen again. [ See UN Action Plan to Prevent Genocide ].

Africa

Angola

AFP 21 Apr 2004 DR Congo appeals to Angola over mass expulsions by Pedro Makuta Nkondo LUANDA, April 21 (AFP) - Democratic Republic of Congo's interior minister has told Angola that its mass expulsions of tens of thousands of Congolese was causing mayhem and appealed for cooperation. "The mass return of our compatriots caught us off guard," said DRC's Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba late Tuesday following talks with Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda. "Congo does not have the necessary logistics to accomodate these people repatriated from Angola," said Mbemba. Angolan authorities have rounded up more than 60,000 foreigners, most of them Congolese and some west Africans, over the past four months during joint army and police operations to crack down on diamond trafficking by foreigners. The expulsions peaked in early April with a daily influx of about 2,500 people into regions of DRC, where water, food and housing are scarce, according to UN relief officials. Around 40,000 returnees have been registered in DRC since the beginning of April, the United Nations has said. DRC is still struggling to emerge from a five-year war, which drew in six other African nations at its height, including Angola, and claimed some 2.5 million lives, either directly in combat or through disease and hunger. The war, which crippled the vast central African country's economy and infrastructure, formally ended in April last year with the signing of a peace pact. The government of the DRC "has come to request our understanding so that these operations take place through bilateral cooperation to avoid constraints," said the Angolan foreign minister. UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland warned in New York on Monday that the mass expulsions could lead to a humanitarian crisis. "While a state has a legitimate right to control who lives or works within its borders, returns of migrant workers must be done without jeopardising people's physical safety and dignity," Egeland said. Mbemba said that 40,000 Congolese nationals had arrived in Western Kasai and an additional 18,000 in Bandundu, which both border Angola to the north, adding that "these numbers of people are not easy to accomodate." The crackdown centered on the northern and southern Lunda provinces as well as Malange and southern Kwanza. Some 1,000 Congolese have also been expelled from Cabinda and 2,000 others from Zaire province in the north for illegal entry into the country, the immigration and border control services said. A Roman Catholic priest from Cafumfu in northern Lunda province told Radio Ecclesia that the deportees were forced to walk dozens of kilometers to reach assembly points set up by the Angolan authorities. "Pregnant women gave birth along the way," the priest was quoted as saying. Radio Ecclesia, a Roman Catholic station, also said that several Congolese died in the rivers in northern Lunda. The foreign minister noted that "Angola had informed the ambassadors of the countries concerned that these foreigners were engaged in activities deemed harmful to the Angolan economy, notably diamond exploitation."

Burundi

IRIN 16 Apr 2004 Burundi: Meeting to honour unsung heroes, heroines opens BUJUMBURA, 16 April (IRIN) - A three-day meeting convened by the international NGO Search for Common Ground (SCG) opened on Friday in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, to honour the nation's unsung heroes and heroines: ordinary Burundian who risked their lives to save others over the course of the country's decade-long civil war. The meeting is expected to celebrate the courage of at least 100 Burundians who risked their lives and those of their families to save people from ethnic communities different from their own. SCG said these heroes and heroines comprised ordinary people from different provinces, and of different religions and occupations. They include farmers, priests and nuns, who all shared their extraordinary courage during difficult times. Nyandwi Francois, who saved at least 30 Hutus in 1972, is one of these heroes. So is Anastasie Naburiri, who saved several Tutsi families from death in 1988 at Ntega in the northern province of Kirundo. Floride Gahimbare, who saved 17 Tutsis in 1993 at Rutegama in the central province of Muramvya, is another heroine. She still cries when she recalls her ordeal, but does not regret her deeds. "My brother was killed by a Tutsi while we were accompanying those we had saved to a military position, and my sisters despise me for that, accusing me of responsibility for his death," she said. Looking at the killings that have taken place in the Great Lakes region, "one would think residents are all killers with no respect of human values. This is totally false, as many people risked their lives to say no to violence," Lena Slachmuijlder, the director of Studio Ijambo, the co-conveners of the summit, said. "Such people can well be found in different ethnic groups in the region: Tutsi, Hutu, Hema, Lendu," she said. "That is why such heroes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda are also attending the meeting." The meeting aims to portray another face of the region, and especially to inspire the heroes and heroines to persevere in striving to achieve peace and reconciliation. The minister in charge of mobilisation for peace and reconciliation, Antoine Butoyi, who attended the meeting's inaugural ceremony, said the existence of such heroes and heroines in countries torn by recurrent ethnic violence was an indication that people could overcome their ethnic differences and fight poverty, their common enemy. The meeting is the first of its kind in Burundi. The heroes and heroines were identified through a radio programme, "Inkingi y' ubuntu", produced by Studio Ijambo, during which the heroes and heroines, those they saved, and their neighbours gave testimonies of their courage and humanity. During three-day event, the heroes and heroines will share their experiences in the company of representatives of different associations working for peace and reconciliation in Burundi.

AFP 21 Apr 2004 Burundi's last active rebel group announces truce BUJUMBURA, April 21 (AFP) - Burundi's last active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), announced Wednesday it would immediately stop attacking government troops and their allies and that it was willing to consider holding peace talks. The central African country's power-sharing government immediately welcomed the move. The FNL's congress, meeting in Tanzania, "has just decided there will be an immediate halt to hostilities. We will not attack the army and the FDD (Forces for the Defence of Democracy, a former rebel group now allied to the government) but if they attack us, will we respond," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP. "The government salutes this development which is significant," said government spokesman Onesime Nduwimana. The government "can only rejoice and is waiting for the FNL to act on the decision. As for the government, it is always ready to negotiate with the FNL whenever they want," he added. If the FNL "has just stopped hostilities, it means the war will stop right away," he added. "Government troops are only defending themselves. If they are not attacked, they will not attack," he pledged. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Burundi since 1993 when a variety of armed groups drawn from the country's large Hutu majority, many of which split over subsequent years, took up arms against the Tutsi-led government. The FNL spokesman added that the rebel group would consult with the United Nations, the European Union and the United States to help facilitate possible peace talks. "We don't trust the government, but that doesn't mean we are refusing to talk to it," explained Augustin Ntawogeza, the head of the FNL's external relations. "As (President Domitien) Ndayizeye is incapable of stopping the war, because power has long been in the hands of a (Tutsi) clique, only the international community can oblige him to stop hostilities," he said. "The FNL doesn't want the war, it wants it to stop," he added. On March 26, Habimana said FNL leader Rwasa Agathon had made a "first contact" with South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the chief mediator in Burundi's peace process and that the telephone discussion had gone well. "The issue of negotiations was not brought up", said the spokesman. The FNL is estimated to have some 3,000 men under arms. The rebel group had until recently refused even to meet the current power-sharing administration, a coalition of 17 parties, both Hutu and Tutsi, saying it was only worth talking to the Tutsi leaders of the army who, according to the rebels, wield true power in the country. But it changed its tune early this year and met in the Netherlands with Ndayizeye -- himself a Hutu but whom the FNL has accused of being a lackey of the Tutsis. A month later, however, the FNL refused to hold a second meeting with Ndayizeye, saying he had not held up his end of the deal the rebels insist was struck in the Netherlands.

Côte d'Ivoire

ICRC 30 Mar 2004 ICRC News 04/45 Côte d'Ivoire: action to help victims of the demonstrations The Red Cross has taken speedy action to cope with emergencies arising from the violence which has rocked the economic capital, Abidjan, since 25 March, concentrating on evacuating the injured and visiting persons arrested after the demonstrations. The fighting in the streets has left many wounded. The 80 first-aiders from the Red Cross Society of Côte d’Ivoire deployed in various neighbourhoods of Abidjan have transported 116 people to the town’s various hospitals, which have received donations of emergency medical supplies in order to boost their capacity. On 27 March, the ICRC began to visit premises under the control of the police and gendarmerie in order to check on the conditions of detention and treatment of persons arrested since the start of the events. These visits will continue over the next few days in accordance with standard ICRC procedure. Since the flare-up of the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, the ICRC has visited more than 500 detainees held in connection with the conflict on both sides of the ceasefire line, with a view to safeguarding their physical and mental integrity at all stages of their imprisonment. The ICRC is deeply concerned about the indiscriminate nature of the violence triggered by the demonstrations on 25 March and emphasizes that civilians, the wounded and persons deprived of their freedom must be treated humanely in all circumstances.

AFP 2 Apr 2004 UN orders enquiry into Ivory Coast bloodshed GENEVA, April 2 (AFP) - The United Nations will launch an enquiry into the deadly violence in Ivory Coast during an anti-government protest last week, spokesman said Friday. "The allegations speak of summary and extra-judicial executions, rape and sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and detention among other reported abuses," said Jose Diaz, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). Diaz told journalists that "ground work" had started to set up an international commission of inquiry to look into "allegations of grave human rights violations" during and after the demonstrations in Abidjan on March 25. A spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the commission should begin its work as soon as possible. "The secretary general expects all Ivorian authorities and political forces to extend all the necessary cooperation to this commission," the spokesman said. France said Wednesday it had approached the UNHCR about the clashes, which left 37 people dead according to police in Ivory Coast. The political opposition in the troubled former French colony has said up to 500 people died when the army followed presidential orders and cracked down on the demonstration, called in defiance of a presidential ban on public protests. Ivory Coast's security minister said Thursday there was "incontestable evidence" that atrocities were committed after the anti-government protest, but blamed them on "parallel forces." The commission is likely to be formed by three internationally recognised experts, Diaz said.

IRIN 2 Apr 2004 Government confirms paramilitary role in Abidjan unrest ABIDJAN, 2 April (IRIN) - The Ivorian government has accused "parallel forces in army clothing" of committing atrocities during last week's banned opposition march and said these shadowy gunmen were continuing to terrorise residents in Abidjan. The admission by Internal Security Minister Martin Bleou, added weight to reports by diplomats and relief workers that private militia groups supporting President Laurent Gbagbo were responsible for many of the killings in last week's orgy of political violence in Cote d'Ivoire's main city. Bleou said on state television on Thursday night that his ministry had received numerous "credible eye witness reports" that "individuals or parallel forces in army clothing carrying automatic weapons or kalashnikovs" had been "terrorizing" many of Abidjan's three million inhabitants. The minister, who formerly headed a local human rights movement, stopped short of explicitly accusing these militias of last week's killings. The government says 37 people were killed as the police and army fired live bullets at unarmed civilians on 25 March to disperse a banned opposition protest demonstration against Gbagbo's alleged unwillingness to implement a 15-month-old peace agreement aimed at ending Cote d'Ivoire's civil war. However, opposition parties claim 350 to 500 people were killed during two days of street clashes and raids by armed men on the houses of suspected opposition supporters in Abidjan's poorest suburbs. The independent Ivorian Human Rights Movement (MIDH) has estimated that over 200 were killed and 400 wounded. Bleou, who formerly headed another group, the Ivorian League of Human Rights (LIDHO), denied opposition allegations that many of those killed last week had been secretly buried in mass graves. On Thursday the minister visited two of the alleged sites - one of which was a refuse tip located near an army barracks - but he said afterwards he had found no evidence of mass killing. In October 2000, a mass grave containing nearly 60 bodies was discovered in the working class suburb of Yopougon following an outbreak of election violence. Gbagbo had been sworn in as president two days earlier. Although calm has returned to Abidjan by day, residents of the the low-income suburb of Abobo, told IRIN that the suburb was still being terrorized by armed men wearing military camouflage who come late at night in army vehicles. Abobo and Yopougon were the main epicentres of last week's clashes, during which many suspected opponents of the government were taken away by armed men who broke into their homes. Several residents of Abobo told IRIN that they now operated an informal alarm system to alert their neighbours whenever these sinister vehicles started to prowl. "They come at night... they banged on our door but when we turned on the lights they left... we can then raised the alarm by banging on our pots and pans... soon the entire neighbourhood was banging. It lasted from midnight until five in the morning," Coulibaly, a plumber, said. He said such scenes were regularly repeated throughout Abobo. It is a religiously and ethnically mixed neighbourhood, which is home to many immigrants from neighbouring West African countries and a stronghold of the opposition Rally for the Republic (RDR) opposition party led by former prime minister Alassane Ouattara. Coulibaly said there was a general belief that the night-time prowlers in Abobo were not members of the "regular armed forces," but he added: "we don't know, so we have to remain prudent." The United Nations is readying an international inquiry team to investigate the latest events. But a Dakar-based Pan-African rights organization, RADDHO, has gone further, calling for the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute crimes and abuses committed since 2000, the year of Gbagbo's election. "We call for an international tribunal because the Ivorian judicial system doesn't work. It is incapable of investigating or prosecuting those responsible and cannot even identify those involved," Alioune Tine, the secretary general of RADDHO, told IRIN on Friday. Tine said an international court could help end the cycle of political violence and human rights abuse which have taken place since 2000. "That's how things started in Rwanda", Tine warned, predicting that presidential elections in due in October 2005 would spell further trouble. On Sunday, the UN will formally establish a peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire, the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, which is generally known by its French acronym ONUCI. This will eventually deploy 6,240 international peacekeepers across the country to maintain security and supervise the eventual disarmament of rebel forces which have occupied the north of the country since the civil war broke out in September 2002. General Abdoulaye Fall of Senegal has been appointed commander of the international force. He currently heads a 1,300-strong West African peacekeeping force, which from Sunday will become part ONUCI. A further 4,000 French peacekeepers will remain in the country outside the UN command structure, but they will act as a rapid intervention force to support ONUCI in the vent of further trouble arising. The UN peacekeepers are arriving in a country whose broad-based government of national reconciliation has virtually collapsed, leaving power entirely in the hands of Gbagbo and his Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party. The coalition government, which included rebel and opposition representatives, was formed a year ago, but over the past month 26 of its 41 ministers have withdrawn. Most of them left in protest at last week's killings. Negotiations on how to resume a dialogue between Gbagbo and the opposition and put implementation of the January 2003 peace agreement back on track, remain at an impasse. On Wednesday, the rebel movement and the four political parties who called last week's ill-fated protest demonstration, said they would only resume talks with the president after he scrapped a decree banning public demonstrations and acknowledged their "constitutional right" to protest.

DR Congo

AFP 31 Mar 2004 8,000 Rwandan militia still in DR Congo: UN KINSHASA, March 31 (AFP) - Up to 8,000 Rwandans who fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in what has been termed Africa's world war are still in the vast country, UN officials said here Wednesday. There were also up to 2,000 Ugandan and 1,500 Burundian former fighters in the DRC, said the director of the disarmament and repatriation programme for the UN mission to the DRC, Peter Swarbrick. Most of the ex-fighters live in desperate conditions, and many have family with them, he said, adding that this means there are still up to 40,000 people to repatriate. "The will exists (for them to return home), especially for the troops, but it seems that their officers are putting pressure on them to stay," he said. According to official statistics, 10,468 people, including 7,086 ex-militiamen, left the DRC between January 2003 and March 31, 2004. A peace deal and the formation of a transitional government last year appeared to signal the end of a five-year conflict in the DRC which pitted government forces, backed by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.

BBC 13 April, 2004 Congo massacre probe stepped up Some 10,000 UN peacekeepers are in DR Congo The United Nations says it will send more investigators to the Democratic Republic of Congo after bodies were found near a reported massacre site. Mission spokeswoman Jacqueline Chenard said the corpses were found in a muddy area near the village of Lukweti in the north east province of North Kivu. Ms Chenard said last month 25 bodies were found in the area. In March some 150 homes were burned down by rebels in Lukweti following three days of fighting. Peace accord The UN says the rebels involved in the attack were identified as those involved in Rwanda's ethnic violence 10 years ago. The DR Congo is recovering from five years of war, which ended with a peace deal in 2002. Some 10,000 United Nations peacekeepers are in DR Congo to monitor a peace accord.

SAPA 29 Apr 2004 DRC army 'neutralises' militia April 29 2004 at 01:48PM Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) troops have killed 39 Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern DRC and "neutralised" two battalions of the feared Interahamwe militia, blamed for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, the United Nations mission said on Thursday. Citing DRC's military command in the volatile east of the country, near the border with Rwanda, UN mission spokesperson Abou Thiam said that three DRC soldiers were killed in the clashes in Sud-Kivu province, along with the 39 Hutu guerillas. Eight Burundians were taken prisoner and handed over to the UN mission, Monuc, said Thiam. They will be repatriated. "According to figures given by the commander of the 10th military region, two battalions of Interahamwe were neutralised at DRC's eastern borders" said Thiam. It was South African peacekeepers who identified the soldiers as Rwandans Rwanda deployed troops in DRC in 1996 and 1998, justifying the move with the need to neutralise the security threat posed by Hutu rebels accused of carrying out much of Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In 1998, DRC plunged into a five-year civil war that, at its height, drew in more than half a dozen African countries. After a series of peace talks, the war formally ended in April last year, having claimed about 2.5 million lives in the vast central African country, both directly in combat and through disease and hunger. The last Rwandan soldier left DRC in October 2002, in line with the terms of a peace pact signed between the two countries. But Monuc said in a statement last week that it had "noted the presence on April 21 of Rwandan troops with the FDR (Rwandan Defence Forces) insignia in the Bunagana sector on DRC territory." 'It's been a long time, at least six months' Last week's report gave little detail on the alleged Rwandan presence in DRC, except to say the Rwandan soldiers numbered about 400. It was South African peacekeepers who identified the soldiers as Rwandans, UN officials said, based on the fact that they were speaking Kinyarwanda, had new vehicles - without number plates - and were well equipped. Kinyarwanda is one of Rwanda's official languages but is also spoken by the large majority of inhabitants of eastern DRC. Rwanda has denied sending troops to DRC, and people in Bunagana have said they have not seen any Rwandan soldiers there "for a long time." "It's been a long time, at least six months but possibly a lot longer, since there have been Rwandan soldiers here," Bunanga primary school teacher Eliab Buyange said. "I can't remember the date that they left, but it was a long time ago, more than a year, in any case," said customs official Ngaruye Munyantore. Foreigners in Bunagana on April 21 - the day of the alleged sighting of Rwandan troops there - have said, on condition of anonymity, that they saw "UN soldiers surrounded by locals" on that day, and that the general mood was relaxed. Monuc said Wednesday that the Rwandan forces had since left the DRC. "The Rwandan troops who were in Bunagana, a town in Nord-Kivu situated some six kilometres from the DRC-Rwanda-Uganda border, are no longer present on Congolese territory," said Monuc's military spokesperson Abou Thiam, citing a UN team. The UN mission has called on the DRC and Rwanda to "co-operate and hold direct talks because the common objective is to resolve the question of (Hutu rebels) as agreed in November 2003", when the leaders of both countries agreed at talks in Pretoria to repatriate Rwandan Hutus from the east of the DRC within a year. - Sapa-AFP . www.monuc.org

Ethiopia

IRIN 30 Mar 2004 Ethiopia: Parliament Votes for Independent Probe Into Violence in Gambella UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS March 30, 2004 Posted to the web March 30, 2004 Addis Ababa The Ethiopian parliament has decided that an independent body be set up to investigate reports of violence between different ethnic groups in the western Gambella region, in which hundreds of people are believed to have been killed. The parliament, in a meeting on Thursday, resolved that the independent body would be charged with establishing the real causes of the violence and what role the government was playing to quell it. In a separate statement issued from Brussels the same day, the EU expressed concern over "sporadic but persistent" fighting in western Ethiopia. "While noting the actions taken by the government of Ethiopia to stabilise the area, the European Union emphasises the need for government security forces and the military to act in an impartial and lawful manner if tensions between the various ethnic groups in the region are to be reduced," it said. "The European Union calls for a public and independent inquiry into suggestions of involvement by members of the Ethiopian military in violence directed against innocent civilians," the statement added. Earlier this month, the government apologised to local tribes for its inadequate response to prevent a massacre in early December that led to the eruption of the violence. The troubles were sparked by the murders of eight government refugee workers when their vehicle was attacked in the area. The bodies of the men, which were badly mutilated, were paraded around Gambella town, provoking reprisal attacks on Anyuaks, a local ethnic group who were blamed for the killings. The federal authorities have started examining evidence related to the killings with the aim of ensuring that suspected instigators can be tried. Some 37 people have been identified. Forty others, suspected of involvement in clashes at a gold mine in Dima in the Gambella region on 30 January, in which up to 200 people were killed, have also been seized. The government is now training some 300 indigenous police officers to help it stabilise the situation and prevent further outbreaks of violence. The authorities are also looking to traditional elders for help in restoring calm. Gambella is ethnically diverse, being home to members of the Nuer, Anyuak, Majenger, Opou and Komo ethnic groups. It is also inhabited by groups belonging to other Ethiopian tribes, such as the Amhara, Oromo and Tigray, who are locally known as highlanders. The EU expressed support for calls on the government to work with traditional leaders, NGOs and local church groups to "heal" ethnic rifts so as to "establish trust and stability" in the region. .

Biddho.com 4 Apr 2004 Ethiopian PM´s Dossier: Meles Zenawi about Meles Zenawi´s downfall Meles Zenawi more and more contested ION News Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is now losing the authority that he had regained over the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF, hard line core of the EPRDF in power in Addis Ababa) when he excluded dissidents led by Tewolde Wolde Mariam in 2001. Once again, critics of Meles Zenawi and his supporters are making themselves heard within the TPLF party, making the Prime Minister ever more aggressive against his detractors, whoever they may be. This emerging political crisis is pushing TPLF dissidents to improve their methods of propaganda (ION 1080) and to strengthen their contacts with the Tigray population, Tigrayan expatriates abroad and their sympathizers in the armed forces. The perspective of a coup that might oust Meles Zenawi from power has become the subject of debate in certain Tigrayan dissident circles. MELES ZENAWI AGGRESSIVE While he can count on the loyalty of men like Seyoum Mesfin (minister of foreign affairs) or Samora Yunis (chief of staff of the Ethiopian army) the Prime Minster is very wary of other Tigrayan executives. During an EPRDF seminar at the beginning of February, he criticized several ministers for their ineffectiveness (Adisu Legesse, Tefera Walwa), and also attacked the mayor of Addis Ababa Arkebe Oqubay, saying that he had done nothing and had lost sight of the TPLF aim of "revolutionary democracy." Zenawi is annoyed that Oqubay does not submit to his diktats and that he is beginning to become popular within the TPLF, particularly in Addis Ababa. The Prime Minister feels so misunderstood that he used a ploy to defend his policies: he published a long text in English on the web site Aiga1992.org under a pseudonym which was later published in Amharic by Abyotawi Democracy, the organ of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. REVOLT IN TIGRAI The peaceful protest demonstration by the inhabitants of Aby Adi (Tigray) at the beginning of March was a warning shot across the bows of the Prime Minister. A TPLF delegation led by Tsegai Berhe, president of the Tigrai Regional State, recently came to this town to ask its inhabitants to be patient in their basic demands (electricity, access to running water, accessible roads). Some tens of intelligence and defense ministry agents were set up in the town to prevent other protests and to catch the leaders as soon as they get the order. Meles Zenawi must handle this affair prudently if he is not to give a handle to TPLF dissidents with which to criticize him. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the Tigrai small towns are threatening to take more concrete action. The government has just refused residents of Maichew and Samre the authorization to organize a peaceful protest this week. THE GAMBELLA DEBATE In the federal parliament also, TPLF MPs no longer speak with a single voice. Last week, during a session chaired by the deputy speaker, Petros Olango, the TPLF MPs did not appreciate the report by Abay Tsehaye, minister of federal affairs, on the recent confrontations in Gambella (in the west of the country). Tsehaye, who is a former TPLF dissident but now a loyal follower of the Prime Minister, considered that the violence was due to anti-government forces, whereas MPs from the Gambella region accused the Ethiopian army of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians. The parliamentary Legal and Administrative Affairs Standing Committee, chaired by Asmelash Woldeselassie, a TPLF dignitary, was mandated to solve this difference of opinion. To the great displeasure of Abay Tsehaye, this committee proposed the setting up of a "neutral" commission to investigate the causes of the violence and the role of the government forces. TPLF MPs protested against this proposal, which was very similar to one made a week earlier by the opposition MPs, including Beyene Petros and which had been rejected by parliament. The debate is continuing now on the problem of how to judge the "neutrality" of such a commission and how it should be composed.

L’Organisation Mondiale contre la Torture 27 Apr 2004 (OMCT, Geneva) Ethiopia: concerns about a Commission of Investigation attempting to cover up State involvement in acts of genocide PRESS RELEASE Ethiopia: concerns about a Commission of Investigation attempting to cover up State involvement in acts of genocide For the attention of the Press Geneva, April 27th, 2004 Following its press release on April 13th, 2004, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) again wishes to highlight the ongoing crimes against humanity and acts of genocide being perpetrated by the Ethiopian Armed Forces and “highlander” militias against the Anuak (or Anywaa) indigenous ethnic group in rural areas of Gambella, Ethiopia. It has been estimated that during the period spanning December 13th, 2003 to March 31st, 2004, the total number of persons killed had reached 1’137, and the killings have reportedly continued since then. The massive targeting of a specific ethnic group, with the clear intent of destroying a part or the entirety of the group, bears all the hallmarks of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. Although OMCT welcomes the steps that have been taken in order to form a Commission of Investigation - which was established following a ruling by the Ethiopian Parliament on April 12th, 2004 - serious doubts as to its impartiality and effectiveness have been raised by local and international NGOs. It is believed that both the selection of the Commissioners, and the restricted scope of the investigation that they are tasked with carrying out, will ensure that this Commission of Investigation is ineffective and that impunity will reign. The neutrality of its Chairperson, Ato Kemal Bediri, who is the Minister of Justice and the Chairman of the National Election Board, has been seriously questioned by local NGOs, as he is accountable for many of the violations that have been taking place, according to our sources. They claim that the chairperson will attempt to cover up the involvement of the Ethiopian Armed Forces in the ongoing atrocities that are being perpetrated against the Anuak people. The scope of the investigation is allegedly going to be limited so as not to cover the period during which the Ethiopian Armed Forces intervened in the Gambella region. During this period, which lasted from mid-December to some time in late January, according to our sources, the worst atrocities were committed, including massacres of hundreds of civilians, the bombardment and destruction of villages, leading to thousands of refugees fleeing to the Pochalla refugee camp in Southern Sudan. The investigation will also reportedly not involve the refugees in Pochalla or those in the Ifo refugee camp in Kenya. In addition, the few Anuak persons who remain in Gambella town are allegedly being threatened in order to ensure that they do not implicate the Ethiopian military in the various acts of genocide in the region. There are therefore significant concerns that this Commission will not be impartial or effective, raising the obvious need for an independent international investigation into these acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. The International Secretariat of OMCT condemns the widespread and targeted killing of civilians, mass rapes, burning of homes and crops and other acts being perpetrated against the Anuak people, and calls on the Ethiopian Government to take all measures necessary to ensure that these are halted immediately, and to invite a United Nations independent investigation team to the Gambella region, in order for them to carry out an unrestricted investigation into these atrocities. OMCT calls upon the United Nations to send a top-level investigation team to the region, as a matter of utmost urgency, as the nature of the situation requires immediate action. It is essential that this international investigation is unrestricted in terms of its mandate, its timeframe, the geographical areas it is able to access, including the refugee camps in Pochalla and Ifo, and that it is allowed to investigate any and all allegations of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. OMCT issued a press release on April 13th, 2004 concerning the attempted elimination of the Anuak people, which provides further details on the situation for your reference. Click here For more information contact OMCT at: omct@omct.org.

Eternal Vigilance is Cost of Preventing Future Rwandas United States Department of State (Washington, DC) NEWS April 26, 2004 Posted to the web April 27, 2004 By Bruce Greenberg Washington, DC Panelists cite similarities between Rwanda, Sudan to Congress Two weeks after the world came together in Kigali, Rwanda, to observe the 10th anniversary of the genocide that tore Rwanda apart in April 1994, a congressional committee was told that the tragedy could have been prevented if the international community had acted on the advance warning it received by sending an unequivocal warning to the Rwandan government that violence would not be tolerated. According to Louise Mushikiwabo, a young Tutsi woman now living in the United States, who lost her mother, brother, sister-in-law, niece and two nephews to rampaging Hutu militias, those who planned the genocide were intelligent and world-savvy and would have taken heed of the international community's words, even if action was not immediately forthcoming. Mushikiwabo, who is international coordinator of Remembering Rwanda, a worldwide movement to sustain both the memory and the lessons of the Rwandan genocide, joined humanitarian activists Alison Des Forges of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch and Samantha Power of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in testifying at an April 22 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Africa. Chairman Edward R. Royce (Republican of California) opened the hearing on the Rwandan genocide and possible lessons learned by stating: "The pressing issue today is whether the world is better prepared to respond to genocidal killing in Africa, or elsewhere. Ten years ago, the system failed miserably in responding to the decimation of the Rwandan people." Samantha Power voiced her fear that "in 10 years we'll be sitting on a similar panel discussing Sudan's genocide" and drew parallels between the international and U.S. responses to what happened in Rwanda 10 years ago and what is happening now in response to the atrocities being committed in Sudan. "The U.S. response then and now was not forthcoming," according to Power. "With regard to Rwanda, the U.S. was recovering from a failed mission in Somalia; today we are being distracted by the war on terrorism. ... We [the United States] just don't want to do what is required to suppress atrocities. "In the case of Sudan," she said, "the U.S. is reluctant to jeopardize a peace settlement by directly intervening in the Darfur region [where ethnic cleansing of black African Christians and animists is being waged by Muslim militias], just as we didn't destroy the Rwandan hate radio stations [that were calling for Tutsi deaths] because of fears of violating so-called national sovereignty." Today, Power insisted, we can prevent Sudan from turning into another Rwanda by marshalling the international community into action: The United Nations needs to deploy its crisis intervention forces rather than mere fact-finders, and the International War Crimes Tribunal must examine now what is happening in Darfur. The U.S. Congress, she declared, can be a major contributor by holding public hearings, allocating funding for U.N. peacekeeping and influencing the foreign affairs community to focus on this issue. That such actions put pressure on Khartoum was evident earlier this month, she said, when the Sudanese government announced a humanitarian cease-fire within 24 hours of President Bush's denunciation of the government's support of the militias in Darfur. For Alison Des Forges, the Rwandan genocide was more than an "eruption of enormous violence." It was a crime that sprang from an internal history of ethnic disparity, inequality and jealousy in which the Hutu majority finally reacted to its years as victims of subjugation and discrimination by the ruling Tutsi minority. According to Des Forges, the United States and the international community share responsibility for failing to prevent the bloodbath, principally in not silencing the hate radio in Kigali, which gave the Hutu government a tacit green light to continue the genocide campaign. Even though national and international leaders have acknowledged their shame at having failed to stop the slaughter, Des Forges said, it is time to "renew our commitment to halting future genocides. ... We must stop genocides before they become such. "We must react promptly and firmly to preparations for the mass slaughter of civilians. We must be prepared to silence these media if that will forestall or prevent the deaths of innocents through incitement of the population at large. We can impose arms embargoes and other forms of restrictive containment on genocidal governments. And, lastly, we should be prepared to intervene with armed force. In Rwanda, intervention would have required greater force than was initially deployed, and would have saved more lives. And intervention at any point ultimately limits the number killed." For these witnesses, the effects of the Rwandan genocide are present today in the form of guilt, retribution and the need for justice and closure. Of great concern is the current lack of AIDS anti-viral medications to treat those women who were raped during the genocide. Mushikiwabo stated that the Rwandan government today simply does not have such resources. "What is outrageous," she said, "is that detainees suspected of perpetrating these monstrous atrocities 10 years ago have access to the latest retroviral treatments, while their surviving rape victims are getting very little medical attention. This is a question of fairness and urgency. These women need our help, and I urge this congressional panel to send the proper signal at this time." (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov.) .

Reuters 29 Apr 2004 Ethiopian PM: Report of army killings 'fiction' ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- Ethiopia's prime minister Thursday dismissed a report that said the army had helped kill more than 1,000 people in ethnic murders in the west of the country, calling it a "fiction" that had duped outsiders. The Swiss-based World Organization Against Torture, or OMCT [www.omct.org ] , said an estimated 1,137 people had been killed between December 13, 2003 and March 31 in the Gambella region. The OMCT said Ethiopian security forces had backed highlander militias in a campaign of systematic killings and mass rapes of the 100,000-strong Anuak community, driving thousands of refugees into neighboring Sudan. "People are fabricating things and others are swallowing it without chewing," Meles Zenawi told Reuters in an interview. "I don't know how they get these figures. It's a fiction." The OMCT says reports showed between December 13 and 15, uniformed Ethiopian troops worked alongside highlanders to kill 424 Anuaks in towns including Gambella, the region's capital. "The massive targeting of a specific ethnic group, with the clear intent of destroying a part or the entirety of the group, bears all the hallmarks of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity," the OMCT said in its statement Tuesday. Meles put the toll from the various clashes in the region at 200 at most and said the only people who had been killed by the military in the area were armed Anuak insurgents who had staged cross-border raids from Sudan. "I don't know this organization," Meles said, referring to the OMCT. "I know that it is lying." "Without the intervention of the army, the killings would have continued indefinitely," Meles said. The government says the trigger for the killings was an ambush of a vehicle carrying U.N. and Ethiopian government officials earlier in December that was blamed on Anuaks. The OMCT says troops used the incident to incite violence by highlanders, who it said reportedly mutilated bodies while chanting: "Today is the day of killing Anuaks." "Schools have reportedly been emptied of schoolgirls, who have then been gang raped," OMCT said in one of its statements. "In one case in Pinyudo, assailants allegedly shouted 'We are going to kill your men and the next generation of Anuaks will be produced by us'." .

Kenya

The Nation (Nairobi) 31 Mar 2004 New Push to Probe Massacre Nairobi Families of people who died in the infamous Wagalla massacre in Wajir, northern Kenya, 20 years ago are willing to have bodies exhumed for examination. They also want a truth commission established to investigate the atrocities allegedly committed by government officials between February 9 and 13, 1984. A four-member fact-finding mission found that the families of the victims and survivors needed counselling to help them psychologically get over the trauma. The Independent Medico-Legal Unit and Truth Be Told non-governmental organisation, based in North Eastern Province, organised the mission to find out the affected community's psychological needs and preparedness for possible exhumation by Argentinian forensic experts. Dr Willy Legg and Mr Jameson Moyo from Zimbabwe were briefing the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights members Khelef Khalifa and Fatuma Ibrahim in Nairobi at the weekend. Ms Dinah Kituyi, a counsellor at the Nairobi-based Independent Medico-Legal Unit, who accompanied the fact-finding team, said some victims and witnesses to the massacre were still traumatised by the experience and were keen to tell the world their plight. "It's raw anger and pain that 20 years after the incredible atrocities by state security, people have been denied a chance to speak about what they went through." Ms Kituyi added that they complained that the government had not given them a chance to speak about the brutality in the hands of military and police agents during the three-day operation to flush out the so-called shifta bandits. Dr Legg asked why the world made a fuss out of plane crashes yet ignored the deaths of an estimated 5,000 people. "Psychological trauma is more terrifying as it's difficult to repair broken hearts," he said, adding that it was important that the survivors, victims and their families were helped through the healing by counselling. He said forensic experts would find the truth about how the victims died. "Bones tell the truth whether victims hands were tied at the back, they were strangled at the neck or were shot while running away." He said even the perpetrators were equally traumatised and needed counselling, citing an example in Zimbabwe where a culprit wanted to meet the family of a victim but the government denied him a chance for fear of exposure. Ms Ibrahim said although Islam did not encourage exhumation of bodies, the report had shown that residents were willing to do anything to get justice. "They know that if they fail to get justice in this regime, there might be no other chance for them," she said. Mr Khalifa said the government was willing to set up a commission of inquiry on the Wagalla Massacre but was considering possible costs of compensation and other factors. He warned that if the government took too long, the case could end up at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Mr Khalifa said the exhumation was not about flouting religious beliefs but seeking justice, truth and healing. Mr Ali Mohammed Yusuf, a teacher during the massacre, told the commissioners that there was pent up anger among Wajir residents because government officials denied the injured treatment. "People want a chance to speak about what they went through, their anger, helplessness and hopes. It's like opening a pressure cooker that can burst in your face," Mr Yusuf said. The residents told the task force on establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission last July that an independent inquiry should be established to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of the massacre. They also requested that the Wagalla airstrip be revived to honour the victims and to benefit the community. The airstrip was the scene of the massacre. It has not been used since the tragedy. They also demanded that the Government arrests and prosecutes some people who are still in the system and in Parliament who played a major role in the atrocities.

Namibia

Independent UK 3 Apr 2004 Mugabe aiding Namibia land grab By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent 03 April 2004 Namibia has enlisted the help of Robert Mugabe's land "experts" as it intensifies its own land seizure programme. The news has further unsettled the white farmers and severely dented investor confidence in southern Africa. Namibia's President Sam Nujoma is a staunch ally of Mr Mugabe, perhaps his only one after Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi cut off fuel supplies to Zimbabwe last year because of bad debts. Col Gaddafi called Mr Mugabe a "bad customer". Seemingly following his hero's example, Mr Nujoma ordered eight large scale commercial farms to be seized for black resettlement last month. He then signed a memorandum of understanding with Mr Mugabe which will see six Zimbabwean land evaluators being deployed to Windhoek tomorrow to advise on Namibia's expropriation drive. This latest development has alarmed Namibian farmers, particularly since Zimbabwe's land reforms have been condemned by the United Nations and cited by some as the best example of how not to conduct such a programme. "It is a big joke that any self respecting government could ever want to learn anything from Zimbabwe," said a Namibian farmer, who wished to remain anonymous. "It's hard to imagine what helpful advice we will get from Mr Mugabe's men to enhance the land reform experience here." Namibia's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ndali-Che Kamati, was quoted by the official Herald newspaper as saying that, apart from evaluating seized farms for the purposes of paying compensation, the Zimbabwean team would also offer training services. Mr Kamati said: "We need expertise to help us determine the level of compensation we will pay for the farms that we have acquired. In this regard, we believe Zimbabwean professionals can really help us with issues of compensation." Zimbabwe, unlike Namibia, has refused to pay compensation for any of the land seized from farmers on the grounds that it was stolen from its rightful owners. Zimbabwe said it would only pay compensation for such improvements as houses and boreholes, although most farmers whose land has been seized have not received a penny. Others who had started moving their equipment off the land to stop it from being stolen or looted by government supporters were stopped by a new law that was brought in, banning the removal of equipment from seized farms. The requirement to serve legal notices on farmers before seizures has also been rescinded, which means that an announcement in the government gazette is now sufficient for seizure to take place. The Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU) says it is doing all it can to persuade President Nujoma's government to introduce just and sustainable land reforms in the country. About 75 per cent of prime farm land in Namibia is white owned, and there is almost universal African consensus that the country, a former German colony of about 1.8 million people, needs land reform to redress imbalances created by colonial era dispossessions. But civic groups in Namibia have warned against Zimbabwe- style methods, which have destroyed its country's agriculture and reduced it to the status of beggar nation. However, with an election due next year, Namibia's white farmers fear that Mr Nujoma's ruling Swapo party might resort to the populist methods that have been pioneered by Mr Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Indeed, Mr Nujoma hinted this week that he might change the constitution to seek an illegal fourth term in office, just as he did in 1999 when he defied a constitutional provision on two term limits to run for an illegal third term. He has already started building a new presidential house, said to be worth £15m, showing he plans to stick around for a while longer yet.

Nigeria

Vanguard 7 Apr 2004 www.vanguardngr.com Rwanda holds big ceremony to mark 1994 genocide Davina Berghaus Wednesday, April 07, 2004 KIGALI, —Rwanda was gearing up Tuesday for a major ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the genocide which began on April 7, 1994, and ended 100 days later with up to a million people dead. On the eve of the commemoration’s highlight on Wednesday, to be hosted by President Paul Kagame in Kigali’s national stadium in the presence of numerous officials from around the world, several preliminary events were scheduled. Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian commander of the UN peacekeeping force deployed in Rwanda in 1994, which was unable to halt the slaughter, told a conference on the genocide that the international community was “criminally responsible” for having abandoned the tiny central African state. “There is no country today, 10 years later, which can wash its hands of Rwandan blood just by saying sorry,” said the retired general. Dallaire accused the United Nations, and specifically the United States, France and Britain, of failing to give his peacekeeping mission the muscle to intervene. A well-planned campaign by the Hutu government of the time to wipe out Rwanda’s Tutsi minority was set in motion by the shooting down, on the night of April 6, 1994, of President Juvenal Habyarimana. The killings began in the capital but quickly spread to other parts of the country. Nevertheless, on April 21, the UN scaled down the peacekeeping mission from 5,500 men to less than 300. The genocide -- the word was deliberately avoided by the world’s powers at the time -- was finally halted in mid-July when Tutsi rebels led by Kagame took power. Also Tuesday, Kagame was due to meet Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium, Rwanda’s former colonial power. “This is an emotional moment for me,” said Verhofstadt, who leads a 200-strong Belgian delegation, as he disembarked from a military plane at Kigali airport. Other high-ranking Belgian officials attending the commemoration ceremonies are Foreign Minister Louis Michel, Defence Minister Andre Flahaut, and Cooperation Minister Marc Verwilghen. The families of 10 Belgian peacekeepers killed on April 7, 1994 were, expected to gather at a memorial erected in their honour in Kigali. The peacekeepers had been guarding then prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who was also killed. Later Tuesday, lower-level delegations from France and the UN were expected to arrive. Many Rwandans and UN workers based in the country have expressed bitterness over the failure of France, the United States and the United Nations to send highest ranking officials to the commemoration. The anniversary is also being marked outside Rwanda. The African Union, which is headquartered in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, began three days of commemorative events on Monday. “We in the AU are preparing all mechanisms to see that such a heinous act of murder won’t happen again in the continent,” AU Deputy Commissioner Dolly Joiner said. Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis will address the nation and African diplomats in Addis Ababa and call on every citizen of Africa to be vigilant that such an act should never happen again, she added. A series of events has also been organised in Tanzania to honour the victims of the genocide. In France, where a minute’s silence will be observed as the main ceremony takes place in Kigali, a Franco-Rwandan federation held a very different commemoration on Tuesday. Police said the group gathered on the Esplanade des droits de l’Homme, a large open-air square close to the Eiffel Tower, to mark the anniversary of Habyarimana’s assassination. Habyarimana’s government and close family are widely accused of taking part in planning the organised killing that began after his death. A Rwanda specialist and French academic, Jean-Pierre Chretien, told AFP that he regarded Tuesday’s public commemoration of Habyarimana’s death as “an insult to the memory of the victims.”

Rwanda

Reuters 1Apr 2004 Westerners Shun 10th Anniversary Rwandan Genocide By REUTERS Filed at 11:30 a.m. ET KIGALI (Reuters) - Western leaders were conspicuously absent from a list of foreign dignitaries scheduled to attend memorial ceremonies in Kigali next week marking the tenth anniversary of Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were shot, hacked and clubbed to death in 1994 by Hutu extremists during 100 days of butchery that was initially ignored by world leaders. With the exception of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, only African leaders have so far confirmed they would attend memorial events planned for April 7, when the tiny central African country will remember its legions of dead. Among those confirmed to attend is Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, whose government was recently accused by a senior U.N. official of carrying out systematic killings of villagers in ethnic attacks reminiscent of the Rwandan genocide. ``We invited the whole world and anyone who wants to share our reflections, we invite them to be here,'' Robert Bayigamba, Rwanda's Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture, told journalists at a news conference in response to questions about Omar al-Bashir's expected presence at the anniversary. ANNAN - ``I COULD HAVE DONE MORE'' U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was head of peacekeeping operations at the world body during the 1994 massacres, will not attend Rwanda's memorial, said Bayigamba, whose ministry is overseeing next week's events. Annan last week accepted institutional and personal blame for not doing more to prevent the Rwandan slaughter, saying, ``I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support.'' Heads of state expected to visit Kigali on April 7 include South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Kenya's Mwai Kibaki, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Chad's Idriss Deby. The list would be updated if other dignitaries confirmed they were coming, Bayigamba added. The United States, which has come under fire this week for avoiding the use of the word ``genocide'' for fear it would spark a call for action Clinton administration officials were loathe to take, will be represented by Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes. France has yet to announce who it will send to Rwanda following weeks of heightened tensions between the two countries over each other's role in the genocide. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused France of ``direct'' involvement in the genocide in response to a French judge's report blaming him for ordering the downing of a plane carrying former President Juvenal Habyarimana which triggered the genocide. Relations between France and Rwanda's Tutsi-led government have been strained ever since.

BBC 1 April, 2004 New genocide 'would not be stopped' Kofi Annan has said he wished he had done more in 1994 International bodies would still be unable to deal with genocide in Africa were another Rwandan-type conflict to begin today, a spokesman for Rwanda's Human Rights Commission has said. There is general agreement that international organisations were slow to react to the genocide, which began 10 years ago. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week said he realised after the genocide that "there was more that I could and should have done." But Tom Ndahiro of the Rwandan Human Rights Commission said he remained "sceptical" that world authorities would act differently and faster to a similar situation today. "I agree with anybody who says the world has not learnt a lesson," he told BBC World Service Africa Live programme. "The reason I say that is for what happened between April and July 1994 the signs were clear. When the genocide was unleashed against Tutsis, the diplomats in the United Nations, especially the powerful nations, acknowledged that a crime of genocide was going on in Rwanda. "[But] the genocide leaders were accommodated in various countries and could maintain their hate propaganda, passing their messages, without anybody saying, 'please stop - what you did is enough'." Interests As well as the UN, Mr Ndahiro added that he felt the Organisation of African Unity (OU) - now replaced by the African Union - was also to blame. It had failed to prevent the genocide leaders from leaving Rwanda and continuing their violent message, he said. The best thing to happen for Rwanda would be the South Africa version of truth and reconciliation Freeman Tettey, Ghana Rwanda: What lessons learnt? Eric, a survivor of the genocide, said he agreed with Mr Ndahiro's comments. He also criticised France for its "negative role in the genocide," and he added that he felt individual countries would also be restricted from acting quickly. "I don't think that they can do much, because they have their interests that they are fighting for," he said. "Those interests I don't think today have changed. "They neglected the genocide, they left it happening... the UN army commander in Rwanda used to give a full report of what we happening. "They left it happening. I do not think they would do anything today." But Desmond Ojako, a spokesman for the African Union and its predecessor the OAU, said he felt the pan-African organisation had acted as well as it could in 1994. "I must disagree that the then-OAU didn't do it's own bit," he told Africa Live. "It must be recalled that the resolution of serious conflicts of that nature is the sole duty of the Peace and Security Council of the United Nations." He argued that the OAU had deployed two operations, Enmog 1 and Enmog 2, in Rwanda before the UN and that they had been relatively successful in keeping the peace. "It was when we left Rwanda that the genocide was committed," he added. 'Worse than terrorism' And he stressed that the AU was now capable of using its knowledge of what happened in Rwanda to prevent it recurring. "Anyone saying that we cannot do anything, we have not learnt any lessons - that person is joking," he said. It is estimated 800,000 died in the genocide "We have a brand new organisation that is less than two years old, that has already done so much to make sure that such a thing does not repeat again. "We have said that the failure of the international community to prevent and punish genocide will never happen again. "To this effect we have done a lot of things - Africa has realised that genocide is a criminal violation, worse than terrorism." Specifically, he pointed out that an AU Peace and Security Council was set up two weeks ago with elected members. It replaced the AU's central organ for conflict prevention, management and resolution. Mr Ojako said this Council would be "better equipped to stop genocide being committed again in Africa." "Every institution needed to stop genocide is right now in place here," he added.

Reuters 1 Apr 2004 Ex-Rwandan president Bizimungu goes on trial Thu 1 April, 2004 17:41 KIGALI (Reuters) - Former Rwandan president Pasteur Bizimungu has gone on trial on charges of trying to set up an armed militia group seen as a threat to national security in a country still traumatised by the 1994 genocide. The trial of Bizimungu, who was arrested more than a year-and-a-half ago, was delayed by an unsuccessful appeal to Rwanda's Supreme Court seeking the dismissal of charges that also included illegal possession of firearms. If convicted, the former president could face up to 20 years in prison, the Rwandan state attorney general Emmanuel Rukangira said. Bizimungu denied all the charges. "My lord these are politically motivated charges of which I plead innocent," he said. The hearing adjourned until April 20. An ethnic Hutu, Bizimungu was appointed president when the ruling Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power after the 1994 genocide by Hutus in which 800,000 people were slaughtered, most of them Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. He resigned in March 2000 after a fall out with top RPF members and was replaced by President Paul Kagame. The prosecution accused Bizimungu and a former minister Charles Ntakirutinka of inciting civil disobedience and spreading partisan politics aimed at dividing Rwandans along ethnic lines. The former president has also been charged with diverting at least $100,000 given by a regional political body to his personal account in a local bank.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 2 Apr 2004 Seven Heads of State to Attend Genocide Commemoration Seven heads of state and government have confirmed their presence at the ceremony to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the genocide, on April 7th, the Hirondelle News Agency has learnt. The leaders include Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Umar al-Bashir of Sudan, Idriss Deby of Tchad, Mwai Kibabi of Kenya, Yoersi Museveni of Uganda. Tanzania will be represented by its Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye and Burundi, by the Vice-President Alphonse Marie Kadege. Of the Western countries Belgium will send the most important delegation, led by the Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. France will be represented at the ministerial level. The Minister for Youth Sports and culture, Robert Bayigamba also announced that the UN Secretary General, Kofi Anan, will not come to Kigali. However, Kofi Anan has called on the whole world to observe a minute of silence at 12.00 noon on 7th April in memory of the genocide victims. The commemoration programme indicates that an international conference on the genocide will be held from 4 to 6 April and the memorial in Kigali will be inaugurated on April 7. A ceremony to pay tribute to the victims will also take place on April 7th at the Kigali Amahoro National Stadium in the presence of a big crowd. There will also be the inauguration in Kigali of a memorial for the 10 Belgian peacekeepers killed when the genocide began. On the evening of the 7th, 10 steles will be erected at the "Kigali Camp" where the Belgian troops were killed in a more private ceremony to which Belgian officials and families of the dead will attend. The Rwandan Minister for Youth Sport and Culture also said onRadio Rwanda that a total of 7 million US dollars from donor countries will be spent in the genocide commemoration ceremonies. Most of the money will be directed towards genocide memorial sites. The Belgian ambassador to Rwanda, Marck Vedapt has, on its part, donated 1.5 million euros for the genocide ceremonies.

Reuters 2 Apr 2004 Rwanda Resigned as West Skips Genocide Anniversary By Finbarr O'Reilly KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda said on Friday it was disappointed that Western leaders would not attend memorial ceremonies in Kigali next week to mark the tenth anniversary of the country's genocide. World leaders initially downplayed the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates killed by Hutu extremists who mostly hacked and bludgeoned their victims to death with machetes, spiked clubs and garden tools. Government officials and organizers of memorial events planned for the April 7 anniversary said they were dismayed that Western leaders had again turned their backs on the tiny central African country as it remembers its legions of dead. "I'm not surprised and I don't think many people here would be because the general feeling in Rwanda is that (the West) has not learned lessons from what happened here," said Alfred Ndahiro, an advisor to President Paul Kagame. "We learned our lesson that we have to fend for ourselves, which is obviously still the case," Ndahiro added. Kagame's Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front ended the genocide in July 1994 after ousting the extremist Hutu regime that had carefully planned and then carried out the mass killings while the world delayed taking decisive action. "The lack of interest now just highlights that the genocide in Rwanda is still not really taken seriously," said Stephen Smith, director of Aegis Trust, a British-based genocide prevention organization. Aegis Trust will open a multimillion-dollar genocide museum in Kigali on April 7 with memorial speeches and a minute of silence to be held at the site, located next to mass tombs containing the remains of hundreds of thousands of dead. "There's been a lot of talk about regret over not doing enough to stop the genocide, but it has not transferred into action or foreign policy," Smith told Reuters in Kigali. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was head of peacekeeping operations at the world body during the 1994 massacres, recently accepted institutional and personal blame for not doing more to prevent Rwanda's 100 days of slaughter. Annan, however, will not participate in the Kigali ceremonies, organizers said. He was snubbed by Kagame during a visit in 1998, though relations have subsequently improved. With the exception of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, only African leaders have so far confirmed they would attend Rwanda's memorial events with a handful of Western countries sending low-level delegations.

IRIN 2 Apr 2004 Census finds 937,000 died in genocide KIGALI, 2 Apr 2004 (IRIN) - A census carried out by Rwanda's Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports found that 937,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutus died during the 1994 genocide, an official announced on Thursday. "These are the people who died during the 100 days [April-June 1994] of mayhem and who we were able to find out their names, age and their places of birth," Robert Bayigamba, the minister for youth, culture and sports, said at a news conference in the capital, Kigali. He said the death toll could increase when the Gacaca justice system becomes fully operational as many perpetrators of the genocide were expected to testify about the people they killed. The Gacaca trials, based on traditional communal justice, are expected to begin later this year. The genocide death toll has often been conflicting, with various organisations quoting figures between 500,000 and one million. "We shall come up with the exact figure after the Gacaca courts complete their work," he said. Meanwhile, the Rwandan government wants former first lady Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana arrested for her alleged role in planning the execution of the genocide, an official told IRIN on Friday. The government maintains that Habyarimana, along with her two brothers, Selaphe Rwabugumba and Protais Zigiranyirazo, were "key masterminds" of the genocide and must be brought to justice either in Rwanda or at the Tanzania-based UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). "We have sent out a formal request to Interpol to have these people arrested and brought to justice for crimes of genocide," Emmanuel Rukangira, a state attorney, said. Rwanda claims Habyarimana now lives in France while her brothers are in Belgium. "They were key members of the Akazu clan," Rukangira said. The Akazu, or the "inner circle", comprised close relatives of Agathe and Juvenal Habyarimana and their allies. The Akazu allegedly orchestrated the genocide. Some members of the Akazu, like Zigiranyirazo and Col. Theoneste Bagasora, are already facing trial at the ICTR. Rwanda recently announced that it was preparing a list of 300 suspected masterminds of the genocide who are still at large and living in Europe, North America and Australia. "It is high time that these people who have been trotting around the world were brought to justice," Rukangira said. Regarding plans for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the genocide, Bayigamba said at least six heads of state and other high-ranking government representatives, were expected in Kigali on 7 April for the occasion. He said Rwandans would begin a week of mourning on Monday, during which remains of some genocide victims would be buried in dignity and flags will fly at half-staff. "We commemorate the genocide to give honour and dignity to the victims of genocide, reflect on the past and strive to move to a better future," he added.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3 Apr 2004 ajc.com Ethnic atrocities have left scars in Rwanda 10 years later, country appears peaceful -- on the surface By CRAIG NELSON The Published on: 04/03/04 NYAMATA, Rwanda -- The leader of the mob thrust a hoe into Marcellin Kwibuka's hand. "Kill her," the man ordered. Kwibuka is a Hutu. The woman lying at his feet was an ethnic Tutsi. She was also his wife. The decision forced upon Kwibuka: Kill her and save himself and their children, or all would die. Kwibuka's harrowing choice during Rwanda's season of blood 10 years ago set an almost unimaginable standard for human cruelty, even by Rwanda's ignominious yardstick. In 1994, the government of this tiny Central African nation, led by extremist ethnic Hutus, set out to exterminate the minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 800,000 people died in 100 days in one of the most ferocious mass slaughters in history. No outside nations stepped in to halt the carnage. Under a government amnesty last year, more than 23,000 confessed killers were freed and returned to their towns and villages to live alongside the survivors of the killings and rapes. Today, Africa's most Christian country appears peaceful on the surface. As Rwanda prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of its unimaginable bloodletting Wednesday, it has made more progress than most could have imagined, refusing, in the words of Tutsi President Paul Kagame, "to be held hostage" by grief and mistrust. But peel away the layers of the lives of people like Kwibuka and there is tension, anger and grief as they struggle to cope with what happened 10 years ago. When the genocide broke out, Rwanda was a country of 7.7 million people, 85 percent Hutu and 12 percent Tutsi. Tutsis had been in power until three years before independence in 1962, when the Tutsi king died and Hutus rebelled with the connivance of Belgian colonial administrators. Hundreds of thousands of Tutsis fled into exile, until a 1990 invasion from Uganda by a Tutsi-led rebel army culminated in negotiations for a power-sharing agreement. The often tense politics did not keep Rwandans like Kwibuka, a Hutu, and Françoise, a Tutsi, from marrying or owning businesses or worshipping together. But by April 1994, as power sharing appeared imminent, extremist Hutus and state-run radio inflamed ethnic fears of a Tutsi takeover. And on April 14, 1994, a mob of more than 100 people gathered in front of Kwibuka's house. "They had machetes and clubs, some studded with nails called nta mpongano, which means 'no pity,' " he says. "I met the militia leader, Samuel Nikobali, at my door." "We'vecome for your animal," Nikobali said. "Which animal?" asked Kwibuka. "Your wife." 'Tutsis . . . will perish' The trigger for the slaughter of the Tutsis came with the mysterious shootdown of a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu. Blame was placed upon the Tutsis, and within hours, a well-laid plan for genocide was implemented. Within a week Rwandan government soldiers had killed 10 Belgian peacekeepers, and all but a handful of U.N. peacekeepers were withdrawn. In the United States, the Clinton administration was wary of African entanglements after losing Army Rangers while supporting U.N. efforts in Somalia the year before. For the next 100 days, the killers did their work as the radio blared, "All Tutsis will perish. . . . Slowly, slowly, slowly, we will kill them like rats." Death came to Kwibuka's front door immediately. Françoise's name, like that of each of the estimated 930,000 Tutsis living in Rwanda, was on a liquidation list. Even so, Kwibuka had hoped Françoise might be spared because he was a Hutu and the owner of a popular restaurant. But as the mob clamored for blood in front of his mud home, it was plain none of that mattered. On April 10, policemen, local councilmen and members of a feared Hutu militia had come to Kwibuka's farm in search of Françoise, 24. Three times she hid as Kwibuka paid off her pursuers with cash and told them she had fled to a nearby town. But on April 14, the mob would not be turned away. "Whether we find her today or not, we're going to kill you. We aren't taking your money anymore," Kwibuka recalls the militia leader saying. "When she heard them threaten me, she came out of the banana trees and said, 'Don't kill him. It's me you're after.' The crowd parted as she walked over and stood beside me. . . . Angered that I'd lied to them, they hit me on the head with a club." As he recalls how Françoise volunteered to die, he turns away to dab his eyes with a handkerchief. Kwibuka says Françoise calmly asked if she could speak to her children a last time. Inside her home, she took the hands of 4-year-old Dunyi and 2-year-old Janet to say goodbye. She asked Claudette, Kwibuka's 12-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, to look after the children. In her husband's ear she whispered, "I'm going to die now." 'Kill me here' When they returned outside, they were marched behind the house. "Kill me here," Françoise told the militia leader Nikobali as she began to pray. One man asked if she was finished praying, then struck a glancing blow at her head with a machete, knocking her to the ground. Before more machetes could rain down, Nikobali screamed, "Stop!" "Kwibuka must kill her himself," he said as he handed the husband a machete. "Either help us, or we will kill you and your children and burn your house." "My arm was numb and I dropped it," Kwibuka said. "I thought about all the hardships we had gone through together and the kind of death she was going to suffer at my hands. I heard someone yell, 'Go get the children and burn the house.' "By that time, Françoise was pleading with me. 'Why are you taking so long? . . . Do it. God knows it's not you who's killing me. I won't live if you die.' " "Suddenly, I got the strength to go through with it," Kwibuka remembers. "They handed me a hoe and she turned face-down on the ground. As she prayed, I hit her once on the left side of the head. 'Hit her again,' people screamed. I hit her again, and she was dead." Kwibuka winces when he recalls looking up from Françoise's body and seeing their children watching. He had not realized that they had followed their parents outside. Later his 4-year-old son kept repeating, "Dad killed Mom." Freedom, forgiveness After the gang moved on to kill the Tutsi wife of another Hutu man, Kwibuka buried Françoise near the house with the help of Hutu neighbors. But he was immediately forced to go hunt down other Tutsis, he says. He says he killed no one, but in February 1995 — nearly seven months after a Tutsi rebel force ended the genocide and took control of the country — he was arrested, confessed to killing Françoise, and was jailed with up to 120,000 other suspected perpetrators of genocide. Kwibuka's land and property were seized. Claudette, along with his other children and tens of thousands of other Rwandans, drifted from one family member to another. Last year, after nine years in jail, Kwibuka was freed under a government amnesty. He and his children were reunited and returned to the family farm. "[The children] understand that I was forced to do what I did and had no choice," he says. If they hold their mother's death against him, they do not tell him. Kwibuka says he is at peace. "She prayed for me before I did it," he says. "I'm sure she has forgiven me."

Reuters 4 Apr 2004 Rwanda's Kagame Scolds Outside World Over Genocide By REUTERS Filed at 5:17 p.m. ET KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Sunday accused the outside world of deliberately failing to prevent genocide, opening a week to mark the tenth anniversary of the killing of some 800,000 fellow countrymen. The United Nations, the United States and European countries have all faced criticism for failing to intervene during the three-month genocide in Rwanda, which ended in July 1994 when Kagame seized the capital at the head of a rebel army. ``We should always bear in mind that genocide, wherever it happens, represents the international community's failure, which I would in fact characterize as deliberate, as convenient failure,'' Kagame told the start of a genocide conference. ``How could a million lives of the Rwandan people be regarded as so insignificant by anyone in terms of strategic or national interest?'' he told the meeting at a hotel used 10 years ago as a base by military planners directing the massacres. ``Do the powerful nations have a hidden agenda? I would hate to believe that this agenda is dictated by racist considerations or the color of the skin, I hope it is not true,'' he said. Speakers opening the three-day conference said the world had compounded its lack of intervention to stop the slaughter by failing to help the survivors, many of whom were infected with AIDS by the militiamen who raped them during the massacres. ``The international community still continues after the genocide to display total indifference to the survivors' unspeakable moral and physical suffering,'' said Francois Garambe, chairman of the Ibuka genocide survivors group. Stephen Smith, director of Aegis Trust, a British-based charity dedicated to preventing genocide, said the world's failure in Rwanda had left the country with a terrible legacy of trauma which should encourage preventive action in future. ``In this city, you know, there are still more nightmares than dreams, because you know personally, that just 10 years ago, someone hacked your father to death, sliced through your brother, raped your mother,'' he told several hundred delegates. ``Never forget Rwanda, let it be a dangerous, unsettling, unnerving memory,'' he said. ``A VERY GOOD MAN'' Sunday, a Rwandan cabinet minister said a 2001 census showed there were 937,000 victims of the genocide, reviving a debate over the death toll which has seen conflicting numbers of deaths proposed ranging from 500,000 to one million. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, created by the United Nations to prosecute perpetators, estimates that ``some 800,000 Rwandans were killed'' between April and July 1994. Rwanda's genocide began after a plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down on April 6, 1994, triggering an attempt by Hutu extremists to exterminate their opponents to preserve the Hutus' decades-long dominance. The conference ahead of a formal memorial ceremony on Wednesday will draw participants from around the world, including Canadian former lieutenant-general Romeo Dallaire who led a U.N. force in Rwanda during the killings. He has been haunted by guilt over his failure to save more lives. Kagame paid tribute to Dallaire in his speech as a ``very good man,'' and revealed for the first time that he had considered seizing the weapons of Dallaire's force to use in his military campaign but had decided against the idea. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was head of peacekeeping at the world body during 1994, accepted institutional and personal blame last month for not doing more to prevent the Rwandan slaughter. Declassi