Rwanda in Brief

GENOCIDE RELEASES

The Rwandan government has freed 300 people who were detained on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 genocide after concluding that there was no case against them.

Documents released by the prosecutor general showed that the detainees were released since March, when the government set commissions to review certain categories of suspects.

Reports from Kigali say that the categories which are considered are children who might have committed the crime before they were 14 years of age, elders, and people suffering from diseases which are incurable.

MUDENDE KILLINGS

On Friday 22 August, the government of Rwanda announced that a gang of militia (interahamwe) together with former government soldiers attacked a refugee camp and killed 148 Congelese.

A statement released by the government said that the killings were ‘a continuation of the genocide which these former Rwandan soldiers and militiamen exported to eastern Zaire’.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, said the attack was an act of barbarism, which highlighted the urgent need to end the spiralling ethinic violence in Rwanda.

Most of the refugees attacked were from Masisi, in North Kivu, who had fled the civil war.

Reports say that Masisi region is still highly volatile and serves as a staging ground for rebles attacking both Rwanda and Uganda.

ISRAELI STUDENTS DONATE SCHOOL SUPPLIES

The Israeli students have raised more than 50,000 dollars to buy schoolbooks, bags and uniforms and pay tuition fees for orphans in Rwanda.

The school supplies and uniforms will go to about 1,500 Rwandan orphans, aged 12 to 18 in Kibungo area, and tution fees will be paid for 250 of the neediest children.

The Project “Back to School” is sponsored by Israeli’s Foreign Ministry, The Ministry of Education, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Commitee and the JDC in Israel.

The money was raised by more than by more than 50,000 Israeli children at 500 schools around the country.

An additional 100,000 was raised by contributions from an anonymous donor and American Jewish organizations.

WFP CLOSE OFFICES IN GISENYI

The World Food Programme, WFP, has closed down its offices in Gisenyi Prefecture in a bid to reduce its offices countrywide.

Radio Rwanda quoted WFP officials saying that emergency assistance is no longer necessary since all refugees have returned home and settled in their communes.

Instead, the WFP will embark on development oriented activities.

It says that it offices have been reduced from 11 to three.

The WFP offices now are in Kigali, Butare and Kibungo.

Offices catering fro Ruhengeri and Gisenyi will be in Kigali.

MALAWI TO CLOSE REFUGEE CAMPS

In mid August, the Malawi government said that it would start repartriating about 750 refugees from Rwanda because it was safe for them to return home.

It said that about 500 refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo, former Zaire, will also be sent back.

The government said those who did not want to be repartriated would have to apply for permits to stay.

But the reports which were announced later, said that the Zaleka camp which was a shelter for Rwandan refugees had been set ablaze.

The Rwandan government reacted quickly by saying that the refugees had in fact set their camp on fire in order to avoid repartriation.

The Rwandan News Agency quoted the Repatriation Commission Chairman Ephraim Kabaija saying, ’the refugees resisted repatriation in setting ablaze their camp’.

ARMY OFFICERS ARRESTED

Six senior officers and seven of lower rank were arrested in Gisenyi for allegedly taking part in killings and looting early in August.

They were arrested following an order issued by the vice president and minister of defence Major General Paul Kagame when he visited Gisenyi.

Kagame said said that those soldiers had tarnished the reputation of the army and vowed to take exemplary disciplinary measures against them.

They are accused of opening fire on a market in Muhoko killing at least 40 people.

NAMIBIA TO HAND OVER FORMER MINISTER

Namibia has announced that it is prepared to hand over a former Rwandan minister accused of genocide if the UN war crimes tribunal requests it.

The foreign ministry said that Andre Rwamakuba, former education minister, fled to Windhoek soon after Rwanda's genocide.

He is on a UN list, received by the Namibia government of those wanted for extradition by the Arusha court.

The Rwandan government wanted Rwamakuba to be taken to Rwanda but reports said that Rwanda and Namibia do not have an extradition treaty.

The spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs said that Namibia has no law for trying a defendant suspected of genocide.

GENOCIDE SUSPECTS TO REMAIN IN CUSTODY

The Arusha based UN war crimes tribunal trying suspects in of Rwandan genocide in August extended the detention period of six genocide suspects for 30 days in dentention.

The suspects who appeared before the tribunal were the former prime minister Jean Kambanda, a Belgian George Ruggiu who worked as a journalist and presenter for Radio Television de Milles Collines-(RTLM), Sylvain Nsabimana, the fromer prefect of Butare, Gratien Kabirigi, a colonel in the former government, Aloys Ntabakuze, a former commander of a commando batallion and Hassan Ngeze, the former Editor in Chief of the notorious Kangura newspaper.

A total of 21 suspects are held in Arusha and 23 suspects have been indictated.

The Arusha court also tried the first woman suspect, Nyiramasuhuko Pauline, a former minister who was arrested in Kenya in July with her son Arsene Shalome Ntahobari.

Nyiramasuhuko pleaded not guilty for five charges of genocide and crimes against humanity