KPFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest: California has two operating nuclear power plants, San Onofre in Orange County, and PG&E's Diablo Canyon Plant in San Luis Obispo County, on the Central Coast. Both are on the coastline and both are built near earthquake faults. State Senator Alex Padilla has called for a special hearing at the State capitol on April 14 to examine the risks the two aging plants might pose. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.
PG&E's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the
California Coast
KPFA/Ann Garrison: For the past five years the San Luis Obispo-based Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility has been urging California legislators and oversight agencies to require peer reviewed seismic studies to measure the risk of earthquake damage to Pacific Gas and Electric's (PG&E's) nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon and Southern California Edison's plant at San Onofre. The California Energy Commission has requested that the California Public Utilities Commission require PG&E do the latest, advanced 3-D studies on both old and new earthquake faults beneath Diablo Canyon before granting any ratepayer funding for its license renewal applications, but PG&E has opposed and fought the requirement to do the studies, and the CPUC has failed to act. Rochelle Becker, Executive Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, says that Japan's worsening nuclear catastrophe could have been California's, and that Californians should be able to insist that the studies be done now.
Rochelle Becker, Executive Director,
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility
Rochelle Becker: The one thing that separates California from every other reactor site in the nation is the seismic proximity. There are four active faults within 5 kilometers of Diablo Canyon, one 1800 feet away. There are several active faults offshore of San Onofre and there are new studies being done that have come out of the Baja quakes last year. We are focussing on what the State has jurisdiction to do. If we step into fighting nuclear power, fighting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, then we have a much greater hill to climb. And, we are on the other side of the country from the rest of the reactors' groups. We need to focus on California. We certainly support what everyone else is doing, but in California, it is California rights that should do this. It is California officials who are responsible.
KPFA: Updates on the challenge to re-licensing California's nuclear power plants will be posted to the website of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, a4nr.org, as the process unfolds.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's state newspaper, The New Vision, has reported that the UN Security Council and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to join Museveni's army, the Uganda People's Defense Force, in a new offensive to hunt Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, and Jamil Mukulu’s Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The U.S.A.'s LRA Disarmament Act, which President Obama signed into law in 2010, authorizes funding, training, and collaboration with the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Defense, the US Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Intelligence Community to hunt down the LRA. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more:
Uganda and its neighbors, the
Democratic Republic of
Congo, Central African
Republic, and Sudan.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: The Security Council, and the Congolese and Ugandan Defense Ministers said that the Ugandan Army needs to launch this new military offensive in Congo and the Central African Republic, or CAR, because the LRA keep raping and killing civilians there, though the UN Mapping Report released on October 1st, 2010, documents the Ugandan Army's own civilian massacres, mass rapes, and other sexual atrocities in Congo.
Michael Kirkpatrick is a Black Star News contributor who has traveled back and forth to Uganda and its Acholi region frequently since 1998. He says that Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army are always the most convenient excuse for military intervention:
Black Star News contributor Michael
Kirkpatrick in Northern Uganda
Michael Kirkpatrick: There is a pattern of demonizing Joseph Kony for every atrocity and every crime. Joseph Kony has become demonized to justify military intervention by the U.S. and by other forces in that part of Africa. He's become a phantom menace. He's almost like this mysterious fog that is just creeping around Central Africa but he's been able to survive for over 20 years. He's nothing but a gang leader. He's a thug. He's a rag tag bunch of criminals that's somehow been able to survive for over 20 years. There's a reason he's been able to survive. He is the bad guy in the battle. To say that, somehow, modern armies haven't been able to capture, in twenty years, a rebel thug, is preposterous.
Uganda's Rolling Stone tabloid's cover story about Islamic "homo generals" with ties to the Lord's Resistance Army.
KPFA: Last November Uganda's fanatically homophobic tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone ran a story about what it called Islamic Homo Generals, meaning terrorists, with ties to the Lord's Resistance Army.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones: On Tuesday, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, moved a human rights amendment to the Financial Services Bill out of committee on a unanimous vote. The amendment urges the U.S. Treasury Department to advocate that multilateral development banks supported by the U.S. not assist nations engaging in gross human rights violations, including denial of the freedom of religion and physical persecution because of sexual orientation or gender identity. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power protest
against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act,
a.k.a. Hang-the-Gays Bill, in New York City.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Congressman Barney Frank, in his press release about the amendment, used the physical persecution of sexual minorities in Uganda as an example of the sort of human rights violations that his amendment would discourage, so most of the press has interpreted it as being targeted singly at Uganda's pending Anti-Homosexuality Act, otherwise known as the Hang-the-Gays bill, or, the Bahati bill, after its author Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati. Last week the New Vision, Uganda's state-owned newspaper, reported that Uganda's Speaker of Parliament has summoned MPs to report on March 22 to take up “unfinished business,” including the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Liberian born Emira Woods, Co-Editor of the Institute for Policy Studies' Foreign Policy in Focus, and one of the African advocates at the March 2nd Congressional briefing on the UN Mapping Report on Congo atrocities, told KPFA that although LGBT rights activism had most likely inspired Frank to write the amendment, it should apply to the whole range of human rights violations. She added, however, that an enforcement mechanism is hard to imagine:
Emira Woods: With the amendment and press release coming forward, what Congressman Frank has done is call much needed attention to the anti-gay legislation and I think we should commend that, and yet I think it is difficult to imagine how that will be implemented by Treasury using its leverage on the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the other international financial institutions. I think this is an instance where a Congressman is using the political, sort of like a bully pulpit.
KPFA: And then you think the amendment's advocacy might be expanded to stop other gender violence such as the sexual terrorism in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Emira Woods: I think its first important to applaud the attention that he's bringing to the issues of the anti-gay legislation in Uganda. That's huge. And I think it's much needed. And all of the champions and defenders of human rights broadly, of LGBT right in particular, throughout Africa, welcome the statements and the actions from Congressman Frank. So I think wee have to applaud that first. Acknowledge it, support it, strengthen it. And then, I think, moving further to encourage a similar bully pulpit be used to address the atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
KPFA: For Pacifica, KFPA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Host Cameron Jones: The Southern Sudanese people voted for independence from Northern Sudan in January of this year, but the hotly contested, oil rich Abyei region, between the districts now scheduled to join the independent states of North and South Sudan, did not vote with the rest of the country because North and South could not agree as to who would be eligible to vote. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir vowed that he would not agree to Abyei becoming part of the South. This week clashes broke out again in Abyei, and the death toll is already reported to be over 100. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.
Sudan's oil rich Abyei
district is in yellow.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Some sources claim that the Misseriya herdsmen identified with the North attacked the Dinka Ngok farmers identified with the South, but Government of Southern Sudan spokesperson Marial Benjamin Barnaba blamed the Sudanese Army and Popular Defense Forces loyal to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.
Marial Benjamin Barnaba: “The areas being attacked are north of Abyei and the people on the attack are the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Popular Defense Forces. This morning at nine fifty am, Makir village was completely burned down by the Sudanese Armed Forces which is being claimed to be Misseriya. And other attacks are pending. The citizens of Abyei, the Ngok Dinka in this areas, they have been moving southwards because of these continuous attacks and in fact most of the causalities have been the local police, plus the civilian population.”
Nile Fortune Managing Editor
Mugume Rwakaringi.
KPFA: Nile Fortune Editor and Contributor Mugume Rwakaringi told KPFA that the people of Abyei are trapped between the counter accusations of Khartoum and Juba, the capitols of Northern and Southern Sudan, and that traditional Misseriya herdsmen and Dinka Ngok farmers would peacefully co-exist, if not for the oil thirst of the outside forces driving the conflict.
In January, as soon as the votes for independence had been counted in Southern Sudan, Massachusetts Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry declared the U.S.A. would not leave Abyei behind.
John Kerry: “Let’s be clear. Even as today marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another, a lot of work remains ahead in the very new term in the next months of the CPA before July 9th, in order to resolve outstanding issues regarding oil revenues, borders, and of course Abyei and Darfur. Abyei is front and center on the agenda even today. Abyei is not being left behind, Abyei is not being forgotten.
KPFA: Mugume Rwakaringi's essay, "Who should save the Abyei people?" will be available tomorrow on the websites of the San Francisco Bay View and AfrobeatRadio. For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest: And this is KPFA/KPFB in Berkeley, or KFCF, 88.1 in Fresno. The program is the Weekend News; I'm Anthony Fest with David Landau. Turning now to news from Africa, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been in power for the past 25 years, with military, diplomatic, and intelligence support from the U.S. He officially claimed victory in Uganda's presidential election this morning, but opposition parties and election observers claimed widespread election fraud. KPFA's Ann Garrison has more.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni entered his 26th
year in power, after claiming victory, on 02.20.2011, in
yet another presidential election that opposition parties
declared fraudulent.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: In his introduction to a recent interview with Ugandan President Yoweri Musveni, Aljazeera host Mohammed Adow said that Museveni had joined the League of African Rulers whose only wish is to stay in power forever. In conversation with Museveni, the Aljazeera host asked whether he would ever consider retiring, and criticized his extreme concentration of power, in his own hands.
Aljazeera's Talk to Jazeera Host Mohammed Adow: Mr. President, your National Resistance Movement Party is run like a one man show, not an institution. You are the NRM and without you, some say, it's the end of the party.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni: Oh, they must be sick, because NRM has got nine million members now. Many of the things they do, I don't even know. So anybody who said that I'm running that huge organization alone must be sick in his head or her head.
KPFA: Opposition presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye and the Democracy Group, a non-partisan election monitoring team, were collecting their own election poll tallies after Ugandans went to the polls on Friday, so as to publish their own results, but Museveni's Communications Commission made that impossible by ordering telecom companies to jam their SMS message reception. Besigye, his party and other members of the opposition categorically rejected the election results, and denounced the National Electoral Commission which Museveni selected himself.
They also accused Museveni and his party of ballot stuffing, unsealed ballot boxes, voter intimidation by the army, flagrant vote buying, and using state resources to win. Commonwealth observers observed the same irregularities.
Commonwealth election observers spokesman: The power of incumbency in this general election, and during the campaign leading to it, was exercised to such an extent as to compromise severely the level playing field between the competing candidates and political parties.
KPFA: Poverty, especially among Uganda's majority subsistence farmers, was the opposition's central issue, but, poverty also made Ugandans vulnerable to widely reported, flagrant vote buying by the rullng party. Besigye urged hungry Ugandans to take the money, then vote against the thieves who gave it to them, but Job Collins, who ran for Youth Member of Parliament in Uganda's Northern Region, and other members of the opposition said that many impoverished Ugandans feel too disempowered to defy the authority of those who paid for their votes.
Speaking to the press, Besigye said that the opposition rejected not only the election results but also any legal authority based on them:
Dr. Kizza Besigye has rejected the authority of Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni established by the
02.20.2011 election, because, he claims, it was fraudulent.
Dr. Kizza Besigye: We have rejected the outcome of this election. We are rejecting the leadership that emerges out of this sham election. And we are going to take steps, in consultation with the various people we have pointed out, all the stakeholders in our country, including the public, as to the means we are going to use to bring the country back to Constitutional rule.
KPFA: Africa peace and justice activists in the U.S. have stepped up their calls for the U.S. to stop supporting both the Museveni regime and the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame since the October 1st release of the UN Mapping Report documenting their armies' war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones: American Law Professor Peter Erlinder is set to begin a speaking tour to present his 70-page compilation of original UN documents and evidence, as well as his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda between 1993 and 1995. Erlinder says that the U.S., its allies, and the Rwandan government are collaborators in an ongoing coverup of the truth at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.
Law Professor Peter Erlinder speaking
to the National Lawyers Guild, holding
a duplicate of the pink prison garb
he wore while incarcerated in Rwanda,
after traveling there in May of 2010
to defend opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
who is now in prison herself.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Peter Erlinder, international criminal defense attorney, and law professor at Minnesota's William Mitchell College of Law, will begin his speaking tour at George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C. on January 24th, then visit Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania and Temple University Law Schools, then, Fordham University Law Shool and the Brecht Forum in New York City, and the University of Pittsburgh. The tour will coincide with DePaul University's Journal of Social Justice's publication of his original UN documents and evidence, and his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda, at the time of the epic massacres now known as the Rwanda Genocide. Professor Erlinder spoke to KPFA from his home in St. Paul Minnesota:
KPFA: What do you think Americans most need to understand about what happened in Rwanda, and then in Congo? What does this have to do with us?
Peter Erlinder: Well, I think that what this has to do with us I'd like to answer first. The United States has played an active role in destabilizing the Great Lakes Region of Africa for the last 25 years. It's a role that the American people, however, do not understand, and because they don't understand it, they're not able to take action to change it. But with respect to Rwanda, what the evidence in the files show, that have been kept secret until I was able to get them, is that actually it was the Pentagon that created the RPF, grew them from 2500 to 25,000 troops in a period of two years, provided the material and the support necessary for them to take over the country, that at the same time the State Department was attempting to get the RPF to agree to give up its power and to enter into a minority position in the government, the Pentagon was continuing to support them and make them an even larger military force, so there was no incentive for them to give up their militarily superior position.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the Rwandan opposition leader
that Professor Peter Erlinder traveled to Rwanda to defend
was taken, head shaven, handcuffed, and in pink prison garb,
to a Kigali court in handcuffs, where she was again denied
bail, on January 20, 2011.
And the American people should also know that the UN documents and US government documents from FOIA disclosures that we have show that a U.S. engineered cover-up of RPF crimes began in August of 1994 because the State Department found out that the Pentagon was actually behind the RPF and therefore was responsible fundamentally for the Rwanda Genocide. And that it's that connection to the United States that the American people don't know and is not acknowledged. That's also the reason that the Rwanda Tribunal has had to prosecute only one side, because if Kagame ever is prosecuted, it's quite sure that he will explain the role of the United States in making him who he is.
It's also true that in 1996 and 1998, Rwanda and Uganda, both with the support of the US and UK, invaded the eastern Congo and have occupied the eastern Congo since that time. Reports to the UN Security Council from experts that were engaged by the Security Council have reported repeatedly, 2001, 2, 3, 2008, 2010, that the armies of Uganda and Rwanda are occupying the eastern Congo, killing millions of people, at least six million, and raping the resources of the Congo. But unfortunately, because both of these are proxy armies that are convenient for the United States, we don't hear about those crimes, and the perpetrators of the crimes are not called before the International Criminal Court, and the American people are in a position where they don't realize that their country is actually responsible for the massive crimes in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and we should care about that greatly because these crimes are being done in our name.
KPFA: Peter Erlinder, thank you for speaking to KPFA. For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Law Professor Peter Erlinder
speaking to the National Lawyers Guild
last year, holding the pink prison garb
he wore while incarcerated in Rwanda,
after traveling there to defend Victoire
Ingabire Umuhoza, the Rwandan opposition leader who
is now in prison herself.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Cameron Jones: American Law Professor Peter Erlinder is set to begin a speaking tour to present his 70-page compilation of original UN documents and evidence, as well as his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda between 1993 and 1995. Erlinder says that the U.S., its allies, and the Rwandan government are collaborators in an ongoing coverup of the truth at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Peter Erlinder, international criminal defense attorney, and law professor at Minnesota's William Mitchell College of Law, will begin his speaking tour at George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C. on January 24th, then visit Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania and Temple University Law Schools, then, Fordham University Law Shool and the Brecht Forum in New York City, and the University of Pittsburgh. The tour will coincide with DePaul University's Journal of Social Justice's publication of his original UN documents and evidence, and his analysis of what actually happened in Rwanda, at the time of the epic massacres now known as the Rwanda Genocide. Professor Erlinder spoke to KPFA from his home in St. Paul Minnesota:
KPFA: What do you think Americans most need to understand about what happened in Rwanda, and then in Congo? What does this have to do with us?
Peter Erlinder: Well, I think that what this has to do with us I'd like to answer first. The United States has played an active role in destabilizing the Great Lakes Region of Africa for the last 25 years.It's a role that the American people, however, do not understand, and because they don't understand it, they're not able to take action to change it. But with respect to Rwanda, what the evidence in the files show, that have been kept secret until I was able to get them, is that actually it was the Pentagon that created the RPF, grew them from 2500 to 25,000 troops in a period of two years, provided the material and the support necessary for them to take over the country, that at the same time the State Department was attempting to get the RPF to agree to give up its power and to enter into a minority position in the government, the Pentagon was continuing to support them and make them an even larger military force, so there was no incentive for them to give up their militarily superior position.
And the American people should also know that the UN documents and US government documents from FOIA disclosures that we have show that a U.S. engineered cover-up of RPF crimes began in August of 1994 because the State Department found out that the Pentagon was actually behind the RPF and therefore was responsible fundamentally for the Rwanda Genocide. And that it's that connection to the United States that the American people don't know and is not acknowledged. That's also the reason that the Rwanda Tribunal has had to prosecute only one side, because if Kagame ever is prosecuted, it's quite sure that he will explain the role of the United States in making him who he is.
Rwandan opposition leaderVictoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
in pink prison garb, and with her head shaved was
led to court where she was again denied bail,
on January 20th, 2011.
It's also true that in 1996 and 1998, Rwanda and Uganda, both with the support of the US and UK, invaded the eastern Congo and have occupied the eastern Congo since that time. Reports to the UN Security Council from experts that were engaged by the Security Council have reported repeatedly, 2001, 2, 3, 2008, 2010, that the armies of Uganda and Rwanda are occupying the eastern Congo, killing millions of people, at least six million, and raping the resources of the Congo. But unfortunately, because both of these are proxy armies that are convenient for the United States, we don't hear about those crimes, and the perpetrators of the crimes are not called before the International Criminal Court, and the American people are in a position where they don't realize that their country is actually responsible for the massive crimes in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and we should care about that greatly because these crimes are being done in our name.
KPFA: Peter Erlinder, thank you for speaking to KPFA. For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Olara Otunnu speaks to KPFA Radio and AfrobeatRadio.net
Olara Otunnu, presidential candidate of the Ugandan
Peoples' Congress, and former UN Undersecretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict
On New Year's Eve, I spoke to Olara Otunnu for KPFA News about children in armed conflict regions, as the holiday season closed.
Acholiland, the homeland of the Acholi
people in Northern Uganda. Acholi
also live in Southern Sudan.
Olara is a Ugandan lawyer and human rights advocate, who served as President of the International Peace Academy from 1990-1998, as UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict from 1997 to 2005, then as President of the LBL Foundation for Children based in New York City.
This is the complete conversation, not only about children in armed conflict regions, but also about Uganda, Uganda's war and occupation in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, and U.S. backing for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni even as he made war on Congo and on Olara's own Acholi people of Northern Uganda.
The Kagame regime arrested opposition
leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
in Kigali, Rwanda, 15 days after the
release of the UN report documenting
the regime's war crimes, crimes against
humanity, and genocidal massacres of
civilians in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, and, she has remained behind
bars ever since.
On Christmas Eve, KPFA Radio-Berkeley broadcast the following news report:
And in news from the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Bernard Ntaganda, two of the three presidential candidates who attempted to run against incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame this year, are spending their Christmas in prison in Kigali. KPFA's Ann Garrison is in the studio with the story.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Bernard Ntaganda declared his intention to protest the Rwandan opposition's exclusion from the country's 2010 presidential election on June 24th, saying, "Silence is acceptance," but, he was arrested inside his home that morning, before he could leave, and has been behind bars ever since.
Rwandan opposition leader and presidential
candidate Bernard Ntaganda was arrested before he
could leave his home to protest exclusion from Rwanda's
presidential election on June 24th and has been behind
bars, in Kigali's 1930 maximum security prison since.
In May, Ntaganda told KMEC Radio-Mendocino,
that the real problem in Rwanda is not between
Hutu and Tutsi but between rich and poor.
Ingabire had by then already been arrested and confined to Kigali since March. She was re-arrested, on October 15th, and has remained behind bars ever since.
Supporters of Rwanda's opposition from all over the world expressed their sadness that the country's democratic leaders are the ones spending Christmas in prison, even after the UN Mapping Report, released on October 1st, documented war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal massacres of civilians perpetrated by Kagame's RPF regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
KPFA:
Ingabire's daughter, Raissa Ujeneeza, spoke to KPFA from the Netherlands.
Raissa Ujeneeza:
She is in prison without having been proven guilty and that is the problem right now. They are trying to build a case against her, but they don't have a legitimate evidence against her, and they're not gonna find anything, but that doesn't keep them from keeping her in prison.
KPFA:
Eleneus Akanga, Rwandan journalist and Contributing Editor of The Newsline EA in East Africa spoke to KPFA from London, where he is studying international human rights law.
Eleneus Akanga:
Victoire Ingabire's daughter Raissa Ujeneeza stands front and
center in this protest for her mother Victoire Ingabire
Umuhoza's freedom in the Hague.
It's a sad story really, but if President Paul Kagame thinks that prison is the place for anyone who dares to challenge his authoritarian rule, then he'd better build more prisons. Rwandese are resolved people and they will continue to fight his repressive regime, no matter the intimidation. And until the US and the UK stop pampering his ego, the dictator that is Kagame will continue to rule Rwanda and Rwanda remains headed for disaster. That's all I can say.
KPFA:
And, WBAI AfrobeatRadio Producer Wuyi Jacobs spoke to KPFA from New York City:
Wuyi Jacobs:
Rwanda's political opposition leaders Victoire Ingabire and Bernard Ntaganda and many members of the opposition have been in prison for many months now. Let our New Year's resolution be to work together to seek their freedom.
KPFA:
For Pacifica/KPFA Radio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Also on Christmas, Ingabire's FDU-Inkingi Coalition of Parties released a statement saying that:
Today, Ms. Victoire INGABIRE's lawyer has requested an immediate release order from the Intermediate Court of GASABO because the pre-trial detention order expired on 25th December 2010. The case has not yet been transmitted for evidential trial. Her detention is illegal. Paul KAGAME's government has no legal basis to keep her in jail after the expiration of the ordinance.
The FDU called on the Rwandese people and the international community to make calls and write letters demanding her immediate release, and filed a motion for her release with the GASABO court in Kigali, but on December 30th, the court denied bail again and issued another preventive detention order.
Bernard Ntaganda is scheduled to appear in court on January 5th. His support team says that they remain strong and that his family takes him food every day at Kigali's 1930 prison. Shortly after his arrest, Ntaganda went on a hunger strike for fear that President Kagame would have him poisoned.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Bernard Ntaganda
by Ann Garrison on Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 1:12pm
Please add your Christmas wishes to this global online Christmas card for Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Bernard Ntaganda, and for the Rwandan people, and African people of the wider region, who have suffered such brutal dictatorship and exploitation for so long.
The AfrobeatRadio Collective will publish everyone's good wishes, on AfrobeatRadio.net. Please include names and locations, unless doing so is cause for anxiety.
To Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and Bernard Ntaganda
1930 Prison
Kigali, Rwanda
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi opposition leader, is spending Christmas in Rwanda's maximum security 1930 prison.
Dear Victoire and Bernard:
We are sad to see you, two of the candidates who attempted to contest this year's Rwandan presidential election, spending Christmas behind bars, in Rwanda's 1930 maximum security prison. Your incarceration, even after the release of the October 1st UN Mapping Report documenting the Kagame regime's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and civilian massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is justice turned upside down, or rather, no justice at all.
Bernard Ntaganda, Rwandan opposition leader, planned to protest the opposition's exclusion from Rwanda's 2010 presidential election, saying, "Silence is acceptance." He was arrested before he could leave the house on 06.24.2010, and is now, like Victoire Ingabire, spending Christmas in Rwanda's 1930 maximum security prison.
Though you will not even be able to read this card online or in print, we hope you may somehow hear of it and be heartened. Thank you many times over for your courage and strength.
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest:
On December 6th, the government of the Netherlands froze budget support for Rwandan President Paul Kagame's regime, citing human rights abuse and concern that imprisoned Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza cannot receive a fair trial in Rwanda, where she is charged with terrorism and genocide ideology. Kagame then met angry street protest, during the rest of last week, at a European development conference in Brussels, where several European leaders avoided meeting or being photographed with him. KPFA's Ann Garrison has the story.
KPFA/Ann Garrison:
Professor Ed Herman, co-author, with Noam Chomsky, of Manufacturing Consent and many other books, describes Rwandan President Paul Kagame as "the worst killer on the planet."
On April 30th this year, a legal team including American Law Professor and international criminal defense lawyer Peter Erlinder sued Kagame, in an Oklahoma City civil court, for the assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents that triggered the Rwanda Genocide, and racketeering to plunder the resources of Rwanda's neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, costing millions more lives.
In mid-July Spanish demonstrators took to the streets with hands and faces drenched in red paint to simulate blood, chanting "Kagame! War Criminal! Assassin!" and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero refused to meet or be photographed with Kagame.
On December 6th, the Netherlands froze budget support to the Kagame regime, and during the rest of the week hundreds of exiled Rwandan and Congolese demonstrators banged drums in the streets of Brussels, chanting "Kagame! Murderer!” after he arrived there for a European development conference. They urged European donor nations to follow the Netherlands lead, but Britain's Foreign Minister David Cash argued for ongoing support and, by the end of the week, both Britain and Sweden had pledged major cash grants.
Raissa Ujenza, the daughter of imprisoned Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, spoke to KPFA the Netherlands, where Ingabire lived in exile for 16 years before returning to Rwanda Ujenza and Ingabire's husband and two other children continue to live in exile. Ingabire for 16 years before returning to Rwanda
KPFA:
Are you encouraged by the Netherlands' decision?
Raissa Ujeneza:
Yes, I am. Very much so.
KPFA:
What about the church groups? There were a number of church groups collecting signatures to ask the Dutch government to call for respect for your mother's human rights? Did you have any contact with the church groups?
Raissa Ujeneza:
Not myself. My father, my grandmother, and my aunt are in contact with the church groups. They have spoken and set up collecting signatures.
KPFA:
Do you think it's been significant that you and your family, like most people in the Netherlands and in East/Central Africa, are Christian?
Raissa Ujeneza:
Yes, but also, every person who is religious feels a connection and is connected with others who are also religious, and that helps us in standing stronger together, helping my mother and supporting her in her action.
KPFA:
Do any other European nations now seem inclined to follow the Netherlands lead?
Raissa Ujeneza:
Spain, definitelyis supporting actions for Rwanda to act better, but I think it will be a slow process.
KPFA:
Your mother spoke to KPFA a number of times, between her February arrest and her re-arrest and imprisonment on October 15th, and she always said, adamanty, that she rejected violence, and that the country's problems had to be resolved by democracy and debate. Can you imagine your mother being involved in a violent terrorist conspiracy?
Raissa Ujeneza:
I cannot imagine my mother being involved in a violent terrorist conspiracy at all. Her purpose is for Rwanda to be a country where all citizens feel free and have equal rights. And she fights for reconciliation and stability in Rwanda, and not by violence but by peaceful methods. I really do believe that the accusations are a way for the Rwandan government to put her down and to shut her off.
KPFA:
What would you most like the world to understand about what she represents, in Rwanda and the wider region, including Congo?
Raissa Ujeneza:
I would like the world to understand about my mother that she stands firm in what she believes. She's a smart, strong, and kindhearted person, who cares very much for her country and wants to make a difference. And every person who would observe her would see that she has all the qualities that are needed to bring the necessary changes. Too many people are still dying and still suffering.
KPFA:
Do you think that the Rwandan people and those of the wider region have had a lot of hopes that Barack Obama, the first African American president would make a significant difference in the region?
Raissa Ujeneza:
Yes I do believe a lot of people have a certain faith in him and I really hope he can live up to those hopes.
KPFA:
Raissa, thank you for speaking to KPFA.
Raissa Ujeneza:
You're welcome, and Merry Christmas.
On Wednesday, November 24th, President Obama sent Congress his plan to mobilize Uganda's army, the Uganda People's Defense Force, to cross its northern border into the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, to disarm the Lord's Resistance Army, a militia that has been fighting the Ugandan government for over 20 years. The White House issued a statement saying:
The President seemed either unaware or unconcerned about the UN Mapping Report, released on October 1st, which documents Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's army's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal massacres of civilians, Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
How else could he propose to mobilize the very same army to enter the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan to protect civilians and refugees, and "meet humanitarian requirements" in "affected populations," as his strategy statement said he would?
Just over a week later, on Friday, December 3rd, NBC News Dateline aired "Winds of War, George Clooney in Sudan," which warned that the Northern Sudanese Moslem regime of Omar al-Bashir might commit genocide in Christian Southern Sudan. The next day I called Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi from the KPFA Radio studios, in Berkeley, California, to produce this segment for the KPFA Weekend News:
KPFA Weekend News Anchor/David Rosenberg:
NBC's Dateline last night aired an hour long documentary titled "Winds of War, George Clooney in Sudan." The actor warned Dateline's audience that Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir's regime in Khartoum has already been indicted, by the International Criminal Court, for war crimes and genocide, and that he is now amassing weapons and troops to prevent Southern Sudan from forming an independent state. Critics of U.S. interventions in the region say that the U.S. is also amassing weapons and troops to move on Southern Sudan, from the Central African Republic, and from its southern border with Uganda, to secure oil. Ann Garrison is live in the studio with this report.
KPFA/Ann Garrison:
George Clooney, on Friday night's NBC Dateline, cited the opinions of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the CIA, and President Barack Obama as evidence that everyone agrees that the U.S. must engage to stop genocide after Southern Sudan's January referendum, in which the Southern Sudanese are all but certain to vote for independence.
Actor George Clooney on NBC's Dateline:
The State Department said, the Secretary of State said it's a ticking time bomb. The CIA said this is the next genocide if we're not careful; it is the biggest risk. The President has said as much. This, everyone acknowledges that this is what is going to take place if someone doesn't moderate and mediate. And that's not just my saying it. That's everyone saying it. I'm just trying to say it as loud as possible.
Ann Garrison: Clooney's "everyone" did not include Ugandan American journalist Milton Allimadi, Editor of the New York City-based Black Star News. Allimadi says that if the President were really serious about stopping genocide in Africa, he would send peacekeepers into eastern Congo, where the worst African genocide is ongoing and has been for the past 16 years, with a loss of over 6 million lives.
Allimadi also said that Obama would not be martialing the Ugandan army of Yoweri Museveni in Northern Uganda, to move into the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, enacting the LRA DIsarmament Act, after the October 1st release of the UN Mapping Report documenting the Ugandan Army's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal massacres of Hutu civilians in Congo. Allimadi says the LRA is really an excuse to secure Southern Sudanese oil after Southern Sudan's January referendum on independence.
Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi:
I don't buy this LRA business, not for one minute. The United States is not interested in going after the LRA. If the Ugandan government, which is familiar with the terrain, could not defeat the LRA in 24 years of conflict, what added dimension can the United States bring to this? We already saw one disastrous instance, in December 2008, using U.S. logistical support and intelligence, the Ugandan Army attacked the LRA camp at Garamba, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And the consequences were just disastrous. They failed to get the key leaders of the LRA and instead provoked massacres of innocent Congolese civilians. Who knows who did the killings, whether it was the LRA or the Ugandan troops? It was a massive disaster.
Milton Allimadi:
I think this is what's really happening:
As you know, in early January, Southern Sudan, whose capitol is Juba, is going to vote on a referendum. That referendum will decide whether it becomes an independent republic, and it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to vote for independence.
Now here's the deal. Most or all of the oil wealth that is now sustaining the government of Sudan in the North happens to be located in Southern Sudan. I don't see how the government in Khartoum can survive and sustain itself without this oil wealth.
I think the U.S. has taken a keen interest in the management and control of this oil wealth. And if you look at the map very carefully, the LRA right now, is purported to be concentrated in Central African Republic, which also conveniently happens to be bordered with the Sudan. It's on the southwestern part of the Sudan's border, so they share a border. And in fact, if you're going to look at it from a military point of view, it's half the distance to march from the outpost of the border in Central African Republic to the capitol of Khartoum than it is to march from Juba, the capitol of Southern Sudan, to Khartoum.
I am convinced that the United States, with its ally, the Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, are setting up a front line in Central African Republic, in order to weaken the government of the Sudan in Khartoum and make it difficult for the government of the Sudan in Khartoum to launch an attack against Southern Sudan, should they declare independence, which is a foregone conclusion. That to me is a much more credible story than this bogus story about the U.S. wanting to go after the LRA.
KPFA/Ann Garrison:
And do you think they want to do this in order to secure Southern Sudanese oil reserves?
Absolutely. Southern Sudanese oil reserves. And that is becoming a huge oil field now. Southern Sudan borders northern Uganda. And going from that region into Western Uganda, that's a vast oil field. As you know in recent years there's been massive discoveries of oil fields in that part of Uganda as well. So if you look at this as a continuous region, starting from Western Uganda sweeping into Northern Uganda, into Southern Sudan, very rich oil fields, which, considering the U.S. presence in the region right now, is much more secure than some of the oil fields in the Middle East.
KPFA/Ann Garrison:
President Obama himself, in his 2006 Senate Bill, the Obama Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, said that rebel militias serve as pretexts for Uganda and Rwanda's invasions and resource plunder of neighboring Congo, but Allimadi says that Obama, the U.S. Africa Command, and federal legislators now seem to be using the pretext themselves.
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