D.R. CONGO

President Obama Urges Peaceful DRC Elections

Source: VOA News

6 April 2015 - An opposition leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo has called on President Joseph Kabila to categorically state that he will not seek a third term because the constitution prohibits him to seek another term.

Martin Fayulu of the Commitment for Citizenship and Development party said the opposition also wants presidential election before local government elections.

This comes after President Barack Obama last week telephoned President Kabila and “emphasized the importance of timely, credible, and peaceful elections that respect the DRC’s constitution”.

A release from the White House said Obama “noted that President Kabila’s legacy as a leader who brought the DRC out of war and set it on a path of continued democratic progress would be consolidated by free and fair elections in 2016.”

Kabila has not said whether or not he’s going to seek a third term. But Fayulu said the opposition welcomes President Obama’s phone call because Kabila has been laying the groundwork for a third term.

“We as the opposition, we really appreciate what President Obama did. We think that according to what is going on elsewhere in Africa, mainly the example of Nigeria where President Goodluck Jonathan has organized election and things went smoothly, we think President Obama told Mr. Kabila to respect the constitution and we agree,” he said.

Fayulu said the opposition wants the election timetable as announced by elections commission changed to have presidential and parliamentary elections before local government elections.

“The timetable that was issued by the electoral commission is not comprehensive because it’s overbooked. And also the budget is too high – $1.1 billion. What we are saying, according to the time we have now, we cannot organize in the same day the local election, municipal election and the urban election, plus the provincial,” Fayulu said.

He said the opposition wants would prefer to have provincial elections in 2015 followed by presidential and legislative elections in 2016.

DRC government spokesman Lambert Mende said those calling on President Kabila to not run are jumping ahead of themselves because Kabila had said he will respect the constitution.

Fayulu said Kabila is playing tricks on the Congolese people.

“We want him to say that I will not contest. But some of his people are telling him to run. That’s why President Obama is telling him to respect the constitution, and we agree,” he said.

He said other signals which indicate that President Kabila wants to stay in power include his recent attempt to change the electoral law so that the presidential election would be conditioned by the holding of a census.

Fayulu also notes that early this year, the ruling majority in the Congolese senate agreed to remove articles in a proposed law that required completion of a vast census before 2016 election.

The White House said President Obama assured President Kabila that the “United States would r3emain engaged in the DRC throughout the electoral process, including through the appointment of a new U.S. Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region and the DRC.”

The White House also said the two leaders reaffirmed their share commitment to ending the threat of armed groups, particularly the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Opposition, rights group demand investigation into Congo mass burial

Source: Reuters

By Aaron Ross; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Alison Williams

6 April 2015 - A rights group and an opposition lawmaker called on Monday on the government of Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the late night burial of at least 421 bodies last month.

The government said on Friday that local authorities had buried between the corpses overnight on March 19 in the rural commune of Maluku, saying they were dead fetuses and still-born babies as well as unclaimed corpses.

But U.S.-based Human Rights Watch suspects the bodies might belong to people killed in anti-government protests in January or a crackdown on Kinshasa criminals.

At least 40 people died in the violent protests against a proposed law to require a national census before an election - a move that opponents said was an attempt to delay the vote and extend President Joseph Kabila's mandate.

Ida Sawyer, senior researcher for HRW in Congo, said bodies went missing both during the protests as well as in an anti-gang operation in late 2013 and early 2014, in which the group says at least 51 people were killed.

"Further investigations are required to determine if the bodies of those killed in January are among those buried in Maluku," she said.

The political climate in Congo is tense ahead of the presidential election scheduled for late next year when Kabila's mandate is set to expire.

A parliamentarian with the opposition Engagement for Citizenship and Development (ECIDE) party asked for the bodies to be exhumed and for autopsies to be conducted.

"Why bury these people at night? There needs to be an inquiry. This is not a simple affair," Martin Fayulu, told Reuters on Monday.

Human rights workers first became aware of the burial site after residents of Maluku reported a smell and tire tracks near the local cemetery more than two weeks ago.

"The women who work the fields there noticed a foul odor. They discovered the leg of a body," said Dolly Idefo, executive director of Voice for the Voiceless, a Kinshasa-based human rights organization.

There was nothing to mark the burial site, Idefo added.

The government says the bodies were buried individually and not in a mass grave.

Congo's justice minister, Alexis Thambwe, said on Friday the government was prepared to exhume all the corpses should anyone raise the "slightest doubt" about the circumstances of their deaths.

But government spokesman Lambert Mende said on Monday there would be no exhumations, saying that human rights bodies or government officials had no right to make such a request.

Obama Demands Answers From Congo’s Kabila Over FDLR

Source: News of Rwanda

1 April 2015 - Heads are spinning in DRCongo after US President, Barack Obama, telephoned President Joseph Kabila demanding he cooperates with the UN stabilization mission (MONUSCO) to disarm the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels.

In a phone conversation with Kabila, Tuesday, March 31, Obama insisted Kabila should step up his commitment on ensuring peace in the great lakes region. Obama’s call came at a time Rwanda begins the commemoration of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, of which the FDLR rebels are largely responsible.

Rwanda has expressed frustration at the lack of action against the rebels.The FDLR had, until 2 January, 2015, to voluntarily drop their guns in a deadline set by International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Speaking at a major monthly press conference at his office in January, President Paul Kagame said the FDLR militia remains a huge security threat to Rwanda and was not satisfied with the way the disarmament issue was being addressed.

“The way FDLR issue is being handled, it’s as if killing people was not such a bad thing after all,” said Kagame. He said that, “Elsewhere, when people kill people on the streets, it’s an outrage, when the same is done in Rwanda, it’s political grievances.”

However, since the January deadline for the FDLR rebels to disarm, only a handful of aging and sicken rebels have surrendered in what looks as a mockery.

Kagame said, “If the disarmament of FDLR rebels fails, Rwanda will tighten its internal security to make sure that nothing will destabilize the country.”

President Kagame is not happy with different players that have been speculating in regard to FDLR disarmament.

“If the groups that Monusco, the Congolese government and the international community as a whole consider – or pretend to consider –as criminal groups for years, still operate without any serious offensive being mounted against them then that means the problem is elsewhere,” he said in an interview with Jeune Afrique magazine on March 29.

Rwanda holds it that the insensitivities around this issue remind Rwandans what they (FDLR) committed in the Genocide. “It reveals that Genocide was broader than what people tend to believe, “Kagame said.

Meanwhile, Rwanda will mark the 21st commemoration of the genocide against Tutsis on April 7.

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RWANDA

Message of the Secretary General of the United Nations on the International day of reflection on the genocide in Rwanda

7 April 2015

The International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda offers an opportunity to honour the memory of the more than 800,000 people – overwhelmingly Tutsi, and also moderate Hutu, Twa and others – who were systematically killed across Rwanda in less than three months just over two decades ago. It is also an occasion to recognize the pain and the courage of those who survived.

Our annual sombre observance is all the more meaningful this year as we mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. We must use this occasion to look back on the past – and to squarely confront the challenges of the present, renewing our collective resolve to prevent such atrocities from happening again.

Many countries now face grave security threats. People are being subjected to the brutality of violent conflicts and the indignities of poverty. Discrimination persists in societies torn apart by war, as well as in democracies that largely enjoy peace. Hatred may manifest as institutionalized racism, ethnic strife, or episodes of intolerance or exclusion. In other instances, discrimination reflects the official, national version of history that denies the identity of some segments of the population.

I deplore the conflicts and atrocity crimes in many parts of the world that continue to divide communities, killing and displacing people, undermining economies and destroying cultural heritage.

Our first duty is always to prevent these situations and to protect vulnerable human beings in distress. My Human Rights Up Front initiative seeks to prevent serious human rights violations by acting on early warning signs before they become more serious. My Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and on the Responsibility to Protect work to advance national and international efforts to protect populations from atrocity crimes. We aim to ensure swift and decisive action to save lives and stop abuses.

On this Day, I appeal to the international community to do more than just speak about atrocity crimes and then fail to take timely action to prevent them. I call on all to summon the courage to act before situations deteriorate based on our collective moral responsibility. This is critical for the maintenance of international peace and security.

As I said at last year’s commemoration in Kigali, we must exercise “Umuganda” – coming together in common purpose – to avert what can be prevented and counter the cruelty taking place before our eyes.

Message du Secrétaire général des Nations Unies publié à l’occasion de la Journée internationale de réflexion sur le génocide au Rwanda

7 avril 2015

La Journée internationale de réflexion sur le génocide au Rwanda est l’occasion d’honorer la mémoire des plus de 800 000 Rwandais – essentiellement des Tutsis, mais également des Hutus modérés, des Twas et d’autres – qui, il y a à peine plus de 20 ans, ont été massacrés de manière systématique en l’espace de moins de trois mois. Elle est également l’occasion de saluer le courage de ceux qui ont survécu et de reconnaître leur douleur.

Notre commémoration de ces événements tragiques a d’autant plus de sens cette année que nous célébrons le soixante-dixième anniversaire de la fondation de l’Organisation des Nations Unies. Nous devons en profiter pour jeter un regard sur le passé et affronter résolument les problèmes d’aujourd’hui, en réaffirmant notre détermination collective à empêcher que de telles atrocités ne se reproduisent.

À l’heure actuelle, de nombreux pays voient leur sécurité gravement menacée. Des peuples subissent la brutalité des conflits violents et les humiliations de la pauvreté. La discrimination persiste, tant dans les sociétés déchirées par la guerre que dans les démocraties qui connaissent largement la paix. La haine peut prendre diverses formes : racisme institutionnalisé, affrontements ethniques, manifestations d’intolérance ou exclusion. Il arrive aussi que la discrimination soit le résultat d’une version officielle de l’histoire qui nie l’identité de certains groupes de la population.

Je déplore vivement les conflits et les atrocités criminelles qui, dans de nombreuses régions du monde, continuent de diviser les communautés, de tuer et de déplacer des personnes, d’ébranler les économies et de détruire les patrimoines culturels.

Notre première priorité doit être de prévenir ces situations et de protéger les êtres humains en situation de détresse. Mon initiative Les droits avant tout a pour objet d’empêcher la commission de violations graves des droits de l’homme en agissant dès l’apparition de signes avant-coureurs. Mon Conseiller spécial pour la prévention du génocide et ma Conseillère spéciale pour la responsabilité de protéger œuvrent à faire avancer l’action menée aux niveaux national et international pour protéger les populations contre les atrocités criminelles. Notre but est de prendre des mesures rapides et résolues de façon à sauver des vies et à mettre fin aux violations.

À l’occasion de cette journée, je lance un appel à la communauté internationale pour qu’elle ne se contente pas de parler des