::Colored Opinions::

BELGIAN PARATROOPERS TO CRUSH RISING CONGO REBELLION?

2009-12-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

Independent investigative journalist and human rights investigator Keith Harmon Snow has made repeated trips to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other parts of Africa.

I spent most of Sunday, 12.06.2009, studying this report by Africa and human rights investigator/reporter Keith Harmon Snow---so as to suggest edits that might make it more comprehensible to Americans unfamiliar with this part of the world, which is most Americans. I suggested, first of all, maps identifying D.R. Congo, a.k.a., Congo-Kinshasa, in Africa, D.R. Congo's Equateur and Kivu Provinces, the nine nations bordering D.R. Congo, and the Obangui and Congo Rivers so important to this story.

The international corporate press is blocking this story out, or, as ever, publishing vague racist reports of African tribal savagery. Keith Snow, writing in conscious being, describes instead a serious Congolese rebellion against elites controlling Congo's resources in the interest of foreign powers, and details:

1) Mai Mai militia from South Kivu Province, on Congo's Eastern border with Rwanda, collaborating with rebels based in the city of Dongo, in Equateur Province, on Congo's border with the Republic of Congo, a.k.a., Congo-Brazzavile;
2) Rwandan President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Democratic Front (RDF) forces flown across the country, from the East, to Equateur,
3) Rwandans who went into exile after the Kagame/RPF takeover of 1994 crossing the border from Congo-Brazzaville into Congo-Kinshasa's Equateur Provice to join the Dongo rebellion; and,
4) Many Congolese, including defectors from the Congolese Army (FARDC) joining the Dongo and Mai Mai rebels, and,
5) MONUC (UN "Peacekeepers"), AFRICOM (the U.S. Africa Command), forces from the neighboring Central African Republic, and Belgian and/or Belgian trained paratroopers moving into Equateur to put down the rebellion.

BELGIAN PARATROOPERS TO CRUSH RISING CONGO REBELLION?

Rwandan Defense Forces Flown into Western Congo Defeated; Kabila Regime Under Siege on Multiple Fronts

With the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) engulfed in bloodshed and terrorism due to the secretive occupation and expansion by the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame, Congo's President Joseph Kabila has reportedly requested an immediate emergency military intervention from Belgium to crush a growing rebellion sparked by resistance forces in the far western Congo.

Full text at conscious being, http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/2009/12/belgian-paratroopers-to-crush-rising-congo-rebellion/.

Rwanda Green Party abandons Nyarugenge district

2009-12-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

Frank Habineza, interim Chairman of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda sent this update on the party's attempt to register and convene, so as to participate in Rwanda's August 2010 election. From the Rwanda News Agency:

Green Party abandons Nyarugenge district
By RNA Reporter

Friday, 06 November 2009

Kigali: They have not been able to hold their founding congress for four times in Nyarugenge district. The Green Party seems to have decided to shift altogether out of town to neighbouring Gasabo district, as a US Greens' activist visits, RNA reports.

Gasabo district officials confirmed Friday that the troubled Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) wrote to the district November 05 seeking permission to hold the founding conference on November 20.

Friday last week marked the turning point to efforts of the party to hold a meeting, as police order its halt citing insecurity. That was after chaos had erupted leading to several injuries and arrests.

On October 02, the Nyarugenge district mayor Mr. Origène Rutayisire also abruptly sent in a letter halting the meeting in session. He cited miscommunication with party officials, but denied his decision had anything to do with government policy.

Though Mr. Rutayisire has resigned his post over “personal reasons”, the Green Party head Frank Habineza said he has “had enough” in Nyarugenge.

“We want to try Gasabo because Nyarugenge seems to have a lot of forces operating behind the decisions they make,” he said when contacted.

Meanwhile, a senior official from the International Committee of the Green Party of the United States Mr. Bob Marsh is in the country to meet with Mr. Habineza and other party members. Mr. Marsh meets them on Friday afternoon.
Last Updated ( Friday, 06 November 2009 )

Huckabee's Evangelical "Friends"

2009-12-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

Huckabee's former staffer during the Iowa primaries and Evangelical blogger, Joe Carter, wrote the column "limits of compassion" in which he accuses Huckabee of having confused his role as pastor with his role as Governor of Arkansas while giving clemencies. With such Evangelical friends, you don't need ennemies.

The argument has off course been echoed in blogposts, articles and columns across the US these last days. Some opportunists, like Frank Schaeffer, have jumped on this bandwagon.

I am not impressed, while I have followed those primaries closely. Huckabee was not supported by the conservative Republican elite last year. Huckabee was not even supported by the Evangelical establishment during those primaries and clearly he is not supported by these same people today. Marvin Olasky, known for "compassionate conservatism" openly attacked Mike Huckabee during the primaries several times in for instance the article "Uniting Christians and Libertarians": "He needs to show that Christian conservative views and small government views logically go together." Just recently Lynn Vincent, a reporter for worldmag and close friend of Marvin Olasky, has written Sarah Palin's bestseller "Going Rogue". And Marvin Olasky off course continues to write-off Huckabee.

Governor Huckabee has swiftly countered these baseless accusations stating:

Religion had nothing to do with the commutation. It’s been erroneously expressed that my own personal faith or the claims of faith of the inmate factored into my decision. That is simply not true and nothing in the record even suggests it. The reasons were straightforward -- a unanimous recommendation from the board, support from a trial judge and no objections from officials in a case that involved a 16 year old sentenced to a term that was exponentially longer than similar cases and certainly longer than had he been white, upper middle class, and represented by effective counsel who would have clearly objected to the sentencing.

This response will have many conservative talkshow hosts and Evangelical leaders grind their teeth. But it's the realiy in the US and it should be fixed.

Furthermore, it's convincing, while it's consistent with his political message during the primaries. I still admire Mike's "victory speech" on Supertuesday which started with the words:

"Tonight, we are making sure America understands that sometimes one small smooth stone is even more effective than a whole lot of armor...."

Or his headon attack in his essay in Foreign Affairs, blasting "the Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality."

Condolences, Sincerely, President Barack Obama

2009-12-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

How thoughtful of President Obama to personally sign all letters of condolence to the families of U.S. soldiers sacrificed for oil and gas, pipeline competition, military geostrategy, military industrial profit, and the will to kill. He didn't say he'd do the same for families in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but I doubt they'd welcome the sight of President Obama's signature.

More at Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m12d3-Condolences-SincerelyPresident-Obama.

Uganda's gay death penalty proposal shocks the liberal West

2009-12-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ms Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden’s development assistance minister says that Sweden will cut development aid to Uganda if it's harsh anti-gay legislation, including the gay death penalty, passes.

Sweden and any other nation claiming to respect human rights should have cut aid and ties to Uganda long ago, for its domestic human rights abuses and invasions of D.R. Congo, to plunder Congo's mineral wealth--invasions sponsored by the UK, US, and allies. The gay death penalty now proposed in Uganda has finally inspired Sweden's threat, to cut all aid to Uganda, if it passes, because it shocks the West, and the internationally organized LGBT community, within its liberal framework. Let's hope that Sweden and other nations may sustain their objections to Uganda's human rights violations, even if the gay death penalty should be defeated, and, as Uganda's 2011 elections approach.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Sweden to cut aid to Uganda over anti-gay law

Rodney Muhumuza
Kampala

Sweden has joined the growing list of countries heaping pressure on Uganda to discard a proposed law that would severely punish homosexuality.

According to comments attributed to Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden’s development assistance minister, the Swedish government says it would cut aid to Uganda over an anti-gay law they find “appalling”.

“My number two at the ministry, who has direct contact with the Ugandan government, has brought it up,” Ms Carlsson recently told Swedish Radio News. “We’ve talked about it in Uganda, and I’ve also tried to speak to the kind of organisations in Uganda that are the target of the legislation.” Uganda receives about $50 million in development aid from Sweden annually.

Swedish Radio News reported online, in a November 30 article, that the Scandinavian country would consider discontinuing development aid to Uganda if the law was introduced.

“I’m doubly disappointed, partly because Uganda is a country with which we have had long-term relations and where I thought and hoped we had started to share common values and understanding,” the minister is quoted as saying.

“The law is wretched, but it’s also offensive to see how Ugandans choose to look at how we see things, and the kind of reception we get when we bring up these issues.”

Ndorwa West MP David Bahati, who brought the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (2009), has denied accusations that he is in a hate campaign, insisting he is defending the heterosexual family. Mr Bahati has the tacit support of President Museveni, who has made strong anti-gay statements in recent times. If passed in its current form, the law would create a felony called “aggravated homosexuality”.

Death penalty
Offenders would face death for having sex with a minor or a disabled person, or for infecting their partners with HIV. It would also punish attempted homosexuality as well as the failure of a third party to report homosexual relationships.

Critics of the proposed law say it is not needed, as the Penal Code Act already punishes homosexuality, and that it is based on unproven claims that European gays are clandestinely recruiting in Uganda.

In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s conservative government called the proposed law “vile and hateful”, while Britain’s Gordon Brown raised the issue with President Museveni during the recent Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago. Ms Carlsson said the law would make it “much more difficult” for Sweden to continue helping Uganda.

Roel Kuiper kiest voor Balkenende's Nederland

2009-12-03T03:22:00.000-08:00

De direkteur van het wetenschappelijk bureau heeft gesproken en de ChristenUnie lijkt ineens om. De softe aanpak, te lief zijn voor migranten moet afgelopen zijn, zo stelt Roel Kuiper onlangs in navolging van Gert Jan Segers in de eerste kamer. De instroom van kanslozen immigranten uit vooral Turkije en Marokko moet drastisch beperkt worden. Daartoe overweegt hij een motie in te dienen.

Dit hing al enige tijd in de lucht. Onder leiding van Peter Blokhuis, voormalig voorzitter van de Stichting Reformatorische Wijsbegeerte, heeft het partijbestuur van de ChristenUnie er doelbewust voor gezorgd dat de Werkgroep Multicultureel vakkundig werd "kalt gestelt". De door het ledencongres aangenomen moties aangaande participatie van migranten werden "vergeten". Hoewel Peter Blokhuis na de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen 2006 stelde dat de "ChristenUnie niet aanslaat bij migranten", werd evaluatie van die gemeenteraadsverkiezingen in het licht van de moties aangaande vertegenwoordiging en participatie door migranten stelselmatig genegeerd door het partijkader.

Het wetenschappelijk instituut van de ChristenUnie, de Groen van Prinsterer Stichting, heeft in eerdere publicaties echter altijd de nuance gezocht in het debat over immigratie en integratie, zie bijvoorbeeld de uitgave "Burger in beeld" van Rienk Janssens of het boek van Roel Kuiper zelf, "Dienstbare Overheid", waarin hij aan het slot de vraag opwerpt hoe representatief het Nederlandse parlement nog is nu burgers communiceren over grenzen heen.

Vanuit diverse richtingen binnen de partij werd bij aanvang van de kabinetsdeelname al hardop getwijfeld in hoeverre de ChristenUnie zichzelf zou blijven. Op allerlei dossiers, vooral ethische, werd daarover twijfel geuit.

Het lijkt er in dit geval op dat conservatieve krachten binnen de ChristenUnie de kabinetsdeelname aan Balkenende 4 aangrijpen om af te rekenen met de verachte softe en genuanceerde aanpak zoals bijvoorbeeld Kars Veling die uitdroeg in zijn verkiezingscampagne.

De dreigende taal (in het laatste artikel van Roel Kuiper en Gert Jan Segers) richting Ad de Bruijne spreekt in dat opzicht boekdelen:

"Hij suggereert dat christelijke politiek zich daarom moet instellen op het compromis, moet afzien van grootse idealen, geen algemeen beroep moet doen op Gods geboden en scheppingsstructuren"

"wij vragen ons wel af of hier niet iets binnensluipt van een onderscheid tussen 'natuur (wereld) en 'genade' (kerk)."

Formuleringen die doelbewust inspelen op onderbuik gevoelens die leven in vooral vrijgemaakte kring, zoals je die aantreft op bijvoorbeeld de website eeninwaarheid. Tegelijkertijd wordt in dat artikel geappeleerd aan conservatieve en nationalistische sentimenten die vooral op de veluwe en in SGP kringen goed aanslaan:

"Onze politiek, ons publieke leven en onze cultuur zijn daarnaast doortrokken van het christendom. Inderdaad verlaten mensen de kerk, maar juist in deze tijd wordt een christelijke inzet in het publieke leven opnieuw voluit serieus genomen."

Tot nu toe lijkt het door mij ook toen al voorspelde doemscenario bewaarheid toen Kars Veling het veld moest ruimen (c.q. aan de dijk gezet werd nadat in het elfde uur de conservatieve `old boys` Knevel, van Middelkoop en Ouweneel hem een mes in de rug staken): Rouvoet c.s. laten hun ware gezicht zien: Christelijke politiek gaat over moraal. Denk maar aan het artikel van Rouvoet getiteld: "Tegen het relativisme de waarheid". Of het boek van Roel Kuiper "moreel kapitaal". Deze heren zijn er op uit om van de ChristenUnie vooral een evangelical conservatief machtsblok met theocratische trekjes te maken.

De reformatorische wijsbegeerte pretendeert steeds het bindweefsel te zijn van de christelijke politiek. In werkelijkheid is de relatie tussen Christelijke politiek en reformatorische wijsbegeerte er vooral één van netwerken van mannen in pakken die het met elkaar eens zijn, een soort ´oldboys network´, de relatie met antirevolutionaire uitgangspunten is al lang achter de horizon verdwenen. De gereformeerde theologie en prediking geloven ze wel, ze zijn op zoek naar iets nieuws, de "evangelische utopisten" zijn op zoek naar "diepere spirituele verbondenheid". En kom vooral niet aan hun `buddy` Balkenende.

An Open Letter to Michael Moore on Obama & Afghanistan

2009-12-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

Food for Obama's wars: troops, oil, natural gas, pipelines, and dollars

2009-12-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

After months of endless "reports are that he will increase troops. . . " reports, Barack Obama has finally officially announced that he will send another 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, as reported by the Associated Press, the New York Times, and CNN.

The American anti-war movement, such as it is at this point, is, needless to say, alarmed, although Obama repeated, throughout his campaign, that we shouldn't have gone into Iraq, not because it was wrong, but, because we "hadn't finished the job in Afghanistan."

Obama has officially announced that 30,000 more troops will go to Afghanistan, (minus the mercenaries), but, in mid-October, he had already ordered 13,000 more U.S. troops, unofficially, and "unannounced," as reported in the Washington Post.

Why? Heroin. Oil. Natural gas. Pipelines and transport corridors for more oil and natural gas, and, no doubt, heroin. More U.S. dollars, borrowed from the Chinese, to secure more oil and gas, and perpetuate the military industrial complex, which needs lots of dollars, and oil and gas, to keep fighting, and manufacturing, for war.

Why did the Commonwealth accept Rwanda?

2009-11-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Commonwealth leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government

meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 11.28.2009.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government, meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 11. 28.2009, admitted Rwanda to the Commonwealth, despite the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative's objections to Rwanda's miserable human rights record, compromised courts, compromised elections, and repeated invasions to loot the mineral wealth of neighboring D.R. Congo, objections reported in the London Guardian and many other sources.

On 11.26.2009, on the BBC's Have Your Say, Interim Rwandan Democratic Green Party President Frank Habineza and a spokesperson for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) argued that the Commonwealth should not consider Rwanda's application unless and until Rwanda's upcoming election, in August 2010, is free and fair.

Professor Yash Pai Ghai, a Kenyan legal expert, wrote, in a report for the CHRI:

"We believe that overwhelming evidence, conveniently ignored by leading Commonwealth states, demonstrates that the government of Rwanda is not sufficiently committed to the protection of human rights and to democracy."

But, that wasn't enough to block acceptance of Rwanda's application this year.

Nor did Commonwealth leaders question Rwanda's pending gay imprisonment legislation, which makes the sincerity of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister Gordon' Brown's reported "fury" over neighboring Uganda's pending gay death penalty highly doubtful.

This makes it even less likely that Uganda will be expelled from the Commonwealth, despite international outcry, if its gay death penalty bil l passes, as expected.

Indeed, as reported on Slap Upside the Head, a gay blog in the U.S., Prime Ministers Harper and Brown expressed their "fury" over Uganda's gay death penalty by reproducing a U.S. government press release, much of it word for word:

Slap Upside the Head

So why did the Commonwealth, and, most of all, Britain and Canada, ignore everything they claim to stand for---human rights, democracy, secure borders, and the rule of law---to champion Rwanda, the African darling of English speaking politicians and CEOS?

Because Rwanda has served the interests of the U.S., Britain, and Canada, and their allies, since the mass slaughter known as the Rwanda Genocide of 1994, during which Rwandan exile Paul Kagame led the Rwandan Patriotic Front into Rwanda, from neighboring, English-speaking, Uganda, to seize power. Rwanda is re-establishing diplomatic ties with France, and the Commonwealth's French equivalent, La Francophonie, but English has become the official language of Rwanda, even though most Rwandans speak only Kinyarwanda and French. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was Yoweri Museveni's former intelligence and otherUganda's official language, and UThe U.S. and its allies use Rwanda and its proxy army to secure their interests in the region, which include:

--Rwanda's rich agricultural land, planted in coffee, tea, and biofuels for export, while Rwandans go hungry,

--natural gas reserves, an estimated $20 billion worth, in Lake Kivu, on the border of Rwanda and D.R. Congo,

--the unparalleled mineral wealth of Eastern D.R. Congo, including fossil fuels, uranium, coltan, cassiterite, diamonds, and, the world's cobalt reserves, in the Katanga Copper Belt.

The U.S. has long been committed to controlling the cobalt reserves in the Katanga Copper Belt to ensure U.S. military industries ongoing ability to manufacture for war.

Cynthia McKinney announces EndUsWars.org and a demonstration against escalation in Afghanistan

2009-11-29T09:34:00.000-08:00

Former Georgia Congresswoman and 2008 U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney has called for a demonstration against escalation of the Afghanistan War outside the White House in Washington D.C. on 12.12.2009.

On 10.29.2009, the Washington Post reported that President Barack Obama already has 68,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan, twice the number when Bush left office.

On November 29, 2009, Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia Congresswoman and the Green Party U.S.'s 2008 presidential candidate, announced a new website, EndUSWars.org, and, an emergency rally to "Stop the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Escalation of the Afghanistan War," on Saturday, December 12, 2009, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm, at Lafayette Square, the White House, Washington D.C. The announcement featured Jordan Page's music video, "Listen":

Would someone please tell Paul Kagame that Greens are nonviolent?

2009-11-25T15:07:00.000-08:00

by Ann Garrison

Rwandan President Paul Kagame can't seem to understand that peace/nonviolence is one of the 10 key values of the Rwanda Democratic Green Party, as it is of Green Parties all over the world.

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's fourth attempt to convene, so as to participate in Rwanda's 2010 elections, ended in violence, chaos, and arrests. Rwandan authorities now insist that the Rwanda Greens acknowledge that they sabotaged their own convention, and, promise not to do anything so violent to themselves again, before granting them a police permit for their fifth attempt to convene?

Would somebody please remind Paul Kagame and his government that the Global Green Party is nonviolent? That nonviolence is one of the Rwanda Greens 10 key values, that it's one of the Global Green Parties 10 key values all over the world?

And that this makes his argument that he can't let the Rwanda Greens convene in Kigali, for fear that they might do violence to one another, even sillier?

It's such a silly argument that it might be funny, if most Rwandans didn't evidence signs of malnourishment, while surviving on one meal a day, despite living on some of the richest agricultural land on earth. And, if participating in Rwanda's 2010 election weren't for many Rwandans, an issue of survival as much as self determination.

From 256news.com, Uganda, 11.26.2009:

Rwandan President Paul Kagame

Green Party Woes Continue, As Police Halt Conference Again
BY GODWIN AGABA

Thursday, 26 November 2009

President Kagame Rwanda National Police on Monday, directed Rwanda Green party officials not to proceed with next scheduled conference that was to take place this week, citing divisionism within the party.

According to correspondences obtained by 256news.com, the party has failed to convince police that they will be no chaos again, sates the police latter of 23, November 2009, no 2527/NP/EKG/SGP/BK/09,and signed by commissioner general of police, Brig. General Emanuel K.Gasana.

However Frank Habineza the interim party president said outsiders who are not party members sparked the chaos.

The Green Party said those who are behind the chaos and who started it as Kimenyi Claude who resides in Nyamirambo suburb and is the president of Rwanda money changers and he is former RDF officer and another one called Kayisire Emmanuel a broker operating in Gasabo district also former police operative, according to green party’s letter to police dated 23, November 2009.

Green party officials said that, Kimenyi threw a chair at the seated crowd hitting a woman as he shouted repeatedly “FPR oyee” – in support of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Rwandan Police escalate harasssment of Rwanda Greens

2009-11-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

by Ann Garrison

Frank Habineza, interim President of the Rwanda Green Party, forwarded this Rwanda News Agency (RNA) report, from Kigali, Rwanda's capitol, on 11.24.2009. The Rwanda Greens fourth attempt to convene in Kigali ended in violence and arrests, and, now Rwanda Police will not grant them the certificate they need for a fifth attempt to convene in Gasabo District, Kigali. I fear for the Rwanda Greens, the other political parties attempting to register and participate in Rwanda's 2010 elections, and the Rwandan people.

Police chief Brig Emmanuel Gasana (left) and Green Party leader Mr. Frank Habineza (right): The Police boss wants names of the trouble-causers from the Green Party

Police refuses to give Green Party crucial document
By RNA Reporter
Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Police chief Brig Emmanuel Gasana (right) and Green Party leader Mr. Frank Habineza: The Police boss wants names of the trouble-causers from the Green Party
Kigali:

Gasabo district cannot allow the controversial Green Party space on its territory unless it has a Police Certificate indicating they will “not cause trouble again," but now the Police also says it cannot avail that document at the moment, RNA reports.

Police Commissioner-General, Brig Emmanuel Gasana instead informed the Green Party yesterday that he does not intend to grant them the clearance “because investigations are still ongoing” on the chaos that erupted on October 30, as the party conference got underway.

“I take this opportunity to request that if you have any information on the people who caused the chaos, indicating that they were not your members, then you should avail that to the National Police, because those arrested at St. Paul turned out to be innocent saying they had instead been hit with chairs in the meeting you were presiding,” the new police chief writes.

The chaos erupted in the founding conference on the morning of that October day at the Diocesan hall St. Paul in Nyarugenge district. The trouble ridden party then decided to ask neighbouring Gasabo district for space to hold another conference, at which they hope to finalise their registration dossier.

The Green Party leaders had planned to hold the conference in Gasabo on November 20, just a week before the Heads of State Commonwealth summit due this weekend in Trinidad and Tobago. President Kagame is expected to lead a high-level government delegation to the event where Rwanda could be allowed into the 53-nation block.

However, the embattled Mayor of Gasabo district, Ms. Nyinawagaga Claudine, who has also resigned over other issues, declined to offer the space demanding for the police clearance. She said the document would give her assurances that the same trouble would not be repeated in her administrative area.

This means that the Green Party has been put to task to prove that the chaos in which several people were seriously injured was not caused by them. In a response letter to the Police chief, Green Party officials have sent him two names of people it alleges where behind the troubles.

The individuals whose names have been submitted to the Police Commissioner-General are Mr. Kimenyi Claude, from Nyamurambo in Nyarugenge district; and Mr. Kayisire Emmanuel, from Kimironko in Gasabo district.

Mr. Kimenyi, according to the Green Party is a money-changer in Kigali, and Mr. Kayisire is a Blocker, also here in Kigali.

The Green Party also seems to be desperately trying to move fast so it can have the founding conference which has been postponed for five times. In the correspondence to the Police Chief, party leaders say the situation which happened at St. Paul hall has been “resolved” because those who caused it are out free, and those who were injured have been treated.

“… that is why I am requesting you that you accept to give us the clearance, such that in the next congress we will collaborate with you especially on security,” they write in the letter sent Tuesday.

It was not clear by press time, when the Police Commissioner-General will respond.

Rwanda's Civil Society Coalition opposes new anti-gay law

2009-11-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

The international LGBT human rights movement would do well to ask why Rwanda and Uganda, the U.S.A.'s closest allies in Africa, are so close to passing the harshest anti-gay legislation in Africa.

Rwanda, like Uganda, is now considering a new anti-gay law. Though not as cruel as Uganda's, which proposes the death penalty for acts labeled "aggravated homosexuality," Rwanda's proposed law states that:

“Any person who practices, encourages or sensitizes people of the same sex to sexual relations or any sexual practice, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment ranging from five to ten years and a fine ranging from 200,000 to 1,000,000 Rwanda Francs.”

Interim Rwanda Green Party leader Frank Habineza forwarded this report, from the state run Rwanda News Agency (RNA):

Rwanda Parliament, Kigali, Rwanda

Rwanda’s Civil Society Protests Anti-Gay Law
BY GODWIN AGABA

Monday, 23 November 2009

The Civil Society Coalition in Rwanda has submitted a concept paper to the Rwanda national parliament with their position on the rights of Lesbians, Gays, Bi- sexual, Trans-gender and Inter-sexual ( LGBTTI ) rights and protection of sexual minorities.

According to their press release, the safety and freedoms of LGBTTI as well as sex workers in Rwanda are seriously undermined. The civil society coalition demands that the penal code be promulgated in its current draft form.

The newly proposed article 217 provides that, “Any person who practices, encourages or sensitizes people of the same sex to sexual relations or any sexual practice, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment ranging from five to ten years and a fine ranging from two 200, 000 to 1,000,000 Rwanda Francs.”

Article 221 on sex workers stipulates, “Any person who practices the profession of prostitution shall be liable for a term of imprisonment ranging from six months to three years and a fine ranging from fifty thousands to five hundred thousand Rwanda Francs.”

”In Rwanda, sex workers are a direct consequence of the social-economic dynamics of our country. They deserve protection and special care, not be criminalized,” Aimable Mwananawe, the chairman of Rwanda NGO forum and a member of the coalition told 256news.com on the sidelines of the press conference.

According to the press release from the coalition, a pragmatic way of dealing with the sex worker issue has been and will continue to be “to identify them, gather them into cooperatives and other organized groupings for targeted treatment, vocational training and income generating activities but criminalizing them will be counterproductive to achieving these outcomes and would be contrary to human rights as articulated in the Rwanda Constitution and in the international human rights instruments to which Rwanda is signatory.”

The coalition requested the support of all stakeholders including the media to ensure that the Rwandan government upholds its Constitutional commitment to ensure equality before the law of all citizens.

At the press conference, two girls and a boy shocked journalists when they confessed that they promote and they are lesbians and homos.

The press conference was organized by the Rwanda NGO forum with the aim of supporting the decriminalization of LBGTs and sex work in the draft penal code.

In Uganda, a tougher anti-gay Bill is now in parliament which stipulates harsh penalties like death and life imprisonment for certain offences related to homosexuality.

Dutch Government Threatens Rembrandt Expert

2009-11-23T03:14:00.000-08:00

Balkenende has been in power since the 2001 elections. His main achievement is ever stricter laws against immigrants. One of the tools to close the borders for immigrants has been the "integration law". Last week the story broke that the Rembrandt Expert, Jonathan Bikker, from Canada has received a threatening letter stating that he has to follow this integration course or face grave consequences. He explains in the article that he got his PhD at the University of Utrecht and that he has a European partner. Especially this last fact should have been sufficient for anyone who is no stranger in immigration legislation in Europe. But most Dutch Government officials, encouraged by the (social democrat) ministers of integration and immigration, consistently refuse to correctly implement those laws. Jonathan Bikker with clear anger in his voice:

''Ik wil hier vanaf. Het kost me veel kopzorg en vrije dagen. U moet me gewoon m'n werk laten doen, daarvoor ben ik in Nederland.''

which can be translated as "I want to get this of my back, it costs me a lot of worries and time, U should just let me do my job, that's what I am here for in the Netherlands".

Balkende consistently portrays himself as a moderate, but in fact Dutch Government policies tell a very different story. The total lack of respect for immigrants is rampant in society, at work and in political parties. Bashing immigrants as "backward trash" and talking about immigrants living in the poor neighbourhoods of the big cities as a multicultural disaster has not stopped since. Most large newspapers and all political parties share these statements.

Uganda's gay death penalty bill a distraction

2009-11-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

The City of San Francisco, California, is united behind the right to love whom you love, how you love, if by nothing else. This is international gay rights hero Harvey Milk's town; Harvey's bust graces the entrance to the City's legislative chambers and the Harvey Milk Democratic Club is one of the most influential here.

So, some San Franciscans have now turned their attention to Uganda, to protest its gay nightmare legislative proposal, which includes the death penalty for a list of offenses labeled "aggravated homosexuality." Like other human rights activists around the world, they're responding to action alerts from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, even though Central Africa is rarely on the radar screen out here on the Western edge of the Pacific, in a city now only 3.5% African American, with immigrant populations largely from Asia and Latin America.

I was glad to be able to share "Bahati's Bill, a convenient distraction for Uganda's government," a Pambazuka News article, which gives Uganda's nightmarish legislative proposal a Ugandan and African context. I hope that some will read it and understand that we need to protest not only the proposed law, in Uganda, but also the role of U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-based corporations, oil, and AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, in "creating the conditions keeping so many Ugandans in poverty. . .," and thus, creating a need to scapegoat same sex lovers.

Bahati’s bill: A convenient distraction for Uganda's government

"As Ugandan MP David Bahati spearheads a campaign around the adoption of the homophobic 'Bahati's bill', Solome Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe and Frank Mugisha call for an unwavering rejection of a piece of legislation entirely against the interests of wider Ugandan society. With strong suspicions of Bahati's financial backing by extreme-right Christian groups in the US, the bill seeks not only to establish draconian punishments for homosexual acts but also to actively encourage Ugandans to snoop on one another indefinitely for the supposed good of the nation. If homophobes like Bahati were really worried about 'protecting the traditional family', Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe and Mugisha argue, they'd concern themselves with tackling the conditions keeping so many Ugandans in poverty, rather than making scapegoats of homosexual people. The authors conclude that with an election approaching in 2011, the momentum behind the bill smacks of a none-too-subtle attempt to divert attention away from Uganda's true issues."

Full text at http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/452/uganda_gay_rights.jpg

See also GayUganda, an exquisitely written blog, Sexual Minorities of Uganda SMUG, and, Resist AFRICOM:

Rwanda Green Party activists claim illegal detention

2009-11-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

Rwanda Green Party members waited outside a meeting hall in Kigali, on 10.30.2009, to join the party's founding convention. Saboteurs disrupted the gathering, which was then shut down by police. Today's Rwandan News Agency reports that eight Rwanda Greens charge that they were illegally arrested and detained during the next week.

by Ann Garrison

The Rwandan News Agency (RNA) published this report, "Green Party activists claim illegal detention, petition President," on the RNA website, on 11.20.2009. To read it there, one must register on the RNA website.

Some RNA reporters and editors are clearly determined to cover the story of the Rwanda Green Party's struggle to emerge, though some of their reports have become unavailable after publication. This story appeared, on the RNA site's "most popular" list, on its publication date, 11.20.2009:

Green Party activists claim illegal detention, petition President
By RNA Reporters
Friday, 20 November 2009
Kigali: The scheduled founding conference of the troubled Green Party did not take place Friday as the group wait for a Police certificate from the new Commissioner-General, Brig. Emmanuel Gasana. But not without new allegations, RNA reports.

A man by the names Gaston Bihibindi is claiming that he was detained for three days without food at the magnificent multi-million dollar Ministry of Defense building known locally as “Pentagon”. Mr. Bihibindi is not the only one accusing unknown individuals driving tinted double cabin Toyota pickup trucks of snatching them from their homes or as they walked.

The local weekly UMUSESO details ordeals of eight people identifying themselves as Green Party activists, who were apparently arrested on October 30 after the failed conference which police halted citing insecurity. The men were apparently detained at an infamous but not gazetted facility in Kimironko, an outskirt of Kigali.

The seemingly traumatized Mr. Bihibindi claims that on Sunday November 15 at around 18hours, he was lured into a blue and tinted double-cabin track by two men who asked him to direct them to a place where somebody was selling a house and land. The two men found him walking in Kanombe, an area where the International airport is situated, and where he lives.

“I told them that I have no idea about whoever is selling land or house but they insisted I should just get into the car to help them get around the place since I knew it very well,” narrates Bihibindi.

“But when I got into the back seat of the double-cabin, I started feeling insecure and scared after I saw a pistol (gun) placed in front of the other passenger.”

The car drove without stopping to the building which housed the former Rwanda Export and Investment Promotion Agency (RIEPA) in Kimihurura. “Along the way, I asked where we were going, but they told me there is no problem as they needed me to help them with something,” narrates Bihibindi. There was no more conversation.

At this building known here as ‘Kabindi’, the men handed him to another man who invited Bihibindi inside and told to sit in a room. Several men came into the room asking him questions. “One of the men kicked me as he talked to me like he knew very who I was,” claims Bihibindi.

All the people who interrogated him were apparently accusing the seemingly youthful former soldier of mobilizing demobilized soldiers to join the Green Party, which he admits to have done in the interview. “The one who kicked me accused me of joining the party for money because of my stomach,” he said.

During the October 30 failed conference, Bihibindi says he was in charge of protocol and is said to be one of the few strong activists of the controversial group. Green Party Frank Habineza is now in the spotlight for allegedly aiding a former minister to flee the country – which he denies.

After several hours at the Kabindi building, the same car with the same occupants returned and moved Bihibindi to the Pentagon building which is just in sight of Kabindi. He was taken to the basement of the Pentagon building where he spent the night with other detained people, who he describes as “looking like soldiers”.

On the Morning of Monday November 16, all the detainees were given bread and milk. This would be the end of the meals until Wednesday afternoon on November 19. “We never had anything else to eat for all that time,” he affirms.

However, what he also affirmed to RNA is that he was not tortured. “All my interrogators treated me well even when they were asking me questions,” he says. “The only problem I have with the whole situation is how could I be kept for all this time without being taken to court or even informed of what I was held for?”

On Wednesday, in the afternoon, a man Bihibindi indentifies as a “Major” came in to speak to him about his ordeal. “He ordered that I be released immediately but also ordered me not to tell anybody about what had happened,” he tells RNA in a soft tone, as he sat back.

Bihibindi says he walked out of the Pentagon building and headed straight home. The next stop was informing Green Party leaders of what happened to him because they had also been looking for him without any trace.

“I don’t know what will happen next. If I can be picked and taken away without anyone noticing, how sure can I be for my security anymore? I am defying the order to keep quiet because I am scared anything could happen,” he says.

“All I am requesting is protection from President Kagame as the leader of this country because people might be doing this without his knowledge.”

Meanwhile, the conference planned for November 20, a date which was communicated to Gasabo district and not Nyarugenge this time for permission, is not taking place today.

The embattled former Mayor of Gasabo district Ms. Nyinawagaga Claudine requested that the party provides a police certificate that they will not cause more trouble in her locality like it had been earlier in Nyarugenge.

However, the new police Commissioner-General, Brig. Emmanuel Gasana has not responded to a letter wrote last week for the requested certificate. And the Minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama also wrote to the party that they should solicit for a district Notaire because the Ministry’s Notaire would not be available today.

This will be the fifth time the group has not been able to hold the conference, at which they hoped to have nomination signatures of hundreds of their members verified – as part of the dossier the party plans to submit to the Ministry of Local Government for registration.

Party officials say they had deliberately planned to hold the conference today, a few days to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit due at the end of next week, where Rwanda’s application to join the block will be assessed.

President Kagame is expected to head a strong delegation to Trinidad and Tobago for the summit, at which, from all available indications, will unanimously accept Rwanda as the 54th member.

I reported on the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative group's objections to admitting Rwanda to the Commonwealth, on Colored Opinions, and, on the U.S. website, the OpEdNews.

Planting bio-fuels, in Rwanda, while Rwandans go hungry

2009-11-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

Rwanda's greatest natural resource is its fertile agricultural land, but most is centralized in the hands of government elites and planted in export crops, coffee, tea, flowers, and soon, bio-fuels----while Rwandans go hungry.

On November 9, 2009, Benoit Ndagijimana, Deputy Secretary General of the United Democratic Forces of Rwanda, a.k.a., the UDF-IINKINGI, a dissident Rwandan political party, protested the Rwandan government's dedication of 10,000 hectares of land, in Eastern Rwanda, to produce bio-fuels, in a consortium with U.S.-based Eco-Fuel Global and UK-based Eco Positive:

"This unique decision is made when prices of food commodities are increasing every day, but many Rwandans barely have one meal a day and display obvious undernourishment, and, when at least 60% of households in the rural areas of Rwanda suffer from different degrees of food insecurity. This decision poses additional harms to the Rwandan peasants already afflicted not only by current land expropriation underway since July 1994 but also by forced villagization and technocratic regionalization of crops. . ." http://hungryoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/11/udf-inkingi-condemn-decision-to-sell.html

Rwanda's greatest natural resource is its fertile agricultural land, but most of it is centralized in the hands of government elites and planted in coffee, tea, and flowers for export. This Global Eco-Fuels investment, like Costco and Starbuck's investment in Rwandan coffee plantations, obviously undermines most Rwandans struggle to secure life's most basic necessity---food.

The best hope of redistributing Rwandan land to Rwandan people, for sustainable agriculture that might feed them, is a fair and honest election in Rwanda in August 2010, which the government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the U.S.A.'s greatest ally in Africa, is doing all it can to prevent----as evidenced by its repression of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's four attempts to convene, and, its refusal to grant a passport to the United Democratic Forces of Rwanda's First Vice Chairman Eugène Ndahayo.

If allowed to participate, the Rwandan Greens, the United Democratic Forces of Rwanda, and other parties would probably be able to form a coalition capable of winning the election:

For a critique of bio-fuels planting on the entire African continent, see the Pambazuka News, "Bio-fuels and neo-colonialism," which describes it as "a new and massive land-grabbing scramble in Africa, unprecedented since the fall of colonialism."

Eco-Fuel Global is based in Walnut Creek, California, U.S.A., in the San Francisco Bay Area. Eco Positive is based in London, UK.

All citizens are equal, but.....

2009-11-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the Dutch integration minister Van der Laan was quoted in the NRC newspaper on his "integration letter": "All citizens are equal but immigrants can be asked for an extra effort to obtain a place in Dutch society."

The integration minister was invited together with Paul Wilders ("Don't vote for my brother Geert") in Pauw and Witteman (late evening show) to discuss his views on integration in the context of local elections in Venlo (city of Geert Wilders). Dutch media and politics love to suggest Geert Wilders is the only consistent anti-immigrant politician in the country. The Balkenende government has consistently portrayed itself to be moderate on the subject of integration. Reality is much more complex.

The Dutch Labour Party, as most Dutch politicians, has embraced the views of Paul Scheffer who wrote articles and a book on the "multicultural disaster". As a result the objective of integration policy for most Dutch political parties has become to limit the "import of backlog". Immigrants are consistently portrayed as a burden on society by all ruling political parties. On www.buitenlandsepartner.nl, a self help website for Dutch citizens with non-EU partners, the discussion today in parliament has been followed with growing disappointment. Even supposedly immigrant friendly politicians from the Dutch Greens, GroenLinks, supported those proposals.

Art 1., a national association against discrimination on all grounds has written that the proposal by the Dutch government are against international treaties. It strongly condemns the consistent negative stereotyping of immigrants by the Dutch government when it states that "the starting point of every immigrant is a lack of referential structure and a flawed values system" (You got a better translation?).

The official Dutch Moroccan immigrant organisation has allready stated publicly through it's chairperson, Farid Azarkan, to initiate jucidial procedings against the Dutch government if it will proceed with the proposals of Van der Laan to make it even more difficult for immigrants to join their family in the Netherlands. The "Samenwerkingsverband van Marokaanse Nederlanders" spokesperson said: "We are ready to startup jucidial procedings up to the highest level (EU court of human rights) and we will support cases of individuals that are affected by these proposals".

When Dutch media write that Van der laan is concerned with both sides in this proposal they portray Balkenende's government as moderate. They argue that he listens both to the people that live in the poor neighbourhoods that deal with the supposedly "multicultural disaster" on a daily basis AND to the immigrants (consistentlty labeled non-western) that "feel more and more like second class citizens" (Minister of integration).

I would love to know on what basis they build this suggestion, when we read that at least 25 immigrant organisations are ready to start long court battles. When we read on selfhelp sites like www.buitenlandsepartner.nl and www.rechtopgezinshereniging.nl that thousands of immigrants are fighting the consistent violation of fundamental right to family life of EU citizens by Dutch immigration services. When we read of the consistent negative stereotyping of immigrants by the Dutch minister of integration you got to be blind or thoroughly prejudiced.

Paul Wilders, brother of, had the best explanation for the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Dutch society. He explained that the Dutch political system has thoroughly changed over the last 50 years. Before citizens were organized through pillars (catholics, protestants, socialists), which today is no longer the case. This creates an identity crisis, a void, which is filled by fear mongers.

DU weapons use in Iraq; drastic birth defects in Fallujah

2009-11-16T17:27:00.000-08:00

by Ann Garrison

U.S. artillery fire, Fallujah, 11.14.2004, Wikimedia Commons

On Friday, 11.13.2009, the London Guardian reported a "Huge rise in birth defects in Fallujah," Iraq. I sent the news to KPFA Radio 94.1FM Weekend News Anchor Anthony Fest, along with contact info for Bob Nichols, San Francisco Bay View Newspaper correspondent and winner of a 2004 Project Censored Award for his reporting on U.S. military's use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, and consequent radiation poisoining. I edited and animated the resulting KPFA Evening News segment, 11.15.2009.

Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, and, oil and natural gas

2009-11-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

On January 22, 2008, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reported that "the Democratic Republic of Congo's 1998-2003 war and its aftermath had caused more deaths than any other conflict since World War Two," and that "war, disease and malnutrition are killing 45,000 Congolese every month in a conflict-driven humanitarian crisis." And, they said that there had been no change in the war-driven casualty rate since 2004. The IRC's statement is both bleak and oblique. Oblique, as in the second definition in Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:

"2 a : not straightforward : indirect; also : obscure b : devious, underhanded"

More at Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d14-Rwanda-Uganda-Congo-and-oil-and-natural-gas

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Group on Rwanda's application: not until after a fair election in 2010

2009-11-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

"On Rwanda it should wait for next year’s presidential elections, send a strong observer group to decide whether they are fair (the last ones were not) and then consider the application at the next CHOGM in 2011." -Journalist Derek Ingram, writing for "Commonwealth Conversation," Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Group.

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's fourth attempt to convene in Kigali ended in broken bones and arrests after agent provocateurs stood up chanting "Hail the RPF! Hail the RPF!" and threw chairs, injuring some of the 1000 Rwandans in attendance. (The RPF is Rwanda's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front party.)

Since Rwandan authorities shut down the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's failed attempt to convene on 10.02.2009, I've been reporting on the party's ongoing struggle for registration and a ballot line in the 2010 elections.

Rwandan authorities have now shut down the party's attempts to convene four times, last time violently. (See OpEdNews: "Broken bones and arrests at Rwandan Green Party convention.")

As an American, I feel compelled to turn attention to this struggle for the most basic political and civil rights in Rwanda, because Rwanda is the U.S.A.'s strongest ally in Africa, the nation that the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and, former President Bill Clinton, all describe, rhapsodically, as a shining beacon of hope for Africa.

In fact, Rwanda has the third highest per capita prison population in the world, the highest in Africa, and many of these prisoners are political. Homosexuality is a criminal offense, but there are no readily available records of how many Rwandans are now incarcerated for it. Teenage girls are most often in prison for having an abortion.

Another writer, Umetezi, reported, in response to Derek Ingram's essay that:

". Members of one minority tribe (the Tutsis) have seven times more representation in the government, per-capita, than members of the majority tribe (the Hutus).

. In a discriminatory measure, the government recently banned the use of the French language in teaching and administration, despite the fact that the vast majority of Rwandans speak French in addition to Kinyarwanda. French has been used for decades as the language of commerce, education and law in Rwanda. French speaking Rwandans now find their entire careers and livelihoods at risk.

. Rwanda has gone from being a “low-inequality” country in the 1980’s to being in the world’s bottom 15% in terms of inequality today.

. One-third of Rwanda’s population now suffers from nutritional deficiencies, and life expectancy is among the 20 lowest in the world at only 44 years.

. Wealth and power are concentrated in the cities, the government’s stronghold, leaving 92% of the poor in underrepresented rural areas."

Party President Frank Habineza, introduces Party Secretary General, Charles Kabanda, who greets the congress with the party symbol. On his right is Party Second Vice President, Jeanine UWINEZA. (This photo was taken before the disruption, broken bones, and arrests.)

Now, a state/RPF propaganda machine is publishing daily hit pieces to discredit the Rwandan Green Party and it's leader Frank Habineza, but all its mouthpieces keep dodging the most fundamental issue at the end of Derek Ingram's essay objecting to Rwanda's admission at the Commonwealth heads of state gathering later his month, November 2009: "On Rwanda it should wait for next year’s presidential elections, send a strong observer group to decide whether they are fair (the last ones were not) and then consider the application at the next CHOGM in 2011."

TV doc on copper mining in D.R. Congo nominated for investigative reporting award

2009-11-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

by Ann Garrison

On 11.09.2009, the PR Newswire announced that this "Dan Rather Report" on Freeport McMoran, an American corporation mining copper in D.R. Congo, has been nominated for an American television Emmy Award for investigative business reporting. BlipTV posted the clip below.

In this case corporate media gets some of the story and even gets that much of it right. There's no mention of the U.S. and its allies' complicity in the Rwanda genocide or the Congo War, or, of the U.S. government's commitment to controlling cobalt reserves in the Katanga Copper Belt, where this story is reported, so as to ensure U.S. military industries' ability to manufacture for war. But, Dan Rather did get the story of Freeport McMoran displacing Congolese people for foreign profit in D.R. Congo:

Obama is a sociopath, but it's nothing personal

2009-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Obama is a sociopath, but that shouldn’t shock. He’s a U.S. President, and Commander-in-Chief of the largest, most lethal arsenal in history, which could destroy the world many times over, with a budget many times the size of the next 10 national military budgets combined.

Ipso facto, a sociopath. But, it's nothing personal.

Full text at http://www.examiner.com/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d11-Obama-is-a-sociopath-its-transparent-but-nothing-personal

Ruling RPF mouthpiece tries to discredit Rwandan Greens

2009-11-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

Rwanda Green Party members anxiously waited to enter the hall and be seated, at the Rwanda Green Party's fourth attempt to convene, in Kigali, Rwanda, which ended in broken bones and arrests, after the disruption and violence of ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front agents.

Paul Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front party is using its mouthpiece, the New Times, to discredit the Rwanda Greens as they approach their fifth attempt to convene in Kigali on 11.20.2009, and, to secure a ballot line in Rwanda's 2010 elections. AllAfrica.com posted this piece published in the New Times on 11.10.2009, http://allafrica.com/stories/200911100003.html

Rwanda: Aspiring Party Hit By Internal Wrangles

Innocent Niyonshuti

10 November 2009

Kigali — Hardly before it gets the green light to operate in the country, the aspiring Democratic Green Party of Rwanda is already embroiled in internal wrangles threatening to tear apart the infant political organization.

Two weeks ago, the party called a convention that ended in chaos triggered by disagreements among party loyalists who accused the interim executive of being 'hoodwinked' by foreign interests and failing to come up with a tangible national program for the party.

This wrangling has already forced some founding members to call it a day, quitting the political organization as it struggles to meet registration requirements.

One of the key members to quit the infant party includes its interim Secretary General, Andrew Muganwa, who threw in the towel over what sources attributed to 'dictatorial tendencies' of the current interim President.

"This is simply a surrogate political party sponsored by foreign forces and designed to create subversion, insecurity and division," Aimable Kanamugire, a member of the party who attended the botched convention told The New Times.

Kanamugire attributed the chaos that broke up during the party's maiden convention to discontent from party members bitter with its leadership that 'spent time repeatedly chorusing' what foreign forces wanted them to do instead of 'presenting a tangible national agenda.'

"The party has no formal line it follows---it is remote-controlled by foreign interests and there's a lot of internal confusion. Its leadership hardly has an agenda for this nation and this has been a source of frustration for many of potential members," Kanamugire said.

"They have been promising us money claiming that they have a strong network from the larger world wide green movement, but from the look of things, these funds are benefitting a few individuals."

Kanamugire said party members were also bitter when they learnt of a recent meeting between their interim President and some diplomats accredited to Kigali where they were 'coached' on what kind of message to preach to their followers.

Sources say the meeting held at Hotel Gorillas was coordinated by the First Counsellor in the Belgian Embassy and attracted two other infant political groupings.

"The youth should be particularly careful about the intentions of the Green party," Kanamugire insisted.

"The Ministry of Justice and Nyarugenge District officials who had in the past issued permission for these groups, should look carefully into their agenda before issuing a permit."

Relevant Links

The violence that broke up two weeks ago among party loyalists is also partly attributed to rowdy members of the new breakaway function led by the party's former Secretary General, Andrew Muganwa.

Muganwa fell out with interim president Frank Habineza over what party insiders described as 'a fight for power supremacy.'

In an email sent to The New Times yesterday, the interim leadership of the green party failed to explain the cause of violence during their convention and insisted that their party was not controlled by foreign forces.

Frank Habineza is a former Personal Assistant to former Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Drocella Mugorewera, who fled into exile. It is said that the two are still closely in touch.

San Francisco energy policy at odds with San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi's

2009-11-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Long awaited news in San Francisco this morning, 11.09.2009:

"San Francisco Requests Bids for an Alternative to PG&E: Local Power-Assisted RFP Seeks New 51% Green Power Supply for Residents & Businesses, 360 MW of Local Green Power

San Francisco, CA, November 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) today released a Request for Proposals authorized by City leaders to implement the Community Choice Aggregation Program, known as CleanPowerSF. . . Co-drafted by the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) with technical assistance of Local Power, Inc. following a decade of preparation, the RFP invites bids to provide a new electricity service to San Franciscans that consists of 51% renewable energy and demand technologies by 2017, and provides municipal financing for development of at least 360 Megawatts of new solar photovoltaics, smart grid, local wind, cogeneration, energy efficiency technologies and other local green power."

And, San Francisco's clean energy legislation, unlike the federal government's, clean means non-nuclear.

However, the City's new energy policy conflicts with that of its 8th District Congressional Representative, for the past 23 years, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Full text at http://www.examiner.com/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d9-San-Francisco-energy-policy-at-odds-with-San-Francisco-Rep-Nancy-Pelosis.