Police spokesman Theos Badege said four of those wounded on Tuesday evening in Rusizi district were in a serious condition.

“Right now we can’t say the motive of the attack. We haven’t arrested anyone as yet but security organs have intensified investigations,” Badege said.

Rwanda’s capital was hit by a string of grenade attacks last year, which the government blamed on two high-ranking army officers now in exile.

One of the those, Lieutenant-General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former chief of staff and ambassador to India, denied the allegations last year saying the authorities had staged the attacks and then accused him of being behind them.

Nyamwasa now lives in South Africa. He was shot and wounded last June in an attack his wife blamed on Rwanda, a charge Kigali said was “preposterous”.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said last month the central African country was not under any security threat.

Six individuals suspected of being used by Nyamwasa as a conduit to finance activities intended to destabilise the country were arrested last month and are still being held.

Many grenades are left in Rwanda from lengthy conflicts in the Great Lakes region and are sometimes used to settle scores. Some 800,000 people were killed during 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Reuters.

Augustin Bizimungu, who served as chief of staff of the Rwandan armed forces, was found guilty of six counts of genocide, crimes against humanity for murder, extermination and rape and violations of articles of the Geneva Conventions. But the three-judge panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) acquitted him on a count of conspiracy to commit genocide and dismissed a charge of complicity to commit genocide. Prosecutors told the tribunal that Mr. Bizimungu had been instrumental in the organization of the genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slain – often by machete – in less than 100 days starting in April 1994.
He reportedly gave an order to “exterminate the small cockroaches” on the first day of the genocide.
Defence lawyers had argued that he had little control over his subordinates who carried out killings.
Three other senior military officers were found guilty today of similar war crimes charges in the same trial as that of Mr. Bizimungu.
François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, who served as commander of the Reconnaissance battalion in the Rwandan army, and Innocent Sagahutu, his second-in-command, were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Augustin Ndindiliyimana, who was chief of staff of the national gendarmerie, will be released immediately after he was sentenced to the time he has served in prison since his arrest in Belgium in January 2000.

It said in a statement that growth would slow to 7 percent this year due to the adverse impact of higher food and fuel prices, which would also push the inflation rate to 7.5 percent by the end of 2011.

Fuel prices in the landlocked central African nation have increased twice this year. The cost of premium petrol and diesel rose from 887 francs to 1,015 francs per litre in January and then to 1,060 francs per litre in April.

The government attributed the increases to political instability in oil producing nations of the Middle East.

“In 2011, output growth is projected at about 7 percent, showing a slight slow-down from 2010 due to the expected adverse impact of rising food and fuel prices,” the ministry said.

“These are expected to push domestic prices and inflation is now projected to reach 7.5 percent at end of 2011.”

The economy expanded by 7.5 percent in 2010, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda.

Rwanda’s inflation rate in urban centres rose to 4.11 percent in March from 2.56 percent in February and the central bank expects it to hit 6 percent by the end of June.

The ministry said the country’s 2011/12 budget would rise to 1.116 trillion francs from 984 billion in 2010/11. The budget will be unveiled in mid June.

“Fiscal policy in the period 2011/12 to 2013/14 will seek to balance the competing objectives of further accelerating growth to make a dent on poverty reduction whilst preserving the medium-term fiscal and external sustainability,” it said.

“The medium term budget policy is to increase expenditures for investment projects that generate more impact on growth, while limiting recurrent costs,” the ministry said.

Reuters.

Prévue en avril et repoussée à la suite de la nomination d’Alain Juppé au Quai d’Orsay (considéré avec méfiance à Kigali en raison de son « passé rwandais »), la visite de travail officielle du président Paul Kagamé à Paris devrait avoir lieu début juillet. Ce sera la première fois que le chef de l’État rwandais se rendra en France, dans un cadre bilatéral, depuis son accession au pouvoir. Cette visite permettra-t-elle de relancer une coopération franco-rwandaise atone ? On peut l’espérer.

En dehors de Technip (gaz méthane du lac Kivu) et de quelques PME, aucun investisseur français ne semble intéressé par cette destination. Sur le plan culturel, et considérant sans doute que le Rwanda est devenu un pays anglophone, la France est aux abonnés absents. Pour des raisons budgétaires, l’ambassade de France à Kigali n’a accordé en 2010-2011 que dix bourses (sur sept mille demandes !) à des étudiants rwandais. Très active au Burundi voisin, l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF) brille par son absence sur le terrain, en dépit du nombre toujours très important de locuteurs français. Quant aux visites de hauts fonctionnaires venus de Paris, elles sont rarissimes, même si aucun obstacle politico-juridique ne subsiste depuis la levée, en décembre 2010, de tous les mandats d’arrêt émis par le juge Bruguière.

Pendant ce temps, les États-Unis accordent des bourses à tour de bras et débloquent 30 millions de dollars par an rien que pour la formation des futurs cadres de l’armée rwandaise.

Afp.

Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire was denied bail for a second time after being arrested and charged in October with helping to form the Coalition of Democratic Forces, a militant group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was also charged with threatening national security and public order.

“The court case is scheduled to begin in 30 days following today’s ruling,” Augustin Nkusi, spokesman of the National Public Prosecution Authority, said in a statement.

Kagame, who won a landslide election victory in August, is a favourite with foreign donors, but critics say his reputation has been damaged by reports of repression at home.

Rwanda’s Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, told Reuters that authorities were seeking help from the United States and Belgium in investigating Paul Rusesabagina whose story was told in the 2004 movie “Hotel Rwanda”.

Rusesabagina was a hotel manager during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, when he used his connections with the ethnic Hutu elite to protect Tutsis and moderate Hutus fleeing militiamen.

Rusesabagina, who tours Western countries lecturing on the genocide, is an outspoken critic of Kagame, saying an ethnic Tutsi elite now runs the central African country and risks reigniting violence there.

“We continue to pursue additional information on suspects outside Rwanda and are getting good signs of cooperation from their host countries,” Ngoga said.

“Those being investigated include Paul Rusesabagina. We have been in contact with American authorities and are now also in contact with the authorities in Belgium where Rusesabagina currently resides,” Ngoga added.

Ngoga told Reuters on Wednesday that Rwandan courts would summon Rusesabagina because investigations indicated he also funded the militant activities that Ingabire is being held for.

Rusesabagina told CNN from Brussels in late October the accusations against him were baseless.

Reuters.

En présence du Dr Sosthène Munyemana, 54 ans, et de son épouse, l’avocat général Jacques De Fos Du Rau a demandé un nouveau renvoi pour un supplément d’information, arguant du caractère incomplet des informations livrées par les autorités rwandaises à la fois dans le mandat d’arrêt et dans les éléments envoyés en août à la cour par Kigali.

Mais le président de la cour d’appel qui, à deux reprises, avait renvoyé l’affaire dans l’attente déjà de nouveaux éléments des autorités rwandaises, n’a pas accédé à cette demande et décidé de rendre son arrêt dans deux semaines.

De son côté, l’avocate du médecin rwandais, Me Florence Bourg, s’est vivement opposée à un nouveau renvoi, plaidant pour une décision de refus d’extradition. “C’est la septième fois que la justice française va se prononcer sur des demandes d’extradition d’un ressortissant rwandais, aucune chambre d’instruction française n’a rendu de décision favorable”, a-t-elle dit.

L’avocate a longuement argumenté, notamment sur les garanties jugées insuffisantes accordées à la défense, évoquant le cas de l’avocat américain Peter Erlinder, placé en détention alors qu’il assurait la défense d’un génocidaire rwandais.

Une quinzaine de personnes du comité de soutien du médecin étaient venues dans la salle d’audience tandis qu’au nom de deux associations de victimes du génocide, une dizaine de personnes étaient venues réclamer son extradition.

Alain Gauthier, président du collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a déclaré à l’AFP: “le médecin s’exprime, c’est important de donner le point de vue des parties civiles”.

Qualifié de “boucher de Tumba” par M. Gauthier, le Dr Sosthène Munyemana, originaire de la région de Butare (sud du Rwanda) et domicilié à Cestas (Gironde), exerce depuis huit ans comme urgentiste dans un hôpital de Villeneuve-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne).

Cet ancien gynécologue de l’hôpital universitaire de Butare, est fiché par Interpol pour génocide et crime de guerre, il est également visé par une information judiciaire ouverte en 1995 à Bordeaux et transférée en 2001 à Paris. Il a été placé dans cette procédure sous le statut de témoin assisté.

Environ 800. 000 Tutsis et Hutus modérés ont été tués, selon l’Organisation des Nations unies, entre avril et juillet 1994, au cours du génocide rwandais.

Afp.

A lawyer for Eugene Rwamucyo, who was arrested in May under a 2006 international warrant issued at Rwanda’s request, said he had been released from custody.

Rwamucyo denies any involvement in the 100-day massacre in Rwanda, in which an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militia and soldiers.

“The appeal court at Versailles has rejected the extradition request by Rwanda, which puts an end to the process,” said his lawyer, Philippe Meilhac. “It is the usual motive … the lack of the right to legitimate defence in Rwanda today.”

Meilhac said Rwamucyo planned to return to Belgium, where he moved after being suspended from his job in a French hospital last year after a nurse found his name on the Interpol website, listing his alleged offences as “genocide, war crimes”.

However, Rwamucyo still faces an investigation opened in 2008 by French prosecutors and his lawyer said he would return to face questioning. “There is no question of fleeing,” he said.

Two French judges travelled to Rwanda last week to resume an investigation into the 1994 assassination of former Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana, which unleashed the genocide.

The previous judge in charge of the investigation, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, provoked a break in diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda in 2006 by issuing nine arrest warrants for close associates of President Paul Kagame. Relations were reestablished last year.

Reuters.

« Nous ne voulons pas réveiller les vieux démons », dit un proche du pouvoir à Kinshasa sous couvert de l’anonymat, mais : « Nous ne pouvons pas non plus cracher sur les cendres de nos compatriotes ». Entendez par là : il n’y aura pas de position commune des deux pays, face à un éventuel tir de barrage aux Nations unies, pas de texte signé.

En revanche, le Rwanda pourra compter sur une sorte de neutralité de Kinshasa. Ici, le pouvoir voudrait surtout que le temps passe, et que l’on oublie ce rapport controversé.

RFI.

Un rapport très sensible

Les pressions de Kigali s’avèrent fort gênantes pour l’ONU, qui peine à trouver des casques bleues pour ses nombreuses mission- de maintien de la paix. Or le Rwanda a mis à disposition 3 550 hommes au Darfour et dans le reste du Soudan. Mais le rapport en question est très sensible. Selon une version non finalisée du rapport, diffusée par Le Monde avant sa publication officielle, le Rwanda est accusé de s’être livré à des crimes de guerre et à des faits de génocide dans l’ex-Zaïre, entre 1996 et 1998, sur des réfugiés rwandais hutus.

Conduire les coupables en justice

Dans une lettre adressée début août au Secrétaire général des Nations Unies, Ban Ki-moon, la ministre rwandaise des Affaires étrangères indiquait que la publication du rapport pourrait déstabiliser la région. Pour Reed Brody, militant de l’organisation Human Rights Watch, et qui en 1996 a enquêté pour les Nations Unies en République démocratique du Congo, ce rapport doit, au contraire, servir d’argument pour conduire les coupables en justice. Selon lui, si ces massacres à grande échelle ne sont pas punis, alors la région sera condamnée à vivre de nouvelles atrocités.

RFI.