Thursday, December 11, 2008

Rwanda: DRC Foreign Minister Labels FDLR a 'Cancer'

James Karuhanga

11 December 2008

Gasabo — Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, DR Congo's Foreign Minister Wednesday labelled the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), as a cancer bequeathed to them by the international community.

He was responding to reporters' questions shortly after he and three other ministers of the Tripartite Plus Joint Commission finished signing the final communiqué of the latest session at Prime Holdings, Kigali.

"The FDLR is a cancer that the international community left us with in Congo without the ability to solve the problem," Mwamba said, admitting that DR Congo too was a victim of the rebels and reiterated his government's commitment to deal with "the problem."

The FDLR, remnants of the ex-FAR and Interahamwe militia who spearheaded the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis, later fled into neighbouring DR Congo where they continue to wreck havoc - pillaging, killing, raping and breaking up families.

The just concluded Tripartite Plus Joint Commission meeting aimed at reviewing progress in the elimination of the security threat posed to the entire region by illegal armed groups in DR Congo's volatile eastern region.

Foreign ministers from Rwanda, DR Congo, Uganda, and Burundi, in their final communiqué, called for urgent implementation of the Security Council's resolution 1804 which authorises travel and financial sanctions on FDLR leaders, urging a quick and full implementation of all its provisions.

They also endorsed last week's joint communiqué between Rwanda and DR Congo that adopted a joint operational military strategy to deal with the FDLR and a commitment from DR Congo to re-establish diplomatic relations with the other three countries early next year.

"Today, we are determined to partake in eliminating this problem," he added, pointing to the recently endorsed joint military plan against the militia as confirmation, underscoring that FDLR are presently their main concern too.

"FDLR is a priority on the military plan because it is on our soil that the biggest number of rapes of women and young girls is done. It is on our soil that there are killings like the most recent ones that happened in Kiwanja," Mwamba said.

Acknowledging the lack of political will as the obstacle in the past, Rwanda's Rosemary Museminali preferred to underline "present opportunities."

"We feel that on Rwanda's part we put in place what we needed to put in place, which was the atmosphere for these people to return," she said, adding that the current momentum was positive.

"We are talking of a joint plan to deal with FDLR, we are talking of identifying ways and means of curtailing their capability of being able to make war," she said, saying that all the present achievements are pushing in the right direction.

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The facilitators, who included the US government, were well represented and Karl E. Wycoff, the US Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for East and Central Africa, said there is a desire by the international community "to aggressively pursue" the FDLR.

"We (the US) are, likewise, with our partners on the Security Council engaged in a process, I would say one that is aggressive as it can be, to look at ways to limit their activities and to bring sanctions upon them," he noted.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Rwanda: Fighting Ethnocentrism Requires Concerted Efforts

editorial

Kigali — Rwanda has offered to lead the struggle to eliminate ethnic based beliefs in the Great Lakes region. This is out of the realisation that such beliefs are a major cause of conflict in the region.

This was revealed during a conference organised this week by the Amani parliamentary forum Rwanda chapter. The campaign against ethnocentrism is not only timely but a noble undertaking.

This is because the region has for long been subjected to conflicts whose origins can be traced to ethnic divisionism that is a result of ethnocentrism. And the impact has been devastating.

It is truly fitting that Rwanda offers to lead this campaign, because it has seen the devastation arising out of such ideologies based on ethnicity.

The Genocide against Tutsis in 1994 followed by the long years of exile by Rwandans as a result of ethnocentrism, make Rwanda uniquely equipped to understand the real impact of such a negative ideology.

At the same time, Rwanda has emerged from the ashes of 1994 and has been able to reconcile its people, who had been torn apart as a result of a bad leadership that planted the seeds of Genocide based on a twisted view of ethnicity.

Through bold initiatives by the leadership of the country and with the support of the masses, Rwanda is now a united country that has moved on and such divisionism is a thing of the past.

Nevertheless, this campaign is absolutely necessary because some conflicts in the region have ethnic undertones or have been sparked by a need by some communities to struggle for survival in the face of groups bent on exterminating them.

This campaign will require concerted efforts from the whole region given the likely negative impact of such an ideology if not quashed.

Rwanda: How High Food Prices Increase the Risk of HIV

Kigali — The people most hit by the recent worldwide increases in food prices - resulting from, among other things, the price of oil, speculation on the financial markets, erratic weather patterns, subsidised production of biofuels, and population growth -- are the rural and urban poor who now have to spend a proportionately higher percentage of their meagre income on food.

In the face of these price hikes, households and communities have to adopt coping strategies to enable them to survive.

Some of these coping strategies include: change in diet such as reduced food intake, lower food quality and reduced dietary diversity; seeking wage employment; temporary or in the worst case permanent migration; sale of productive and non-productive assets; and withdrawal of children from school.

While it is probably true that HIV occurs primarily among the poor, it is also possible that poverty plays a big role in the spread of the epidemic.

Poor households affected by HIV are characterised by food insecurity and poor standards of living. Already faced with multiple social and economic shocks, the additional stress of high food prices renders it impossible for these households to cope with the threat of HIV.

A key explanation for the big impact of price hikes on HIV lies in the fundamental role that food plays in the survival of HIV patients.

Nutrition is important for of the following reasons: Firstly the infection-illness period, which on average is about eight years, can be extended by a good diet, among other things.

People infected by the virus have up to 50 per cent more energy requirements (100 per cent for children) than people who are not infected.

Secondly good nutrition both in quality and quantity is vital in the prevention of opportunistic infections which occur because of reduced body immunity. A sound diet may therefore prolong life; more especially delay the progression of HIV to AIDS.

Thirdly adequate nutrition is of utmost importance to the patients on anti-retroviral therapy. Some drugs must be taken with food and most are not effective if the patients are malnourished.

Given the dominant importance of nutrition in the life of HIV patients, high food prices constrain the ability of affected households to access good nutrition. This occurs largely because purchasing power as well as disposable income is reduced.

The poor, in their attempt to cope with the rising food prices, reduce their dietary intake both in quality and quantity -- a hindrance to effective treatment of the disease and prolongation of life.

Similarly, in response to the increased household expenses due to rising food prices, people tend to migrate in search of food and work. Migration is often from the rural to the urban areas.

In urban areas the immigrants may engage in commercial sex or have multiple sex partners thus increasing the risk of infection.

In Africa, the highest prevalence has been recorded at trading centres, border posts and at major transport routes.

Some households cope with food insecurity caused by rising food prices by withdrawing children from school either to reallocate resources to food purchases or so that the children may work for food or cash.

Out-of-school children are exposed to the risk of HIV infection and are denied the much-needed education that would create awareness to prevent infection.

The price hikes and consequent food insecurity not only affect people's standards of living but also expose them to higher risk of HIV infection and AIDS.

A common trend among price hikes, food insecurity and HIV/AIDS is that they are all an echo of what has been -- and somewhat of a prediction of what is to come.

What is important now is to draw lessons from the past and make decisions in the present that will influence a better future.

A feasible all-encompassing resolution that is already active in many countries is to create or strengthen synergies between the different sectors of the economy.

Relevant LinksCentral AfricaFood, Agriculture and Rural IssuesHIV-Aids and STDsHealth and MedicineRwandaSustainable Development

Synergies between sectors such as agriculture, health, education, social welfare, finance, gender, local government, civil society, NGOs and communities will improve support systems, promote education and HIV sensitisation, build household resilience to shocks, promote livelihoods, and mitigate coping strategies that push HIV infection or deter HIV treatment.

Peace Nganwa is a Master's student in agricultural economics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which houses the African Centre for Food Security, the lead pillar institution for CAADP Pillar 3 on food security and hunger. She is an intern at the centre.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Learning my obligations and my rights

The law of obligations is very much the rules and principles behind our legal system.

The desire for logic and consistency has conditioned and will continue to shape the ways in which our society grants and disposes or our rights.

It is hard to know however, if our engendered predictibility will be a good thing for humanity.

Our methods provide us with great power, to convinse and move people from their various positions.

Time will tell, whether there is a greater good to be secured through this religion that was have created out of a web or rules and norms that are not always just and more often than not, having nothing to do with justice.

My jury is still our.'

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