Ndahinduka on target as Rwanda hold Burundi(Burundi 1-1 Rwanda)

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Striker Michel Ndahinduka (L) attempts to go past Burundi defender Stéphane Rugonumugabo during yesterday’s match at Prince Louis Rwagasore. (Bonnie Mugabe)

Yesterday
Burundi 1-1 Rwanda
BUJUMBURA - RWANDA national football team put up a spirited performance to hold hosts Burundi to a 1-all draw in an international friendly match played yesterday at a packed Prince Louis Rwagasore stadium in Bujumbura.
APR striker Michel Ndahinduka put Amavubi Stars ahead in the 18th minute before Croatia-based Saido Ntibazonkiza equalised for the Swallows at the half hour mark with a fantastic sole goal.
Burundi dominated the first half with their tik-tak style of play spearheaded by Papy Faty, Cedric Amissi and Pierre Kwizera as the visitors opted to go defensive and relied on counter-attacks.
Ndahinduka broke the deadlock when he tapped in a rebound after Burundi goalkeeper Arthur Arakaza failed to hold on an Emery Bayisenga free kick.
Twelve minutes later, Carcovia FC striker Ntibazonkiza beat Amavubi keeper Jean Luc Ndayishimiye with a long range strike from well over 30 yards to send Burundians into wild jubilations.
Kwizera tested Ndayishimiye again with another long range shot but the Rayon Sports custodian was steady this time to make a simple save.
However, five minutes to the end of the first half, Ntibazonkiza suffered a bruised eye following collision with Bayisenge and he was replaced by Enugu Rangers’ striker Steve Nzigamasabo.
Both teams came back after the break with an attacking game plan but it was Eric Nshimiyimana’s Amavubi that got going more than the hosts.
Bayisenge had a superb free kick punched away by Arakaza and again the Flambeau de l’est goalie made three fine saves in quick succession as Amavubi piled more pressure in search for the winner.
On the other end, Kwizera, who plays for Amadou Diallo of Cote d’Ivoire, had two chances from free kicks but was denied, first by Belgium-based defender Salomon Nirisarike and then skipper Jean Baptiste Mugiraneza.
With 20 minutes to go, Nshimiyimana introduced Meddie Kagere for Papy Sibomana, Hussein Cyiza Mugabo for Djamal Mwiseneza and Andrew Buteera for Ndahinduka, while Fitina Ombarenga replaced injured Michel Rusheshangonga at right back.
Later, Fabrice Twagizimana replaced Mugiraneza, who hobbled off with a knee injury. With the game in the dying minutes, Kagere missed a clear opportunity to earn Amavubi an important win.
Elias Uzamukunda, who was outstanding up front, beat Burundian skipper Valery Nahayo to set up a neat pass for Kagere but the Rayon Sport striker failed to guide the ball inside the net.

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Govt reassures on sustained coffee quality

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Coffee cuppers test Rwandan coffee at NAEB last year. (John Mbanda)

Efforts are underway to further improve the quality of Rwanda’s coffee, the Deputy Director General in charge of Exports at the National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB), Magnifique Ndambe Nzaramba, has said.
Nzaramba was responding to American coffee exporter Grace Hightower De Niro’s request for assurance on how the country’s coffee quality will be maintained.
The American actress and philanthropist sells Rwandan coffee to about 40 suppliers in the US and plans to extend supply to Japan and China. She also plans to open up shops in Rwanda with her company, “Grace Hightower & Coffee of Rwanda”.
Hightower de Niro was in the country last month to attend a “Let’s Talk Coffee” conference.
The two-day conference was convened to discuss the potential of Rwanda’s high-quality coffee on the international market and how to promote it.
“Rwanda’s high-quality coffee is a symbol of hope for the country as well as a path to economic empowerment,” Hightower de Niro said.
Information from NAEB indicates that the capacity of coffee washing stations decreased from 60 per cent in 2012 to 50 per cent in 2013.
Also the target of 35 per cent fully washed coffee in 2013 was not achieved. Only 33 per cent was realised.
Nzaramba said the main challenge coffee growers are facing is fluctuation in prices.
He cited insufficient production of coffee cherries, high operating costs and weak management skills among the other challenges.
“To compete internationally, coffee farmers have to embrace good agricultural practices,” Nzaramba said.
“We have to increase our processing capacity and improve on our export logistics,” he told The New Times last week.
NAEB director general Amb. George Kayonga, urges all coffee stakeholders, especially farmers and coffee washing station owners, to put a lot of effort in coffee production and processing so as to achieve both quality and quantity targets.
Agriculture minister Dr Agnes Kalibata says her ministry is ready to support coffee farmers in ensuring quality output.
The role of coffee in economy
According to NAEB, Arabica and Robusta coffee represent between 12 and 17 per cent of the country’s total exports.
Currently, more than 400,000 smallholder farmers produce coffee and depend on the international market. About 42,000 hectares of land in Rwanda is cultivated with coffee.
“Rwanda’s coffee industry has a positive reputation and this has created demand for its high quality bourbon Arabica coffee. Long-term relationships with household names such as Starbucks and Marks & Spencer have the potential to complete the transformation of the industry,” NAEB said in an official statement.
Nzaramba emphasised the need to focus more on the use of fertilisers to boost production.
“Besides, more than six cooperatives have been supported to start processes for organic and fair-trade coffee,” he says.
Rwanda’s coffee strategy targets a production of 33,000 tonnes of coffee, with 19,000 tonnes of this fully washed.
This was to generate exports of $115 million by 2012.
In line with this strategy, five priority programmes worth $9 million have been identified.
They include improvement of farming practices and management, a turnaround support programme for upcoming coffee washing stations, capacity building of private exporters for better sale and distribution, implementation of a census and GIS study of all coffee producing regions, implementing new activities and partnerships for roasting in China and the Middle East.
The support of the five key priority programmes through other actions for the further development of the coffee industry (production, processing, sales and marketing, research and development, infrastructure) will cost $42.8million.
NAEB is responsible for supporting coffee production and processing by providing technical assistance and planting material to farmers.
Rwanda is an exporting member of the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) whose mission is to strengthen the global coffee sector and promote its sustainable expansion in a market-based environment for the betterment of all participants in the coffee sector.
Rwanda’s coffee is also registered in the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE).

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Supreme Court judges train in judgment writing

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Chief Justice Sam Rugege (R), and former ICTR Judge Wolfgang Schomburg look through a book during the workshop yesterday. (John Mbanda)

A three-day training in writing international judgments for Supreme Court judges opened yesterday in Kigali.
Opening the training, the Chief Justice, Prof. Sam Rugege, said the training will help participants to improve writing style of judgments while linking facts to laws.
“We have international cases from ICTR and we expect others. This can show us how and where to improve,” Prof. Rugege said.
“It is to help us improve the writing of judgments so that whoever reads the case does not find difficulty seeing the winner and the loser,” he added.
The Chief Justice said the training is meant for judges and prosecutors.
He also said it is necessary to post judgments online for future reference by researchers, lecturers, students and other interested people.
Judge Wolfrang Schomburg, a trainer, is an expert in writing international judgements, having worked  in the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia) and at the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda).
He is also teaching international criminal law in a university in England.
“We have the responsibility not only to show that justice is done but also reveal the truth that we believe in. Our task is to come as close as possible to the truth, and that has a lot to do with how you write the details and the summary of the judgment,” Wolfrang said.
Judge Wolfrang said judges can apply law applicable in Rwanda to cases being sent to Rwanda from abroad and that there must be mutual collaboration between the ICTR and Rwanda to ensure justice prevails.

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Norway reopens consulate in Rwanda

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Gaustadsaether (L), Norway’s ambassador to Rwanda, with Robert Woffenden (centre), the new consular during the re-opening of the consulate. (Peterson Tumwebaze)

Inter-governmental cooperation, trade and investments between Rwanda and Norway could be fast tracked following the reopening of the Norwegian consulate in Kigali.
The consulate, reopened on Tuesday evening, will not only strengthen bilateral relationships between the two countries but also provide a platform for investors from both sides to access information, knowledge and expertise on investment opportunities that exist between Rwanda and Norway, according to Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether, Norway’s ambassador to Rwanda and Uganda.
“We intend to strengthen economic, political and social ties between Norway and Rwanda and the only way to achieve this  is by having a direct link between the two countries, hence the reopening of the consulate in Kigali,” Gaustadsaether said.
Robert Woffenden, group director at Norwegian firm, FBW Rwanda, was appointed honorary consul general of the consulate.
“The consulate is not only  here to ease the cost  of doing business between Rwanda and Norway but also offer direct services to both Norwegians and Rwandans on top of  linking programmes and projects  that may require funding from Norway,” Woffenden said.
He further urged Rwanda to tap into Norway’s expertise, especially in the energy sector, education and health.
“There are many similarities and market potentials that exist between the two countries that I would love to see both countries exploiting to full potential,” Woffenden said.
Parfait Gahamanyi, the director-general of the diaspora directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called on the Norwegian business community to come and invest in Rwanda.
“Trade and investment are the best ways to develop cooperation between countries and peoples. As we continue to ease the cost of doing business in Rwanda, it is time for Norwegians to come and invest with us,” Gahamanyi said.
Apart from partnering with Rwanda on various interventions in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Norway is also supporting a coffee project known as Mother Land farmers in Nyamagabe District.
The Norwegian consulate had closed down in 2012 after its representative retired and returned home.

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South Africa, Ethiopia police chiefs visit Isange One-Stop Centre

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DIGP Dan Munyuza receives the IGP of Ethiopia Federal Police, Assefa Abiyu, at the RNP headquarters in Kacyiru yesterday. (John Mbanda)

The Police chiefs of South Africa and Ethiopia yesterday visited the Rwanda National Police (RNP) anti-gender violence medical wing, Isange One-Stop Centre, and commended the initiative as the best approach in fighting violence against women and girls.
Gen. Victoria Mangwashi Phiyega, of South Africa Police Services, and Assefa Abiyu were in the country to attend the 3rd International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Sub-Saharan Africa Executive Policing conference which ended on Tuesday in Kigali.
They were received at the centre by Commissioner of Police, Dr Daniel Nyamwasa, and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr Wilson Rubanzana, the Director of Medical Services in RNP.
They were taken on a guided tour of units such as counselling, children and the victims’ ward and briefed on the various services the centre offers to the victims until they are discharged.
CP Nyamwasa explained that the centre was established as a holistic approach against gender-based violence and that the discharged victims are followed up from their localities.
The RNP is currently decentralising the centre, which offers free medical, psycho-socio and legal services to GBV victims, to 41 hospitals across the country.
“Isange One-Stop Centre is a good initiative, a novelty and sterling work. Keep it up,” Gen Phiyega said.
“This is surely a remarkable initiative and something worth emulating,” Abiyu said.
The centre was established in 2009 with the support of One-UN Rwanda and Imbuto Foundation and has since handled over 6,500 GBV-related cases.
Earlier on, Abiyu met with the Deputy Inspector of Police (Operations), Dan Munyuza, at the RNP headquarters in Kacyiru and the two discussed various security issues.
The Rwanda National Police and Ethiopia Federal Police signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate, mainly, in capacity building exchange of information and best practices and close collaboration in security-related areas.

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European Union to give Rwanda Rwf452 billion

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The EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, is today expected to announce over Rwf452 billion funding to Rwanda.
The money is in two categories, including €460 million (about Rwf425.2 billion) funding to for the period between  2014 and 2020, and €30 million (about Rwf27.7 billion) of new EU support for Rwanda.
The €30 million funding will “focus specifically on malnutrition,” Kaisa Kruuse, an official in the political section of the EU office in Kigali, confirmed in a statement.
The support, according to the statement released on Tuesday, will go towards the national strategy to eliminate malnutrition in Rwanda, targeting chronic malnutrition of young children.
Kruuse said the contract for the €30 million of new EU support for Rwanda will be signed during the visit and the money will be made available shortly.
Piebalgs was also to announce €620 million of new EU support to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), the statement adds.
It says the amounts represent a significant increase in funding compared to recent years. Overall, governments and regional organisations in the region, will receive close to €3 billion of EU support over the same period.
Ahead of his visit, Piebalgs was quoted as saying there are welcome signs of improved stability and security in the Great Lakes region.
“The Addis Ababa Peace and Security Framework gives us a shared set of principles and objectives to work towards. The secret now is to help our partners in the region to undertake necessary reforms,” Piebalgs said.
For the next six years, the overall objective of EU funding in Rwanda is to reduce poverty, support the progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and strengthen democratic governance as well as respect for human rights. Focal sectors of EU assistance agreed with donors and government will be sustainable energy, agriculture, food security and governance.
Piebalgs is travelling with the Belgian Minister for International Cooperation, Jean-Pascal Labille who was in Rwanda mid last month.

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Gishwati, where Interahamwe militiamen set dogs on Tutsis

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A settlement in Gishwati area. In 1994, militia groups enlisted the help of hounds to hunt down Tutsis hiding in the forest in this area. (Louisa Esther Glatthaar)

When Tutsis were being hunted and killed for no crime other than their ethnicity, thousands sought refuge in places they considered safer: churches, stadiums, public offices, schools, hospitals and even forests.

Gaetan Senyanza.

They hoped that the killings would end sooner or that the killers would not be zealous enough to keep running after them.
But is was all akin to a drowning man clutching at a straw as thousands of individuals continued to be killed across the country, an unknown number of Tutsis, mainly from the north-western district of Nyabihu and its surrounding areas, made their way to Gishwati Forest with hope that the tree wild would be a better sanctuary.
Their hopes were dashed when militia groups entered the forest to look for them.
The killers, who looked more than determined to kill each and every Tutsi, were armed mainly with traditional weapons such as machetes, clubs, arrows, spears, among others.
More crucial for their sordid zeal were a park of dogs that helped them to hunt for Tutsis as they swept through the dense forests, according to testimonies.
It was a bitter experience for the hiding Tutsis as the hounds easily sniffed them out.
Fleeing to Gishwati
Gishwati Forest is a protected reserve in the north-western part of Rwanda straddling Rubavu, Nyabihu and Rutsiro districts.
Once a dense forest and the second-largest rain forest in Rwanda, Gishwati covered about 250,000 acres some decades ago, but its original size decreased significantly in the 1980s and 1990s due to  encroachment, deforestation, grazing and introduction of small-scale farming, among other human activities.
At the time of the Genocide, Tutsis around Gishwati regarded the dense forest as a safe shelter and a warranted hideout for them to evade the killers.
How wrong, they were!
To-date, the number of Tutsis who fled to Gishwati during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi remains unknown, just like the number of those killed in the wilderness is yet to be established and might never be precisely known.
Although some bodies have been recovered and buried, many more are still missing and may never be found, survivors and leaders say.
Gaetan Senyanza, a 61-year-old survivor from the rural Mukamira Sector of Nyabihu District, was a farmer before 1994.
Senyanza says he used to herd his animals around the forest before the Genocide and when the killings started, he thought taking refuge inside Gishwati was the best option.
That was April 7, 1994, a day after the death of former president Juvenal Habyarimana.
“Widespread killings had already started across this area and we were very frightened. It was hard to move and everyone feared for their lives,” Senyanza recalls.
“When the news of the death of [president] Habyarimana started spreading, sporadic gunfire started in this area and militia groups went on a killing spree,” he said.
Senyanza then fled to Gishwati Forest.
“Once in the forest, I realised that there were dozens of other individuals who had taken refuge there,” he says. “Like me, everyone hoped the killers won’t chase us inside the forest. But we were wrong.”
Bodies eaten by dogs
Several other testimonies corroborate Senyanza’s account.
The aging Genocide survivor says he saw many Tutsis being hacked to death inside the forest.
“Many of them were found with the help of dogs that the killers had brought with them,” Senyanza says. “I saw so many dogs being used to hunt down Tutsis.”
Senyanza, who lost all his four children, a wife and around 60 other close relatives, describes his experience in Gishwati as “the worst ever” and that whenever he talks about it, he struggles to find words to describe his feelings.
From time to time, the old man stops talking for a while as he struggles to control his emotions and hold back tears.
“It was a bitter experience. It was terrible,” Senyanza says. “I saw so many dead bodies being eaten by dogs. Whenever I think about that, I feel tormented and my heart is filled with sorrow.”
Senyanza says he is yet to come to terms with the tragic, dreaded, inhumane and horrendous atrocities he witnessed as he hid under the dense Gishwati Forest.
“Whenever I think about the past in that forest, I get nightmares. Sometimes I see images of militia men hunting down people in the forest. It is hard to overcome that trauma,” Senyanza says.

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