22, September 2020
Rwanda: I will always remember you 0
Dear Rwanda,
I will always remember you. A small but beautiful and amazing country nestled in the bosom of Mother Africa like a well-loved child.
I will always remember the five years I spent with you, enjoying your cool climate, lush green lands, serene lakes, and majestic mountains.
I will remember your leaders for the vision, principles, values, and integrity that characterized the management of this land. While I lived here, I saw leaders more focused on the needs of their people than on their own.
I will always remember the outstanding Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Director-Generals and government staff that I worked with, and the way they embraced me as a partner in their nation’s development. I will always remember the great work we did together, the strength of the partnership we forged, and their warmth and friendship.
I will always remember your murakoze cyane and muraho neza, and the Rwandan smile that always accompanied these words, making me feel like a brother among family, rather than a stranger in a foreign land.
I will always remember the way your leaders and your people shook my hand and then held on to it – at first, this was strange to me, an outsider, but then I understood that it was a sign of friendship and brotherhood.
I will always remember my team – fine, outstanding Rwandans who believed in their country and its leaders, and the expatriate staff who came and made Rwanda not just a home but a mission. It was an honour to serve alongside these wonderful women and men.
I will always remember the development partners I collaborated with – some exceptional Ambassadors, Heads of Cooperation and their staff, the wonderful UN Resident Coordinator and Heads of UN Agency with whom I had the honour to serve and many of whom I have the privilege to call friends.
I will remember all the partners, both those who believed in Rwanda and those who didn’t, because, like you, I always knew that what was truly important was that you believed in yourselves.
I will always remember the days I spent by the shores of your lakes, basking in the glory of God’s creation.
I will remember seeing the mountain gorillas, our close relatives, living under the protection of not just God, but a government that believes in their preservation. And what a sight it was to behold these rare and regal creatures!
I will remember the delightful grilled tilapia and the heavenly mizuzu which reminded me of home. I will remember the sambaza, deeply fried with a touch of lemon and Akabanga chili. I will remember going night fishing on Lake Kivu, with the fishermen who caught these tiny specks of delight and sang songs that their ancestors sang to the star-filled nights.
I will remember everything that we did together, with the aim of building this great country. In some areas we may not have achieved all that we hoped for, but in so many other areas we made huge progress, our sleeves rolled up, working side by side, giving encouragement and feedback to each other, always with the past at our back and the sun shining towards the future.
Among other things, I will remember how we strengthened the media and civil society, championed the cause of the disabled, promoted gender equality, protected the environment, fostered unity and reconciliation, facilitated young entrepreneurs and innovators, tackled Covid19, and worked to build one country for everyone. I will remember the Drones and the Robots, and so many other innovations
In Jamaican patios we’d say Rwanda’s ambition “cyan dun”, meaning your ambition is endless. But you not only dream big, you act and you implement your vision.
I will remember you Rwanda, because I was blessed to have been here, to join you in your remarkable journey of transformation.
Who could have known that the country the world ignored, would one day become a lighthouse showing the way for others to follow. The stone that the builder rejected, has indeed become a cornerstone for the development of this continent.
I will always remember you Rwanda.
And I hope that you will always remember me, as a friend. I hope that you will always know that wherever in the world I may be, if there is anything at all I can do to help, I will. I will always be a friendly ear that still listens, and a warm heart that still cares.
I will remember you Rwanda, for all the days of my life. I will always remember you, with love
Source: Newtimesrwanda.com
22, September 2020
Heightened Crackdown on French Cameroun Opposition with no AK47s 0
Cameroon authorities banned demonstrations after the opposition party Cameroon Renaissance Movement (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC) encouraged people to take to the streets over the government’s decision to call regional elections.
On September 11, 2020, the governors of the Littoral and Centre regions banned public meetings and demonstrations indefinitely. Three days later, Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji, in a letter to the two governors and the governor of the West region, warned that law enforcement forces would break up unauthorized demonstrations. He said that the governors should arrest anyone organizing or leading demonstrations, claiming that protests would endanger lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. On September 15, the communication minister warned political parties that protests could be considered “insurrection” and that illegal demonstrations across the country would be punished under the anti-terror law.
“These steps are a thinly veiled attempt by the Cameroonian government to use the Covid-19 pandemic and the draconian anti-terror law as a pretext to quell the right to assemble,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Cameroon’s authorities should protect and facilitate the right to assemble, not seek to curb it.”
These measures came after President Paul Biya announced on September 7 that Cameroon’s first regional elections would be in December. On September 8, Maurice Kamto, the MRC leader, called for peaceful protests on September 22 against holding the elections. Seven other opposition parties and civil society organizations have joined Kamto’s call for peaceful demonstrations. Opposition parties have multiple concerns that they cannot be conducted freely and fairly without reforming the electoral code and addressing the lack of security in the Anglophone regions.
Human Rights Watch conducted phone interviews between mid-August and early September with 15 leaders and members of opposition parties, as well as 5 representatives from civil society and human rights groups.
The Cameroonian government started lifting Covid-19 restrictions in May, allowing bars, restaurants, and nightclubs to reopen. In June, it allowed schools and other training centers to reopen, as well as churches and mosques. The efforts to target the opposition-led demonstrations over Covid-19 appear to be arbitrary, Human Rights Watch said. On September 16, the MRC issued a note providing guidance to all members and supporters who are planning to participate on September 22 on how to ensure peaceful demonstrations and curb the spread of Covid-19 by wearing a face mask.
Other opposition-led meetings and demonstrations have been banned in Cameroon in the last 18 months. In April 2019, the authorities banned a week of demonstrations planned by the MRC across the country. Local authorities recently prohibited two private meetings planned by the party in Maroua, Far North region, on August 9, and in Nkongsamba, Littoral region, on August 15, citing concerns around Covid-19 and general public order.
The Nkongsamba meeting was to be a private meeting at the party headquarters and should not have been subject to a public order ban. In Maroua, where the meeting was to be held in a hotel, the local authorities prohibited the meeting ostensibly on health grounds, although party leaders said they were taking preventive measures to avoid the spread of the Covid-19, including respecting the limit of 50 participants, as required by law. Party leaders told Human Rights Watch that authorities have allowed similar meetings in both cities by the governing Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.
On September 19, the headquarters of the opposition party Cameroon People’s Party (CPP) in Yaoundé was surrounded by over 30 policemen and gendarmes. “The Yaoundé District Officer claimed that the CPP was holding a public meeting without declaration, but we informed him that we were holding our regular weekly meeting whose participation is limited to our members,” Edith Kahbang Walla, known as “Kah Walla,” CPP president said in a statement published the same day. “This is an umpteenth violation of the law and attempt to intimidate us.” After a standoff of about one hour, CPP members were allowed to leave.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented that Cameroon’s government has used the pandemic as a pretext to settle scores and punish the opposition. In May, the authorities arrested several volunteers from the Survival Initiative, Kamto’s fundraising initiative to respond to the health emergency, as they handed out protective masks and sanitizing gel in Yaoundé, the capital. They were charged with rebellion, then released on May 15.
MRC spokesperson Biboun Nissack told Human Rights Watch that the government’s recent ban on demonstrations “threatens to force our party underground.”
Cameroon’s constitution guarantees freedom of assembly. Cameroonian law requires organizers to notify local authorities seven days before a demonstration. While freedom of assembly is not absolute, and restrictions including those aimed at protecting public health are permissible, any such measures must not only have a legal basis but be strictly necessary and proportionate to achieve the objective and not discriminate against particular groups.
Broad, blanket bans such as that invoked by the Cameroon government, in particular in response to political organizing by opposition parties, do not meet these criteria. On March 16, United Nations human rights experts warned that “Emergency declarations based on the Covid-19 outbreak should not function as a cover for repressive action under the guise of protecting health, and should not be used simply to quash dissent.”
The anti-terror law, promulgated in December 2014 as Cameroon struggled to address the escalating threat posed by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram, has been widely criticized, including by Cameroonian and international rights groups and opposition parties, for its overbroad definition of terrorism, the provision of the death penalty, and for being used to silence the opposition, civil society, and the media.
This recent crackdown on freedom of assembly also follows a well-documented pattern of politically motivated arrests and prosecutions of opposition party members and activists, including MRC vice president, Mamadou Mota.
“When government authorities threaten to treat exercise of the right to peaceful protest as an act of insurrection, they are attacking the fundamentals of a society based on human rights and the rule of law,” Mudge said. “Basic freedoms and rights – guaranteed not only under Cameroon’s international obligations, but also in its constitution – are at risk, and if this crackdown leads to wider protests, the excessive use of force and ill-treatment could dramatically escalate.”
Culled from Human Rights Watch