French, Rwandans, Germans and judiciaries

Foreword: In the interests of German solidarity with the Government of Rwanda the author would like to express his solidarity with Rwandese dislike of all things French (except for French cuisine, a couple of nice French people I know and funny accents), and asks that his German passport not be held against him.

Back in 2006 Paul Kagame and other top Rwandan officials were indicted by a French judge for the shooting down of the former president's plane in 1994. This was a major trigger of the Rwandan genocide, but there is little evidence and many suspects in the case. The Rwandans responded by kicking all French organisations out of the country.

Under EU cooperation agreements, EU member countries are required to carry out arrest warrants of other member states. This, Germany did for one Rwandan official, Ms Kabuye, Chief of Protocol for the President, traveling through the country. This afternoon there were spontaneous government-ordered protests in the centre of Kigali and in front of the German embassy. (UPDATE 12/11: And the German embassador was asked to leave.)

On the arrest, the BBC writes:

Ms Kabuye has visited the country before but under German law could not be arrested as she was part of an official delegation. "Rwanda has been made aware on several recent occasions that if Ms Kabuye returned to Germany she would be arrested," said [a German] diplomat.

Al Jazeera quotes the Rwandan Information Minister who confirms :

Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda's information minister, said that Kabuye was not surprised at being arrested on arrival in Frankfurt.

And in the Rwandan pro-government New Times:

[Foreign affairs minister Rosemary Museminali] said that prior to her travel, the German government had warned Kabuye that she risked being arrested...

Seems clear. But then the Rwandan New Times quotes the Foreign Affairs Minister:

“We emphasised in the note that Kabuye ... was performing diplomatic duties and therefore the Germany authorities wouldn’t have arrested her...” said [Foreign Affairs Minister Museminali.

?

And to finish, who can explain how the whole "indictment -> arrest -> trial -> verdict" thing works?

"We have always been surprised that people can take these bogus indictments seriously. How can you condemn someone before even bothering to hear their side of the story?” [Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama] wondered. (New Times)

One more week in Germany

My posessions are packed into 19 boxes and I'm more than ready to finally leave Germany. I'm also looking forward to having a permanent home again in Rwanda for a while.

My new GTZ contract officially begins today, so next week I will be at the head office near Frankfurt for a week of introductory presentations, contractual issues and meetings. Then in 8 days, I will at long last fly out to Kigali.

For those of you who still haven't figured out where Rwanda is, these maps are for you :-)

One great tragedy is that my flight is on the evening of the world cup final. That was some VERY bad planning on my part!

Day 0

Thanks for your comments people - also to Paddy (but wouldn't Raoul Duke be more appropriate than Alex Delarge?).

I'm off to the airport today. And yes, I will actually be coming back after 3 months. However, there is also a very good chance that I will return to South Africa again for longer.

I know you people like pictures, so here are some more (click on them, to see them in large). Also, the link on the right hand side of this page will take you to a server with a full collection of pictures from January.

If anyone wants to know what I will actually be doing (expcept for getting a nice even sun tan): I will be managing the REEEP (http://www.reeep.org/) office for Southern Africa for 3 months. This office is run by AGAMA (link on the right of this page).

Going South...

Hi people,

This is a small experiment with this new technology. Hopefully this will allow me to keep some of you people back in Europe informed about my travels and adventures in South Africa.


For those of you who don't know, I'm heading off to Cape Town on Tuesday to start on a 3-month assignement. It all looks very promising: beautiful country, great city, interesting work. But there is also still alot that remains to be sorted out- like accomodation.

I'll be working with a renewable energy company down there- helping with various tasks- but also with running a local office of an international renewable energy network.

Incidentally, I am also escaping a relapse of winter in Munich (see picture), for which Cape Town is perfect (it is late summer down there). The pictures further down the page are from my visit there in January (which was clearly successful from a professional as well as a personal point of view)

More news and pictures to follow soon....