Former top FDLR rebel defects, repatriated

Colonel Jonas Nteziyaremye, alias Makoto of the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RDU), a break away faction of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) abandoned the bush and returned to Rwanda. The Colonel, who had spent 16 years in the forests of the DRC, was received by the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) at Rubero in the Northern Province.

The former rebel said that his willingness to return home was due to the communication he had with his fellow ex-combatants who had returned earlier and his relatives who lives in the country. The two rebel groups are mainly comprised of elements responsible for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Fugitives’ court case set for January 3

The case against four former government officials on the run will be heard on January 3.The fugitives are Kayumba Nyamwasa, Patrick Karegyeya, Theogene Rudasingwa and Gerard Gahima.The case will be heard by the Military High Court following the quartet‘s failure to answer summons issued against them in November by the same court.

The court had announced that if the fugitives fail to heed the summons before the deadline, the court would take it as contempt of court and the accused would be tried in absentia. Charges against the four include forming a terrorist group, ethnic divisionism and spreading harmful propaganda. Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa face an additional charge of deserting the army.

NUR board approves relocation of the faculty of Law to Kigali

National University of Rwanda board, in a meeting last week, approved the request by the University management to shift the faculty of Law from the main campus in Huye District, Southern province to Kigali City effective next academic year. Speaking to The New Times, Dr. Theogene Rutagwenda, the board chairman said that moving the faculty will help students to learn better and will facilitate enrolment into the evening programme.Over 700 students are expected to relocate to Kigali among these185 are in the final year.

Over 75 percent of final year medical students at NUR fail

Final results of the final theoretical and clinical examinations held between November and December for final year medical students at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) indicate that only 14 of the 58 who sat the exams passed. The results indicate that 34 students will have to re-sit clinical, written or clerkship examinations while two will have to repeat the final year. Pediatrics, surgery and gynecology/obstetrics departments recorded the highest number of re-sit cases both in the clinical and written examinations.

Commenting on the poor results, Dr Bon Fils Safari, the director of quality at the university, said that this could have been partly due to the new style of examination introduced at the final undergraduate and post graduate level.

France charges FDLR leader with Genocide.

A French judge has charged top FDLR leader, Calixte Mbarushimana, for his roll in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, in Rwanda. According to reports form France, Mbarushimana, the Secretary General of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia was, on Tuesday, charged with crimes against humanity by examining magistrate Rene Cros. The 47-year old was arraigned following a lawsuit filled by Collectif des parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a genocide victim’s rights group based in France, and Ibuka, the umbrella organization of genocide survivors’ associations.

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