Rwanda-Franco relations rocked again by Mucyo’s report

The long awaited Mucyo Commission Report investigating the role of France in Rwanda leading to the 1994 Genocide was last week released with both countries remaining firm in dismissing each others position about events in the worst chapter of Rwanda’s history. The report formally accused 33 senior French government officials’, however, the French government dismissed Rwanda’s report saying, the current government wanted to change the history of the country. Recent events in relations between France and Rwanda have been described as “cool” by many observers. According to Rosemary Museminari, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rwanda and France have been working behind curtains to normalise the historical ties between the two countries healthy before and during the 1994 Genocide, suspicious afterwards and dissolved in 2006 with the infamous Bruguiliere indictments. Games and puzzles The highly publicised Beijing 2008 Olympic Games kicked off on Thursday with Argentina beating Ivory Coast by two goals to one while Nigeria lost to North Korea. The official opening ceremonies were attended by 80 heads of state, while Rwanda is represented by a team of four at the Olympic bonanza which has attracted 10500 athletes from all corners of the universe. As if dealing with the Darfur crisis and Zimbabwe is not a handful, the African Union has got another puzzle to solve on the complex surface of African politics with the latest military coup happening during the week in Mauritania. According to reports, the army took over government when the president had threatened to fire top generals in the country. The soldiers under new leader General Ould Abdelaziz have promised to organise elections soon. The ousted president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi had himself been elected into office a few months ago in after the first democratic elections that replaced the latest military junta, among many that have led Mauritania since it got independence from France in 1960. A poor country by any measure, Mauritania is also one of the newest producers of oil in the world and analysts have connected the political problems in the country to its newly found wealth. Predictably, the AU has condemned the coup and promised to send an envoy to Nouakchott the capital of Mauritania to see what the AU can do about the coup. The coup in Mauritania comes while another political puzzle remains to be solved on the continent. In Zimbabwe it emerged during the week that ruling party ZANU-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change were far from reaching an agreement to settle the debacle that was caused by presidential elections held in that country in March this year. In neighbouring South Africa, the socio-economic situation worsened; leading trade unions in the country organised their members to protest to government against increasing food prices in the country. Poverty issues in South Africa have made important headlines not only last week, recently there were reports in the media that the country’s president in waiting Jacob Zuma was shocked by the level of ‘white poverty in South Africa.” While in May this year, native South Africans violently rioted against fellow black Africans from other countries residing in South Africa. More game Wild life conservationists and ORTPN will be very pleased that a new group of gorillas numbering 125,000 were recently discovered deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo. Primatologists say the gorilla population now stands between 175,000 and 225,000. Meanwhile, the national tourism office ORTPN were in the news thanks to a new statistical methodology of determining annual revenues, whereby revenues from the sector last year increased-thanks to the new method. Based on the previous statistical methodology, Rwanda earned some $42.3 million last year from some 38,000 visitors; revenue generation has now reached some US$80million. Tech talkSpeaking in Italy this week, President Paul Kagame reaffirmed Rwanda’s ambition to use technology in solving problems that affect the majority citizens of the country. The president said the ongoing fibre optic wire connections will bring all parts of the country in one digital network where service delivery to Rwandans will be speedy and monitored easily. Kagame said the new ICT measure will see improved services in the health sector. The Aids Research and Treatment Centre (TRAC) has been recognised for using Voixva, a computer software programme whereby health conditions of all patients in a given area throughout the country are closely followed by authorities in Kigali. Kagame was speaking at an international health care service delivery conference organized by the Rockefeller Foundation in Italy; the meeting was called to discus accelerating innovative applications of emerging digital technologies to improve the health of poor and vulnerable people around the world - a field known as eHealth. He announced that the fibre optic connection throughout the country is due for completion by the end of 2009 and added that Rwanda is also rolling out broadband network coverage - first in Kigali - to expand countrywide in one year, but did not say which year this exercise would begin. Ends