Parliament meets in extraordinary session

The Lower Chamber is scheduled to begin an extraordinary session today afternoon with several issues on the agenda, including the examination of several bills such as one to streamline the works of the Prosecutor General’s office. The session’s programme, which The New Times has seen, also indicates that Parliament will mull over a bill concerning life sentences. “The Lower Chamber of parliament will examine the basis of different bills so that they can thereafter start being examined in a more thorough manner within committees,” reads part of a Parliament communiqué released Sunday. It states that some urgent bills, which have already been examined by committees, will be decided on. Other bills on the agenda include – a bill that amends and completes a March 17, 2007 organic law determining the transfer to Rwanda of cases from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and, from other countries. The bill setting up the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) will also be examined. This follows the government’s recent drive to merge social security institutions in the country under one national body – the RSSB. Two other new national projects will also be considered in the session. One, dubbed the Rwanda Local Development Support Fund (RLDSF) is a fund meant to support development initiatives at local levels. According to the March 25 Cabinet resolutions, the Ministry of Local Government-based fund will embrace the Common Development Fund (CDF), The Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) and, the Ubudehe Programme. A draft law instituting the National Commission for Demobilisation, Repatriation and Refugees (NCDRR) and another on labour issues will also be considered. On April 28, Parliament is also scheduled to hear again, from both the Foreign and Culture ministers on the decent burial of the remains of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, both in the country and abroad. The ministers’ earlier explanations on what the line ministry was doing to maintain the Memorial Sites, some of which have been totally devastated, did not satisfy the house. The presence of Rosemary Muselinali, the Foreign Affairs Minister was motivated by the problem of memorial sites outside the country, especially the ones in Uganda where remains of over 10,000 victims have been laid to rest. Ends