Armed robbery down by 38 %

• Drug abuse tops common crimes Rwanda National Police has registered a tremendous decrease in cases of armed robbery in the first quarter of 2009, announcing a fall of 38 percent. The statistics were released by the Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Tony Kuramba during a news conference at the Police headquarters in Kacyiru yesterday. “We have registered a tremendous decrease in crimes related with armed robbery with a record of 38 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the last quarter of 2008,” Kuramba said. However, Police did not give further details of the statistics on this particular crime. Kuramba during the news conference attributed the decrease to the emphasis on community policing and an intensive crackdown on illegal arms to curb their proliferation. “We have an office charged with handling small and light weapons within the National Police; also community policing has contributed a significant role in this.” Meanwhile, police statistics indicates that there has been a general fall in crimes committed in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the last quarter of 2008. “In the last quarter of 2008, we registered 2,977 crimes while in the first quarter of 2009 we recorded 2,650 crimes which reflect an 11 percent fall in crimes generally,” said the Director of Community Policing Chief Supt. Emmanuel Butera. According to the statistics, drug abuse leads the table of the most highly committed crimes that are registered by the police force. In a related development, 1,662 kgs of marijuana, and about 2,000 litres of the lethal brew commonly known as Kanyanga were set ablaze in March. According to Kuramba, Kigali City leads with the highest crime rates followed by the Eastern Province. “Normally crimes are concentrated in urban areas while the Eastern Province shares many borderlines with neighbouring countries where most of these drugs come from,” said Kuramba. The Eastern Province borders with Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi and the biggest volume of Kanyanga is trafficked from Uganda. Ends