Rwanda prepares for gorilla naming ceremony

All Rwanda is getting ready for the gorilla ‘baptism’ ceremonies, ‘Kwita Izina’. Nigerian pop musicians, P-Square, brought much excitement Kigali’s very limited events calendar in honour of the gorilla naming. Past ceremonies have been graced by Hollywood ‘Star Wars’ star Natalie Portman and environmental conservationist Jack Hanna. In a related development the ORTPN, the national tourism office, has given back to the communities surrounding the sanctuaries of the gorillas in the district of Musanze. ORTPN has built a community centre, a classroom block, a health centre, and several water tanks. The verdict While the baby gorillas and their neighbours will be happy, legal executives in the country will be disturbed to learn the latest from the UN court trying Rwanda’s genocide suspects in Arusha. Rwanda’s judicial sector has been busy the entire week defending its capacity to try suspects accused of implementing the 1994 Genocide. Last week the Arusha based International Criminal Tribunal passed another judgment turning down the second request to transfer suspects to Rwanda. The judges in both decisions alleged they were not convinced with the general competence of Rwanda’s legal system. Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga had to fly to the New York based Security Council to make his point that Rwanda indeed has developed mechanisms to try suspects in Rwanda. In response, the prosecutor general of the ICTR Hassan Jallow has appealed the decision involving the two cases of Yususf Munyakazi and Gaspard Kanyarukiga. Also, in a press conference on Thursday at the ICTR premises Hassan Jallow the Prosecutor General expressed his doubts about the cooperation of the Kenyan government in efforts to arrest the most wanted person of the tribunal Félicien Kabuga in connection with his funding of the Genocide militias. In a related development, some experts at the court have expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Rwanda on many occasions has been called to testify only in the capacity of ‘Friend of the Court’. Yet it is the country with the deepest interest in the ICTR! The government also arrested four senior army officer accused of murdering priests at the Catholic Disocese of Kabgyayi during the liberation struggle of 1994. The four officers, it was reported, carried out revenge killings after they found all their relatives who had sought refuge at the huge diocese murdered during the Genocide. The ICTR prosecutor said that his office will give the government all the necessary support during trial procedures for the army officers. The court will however have to stretch its legal arms much further than that as reports in the week indicated that another fugitive, the former head of Juvenal Habyarimana’s presidential security, Protais Mpiranya who according to the UK broadsheet The Sunday Times, is hiding in Zimbabwe. Election nerves President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party however have more pressing issues to deal with right now. No time to track down Rwandan fugitives. The Zimbabwean government has continued in its determination to throw all their reputation to the dogs. The March presidential elections ensured a sustained period of uncertainty through out Zimbabwe. Morgan Tvangarai, the man who stood against Mugabe and ‘won’, tested that uncertainty on Thursday and he was arrested twice the same day. The secretary general of his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is currently in detention facing treason charges. Mugabe is not the only opposition politician that faced the cruel hand of fate last week. Two Kenyan ministers died after their plane crashed midair over the Maasai Game Reserve due to bad weather. The deceased, Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones and Assistant Home Affairs Minister Lorna Laboso, both belonged to Raila Odinga’ Orange Democratice Movement that is now in coalition with Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity in governing Kenya. Making history The highly publicised visit to Rwanda of former UN Human Rights boss Sadako Ogata could not be complete without making history in Rwanda’s tertiary education sector. The National University of Rwanda, which opened its doors in 1963, awarded its maiden honorary degree to Ogata for her work in helping with emergency relief programmes for Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide at a time when she was still at the helm of the UNHCR. Ogata was awarded an honorary degree in law. Ends