[The Somali militant group al-Shabab has formally joined al-Qaida, according to a video translation released Thursday of a message from al-Qaida’s leader.]
BURUNDI :
Burundi : la production caféicole en baisse de plus de 40%
Vendredi 10 février 2012 /Xinhua
BUJUMBURA (Xinhua) – Le Burundi a vu sa production du café, principale source de devises pour le pays et revenus pour environ 600.000 ménages caféiculteurs, a connu une baisse de plus de 40%, a déclaré jeudi à Bujumbura M. Adrien Sibomana, président de l’INTERCAFE-Burundi.
L’INTERCAFE-Burundi regroupe les différents intervenants dans la filière café au Burundi et est chargée principalement d’assumer la responsabilité opérationnelle du secteur café et de servir de cadre de concertation et de décision. M. Sibomana, qui procédait à l’ouverture d’un atelier d’analyse et de validation d’une étude portant sur l’évaluation du système actuel d’encadrement caféicole et la définition d’un nouveau système de relance de la caféiculture au Burundi, a précisé que les différents systèmes d’ encadrement initiés dans le passé sous la coordination de l’ex- Office des Cafés du Burundi (OCIBU), se sont révélés “inefficaces et non coordonnés” avec pour effet pervers une faible productivité du café. Antoine Kinyomvyi, un consultant qui a présenté cette étude commanditée par l’INTERCAFE-Burundi, a parlé de “constat amer au niveau de l’état des plantations agricoles”.
Celles-ci sont presqu’à l’abandon, a-t-il dit, en pointant du doigt le mauvais fonctionnement de la trilogie “Administration territoriale-Directions Provinciales de l’Agriculture et de l’ Elevage (DPAE)-Confédération Nationale des Associations des Caféiculteurs (CNAC)”.
L’ex-OCIBU, qui a été remplacée par l’Autorité de Régulation de la Filière Café (ARFIC), n’a pas bien joué son rôle de régulateur de la filière café, a déploré M. Kinyomvyi, en faisant remarquer que la production caféicole varie de 28.000 à 6.000 tonnes d’une année à une autre. Pour remédier à cette situation, M. Kinyomvyi a proposé la mise en place d’un plan quinquennal pour relancer la caféiculture au Burundi dont l’ultime objectif est de parvenir à une production caféicole de 40.000 tonnes par an d’ici 2015, pour pouvoir générer des recettes annuelles estimées à 600 milliards de francs burundais (environ 450 millions USD).
A propos des axes principaux de ce plan, il a indiqué que le nouveau système d’encadrement responsabilise l’INTERCAFE-Burundi, qui, à son tour, confie la responsabilité sur terrain à la CNAC. Celle-ci agira via les fédérations des caféiculteurs qui bénéficieront d’un renforcement des capacités des techniciens agronomes de terrains qui vont couvrir deux à trois communes et des assistants agronomes par zone.
Avec le nouveau système d’encadrement préconisé, a-t-il poursuivi, les producteurs bénéficieront des renforcements des capacités à la base pour que les agents communautaires modèles puissent se démarquer et entraîner les autres dans le sillage.
Burundi : léger remaniement ministériel avec deux départs et deux entrées
Jeudi 9 février 2012 /Xinhua
BUJUMBURA (Xinhua) – Le chef de l’Etat burundais Pierre Nkurunziza a procédé mercredi à un léger remaniement ministériel où deux ministres ont été remplacés par deux nouveaux visages.
Issa Ngendakumana a été désigné à la tête du ministère à la Présidence chargé de la Bonne gouvernance et de la Privatisation, en remplacement de Jean Baptiste Gahimbare qui occupait ce poste depuis le 29 août 2010.
Il était jusqu’à sa nouvelle nomination député à l’Assemblée législative de la Communauté est-africaine.
Tabu Abdallah Manirakiza a été nommé du ministre des Finances et de la Planification du développement économique, en remplacement de Mme Clothilde Nizigama, qui a été désignée récemment secrétaire général adjoint chargée des Programmes, du Budget, de l’Administration et des Ressources Humaines à la Communauté Economique des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale (CEEAC).
Le décret présidentiel ne fait pas mention des raisons de ce remaniement.
Burundi : la bancarisation des populations démunies pour lutter conte la pauvreté
Publié le 9 février 2012 /Xinhua
(Xinhua) — Le gouverneur de la Banque de la République du Burundi (BRB, banque centrale du pays), Gaspard Sindayigaya, a plaidé mardi pour la bancarisation des populations burundaises démunies, dans le cadre des efforts pour réduire la pauvreté et du processus de mise en oeuvre des objectifs du Cadre Stratégique de Lutte Contre la Pauvreté (CSLP) au Burundi.
Le taux de bancarisation est faible et la bancarisation des populations démunies devrait être la base du développement de l’ économie burundaise, a indiqué M. Sindayigaya lors de l’ouverture d’une conférence-débat sur “l’inclusion financière” afin de promouvoir l’accès, l’utilisation et la qualité des services financiers formels aux pauvres.
Le gouverneur Sindayigaya a exhorté les opérateurs économiques et financiers à identifier des politiques stratégiques susceptibles de contribuer, pour le moyen terme, à la promotion de l’accès, de l’utilisation et de la qualité des services financiers formels à la majorité de la population burundaise pour le développement intégral du pays.
“Certes, celle-ci est pauvre mais pas si pauvre qu’elle ne peut pas avoir à épargner pour bénéficier de l’un ou de l’autre service et produit financier formel”, a-t-il dit, avant d’affirmer que réussir un tel pari permettrait de tirer de plus en plus cette population “des usuriers du secteur financier informel”.
M. Sindayigaya a fait remarquer que le sujet de l’inclusion financière trouve son origine dans l’organisme internationale” l’Alliance pour l’inclusion financière (AFI), dont le Burundi, à travers la BRB, est membre depuis mai 2009.
L’AFI, dont le siège est à Bangkok en Thaïlande, regroupe actuellement plus de 80 membres en voie de développement où le taux de bancarisation est très faible.
La mission de l’AFI, a affirmé M. Sindayigaya, est d’amener les pays membres à faire en sorte que les populations pauvres vivant en deçà de deux dollars américains par jour, aient accès aux services financiers formels, variés, de qualité et un prix abordable.
RWANDA :
Rwanda Can Be Proud of Its Economic Progress
By JOHN RWANGOMBWA /online.wsj.com/FEBRUARY 10, 2012.
Since 2006, one million of the country’s 11 million citizens have emerged from poverty.
A cover story in the Economist in May 2000 struck a dispiriting note. “Africa,” the magazine declared with great authority (and more than a ring of truth), “the hopeless continent.”
As Rwandans, however, we know a thing or two about the resiliency of hope. We have learned it can endure and thrive in the most difficult conditions imaginable.
While the world’s attention has been gripped by the global financial crisis, another, more uplifting narrative has been taking hold in Africa. With fitting irony, it was the Economist who once again summed up this new zeitgeist when it revisited the continent for its December 2011 edition. This time the cover read, “Africa Rising.”
There are few places that bear this out more vividly than Rwanda. Earlier this week, the remarkable story of my country’s social and economic progress has come into renewed focus. On Tuesday, we released findings from the Household Living Conditions Survey conducted last year that revealed a reduction in the poverty rate to 45% from 57% since 2006. In other words, over just a five year period, 200,000 Rwandan families—or approximately one million of our 11 million citizens—have emerged from poverty.
During the same period, the proportion of Rwandans classified as living in conditions of “extreme poverty” dropped to 24% from 37%, one of the steepest declines witnessed by any nation since such records have been kept. It should also be noted that the poorest of our population benefited most from the poverty reduction. As measured by the Gini coefficient, inequality decreased to 0.49 from 0.52 in the same period.
The same report, endorsed by the United Nations and Oxfam, shows extraordinary progress against other benchmarks as well. Child and maternal mortality rates dropped by 41% and 35% respectively since 2006. The fertility rate has dropped to 4.6 from 6.1 largely as a result of the rapid and widespread adoption of modern contraceptive methods. Primary school enrolments stand at more than 90%, while the numbers attending secondary school have doubled.
All of this has taken place, it seems worth repeating, while the rest of the world has endured the deepest and most sustained economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Figures like these may explain why the word “miracle” is often applied to Rwanda’s social and economic resurgence. It is not, however, a term you will hear from Rwandans.
We know full well that there is nothing supernatural about what we have achieved to date, and that it represents a mere fraction of the ambitions we hold for our country. We understand that our accomplishments are the result of unrelenting focus by our country’s leaders and citizens on getting the fundamentals right: government accountability and transparency, policies that attract trade and investment, a healthy and educated population.
While Rwanda has implemented vital reforms across each of these areas, they alone would have amounted to little without the visionary cooperation of our development partners: the U.K., the World Bank, the European Union and the African Development Bank, among others. The channeling of most of their development assistance through budget support ensured attainment of superior results.
As we briefly take stock of progress to date before setting out toward the next horizon, it is only fair to note that the success so far of our economic development and poverty reduction strategy is owed to good policy both in Kigali and among our partners. We have been heartened, to say the least, by the courage displayed by our partners in their unwavering commitment to our country and continent during a period of great fiscal constraint.
For these reasons, whatever good news that can be gleaned from findings such as those released this week should be rightly considered yours as well as ours. After all, what is the price tag for a stable and prosperous Rwanda? What value can we place on a million lives that, in five short years, have shifted from deprivation to opportunity—or the millions more for whom that moment, yet to come, now seems within reach?
—Mr. Rwangombwa is Rwanda’s minister of finance and economic planning.
Rwanda: New Genocide Cases a Milestone for Domestic Prosecutions of International Crimes
By Ottilia Anna Maunganidze,/ Institute for Security Studies (Tshwane/Pretoria)/allafrica.com/9 February 2012
analysis
On 6 April 1994, Rwandese president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed in a plane crash. The two were travelling from Tanzania to Rwanda following a heads of state summit in Dar es Salaam. After the crash widespread violence erupted in Rwanda resulting in the deaths of approximately 800 000 people over the next 100 days. Although it has been alleged that the plane was shot down, to date the perpetrators have not been identified. The targets of the Rwandan genocide were predominantly from the Tutsi ethnic group, although moderate individuals from the Hutu ethnic group who were believed to be sympathetic to the then opposition Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) were also among the victims.
Eighteen years after the genocide, the quest for justice for the crimes committed in 1994 continues. An international criminal tribunal was set up by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to prosecute those who bore the greatest responsibility for the Rwandan genocide. To date, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has dealt with over 80 cases, securing convictions in 59 of these. The ICTR has achieved important results as far as accountability for the genocide is concerned. However, the tribunal has been criticized for taking too long, being costly to run and prosecuting a small amount of people in comparison to domestic justice processes in Rwanda. Furthermore, the ICTR has been criticized for focusing its prosecutions on Hutus.
In addition to those prosecuted by the ICTR, the Rwandan local and traditional gacaca courts have prosecuted hundreds of thousands of individuals. The combined efforts of the ICTR, the local courts and the gacaca have resulted in a unique and comprehensive approach to ensuring justice for the crimes committed during the 1994 genocide. However, despite overwhelming success, justice has largely remained one-sided and slow. In a 2011 report on the gacaca, international human rights organisation Human Rights Watch criticized the gacaca system and accused the Rwandan government of political interference in the trials. In addition, many senior officials believed to be behind the genocide remain at large and in exile in other countries. These individuals, if extradited to Rwanda, can only face trial before the High Court and not the gacaca.Since 1995, the Rwandan government has sent over 40 extradition requests to various countries.
These requests for the extradition of individuals to Rwanda to stand trial have largely been unsuccessful. However, recent events suggest that those who remain at large could face trial in Rwanda at last.
On 24 January 2012, Canada deported alleged genocide suspect Leon Mugesera back to Rwanda. Mugesera appeared before the Rwandan High Court on 2 February 2012 where he was charged for his involvement in the 1994 genocide. Mugesera, a member of the MRND – the former ruling party in Rwanda – is accused of inciting and planning the genocide. The charges against Mugesera are based on a speech he gave at an MRND party meeting in 1992, in which he called upon people from the majority Hutu ethnic group to exterminate the minority Tutsis who he likened to cockroaches.
Mugesera’s case is the second high profile case that will be dealt with by Rwandan domestic courts. His deportation came just days after the ICTR handed over referral and prosecution materials in the case of Jean Bosco Uwinkindi to the Rwandan courts. Uwinkindi is charged with the crimes of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity for his involvement in atrocities in Kigal Rural Prefecture.
Uwinkindi’s transfer is the first handover of a case by the ICTR to the national courts of Rwanda. The Prosecutor of the ICTR, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, regards the transfer of the Uwinkindi case as a watershed moment for both the ICTR and Rwanda. Indeed, the transfer of the Uwinkindi case to Rwanda is an important step in acknowledging the ability of the Rwandan criminal justice system to deal with serious crimes.
In addition to the cases of Mugesera and Uwinkindi, in 2011 the US returned to Rwanda two genocide fugitives, Jean-Marie Vianney Mudahinyuka and Marie-Claire Mukeshimana. More recently, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) also approved the extradition of another genocide suspect, Sylvere Ahorugeze, who is currently resident in Sweden. The decision of the ECHR, although subject to review, is important for international criminal justice as it has a broad impact, particularly in Europe where it is believed hundreds of Rwandan genocide suspects reside.
The decision of ECHR is the first of a regional human rights court on the extradition of a genocide suspect to Rwanda. As such the judgment sets a precedent for Rwanda to seek extradition of other suspects resident abroad. This decision follows refusals by courts in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to allow the extradition of genocide suspects to Rwanda. Most of these decisions were based on the fact that the courts were not satisfied that the Rwandan judiciary could guarantee a fair trial to extradited genocide suspects.
It is no surprise therefore that the Prosecutor General of Rwanda, Martin Ngoga, has applauded these recent decisions as evidence that the international community believes in the Rwandan criminal justice system. He credits the Rwandan government’s legal reforms for these positive developments. Notably, in 2007 Rwanda abolished the death penalty. Furthermore, since 2008 Rwanda has engaged in capacity building projects aimed at enhancing the performance of the judiciary and ensuring fairness and efficacy of the courts. In addition new courthouses and detention facilities were constructed.
However, despite these recent decisions and the efforts of the Rwandan government to reform the criminal justice system, concerns remain. One of the major concerns relates to whether the Rwandan courts have the requisite capacity to deal with the potential influx of high profile cases. In addition, until recently most courts – the ICTR and those in Europe – did not believe that the Rwandan courts would be able to provide free and fair trials for genocide suspects. Perceptions are changing, albeit slowly. The satisfactory performance of the Rwandan courts will be particularly important for Rwanda’s continued efforts to ensure accountability given that both the ICTR and the gacaca courts will end trials in mid-2012. As a result, the latest genocide trials in Rwanda will be watched closely as they will be the litmus test for any future extraditions or transfers to Rwanda.
Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, Researcher, Transnational Threats and International Crime Division, ISS Pretoria
RDC CONGO:
RDC : 37 millions d’habitants n’ont pas accès à l’eau potable
Vendredi 10 février 2012/Xinhua
KINSHASA (Xinhua) – En République démocratique du Congo (RDC), 37 millions d’habitants n’ont pas accès à l’eau potable, estime l’Institut national des statistiques (INS) de ce pays dans son rapport pour l’année 2011.
47 millions de Congolais n’utilisent pas de latrines améliorées, plus de 10 millions défèquent dans la nature et 40 millions ne se lavent pas les mains aux moments critiques ou après avoir été aux toilettes, ajoute le rapport.
Pour la responsable du programme Eau, Hygiène et Assainissement (Wash) au sein de l’OMS, le Dr Kossi Ayigan, qui a présenté ce rapport jeudi à Kinshasa, “avec ces comportements, il n’est pas étonnant d’avoir la poussée des épidémies ces derniers temps en République démocratique du Congo”.
“L’environnement dans lequel nous vivons se dégrade de plus en plus au point de nous rendre très vulnérables aux maladies”, a-t- elle dit.
Le Dr Kossi Ayigan a déclaré que le choléra qui sévit en RDC depuis mars 2011 ne cesse de faire des victimes.
Selon elle, pour un total de 8.360 cas et 444 décès, la province du Bandundu compte 2.408 cas et 145 décès, la province de l’Equateur a enregistré 3.046 cas contre 165 décès. Kinshasa a enregistré 1.185 cas et 48 décès, la Province Orientale 90 cas et 2 décès et le Bas-Congo 1.631 cas et 84 décès.
Dans la ville de Kinshasa, ce sont les communes de Limete, de Maluku et de Masina, et le quartier Kingabwa riveraines du fleuve Congo qui battent le record de personnes contaminées, a-t-elle affirmé.
“La vérité est que si l’Etat congolais ne s’implique pas dans la sensibilisation de la population sur les conditions salubres à imposer dans notre environnement en l’impliquant totalement, tous les efforts que les acteurs humanitaires sont en train de mener resteront vains. Et par conséquent, on aura chaque année à déplorer la résurgence des épidémies et les morts qu’elles entraîneront”, a conclu la responsable du programme Wash.
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