By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

ABUJA, Nigeria — France will not negotiate with gunmen claiming to be from the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram who kidnapped a French family of seven, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday.  Moreover, while Le Drian deplored the fact children were among the hostages, he stated: “We do not play this bidding game.”

He went on to say, “we will use all [other] possible means to ensure these and other hostages are freed.”

The three adults and four children were abducted in Cameroon last week.  The father reportedly works for the French company G.D.F. Suez, which is based in Yaounde, Cameroon.  G.D.F. Suez is currently developing a natural gas liquefaction project in Cameroon.  Reports state that the family is being held in Nigeria.

In a video posted on YouTube on Monday, gunmen threatened to kill the family unless authorities in Nigeria and Cameroon release prisoners held there.  The masked man, who identified himself as a Boko Haram agent, states that French President Francois Hollande “started war against Islam, and we must fight him everywhere.”

Boko Haram is believed to have killed at least thousands since 2009 in an attempt to establish an Islamist state in Nigeria.

The kidnapping has illustrated the heightened risk to French citizens in Africa due to France’s involvement in Mali combating Islamic militants.

However, the abduction was the first case of foreigners being seized in the predominantly Muslim north of Cameroon.  This region – with typically porous borders – is considered to be within the operational sphere of Boko Haram and other Nigerian militant groups.

Simultaneous to this abhorrent event, the conflict between Nigerian troops and Boko Haram continued this week in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and main base of Boko Haram.

Nigerian troops reportedly killed a suspected Boko Haram commander and three of his lieutenants during a recent operation.  The operation was conducted in order to apprehend Boko Haram fighters thought to be involved in attacks that killed three civilians and left six soldiers wounded last week.

For more information, please see:

BBC – French Family Kidnapped in Cameroon “Shown in Video” – 26 February 2013

CNN – France Blasts “Cruelty” as Boko Haram Displays Kidnapped Family – 26 February 2013

News.com.au – Nigeria Kills Boko Haram Commander – 26 February 2013

Reuters – France Says Will Not Negotiate with Cameroon Hostage-Takers – 26 February 2013

By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan—The United Nations today expressed its deep concern over the latest deadly tribal violence in the country’s Darfur region.

According to the United Nations, more than 100 people have been killed and another 100,000 have been displaced from their homes because of the recent tribal warfare in Darfur. Residents said that the attackers wore uniforms and belonged to a militia of the Rezeigat tribe.

“They came in Land Cruisers, used Dushkas and they burned 30 houses, killing 53 people,” said a resident of El-Sireaf town, to which most of the 100,000 people displaced or severely affected by the earlier tribal fighting had fled.

Amnesty International said, “These events come as the government is attempting to exert greater control over licensing and export of gold, in a context of fiscal crisis, depleted foreign exchange reserves and widespread gold smuggling.”

The renewed fighting between two Arab tribes over mining rights left 60 people dead in the northern Darfur region. The country’s state news agency said that the fighting was the worst it has been since a cease-fire agreement was reached just last month. The agency noted that the fighting began when a group of armed tribesmen in vehicles and others riding camels attacked the El-Sireaf area of North Darfur.

The country’s western region of Darfur has been afflicted by tribal violence for almost 10 years now, since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government in the capital of Khartoum. Violence and fighting periodically erupt between tribes in that region.

The United Nation-African Union Mission in the region noted in a report last months that the deaths and displacement resulted from clashes between two tribes—Abbala and Beni Hussein. These clashes took placed in Jabel Amir, the site of several gold mines in the North Darfur state.

Governor Kbir said that security forces will “intervene strongly” to ensure peace between the two tribes. He further commented, saying that, “the government will review the humanitarian situation so as to let the NGOs do their job of delivering aid to affected people.”

The United Nations said that about 1.4 million people were already living in camps for the displaced before this most recent violent attack.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur.

 

For further information, please see:

Global Post – UN Deeply Concerned by Darfur Tribal Fighting – 24 February 2013

Reuters – Fighting in Sudan’s Darfur Region Kills 51 – 24 February 2013

The Washington Post – Renewed Tribal Fighting Over Mining Rights – 24 February 2013

Al Arabiya – Arab Militia Kills 50 in Sudan’s Darfur – 23 February 2013

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – On Tuesday, the Zimbabwean police announced that the government is banning the possession of “specially designed radios” and similar communication devices.

According to sources, the ban applies to devices such as small radio receivers and smart phones that tune into stations not linked to the country’s state broadcaster.

According to the police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and political parties are using these devices to spread “hate speech” against the administration that might influence the March referendum and elections this year.

“[These groups] have the intention to sow seeds of disharmony within the country especially now that the country is about to embark on the referendum and harmonized elections,” Charamba told journalists during last week’s press conference.

Media watchdog Misa-Zimbabwe condemned the ban, challenging its legality.

“It is an illegal ban to start with. There is no law which proscribes ownership and distribution of the receivers in the country,” asserted Misa-Zimbabwe director Nhlanhla Ngwenya.

Ngwenya described the prohibition as an “act of cowardice by people who feel threatened by the free flow of information.” He also suggested that it is the government’s way of blocking news and information from radio stations who have openly criticized the President and his administration.

Furthermore, Ngwenya said that the law was vague because it failed to specify which “communications devices” are banned and on what basis are they or their distribution deemed illegal.

“It is not clear as yet, on what basis possession of devices such as radios meant to receive broadcasting services can be deemed illegal. A reading of Section 38B of the Broadcasting Services Act states that one is not prohibited from possession of a receiver as long as it is in accordance with the terms and conditions of a listener’s license as issued by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC),” Ngwenya explained.

“The importance of a radio set cannot be over-emphasised as it is a generally affordable gadget used for receiving information by the public. The right to receive and impart information and ideas is enshrined in Section 20 of the current constitution as a vital component of citizens’ right to freedom of expression,” he added.

Finally, Ngwenya said that Misa-Zimbabwe is currently working with other civil society groups to urge the government to repeal the prohibition. One of these groups, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), indicated its intention to assail the law’s constitutionality in court.

“The lengths to which State institutions and actors are now going to deny fundamental rights and freedoms and act outside the law is alarming, but is typical of paranoid State authorities who are contemptuous of any diversity of opinion and information,” stated ZLHR in a recent press release.

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Zimbabwe: Ban On Radio Receivers Sparks Outcry – 24 February 2013

New Zimbabwe – Media groups slam police radio crackdown – 24 February 2013

Sunday Monitor – Zimbabwe police ban radios – 24 February 2013

The Zimbabwean – Media Alliance Zimbabwe condemns radio sets ban – 23 February 2013

News Day – Police under fire over radios – 21 February 2013

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

CONCORD, New Hampshire — A New Hampshire jury on Thursday convicted a Rwandan woman of lying about her role in the 1994 genocide in her home country to acquire U.S. citizenship.

Beatrice Munyenyezi, 43, had her citizenship revoked by a federal judge and will face sentencing in June for two counts of fraudulently obtaining her U.S. citizenship status.  Jurors deliberated for less than five hours Thursday before convicting Munyenyezi .

Upon hearing the verdicts, Munyenyezi put her head down on the defense table and wept.  Her 18 year-old daughter sobbed as she left the courtroom, while her two other daughters were not present.

Munyenyezi is back behind bars, where she spent 22 months between her indictment in 2010 and the jury deadlocking in her first trial last year.  She was released to home confinement in Manchester the month after that mistrial.

According to the Justice Department, she now faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine on each count and possible deportation.

Munyenyezi, who was not on trial for war crimes, was found guilty of intentionally lying about her role in the infamous slaughter in which ethnic Hutu militants viciously slaughtered their Tutsi counterparts over a three-month period.  While a true number has never been established, many report that the unexpected genocide resulted in the death of approximately one million Rwandans.

The same team of prosecutors who obtained the guilty verdict in Munyenyezi’s case also secured a conviction against her sister last summer in Boston on charges of fraudulently obtaining a visa to enter the United States by lying about her own Hutu political party affiliations.

Munyenyezi is thought to be married to former militia leader Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, who was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and sentenced to life in prison last year.  She is thought to have lived in the hotel and helped pick out those who arrived at a nearby checkpoint to be executed or raped.

At trial, prosecutors brought in Butare residents who placed Munyenyezi at a roadblock where Tutsis were identified by the ethnicity listed on their Rwandan identification cards and ordered which ones were to be killed.  The prosecutors did not rely upon a handful of Rwandan prisoners serving life sentences for murders and rapes during the genocide.  Other witnesses testified that they saw her in the clothing worn by leaders of the extremist Hutu political party.

Moreover, Ntahobali’s mother was also convicted by the ICTR and sentenced to life in prison in June 2011 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes of violence.  She was a cabinet minister in the Hutu-dominated Rwandan government when the genocide began in early April 1994.

For more information, please see:

ABC – Convicted NH Woman Might be Sent Back to Rwanda – 22 February 2013

Fox News – NH Woman Convicted of Masking Role in 1994 Rwanda Genocide Faces Prison, Might be Deported – 22 February 2013

Huffington Post – Beatrice Munyenyezi Lied About Her Role in Rwanda Genocide; Faces Deportation from New Hampshire – 22 February 2013

Washington Post – Jurors Convict NH Woman of Lying About Role in Rwanda Genocide to get Citizenship – 22 February 2013