SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE OUTREACH AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE

PRESS CLIPPINGS

Enclosed are clippings of local and international press on the Special Court and related issues obtained by the Outreach and Public Affairs Office as at: Monday, 12 July 2010

Press clips are produced Monday through Friday. Any omission, comment or suggestion, please contact Martin Royston-Wright Ext 7217 2

Local News

RUF Bought Ammunition from Top Liberian Security Personnel / Premier News Page 3

Issa Sesay Implicates Gadaffi / Concord Times Pages 4-5

Naomi Campbell Agrees to Testify / Concord Times Page 6

Guinea’s P[residential Run-off Delayed Over Fraud Claims / The Examiner Page 7

…Taylor Neither Supported Rebels, Nor Receive Diamonds From Them / CharlesTaylorTrial.org Pages 8-12

Supermodel Campbell to Testified On July 29 On Blood Diamond Gift / New Democrat Pages 13-14

Report from The Hague / BBC World Service Trust Page 15

Naomi Campbell Will Appear at War Crimes Trial of Charles Taylor / CNN Page 16

Naomi Campbell Called to Blood Diamond Trial / SOS Children’s Village Page 17

UNMIL Public Information Office Media Summary / UNMIL Pages 18-23

ICC Rejects Call to Halt DRC Militia Chief Trial / Agence France Presse Page 24

U.S. Woman Falsely Accused of Rwanda Genocide Rape Crimes / San Francisco Bay View Pages 25-37

3 Premier News Monday, 12 July 2010

4 Concord Times Monday, 12 July 2010

Issa Sesay Implicates Gadaffi

5

6 Concord Times Monday, 12 July 2010

7 The Examiner Monday, 12 July 2010

8 CharlesTaylorTrial.org (The Hague) Saturday, 10 July 2010

Sierra Leone: RUF Leader Testifies - Says Taylor Neither Supported Rebels, Nor Receive Diamonds From Them

Alpha Sesay

A former Sierra Leonean rebel leader - released from his jail cell in Rwanda to testify on behalf of Charles Taylor - this week distanced the activities of his rebels from the former Liberian President.

Mr. Taylor did not control the rebels' actions, receive diamonds from them, nor provide assistance to them during Sierra Leone's bloody civil conflict, he said.

Issa Hassan Sesay, who led the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group for a short period from May 2000 to the end of the conflict in 2002, has himself been convicted of charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Sierra Leonean conflict and is serving a 52-year long jail sentence in a Rwandan jail.

Prosecutors allege that Mr. Sesay had traveled regularly to Liberia to deliver diamonds to Mr. Taylor in exchange for arms and ammunition during the country's brutal conflict, and that he had received direct orders from Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor has denied all allegations against him.

On Monday, Mr. Sesay told the court that Mr. Taylor was never in charge of the RUF rebel group and allegations that the RUF leaders took diamonds to the former Liberian president are false.

"Was Charles Taylor ever in charge of the RUF, Mr. Sesay?" Mr. Taylor's lead defense counsel, Courtenay Griffiths, asked the former RUF leader on Monday.

"To my knowledge, no," Mr. Sesay responded.

Previous prosecution witnesses have told the Special Court for Sierra Leone that Mr. Sesay was not the only rebel leader to bring diamonds to Mr. Taylor -- others, including RUF founder and head, Foday Sankoh, and leading commander, Sam Bockarie, also traveled regularly to Liberia with diamonds for the former Liberian president.

In his testimony on Monday, Mr. Sesay denied taking diamonds to Mr. Taylor, and said neither Mr. Sankoh nor Mr. Bockarie told him about taking diamonds to Mr. Taylor either.

"Did you ever give diamonds to Charles Taylor, Mr. Sesay?" Mr. Griffiths asked the witness.

"Me, I never one day gave diamonds to Mr. Taylor," Mr. Sesay responded.

"To your knowledge, did Foday Sankoh ever give diamonds to Mr. Taylor?" Mr. Griffiths asked again.

"Foday Sankoh never told me that," Mr. Sesay said.

Asked whether Mr. Bockarie ever gave diamonds to Mr. Taylor, Mr. Sesay responded: "Sam Bockarie never told me that."

Mr. Sesay also spoke extensively about the training of RUF fighters at Camp Naama in Liberia and how the rebel group conducted itself during the civil conflict in Sierra Leone. Speaking about the RUF's plans to invade Sierra Leone in 1991, the witness told the court that Mr. Taylor never played any role in the formation of the RUF.

He did, however, admit that the RUF committed crimes against Sierra Leonean civilians, including rape, murder, looting, forced labor and recruitment and use of children for combat purposes - crimes for which prosecutors say that Mr. Taylor bears responsibility (and which Mr. Taylor denies).

9 Contrary to prosecution allegations that it was Mr. Taylor who appointed him as interim leader of the RUF, Mr. Sesay told the court that he was appointed by the West African leaders during a meeting in Liberia. His appointment was not made by Mr. Taylor alone, he told the court.

On Tuesday, Mr. Sesay continued to distance Mr. Taylor from wrongdoing during the conflict in Sierra Leone, pointing instead to the United Nations and other Liberian rebel groups who did more to further the rebel cause through weapons supplies and other assistance than the former Liberian president ever did.

Mr. Sesay on Tuesday testified to an arms trade between the RUF and United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), a rival rebel faction which fought against Mr. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group. In 1997, Mr. Sankoh had allegedly given Mr. Bockarie, USD 7000 to buy ammunition from ULIMO forces as the group had come under fire from a government-aligned militia group, the Kamajors. Mr. Sankoh was arrested and imprisoned not long after handing over the money.

Mr. Taylor's lead counsel, Mr. Griffiths, then read aloud sections of the "salute report" - a report prepared by Mr. Bockarie, already highlighted during the trial, that described RUF activities while Mr. Sankoh was in jail.

"Upon your departure, I initiated contact with ULIMO as per your instructions. We re-commenced a mutually beneficial relationship...I used the $7000 you gave me to purchase materials from ULIMO," Mr, Griffiths read to the court, promoting a reaction from Mr. Sesay.

"This is the $7000 that I was talking to you about when I was explaining to the court that Mr. Sankoh gave to Sam Bockarie to purchase materials from ULIMO," Mr. Sesay said.

Mr. Sesay explained that the arms trade between RUF and ULIMO continued from late December 1996 up to sometime in 1998 after the removal from power of the military junta which had overthrown the Sierra Leonean government in 1997.

Mr. Sesay said that apart from using the money left by Mr. Sankoh to make payment to ULIMO, RUF also sold produce harvested by civilians from farms. The money made from produce sales was used to pay for more ammunition. At the time, disarmament had not yet been completed in Liberia, he said. ULIMO fighters and their commanders came with arms and ammunition on a regular basis, and other items were also used to make payment to them.

"They'll ask for money, generators, tape recorders...it came to a time, even if you gave them anything, they'll take it if you don't have money. It became very rampant," he said.

In response to a question as to whether they received any arms and ammunition from Taylor at this time, Mr. Sesay said "No. At this time we did not even have any contact with Charles Taylor."

"It was not possible [to contact Taylor]. At this time ULIMO was controlling from Foya right up to Bomi. It was not possible to get any contact with Charles Taylor or the NPFL," he added.

When asked whether they had any radio communication with Mr. Taylor, he said "No. We hadn't any radio contact with Mr. Taylor."

Mr. Sesay also told the court that Mr. Sankoh had said he had given $50,000 to another RUF commander called Kposowa to purchase arms and ammunition from West African peacekeepers based in Liberia.

"When Mr. Sankoh came, he told me that he had given money to Kposowa to buy ammunition..." Mr. Sesay said.

Mr. Sesay also denied allegations that Mr. Sankoh had given instructions to Mr. Bockarie, to take orders from Mr. Taylor when Mr. Sankoh was arrested and imprisoned in 1997.

He also denied that Mr. Taylor ordered a merger between the RUF and disgruntled Sierra Leonean soldiers who had overthrown the country's elected government and formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). Mr. 10 Sesay, who was one of the RUF leaders at that time, on Tuesday told the court that such instructions did not come from Mr. Taylor, but from Mr. Sankoh while he was incarcerated in Nigeria.

As Mr. Sesay continued his testimony on Wednesday, he took pains to distance Mr. Taylor from a shipment of weapons that prosecutors say was bought with the same batch of diamonds as those he allegedly gave to supermodel Naomi Campbell after a star-studded dinner in South Africa in 1997. Mr. Sesay rather tied Libyan leader Muamarr Ghadaffi, Mr. Sankoh, Commander in Chief (CIC) of the Burkinabe Army, General Diendere, and AFRC leader, Johnny Paul Koroma, to the flight full of arms and ammunition which landed in northern Sierra Leone in late 1997.

Prosecutors have alleged that RUF/AFRC fighters gave Mr. Taylor rough diamonds for sale and to use the proceeds to purchase arms and ammunition for them during his 1997 trip to South Africa. Prosecutors say that some of those diamonds were given to supermodel Ms. Campbell for whom a subpoena has been issued to testify in The Hague in three weeks' time, on July 29. On Wednesday, one of the men at the forefront of RUF activities in Sierra Leone said that prosecution allegations are false.

"It was Mr. Sankoh who paid for the arms and ammunition, it was Johnny Paul Koroma who paid for its transportation," Mr. Sesay told the court on Wednesday.

"Was it not Charles Taylor who paid for them with diamonds he had taken to South Africa?" Mr. Griffiths, asked Mr. Sesay.

"No. It was Mr. Sankoh who paid for them. At that time, Mr. Sankoh and Mr. Taylor did not even have any contact," Mr. Sesay responded.

Mr. Sesay described a letter sent from Mr. Sankoh - who was in jail in Nigeria at the time -- to Mr. Koroma and Mr. Bockarie. The letter, delivered by another RUF commander, Gibril Massaquoi, informed the two men that Mr. Ghadaffi had given Mr. Sankoh USD 2,000,000 with which he had bought weaponry. These arms and ammunition were to be collected from Burkinabe CIC General Diendere and transported to Sierra Leone for use by the AFRC and RUF. Mr. Sankoh asked Mr. Koroma to provide money for a chartered flight to take the materials to Sierra Leone. These materials, Mr. Sesay told the court, were the ones that were dropped off at an airstrip in northern Sierra Leone in late 1997.

Speaking about Mr. Sankoh, Mr. Sesay told the court that "he had travelled to Libya and had got some money from the Libyan leader and that is the money he used to buy the arms and ammunition."

"So he sent Gibril Massaquoi to meet General Diendere and Ibrahim Bah to make arrangements for the arms and ammunition to be taken to Sierra Leone," Mr. Sesay told the court.

"Mr. Sankoh told Johnny Paul to provide money to charter a flight for the arms and ammunition to be taken to Sierra Leone," he continued.

He said that "RUF agent," Ibrahim Bah, was invited to Sierra Leone and AFRC leader Mr. Koroma gave him USD 90,000 to pay for a chartered flight to transport the arms and ammunition from Burkina Faso to Sierra Leone. The said money was taken from the Bank of Sierra Leone, Mr. Sesay told the court.

Mr. Griffiths asked Mr. Sesay how he came to know all these details.

"Well, I took part in this. Even Gibril Massaquoi told me about the letters that he brought, Sam Bockarie told me. I was a senior commander and so was involved in what was going on," Mr. Sesay said.

"I was part of the team that went to receive the shipment," he added.

Asked by Presiding Judge of the Trial Chamber, Justice Julia Sebutinde, whether it is his testimony that "the funds that bought these arms and ammunition came from the Libyan leaded Muamarr Ghadaffi," Mr. Sesay said "yes, that was my understanding."

11 "Mr. Sankoh bought these arms and ammunition from General Diendere and he was able to keep them because he was the head of the army in Burkina Faso. If it were not for Mr. Sankoh's arrest, they would have come before then because Mr. Sankoh had given instructions to Peter Vandy to prepare an airstrip in Buedu," Mr. Sesay explained.

When asked whether it was possible for the flight carrying the arms and ammunition to have passed through Liberia before heading to Sierra Leone, Mr. Sesay said: "No. It would not have been possible because at that time, ECOMOG [West African peacekeepers] were based in Liberia."

On Thursday, Mr. Sesay told the court that another rebel group supplied the ammunition used to attack the diamond-rich town of Kono for "Operation Fita Fata" - not Mr. Taylor, as prosecutors have alleged. ULIMO rebels sold ammunition to an RUF member, named Kennedy, Mr Sesay said. The ammunition was buried before it was eventually handed over to Mr. Bockarie, who passed on some of it to his colleague, Superman, to launch the attack on Kono, according to Mr. Sesay.

"The ammunition that Bockarie gave to Superman for Fiti Fata - where did they come from?" asked Griffiths.

"It was the ammunition that Kennedy bought from ULIMO that had been buried in the ground," Mr. Sesay told the court.

"Did the ammunition for the Fiti Fata operation come from Charles Taylor?" Mr. Griffiths asked again.

"No, it did not come from Charles Taylor," Mr. Sesay responded.

Mr. Sesay explained that Kennedy had established a base in Voinjama-the base of the ULIMO fighters in Liberia- in order to effectively facilitate the arms and ammunition trade with ULIMO. Mr. Sesay said he personally visited Kennedy in Voinjama where he saw the ammunition that had been dug out from the ground and put in rice bags.

"I met Kennedy in Voinjama - I saw the ammunition in his room, he said he had bought them from ULIMO...they were in bags...Kennedy told me that these are the ammunition that I have bought, but they were a bit messy," Mr. Sesay said.

He said that the bags of ammunition were brought to RUF headquarters in Buedu, in eastern Sierra Leone, and they were cleaned with gasoline before being handed to Superman for the "Fiti Fata Operation."

Mr. Griffiths read portions of the RUF "salute report" that was presented by Mr. Bockarie to RUF leader Mr. Sankoh after his release from prison in Nigeria in 1999. In the report, Mr. Bockarie told Mr. Sankoh that "I renewed my contacts with ULIMO and obtained ammunition from them. It was out of these materials that I gave Superman to attack Kono."

"Did Charles Taylor plan and order the Fiti Fata mission?" Mr. Griffiths asked again.

"No. It was not Mr. Taylor because as far as I know, Bockarie was not in contact with Mr. Taylor," Mr. Sesay responded.

Also in his testimony on Thursday, Mr. Sesay dismissed allegations that it was Mr. Taylor who sent traditional herbalists to Buedu to perform ceremonies on RUF fighters to protect them from bullets during "Operation Fiti Fata." In 2008, several prosecution witness -- including Samuel Kargbo and Alice Pyne -- testified that Mr. Taylor sent these traditional herbalists to perform these ceremonies in Buedu and Kono as part of preparations to attack the diamond-rich town. While Mr. Kargbo testified that he underwent the ceremony in Buedu, Ms. Pyne said that she was present in Buedu when the herbalists arrived, and that she was part of those who underwent the ceremony in Kono. On Thursday, Mr. Sesay told the court that the herbalists were from Lofa County, where ULIMO forces were based, and their services were facilitated by an ex-ULIMO fighter called Titus.

"The medicine men came from Lofa County," Mr. Sesay said.

12 "It was one of the ex-ULIMO fighters called Titus, he was a Lorma guy. Titus was a friend of Bockarie and he was a brother to one of our vanguards, Major Moiba. So it was Bockarie who made this request to Major Moiba to get the men who were protecting the ULIMO fighters," Mr. Sesay said. "They called Titus and Bockarie gave him some money and he came with the people, two men and one woman."

"They came and treated people in Buedu and then went to Kono and treated people there. They were Lorma people based in Voinjama," Mr. Sesay said.

On Friday, Mr. Sesay told the court that RUF commander Mr. Bockarie, bought arms and ammunition from Mr. Taylor's top security personnel, including Benjamin Yeatean -- a close associate of Mr. Taylor and the former Director of the country's Special Security Services (SSS). But this did not mean Mr. Taylor knew about it, according to Mr. Sesay.

"Did Bockarie say whether or not these purchases were with the knowledge and permission of Charles Taylor?" Mr. Griffiths, asked Mr. Sesay on Friday morning.

"The answer is no. Bockarie did not tell me that Mr. Taylor knew about the purchase of those ammunition," Mr. Sesay responded.

Mr. Taylor has long maintained that he did not have arms and ammunition for his own military and so it was not possible for him to have supplied them to the RUF. Prosecutors maintain that the former Liberia president and his associates, including Mr. Yeaten, provided support to the rebel forces in Sierra Leone through the supply of arms and ammunition in return for diamonds.

Mr. Sesay's testimony continues on Monday.

13 New Democrat (Monrovia) Sunday, 11 July 2010

Liberia: Supermodel Campbell to Testified On July 29 On Blood Diamond Gift

British supermodel Naomi Campbell is to be served a subpoena and compelled to testify on July 29 in the trial of Charles Taylor about an alleged diamond gift she received from the former Liberian president in South Africa in 1997, Special Court for Sierra Leone judges ruled this week.

The subpoena was issued after judges agreed that prosecutors could re-open their case with a select cast of high profile witnesses.

Ms. Campbell, along with her former agent, Carole White, and Hollywood actress Mia Farrow, are slated to be called as witnesses as prosecutors get another chance to try to show that Mr. Taylor can be held responsible for crimes committed by Sierra Leonean rebel forces during that country's bloody 11-year conflict.

Among prosecution allegations is the claim that Mr. Taylor gave the rebels weapons and ammunition -- which they then used to commit crimes and fuel a brutal conflict in the West African nation - in exchange for diamonds.

Prosecutors say that Mr. Taylor had a joint plan with the rebels because of which he could enrich himself with Sierra Leone's diamond wealth, while also being in a position of command over the rebels from his neighboring country - and thus in a position to prevent or punish their crimes as they wreaked havoc across the nation. Mr. Taylor has denied all allegations against him.

After prosecutors closed their case in February 2009, allegations surfaced that Mr. Taylor had sent men to deliver rough cut diamonds to Ms. Campbell in her hotel room after they both had attended a dinner hosted by former South African president Nelson Mandela in 1997. Ms. Farrow had recounted the story to prosecutors in November 2009. Ms. Campbell, however, had refused to speak to prosecutors about the allegations.

This week, Special Court judges agreed that the prosecutors could re-open their case to explore this incident. Prosecutors say that the allegations, if true, could piece important events together: they say that Sierra Leonean rebels had come to see Mr. Taylor in Liberia the month before he left for his South African trip with diamonds that they wanted him to exchange for weapons during his travels.

A month after Mr. Taylor returned, a shipment of weapons arrived for the rebel forces. If the allegations about Ms. Taylor are true, it could place Mr. Taylor in possession of the diamonds at a key time. Mr. Taylor has denied the allegations, and also denied possessing any diamonds, beyond personal jewelry, during his presidency.

On Thursday, the judges issued the subpoena, addressed to the supermodel, stating that she must appear to testify on July 29, or "show good cause" why she could not comply with the subpoena.

The judges also requested the "Registrar of the Special Court to serve the subpoena on the legal representative of Ms. Naomi Campbell, Mr. Gideon Benaim...and to take any further necessary measures to have this subpoena served and executed, seeking the assistance of authorised representatives of the Government of the United Kingdom where appropriate, and to ensure that...Naomi Campbell, appear[s] at the time and place indicated above."

14 The subpoena was issued a day after judges decided the prosecution could re-open its case for a day. Prosecutors in their application had stated that they want to bring in Ms. Campbell, Ms. White and Ms. Farrow to testify for one day about the incident relating to the alleged diamond gift in South Africa. In their motion to the judges, prosecutors argued that the evidence the three women can provide "was unknown to the prosecution when it formally closed its case on 27 February 2009â-' and relates to "a 'central issue' to the prosecution's case: The Accused's possession of rough diamonds."

Mr. Taylor's lawyers had opposed the request, telling judges that "no reasonable Court could find that the anticipated evidence is relevant to the charges against Mr. Taylor." Defense lawyers also argued that the prosecutors should have made greater efforts to seek evidence before their case was over about Mr. Taylor's trips outside Liberia and his alleged possession of rough diamonds. "Thus the prosecution Motion must be denied," defense lawyers said.

15

John Kollie

NEWS ITEM July 9, 2010

Former RUF Rebel Leader, Issa Sesay on Friday told Judges of the Special Court that the Sierra Leone rebels got huge quantity of ammunition from some Liberian Military Commanders in 1998 without the knowledge of the accused Former Liberian President, Charles Taylor. But the Prosecution said under the legal doctrine of joint criminal enterprise, Mr. Taylor is being held not only for his own individual criminal responsibility, but for the criminal actions of those who associated with him...John Kollie reports for the BBC World Service Trust...

The Prosecution accused Mr. Charles Taylor of supplying the arms and ammunition used by the RUF to capture the Sierra Leone diamond town of Kono in 1998.

But War Crimes Convict, Issa Sesay has testified that the RUF Rebels bought huge quantity of ammunition from Former Liberian Presidential Special Security Director, Benjamin Yeaten.

Mr. Sesay told the court that the arms deal took place between the top Liberian Security Personnel and the RUF without Mr. Charles Taylor’s knowledge.

Defence witness, Issa Sesay also denied that the RUF Combatants were involved the January 6, 1999 invasion of the Sierra Leonean Capital Freetown.

But Defence Lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths replayed a Prosecution tape which had indicated to the Judges that the Spokesman of the Freetown invaders was called Colonel Sesay.

Having listened to the Prosecution evidence, Mr. Griffiths asked Defence witness, Issa Sesay about the spokesman of the January 6, 1999 Freetown invaders, and the alleged involvement of the RUF.

The direct examination of Mr. Issa Sesay continues on Monday.

16 CNN Friday, 9 July 2010

Naomi Campbell will appear at war crimes trial of Charles Taylor

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- British supermodel Naomi Campbell will appear before the war crimes tribunal of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, according to a statement from her representative.

She's been called as "a witness" and "is not being accused of any wrongdoing and is not on trial," the statement says.

Campbell had previously said she did not want to be involved in the war crimes trial at The Hague, Netherlands. But on July 1, the court issued a subpoena ordering her appearance. Campbell faced a prison term of up to seven years, a fine of about $500, or both, if she failed to appear.

Taylor 62, faces war crimes charges over a brutal conflict in Sierra Leone that was fueled by rough diamonds that also known as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds.

Prosecutors had rested their case in February 2009. They asked to reopen it specifically to call Campbell, as well as actress Mia Farrow and a witness named Carole Taylor, court papers show. Prosecutors said they learned in June 2009 that Taylor had given the supermodel a diamond in South Africa in 1997. Farrow confirmed it, they said.

When arguing to reopen the case, prosecutors said Campbell's testimony would prove that the former president "used rough diamonds for personal enrichment and arms purchases," according to papers filed with the U.N.-backed court.

Taylor, 62, was president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003. The war crimes charges against him stem from the widespread murder, rape and mutilation that occurred during the bloody civil war in Sierra Leone. It was fought largely by teenagers who were forced to kill, given addictive drugs to provoke violent behavior, and often instructed to rape and plunder.

Taylor is charged with five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual slavery and violence, and enslavement. He also faces five counts of war crimes, including acts of terrorism and torture, and one count of other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. 17 SOS Children’s Village Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Naomi Campbell called to blood diamond trial

Supermodel Naomi Campbell was this week holidaying in the south of France, just a couple of days after she was called to testify in a war crime tribunal about allegedly accepting a blood diamond. Supermodel Naomi Campbell was this week holidaying in the south of France, just a couple of days after she was called to testify in a war crime tribunal about allegedly accepting a blood diamond. Ms Campbell has denied many times that former Libyan president Charles Taylor gave her a gift of a blood diamond. But the 40 year-old’s former aide says the dictator gave the supermodel six uncut stones. Mr Taylor is accused of using these uncut diamonds to fund a civil war in Sierra Leone that cost an estimated 50,000 lives, with some of the worst crimes committed by child soldiers who were drugged to numb them against the atrocities. He is said to have given rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) soldiers guns in exchange for the rough, uncut diamonds. He is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ms Campbell, who has before refused to testify, was last week officially ordered to do so by Mr Taylor’s international war crimes tribunal at The Hague. The court hasn’t said when she will have to appear, but it will not be until the defence finishes calling its witnesses, which is not likely to be until next month. It is claimed that the diamond was handed over in the middle of the night during a celebrity-packed event held by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1997. The court also agreed to a request by the prosecution that it is allowed to call the actress Mia Farrow and Ms Campbell's former agent, Carole White to testify. The actress, who was also at the Mandela dinner, has said Ms Campbell told her about the diamond the morning after. Ms Campbell said she had been visited by representatives of Mr Taylor during the night, and that they had given her a ‘huge’ uncut diamond, Ms Farrow told ABC News in April. At the weekend however, the model flew to the South of France for a two month long holiday in the Mediterranean, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

The rebel forces bankrolled by Mr Taylor were notorious for their Small Boys Units, made up of child soldiers as young as eight who were drugged and forced to fight with AK47 assault rifles. They became among the most feared units in what was one of the world's most vicious civil wars. Other children during the war were forced to risk death working in the country’s diamond mines.

By Hayley Jarrvis for SOS

18

United Nations Nations Unies

United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)

UNMIL Public Information Office Media Summary 9 July 2010

[The media summaries and press clips do not necessarily represent the views of UNMIL.]

UN News in Liberia

UNMIL News

UN Envoy Urges Liberians to Take Responsibility [Heritage, In Profile Daily, The Analyst]

• The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Liberia Ellen Margrethe Løj has paid tribute to Philippine peacekeepers serving the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) for their hard work and dedication to the maintenance of peace and stability in Liberia. • Ms. Løj made the commendation when she awarded UN peacekeeping medals to 115 Philippine peacekeepers at a colorful ceremony in Monrovia. • The Special Representative of the Secretary-General extolled the Government of the Philippines for its continued support to peace and security throughout the world, and specifically for contributing troops to serve with UNMIL. • “The commitment of the Philippines to peace operations has been amply demonstrated,” SRSG Løj said, adding that, “since sending its expeditionary forces to Korea in 1950, the country has continued to serve the cause of peace, security and justice in other complex environments, such as Côte d'Ivoire, East Timor, Haiti and Sudan, and sometimes with painful costs.” • Giving recognition to Contingent Commander, Lt. Col. Royland M. Orquia, for his exemplary leadership and inspiration to his contingent, the SRSG commended him for not only leading those under his command with professionalism, “but also for inspiring them to serve with dedication and responsibility.”

Other UN News

World Bank Official Wants Corruption Tackled [New Democrat]

• The World Bank has called on the Liberian Government to institute effective system that will eventually straighten financial and economic control to tackle corruption. • World Bank Liberia Manager Ohene Owusu Nyanin spoke at the launch of the National Integrity Forum in Monrovia. • Mr. Nyanin noted that corruption undermines development and subjects a country to abject poverty. • The Forum is designed to support the fight against corruption and establish integrity standards in government and private institutions. • The forum brought together officials of the Liberian government and representatives of civil society organizations.

Local News on Liberian Issues

President Sirleaf Off to the US [Liberia Journal, National Chronicle]

• President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf leaves the country today for a five-day working visit to the United States of America at the invitation of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. • According to the Information Ministry, the invitation is intended to afford the President the opportunity to participate in the celebrations of the organization’s 102 years of service. 19 • The Ministry said at the ceremony President Sirleaf will be presented the organization’s highest honor of recognition, the International Service Award. • During the celebrations, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is expected to announce a partnership with the Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund. • The group is also expected to make available the remaining US$250,000 pledged for the relocation of the Paynesville Redlight Market to its new Omega site. • While the President is away, Justice Minister Christiana Tarr will coordinate the affairs of government in consultation with Vice President Joseph Boakai.

Vice President Boakai Seeks International Support for Liberia, Meets UNESCO Official [The Inquirer]

• Vice President Joseph Boakai says there’s a need for more international assistance to stimulate economic activity and growth in post-war Liberia. • Vice President Boakai said the conducive business climate in the country is an assurance for investors to play a significant role in the economic development of Liberia. • He spoke at a luncheon tendered by Mr. Jacques Haschuel, UNESCO Representative to Liberia and Spanish business executives in Madrid, Spain. • The Vice President said government was encouraging investors who once invested in Liberia to return. • He called on those seeking investment opportunities to take advantage of the new political dispensation to come to Liberia and help rebuild the nation. • Ambassador Boakai informed the Spanish business community to also prioritize the tourism industry as another area that could claim international attention. • Speaking on behalf of the Spanish business executives, Mr. Haschuel promised to coordinate with the Vice President’s Office to send an assessment team to Liberia.

Senate President Pro-tempore Descends on Traditional Leaders [Heritage, Liberian Journal, Public Agenda, The News, Front Page Africa, The Analyst]

• Senate President Pro-tempore Cletus Wotorson has blasted a delegation of the National Traditional Council for going to his office without permission. • Senator Wotorson said it was not proper for the traditional leaders to march to his office in the absence of a formal arrangement. • The verbal outburst by the President Pro-tempore followed a visit Thursday by leaders of the traditional council headed by Chief Zanzan Karwor at the Legislature. • In his anger, Senator Wotorson warned the traditional leaders not to take his office for granted because they cannot do same to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. • The outburst by Pro Temp Wotorson prompted a sorrowful response by Chief Karwor who informed the Pro Temp that his office sanctioned their visit. • However, the meeting between Senator Wotorson and the Traditional Council’s delegation later went ahead with Senator Wotorson apologizing for his action. • During the meeting, the Traditional Council presented a petition calling on the Legislature not to use the census results to set the threshold. • They said the census results should only be used for development purposes and that the current 64 seats in the House must be maintained. • The petition was earlier presented to House Speaker Alex Tyler who promised to submit it to the plenary for debate.

Rehabilitation on Monrovia-Ganta Highway Begins January [The News]

• Government says rehabilitation works on the Monrovia-Ganta highway would begin January 2011. • Planning Minister Amara Konneh told a MICAT press briefing, procurement activities have already begun. • Minister Konneh also named the Bokay Town-Buchanan road as another highway being targeted by government. • The Planning Minister also spoke of several other roads to be rehabilitated including the restoration of the of the Mount Coffee hydro plant. • Meanwhile, Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuan says Liberia intends to acquire the first post-HIPC loan for the 2010/2011 fiscal year. • Minister Ngarfuan however clarified the loan acquisition would be done through the Debt Management Committee and the guidelines of international financial lending institutions.

20 UL President Threatens to Weed Out ‘Violent Student Impersonators’ [National Chronicle, The Inquirer, New Democrat]

• University of Liberia (UL) President Emmet Dennis has threatened to weed out what he calls violent student impersonators at the state-run university. • Dr. Dennis did not give details, but condemned Wednesday’s violence on the UL main campus which left several students wounded and property destroyed. • According to him, it was unfortunate for students to disrupt classes and perpetrate violence against each other. • Dr. Dennis however apologized for the violent incident and vowed to institute corrective measures. • The UL President spoke Thursday when he delivered the keynote address at the launch of the National Integrity Forum in Monrovia. • Meanwhile, authorities of the university have announced a reform in student politics following Wednesday’s violence on campus. • UL Dean of Student Affairs Julius Sarwolo Nelson said the reform will be carried out following today’s student elections.

Fire Blazes Over Ducor Hotel [In Profile Daily, The Analyst]

• National Fire Service fighters and a team of security personnel have contained a minor outbreak of fire at the Ducor Palace Hotel in Monrovia. • The fire which burst from the top of the hotel sparked a little panic in central Monrovia. • The exact cause of the fire was not established. • However, private security personnel said the fire might have been a result of the remnant of hot particles from a welding machine. • Mr. Henry George of the Sunset Security observed some security personnel at the Ducor Palace use welding machines to cut iron. • Reports say the security including Nigerian UNMIL peacekeepers protecting the Ducor Hotel were completely unaware of the fire. • There was no damage to the Ducor Palace Hotel which is under renovation.

Community Women Peace and Security Project Kicks Off in Monrovia [Heritage, The Inquirer]

• A one year project titled “Community Women Peace and Security” has started in Monrovia. • The project is under the leadership of the West African Network for Peace Building of Liberia. • The launch started with a three-day workshop for nearly 50 women from six different communities in Bomi, Bong and Montserrado Counties. • The UN Peace Building Fund Liberia branch is providing over US$25, 000 for the one year community women development project.

Star Radio (News monitored today at 09:00 am) President Sirleaf Off to the US

Vice President Boakai Seeks International Support for Liberia, Meets UNESCO Official

Senate President Pro-tempore Descends on Traditional Leaders (Also reported Radio Veritas, Truth FM, Sky FM, and ELBC)

Security Concerns Raised on NPA Takeover • The House Committee on Public Utilities has alarmed over a concession being reached between Liberia and a foreign company to manage parts of the National Port Authority (NPA). • The Committee said the proposed agreement on the NPA has security implications to the nation and its people. • The Committee Chairman said the US$150 million contract provides for the company to bring its own security to Liberia. • According to Representative Zoe Pennue, the Committee gathered that the agreement was being concluded with the Executive. 21 • Representative Pennue said it would not be healthy for such an agreement to be reached and submitted it to the Legislature for ratification. • He spoke following a meeting with authorities of the National Investment Commission, NPA and a representative of the company. (Also reported Truth FM, Sky FM, and ELBC)

Rehabilitation on Monrovia-Ganta Highway Begins January

Internal Affairs Minister Warns Corrupt Officials • Internal Affairs Minister Harrison Karnwea has warned of drastic action against any of his staff member who tampers with public funds. • Minister Karnwea said though the Ministry was faced with enormous challenges, officials must ensure transparency and accountability in their work. • Minister Karnwea assured his administration would ensure the full implementation of government’s policy of zero tolerance on corruption. • He also appealed to the donor community to continue its support to the Ministry in order to enhance its work. • The Internal Affairs Minister spoke Thursday in Gbarnga, Bong County at the formal opening of a four-day National Retreat for the Ministry. • The retreat seeks to determine the status of the Ministry’s Poverty Reduction Strategy deliverables and the County Development Agenda. • Several local government officials including Superintendents and their deputies, chiefs and elders as well as some members of the legislature are attending.

University President Speaks of Systemic Corruption in Liberia • University of Liberia (UL) President Emmet Dennis says corruption and lack of integrity still permeate all aspects of the Liberian society. • Dr. Dennis did not elaborate, but said the way Liberia will deal with corruption and the lack of integrity would determine the future of the country. • According to him, corruption and the lack of integrity have weakened the country’s national institutions including the systems of checks and balances. • Dr. Dennis noted that Liberia was at the crossroads and stressed the need for concerted effort to restore public trust in the post-war country. • He suggested the passage of the code of conduct Act by the Legislature to help rebuild trust, integrity and ethical standards among Liberians. • The UL President spoke Thursday when he served as keynote speaker at the launch of the National Integrity Forum (NIF) in Monrovia. • Launching the forum, US Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield welcomed the initiative and said it was timely. • Ambassador Greenfield believes the fight against corruption and the building of integrity are critical to Liberia’s recovery. • For her part, NIF’s Chair, Cllr. Francis Johnson Morris said the forum is intended to promote integrity standards in the public and private sectors of the country.

UL President Threatens to Weed Out ‘Violent Student Impersonators’ (Also reported Radio Veritas, Sky FM, and ELBC)

Fire Blazes Over Ducor Hotel (Also reported Truth FM, Sky FM, and ELBC)

Leadership Crisis Hits Muslim Council ... Protesters Stage March Friday • The Concerned Muslims of Liberia in collaboration with the Union of Islamic Citizens of Liberia says it would on Friday hold a peaceful march in Monrovia. • The Concerned Muslims said at the close of the march, a formal petition would be presented to the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Liberia Ellen Margrethe Løj. • A release issued said the planned peaceful march grew out of a writ of prohibition filed against the Kafumba Konneh leadership at the Supreme Court. 22 • Meanwhile, the Justice Ministry has granted permission to the Union of Islamic Citizen of Liberia and the Concern Muslim of Liberia authorizing Friday’s march. • The letter of authorization was signed by Assistant Justice Minister for Administration and Public Safety, Asatu Bah-Kenneth instructing the marchers to contact the Liberia National Police for the necessary arrangements.

Radio Veritas (News monitored today at 09:45 am) Community Women Peace and Security Project Kicks Off in Monrovia

Truth FM (News monitored today at 10:00 am) President Sirleaf Assures LCC on Threshold Bill • President Ellen Johnson Sireleaf has assured the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) that a solution to the passage of the threshold bill will be found shortly. • President Sirleaf said intensive negotiations are underway among all stakeholders to ensure that the threshold issue is settled. • The Liberian lawmaker noted that she is in constant dialogue with members of the National Legislature and the Judiciary on the matter. • She said despite the delay in the passage of the bill elections will be held under conditions that would not question the legitimacy of those to be elected.

International Clips on Liberia

Issa Sesay exposes UN support to RUF http://inwent-iij-lab.org

Former interim leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels has, in his second day of testimony at the Charles Taylor trial in The Hague, continued to distance the ex-Liberian leader from wrongdoing during Sierra Leone’s bloody 11-year conflict, pointing instead to the United Nations and other Liberian rebel groups who, he claimed, did more to further the rebel cause through weapons supplies and other assistance than Taylor ever did. Issa Hassan Sesay, currently serving a 52-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the country’s conflict, told the trial judges that Taylor was not responsible for an arms drop-off that is at the center of allegations made by the prosecution. Sesay Wednesday also explained in detail how the West African peacekeepers (ECOMOG) and Liberian rebels assisted his own rebel forces with arms and ammunition during the war. He testified to an arms trade between the RUF and United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), a rival rebel faction which fought against Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group. It could be recalled that in 1997, late RUF leader Foday Sankoh was alleged to have given one of his top commanders, Sam Bockarie, US$7,000 to buy ammunition from ULIMO forces as the group had come under fire from a government-aligned militia group, the Kamajors. Sankoh was arrested and imprisoned not long after handing over the money. Taylor’s lead counsel, Courtenay Griffiths, then read aloud sections of the “salute report” – a report prepared by Sam Bockarie, already highlighted during the trial, that described RUF activities while Sankoh was in jail.

Liberia: Nigerian Peacekeepers Train Local Military http://allafrica.com

The Nigerian Contingent with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), UNMIL NIBATT-22, has gone beyond its peace keeping role, providing empowerment benefits and skill training for some group of war-wearied Liberians. Several Liberians who successfully completed a five-month Apprentice Training in welding, tailoring, among others under the Civil Military Coordination Project of UNMIL NIBATT-22, were awarded their earned prizes at graduation and presentation ceremony held at the Camp Abuja Headquarters of Sector A of the Nigeria Contingent of UNMIL, Free Zone in Monrovia. UNMIL NIBATT-22 Commander, LT/Col B.O. Sawyer who spoke at the occasion said the graduates have fruitfully and successfully completed both the theoretical and practical aspects of welding and tailoring. The itinerary contents for the welding training, according to the UNMIL NIBATT-22 commander includes general training precautions to electrical hazards, types of welding, and equipment from materials to welding. In the area of construction, he said the trainees were trained to produce or make burglary tools which include window bar and door protector, and that they were also equally trained on the aspect of bricks molding machines, construction of coal pots, farm implements clothes, shovels and diggers. For the tailoring students, he also noted that they were taught how to handle tailoring equipment, measuring of clothes, cutting of clothes, sewing as well as repairing of minor problems on the sewing machines. Lt/Col. Sawyerr who awarded the certificates to the graduates expressed special appreciation to those who grace the graduation. 23

International Clips on West Africa

Guinea

Guinea poll seen delayed until at least end-July Reuters

A run-off in Guinea's presidential election will not take place until at least the end of July after the Supreme Court has ruled on challenges to the first round of voting, the election commission signalled on Thursday. The run-off had been due on July 18 between former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, who came first with nearly 40 percent in the first round, according to provisional results, and second-placed veteran opposition leader Alpha Conde. "In principle, the date for the second round will be set (for) 14 days after the declaration of the result (of the first round) by the Supreme Court," said Foumba Kourouma, a spokesman for the election commission, CENI. Election observers were broadly happy with the poll. But the Supreme Court has received complaints of fraud from virtually all 24 candidates who took part, including Conde, and third-placed Sidya Toure, another former prime minister. From Monday, candidates had eight days to lodge their complaints at the court, which is then meant to rule on a final result after three days, which would be July 16. Two weeks after that would be July 30. Kourouma said the two-week window between the confirmation of results from the first round and a second round of voting was set out in the country's election law. Guinea is the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite and a handful of mining firms are jockeying for position to exploit its iron ore resources. The first round on June 27 was widely seen as the West African state's best chance in half a century of securing democratic civilian rule after a series of authoritarian rulers since independence from France.

Ivory Coast

Forty-six police officers of UNOCI honoured with United Nations medal African Press Organization

Forty-six members of the UN police (UNPOL) from Benin, Central African Republic, France, Togo, Senegal, Niger, Cameroun, Canada, Egypt, Turkey and Djibouti, on Wednesday, 7 July 2010, have been decorated with the United Nations medal. Addressing the peacekeepers, the deputy commander of the UN Police in Côte d’Ivoire, Commissioner Sylvestre Kibeceri, said the medal was a sign of the international community’s gratitude to their active participation in the reestablishment of peace in Côte d’Ivoire. “Continue the work you have begun, which you sometimes have to carry out under difficult conditions, until Côte d’Ivoire regains peace,” he told them. “This medal obliges you to make all effort to make the peace banquet more attractive so that only the dreamers of a world without violence, hatred, a more fair and humane world, are invited to attend,” Commissioner Kibeceri added. He also revealed that more 200 Ivorian policemen and gendarmes are participating in peacekeeping missions throughout the world. The spokesman for the recipients, UNPOL Assie Ebanda Agathe, on behalf of her colleagues, reiterated, “Our commitment to continue with professionalism, devotion and self-sacrifice the mission with which we have been entrusted in this phase of the electoral process for a successful crisis-resolution in Côte d’Ivoire”.

UN announces launch of local transition fund in Côte d’Ivoire African Press Organization

A Local Transition Fund aimed at consolidating achievements in humanitarian activities and financing community rehabilitation was launched on Wednesday, 7 July 2010, in Côte d’Ivoire, the deputy spokesman of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, (UNOCI), Kenneth Blackman, announced on Thursday, at the Mission’s weekly press conference. The Fund, Mr. Blackman added, was launched at UNOCI’s headquarters during a meeting, which was jointly presided over by the Office of the Prime Minister and the UN Resident Humanitarian Co-ordinator, Mr. Steven Ursino, who is also Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire. “It is aimed at helping people who have been made destitute and disadvantaged by the crisis,” he explained. The deputy spokesman said that an initial group of ten projects in various areas, including the rehabilitation of water pumps, community nutrition, cultivation and commercialization of rice and support to the production of fruits and vegetables, costing around $1 million, have been approved and will be financed by the Swiss Government. A lot of other projects need funding and the United Nations encourages donors to contribute to this Fund, Mr. Blackman added. **** 24 Agence France Presse Monday, 12 July 2010

ICC rejects call to halt DRC militia chief trial

THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court rejected Monday an appeal by former Congolese militiaman Germain Katanga to have his detention declared unlawful and his war crimes trial stopped.

Judge Daniel Nsereko said the appeals chamber had found no error in a court decision in November that dismissed on procedural grounds an earlier bid by Katanga to halt the case.

The 32-year-old is on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in a conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo's north-eastern Ituri region said to have cost tens of thousands of lives.

He and co-accused Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui have pleaded not guilty.

They are accused of murder and rape in an attack on the village of Bogoro on February 23, 2003 during which more than 200 civilians were killed.

Non-governmental bodies say that inter-ethnic and militia violence in Ituri is about control of the area's rich mineral resources and has claimed 60,000 lives since 1999.

Katanga claims he was unlawfully arrested by DRC authorities in 2005. He was surrendered by the DR Congo government to the ICC in October 2007.

The trial is the ICC's first for murder since opening as the world's first permanent and independent war crimes tribunal in 2002. 25 San Francisco Bay View Sunday, 11 July 2010 http://sfbayview.com

U.S. woman falsely accused of Rwanda genocide rape crimes

Millions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars fund fabricated Rwanda genocide and asylum cases

By Keith Harmon Snow

On June 24, 2010, U.S. agents in Manchester, New Hampshire, arrested Rwandan genocide survivor Beatrice Munyenyezi, a Hutu and a U.S. citizen since 2004. Charged with lying on her immigration documents to conceal her alleged major role in genocide in Rwanda, Ms. Munyenyezi is also charged with rape as a war and genocide crime. Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor for the case is known for misconduct, falsification of evidence and perjury. Is it a crime to have a Facebook profile? Is it a crime to use a computer?

“If the road would speak, then I wouldn’t be scared. If the birds would sing, then I would vow to never vanish,” wrote Beatrice Munyenyezi, “I wouldn’t be lost in the woods, a place where sound and noise is unheard of, and the sky; the sky is not even there to guide you, to guide me.”

So begins Beatrice Munyenyezi’s personalized account as a refugee who survived the slaughter of millions of people in Rwanda, in Zaire/Congo and in neighboring countries, between 1990 and 1998 – always erroneously defined as “the 1994 Rwanda genocide” – where brutality is universally attributed to the Hutu ethnic group and Tutsis are always the only victims.

Ms. Munyenyezi has been transforming her ordeal of unspeakable brutality and terror into a book tentatively titled “Life in the Middle of Nowhere: Surviving Genocide in Rwanda and Zaire.” It is her version of “Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire” (2004), a renowned non-fiction book published in Europe by Marie Beatrice Umutesi, a Hutu and genocide survivor.

On Thursday, June 24, 2010, this project abruptly came to a halt when federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confiscated all of Ms. Munyenyezi’s texts, notes, documents, computers and other personal items. (ICE is the largest investigative agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.) Now her private testimony as a refugee and survivor will likely be used against her in another case of politically motivated genocide charges.

The U.S. Department of Justice has suggested that Beatrice Munyenyezi might be deported to face genocide charges in Rwanda. But Ms. Munyenyezi will be a milestone case: an international legal proceeding in the United States involving a woman accused of rape as a genocide and war crime.

On June 24, 2010, Beatrice Munyenyezi (MOON’-yen-yezi) was arrested in Manchester, New Hampshire (USA), and charged, according to U.S. prosecutors, with “procuring U.S. citizenship unlawfully by misrepresenting her activities during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.”

According to the government of Rwanda, Beatrice Munyenyezi, 40, allegedly “participated in, committed, ordered, oversaw, conspired to, aided and abetted, assisted in and directed persecution, kidnapping, rape and murder during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.” 26 These are generic genocide charges used by the Rwandan military regime against all Hutus.1

According to U.S. prosecutors, Ms. Munyenyezi allegedly concealed these facts in order to obtain immigration and naturalization benefits and lied about her connection to the genocide when seeking citizenship. Ms. Munyenyezi’s husband and mother-in-law are in custody at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, on genocide charges.2

If convicted of the two counts of procuring U.S. citizenship unlawfully, Munyenyezi faces up to 10 years imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, along with revocation of her U.S. citizenship.

Beatrice Munyenyezi survived the invasion of Byumba Prefecture by Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) guerillas in 1990 and the years of RPF persecution and genocide that saw entire Hutu villages in Byumba razed, massacres of scores of thousands of people, and the internal displacement of some 2 million Hutus – forced into a life-and-death refugee existence inside Rwanda between October 1990 and April 1994.

Ms. Munyenyezi then survived the so-called “100 days of genocide” in Rwanda from April to July 1994. She fled Rwanda with family members on July 18, 1994, part of the massive exodus of millions of Rwandans, mostly innocent Hutu women and children, after the RPF won the civil war in Rwanda, to eastern Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo), where she survived the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Hutu civilians by the RPF.3

Beatrice Munyenyezi fled from Congo to Kenya at the advice of her brother, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, another U.S. citizen also being hunted by the Kagame regime and its political, military and economic partners.4 In Tanzania and Kenya she survived RPF agents hunting refugees and assassinating dissidents, including former RPF official Seth Sendashonga.5

Evacuated to the United States in March 1998, Beatrice Munyenyezi was first assisted by a Catholic charity in New Hampshire. She later worked for the Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority, which owns and manages 1,271 public housing apartments for low-income families, elderly and adults with disabilities, from March 2001 to March 2005. MHRA spokeswoman Michelle Desmond would not comment on Ms. Munyenyezi’s service record, but Beatrice has regularly worked with other groups to assist refugees of many nationalities. She taught herself English and pursued degrees at a local community college and at the University of New Hampshire.

The Associated Press and other news outlets splashed Ms. Munyenyezi’s arrest across the news on June 24, 2010. “An estimated 800,000 people were murdered during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, which took place over the course of approximately 100 days,” these outlets universally reported.6

The official narrative on “genocide” – distilled to the simple sound-bite above – is maintained by the current government of Rwanda and its military, political and economic partners to silence debate and manufacture a version of events that protects the perpetrators and criminalizes victims like Beatrice Munyenyezi and her family members.

President Paul Kagame runs the military dictatorship in Rwanda with his closest military associates from the former Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF), now known as the Rwanda Defense Forces. In October 1990, the RPF guerrilla army invaded northern Rwanda from neighboring Uganda, backed by the United States and Britain. Over the next four years the RPF terrorized Rwandan civilians as they slowly seized the country and overthrew the Hutu- majority government of President Juvenal Habyarimana.7

Predominantly comprised of hardened Uganda guerrillas of the Tutsi ethnicity who fought from 1980 to 1985 to bring Uganda’s strongman Yoweri Museveni to power, these guerrillas, backed by London and Washington, have perpetrated massive genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity on millions of innocent civilians in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Contrary to popular propaganda, the sound bite claiming that the RPF “stopped the genocide against Tutsis” in Rwanda is a gross mischaracterization of the nature of genocide versus civil war in Rwanda. It is also a sound bite that deflects attention from the RPF role in mass atrocities in Rwanda and Congo. The Kagame regime is able to get away with anything it wants – arrest and torture opponents, persecute refugees everywhere, plunder minerals from 27 Congo – because President Paul Kagame has provided the Pentagon its biggest centralized base for the Pentagon’s U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM.

Persecuting opposition and survivors

On June 24, 2010, the Kagame regime in Rwanda violently suppressed dissent in Rwanda as the three primary political parties standing in opposition to President Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front saw their members and leaders physically harassed, barred from leaving their residences and in some cases arrested. Reports were of “mobs” of government supporters – these are often rented crowds – at each location where the harassment occurred.8

This follows the June 19, 2010, assassination attempt in South Africa of exiled Rwandan Gen. Faustin Nyamwasa, who fled Rwanda after being accused of opposing the Kagame government.9 Nyamwasa is one of over 15 leading military officers and Ambassadors who have been imprisoned or forced into exile in recent months.10

On June 24, Rwandan journalist Jean-Leonard Rugambage, from an opposition newspaper, was shot dead by assailants when returning to his home in Kigali.11

On May 23, U.S. attorney and ICTR defense counsel Peter Erlinder was arrested and illegally detained in Rwanda.12 Mr. Erlinder flew to Rwanda to represent his client Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu woman also persecuted by the Kagame regime. Erlinder, charged with “genocide denial” and denied bail twice, was released on medical grounds after 21 days’ incarceration but faces charges with punishment up to 25 years.13

Victoire Ingabire arrived in Rwanda in January 2010 to contest the upcoming presidential elections. She and her aides were immediately arrested and she has been charged with genocide denial and other thought crimes.14

The military and intelligence apparatus directly run by President Paul Kagame maintains elite networks of death squads inside and outside Rwanda. Tasked with hunting and neutralizing any dissidents, critics, intellectuals, writers, human rights activists or other “opposition” to Kagame’s regime, these agents operate freely throughout Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States. Anyone critical of the Kagame military regime is falsely accused of involvement in genocide, “genocide negationism” or “genocide denial.”15

RPF agents in the Boston, Massachusetts, area, which is very close to Manchester, New Hampshire, include Tufts University “law scholar” Patrick Karuretwa, a current member of the Rwandan Defense Forces, a former RPF guerrilla, and a member of Paul Kagame’s elite and brutal Republican Presidential Guard.16 Paul Kagame has been a regular guest in Boston at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Boston University and Harvard: His power base in the U.S. is Boston.

Karuretwa has been using the Harvard Law Review, a high profile student newspaper, to advance propaganda favorable to the Kagame regime and to turn public opinion against legitimate Rwandan refugees and portray them as genocidaires or genocide deniers.17 (The Harvard Law Review claims to be independent but would not respond to inquiries or publish comments contrary to Karuretwa.)

The process of Karuretwa’s admission to the United States and enrollment and funding at Tufts University has not come under scrutiny by the Department of Homeland Security. The Kagame government has infiltrated agents into Western countries posing as asylum seekers.18

“The Kagame government is trying to frame my sister now,” says Professor Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro. “They are trying to get to me. They have tried to accuse me of lying on my immigration forms, but I was evacuated from Rwanda [1994] as a family member of a U.S. citizen. Probably I will be arrested soon.”

Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro is a U.S. citizen who was evacuated by the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda and U.S. marines from Bujumbura, Burundi, on April 9, 1994.

The war in Rwanda was escalated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front on April 6, 1994, after the plane carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down by the RPF 28 with surface-to-air missiles, killing both presidents, their chiefs of staff, the French pilots and other top Rwandan and Burundian officials. The United States and its allies, including the United Nations and the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR), have blocked all investigations into this major act of international terrorism.19

The Rwandan Patriotic Front and Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) marched through Byumba Province clearing the land of its people, whether Hutu or Tutsi. Attacks against Byumba began with the RPF invasion of October 1990, another act of international terrorism that remains opaque and unpunished, though it set the stage for the death of more than 10 million people in Central Africa since. Ninety-nine percent of Byumba was occupied by the RPF and their scorched earth campaign to clear the land through massacres, rapes and forced displacement.

In their village in Byumba, the family home of Beatrice Munyenyezi, Prudence Kantengwa and Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, built by their father with the help of Catholic missionaries in 1957, was destroyed by the RPF in 1991.

“I was born in Northern Rwanda, a province of Byumba, a place that perhaps many of you have never heard of,” the introduction to Ms. Munyenyezi’s book continues. “Yes, it is in the middle of nowhere. It is a place where your cry echoes and echoes but still is not heard, a place where you cry and the tears refuse to come, a place where you wait for someone, anyone to come and save you, but instead the ghost of your failure, of your misery shows up on your doorstep. No one can hear your cries, your sobs, for you are alone.”

Associate professor of communications at Western New England College in Springfield, Mass., Dr. Higiro is one of few remaining Hutu intellectuals not arrested or killed by the RPF regime. He has been a constant source of tension to Kagame, who in turn maintains intense pressure on the U.S. government – its leading military and economic partner – to arrest Higiro.

Dr. Higiro was critical of both the Habyarimana and Kagame governments, and he has published articles and given talks about the media climate just prior to the events of April-July 1994 and about the commodification of genocide used to advance the political and economic objectives of the Kagame military regime and to hide the RPF’s organized criminal activities and war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.20

Prior to April 1994, Higiro was director of the Rwandan Information Office (ORINFOR). The RPF government has tried to arrest and extradite him since Dr. Higiro’s refusal to accept the RPF government appointment as minister of information, in July 1994, after seeing reports of RPF massacres against scores of thousands of Hutus.

“They arrested my sister, Prudence Kantengwa, in Boston in 2008. Her case resulted in lengthy trials costing U.S. taxpayers a lot of money. Now they have arrested Beatrice. But she [Beatrice] was not a government official in Rwanda; she was not with the Interahamwe [militias]. She is just a young Rwandan woman who survived the genocide and made it to America.”

Falsification of evidence

Prudence Kantengwa was arrested in Boston in 2008. Also a Hutu and the sister of Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro and Beatrice Munyenyezi, Ms. Kantengwa applied for asylum in the United States in 2001, but she was initially denied.

U.S. immigration judge Eliza C. Klein granted asylum to Prudence Kantengwa against the U.S. government prosecutor’s wishes. U.S. immigration then appealed to the Immigration Review Board, who confirmed Judge Klein’s ruling in June of this year.

But prior to the first favorable asylum ruling by Judge Klein, the U.S. immigration prosecutors saw that the Kantengwa asylum case was not going their way. ICE then arrested and accused Prudence Kantengwa of lying on her visa application. The resulting U.S. federal criminal court case is ongoing.

Jeffrey Auerhahn is a U.S. prosecutor on Prudence Kantengwa’s criminal court case. In a high-profile organized crime murder case in Boston, begun in 1985, U.S. prosecutor Jeffrey Auerhahn engaged in misconduct and when deposed by the court in 2003 he lied about it. Auerhahn went beyond misconduct to criminal behavior, including: a) coercing a witness into giving false testimony (suborning perjury); b) falsifying evidence; c) withholding 29 exculpatory evidence from the defense; and d) lying before the court (perjury).21 He is also named in an open citizen’s letter seeking redress from the U.S. prosecutor’s office in Boston for FBI retaliation against Muslims who have refused to work as FBI informants in the Muslim communities around Boston.22

The case was investigated and reported in detail by Boston’s WBUR News journalists David Boeri, Lisa Tobin, Jesse Costa and Andrew Phelps. “Federal Judge Mark Wolf called the conduct of Jeffrey Auerhahn ‘a fraud upon the court,’” they reported.

U.S. prosecutor Jeffrey Auerhahn is one of two federal prosecutors on the Beatrice Munyenyezi case, also a federal criminal court case because Beatrice Munyenyezi is now a U.S. citizen and the asylum system no longer can be used against her. Auerhahn was never disciplined or disbarred for his unscrupulous actions. The case raised troubling questions from critics – including judges – who worry that withholding evidence has become a tactic of some federal prosecutors.

“Unfortunately, this U.S. prosecutor, Mr. Auerhahn, is still exhibiting the same misconduct in my case,” says Prudence Kantengwa. “The discovery process, which usually takes no more than three months, has taken more than a year and is still going on because prosecutors have refused to share the information they have that contradicts their allegations. And my guess is that they are hiding written information – such as investigation made about me which took six months before I was granted a visa to the U.S. in 2001 – and plan to bring witnesses in collaboration with the Rwanda government [whom] they have trained on what to fabricate against me.”

Rwandan asylum hearings in the U.S.,23 Canada and Europe also suppress evidence that would exonerate the accused. Instead, prosecutors and judges rely on disinformation and falsified evidence, including the U.S. State Department’s annual “Country Report on Human Rights: Rwanda,” which are extraordinary documents that suppress critical facts and information and advance very positive images of the Kagame regime: Not only is the Rwanda government cleansed of its crimes, it is applauded for its supposed attention to the rule of law and recovery from an untenable political horror story: genocide.2425

U.S. asylum hearings also rely heavily on testimonies collected by Rwandan military and intelligence officials using intimidation, bribery, torture and the threat of being accused of genocide and tried before the so-called “people’s courts” in Rwanda, the Gacaca courts.26 Communities and family members in Rwanda are also retried for the same offenses at Gacaca trials, where intimidation is used to force a verdict that satisfies the Kagame regime. People are also routinely disappeared in Rwanda and assassinated in other countries.27 Young men and boys are forced to attend “re-education camps” on remote Iwawa Island in Lake Kivu, heavily guarded by RDF soldiers, subject to “thought-control” and psychological intimidation.28

In United States of America v. Francois Karake, et al, a U.S. court dismissed all charges brought by the U.S. and Rwanda governments against three Rwandan defendants, all Hutus, accused of the murder of two U.S. and other tourists in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park in March 1999. The investigation spanned four years and involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ascertained that the defendant’s testimonies had been extracted through physical torture with the involvement of U.S. agents. The prisoners were incarcerated and interrogated at Kami Military Barracks, notorious for RPF torture operations, in Rwanda.

Terror is a strong incentive to make people collaborate with Rwandan government officials to produce convincing documentary “evidence.” In the fall of 2009, Human Rights Watch documented the case where more than 300 Rwandans fled southern Rwanda to Burundi in fear of being falsely accused of genocide, sent back to Gacaca for retrial, or disappeared.29

“Jeffrey Auerhahn continues to work as a federal prosecutor in Boston,” WBUR News’ David Boeri reported in February 2010. “He’s been praised by the last U.S. attorney. There’s never been a public action by the Justice Department to discipline him.”30

The evidence used by U.S. prosecutor Jeffrey Auerhahn against Prudence Kantengwa was in part marshaled in Rwanda by investigator Thomas Brian Andersen Jr., a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Boston. 30 Agent Andersen traveled to Rwanda on U.S. taxpayers’ money to investigate the case of Prudence Kantengwa for the federal criminal hearing. In his notarized affidavit to the court, Andersen provides facts that seriously discredit his claim to expertise on Rwanda or the case in question.

• Paragraph 12: “The vast majority of the Hutu elite, including the assassinated president, were from Byumba.” President Juvenal Habyarimana was from Gisenyi Prefecture, northwestern Rwanda, not Byumba Prefecture, northeastern Rwanda; the vast majority of the Hutu elite did not come from Byumba either. If anything, Byumba was one of the least privileged provinces even though it was considered as President Habyarimana’s fiefdom.

• Paragraph 12: “The prime minister, who was a member of the RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front] Tutsi party, was murdered.” Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was a Hutu, never a member of the RPF party, but a member of the MDR, or Mouvement Démocratique Républicain; further, the prime minister’s murder remains shrouded in questions about RPF and United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR) troop involvement as extensive ICTR trial documents make clear. The assumption and allegation that she was murdered by Hutu extremists is another example of the investigator’s prejudice based on news media, falsified stories and falsified human rights reports, and RPF propaganda.

• Paragraph 12: “[Prudence] Kantengwa was married to Athanse Munyemana, who was a minister in the extremist Hutu government.” Athanse Munyemana was never a Hutu government minister; he was a state intelligence bureau official and a magistrate who could not have belonged to a political party under the Rwandan Constitution of 1991.

ICE agent Thomas Brian Andersen

In his June 2010 request for a warrant for search and seizure of property belonging to Beatrice Munyenyezi, ICE special agent Thomas Brian Andersen Jr. provided an affidavit that is a travesty of justice.31 He does not anywhere discuss his relationship with the Rwandan government but nonetheless declares his independence from, for example, the Rwandan regime’s Directorate of Military Intelligence. It is impossible to pursue the investigations he claims to have performed independently without the involvement, oversight or monitoring of the notorious DMI.

Agent Andersen does not elucidate his relationship to Rwandan “genocide survivor” organizations IBUKA (“remember”) and AVEGA (Association des Veuves du Genocide/Association of the Widows of Genocide), both known to be populated with bogus “survivors” coached, paid and protected by the RPF government.32

Basing his statements from witnesses whom he purportedly interviewed in Rwanda, purportedly without government interference, these being people whom he claims are independent and authentic witnesses, authentic genocide survivors and authentic convicted genocidaires, special agent Thomas Brian Andersen then testified:

“I believe these witnesses are reliable because they are eyewitnesses for whom it is a great personal risk to submit to being a witness and because there is no motivation to provide false information, given that many of these witnesses reside in Rwanda and have no contact with Munyenyezi.”

The above statement indicates that Andersen has no understanding of events in Rwanda in general, and, in particular, no understanding of: 1) the politics of genocide accusations; 2) motivations such as land, housing and other property disputes; 3) motivations such as personal or economic rivalry; 4) intimidation, accusation and the threat of physical violence used to coerce and fabricate witnesses and testimonies; 5) financial and other incentives used to induce testimonies that suit the Rwandan regime; 6) the motivations of Hutu prisoners accused or already convicted of genocide to produce false testimonies against other Hutus.

The fact that witnesses “reside in Rwanda” is not evidence of their absence of bias, but rather evidence of their propensity toward bias. In particular, thousands of Ugandans currently occupy Rwandan homes and lands taken by force by the RPF from previous landowners of both Hutu and Tutsi ethnicity. (If agent Andersen went to Butembo in North Kivu province in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, he would find thousands of Rwandan RPF Tutsis occupying homes and lands there; it would be impossible and outrageous to conclude that their presence in Congo substantiated evidence of their veracity as “witnesses” to events that took place in the local geographical areas of their illegal occupation.) 31 Paragraph 11 of Andersen’s affidavit reveals the real reason that President Paul Kagame seeks to punish and imprison Beatrice Munyenyezi, with ICE support, and why Rwandan officials are pressing the U.S. government to intimidate, arrest and silence her:

“Over the several days in February 2006, Munyenyezi testified in her husband’s and mother-in-law’s trials at the ICTR.”

ICE agent Andersen offers “evidence” of Beatrice Munyenyezi’s alleged criminality primarily based on guilt by association with her husband and mother-in-law, both involved in ongoing trials at the ICTR. Further, he alleges by association that Beatrice Munyenyezi, a witness who testified in her family members’ defense at these ICTR trials in 2006, is complicit in genocide merely because she testified on her sister’s behalf. Icing the cake of injustice, special agent Andersen alleges in his affidavit (Paragraph 11) that Beatrice Munyenyezi committed perjury in her ICTR testimony. Finally, the modus operandi of the Kagame regime and RPF military is to arrest, convict, re- educate through intimidation and terror or disappear anyone who testifies contrary to the wishes of the Kagame regime or contrary to the established “Rwanda genocide” narrative, as did Munyenyezi.

In Paragraph 12, agent Andersen claims that Beatrice Munyenyezi manned roadblocks, organized killings, oversaw rapes and gave public speeches inciting mass murder and rape and all the standard crimes that the Kagame regimes uses to criminalize Hutu people. On its face, the evidence produced by agent Andersen appears irrefutable. However, Mr. Andersen does not have all the facts – it seems he has very few of them – and certain facts are being reserved for the defense arguments of Beatrice Munyenyezi in a court of law.

In attempting to make a case that Beatrice Munyenyezi lied on her immigration forms, ICE special agent Thomas Brian Andersen adduced that she was a member of the Rwandan political party Mouvement Republicain pour le Developpement (MRND), the party of President Juvenal Habyarimana that has been castigated as an extremist Hutu genocide organization, and she did not check the box declaring her membership in ANY organization.

However, everyone in Rwanda was required to be a member of the MRND party for many years, beginning in 1975, soon after President Habyarimana seized power (1973), and lasting until 1991, when the Habyarimana government opened political space for opposition parties. Also, the fact that your brother and father are members of a certain political party does not confirm that you are also a member of that political party, certainly not in Rwanda, certainly not in the years between 1991 and 1994, when allegiances, alliances and memberships were highly in flux and highly politicized.

Is special agent Thomas Brian Andersen a member of the National Rifle Association? Timothy McVeigh was also a member. Does this make agent Andersen an “NRA extremist”? Is agent Andersen a Democrat? Are his siblings ALL Democrats? Is his father a Democrat? Of course, there is no automatic inference of guilt attached to being a Democrat or Republican in the U.S. – not like MRND membership in Rwanda has been criminalized – no matter the involvement of Democrats or Republicans in advocating, authorizing and supporting atrocities in foreign interventions. Finally, did David Kaczynski share the ideology of his brother, Dr. Theodore John Kaczynski? Quod erat demonstrandum …

Additionally, any Hutu refugees fleeing the RPF terror apparatus and genocide against Hutus would have been suicidal to identify themselves as MRND members after July 1994. Further, the assumption or suggestion that the U.S. State Department and its Immigration and Naturalization Service agents would be impartial towards Hutus is unreasonable, and the immigration forms clearly take no account of the extreme conditions of mistrust, terror and basic survival that genocide and war crimes survivors, including Beatrice Munyenyezi, were subject to at the time.

In fact, special agent Andersen later confirms the U.S. official who granted Beatrice Munyenyezi her naturalization status would not have done so had he “known the truth about” her statements – supposing she admitted she was a member of the MRND party. He declared he would have denied her application.

Special agent Thomas Brian Andersen also unreasonably concludes that Beatrice Munyenyezi must have lied in answering the question, “Have you ever committed a crime of moral turpitude”? Here Andersen jumps from being an ICE investigator to judge and jury against Beatrice Munyenyezi with this conclusive statement of absolutes: 32 “In fact, as described herein, Munyenyezi had participated in the genocide, and had committed a number of individual crimes, including the assistance of murder, rape, assault and theft, against the Tutsi minority.”

An admission by Beatrice Munyenyezi of involvement in genocide is not herein accepted to be amongst the “truthful” statements that Ms. Munyenyezi was mandated to provide.

Perhaps the most outrageous statement of all, and evidence of special agent Thomas Brian Andersen’s extreme psychological and paranoid prejudices, applied herein against Rwandan genocide survivor Beatrice Munyenyezi, is Paragraph 28:

“In addition, on or about January 31, 2005, Munyenyezi was interviewed by the New Hampshire affiliate of National Public Radio to discuss the challenges which face African refugees in the Manchester, New Hampshire, area. During the interview Munyenyezi said that she escaped a war in Rwanda with her family and husband. Munyenyezi described how there is discrimination against her in New Hampshire as an African refugee, and she also described herself as a ‘fighter’ against adversity.”

Now it is a crime to be interviewed on National Public Radio? Or is it a crime to be interviewed on NPR in New Hampshire only? Clearly it is a crime to “escape a war” when the top officials for the victors of that war, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, have been internationally indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. But the coup de grace comes in the possibility that the “crime” or “infraction” or violation that Beatrice Munyenyezi has committed in special agent Thomas Brian Andersen’s mind is to have admitted so shamelessly that “she described herself as a ‘fighter’ against adversity.”33

The outrageous crimes of Beatrice Munyenyezi – or the absurdities and paranoia of special agent Thomas Brian Andersen’s mind – don’t stop there however. In Paragraph 29, he writes:

“Munyenyezi also appears to use a computer to correspond with others. An Internet search related to Munyenyezi reveals that on or about May 11, 2009, Munyenyezi submitted a story for publication to the National Endowment for the Arts website related to how she is persevering after her experience in Africa. In addition, a public Internet search as of June 21, 2010, reveals that Munyenyezi has a Facebook account and is virtually connected with several on-line friends.”

Is it the appearance of using a computer or the actual use of a computer to correspond with others that agent Andersen finds incriminating? Are Africans not supposed to know how to use computers, or is it only Rwandan Hutus (even U.S. citizens) who are not supposed to use computers and/or correspond with others? Is having a Facebook profile one of Beatrice Munyenyezi’s crimes? Or is her crime that she is “virtually connected with several on-line friends?”

Amongst the most egregious examples of the extreme biases of special agent Thomas Brian Andersen – in favor of the current Rwandan Patriotic Front regime, and against Beatrice Munyenyezi, a former Rwandan national and a person of Hutu ethnicity, now a U.S. citizen, comes in Paragraph 35:

“Based on my training and experience and my discussions with other agents who have investigated similar offenses, I have reason to believe that people who were active participants in the Rwandan genocide were themselves Hutu extremists and that they have maintained an active Diaspora throughout the world in the hope of returning to Rwanda for the purpose of overthrowing the current government and re-instituting the policy of genocide, ‘to complete the work’ of killing every last Tutsi. To promote that effort and prove their long-term commitment to the cause – i.e., the extermination of the Tutsi race – Hutu extremists, like Munyenyezi, maintain documents, photographs and memorabilia, which link them to their past and their expected role in the future. The documents, photographs and memorabilia are particularly important to Hutu extremists because, to them, the items prove that the extermination of Tutsi is an act of self-defense.”

According to the above reasoning, every Hutu is a genocidaire, every Hutu must be denied any memorabilia of their past or hope for the future, and every Hutu dreams of exterminating Tutsis and is nefariously plotting “the extermination of the Tutsi race.” This is evidence of special agent Thomas Brian Andersen’s psychological projection, conjecture, paranoia, indoctrination and, worst of all, it exemplifies a psychological profile of an 33 individual or group of one ethnicity – white Anglo-European – harboring a hostile racial categorization and extreme racial prejudice that seeks to dehumanize all members of different ethnic group – the Hutus – comprised of millions of people.

The FBI surveillance visit to the home of Beatrice Munyenyezi and the subsequent ICE fishing expedition – secured through the arrest warrant obtained through agent Andersen’s affidavit – were clearly in search of, for example, “photographs and memorabilia” that could be used to make an Orwellian argument about “Hutu extremists, like Munyenyezi.” Agent Andersen’s belief that any memorabilia found in the home of a Hutu person is by default evidence of their intention to retake Rwanda by force and “overthrow the current government” is paranoid, hysterical and delusional.

Thomas Brian Andersen shows his extreme hatred for “Hutu” people as a group. His prejudice is exhibited throughout the document, beginning with his summary of Rwandan history, e.g. in Paragraph 5, where his encapsulation of hundreds of years of complex African history destroys all context of Hutu-Tutsi relations in favor of the “Tutsis as victims” narrative advanced by the RPF and its allies. He demonstrates his lack of knowledge of the simplest discernable facts, such as the Oct. 1, 1990, date of the illegal RPF invasion of Rwanda (in Paragraph 6 he states: “In or about the early 1990s, the RPF invaded Rwanda”). He uses the label “Hutu extremist” to mask his hatred against Hutu instilled in him by the current government of Rwanda and its one-sided historiography.

U.S. agent perjury, FBI deception

It appears that it can be reasonably established that Thomas Brian Andersen committed perjury – at least once – in his affidavit signed June 22, 2010, and that the FBI used deception to gain access to Beatrice Munyenyezi’s home, under conditions of her trust and cooperation on an international matter completely unrelated to her asylum status, with the intent of surveillance of both Beatrice Munyenyezi and her sister Prudence Kantengwa.

In Paragraph 36, agent Andersen states: “I am aware of the close relationship between Munyenyezi and her sister Prudence Kantengwa. I am also familiar with the ongoing proceedings before the Immigration Court related to Munyenyezi’s sister, Kantengwa, and I know that Munyenyezi had appeared in court during those proceedings and was announced as a witness for her sister. In addition, on January 13, 2010, the FBI visited Munyenyezi at her residence at 73 Goffe St., Manchester, New Hampshire, and they were invited into the home. While present, the FBI noticed that Kantengwa was present at the home, and appeared to be living or at least sleeping there.”

To begin with, agent Andersen is more than simply “familiar with the ongoing proceedings before the Immigration Court related to Munyenyezi’s sister, [Prudence] Kantengwa,” but he does not disclose what he knows and instead downplays his vested interests in both cases: He is also the ICE agent who has investigated the Kantengwa case in Rwanda and his investigations, affidavits and testimonies are evidence for the Kantengwa case in Boston. So there is an absence of full disclosure in this affidavit to New Hampshire U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Lynch, who is likely very unfamiliar with the Boston cases or deeper issues.

Second, special agent Thomas Brian Andersen has added a very curious footnote to his affidavit that begs explanation. From Dec. 18, 2009, to Jan. 10, 2010, Beatrice Munyenyezi was traveling to the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, via Kenya, from and to the United States. On her return entry to the U.S., Munyenyezi volunteered information about, apparently, Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal (Trevor William Forrest), who was detained in Kenya during the same time period, creating a barrage of Western mass media stories about his supposed terrorist profile.34 As noted in agent Andersen’s peculiar Footnote 3, Beatrice Munyenyezi was interrogated on her return to Boston Logan Airport on Jan. 10, 2010:

Footnote: 3“At the time of her entry, Munyenyezi told the Customs and Border Protection personnel that she had important information to relate pertaining to someone she believes she saw in Kenya who had been in the news recently as an associate of a contemporary terrorist group. Munyenyezi was told that the FBI would follow up with her on a later date.”

When FBI agents showed up at Beatrice Munyenyezi’s Manchester, New Hampshire, home on Jan. 13, 2010, it was not in the context of ascertaining her asylum status, as ICE agent Andersen falsely indicates, but rather as the follow-up to Munyenyezi’s volunteered information at Logan Airport. The statement that FBI agents were “invited 34 to her home” (Paragraph 36) also misrepresents Munyenyezi’s position: She was intimidated by the FBI agents but even so she invited them into her home because she felt she had nothing to hide. However, based on the above details, it seems that Beatrice Munyenyezi had long since been under surveillance, and the “invitation to her home” was used as a cover for FBI surveillance of Beatrice Munyenyezi, her sister Prudence Kantengwa and the 73 Goffe St. dwelling.

It seems that Beatrice Munyenyezi’s attempt to demonstrate her allegiance to the U.S. war on terror backfired and was used against her. More importantly, it is clear that the search warrant of June 22, 2010 was used for an ICE fishing expedition with the hope that something incriminating – a computer, manuscript of surviving genocide, old photographs or other memorabilia – might be discovered and used against either Beatrice Munyenyezi or Prudence Kantengwa or both.

But the surveillance was much more comprehensive. FBI agents were not only watching and photographing the Munyenyezi home, as agent Andersen indicates, but they were also spying on her, she alleges, by planting plain- clothes FBI operatives in her political science classes at the University of New Hampshire, where she was enrolled in an advanced degree program, in the spring of 2010.

Is Beatrice Munyenyezi a suspected terrorist? It appears that all Hutus outside of Rwanda have been designated de facto “terrorists” by the U.S. government in its alliance with the Kagame regime.

Third, the evidence of Thomas Brain Andersen’s perjury in his June 22, 2010, affidavit comes in his Paragraph 36 statement: “… and I know that Munyenyezi had appeared in court during those [her sister Prudence Kantengwa’s immigration court] proceedings and was announced as a witness for her sister.”

However, Beatrice Munyenyezi was never a witness at the immigration trial of her sister Prudence Kantengwa. Instead, the trial was interrupted when U.S. prosecutor Mary Kelly noticed Beatrice Munyenyezi sitting in the courtroom taking notes. The judge had no problem with note taking by Beatrice Munyenyezi. U.S. prosecutor Mary Kelly then apparently complained that she had planned to call Beatrice Munyenyezi as a witness. After discussions with the defense lawyer for Prudence Kantengwa, and a few questions to Beatrice Munyenyezi in a private chamber, the U.S. prosecutor dropped the issue of Munyenyezi’s presence in the courtroom. Munyenyezi was never registered as a witness by either side, and she never testified.

ICE special agent Thomas Brian Andersen misrepresents the presence of Beatrice Munyenyezi at her sister’s immigration trial to exaggerate a greater sense of collusion and conspiracy between these two “Hutu extremists,” no matter that the two women are sisters or that it is common for someone to testify in behalf of a family member. If special agent Andersen was present in the court on the day that Beatrice Munyenyezi appeared to support her sister Prudence, either he was sleeping through this disturbance in court proceedings or he lied directly. If he was sleeping, he obviously fabricated this “evidence” used as sworn testimony. If he was not present, then he used hearsay – incorrect information related by someone else – as sworn testimony in his affidavit.

An evaluation of the overall methodology employed by special agent Andersen, according to his own affidavit, suggests he has little or no training in international human rights and genocide investigations. Indeed, Mr. Andersen has been with the Boston Bureau of ICE for approximately two years, coming from five years duty with law enforcement in Vermont state. After less than two years with ICE in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, special agent Thomas Brian Andersen, a Vermont state cop, purports to have gained expertise on Rwanda and “genocide” (as related in Paragraphs 5-21 of his affidavit) and the operations of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda that ICTR defense attorneys – trained in human rights law, some having more than 10 years full time and dedicated experience with ICTR trials and the government of Rwanda – would never claim.

All the genocide charges in the Thomas Brian Andersen affidavit signed June 22, 2010, are generic charges that have been leveled over and over, against all Hutus, and Thomas Brian Andersen is not credible or impartial. He should be rejected as a witness in all Rwanda hearings.

Instead, special agent Thomas Brian Andersen should be deposed under oath and interrogated about his clandestine relationship to RPF officials and RPF intelligence agents. He should be interrogated about his relationship to the Rwanda “genocide” front organizations IBUKA and IVEGA. And he should be interrogated about ties between 35 ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Directorate of Military Intelligence and other secretive organizations of the state of Rwanda.

Additionally, Thomas Brian Andersen should be arrested, charged and brought before a court of law for perjuring himself in his June 22, 2010, affidavit.

Public branding of genocidaires

As in the 2009 asylum trials of Dr. Vincent Bajinya and three other Rwandan Hutu men in the U.K. and Dr. Leopold Munyakazi in Maryland, where all defendants are accused of being genocidaires and similarly for other Rwandan asylum hearings in the U.S., Europe or Canada, anyone traveling to Rwanda on a discovery for the defense would not be able to investigate without government interference. Even cases at the ICTR in neighboring Arusha, Tanzania, have seen serious interference from the Rwanda regime. Similarly, ICE agent Thomas Brian Andersen would not have been able to travel to Rwanda without the direct involvement and highest authorization of the RPF regime, in collaboration with the U.S. State Department, and his actions were monitored from beginning to end.

Usually the RPF regime provides “handlers” that manage investigations and spoon-fed investigators with information fabricated or cleared by the regime. Rwanda experts for the defense at asylum hearings, including ICTR lawyer Peter Erlinder and Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian Rwanda expert, have testified – as experts for the defense – to the problems of asylum cases and the interference by the Kagame regime in court cases in Rwanda, at the ICTR and abroad.

Dr. Vincent Bajinya was arrested in London many years after he arrived and gained citizenship in England and was framed by Fergal Keane, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist who was also deceived by Rwandan officials.35 Keane traveled to Rwanda and worked with RPF “handlers” – agents posing as civilians – to “discover” and interview the “witnesses” to the supposed crimes of Dr. Vincent Bajinya (et al).36

Dr. Leopold Munyakazi was a professor employed at Goucher College in Maryland until 2008, when he was arrested by ICE agents after making a public speech decrying the abuses of the Kagame regime, the falsification of genocide charges and the lies of the official RPF genocide narrative.37

Dr. Munyakazi was framed by the Kagame regime and publicly branded as a genocidaire by a short-lived NBC News television program that sought prime-time ratings by tracking down and “exposing” supposed genocidaires. The program was titled “The Wanted,” and the morality of “good versus evil” was underscored by the choice of the show’s commentator, Scott Tyler, an ex-Navy Seal, while the wanted man, Dr. Leopold Munyakazi, was their embodiment of evil. The zealous NBC News team acted as accuser, judge and jury against Dr. Munyakazi.38

U.S. prosecutors in Rwanda asylum cases are generally very ignorant of the politics of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Rwanda, or they have been irreconcilably swayed by the propaganda of the Kagame regime and its partners, which is everywhere in the Western media.39

In two related U.S. court cases (where the Rwandan defendants’ hearings are underway and they do not wish to be named), two U.S. prosecutors traveled to Rwanda and later testified in court that it was very easy to get the information they wanted, that they did not need a clearance from the Rwanda government, and that they went to the countryside and met witnesses without government assistance or monitoring. They even went to prisons to talk to prisoners without Rwanda government help, they claimed, and reported to the court that conditions of prisoners were excellent.

While U.S. government prosecutors who have worked in Rwanda under these supposed “independent” conditions have not been deposed under oath, their claims are impossible under the current military regime in Rwanda. 36 The genocide rape charge

Beatrice Munyenyezi’s husband, Shalom Ntahobari, and mother-in-law, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, remain in detention at the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania. Both have been on trial at the ICTR for more than 10 years and are awaiting decisions on genocide and rape charges for more than a year now.

The same “Tutsi victims” of rape who testified in the ICTR hearing against Shalom Ntahobari also allegedly testified in the case of Hutu businessman Désiré Munyaneza, the first alleged Rwanda genocidaire tried in Canada, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in October 2009. In Shalom Ntahobari’s case, the women could not even recognize the defendant in court, no matter their allegations of having been repeatedly raped.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko was the first woman internationally charged with rape as a war crime or act of genocide. The former Minister of Family Affairs, she is accused of ordering Interahamwe militia to rape members of the Tutsi minority.

These rape charges were handed down immediately after then First Lady Hillary Clinton visited the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR). When Ms. Clinton pledged $600,000 to be paid after the first ICTR rape conviction was delivered, indictments at the ICTR were modified to include rape charges against most top alleged genocidaires on trial.

The case against Pauline Nyiramasuhuko was sensationalized in an eight-page feature in the New York Times Magazine (Sept. 15, 2002). Penned by Peter Landesman and titled “The Minister of Rape: How Could a Woman Incite Rwanda’s Sex-Crime Genocide?” the magazine ran an unflattering and blurred photo of Ms. Nyiramasuhuko’s bespectacled face on the cover.

“The 1994 genocide, one of the worst mass slaughters in recorded history,” Landesman later wrote in “Out of Madness, a Matriarchy,” another fictional account (also deploying the racist “madness” theme) this time in Mother Jones magazine, “was triggered by the assassination of Rwanda’s Hutu president, after a lengthy civil war between the Hutu-led government and the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front. It was a deliberate effort to eliminate the country’s Tutsi ‘problem.’ Books about Hitler and the Holocaust and lists of potential victims were later discovered in the offices of top government officials. In all, at least 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus died … Among the most nefarious tools of the genocide was a planned mass sexual assault on Tutsi women, with Hutu officials encouraging HIV-positive soldiers to take part in gang rapes.”40

First, these numbers of Tutsis killed are highly disputed, and many of the Tutsis were killed by the RPF. Second, any “deliberate effort to eliminate the country’s Tutsi ‘problem’” was more the responsibility of the RPF than any other institution of power in Rwanda in 1994. Third, every Western library and most all Western human rights and media professionals and academics have books about Hitler, just as every Western public and university library does. Fourth, these supposed genocide “lists” have never been produced at the ICTR. Fifth, the reference to the Holocaust is part of the overall “genocide” propaganda that defines the Tutsi minority as the sole proprietors of victim-hood in Rwanda and falsely defines them as “the Jews of Africa.”41

Finally, there was no “planned mass sexual assault on Tutsi women.”

Notwithstanding the fictions, when the allegations against a branded genocidaire are repeated, they are often no longer presented as allegations, but as absolute fact.

For example, Emily Heroy, the founder and executive editor of Gender Across Borders – “a global feminist blog” – regurgitated the 2002 “Minister of Rape” story in 2009.42

“In 2002, Peter Landesman wrote an article in the New York Times about Nyiramasuhuko entitled “A Woman’s Work” about her role in the genocide … Nyiramasuhuko ordered her son and militia to rape and kill thousands of women during the Rwanda genocide.”

The falsification of rape testimonies by Rwandan “survivors” of genocide used to accuse opponents or critics or others targeted by the Kagame government has occurred before. Considering just one very significant example, 37 supposed Tutsi “genocide survivors” and “rape victims” were used as witnesses against Rwandan Catholic Bishop Monsignor Augustin Misago.

Bishop Misago’s female Tutsi accusers cried on the witness stand in an effort to sway the court. They claimed to have been repeatedly raped by Misago over more than one day. When asked to identify a very remarkable physical feature of Bishop Misago’s anatomy, these women were proven to be fakes who falsified testimonies with Rwandan government support.

The London-based “non-government organization” African Rights, co-founded by RPF agent Rakiya Omaar, helped frame Misago, who was subsequently arrested and jailed in 1999 but was cleared by the Rwandan Court of all genocide and rape charges in 2000.

Rakiya Omaar has worked since 1990-1991 as a paid agent of the RPF regime, always casting the Hutus as perpetrators and the Tutsis – especially the RPF Tutsi extremists – as the victims of the violence, creating a positive image for the RPF. She works freely in Rwanda, where she has a special office.43

Rakiya Omaar also fabricated evidence against Beatrice Munyenyezi, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro and Prudence Kantengwa. Omaar reportedly traveled to the home village of Dr. Higiro and sisters and then produced documentation used by the Western media, United Nations experts, the RPF regime and by U.S. asylum courts to accuse Dr. Higiro and Beatrice Munyenyezi of crimes. Family members were also intimidated and threatened in Rwanda.

One of the most suppressed facts about the realities of the RPF Tutsi extremists and their elite networks is the historical and contemporary existence of ubwenge (ou-WEN-gay) – a complex Kinyarwanda language term referring to wisdom, trickery, caution, cleverness, prudence, deceptions, lies, manipulations. It relates to the capacity to gain a clear understanding of situations and the capability to surround oneself with a network of profit generating social relations.

French author Pierre Péan discussed “ubwenge” in his 2005 book “Noires Fureurs, Blancs Menteurs” (“Black Furies, White Liars”), noting that Tutsis were affected by a “lying culture” and questioning the historiography of genocide in Rwanda. Péan alleged that Tutsis have systematically resorted to lying, while employing doubtful and fraudulent maneuvers, with the aim of misleading the international community relating to the accuracy of its genocide cause. Péan was immediately sued in French courts by S.O.S. Racisme, an “anti-racism” organization that has been very pro-Kagame and pro-RPF in France.

Ubwenge or the culture of deception was highly valued in traditional Rwanda, particularly in Tutsi aristocratic circles. Young Tutsi aristocrats were trained in ubwenge to help insure the Tutsi domination of Rwanda and the enslavement of the Hutu majority. By any name, the extremist RPF Tutsi regime and its leaders excel at ubwenge.

“They will bring into the U.S. court these women from Rwanda,” says Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro. “They will say, ‘I was raped,’ and they will cry. The jury will think this is spontaneous and the judge and jury will believe them. But the jury will not understand that this is an exercise in ubwenge. Some Hutus will also use ubwenge. In the RPF kingdom ruled by Paul Kagame there are people who train people to lie in court. They are used in different trials to lie and frame and accuse. Westerners and judges in Western countries do not grasp this.”

Beatrice Munyenyezi’s case will join those of other Rwandans accused by the Kagame regime that are costing U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars for hearings that have historically involved fraud, disinformation and U.S. government manipulation. The U.S. government is fighting its own judiciary in its effort to maintain the shiny clean façade masking the terrorism of the Paul Kagame government in Rwanda. This is not a successful entrepreneurial government, but an absolute military dictatorship whose grip of terror extends into the hearts and minds – as with Thomas Brian Andersen – of the United States of America.