KIGALI – Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, has accused the United Nations of betraying a pledge to combat Hutu extremists in eastern Congo and then blaming his country for the failure of a costly peacekeeping mission to end years of conflict.
In an interview, Kagame dismissed accusations that Rwanda is backing the Tutsi rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, who has seized swaths of territory in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in recent weeks, committing war crimes and prompting another refugee crisis.
“The international community spends $1.2bn every year on that mission in the Congo. Why would the international community spend so much and say they want to come and deal with the problem and they don’t deal with it?
This kind of simplistic approach has to stop by people who run the world, and they [must] really take the bull by the horns and deal with the issue,” he said.
“That is the reason why people have decided to shift the blame and load it on the shoulders of Rwanda and the Rwandan government just because, in my view, they cannot justify all this. They are in the Congo to support the government to stand on its own feet and solve its own problems. They haven’t been very successful. When the problem that was not resolved keeps coming back, they simply say, let’s blame it on Rwanda.” Rwanda has been accused of providing weapons, soldiers and other backing for Nkunda and his rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) as a means of keeping at bay Hutu extremists who carried out the 1994 genocide of Rwanda’s Tutsis, and then fled into Congo. Nkunda says he is fighting to defend Congolese Tutsis from the Hutu forces.
At his official residence in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, Kagame said that his government’s ties to Nkunda were superficial. “We’re only linked with Nkunda and the CNDP just by accident of history and the fact that these are Congolese who speak Kinyarwanda, and we share borders with Congo,” he said.
But evidence suggests the links go deeper. Nkunda was an intelligence officer in Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front army that in 1994 overthrew the Hutu government that organised the genocide.
The Congolese Tutsi rebel leader also played his part when Rwanda invaded Congo – then called Zaire – in 1996 to clear out the refugee camps that had become a base for the defeated Hutu forces to attack Rwanda, and again two years later for a lengthy war that widened to bring in countries such as Angola and Zimbabwe.
Rwanda’s critics say Nkunda is still acting on Kigali’s behalf. They accuse Rwanda of backing him as a proxy in its continuing conflict with Hutu exiles who set up a rebel group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which controls about 40 per cent of the two Congolese provinces on Rwanda’s western border.
UN officials also suggest that some Rwandan officials are making tidy sums out of the plunder of minerals in Nkunda-held areas and shipped out via Kigali.
Kagame acknowledged that Nkunda was serving Rwanda’s interests by providing a buffer between its border and the FDLR. But he said that was not a long-term solution. “Does anybody find sense here that if Rwanda is doing the best it can to overcome its own difficulties – only to create problems outside?” asked Kagame.
He said that with Rwanda reorienting itself towards east Africa and the English-speaking world, and trying to build a reputation as a businessfriendly, technologically advanced destination for foreign investment, it was not in Kigali’s interests to perpetuate the instability in Congo.
“As to whether therefore Nkunda would really be looked at as a solution by Rwanda and therefore supported by Rwanda in this respect, that’s not the case. It wouldn’t be our choice to look at Nkunda as a solution to our problem.” Kagame said the solution was for the UN to send a fighting force to replace the world’s largest, and largely ineffective, peacekeeping operation. He wanted that force to fulfil UN commitments to pacify and disarm Hutu rebels and other groups.
“I would be happy if that was the case. Really. In fact I’m intending to speak to President Kabila [of Congo]. As a way of getting this unjustified blame off Rwanda, maybe we should make an approach to the UN and really ask what the UN can do in an effective way to deal with this problem.
“Can they put together a force to actually deal with all these problems that need military force to deal with it – whether it is FDLR, whether it is other groups fighting the government or even actually, dare I say this, even if this government force is killing its own people? This force should act against them and create a sense of peace and stability.” But neither Kagame nor anyone else has much confidence that will happen. Far from resolving the problem, the UN’s failures are helping to escalate it. The Congolese government is bringing in Angolan troops as it did during the 1998-2002 war with Rwanda, potentially widening the conflict again.
Kagame said he would be concerned if the Angolans were there to push back the CNDP and expose Rwanda’s border to the FDLR. But he said he did not foresee circumstances in which Rwanda would again invade Congo.
“While in the old days we crossed into Congo and dealt with the problem, which I think was very signifi cant, the remnants of the group we were fighting and the magnitude of the problem is smaller and wouldn’t warrant us to cross the border. We will deal with it on our side of the border.”
— Guardian News Service
NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands (AFP) — Ethiopian running great Kenenisa Bekele said on Sunday he was unsure as to which distance he would target for the 2012 Olympics in London.
The 26-year-old 5,000 metres and 10,000m Olympic champion said he was deliberating over whether to run the 10,000m or the marathon.
“Actually, I don’t know yet when I will turn my attention to road running,” said Bekele, who was speaking after finishing third in a 15 kilometres race here on Sunday.
“I still want to improve myself on the track.
“In London, I could run the marathon but it could well be the 10,000. At the moment, I just don’t know.”
Bekele owns one of the best records in athletics being a triple Olympic champion, a multi-world champion, double world record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000m and a five-time world champion in the cross country over short and long distance.
TEHRAN (ISNA)-Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said his country certainly supports Iran’s right for access to peaceful nuclear technology.
In a meeting with Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi, Ouyahia described Davoudi’s trip to Algeria as a turning point in boosting bilateral ties and said his country calls for employing Iran’s precious experiences on housing, medication and campaign against terrorism.
He also voiced support for bilateral cooperation on financial and energy domains.
Davoudi for his part said Iran has no border in sharing sanitary, industrial, energy and educational achievements with Algeria.
He emphasized Tehran and Algiers should try to run a gas OPEC to serve the two nations’ interests.
The Iranian Vice President said expansion of ties with Algiers is of high importance for Tehran and called for more banking, industrial, energy ties as well as rise in bilateral investment.
Meanwhile Davoudi described resistance as Iran’s key to achieve peaceful nuclear technology.
Parviz Davoudi along with a delegation left Tehran for Algiers on Saturday to hold talks with Algerian officials on raising bilateral relations.
During his tour he is to pursue agreements already made by the Iranian and Algerian presidents for expansion of ties.
Iranian and Algerian presidents have exchanged visits last year.
By Ryan DuVall
DINING OUT
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA – There is a sense of intimidation when trying a new restaurant, especially when it is one that serves something way outside the norm.
In the case of Ethiopian Restaurant, its simple name may fuel that intimidation with strong mental images of a country that not so long ago was marked by famine.
Fort Wayne has a lot of good ethnic restaurants, but they intimidate less because Thai, Korean and Vietnamese are easily comparable to Chinese food, which is very Americanized, and anything from south of the border falls under the Latin food umbrella and is easily compared with good old Americanized Mexican.
There is no comfortable comparison for African cuisine.
But what I found at Ethiopian Restaurant was anything but intimidating. It was simply prepared and seasoned food – much less exotic than much of the Latin and Asian fare I have had – made in a family setting much the same way I suspect it has been made for members of that family for years.
The hard-to-find restaurant, in a strip of stores near Parkview Hospital on State Boulevard, is small and has little character except for a few posters and knick-knacks from Ethiopia.
The menu is also quite small, with vegetarian, chicken, beef and lamb offerings, since most traditional Ethiopians do not eat pork for religious reasons.
The base for Ethiopian food is injera bread, which is made from fermented teff flour and is more like a cold crepe than actual bread. This bread is your eating utensil.
You can ask for flatware, but Ethiopians eat with their right hand and use pieces of the injera to grab the food. Injera has little flavor except for a touch of sourness, so it is truly more of a vehicle for other offerings.
It is also quite pasty, and all of the pieces, which included a huge layer covering the bottom of the huge family-style serving platter on which all of the food is served, were cold. So, no, this is not like Indian dosa, which is delicious plain.
The best dish I had was the lega tibs – lamb sauted in onion jalapeo, butter and spices. These big chunks of mild meat resembled beef tips and were just as moist and tender. The onion added a dash of sweetness, the jalapeo provided spice, and a few sprigs of thyme rounded the dish out.
The lamb, of which I received a large bowl, is available only on Fridays and Saturdays.
I also loved the yemisir wat – red split lentils in red pepper, onions, herbs and berbere sauce, which is a combination of chili pepper and other spices.
The dark red beans had the texture of chunky refried beans and had a wonderful hint of spice.
The doro alicha – chicken leg seasoned with onion, garlic, fresh ginger, a touch of butter and green pepper, all simmered in turmeric – was a bit disappointing. The turmeric gave the dish a unique fresh, zesty flavor, and the green pepper colored the sauce, which was a bit chunky like a chutney.
However, the chicken leg was small in spite of being fall-off-the-bone tender and juicy. The dish was minuscule in comparison to the huge portion of lamb, which was the same price.
The kitfo regular was similar in flavor and color but was a better option. Minced and seasoned beef was mixed with herbed butter, cardamom – which gave it a greenish-yellow color – and mitmita, which is a spice mix of chili peppers, cardamom seed, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, ginger and salt.
The tiny bits of beef were hearty but too small to really gauge quality, and the spice mix gave it a lot of depth.
All of the entres were joined on the serving platter with sides, which vary daily.
Stewed cabbage with carrot slices was served during both visits and was my favorite of the sides.
This slightly sweet, soft, cool cabbage salad of sorts was bright yellow from the addition of turmeric, but it had a nice palate-cleansing effect, which made you keep going back from more.
I also loved the super-sweet beets-and-carrots side, which was dark red and slightly spicy from a hint of jalapeo.
Most of the spicy dishes were pretty tame, and the woman who handled the kitchen duties said she has made them that way purposefully so the food is pleasing to all palates.
A mealy scoop of split peas, which were also quite yellow from, again, turmeric, was my least favorite of the sides as the texture was too mushy, and it was refrigerator-cold. I would have rather had more of the potatoes and carrots stewed in tomatoes, which was hearty and more familiar in flavor.
The Ethiopian coffee was familiar in that it was stout and hot, but it also had a wonderful nutty, spicy background that made it unique. It is believed that coffee originated in Ethiopia, so it is a serious undertaking.
The coffee was served in beautiful traditional black pots, and the cook said she adds clove and cardamom to create the unique taste. I enjoyed every drop and would encourage anyone who tries Ethiopian Restaurant to try some.
That said, my coffee, which was the first thing I ordered during both visits, arrived more than halfway through my meal. Although I was served water and I appreciated that the coffee was brewed fresh, I would have liked to receive it sooner. I also was never able to try the home salad with homemade dressing because the folks there forgot about it both times I visited.
The courteous, gracious family members that run Ethiopian Restaurant did their best, it seemed, but I got the feeling they are new to the service industry.
But the food was unique and satisfying for the most part, and the experience of eating with your hands and trying food of a much different color and flavor than any other ethnic restaurant makes it well worth checking out.
Restaurant: Ethiopian Restaurant
Address: 2805 E. State Blvd.
Phone: 483-9787
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday
Cuisine: Ethiopian
Handicapped accessible: Yes
Alcohol served: None
Credit cards accepted: Yes
Kid-friendly: Yes, but no menu options
Menu: Ethiopian coffee ($2.95), yemisir wat ($7.95), lega tibs ($9.95), doro alicha ($9.95), kitfo regular ($9.95)
Note: Restaurants are categorized by price range: $ (less than $20 for three-course meal), $$ ($20-$29); $$$ ($30-$39), $$$$ ($40-$49), $$$$$ ($50 and up).
Ryan DuVall is a restaurant critic for The Journal Gazette. This review is based on two unannounced visits. The Journal Gazette pays for all meals. E-mail him at [email protected], call at 461-8130, or go to the “Dining Out” topic of “The Board” at www.journalgazette.net. DuVall’s past reviews can also be found under the Web site’s Food tab.
– FortWayne.com
GODE, ETHIOPIA (APA) – Floods washed away at least 11 people and displaced thousands in Gode (700km from capital) in the eastern part of Ethiopia, APA learnt in Addis on Saturday.
According to Ethiopian authorities, the flood occurred late on Friday in Gode town due to the overflow of the Wabi Shebele River in the southeastern Somali regional state, one of the nine regional states in Ethiopia.
Heavy rains in the area resulted in the overflow of the Wabi Shebele River, which is one of the largest rivers in Ethiopia.
According to the Somali regional state Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau, the flood also affected 116 districts in the regional state.
“The flood also washed away 6,000 various animals that belong to the farmers in the area. The regional state is trying to deliver food assistance to displaced people,” said the bureau.
Since few weeks, unusual rains have been affecting Ethiopia’s harvest in various areas of the country. This is feared to damage this year’s harvest.
