Archive for
December 10th, 2006


Stories

Rwanda: African Bloggers on Kagame Judgment 

a small portrait of this author Alice Backer · 23:58

French Judge's Arrest Warrant

HotelRwanda

From Cameroonian Diaspora Blogger Sanaga Peregrinations:

Un bref résumé des épisodes (récents) s'impose pour ceux qui n'ont pas suivi.

1. Le juge antiterroriste français Bruguière, clôture son enquête sur l'attentat du 6 avril 1994 et qui fut le declencheur du genocide qui couta la vie a pres de 1 millions de personnes. Il accuse l'actuel président rwandais Paul Kagamé d'en être responsable et recommande des poursuites a son encontre. Parallèlement, des mandats d'arrêt internationaux pour “assassinats” ou “complicité d'assassinats” sont émis contre neuf proches du président Paul Kagamé.
2. Fureur de Kagamé et rupture des relations diplomatiques entre la France et le Rwanda le 24 novembre dernier.
3. Contre-attaque et contre-accusations de Kagamé. La France est impliquée dans le génocide, et il n'y a aucun doute là-dessus. Personne ne peut avoir de doutes, mais sur l'étendue, sur les degrés de l'implication, les personnes (…), la manière dont les institutions françaises sont concernées, ce sont des aspects qui seront examinés par la commission ” [d'enquête].

A brief summary of recent events for those who have not been following:

1. Antiterrorist French judge Bruguiere closes his investigation on the April 6th 1994 murder that unleashed the genocide that cost the lives of at least a million of people. He accuses the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame of being responsible and recommends that he be brought to justice. Simultaneously, international arrest warrants for “murder” and “complicity to murder” are issued against nine in President Kagame's circle.
2. Kagame is enraged and ends diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda on November 24 of this year.
3. Kagame proffers counter-attacks and counter-accusations. France is implicated in the genocide and there is no doubt about that. No one can have doubts, but the extent, the degrees of implication, the people (…), the way in which French institutions are involved, are aspects that will be examines by the investigating commission.”


Flashback: France and the Genocide

Says blog L'Afrique, Cap sur le Changement,

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Russia: A Letter to Putin 

a small portrait of this author Veronica Khokhlova · 16:35

It's a letter-writing season in Russia.

LJ user yashin posted an appeal (translated here) to the judge who had given a harsh sentence to an activist for placing a banner saying “Putin, go away on your own” on Hotel Rossiya in Moscow.

LJ user aneta_spb has come up with a letter (RUS) to president Vladimir Putin himself, and for a while, it was one of the highest-ranked posts at the Yangex Blogs portal. Below is a rough translation:

Here, I've written a letter to the president.

Gospodin [Mr.] Putin!

Or, Gospodin President of [the Russian Federation].

I, a rank-and-file citizen of the Russian Federation, Gavrilina Svetlana Dmitrievna, have started writing this letter to you and became puzzled right away.

For some reason, addressing you the way I did is considered impolite. The polite way is “Vladimir Vladimirovich.” Or “[dear] respected Vladimir Vladimirovich.” This takes aback right away. Because I can use the first name and patronymic to address an uncle twice removed or an old high school teacher, etc. But when I'm writing to the head of the state - that is, to a person who is not related to me in any way personally, but is placed in this position by the will of the people and lives on the people's money, and I'm part of this people (even though I didn't vote for this character)… In Great Britain, I wouldn't write “dear Tony,” right, or in the States, “dear George”? And in the times of the Czar, so beloved by many of your brothers-in-arms, they didn't write “Nikolay Aleksandrovich” or “Aleksandr Nikolaevich” - but “Your Majesty” or “Sovereign.” Title, function…

In any case, there is something in the word gospodin… But we're talking about a form of address here - wouldn't fit to call you tovarishch [comrade], right?..

Whatever, done with the addressing part, sort of. Now, on to the essence.

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China: I have no legs 

a small portrait of this author John Kennedy · 14:15

A lump of coal would actually come in handy for the cold souls in Petitioner Village this winter, judging from the stories told in The China Next Door, a photo montage posted at Beijing-based journalist Huang Zhangjin's Bokee blog, since deleted, but safe at his Bullog.cn space.

当你翻到本页时，相信你的眼光一定会在这里长久停留。这里的人你一定见过，当你急匆匆走过地下铁的通道，当你到某个政府办公楼去办事，也许某个角落就有他们的身影，他们在你不经意的余光里，在你匆匆的惊诧里。
他们是长久哀怨、悲愤的一群人，他们因某一意外而改变了人生轨迹，奔波于故乡和大都市，顽强地追逐一个说法、一个公正的梦想。他们是固执而又乐观的人群，他们日复一日地失望，年复一年地坚持，始终坚守着我们民族几千年来对”青天”和”人间自有公道”的一线信仰。

As you scroll down this page, what you see will make you stop and look. The people here you've surely seen before, as you hurry through underground corridors, as you stop by government buildings to take care of matters, or in some corner, you see their shadow out of the corner of your eye, which astonishes you as you rush. They are a group of long-sorrowful, long-grieving people, the course of whose lives have been changed by some accident, rushing about their hometowns and the city, doggedly pursuing a verdict, a dream of justice. They are both an obstinate and optimistic group, disappointed day after day, persevering year after year, all along holding on to our people's millennia-old faith in “blue sky” and “justice in the world”.

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