Turkish Ambassador to Rwanda Burcu Cevik (right) after handing over the donation to Sheik Salim Hitimana, Mufti of Rwanda (left)
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) on Wednesday delivered aid packages for needy families in Rwanda.
According to a statement by Turkey's Embassy in Kigali, a total of 1,000 families benefited from the assistance of TIKA.
Food packages were handed over and hygiene items essential amid the COVID-19 pandemic were given to the people. - Gokhan Kavak/Ali Murat Alhas, Anadolu Agency
French lead prosecutor Remy Heitz said Monday that the investigations carried out by the French government could not prove direct involvement of French troops in the Rwandan genocide and asked the investigating magistrates to drop the case.
The investigation centers on the 991-page report that was published by the Research Commission on the French Archives relating to Rwanda and the Tutsi genocide, known as the Duclert Commission. In March, the Duclert Commission’s report found that France was not complicit in the Rwandan genocide, but that France bears responsibility for its failure to act. Although the report cleared France of complicity with the massacre of 800,000 people, the report said, “France was involved with a regime that encouraged racist massacres. It remained blind to the preparation of a genocide by the most radical elements of this regime.”
The investigation targets five French military officers who were involved with the UN-backed Operation Turquoise. At this time, no charges have been brought by the investigating magistrates and, with Heitz’s recommendation to drop the claims, it is likely that the case will be dropped. In a statement, Heitz said that the Duclert report “did not make it possible to establish that the French forces could have been guilty of the crimes of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity,” and that the inquiry failed to establish the existence of any “help or assistance from the French military forces during the carrying out of the atrocities.”
Although the Duclert Commission found that France was not complicit in the genocide, the complementary report issued by the Rwandan government and prepared by Robert Muse of the US-based law firm Levy Firestone Muse found that French political interests in Africa were directly responsible for France’s complacency and failure to take action in the early days of the Rwandan genocide. The Muse report found that “the effect of the French presence in Rwanda and its conscious indifference to Tutsi suffering was to create a sense of impunity amongst the perpetrators that would grow and find its fullness in the Genocide.”
The claims were originally brought in December of 2005 by human rights activists and survivors of the genocide. The final decision for whether the claims will be dropped is at the discretion of the French investigating magistrates. - Robert Kaufman | U. Pittsburgh School of Law, US / JURIST
Bill and Melinda Gates, one of the world's most powerful couples, announced on Monday they were divorcing after nearly 30 years of marriage, saying they could no longer “grow together”.
Mr Gates, the 65-year-old co-founder of Microsoft, posted a statement on Twitter revealing that he and wife Melinda made the decision after a “great deal of thought and work” and that they were entering the “next phase” of their lives.
Bill and Melinda Gates released a statement on Twitter announcing their separation - AP
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” it read.
“Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.
“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue to work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”
The couple's separation leaves their foundation in doubt - REUTERS
The divorce of the famously charitable couple is likely to send shock waves through the worlds of philanthropy, public health and business.
Their separation also leaves questions over the fate of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - the world’s largest charitable organisation - which has donated tens of billions of dollars since it was formed in 2000.
In the last year alone, the Gates Foundation made a contribution of $250 million to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and has focused on the development and distribution of vaccines around the world.
It could also become one of the most expensive in history. Mr Gates is the fourth wealthiest man in the world and together the couple is worth an estimated $127 billion.
The couple said the next phase of their lives would be spent separately - PA
Bill and Melinda, 56, began dating in 1987 after meeting at a New York trade show. Mr Gates had founded Microsoft 12 years earlier and was already worth several billion dollars.
When Bill, who is known to book out his day in five-minute slots, initially asked her out, inquiring if they could go out “two weeks from tonight", Melinda responded: “That’s not spontaneous enough for me.”
Melinda, a Texas-born daughter of an aerospace engineer and a housewife. went on to work at Microsoft as a project manager before she was appointed as General Manager of Information Products in the early 1990s.
They married in a small and intimate wedding in Hawaii in 1994 and Melinda left Microsoft two years later to concentrate on starting a family.
The couple have three children; Jennifer, 25, Rory, 21, and Phoebe, 18, each of whom is reportedly set to inherit just $10 million each with the rest going to charity.
Melinda had said in interviews that the secret to their marriage was that she and Bill equally divided the running of their household.
However, she wrote in her memoir The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World of the challenges their marriage faced. She talked candidly about her loneliness after the birth of first child Jennifer, with Bill working all hours of the day.
“Great wealth can be very confusing,” she wrote. “The way that I can keep myself best grounded is to, um, live out the family life that I want to live.”
Both halves of the couple have consistently been ranked as one of the world's most powerful men and women by Forbes magazine.
The couple led an early 21st-century vaccination campaign which significantly contributed to the eradication of the wild polio virus in Africa.
Mr Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board last year to focus on combatting the virus. He also sold the majority of his stake in Microsoft, retaining just over 1 per cent of shares. By Josie Ensor, Yahoo News
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