{"id":421,"date":"2021-08-23T15:40:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T15:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing"},"modified":"2021-08-23T16:49:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T16:49:39","slug":"five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing","title":{"rendered":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Rwanda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame last month, held his first news briefing on Thursday, August 19, where he covered various subjects on the state of relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Below are the key takeaways:<\/b><\/p>\n

1. CHOGM update<\/b><\/p>\n

Rwanda could host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2022 with the exact dates being proposed by the government of Rwanda. The event was postponed on two occasions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary decision on when to host is it actually with Rwanda working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat. We will do what we can to support. We are keen to see it happen ideally in the first half of next year if we can or as soon as practicable,\u201d Daair said.<\/p>\n

2. Genocide fugitives in the UK<\/b><\/p>\n

Like previous envoys before him, Daair was non-committal on the fate of five genocide suspects who have been living in this country for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

The key suspects are; Vincent Bajinya, C\u00e9lestin Ugirashebuja, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel and C\u00e9lestin Mutabaruka.<\/p>\n

A collage of five indicted Genocide suspects living in the UK. Top row (L-R): C\u00e9lestin Mutabaruka and Dr Vincent Bajinya. Bottom row (L-R): Charles Munyaneza, C\u00e9lestin Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo. Photos: File.<\/b><\/p>\n

Daair said that while he understands that the matter is of concern to many Rwandans, his office and government cannot do much least they are accused of interference with a judicial procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be counterproductive for a court case if the government was seen to be interfering in the process. It could be grounds for further appeal. I understand that it feels slow, there has been many verdicts and it does take a long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there could be some unseen hands interfering with the process or corruption holding back the proceedings, he said that he has faith and confidence in the country\u2019s judicial system.<\/p>\n

Rwanda first notified the UK government of the presence of these suspects on its soil back in 2007 when they issued indictments. Following an extradition case, Rwandan prosecution won in 2008 before the suspects appealed. In 2009, an appeals court ruled in their favour.<\/p>\n

Rwanda made a fresh extradition bid at Westminster Magistrates Court in 2013 following judicial reforms but again it lost.<\/p>\n

In 2015 and in 2017, a British District Court and the High Court ruled respectively, that there was compelling evidence of the involvement of the five in the genocide against the Tutsi, but none of them could be extradited to Rwanda because that would breach their human rights.<\/p>\n

The court has since not ruled on what would be done to bring the group to justice.<\/p>\n

3. UK terminology on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi<\/b><\/p>\n

The new envoy also remained non-committal on looking into the subject of the UK\u2019s refusal to use the terminology agreed upon by the United Nations; the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that the choice of nomenclature is a sensitive issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that it is not the position of the government with regard to the terminology and a lot of people take this issue seriously. It is not designed to dilute this issue. It is not in any way meant to be genocide denial which we reject,\u201d Daair said.<\/p>\n

4. UK travel ban<\/b><\/p>\n

In January this year, the United Kingdom put Rwanda on a red list banning travelers from Rwanda to prevent the spread of new Covid-19 variants that are emerging.<\/p>\n

Many have questioned the UK\u2019s decision, saying that the decision does not stand up to scientific scrutiny. Daair said that the move by his government was informed by the scarcity of information on the variants of Covid-19 that could be in Rwanda and the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then there was lower vaccinations, testing, as well as limited information on the presence of variants. We continue to assess the information available,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that they have noted progress as the country rolls out testing and vaccination as well as a decline in infections with the third wave coming under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to feed this information back to London\u2026 We would all much rather that the red list was lifted, it will continue to be monitored. I do not have a specific timeline but we are continuing to share information. We are also exploring ways that we can partner on some of the data on variants which would be helpful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

5. Priorities during his tenure<\/b><\/p>\n

Daair said that he will remain open to identifying issues Rwanda seeks support in. The cooperation will however be strong in areas such as education, job creation and economic growth, increasing trade, climate change and delivering CHOGM.<\/p>\n

The UK will spend an estimated \u00a324-25M worth of aid assistance, a figure which has been slowly declining in recent years. He explained the decline is an outcome of the positive progress made in development by Rwanda.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will notice that over the years, aid has reduced. Part of that is because of the success story in the country. As countries get better, they need more of technical assistance which is usually less money spent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame last month, held his first news briefing on Thursday, August 19, where he covered various subjects on the state of relations between the two countries. Below are the key takeaways: 1. CHOGM update Rwanda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14],"tags":[760,763,797,796,758],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-highlights","tag-media-briefing","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nFive highlights from new UK envoy media briefing - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame las ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame las ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-23T15:40:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-23T16:49:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-23T15:40:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-23T16:49:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\"},\"wordCount\":872,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"highlights\",\"media briefing\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\",\"name\":\"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-23T15:40:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-23T16:49:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame las ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg\",\"width\":847,\"height\":491,\"caption\":\"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing - Rwanda","description":"The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame las ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing","og_description":"The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame las ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2021-08-23T15:40:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-23T16:49:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":847,"height":491,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing","datePublished":"2021-08-23T15:40:12+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-23T16:49:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing"},"wordCount":872,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","highlights","media briefing","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing","name":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-23T15:40:12+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-23T16:49:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The United Kingdom\u2019s new envoy to Rwanda Omar Daair, who formally presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame las ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6123d179a7415.jpg","width":847,"height":491,"caption":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/five-highlights-from-new-uk-envoy-media-briefing#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Five highlights from new UK envoy media briefing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}