Rwandan minister accuses West of supporting genocide deniers
Posted by africanpress on May 15, 2008
Publisher: Korir, africanpress@getmail.no source.apa
The Rwandan minister of Justice and Attorney General, Tharcisse Karugarama has accused some Western countries, individuals and organizations of providing support to Rwandan rebel groups and genociders, leading to an increase in genocide ideology.
The minister was on Tuesday opening a one-day consultative meeting of different national stakeholders on strategies of eradicating the ideology of genocide at Hotel Novotel Umubano in Kigali.
Without mentioning their names, the Rwandan minister said there was overwhelming evidence to suggest that the Rwandan rebel group, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Interahamwe militias and member of the ex-Rwandan army during the 1994 genocide, all operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo have international networks. He claimed that the rebel groups have partners in many European countries who have continued to propagate the ideology in Rwanda as well as vehemently denying the occurrence of the 1994 genocide.
“We have received enough evidence suggesting that some elements in the international community are providing logistical and financial support to Rwanda rebels whose aim is nothing but to commit genocide,” Karugarama said.
“Anyone who denies the occurrence of the Holocaust is severely punished, yet those who deny the Rwandan genocide are simply said to be exercising their rights to freedom of expression,” he said. He noted that Rwandan negative forces are now using religious and political groups in several countries in an effort to continue their unfinished genocide agenda in Rwanda.
The minister called on the judiciary to help in the eradication of the genocide ideology by judging it from a regional and international perspective rather than from a local one.
The head of crime investigation in the Rwanda national police, Superintendent Morris Muligo, said that the community policing strategy would contribute immensely in the eradication of the ideology at local level.
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