Arusha, May 29, 2013 (FH) \u2013 Rwandan genocide survivors have accused Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete of supporting perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, after he urged the Rwandan government to start talks with FDLR rebels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The FDLR are based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and are considered one of the main sources of insecurity in the region. They have in their ranks elements suspected of participating in the anti-Tutsi genocide.<\/p>\n
Speaking Sunday at a summit in Addis Ababa on the crisis in eastern DRC, Kikwete recommended negotiations between Kinshasa and M-23 rebels, but also between Kigali and the FDLR.<\/p>\n
Genocide survivors\u2019 organization Ibuka said such negotiations were unacceptable. \u201cIbuka strongly condemns President Kikwete\u2019s statement as no negotiation is acceptable with a known terrorist group that is responsible for the death of more than a million Tutsis in Rwanda and continues its blood-thirsty activities in the eastern DR Congo,\u201d said Ibuka president Jean-Pierre Dusingizemungu.<\/p>\n
In an open letter to the UN Secretary General, the Association of Genocide Student Survivors and Alumni accused Kikwete of being a \u201cgenocide denier and revisionist\u201d and demanded an apology for his \u201cdespicable utterances\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rwandan President Paul Kagame was present at Kikwete\u2019s speech on Sunday but responded only with silence. It was his Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo who reacted the following day in an interview with RFI. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise us because the FDLR has lots of spokespeople. There are those who are aligned ideologically with the FDLR,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are sympathies here and there. Amongst our neighbours but also far from Rwanda,\u201d she added, saying that the Tanzanian president\u2019s position was \u201cabhorrent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Professor Pierre Rwanyindo, Director of the Kigali-based Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP), told Rwanda\u2019s New Times newspaper that Kikwete seems to ignore history. \u201cHe should first ask himself how FDLR ended up in Congo since they are not Congolese,\u201d the paper quoted him as saying. \u201cThe Rwandan government encourages all Rwandan refugees to return home, but the FDLR just want to attack Rwanda because of the crimes they committed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rwanda and Tanzania are both members of the East African Community (EAC), along with Burundi, Kenya and Uganda. Tanzania also hosts the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is charged with bringing to justice the main architects of the 1994 genocide.<\/p>\n
ER\/JC<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, May 29, 2013 (FH) \u2013 Rwandan genocide survivors have accused Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete of supporting perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, after he urged the Rwandan government to start talks with FDLR rebels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-24748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n