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Rwanda's Kagame says no favours for Hutu
rebels
27 May 2005 16:46:08
GMT
Source: Reuters
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By Arthur
Asiimwe
KIGALI, May 27 (Reuters) - Rwanda will grant no special terms to ease
the return of Hutu rebels, President Paul Kagame said on Friday in an apparent
rebuff of the rebels' plan to become a political party after laying down their
guns. The Hutu Democratic Forces for Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), based in
neighbouring Congo, said in March it was ending its war against Rwanda and
denounced the 1994 genocide, in which many of its members are suspected of
taking part.
Kagame -- a Tutsi and former rebel leader whose forces routed the Hutu
government responsible for the genocide -- has welcomed the FDLR announcement
but has always been seen as unlikely to tolerate the FDLR's plan to re-invent
itself as a political party.
In his latest statement, Kagame made no comment on that prospect but
made clear the FDLR would be given no special favours.
"I do not think that group is special. All we will do is to open gates
for them," he told reporters. "Those who wish to come are welcome. Those who
wish to stay, it is their choice and those who wish to continue fighting can
do.
"We appreciate their statement to disarm and come back home. Though it
is long overdue for them, we remain open about receiving them when they come."
Kagame's government has refused to negotiate with the rebels for over a
decade, instead sending its soldiers to hunt them down.
The FDLR is the largest grouping of Hutu rebels, many of whom are
accused of killing 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a spasm of
violence over 100 days in 1994.
Some FDLR rebels were members of the former Rwandan army and the
notorious Hutu militias, or Interahamwe, which took part in the genocide.
Rwanda has made it clear that any suspected of involvement in the genocide
will be put on trial.
The presence of thousands of Rwandan rebels in the east of the
Democratic Republic of Congo during the last 10 years has fuelled ongoing
regional instability and was specifically used by Kigali as justification for
invading Congo in 1996 and 1998.
