Editor,

This is in reference to Lonzen Rugira’s commentary, "The problem of sympathising with the FDLR”, published in The New Times of June 10. It’s an excellently-argued case explaining why it is beyond the pale to suggest that negotiating with mass murderers can ever be a sane option.

Such a proposal represents nothing more than a conscious attempt to banalise the ultimate evil. It also tells us more than we would wish about the infinite moral flexibility of the person making the suggestion to a people in the middle of the period when they commemorate for only the 19th time, 100 days of pure hell even as most of the world looked on without care. 

Someone definitely missed an excellent opportunity to keep quiet. Thank you Rugira.

Mwene Kalinda, KigaliRwanda

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You are totally right dear Rugira. No prominent leader can just wake up and make himself a spokesperson of such a negative force like FDLR without being sympathetic to their cause. And such sympathy emanates from understanding each other because they believe they belong to the same ancestry and therefore share the same destiny.

In Kiswahili they call themselves "Wabantu” and forget that we are all African brothers and sisters. It is a pity but it has been proven to be true.

Had such a leader been objective he would have known how many Rwandans had come back home from exile and what keeps these FDLR ruthless genocidaires in the DRC’s forests despite the Rwandan Government’s incessant efforts to bring them back and integrate them in Rwandan society.

Joseph Rutagengwa, NyamataRwanda