Advice to FDLR: Renounce genocide creed, return home

Editor,Indeed this is the paradox of international law subscribers. The principle of non-aggression and territorial integrity one can ask if it really exists. Is FDLR Congolese or Rwandans? Of course they are Rwandans; then what status do they have in DRC? Are they tourists, refugees or otherwise?

Friday, June 21, 2013
An FDLR rebel. The New Times / File.

Editor,Indeed this is the paradox of international law subscribers. The principle of non-aggression and territorial integrity one can ask if it really exists. Is FDLR Congolese or Rwandans? Of course they are Rwandans; then what status do they have in DRC? Are they tourists, refugees or otherwise?If they went in DRC seeking for refuge, then why did DRC Government keep them armed for 19 years? Do refugees have a right to be armed? Why didn’t DRC give notice to them to put down arms and be given refugee status?Some argue that they have failed to disarm them, but why don’t they again request UN to deploy force to disarm these groups? Why does these so called number one in democracy and civilisation don’t see this issue and ask President Kabila about the status of this group in his country? These people rally for peace in the region?

Are FDLR partner in peace in DRC? If it is the case, who arms them for two decades? There are numerous questions one would ask himself about this genocidal group.I would rather say former President Mobutu sympathised with them, Laurent Desire Kabila too, and Kabila (the incumbent DRC president) is doing the same. But my piece of advise to whoever wants to sympathise with those killers is that history will judge them very soon. The sympathisers should know that it is the DRC people who suffer most the consequences of harbouring these criminals.Their diversive statements can keep the truth away for a while but not permanently. UN avoided apologising for 15 years and them, they are doing the same for the detriment of the whole region but one day the truth will prevail – no matter how much resistance it takes.To Rwagatare and others: Don’t give up – your work will continue to liberate millions of captives whose minds have been corrupted by the so called activists and experts who are none other than opportunists who never think beyond their stomachs. David Paul, Kigali, Rwanda*****************************Thank you Rwagatare. I also wonder how a child who ran to DRC on her mother’s back or his father’s shoulders, how a child who was born in the forests of Walikale may be knowing what he is fighting for!Those young men have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by bloodthirsty killers whose immoral, cold hearts drove them to use them as child combatants. The so called children were trained to kill human beings in DRC at their early age of 8.The sympathisers of FDLR should be reminded of that before uttering anything. Thank you.Shawn Sebwite, Goma, DRC

Reactions to Joseph Rwagatare’s opinion, "Advice to FDLR: renounce genocide creed, return home”, (The New Times, June 18)