International community showing goodwill – Kagame

Urugwiro Village - President Paul Kagame has said there are signs the international community is increasingly willing to collaborate with Rwanda in her pursuit for justice and addressing the problem posed by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia. Addressing his monthly news conference yesterday, at Village Urugwiro,Kagame pointed out that western countries had, for long, continued to promote double standards, particularly on the need to bring Genocide fugitives to book. He welcomed recent ‘positive’ developments such as the Trévidic Report – which absolved Kigali of any role in the downing of the Habyarimana plane – and last week’s deportation - to Rwanda - of Léon Mugesera.“On the issue of FDLR and several others, I have seen more openness developing on the part of the international system,” Kagame observed “I don’t know what could have all of sudden caused it but I have seen more attention paid, more cooperation.” He said while Rwanda was working closely with her neighbours to try and rout the FDLR– largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi – some countries, which also claimed to be committed to fighting the group, were the ones harbouring FDLR leaders and sympathisers. “At the same time the same people were benefiting from the freedoms,the magnanimity, and the kindness of these members of the international community,” he said. “You have killers managing killers in Eastern Congo, living in Europe, USA, some parts of Africa, in safety, continuing to give means to these people to fight on yet the same people in whose countries these people sit are the ones telling us they are committed to fight these genocidal forces – there is a huge contradiction”.In apparent reference to such cases as the recent dismissal of criminal charges against FDLR Secretary General, Callixte Mbarushimana, by the International Criminal Court, and the release, without trial, of several Genocide suspects in Europe, Kagame said some westerners had turned the practice to arrest and release suspects into routine. “They are really not releasing them because they have found them innocent, but it’s because sometimes they think they have not find them guilty enough, where guilty enough may mean ‘they didn’t kill 100 people, they killed only 10’,” he said. However, the President pointed to what he called improved communication between Rwanda and countries which harbour fugitives, saying it was starting to bear fruits. On FDLR, the Head of State said that there were signs that the DRC-based rebel outfit has increasingly grown weaker, including the death of their senior commanders, signalling a possible “complete routing” of the group in the foreseeable future. Kagame said that Canada’s decision to deport Mugesera and other similar decisions, including the ICTR’s handover of the first case to Rwanda, marked a significant shift in the way the international community is handling post-Genocide issues. He added that there were striking similarities between the French judge Jean Bruguiere and Spanish judge Fernando Andreu Merelles’indictments, saying the latter were largely a continuation of Bruguiere’s work – which has since been shattered by the findings of a new French judicial inquiry that resulted in the Trévedic Report last month. The President expressed optimism that the Spanish indictments – of 40 Rwandan military officers – will be quashed, the same way as the Bruguiere warrants.He pointed to what he called “double standards” in the application of universal jurisdiction, where some countries take it upon themselves to try other countries, without guaranteeing the reverse. Kagame said that even when the accused officials offered to hand themselves in to be tried, France and Spain were reluctant, yet the same arrest warrants remained in place to inconvenience the targeted victims. Noting that the French case was almost certainly done and dusted, he said the Spanish charges are even ‘easier’ to deal with given the confusion they bear, observing that the outcomes of the case in France will heavily influence the fate of the Spanish indictments. “To a greater extent, how the case in France, started by Bruguière, has been managed has a huge influence on what happens with the Spanish case because they are very closely related.” “It was more about inconveniencing Rwanda, to ensure that its hands are tied and it remains like that,” Kagame said, adding that while the Spanish warrants remained, efforts were underway “to sort them out” as soon as possible.

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International community showing goodwill – Kagame