FDLR has international links, says Karugarama

GASABO - JUSTICE Minister Tharcisse Karugarama has said that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have international networks that have led to the increase of the Genocide ideology in Rwanda. The minister was yesterday opening a one-day consultative meeting of different national stakeholders on strategies of eradicating the ideology of Genocide at Hotel Novotel Umubano. He said that the rebel group now has partners in many European countries who have continued to propagate the ideology in Rwanda as well as vehemently denying the occurrence of the 1994 Genocide. FDLR is composed of remnants of the defunct Rwandan government soldiers (ex-Far) and Interahamwe militia, who spearheaded the deaths of over a million people during the 1994 Genocide. Anyone who denies the occurrence of the Holocaust is severely punished, yet those who deny the Rwandan Genocide are simply said to be exercising their rights to freedom of expression, Karugarama said. Negative forces are now using religious and political groups in several countries in an effort to continue their unfinished Genocide agenda in Rwanda, he added: The minister called on the judiciary to help in the eradication of the ideology by judging it from a regional and international perspective rather than from a local one. The head of crime investigation in the Rwanda National Police, Superintendent Morris Muligo, said that the community policing strategy would contribute immensely in the eradication of the ideology at local levels. Muligo added that through community policing committees, Rwandan citizens are now sensitizing themselves on the dangers of the ideology in the community. Ends