President Jakaya Kikwete should re-think his aberrant comments

Editor,I can understand why Rwandans would hypervent with white-hot anger against President Kikwete’s extremely insensitive call that our government negotiate with the FDLR genocidaires. It is almost as if his proposal was deliberately intended to provoke.How else can you explain such a mindless proposition right in the middle of the period when we commemorate our losses during the 100 days of 1994 when the FDLR’s ex-FAR and Interahamwe genocidal antecedents were busy in their orgy of Tutsi extermination?The fact that he – a President and former foreign minister of a neighbouring country, with which Rwanda maintains close and brotherly relations – can overlook the horror and trauma Rwandans feel about the vicious FDLR and its genocidal precursors to suggest negotiating with them, knowing their ideology is still to exterminate Tutsi everywhere and any Rwandans who do not share that ideology, is purely a sign of moral vacuity.I nevertheless think we should keep our equanimity and not get involved in bad-mannered insults of a head of state of a brother East African partner no matter the provocation. Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo has, in my view, said everything Rwanda and Rwandans need to say about President Kikwete’s aberrant suggestion.We do not need him to unsay something that is already out in the open. I believe the impassioned and very angry responses of Rwandans in this paper, on Twitter and elsewhere will have given President Kikwete a full idea of what we all think of his “suggestion”.I think we should be gracious enough to consider he will never attempt making such a hare-brained call again, and leave it at that. Mwene Kalinda, Kigali, RwandaReaction to Pan Butamire’s commentary, “Will Kikwete retract his statement?”, (The New Times, May 31)

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President Jakaya Kikwete should re-think his aberrant comments