Editor,

I’m an avid Internet user and because I have some time on my hands every morning I browse a huge amount of websites, especially the ones that report on Africa and Rwanda in particular.

For the last few weeks the subject that has gotten many Rwanda observers quite excited was the draft United Nations Mapping Report on the DRC and the ‘G’ word (Genocide) those writing it decided to add it to the document.

I will not debate the words in the report but rather ask "why”? Why was the report instituted and how would it prevent any such things from happening again? The biggest problem, in my opinion anyway, in the Great Lakes region is the ‘ineffective state’. Unless the state is able to project its power while living up to its responsibilities to its citizens and the international community, situations like what happened in Rwanda in 1994 and in the Congo, in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, will continue to be a possibility. The authors believe that this report will somehow halt the culture of impunity, which is naïve.

The ‘culture of impunity’ exists because of myriad of issues. Issues that this report does not attempt to deal with. I believe that unless these wider issues are dealt with first (in fact, they are being dealt with in the DRC and Rwanda), then situations like the conflict in the Great Lakes region will remain a possibility.

John Ngarambe
Gikondo