Editor, Allow me to react to Lonzen Rugira’s piece ‘The entrapment of FDLR summits’ that was published in The New Times on Monday, August 4. This commentary perfectly captured the machinations and objectives of President Jakaya Kikwete’s government to carry France’s water in “Operation FDLR Whitewash” to somehow transform this band of genocidal murderers into a legitimate even if not entirely respectable political actor. It is the UN’s and virtually the entire Western world’s readiness to lend themselves to this criminal campaign, that puts the lie to their hypocritical fork-tongued sloganeering about “Never Again” where genocide is concerned. Rwanda needs to make it clear, every time, everywhere, at every opportunity and very loudly, it will never be party to these machinations. We need to continuously expose those characters like Herve Ladsous, who sit at the centre of the spider’s web at the helm of UN Peacekeeping, while actively abetting this conspiracy to resurrect the fortunes of Rwanda’s genocidaires. Finally, could Mr. Rugira and other Rwandan journalists please desist from calling our government the ‘Kigali regime’? This terminology is borrowed straight from detractors’ intent on somehow delegitimising a country’s government. You will never see it applied to Washington, London, Paris, Berlin or any other government of a Western country or close ally. John, Kigali
