Rwanda politician prompts row over genocide memorial

By BBC News
January 18, 2010

A row has erupted in Rwanda about the genocide memorial not reflecting the plight of Hutus in the 1994 massacres.

"People who were massacred in this country cannot simply be forgotten" UDF leader Victoire Ingabire.

During the 100-day genocide, Hutu militias systematically killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

But opposition politician Victoire Ingabire, who has returned to Rwanda for the first time since the genocide, says Hutus were also killed by Tutsis.

Genocide survivors group Ibuka says her comments amount to "genocide negation" and she should be prosecuted.

Theodore Simburudari, the head of Ibuka, told the BBC the opposition United Democratic Forces leader should also be tried for "fuelling ethnic hatred".

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says Ms Ingabire made the comments during her visit to the Kigali genocide memorial on Saturday.

Following the furore sparked by her remarks, Ms Ingabire told the BBC's Great Lakes Service she was not attempting to belittle the genocide.

"Clearly, reconciliation has a long way to go," she said in an interview conducted in Kinyarwandan.

"People who were massacred in this country cannot simply be forgotten," she said.

"Looking at this memorial, it only stops at the genocide committed to Tutsis; there is still another role that concerns the massacres committed to Hutus.

"Their relatives were also killed and they are asking themselves: 'When will our concerns be discussed?'"

Judicial authorities have so far not commented on the request by the genocide survivors.

But the BBC reporter says considering the sensitivity of the subject, constitutional statutes and other laws regarding the genocide, Ms Ingabire is undoubtedly courting controversy as she moves to register her party to run for the 2010 presidential elections.

Ms Ingabire left Rwanda before the genocide began and has spent the last 16 years in Europe.

The elections due in August will be the second presidential polls held since the genocide.

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