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The US State Department has placed a Rwandan anti-government armed movement, the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR), on its list of "Other Terrorist Groups", an embassy official told IRIN on Thursday.
ALIR, comprising Rwandan Interahamwe militia and former members of the armed forces of Rwanda (ex-FAR), is among 12 other groups on the list, which also includes Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front and the South Africa vigilante group, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, PAGAD.
The ex-FAR and its Interahamwe allies were largely blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which between 800,000 and about a million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed.
The Rwandan Foreign Ministry, which made available a copy of the list, called on "all countries" to interdict the movements of "all members of ALIR and their supporters". Moreover, in its statement dated 19 Nov., the ministry asked that governments freeze the bank accounts and assets of ALIR and their backers in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
