Government threatens legal action over adopted children

The Rwandan government has said it may have no option but to take legal action to secure the return of 59 Rwandan children who were evacuated to Europe during the 1994 genocide. According to a government press release, received by IRIN on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya told diplomats and journalists his government was “determined to reunite these children with their relatives”. Most of the children have been adopted by Italian families “without the consent of their living parents and relatives”, Bumaya said. “We will take legal action if Italy continues holding these children without the consent of their families or living relatives.” He urged the diplomatic community to help Rwanda in the repatriation of the children. Last week, President Paul Kagame reacted angrily to comments by the mayor of Castenedolo, where most of the children are now living, who said “you can’t transfer children who have become accustomed to life in a western country to a country that has nothing”. Kagame described the remarks as “contemptuous”, stating that “poverty is not a crime” and the children had a right to be with their blood relatives.

Rwanda’s Social Affairs State Minister Dr Odette Nyiramirimo told the gathering that the vast majority of Rwandan children sent to Europe had since been reunited with their natural families. “We therefore do not see why the Italians should not return the children,” she said. “The children should not be denied the fundamental right to live with their biological parents regardless of their socio-economic statues.”