Opposition group calls for “renegotiating Arusha”

The Rwandan opposition group, Rassemblement pour le retour et la democratie au Rwanda (RDR), has called for the “renegotiation of the Arusha agreement...to correct loopholes in the Arusha protocols in order to make them a real national pact”. In a press release, the RDR said it would be risky for Rwandan refugees in the DRC to return home, stating the problem of the Interahamwe militia accused of carrying out the 1994 genocide and former Rwandan armed forces (ex-FAR) was “fabricated”. The government’s campaign “based on the ex-FAR and Interahamwe” is a “smokescreen to annihilate any opposition to the regime”, the statement said. The Rwandan government says it has killed 700 rebels in recent days in the northwest of the country. Rwandan military sources say the current surge in fighting in northwest Rwanda is due to the fact that the “negative forces” as stated in the Lusaka peace accord will be disarmed and demobilised under the provisions of the agreement.