Hey Tom !
Much like you opined, I certainly welcome this long-awaited "repatriation" and so-called end. Perhaps I'm still a smiggin skeptical these days, but the article does attempt to strike a few points worth thinking about and a few welcomed surprises.
No doubt Antoine was but a kid when we were in Goma and other than some mild brainwashing, he was but a child. I often wondered just how many of those kids would actually make it to adulthood, and would they wonder, or would they continue in their parents footsteps killing for no apparent reason. I reckon that will soon become clear with their repatriation.... so we decided to go back to Rwanda," said Antoine Uwumukiza, who fled across the border to Congo 15 years ago along with hundreds of thousands of other Rwandan Hutus and was waiting here the other day in a dirty white tent to be repatriated.
Glad to see we're again stepping in, but was really surprised with those purported "politically responsible" still residing in CONUS at perhaps a point where our administration was almost using the "G" word in concert with Rwanda. Well, following this WAPO article, they may have already disappearedA small military team from the United States is in the region and is expected to assist with psychological operations aimed at FDLR fighters. U.N. officials say the U.S. government could also help by arresting Rwandan militia leaders who, according to Rwandan and U.S. officials, are now living and working in the United States. Other top leaders live in Germany and France, Rwandan officials say.
"One of the keys to getting these fighters to surrender peacefully is to break the leadership," said Bruno Donat, who heads the demobilization program. "We have to separate the leaders from the rank and file."
Rwandan authorities have asked the United States to arrest Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, a professor at Western New England College in Springfield, Mass., and Félicien Kanyamibwa, who was recently working for Hoffmann-La Roche, a pharmaceutical company based in Nutley, N.J., according to an October 2008 letter from the Rwandan government to U.S. officials. Higiro and Kanyamibwa are accused of financing the militias and being "politically responsible" for war crimes committed in eastern Congo. The letter also names five Rwandans wanted for participating in the genocide.
"Instead of being apprehended," the letter states, "the FDLR leaders are walking scot-free, employed in the U.S."
How's that advisory pay going
Stay safe and Best, Stan
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