Agathon Rwasa leads the Hutu-extremist Palipehutu-FNL, a Burundian group with links to the militia which carried out the Rwandan genocide.
Four years ago the British aid worker Charlotte Wilson was among 21 people killed in a bus ambush by the FNL, close to the Burundian capital Bujumbura. At the end of 2003, the FNL assassinated Michael Courtney, the papal envoy to Burundi. Less than a year ago, the FNL massacred 150 Congolese Tutsi refugees at the Gatumba refugee camp in Western Burundi. This was the largest of countless atrocities by the same group.
Yet now the UN fetes Agathon Rwasa as an international statesman. There is talk of giving him an amnesty for his crimes, and a position in the Burundian government. Burundians are being told that they must accept this or risk disrupting the elections taking place later this year. But how can an election be free and fair while killers are free to walk the streets, intimidating the families of their victims?
The British government, a key member of the UN Security Council and European Union, has promised to oppose any amnesty - but they could be doing much more. Visit
http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html to support the campaign.
Yet now the UN fetes Agathon Rwasa as an international statesman. There is talk of giving him an amnesty for his crimes, and a position in the Burundian government. Burundians are being told that they must accept this or risk disrupting the elections taking place later this year. But how can an election be free and fair while killers are free to walk the streets, intimidating the families of their victims?
The British government, a key member of the UN Security Council and European Union, has promised to oppose any amnesty - but they could be doing much more. Visit
http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/05/fax-your-mp.html to support the campaign.
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