On 26 May 2013 in Addis Ababa the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, convened the first meeting of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and Region. It was at this important meeting where the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete made what many level headed commentators have referred to as candid and commonsensical remarks about the protracted conflicts in the Great Lakes Region.
President Kikwete - a seasoned and consummate diplomat who has helped broker many peace deals in Africa - remarked that it was high time Rwanda and Uganda gave serious attention to peace talks with FDLR and ADF rebels respectively.
He said, and correctly so, that it was evident the barrel of the gun cannot bring about the ultimate answer as testified by the recurrence of fighting in our region. He never condoned the role that the FDLR rebels played in the 1994 genocide. He was being reasonable and pragmatic.
Rwanda should know better than any other country that there is no way Tanzania would condone or sympathize with the perpetrators of genocide. To make such insinuations is, quite frankly, a demonstration of breathtaking ignorance about Tanzania’s enviable and unparalleled history - the history of speaking out against any forms of crimes and injustices. Moreover, for Rwanda to make such insinuations is to show just what a short memory span this country has.