Rwanda not under any security threat: Kagame
Date 2011/6/24 11:49:16 | Topic: Rwanda
| 20110624
Reuters
KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Thursday the central African country was not under any security threat, a day after police arrested suspected terrorists allegedly linked to exiled generals.
Rwanda said on Wednesday it had detained six individuals suspected of being used by exiled General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa as a conduit to finance activities intended to destabilise the country.
According to the Rwanda national police some of the suspects were in direct contact with Nyamwasa, former Defence Minister Emmanuel Habyarimana and Paul Rusesabagina, the "Hotel Rwanda" real-life hero and a vocal critic of Kagame.
Nyamwasa denied the allegations on Wednesday during a BBC radio talk show in the Kinyarwanda language.
Martin Ngoga, Rwanda's prosecutor general, has accused Rusesabagina of helping fund a rebel group made up of Hutus from Rwanda who fled to Democratic Republic of Congo after the 1994 genocide.
Kagame told a news conference Rwanda was ready to intercept any attempts to cause instability.
"I don't think there is anything to worry about. I also have no doubt that Rwandans are satisfied with their own security offered by government," he said.
"Rwandans will do everything to make sure the country remains peaceful. Those arrests show you how much the country is committed to security of its own people," Kagame said.
Kagame has been praised for rebuilding Rwanda after the genocide, although human rights groups accuse his government of clamping down on any dissent.
Nyamwasa, who lives in exile in South Africa, is also set to loose his status as a refugee after Kagame said no Rwandan would be referred to as refugee by the end of December.
Refugee status was granted to Nyamwasa -- once a close ally and friend of Kagame -- by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs following an attempt to assassinate him in Johannesburg in June 2010, after he had fled from Rwanda.
"The status of any Rwandan to be referred to as a refugee will be terminated by the 31 December, 2011 deadline. They might continue staying in these countries but will no longer be refugees," Kagame said.
"We just don't want anyone to be called a refugee."
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