NEWS RELEASE BY THE GOVERNMENT OF RWANDA

For the last two years, International Crisis Group (ICG) has persistently waged a misinformation campaign designed to not only malign the Government of Rwanda, but also to undermine the efforts of the Rwandan people regarding national unity and reconciliation.

ICG's deliberate efforts to denigrate the hard work of the Rwandan people, aimed at creating a democratic and lawful society, is a matter of record. A month ago, the ICG came up with the most disgraceful report wildly speculating that Rwandan troops would never leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo, only to be put to shame by Rwanda's record time withdrawal.

Today, the organization is not only attacking Rwanda's democratization process, but also the entire 1993 Arusha Agreement which constitutes the current Fundamental Law governing the country. The ICG shamelessly attacks, among others, Rwanda's Constitutional as well as the Unity and Reconciliation Commissions, both of which constitute the very foundation of the Arusha Agreement, which clearly defines the minimum policy programme agreed upon by all the political parties in the country.

What is becoming increasingly clear is the fact that individual ICG officials exemplified by the likes of Franois Grignon and Fabienne Hara have deliberately used the ICG to advance the destructive agenda of negative organizations, including known and recorded terrorist groups such as ALIR. Indeed ICG and these two individuals in particular have served as agents of the French Government, whose hostile position towards Rwanda has never been a secret.

It is within that context, therefore, that the Government of Rwanda unequivocally denounces the anti-Rwanda campaign by the ICG, and calls upon the international community to treat this campaign with all the contempt it deserves.

DONE AT KIGALI, NOVEMBER 17, 2002

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