NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.S. government says it is deeply concerned about the arrest and disappearance of several Rwandans in recent weeks, including journalists and government officials.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Wednesday that most suspects have been held incommunicado and without due process.
Rwanda’s government said it is dealing with a security challenge in the country’s north where an armed “genocidal militia” based in Congo has been “recruiting and infiltrating.” The government said the FDLR — an ethnic Hutu group — has killed a police officer and an infant.
Hutus were responsible for killing about a million people, mostly Tutsis, in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Government spokeswoman Louise Mushikiwabo said authorities have acted lawfully with due process. She said suggestions of “disappearances” are false said such claims “embolden” the FDLR.
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