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Rwanda: Citizens in the Netherlands Turned Away From International Conference On Ethnic Grounds

Rwandans living in The Nethelands demostrate outside the Peace Palace hall in The Hague after they were denied entry into a conference for allegedly being Tutsi.

Author: jemgodson

Dear Readers, It is a pity! This story demonstrates the pains the Rwandan media is going through to reinvent itself following the 1994 image scar. I am surprised by the New Times assertion that members of Rwandan community in the Netherlands were turned away from attending the conference because of their physical appearances!! This is ridiculous. I happened to be among those turned away and I in no way have a 'so-called Tutsi look'. But because the reporter was just fed the story on phone, he believed everything he was told and none of his editors ever questioned the assertions. The fact on this story was that police had been notified earlier on that a section of the Rwandan community backed by some members of the genocide survivors' organization branch in The Netherlands 'IBUKA' were planning to disrupt the conference by demonstrating within the conference hall itself. Police had been notified of the ring-leaders of this group of people, some of them took long journeys from the hinterlands like Groningen, Assen and Maastricht. One of them presumably fed the story to the New Times reporter out of anger and disappointment. I live in The Netherlands, specifically in The Hague for the past seven years, I also work in the same city. I have had a chance to talk to members of the Rwandan community who profess to be Tutsi but did attend the conference anyway with no hindrance. This story is a real stab in the back of those few individuals trying to work on the unity and reconciliation of Rwandan people! No reader should dare believe its content.



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