Kagame calls on Italy to return adopted children

RWANDA: Kagame calls on Italy to return adopted children

A diplomatic dispute is simmering between Rwanda and Italy over the

latter's reluctance to return a group of Rwandan children evacuated during

the 1994 genocide. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has accused an Italian

mayor of "contempt" over comments he made to the British 'Guardian'

newspaper in explaining his refusal to send the children home. According

to a press release received by IRIN on Tuesday, Kagame told a news

conference in Kigali he could not understand why parents and relatives

"can be denied the right to these children because Rwanda is poor. Poverty

is not a crime." 

Kagame was replying to comments by the mayor of Castenedolo in Italy,

where 41 Rwandan children are living with adoptive parents, who stated

that the proposal to return the children to their homes was "absolutely

irresponsible". "You can't transfer children who have become accustomed to

life in a western country to a country that has nothing," the mayor was

quoted as saying. During the genocide, 59 children - now aged between six

and 10 - were sent to Italy, Belgium and France. Kagame said Rwanda would

be prepared to take legal action over the matter. [For full story see

separate IRIN item of 14 November, headlined "RWANDA: Growing dispute with

Italy over adopted children"]

Italy's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was willing to help the

children make contact with relatives, the Associated Press reported. The

ministry's undersecretary, Rino Serri, said Italy was willing to work with

Rwanda to establish "contact between the children's new Italian families

and their families in Rwanda". He stressed that any contact would,

however, depend on the "wishes of the children themselves".  He noted that

he had discussed the issue with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame last week.