RWANDAN authorities will launch legal proceedings to try to get more than 40 orphans adopted in Italy during the 1994 genocide returned, Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya said this week. The adoptive families, from the north of Italy, do not want to give up the 41 children, the oldest of whom is now about 10. The African authorities say the children’s natural families want them back home. “The Rwandan authorities first tried diplomatic channels, but up until now, it has not worked,” Bumaya said. The case of the orphans, brought out of Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, has stirred debate surrounding the awarding of custody to adoptive or natural families and whether westernised children should be sent back to developing countries. – AFP