KIGALI, Rwanda
President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Félix Tshisekedi have held phone conversations aimed at resolving the current impasse.
The encouraging development
was revealed by the Chairperson of the Africa Union, Senegal
President MackySall, on Monday, May 30, when he tweeted thanking
both leaders for "our telephone conversations yesterday and today in
the quest for a peaceful solution to the dispute" between the DR Congo and
Rwanda.
Sall noted that he is
encouraging Angolan President João Lourenço, who
is the current Chairperson of the International Conference on
the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) "to continue his mediation efforts in this
direction."
A day
earlier, on May 29, Sall called for dialogue between Kigali and Kinshasa as
tensions escalated between the two neighbours following the
resurgence of the M23 rebellion in the DR Congo’s restive east.
Increasing tension
between the DR Congo army (FARDC) and M23 rebels near
the common border is threatening to drag Rwanda into the
conflict.
The AU Chairperson's plea
for dialogue came after, among others, recent cross-border
shelling on Rwandan territory. On May 23, rockets
from the Congolese side of the border, injured
several people in at least two sectors in Musanze district,
in Rwanda. The Congolese army and the terrorist FDLR militia,
according to Kigali, also kidnapped
two Rwandan soldiers who were patrolling along the common border. Kigalirequested
DR Congo authorities to release the two Rwandan soldiers.
Kigali has stressed
that it has
no intention of being drawn into an intra-Congolese matter, but Kinshasa
claims that the M23 rebels are supported by Kigali.
While
in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, attending an extraordinary
Summit on countering terrorism and unconstitutional change
of government in Africa, Dr
Vincent Biruta, Rwanda's Minister of Foreign
Affairs, on Saturday, May 28, appealed to the
DR Congo to observe good neighborliness, own up to her problems, and
avoid apportioning blame where none exists.
While responding to the
“baseless accusations” made by Kinshasa against
Rwanda, Dr Biruta said there are several initiatives in
place to address the existing problems, but without political will, “we
will remain in a vicious cycle of undesirable and destructive conflicts.”
In Malabo,
Dr Biruta stressed that for close to 30 years now, there
has been consistent collaboration between the FARDC and the Rwandan FDLR armed
group based in eastern DRCongo.
It is deplorable that the
FDLR, “which harbors a long-term sinister plan to destabilize
Rwanda,” has been tolerated and preserved by the DR Congo, he said.
“Over the years, they have
sanitized this genocidal armed group, to the extent that the FDLR are currently
co-located, and fighting alongside the FARDC,” Dr Biruta said.
“Rwanda wishes to reiterate
that the FDLR and its various splinter groups pose a serious security threat,
not only to Rwanda, but to the entire region.”
The FDLR comprises remnants of
the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in
Rwanda. After killing more than one million people 28 years ago,
they fled into eastern DR Congo.
On May 27, the
ICGLR Secretariat expressed great concern about the attacks of
the the ex-M23 rebels against the positions of the FARDC
supported by MONUSCO in the territory of Rutshuru, North Kivu since the
beginning of the week.
The bloc’s Secretariat
strongly condemned the attacks and called on the ex-M23
rebels to comply with the Nairobi Declaration signed in December 2013 and to
participate unconditionally in the political process initiated by
the regional Conclave of Heads of State on the DR Congo in
Nairobi, Kenya on April 21.
While condemning the existence
of all armed groups operating in the eastern DR Congo, the Conference
Secretariat “awaits the conclusions of the report of the Expanded Joint
Verification Mechanism (EJVM) which deployed a Joint Verification Team (JVT) on
the ground” since May 24, in order to refer the matter to the decision-making
bodies of ICGLR.
Over the past
weekend, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr
Vincent Biruta, reiterated Rwanda’s commitment to the
established regional initiatives, including the Expanded Joint Verification
Mechanism of the ICGLR and the Nairobi process under the EAC. The
Nairobi Summit gave clear guidelines on how the issue of armed groups
in eastern DRCongo can be resolved.
The first Summit, or conclave,
was held on April 8, after Tshisekedi
signed the Treaty of accession by his country to the EAC. During the
second conclave, Presidents Tshisekedi, Evariste Ndayishimiye of
Burundi, Kenyatta and YoweriMuseveni of Uganda, and Dr Biruta, agreed
to the deployment of a regional force to contain armed groups in
DR Congo.
Mid-way through the
inter-Congolese dialogue, there were signs of optimism that
the more than 30 Congolese armed groups participating were dedicated to finding
a long-lasting solution.
But Kinshasa on Saturday
said it considered the M23 as a terrorist movement that must be treated as such
and is therefore excluded from the Nairobi peace process.
Biruta said the Kinshasa has
shown lack of political will to abide by the Nairobi Summit resolutions
holistically. Instead, he said, they have been engaging with these
armed groups selectively and, have been quick to blame Rwanda,
in order to ignore their obligations. – The New Times
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