KIGALI, Rwanda
What is happening in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is a failure of the international community, Stephanie Nyombayire, the Presidential Press Secretary has said.
Nyombayire who passed the
message through her official Twitter handle on Wednesday, was commenting on the
current skirmishes in the eastern part of DR Congo, which has led to tensions
between Rwanda and the neighbouring country.
She said that with over $1
billion annually sunk into a peacekeeping mission – the UN Mission for the
Stabilisation of DR Congo (MONUSCO) – two decades later,
Genocidal forces FDLR are
integrated into DR Congo’s army FARDC and empowered to shell
Rwanda from the DRC border.
“MONUSCO can no longer claim
‘observer’ status. That is complicity,” she said.
The FDLR, which “harbours a long-term
sinister plan to destabilise Rwanda,” comprises remnants of the perpetrators of
the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
After the Genocide, they moved
into the eastern part of DR Congo after killing more than one million lives.
Nyombayire also dismissed
claims that the government supports M23 rebels that have recently been raised
by Kinshasa, emphasizing that it is an internal problem for the state of DR
Congo to address.
“M23 is NOT a Rwandan problem.
Its members are Congolese and a process of resolving this issue had been
started in Nairobi at the request of PoDRC (President of DR Congo),” she noted,
adding, “how was the decision made to break from the process and turn it into
the senseless killing it has become today?”
According to Nyombayire, Rwanda disarmed M23 rebels who
fled to Rwanda in 2013 and were secured at Gasizi and Kabuhanga hills in Rubavu
district along the Rwanda-DR Congo border.
She noted that the country
handed over their weapons to the DR Congo government before putting in place a
repatriation roadmap to allow countless missions from Kinshasa government to
come and ‘study’ the problem.
“This is in addition to 76,000
Congolese refugees. No action has been taken,” she said.
Nyombayire reiterated that
Rwanda has no interest in destabilizing eastern DR Congo, a position that has
been echoed by different officials including Minister of Foreign Affairs
Vincent Biruta.
However, she highlighted
that Kigali’s
request remains the same as it has always been; “That the over 20,000
MONUSCO troops fulfill their two decades long mandate and that FDLR be treated
as the genocidaires they are and not be handed the impunity to attack our
country.”
“One hates to imagine the UN
and MONUSCO dragged by the DRC into supporting what now has very clear,
dangerous ethnic and hate speech overtones.”
It is even worse, Nyombayire
stated, to imagine this could be a provocation for Rwanda to be forced into
retaliating, including addressing MONUSCO’s support.
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