By Our Correspondent, KIGALI
Rwanda
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has warned anyone tampering with Rwanda’s sovereignty saying that would mean giving the offenders sleepless nights in their own territory.
The Rwandan leader made these
remarks while presiding over the swearing-in ceremony of two new ministers at
the country’s national assembly on Wednesday.
In a tightly parked parliament
attended by government officials, President Kagame warned that nobody should
underestimate Rwanda because of its geographical and economic size.
President Kagame directly
mentioned DRC in his speech accusing the vast and mineral rich neighbour not to
ever make a mistake of violating Rwanda’s territorial integrity.
For the past months, Kinshasa
has been accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels who In late March picked
up their guns and resumed fighting after years of silence as they waited for
implementation of the Nairobi peace treaty signed in 2013. Kinshasa has not
implemented anything in the peace deal paper.
In his speech, President
Kagame cautioned those who choose blame games and not solutions in Eastern DRC.
“It has become so convenient
for long that all problems [of DRC] are put on the shoulders of Rwanda. Rwanda
is always the culprit in all this. It is not the FDLR, not the government of
Congo that should be responsible for its problems and people, it is not the UN,
not the powerful countries,” Kagame said in a pin drop silent assembly.
According to Kagame, in
comparison, Rwanda and DRC, there is much more. DRC offers these people more
than Rwanda. So naturally these people must tread carefully when they are
dealing with DRC’s problems.They must even assist DRC to alleviate their pain
by transferring the blame they should have and put it somewhere else. and the
easiest place to put their blame is Rwanda.
At the beginning of November,
DRC fighter jet Sukhoi-25 violated Rwandan airspace and weeks later a suspected
Congolese Soldier crossed the border between the two countries and began
shooting at guard towers and injured two border patrol policemen.
“He was shot dead by RDF
patrol before causing any casualties,” the Rwandan military said in a brief
statement.
President Kagame on Wednesday cautioned DRC against trying to drag Rwanda into war, “We know what war means. If you are looking for somebody who knows a thing or two about it, please come to me. And by that, I know how you can’t have something better than peace.”
“Some people think we are
short stems because of our geography. But they are so mistaken.” President
Kagame.
President Kagame also had some
take home for critics that accuse Rwanda of siphoning DRC’s resources.
Early in June, President Felix
Tshisekedi accused Rwanda of trying to steal DRC’s minerals and the same
rhetoric was echoed again by DRC’s Permanent envoy to the UN alleging without
evidence that Rwanda was involved in ‘stealing minerals, gorillas, and chimpanzees
from DR Congo’.
“One thing we are not and that
is what makes us [strong], we are not thieves. We work for what we have and
what we get.” President Kagame.
On November 28, President
Kagame attended the EAC- led Nairobi Process for restoration of Peace and
Security in DRC.
He noted that the crisis in
DRC is negatively affecting trade and investment, preventing hundreds of
thousands of Congolese refugees unable to return safely to their homes.
“The primary reason for this
persistent crisis is the failure to implement many agreements that have been
reached at various levels and at different times in past years. I most
sincerely believe that this time around, these efforts are going to bear good
results,” President Kagame said.
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