[allAfrica.com]  [allAfrica.com_Top_Headlines]


Congo 'Invasion' - Rwanda is Protecting Itself

The East African (Nairobi)
INTERVIEW
December 13, 2004
Posted to the web December 14, 2004

By Wairagala Wakabi
Nairobi
Last week the Congolese government rejected Rwanda's proposals for dealing with
the Interahamwe militia and former Rwandan soldiers based in eastern Congo.
The rejection came amid continuing reports that Rwanda had sent troops into
Congo to flush out the insurgents. Wairagala Wakabi spoke to Dr Richard
Sezibera, Rwandan President Paul Kagame's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes
Region. Excerpts:
Why is Rwanda unhappy with the way the issue of Rwandan insurgents in Congo has
been handled by Congo and the international community?
On the question of ex-FAR - former Rwanda Armed Forces - and Interahamwe,
Rwanda has had one position since 1994; that they are genocidal forces and
genocide is not a matter for Rwanda alone or for Congo alone. It is an
international matter and the international community should disarm and arrest
those who took part in the genocide.
But the international community has turned a blind eye to the issue. Under the
1999 Lusaka Peace Accord, the region agreed that these forces needed to be
disarmed. We called upon the international community to come and arrest them.
The UN sent a force, the UN Military Observer Mission in Congo, (Monuc) but
decided this force would not disarm the Interahamwe and ex-FAR. This is
illogical. They said the force would encourage them to voluntarily disarm. But
you don't need a 16,000 strong team on which the international community spends
$720 million a year to watch others voluntarily disarming.
Under the Lusaka agreement, Congo agreed to disarm ex-FAR and Interahamwe
because they are on their territory. It even gave a detailed calendar for the
disarmament but five years later has not done anything.
In 2002 we reached the Pretoria Agreement under which we agreed that Rwanda
would pull out all its troops from Congo because the latter was arguing that it
could not disarm the ex-FAR and Interahamwe because Rwanda's troops were there.
They were supposed to disarm them in 90 days. The timeframe was set by Congo.
Two years later, nothing has been done. Instead, all mechanisms put in place
under the Lusaka and Pretoria agreements have been dismantled at the request of
the Congolese government. These include the Political Committee, the Joint
Military Commission and Third Party Verification Mechanisms.
How has Rwanda engaged Kinshasa to try and resolve this problem?
In October 2003, Rwanda's Foreign Minister Charles Muligande led a delegation
to Congo to welcome the new government in Kinshasa and to present a message of
support from the government of Rwanda and inquire how Congo intended to deal
with the ex-FAR and Interahamwe, and also to find out how it was going to
disarm them. The delegation was also on a mission to find out if we could work
together, or could Rwanda do it under the confines of an agreement? They said
no. We asked what they planned to do and there was no answer.
Why are you taking action against the insurgents now?
In the past three months they have attacked Rwanda 12 times, six times in
Ruhengeri-Gisenyi and in Cyagungu-Gikongoro. The latest attack was a Kyatusha
rocket attack on November 15. They kill our people, destroy property and return
to Congo and nobody condemns them. But when we say can we deal with them the
whole world reacts.
Has Rwanda informed the international community of these attacks?
President Kagame has shared all this information with the United Nations
Security Council and the African Union. He has this year written two letters to
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo who is also the chairman of the African
Union, requesting that the matter be addressed and dealt with.
At the Francophone summit in Ouagadougou on November 26-27, President Kagame
and President Joseph Kabila met in the presence of Obasanjo and Kagame made the
same request. He asked if Rwanda could work with the AU to get Chapter 7
mandate for Monuc to deal with Interahamwe. The answer was no. Rwanda's request
to get chapter 8 mandate of the AU was also rejected.
President Kagame asked whether Rwanda and Congo could operate jointly and the
answer was no. He asked whether Congo could allow Rwanda to operate in Congo
under a "red line" arrangement similar to that Uganda has in Sudan, for a
limited period of time and geographical area but still the answer was no.
Rwanda was even willing to put its units under Congo command if the DRC did not
have capacity to deal with the problem, but Kabila refused, yet he said his
country did not have the capacity to stop attacks on Rwanda. The only
alternative is for Rwanda to make its own conclusions.
The African Union has now intervened in the matter. What is your opinion?
The AU's Peace and Security Council met last Tuesday and said the ex-FAR and
Interahamwe are the major cause of problems in the Great Lakes Region.
The AU chairman will chair a meeting of concerned parties to see how an African
force can disarm them.
But we are concerned that twice this year the Congolese president has been on
radio saying that he will mobilise diplomatic, political and financial forces
to fight a purported Rwandan invasion. And he has mobilised troops to fight a
"Rwandan invasion" yet when it comes to fighting the Interahamwe he claims he
has neither money nor the troops.
Over the past two weeks, ex-FAR have been on international radio, including
Monuc radio, saying they will never be disarmed because the Kabila government
invited them, Congolese individuals mentioned have not denied these media
reports. It is a serious matter that a genocidal force claims a government
invited them and the international community has not condemned them.

   

  =============================================================================
    Copyright © 2004 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by
                    AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================