The Government of Rwanda has denounced that accusations against Kigali for its alleged support to the rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) «are a mistake» that «distracts from the real cause of the continuing conflict» in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and «could impact on the security of neighboring states».
«It is a mistake to equate the measures Rwanda has put in place to protect its border with support for a particular armed group in DRC,» the Rwandan Executive said through a statement in which it noted that «this is an exhausted blame game that undermines the efforts of regional leaders to achieve lasting peace.»
It said that Rwanda «is fully committed» to the talks in Nairobi and Luanda and reiterated that «like all states, Rwanda has the right to territorial integrity and reserves the right to defend its borders and its citizens against cross-border attacks».
«Rwanda’s territorial integrity has been consistently violated over the past few years by the DRC Army and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), including a brutal attack in October 2019 in Kinigi, a tourist area in northern Rwanda, in which fourteen innocent villagers were killed,» he has denounced.
In this regard, he has pointed to «multiple incidents of rocket fire» from eastern DRC, «incursions into Rwanda by the Congolese Armed Forces» and «an airspace violation in November by a Congolese fighter jet», an incident recognized by Kinshasa.
«This is in addition to attacks on Rwandan border areas by the FDLR — an armed rebel group founded and composed mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda — fighting on the side of the Congolese Army against other rebel groups in eastern DRC,» he lamented.
The Rwandan government has therefore stressed that «there has been no accountability for the failure of the DRC government to deal with more than 130 armed groups on its territory and to address serious abuses against civilians by the Armed Forces and their auxiliary armed groups, including remnants of the genocidal FDLR, which has been preserved for decades in DRC.»
«The DRC authorities have also given permission for virulent hate speech against Tutsi and Kinyarwandan speakers, public incitement, lynchings and violence, as detailed in reports by the United Nations and other regional and international organizations,» he said.
In this line, he recalled that «Rwanda hosts more than 80,000 Congolese refugees, many for more than 20 years» and asked the international community «to have the decency to address the persecution of a group of Congolese citizens, as well as refugees from this same group can exercise their right to return safely to their country instead of languishing permanently in refugee camps».
«Attempting to manage complex situations by repeating and amplifying false accusations by the DRC government cannot lead to solutions,» he argued, before calling the Kishishe massacre blamed on the M23 a «fabrication.» The UN claimed that more than 130 people had died at the hands of the M23 in Kishishe and Bambo, something rejected by the rebel group.
«It is worth remembering that a UN peacekeeping operation, currently under the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), has been present in eastern DRC for more than 22 years, at a cost of $1 billion a year, with few tangible results,» he pointed out.
«Blaming Rwanda reflects an unwillingness on the part of the international community to address the underlying causes of the conflict in eastern DRC and to demand real accountability from the state and non-state actors responsible for this legacy of failure,» he reiterated.
The communiqué was issued after the United States and France called on Rwanda to end its «support» for the M23. Tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali have escalated in recent months over fighting in eastern DRC.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite Congolese authorities and the M23 signed in December 2013 a peace agreement following fighting since 2012 with the Army, which was supported by UN troops. UN experts accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the rebels, although both countries denied it.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
