President Paul Kagame has stressed the need for collective efforts, by what he described as associated components, to bring an end to the security challenges in DR Congo, mainly in the restive eastern part of the country.
The problem, Kagame said, has a lot of components such as DR Congo, FDLR- remnants of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who harbour a long-term sinister plan to stabilize Rwanda, M23 a Congolese rebel group, Monusco-the UN Mission for the stabilisation of DR Congo, among others.
“First of all it should be a shame for all these people that we cannot solve this problem,” Kagame said, adding that, “It is actually simple to resolve.”
According to him, one would wonder why a particular problem with several components persists for nearly 30 years, only to blame Rwanda.
This is despite the fact that Genocidal forces FDLR are integrated into DR Congo’s army FARDC, and have, on several occasions, been empowered to shell Rwanda from the DRC border.
Kagame asserted that the international community, mainly Monusco and powerful western countries keep on massaging the same problem, which has resulted into total impunity.
“It is unfortunate that it has become convenient that all problems are put on the shoulders of Rwanda. We are always the culprit.”
While the powerful countries chose to side with more resourceful nations in the interest of their gains, Kagame said that Rwanda’s geographical size will not be taken advantage of to destabilize the country.
The head of state was referring to countries which have for far too long ignored the security problems, but rather choose to alleviate the situation, in order to gain resources and minerals from DR Congo.
“We don’t have means, but we have ways,” said Kagame, adding, “In comparison, Rwanda and DRC, there is so much more that our neighbor offers, so naturally these people must tread carefully when they are dealing with Congo’s problems, and even alleviate the problems by transferring the blame to the easy one- Rwanda.”
Reiterating Rwanda’s stance, Kagame dismissed claims that the M23 rebels, repeatedly raised by Kinshasa government as backed by Kigali, is an internal problem for DR Congo to address.
“M23 is not our problem, at some point we allowed to accommodate them in our camps as part of the process to resolve this issue, on the request of President of DR Congo, but the last time I was last informed is that DR Congo officials requested that they travel to the country for talks, never got to know what transpired,” he said.
Before they were transferred to the camps as part of the repatriation roadmap, Kagame said, the rebels were disarmed and the equipment given back to DRC officials.
This is an addition to over 80,000 Congolese refugees in Rwanda.
“But why do you think this problem has been there for the past nearly 30 years, because it is a complicated problem to resolve?” Kagame questioned.
“I am beginning to believe something I have never believed. It has been so many years that I can’t help but start believing it. Actually somebody, somewhere wishes this problem to be there forever. Because around it so many things are played.”
For instance, he said, it is maybe to check these stubborn, troublemakers (referring to Rwanda), and then it spins around for the crimes associated with these people in our history and tragedy, that they start associating us with the very crimes of these people.
“It is like they exist and gains because we are doing something wrong, in actual fact maybe we share in the crime they committed. In other words, the perpetrators and victims are actually the same. This is the whole narrative since 1994.
“This problem, I imagine, is not difficult to address. I want to challenge these people to find solutions to this problem,” said the President.
He added that self-imposed gains should be prevented, so that it can be looked at, in the right context.
“That problem needs to be addressed in the right context and it has to be. But we can help because we are interested in a stable neighbor.”
President Kagame went on to say that a peaceful DR Congo means peace for Rwanda.
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