The Rwandan president demands to understand the causes of the conflict in eastern DRC and denounces the existence of a “genocidal ideology”
June 21. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has stressed that the country is “prepared” to go to war with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) if there was no other option, amid increasing bilateral tensions and accusations crusades over Kinshasa and Kigali’s support for various armed groups, which have raised fears of the outbreak of a large-scale conflict.
“If the situation in eastern DRC and its derivatives affects our territory, we are prepared to fight,” Kagame said in an interview with the France 24 television channel. “If someone threatens us, it is no secret that we are prepared to fight,” he added.
“We are there as a result of having fought for our own rights and our existence,” he stressed, in reference to the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), created in 1987 by Tutsis in exile and which finally managed to take control of Rwanda in 1994 after an offensive against the Rwandan authorities, controlled by Hutu extremists and responsible for the genocide perpetrated that same year.
Thus, he pointed out that the situation in eastern DRC “poses a threat” and has accused the Congolese authorities of “persecuting” and “murdering” members of the Tutsi community. “There is hate speech and genocidal ideology in eastern DRC,” explained the Rwandan president.
“It poses a threat, because the DRC is fleeing from its problems,” said Kagame, who has also reiterated his accusations against Kinshasa for its support of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group founded and made up mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left nearly 800,000 dead.
In this sense, he has stressed that the Rwandan authorities “react to this threat in the way they consider appropriate” and has attacked the Congolese president, Félix Tshisekedi, for what he describes as calls to promote regime change in Rwanda.
“If someone says that, in this type of situation, one may think that they are bluffing, but at the same time, due to our situation and history, we do not take anything for granted,” he maintained, in the midst of tensions over the Fighting between the Congolese Army and the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group in eastern DRC.
Kagame has stated that Tshisekedi “runs away from his own problems and blames others” and added that “the problems in the DRC should be understood, also by the person who leads that country, who seems to have selective memory when describing what is happening there.”
“In Rwanda there are 100,000 refugees, and they continue to arrive. Most of them have been here for 20 years and are associated with this problem. They have lost their property, land and their relatives have been murdered in the east of the DRC,” he said, before insist that “what happened in Rwanda in 1994 in Rwanda has unfolded over recent years in eastern DRC.”
“This same number of people are in Uganda and I think others have gone to other places,” said the Rwandan president, who reiterated that these people “have been expelled from their homes and their lives have been destroyed because they are described as Tutsis.” “. “The Tutsis (in the DRC) are being treated like the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994,” he lamented.
ASKS TO UNDERSTAND THE CAUSES OF THE CONFLICT
In this way, he highlighted that “ignoring this and calling it something else implies that something is missing in that head”, in reference to the accusations made by Tshisekedi, who said that Kigali is responsible for a “genocide” in eastern DRC. . “Why could Rwanda be in the DRC? That question, or the question of support for the M23, must be asked by those who want to understand the problem or address it,” Kagame argued.
“We must understand what the M23 is,” he defended, before insisting that “Rwanda did not create the M23.” “Why don’t you look at the underlying causes of this problem? How do you explain that we have 100,000 refugees, that there are people persecuted for their identity in eastern DRC and now they want to convert them into Rwandan citizens, when they are Congolese?” asked.
On the other hand, he has elaborated that he has always been “willing” to meet with Tshisekedi to address the crisis and has stated that it is the Congolese president “who sets conditions.” “I have never set conditions,” he assured, while stating that Kigali “has been very clear” in its support for the diplomatic initiatives promoted in the region.
“It seems that the DRC has other ideas,” he lamented, before recalling that the latest deployments of peacekeeping troops from the African Union (AU) and the (SADC) have been the subject of criticism from Kinshasa, causing their withdrawal. “The situation is confusing because it is a confusion caused by this person,” he concluded.
Kagame’s interview with France24 came just one day after the Rwandan president stressed that Kigali “is not the cause” of the conflict in the DRC. “People know the origin and the history. It is not Rwanda that created the crisis. Rwanda was dragged into the crisis by several factors,” he explained, before indicating that “one of them goes back 30 years, when a genocidal government and its forces fled to the DRC after the genocide against the Tutsis was stopped.”
The M23 is a rebel group made up mostly of Congolese Tutsis and operates mainly in the North Kivu province of eastern DRC. After a conflict between 2012 and 2013, in which the Congolese Army had the support of United Nations troops, the authorities of the African country and the group signed a peace agreement in December of that year.
The group launched a new offensive in October 2022, which intensified in November, causing a crisis between the DRC and Rwanda – which have since exchanged accusations for their support of various groups, given the lack of diplomatic progress – and has caused concern in the region over the possibility of a conflict breaking out between both countries.
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