Johnston Busingye, Rwanda High Commissioner in UK
Following the Summon by the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), the Rwandan High Commission needs to share the next response:
• The Rwanda Defence Forces has all the time maintained defensive measures in response to real safety threats alongside our border. These threats just lately materialized with the January 26 assaults towards the Rubavu border city after the autumn of Goma, leading to 16 deaths and 177 civilian casualties in Rwanda.
• Rwanda continues to face an existential safety risk from the DRC-backed FDR genocidal militia, which was concerned within the shelling of in Rwandan territory in June 2022, simply two weeks earlier than the CHOGM in Kigali. The FDLR has carried out at the least 20 assaults on Rwandan territory and is now embedded throughout the Congolese military, as a strategic ally.
• Rwanda is a proud contributing nation to UN peacekeeping, with a confirmed report of compliance with each normal together with respect to different missions. However, when MONUSCO turns into entangled with the DRC coalition which incorporates and includes the genocidal FDLR it turns into troublesome for everybody to attract clear boundaries.
• The M23 are Congolese struggling towards probably the most violent types of ethnic extremism meted out to them by their very own authorities over a long time on the watch on the International Community together with the UK. This ethnic extremism now assumes regional proportions and it’s crucial that it’s rooted out for sustainable peace and growth of our area to be realized.
• The UK ought to align with and help the AU-backed EAC/SADC peace course of and keep away from emboldening the DRC’s place to hunt a navy solely resolution.
Moreover, there are crucial factors that should be identified:
Contrary to populist rhetoric FDLR isn’t an outdated group with growing old members. While it’s true that the FDLR dates again to 1994, it has repeatedly reorganized, rearmed, and recruited with out hindrance, with the backing of the DRC.
However, the hazard the FDLR represents is just not merely its navy capability however the unfold of its anti-Tutsi extremist ideology, which has fuelled ethnic violence and persecution for the previous 30 years.
The unchecked public preaching of ethnic extremism by leaders in Burundi and the DRC, particularly the highest leaders, whereas troublesome to quantify in numbers, poses a grave regional risk.
The resumption of the present armed battle should be correctly understood. The East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) efficiently enforced and maintained a ceasefire for six months. However, the DRC unilaterally terminated the EACRF mission-not in pursuit of peace, however to wage battle.
The coalition assembled by the DRC-including FARDC, SAMIRDC, 10,000 Burundian troops, FDLR, European mercenaries, and an enormous stockpile of weapons-was not meant for stability however for the combating of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese (M23) and an assault on Rwanda.
MONUSCO is in its Twentieth-year, attempting to stabilize EDRC. It has stood by as Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have suffered essentially the most brutal types of ethnic persecution and violence.
Over the identical interval, the FDLR has grown in power, expanded its territory, and gained allied armed teams. MONUSCO’s management has, in impact, turn into intertwined with the FDLR, making it troublesome to tell apart the place one ends and the opposite begins.
Rwanda has painstakingly constructed its capability to make sure the protection and safety of its folks, whereas additionally creating the power to contribute to regional stability. Meanwhile, the DRC contribution has been to traverse European capitals calling for sanctions towards Rwanda, together with demanding that Rwanda be barred from contributing troops. This doesn’t in any approach contribute to any peace course of.
Thirty years have handed, but six genocide suspects stay at massive within the UK, dwelling on the expense of British taxpayers. While different Western nations have tried, extradited, or deported genocide suspects, the UK stays the one protected haven within the West.
The UK is conscious that every additional day is one too many. The FDLR within the DRC, 30 years as effectively, is simply as accountable for the genocide because the suspects residing within the UK. Now that there’s the AU, EAC/SADC framework that can handle the FDLR situation, we name on the UK to align with and help this framework. (End)