Rwanda: Sezibera Rebuffs DRC Envoy's Claims

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The New Times (Kigali)

10 October 2008
Posted to the web 10 October 2008

James Karuhanga
Kigali

Amb. Richard Sezibera, the President's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, has said that claims by Atoki Ileka, the Democratic Republic of Congo's UN envoy on Wednesday are ridiculous.

Among others, the Congolese envoy said DRC authorities had observed concentrations of Rwandan troops along the border in Rwanda and that this suggested an imminent attack on his country, a claim termed as false by Amb. Sezibera.

"The comments by the Congolese representative to the UN are absolutely as false as they are contemptuous," Sezibera told reporters at his offices yesterday.

"They also show the problem the DRC has and how that government will find it difficult to resolve it"

"First of all, claims that Rwandan troops are in the town of Goma are ridiculous, Goma is the Headquarters of MONUC," he pointed out, explaining that the UN force would have substantiated had it been true.

"They also claim that Rwandan troops are in Rumangabo. This is false. Rumangabo was captured by the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and the area also had a strong Uruguayan MONUC contingent," he added.

DRC rebel General Laurent Nkunda's forces seized the military camp of Rumangabo, 50 kilometers north of the provincial capital Goma in the east of the DRC Wednesday.

On the allegation by the DRC that Rwanda was amassing troops along the border, Sezibera again, found the claim to be absurd.

"He [Ileka] talked about troops along the border. This is again very ridiculous because it is not the DRC government to determine and decide where Rwanda deploys on her own territory.

So, clearly, there is an attempt by the DRC government to direct attention away from the real problem on the ground and blame others , which is what they usually do," he said, going further to explain the nature of the problem.

He reiterated that the real problem was that the DRC has decided to have close collaboration with the FDLR, among others.

Government, Monday, exposed and condemned the alliance between the DRC army - Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) and Rwanda's former genocidal forces Interahamwe now regrouped under Forces Democratique pour la Liberation de Rwanda (FDLR).

The FDLR are remnants of the former Rwanda army (ex-FAR) and Interahamwe militia that spearheaded the 1994 Genocide of Tutsi in which over one million people gruesomely perished.

In the on-going fighting between the DRC government and Nkunda's rebels, the FDLR and Ex-FAR/ Interahamwe are being used and are fighting alongside the Congolese forces, all flouting earlier peace accords.

They include the Lusaka Agreement, the Pretoria Agreement, the Nairobi Communiqué, a UN resolution 1804, all which recognize the fact that FDLR, among others, is the central problem in the region's security.

"Congolese commanders on the ground are involved with the FDLR units," he said, going ahead to name several FDLR units involved.

"That is unacceptable, which is why the government of Rwanda has complained to the government of the DRC. We also requested the international community to condemn this collaboration," he said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Rosemary Museminali Monday met members of the diplomatic corps and conveyed deep concerns over the dangerous alliance.

"The information shared with the envoys was confirmed in the meeting. It is not the first time we shared this kind of information, MONUC knows and so do other NGOs such as the ENOUGH project," Sezibera added, stressing that what is remaining is for those who were in the meeting to act.

ENOUGH is a project to end genocide and crimes against humanity.

"There is no excuse that they don't know the situation on the ground," he said, adding that however much condemnation was important, most important was the need for action for a change of course to materialize.

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