Rwanda can never dialogue with génocidaires. Here’s why

Author: Samson Kasujja

• 2023-03-06 05:18:00

On February 24, when the world was reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Addis Ababa framework agreement on peace, security and cooperation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region, Dr Denis Mukwege called on Kigali to engage in an ‘inter-Rwandan dialogue’ with the FDLR.

The Congolese gynecologist, known for winning the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, is using his long-curated fame to pursue political interests in his country.

“We call on the Kigali regime to engage in an inter-Rwandan dialogue with the FDLR, with a view to finding a lasting solution to this armed group that emerged from the ashes of the genocide in Rwanda. This militia has caused a lot of suffering in eastern Congo for more than 25 years,” reads part of Mukwege’s statement.

The doctor turned politician said that FDLR continues to be used as a ‘pretext’ by Kigali to intervene militarily in eastern DRC.

 He reasoned that following various joint operations between Congolese and Rwandan forces aimed at neutralizing them, the residual elements of the militia group no longer pose a serious threat to Rwanda’s security.

Like Mukwege, there have been a handful individuals with this irrational thinking, who pushed the proposal of Rwanda engaging in dialogues with FDLR.

But, why Rwanda can never dialogue with FDLR? This UN-sanctioned group is made up of remnants of the individuals, Interahamwe militia and ex-FAR who committed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

After being defeated by RPA/F forces, they fled to eastern DRC, reorganized themselves with the support of Kinshasa, to return and complete the genocide against the Tutsi.

The United States blacklisted the group as terrorists in 1999 after they killed two American tourists in Bwindi Forest, along the Uganda-DRC border.

Today, FDLR is considered to be the strongest among other armed groups in DRC, creating and training other militias.

On February 22, 2021, an Italian Ambassador to DRC, Luca Attanasio, was killed in an attack which the governor of North Kivu province at the time, Carly Nzanzu, said the attackers were fighters of the FDLR.

In September 2019, Rwanda saw its bloodiest attack in over two decades when dozens of civilians were killed and many others injured by FDLR in Kinigi, a very touristic area in Northern province. No other armed attack has claimed so many victims in Rwanda in recent years. The genocidal militia attacked the inhabitants of Kinigi with knives and rudimentary weapons.

These are few among many other attacks which the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide plotted in Rusizi back in 1996 and later in North-west Rwanda (Gisenyi and Ruhengeri) in 1998. Hundreds of victims lost their lives.

And then, Mukwege claims that the FDLR ‘no longer pose a serious threat’ to Rwanda’s security.

“FDLR fighters have killed hundreds of civilians over the years in eastern Congo, at times hacked them to death with machetes or hoes, or burned them in their homes. The fighters have committed countless rapes and other acts of sexual violence,” reported Human Rights Watch in October 2022.

The FDLR is not only huge threat to Rwanda’s security, but to region and the world in general.

Their genocide ideology is the biggest threat.

How can Kigali sit on the table, and dialogue with genocide ideologues, and terrorists, who have been killing innocent civilians for three decades? Has there ever been any other state that negotiated with genocide masterminds or terrorists?

Their leaders are on record saying that they will only return to Rwanda when there will be no more Tutsi.

That time will never come.