Regional
Why would Rwandan troops be in DRC?
In a recent interview with
France 24, the French media outlet’s Mark Perelman asked Rwandan President Paul
Kagame whether his army is operating on DRC territory as alleged.
“Why would Rwanda be in DRC,
or [be] supporting M23? That question needs to be asked by anyone who wants to
understand the problem, and even later on deal with it because you have to
understand, what is M23? How did they come about?” responded President Kagame.
“Rwanda did not create
M23." Kagame reiterated that all that is alleged by the DRC government and
its allies is that Rwanda is supporting the the M23 rebels yet, for him, the
question is: if this M23 rebel group exists, "why don’t we look at the root
cause of this problem?”
Western countries have sided
with Kinshasa’s narrative of blaming Kigali for all the recurrent insecurity in
eastern DRC.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied
the allegation, and accused Kinshasa of arming and supporting FDLR, a terrorist
group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the
Tutsi in Rwanda.
Western countries and others,
who talk about DRC’s security situation, continie to raise the issue out of
context.
For Kagame, they want to turn
a very complicated situation, and a big problem, into a narrow issue of just
accusing Rwanda of having troops in eastern DRC.
“No! This is what I’m
refusing. Let’s not just talk about presence or support of anybody. Let’s talk
about the underlying causes that would even make anybody do what they have to
do if that is the case,” the Rwandan President said.
Rwanda has for long declared
that the existence of FDLR terrorist group in eastern DRC, and the fact that
the militia is supported and armed by Kinshasa, poses a big security threat not
only to Kigali but also to the entire region.
The FDLR, a negative militia
group running on a genocidal ideology, has on many occasions plotted and
executed deadly attacks on Rwanda’s territory, with support from Kinshasa. Worse
still, the militia group has been documented killing thousands of Congolese
people in several reports.
“[FDLR] is a threat and as far
as DRC is running away from its problems of its citizens whom it deprives all
their rights; and kills them, persecutes them… And, there is hate speech, there
is actually genocidal ideology operating in eastern DRC,” Kagame said.
For almost three decades,
Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been persecuted, especially the Congolese
Tutsi who have been the target of FDLR.
The M23 rebel group is
fighting for the rights of its persecuted and disowned community to be
recognized as legitimate citizens with full rights as any other Congolese
nationals.
The M23 rebels are fighting to
protect the lives of Congolese Tutsi and Rwandophones who are targets of hate
speech and violence orchestrated by their own government.
Hundreds have been murdered in
various parts of eastern DRC. But when the international community talks about
the situation in eastern DRC, they just jump up allegations that “Rwandan
troops are in DRC, supporting M23 rebels.”