"Military experts to provide a military plan”

NYARUGENGE - Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) yesterday agreed to work together to uproot the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)/Interahamwe.

Foreign affairs minister Rosemary Museminali headed the Rwanda delegation while DR Congo’s team was led by foreign affairs minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba. The two-day meeting was held at Serena Hotel in Kigali.

In a joint communiqué read by President Paul Kagame’s envoy to the Great Lakes region Joseph Mutaboba, the two parties observed that the root causes of the challenges in the eastern DR Congo are the ex-FAR Interahamwe.

They agreed to use "all means possible to uproot” the ex FAR now organised into the FDLR.

The two ministers according to the statement, called upon the parties to the conflict in eastern DR Congo to "respect the ceasefire and condemned some armed groups that are impeding the distribution of humanitarian aid”.

"If we go with the spirit with which this meeting has discussed the issues, we will see good results,” said Museminali shortly after the meeting that brought together top diplomatic and security officials from both countries, that "Without giving details of what was carried out, Museminali only stated that the process would include military cooperation including sharing intelligence information.

She noted that this development was not something new adding that there has been the intelligence fusion cell and the tripartite plus joint verification teams.

Museminali also said that the FDLR, "need to be denied means of making war, they need to be denied cooperation, they should be denied space”.

At the beginning of the meeting on Friday, Mwamba said that his government was open to Rwanda’s intelligence officers to be part of the military structure organised by Kinshasa to eradicate the FDLR problem.

Mutaboba told Sunday Times that this time round, DR Congo has realised that they could not deliver on their own and they have agreed to seek assistance. He said that by seeking assistance from friendly countries, it is the beginning of finding a solution to the problem.

"While they have the political will to disarm, they have now gone ahead to associate the RDF in planning and overseeing the disarming,” said Mutaboba.

He added that Rwanda "calls upon the international community to assist the Congolese to reach peace”, saying peace in DR Congo is important for all.

"A peaceful Congo is peace for Rwanda, is peace for her neighbours, is peace for the region and is peace for Africa and all who care…”

The delegations agreed to have their respective military experts provide military plans and strategies to the two teams when they meet in Goma in two weeks time. They also agreed to speed up the process of normalising diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Rwanda and the DR Congo broke off diplomatic relations a decade ago.

The DR Congo has since the 1994 Genocide of the Tutsi played host to the Interahamwe militia and the ex-FAR that carried out the Genocide.

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