KIMIHURURA - Members of Parliament have said the Ministry of Defence deserves a budget increment. The MPs expressed need to increase the Defence ministry’s budget, particularly salaries of soldiers.

The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) doesn’t have the capacity to attack Rwanda despite the support the rebels are receiving, Defence Minster General Marcel Gatsinzi has said.

Gatsinzi was responding to the questions from members of the Chamber of Deputies yesterday while appearing before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget Affairs.

"There is no need to worry about Congo crisis; our forces are determined and have full capacity to protect Rwandans.

The ministry did not project for such a crisis but the government has entered into peaceful negotiations through the Tripartite Plus Joint Commission (TPJC) to solve the problem,” Gen. Gatsinzi said.

He said that both the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels, based in eastern DRC, and President Joseph Kabila’s government cannot attack Rwanda.

Deputies Mediatrice Uwiteguye, Henriette Sebera and Jean Baptiste Rucibigango had raised concerns over the Ministry of Defence not having an emergency budget in 2008 in case of an attack from DRC.

"We prefer to put more emphasis in ensuring peace than fighting wars; that is why we are trying so hard that the Tripartite Plus agreements are enforced,” Gen. Gatsinzi said.

Finance Minister James Musoni allocated Frw38.8billion, out of Frw54.4 requested, to the Ministry of Defence in the 2008 Budget proposals he presented to the House last month.

The Ministry of Defence was allocated Frw21 billion in the outgoing financial year, which ends next month.

Gen. Gatsinzi told MPs that Rwanda has records of where the FDLR rebels are based and all their plans.

"We know all their fighting tactics and to be sincere with you they cannot achieve their objective,” he said.

Gen. Gatsinzi said that the main focus of his ministry’s 2008 budget was of development programmes aimed at achieving the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) goals adding that the ministry has to work towards those goals.

In the fiscal year 2008, the ministry of defence plans to engage more in development activities that will uplift the standards of soldiers which include sericulture project, construction of a new military hospital to complement that of Kanombe, animal rearing and construction of roads, he said.

Gatsinzi said that the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) peace keeping mission in Sudan’s war-ravaged region of Darfur and in other countries is an indication that the military is not only ready to keep peace at home, but also to push for the same cause elsewhere.

On the question of RDF soldiers who died while in a peace keeping mission in Darfur, he said that the African Union has set aside $100,000 (approximatelyFrw56 million) for the surviving next-of-kin.

Since deploying in Darfur in August 2004, eight Rwandan soldiers have so far died from there most of them in accidents.

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