The visiting Swedish minister for International Development and Cooperation Gunilla Charlsson has said that her country will consider increasing financial aid to Rwanda.

Sweden is one of the main development partners of Rwanda, giving a budget support of about Frw 6b annually.

Addressing journalists at the Ministry of Finance yesterday after meeting with Finance minister James Musoni, Charlsson said their meeting centered on budgetary support to the country.

"My visit is basically a fact finding mission; I am very impressed by how Rwanda is disbursing finances allocated to her," she observed.

"Also, the way the government has tried to significantly bring down corruption is another interesting part of my visit, which I will have to discuss with my government when I return home," Charlsson said.

"Rwanda is one of the best performers on the list of the countries that Sweden supports financially and this encourages us to look at possibilities of increasing our support to the country," she said.

The meeting between Charlsson and Musoni was behind closed doors.

Musoni said Rwanda and Sweden have been having development cooperation since early 1990s.

Sweden’s involvement in Rwanda is mainly in the areas of health, education, research, human rights, democracy, conflict resolution, security, infrastructure and trade. Meanwhile, Carlsson decried the escalating levels of sexual violence inflicted against women in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Addressing the press shortly after meeting Prime Minister Bernard Makuza yesterday hours before her departure, Carlsson condemned violent activities across the region, and called for an inclusive solution to the Congo crisis.

A conference aimed at ending war in eastern DR Congo between government forces and rebel groups is going on in the Congolese eastern town of Goma.

Chaired by Father Apollinaire Malumalu, the president of Congo’s Independent Electoral Commission, the conference aims at restoring peace and security in the two provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

Carlsson hailed the Rwandan government for building strong institutions for democracy and poverty alleviation programmes in the country.

Makuza said that the government will do everything within its means to fight genocide ideology anywhere in the world.

He observed that since the election of a new government in DR Congo (in 2006), genocide ideology cases in the region have steadily declined.

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