Rwanda roots for robust peacekeeping operations

When Rwanda takes over the one month chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council from Russia next month, it will make a case for more robust and efficient international peacekeeping operations, the Foreign affairs minister has said. Addressing journalists in Kigali yesterday, Louise Mushikiwabo said recent trends around the world suggest that security issues are not getting any better which needs collective and adequate attention from the international community. “We will be bringing to the Council debates and constructive aspects on peacekeeping…It will be an important debate for the Council,” she said. She added: “Unfortunately, the need for peacekeeping is not going down since we cannot manage conflicts, which is why this is a topic of relevance.” This will be the second time Rwanda has chaired the Council in its two-year term as a non-permanent member which ends December this year. This also comes ten years after Rwanda first participated in international peacekeeping operations, having deployed its first ever peacekeepers to Darfur in western Sudan in 2004. Today, with more than 5,000 men and women wearing blue helmets in peacekeeping missions in flashpoints around the world, including in Darfur, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic, Rwanda ranks as the sixth biggest peacekeepers contributing country in the world. And, yesterday Minister Mushikiwabo hinted at the possibility of the country sending more troops to the restive South Sudan in support of a recently signed fragile peace deal there. “We are quite present in peacekeeping (operations) around the world; we are preparing to send additional troops to South Sudan. We will be working with Ethiopia and Kenya to send troops with a mandate of enforcing the political agreement,” she said. This follows news that Rwanda had completed redeployment of a battalion of 800 peacekeepers from Darfur to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), effectively increasing the size of the country’s peacekeeping contingent in the world’s youngest nation to more than 1,650 troops. On DRC and FDLR… Meanwhile, Mushikiwabo said Kigali was awaiting a report from regional monitors about recent deadly incursions on the Rwandan territory by Congolese troops which resulted in the death of five among the attackers. She blamed the intermittent border clashes in two straight days to a group of armed Congolese soldiers who crossed over the border into Rwanda and opened fire on Rwandan units when they were asked to return to their territory. “We managed to get the joint verification team to come to the scene of the clashes and conduct investigations. We are waiting for their report,” she said, adding that she hoped the Congolese soldiers ended their provocative actions. Mushikiwabo also questioned the credibility of reports that the DR Congo-based Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia were laying down arms with a view to returning home, saying only 70 low ranking fighters had disarmed. She suggested that FDLR’s announcement that they would disarm voluntarily was part of a complex web of conspiracies designed to hoodwink the international community and instead keep the militant group in the Congo. The FDLR has among its ranks elements largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed the lives of more than a million people in Rwanda. “We have heard reports that FDLR wanted to put down weapons but we are not privy to the entire plan; for us our policy remains clear, we welcome any combatant who puts down weapons and return home peacefully. “Our reintegration and rehabilitation programme continues,” she said in reference to a longstanding old policy that has seen thousands of former FDLR combatants reintegrated into the Rwanda Defence Forces or helped to transition into civilian life. Rwanda-US ties In the meantime, the country’s chief diplomat also said that relations between Rwanda and the United States remained strong despite Washington D.C’s recent criticism of Kigali’s approach to fighting terrorist acts. In a statement, the State Department referred to what it called “disappearances” of people with suspected links to the FDLR and terrorist acts in Rwanda, a charge Kigali rejected saying it had acted within the law. “The relations between the United States and Rwanda have not changed over the last many years….It is normal for partners to disagree,” she said. “The concerns about alleged disappearances of people who are in the hands of the police or justice are not valid…security is a very serious matter. It is as serious for Rwanda as it is for the United States or any other country,” she added. Mushikiwabo warned: “We will continue to treat any acts of insecurity very robustly. That is not changing. But we make sure that everything is done in accordance with our laws”.

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Rwanda roots for robust peacekeeping operations