Kagame meets with US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes

President Kagame, yesterday, received US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region at Village Urugwiro in Kigali. Speaking to the media following the meeting, Thomas Perriello said that his discussions with President Kagame focused on the current political and security crisis in Burundi, the issue of the FDLR militia still roaming freely in eastern DR Congo, and how to bring about economic development in the Great Lakes region. Perriello was appointed US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region early last month and he met President Kagame as part of his efforts to better understand issues in the region. On Burundi, Periello added that there is a need for great urgency to resume political dialogue to end the crisis in the country, and for regional leaders and the international community to support Burundians to peacefully resolve their conflict. He said that Burundi was at a critical stage where it needs support from regional leaders and members of the international community if the government there and its opponents are to reach a peaceful resolution. “The most important issues right now are for leaders on all sides to seek peaceful solutions and eschewing violence,” Periello said. “But this is something that is going to have to involve all partners in the region as well as inside Burundi and the United States, the UN, and other members of the international community,” he added. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been mediating talks warrying parties in Burundi and recently delegated his defence minister, Crispus Kiyonga, to represent him at the negotiations in the capital Bujumbura. Speaking about the issue of FDLR, a Rwandan militia based in eastern DR Congo which is made up of remnants of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the American diplomat described fighting the militia as long overdue. “It is the position of the United States Government to pursue that issue and understand that it is something that has been around for far too long as a cause of instability; we will continue to push for progress and express our frustration where we don’t see that progress being made,” he said. Several deadlines given by the UN and the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) for members of the FDLR to voluntarily lay down arms and repatriate to Rwanda have been ignored. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Kagame meets with US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes