Museminali briefs diplomats on DRC

Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminali yesterday called upon the International Community to play its part in helping consolidate the already made achievements towards lasting peace and stability in the region. Alluding to the “many” recent steps forward in achieving the objectives of the ongoing joint Rwanda-DRC military offensive against ex-Far/Interahamwe or FDLR, she maintained a call on “the rest of the world” to go beyond providing humanitarian work. “Other than humanitarian work, you know the FDLR has supporters in other parts of the world,” she told reporters, shortly after concluding a closed briefing session with members of the Diplomatic Corps at her Ministry’s conference hall. The customary session was centred this time on the recently concluded AU Summit and the Rwanda-DRC meeting that took place over the weekend in Gisenyi town. “The president of the FDLR himself, Ignace Murwanashyaka is in Germany. So, we are asking the International Community that to consolidate what has been achieved in the Great Lakes region, this also should be dealt with,” she said. Museminali stressed that there has been a lot of successes – “some of them had not been envisaged but have come as a result of the current joint operation.” She underscored that “through the reports that we have been receiving from the joint operation, there is a lot of optimism that we will be able to achieve our objective.” This objective, as she clarified, is to ensure that the FDLR/Interahamwe – an outfit that is responsible for not only the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, but also committed atrocities against Congolese citizens – is dismantled. She pointed out that both the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwandans (FDLR and their families now returning) need transport and food in addition to other things. “This is where we are asking the international community to come in,” she said, but did not overlook the fact that FDLR leaders continue to roam freely elsewhere. “The UN Resolution 1804 calls on all countries to stop them (FDLR) from having accounts, to freeze their accounts, to stop them from acquiring wealth and to curtail their capacity to travel and to, really, where possible be able to apprehend those people.” The Minister emphasized that after what the two countries – Rwanda and DRC, have been able to achieve on their own in the recent weeks, the international community also needs to do its part. “Everybody should do their part so that once we deal with FDLR, we deal with them once and for all.” Ends

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Museminali briefs diplomats on DRC