President Paul Kagame has said that the eastern DR Congo problems should be addressed while sticking to the “basics of facts,” evidence and reality. He was speaking during a luncheon event that brought together diplomatic corps in Rwanda and other government officials, on Thursday, January 16. The president, in his speech, reflected on the year 2024, noting that it was marked with many significant events. He said that Rwanda’s relations with countries in the north and south continued to be fruitful and strengthened. Pointing out that the eastern DR Congo issue has attracted attention from many countries, he noted that many times, it is the wrong way that they insist should prevail. “If you want to address the problem, there is no better way than bothering to look at the root causes of that problem. It doesn’t matter how powerful you are, just stick to the basics of facts, evidence and reality,” he said. He talked about the presence of the UN peacekeepers in DR Congo for close to three decades, questioning it for not addressing the area’s problems, including the initial problem they were sent to fix. “Normally it should take you five to 10 years to exit because you would have addressed the problem,” he said. Once again, he called to attention the fact that the people who committed the Genocide against the Tutsi still exist in DR Congo, are still armed, and still practicing the ideology of genocide “on the watch of this international community that talks about values, interests.” Kagame particularly said that those values and interests are beneficial for some while they exclude others. “If you have taken a global responsibility that there are some values you are going to insist on and interests that come with it...it’s fine but it also gives you a responsibility to really walk the talk, mean what you say.” Furthermore, he questioned why the values and interests people talk about become incompatible with truth, facts, and evidence. Kagame reiterated that it's unthinkable that some members of the international community still pretend and question the presence of FDLR in DR Congo or say that they are few. “I know leaders when I see them. I also know idiots when I see them. You can imagine the combination of both of them, the disaster it is. If you are a leader and an idiot, it’s a disaster, absolute disaster. It is even worse, even more dangerous if the very people who hold the power in their hands decide that they will be manipulated and played around for some interests by idiots,” he argued. He said that in his interactions with leaders in Africa, it is always highlighted that if they don’t take themselves seriously, no one will. “There are things we need to be rejecting, and doing so openly without fear or favour. Why do we need to be having a problem like that in eastern DR Congo needing a solution from the UN or some countries...there is no explanation.” UN group of experts questioned He also talked against the expertise of the UN group of experts, stating that they don’t actually need to be experts in anything but to toe the line of those putting them in place, including the very people from whom this problem originated since colonial times. “If you are going to have an expert who is associated in the wrong way with this history to come and say the problem is something else, not what it is exactly, don't you have a problem? Are you going to be able to address the root cause of this problem...when the first thing is to distort the facts and evidence?” he asked. The Head of State emphasized that statements or threats won’t make Rwanda shiver in any way, because it has already paid the price of lives lost in the genocide and it will never go back to paying that similar price, regardless of how powerful anybody is. Pretence on Rwanda’s history The fact that some people, after 30 years, still question what happened in Rwanda’s history of the 1994 Genocide against Tusti, asking who killed who, is a pretence that gives Rwanda a justified anger and the energy to fight back, Kagame said. He added that those who act like they understand everything and say they fail to explain why Rwandan forces are said to be in Congo, should first explain why the FDLR is in Congo being supported by the government and why Burundi was brought in under the same ideology of fighting M23. On double standards and hypocrisy, Kagame mentioned about the attention brought to elections and democracy, yet, “The person causing problems in this situation between Rwanda and DR Congo, has never twice been elected and you know it.” He told the diplomats that even while they report to people who won’t just listen, it affects them the least and him the most. “It’s life and death to me and my people...Please, understand us and understand the people you are dealing with, we are not the same old idiots you dealt with 50 years ago. Not at all.”
