Regional solution ideal for Congo crisis – Mushikiwabo

Rwanda is confident the ongoing regional efforts to restore peace in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will deliver the desired breakthrough, Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo said during a media briefing yesterday.She, however, acknowledged that no solution can be found without Kinshasa’s genuine commitment. The minister was speaking three days after an extraordinary summit of the Heads of State from the eleven member states constituting the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) – the second in one month on the Congo crisis – which laid out a plan to end the unrest.Mushikiwabo welcomed the decision to expand the Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM) – previously a bilateral arrangement between Rwanda and DRC designed to verify allegations against either side – to all the ICGLR member states, saying Kigali had nothing to hide. The UN Stabilisation in the Congo (Monusco) is an observer to the mechanism.“Rwanda’s particular interest is in the launch of the Joint Verification Mechanism...This is significant because it will allow the region, and Rwanda in particular, to show exactly what is going on along our borders, including some of the issues we have been providing our position on,” said Mushikiwabo.Rwanda and DRC will each send three officers to JVM, the other nine countries will provide two officers each. The team will be led by a Ugandan Brigadier General, who will be deputised by a Colonel from Congo Brazzaville.The Joint Verification Mechanism will be launched this Friday in Goma, the main city in DRC’s troubled North Kivu province, which has since seen a month-long silence of gunfire between government forces and the M23 rebels. The rebellion started in April when hundreds of soldiers mutinied accusing Kinshasa of going against the spirit and letter of a 2009 peace deal under which former CNDP and PARECO rebels had been integrated into the official army.“Rwanda’s particular interest is in the launch of the Joint Verification Mechanism which will be led by a Ugandan deputized by a Colonel from Congo Brazzaville. This is significant because it will allow the region, and Rwanda in particular, to show exactly what is going on along our borders, including some of the issues we have been providing our position on,” said Mushikiwabo.In the meantime, the minister noted, the Heads of State summit requested the current ICGLR chair, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, to continue diplomatic engagements with the parties to the conflict with a view to securing a complete cessation of hostilities and putting an end to the crisis through peaceful political means, without necessarily having to resort to military means.“If political talks fail, that is why the international neutral force should be ready to come in and that is why the preparations to operationalise the force are going on.”The rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire after saying the decision was out of respect for President Museveni, and called for talks with Kinshasa. However, President Joseph Kabila’s government turned down the offer and blamed Rwanda for backing the rebels. Kigali has refuted the claims and published a rebuttal to similar allegations by a UN panel of experts, whose coordinator, Steve Hege, is accused of bias against the Rwandan government, largely demonstrated through a series of articles he authored prior to his UN appointment.“Rwanda believes it’s time to put together all options possible to solve this problem,” said the minister. “Rwanda is happy to continue engaging with all the partners to find sustainable peace in DRC; we need neighbour who is at peace”. Reacting to reports that the head of the UN peacekeeping operations department, Herve Ladsous, had expressed doubts over the proposed African neutral force to deal with the crisis, Mushikiwabo said African troops were better placed to restore peace in DRC because they are more connected with the region than soldiers drawn from other continents. But she added:“We would be more than happy if the UN can (use its existing framework to) resolve the crisis.” The UN maintains about 20,000 peacekeepers in the Congo, but their credibility and ability to return peace to the country’s lawless east have increasingly been questioned after a series of scandals, including exchanging arms for gold and ivory from militia groups operating in the region, came to the limelight.Ladsous arrived in Rwanda yesterday on his latest leg of a regional tour, which also includes DRC and Uganda.The ICGLR Summit requested the Chairperson (President Museveni) and other Heads of State and Government from the grouping to send “a strong message during the proposed UN Mini-Summit on Eastern DRC, scheduled for 27th September 2012, seeking diplomatic and technical support from the UN to the ICGLR initiatives, including on the Neutral International Force, the activities of the expanded Joint Verification Mechanism, and on the political and diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in Eastern DRC, according to the statement released at the end of the meeting last Saturday.Eastern Congo is home to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) terrorist group, composed of elements largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed more than a million lives. Meanwhile, Mushikiwabo dismissed the latest allegations contained in a Human Rights Watch report, released yesterday, accusing Rwanda and Uganda of backing the M23 rebels. “You have to first understand how these organisations work; they survive on the plight of Africans. Where there is no crisis those organisations wouldn’t be there. They are definitely making a lot of money from these reports. If we are making peace here, that means we are pushing them out of business,” she said.“Actually these people can make very good movie actors… if someone ever considers these reports, they would never achieve anything; that is why Rwanda attaches no value to Human Rights Watch.”

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Regional solution ideal for Congo crisis – Mushikiwabo