Divergent DRC strategies at root of rift

The growing rift between Uganda and Rwanda was essentially a result of the failure of the two countries to find a “common approach” to the DRC war, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report dated 4 May. The report said that, whereas Uganda’s strategy had been to mobilise the Congolese people to develop an “alternative leadership” to President Laurent-Desire Kabila, Rwanda believed in a military solution to the DRC crisis. The creation by Uganda of the rebel Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC) in December 1998 “marked the beginning of serious tensions between the two allies”, ICG said. “Ultimately, Congolese rebel factions have been used as proxies in the power struggle between the Ugandan and Rwandan armies,” it stated, adding that the personal relationship between Museveni and Kagame had been strained since the initial Rwandan-Ugandan clashes in Kisangani last August.