Kagame repeats pledge to withdraw from DRC

Rwandan President Paul Kagame reiterated on Thursday that his country’s armed forces would withdraw from the DRC provided that Rwandan Hutu militia and former Rwandan soldiers responsible for the 1994 genocide were successfully disarmed, reported Reuters from Kigali. “There is no doubt [that] the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Congo will be very much facilitated by how the disarmament of the Interahamwe [Hutu militia] is addressed,” Kagame said after talks with a UN Security Council delegation visiting Rwanda as part of an eight-nation African tour to promote the peace processes in the DRC and neighbouring Burundi. “If that is addressed, we have no other reason to stay in Congo,” Kagame told reporters. Analysts estimate that the total number of Interahamwe militia and former Rwandan soldiers be anywhere between 20,000 and 50,000.

Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, head of the Council delegation, assured Kagame that disarmament of such forces was an important issue that would be tackled by a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration committee set up under the Lusaka peace accord. However, Kagame felt the UN Security Council could do more to bring peace to the DRC. “I don’t fully agree with the expression of the Security Council that they have so many limitations,” said Kagame, during a joint press conference with Ambassador Levitte. Kagame said the Council had “the means to be supportive in lending their weight to pushing forward the peace process in Congo. They have the capacity, especially if you look at the individual countries which compose the Security Council, especially the permanent members” - China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA. However, the president also said the delegation’s visit “could mark the beginning of more serious engagement in support of the peace process”.