Kagame accuses DRC of failing to carry out commitments

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has accused the DRC government of failing to carry out its commitments to end “a long regional war”, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported. Kagame who was speaking at an interview in New York, said the Congolese and their Zimbabwean allies “were continuing to arm former Rwandan soldiers involved in mass killings in 1994”. Drawing a very dismal picture of the DRC situation, Kagame indicated that Rwanda would “go no further in withdrawing troops or ending support for the Congolese rebels until the other side made significant moves”. “For a desperate world that had been looking for a solution to the problems of Congo without having to sweat for it, it was very easy for them [the 12 UN Security Council delegation] to move forward and agree with him [President Joseph Kabila],” Kagame said.

He said the Security Council was losing its impartiality in the eyes of Rwandans by not acting against Congo. He reiterated that Rwandan troops were now in Congo only because their old enemies were still operating freely from there. “It is one thing for governments, countries, or members of the Security Council to say they have no forces to deploy to Rwanda to disarm these groups,” he noted. “That is O.K., I have no problem with that. But is another for the Security Council to continue to observe the government of Kabila and his allies continuing to supply arms and giving support to members of former Rwandan army and Interahamwe militias,” he added.