Rwanda and DR Congo yesterday launched a fresh round of security talks, a move both countries have described as “a new chapter” in their bilateral relations.
Rwanda and DR Congo yesterday launched a fresh round of security talks, a move both countries have described as "a new chapter” in their bilateral relations.
This was announced following closed-door talks between the two countries’ defence ministers in Kigali, the first such meeting since June 2012.
Video: Defence Ministers' remarks on FDLR and M23...(English&French). Source: The New Times/YouTube
At the top of the agenda for yesterday’s bilateral summit in Kigali was the issue of FDLR, the DR Congo-based militia, primarily composed of elements linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed at least a million lives.
In a joint statement, Rwanda’s Defence minister James Kabarebe and his visiting Congolese counterpart Aimé Lusa-Diese Ngoi-Mukena said both sides had agreed to urgently move to eradicate FDLR, which has been under attack from the Congolese army, FARDC, over the past few months.
Both sides also committed to subsequently cooperate in the repatriation of FDLR combatants, as well as to ensure the return to the Congo of the former members of the M23 rebels, who crossed into Rwanda following their defeat, before they were disarmed and transferred to a camp in eastern Rwanda in 2013.
"The Kigali meeting has opened a new chapter in our bilateral cooperation (as we move) to resolve security challenges facing the two countries, particularly the eradication of FDLR which remains in the Eastern DR Congo and continues to pose a threat to the two countries, and the repatriation of ex-M23 combatants cantoned in Rwanda,” they said.
Many FDLR members crossed over the border to the DR Congo in 1994 following the fall of the genocidal regime in Rwanda.
The militia has since defied several UN-backed ultimatums to disarm voluntarily, with the latest passing on January 2, 2015. The most recent deadlines had been issued by the 11-nation regional bloc known as the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) with the support of the UN Security Council.
A special UN brigade was created within the 20,000-plus strong UN Stabilisation Mission in the Congo (Monusco) to help eliminate negative forces in the vast country. The brigade went on to help crush the M23 rebels, but it has since stayed away from any operations against FDLR, even after Monusco dropped its demand that two Congolese generals it accused of abuses be removed from the operations before it could partake in the campaign.
Kigali estimates the strength of FDLR to be some 3,500-3,800 fighters. The militia is accused of sustaining a campaign of looting, killing, raping and committing other abuses with impunity against Congolese civilians, especially in the volatile North and South Kivu provinces.
Its leader, Sylvestre Mudacumura, is wanted for human rights abuses.
Follow up meetings
As a way forward, yesterday’s bilateral meeting resolved that "a meeting of Chiefs of Defence/General Staff supported by respective Chiefs of Military Intelligence will soon be held in Kigali.
The planned meeting would develop practical ways to eradicate FDLR, the statement added.
Rwanda and DR Congo armies have previously conducted short-lived operations against FDLR, the latest having prematurely ended in 2012 following the outbreak of the M23 rebellion which Kinshasa linked to Rwanda, with the latter rejecting the claim.
The two sides also resolved that "a joint bilateral team be established on repatriation of (hundreds of) ex-M23 combatants cantoned in Rwanda and FDLR combatants in DR Congo”.
Ministers Kabarebe and Ngoi-Mukena underlined both countries’ commitment to addressing common security threats and taking their bilateral relations to another level.
They resolved that bilateral security meetings would be more regular.
"Our countries have an obligation to our citizens, to ensure peace and security as a foundation for development.
The UN and other regional actors can only come in to support bilateral efforts,” Kabarebe said earlier at the opening of the meeting.
His Congolese counterpart said improving bilateral relations will reassure the peoples of the two countries that the region is firmly on the road back to peace. "We seek to usher peace in the Great Lakes region.”
Video: Resolutions of Rwanda/DRC defence ministers meeting (English&French). Source: The New Times/YouTube
At the end of the summit, Ngoi-Mukena praised the new effort. "We are capable of managing our own problems, we are capable of talking about our issues; we are ready to do everything to achieve that.”
Yesterday’s summit was a follow up on earlier meetings between both countries’ military chiefs in Kinshasa, DR Congo (June 27), another in Luanda, Angola, on the sidelines of an ICGLR summit (May 13), and two others earlier in the year in Kigali, attended by DR Congo’s deputy defence minister.
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