There is an urgent need to neutralise the genocidal FDLR militia in DR Congo to help bring about sustainable peace to the war-torn country, the Rwandan envoy to the United Nations has said. Amb. Ernest Rwamucyo was on Tuesday, January 28, addressing a UN Security Council briefing on the security situation in DR Congo where the M23 rebel group captured the key eastern city of Goma earlier this week. FDLR, or the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, is a UN-sanctioned terrorist organisation formed by the remnants of the former Rwandan army and other extremist groups linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda which claimed the lives of more than a million people. FDLR are among several a myriad of armed groups that are fighting alongside the Congolese army (FARDC), along with forces from the Southern African regional bloc, SADC, Burundian government forces, and hundreds of European mercenaries, in the ongoing battle against the M23 rebel. At the UN Security Council session yesterday, DR Congo representatives repeated claims that Rwanda supported the March 23 Movement (M23), a claim Kigali has denied and accused Kinshasa of trying to deflect attention from its own failings and sinister motives against Rwanda. President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi of DR Congo has on several occasions publicly declared intentions to topple the Rwandan government, threats that the Rwandan Permanent Representative to the United Nations recalled at the UN session last evening. Rwamucyo also called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops that are part of the Congolese government-led coalition mobilised by Tshisekedi to fight the M23, one of the more than 120 armed groups that operate in the country's eastern regions. He reiterated Rwanda’s commitment to a political solution to the conflict and criticised Kinshasa for rejecting dialogue with the rebels in favour of a military solution. The conflict took a new twist last week, with the M23 overrunning several towns in days before capturing Goma earlier this week. Scores of FARDC troops have since fled to Rwanda for safety while many others surrendered to M23. Rwamucyo also condemned the shelling by the Congolese army and their backers, including the genocidal FDLR outfit, on Monday this week, which killed nine people and injured several others in the border district of Rubavu. “This indiscriminate shelling is an unacceptable war crime, and further proof of the necessity of maintaining Rwanda’s defensive posture - put in place precisely to account for this threat,” Rwamucyo said. “I would like to recall that these attacks are not the first, but the latest of a long list of provocative actions by the Government of the DRC. I would also like to recall that Rwanda has always shown restraint and sought to engage the DRC in dealing with the root causes of insecurity in the region and along our common border,” he added. He noted that Rwanda will always stand for peace as it knows all too well the consequences of absence of peace , having suffered violence that almost turned the country into a failed state 30 years ago. The envoy pointed out the threat posed by the presence of anti-Rwanda forces right across its borders with DR Congo. The coalition of anti-Rwanda forces on our border poses an existential threat to our country. This is not the case for the Government in Kinshasa, which feels insulated from whatever happens 2,000 kilometers away. Shelling that falls on densely populated villages has always caused the loss of lives and we take this existential security threat seriously. While the actions of the coalition are equally devastating to the Congolese, he noted, Rwanda is providing humanitarian relief to incoming refugees in a temporary refugee camp set up in Rubavu. Additionally, Rwanda has also facilitated the evacuation of foreign nationals, including mercenaries from European countries who were fighting alongside the Congolese army. At the same time, Rwanda received hundreds of militia members and FARDC troops who fled the fighting as M23 marched on Goma. They were disarmed and treated in accordance with international law, and those who are sick are being treated, the envoy added. Amb, Rwamucyo also expressed Rwanda’s condolences to the United Nations Organization Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) members that died in the process. “On the contrary, we have been dismayed by the reports of attacks and looting of diplomatic missions in Kinshasa, including the Rwandan embassy and several other embassies of members of this Council. These xenophobic acts, most of which are committed in the passive presence of DRC security forces, are in total violation of international law, especially the 1961 Vienna Convention,” he said. Rwanda calls on the Congolese government to take its diplomatic obligations seriously and to hold perpetrators accountable, he added. Rwamucyo told UNSC that Rwanda neutralisation of the FDLR was a condition for Rwanda to lift its defensive measures, according to Luanda agreement on the concept of operations (CONOPS) which had been agreed upon before Kinshasa made a U-turn late last year. Foreign forces must withdraw The envoy also called for the withdrawal of foreign troops that are part of the Congolese government coalition, and for European mercenaries to be repatriated and held accountable. Rwamucyo said that President Tshisekedi’s obsession for regime change in Rwanda with repeated threats to bombard Kigali led to his mobilisation of a large coalition which includes the FDLR genocidal militia, European mercenaries, Wazalendo militias, Burundian armed forces, and SAMIDRC forces (SADC troops). “Consequently, Rwanda calls on all foreign forces deployed to the DRC to withdraw from this coalition only aimed at harming Rwanda.” He noted that this situation could have been solved a long time ago, if President Tshisekedi had demonstrated political will and good faith in finding a lasting solution to this conflict. The Rwandan envoy also recalled Kinshasa's unilateral decisions that have frustrated efforts to bring about lasting peace to eastern Congo and the wider region. I would like to recall that President Tshisekedi took the unilateral decision to expel the M23 from the political dialogue under the Nairobi process, as well as East African Community (EAC) Regional Force, which was deployed by EAC – which had led to a ceasefire for six months and M23 to relinquish 80 per cent of the territory it was holding.” To fill in this vacuum, the Kinshasa government instead decided to replace it with a SADC-led force with a more offensive mandate, which caused the Nairobi process to stall, despite numerous attempts to revive it, he said. International community’s ‘fair share’ of the blame Rwamucyo stressed that the international community, including some members of the UN Security Council, have had their fair share of the blame in what is happening today in eastern DR Congo, adding that there was a need to condemn threats of regime change from one member state to another. “You all chose to turn a blind eye to these inflammatory statements and the build-up of the aforementioned military coalition, never once condemning the regime change agenda behind them,” he said He also told Council members that Rwanda believes that MONUSCO can be useful in restoring peace in the eastern DR Congo, by stopping its support to a national army with a regime change mandate, as well as its support to a UN-sanctioned genocidal force and European mercenaries. “Rwanda also reiterates its position that it has no hostile intentions against MONUSCO, despite its total failure over the past 26 years.” He also highlighted the need for strict adherence to the ceasefire of August 4, 2024 by all parties, which would allow for a favourable environment for direct dialogue between DR Congo and M23.
