M23 hands over 14 captured FDLR fighters to Rwanda

‘Gen’ Ezechiel Gakwerere, 61, a senior member of the DR Congo-based FDLR genocidal militia, was among 14 militia fighters handed over to Rwandan authorities by AFC/M23 rebels at La Corniche One Stop Border Post in Rubavu District, on Saturday, March 1. ALSO READ: M23 continues massive recruitment drive in Bukavu FDLR which poses a direct threat to Rwanda's security is a DR Congo-based terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The genocidal militia elements captured by AFC/M23 rebels during battles against a vast Congolese army coalition in eastern DR Congo were first screened in Goma, the capital of DR Congo's North Kivu Province. ALSO READ: M23 vows retaliation after explosives kill people at massive rally in Bukavu Since January, the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) have suffered major losses in the war against AFC/M23 rebels. The FARDC coalition includes hundreds of European mercenaries, FDLR fighters, Congolese ethnic militias called Wazalendo, Burundian armed forces, South African-led SADC forces, as well as UN peacekeepers. The UN Security Council, on February 21, adopted a resolution that condemns the Congolese government’s continued support of FDLR. ALSO READ: Envoy reiterates Security Council’s need to take Rwanda’s concerns seriously On February 21, Amb. Ernest Rwamucyo, Rwanda's Permanent Representative to the UN, once again, stressed the need for the United Nations Security Council to focus on the root causes of eastern DR Congo’s endless predicament as well as taking Rwanda’s security concerns seriously so as to find a sustainable solution to the conflict. Rwamucyo said: “We believe that any outcome that doesn’t take Rwanda’s security concerns seriously will not offer a sustainable solution to the conflict. The security challenges posed by FDLR and its splinter groups are of very serious concern for Rwanda.” ALSO READ: M23 are no terrorists, the Congolese army is – say Bukavu residents The envoy reiterated Kigali’s stance that the Congolese government must be held accountable for “its continued preservation of FDLR,” embedding it in its army, equipping it with sophisticated weapons and using it as an ally and fighting force. The UN resolution condemns support provided by Congolese military forces to specific armed groups, “in particular the FDLR, and calls for the cessation of such support and for the urgent implementation of commitments to neutralize the group.” But it makes no mention of the fundamental issues including the fact that a genocidal ideology, and agenda, remains central to the crisis. ALSO READ: Why genocide ideology doesn’t dissolve three decades after dispersion of genocidaires When the Rwanda Patriotic Army defeated the genocidal regime and stopped the Genocide against the Tutsi, in July 1994, the ousted regime’s army (ex-FAR), politicians, and Interahamwe militia that had committed Genocide – runaway, en masse, with their weapons, to eastern DR Congo, then known as Zaire. The remnants of the ousted genocidal regime’s army and militia later banded together into what they called the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR). In 2000, soon after the US government listed it as a terrorist organization following its murder of American tourists in Uganda’s Bwindi Forest, they formed FDLR to evade or distance themselves from their horrendous crimes. On May 1, 2000, its initiators gathered in a large hall in Lubumbashi, DR Congo’s second-largest city in the southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia, and formed the militia. The genocidal militia’s plan is to return to Rwanda, forcefully, and continue its genocidal agenda.

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M23 hands over 14 captured FDLR fighters to Rwanda