Rwanda earlier this week severed diplomatic ties with Belgium, a month after the suspending a five-year development cooperation agreement with the European country. Both decisions were driven by Belgium’s consistent meddling into affairs of the Great Lakes Region, by mainly maligning Rwanda pushing for her isolation. According to the Government of Rwanda and other actors, this continued meddling by Belgium, which is working in cahoots with the Congolese government, is counterproductive and will only frustrate the efforts put in place by African leaders to bring an end to the security crisis in the east of the DR Congo. In a roundtable discussion with The New Times, Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, discussed the strained Rwanda-Belgium relations, EU sanctions and the way forward to the peace talks on eastern DR Congo. Below are excerpts. Why exactly did Rwanda decide to sever diplomatic ties with Belgium just a month after also suspending developmental cooperation? For the past weeks and months, the Kingdom of Belgium has been mobilising Rwanda's partners, including economic partners in Europe and the European Union, as well as financial institutions like the World Bank, urging them to cut development aid to Rwanda, which was unacceptable. This did not come only after the fall of Goma (the capital of South Kivu which fell to M23 rebels end January); Belgium had a negative attitude even before that. So, of all the countries, I think Belgium should not act against the interests of Rwanda. They have a responsibility for what happened in this country during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, as well as in the current persecution of Congolese Tutsi in Eastern DR Congo. So, they have really a big responsibility in all the crimes that were committed in this region for the past century. They could not continue doing that against our country. Rwanda recalled its diplomats from Belgium and gave Belgian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. Where does this decision leave Rwandans living and doing business in Belgium, as well as Belgians working and doing business in Rwanda, who are not involved diplomatically? Not at all. That was a diplomatic measure that was taken. We have decided to sever our diplomatic relations, to close our embassy, to recall our diplomats, and also to expel the Belgian diplomats who are here in this country. But this decision doesn't affect Belgian citizens living in Rwanda. They should continue living in Rwanda, doing their business, and this doesn't affect Rwandan citizens living in Belgium. What do you think is in it for Belgium to persistently rally against Rwanda for more than 30 years? I don't know. They must have interests in DR Congo, and they might have decided to scapegoat Rwanda to advance their interests. But we also know that there is a big Congolese community in Belgium, who are now in political circles. But in any case, Belgium as an independent country, should not act on the dictates of Kinshasa or the dictates of the Congolese community in Belgium. The African Union, through SADC and EAC, are working to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis in eastern DR Congo. To what extent is the Belgian posture affecting the ongoing process? For us, the Belgian behaviour doesn't affect us, because we are engaged in a joint EAC-SADC process since the summit of 8 February in Dar es Salaam. And yesterday (Monday), we were in Harare at a ministerial meeting, that decided several things, including to ensure that the parties in conflict meet at a military level to have a common understanding and to agree on the cessation of hostilities, the ceasefire. And also, we decided to task, the co-chairs of SADC (Southern African Development Community) and co-chairperson of EAC (East African Community), to work with the three facilitators that were designated already, and then to come up with a decision on political engagement with all stakeholders. I think they have until March 31. Given the military approach you mentioned, how will it align with the SAMIDRC which was deployed with SADC and has been fighting alongside DR Congo and its coalition of forces in the fight against M23? The SADC has already decided to withdraw SAMIDRC. They have terminated its mandate and are to gradually withdraw this force. One of the decisions taken by the Chief of Defence Forces and Chiefs of Defence Staff during the meeting held in Dar es Salaam on February 24 was to deploy an EAC-SADC hybrid force on the ground and establish a verification mechanism for both communities. If this process continues, I believe we will have a security mechanism for both communities to ensure that a ceasefire is implemented on the ground, while political talks take place between all stakeholders in this conflict. With the EU sanctions targeting members of M23, and M23 now saying they are pulling out of the Angola meeting due to travel restrictions imposed by these sanctions, what is your take on this? This is what I called yesterday European problems to African solutions, because we always say that as Africans, we want African solutions to African problems. This is what we are doing in this EAC-SADC process. Then we have the EU and other Western countries that are targeting one party, imposing sanctions, and then we have what we had yesterday. They took sanctions against the leaders of M23, at the eve of an important meeting between the AFC/M23 and the government of DR Congo, I believe this is irresponsible. Rwanda is being accused of plundering minerals from DR Congo, with these accusations seemingly tied to the sanctions. Is it a deliberate sabotage? Of course, it's a deliberate sabotage. For some of them, it's just lazy reasoning. They just take what they read in the press, that the conflict in eastern DR Congo is just M23 supported by Rwanda just to plunder minerals in Congo. But we know that the situation is not as it is. If it was just a problem of minerals, why do we have prosecutions in eastern DR Congo? Why are they prosecuted in North Kivu, in South Kivu? The Banyamulenge, as we speak now, are being bombed in their villages in Minembwe. Is it because of minerals? So, this is really a lazy narrative, I would say. We have minerals, we have plenty of 3Ts (tin, tungsten and tantulum). And then we are also a country that has a business environment that is conducive to investment including for minerals. When you attend these meetings with your fellow diplomats, and you present the threat faced by Rwanda, what's their reaction? Most of them minimize the threat of the FDLR (an extremist outfit linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi). They say that the FDLR is an old movement, that the members of that movement are now old because the genocide against the Tutsi took place 31 years ago. But what they don't understand – actually I think they understand it – they prefer not to listen, is that the FDLR is first and foremost an ideology. Genocide ideology that was exported to eastern DR Congo, and then based on that ideology, FDLR has recruited new members. So, FDLR are still present in eastern DR Congo. Not only are they supported, armed by the Congo government, but they are also embedded in the army. When you have plans and discussions to restore normalcy in eastern DR Congo, is there a plan to uproot FDLR that are already embedded in FARDC? Yes, this is what we have always been requesting from DR Congo. We signed on November 25, 2024, a Concept of Operations of the harmonised plan for the neutralisation of FDLR and the lifting of Rwanda's defensive measures. Even DR Congo and the international community agreed that we need to neutralise FDLR, but the problem is the lack of good faith and political will of the Kinshasa government to do that. So, any solution to the crisis in eastern DR Congo, we have to find a solution to our security concerns. When meeting in the SADC-EAC framework, with Rwanda, South Africa, and Burundi involved, is there a push and pull due to differing viewpoints? No, the meeting yesterday, for example, was a constructive meeting. We didn't have any kind of accusations. At some point, DR Congo wanted to include in the text, the final document, a language to accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 but this was not what was projected by even the co-chairperson, because the mood yesterday was a mood of positive attitude and finding solutions to the crisis. With European sanctions officials and various players within the region, along with the African solution to African problems, how do you plan to ensure you reach the desired outcome as Africans? We need to make the Western world understand that they should not bring their problems to the solutions that we want to build. We have told them on several occasions that although in their resolutions they always say that they support African-led solutions and African-led processes, the actions they take, the sanctions, the punitive measures that they adopt in the same resolution undermine the very African-led processes that they claim to support. Amidst Belgium's campaign to isolate Rwanda internationally, how is Rwanda maintaining its relations with the rest of Africa? We are relating very good. We still have good relations with the African countries, because we are brothers and sisters. Actually, the fact that the EAC-SADC are now together in a process that was endorsed by the African Union is a sign that now Africa understands that we need to really work to finding African solutions to African problems, and that every decision or every noise coming from overseas, coming from Europe and North America, would just want to perpetuate the conflict that we have on our continent.
