The FDLR genocidal militia, which is now a strategic ally of Congolese army (FARDC), represents a security threat to Rwanda, which the international community has not taken seriously, Amb. François Nkulikiyimfura, Rwanda’s envoy to France, Spain, Italy, Monaco, and Portugal, has said. ALSO READ: Amb Nduhungirehe: World powers refused to listen to Rwanda on FDLR threat He made the observations on Wednesday, April 2, during a session in which he addressed the lower house of France’s parliament, and highlighted the origin of the threat on Rwanda's borders. The FDLR is a DR Congo-based terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Fully integrated into the Congolese army coalition which is battling the AFC/M23 rebel movement, the genocidal militia joined forces with Kinshasa’s allies, with a plan to attack Rwanda. The genocidal militia’s genocidal ideology is the biggest threat to Rwanda, and the region. ALSO READ: Why genocide ideology doesn’t dissolve three decades after dispersion of genocidaires For three decades now, Nkulikiyimfura said, Rwanda has faced an existential threat on its border with DR Congo – “and that's 170 kilometres from our capital [Kigali].” In view of this threat, Rwanda had to consciously and responsibly adopt defensive measures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, he pointed out. Speaking of the nature of the threat, Nkulikiyimfura provided a context that, he stressed, is very important for Rwanda. The threat, he said, emerged following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a 100-day horror in which “more than a million people were systematically massacred for the sole reason that they were born Tutsi.” ALSO READ: DR Congo: Global coalition urges UN to act on Congolese Tutsi extermination threat “Rwanda descended into horror, abandoned by an international community that had seen the warning signs of Genocide, but chose to look the other way. And it was by taking advantage of this attitude, sometimes even this complicity, that those responsible for this massacre were able to flee and find refuge in eastern DR Congo,” he said. “It has been more than 30 years since these militias responsible of the last genocide of the 20th century, regroup, reorganise and rearm to finish the job – in other words, to return and exterminate the Tutsi.” Despite its status as a terrorist organisation, recognised by the United States and the United Nations, as well as sanctions issued by the European Union, Nkulikiyimfura said, “FDLR continues to enjoy total impunity, protected by successive Congolese governments.” The FDLR is today a strategic ally of Kinshasa, in coalition with the Congolese armed forces. ALSO READ: Why Congolese army-FDLR alliance is an evil enterprise It goes without saying, he said, that the FDLR-FARDC coalition represents a security threat to Rwanda, yet it is also tolerated by the international community and the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO), “which was supposed to disarm them” and has not, for the last 25 years. Persecution of Congolese Tutsi normalised Nkulikiyimfura said that calls for hatred against Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, especially the Tutsi, are launched and encouraged, even at the highest levels of the state, paving the way to all kinds of wrongdoings, including acts of cannibalism by some Congolese against their Kinyarwanda-speaking compatriots. While in France, comments on racial profiling provoke outrage, in DR Congo such acts are normal, he explained, noting that having a certain appearance, or being perceived as Rwandan, or Tutsi, is a death sentence. “Summary executions have become the norm, shamelessly displayed on social media, he stated.
