It is regrettable that the UN Group of Experts continues to propagate dangerous distortions and fabrications that obscure the root causes and realities of the conflict in eastern DR Congo, the government of Rwanda noted on Thursday, June 22.
In a statement on the UN Group of Experts final report on DR Congo, Kigali explained how the UN experts’ modus operandi only serves to prolong the conflict, thereby endangering the lives of millions of people in the region and perpetuating insecurity and threats along Rwanda’s border.
According to Kigali, the final report of the UN Group of Experts confirms the serious threat represented by the Kinshasa-backed genocidal militia, FDLR, and their “newly increased capacity to threaten Rwanda’s security.”
The FDLR which is at the heart of the insecurity affecting eastern DR Congo and the region is a UN-sanctioned genocidal group formed by remnants of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda who fled after being defeated by the current government in Kigali. The genocidal militia and its splinter groups have camped in eastern DR Congo for close to three decades.
A 2022 report by Pole Institute, a non-governmental organization operating in DR Congo, indicated that the genocidal militia makes enormous amounts of money in different illegal trade activities in eastern DR Congo.
The economic empire of the FDLR is based on three pillars – illegal exploitation of the country’s timber, poaching, and collection of royalties for agriculture as well as transport exploitation.
Rwanda’s reinforced preventive mechanisms will remain in place
The statement by the Rwandan government reads: “Rwanda’s reinforced defensive and preventive mechanisms will remain in place to guard against violations of our airspace and borders, and counter any spill-over into Rwanda from any armed group, in order to ensure total security for our territory and our people.”
“The report details the financial support, weapons and political cover provided to the FDLR by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and confirms that, along with other illegal armed forces, the FDLR is fighting alongside the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), which has on multiple occasions in the past year violated Rwandan territory.”
On January 24, a Sukhoi-25 from DR Congo violated Rwanda’s airspace. It was the third time a Congolese warplane had violated Rwanda’s airspace in three months. The first two incidents were earlier in November and December 2022.
By its own admission, Rwandan authorities note, the report “relies heavily on questionable evidence, as well as unreliable sources who are invested in perpetuating the falsehood” that Rwanda is to blame for insecurity and other internal problems in DR Congo.
Rwanda’s responses to accusations against the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) do not appear in the report.
The sources used by the UN Group of Experts include the Congolese Government, former combatants, anti-Rwanda Congolese civil society campaigners, and current members of illegal armed groups including elements of the so-called Wazalendo, a coalition of illegal armed groups allied to the Congolese army, FARDC.
The UN Group of Experts’ report ignores ongoing regional peace efforts in which the United Nations is playing a supporting role and fails to mention the well-documented efforts by DR Congo to frustrate the Nairobi and Luanda processes, including the work of the East African Community Regional Force deployed to eastern DR Congo. The EAC regional force deployed in November 2022 occupies numerous areas earlier vacated by the M23 rebels as earlier agreed in Luanda, Angola.
Also ignored are the multiple violations against Rwanda’s territorial integrity, and the DR Congo’s pursuit of the path of an all-out war. DR Congo’s National Intelligence Agency (ANR) supports regime change in Rwanda, according to leaks allegedly from the United States military’s intelligence.
“The report deliberately minimizes the threat of ethnic cleansing of Congolese Tutsi communities, and shockingly blames the targeted communities for causing their own suffering,” Kigali adds.
“This contradicts the reports of the UN and other organizations, and mirrors the rhetoric of genocide deniers and ideologues. It also contradicts the testimonies of thousands of Congolese refugees who over the last two decades have been forced to flee to countries in the region, including Rwanda.”
The report also “inexplicably omits to mention” the statements by the UN Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention, who in November 2022 and January 2023, raised the alarm about the killings of the Tutsi in DR Congo.
Nderitu warned that the violence could turn into Genocide if nothing is done to protect the targeted communities.In eastern DR Congo, she noted, the current violence mainly stems from the refugee crisis that resulted as many individuals involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda fled to eastern DR Congo, forming armed groups such as the FDLR “which is still active” in the region.
She stressed that the abuses currently occurring in eastern DR Congo, including the targeting of civilians based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliation to the warring parties must be halted.
The government of Rwanda has reiterated that it remains committed to working within regional mechanisms, particularly the Nairobi and Luanda processes, to contribute to stability in the Great Lakes Region.
