Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
16 December 2008
Kigali — The European Commission does not intend to review its aid package for Rwanda even after the UN accused Kigali of financing and arming DR Congo rebel General Laurent Nkunda, the country office said.
The Netherlands - an EU member - has halted its $5million annual budget support for Rwanda in protest amid suspicion that Dutch tax payers money may be bankrolling rebels. However humanitarian intervention will continue - of about $20million.
The European Commission is willing to maintain its assistance to all processes intending to re-establish peace in the region, the EC Delegation in Rwanda said in a statement to RNA. "This includes its development assistance in favour of Rwanda."
The EC's total allocation to Rwanda for the next five year (2008-2013) amounts to 294.4 million Euros - most of it going to government coffers directly. The executive arm of the European Union is also funding numerous multi-million infrastructure projects.
A proud recipient of UN Public Service Award for the success of a local poverty alleviation program known here as Ubudehe - the EC stands out as one of the closest partners to Kigali. The EC has injected some 25m Euros into this programme benefiting some 10,000 communities in southern Rwanda.
In most of his regular trips to Rwanda - the recent just last week, the Commissioner for Humanitarian and Development Aids Louis Michel praised the "constructive attitude and role of Rwanda in favour of a peaceful solution in the region".
Despite coming under heavy criticism from other African countries, Rwanda and the other four East African Community block members last year signed an interim trade deal with the European Union.
The plan requires Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda to gradually open their markets to the European Union (EU). The new agreement replaced preferential trade obligations, which expired in December last year and have proved controversial in recent years.
Other regional blocks say the deal divides Africa as well as undermining the continent's integration efforts.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda - FDLR - rejected the same UN report that they are collaborating with the Congolese army and running illegal mining operations.
"The FDLR have stated and repeat it that there is no form of collaboration between the FARDC (Congolese army) and the FDLR," the group's executive secretary Mr. Callixte Mbarushimana said in the statement.
"Furthermore, the accusations formulated in the report that the FDLR might be exploiting the mineral resources of the DRC are false and groundless," he added.
The group wanted in Kigali for Genocide says they rely on agriculture and the trade of livestock to fund its war machine. Rwanda and DRC are working out a plan to disband the militia.
The FDLR called on the UN Security Council to lift what they described as "unjust sanctions" against their leaders.
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