President Paul Kagame has said that the security challenges afflicting the eastern DR Congo cannot just be wished away, but deliberate efforts must be put into resolving them, adding that blaming Rwanda will not in any way solve them either.
He was addressing a press conference on Wednesday, that was attended by local and foreign journalists, at Village Urugwiro, where he said that the Congolese government has only been looking for excuses other than focusing on finding a sustainable solution to the problem.
The head of state was responding to allegations by Congolese authorities that Rwanda was behind the insecurity problem which has prevailed in the eastern part of the country for close to three decades.
"This fighting that started years ago was not by any means started by Rwanda...just follow the history of how it started, it has no involvement of Rwanda. Maybe those who started it somehow designed it to look like it was a Rwandan problem," Kagame told reporters.
He said that the Congolese region has over 120 armed groups including M23, which they blame for being supported by Rwanda, adding that until the leadership of the neighbouring country sit and find a meaningful solution to the problem, it will persist and not even blaming Rwanda will bring a solution.
Kagame said that Congolese authorities have for so long wanted to banish a group of their nationals blaming them to be Rwandans while at the same time keeping those who are genuinely Rwandans - members of the genocidal group, the FDLR militia group - for sinister motives.
The group, which was founded by perpetuators of the Genocide against the Tutsi, has lived in DR Congo for over 27 years and different reports, including by the United Nations, have linked them to Congolese authorities.
The FDLR, which was blacklisted as a terrorist group by the UN, has been fighting alongside the Congolese government forces and a coalition of other militia groups in their fight against the M23 rebel group.
"The reason they are kept there is to probably prepare them to cause regime change in Rwanda," he said, echoing remarks made last year by Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi that they would overthrow the government in Kigali.
On the issue of M23 for which Congo blames Rwanda, Kagame said that the Congolese government is not short of options to have the matter resolved once and for all, starting with the regional mechanisms that have been put in place.
He was referring to the East African Community (EAC)-led Nairobi process and the Luanda agreement both geared at pacifying the restive region but for which the Congolese government has given little or no regard, saying that all this could be attributed to bad governance.
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"The mismanagement, bad governance cannot just be explained away...the rights of people need to be guaranteed. The moment you deny people their rights for so long, they will eventually have nothing to lose and they will fight you. History has proved that. When you tamper with people's rights for so long, the moment it turns on you, it might be too late for you," he said, pointing to the grievances that have been fronted by the M23 rebel group.
Meanwhile, Kagame said that someone blaming Rwanda for the chaos in the neighbouring country should explain the benefit to the country, explaining that of all people in the region, Rwanda has paid heavily the cost of lack of peace.
"I need someone to answer this question; what would Rwanda gain from having instability in Congo? If anything, we are the people most interested in peace in this whole region; we have lacked peace for so long and we know the cost of lack of it."
Kagame castigated claims that Rwanda could be looking for minerals in DR Congo, saying that the former is endowed with its own minerals including Coltan - which he said is even of better quality than that found in the neighbouring country - and gold.
