The Rwandan government has asked the United Nations to reconsider its intended support to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission in conflict-ridden eastern DR Congo, saying the decision would be based on the "wrong premises" and could be in favour of forces set against Rwanda's security.
In a note verbale sent to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) President on Monday, February 12, Rwanda's Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said the SADC mission known as SAMIDRC was "not a neutral" force in the conflict in eastern DR Congo, where a government-led coalition fights the M23 rebels, despite the presence of more than 200 armed groups in the region. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, the Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations, is the President of the Security Council for the month of February 2024.
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"While the Government of Rwanda would naturally have no issue with the UN providing support to regional forces, if they were genuinely intended to bring peace in eastern [DR Congo]," Biruta said, "it wishes to draw the attention of the UNSC that SAMIDRC is not a neutral force in the current crisis."
Biruta said the mission of SAMIDRC is "to support the Government of DRC's belligerent posture, which bears the potential for further escalation of the conflict and increased tensions in the region."
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By associating itself with and supporting a coalition including SAMIDRC, Burundian forces and the genocidal FDLR, Biruta said, "the UN is acting on wrong premises and risks lending a hand to a coalition of forces whose sole objective is to uproot Congolese Tutsi in eastern DRC and which has declared its intention to destabilize Rwanda."
The SADC regional force was deployed to eastern DR Congo in December 2023 and has troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania. The SADC countries first fought in eastern DR Congo in 2013 under the UN Force Intervention Brigade, which was supposed to uproot armed groups including the Rwandan genocidal outfit FDLR. The latter in a genocidal militia formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
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"While there are more than 260 armed groups in eastern DRC, SADC Forces, like in 2013, are selectively supporting the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) in the fight against M23 rebels, along with Burundian Forces (FDNB), European mercenaries, Rwandan genocidal forces (FDLR and its splinter groups) and a host of ideologically and ethnically-charged local armed groups known as Wazalendo," the Rwandan Minister said.
The FDLR-supported Wazalendo groups "vowed to cleanse the eastern DRC of Congolese Tutsi, whom they consider as Rwandans," Biruta said, adding that they are "involved in horrible scenes of ethnic killings reminiscent of events that preceded the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda."
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UN officials have warned about the violence in eastern DR Congo becoming genocidal and raised concerns about the presence of the FDLR in the region.
For years, Rwanda has asked the Congolese government to end its collaboration with the FDLR, which has launched attacks on Rwandan territory since its founding in 2000.
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The escalation of the conflict in the eastern DRC comes in the context of public declarations by the presidents of DRC and Burundi to support the overthrow of government in Rwanda and heightened ethnic tensions in the region, Biruta said.
He noted, "The hyper-militarization of the eastern [DR Congo] with presence of ethnically motivated forces, both state and non-state, is a serious concern to Rwanda."
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The Government of Rwanda is concerned that instead of condemning the ethnic killings in eastern DR Congo and belligerent declarations of the presidents of DRC and Burundi, the UN intends to support the coalition that is behind this escalation, Biruta said.
Biruta said the conflict in eastern DR Congo has persisted because the international community "deliberately ignored the root causes of the conflict," which include support to and preservation of Rwandan genocidal forces in the region, refusal of the Congolese government to address genuine grievances of Congolese Rwandophones, especially the Tutsi, and the refusal to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Congolese refugees living in the region.
Rwanda hosts around 100,000 of these refugees, some of whom have lived in Rwanda for almost 30 years now, including more than 13,000 who fled ethnic cleansing in eastern DRC during the last four months, Biruta noted.
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The intended UN logistical and operational support to the FARDC allied forces emboldens the Congolese government in pursuing a military solution instead of a negotiated and peaceful solution of the crisis, he said.
"The Government of Rwanda wishes to draw the attention of the UNSC members on the dangers of such a move, including erosion of any peaceful settlement of the decades-long crisis in the eastern [DR Congo], resurgence of ethnic confrontation and risk of a regional conflict given the determination of the presidents of DRC and Burundi to cause a regime change in Rwanda," Biruta said.
Although the Rwandan government "is willing and ready to play its role in supporting a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the eastern DR Congo," he said it "will continue to undertake preventive and defensive measures against the declared intention of the presidents of DR Congo and Burundi to remove the Government of Rwanda" and the threat posed by the Rwandan genocidal forces operating in the region.
