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UN playing ping-pong with FDLR rebels, says Rwanda

Saturday February 14 2015

Rwanda has strongly criticised the United Nations over its decision to withdraw support from the Congolese military, FARDC, effectively delaying a planned offensive against rebels in the east of the vast country.

Monusco, the UN peacekeeping mission to Democratic Republic of Congo, announced this week it was suspending its support to the Central African country’s army in its offensive against the Rwandan FDLR rebels, who are accused of involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The UN said two Congolese generals in charge of the operation are accused of “massive violations” of human rights.

Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo questioned the decision, which is likely to further delay the offensive, in a post on her Twitter handle.

Billion-dollar-a-year nonsense

“How does one pause before starting?” Ms Mushikiwabo tweeted. She added later that “It’s a billion-and-a-half-dollar-a-year nonsense” in apparent reference to Monusco, which is the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission in the world with an annual budget of $1.5 billion.

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While updating parliament on Rwanda’s foreign policy and diplomatic relations on Thursday, Ms Mushikiwabo said the countries funding Monusco should be “ashamed.” She said the international community had continued to “play around” with the issue of FDLR despite Rwanda’s pleas to the world to neutralise the militias, who Kigali says maintain a genocide ideology.

Ms Mushikiwabo, who has been critical of the UN’s approach to the matter, spoke of a conspiracy to frustrate efforts to neutralise FDLR.

“Very often, we have expressed our concern about the presence of the FDLR in eastern DRC and the danger it poses to regional security, but several countries and politicians continue to meddle in the efforts to defeat the rebels,” she said, without naming any countries. “People have resorted to playing dirty politics over the matter and using FDLR as a proxy to destabilise Rwanda.”

Rwanda sees the continued presence of the FDLR close to its border as an existential threat. It has twice sent troops into Congo to pursue the militants and has been accused of supporting proxy militias, including the M23, to contain the FDLR.

READ: Kagame: I will not pursue rebels in DRC

ALSO READ: Kagame complains of inaction on DR Congo rebels

A six-month UN ultimatum to the rebels to disarm or surrender lapsed on January 2 unheeded despite the threat of military attacks for non-compliance.

Tanzania and South Africa are among countries that have contributed troops to the UN Force Intervention Brigade that was expected to engage in a “joint operation” with Congolese government forces against the rebels, but Kigali has accused Dar es Salaam of sympathising with and supporting the FDLR.

READ: Kigali, Dar set for clash over FDLR military offensive

The UN has questioned the choice of Gen Bruno Mandevu and Gen Fall Sikabwe to lead the offensive.

“The UN Mission in the DRC has raised concerns linking two FARDC generals to human-rights violations, and therefore we have paused our support to FARDC on anti-FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) operations,” said a UN official who spoke to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

The UN however maintains that it will resume its support to FARDC if the two generals are replaced. The DRC government is yet to comment on the matter.

READ: DR Congo rejects UN ultimatum to sack tainted generals

FDLR weakened

Despite the Rwandan government expressing its frustration in the delay in routing the rebels, officials say the group is weakened and poses no major threat to Rwanda’s security. But they are concerned about what they see as its genocide ideology and the risk of its spreading.

While briefing parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Co-operation and Security this week, Rwanda’s Minister for Defence Gen James Kabarebe said FDLR no longer posed a military threat to Rwanda.

“Our biggest concern is the continued spread of the genocide ideology, but FDLR is not a threat to Rwanda militarily because they no longer have the capacity and numbers,” he said.

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