Kigali, 3 December 2012
President Kagame today met with ambassadors and representatives of international organisations based in Kigali to discuss partnership in light of current affairs linked to the security crisis in Eastern DRC. He explained that the current crisis began at a time when relations with DRC were moving solidly in the right direction, following the rapprochement in August 2009, and with the armed forces of both countries working together effectively to counter the FDLR génocidaires based in Eastern DRC.
President Kagame pointed out emphatically that Rwanda was not the origin of the ongoing problems in the DRC and that the allegations that have come up, especially in the media, haven’t been backed by solid, believable evidence, although judgment had already been made.
“The talk of DRC is actually about Rwanda, when we have our own burdens to carry. The world misses the point by thinking that heaping the problems on Rwanda resolves the crisis; it doesn’t, it only creates a second problem by disrupting Rwanda’s development.”
President Kagame said that Rwanda was committed to engaging on a fair basis and that partnerships have so far have resulted in progress because the means provided are used well with experience showing that money poured into Rwanda in other ways won’t have the same impact:
“When the lessons for Africa are given from the moral platform of human rights and governance, the unjust treatment of recipients undermines that platform. It is ridiculous to want to help the suffering people by bypassing their government.”
On the issue of FDLR, President Kagame said that these DRC-based génocidaires had practically been forgotten even when their leaders were living in western capitals but that would not destabilise the security in which Rwanda had invested so much, for so long.
President Kagame concluded the consultation noting that there was no reason for donors and recipients not to have a mutually respectful relationship despite unequal levels of economic and political power and said that all sides should and must work toward this goal.