KAGAME: M23 are not Rwandans but Congolese

Kigali, Rwanda | THE INDEPENDENT | Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame has criticized the efforts by the East African Community and the international community as a whole for failing to resolve the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC. At the 24th Extraordinary Summit of the East African Community Heads of State Wednesday, Kagame started by asking his colleagues if anybody ever expected things to turn out the way they did in the DRC.

Referring to the capture of the North Kivu main city of Goma, Kagame said, “I myself, I saw it coming because I did not see who was taking charge of the process, who was listening, who was trying to provide any kind of guidance as to what we should be doing from one thing or one day to another.”

The processes to resolve the conflict include the East African process led by Kenya (initially by President Uhuru Kenyatta and currently his predecessor, William Ruto) and another led by Angola President João Lourenço.

Kagame noted a lack of direction by the EAC leaders in trying to resolve the crisis, wondering whether the leaders knew what they wanted to achieve and how to achieve it. “Because, exactly like President Samia has mentioned, if it is talking about problems and defining them, I think we have been very eloquent. But when do we match what we are saying, and what we are doing, so that we get to what we want to do? When we come to that, I haven’t seen it!”

Slamming DRC for shunning the summit, Kagame questioned the ability of the EAC to resolve conflicts in the region, where there’s no single direction. “I asked last time in our meeting: Where is the East African Community? Or does it exist? And exist for what? By the way, the person we are talking about or the country we’re talking about is not represented as we’re discussing. And the country is supposed to be part of East Africa?”

This, according to him showed that the discussions will not have a bearing on what happens in the Congo. “Even if all of us were doing everything right, nothing is going to come out of it, until those mainly concerned are also part of it, participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support.”

However, Kagame, who has been cited in reports on the conflicts said the EAC regional force had started on a good note, only for the DRC president to “order” them out of the country and bring in others, which he said was the beginning of the current situation.

“When the East African force was trying its best and we were seeing progress, Tshisekedi decided they were not doing what he wanted, and went to SADC, SADC agreed they would come and do what he wanted, and he sent everybody else parking, and we complied and kept quiet,” Kagame lamented, and wondered, “What did we expect to come out of this? Now, worse still, I think even in East Africa itself, maybe we have a different understanding of what the problem is!”

Kagame said that after that the EAC leadership never came together to agree “or even disagree and find a way to finally come together to do what we ought to do” to deal with the problem.

Instead, he said each country seems to have decided to go its own direction or agenda in the Congo.

“If your interests were catered for by Tshisekedi, that was fine, even if the others’ interests or concerns were not taken care of, you can therefore, what kind of chaos comes out of that kind of situation!” He said of the need for real joint and meaningful efforts unlike currently, if a solution was to be got.

“We’re on one hand assuming or pretending that we’re coming together over an issue and trying to find a solution, while at the same time, each country is pulling in its direction, different from the others,” he said. However, he said, until the parties involved in the crisis agree to be part of the peace process, nothing will come of the regional efforts, even if the leaders finally do the right things.

Instead, he blamed his DRC counterpart for abandoning the EAC efforts and going for other regions like SADC, and remnants of the former Rwanda army, FDLR, which Kagame accused of killing Rwandans, to do things the way Tshisekedi wanted which the EAC had failed to do.

“He got rid of them and decided to bring in SADC, SADC was without any question coming to assist Tshisekedi, to fight alongside FDLR, these murderers of our people here in this country! To fight along mercenaries and to have Burundi on the ethnic political basis…” He expressed dismay at what SADC decided to support Tshisekedi “in whatever endeavor, including doing what exactly those murderers did to our people and what they are doing in Eastern Congo.”

He reminded the leaders of the atrocities that he claims have been committed by DRC and her allies.

“They have displaced people, they have killed people, they have persecuted them daily for who they are. We have refugees who have been here for the last twenty-plus years, just dislocated from Congo and sent to Rwanda because they say these are ethnic Tutsis, therefore, they belong to Rwanda. They don’t belong there!”

According to Kagame, the presence of several multinational forces shows the world is aware of the conflict but has chosen not to do the right things. “We have MONUSCO, we have SAMIDRC, we have mercenaries, we have Burundi, we have FDLR that has joined them, and everybody is there watching this thing and we pretend like we don’t understand what has been going on for all these years?, he wondered.

“And then when things like these of last week erupted we behave like we are surprised, that we are concerned about a humanitarian crisis. Isn’t persecuting people killing people and displacing them part of that humanitarian concern? As East Africans we sit here and then do what about it?”

Kagame specifically bashed South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa for accepting to support a war against people fighting for their rights in their country.

He was also irked by Ramaphosa’s comments when he called him earlier in the week.

“I spoke to the president of South Africa, who sought me out to speak on this matter and he’s also there pretending to be playing a peacemaker role, and he has a force that has been fighting alongside FDLR and has been fighting the M23 on the instructions of Tshisekedi because these are people who are not supposed to be in Congo, that these are from Rwanda…M23 are not Rwandans, please! These are Congolese!”

He said the DRC president, knows this because he at times accepts it, then another time, he says part of them are from Rwanda. “And how do we, leaders of our own countries accept this to go on forever and just accept we shall be manipulated by Tshisekedi or whoever is supporting him? And South Africa dares even issue threats, about what’s likely to happen after that and so on!? Of course, we will see what threats they are talking about,” Kagame vowed.

“Maybe they should have done that exactly for which they have been issuing threats – they should have done it to clean up the mess in Eastern Congo, or to fight back those who have been trying to clean up the mess. So then you have the whole international community just confused!”

On the peace processes, Kagame blamed the international community for focusing on the leaders instead of the processes.

“Honestly, even here, maybe you will help me understand what all this means. The processes became an end in themselves, and the people leading these processes became more important than the results of the processes. The Nairobi Process became a “Uhuru Process”, then the Rwanda Process is like you can’t say anything that will displease President Lourenço (João of Angola)!”

He said this can not help deal with such serious matters as we are faced with today. “I don’t understand how Tshisekedi keeps thinking that he will resolve the problems to do with rights of people militarily, kill them, shoot them, bring in forces that are ready to help, like, especially Burundi… well, I don’t know whether that has been helpful for the last few days or weeks they have been doing that.”

He advised President Ruto, the Summit Chairperson, that whatever their intentions and discussions, they should get the context right if they hope to go far. “Otherwise if we keep saying good things to each other, being nice, and then each one fulfilling their interests other than the common interests we have as East Africans, then I don’t see how we are going to contribute effectively to finding a solution.”

However, he is not forgetting what the DRC has recently done to his country, including alleged shootings across the border, vowing to take action. “The other day, two or three days ago, we lost people, there was a lot of shelling from eastern Congo, from Goma, killed a dozen people and injured hundreds. We will definitely take care of that, there is no question about it.”

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