Rwanda: America acts and one has to ask why they bothered ?

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

Kagame slams US sanctions over child soldiers

KIGALI - Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Friday angrily condemned a US decision to impose sanctions against his country for allegedly backing rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who recruit child soldiers.

Kagame said the decision would only play into the hands of other rebels made up of remnants of Hutu extremists who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

It won't, the Hutu extremists he refers to are the FDLR and they will shortly have more than enough on their plate as the MONUSCO Intervention (African) Brigade along with the Congolese Army ( FARDC ) turns their attention not to mention guns in the FDLR direction. 

"It benefits those enemies of our country who seek to destroy what we are trying to build," Kagame said in a speech to parliament.

Kagame is to a large degree reaping the consequences of his own stupidity, his obvious support for M23 along with the constant lies denying that support pissed off the international community to a point that America could no longer do business with Rwanda. Kigame might do well to reflect upon the fact that it has been quite some time since Bill Clinton ran the White House.

The United Nations accuses Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels in neighbouring eastern DR Congo, a charge the country has adamantly denied.

The evidence of Rwandan support for M23 is overwhelming and Kagame's denials have been such obvious lies that his administration junta now faces the problem that the world has stopped listening to Rwanda. Yesterday Goma blogger and journalist Charly Kasereka provided more from the hills where the M23 movement failed and collapsed after being defeated by FARDC.

                           A Congolese soldier shows a military index of the Rwandan army found on the hill ( Photo Charly Kasereka )  

On Thursday, Washington said it was invoking the 2008 Child Soldiers Protection Act to end US financial and military assistance to Rwanda.

As usual America has fucked it up. This blog has predicted the defeat of M23 for weeks and it became apparent late last month that M23 was finished, that America has imposed comprehensive sanctions on Rwanda for supporting M23 after M23 has been defeated speaks volumes for American policy towards the region. Generally speaking sanctions are applied to alter behaviour rather than as a punishment and by this test the American action is now pointless.      

But Kagame said the sanctions "benefit the people that throw grenades here in Kigali and killed our children", referring to recent attacks in the capital carried out in the run-up to parliamentary elections last month.

Kagame is again talking crap. News of Rwanda reports.

" One of the suspects who manned the recent grenade attack at Nyabugogo Taxi Park in Kigali, has said that he and his colleagues were sent on a mission by their boss, Colonel Enoch Bizimana alias ‘Matovu’ who commands a section of FDLR rebel in the DR Congo.

The 23 year old suspect, identified as Jean de Dieu Ntakirutimana, who left Rwanda at the age of 4 years, says that he joined and deserted FDLR forces and was later on contacted by the Colonel, through a third party, to conduct the attacks for a price.

“The rebel commanders assured that if we continue throwing the grenades in Kigali, just like others had done, we will be rewarded heavily once the rebels take power.. They actually assured us that the Kigali government will be overthrown this year” Ntakirutimana narrated to the media.

Ntakirutimana also pleaded guilty of the Nyabogogo grenade attacks and said he was not forced to do it but was paid 20 US dollars to do the job. “That money is a lot if you are a rebel in Congo” he noted."

A stupid mixed up kid, how he will benefit from the American sanctions is beyond me.

"They don't care about our children," he said, lashing out at "those murderers who live in the DRC (and) in South Africa" -- a reference to exiled Hutu extremists linked to the 1994 genocide as well as other opponents.

The truth is the FDLR don't care about anything other than killing, the mission that Ntakirutimana was sent on is evidence that Colonel Enoch Bizimana couldn't give a toss about him. 

The M23 rebel group was founded by former Tutsi rebels who were incorporated into the Congolese army under a 2009 peace deal but who turned their guns on their former comrades in 2012.

Kagame's government, also dominated by Tutsis, is accused of backing the rebels as part of a proxy war against Hutu rebels in the DRC and to seek influence in the country's mineral-rich eastern Kivu region.

Kagame repeated denials of covert support for the M23, and described the sanctions as an "insult".

"I don't understand why Rwanda is treated... with such injustice," he said. "Rwanda is going to be judged and held accountable for the mistakes made by others."

Rwanda is being held accountable for mistakes deliberate acts of insurrection in the DR Congo that have displaced and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The lies of Kagame have caught up with him and his murderous regime. Will the American sanctions make a blind bit of difference ? Probably not, they may in fact cause further intransigence on the part of Kagame the irony being that the sanctions have been imposed after Kagame and by extension Rwanda exercised a degree of constraint in the final days of the M23 rebellion.