Rwanda: " And accusations moths that circle on the light "

All Africa reports

Rwanda Demands Action On FDLR

                                                         Picture Virunga Mountain Blog 

I will start by saying that the photo shopped picture comes from The Virunga Mountain Blog which I stumbled over today and we seem to have similar opinions on the Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo. I think Imbwakazi translates as bitch and I gather Intobo y'intore is a combination of an inedible fruit combined with a cultural dance, again a guess but I suspect it means a poisonous culture. 

The Rwandan government has demanded answers from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monusco) on their inaction against the FDLR rebels holed up in that country.

The Rwandan Government can't demand answers from anyone and MONUSCO Martin Kobler I hope told Mushikiwabo to piss off. Rwanda have a temporary seat on the UN security council, perhaps Mushikiwabo doesn't know what that means  I will help her out. Rwanda has the responsibility to represent the interests of the African continent when it comes to issues of international security. Rwanda has no part in the decision making, command or priority setting of the MONUSCO mission in the DR Congo.

The United Nations body had vowed to deal with the group, which is largely composed of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which more than one million people were murdered.

After helping the Congolese army fight the M23 rebels, Monusco head Martin Kobler was categorical that the next armed group to be dealt with would be the FDLR; yet several months later, nothing much has been done about the rebel group despite Monusco being backed by South African, Malawian and Tanzanian soldiers plus drones.

Actually I have not seen anything to back up the statement that Kobler said the FDLR would be the next armed group that would be dealt with and I have been looking because I predicted that they would be the next cab off the rank after M23. From the MONUSCO mandate: 

"...authorized to use all necessary means to carry out its mandate relating, among other things, to the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence and to support the Government of the DRC in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts."

Now from that we can assume that the Ugandan Rebel group the ADF was considered a greater threat than the FDLR at this point, also MONUSCO is to support the DR Congo Government, nothing about the Rwandan Dictatorship at all.

"We had a meeting with the head of Monusco and we showed our displeasure that what was said was not done," Foreign Affairs Minister and government spokesperson Louise Mushikiwabo told local media. "We shall not allow the problem of FDLR to continue without being handled. For the last few weeks, we have been waiting for something to be done but nothing has so far been done."

Unfortunately that is a threat that must be taken seriously. Rwanda have launched several aggressive military interventions in the DR Congo, as well as sponsoring several rebellions. There is growing evidence that Rwanda is attempting to reconstitute their surrogate M23. 

She also scoffed at suggestions by Monusco that they had transferred the FDLR from roads to other places. "Their mandate is not to transfer them to other places but to remove them completely. All armed groups should be removed from the DRC."

Again I can't track this claim and am guessing it is yet another lie of Louise Mushikiwabo, MONUSCO did transfer some tourists kidnapped by the FDLR. New Times Rwanda reports: 

Shortly after, a team of peacekeepers, based on the information received, caught red-handed the FDLR elements, who, without putting up any resistance, released the two hostages and their vehicle.
But the two tourists lost all their personal belongings, including $4,000 (Rwf2.5m), credit cards, laptops and a compass (GPS) during their ordeal.
Both tourists were transferred to the Monusco base in Beni, DR Congo.

Another Rwandan propaganda outfit Rwanda Focus that is having website issues did make this observation.

" And in response to Monusco's boast that they had managed to drive the FDLR away from some strategic locations such as roads they were "

I am guessing Mushikiwabo has confused the two incidents.

Mushikiwabo said that it will be difficult to establish peace in the region when Monusco does not fulfill its mandate.

MONUSCO is fulfilling its mandate, time spent in preparation is seldom time wasted, that is why professional armed forces train. Rwanda seems to think it can set the timetable and agenda, it can't.

Rwanda expects the FDLR to be eliminated in much the same way as the M23. President Paul Kagame said as much to Russell Feingold, the US Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when the latter visited him on December 4.

Oh Dear that is a fuck up. M23 were not eliminated you can find them in Kigali.

The two leaders "agreed that a sustainable solution [to peace and stability in the region] must include the neutralisation of the FDLR as a matter of priority," a statement from the President's office said.

If that were not difficult enough, there is the matter of the group's long-running collaboration with the Congolese national army, which, essentially, is supposed to lead the attacks against it. According to a report by the UN Group of Experts on the DR Congo, the FARDC formed alliances with FDLR when M23 rebels overran Goma in 2011.

There seems to be evidence some elements of FARDC have in the past co-operated with the FDLR. No where near as much evidence as there is that Rwanda actually ran M23 with their orders being generated in Kigali.

"In January 2012, two former FDLR soldiers witnessed separately meetings between FARDC and FDLR in the Tongo area, during which they exchanged operational information," the report reads.

"Between January and April 2013, a former FDLR soldier witnessed four distinct ammunition transfers by the FARDC based at Bambo to FDLR, while in February, another former FDLR soldier saw FARDC hand over ammunition to the FDLR, also at Bambo," it adds.

Be nice to have a source.

Although the rebel group has withered in numerical strength over the years, with estimates putting it at between 1,500 and 1,800 combatants, the FDLR has maintained a coherent political and military structure compared with M23, which appeared disjointed throughout its 20-month lifespan.

Security experts in Rwanda say it is through this network that the two-decade-old group still propagates the hate ideology that fuelled the 1994 Genocide. They add that such hatred poses both a physical and ideological threat not only to the country but the region, given how widespread out the group's targets are.

I despise the FDLR. Even more than I despise Louise Mushikiwabo.