In ”Follow the money to peace” (July 30) Yazini Funeka April approaches the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region from a narrow perspective. The most prominent feature of the complex DRC crisis, alongside the consequences of decades of dictatorship under president Mobutu Sese Seko, is the uncontested presence of former FAR and interahamwe who perpetrated genocide in Rwanda in 1994. These negative forces are intent on destabilising Rwanda.
The July 2002 Pretoria agreement provided for the Rwandan military withdrawal in exchange for a commitment from the Kinshasa government to disarm, demobilise and repatriate the former FAR and interahamwe in collaboration with the United Nation’s mission in the DRC (Monuc). Despite numerous unsubstantiated claims by Kinshasa, Rwanda does not have any kind of presence on DRC soil. Its withdrawal was witnessed and documented by Monuc. Kinshasa, however, has not fulfilled its obligations and its alliance with genocidal forces persists.
The root causes of the current conflict are social, economic and political problems — the collapse of the DRC state coupled with the spread of the ideology of genocide. Failure to address these will lead to flawed conclusions on the motivation and interests of Rwanda in the DRC.
Furthermore, UN reports are manipulated by some Western powers for their national interests, as is the case with the report on Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources in the DRC. The conclusions of the report were contested by the Rwandan government as well as other governments mentioned in it, including the DRC itself.
Mention of Rwandan battalions specialising in mining are incongruous fallacies the UN panel did not have the courage to repeat. Rwanda does not have any partnership with multinational corporations active in the DRC.
Joseph Karemera is the ambassador of Rwanda