SADC meets Rwanda’s Kagame over support to Congo rebels

  IN SUMMARY: Efforts at peace. The Southern African Development Community has vowed to work together with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region in resolving the eastern DRC crisis.

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The chairperson of Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mr Armando Emilio Guebuza, who is also the current Mozambican President, on Tuesday met with his Rwandan counterpart, President Paul Kagame, and discussed details of how the ongoing crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo can be solved.

The meeting of the two Heads of State, held in Kigali, comes after the 32nd SADC Summit mandated President Guebuza to undertake a mission to Rwanda to engage the Rwandan government “to stop military support to armed rebels in the DRC, the so-called M23.” The presidents agreed on use of dialogue to resolve the conflict.

Rwanda has on several occasions denied any links with the rebels. The allegations were first made by a UN Group of experts on the Congo.

Addressing the press after the meeting, the Executive Secretary of SADC, Mr Tomas Salamao, said President Guebuza conveyed the message from SADC that the most important thing is to ensure SADC member states and member states from the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) work together to address and solve the problem in eastern DRC based on dialogue and mutual understanding of the problem on the ground.

“The major conclusion from the two Heads of States is paramount, critical and fundamental to work together at a regional level, SADC and ICGLR and at a bilateral level between Rwanda and DRC,” he added.

Although SADC did not consult Rwanda before the Maputo Summit, Mr Salamao said the Summit’s accusations against Rwanda were based on several expert reports.

SADC meets Rwanda’s Kagame over support to Congo rebels

”We saw the reaction of Rwanda but our position was based on the assessment made by a team of experts who went to DRC, Burundi and Rwanda. They interacted with Rwanda and they presented a report to heads of states and governments,” he added.

Rwanda submitted its response to the UN Sanctions committee the allegations by the group of experts on the Congo weeks after the highly contentious addendum was published without Rwanda’s input. Salamao pointed out that following the meeting of presidents, Guebuza and Kagame, SADC took note of the discussions and may consider sitting and discussing more details if necessary.

At the meeting, Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mary Baine refuted claims that the recent declaration by SADC requesting Rwanda to stop supporting the M23 may have created tension between Rwanda and the Southern Africa bloc.

SADC is composed of 15 countries, namely Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Seychelles.

Others are South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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Efforts at peace

Kampala meeting. Early this month, ICGLR heads of state met for two days in Kampala at the invitation of President Museveni and discussed the root causes of insecurity in eastern DRC and so as to seek a home grown solution through established regional mechanisms.

Committee set up. At the end of the meeting, the heads of state resolved to form a sub-committee comprising ICGLR ministers of defence with the mandate to propose urgent actionable steps to ensure that fighting stopped completely.

The committee was also mandated to provide details of how a proposed international force was going to work as well as set up a trust fund to support victims of humanitarian crisis in the region. The conflict in DRC has displaced many people to the neighbouring states.

Source: Daily Monitor (30/08/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/SADC+meets+Rwanda+s+Kagame+over+support+to+Congo+rebels/-/688340/1489764/-/cbrlwlz/-/index.html