Paul Kagame opponents press for charges over DRC conflict
Rwandan opposition parties in exile will go to The Hague to urge action over claims regime is arming rebels across border
The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, strenuously denies claims his regime is supporting rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Rwandan opposition parties in exile are to ask the international criminal court to press charges against the country's president, Paul Kagame, after a UN report accused his regime of supporting rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Representatives of the United Democratic Forces party and the Rwandan National Congress will travel to The Hague on Friday to demand that the court examines claims that Kagame's regime is recruiting and arming the rebels in an attempt to annex the DRC's Kivu provinces. They also want an investigation into suggestions that Rwanda is stealing eastern Congo's mineral resources.
Rwanda's alleged support for the M23 rebels has opened a diplomatic rift between Kigali and Kinshasa that several regional summits have failed to resolve. Kagame strenuously denies the claims and the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, refuses to negotiate directly with the rebels, who have advanced to within 19 miles (30km) of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.
In late July the head of the US war crimes office, Stephen Rapp, suggested that Kagame and other implicated Rwandan government figures could face prosecution at the ICC if M23 committed atrocities in the DRC. Rapp said Kagame could potentially face charges of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in the DRC.
In May the former Liberian president Charles Taylor was given a 50-year sentence after being found guilty of similar charges. Rapp has also called for the arrest of the M23 leaders Bosco Ntaganda, Sultani Makenga and Innocent Zimurinda.
The UN report prompted the US government to withhold $200,000 (£130,000) of military aid to Rwanda, and other countries followed suit, including the UK which suspended £16m of aid.
The demand to bring charges against Kagame has support among Congolese as well as opposition Rwandan politicians. "The politicians in Kinshasa are aware of these charges and they support them, although there have been no official statements as yet," said Nzangi Butondo, a Congolese MP representing Goma. "We think now is the right time to [go to The Hague]. It is certainly something to raise publicity, but there is also the hope that the ICC will, as a result, at least launch an investigation into this affair."
Representatives of the United Democratic Forces party and the Rwandan National Congress will travel to The Hague on Friday to demand that the court examines claims that Kagame's regime is recruiting and arming the rebels in an attempt to annex the DRC's Kivu provinces. They also want an investigation into suggestions that Rwanda is stealing eastern Congo's mineral resources.
Rwanda's alleged support for the M23 rebels has opened a diplomatic rift between Kigali and Kinshasa that several regional summits have failed to resolve. Kagame strenuously denies the claims and the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, refuses to negotiate directly with the rebels, who have advanced to within 19 miles (30km) of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.
In late July the head of the US war crimes office, Stephen Rapp, suggested that Kagame and other implicated Rwandan government figures could face prosecution at the ICC if M23 committed atrocities in the DRC. Rapp said Kagame could potentially face charges of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in the DRC.
In May the former Liberian president Charles Taylor was given a 50-year sentence after being found guilty of similar charges. Rapp has also called for the arrest of the M23 leaders Bosco Ntaganda, Sultani Makenga and Innocent Zimurinda.
The UN report prompted the US government to withhold $200,000 (£130,000) of military aid to Rwanda, and other countries followed suit, including the UK which suspended £16m of aid.
The demand to bring charges against Kagame has support among Congolese as well as opposition Rwandan politicians. "The politicians in Kinshasa are aware of these charges and they support them, although there have been no official statements as yet," said Nzangi Butondo, a Congolese MP representing Goma. "We think now is the right time to [go to The Hague]. It is certainly something to raise publicity, but there is also the hope that the ICC will, as a result, at least launch an investigation into this affair."
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