Skip to main content

Kabila confronts Rwanda, Uganda over M23 rebels

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Kabila+confronts+Rwanda++Uganda+over+M23+rebels/-/2558/1596624/-/k58gogz/-/index.html


Kabila confronts Rwanda, Uganda over M23 rebels

SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTRATING
A soldier of the M23 rebel group stands atop a hill overlooking Bunagana in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 23, 2012. AFP
A soldier of the M23 rebel group stands atop a hill overlooking Bunagana in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 23, 2012. AFP 
By TABU BUTAGIRA, Daily Monitor

Posted  Wednesday, October 24  2012 at  01:00

KINSHASA
The Democratic Republic of Congo President, Mr Joseph Kabila, has told Rwanda to stop being the "bad boy" destabilising neighbours in the region.
At a press briefing this week, President Kabila also challenged Uganda to be "forthcoming" with information on its alleged political support for the M23 rebel group instead of dismissing a leaked second version of a report prepared by the UN group of Experts implicating it as "rubbish".
Responding publicly for the first time to the UN findings, which implicate the two neighbouring countries in aiding the rebellion in North Kivu Province, Mr Kabila said the allegations captured the "truth about what is happening or has been happening in the last eight months with disastrous consequences on the local population".
The UN report incriminates Rwandan military generals in actively directing the M23 rebellion which erupted in April, this year, and names Uganda to be facilitating the belligerent forces politically. Both countries deny the claims about the armed revolt that has claimed hundreds of lives, displaced thousands either internally or as refugees in Uganda.
Asked about his country's failed attempt to block Rwanda's election last week as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, President Kabila said Rwanda should now abandon "this tendency of being the bad boy in the region and try to make peace a reality with neighbours and along common borders".
"Our position was, and still is, that with the current situation [in eastern DRC]; you can't have a Rwanda participating in the deliberations of the UN Security Council and directly or indirectly directing no peace in a neighbouring country," he said.
The President made the comments on Monday during a press conference at Palais De La Nation with a group of selected Ugandan journalists. He said he invited the media to Kinshasa because he never had an opportunity to address them during visits to Kampala.
According to him, the media portrayed the DRC negatively by reporting "lots of lies; lots of fiery tales", which has undermined tourism and foreign investment in the naturally-endowed country.
Foriegn Affairs state minister Okello-Oryem last week said Uganda, as chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, contacted M23 officials to make peace as mandated by the regional bloc, and branded the UN allegations are "rubbish".
Both Kampala and Kigali have blamed the fighting in DRC on the country's unresolved internal political and development questions, and accused Kinshasa of playing victim of foreign aggression to deflect attention from the Kabila government's failings at home.
In Kinshasa, President Kabila said he believed minister Okello-Oryem's denial was for the convenience of the press and he will soon raise the matter afresh with Kampala at the "highest level". Some individuals and not states, the President noted, profiteer from the "mayhem" in North Kivu province. He named no names.
tbutagira@ug.nationmedia.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

[RwandaLibre] Rwanda : 19 ans après les massacres de Kibeho restent toujours impunis

  http://www.fdu-rwanda.com/ Rwanda : 19 ans après les massacres de Kibeho restent toujours impunis avril 22, 2014     Ce 22 avril 2014 est un triste anniversaire. Souvenons-nous, en effet, c'est à cette date que plus de 8'000 réfugiés dans le camp de Kibeho furent tués à l'arme lourde et aux lance-roquettes des soldats du Front Patriotique Rwandais. Des dizaines de milliers de rescapés du camp qui ont tenté ensuite de s'échapper ont été froidement abattus sur leur chemin de retour, les uns, jetés dans des fosses communes, d'autres, jonchés tout le long des routes, d'autres enfin, tout simplement disparus, sans la moindre trace.   Le camp de réfugiés de Kibeho abritait près de 200000 personnes. Que l'on se rappelle, c'est peu avant le 17 avril 1995 que, sous le prétexte fallacieux de démantèlement de prétendus arsenaux d'armes, six bataillons de l'armée du FPR (2000 hommes) et de la...

[AfricaRealities.com] Rwanda court hears case to block third presidential term

  Wednesday's supreme court case was quickly adjourned after the lawyer for the Democratic Green Party failed to appear. One party official told Reuters lawyers had been fearful about taking on the case.  The court panel of nine judges led by Chief Justice Sam Rugege adjourned and set the next hearing for July 29. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0PI11X20150708?irpc=932 Email Facebook Twitter By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda's main opposition party opened a case in the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking to prevent constitutional change that would allow President Paul Kagame to run for a third term seven-year in office. The debate about term limits and challenges to veteran leaders has flared in several places in Africa. The United States and other Western nations have been pressing African leaders to stick to constitutional rules on presidential terms. Wednesday's supreme court case was quickly adjourned...

[AfricaWatch] Rwanda 2014: 24 years after the Ugandan invasion

  http://sfbayview.com/2014/rwanda-2014-24-years-after-the-ugandan-invasion/#.U1cA6yfqdSQ.facebook Rwanda 2014: 24 years after the Ugandan invasion April 17, 2014 4 by  Ann Garrison KPFA Evening News, broadcast April 13, 2014 Claude Gatebuke survived the mass killing in Rwanda and founded the African Great Lakes Action Network (AGLAN) to promote truth and reconciliation in Rwanda and the rest of the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Twenty-four years after the Ugandan invasion of Rwanda in October 1990, both the history of the four-year war that followed and realities of life on the ground in Rwanda today are fiercely disputed. Claude Gatebuke survived the violence and founded the African Great Lakes Action Network (AGLAN) to promote truth and reconciliation in Rwanda and the rest of the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Transcript KPFA Evening News Anchor Anthony Fest : The United Nations commemorated the mass killing that came to be known ...

-“The enemies of Freedom do not argue ; they shout and they shoot.”

-“The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

-“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

-“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.”

IRIN - Great Lakes

UN News Centre - Africa