Rwanda/DRC - interview

Kinshasa accepts Rwandan intelligence to track down militias

Article published on the 2008-11-16 Latest update 2008-11-19 10:51 TU

People displaced by fighting in Congo
(Photo: Reuters)

The Democratic Republic of Congo is to allow Rwandan intelligence agents to enter its territory to track down Hutu militias in the violence-torn Kivu region. Rwandan Foreign Minister Rosemary Museminali told RFI that the two countries had a good meeting this weekend, despite tensions over conflict in the area. And she said that Rwandan presidential adviser Rose Kabuye is "a victim not a perpetrator".

"The Congolese themselves are talking of reaching out, so we thought it was a good meeting," Museminali said after the talks in Kigali.

Members of the DRC armed forces have accused Rwanda backing rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda. But its government has now agreed that Rwandan agents can operate on its territory against militias of the Interahamwe and Forces Démocratique de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) Hutu militias.

Museminali says that Kinshasa has promised to work with Kigali against the armed groups.

"It’s going to be very urgently done but mainly what is important is to know that Rwanda is going to work with the DRC on ensuring that DRC deals effectively with the FDLR problem," she says. "We should be looking at plans within a period of a week and, hopefully, get them rolling."

Museminali leapt to the defence of Rose Kabuye, who was arrested in Frankfurt last week on a French warrant over her suspected involvement in the assassination of Rwanda's former president, Juvenal Habyarimana, in 1994.

"She is hanging in there and I’m sure she’s taking it very strongly," the Foreign Minister said. "Rose has gone through more difficult situations. We know she’s innocent. She’s just a victim of a kind of abuse of international jurisdiction and, worse still, to be put in for the 1994 genocide, which she helped to stop.

"She is a victim not a perpetrator," Museminali insisted.