Exiled Rwandan groups slam Congo raid
Nairobi (21 January 2009)- A grouping of Rwandan opposition parties in exile on Wednesday described Kigali's military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a mistake.
"The use of force is a bad choice. The path of dialogue should always be favoured," Victoire Ingabire, chairperson of the opposition United Democratic Forces (UDF), told reporters by phone from the Netherlands.
"In the entire region, (Rwandan President Paul) Kagame's regime is the only one that refuses to talk to the opposition... There is no military solution to political problems," she said.
The Rwandan government confirmed on Tuesday that some of its troops had crossed the border to launch an unprecedented joint offensive with DRC government forces against the Hutu rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Ingabire denied any links between her umbrella organisation and the FDLR, which is believed to count around 6 000 men in its ranks and has eluded previous efforts to disarm them."We have no relation to them. Their strategy is different to ours.
They have chosen armed struggle while we think that Rwanda's political problems can only be solved politically," she said.
Over the years, Kagame has consistently accused Kinshasa of doing nothing to disarm the FDLR, which counts among its ranks some of the main perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi minority.
Source:
AFP
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posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 2:10 AM
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