AFRICA/CONGO DR - Who caused the failure of the summit on Kivu?

Friday, 5 October 2012

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "It is unthinkable that one person, representative of an increasingly despotic and dictatorial regime, is able to derail an international meeting for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo," said an editorial sent to Fides Agency by missionaries of "Peace Network for Congo" in reference to the mini-summit convened by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, during the last General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, on the situation in Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC), a region devastated by the actions of various armed groups, in particular from the M23 group.
"All the participants at the meeting, except one - the statement said - agreed in condemning the violence carried out by the M23 (military occupation of the territory of Rutchuru, in North Kivu, the establishment of a parallel administration to that of the State , imposition of illegal taxes, forced recruitment of minors, rapes, looting ...). All, except one, agreed in condemning the support that the M23 continues to receive from the outside. Even they express themselves in a diplomatic language –the name is not specifically mentioned - everyone knows that the support received by M23 comes from Rwanda, which continues to deny its involvement in the conflict, despite the extensive documentation that proves it. Forced into a corner, the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame even left the meeting hall, blocking, thus, the possibility of reaching an agreement for a joint statement".
The Network for Peace in Congo then asks itself if it is appropriate to adopt international sanctions against Rwanda, such as declaring an embargo on the purchase and importation of weapons, to put a stop to all forms of military cooperation, to suspend the purchase of minerals from Rwanda, because among them there are also minerals of Congolese origin, exported smuggling and labeled in Rwand; block funding for the government.
This will only happen if there is less international complicity which the Rwandan regime has so far enjoyed and which fall on "the terrible responsibility of the 800,000 victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 Congolese victims in the different stages of the war which began in 1996," the statement concludes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 05/10/2012)


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