Experts report will not determine ongoing talks between Rwanda and Congo; Museminari

BY GEORGE KAGAME

The government of Rwanda will not deter from normalizing diplomatic relations with DR Congo despite the highly controversial and criticized report released earlier in the week by a group of UN Experts on DR Congo.
Speaking to Journalists in Kigali on Tuesday the Minister of Foreign Affairs Rosemary Museminari said Rwanda would not be disrupted by the report from discussions with DR Congo regarding resuming diplomatic relations between the two neighbours after ten years of hostility. Museminari however stated that although the report would have an impact on the discussions it will not determine the direction of the discussions which are currently on going. The report accused Rwanda of recruiting children among other things which the government has insisted are false.
"It may have an effect but for us in Rwanda, we are determined to continue with the talks without any interruptions," said Museminari, she added that even if the report was very biased against Rwanda the meetings would continue.
The negotiations between Rwanda and Congo have in recent months been in full gear after being in a state of hostility since 1998. Since then the two countries have accused each other of supporting proxy wars against their respective governments. Opponents of Rwanda's government who are believed to have been the militias and forces interconnected with the Genocide in 1994 are suspected to be supported by the DR Congo government in massacring Congolese ethnic Tutsi tribesmen, these groups are now classified as negative forces and are mainly operating in Eastern Congo.
The negative forces are a combination of the Interahamwe, EX-Far, and mainly Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda-FDLR are believed to have camps based in Eastern Congo where Congolese minority Tutsi ethnic Tutsi are settled. The negotiations to renew relations between Rwanda and Congo come months after these ethnic Tutsi resumed their rebellion in Eastern Congo against the Kinshasa government in late August.
In mid November, DR Congo Foreign Minister Thambwe Muamba visiting Kigali said that his country was set to send an ambassador to Rwanda soon and was also evacuating people that were residing in the Rwandan Embassy in Kinshasa so as to welcome the Rwandan ambassador there. Museminari said that to underliner Rwanda's commitment to good relations with Congo, "we appointed our ambassador to Congo" but the deployment waits for formal agreements to be endorsed between the two countries.
She added that DR Congo has promised to send their ambassador to Kigali early next before the end of April. Commenting on the rejuvenated efforts to revive the diplomatic relations DR Congo President Joseph Kabila said in a televised state address last Saturday that; "we are increasing political and diplomatic actions to end war and misery."
The talks between the two countries are now in due process and are code-named as "four plus four" high level bilateral framework in which Rwandan officials are meeting with their Congolese counterparts to resolve the problem of the FDLR-Interahamwe. The framework is also handling a comprehensive operational plan against the negative forces.

The efforts also comes at a time when DR Congo is currently negotiating a peace deal with the minority tribes political party in Eastern Congo under the leadership of renegade General Laurent Nkunda in Nairobi under the mediation of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. The also come when both Rwanda Burundi and DR Congo are trying to rejuvenate the economic community of the Great Lakes states-CEPEGL.