Rwanda : Rwandan civil Society condemns Congolese counterparts over fuelling violence

Civil society members addressing journalists

The Rwanda Civil Society Platform has candidly come out and condemned their counter parts in Congo for fuelling violence against Rwandan people in DRC.

They made the declaration on Thursday in Kigali at a press conference they held after carrying out a a field visit to area bordering DRC and the Kigeme refugee camp.

‘We are strongly concerned that the Congolese civil society, media and government are playing and extremely negative role of fuelling and enticing, circulating dehumanizing propaganda against the Rwandan people and Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese citizens,” said Edouard Munyamaliza, Spokesperson of the Platform.

He said that they are appealing for all the stakeholders in the hate campaign that is taking place in Congo to stop it to avoid the repeat of what happened in Rwanda which is the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Speaking to the media, Munyamaliza said that they had tried to engage the Congolese civil society on the issue, but they refused to meet them.

“We contacted them, but they refuse to meet us so that we can discuss about the matter after our visit to the areas,” he said.

He said that everyday day, Congolese children, women and men face killings rapes and displacements as a result of the prevailing unrest and conflict in the Eastern DRC.

He emphasized that the situation has a significant spillover effect to the residents of Rwanda. Reports from Congo indicate that there have been torture cases against Rwandese in Congo.

The torture emanates from the fact that Congolese belief that Rwanda supports the M23 rebels. Rwanda has since denied any connections to the rebel group.

It is at this point that the Rwandan civil society called upon the UN to address the underlying sources of conflicts in the Eastern DRC and protect all civilians from the threat posed by armed groups including the M23, FDLR and others.

They ask the UN to also take appropriate measures to prevent the creation of similar groups in future.