A ne pas manquer ici

RWANDA-DRC : RDF GENERALS PLAN TO CAPTURE DRC TOWN OF GOMA (19.09.07)

PRESS RELEASE

Credible information reaching our intelligence desk indicates that this Tuesday 18 September 2007, RDF Generals held a meeting in Gisenyi Town (North-West) under the chairmanship of RDF Chief of General Staff Gen. Kabarebe James. One of the objectives of the meeting was to assess the situation created by the offensive launched against renegade officer Nkundabatware’s forces. The RDF generals are concerned by what they call the collusion between MONUC troops and the FARDC during last clashes which left on the ground hundreds of Nkundabatware’s men.

The purpose of the meeting was to plan how to reinforce renegade officer Nkundabatware’s militia  and capture the city of Goma.  The source adds that “ the RPF government has already informed the US government that France is planning to attack Rwanda, in collusion with MONUC and FARDC troops”. Those maneuvers are part of RPF government efforts to gain support from the US administration. Sources in North-Kivu civil society report that “RDF supporters have left Goma and taken refuge in Rwanda, in Ruhengeri and Kigali City”, a move seen as a clear signal that preparations have reached their final stage.

Those preparations of war were underway while Kagame’s government envoys were in Kampala (Uganda) for a Tripartite Plus Meeting supposedly aimed to ease tensions in the Region. It’s not the first time that the RPF uses this tactics.  In November 2004, when the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region was in its final stage, Kagame’s government was planning an invasion which eventually was launched with his forces taking control of DRC town of Kanyabayonga the very day the Arusha Declaration for Peace, Security and Development for the Great Lakes Region was signed.

Last week, Paul Kagame made public statements in favor of Nkundabatware’s military adventurism depicting his motives as “legitimate”. In the same vein, his Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Muligande told to Radio Okapi that the government he works for was committed to DRC efforts to create integrated and republican armed forces but at the same time he added that Nkundabatware’s claims were legitimate, a clear confirmation that his boss is planning a new open war against the DRC.

The RPF so-called parliament discussed the issue last week in RDF public relations efforts to publicize the planned attack. Last week, the RPF daily “The New Times” quoted RPF satellites MPs saying that “definitely, if diplomacy fails Rwanda should automatically go back to Congo”, openly supporting a third open invasion of the DRC in less than eleven years while everybody knows that Kigali militarists are already back to DR Congo using proxies like Mutebutsi and Nkundabatware in 2004 and now again Nkundabatware’s CNDP in North-Kivu and Maj. Bisogo in Minembwe (South-Kivu).

The RPF government should immediately stop such plans and abandon its supremacist and expansionist ideology. MONUC troops deployed in Eastern DRC, namely in North-Kivu and South-Kivu, should be on maximum alert to face the planned invasion. The UDF-Inkingi recommends that the UN Security Council as well as the AU Peace and Security Department use their powers to prevent the planned attack on Goma. If such an attack occurs, it will worsen the humanitarian crisis already created by RDF covert actions in North-Kivu province which harbors at least 745.000 IDPs, so far.

The UDF-Inkingi recalls that Gen Kabarebe is one of nine military aides to President Kagame targeted by an international warrant delivered by France for they role in the shooting down of Rwandan presidential jet, a terrorist attack which triggered the Rwandan genocide, on April 6 1994.

The UDF-Inkingi believes that continued efforts by Kagame’s administration to invade Rwanda’s neighbors put all Rwandans at high risk. The UDF-Inkingi states categorically that Rwandans are opposed to those plans and share the Congolese people’s desire to leave in peace inside their motherland’s boundaries.

Brussels, September 19, 2007
Dr Jean-Baptiste MBERABAHIZI
Secretary General

(Signed)