We’ll fight Rwanda rebels, declares JK

President Jakaya Kikwete talks to heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations during a New Year Sherry Party he hosted on Friday. PHOTO | STATE HOUSE 

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania will fully support a military offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to ensure peace in the region, according to President Jakaya Kikwete.

He gave the assurance when addressing diplomats at a party at State House on Friday evening and added: “We have always been supportive and will continue to support these efforts to ensure the Eastern DRC is free of armed groups that threaten the security of the people of Congo and Congo’s neighbours. Any misrepresentation of Tanzania’s position is done by people who pretend to read Tanzania’s mind and make their thinking the truth. This is preposterous and contemptible.  It is done by people who have ill intentions against our country.”

The statement comes at a time when United Nations peacekeepers are preparing a military offensive against FDLR, an ethnic Hutu group, some of whose members took part in atrocities in the 1994 Rwanda genocide before crossing into DR Congo after they ignored a January 2 deadline to surrender. Tanzanian troops are part of the UN force.

Jointly with the UN force in DRC in 2013, Tanzania helped defeat the ethnic Tutsi M23 rebel force which, according to the UN, was backed by both Rwanda and Uganda--claims both countries have strongly denied.

Tanzania also contributed over 3,000 troops to the UN peace-keeping mission in the DRC, Darfur and Lebanon. It is the sixth contributor of military and police peacekeepers in Africa and twelfth globally.  “In making this noble contribution, we are advancing both our foreign policy objective and upholding the ideals of the United Nations,” the President said. “I promise continued contribution to UN peace keeping efforts whenever requested to do so.” 

According to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Bernard Membe, Tanzania is concerned about the future of the disarmed FDLR members. “There is information that they will settle in Kisangani,” he said. “But we should monitor where they go so that we can be sure of what they are doing.”

Commenting on the same issue on BBC Swahili Dira ya Dunia programme last week, social and political commentator Jenerali Ulimwengu accused the UN and countries involved in the conflict of lack of commitment to end the FDLR problem in eastern DRC. Had they been committed to dealing with M23, he added, the problem would have been resolved long ago.

Speaking in Dar e Salaam last week with The Citizen, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr John Haule, said Tanzania’s position in dealing with FDLR rebels will be in line with what Southern Africa Development Co-operation (SADC) countries decide.

“Let’s be patient,” he said. “I believe a meeting of SADC and Great Lakes members in collaboration with the UN will be convened to chart a way forward.”  

The UN Security Council was recently reported reiterating that there should be “no further delay” in the voluntary disarmament of the group. The 15-member body said in a presidential statement that there should be no delay beyond the January 2, 2015, deadline set by the region for the disarmament process and urged military action against FDLR fighters who did not engage in the process.

Last Tuesday, the US urged its partners in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to make good their promise to launch attacks on the rebel group beginning January 2. Military action should take place against the mainly Rwandan armed group, declared Russell Feingold, the US special envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa and the DRC.

In another development, President Kikwete told the diplomats that Tanzania would like to see to it that the unfinished business of Millenium Development Goals forms part of the post-2015 development agenda.

This year is special as far as the global development agenda is concerned, he explained, because it is when the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals comes to a close and the negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda will be concluded.

“For effective implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, Tanzania emphasises a clear mechanism to ensure stable, predictable and reliable sources of financing,” President Kikwete said. “We promise to play our part well in the negotiations on the Post-2015 development agenda.”

Reported by Mkinga Mkinga and Bernard Lugongo