Crisis Used By DR Congo Leader To Postpone Elections – Kagame

The president of Rwanda has charged that the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is trying to “find a method to have the next elections postponed” by linking Rwanda to the problem there.

The Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi was accused by President Paul Kagame of fomenting “grounds for an emergency so that [next year’s] elections don’t take place.”

Kinshasa hasn’t yet responded to President Kagame’s comments, in which he claimed that the president of the Congo didn’t win “the first elections” without providing any supporting evidence.

Mr. Kagame said it was a “sad” that so many parties and nations “claim to want to tackle the problem” that has persisted for decades in a lengthy, unusual speech delivered in parliament on Wednesday.

Powerful nations, including the US, UK, France, and the UN, were forewarned against blaming or holding Rwanda responsible for the unrest in eastern Congo. He charged UN forces with failing to exterminate the FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group, and other groups operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He also refuted allegations that Congo-DR was being defrauded of resources by Rwanda.

One thing we are not, he declared, is thieves.

They claim that we stole the minerals from the Congo; what about the location, he wondered.

The M23 rebels, according to Mr. Kagame, are Congolese rather than Rwandans, and the Kinshasa government is to blame for their uprising for breaking prior agreements with the group.

He claimed that because Rwanda is interested in a stable neighborhood, it may assist in addressing the issue of M23 and other rebel organizations.