On Thursday 13 February, the plenary session of the European Parliament adopted – by 443 votes to 4 with 48 abstentions – a resolution calling on the EU to sanction Rwanda for its involvement in the offensive by the armed group M23 in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Four non-attached MEPs and EPP members opposed the text, which calls on the European Commission and Member States to immediately suspend the EU-Rwanda Memorandum of Understanding.
The European Parliament is calling for a freeze on “direct budget support for Rwanda until it allows for humanitarian access to the crisis area and breaks all links with ‘M23’”.
The amendment suggesting the introduction of a trade embargo on all minerals from Rwanda (see EUROPE 13578/21) was rejected, as were the three amendments tabled by Thierry Mariani (Pfe). One of the French MEP’s proposals was to temporarily restrict the issue of European visas to Rwandan officials and diplomats.
Through representatives in Strasbourg, Kigali retaliates. On Thursday morning, Hilde Vautmans (Renew Europe, Belgian) called an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament’s Africa-EU delegation for a dialogue with four African ambassadors about the risk of the conflict spreading to the region.
The Rwandan ambassador to Germany, Igor Cesar, who attended the event, gave assurances to those present that his country was not behind the crisis. “(...) Nor are we responsible for solving it alone”, he added.
“The real perpetrators are well documented, and yet the scrutiny always falls on Rwanda. (...) acknowledging the truth would require real accountability from those who prefer to shift blame rather than fix a broken mining system”, argued the diplomat, who denounced the atrocities committed by Congolese security forces.
“Rwanda has no expansionist agenda”, he stressed.
When questioned about the presence of Rwandan troops on DRC territory, Mr Cesar presented his country as a model of stability, which he attributed to its ability to preemptively neutralise hostile armed groups that operate in Kivu.
“In most cases, we have been able to deal with these threats jointly with the DRC government”, he replied, saying that Kinshasa’s alleged support for certain militias, such as the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda had prompted Rwanda to step up its defence “along our border area”.
Last July, the UN estimated that 3,000–4,000 Rwandan soldiers were deployed in the east of the DRC. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)