Rwanda protests ICGLR’s bid to broker peace deal with Burundi

Demonstrators face off against police officers during a protest against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid. PHOTO | FILE |  AFP

By TREVOR ANALO

In Summary

• Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Georges Chikoti, who chairs the ICGLR Council of Ministers, told reporters that Burundi blamed Rwanda for supporting insurgency on its territory.

An offer by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to mediate dispute between Rwanda and Burundi has been rebuffed by authorities in Kigali.

The ICGLR overture came last week during a meeting of regional foreign affairs ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where a decision was reached to send a fact-finding mission to defuse tension between the two countries.

Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Georges Chikoti, who chairs the ICGLR Council of Ministers, told reporters that Burundi blamed Rwanda for supporting insurgency on its territory, violating the region’s mutual security and defence agreements on non-aggression.

Tension between the two countries has been building up over the past few months. Bujumbura has accused Kigali of backing opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza and providing refuge to the generals who attempted to overthrow his regime.

The diplomatic spat was exacerbated in early September when Burundi filed an official complaint with the ICGLR accusing Rwanda of acts of aggression against its territory.

According to the complaint, Kigali has been using ex-combatants from the DRC to destabilise its southern neighbour. Rwanda has denied this accusation and in turn accused Bujumbura of backing FDLR rebels, who have among their ranks, are people suspected of carrying out the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

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A communiqué signed by the executive secretary of ICGLR, Prof Ntumba Luaba, in New York, said a mission will be sent to Rwanda to verify claims that it is using ex-combatants, presumable former M23 fighters, from the DRC to destabilise Burundi.

ICGLR “urged the government of Rwanda to facilitate the deployment of the Expanded Joint Verification Mission on its territory in order to verify the claims made by the government of Burundi,” reads the communiqué seen by The EastAfrican.

Two days after the meeting of ICGLR foreign ministers, Rwanda flatly rejected the decision, saying that that was not what ministers had greed on in their New York meeting.

According to the protest note seen by The EastAfrican, Rwanda asked Prof Luaba, to “refrain from the bad habit of taking unilateral decisions in disregard of member states.”

Rwanda said it cannot be party to a decision made without its participation, adding that the meeting, attended by all members of ICGLR except the Central African Republic — whose president flew home early over rumours of a coup attempt — only decided on circulating the draft communiqué for comments.

“During the said ministerial conference, it was agreed that a draft communique would be circulated for consideration and comment before its approval,” Rwanda said in a protest note copied to Angola, the current chair of ICGLR, and all member states of the ICGLR.

“On September 26, when member states (at least Rwanda) were awaiting a draft communique for comment, the ICGLR Secretariat circulated a ‘final communiqué.’”