DR Congo call for UN to recognise ‘genocide’ is ‘stupid’: Rwanda

M23 rebels stand with their weapons in Kibumba, in the eastern of Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Rwanda on Wednesday dismissed as “stupid” a campaign by the Democratic Republic of Congo for the United Nations to recognise a “genocide” against its people in the country’s east.

Earlier this year, the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group swept through eastern DRC, seizing vast swathes of the mineral-rich territory that has been plagued by deadly violence for more than three decades.

The offensive saw M23 fighters capture key cities, killing and displacing thousands, which the UN labelled a humanitarian crisis.

Kigali denies it provides the M23 with military backing, though its support has been widely documented by UN experts and international rights groups.

Rwanda argues that it faces an existential threat from the presence in the Congolese east of rebel groups founded by Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

On Tuesday, the DRC’s human rights minister Samuel Mbemba told reporters during a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva that the country had launched a campaign for “the world to break its silence”, urging recognition of “genocide”.

Rwanda -- where around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the 1994 genocide -- labelled the campaign a “stupid proposition”.

“Genocide against who? Non-Tutsi ethnicities? All of them? Targeted to be destroyed, as such?” Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said in a statement to AFP.

A UN report released last week said that all sides in the latest violence in eastern DRC had committed gross rights violations in the region.

It also found “reasonable grounds” to believe that M23 fighters had committed crimes against humanity.

Speaking at the UN session, Rwanda’s permanent representative to the UN Urujeni Bakuramutsa called the DRC’s accusation “baseless”.

“Rigorous evidence is non-negotiable. Any breach of that standard will be challenged every single time,” Bakuramutsa said.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has also urged lawmakers to declare the violence a “genocide,” saying it met the criteria established in the 1948 Convention.

Clashes have continued despite a June peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda, in addition to a separate “permanent ceasefire” agreed in July by the Congolese government and M23.