Rwanda: On the Failure of the FDLR to Disarm
African Rights has today (19 October) sent a letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council, Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc, to welcome and support the Security Council's statement of 4 October 2005 which deplored the failure of the Forces démocratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) to disarm and repatriate their members peacefully back to Rwanda. On 31 March 2005, the FDLR, composed of Rwandese rebels based in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), declared its intention to demobilize and return its troops voluntarily to Rwanda, following negotiations facilitated by the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome. A deadline of 30 September 2005 was set by the Joint Tripartite Plus Commission comprising the DRC, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, with the African Union, the United Nations and the European Union as observers, and the United States as facilitator.
For Immediate Release, 19 October 2005
For further information, contact Rakiya Omaar, Kigali: (office) (00 250) 501007
African Rights has today sent a letter to the President of the United
Nations Security Council, Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc, to welcome and
support the Security Council's statement of 4 October 2005 which
deplored the failure of the Forces démocratiques pour la liberation du
Rwanda (FDLR) to disarm and repatriate their members peacefully back
to Rwanda. On 31 March 2005, the FDLR, composed of Rwandese rebels
based in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
declared its intention to demobilize and return its troops voluntarily
to Rwanda, following negotiations facilitated by the Sant'Egidio
Community in Rome. A deadline of 30 September 2005 was set by the
Joint Tripartite Plus Commission comprising the DRC, Uganda, Rwanda
and Burundi, with the African Union, the United Nations and the
European Union as observers, and the United States as facilitator.
In a 16-page letter, African Rights highlights the threat which the
FDLR, which includes key genocide suspects within its senior military
ranks and among its civilian supporters, poses to security, peace,
development and co-operation in the Great Lakes region. It described
their untroubled lives in eastern DRC, 11 years after the 1994
genocide in Rwanda, "as an insult to the victims of the genocide and
to the world community, a source of anguish and fear to the survivors
of that genocide and a reminder to those working for justice in Rwanda
and in the DRC of the responsibilities that lie ahead."
The letter provides detailed information, drawn from African Rights'
research, on 8 leading perpetrators of the genocide in eastern DRC,
including three senior officers of the FDLR.
On 20-21 October, the Joint Tripartite Plus Commission will meet in
Kampala. African Rights' letter urges the Commission to begin
implementing the sanctions they had previously agreed upon in the
event that the FDLR did not disarm voluntarily by 30 September. The
letter also contains a range of recommendations addressed to the
Security Council, the African Union, the United States Government and
the European Union.
African Rights, Bureau Rwanda
B.P 3836
Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: 250 501007
Fax: 250 501008
Email: [email protected]