EU envoy defends Uganda on genocide

Over 200 international war and genocide experts met in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali at a conference on the theme: Genocide convention under siege? The case studies of the UN mapping report on the DRC and Darfur. This followed UN mapping report that leaked to the media in October accusing Rwanda and Uganda armies along with countries like Burundi, Angola and Zimbabwe of masterminding the genocide in DR Congo and looting minerals between 1999 and 2003. Sunday Monitor’s Stephen Wandera talked to the former European Union special envoy, in the Great Lakes Region, Mr Aldo Ajello, on various issues affecting security in the region.

You have served as the EU envoy in the region for over a decade even at the peak of genocide in Rwanda that saw about one million people killed in cold blood. Can history repeat itself in Rwanda and in DR Congo due the fact that UN peacekeeping troops are withdrawing from the war-ravaged eastern DRC?

We know very well that this area is a hub of several rebel groups including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

But I do not see any risk of genocide. In fact DR Congo has another problem of crimes against humanity because of big tensions that still exist in the eastern side of the country that have not been sorted out up to now.

Then you have a problem of the security. That government [DR Congo] should give priority of reforming the army, police and judiciary. But unfortunately there is strong resistance and up to now they have not been able to start serious programmes of reform.

So long as the army is not well trained and paid, they tend to harsh the civilian population. Women are raped and other sorts of harassment because the DR Congo army cannot prevent such atrocities committed by rebel groups like Maimai, Armed Forces of Rwanda (EX FAR/Interahamwe). Sometimes it’s the government troops that commit such crimes.

Some Rwandan delegates at the conference including the Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama have accused UN of betraying Rwanda twice. First, by withdrawing its troop during the 1994 genocide and now the report alleges that the Rwandan army committed genocide in DR Congo from 1993 to 2003. They say the word genocide is being abused, what is your take on this?

Yes it’s true to analyse that way, because genocide is a very bad thing. Genocide is a very serious crime and you cannot make it a panel concept. You cannot just talk about genocide like that. It implies an ill will to destroy entirely or partially an ethnic group, national group or leaders’ group. This should not be abused and I am disappointed with this report that does not name victims. It’s wanting and flawed.

Is there some substantial evidence in the report that can be used to pin some army officers in the region or even for them to be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC)?
Well, we cannot deny that military operations conducted in eastern Congo could not produce collateral damage where innocent people or a larger numbers of soldiers would be killed. This is regrettable and may be serious investigation should be done about that but not about an imaginary crime of genocide.

One thing that should be considered when you look at these things is that crimes are committed in the context of war.
It was the will of the former regime of Rwanda to start another war and attack the new government. We are talking about people who committed the most horrible atrocities of the century after the one of the Jewish - People who used civilians as human shields during war.

Military were mixed with refugees in camps then you have a fight that could cause collateral damage, is not something that is justifiable as genocide but is understandable.

Heads of state from the great lakes region are expected to meet in Lusaka Zambia this month to discuss the alleged plundering of DR Congo minerals and timber. Do you think these leaders are clean?
The exploitation of Congo is a real thing. Many countries have been involved in this including Congo itself, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and to a less extent Angola.

What is the way forward and how can Heads of state handle this illegal business in DR Congo?
What should be done is to transform this illegal exploitation into a legal exploitation. You know Congo is a very rich country, they have almost everything and they are surrounded by countries that have nothing or very little.
Without giving gifts to anybody, the idea of exploitation by joint ventures legally organised and paying regular taxes is the best way to solve the problem and to get out of the question of illegal exploitation.
We have been working on regional cooperation for stability and development of the great lakes region with an office in Bujumbura looking at that with Ambassador Liberata Mulamula. There are many instruments that can be used in the next meeting in Lusaka Zambia.

Some scholars have argued that DR Congo is too big and should be divided for better rule of law and order. Do you think this can bring sanity in a country widely blessed with precious minerals like diamond and gold?
No, DR Congo should not be divided. The only thing you can do is decentralisation in the public administration. That should be done and I think it is being done.
There was a long discussion of creating a federal state, to consider that the state should be divided into provinces and regions and then have a federal government at the central level.
We have not been supportive of this idea because it would create an idea of secession that could instigate war. So the idea of decentralisation has been retained.

What could be the effect of polls in Southern Sudan? Are we seeing the end of Uganda rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that were pushed to the Central African Republic by Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF)?
I have been out of touch with Sudan for a long time and I have not been able to follow the developments. I am not sure of what is happening over there.