Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Olivier Nduhungirehe has said Rwanda has absolutely no intention of attacking Burundi because it has nothing to gain from doing so. Instead, he called on Burundian authorities to stop making provocative statements and end their cooperation with the FDLR, an armed group with hostile intentions towards Rwanda.
The minister said statements casting a shadow over relations between the two countries have been coming from Burundi and have been made by senior officials, including President Évariste Ndayishimiye and Foreign Affairs Minister Édouard Bizimana.
Nduhungirehe said he did not understand the basis of their claims that Rwanda was planning to attack Burundi, maintaining that such a plan had never existed.
“They are simply talking for the sake of it because they know it is not true. Why would Rwanda attack Burundi? What would Rwanda want from it?” he asked.
Nduhungirehe said the issue continuing to undermine relations between Rwanda and Burundi was already well known, adding that its origins lay in Burundi’s decision to cooperate with Rwanda’s enemies.
“The problem is well known: Burundian troops went to Congo to join forces with the Congolese army and the FDLR, whose intentions we know. The FDLR is a genocidal militia,” he said.“When you cooperate with a genocidal militia and deploy as far as North Kivu, that becomes a problem. Burundi claims that it sent its troops to protect its security and territorial integrity against RED-Tabara, yet those troops also went to North Kivu, which does not share a border with Burundi.”
Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye has also continued to maintain close cooperation with his Congolese counterpart, Félix Tshisekedi. The two leaders have, on several occasions, spoken of attacking Rwanda and removing its current government. They recently met again in Kinshasa.
Burundian troops have also continued to mistreat Congolese Tutsis living in Minembwe, actions that Rwanda has repeatedly condemned.
“That is where the problem lies. We held talks last year, in March, after the capture of Uvira, and agreed on how to de-escalate the mounting tensions between the two countries,” Nduhungirehe said.“But shortly afterwards, we heard President Ndayishimiye speaking to the BBC and France 24 and accusing Rwanda of planning to attack Burundi.”
President Ndayishimiye Reignited Tensions
Nduhungirehe said that following President Ndayishimiye’s statements, Rwanda asked the authorities in Gitega why he had made such claims when a dialogue process between the two countries had already begun.
“They suspended the talks. We later met again after the capture of Uvira, twice, I believe, with security and intelligence officials at the border on December 14 and 28,” he said.
“But after those meetings, President Ndayishimiye again made the same hostile statements against Rwanda.”
The Foreign Affairs Minister said these developments demonstrated that the Burundian authorities lacked the willingness to restore good relations with Rwanda.
President Ndayishimiye also recently claimed that Rwanda had agreed to hand over Burundian refugees suspected of involvement in the failed attempt to overthrow the government in 2015. Rwanda immediately rejected the claim.
Nduhungirehe said the statement surprised Rwanda because no such agreement had been reached during the recent talks.“We have not discussed that recently. President Ndayishimiye said we discussed it five months ago, but that issue was not discussed at all during those talks, and we never made such a commitment,” he said.“It was discussed three years ago, when we also asked Burundi to take certain steps that were supposed to be implemented, but they were not.”
Nduhungirehe said that although Rwanda had endured Burundi’s provocative statements for some time, the Burundian authorities should recognise the need to end their cooperation with the FDLR.He said doing so would provide a constructive path towards restoring relations between the two neighbouring countries.
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