Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07KIGALI793
2007-09-07 11:09:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kigali
Cable title:  

RWANDAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON MEETING IN KINSHASA

Tags:  PREL PGOV PHUM RW 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #0793 2501109
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 071109Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4604
INFO RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0132
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 0947
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1699
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0274
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0096
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0976
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0313
C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000793 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM RW
SUBJECT: RWANDAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON MEETING IN KINSHASA

REF: A. KIGALI 792

B. KIGALI 769

C. KINSHASA 962

Classified By: Ambassador Michael R. Arietti, reason 1.4 (B/D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000793

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM RW
SUBJECT: RWANDAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON MEETING IN KINSHASA

REF: A. KIGALI 792

B. KIGALI 769

C. KINSHASA 962

Classified By: Ambassador Michael R. Arietti, reason 1.4 (B/D)


1. (SBU) On September 7 Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles
Murigande briefed the local diplomatic corps on his recent
visit to Kinshasa to discuss events in the Kivus with his
Congolese counterpart. Murigande expressed satisfaction with
the several joint mechanisms announced in the communique
issued by the two ministers on September 3, including the
Joint Verification Teams, the Borders Review Commission, and
the Commission charged with reviewing the return of refugees
from Rwanda to the DRC. He noted that in his separate
meeting with President Kabila, Kabila had pledged his
personal support for those joint bodies. He indicated that
Rwandan officers stood by in Gisenyi and Cyangugu to meet
with their Congolese counterparts for the Joint Verification
Teams when those officers were identified.


2. (SBU) Murigande said he had offered Rwandan mediation
between renegade general Nkunda and the GODRC, as Rwanda had
done at Congolese request last January. He said he had
strongly urged a political solution regarding Nkunda, rather
than a military campaign against him, given the strong
possibility of a strengthened FDLR and a local population
subject to various depredations, should the military campaign
continue. He said that the Rwandan government did not assist
Nkunda in any way, and Rwanda understood that the Congolese
government had a sovereign right to deal with negative forces
of any variety found on its territory. In a later
interjection, local MONUC head Joseph Felli said that a
cease-fire agreed upon between the FARDC and Nkunda was
holding, and that MONUC was rushing reinforcements to Goma to
help police the cease-fire.


3. (SBU) During a question and answer session, Murigande
said that the Rwandan government looked forward to upcoming
Tripartite-Plus meetings in Kampala, including the
opportunity to review the recommendations of the recent CHODS
meeting in Kigali (ref B) and the earlier legal experts
meeting in Goma (ref C). He said that no discussions had
occurred in Kinshasa regarding resumption of diplomatic
relations, as the governments needed to "prepare their
populations."


4. (C) Comment. Murigande put a positive public face on
his meeting with the Congolese Foreign Minister, more
optimistic than Ambassador Sezibera's readout for us on
September 6 (ref A). However, the Rwandans do genuinely
believe that the Joint Verification Teams and other
mechanisms agreed upon in Kinshasa can be useful bodies (as
the Verification Teams had been in the past) to monitor
crisis spots and to deal with the many rumors that circulate
in the Kivus. Whatever the differences of approach, the two
sides appear to be reaching out to each other, and searching
for common means of bringing peace to the Kivus. End
comment.
ARIETTI