RWANDAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON MEETING IN KINSHASA

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