?We take this opportunity to recall how the DRC Government and NDC leaders, when signing the Rome Agreement, envisioned the roadmap to peace in the Great Lakes Region:
- The DRC Government and NDC leaders had requested that a UN Special RepresentaJve for the Great Lakes Region be appointed.
- The role of the Special RepresentaJve for the Great Lakes Region, as provided in the Rome Agreement of 27 January 2009 between the Government of the DRC and NDC, was primarily to address the pervasive problem of Rwandan Refugees in the DRC and Congolese refugees in Rwanda and the grave human rights violaJons stemming from the humanitarian tragedy in the Great Lakes Region.
- From that perspecJve, the Special RepresentaJve would then:
- Facilitate contacts and mediate between the Rwandan Government and the leadership of NDC, so that they engage into genuine negoJaJons aimed at ex-? ploring the root causes of and acJonable soluJons to the crisis.
- Help the two interlocutors establishing and engaging on a roadmap for peace, security and development
- Oversee the implementaJon of any agreement between the Rwandan govern-? ment and the leadership of NDC.
- The NDC believes that the root cause of the problems in the region is the poliJcal situaJon in Rwanda, DemocraJc Republic of the Congo, and Uganda. That has also been and conJnues to be our posiJon. Hence we urge the United States Government leaders to conJnue exhorJng General Paul Kagame to take this posiJve path being offered by the Peace, Security and Coop-? eraJon Framework for the DRC and the Region, the recent appointment by the UN Secretary General of Special RepresentaJve, and President Jakaya Kikwete’s goodwill in order to solve, once for all, the problem of refugees and armed rebellions that has become a scourge on the Rwandan people and a heavy burden for Rwandan neighbors and the InternaJonal Community. As we noted in our statement of January 24, 2008 in Kinshasa and on July 31, 2008 in Kasiki, General Paul Kagame, as President of Rwanda, has the primary responsibility for the plight of the refugees and the human rights violaJons in the region.
Background on the missed opportuni3es
The NaJonal DemocraJc Congress (NDC) is the coaliJon of RUD and RPR. Some of the combat-? ants of the two organizaJons are based in Eastern DRC in order to protect Rwandan refugees against murderous abuses by the Rwandan army and its proxy miliJa and armed groups. We should emphasize that these abuses have been well documented in several reports by UN ex-? perts and by organizaJons for the defense of human rights, one of the thoroughly documented reports being the UN Mapping Report published in October 2011 and, most importantly in vari-? ous US State Department Annual Reports of Human Rights.
In a series of meeJngs with the UN Security Council and other insJtuJons the government of Rwanda has, of course, consistently evoked the virtual threat against Rwanda by Rwandan combatants based in eastern DRC, including those from
