* Pressure grows on donors to act on alleged role in Congo
* Rwanda denies interference, says aid cuts would be mistake
* UN Security Council seat will enhance diplomatic weight
By Mark John
PARIS, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Rwanda is brushing aside allegations it is
fomenting rebellion in neighbouring Congo, confident that foreign donors are
reluctant to abandon a country on its way to becoming a rare African success
story.
The gamble is a risky one for a state that relies on aid for 40 percent of
its budget, but Rwanda's newly-awarded seat on the United Nations Security
Council will boost its diplomatic clout and could further discourage any
moves to cut assistance.
"They've made the calculation that they won't be isolated or ostracised. And
if they lose some donor support, they can absorb that," said Mark Schroeder
of U.S.-based consultancy Stratfor, a long-time watcher of Africa's Great
Lakes region.
Pressure on donors to act grew this week after a leaked U.N. Group of
Experts' report accused Rwanda's defence minister of commanding a six-month
rebellion in the east of Congo, the strongest in a series of allegations
that Rwanda is involved.
Congo's eastern Kivu provinces are strategically vital to Rwanda. They are
home to an established community of Rwandan speakers and a lucrative trade
in coltan, tin, gold and other minerals just hours by road from the Rwandan
capital Kigali.
While Rwanda has backed armed movements in Congo during the past two
decades, citing a need to tackle Rwandan rebels operating out of Congo's
eastern hills, it firmly denies the latest allegations of interference.
Donors treat such denials with scepticism. The United States, the biggest
giver with grants of $173 million in 2010, has already frozen some aid along
with Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Union.
Yet while Western governments this week repeated concerns over a rebellion
that has already forced half a million people to flee their homes, none
contacted by Reuters after the leaked report have so far signalled moves to
further suspend aid.
COMBATIVE TWEETER
A defiant Rwanda has rejected the Experts' report as flawed and warned
donors that any step to pull aid would be a mistake.
President Paul Kagame hailed Thursday's award of a Security Council seat as
proof the former Belgian colony is on the right track, nearly two decades
after a 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Rwandans were killed by a Hutu-led
government and ethnic militias.
"No matter what haters say ... justice&truth will prevail!!!," Kagame posted
on his Twitter account. "Sometimes it just requires a bit of good fight for
all that...!!!"
Rwanda's gleaming highways, modern airport and efficient army - a reliable
contributor to U.N. peacekeeping in Africa - are a far cry from the chaos in
Congo and the decrepit infrastructure of many African states with less
tormented pasts.
Kagame's authoritarian style and allegations by human rights groups that
Rwandan military intelligence services have engaged in torture are a cause
of international discomfort.
But aid partners like the fact that Rwanda's strong governance means they
can see where their money is going. Total aid has more than trebled over the
past decade to around $900 million in 2010.
"Every pound that goes into Rwanda stands a better chance of being spent on
poverty reduction than it does anywhere else," Malcolm Bruce, head of
British parliament's International Development Committee, told Reuters.
"Perhaps there's also a residual guilt over the failure to act over the
Rwandan genocide," added Bruce, whose government is Rwanda's second largest
bilateral donor with disbursements of $78 million in 2010 and which, for
now, is maintaining aid.
The question now is how far the goodwill can stretch.
It will become harder for donors to justify business as usual if a U.N.
committee in coming weeks acts on the Group of Experts' findings and imposes
targeted sanctions against Rwandan Defence Minister James Kabarebe.
Belgium, the third largest bilateral donor, which disbursed 56 million euros
($73 million) last year, will review its position if the U.N. does impose
sanctions, or the European Union takes further steps on aid, a foreign
ministry spokesman said on Friday.
The European Commission said on Friday it was awaiting the decision of the
United Nations' sanctions committee. But it added it was "firmly committed"
to helping Rwanda tackle poverty and praised the government for progress
made so far.
FINANCIAL AUTONOMY
The U.S. State Department said it would not comment until the Experts'
report was made officially public, while France - which channels some 43
million euros of aid to Rwanda through the EU and other agencies - said it
had no plans to suspend it.
A spokeswoman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said authorities
would study the issue before any new decisions on aid fall due in December.
Diplomats acknowledge that Rwanda's U.N. Security Council seat may make
donors even more reluctant to pull aid. Typically, such countries are
courted for their votes on divisive issues such as last year's
Western-backed intervention in Libya.
Thierry Vircoulon of the International Crisis Group think-tank suggested
that any future moves would be at most partial.
"They could cut general budget support to avoid providing military
assistance but would continue support for education, health and
agriculture," he said.
That might be a risk Rwanda is prepared to run, given the importance of the
east of Congo.
Past U.N. reports have cited lucrative smuggling rackets of minerals ferried
across to Rwanda. At the height of Congo's last war in 1999, profits from
eastern Congo's mineral fields added some $320 million to Rwanda's defence
budget, U.N. experts said.
Wealthy Rwandans are being encouraged to donate 10 percent of their salaries
into the newly-launched Agaciro Development Fund, whose website says it was
created to "improve the level of financial autonomy of Rwanda as a nation".
While such contributions are voluntary, the social pressure to take part is
strong. At a recent fund-raiser in the capital, young professionals were
lining up to hand over a cheque and have their photo taken with Kagame. ($1
= 0.7674 euros) (Additional reporting by Jenny Clover in Kigali, Peter
Schwartzstein in London, Jonny Hogg in Kinshasa, Philip Blenkinsop and
Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, John Irish in Paris, Louis Charbonneau at the
United Nations and Andrew Quinn in Washington; editing by Andrew Roche)
Uganda may stop mediating in Congo over U.N. accusations
Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:05pm GMT
* Uganda spearheading regional effort to end conflict
* Uganda accused with Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels
* U.N. Council intends to impose sanctions on M23 and others
By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Uganda said on Monday it would stop mediating in
the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 rebels if the
U.N. Security Council endorsed accusations that Uganda was supporting the
rebels.
A report by a U.N. panel of experts leaked to Reuters last week accused
Uganda and Rwanda of providing support to M23, whose insurgency has
displaced half a million people in North Kivu province, which borders both
countries.
The report, written for the U.N. Security Council's Congo sanctions
committee, said Uganda had allowed M23's political branch to operate from
Kampala in addition to providing M23 with troops, weapons, technical help,
political advice and facilitation of external relations.
"We have contacted the U.N. via our diplomats in New York because we want to
know whether what the media wrote about is true," junior foreign minister
Asuman Kiyingi told Reuters.
"If the U.N. confirms its experts wrote these outrageous falsehoods, then
we'll withdraw from our mediation role in the conflict between Congo and the
M23 rebels."
Kiyingi said the allegations were already undermining the perception of
Uganda as a neutral mediator.
Analysts say Uganda and Rwanda have maintained extensive commercial and
military networks in Congo's mineral-rich east since the two countries sent
troops into Congo twice in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Ugandan government has already denied that it supports M23, calling the
allegations "rubbish, rubbish, rubbish".
Congo has demand sanctions on Ugandan and Rwandese officials funnelling
support to M23. The U.N. Security Council on Friday adopted a statement
expressing an intention to impose sanctions on M23's leaders and those who
violate a U.N. arms embargo on Congo.
Uganda has been spearheading faltering efforts by a regional body, the
International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), to put together
a 4,000-strong force to neutralise M23 and police the border between Congo
and Rwanda.
M23 said this month that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was trying to
engage it in direct talks with Congo, although Congo denied it and said it
had not dropped its refusal to negotiate with the insurgents.
Kiyingi said Uganda would stop its mediation role even if the United Nations
did not endorse the accusations but still imposed sanctions on M23 leaders.
"We cannot try to bring two parties to the table to talk when one is under
sanctions and the other is not," he said. (Editing by Kevin Liffey)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Mon Oct 22 2012 - 13:54:36 EDT
