2008-12-18/Sweden stops aid to Rwanda after UN report on Congo conflict
By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 18th December 2008
Sweden stops paying budget support to Rwanda after a UN report showed that Rwanda has aided rebel groups - including helping general Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP logistically, materially and militarily - in eastern Congo.
Sweden has stopped the payment of budget support to Rwanda after a UN report concluded that Rwanda has aided rebel groups in eastern Congo, where there is an armed conflict.
“Sweden is taking the UN report very seriously and has stopped the payment of budget support to Rwanda,” said Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation.
The UN Sanctions Committee has published the report of an independent group of experts stating that Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are providing support for various rebel groups in the conflict in eastern Congo. The UN report indicates that the Rwandan authorities have been complicit in the recruitment of soldiers, have facilitated the supply of military equipment and have sent officers and units from Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in support of the Congres national pour la defense du peuple (CNDP).
In the light of the report Sweden will not now pay budget support of SKr 80 million (about US$ 10.2 million) to Rwanda.
Sweden, which expects constructive action from both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda in the light of the report, will follow closely the report’s progress in the UN.
“I will continue to seek a constructive dialogue with Rwanda to discuss what we can do together to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Congo,” Carlsson added. “While I am concerned about the report, I am mindful of Sweden’s long-standing relations with Rwanda.”
At present, Sweden’s aid to Rwanda amounts to about SKr 140 million per year. About half of this is budget support, while the rest focuses on a number of areas including support for human rights, democratic governance and research cooperation and support for the development of the national police force.
The Dutch government has also frozen aid to Rwanda’s government, according to Diakonia, a Swedish Christian development organisation working together with local partners for a sustainable change for the most vulnerable people of the world.
“We receive new, frightening reports all the time about the situation from our local partners and this information from the UN’s special group is so serious that we cannot support Rwanda’s government further without them ending their support to the rebels or explaining the new information,” said Diakonia’s secretary-general, Bo Forsberg.
The brutal conflict that threatens to smash the Democratic Republic of Congo costs over 1,000 civilian lives every day, Diakonia said. Rape and pillage are used as weapons to persecute and terrorise the civilian population, while soldiers from the world’s largest UN force are powerless to protect civilians.
The latest information also indicates that soldiers in DR Congo’s army are also guilty of outrageous acts, yet the main accusations are directed at the rebels.
Since the conflict started Rwanda has been accused of supporting the CNDP forces, which the UN’s expert group has now documented, Diakonia added.
The expert group has also learned that a number of mineral-exporting companies, transport companies and fuel businesses could be acting as fronts for CNDP interests.
Through a ‘pool’ system, a sophisticated financial network of Congolese and Rwandans in the diaspora helps fund the CNDP, whose leaders also gather hundreds of thousands of dollars in administrative taxes in the area they control, the UN report states.