By James Munyaneza
THE NEW TIMES

Rwanda has legitimacy to defend itself against any threat from the ex-FAR and Interahamwe militias, (now jointly called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), the US Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick has said.

“It’s important for the world to recognize this. Rwanda went through the (1994) Genocide and nobody helped, and so the people of Rwanda are understandably sensitive to their security, and I understand why they are sensitive to their security. Some of these forces in the (DR) Congo remain dangerous people,” Zoellick, who was in the country last week told a news conference at Hotel Intercontinental.

The forces crossed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the genocidal regime fell to the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA)-now Rwanda Defence Forces-and they have since been the centre of over a decade of bad blood between Kigali and Kinshasa, and the Rwandan government last December almost deployed troops for the third time to the vast DRC to flush out the insurgents, who carried out about 14 attacks on the country last year alone.

The problem eased early this year when the African Union agreed to dispatch a force to enforce the disarmament and return of the militias, but the move was arguably distracted when the FDLR announced in March that it would lay down arms and repatriate voluntarily.