Rwanda fends off DRC accusations

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said accusations that his government was backing militancy in neighboring DRC were off the mark. March 23 Movement members in seized eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo last year. Rwanda and Uganda are suspected of backing some DRC rebels as a way to fight Hutu rebels who fled in the wake of the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi minority population. Kagame, a Tutsi, told the BBC allegations of support for DRC rebels like M23 were misguided. "Why would anyone blame Rwanda for a problem that has been there for the last 19 years?" he said. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution recently that authorizes a so-called intervention brigade in DRC. It has a mandate to conduct offensive operations to ensure DRC stability. Kagame said many of the problems in DRC aren't ones that have a military solution, however. "If you look at the problems relating to the situation on Congo, they are mainly political, they are not military," he said.