Paying price. The US accuses the Eastern African country of using child soldiers in armed conflicts in the mineral-rich DR Congo.

Kigali

President Paul Kagame has castigated the United States for freezing military assistance to Rwanda over the country’s alleged use of child soldiers in armed conflicts in DR Congo but warned such moves will never crash Kigali’s decisiveness.

Responding to the US action for the first time, President Kagame said Rwanda’s spirit has ever tested challenges but it has always remained resolute. “Rwanda’s spirit has lived under rain, sun— the spirit gets cold due to rain but it can’t melt. Rwanda is not an ordinary country,” Mr Kagame told Parliament in Kigali on Friday. He was presiding over the swearing-in of 80 new Lower Chamber Members of Parliament at the Parliamentary Building in Kimihurura. On Thursday, the United States announced it had withdrawn military support to Rwanda and other five countries, including two in Africa, over their use of child soldiers in armed conflicts.

Sanctions
The sanctions also affect other countries that include Central African Republic, Sudan, Myanmar and Syria, according to the US State Department. Rwanda has repeatedly denied any involvement with Congo’s M23 rebel group, whose clashes with the Kinshasa government army have forced more than 470,000 people to flee their homes. Mr Kagame said the repetition of false accusations without evidence against Kigali will never make them true.

In the past, Kagame said Rwandans were literally killed. “It happened once and it will never happen again,” he said. Mr Kagame said despite Rwanda’s efforts to perform beyond expectations, what the country is getting in return is condemnation and being wrongly adjudged by outsiders. He said his government knows what is good for Rwandans.
President Kagame lamented that Rwanda uses external aid properly while some countries waste it and nothing is said about them. “[But] If it’s done by Kigali, then it becomes hell. We are sending our children to school. We don’t have children to send to DRC,” the President charged.

Army speaks
The Rwanda army leadership also condemned the move, describing it as shocking and surprising. The army said Rwanda cannot be liable for matters that are neither on her territory nor in her practice. “As a long-term partner of the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), the United States has ample evidence that our forces have never tolerated the use of children in combat. Rwanda’s commitment to a sustainable solution that seeks to bring an end to the DRC conflict and its consequences remains unchanged,” Rwandan army spokesperson Brigadier General Joseph Nzabamwita said.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington issued the sanctions under the 2008 Child Soldiers Protection Act in sanctioning Rwanda. “We will continue to have discussions with the Rwandan government on that issue,” Greenfield said in a statement. The measures terminating financial and military assistance to Rwanda are in the fiscal year 2014, which began on October 1.

The US said it will, however, continue to support Rwanda’s peacekeeping training that is not restricted by the Child Soldiers Protection Act. In 2012, donors cut aid to Rwanda following a series of reports by human rights bodies and UN observers implicating Rwanda in supporting M23 rebels. At the time, Rwanda said blaming Kigali for the conflict in DRC may suit short term political ends but would hinder understanding of the conflict and put an effective and lasting solution out of reach.

Source: monitor.co.ug