Rwanda loses British aid over ties to Congo rebels

Britain yesterday (Friday) cancelled 21 million pounds due to be paid to Rwanda's government, in response to President Paul Kagame's support for rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

After two decades as one of Rwanda's most generous foreign donors, Britain reversed its policy and withheld the next tranche of "general budgetary support", due by Dec 15.

Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, explained that "credible and compelling reports" showed that Rwanda was fuelling civil war in neighbouring Congo by arming the M23 insurgents, who captured the city of Goma last Tuesday. A UN investigation has documented Kagame's support for the guerrillas, who have forced at least 500,000 people to flee their homes in eight months of fighting.

Last week, in an interview with two men who served in the Rwandan army in eastern Congo, The Daily Telegraph showed how Kagame had deployed troops covertly to fight inside the country in alliance with M23.

Greening said that Rwanda's backing of M23 broke the "partnership principles" set out in a memorandum of understanding signed by Kagame's regime. This binds Rwanda to respect human rights and international obligations. Carina Tertsakian, from the African division at Human Rights Watch, welcomed Britain's decision.

"It's a really important decision in terms of UK policy towards Rwanda because, up until now, the UK Government has tended to downplay the gravity of human rights abuses inside Rwanda as well as its support for abusive groups in Congo," she said.

"With this decision, we hope the secretary of state is entering a new era where the UK Government is going to stand by its principles."

Greening has effectively abandoned the policy of her predecessor, Andrew Mitchell. When the UN first accused Kagame of arming rebels in Congo in July, Mitchell delayed a payment of 16 million pounds to Rwanda. He announced the release of this sum on his final day as international development secretary in September.
 
Mitchell claimed that Rwanda had stopped backing M23. In a letter to David Cameron on Aug 31, he wrote: "Reporting shows that practical support to the M23 has now ended."

The international development select committee released a critical report on Mitchell's decision yesterday. The MPs cleared him of acting as a "rogue minister", noting that the Prime Minister and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, had both approved of restoring funding for Rwanda. Yet the committee said: "We do not understand how he reached the conclusion that support for the M23 had ceased." Kagame had been close to successive British governments: in 2009, Gordon Brown helped Rwanda to join the Commonwealth - even though it has no history of British rule. The Rwandan president runs an efficient and largely non-corrupt administration which has lifted one million people out of poverty in the past decade.

The country has achieved a remarkable recovery from the genocide of 1994, which claimed some 800,000 lives. Britain became one of Rwanda's biggest donors to reward that success, and to expand its influence in Francophone Africa. But the evidence suggests that Kagame has consistently supported armed groups inside Congo since 1996. Future British aid to Rwanda will probably be distributed via charities.