President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has called for a prevention of foreign interference in regional dynamics and advised to scale up political will to ensure peace in the Great Lakes region.
The Ugandan leader made the remarks on Wednesday at the 12th Summit of the Regional Monitoring Mechanism of the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement. The Summit was hosted at State House in Entebbe, Uganda.
“Because we know what the problem is and that it can be solved, but we must show political will and foreigners should limit their involvement, because they are the ones who inadvertently embolden the mistake. Those who make these mistakes then think that we do not care about these internal groups. We do not care about the region. What matters is our support,” Museveni said.
Museveni blamed the conflicts in eastern DRC on identity politics, fueled by foreigners since the days of Mobutu Sese Seko and Juvénal Habyarimana.
“Mobutu’s army was defeated in Rwanda and, along with Habyarimana, they fled to Goma. We called Mobutu to disarm them. He wouldn’t listen because he believed that internal forces don’t matter. We, the neighbours, don’t count. What matters are the foreigners who support them. Why wasn’t Mobutu listening? We were there. We could have helped him,” said Museveni.
The high-level meeting chaired by President Museveni was attended by Heads of State and Government or representatives of the signatory countries of the PSC Framework Agreement, including Uganda, Angola, Burundi, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Rwanda.
South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Republic of Sudan were also represented at the summit.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Guarantor Institutions of the PSC Framework Agreement, namely the African Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the United Nations, as well as regional partners as observers.
Museveni officially assumed the chairmanship of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Addis Ababa Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes Region. He succeeds his Burundian counterpart, Evariste Ndayishimiye.
