UK foreign minister criticised for silence over Rwandan rebels behind massacre

The UK has been accused of refusing to name and shame Rwanda for allegedly supporting a rebel army behind the recent execution of more than 130 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In an interview with the Telegraph on Wednesday, James Cleverly, the British foreign secretary, declined three times to say whether Kigali was supporting, funding or arming the M23 militia.

The US, UN experts and DR Congo have all linked Rwanda to the armed group, which has been waging a campaign of murder, rape, kidnapping and looting in the DRC.

In a phone call with President Paul Kagame this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an end to “any external support to non-state armed groups in the DRC, including Rwanda's assistance to M23”.

Mr Cleverly said that there was no link between the Conservative government's Rwanda migration policy and their silence over Kigali's role in the horrors in eastern DR Congo.

However, Labour was scathing of the remarks. “The Foreign Secretary’s silence on this is troubling and raises serious questions. It would be disgraceful if the government’s unethical, unworkable and extortionate refugee deal means the Foreign Secretary doesn’t feel able to condemn support for a sanctioned group that has executed civilians,” said Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

“Cleverly should make crystal clear that any Rwandan assistance to M23 must end.”

Mass executions

Kigali denies any involvement with M23, despite continued reliable reports of the armed group toting advanced weapons and using Rwanda as a base to launch attacks in the mineral-rich region.

“What we are looking to achieve is peace in eastern DRC and we will act in the way we feel will most likely to drive peace,” said Mr Cleverly. “You've asked me the same question and you're getting the same answer.”

He said he had spoken to the presidents of both countries to encourage peace talks.

Mr Cleverly’s comments came the evening before the UN released an investigation saying that M23 was behind the mass execution of at least 131 men, women and children in two Congolese villages in late November.

“The victims were arbitrarily executed with bullets or bladed weapons,” the UN report said. The Congolese government put the death toll at about 300 earlier this week.

The M23 group was formed by members of an ethnic Tutsi militia who claim that a 2009 peace deal to integrate the former rebels into the Congolese army and create a registered political party was not implemented.

In 2012 they took over the key Congolese city of Goma on the shore of Lake Kivu. They were only beaten out after the US and UK put immense pressure on Kigali's purse strings to stop supporting the group. M23, whose fighters largely hail from the same ethnic group as President Kagame, is widely seen as a Rwandan proxy.

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