RWANDA’S FOREIGN POLICY IN THE DRC

SSC4604

Module Co-Ordinator: Mahine Ahmed

Academic Year 2019-20

Rwandan National Food and Nutrition Policy (NFNP)

M00719397
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Introduction

In 1990, a guerrilla force made up of exiled Tutsis from Rwanda invaded Rwanda from its

southern Uganda borders. The force called itself the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The

invasion intended to overthrow the Hutu-dominated regime in Rwanda's capital, Kigali (Curtis,

2005). After defeating the Hutu regime, that is responsible for the genocide that claimed at least

800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutu within three months, the new Tutsi regime felt the need to

ensure their security and guarantee sustainable peace. Two years after the end of the genocide,

Rwanda military intervened twice in the DRC. The operations initially served limited objectives

but escalated into invasions of the larger DRC region.

The invasion of the DRC by Rwanda in 1998 led to a serious destructive enterprise that

attracted a continental war that drew over seven foreign armies and other rebel groups and

militias. The fighting led to the death of about 3.3 million people from starvation and diseases

that were brought primarily by the war between 1998 and 2002 (MacQueen, 2002). The Pretoria

Agreement signed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and DRC's Joseph Kabila ended the

major hostilities and led to the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the DRC. Besides the

agreement, the tension between the two neighbours remains high. The recommencement of

hostilities remains a real possibility despite the existence of peace in an insignificant sense

(Ofcansky, 2002). A broad understanding of Rwanda's long-term security interests and foreign

policy concerning DRC can guarantee the forecasts of absolute peace. The paper examines

Rwanda's foreign policy concerning the DRC and highlights the goals, strategies, measures,

methods, guidelines, directives, and agreements surrounding the policy. What were Rwanda’s

foreign interests and government concerns that necessitated the foreign policy in the DRC?
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Any understanding of the post-genocide foreign policy in DRC ought, to begin with, clarity on

the effects of the Rwandan Civil War. The aftereffects of the genocide are critical in interpreting

the foreign policy of Rwanda in the DRC. Among the critical effects of the genocide was the

influx of Hutu refugees into the DRC. Among these refugees were political and military officials

of the former government that executed the genocide. They mainly settled in the UN-established

refugee camps. The mass exit was facilitated by the French direct military intervention

(MacQueen, 2002). The French were a key supporter of the Hutu regime and launched an

operation that saw the establishment of a humanitarian zone in southern Rwanda. The

humanitarian zone was launched in the closing days of the civil war under 'Operation Turquoise.'

Hutu extremists that initiated and fuelled the genocide used the zone to flee the country

(MacQueen, 2002).

Since the change of guard in Rwanda, there have been tremendous steps that have been

undertaken to ensure the conflict between the DRC’s Hutu refugees and the Rwandan forces

reduces. Diplomatic outreach has been critical, as the foreign policy in DRC has helped to

disarm the militia that constantly attacked the Congolese Tutsi, leading to retaliation by the

Congolese forces. With Rwanda taking up a huge role in the decision making of DRC, several

regimes in DRC have not been cooperative. However, with the intervention by international

bodies and international trade activities, the conflict between the two nations have experienced

peace in the recent past and continue to engage in diplomatic discussions on how to strengthen

their economic and cultural ties. Although DRC experienced a long dictatorial regime,

democracy has helped in making the interaction of the two nations possible. The UK and EU

have recently participated in the democracy of DRC to avert any possibilities of conflict among
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themselves. Regional cooperation and geopolitics have shaped the state of Rwanda’s foreign

policy.

The Rwandan Foreign Policy in the DRC

Following the influx of Rwandan Hutu in the North and South Kivu provinces of the DRC did

not go well with the region's ethnic-communal balance. It provided a humanitarian pretext for

Rwanda's intervention. The numbers swelled, leading to the Congolese Hutu aligning themselves

with the exiled militants from Rwanda. They mobilized attacks against the Congolese Tutsi. The

ethnic cleansing that took place saw the displacement of thousands of Congolese Tutsi. Most of

the refugees fled to Rwanda. The fighting and war that followed saw the fall of Kinshasa, a great

win for Rwanda. The fall of Kinshasa saw the dismantling of large Hutu refugee camps and the

repatriation of hundreds of thousands of refugees back to Rwanda. Rwanda became a powerful

participant in the internal affairs of DRC. When Kabila rose to power, Rwanda and DRC formed

an alliance that seemed delicate as Rwanda dominated the affairs of the DRC. The alliance lasted

fourteen months before Rwanda launched a second campaign in Congo.

Rwanda’s acceptance to sign the Pretoria Agreement formed the basis of its foreign

policy as it withdrew all its troops in the DRC a few months later. However, President Kabila

was not ready to disarm his FDLR soldiers. This was a violation of the Pretoria Agreement. After

the Pretoria Agreement, Rwanda has been a critical supporter of the UN mission in the DRC

through disarmament. The period of Rwanda's good relations with DRC saw the lifting of

millions of people out of poverty through employment. Even though the DRC's war that led to

the loss of millions of people was alleged to have been initiated and perpetrated by Rwanda, the

African success stories are centred on Rwanda.

Rwanda has since strived to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals. The streets

are safe there is a functioning internet connection that has facilitated communication. Schools

and other amenities have been constructed through foreign aid. It has ranked high on the list if

effective investors of foreign aid (Blair & Buffet, 2013). The international community has

continued to with Rwanda while strengthening its support to the DRC about governance. A

second agreement was arrived at the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region that

saw peace negotiations in which both the DRC and Rwanda admitted to the failure of the earlier

Pretoria Agreement. The West has continued to support the two nations to restore total peace and

build sustainable solutions to the conflicts (Blair & Buffet, 2013). These diplomatic approaches

have seen the resumption of peace in the regions and building of bridges between the neighbours

in the central African region.

Literature Review

Rwanda’s response to the Hutu influx in DRC and the regrouping of the Congolese Hutu

was facilitated by the proximity of the threat to the country. The geopolitical aspects of the

Rwandan-DRC conflict influenced various decision-making processes in the political history of

the two countries. Geopolitics can be defined as the study of the earth's geography on politics

and international relations (Overland, 2015). The Rwandan army understood the geography of

the DRC and thus made it easy for them to invade and destroy the threatening Hutu fighters that

had regrouped in DRC. Geography has been a decisive factor in the development of various

civilisations. Politicians, public officials, leaders, and countries change over time. The geography

of a place is the constant factor that is never subjected to any change. Therefore, geography

remains the fundamental factor in foreign policy because of its permanence (Pejić, 2018).

Geography separates one country’s territory from another and defines the culture of the nation,
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leading to the definition of cultures that shape the choices of a nation. Some scholars such as

Pejić (2018) have defined geopolitics as the game of risk.

Sanctions by the international community had been issues to Rwanda in the past.

Recently, in 2012, the UN group of experts reported that Rwanda supported rebels in DRC soil.

These allegations led to the cutting of aid from the US, Germany, Holland, and Sweden.

Whereas foreign aid to Rwanda accounts for only 3% of the state budget, the economy was not

affected. After these sanctions, reports indicated that military attacks were stopped temporarily.

The diplomatic message from the international community was strong since it included Rwanda's

key Western ally, the USA. Cross border support of illegal militia ceased after the diplomatic

call.

Diplomacy, being an old phenomenon, assumes various modern age characteristics

(Evans & Newnham, 1998). However, the idea of sending troops to another state is old and was

common in many cultures. For example, King Lobengula of the Ndebele nation (Zimbabwe) sent

ambassadors to Queen Victoria to protest the encroachment on his territories by British settlers

(Chan, 2017). Therefore, the Rwandan invasion of DRC is not an isolated case in Africa. In a bid

to create and promote sustainable peace, Rwanda needed to neutralize the forces that were likely

to cause havoc in the post-genocide regime. To explain the decisions that necessitate foreign

policy, this paper shall base arguments on the International Relations Theory with great attention

to the Liberalism school of thought.

Liberalism is a school of thought in international relations theory, which holds that

international institutions play a critical role in the cooperation among states (Shiraev, 2014).

Liberalism is the exact opposite of realism and it is perceived to be a more concrete school of

thought than realism. The Foreign policy in the DRC was a response to the presence of Hutu
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militants on the Congolese territory and are believed to have perpetrated the Rwandan genocide.

It means that Rwanda was protecting their interests of peace in the invasion of DRC (Goodin,

2010). According to Smith (2018), the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war

led to the rise of the liberal theory of international relations. Within the liberal international

relations theory, other theories support the propositions therein. The theories include the

democratic peace theory, the commercial peace theory, and the institutional peace theory

(Placek, 2012). There is rich scholarly exposure to the liberal theory of international relations.

Liberalism revolves around three major principles including the rejection of power

politics, the accentuation of mutual benefits and international corporations and the

implementation of international organizations in shaping state policy choices (Shiraev, 2014).

Within these principles, the liberal theory emphasizes three major factors that encourage less

conflict and more cooperation. They include international organizations such as the United

Nations, the international trade that interconnects countries' economies, and the spread of

democracy that reduces interstate war. In the case of Rwanda and DRC, their relationship

remains frosty, but Rwanda is looking west for trade; meaning it is looking towards the DRC.

DRC sells minerals and food to Rwanda while Rwanda sells livestock and food crops to DRC.

These bilateral trade relations are likely to calm the tensions between the two countries to the

mutual benefits from each other. According to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda,

cross border trade in 2017 generated $100 million. Up to ninety thousand people cross the

common border each day (Mugisha, 2019).

The liberal theory revolves around international organizations, trade and democracy.

Recently, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) estimated an increase of intra-

African exports by over US $1 billion if the African Continental Free Trade Area is
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implemented. For Rwanda, it will mean there will more trade with DRC. With international

organizations such as the United Nations becoming more involved in the operations of the

countries, the likelihood of conflict is relatively minimal. This makes the liberal theory more

applicable in Rwanda's foreign policy situation as the major factors and principles at play are

identical to the propositions made by the theory. According to Shiraev (2014), liberals believe

that international organizations are critical in cooperation among states. With correct

international organizations such as the United Nations and increasing interdependence among

states lead to reduced conflict. When the economies of Rwanda and DRC depend on each other

and have cultural exchange among them, the frosty relationship will be forgotten. With mature

and functional democracies, the two nations are slowly creeping out of conflict and are working

towards a united region. Diplomacy is a great tool in making the two nations get to negotiate and

interact with each other to support a non-violent solution to problems (Shiraev, 2014). In this

regard, the liberal international relations theory has broad areas of study such as the democratic

peace theory, the commercial peace theory and the institutional peace theory among others. A

more advanced version of liberalism is neoliberalism which believes that democracies cannot

fight other democracies because of capitalist ties (Placek, 2012).

Rwanda and DRC have made diplomatic progress with Rwanda hosting the DRC

president in 2019 at a business forum that aimed at boosting private investments and regional

integration. According to a report published in RFI, a French news and current affairs media

outlet, the president of Rwanda intends to establish a single regional market that will see all

political divisions set aside. The sign of recognition for the president of DRC played a critical

role in showing signs of better days to come (Okello, 2019). The diplomatic approaches that the

two countries are undertaking are likely to lead to the success of the foreign policy of Rwanda
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and end all traces of violence that are likely to emanate from the extremist Hutu group of DRC

and other ethnic formations. The grand strategies in the two countries have made them

interdependent.

According to Schneider (2012), the electoral woes that affected DRC in the past were key

contributions to the lack of democratic and institutional development from 2006. Weak

international and continental engagement is the cause of the lack of democracy in the country

(Schneider, 2012). With the dictatorial regime of President Kabila, the Congolese citizens that

voted him felt that he was a deception and any policy brought forward by him was not embraced

by the masses. With the intervention of the United Nations in the elections that have followed the

country is now experiencing stability and citizens are better informed on policy matters

regarding their country and their neighbours (USAID, 2019). The intervention of the UN

explains why liberalism is relevant in the formulation and execution of public policy.

Methodology

In analysing foreign policy, documents from governments are critical in understanding

the actual contents of the policy and the intentions. The main source of data for this paper were

the foreign policy documents that are available in the government databases and the various

analytical positions in peer-reviewed journal articles. The study took a purely descriptive

approach, as it relied on descriptive secondary data. Rwanda's foreign policy in DRC, as well as

the Pretoria Agreement, were critical documents in analysing the foreign policy. The data from

the secondary sources were analysed to find common ground on the reasons that led to the

foreign policy in DRC and the outcomes of the same.

In the analysis of the foreign policy, reports on the electoral processes of the two

countries were critical in weighing the level of democracy of the two nations to establish if the
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foreign policy could survive. Furthermore, all international conferences that included the DRC

and Rwanda were critical in understanding the steps that they have undertaken in reducing the

reoccurrence of violence. The Pretoria agreement gives the initial suggestions and sets the

ground for Rwanda's foreign policy. Journal articles, diplomatic engagements and media reports

also informed the research and gave useful insights on the foreign policy journey that Rwanda

has undertaken and the Congolese relations that have now set the ground for useful trade

practices and other bilateral engagements.

Library research is critical as it reveals rich secondary data that is concrete and insightful

in presenting factual information and historical developments of a certain phenomenon. Various

scholars have dissected the Rwanda-DRC relations and have reported extensively on the same. It

is one of the most researched African state relations. The Rwandan genocide is another critical

piece in history that contributed greatly to the compilation of this report as it provides the basis

on which an understanding of the Congolese Hutu and Tutsi rivalry conflict. The history also

details how the Hutu fled Rwanda after the change of governance.

Conclusion

Geopolitical factors are critical in foreign policy analysis. In the Rwanda and DRC

situation, territorial grievances and the issue of security jeopardized the claim of national identity

by the Hutu militia in DRC. The invasion was aimed at ensuring Rwanda did not experience

anything close to the genocide that claimed the lives of close to a million people. The fear of

violence and war in Rwanda makes it prepare and neutralize any imminent danger within, and

outside its borders. The liberal international relations theory describes what foreign policy should

have and the things that are considered before its implementation. The proposed study will use
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secondary data and analyse the foreign policy of Rwanda in DRC. The specifics of the analysis

will be based on geopolitical identities, grand strategy and diplomatic statecraft of Rwanda.

The liberal theory of international relations is critical in understanding the actions taken

by two nations. Despite having a frosty relationship, Rwanda and DRC have benefitted greatly

from the international organization organizations, trade and democracy. The maturity of the

democracies has led to a cease-fire as illegal militia have been disarmed successfully. For

example, the cross-border trade between DRC and Rwanda has seen close to 100,000 people

crossing the border each day for genuine trade. The blossoming relationship between the nations

and international organizations has seen the conflict reduce significantly. Democracy in DRC

played a critical role in ensuring the insurgent group was disarmed successfully. Bilateral

diplomatic talks between the two nations have seen them cooperate in trade and other intra-

continental engagements that include cultural exchanges and economic interdependence.

Liberalism has shaped the state of Rwanda’s foreign policy.

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