LCID Honorary Co-President Baroness Glenys Kinnock today criticised the UK government for not condemning the Rwandan government strongly enough for their support for the rebellion in eastern Congo.
Writing on The Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog, Glenys said:
The UK, which this year alone has committed £75m of taxpayers’ money to Rwanda, has shied away from public comment and expects us instead to be reassured by personal expressions of “concern” made by the international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, to Rwanda’s foreign minister.
She contrasted that to then action taken by the then Labour government when the rebels last threatened to attack Goma back in 2008 – the then foreign secretary David Miliband flew to the region for emergency talks with the DRC president, Joseph Kabila.
Today’s situation demands similar high-level intervention from our government, and not only through negotiations. That does mean, in the first instance, public condemnation. Our government should be reaching out to other states in the region so that they too call upon the Rwandan authorities to change course.
