CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Rwandan Intervention in Eastern Congo: Making Sense of RPF Motivations

Parker-Reed, SSWAC

Since 1996, the Rwandan government has repeatedly backed rebel groups operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This paper attempts to make sense of why. To do this I will examine the role various conditions play in the motivations behind Rwandan intervention in eastern Congo including the role of imminent security threats to the Rwandan state, economic incentives for the Rwandan government, threats to the domestic power of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and international donor responses (or lack thereof) to human rights abuses perpetrated by the RPF and their allied rebel forces. I will explore the role each of these conditions played in RPF backing of the AFDL, RCD, CNDP, and M23 rebel groups. What emerges from my analysis is a history of the transformations of Rwandan motivations for intervention in eastern Congo that mirrors the creation and consolidation of RPF power in the post-genocide Rwandan state. This history opens up in the uncertain terrain of the post-M23 era. The lack of significance the role security threats and economic incentives played in the backing of the M23 suggest that a domestic threat to RPF power is now the primary condition under which the RPF chooses to back rebel groups in eastern Congo. I will end my analysis by taking stock of the current landscape of threats facing RPF power and explore the possible conditions under which Rwandan backing of rebel groups in eastern Congo will stop once and for all.

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2014/program/243