But they think we should be the ones to apologise.”He added: “On Congo, they are always the ones drafting the resolutions in the Security Council, and the tendency is to blame Rwanda for everything, even for things that have been done by Congo or other countries, so that has not helped our relationship.”He did not respond directly when asked whether he believed France actually supported the Hutu militias inside Congo. But he said: ” We’re seeing how the whole issue has been mishandled as if to preserve their existence. “It’s a huge operation, consuming hundreds of millions of dollars, but I can’t see exactly what the results are.” Mr Kagame has strained relations with France, which he has accused of training the Hutu militias responsible for the genocide. He said Britain and other powers in the Security Council were trying to change the subject rather than focus on the real issue.”To disarm voluntarily is something I simply don’t understand I raised it with the UN I think it’s abdicating responsibility. That’s why they keep deviating from the main problem and talking about other issues as if trying to keep hiding behind them.”The performance of the UN mission in eastern Congo, known as Monuc, which is embroiled in a sex-abuse scandal, was “very absurd”, he said. If nobody takes care of it then we reserve the right to be the ones to deal with it, and unfortunately this might include hot pursuit into the Congo, and this means our forces crossing into the Congo again.”The Congolese government yesterday replaced the army commander in the eastern province of North Kivu, the scene of days of fighting between government reinforcements and rebel units which are backed by Rwanda.Mr Kagame insisted that Congo was only accusing Rwanda of having already invaded the country to deflect attention from its own failure to implement the peace accords.

He accused the government of President Joseph Kabila of failing to integrate the Rwandan-backed rebels of the RCD-Goma into the armed forces.The President was scathing about the UN response to the violence that has spread across the Great Lakes region in recent months. “If we are attacked again we reserve the right to pursue the attackers and that might make us move into Congo,” Mr Kagame said.”The main point is about the history of the genocide in Rwanda and the genocidaires in the Congo The problem is still there. He repeated official denials that Rwanda had dispatched troops to Congo, which would be a violation of the peace accords that put an end to the conflict known as Africa’s world war.The conflict drew in six countries and left 3.8 million dead before the peace deal was signed two years ago. But the unrest in the east has continued unabated, despite the presence of a UN mission supposed to oversee the “voluntary” disarmament of rebel groups.Mr Kagame said Rwanda had sustained 11 rocket attacks since last month from the Congo-based forces. They are entirely responsible for that, they should be resolving that internal problem through other means.

The main problem for Rwanda is the external threat from the former Far Interahamwe,” he added, referring to the Hutu extremists still inside DRC. Africa’s bloodiest war is close to reigniting, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda admitted yesterday. He said his troops would invade Congo in pursuit of rebel Hutu militias unless cross-border attacks stop.
Mr Kagame accused the Congolese government of exacerbating the situation and said Western powers were “abdicating their responsibility” by failing to disarm the Hutu militias who sought refuge in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.Without naming France, he suggested that the French government, which takes the lead in the UN Security Council in dealing with the continued unrest in eastern DRC, was still supporting the Hutu militias by failing to ensure their disarmament.During a brief visit to London, Mr Kagame was asked whether there was a danger of the war being rekindled by sending Congolese reinforcements to the eastern region. “I think that’s a danger,” said Mr Kagame, a Tutsi who became the country’s strongman after defeating the Hutu-led extremists who launched the 1994 civil war.”Maybe the DRC government needs to act otherwise instead of escalating the problem.

And it may be the way of the future, as IRDNC struggles to mitigate clashes between humans and animals, and to avoid the alienation of local people in Africa from the wildlife that only they may be able to protect.. In the case of Poniso Chikalila last year, the conservancy, of which his father, Dickson, was a member, speedily paid out from the pilot compensation scheme the £500 cost of his funeral It won’t bring back a son, but neither is it nothing. Such schemes have failed in other African countries because they have been done at a national level; people are tempted to over-exploit them with fraudulent claims which are hard to prove or disprove, and so the schemes go bankrupt.But the point about IRDNC’s project is that it is local, and it will eventually involve the conservancies using their members’ own money, and their own game guards for verification: where is the carcass? Where is the spoor of the lion that is supposed to have done this?It seems to be working, and not just for loss and damage. Indefatigably optimistic, Lister’s latest wheeze is a barrier of chilli pepper mixed with elephant dung “We have high hopes for this,” he said. He also tries to make sure cattle are carefully locked in their kraals every night to minimise lion attacks.When precautions fail, and livestock are killed and fields trashed, what then? Why should people not rage against the wild animals that are ruining them, and take the law into their own hands?IRDNC has another potential answer: it has been funding and trialling in the Caprivi wildlife conservancies, under Richard Diggle’s direction, a novel form of problem-animal compensation scheme, where conservancy members can receive recompense for loss and damage so long as they have followed precautionary guidelines, and their claims can be verified. The signs of an improvement may be due to the IRDNC problem-animal expert for the village, Lister Mutabelezi, 41, a slightly built man who has survived a hand-to-hand fight with a lion (it’s a long story).As shooting elephants in normal circumstances is against the law in Namibia, Mr Lister spends his time devising ways of keeping them away from crops.