If you understand the history and context, that question is irrelevant, he maintains.Rwandan President Paul Kagame is tired of being asked about allegations his government is supporting M23 rebels. So much so, that he's starting to wonder why those asking are not supporters of M23.
Borders drawn on a map don't always capture the reality in places such the DRC's North Kivu, Kagame said. In the 1960s, ethnic tensions in Rwanda forced over 300 000 members of the Tutsi minority to migrate to neighbouring nations, primarily the DRC. Some of those exiles reassembled and attempted to seize power in Rwanda when the nation obtained independence from Belgium in 1962. Uganda too hosts a large population of Tutsis, after they fled the DRC in the 1960s.
A civil war erupted in October 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front , a Tutsi rebel group he commanded, invaded the country from Uganda, where it enjoyed the protection of strongman Yoweri Museveni. In April 1994, radical Hutu militias attacked Tutsis and moderate Hutus, killing about 800 000 to a million people over 100 days.