/ 20 December 2004

Rwanda ends DRC incursion threat

Rwanda withdrew on Monday a threat to send soldiers into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Kinshasa accuses them of siding with rebels in the eastern town of Kanyabayonga that has been gripped by fighting.

”We are no longer going to threaten to go into the DRC,” Foreign Minister Charles Murigande said, adding Rwanda has received assurances from the international community on tackling Rwandan rebels in the eastern DRC, seen as a permanent threat.

However, a government spokesperson in Kinshasa again charged that Rwanda already has soldiers involved in the clashes, saying ”we can’t put much faith in this statement of intent while fighting continues on the ground”.

About a week of fighting in and around Kanyabayonga, in the Nord Kivu border province, has pitted soldiers drawn from a former DRC rebel force directly backed by Rwanda against regular troops in the region.

A mutinous officer, Colonel Smith Gihanga, said on Monday his units killed ”between 10 and 15” regular DRC army troops on Sunday, when renewed violence broke out after a three-day lull.

The United Nations said more than 100 000 villagers have fled clashes in Lubero and Kanyabayonga, the theatre of the latest fighting.

”On a north-south axis Lubero-Kanyabayonga, more than 100 000 people have fled their villages,” the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs representative in Nord Kivu, Patrick Lavand’homme, said on Monday.

”They are fleeing both the fighting, which has resumed in this zone, and military atrocities by both mutineers and soldiers from the regular army,” he explained.

Kinshasa charges that Rwanda has already made good on a threat to deploy troops in the eastern DRC to neutralise former Rwandan Hutu soldiers and extremist Interahamwe Hutu militias blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which claimed more than 800 000 lives.

Speaking by telephone, Murigande said ”the international community has given us the assurance that it will tackle the problem of the ex-FAR [government soldiers] and the Interahamwe”.

Nord-Kivu provincial governor Eugene Serufeli said he was in the region with ”a message from the President”, Joseph Kabila, urging all parties to stop fighting and said he was giving it personally to leaders ”on both sides of the front lines”.

Parliamentary mission investigates

Meanwhile, a parliamentary conciliation and investigation mission was in Nord Kivu’s chief town, Goma, ”halfway [through] hearing all sides, it takes time”, Senate chairperson Pierre Marini Badho said.

The team ”better wants to understand the reasons for the fighting [and] seeks to ease tensions”, he added.

Kanyabayonga, which had been seized by the mutinous troops, was calm on Monday while an AFP photographer saw rebels stationed about 25km north of the city centre.

DRC government spokesperson Henri Mova said Kigali’s promises can ”be taken seriously” once it becomes clear they are gone, Rwanda stops backing local armed groups and ”manipulating” part of the Kinyarwanda-speaking population in the DRC, and agrees to set up joint military verification teams.

Rwanda has twice sent soldiers across the border during wars in the DRC, backing rebels but stating the main aim was to deal with its own cross-border foes. All Rwandan troops pulled out under a series of peace pacts signed to end the 1998-2003 conflict in the vast country.

Analysts say Rwanda did carry out its threat of sending troops into the DRC. Over the weekend, the UN mission in the DRC said it was ”convinced” foreign troops had entered.

”We have not intervened in [the DRC],” Murigande insisted on Monday.

Rwanda’s decision to end its threat comes after diplomatic contacts, notably with key allies United States and Britain. Last week, Sweden suspended aid to the small Central African nation, a move sought by many NGOs.

Murigande assured that Rwanda had not backed down after facing pressure.

”Our survival comes first. If our survival is threatened, we will not back down simply to receive aid,” he explained. — Sapa-AFP

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