DRC denies troop deployment
2004-06-22 10:21
Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo has denied claims by rival and neighbour Rwanda that it was massing troops for attack, as international diplomatic pressure built to avert what one African leader called "potentially catastrophic war" in central Africa.
The DRC's defence minister said his country was sending a total of 5 000 troops east to provinces bordering Rwanda, Congo's chief enemy in a devastating five-year central African war - but he insisted the deployment was to quell ex-rebels on Congo's soil, not to invade Rwanda.
"We are not threatening the integrity of our neighbouring country. We trust our neighbour and we want them to trust us," said Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Ondekane in the capital, Kinshasa, on Monday.
"Congo is not going to attack Rwanda," Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda added.
The assurances followed three weeks of accusations, counteraccusations and denials between Rwanda and Congo, foes in a 1998-2002 war fought in Congo.
Conflict embroiled armies
That conflict embroiled the armies of at least four other African nations, split Africa's third-largest nation, and killed an estimated 3.3 million people, most through famine and disease.
The latest tensions erupted June 2 when two renegade former Rwanda-backed rebel commanders seized Bukavu, a Congolese city at the Rwandan border.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg said a top official from the African affairs bureau, Donald Yamamoto, has been dispatched to the region on a peace mission.
"We are deeply concerned about the buildup of force in eastern Congo," Greenberg said. "Hard-won efforts to bring peace to Congo are endangered by a major expansion of rebel and government forces in and around the city of Bukavu and other areas in the eastern Congo."
Rwanda's foreign minister charged Saturday that Congo's troop movements east were preparations for invasion.
Calling the deployments "a big threat" to his country, Rwanda Foreign Minister Charles Muligande said: "Certainly we would not sit back and watch those developments."
In Johannesburg, South African President Thabo Mbeki - a key broker in Congo's peace and power-share deals - expressed alarm, warning of "potentially catastrophic war" between Congo and Rwanda.
- AP