Rebels ready to attack Rwanda
2004-04-16 13:14
Kigali - Hundreds of armed Rwandan insurgents based in neighbouring Congo are moving into forests separating the two countries to prepare for attacks on Rwanda, UN and Congolese army officers said on Thursday.
At least a thousand insurgents moved from three bases in eastern Congo, converging near the border and conducting reconnaissance missions to lay the groundwork for the attacks, said Brigadier General Obed Wibasira, commander of the Congolese army in the North Kivu province.
Troops of the former main Congolese rebel group are now fighting elements of the Rwandan insurgents in a bid to derail the offensives, Wibasira said by telephone from Goma, the provincial capital.
"We can confirm that there has been fighting in North Kivu, near the border with Rwanda" between Congolese troops and Rwandan rebels, said Jacqueline Chenard, speaking for the UN mission in Congo.
The insurgents include members of the former Rwandan Armed Forces, or ex-FAR, and extremist Interahamwe militia from the Hutu majority who fled to Congo after leading the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The insurgents assembled and reorganised near the border after the UN mission prevented former Congolese rebels from neutralising them. UN peacekeepers argued that the mission wanted to coax the Rwandans to disarm voluntarily and go home, Brigadier General Charles Kayonga, the Rwandan army chief of staff said.
"From (monitoring) their communication, they seem determined to fight because they say the UN's plans do not give them an advantage, but military operations will give them the political advantage" in Rwanda, Wibasira said.
Want to oust Kagame
The insurgents want to oust President Paul Kagame, a former rebel leader whose troops ended the genocide by overthrowing the extremist Hutu government that led the slaughter.
"The Interahamwe and ex-FAR have taken the advantage to arm, to reorganise and to move very easily to carry out reconnaissance missions near our border and conduct an attack in Rwanda last week," Kayonga said. At least 16 rebels were killed and there were no army casualties in that raid.
"Instead of disarming them... (the UN mission) has been giving them sanctuary to reorganise and prepare to attack Rwanda," Kayonga said.
The Congolese government needs to use force to disarm the insurgents in line with peace agreements signed between the two countries, Kayonga said.
Under the deals signed in Zambia in 1999 and in South Africa in 2003, Congo was obliged to track down and dismantle the Rwandan insurgents in exchange for the withdrawal of Rwandan troops who backed Congolese rebels in Congo's five-year civil war that ended last year.
Rwandan troops pulled out of Congo in 2003, but Congo is yet to neutralise its former allies.
- SAPA