Rwanda blasts UN propaganda
2003-02-04 10:27
Kigali - Rwanda accused United Nations monitors of spreading "propaganda" on Monday after they said it had sent troops into northeastern Congo, where rebels have been accused of murder, cannibalism and rape.
Rwanda said in October it had finished pulling its forces from the vast country, which it invaded in 1998 alongside Uganda to prop up rebels fighting the government.
But the UN mission in Congo said on Saturday that Uganda and Rwanda were building up troops in Kivu and Ituri, mineral-rich regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwandan officials said the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) had based its conclusions on rumours and failed to verify the information with the government of Rwanda.
"Their information is full of falsehood and propaganda aimed at maligning the RDF (Rwandan Defence Forces) and diverting the whole world from the real situation in Kivu and north Eastern DRC," said a statement issued by Rwanda's foreign ministry.
"We are concerned by the tendentious, unverified and alarming information by MONUC. We categorically reject its latest claims."
Clashes in the northeast have persisted despite a peace deal signed last year to end four years of war that drew six armies into Africa's third-biggest country and left about two million people dead.
Uganda and Rwanda fell out with each other during the war and now back rival rebel factions struggling for control of the mineral-rich country.