Security talks 'bad tempered'
2007-09-17 22:55
Kampala - Ministers from Africa's Great
Lakes region made little headway in two days of talks on
security overshadowed by growing violence and mutual mistrust.
Foreign and defence ministers from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda
and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appealed for United
Nations peacekeepers to intensify efforts to stamp out militias
plaguing eastern DRC.
Officials who took part in the closed-door meetings, which
ended on Monday, said they were largely bad tempered, with Congo
accusing Tutsi-led Rwanda of backing the DRC's rebel Tutsi
general Laurent Nkunda.
The DRC accused Rwanda of sending demobilised troops to join
Nkunda's men, who have clashed with DRC government troops in
heavy fighting over the past few weeks, the officials said.
Addressing journalists after the talks ended, Rwandan
Foreign Minister Charles Murigande denied the allegations.
His Congolese counterpart Mbusa Nyamwisi said DRC's military
was determined to pacify the east.
"We will not only fight Nkunda's forces, we will fight every
destabilising force in the region," he told reporters.
A joint statement issued after the meeting called on UN
peacekeepers "to intensify efforts" towards working with DRC
forces to eliminate "negative forces" in the lawless east.
All parties also "expressed concern about deteriorating
security condition ... in particular the destabilising role of
former general Laurent Nkunda and ex-FAR (interahamwe rebels)".
Until a UN-mediated ceasefire last week, eastern Congo's
North Kivu province was the scene of two weeks of battles
between the Congolese army and fighters loyal to Nkunda, who has
led a three-year rebellion against the central government.
UN agencies say the area, where 300 000 people have been
forced from their homes since November, faces a humanitarian
emergency as malnutrition rises among the displaced civilians.