'They'll come back for revenge'
2005-07-21 21:06
Mirhanda - Villagers in Mirhanda in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where United Nations (UN) peacekeepers have chased out the Rwandan Hutu rebels terrorising the population, said on Thursday they feared the fighters would return to their stronghold.
"They threatened us they would return," said 16-year-old Burhendwa Kahegesha, staring at the smouldering straw huts that served as a hideout for some 900 fighters for the past three years.
"I am happy the men are gone, but they said we were responsible for their leaving. They will come back for revenge," he said.
The Rwandan Democratic Liberation Forces (FDLR) rebels, who have been hiding out in eastern DRC since the 1994 Rwandan genocide, have inflicted terror on the residents of Mirhanda for years.
Living in mud houses near the rebel base, some 70 families make up Mirhanda village, some 70km west of Bukavu, the provincial capital of the volatile Sud Kivu region.
Living on a prayer
"They have been there for the last three years. We lived at their mercy," said Bujire Kabolo, the village chief. "They looted, forced people to transport their provisions and abducted women."
"When they arrived here," recalls Burhendwa, "they looted houses (and) killed my father. Nobody could go near the camp".
On Wednesday, the United Nations mission in DRC (Monuc) torched the rebel base as part of a vast operation involving 1 000 peacekeepers to boost security in the volatile region.
The camp was deserted at the time after Monuc troops, backed by around 200 soldiers, set the rebels a deadline to leave.
But residents fear the rebels will return to harvest crops they had sown on the hills around the camp, and pleaded for peacekeepers to protect them.
Reassurance
Monuc spokesperson Sylvie van den Wildenberg sought to reassure them, saying the operation had forced the rebels far from their village and soldiers were keeping a regular check on their positions.
Colonel Hayat Umar, head of the UN operation, also said his men would ensure security in the area until the army deploys to the village.
FDLR rebels have been hiding out for 11 years in the mountainous forests of eastern DRC, despite a pledge this year to drop their weapons and return home.
Kigali accuses them of taking part in the 1994 genocide in which some 800 000 people, most of them minority Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus, were slaughtered.
In the DRC, the survivors of a massacre of more than 30 civilians, mostly women and children burned alive in the village of Ntulumamba in Sud Kivu province, have also accused the FDLR, but it has denied involvement.
The Rwandan rebels' presence in the mountainous forests of eastern in DRC has been a continuing source of international concern and tensions between Kigali and Kinshasa.
Efforts by the rebels to negotiate with Kigali for their return have so far yielded no results.