'We don't have men in DRC'
2004-04-26 06:55
Kigali - The Rwandan army has denied reports that it had crossed the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo, accusing the United Nations of seeking to cover up its own "failure" there.
"We don't have men in DRC", said Rwandan Defence Forces spokesperson Colonel Patrick Karegeya.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the United Nations mission in the DRC said that Rwandan troops had "illegally" crossed the border into the former Zaire.
"MONUC noted the presence on April 21 of Rwandan troops ... with the FDR (Rwandan Defence Forces) insignia in the Bunagana sector on DRC territory, where a Rwandan officer asked a MONUC patrol to withdraw," the statement said.
It called the presence of Rwandan or any other foreign military group in DRC "illegal", and denounced "the restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement of its (UN) troops throughout DRC territory".
Karegeya replied: "We wait for them to bring the proof. They can't prove it because we aren't there in Congo.
"They are just diverting people's attention from their own failure in DRC."
The UN force had not fulfilled its mission of disarming and repatriating the Rwandan Hutu fighters who have been in the DRC for 10 years, he said.
The rebels, often implicated in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda, have launched several deadly incursions into their country of origin.