11 Rwandan rebels killed

2009-06-02 22:24

Kinshasa - At least 11 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive east following a crackdown by the army and UN peacekeepers, a top local official said on Tuesday.

The operation launched on May 28 is aimed at "putting pressure" on the rebels and led "to the deaths of 11 and the capture of four", the governor of Nord-Kivu province, Julien Pakulu, told AFP.

It also led to "the liberation of 368 people who were taken hostage by the FDLR south of Lubero," about 280km north of the provincial capital Goma, he said.

Some members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - whose numbers are put between 4 500 and 6 000 - participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

FDLR is one of a myriad of armed groups operating in DR Congo's east that have caused widespread displacements and carried out human rights violations, experts say.

"Many areas have been recovered by the Congolese army since May 28," Pakulu said.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda recently said most of the remaining 13 genocide suspects on the run are hiding in eastern DR Congo.

"The prosecutor's tracking team continues to intensify its efforts to locate the 13 remaining fugitives," said judge president Dennis Byron in a report to the United Nations due to be formally submitted to the Security Council on Thursday.

"But the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has made this task more difficult," he said in the report, published on the website of the Tanzania-based court.

Hutu extremists killed some 800 000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, during Rwanda's 100-day genocide.

- SAPA