Rwanda rebel leader returns

2005-12-17 10:01

Kigali - A Rwandan rebel leader, Seraphin Bizimungu, and dozens of his Hutu followers have returned home from the Democratic Republic of Congo after laying down their arms.

Bizimungu said he was returning to Rwanda "to back the process agreed in Rome in March".

He called on his followers who remained in the DRC to back the internationally monitored peace process: "The time for war is over, the time for cohabitation and peace in the Great Lakes region has come".

Head of the Rwandan committee for social integration, Jean Sayinzoga, said 85 former FDLR combatants, 26 of their followers and 44 civilians had crossed the border on Thursday.

He called on the returning FDLR rebels to commit themselves to the country's reconstruction, saying they must ?take care of their education?.

Most of those repatriated are about 25 years old, and cannot read or write.

Bizimungu, better known under his aliases Jerribal Amani or Amahoro, is a self-styled general who split from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which is opposed to the Rwandan government, in June.

According to Sayinzoga, Bizimungu spent Thursday at a hotel in the town of Cyangugu.

The others were accommodated in a military camp at Ntendezi, 20 kilometres outside Cyangugu on the DRC border.

The group is expected to be transferred to Mutobo camp in the country's northwest, where they will be trained in civic education.

- AFP