Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Rebels led by Rwandan Hutus dominating Congo battle, UN warns

By Steven Edwards
Canwest News Service
November 25, 2009

UNITED NATIONS — Rebels led in part by Rwandan Hutus responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide have prevailed over a United Nations-backed military campaign in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, UN investigators are warning.

Several hundred thousand people have been forced to flee their homes in Eastern Congo despite the presence of the UN's largest peacekeeping force in the world, says a report that the investigators have privately handed to the UN Security Council.

The world body had backed Congo's regular army, but that force itself has been accused of committing atrocities, even as it seeks to destroy the Hutu rebels, who call themselves the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The UN report speaks of a "possible contradiction of (the UN force's) mandate to protect civilians on a priority basis, and that of providing logistic support to the (Congo army), while the latter continues to commit abuses against the civilian population."

The Security Council is set to debate the report and is already facing calls from human rights groups for an overhaul of its strategy in the Central African country.

"The FDLR's capacity to harm civilians remains intact and civilians face grave threats from the UN-backed Congolese army as well," Oxfam spokeswoman Nicole Widdersheim said.

"For every rebel combatant disarmed during the operation, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses have been burned and destroyed and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes."

Human Rights Watch says the UN's backing for the Congo army had always been at the risk of UN complicity in rapes and murders.

"There needs to be a comprehensive approach to dealing with this group," HRW researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg told the BBC's Network Africa.

Mineral wealth in Eastern Congo feeds the conflict, which comes after millions died in the 1998-2003 war in Congo, involving the armies of six countries. Currently, rebels control lucrative tin mines, and are also funnelling gold through Uganda and Burundi, according to the UN investigation.

"The (UN experts') report . . . shows the huge diaspora networks that assist in money laundering, in arms trafficking, in the extraction of minerals and in the sale of those minerals," Van Woudenberg added.

FDLR grew from Hutu extremists who fled to Congo after helping kill up to 800,000 members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda, and well as Hutu moderates, 15 years ago.

They seek to displace Rwanda's current Tutsi-led government, which itself emerged from a former Tutsi rebel army that ended the genocide.

"Military operations have not succeeded in neutralizing the FDLR," the UN report says. It also warns that the Congo army offensive also permitted "an expansion of" the Rwandan-backed DRC-Tutsi rebel group known as the Congress for the Defence of the People.

The UN this month suspended support to army units it believed were responsible for killing 60 civilians in operations against local militias, but continued to defend its overall strategy in Congo, where the world body has stationed 20,000 troops.

Related Materials:
UN Experts' Report: Failure In Congo

UN report: Congo rebel network spans 25 countries

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 11:41 PM