UN: Rwanda 'supporting DR Congo mutineers'
An internal UN report accuses Rwanda of complicity in supplying weapons and soldiers to the rebels in DR Congo.
An internal UN report seen by the BBC cited defecting
soldiers, who said they had been trained in Rwanda
The conflict broke out in April after a mutiny by
some Congolese army officers.
"The UN mission in DR Congo is lying; they have
not verified anything; they are repeating claims and rumours that we, the
Rwandan government, have heard over the last many weeks," Foreign Minister
Louise Mushikiwabo told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"What would Rwanda
The UN report says some of the mutiny's leaders are
former rebel Tutsi officers who had been linked to Rwanda
They were incorporated into the Congolese army in 2009
as part of a peace agreement.
The area has suffered years of fighting since 1994,
when more than a million ethnic Hutus fled across the border into DR Congo
following the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis,
were slaughtered.
Tens of thousands have fled the recent violence in
the eastern DR Congo.
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, in the eastern Congolese
city of Goma
They had deserted their posts in the mountainous
jungle area on the border between the DR Congo Rwanda
The UN report says the deserters were Rwandan
nationals, recruited in Rwanda
They were given weapons and training, and then sent
into DR Congo.
Some of the men were recruited as early as February 2012,
the report says.
This is a potentially significant detail, our
correspondent says, as if the claim is true, it would suggest Rwanda
One of the deserters, the report says, is a minor.
Earlier, there was fresh fighting between government
forces and the army mutineers.
A spokesman for the mutineers, Vianney Kazarama, told
AFP that the Congolese army was attacking one of their strongholds in North Kivu province with heavy weapons.
The mutineers say they belong to the March 23rd
Movement which originated from the Tutsi-dominated CNDP rebels.
They agreed to be integrated into the Congolese army
under a 2009 peace accord, which included Rwanda, but recently started to
defect en masse, complaining of bad treatment.
Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda, a Congolese
rebel who once fought with Rwanda
Before the 2009 peace deal, the CNDP militia
threatened to invade Goma, leading some 250,000 people to flee.
People in and around the town of Goma blame these
troops for persistent unrest - including looting and rape - since the formal
end of DR Congo's war in 2003.
DR Congo Seeks Democracy
Troublesome neighbours
- April-June 1994: Genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda
- June 1994: Paul Kagame's Tutsi rebels take power in Rwanda, Hutus flee into Zaire (DR Congo)
- Rwanda's army enters eastern Zaire to pursue Hutu fighters
- 1997: Laurent Kabila's AFDL, backed by Rwanda, takes power in Kinshasa
- 1998: Rwanda accuses Kabila of not acting against Hutu rebels and tries to topple him, sparking five years of conflict
- 2003: War officially ends but Hutu and Tutsi militias continue to clash in eastern DR Congo
- 2008: Tutsi-led CNDP rebels march on North Kivu capital, Goma - 250,000 people flee
- 2009: Rwanda and DR Congo agree peace dealand CNDP integrated into Congolese army
- 2012: Mutiny led by former CNDP leader Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda
posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 6:12 PM
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